Late night.
Inside the confession booth.
"Show me your chest."
"..."
Hearing Silas's words, the nun froze instantly.
"T-This... how can this be? The convent has rules... No, regardless, you shouldn't make such a request, right?"
Sister Rose shielded her chest tightly.
A feeling of despair washed over her.
As expected, there are no good deeds or good people without strings attached.
"I need to check the line in the middle of your breasts. Just to confirm."
Silas stared unashamedly at her fresh, succulent mounds. He wasn't planning to rush headlong into a "training" route just yet, but if he could look at them normally, why wouldn't he?
"Even so, that's..."
She had never been asked so bluntly by a man, nor had one stared so directly at her cleavage.
The most critical part was that, even though she felt humiliated, she couldn't refute Silas. After all, the fact that her chest had split open once before was true.
"Forget it. It seems you care more about your chest being seen than your two sisters potentially being eaten by you. Pretend I didn't ask. I'll go outside and check if there are any walking dead around the convent."
Just as the nun was struggling to answer, Silas stood up.
"The walking dead? What do you mean?"
The nun lifted her face, her hands still pressed against her chest.
"Oh, just a name I gave them. Those things are basically dead people who crawled back up and are wandering around. Calling them walking dead fits well enough."
"Will I... become like them too?"
The scene at the confession booth door flashed in her mind again: seven or eight women pinning her down frantically, including the noblewoman she had met once. That unconscious state of treating her as food to be consumed.
She remembered the deep bite marks on her wrist from the noblewoman; now they were almost healed, leaving only a faint, light-colored trace.
If they were walking dead, then what was she? Would she eventually become like them, losing consciousness and feeding on human flesh, even treating her own sisters as food?
"It's a bit different; their chests don't split open. For now, Sister, you're one of a kind. That's why I said I wanted to see your chest."
"Why did you... send me those things for free before?"
Sister Rose stared straight at Silas.
"Does a good deed need a reason?"
Silas waved his hand dismissively.
"If it's just... for looking..."
After another moment of hesitation, she let go of her hands. The habit, missing two buttons, immediately revealed a deep, fathomless valley. Beneath those two white globes, there was indeed an abnormal, light-colored long line extending toward her navel.
It looked a bit like a nearly healed scar.
"How do you feel right now?" Silas asked.
"..."
Rose shook her head, enduring extreme shame to answer. "I don't feel anything. If I don't look, I wouldn't even know this line existed."
"..."
Silas scrutinized the line seriously.
He thought about every instance where the nun had mutated so far. The last success probably wasn't a fluke, nor was it because she cowed before the hundred "friends" he brought.
In that instance, she hadn't identified Silas as a harmful presence.
But if he assumed she wouldn't change as long as he was "harmless," that would likely be wrong too. Judging by the evidence, she probably lost control whenever she perceived her sisters were in extreme danger.
Damn, these mounds are way too white.
Not a single blemish. This was Silas's first time being close enough to a woman to see the pores on her breasts.
"T-That's enough, isn't it?!"
After at least five or six minutes of Silas staring in silence and leaning closer, Sister Rose couldn't take it anymore. Her face was flushed as she shielded her chest with her hands.
No matter how much she wanted to believe Silas was thinking of a solution, she couldn't believe that leaning so close that his breath brushed against her breasts was just "thinking." Those eyes were clearly not looking at the line.
If this was repayment, then compared to those fallen nuns...
"Did you feel anything when it split open before?"
Silas sat back, eyes fixed ahead, while secretly sliding a hand into his pocket to adjust his "posture."
"Before..."
Rose suppressed the urge to change her habit immediately and thought. "I saw Elena and Leah were terrified, and a thought kept popping into my head... telling me to just eat those people. Then..."
"I see."
Silas cut her off. "So, Sister, what do you plan to do next?"
In a room in the convent.
Sister Rose took out a homemade needle and thread from a drawer, found buttons from some old clothes, and sewed them onto her habit.
She still couldn't bring herself to change into her other habit—that was a new set issued by the Church the year before last, and she planned to save it for her sisters to wear.
Standing before the somewhat dilapidated wooden window frame on the second floor, she could vaguely see figures moving slightly in the distance outside. Those weren't humans... they were the "walking dead" he spoke of.
She had worked so hard all these years.
She had seen too much of the corruption and filth inside the city convents. From ordinary priests to bishops, to the knights outside... none were good people.
In the end.
What was the point of the convent's dogmas?
Hardly anyone followed them. The Lord they worshiped wouldn't give her sisters any food better than stewed beans. Yet, other than following her mother to become a nun, there was nothing else she could do. Once she became a nun, she naturally wanted to be a role model for her sisters.
She was unwilling to sink into the mire with those people.
"..."
Rose's hands instinctively pressed against her chest again.
He asked what her plans were?
She, who had only just learned what was happening to the town. She, who had been preoccupied with how many meals the remaining beans could last.
She, who knew nothing about her chest splitting open to eat people.
He had gone out to patrol the perimeter, saying he wanted to ensure the safety around the convent.
A good man?
But...
While enduring the humiliation of baring her collar for him to see her breasts, she could feel it—that burning desire unique to men.
She had heard rumors about Silas.
Maybe the rumors about him not sparing eighty-year-olds or eight-year-olds were false, but the ones about him being involved with many women were true. Back when she still went out to sell assets, she had encountered noblewomen.
'A nun like you, who's so good at using her body to seduce men... you'll probably be conquered by the size of that fellow Silas in no time, won't you?'
