The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 30

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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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# Episode 30.
“……No.”
She whispered it.
Diane spoke quickly.
“I couldn’t hold it for long.”
In that instant, Gaitel’s gaze fixed on Diane.
“What did you do?”
“It wasn’t forced.”
“Then what?”
“His Majesty gave permission.”
Gaitel’s face turned cold and rigid.
“Permission?”
There was anger in that word.
“A child who suffered his whole life because of that body — and now you made him accept something again?”
Diane’s face went white.
It was true, and so no excuse came to her lips.
Her breath caught short, and the fact that she could not contradict him pierced her chest all the more sharply.
Yet she could not back away.
Diane gripped Demian’s hand more tightly.
“That’s why I didn’t want to.”
“…….”
“I hated it. His Majesty hated it too. But still.”
Her voice grew small with remorse.
“Lady Erisha couldn’t leave because she was worried about the Princess.”
Gaitel’s hand clenched the Ribbon.
The fabric crumpled in her fingers, still wet with blood.
“Worried?”
That word was too cruel.
Not resentment.
Not a curse.
Worried.
It was the one word Gaitel could not bear.
Then Demian opened his mouth.
This time his voice wavered slightly.
“I said I would do it.”
His breathing was rough.
The voice of someone forcibly holding his own body together.
“Sister.”
Gaitel went rigid.
Sister.
That word belonged to too long ago.
When Demian still looked up at her and reached out his hand.
When she herself had not pushed him away.
Gaitel could not be angry anymore.
Demian’s lips moved again.
This time it was Erisha’s voice.
“Gaitel.”
Gaitel closed her eyes.
She didn’t want to hear it.
But if she didn’t hear it now, she felt she would never escape this night.
“Don’t call me by that name.”
“Then what should I call you?”
Demian laughed very softly.
Even that laughter was imitative.
Of the dead friend’s.
“Your Highness the Princess?”
Gaitel’s throat closed.
“You hated that sort of thing.”
“Stop.”
“You still have that Ribbon.”
Gaitel squeezed her wrist tighter.
“I tied it for you.”
……
“You always tied it crooked. So I had to do it for you.”
At those words, Gaitel’s pupils wavered.
That was something only Erisha would know.
“Erisha.”
The name tumbled from her lips.
In that instant, Demian’s body convulsed violently.
Diane immediately drove her Holy Power into him.
A pale luminescence bloomed faintly through the room.
But Demian’s face grew even more ashen.
“Your Highness.”
Diane called softly.
Demian could not answer.
Instead, he tightened his grip at his fingertips.
Not yet.
It meant: continue.
Diane gritted her teeth and nodded.
Gaitel saw that brief signal.
She could read his disgust, his fear.
Yet he was holding on.
For her and Erisha.
Gaitel gripped the edge of the bed.
“Tell me.”
Her voice dropped lower.
“If you’re really Erisha, tell me. Why did you appear so suddenly?”
“Please. Free yourself from that Nightmare now.”
Demian spoke.
“Don’t think you killed me.”
Gaitel’s lips trembled.
“Stop.”
“Gaitel.”
“Stop it.”
Her voice was sharp, but it wavered at the edge.
Gaitel felt herself coming apart.
She hated it.
She didn’t want to fall.
But Demian would not stop.
“You didn’t kill me.”
Gaitel laughed.
Low and brief.
“Didn’t I?”
……
“I opened the door, and the moment I did, the Greenhouse exploded.”
Gaitel spoke with terrible composure.
Because without composure, she could not hold.
“If that door hadn’t opened that day, perhaps you wouldn’t have died the way you did.”
“If you hadn’t opened it, I would have died inside.”
Gaitel’s face froze.
“Don’t say such things.”
“There was gas. Not just smoke. If you breathed it in, your body would go weak, your mind would fog.”
“Still.”
“If you hadn’t opened it, I would have died slowly.”
“But you did open it, and it exploded.”
“You didn’t know.”
Gaitel’s pupils trembled.
That statement was strangely simple.
Which made it all the harder to bear.
He was right. She had not known then.
