The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 49

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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 49.
The next morning, a single sheet of paper bearing the Temple Seal already awaited me on the desk.
“Holy Maiden, here it is.”
Liam handed me the document with careful reverence.
Beneath the Temple insignia embossed in gold leaf, the Pope’s handwritten signature gleamed with unmistakable clarity.
The ink looked scarcely dry, bearing every mark of hasty preparation.
The bearer of this document, the Holy Maiden Diane, is hereby granted full authority to access and investigate all records pertaining to the Rochel Marquis Family.
Once I presented this to the Imperial Registry, I’d gain the credentials to access any documents concerning the Rochel household.
“Did His Holiness really prepare all this overnight?”
“I’m told he summoned the clerks from dawn onward. There must have been any number of documents requiring his signature, yet he ordered this one handled first.”
Learning that the Pope wasn’t merely speaking in haste but truly acting with urgency, the conversation we’d shared last night kindled warmth in my chest once more.
He’d gone without sleep all night, and yet he’d made certain this document reached me first thing this morning. The thought moved me deeply.
“Then let’s go at once!”
“Yes. I’ve had a carriage prepared.”
Even Liam’s voice carried more force than usual.
The Imperial Registry Management Office stood half an hour’s carriage ride from the Temple—a vast, weathered stone building.
Dust lay thick on every tall window, and the moment I stepped inside, the scent of paper and old ink assaulted my nose.
The official guarding the main entrance greeted us with indifference at first, but the moment Liam produced the document, his entire demeanor shifted.
“Please, wait just a moment!”
The man rushed frantically deeper into the building.
Moments later, a senior official emerged to greet us personally. The white-haired elder examined the document several times over before his expression finally relaxed into confidence.
“I am honored to meet you, Holy Maiden. What might we help you find?”
“I’d like to see a copy of the employment records from the Rochel Marquis Family thirty years ago. I understand their own records were lost to fire, but would you have a copy on file here?”
“One moment, please.”
The official murmured as he made his way toward the file shelves.
“Noble household employment records are customarily sent to us in copy form each year around this time. Even if the original was lost to fire, our copy will have survived. This office maintains extremely rigorous regulations.”
My heart quickened.
After days of encountering dead end after dead end, I sensed that this time something would be different.
The archives the official led us to were organized far more meticulously than the Temple’s records room.
Files arranged by house and by year stood in neat rows, and lamps hung at intervals along the corridors, making the work easy on the eyes.
It was nothing like the damp basement of the Temple—clean, systematic, orderly.
“Rochel family, thirty years ago… it should be here.”
The official withdrew a thick folder and spread it open on the table.
Though aged, it was in far better condition than the worm-eaten ledgers in the Temple basement.
“Here we are. The list of personnel employed and discharged that year.”
With trembling hands, I turned the pages. Liam leaned in beside me to read along.
One by one. Chambermaid, servant, gardener, coachman. Names and titles filled the page in neat rows.
As I traced my finger down each line, my heart beat faster and faster. Even the sound of turning pages seemed unnaturally loud.
Then my finger stopped on one line.
Servant, Hana.
Reason for discharge: retirement due to personal circumstances.
The name. There it was.
My breath caught in my throat.
Three characters, unmarred and unblemished, perfectly intact.
What I’d searched for these past weeks—it lay here, set down plainly in a single line of an ordinary document.
“…Hana.”
I read it aloud without thinking. Liam, too, confirmed the name and drew a quiet breath.
“We found it.”
“Yes. Finally.”
The answer I’d spent weeks seeking was written here so simply, almost anticlimactically.
The official, clearly surprised by our reaction, asked carefully.
“…Might I ask what matter of importance you’re investigating?”
“I’m sorry—I’m afraid I can’t discuss the details.”
“Of course, I understand.”
The official pressed no further.
A document bearing the Temple’s seal carried weight enough to silence such questions.
“Then, is there any way to learn where this person has been living since her discharge?”
At my question, the official retrieved several additional folders.
“I’ll check if we have residence report records following her discharge. It’s standard procedure for even commoners to register with the local authority whenever they relocate.”
