The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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# Chapter 2.
The carriage was thick with silence.
Clatter-clatter.
I looked away, and the holy knight sitting across from me—gauging how I’d received him—began sweating visibly and held out a piece of candy.
‘Does he carry these around?’
I didn’t feel like refusing, so I popped the candy into my mouth and let it roll on my tongue. My cheeks puffed out round and full.
It was surprisingly tart—lemon flavored.
The holy knight watched with a pleased expression as I slowly dissolved the candy, savoring it.
To be honest, I found it a little embarrassing.
Small talk was the way to lighten the mood, I figured.
“What’s your name, sir?”
I’d thought he might ignore me, but he answered quickly, as if he’d been waiting for the question.
“I’m Liam.”
“I’m Diane. I’m five years old.”
I stretched out my short, plump fingers helpfully to show him my age, and Liam broke into a broad grin.
But I was too busy racking my brain over where I’d heard the name Liam before—something uncomfortably familiar about it.
‘Oh! Liam Patrick. The captain of the holy knights who died protecting the Saintess to the very end.’
I looked at the man who would die protecting me in the future, then glanced sideways at the woman sitting next to him.
I thought it a little odd that she didn’t introduce herself, but since I wasn’t particularly curious, I let it go.
“I’m terribly sorry we’ve come so late. The Divine Revelation came down only this morning, and……”
No, really, it’s fine.
I only found out today myself.
The truth was, I’d only survived this long because I retained memories of my past life.
‘I never thought I’d actually become important to anyone in this world.’
Even in my previous life, I hadn’t been particularly loved, so the director’s torment was something I could endure.
What I really couldn’t stomach was the hunger. The Orphanage had no money, so food was scarce—there were days I survived on nothing but a single ear of corn.
‘At least now I won’t have to starve.’
In the Empire, God was treated as a supremely exalted being. So they couldn’t possibly let God’s daughter go hungry.
Honestly, I was prepared to be exploited without complaint as long as they fed me well.
Life in the Orphanage had been overwhelming, even for someone with an adult’s mind.
The candy I’d eaten for the first time in ages was so sweet it made my tongue tingle.
“Everyone has been waiting for the Saintess.”
“Why? Then they’ll be disappointed when they find out I’m just an ordinary child, won’t they?”
“That’s not so!”
The holy knight scratched his cheek with an uncomfortable expression. Liam strongly refuted my cynical remark before I could even think.
“The Saintess is a blessing by mere existence.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Liam answered decisively, as if wanting to instill certainty in my doubt.
“All things are composed of Mana. These are distributed unevenly, but you, Saintess, by merely existing, can stabilize the Mana.”
Imbalance, distribution—it was no explanation meant for a child, yet I understood every word and nodded along.
“Simply by showing your face, the Saintess will bring comfort to all people. They have suffered terribly for so long.”
Liam’s expression darkened as he recalled those difficult times.
‘Transparent.’
Watching his face betray every emotion so plainly, I could vividly feel how furious he must have been when he first discovered me.
“Normally, a Divine Revelation comes down once every hundred years, but this time the interval has been far too long. The Empire nearly came to ruin— ah, I apologize.”
The conversation had grown too bleak, so he trailed off mid-sentence.
I shook my head and swung my feet—not quite reaching the floor—while gazing out of the carriage window.
The carriage, which didn’t rattle, was truly peaceful beyond measure.
Warm sunlight sat on my head as if welcoming my existence.
Leaves that trembled softly in the breeze, a stream flowing gently, a grand castle visible in the distance and clustered around it, individual houses nestled close together.
Suddenly, it hit me that the place where I now stood was truly a world from a fantasy.
Abandoned at birth and raised my whole life in the Orphanage, I had no choice but to absorb information about the outside world from old-fashioned clothes and the director’s words.
In a sense, this was the first time I was seeing the outside landscape since my birth.
“……!”
My chest ached, and tears welled up in my eyes.
‘Why am I like this? Acting like such a child.’
Perhaps only now was it sinking in that I was escaping that hellish Orphanage.
