Chapter 463: Seduce the Nun, Prologue

"What the hell are you even saying right now?" Yuuna glared at Petra, her expression twisting into open disbelief as she tried to process the absolutely ridiculous direction the conversation had suddenly taken.

She looked like she had just heard something genuinely offensive, and judging from the way her eyebrows had tightened, Petra had somehow managed to find one of the few subjects capable of seriously irritating her.

"Lady Sarushima," Petra said while looking directly at Yuuna, seemingly unfazed by the glare being directed her way. "I know you and the Child of Anti-Prophecy have this kind of special connection with each other, but you can’t really forgo something this important just because of personal feelings, can you?"

Yuuna didn’t speak at all after hearing those words. She could probably tell that Petra had hit the nail on the head this time, and complaining about everything she disliked would only make their lives even more... difficult. Petra’s methods were questionable at best, but the underlying point she was making was difficult to dismiss entirely.

For the moment, it was probably better for them to hear Petra out instead of immediately shutting down the conversation.

"What exactly is the correlation between me seducing her and being able to accomplish this?" Kouhei asked.

"Aegis is a human woman. Although she’s a nun, she’s naturally a woman as well, and if the circumstances are right, she could still fall in love with someone," Petra explained. "Right now, she’s on the cusp of that. I think it would be good for her to be approached by men at this point. I mean, isn’t there something kind of lewd about the whole situation? Tainting a pure nun and then putting her on your side?"

The way Petra explained it made the entire idea sound rather questionable from Kouhei’s perspective. He couldn’t exactly say that he was comfortable with the thought, and there were several reasons why he felt like he probably shouldn’t even be entertaining the idea.

Still, for some reason, Kouhei understood the appeal behind it.

That was probably the part that bothered him the most.

He didn’t appreciate the fact that he understood why someone might find the idea appealing, because recognizing that kind of appeal made him feel like he was turning into the sort of person he normally wouldn’t want to associate with.

For a few seconds, he simply stared at Petra while thinking through everything she had said. He wasn’t someone who enjoyed making decisions based purely on impulse, especially when those decisions could affect someone else in a significant way.

"How am I supposed to go about this?" Kouhei asked Petra, deciding that understanding the actual plan would be more useful than sitting there questioning his own morality for the next hour.

"Kuhihihi..." Petra laughed, sounding far too amused by the fact that Kouhei was actually considering her suggestion. "It’s simple. You only have to visit her, basically courting her. I don’t know any particular method that would allow you to seduce her in a conventional manner, but right now, what I’m suggesting is probably the only thing you could realistically do if you want to get close to her."

"T-That seems easy enough," Kouhei said, although his hesitation made it obvious that he wasn’t completely convinced. "Well, then again, she’s working at the Church. I can’t exactly do anything if she’s there, can I?"

"Then what if you go to her place instead?" Petra suggested, as though she had already thought several steps ahead. "She’s currently attending college. She’s studying theology because, as a matter of course, she wants to become a nun."

Kouhei went silent for a moment after hearing that.

The idea had sounded simple when Petra first explained it, but now that he actually had to consider putting the plan into practice, it suddenly seemed much more complicated than he had expected.

Was he seriously going to do this?

Kouhei had no idea how he would even manage something like that. Approaching someone with the intention of courting them was already outside his usual behavior, and the fact that the person he was supposed to approach was a nun made the whole situation even more bizarre.

More importantly, how the hell was he supposed to seduce a nun?

"You don’t have to worry," Petra said, apparently noticing the uncertainty written all over his face. "You’re a fine gentleman. I think the nun is going to take a liking to you. That nun is actually very naughty, you see. She likes to stick some kind of device that vibrates right up inside her vagina."

Yuka, who had been about to take a sip of her tea, suddenly stopped halfway through the motion when she heard that.

Her cup remained dangerously close to her lips as she stared at Petra, clearly wondering whether she had genuinely heard what she thought she had heard.

"She seems like a very adventurous one if that’s the case," Yuka said after taking a moment to recover, carefully lowering her cup back onto the table.

"Yup. She has a pretty unhealthy amount of lewdness hidden inside her," Petra replied without the slightest hesitation. "Although she seems pure from the outside, there are apparently a lot of sex toys in her life that you wouldn’t even think possible to fit into her lifestyle. She also likes getting naked in public. Considering the fact that she’s like that, I think she’s going to fit you quite well."

Kouhei had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to say to that.

The amount of information Petra was casually throwing at him was becoming increasingly difficult to process, and he was starting to wonder whether she had any concept of how unusual her explanations sounded to normal people.

Apparently, Petra did not.

He rubbed the side of his forehead while trying to organize his thoughts, because the conversation had somehow gone from faction strategy to the private habits of a nun in the span of only a few minutes. There were moments when Kouhei wondered whether Petra deliberately made serious conversations strange just to see how everyone would react.

Then again, there was probably a reason Aegis had become the way she was, and Kouhei didn’t think he had any right to judge someone without knowing the circumstances that had shaped her.

He might have found her a little bit strange, but that didn’t automatically give him the right to decide what kind of person she was.

"She’s the only way to find out if there’s something you could do with your faction member," Petra continued, bringing the conversation back toward the actual objective. "She’s the only key we have right now, so I suggest you get to her before someone else can. Someone like her should be easy to seduce, and whoever gets to her first will probably be able to corrupt her immediately."

Petra looked genuinely sinister while saying that, and the expression on her face made Kouhei feel as though she was doing something that fit perfectly into whatever personal agenda she had in mind.

The problem was that Kouhei still had absolutely no idea what that agenda actually was.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that Petra was hiding something behind all of this. Her suggestions were far too convenient, and she seemed far too entertained by the idea of Kouhei approaching Aegis for him to believe that everything she was doing was completely innocent.

Yuuna seemed to have noticed the same thing.

Although she remained silent, her eyes briefly shifted toward Petra with a cautious expression. She clearly didn’t trust the woman completely, and Kouhei couldn’t blame her for that.

Still, despite all of his doubts, this was currently his only lead.

If Aegis really was the key to discovering what he could accomplish with someone connected to his faction, then he couldn’t simply ignore the opportunity because Petra happened to be enjoying the situation a little too much.

Kouhei remained silent for a while, thinking about everything she had said and trying to separate the useful information from whatever questionable nonsense Petra had decided to throw into the conversation.

The plan still sounded strange, but at least it gave him somewhere to start.

He also realized that simply approaching Aegis with the intention of manipulating her probably wasn’t something he wanted to do. If he was going to meet her, then he wanted to understand her first rather than treating her like some convenient piece on a game board.

That thought made Petra’s suggestion considerably less appealing, although it didn’t necessarily make the opportunity itself worthless.

"I’ll think about it," Kouhei finally said, choosing his words carefully because he still wasn’t completely convinced that Petra’s plan was the right approach.

Petra merely smiled, looking as though she had already expected that answer.

"That’s all I’m asking for," she said. "You don’t have to make the decision this instant. Although, naturally, I’d recommend that you don’t take too long either."

Kouhei narrowed his eyes slightly.

That last part sounded suspiciously like a threat disguised as friendly advice.

"It’s already nightfall," Petra said after a moment, suddenly changing the subject with suspicious ease. "Why don’t we get to know each other more and stay the night here?"