'That man is huge, so comfortable... hehehe, I look forward to seeing you in a new light, Sister.'
"..."
Such foul language.
Besides those rumors, Rose also knew Silas was one of the wealthiest merchants in town. She heard that when his affair with someone's wife came to light and the husband came knocking, he simply bought a luxury mansion in town for the man. Since then, the husband never said another word.
So, it made sense that he didn't care for the convent's land, right? Besides, the deed wasn't even in her hands; he likely saw through it but didn't say anything.
Whether he sent things for free to check the situation or just to stare at her breasts didn't matter anymore.
Naivety... was the first thing one should discard in this era. Rose had suffered enough living alone with her sisters.
The town had become unlivable for normal people.
Waiting for a large knightly order from afar to save them?
They would surely come. Those people wouldn't just watch their property disappear. But for a nun like herself, who had already been "polluted" by evil, the only end would be a public execution.
Even if the beans were diluted further, they would only last the children a few days. She had no way to give them better, nor could she protect them until the knights arrived.
Moreover, even if they were lucky enough to survive until then, how would her sisters be treated if they were associated with a corrupted nun?
"Sister, why don't you change into that habit you never wear? It's so pretty."
As she reached the hall, Rose saw her sister running toward her.
"That's for you and Leah."
"I don't want it. I want to be a merchant when I grow up. I'll buy whatever you want, Sister."
"A merchant? Didn't you say you wanted to be a nun?"
Rose affectionately stroked Elena's hair, then looked at Leah, who was shrinking back far away. Her heart tightened. "Why... why are you standing so far away?"
She was terrified that Leah was afraid of her.
"Hmph, Sister Leah brags every day about becoming a knight. But when Big Brother came, she actually used me as a shield! Coward!"
"I-If I were trained, I could definitely go to the battlefield! I didn't use you as a shield, you were just in my way!"
"..."
Seeing her young sister's face turn bright red, she knew it wasn't fear. Rose let out a sigh of relief and gave a gentle smile.
"Sister, will Big Brother stay here?"
Rose didn't want to talk to her sister about Silas, but children would ask. Especially Elena, the youngest and most curious.
"I suppose so. Don't ask more, it's late. Go to sleep. If you're hungry... eat some of the snacks Mr. Silas brought, then sleep. But don't eat too much."
"Okay..."
Elena blinked. "Then will you sleep with me tonight? Leah's bed and mine are too small. Since Big Brother is staying over, he'll have to sleep in your room, right?"
"...I still have some things to discuss with Mr. Silas. You and Leah go to sleep first."
"Can I listen too? Mr. Silas is super amazing! He can sell a comb to a bald man!"
"...No."
Rose turned her gaze away, looking outside the half-open door of the hall.
"Elena, why do you talk so much? Can't you see Sister has business? Go to sleep when you're told. Are you just afraid to sleep alone?"
"Bleh, coward~ I'm not afraid."
"..."
Her two sisters were doing fine; they had recovered from the fright.
But what about her?
She hadn't prepared a room for him to stay in, nor did she plan to sleep with her sisters to give up her room.
Rose's hands instinctively moved to her chest again as she watched the two children go to the corner of the hall—where Silas had laid out bedding for them—to sleep.
She quietly took the oil lamp and walked to the confession booth, softly closing the door.
Click.
After waiting about twenty minutes, she heard the door push open.
"I didn't expect you to still be waiting for me, Sister."
A slightly flippant voice sounded behind her. Rose didn't turn around, just stared at the flickering flame.
"..."
When Silas sat down opposite her, looking a bit tired, Rose straightened her back and looked him in the eye. "Mr. Silas. A few dozen miles from this town, there is a cathedral guarded by a large knightly order. There are also nobles far higher-ranked than the Lord here, nobles with their own private armies."
"Oh? You mean we might get help there?"
"They won't sit by and watch their property be destroyed. They will come. It's only a matter of time."
"Wait here? Personally, I think it's better to save ourselves than wait to be saved."
"..."
Facing Silas's rebuttal, Rose seemed to make up her mind. she removed the glass cover from the oil lamp and blew out the flame.
"Sister Rose?"
"..."
She felt a massive sense of defeat.
Defeated by a tragic fate. The principles she had held for so many years... if her body hadn't been polluted by evil, she would have found a way to survive with her sisters without relying on anyone, even if she had to take up a knife herself.
"Mr. Silas, I don't know if you are the 'scumbag' from the rumors or if you truly just want to help us."
"But whether you're a scumbag or a saint, you have no obligation to cover for Leah and Elena—to risk harboring the companions of a heretic to save them."
"I also know it's laughable to offer the convent's land as a reward. First, you wouldn't care for it. Second, once the knights arrive and find out I've been polluted, not only will I be stripped of my status as a nun, but the land won't be mine to give. You might even be implicated."
"So..."
Rose's voice was trembling. "I've thought about it. The only thing I have left to offer as a reward... is my body."
As she spoke, following her memory before the light went out, she took Silas's hand and pressed it against her chest.
Enduring that extreme sense of shame, she stammered again. "Do... do whatever you want. After you are satisfied... I only hope you will look after Leah and Elena here. When the knights come, just hand them over to the Church."
She thought to herself:
This body has already been abandoned by the Lord, hasn't it?
Polluted by evil, she could hardly call herself a nun.
Once she was gone, her sisters wouldn't be seen as companions of a monster. Her status as a nun wouldn't be stripped away; even if they had a hard time back at the city convent, at least they could survive.
So, let it be this. Discarding her naive thoughts, after serious consideration, this was the only way.