I’m Playing as a Nun.

“S-Sister…?”

I was at a loss for a moment at the unexpected situation.
My mind was jumbled.
But what confused me more than the fact that there were children beyond the door,
was that I was instinctively reacting to the blood the children had shed.

I wasn’t ungrateful to meet the first people in this world.
But I had never thought of myself as a true vampire before.
So, my reaction to the children’s spilled blood felt extremely unfamiliar, and I couldn’t shake off the fear that was slowly creeping in from a corner of my heart.

“Oh, Aizen… Let’s go somewhere else… Something’s weird here…”
“Why all of a sudden? Finding a church in the middle of the forest is nothing short of luck.”
“The surroundings are completely ruined… And the sister is also looking at us with strange eyes…”

While I was stunned like that, the children’s low voices quietly seeped into my ears.
Only then did my blank mind start to wake up little by little, and my blurry gaze slowly regained its original focus.

“Ah, ahaha… Sorry. I was just surprised momentarily because I didn’t expect children to visit at this hour.”

“You are the nun of this church, right…?”

“Of course. Although I’m the only one living here.”

The fortunate thing about the current situation was that my impulse was not as severe as I had thought.
I’m still taking furtive glances at the blood the children have shed, but there’s nothing else boiling over beyond that.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange… It’s weird that there’s a church in a forest like this, and the atmosphere is also kind of creepy…”

The silver-haired girl who seems to be particularly wary of me among the three children.
She has some great insight.

“Ellie, I already told you. The forest is very dangerous in the middle of the night.”

“B-but… Even though she’s a nun, her skin is extremely pale… Above all, that’s not the kind of clothes nuns wear…”

“…Th-that’s…”

The boy’s mouth slowly closed.
As if doubts about me belatedly started to arise, he glanced at me with an ambiguous look mixed with embarrassment and suspicion.

“……”

Lukewarm cold sweat begins to flow one drop at a time in the increasingly strange atmosphere.
As the girl said, I’m not a nun of this church, let alone not even human but a vampire.
But I’m not a dangerous being to the extent of being this wary.

Of course, it’s not like I don’t have any suspicions about these children who came to the church in the middle of the night.
I felt both pity and worry for their shabby appearances.

“I don’t know what happened, but how about coming inside for now?”

Even in the midst of suddenly being suspected, I spoke quite calmly.
Then, the three children glanced at each other and seemed to briefly discuss.
Soon, the boy came closer to me and bowed his head deeply.

“Th-thank you… Thank you for showing mercy…”

“Amen—.”

Even at this moment, when he bowed his head to me, the boy’s body was trembling slightly.
It seemed that doubts about me still remained.
But it seemed that he judged it would be better to stay at this church for a day rather than wander aimlessly in the dangerous forest.

– Thump

It was absurd in many ways to suddenly be suspected in a situation where I didn’t even seek them out first, but they came to me on their own feet.
However, considering that they are still ignorant children and the current situation, it was a part that I could roughly understand.
So, rather than looking at these children with displeasure, I welcomed them warmly with a gentle smile and showed a broad understanding.
Above all, I couldn’t send young children back into the dangerous forest at this late hour.

“Ahem.”

To do that, I had to act like a nun first to dispel the children’s doubts, so I naturally picked up the old bible I had never noticed before.

“The fact that we met like this was probably because of the guidance of the goddess.”

So, I began my own acting based on the words “goddess” and “messiah” on the Bible’s cover.
It felt really awkward for me, a non-religious person, to suddenly act like a devout nun, but I had no choice in this situation.

“Shall we start with self-introductions first?”

.

.

.

The name of the brown-haired boy who talked to me first was Aizen.
He was 10 years old.

The name of the silver-haired girl who kept doubting me was Ellie.
She was 8 years old.

Lastly, the name of the black-haired girl who had been silent all along was Iris.
She was also 8 years old.

In short, the reason these children came to this church in a shabby state was none other than an attack by demons.
The massive number of demons that invaded suddenly without any signs turned the entire village into a mess in an instant.
The village elders put up some resistance, but it was still insufficient to endure the demon invasion that occurred in a small rural village.
It was a desperate story of how only the children managed to escape the village amid that chaos and accidentally discovered this church where I was.

