Stinky Nun Miss Annise

A thug raised a knife and swung it toward Rin—just before it struck.

“Hey you two over there—what do you think you’re doing to such a cute kitten? Mind if I join in—okay with you?”

“Ugh!? M-my hand won’t move…!?”

“Wh-who the hell are you!?”

The thug’s raised arm—one whose wrist the girl grabbed from behind.

The one who cut in was a clergywoman notable for red hair and white vestments.

The girl gripped the wrist with a strength that left the large man unable to move, and sweat ran down his face.

In her other hand, the girl held the paper bag Rin had dropped earlier.

“I’m just a passing stinky nun. I don’t feel like protecting the city’s peace and quiet—but if a cute kid’s in danger, I just can’t help but intervene.”

“Owww oww oww owwww!?!?”

The red-haired cleric twisted up the thug’s arm.

And—snap—the sound came from the man’s shoulder.

“Ugggghhhhh!?!?”

The man dropped his knife, clutched his shoulder, and crouched down.

“You’re being dramatic. I only dislocated a joint. But—this way you can really sue for compensation, y’know?”

“That woman!!”

The other thug picked up the knife his partner had dropped and pointed the blade at the red-clad girl.

“Whoa—!—Yeah!”

“Ugh!?”

The nun clenched her fist—thrusting out only the knuckle of her middle finger, she quickly jabbed the man’s shoulder.

A snap came from his shoulder, he dropped the knife, and crouched like the other man.

“There. Now it’s a real injury—so compensation, right?”

The nun took a coin from her vestments and tossed it onto the ground.

The thugs retrieved the coin with the hand whose joints weren’t dislocated and spat a parting insult—“You’ll remember this!”—as they left.

“If you show a doctor he’ll put it back in right away, you know~”

Once the thugs’ backs were out of sight, the red-clad girl faced Rin.

“Ah, thank you! You saved me from a dangerous situation…!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine—here, this is what you dropped.”

The girl handed the paper bag back to Rin.

“But be careful. This royal capital may be the King’s backyard, but it’s also a city of adventurers. There’s lots of rough types like those around.”

“I know adventurers can be a bit rough in speech and manner… but I never expected to be threatened in broad daylight…”

“Those guys were probably former adventurers—one was missing two fingers on his dominant hand, and the other had one eye ruined and the other could barely see. They got badly injured fighting monsters, retired from adventuring and couldn’t earn like before, but kept their violence—it’s common for people like that to turn to crime.”

“Y-yes… it was my lack of attention… I don’t know how to thank you…”

“No no, kiddo, it’s not your fault. But, well—muah ❤”

“Hyawa!?”

She was gently kissed on the ear.

Startled by the sudden action, Rin dropped an apple from the paper bag.

The red-haired girl caught it midair.

“The thanks is a kiss for the cute girl and one apple, okay?”

“Hya, hyawa…”

Rin had worked for several masters in the past.

But she had been young and undernourished then, and never possessed the current delicacy, so she had never performed sexual services even once.

Unused to physical contact, a simple kiss suffused Rin’s face with deep redness.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet—I’m Annise Redby. What’s your name, little miss?”

“Ah, um… Rinrin… I’m Rinland Ringland.”

“I see! Then Miss Rinrin! If we get the chance again!”

The red-haired cleric—Annise—gave a bright smile and walked away from Rin.

And then—Rin’s shadow flickered and stirred.

“That was close, that was close—I almost let those Church folk see my form.”

“L-Lady Ekarraat!? You were here!?”

Ekarraat emerged from Rin’s shadow.

Only the head and above were exposed.

Rin hadn’t expected Ekarraat to be inside her shadow and, surprised, she lifted one foot.

“Sid Ranorus asked me because he’s a worrier. I intended to step in if things got bad, but just before I did, that Holy Knight showed up and I panicked.”

Ekarraat wasn’t using the Shadow ability but rather, as a natural vampire, was hiding in Sid’s shadow.

In other words, unlike a Shadow, she can enter shadows other than Sid’s.

And so she watched over Rin’s first errand from within her shadow.

By the way, unlike Annise, Ekarraat had no mercy and would have killed the thugs without hesitation.

The two thugs were none the wiser, but in the end they were saved—so to speak—by Annise.

“Still, Rin, what were you thinking giving my apple to the Church like that!?”

“I-I’m terribly sorry!”

“Well, I’m generous—I’ll forgive you for one apple. There still seem to be more apples left. But you shouldn’t have given that brat Anis your real name. Understand? Sid is targeted not only by the Royal Palace but also by the Holy Church… and troublingly, that girl has the Stigmata of—no, never mind. It’s something you don’t need to know.”

“I-I’m sorry! I just blurted it out in the moment…!”

“Alright, alright. Rin’s safe—that’s enough. Now, let’s go back—Vanargand, take us to Sid.”

“Waon!”

Darkness spread at Rin’s feet and Vanargand’s massive jaws swallowed her whole.

They had arrived earlier by Vanargand’s spatial movement, so of course they returned the same way.

“Eh!? Vanargand was inside me too!?”

Ekarraat and Vanargand, bosses of an S-rank dungeon.

Guarded by those two, Rin had become a girl you absolutely shouldn’t mess with.

And so Rin’s errand concluded without incident.

＊＊＊

――The back alley, emptied by Vanargand’s spatial transfer.

“Heave—well, I never thought the cute girl I happened to save would turn out to be Sid Ranorus’s pet slave, huh.”

The girl who’d been hiding on the roof of a tall building landed nimbly in the alley.

Annise Redby—the cleric who had earlier saved Rin from the thugs.

“The vengeance for Lilium was said to be held against someone who kept a Ragiu slave—I remembered it and thought ‘no way’ and was watching, and bam, jackpot. The Scriptures saying ‘pray devoutly and God will answer’ are a lie. I, who live sloppily every day, somehow pulled this exact match.”

Anis checked the spot where Rin had disappeared.

As expected—there were hardly any traces left.

But the information on Sid Ranorus—being accompanied by the Crimson Vampire Princess and possessing spatial transfer ability—matched perfectly.

It was safe to conclude that Rinrin Ringland was Sid Ranorus’s slave.

“Cute little kitten—hope we meet again.”

Annise Redby—of the Knights of Stigmata, the Sixth Stigmata—took the apple she had received from Rin, lightly wiped its skin with her vestments, and chomped into it.