The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 41

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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 41
I took the letter Becky offered me and hesitated for a long moment before deciding whether to open it.
‘Well. I might as well see what it says.’
Resigning myself, I tore open the envelope and golden script caught my eye immediately.
The Imperial Court cordially invites the Holy Knight, Diane, to the Debutante Ball.
Below that, the date and venue were listed, along with a request for me to perform the Blessing ceremony.
The formal tone suggested this was no small affair.
“Is the Blessing ceremony really necessary?”
“Apparently it’s traditional. They believe that with a Holy Knight’s blessing, the debutante season will pass without incident.”
Robin, listening from the side, interjected suddenly.
“I’ve heard about the Debutante Ball too—they say it’s incredibly grand.”
“You’re not going anyway.”
“……I know. I was just saying.”
As Robin’s face fell, Becky reached over and patted his back.
“Besides, when you become a Holy Knight, you really might get invited to events like that!”
“……Yeah.”
Robin answered briefly and adjusted his sword belt again. His expression didn’t change much, but something in his eyes seemed to harden slightly.
Watching the warm scene between the siblings, my brief anxiety lifted.
* * *
Gaitel visited the Temple to deepen our connection and to tell me about the upcoming Debutante Ball.
Unlike before, she didn’t slip in secretly through the Garden—this time she’d made a formal request for a visit.
‘His Majesty did seem a bit concerned about it.’
I was becoming too friendly with both the Crown Prince and the Princess, it seemed.
But this was my way of survival, and since I hadn’t yet reached a proper reconciliation with the Pope, things felt awkward.
‘He didn’t say anything in the end.’
Though my meeting with Gaitel went smoothly, I thought I should speak properly with the Pope soon.
I couldn’t live in this state forever.
Besides, I understood his position of prioritizing the Temple’s interests.
‘I was disappointed, but I understand.’
“Diane.”
Gaitel, dressed as impeccably as ever, smiled gently and set down her teacup.
Her dark circles had faded considerably from before, and with lighter makeup than usual, she looked more beautiful than ever.
“You received the invitation, didn’t you?”
I was tempted to cancel.
Perhaps it was just my imagination that her expression suddenly looked sharp.
I nodded reluctantly.
“Yes, I did……”
“I’m glad. As you might have guessed, that’s why I came. I thought I should tell you something first.”
The earlier pleasantries had just been a cushion for this conversation. Gaitel always worked this way—she had a habit of easing the atmosphere before broaching the main topic.
I straightened my posture.
“Apparently, the young lady of the Vallet Family will also be attending this Debutante Ball.”
“The Vallet Family?”
“Yes—Chloe Vallet. She’s known to be of good character and well-regarded by everyone. However……”
Gaitel seemed to be choosing her words carefully.
“That family has a distant connection to an incident from thirty years ago.”
I felt it instinctively.
“What kind of incident?”
“There was a young lady named Selena Vallet. She was the debutante of that year.”
Her voice dropped lower.
“She fell from the terrace during the ball and lost her life. It was officially closed as an accident, but the testimonies of those present all differed from one another.”
“Could this be where the Red Shoes Urban Legend started?”
I asked, clutching my chest as my heart raced.
But the answer that came was entirely different from what I expected.
“No. Selena wasn’t wearing red shoes. Everyone simply assumed she’d stumbled.”
“……So no one actually knows what really happened?”
“No one. Not even now, thirty years later. Investigations weren’t as thorough back then, and now that so much time has passed, no one has reason to investigate further.”
The way she said no one had reason to investigate anymore struck me as odd.
“Then what about the urban legend? When did people start spreading it?”
“I’m not sure exactly. I only heard it circulating naturally in high society.”
She shrugged.
“Maybe the young ladies who like scary stories made it up to frighten the newcomers? I heard that scaring new debutantes was actually quite the trend. My mother said she used to tell stories like that when she was younger, too.”
“You know it’s all superstition, right?”
“……It didn’t seem like it.”
Gaitel’s mouth twisted awkwardly to one side as she hedged.
“Though some things are real, of course.”
“Your Highness!”
“I’m joking.”
What could actually be real?
No, regardless of what the original intent was, if the status window said it was real, then it had to be real.
“So there’s nothing to worry about with Miss Chloe?”
“Of course not. We’re just distant relatives, after all. There’s no point frightening an innocent person with superstitions.”
Gaitel wrapped up the conversation there and steered the topic toward the dress code for the upcoming Debutante Ball and the guest list.
I laughed along obligingly, but the story I’d just heard wouldn’t leave my mind.
* * *
Not long after Gaitel left, Demian showed up.
“Gaitel was here and went, I hear.”
“How did you know?”
“The guards at the Main Gate told me.”
Demian flopped onto the sofa and asked, “What did you two talk about?”
“Just, the Debutante Ball. But why do you come visit so often these days?”
“I’m bored.”
It was a short answer, but something about it felt off. The faint flush creeping up his ears suggested there was more to it than that.
“Have you heard of the Red Shoes Urban Legend?”
When I asked casually, Demian’s brow furrowed slightly.
“That’s something even the servants have been talking about lately. Why?”
“Just curious. Do you think it’s real?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t know.”
Demian answered carelessly, but his gaze drifted elsewhere for a moment.
“But why do you keep asking about things like that when you’re someone who gets scared easily?”
“……I don’t know either.”
I didn’t quite understand why I was so fixated on it. There was just something nagging at me.
“By the way, are you going to the Debutante Ball?”
“Of course. I’m the Crown Prince.”
“You look like you’re dreading it.”
“……Dreading it?”
Demian blinked, momentarily caught off guard.
The flustered expression was different from his usual composed demeanor, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Don’t laugh like that.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Yes, you are.”
We bickered back and forth, until Demian suddenly asked in a serious tone, “Is it really because of that legend? Have you figured something out?”
I felt like I’d been struck at a nerve.
“……Not yet. There’s just something I can’t stop thinking about.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t want to say it because you’ll only worry.”
“I’m worried even without hearing it.”
Demian murmured in a low voice, then stood up from his seat.
“In any case, tell me if you find out anything. I might be able to help.”
It was an unexpected offer. I stared at him for a moment, then nodded.
“……All right. I will.”
* * *
After Demian left, I was about to have dinner when I noticed the bag of bread Becky had brought catching my eye.
It was wrapped haphazardly in old newspaper—the kind of packaging used at the bakery near the Market Entrance.
“This was wrapped in newspaper?”
“Oh, that shop uses old unsold newspapers as wrapping paper. They said they get them cheap.”
As I casually unwrapped the bag, my gaze suddenly stopped on a single printed line.
……Third Disappearance at the Debutante Ball—Pure Coincidence?
The bread crumbs obscured some of the text, making it hard to read, but those words were unmistakably there.

