The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 54

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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 54.
I was leaving the Study Room when it happened.
“Headmaster, just a moment, please.”
At Liam’s gesture, Sir Eustace, the other Holy Knight accompanying us, called Basil to a halt.
He was a knight dispatched from the Temple, assigned to this investigation. Though he’d only hurried to join us this morning, he was skilled enough to trust with this sort of task.
“According to Temple investigation protocols, we need to examine the entire grounds. Would you be willing to show me the back fields and the stables personally? It would be improper for me to wander alone.”
Basil hesitated for a moment.
He looked as though he wanted to object, but forced a smile instead.
His eyes flicked briefly toward me and Liam.
Something suspicious flickered across his face, but he had no legitimate excuse to refuse a Temple investigator’s request.
“And the Saint?”
“I’ll look around a bit more with Sir Liam. Go ahead.”
“I understand. Then I’ll be back shortly.”
Basil answered reluctantly and followed Sir Eustace away.
Watching him disappear in the opposite direction, I felt my heart begin to race.
Now the real work began.
My fingertips had gone cold.
“Now’s the time.”
The moment Basil vanished from sight, we hurried toward the Warehouse.
Inside the Warehouse, in a corner before an old bookcase, only the floor was oddly dust-free.
As Liam pushed carefully, a hidden door scraped open with a creak and slid to the side.
“Just as I thought.”
Stairs descended beyond the door. We began to descend silently.
Halfway down the stairs, a small room branched off.
The door stood slightly ajar, so I carefully peered inside.
The room was cramped and dark, but a filing shelf covering one entire wall caught my eye.
Stacks of documents lay piled high on a desk.
Time was running short, but I quickly seized one sheet and scanned it.
My hands trembled; the words wouldn’t focus.
List of Experimental Subjects — numbered.
No. 1, deceased.
No. 2, deceased.
No. 3, unsuitable; discarded.
No. 4, deceased.
No. 5, deceased.
No. 6, discarded during experiment.
No. 7, positive response. Continue observation.
My breath caught. Those bland words on the page—each one represented a child’s life.
“Experimental subjects…”
Liam’s face, studying the documents beside me, had gone rigid.
Below was another paper, written in faded, ancient script, arranged like some kind of plan.
Artificially graft the Power of Sacred Objects to create an Artificial Saint.
Failed subjects are recycled as Sacrificial Offerings for the Purification Ritual.
My stomach twisted. Failed subjects weren’t simply discarded—they were used again, as sacrifices.
“They’re experimenting on children to create a Saint, and using the failures as sacrifices?”
“That appears to be the case.”
Liam’s voice had dropped to barely a whisper.
At that moment, a low bell chime echoed from deeper below. Dong, dong, dong.
“What is that?”
My heart plummeted. Even now, in this very moment, someone was being offered as a sacrifice.
“We have to hurry!”
We bolted down the stairs without even gathering the documents.
My foot nearly slipped, but I couldn’t stop.
Deep underground, a vast hall came into view. Chalice Patterns without irises covered every wall, and an altar stood in the center.
A small girl lay upon the altar.
Bound entirely in Rope, she wept in terror.
Her face, illuminated by candlelight, was so small and frail that I stopped breathing.
Four robed figures circled the altar, chanting in low voices.
One of them slowly raised a black Dagger.
“No! Stop!”
I ran with all my strength, screaming at the top of my lungs.
My throat felt as though it might split open.
“Intruder!”
Before the robed figures could react, Liam lunged forward and slashed the arm of the one holding the dagger.
“Aagh!”
The dagger clattered to the ground.
It had been a close call. A moment longer, and that blade would have already pierced the child’s body.
I hurled the Holy Water Bottle without thinking.
Crack!
The vial shattered, and black smoke billowed from one of the robed figures’ faces.
Shrieeeek!
He screamed and collapsed.
“Please, please……!”
The child on the altar gazed at me through tears.
“You’re safe now, it’s all right!”
I hastily untied the child’s bonds, flowing my Holy Power through them.
The small body trembled, then gradually began to steady. That tiny hand gripped mine tightly.
Liam subdued the remaining robed figures one by one.
Even in the cramped Underground Hall, his blade found the vital points with precision.
The ring of steel and the groans of the robed men mingled in the hall.
We had made it just in time. Barely.
Had we been even a moment later, that child would have—
The thought sent chills down my entire spine.
My hands shook so badly it took longer to finish untying the bonds.
Then urgent footsteps echoed from above.
“……What is this!”
It was Basil.
He must have sensed something and rushed back in a panic.
By the way he was gasping for breath, he’d apparently torn himself away from Eustace and bolted down here without hesitation.
“How could you possibly be so fast…….”
Basil’s face contorted.
“……I’ve been outwitted.”
“How dare you do such a thing!”
Basil’s eyes wavered. For the first time, all composure drained from his face.
“……How much have you seen.”
“Everything. It’s over now—surrender.”
Liam stepped forward with his blade raised, blocking Basil’s path.
Basil looked around. Fallen subordinates, the rescued child, a sword aimed at him.
“……There’s no way I’m walking out of here alive anyway.”
He muttered under his breath. His hand moved toward his breast.
“The Higher Authority never leaves failures alive.”
With those words, he drew a dagger from his robes and turned it toward his own throat.
“No!”
I desperately summoned my Holy Power and hurled it at him. At the same moment, Liam threw himself forward and struck the dagger from Basil’s hand.
Clang!
The dagger flew across the floor.
Basil simply collapsed to his knees.
“……Why are you stopping me.”
He mumbled weakly.
“If you die, no one will ever understand what happened to these children. And who exactly these people called the Higher Authority are.”
“Ha…….”
Basil said nothing, only shaking his head.
That silence itself seemed to speak of something far larger and more terrible lurking behind all of this.
While Liam restrained him, I held the child I’d rescued close to my chest.
The warmth of their living breath felt more precious than it ever had.
The child still trembled, but their breathing was gradually becoming steadier.
“You’re safe. It’s all over now.”
When I whispered these words softly, the child barely managed a nod.
“Cheese, check the other rooms.”
“Meow!”
Cheese moved swiftly through the hall, threading between the shadows. There were still more places to examine.
How many children had vanished into this underground in the same way, she wondered.
The numbers listed in those documents—knowing they represented the traces of dead children—made her chest tighten with despair.
“Liam, we need to gather all the records from the higher authority as well. For evidence.”
“Yes. I’ll have someone brought in to organize it.”
I looked down at the bound Basil once more.
He remained silent, his head still bowed.
I could sense, albeit dimly, that capturing this one man alone would not end this.
‘The higher authority. Just how much larger does this go?’
Mountains of questions loomed ahead—who was the presence behind Basil, what would need to be uncovered in the days to come.
In the Underground Hall, a few candles that had been guttering still swayed gently.
* * *
“So.”
A voice thick with frustration emerged.
“We nearly had our tail stepped on.”
“Yes. Fortunately, it appears he didn’t reveal who cast the Curse.”
“Handle it anyway. As long as he draws breath, we must remain vigilant.”
“Understood.”
The man, pressing the back of his neck, muttered under his breath.
“I didn’t expect him to catch onto that. Clever fellow.”
It was then that someone burst through the door, gasping and wheezing for air.
“How dare you! Don’t you see we’re in the middle of a ritual?”
The man who had been reporting flared with anger, and the intruder cried out urgently.
“Lu, Lumen—!”
His lips trembled as though he were voicing something unspeakable.
The man before him closed his eyes tight, finally meeting that gaze—or rather, unable to meet it, his head pressed downward as cold sweat streamed like rain.
“Lumen has been discovered.”

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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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