The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 33

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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 33.
I didn’t know what to say.
It wasn’t the sort of thing a five-year-old should be saying, but even I—who had been an adult in a past life—couldn’t quite manage a proper answer.
Maybe human guilt is always like that. Something we set down not for the other person, but for ourselves.
But could we call that wrong?
It only meant she had suffered that much.
“Lady Erisha doesn’t resent you, Your Highness.”
I spoke the words.
“I know.”
Gaitel nodded.
Erisha smiled faintly.
Looking at that smile, my eyes stung for no reason.
Wait. Was I about to cry again?
My tear ducts have been working overtime lately.
I don’t think I was someone who cried this easily in my past life.
A five-year-old body is genuinely inconvenient. Sometimes it feels like my emotions are being swayed by the body itself.
“What does Erisha say?”
Gaitel asked.
I looked at Erisha.
Erisha moved slowly toward Gaitel.
And reached out her hand.
Of course it didn’t reach. But was it my imagination, or did longing drip endlessly from the scarred fingertips?
Her cracked lips trembled as she murmured something.
“Thank you,” she said.
I relayed it as was.
“She’s thanking you. For staying alive.”
Gaitel’s lips pressed tight.
“That’s what I should be saying.”
“And…”
I paused for a moment.
I read Erisha’s lips.
This time it wasn’t difficult.
She spoke each word clearly.
“She says she’ll sleep well now.”
Gaitel’s expression, which she’d held back all this time, completely crumbled.
She didn’t burst into tears.
She simply looked, for just a moment, like someone who had forgotten how to breathe.
“That…”
she managed to say.
“That’s cruel.”
It was.
For Gaitel, sleep had been a nightmare.
A place she returned to every time she closed her eyes.
How could she ever forget that night when the door opened and exploded, when her friend died?
But now she’ll sleep well.
It was something Erisha would say, and yet it was unbearably painful.
“This time.”
Gaitel spoke slowly.
“I’ll try.”
Erisha smiled.
And in that moment.
Her body began to glow, very faintly.
I stepped forward without thinking.
“Your Highness.”
“Yes.”
“I think you’re going to a better place now.”
Gaitel nodded.
Her face was resolute.
But being resolved didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
She stood in silence for a long while.
Erisha stood before Gaitel and opened her mouth one last time.
Her voice made no sound.
But I understood.
Gaitel, perhaps, understood as well.
Live.
That single word.
This time, not a curse.
But a blessing spoken from the heart.
Whether Gaitel received the meaning or not, she slowly closed her eyes.
“I’ll try to live, yes—I’ll try to survive, just as you said.”
She spoke.
“It’s a life you gave me, after all.”
Erisha’s body scattered into light.
It began from her fingertips.
Then the hem of her dress.
Her singed hair.
Her ash-covered face.
All of it became tiny fragments of luminescence, dispersing throughout the Greenhouse.
Instead of a burning smell, there came the scent of roses.
Not that oppressively heavy rose fragrance that had made my head ache, but something like a flower blooming for the first time after rain.
It was a clean, pure, and pleasant aroma.
Erisha looked at me one last time.
“Little Holy Maiden.”
This time, I could hear her voice.
Very faintly.
“I entrust Gaitel to you.”
I started to answer, then stopped.
I was barely five years old—could I even be entrusted with a princess?
Wasn’t this burden far too great to place on me?
But Erisha’s expression was so earnest that I couldn’t brush it aside.
“I’ll do my best.”
I spoke honestly.
“To the extent that I’m able.”
Erisha smiled as though that was enough.
And then she vanished.
Completely.
A single White Rose Petal drifted down below the glass wall.
It was pure white.
[Sudden Mission Completed!]
You granted the request of a child who burned to death unjustly.
Reward: Good Deed Gauge increased by 15
[Current: 49 / 1000]
[Additional Reward]
You have obtained Gaitel Bellium’s genuine support.
[Relationship Update]
Gaitel Bellium becomes your Hidden Shield.
I blinked as I stared at the status window.
What……? Shield?
“Holy Maiden.”
Gaitel called out to me.
