Chapter 449: Fetish

“Your Holiness the Saintess?”

“C-coming.”

Only after Lin couldn’t help but urge a third time did Liya’s slightly flustered voice finally come from within the room. With the aid of Lin’s powerful cultivation, she could then hear the rustle of clothing and the creak of the bed under pressure.

She really was getting up—though for some reason, today the creaks sounded especially distinct.

Looks like they went a bit wild again last night.

Lin’s brows knit, but she quickly cast that faint displeasure aside. As a composed and elegant High Sister, she would never let a matter so commonplace affect her mood or her work.

“Your Holiness, please be quick. Today is the second day since you became the Saintess. The morning prayer to follow is extremely important,” Lin reminded again.

“Right away! Right away!”

Roughly two or three minutes later, the door finally opened. Liya had changed into a neat dress that highlighted the Saintess’s purity and gentle authority; only a noticeable blush still remained upon her face.

While lightly binding her long hair, Liya gave Lin an embarrassed smile.

“Honestly, I know you’re very taken with that Muen Campbell, but please show a little restraint. No matter what, spending the night alone with a grown man is unbecoming of your status as Saintess... eh?”

Facing a Saintess already a bit outside decorum, Lin couldn’t help beginning a patient admonition. But before she could finish, she suddenly froze.

Her gaze swept habitually into the room—landing, as always, on the big bed.

But what she saw was not that detestable blond swine—

It was... another girl?

Lin: ???

What is going on?

The sudden change even made her lose composure. Eyes wide, she stared blankly.

Silky long hair lightly gathered and falling over the shoulders. A fitted knit top outlining perfect feminine curves. Below the knee-length hem—long black-stockinged legs. As she turned back lazily, a slightly flushed cheek rippled with a truly exquisite, sultry smile—enough to unsettle even another woman’s heart.

Without a doubt, this could neither be that Muen Campbell cross-dressing, nor some magical construct. Standing before her now was, genuinely and unmistakably—

A beautiful, unfamiliar woman who looked as if she’d just woken up.

But why would such a woman be rising from the Saintess’s bed?

“You are...”

So shocked was Lin that she failed to notice how direct—and thus slightly rude—her question had become.

“Hello, Miss Lin. I’ve long heard of you.”

Anna smiled softly and nodded with gentle courtesy:

“I’m Anna Kaplin. I’ve come to the Holy City as a representative of the Silent Bureau this time, and I’m also the Saintess’s senior from the same academy. I came specially last night to catch up.”

“Ah—my discourtesy.”

Lin came to herself, then dipped in slight apology:

“So Your Ladyship is Her Holiness’s friend?”

“...You could say so. At least, for now.”

“For now?”

Puzzled by Anna’s answer, Lin didn’t dwell on it. Given the scene, she quickly understood what lay behind the picture before her eyes.

In other words, after she herself retired early last night under the Saintess’s orders, a friend from the Saintess’s academy came to visit. Having not met in a long while, the two had endless things to say—so they chatted by candlelight and slept back-to-back?

Then woke together in the morning?

Mm. That sounded reasonable.

“So Her Holiness didn’t fool around with that Muen Campbell last night?”

Lin looked at Liya with relief. As the High Sister serving the Saintess, she had felt the Saintess had been a bit too enamored of worldly affection lately. Though Her Holiness hadn’t let it affect her duties, such laxity itself is the most tempting poison toward downfall.

But now, it seemed the Saintess still knew restraint. Good.

“H-he...”

Liya, without leaving a trace, turned her head aside:

“Muen might have had something else to do last night. I don’t know where he went.”

“Is that so? Seems that guy’s head isn’t filled only with smut. When I see him next, I’ll offer rare praise.”

“I—I’ll tell him.”

Liya nodded firmly, then waved to Lin:

“Then, Lin... I’ll go handle morning prayer first. I’ll leave this to you. You’re always so busy—just do a light tidy. I’ll take care of the rest myself.”

“Yes, Your Holiness. Please proceed.”

“Goodbye.”

Liya hurried out, paused just beyond the threshold as if recalling something, folded her hands over her lower abdomen, and restored the perfect poise a Saintess should have—then gradually vanished down the corridor.

“I’ll be going too, goodbye,” Anna said, leaving as well.

Soon, the room was empty again—leaving only Lin.

“How inappropriate.”

Lin rubbed the corner of her mouth.

Just # Nоvеlight # because a stranger appeared in the Saintess’s chambers, she had been shocked to that point.

It seems her state of mind still needed tempering.

“However... Her Holiness having normal friends is a good thing.”

Thinking of that courteous, gently smiling, beautiful woman, Lin couldn’t help nodding lightly.