If I hadn’t comforted the other children left behind in the Orphanage, someone surely would have died.
That’s why I endured, and endured.
I thought it was my duty as the one person here with any semblance of maturity.
Though truthfully, being despised was something I could never grow accustomed to.
My vision blurred; I couldn’t see anything ahead.
How was Liam looking at me right now?
No one likes a crying child, and here I was, unwashed and filthy, sobbing uncontrollably—I must have made the worst possible impression.
‘I don’t even have the qualities of a Saintess. How could I ever save the world?’
A sharp ache pierced my chest. That was when—
“……!”
“Forgive the liberty I’m about to take.”
Liam lifted me up and set me on his lap.
I was so startled that my eyes went wide as I looked up at him; his ears flushed red as he began stroking my hair.
“I’m not accustomed to children, and I’m afraid I don’t know how to comfort them properly.”
“…….”
“But I could see you’ve been suffering greatly, and I wanted to hold you.”
The hard texture of his armor wasn’t unpleasant. Somehow my tears had stopped, and Liam’s smile had transferred to my own face.
When Liam saw my tear-wet smile, he looked momentarily surprised, then broke into a wide grin and patted my back.
Children from the Orphanage have a remarkable gift for distinguishing genuine kindness from mere pretense.
He, who kept reassuring me that everything was all right, was the first person in this world who had shown me goodwill.
‘I don’t want to die.’
For the first time, I felt the desire to truly live well in this place.
‘I don’t want to disappoint him.’
Not as a Saintess, but as this man’s hope.
“Were you startled? I brought many knights along just in case…….”
“I was a little startled.”
Just a little. I held up my fingers to show a small amount, and Liam burst into laughter.
“The knights are quite disciplined and should be following behind us well. I only rode in the carriage myself so you wouldn’t be too alarmed—it seems it was the right call.”
I stopped crying and tilted my head in confusion.
“You came alone?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
‘Then who is that woman?’
A chill ran through me, and I turned my gaze to the woman who had been staring at Liam intently from beside him all this while.
When I noticed her gaze shifting toward me, I finally understood.
That woman was not human.
[Sudden Mission!]
Release the resentment of a dead spirit.
Reward: Good Deed Gauge increased by 3
Failure will bring you close to death.
“……!”
The woman’s mouth corners rose.
They continued rising, her mouth tearing open until it stretched toward her ears.
Wait a moment.
This wasn’t in the original story.
‘What… what is that?’
I froze, unable even to scream.
The woman’s first impression had been ordinary.
She had vibrant skin and wore a beautiful dress befitting nobility.
At first I’d thought she was merely Liam’s companion, but now that I thought about it, he had never once looked directly at her.
‘As if she had never existed from the very beginning.’
The woman smiled.
Her slightly raised mouth corners and eyes that curved shyly as she looked at me seemed endearing.
But as her mouth continued to rise, I finally realized something was terribly wrong.
Rip. Tear.
With the sound of flesh tearing from her mouth, her smile split past her cheekbones and stretched toward the tips of her ears.
‘This is… this is insane, horrible!’
To be honest, if it had been an insect, I could have simply crushed it with my finger and been done with it.
A murderer or blood? As long as it had nothing to do with me, it barely provoked any reaction.
But a ghost—
“Hehehehe!”
I stared at the woman, whose neck stretched long and swayed, then finally closed my eyes.
‘I didn’t see anything. No, I’m not seeing anything!’
The carriage fell silent except for the woman’s delirious laughter.
Liam, watching me with my eyes closed, seemed reluctant to touch something better left alone—he sat fiddling with the hilt of his sword instead.
‘If I’m a Holy Knight, couldn’t I cut that woman down too?’
No. I can’t even see. How could I possibly slash at her?
I clenched my teeth hard.
The system window in front of me continued to blink as if mocking me.
[Will you decline?]
No / No
What kind of choice is this!
I cried out “yes” ten thousand times in my head and sniffled sharply.
If you decline, the death ending will accelerate.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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