I quickly lifted my head.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
As she bowed with great formality, I was so startled I nearly dropped the cheese.
“Oh, no—”
“Yes.”
Gaitel slowly raised her head.
Her eyes were still bloodshot, but her expression seemed at peace.
“I must offer my thanks.”
Gaitel had much to say, but held it all back.
“Now that I think about it, you’re still quite young, and the ways of society must be foreign to you.”
Well, that was obvious. I’d grown up in an orphanage where the only skill I’d ever mastered was seeing ghosts.
I nodded slowly, and Gaitel let out a soft laugh.
“The position of a Saint may command reverence from many, but others find it difficult to accept. Even I harbored doubts about you at first.”
“I see.”
I’d already steeled myself for that since we’d left the orphanage and boarded the carriage.
Whatever I was—God’s daughter or otherwise—I was still a foreign body in this world.
“So I shall become your backing.”
Backing.
I turned the word over in my mind.
Just then, a low cough echoed from behind us.
It was Demian.
He was sitting near the entrance to the greenhouse, his face still pallid from the aftereffects of taking in Erisha.
“You two are awfully grim about this.”
He spoke up.
“I’m here too, remember.”
Gaitel glanced at him, and for some reason, her gaze seemed to soften ever so slightly.
“I know.”
“If you knew, you wouldn’t abandon me like this.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Not well.”
Demian answered honestly.
“My mood’s terrible too.”
I flinched without thinking, pricked by guilt. He let out a quiet laugh at my reaction, regarding me with amusement.
“I’m not blaming you, Saint.”
“Still, I’m sorry.”
“I told you not to apologize.”
“Even so.”
Demian sighed.
“Of course I dislike having another soul enter my body. I’ll hate it in the future too.”
“Yes.”
I listened obediently, my own mood sinking with his words.
“But.”
He fixed his gaze on Gaitel for a moment. She met his eyes without flinching.
“For the first time yesterday, you didn’t look miserable.”
“…!”
“So.”
He turned to me.
“Tell me if you need it.”
I went rigid.
“Your Highness.”
“The conditions stand. If I say no, then no. And the moment something feels wrong, we stop the possession.”
“…”
As I stood there stunned, I noticed the tips of his ears had flushed slightly.
“It’s better than watching you shake alone at the sight of ghosts.”
Something fluttered strangely in my chest.
This prickly crown prince was now saying he’d become my Exorcism Ally on his own terms.
His tone was still crude, admittedly.
“So you mean you’ll help me exorcise spirits. Then your role would be, hmm….”
I paused mid-thought, then clapped my hands together. “Aha!
“Human ghost prison!”
“Are you trying to get killed?”
I snapped my mouth shut at once. Gaitel, who had been watching from the side, was shaking her shoulders with barely suppressed laughter.
Though she quickly wiped the smile away, even Demian seemed stunned as he stared at her, confirming that this was indeed a rare sight for him.
“Ally.”
Demian cleared his throat and muttered.
“Keep it at that.”
I tilted my head in confusion.
“Don’t say ghost prison or anything ridiculous like that.”
He grumbled on.
“Call me an ally.”
The status window gleamed as if it had been waiting for this moment.
[Relationship Update!]
Demian Bellium has recognized you as an Exorcism Ally.
[Warning]
The subject still dislikes spirits greatly.
Push too hard and relationship affinity will plummet!
[Additional Guidance]
Provide appropriate snacks and rest.
I stared at the status window, but at the same time felt the tension I’d been carrying without realizing it finally ease away.
That’s when Liam spoke gently.
“Holy Maiden, you must return to the Temple now.”
“Already?”
“His Holiness will surely be quite worried.”
Right. The Pope.
A chill ran down my spine.
So much had happened in a single night—surely the Pope hadn’t wanted me to go this far.
He always worries about me, after all.
I was grateful for his concern, but honestly, I was afraid of being scolded.
“Liam, I’m definitely going to get in trouble, aren’t I?”
Liam’s expression grew complicated.
“Let me share the scolding.”
“…What?”
He studied my utterly serious face for a long moment, thinking, before finally nodding.
“Yes, understood.”
That’s what I mean. He’s truly reliable.

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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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