"Oh? There is more?" Nero sneered, "Go ahead. But make it quick."

The nun stood up and walked to the river, then after a brief pause, she continued, "Days passed by, but no one returned. So the villagers and the guild formed a search party and sent more people to look for them."

"The fire in the forest didn't catch anyone's attention?" Nero asked curiously.

"It did, but the fire was so intense, and it had spread so vast that it took three days to be extinguished by magic users," the nun replied without looking back. 

"The search party eventually found the party, but only one girl was alive. She was lying half-dead between the rotten corpses of the party members."

Nero yawned and stretched his hands before lying down on the stone.

"The girl was rescued and treated by the best doctor available, but they couldn't remove the curse from her."

"Curse?" Nero raised his brows and looked at the nun.

"The curse from her dead party members."

Nero sighed and closed his eyes before saying, "I had my hopes high."

"Whenever the girl closed her eyes, she would hear voices of her head party members. Whenever the girl slept, she would see her dead party members chasing her with their rotten bodies, yelling only one thing, 'You should have died instead of us'."

"Every night, same dream," she added.

"It's no curse. In my world, it is called 'Trauma'."

The nun turned around and looked at the kids, "The girl secluded herself from the village and started living in the woods. Thinking her dead party members would forgive her, but they didn't."

"She couldn't do anything— she couldn't live, so she decided to kill herself. But in the end, she couldn't."

"Months passed by, and the girl's situation kept getting worse and worse."

"It's getting boring now," Nero commented.

"We are near the end, so listen carefully."

Nero sat up and started squatting as the nun continued.

"After a long time, the girl stepped out of the woods and returned to the village. She never expected anyone to greet or talk to her, so she was already prepared if something happened."

Nero stopped squatting and started doing push-ups.

"She went to her old home and found out a new family was living there. She later found out that her mother died last month, and her father left the village."

"Can you skip some parts? I am not interested in knowing the backstory of a traumatized girl," Nero remarked.

"The family invited the girl and told her what happened with her family. They raised her as their daughter."

"Noice! What a happy ending!" Nero clapped.

"It hasn't ended yet," the nun retorted.

Nero rolled his eyes and started popping his bones.

"The family had a boy around the same age as the girl, so they got along pretty well."

Nero stopped and furrowed his brows, then uttered, "So now it's going to turn into a rom-com?"

"The girl told the boy about her nightmares and curses, and he helped her get rid of them."

"I know I asked you to skip details, but I think you might have skipped an important part here," Nero asserted.

The nun showed the book she was carrying to Nero and smiled, "She turned to god."

"Oh, come on!" Nero groaned.

"Although the gods never answered her prayers, her nightmares were stopped. She was able to live as a normal girl again."

Nero had already lost interest in the story when the nun mentioned gods.

"But the girl never stopped worshiping gods. She believed that if she stopped praying, then her nightmares would come to haunt her again."

"Soon, she became engrossed in praying and decided to become a nun. But there was one problem," the nun stopped and glanced at Nero.

"The girl was in love, and nuns weren't allowed to be in a relationship," Nero added.

The nun smiled a little and nodded.  "She was aware of the boy's feelings but couldn't bring herself to tell the boy that she was going to become a nun, nor could she tell him about her feelings."

"She was in despair. She had to choose one of them. One was the boy she loved who introduced her to the way of gods, and the other were gods themselves."

"..." Nero's interest piqued because he wanted to know how the story ended. Although after looking at the nun, the answer was clear, he wanted to know how that happened.

"The girl chose the gods and became a nun."

Nero sighed as he didn't get to know how it happened and lost all his interest again.

"And that girl is you, right?" Nero asked, even though he already knew.

After a brief silence, the nun nodded and said, "Yes."

Nero glanced around and said, "But I don't see any village or villagers here."

"They left." The nun bit her lips and uttered, "The people who worship gods aren't loved here. So instead of driving me out of the village, they themselves left."

That still didn't answer Nero's questions, and his doubt was still unsolved. How could a single nun run the church and take care of 31 children, including their expenses— at once?

"Although, there was one person who didn't leave. And she didn't want him to leave," the nun chuckled.

Nero furrowed his brows, thinking his doubt might be cleared.

"The girl decided to betray god and started a relationship with the boy— and she didn't regret it."

Nero couldn't help but smile after hearing that. 

There were many reasons for him to smile, one including a nun who betrayed the gods.

"The girl and the boy started a church and created an orphanage to take care of the homeless kids— who might have suffered the same fate as the girl."

"And they lived happily ever after?" Nero wondered.

"Who knows? The more is yet to come," the nun replied with a smile on her face.

"Alright now, tell me the reason why you told me this story," Nero demanded.

"When you told me that you knew the person who wrote this book, I couldn't help but feel both happy and sad at the same moment."

"Happy because I wanted to thank the person who wrote this book. And sad because that person might be angry with me for betraying the gods."

Nero shook his head and said in a solemn voice, "Don't worry. The person who wrote this book herself betrayed someone for whatever reason. And besides, she must be long dead now, so you won't need to thank her or worry about her getting angry with you."

=====

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