Life in the Monastery Overview

Scripture readings, morning prayer and Holy Mass made out my usual morning.

I had used the time to write down all the things I remembered from the game.

While I obviously couldn’t always be seen writing something it wasn’t unusual to take notes during scripture readings to ask questions about the context later on. Unlike class which was only for the young girls the scripture readings were mandatory for all to participate in. The stories weren’t so different from religious stories on earth but unlike back home these stories actually happened in this world and were historical recountings if slightly embellished ones.

During morning prayer we sung hymns and the simpler ones we would sing again during Holy Mass alongside the villagers who come by. I had at first only lip-synced pretending to sing along but as they were made for the masses I could already follow pretty well at-least during Holy Mass.

A simple breakfast would follow after which we would go on and do our assigned chores. I was still on vineyard duty together with Caro having volunteered for it.

They would rotate chores each having a turn not even excluding the senior nuns. Though from what I heard laundry duty was the most labor intensive followed by kitchen duty.

During lunch we all sat together at a large table with Caro usually sitting close by.

A short prayer and we would begin to eat and I had to admit to being positively surprised by the food. Whoever the cook was knew how to make something delicious out of simple ingredients and the portions weren’t small either.

It sounded paradoxical but the monastery was actually quite well off receiving donation from surrounding lords for blessings as well as selling and producing wine from its own vineyards.

I had listened in to conversations during lunch that a neighbouring rural lord would come visit for his newborn child to be blessed.

The monastery was the largest church in this rural area and besides being a place of worship it was also a hospital of sorts with a small detached building a bit further away that held a dozen beds for the sick and ill. In a world where medicine was quite limited and alchemy experimental and expensive normal people rather trusted the tried and proved treatment with the help of holy powers.

Which is why surrounding lords would seek out the monastery if someone of their family got sick and donated regularly. Of course the monasteries main purpose was being a place of worship and learning with the hospital making up only a small part and being often unoccupied from what I heard.

As for the reason I volunteered for vineyard duty?

The monastery actually had a communal bath and it was a sight for sore eyes, dozens of woman completely naked bunched together, enjoying a bath with me in the middle of it. Obviously they weren’t doing anything sexual but just being able to enjoy the sight of their naked bodies going around and bathing made my day a little happier.

It was like a reward at the end of a hard workday after numerous chores I was still getting used to.

While not as large as mine most girls my age were well endowed and among the older nuns some had tits so large you could use them as pillows.

If heaven existed this is what I imagined it looked like.

The first time I entered the communal bath I had been quite stunned as I didn’t expect it. Bare asses and breasts everywhere I looked.

Normally everyone just takes a bath whenever they need with a few nuns here each evening but during harvest season with most nuns helping along the bath was filled with all of us bathing together after getting dirty and sweaty in the vineyard.

I got to enjoy a sight that made all the effort worth it.

…

We had some free time after lunch before classes began. I usually either spend it with Caro or inside the library. The other girls seem to look up to Claire for already being an apprentice priestess but also kept distant as it seemed Claire had been quite difficult to approach before.

The Claire in game had been quite driven and one to stand up for her ideals so I guessed for those not as passionate as her she might have been difficult to approach.

As for classes I was in a bit of an awkward situation there, as the teachers don’t even ask me stuff, thinking I already knew it which was both a blessing and a curse.

Things like” Isn’t that right Claire“ or ”Do you have something to add” put me in an awkward situation where I could only nod and pretend as if I knew all that stuff. Though thankfully the classes weren’t long only going on for an hour each day with a-lot being attributed to self study and the teachers mostly explaining stuff to us and only rarely asking questions.

The Abbess herself taught us with the help of a few senior nuns which rotated.

Mother superior (the way the Abbess was addressed by us) was responsible for the Monastery and was the highest ranking priestess in this small region of the Kingdom if she wanted to she could have easily stayed in one of the major churches in a big city but instead decided to lead this monastery in the middle of nowhere.

The hero party would pass here in the hope of a healer joining them. But overall there wasn’t much around besides a dozen villages and a few ruins or at-least that’s all I knew as I usually sped through the beginning to get to the juicy parts later in game which I kinda regret now.

As for why the hero party comes here specifically it’s because to be officially acknowledged as a priest/priestess one had to have the ability to use healing magic and go on a pilgrimage for a year at a minimum, visiting other churches and holy sites as well as gain “worldly knowledge and spiritual enlightenment” or at-least that is what’s written in one of my textbooks.

During those times it wasn’t uncommon for them to join adventurer parties to travel along with.

That is all well and good but thankfully months away at this point. It was the middle of autumn and Claire would only start her pilgrimage once winter is approaching its end.

At least for now I had time to adjust and slowly get used to this world.

(This is an overview of claires daily life early on and the monasteries situation, which I plan to later flesh out into multiple short stories like her first time in the communal bath, struggling with new chores and her first experiences as a woman. For now this chapter will stand in place of those to give a general idea of how her life is going here.)