“We, we have to… go to a big village and ask for help…”

Ellie opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

“How far is the village from here?”

After listening to the children’s story to the end, I asked in a low voice, still holding the old bible in my arms and maintaining a calm expression.
Then, instead of Ellie who was trembling with fear, Aizen carefully opened his mouth.

“If we run, it will probably take about 3 hours.”

“I see.”

I roughly grasped the situation.
While leisurely preparing to hunt here, I couldn’t believe such a tremendous thing was happening in a nearby village.
It was a quite shocking story, but I also felt a strange sense of incongruity.
That’s because it was very strange that I, who can feel the movement of demons most closely, didn’t know anything until now.
Until the afternoon, this forest was clearly the epitome of peace—.

“Maybe those demons will invade this church too…”

“Don’t worry. This church is a place protected under the goddess’s blessing.”

“What?”

“[To those who call my name, I will always be with them.
When they face hardships, I will protect and guard them.
Even if their path seems dark, I will give them light to break through the darkness.]”

As soon as I opened the old bible wide, the thickly spreading dust almost made me choke for a moment.
Nevertheless, I calmly read a verse written in it while maintaining my composure to the end.
I didn’t expect such content to be written in it at all, but somehow, I seem to have found and read a verse that fits the situation perfectly.

“Amen—.”

Feeling a strange sense of pride, I confidently closed the thick bible.
Then, the numerous dust particles hidden in the book covered my face thickly once again.

“Cough, cough—!!”

“Then… does that mean this church is really a place blessed by Goddess Paellia?!”

“Pa, Pael… What?”

“To think that such a small church was a place Paellia cherished…”

At the unfamiliar name that suddenly popped out of Aizen’s mouth, I blanked out for a moment and blinked my eyes quickly.
But I was currently acting as the goddess’s devout nun, so even though I was surprised, I had to naturally continue the conversation for now.

“Th-that’s right…! So you can rest comfortably without any worries—.”

“Did Paellia really guide us to this place…?”

Aizen, whose face had already turned red with joy and emotion.
His trembling voice sounded like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.

“…But I still have a question.”

As the atmosphere was ripening like that, Iris, who had been silent all along, suddenly raised one hand slightly and opened her mouth quietly.

“What is it?”

“Why is Sister’s skin so white?”

A question that pierces to the core as if digging into it.
It wasn’t an unexpected question, but my lips still began to dry up the moment I tried to answer.

“My skin was originally a bit pale but became even whiter because I don’t get sunlight for a long time.”

“…I think it’s too white no matter what.”

“It’s because I pathologically hate sunlight.”

At my answer, which I blurted out randomly, Iris slowly made an openly displeased expression.
But it seemed that it wasn’t the atmosphere to interrogate me further, so she quietly closed her mouth and showed a look of refraining from speaking.

“Anyway, what you need to do now is to sleep well here and wake up refreshed tomorrow.”

With those words, I put the old bible I was holding back in its original place.

“Wh-where are you going…?”

Ellie carefully grabbed me as I was about to leave the church.
I smiled gently at Ellie and opened my mouth quietly.

“I’m going to attend a district service for a bit.”

A small rural village located not far from here.
The terrible invasion of demons that took place there.
The demons in the forest wouldn’t have attacked that village for no reason.
There must be a reason for that.

“I’ll be back soon, so you guys sleep comfortably here—.”

“S-sister…?”

– Creak

As soon as I left the church, I unhesitatingly wounded my palm and sprinkled that blood all over the building.
I don’t know why, but beasts and demons extremely hate my blood, so if I sprinkle my blood around like this, I can prevent demons from coming close to some extent.

“Whew…”

After sprinkling all the blood like that, I slowly took a step in the direction Aizen told me.
Revenge for the children could also be a reason, but I was curious why the demons moved in a group to that village.

“No wonder demons haven’t been seen much around the church recently. They all went there.”