I’m Playing as a Nun.

– Kwaaaang─!!!

The hazy sand mist scattered as the entrance door of the church shattered.

“Huff, huff…”

Following the man who fled into the dark forest without a moment’s hesitation, I also stepped into the forest and fiercely chased after his presence.

Only the man’s rough breathing echoed in my ears.

But with each step, the sound of the ground rumbling and the rustling of leaves sounded strangely more stimulating.

“Don’t come─!! Don’t come─!!”

The ineffective command.

A meaningless voice.

Perhaps it was because he was running away in a panic.

Before he knew it, the branches sticking out tore his neat suit to shreds, making its shape unrecognizable.

But even so, the man never stopped running.

Even when he slipped and fell, even when thorny bushes scratched his arm and bled, he somehow moved his legs and kept going forward.

Even if he was so out of breath that he didn’t think he could run anymore.

The instinctive fear that everything would end the moment he stopped seemed to drive his mind to the edge of a cliff.

“Why… Why is a mere vampire─!!!”

The closer the sound of footsteps came from behind, the louder the man shouted, almost screaming.

In a gloomy situation where no one was listening and even the beasts in the forest were just watching.

– Thwack!

Eventually, a red thorn easily pierced through the man’s left shoulder like tofu.

Unable to bear the pain, the man let out a loud scream like a beast and recklessly called for help from his surroundings, but sadly, no one stuck their head out.

– Thud, thud…

How much time had passed like that?

The man’s legs, which had been running endlessly, slowly began to stop.

“…Are you tired of playing tag now?”

“……”

The red thorns densely stuck on the man’s back like a hedgehog.

Soon, as if resigning to everything, the man let out a helpless laugh and slowly raised his head towards the dim sky.

“I don’t understand… How can a mere vampire overwhelm me, a devil, to this extent…”

“Do you really need to know?”

“Was my command… Was my command ineffective on you from the beginning…?”

Even to the man’s inexplicably sobbing question, I didn’t give any answer.

Now, what’s the use of that? Even if he knows the truth, it won’t help him.

“Honestly, this is the first time I’ve seen it… Although I’ve also participated in vampire hunting, I’ve never seen a vampire using such a unique blood magic…”

“……”

“What the hell are you…?”

To the man’s question that was heard once again, I remained silent this time as well and slowly raised the tip of the spear I was holding.

“With such power… With the ability to trample devils like toys…! Why are you pretending to be a nun and taking care of trivial brats?!!”

As soon as the man’s resentful words ended.

I calmly pierced one of the man’s legs with the red thorn I created from my blood.

“Don’t speak recklessly. Those children are never trivial.”

“Ugh, urgh… You should know that you’re also just a helpless devil in the end…”

“Oh, didn’t you say earlier that I was an inferior species that couldn’t even reach the feet of devils?”

“Ha, haha… If you have the power to trample your opponent, you all become devils… The roots of devils aren’t that deep…”

The man, who didn’t even have the strength to remove the red thorns stuck in his body, just stared blankly at the dark sky and let out helpless, hollow laughs.

Although the sticky blood around him seeped into the ground, creating quite a gruesome sight.

Nevertheless, the man continued to speak indifferently.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t told you my name yet… I’m late to introduce myself. I am…”

– Swish!

I pierced the man’s neck with the sharply raised tip of the spear.

I wasn’t particularly curious about his name.

“Do I really need to hear the name of a heinous criminal who tried to kill children?”

“Cough, cough… Ugh…”

Weakly grabbing the spear that pierced his neck, the man’s body trembled more and more in pain.

“Atone for your sins even in death.”

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– Thud

After running through the dense forest for a long time, I looked like a mess.

Not only were my clothes covered in mud, but it was also mixed with the man’s splattered blood, making it even more of a mess.

I somehow managed to deal with the devil who intruded into the church.

But there were still quite a few problems to solve.

“Levinia!”

One of them is explaining myself to the children who know nothing.

If I had just gone with the flow until now, it seems like it’s time to properly unravel the situation and move in the direction I want.

Of course, I will never reveal the fact that I am a vampire, even if I die and come back to life.

“Were you waiting?”

“……”

Unlike when the devil first invaded, the children were now sitting together relatively calmly.

Ellie and Iris, who had tender hearts, showed extreme emotions to the point that their faces turned red.

Nevertheless, they were trying to show their own reliability by somehow holding back their tears.

What was even more surprising was Aizen.

