Translator: Kuromaru
Editor: Derpy
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 09: The 2nd Week of Infiltration
—-GONG GONG
The church bell signaled that it was 6 a.m.
“…Mmm.”
The sound of the bell woke me up, and I got up from bed. I washed my face in the basin I had filled with water yesterday, wiped off the droplets with a towel, and applied eye drops. The color of my irides then changed from purple to blue.
These eye drops were specially made and were not available to the general public or even the privileged classes. The maker was my mother’s doctor, now retired. By the way, he makes them as a hobby.
Dressed in a simple white nun’s uniform, I put on a dark brown wig and quickly pulled it together with a white ribbon. Then I took out a hand mirror from my desk drawer, checking my appearance.
“Perfect.”
Satisfied with my transformation into Erin, I decided to head for the cafeteria. There, I took a tray and put bread and soup on it. As I looked around the room, I saw some familiar faces and rushed over to them.
“Good morning! Anne, Miria.”
“Good morning, Erin. Don’t run! You’re a klutz, after all!”
“My, my, you’re very energetic this morning, Ms. Erin.”
“Excuse you, Miria. I’m not a klutz~”
“Look who’s talking.”
“You being a klutz is a well-known fact ever since your first day in the dorm.”
“We and the patients laughed about the arrival of a blood-covered apprentice nurse, didn’t we, Anne?”
Miria gave Anne a mischievous look.
“Thanks for providing such entertainment.”
Anne nodded, a docile look on her face.
“Forget it! That was two weeks ago!”
“Can’t.” The two said at the same time as they laughed out loud.
The girl with the refreshing, sisterly tone was Miria, and the girl with the relaxed, respectful speech –though the content was rather terrible– was Anne. They were fellow apprentice nurses. Since we worked and lived in the same dormitory together, we got to know each other very well over the past two weeks. Miria, in particular, seemed to be fond of rumors and gave me all kinds of information. Although many of them involved romance, such as who the bishop’s mistress was and who was dating whom. As I was Lord Edward’s pawn, I would have to leave at some point, no matter the manner. However, I did like the two of them, so I wanted to be friends with them even if it was only for a short while. It was impudent selfishness on my part so I inwardly smiled bitterly.
“What’s wrong?”
Anne looked at me in concern. She was quite sensitive to the subtleties of other people’s emotions. That was a talent that was hard to come by.
“I’m fine! I just remembered that I am supposed to be with Dr. Claude today.”
I mentioned the name of the doctor, who was famous for his strictness, to distract Anne from her inquiries. Just then, Martha, the matron, came into the dining hall and I hurried to take my seat.
“Good morning! Let’s get on with the service… We give thanks to Goddess Luwell for our daily bread and our good health.”
With Martha’s call, the cafeteria was enveloped in silence. We clasped our hands together in front of our chests and posed for worship with our eyes closed.
“…Amen. All right, you can eat now.”
After about a minute of prayer, the cafeteria came alive once again. The three of us also began to eat breakfast in preparation for our work as apprentice nurses.
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“Hey, wrong chart! How many times do I have to tell you that, Erin?”
“Hahiiiii, I’m sorry, doctor!”
Dr. Claude’s scolding echoed in the examination room. Today’s job was to assist outpatients in the morning and inpatients in the afternoon. Generally speaking, apprentice nurses mainly do these two jobs. Once they got used to it, they would have to work the night shift as well, but as a two-week newcomer to the church, Erin was exempted for now.
Dr. Claude let out a sigh as he managed to see the patient off, grumbling to himself, “I’m not very good at remembering people’s names, but I memorized yours pretty quickly, in a bad way, Erin.”
“I’m flattered!”
“That wasn’t a compliment! …For goodness’ sake, you’re flawless at dressing wounds and such, but you’re so bad at everything else, too clumsy.”
“I’m sorry. No matter how hard I try to fix it, I’m… always a klutz. To me, being a klutz is a normal part of my life.”
“That’s enough… The patients have stopped coming in; we’re done for the day. There’s nothing to clean up either, so you can take a break.”
“Thank you, Dr. Claude!”
Responding cheerfully, I ran out of the examination room and headed for the church’s large library.
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The library was very spacious and had a large collection of books. There were first editions of rare books, new novels, and so on. I couldn’t help but wonder where they got that kind of money from, but I guess this place being open to the public was the only good thing about the royal capital’s church.
I pretended to look for books to see if there were any suspicious-looking ones or hidden passages. After a while, Anne appeared carrying a few books with her. I supposed she was taking a break at the same time as me.
“Oh? Are you on your break too, Erin? Were you looking for some books?”
Well, what should I do? …Let’s just fake it for now.
“Yes! Well… I’m looking for a book by Adolf Taylor.”
For now, I’ll just name the most popular author so that I don’t look suspicious.
“It’s on that shelf over there?”
“Really! Thanks.”
“No, no. Then, I’ll leave you to it~”
After parting ways with Anne, I headed for the shelf containing Adolf Taylor’s books.
Since I talked to Anne, let’s just borrow some books for now. I picked up a few of Taylor’s books and headed for the checkout desk.
“I’ve already read them all, though.”
My unintentional muttering as Julianna was not heard by anyone.
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After taking care of the afternoon inpatients, I headed back to the white dormitory.
I should put the books away in my room before I go to eat.
As I walked up the stairs and down the corridor, I spotted a small dead leaf on the floor. I pretended not to notice it and continued walking down the hallway. When I unlocked the door and entered my dorm room, the first thing I did was open my desk drawer.
“My notebook is in the wrong place. Was it an intruder, after all?”
Before work, I had placed a dead leaf in the crack of the door so that I would know if someone had broken into my room. When I found a dead leaf in the hallway after returning from work, sure enough, there was evidence that the contents of my desk had been searched.
Oh, well, well…
“I wonder, who is this church dog that’s so curious about me?”
A chuckle escaped my lips as I smiled innocently.