The rest of the article was cut off where the envelope had been folded, rendered illegible.
I tried carefully unfolding it to read the remaining text, but the paper had already deteriorated along the creases and wouldn’t open any further.
“Becky, what year is this newspaper from?”
Becky peered at it briefly, then tilted her head.
“I’m not sure—the date section is torn away, so I can’t tell. But this paper does seem quite old. Look how faded the color is.”
She was right. The yellowed paper was far from recent. When I touched it with my fingertip, it crackled and felt so fragile it might crumble at any moment.
The third disappearance.
I didn’t know what it meant, but something about it nagged at me. It felt connected somehow to what Gaitel had just told me.
“Do you have more of this? The rest of the article?”
“I’m not sure—I only got this as wrapping paper. If you’re curious, you could try visiting that bakery. The owner also runs a newspaper stand there.”
‘Curious doesn’t even begin to cover it.’
I carefully folded the torn newspaper fragment and placed it in a drawer.
A bakery newspaper stand.
I decided I should go there tomorrow.
I couldn’t decide whether it was better to go alone or to bring someone with me.
If I called Liam, I’d have to explain myself, and I didn’t want to move someone around without anything certain to show for it yet.
‘I should go quietly by myself first and see what’s there.’
That night, as I lay in bed trying to sleep, that phrase from earlier kept flickering before my eyes.
‘The third disappearance—who exactly vanished, and how many times?’
That urban legend Gaitel had laughed off might not be something to dismiss so lightly after all.
I rolled onto my side and turned over in my mind everything I’d heard today.
Selena Vallet’s death—an accident with no clear cause. And separate from that, it seemed, this disappearance case in the yellowed newspaper fragment.
‘Are these two different stories, or are they connected?’
Nothing was certain yet. They could simply be fragments that coincidentally overlapped.
‘I hope it was just coincidence.’
I closed my eyes with that wish, though I already knew—had always known—that such wishes never came true.

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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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