She seemed very well-suited to be the Saintess’s friend—and to get along with Her Holiness. At least in Lin’s view, she was far more suitable than that strange person called Ariel Bugaard to associate with the Saintess.

However... that was only her private opinion. As High Sister, she had no right to critique the Saintess’s friendships.

Reining in thoughts she should not have, Lin returned to the present.

Time to help Her Holiness tidy the room.

Strictly speaking, such tidying was not something a High Sister should do herself. But both the former Saintess and the current one had their private little secrets. Thus, trivial matters that might touch upon the Saintess’s privacy could only be handled by her—the Saintess’s attendant High Sister.

Best to finish quickly. There was much work to do.

With her usual elegance and composure, Lin went to the messy bed, pinched the two corners of the duvet, and gave it a practiced snap.

The wrinkled duvet swiftly smoothed with the motion—just like Lin’s gradually calmed state of mind...

Plop.

Hm?

Something seemed to have fallen.

Lin set the duvet aside and suspiciously picked up the small... oval device on the mattress.

“What is this? A toy?”

By reflex she examined it closely, keenly sensing that it was a precise device activatable by magic, so she probed it with a small thread of mana.

Bzz, bzz, bzz.

With the infusion, the oval device began to vibrate with steady rhythm. As she adjusted the amount of mana, Lin found its frequency changed accordingly.

At times it not only vibrated, it hopped intensely—numbing her palm.

“This is... a **?”

Based on the current vibration, Lin formed a hypothesis.

But she quickly overturned it herself.

“N-no... that’s not right.”

If its function were merely to relax muscles and massage meridians, it shouldn’t be made so small.

This size, this shape, this function...

Seemed more like...

Lin’s mind raced. Countless images surfaced from the depths of memory—finally stopping at...

An unclean book she had confiscated from a certain restless young nun, which had contained a detailed description of such things.

Its stated purpose was to enhance certain sensations and certain... interests when committing a particular unclean act.

But that wasn’t the crux. Given the usual intensity between the Saintess and that bastard, using a few auxiliary tools wouldn’t be strange.

The problem was: last night, Muen Campbell was not in this room.

The ones who slept here were the Saintess—and that beautiful woman named Anna, her senior and friend.

Therefore, the key point of that description was... this little toy could be used not only for man and woman...

But for woman and woman.

“Hss—”

As that thought pierced Lin’s mind like a flash of light, she drew in a sharp breath, contributing to global warming while fine cracks spread across her long-held composure and elegance.

“N-no. Impossible. How could Her Holiness do such a thing? She clearly gets along so well with that Muen Campbell.”

In an instant, countless words she had learned from another confiscated book—from that same young nun—tumbled through her mind: betrayal, yuri, cuckold... She forced them deep down.

But the more she suppressed them, the more unstoppable her thoughts became.

At last, the image in her head fixed upon the moment the door had just opened—upon the lingering rosy flush upon both faces: the Saintess, and that beautiful woman named Anna.

That was absolutely not the result of a good night’s sleep. It was more like...

“No, no—this is me overthinking it. Her Holiness is a good girl. How could she... possibly be like that?”

A few stray locks sprang free from beneath Lin’s tightly bound veil. Her cheeks gradually bloomed with a deep blush—just like her composure and elegance, now on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, the strong mental fortitude honed over years—and the increased blood-pressure threshold evolved thanks to Muen Campbell in recent days—finally pulled her back from the brink of reason’s collapse.

Good. Good. This matter wasn’t that outrageous... at least for now it concerned only Her Holiness and Miss Anna.

At least that poor Muen Campbell didn’t know yet, right? Therefore the situation wouldn’t spiral into an even more complex loss of control.

As High Sister, this was no time for wild speculation, nor for gilding the lily.

Elegant and composed.

Already beginning to pity that blond swine, Lin slowly sat down at the edge of the bed—calming herself while trying to sort out this tangled web.

Then... her rear had barely touched the mattress when a razor-sharp creak sounded, followed by a tremendous crash.

—The big bed that had endured several nights of ravaging finally ended its painful life here. It collapsed.

Lin’s mouth twitched. With a long sigh, she rose, ready to find a way to dispose of the bed without attracting attention.

But as soon as she turned, she froze.

Because through the collapsed frame, she saw—

“Hi.”

Muen pushed aside the broken boards and, wearing an awkward grin, greeted Lin:

“Good morning, Miss Lin.”

“You—Muen Campbell? What are you doing here... Wait. Don’t tell me you were under the bed all night watching?”

Countless thoughts assembled in a thunderclap, forming a “truth” that shattered her worldview. All elegance and composure vanished as Lin cried out toward the “victim” under the bed—laden with doubt and pity:

“You actually have a fetish for watching the one you like do yuri with another girl?!”

Muen: “???”