The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 27

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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 26.
My mouth opened, but no sound emerged.
I simply gasped for breath, my lips working soundlessly like a fish pulled from water.
My entire body had gone rigid with tension. I wanted nothing more than to flee to the Temple, but the slightest movement felt like it would send that ghost rushing toward me—
“Your Holiness?”
At Edel’s voice, I managed to turn my head.
Creak. Like armor with ungreased joints.
“Are you all right?”
Her face was full of concern, but the skin beneath her eyes was dark.
The pallor of someone exhausted. I wetted my parched mouth with saliva before asking.
“Edel.”
“Yes?”
“Have you been having nightmares lately?”
The Greenhouse fell silent in an instant.
Even the sound of the wind from the garden outside seemed to fade away.
‘……!’
The smile vanished from Edel’s face.
It happened in a blink.
It wasn’t merely a loss of expression. It was as though she had released every muscle in her face to hide something.
“Why are you asking such a thing?”
Despite the gentleness in her voice, her fingers clenched the ribbon so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.
“You don’t look well.”
“I’ve simply lost a little sleep.”
“What kind of dream?”
“Your Holiness.”
Demian called out in a low, warning tone. It was a signal to stop.
But I didn’t look at him. Edel tried to smile, but it seemed not to come as easily as she’d hoped.
“In the dream—”
“Stop.”
For the first time, Edel cut me off. Her expression had turned cold.
“I don’t know what you may have sensed.”
She spoke slowly, deliberately.
“But I don’t wish to speak of my dreams.”
“…….”
“So please don’t ask.”
It was a courteous but unmistakable boundary. A line drawn between us: this far and no further.
I bit my lip.
“I apologize.”
Rather than answer, Edel bowed her head slightly as she spoke.
“I’ll step outside for some air. Will you guide me instead, Your Highness?”
Demian nodded slowly.
As the door closed, he let out a long, heavy sigh.
“What in the world did you see?”
“If I may ask, Your Highness—what are you hiding? I don’t think this is an ordinary place.”
“It’s exactly as it sounds. The late Empress favored this place.”
After a moment’s silence, Demian exhaled with a pained sound before continuing.
“A friend of hers—of Edel’s—was found here burned to ash.”
“……!”
“Everyone here treats what happened as though it never occurred at all. You can’t acknowledge that you know. And don’t tell anyone I mentioned it.”
“Understood.”
“Ever since, it seems she’s been plagued by nightmares.”
My eyes drifted to the scratches on the glass wall—claw marks caked with ash, their tracks jagged and incomplete.
‘Wait.’
As I moved closer to look more carefully, Demian didn’t stop me.
He seemed lost in thought, too absorbed to notice my movements.
‘Are those… letters?’
Help…
Help me?
Help me?
The moment I recognized it, my status window materialized before my eyes.
[Sudden Mission!]
Please grant the wish of a child who burned to death, unjustly and alone!
Reward: Good Deed Gauge +15
Damn it.
What’s the request?
I stared at the status window.
Usually it’s unnecessarily kind, but now it clams up when it matters.
Infuriating.
“……Your Highness.”
“…….”
“Holy Maiden.”
“…….”
“Diane!”
Demian called out to me. When I lifted my head, he was staring straight at me.
“Your face is pale right now.”
“……I’m naturally quite pale, Your Highness.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know what my face looked like now.
The face of someone who’d seen a ghost—nothing more, nothing less.
I looked back at the glass wall. The ghost stood motionless behind the white roses, its charred hair crumbling into ash with a soft, crackling whisper each time it moved.
‘Why me.’
I wept silently. Or rather—by now I’d resigned myself to it—but I hated ghosts more than insects, and that was the honest truth.
If I couldn’t fill the Good Deed Gauge, I’d die, which was unjust enough; but to live a life where I had to keep seeing ghosts felt unbearably cruel.
Yet when our eyes met, I couldn’t curse anymore.
……Yes. That child must feel just as wronged.
More than I do.
“What do I have to do?”
When Demian asked, I flinched.
“I’m sorry?”
