A Powerful Martial Artist Reincarnates as a Nun Knight

Of course, it was not that Ezio or his divine spirit Saraswati had any lascivious intentions. They were simply sincere about muscles and physical beauty. Hildegard already knew this well.
It was just that recently, she was a bit annoyed that Ezio, who had contracted with the divine spirit, was too caught up in his own world, flexing his muscles.

Grumbling as she emptied half of her beer, Hildegard wiped the beer foam clinging to her lips with the back of her hand and turned her gaze to the wine she had previously poured into the decanter.
As she did, the divine spirit Ariel, who had been watching over Hildegard, put her hands on her hips and made a stern expression.
[…!]
“Ah, I know, I know? But please indulge me a little. How often in my life do I get a chance to taste the local specialty wines?”
[…?]
“Hmm… Oh? This has quite an excellent flavor? The aroma is not bad either. I particularly like that the sweetness is not overpowering.”

After swirling and swallowing the wine she had taken into her mouth, Hildegard opened her eyes wide in admiration at the aroma and flavor that filled her nasal cavity and stimulated her taste buds. It seemed she was no longer listening to Ariel’s nagging.
Ariel, with her face in the shape of б︵б, let out a ‘poof~’ sigh and gave up any further nagging.
Well, she would let Hildegard take care of her own health, her expression seemed to say.

“Anyway, you know, those two have been so full of themselves lately… When I’m around them, I somehow feel left out and my mood gets a bit…”

Muttering as if someone might hear her talking to herself, Hildegard suddenly lost her tension and slumped down, gulping her drink.
Watching her, Ariel suddenly realized that this was the moment for her advice to shine. It would not do for a divine spirit to leave an adult acting like a pubescent child.
With this in mind, the divine spirit Ariel spoke to Hildegard.

[…?]
“Hm? Approach from common topics of conversation? How so?”
[…!]
“Muscles, muscles, huh… Come to think of it, I do train my muscles too, in a way. Both astral muscles and actual muscles, either way. Hmm, well. Wait? Does that mean I should bare my skin and flaunt my physical beauty like they do?”
[…?]
“What? You’re saying I should cut back on the drinking instead? …That’s not happening!”

At Hildegard’s stern expression, Ariel let out another sigh. She had tried to subtly strip Hildegard of her ‘drunken nun knight’ title by telling her that drinking and talking about alcohol in front of the altar was tantamount to saying she didn’t want to get closer to God, but Hildegard had flatly refused.
It was going to be a long road. Thinking this, Ariel clenched her fists and silently steeled her resolve and determination. Regardless, Hildegard tasted a piece of the seviche fish and once again took the wine in her glass into her mouth. Shortly after, her soft humming, satisfied with the flavor of the wine, drifted around the table.

+++++

With Sophia’s permission, Conra and Maria wandered around the sights of the magic tower, their eyes sparkling like stars. The flashing, wondrous, and spectacular sights of the magic tower, where such mysteries were on display, were enough to captivate the eyes of the young boy and girl.

Conra and Maria were like bees drawn to flowers, sometimes gazing at the strange shapes formed by the flickering lights intertwining in midair, then observing the tiny, artificial lifeforms smaller than a fingernail crawling and building a small castle around the incense burner, and then buying and devouring a bunch of random-flavored lucky-or-unlucky desserts.

Watching the two enjoying their time with a warm smile, Sophia headed for none other than the place called the Tray of Magec. The Tray of Magec referred to the tray held in the hands of the statue of the sun goddess Magec, worshipped by the Berber people. It was a sacred relic where a miracle occurred, with the sun’s blessing flowing from the statue pooling in the tray like shimmering spring water.

In an ancient tome Sophia had discovered in Ravenna’s archives, it was written that if one scooped up and drank this spring water, they would temporarily become immune to all poisons and diseases in the world. Likewise, they would temporarily gain an advantage over the undead, demons, and other denizens of outer space.

Securing this sun-blessed spring water was Sophia’s second reason for visiting the magic tower of Cadiz.

‘The problem is, this spring water scatters and becomes ordinary light once it leaves the tray.’

A hypothesis flitted through her mind that perhaps the temporary nature of the blessing was due to the light’s property of quickly dispersing like this.
Was it because of this volatility? Unexpectedly, the magic tower did not secretly store the light gathered in the tray, but rather put it on public display. If it was impossible to preserve the blessing for long, then it might as well be released cheaply to the public for promotional purposes.

Thanks to this, the fee for using the tray was set at an extremely low price. And naturally, those who came to admire this wondrous tray and experience the blessing pooled like spring water at such a low cost would also use the other services provided by the magic tower.

As a result, the Cadiz magic tower became famous among merchants and mages as an example of effectively generating revenue by properly utilizing even a relic like this tray. Recalling this story, Sophia let out a wry smile.

In short, no matter how great the blessing pooled in the tray was, it was inevitable that it would be undervalued due to its lack of durability and high volatility. It was also said that even the Berber people who had worshipped the goddess Magec now mainly believed in the war god Agurzhil with the bull’s head and his avatar, the minor goddess Queen Alkahina, meaning that Magec’s religious influence had also greatly diminished.

Well, that was probably why this relic, which could have been enshrined as a sacred object, was kept in the magic tower instead of the church in Cadiz.