As the official sifted through the thick bundle of documents, I waited anxiously at his side. Liam stood silent beside me, arms crossed, watching calmly.
The official spent a long time shuffling through the records before producing a single worn card.
“We have it. There’s a record that she relocated to a village on the outskirts of the Capital shortly after retiring. However, the residence reports stop after that point.”
“Stop? You mean no one knows where she lived after that?”
“Yes. It’s quite common. Many commoners don’t bother updating their residence reports when they move, especially if their circumstances become difficult.”
The official’s words weighed on my heart.
Imagining what kind of life she must have lived—alone after losing her child thirty years ago—filled me with a bitter ache.
Still, this was enough.
A name, and at least a starting point. From here, I would need Liam and the others from the Temple to do the legwork.
“Liam, would you be able to search for her starting from that village?”
“Of course. I’ll send people right away. It’s been a long time, but in a village that size, someone might still remember her.”
“Thank you.”
The official carefully slipped the card into an envelope and handed it to us.
“I hope this has been helpful.”
“It’s been enormously helpful. Thank you so much.”
The official bowed and then straightened, disappearing back into the office.
I tucked the envelope carefully into my pocket.
Inside the carriage on the way back to the Temple, I read the paper in my hands over and over again.
Hana.
A name no one had wondered about for nearly thirty years had finally come into my hands.
No matter how many times I looked at those three characters on the paper, it didn’t feel real. I blinked and checked again, multiple times over.
Of course, simply knowing her name didn’t mean everything was solved.
There was still so much to verify—where she was now, what had happened to her in all this time, and whether she was truly connected to this incident.
And yet, just grasping a name in my hands filled me with a weight entirely different from before.
I was no longer chasing a faceless shadow. Now I was advancing toward someone real, someone who actually existed.
Looking out at the passing landscape through the carriage window, I found myself imagining what her face must look like.
That maid who had been meek and diligent—what she looked like the moment she became someone completely different.
“Holy Maiden.”
Liam spoke quietly, gazing out the carriage window.
“What do you intend to do once you find her?”
I couldn’t answer right away.
Only the sound of the carriage wheels filled the silence for a long moment.
“…I don’t know.”
I answered honestly.
I could imagine the likely scenarios. A mother who had lost her child would have nothing left to lose. Perhaps she had spent all these years driven by hatred, seeking revenge against the nobles who had cast her out.
What right did I have to say anything to someone who had survived thirty years grinding through resentment?
Or would she even listen if I did?
Liam didn’t press further. He simply nodded and turned his gaze back to the window.
The sound of the carriage wheels rolling over the gravel path seemed unnaturally loud. I carefully returned the paper to my pocket.
Once we reached the Temple, my first task would be to report this to the Pope.
And to Gaitel as well.
Everyone had contributed in their own way, and I wanted to share this progress with all of them.
And if that document had not existed, I might never have reached this truth.
It suddenly struck me again how unfavorable my circumstances were.
‘I wish I could grow up, even just a day faster.’
I had long since grown accustomed to the favorable attention that came from appearing to be a five-year-old child wherever I went.
But there were just as many people who dismissed me. So many who judged by nothing more than appearances.
I was exhausted.
In truth, I hadn’t properly rested since arriving at the Temple.
‘Just grinding through to survive.’
I had merely moved as the status window commanded.
“Holy Maiden.”
Liam’s voice pulled me from my daze.
He hesitated, then extended his closed fist toward me.
‘Huh?’
Was he offering a fist bump? Bewildered, I brought my fist to meet his, and he smiled faintly before uncurling his hand.
I saw the familiar packaging in a new color.
A brand logo I’d seen many times before.
“A new flavor came out. Grape.”
Now that he mentioned it, he had given me Lemon Candy when we first met.
The memory came flooding back like nostalgia.
Back then, I used to call him uncle.
“Thank you so much, Uncle Liam!”
Liam seemed to remember those days too—he looked momentarily flustered before breaking into a smile.
“Holy Maiden. I’m still not even married, you know?”
The melancholy that had settled over us moments before evaporated, and as Liam and I reminisced about that first meeting, we dissolved into laughter.

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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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