The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 52

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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 52.
A few days passed in a blur after I brought Hanna to the Temple Confessional.
I reported the entire incident to the Pope, and sent word to the Valet Family only that Chloe had fully recovered.
I decided not to disclose the full details to the families involved in the matter—the Rochelle Family, the Bern Family, and others.
There was no point in dredging up what had already passed.
“Still, my heart isn’t at ease.”
As I murmured this, Becky, who was sorting documents beside me, tilted her head.
“Why not? It all worked out well, didn’t it?”
“It was resolved, but I’m not sure it was a good ending.”
After all, I hadn’t captured those who’d helped with the cursing to the very end. Gaitel seemed thoroughly stunned that the Red Shoes legend had turned out to be real.
More than anything, she’d been furious at the tyranny of denying her daughter—even if merely a maid—medical care while she was ill. It seemed she would likely summon the parties involved quietly and issue them a warning, out of public view.
But that was now beyond my jurisdiction, so it didn’t concern me.
Becky didn’t press further. Instead, she brought me a warm cup of tea.
Lately, she’d been looking after me like this more and more.
Robin, who’d recently become a trainee with the Pope’s approval, was quietly polishing his sword nearby when he suddenly added a word.
“It’s all in the past. Don’t hold onto it too long.”
“……I’ll try.”
For someone so quiet to offer such comfort—I felt unexpectedly reassured these past few days.
Now that I noticed it, Robin’s physique had improved so much that he was beginning to resemble Becky more and more.
At first I thought they just shared the same air, but his puppy-like kind eyes and those bright, sky-blue irises gleamed with such clarity.
“Come to think of it, Becky—Robin looks quite a lot like you.”
“Holy Maiden, please don’t say such things, even in jest.”
Seeing Becky grow serious for the first time in a while was oddly delightful.
Robin too glanced at his sister for a moment before letting out a quiet laugh.
Then one day, it became noticeably busier outside the Temple.
“Look over there!”
Becky pointed out the window, her voice bright with excitement.
I noticed a line of people forming in one corner of the courtyard.
It was the system I’d requested of the Pope not long ago.
I’d asked that commoners be allowed to come to the Temple, receive Blessings, and have their worries counseled. At first only a handful came sporadically, but now people lined up every single day.
“They’re all coming after hearing the rumors, it seems. That the Holy Maiden truly listens to them.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Stories about childbirth, about sick husbands, all of them desperate matters. Last time, one person even left in tears.”
Becky said this with a satisfied expression.
Seeing her delight as if it were her own achievement made me smile as well.
I stepped out to the consultation room and began meeting with them one by one.
Most of their worries were trivial.
Someone couldn’t afford a physician though they were ill. Someone’s child was giving them grief. Someone had quarreled with a neighbor.
An elderly man would visit every anniversary of his dead wife’s passing, simply to share stories about her and then leave. He wasn’t asking for anything in particular. He just needed someone to listen.
“Do you know how beautiful she was when she was young? The prettiest in our whole village.”
“Was she really?”
“Of course. But lately her face grows hazier in my mind, and that’s what grieves me most.”
All I could do was listen to his story quietly.
Yet when he finished, the old man left with a much lighter face.
A young couple complained that their newborn baby cried constantly at night and kept them from sleeping, and a boy wept as he spoke of his father’s beatings.
Each time, I offered comfort by sharing a bit of my Holy Power, or simply by holding their hand.
As I listened to such stories, my own heart strangely grew lighter.
Among all the grand tales of the Rochelle Family and Curses, these small, everyday worries had become my solace.
No matter how small the concern, if I listened with sincerity, everyone left with a noticeably lighter heart.
Watching those expressions had become my greatest joy lately.
That afternoon, an elderly woman sat before me.
Her hands were weathered and her face lined deeply—the mark of a life spent in labor.
“Holy Maiden, it’s nothing major. I just came because my heart feels a bit unsettled.”
“Please, tell me.”
“I used to sell near the Lumen Orphanage, you see. I’ve been running a small vegetable stand there for about ten years. But lately I’ve been hearing rumors that children there are disappearing.”
My fingers stilled at once.
“Disappearing?”
“I don’t know the details myself. But after the new director arrived, the number of children at the orphanage has visibly decreased over the past few months, or so the neighbors say. There are far fewer children playing in the courtyard, and I haven’t seen the ones who used to run errands outside.”
“The new director came around that time?”
“Yes, that’s right. About two years ago, I think. Before that, there was a kind old grandmother running it, and the children all loved her. But she suddenly left, and now this new director came, and something about the atmosphere changed from then on.”
“What kind of atmosphere?”
“Well, it’s hard to explain in words……. People just say it feels eerie whenever they pass by it. You used to hear children laughing, but these days they say it’s quiet—unnaturally quiet.”
The woman shrugged as if it were nothing.
“I only asked because it bothered me a little. There’s nothing I’m asking you to do about it. I’m just telling you what I happened to feel passing by.”
“Thank you for mentioning it.”
After the woman left, I sat there for a long time.
‘Lumen Orphanage.’
I’d heard it was quite an old orphanage on the Capital Outskirts. Children disappearing from a place like that…
‘Maybe it’s just mismanagement after a change in directors.’
I tried to convince myself of that, but something in the corner of my mind kept worrying at it.
That evening, I casually brought it up to Liam.
“Liam, have you ever heard of Lumen Orphanage?”
“I’ve heard of it. Why do you ask?”
“Just—someone who came for a consultation today mentioned it. They said the children there have been disappearing lately.”
Liam’s expression grew more serious.
“Orphanages are places where children’s comings and goings are frequent by nature. Many are adopted and leave. It’s possible the numbers are declining that way.”
“That must be it, then.”
“Still, I’ll look into it. If it’s troubling you.”
“……Thank you.”
“But Saint.”
Liam hesitated before continuing.
“The last incident, and now this too. I’m concerned that you keep stepping forward into danger like this.”
“We don’t even know if it’s dangerous yet.”
“That’s true, but—”
Liam let out a low sigh.
“You’re only five years old. I feel like you keep forgetting that fact.”
“……Yes.”
It could have been nothing. Just a rumor, like any other.
After going through such a terrible ordeal recently, perhaps I’d simply become oversensitive.
But Cheese, who had been sitting by the window, perked up his ears the moment he heard those words and turned to look at me.
For him to react that way to something he’d normally pay no attention to—it bothered me in a way I couldn’t quite name.
“……Do you sense something too?”
Cheese only growled low in response.
It was distinctly different from his usual drowsy purr. The fur on his back seemed slightly bristled.
I gazed out the window at the sunset fading into twilight, and felt an inexplicable chill settle somewhere deep inside me.
That night, I couldn’t fall asleep. The old woman’s words kept circling through my mind.
A quiet orphanage.
As someone raised in an orphanage, it was a combination of words that made no sense.
The thought that a place full of children could be that silent felt ominous rather than comforting.
‘I’ll know once Liam looks into it.’
Comforting myself that way, I finally closed my eyes.
Unaware that my Status Window was loading in the background.
[Route Opening in progress…….]

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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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