‘Well, thanks to that, I too had the opportunity to use it easily, so I can’t complain?’

If this relic had belonged to the Church, even Sophia, with her high status within the Church, would have found it difficult to use it so easily.

After paying the fee and approaching the tray, Sophia took out five small glass vials from her bosom. These vials, in the typical potion bottle shape, had the Vajra Mandala engraved inside, and the Tree of Sephiroth was engraved on the cork stoppers.

Opening the empty bottles, Sophia poured the light gathered in the tray into the bottles she had brought and sealed the openings with the cork stoppers. Strangely, the light that should have immediately scattered and disappeared once bottled and taken away from the tray still maintained a liquid-like state, rippling inside the glass vials even after moving quite a distance from the tray.

‘Indeed, as expected.’

Sophia nodded her head slightly, as if she had expected this.

Sanctity cannot remain in the mundane world. This had been an established rule since the Iron Age began. Sophia speculated that the blessing pooled in the tray evaporated the moment it left the tray for this very reason.

It was then that she thought of the Vajra Mandala.
The Vajra Mandala was originally an esoteric Buddhist vision that expelled impure and defiled energies, creating an inner ‘dharma realm’. Sophia’s calculation was that by engraving the Vajra Mandala inside the potion bottles, the inside of the bottles would be transformed into a ‘dharma realm’ purged of impurities.

After the potion bottles were transformed into a dharma realm in this way, the sephiroth pattern engraved on the cork stoppers was what created an environment similar to the celestial realms by introducing sanctity.

The sephiroth pattern, which explains the spiritual development of humans, the flow of time, the interaction and creation of all things through ten sephirot and twenty-two paths, was seen in the original Kabbalah as representing unity with God, the achievement of eternity.

The moment the sephiroth pattern, a diagram representing the attainment of sanctity and eternity, was introduced into the dharma realm severed from the mundane world by the Vajra Mandala, the inside of the potion bottles transformed into an environment that could be called a pseudo-celestial realm. Thanks to this, the liquefied blessing pooled in the tray did not scatter and maintained its liquid state even after being bottled.

Stroking the pouch containing the five potion bottles filled with Magec’s blessing with satisfaction, Sophia headed toward the desk clerk she had initially tasked with compiling the requested list. It should have been about time for the initial listing to be completed.

And then it happened.
Pachang!
An ominous sound of something breaking pierced Sophia’s senses.

“The barrier has been breached!”
“The Tibicenas (Death Spirits) have been released! Evacuate the people!”
“Where are the spirit keepers!? Isn’t this what you’re employed for, to work at times like these!”
“Those aren’t just regular Tibicenas! They’re Tibicenas with Cernunnos’ antlers! We need the help of the druids too!”
“What the hell!? Who the hell summoned those things!”

Naturally, Sophia’s gaze turned toward the center of the commotion, and her mouth opened in a silent ‘huh’.
The Death Spirits she had seen earlier, trapped within the labyrinth barrier and chasing each other’s tails as they ran, had somehow escaped the barrier and were now snarling as they looked around.
Apparently, the shattering sound from earlier was the sound of the labyrinth barrier containing the Cernunnos Tibicenas breaking.

Sophia clicked her tongue softly and said, “Tsk, tsk, tsk, I wonder whose idea it was to put deer antlers on the heads of these black hound dogs.”

Grumbling that even hybrids had their limits, Sophia nevertheless calmly ignored the unfolding incident and proceeded toward her initial destination, the desk.
At the desk, an employee who had discovered the accident scene stood frozen, only rolling his feet.

“Hey there, good man. Have you finished compiling the list I requested?”
“Ah, a distinguished guest from the Church! Yes, here it is.”

Called by Sophia, the employee, despite the chaos, maintained his professional demeanor and reflexively showed Sophia the list of products she had requested, as befitting his occupation.

“Let me have it. I’ll take a look.”
“Ah, yes. Here you go.”

Naturally handing over the product list he had been holding to the unnaturally calm Sophia, the employee glanced worriedly at the ongoing commotion.

And he had reason to worry. This Cadiz magic tower, for all its grandeur, was still the workplace of the desk clerk. If this incident could not be resolved peacefully and escalated into a major accident, it could greatly hinder the operation of the magic tower… and naturally, the storm of restructuring that would follow could sweep through as well.
It was only natural for him to feel anxious and worried about whether he could safely weather that storm of restructuring.

As Sophia silently flipped through the list in her hands, pondering what to trade for, the employee who had been stealing glances suddenly spoke up.

“Excuse me, but may I ask for your assistance?”
“There’s no need for that, so rest assured. It doesn’t seem like I’ll need to step in.”

And with those cutting words from Sophia, he ended up closing his mouth with an embarrassed expression. But then, as if finding something odd in Sophia’s words, the employee asked again.

“But you said you won’t need to step in?”
“Hmm. Look over there.”

Too bothered to explain when she was looking over the list, Sophia simply raised her finger and pointed toward the scene of the incident. Naturally, the employee’s expression became blank as he looked in the direction Sophia was pointing.

There, a young man was seen holding a spear, weaving together druidic and alchemical spells as he confronted the Cernunnos Tibicenas.