“The ghost asked you for something, didn’t it?”
“How did you know?”
“Your expression gave it away.”
“Please don’t read me like that.”
“You’re easy to read.”
I felt wronged again.
Wasn’t I usually good at controlling my expressions?
Apparently not in front of a ghost.
“First, I need to find clues.”
“What kind of clues?”
“The ghost’s identity, how it died, and what connection it has to Edel.”
Demian’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Does it have to be known?”
“Yes. So if Your Highness knows anything, I’d appreciate hearing it.”
“The only official account is that it was found burned.”
“That’s all?”
“Officially.”
“And unofficially?”
Demian closed his mouth.
When I fixed him with a narrowed gaze, he looked away.
“It happened when I was young.”
“You’re still young.”
“Ah.”
Demian’s eyes narrowed to match mine.
“You have a reckless streak sometimes, don’t you.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“No.”
He exhaled sharply.
“It was a suppressed incident.”
An incident that silenced everyone in the Imperial Court—that meant it wasn’t some ordinary accident.
I looked around the interior of the Greenhouse.
White roses, glass walls, white marble floors, and the faint smell of burnt material drifting upward.
“There was a fire here, then?”
“So I heard.”
“But something feels off about this.”
“What do you mean?”
“With all this glass and these flowers, if there’d been a major fire, shouldn’t there be scorch marks left behind?”
“They would have repaired everything afterward, wouldn’t they?”
“Then wouldn’t the repairs leave a record?”
Demian looked at me.
“A record?”
“Greenhouse repair logs, access records from that time—things like that.”
He paused briefly, then nodded.
“They should be in the Imperial Palace Archives.”
“Can we look at them?”
“It won’t be easy, but it’s possible. Though since this is a covered-up incident, someone may have deleted the records.”
“Still, let’s go check. It’s worth trying to find anything we can.”
I shrugged as I spoke.
That was when it happened.
The status window flashed again.
[Hint!]
A ghost can speak through a living body.
I immediately looked away.
I tried to pretend I hadn’t seen it, to ignore it and say something—
[Hint!]
A ghost can speak through a living body.
The status window was relentless.
[Hint!]
A suitable target is nearby.
‘Shut up.’
I said it under my breath.
Please, just shut up.
Who it was talking about—a suitable target—was all too obvious.
“No, I mean, whether it’s a living body or a dead body, why would I use someone else’s body!”
“……?”
Demian. A body that ghosts could easily possess.
Someone with a rare constitution—able to see ghosts once his Holy Power was filled.
No. I couldn’t.
No matter how desperately I wanted to live, there were still basic human principles.
No matter how urgent my Good Deed Gauge became, I couldn’t think of Demian in that way.
Whether the status window knew my heart or not, it kept glimmering.
Truly an annoying thing.
[Recommended]
Target: Demian Bellium
I clenched my teeth.
“I won’t do it.”
The words spilled out before I could stop them.
Demian, who’d been watching me for who knows how long, asked carefully.
“Won’t do what?”
“Nothing.”
“You just said you wouldn’t.”
“I was just talking to myself.”
“……Were you talking to the ghost?”
“No!”
“Then what is it?”
I couldn’t answer him.
How could I possibly say it? To you, who’ve suffered all your life under ghost possession.
That you should be possessed again?
That you should become a ghost’s prison to help me?
Afraid that only strange words would come out if I opened my mouth, I clamped my lips shut, and Demian stared at me for a long moment.
Then he spoke slowly.
“Does it have something to do with me?”
“…….”
“Diane.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“You’re lying.”
I’d been caught.
Goodness, did I really have such a readable face?
Demian’s eyes narrowed.
“What, were you thinking of using my body?”
“…….”
“That’s it, isn’t it.”
“Your Highness.”
“You’ve been glancing at me this whole time.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
I swallowed hard.
Surely he could afford to be a little less perceptive about other things.
Why did he have to be so sharp precisely in moments like this?
“Your Highness, I had no such intention.”
“Then what? You’re not going to do it?”
He laughed.
It was a laugh both cold and edged with something metallic.

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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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