All she knew was that Erisha was inside, the door was locked, and no one would come.
So she opened it.
To save her friend.
But—
“Does not knowing erase the sin?”
Gaitel spoke slowly.
“Does it make the sin disappear?”
Demian’s voice softened.
“It wasn’t a sin.”
Gaitel could say nothing.
Not a sin.
Then what had she been clinging to all these years?
All those nights.
All those nightmares.
All that guilt.
“Someone else killed us.”
Demian said it.
At those words, something changed in Gaitel’s eyes.
Her tears stopped.
Instead, something like a blade long ground sharp gleamed within them.
“Us?”
Gaitel echoed the question, and Demian gave a short nod.
“Yes.”
His face was steady.
“You weren’t the only one deceived.”
Gaitel’s fingers twitched.
“What do you mean?”
“Someone made us call for each other.”
He continued slowly.
“The note that came to me was in your handwriting.”
Gaitel’s hands clenched as she answered, her jaw tightening.
“I got one too.”
Demian spoke without the slightest hesitation.
“What?”
“In your name.”
Gaitel held her breath.
The candles in the room flickered.
Demian continued slowly.
“It said you were in danger. That I shouldn’t tell anyone, that I should come alone.”
Gaitel’s hands trembled.
It was identical to the note she had received.
They had drawn each other out under each other’s names?
“So you went in first?”
“Yes.”
“Why.”
“Because you were in danger.”
He laughed a little.
That laugh was so like the old him that Gaitel’s breath caught.
“How could I not go, hearing that?”
“Fool.”
“You came too.”
Gaitel had no answer.
She was right.
She had gone too.
Hearing that Erisha was inside, she’d opened the door without thinking.
Both of them had.
To save each other.
And the realization that someone had exploited that desire filled her with a rage so cold it made her teeth ache.
“I heard a voice.”
Demian’s voice grew fainter.
His body trembled again.
Diane bit her lip and poured more Holy Power into him.
“Outside the Greenhouse, after the door was locked.”
Gaitel leaned forward.
“Whose voice?”
“House of Rowen.”
The air in the room turned cold.
“And House of Basili.”
Liam’s hand moved to his sword hilt.
He said nothing, but his eyes had changed.
Gaitel asked quietly.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
His form seemed to pause, as if drawing breath.
Though a dead man had no breath left to draw.
Demian’s chest rose and fell with effort.
“They said the princess would open the door.”
He spoke.
“You wouldn’t be able to leave me behind.”
The color drained from Gaitel’s face.
“They knew the explosion would happen.”
“Yes.”
“I… I didn’t know anything.”
“I know.”
“I just.”
Gaitel’s voice broke for the first time.
“I was trying to save you.”
“I know.”
Demian answered at once.
That it wasn’t your fault.
At his words, tears spilled from Gaitel’s eyes.
Diane watched and curled her fingertips inward.
She wanted to cry, but it felt wrong to do so now. The one who needed to cry most right now was Gaitel.
Demian continued speaking.
“Fortunately, there is evidence.”
Gaitel didn’t wipe away her tears. As though even that moment was a luxury she couldn’t afford.
“Tell me.”
“Behind the Imperial Palace Library. The names of everyone who paid for the repairs to the White Rose Greenhouse are recorded there. The high nobles who took their side must have demanded payment instead of pressing charges.”
Diane ventured carefully into the conversation.
“We found it.”
Gaitel’s gaze turned to Diane.
“House of Rowen and House of Basili both paid for the repairs.”
Gaitel nodded very slowly.
Her eyes were growing colder by degrees.
“And.”
“The fragrance supply ledger.”
Demian’s voice grew faint.
“What was in the Greenhouse that day wasn’t the usual fragrance. A drug that clouds the mind was mixed in. I…”
His words stopped short.
In that moment, Demian’s hand trembled.
He opened his mouth again.
“It would have been fatal anyway. The dose was lethal.”
Gaitel’s lips had gone bloodless white.
“And…”
When Demian swallowed.
“We can’t. Not anymore.”
Diane cut her off.
Demian’s condition was deteriorating.

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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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