The Pious Priest's Sinful Collection - Chapter 6
“Daphne, are you really not going to get married?”
“You’re really going to stay here?”
Normally, Daphne remained silent whenever they joked about life after leaving the cloister, but today, she was the center of their curiosity. They had all thought Daphne would eventually leave like the others, since they all had been enduring the difficult life at the cloister while waiting for the day they could leave and marry.
The cloister was a tough place to be alone.
No matter how much they revered restraint and devotion as virtues in the Temple of the Holy Spirit, everything had to be done by hand here. The main temple provided some basic necessities, but it was barely enough to keep them from freezing or starving.
Until they were old enough, they weren’t allowed to leave the cloister grounds, and only recently had they been allowed to help at the temple’s dining hall. Before that, it had been nothing but endless days spent relying on one another’s warmth to survive — sleeping and waking in a cycle dictated by the limited resources they had.
They could only look forward to the day they could redeem their freedom. Because of this, Daphne was expected to feel even more strongly about it. Unlike those who were devoted to the temple before they could even walk, Daphne had lived in the outside world until the age of ten.
Though Daphne is the most devout among her peers, they had always unconsciously thought she would want to leave as well, given the circumstances.
“Are you sure? You’ll be staying here alone.”
Nodding at Marianne’s words, Daphne replied with a calm expression.
“I told Bishop Isabella that I want to take on the duties of the next batch of novices. She said it might take some time to get formal approval, but… Thalia, I think it’s ready now. Let’s hang it on the line.”
“Huh? Oh…”
While her peers looked on in surprise, Daphne, confirming that no more water was dripping from the blanket she had been twisting, swung her arm wide to hang it on the clothesline.
“…Ah!”
“…!”
At that moment, Thalia, who had been lost in thought, moved a beat too late, and one side of the blanket almost fell to the ground. Daphne, panicking, threw herself toward the falling blanket.
“No! I really don’t want to wash it again!”
If she had to redo the laundry, it would be better to just wash herself with cold water. Successfully grabbing the blanket, Daphne braced herself for the impact that was about to come.
However, the sensation she felt behind her — no, on the back of her head — was strange.
“…Soft?”
Was it solid? It was fluffy yet soft, but at the same time, it felt firm.
The sensation was so different from the hard mattress in the dormitory, much softer and more reassuring. Daphne unconsciously thought that such a feeling should be felt on her face rather than the back of her head.
“Haah…!”
As she opened her eyes in a daze, she saw her peers sucking in their breaths. The shock on their faces made Daphne blink in confusion.
‘Why do they look so surprised?’
The reaction was far more astonished than when she had said she wanted to take on the duties of the younger novices, and Daphne was left bewildered.
At that moment, a shadow fell over her head.
When she looked up, she saw a pair of golden eyes looking down at her through the slightly tousled silver hair.
Theodore Valentino.