Not only were there no traces of crying, but he also made eye contact with me with the calmest expression of the three.

“Now explain it to me. You’re not an ordinary nun, are you, Levinia…?”

“Yes. As you saw, I can use magic and am quite skilled in combat.”

“…Can I ask why?”

On the way back to the church, I thought a lot.

As much as I didn’t hide my fighting with the devil.

I couldn’t avoid this kind of question from Aizen, and I had to give a convincing answer.

What I came up with was─.

“Actually, I used to be an adventurer. Although I retired quickly because I wasn’t very skilled.”

Creating my own past story based on the game I raised Levinia in.

This world had quite a lot of similarities with the game.

So, creating a past as an adventurer for my current self was no great difficulty, and I could give the children a somewhat plausible explanation in a coherent manner.

“Ah… I thought something was strange.”

As expected, as soon as the children heard the past story I created, they immediately nodded their heads and showed an understanding expression.

I never dreamed that the memory of raising from level 1 to the current 87 would be appropriately utilized in this way.

“Then that strangely shaped spear was also magic?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a special magic that only I can use.”

“So that’s how you could easily defeat the previous devil too…! Now everything is starting to make sense!”

Although I didn’t say it, my story about somehow resolving it with the blessing of Lady Paellia back then didn’t seem to be a convincing explanation to Aizen.

Well, even I thought it was a very rough and messed up thing to say.

I can fully understand.

“But why were you being a nun here? With that level of skill, there’s no reason to retire and no need to be a nun…”

“I’m sorry, Aizen. I’ll tell you another time. For now, can I go and talk to Miss Priscilla?”

Perhaps it was because I had experienced something similar relatively recently.

There was no great difficulty in convincing the children.

In the first place, it wasn’t that they doubted me, but it was a natural question that they couldn’t help but ask in the situation.

That’s probably why I was able to resolve it more easily.

“……”

“Can I talk to you for a moment?”

The last problem I have to solve.

Giving a convincing explanation to Priscilla.

I slowly moved my steps to the back of the church, taking Priscilla, who was nodding slightly with her gaze fixed elsewhere.

“First of all, I’d like to thank you for caring for the children so they could feel at ease while I was gone.”

“…No. I just did what was natural…”

“Honestly, even if you had run away right there, no one could have said anything.”

“I was too worried about the children to do that…”

“You really have a warm heart.”

Although quite formal conversations were going back and forth, the strange atmosphere that subtly spread in the meantime gradually made the atmosphere between Priscilla and me awkward.

At times like this, it might be better to speak clearly and directly rather than beat around the bush.

“So, what do you remember hearing?”

Priscilla flinched greatly at my straightforward question and blinked her eyelids in confusion.

“Wh-What…?”

“I know. You regained consciousness. It’s funny for the person who knocked you out to say this, but I can’t help but ask.”

“…From the part about you being a vampire…”

To the extent that she could be said to have been awake almost from the beginning, Priscilla had been pretending to be unconscious for quite a long time.

She woke up much earlier than I thought.

“That’s strange…? I thought I hit you pretty hard…”

“I have a pretty sturdy body… That’s probably why…”

“Is that so…?”

“Yes. It was thanks to my sturdy body that I was able to come all the way here safely… Ha, A-ah!”

Suddenly, a small question mark floated above my head.

“What happened?”

For some reason, when I asked my question without any special meaning, Priscilla’s crying face began to explode like a bomb.

“I really won’t tell anyone…!! I’ll live quietly in the village without making a sound… So please, just spare my life… Just my life…!!”

Eventually, the relationship between Priscilla and me returned to square one, and the same situation as when we first met continued, gradually making me confused.

No matter how much I said I had no intention of doing so, it seemed that Priscilla’s ears, which had already become a mess, didn’t hear it at all.

“What the hell is a vampire…? I’m only 17 years old…!! I don’t know about old stories like that─!!”

Priscilla was now clinging to the hem of my clothes, crying and making a fuss.

If things continued like this, there would be no progress in the conversation even if the day dawned, so I had no choice but to slap Priscilla’s cheek hard.

– Slap!

“Ah?”

“Calm down, Miss Priscilla. It’s not something to make such a fuss about.”

“Th-Then…?”

“A vampire, huh. Well─.”

The sound of my brain working could be heard clearly in my ears as my mind spun rapidly.

Soon, I opened my mouth as calmly as possible, even giving a bright smile so Priscilla could feel at ease.

“I’m more like a mosquito.”