The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 55

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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 55.
A silence heavier than any before filled the space.
Despite my report, the man moved with deliberate slowness, bowing deeply before the symbol that lay before him.
As if performing a sacred ritual, he pressed his forehead to the ground several times before stopping.
Then came a low, measured voice.
“Has the Saint arrived?”
“……Yes, sir! The Saint came personally, or so we’re told.”
He continued his report in a trembling voice.
“Basil has been captured. The suicide attempt failed. And we’ve lost even the seventh candidate, deemed the most suitable―”
A sharp, cold sound cut through the air, and the man’s vision tilted.
As his world flipped upside down, he realized his neck had been severed.
“Fools.”
The man whose teeth were clenched let his blade fall, dripping with blood.
Crimson droplets fell steadily, staining the floor.
“Useless tools that cannot even complete a simple task deserve no breath.”
At that moment, a languid voice came from beside him.
It was the same man who had reported Hanna’s capture just moments before.
“There’s no need to be so angry, Oracle.”
A fair-haired man with a disarmingly pleasant smile rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.
“Of course, I didn’t expect her to be discovered so quickly.”
“Your share of responsibility comes after all this is finished, Rinok.”
Rinok shrugged.
“No one could have predicted that the Saint, without even recovered memories, would move like this, surely?”
The man called Oracle clenched his fist.
A brutal sound, and Rinok fell silent.
“My forbearance ends here.”
“……Don’t worry. I’ve already placed one inside. The girl will carry out their execution—both Hanna and Basil, fallen.”
At the serious tone, Oracle nodded.
“There is no room for failure. Consider this your last lifeline—act with the gravity it deserves.”
“Understood.”
Left alone after Rinok departed, Oracle resumed the interrupted ceremony. As the candles flickered, his shadow wavered with them.
“Diane.”
He murmured softly, then released a low chuckle.
“I wonder how far you’ll go this time.”
A cold, unsettling laugh echoed through the darkness.
* * *
After that day, the Temple fell into a flurry of activity.
Twelve children in total had been rescued from the Underground Facility.
All of them bore the marks of prolonged captivity—their bodies and hearts equally broken.
An entire wing of the Temple Annex was emptied to serve as temporary lodging for the children. Physicians came daily to check on their condition, and Temple priests took turns keeping vigil at their side.
I spent two full days bedridden.
The aftermath of expending Saint Power without pause in the Underground Facility had taken its toll.
My eyes would open only to close again; even a few spoonfuls of rice porridge taxed my body to its limit. I felt like waterlogged cotton, impossibly heavy.
“How are you feeling, Saint?”
Becky asked with concern as she replaced the cool compress on my forehead.
“……I’m much better.”
“Don’t lie. Your face is still pale.”
At Becky’s insistence, I obediently closed my eyes again.
I could sense Robin standing quietly by the door as well.
A girl I normally saw rarely, yet this time she had thoughtfully remained near me, coming and going with considerate discretion.
By the morning of the fourth day, I was finally able to sit up.
“How are those children doing?”
At my question, Becky answered with a brightening smile.
“They’re all improving bit by bit. They’re eating well, and their expressions have grown much softer than a few days ago.”
“That’s a relief.”
“There was one child in particular whose condition seemed worse than the others. Even she started making eye contact yesterday.”
The child Becky spoke of was the one labeled “7” in the records—the child who had remained under “observation” the longest on the Test Subject list.
Each time I recalled those cold, clinical letters on that document, something twisted inside me.
“Has she remembered her name yet?”
“She seems to be recalling bits and pieces, but she’s not certain yet.”
I pushed myself up and headed toward the room where the child was.
When I opened the door, I found a small girl sitting by the window, bathed in sunlight. She was thin and pale, but her eyes were far clearer than when I’d first discovered her.
“……Hello.”
I offered a careful greeting, and the girl gazed at me intently. After a long silence, her small lips moved hesitantly.
“……Lisa.”
A quiet voice emerged.
“Hmm?”
“My name is Lisa.”
My chest tightened.
The child who had been called only by a number had finally reclaimed her own name.
“Lisa—that’s a lovely name.”
When I smiled, Lisa’s lips curved up just slightly.
It was clumsy still, but unmistakably a genuine smile.
Seeing that smile alone made all the terrible things I’d endured in the Underground Facility feel somehow compensated.
* * *
That night, as my body was beginning to recover bit by bit.
I felt the air in the room grow cool and opened my eyes.
A strange shadow stood by the window.
It had the form of a small girl.
From the translucent body and sorrowful eyes, there was no doubt—it was a ghost. The only consolation was that if it could enter the Temple, it likely meant no malice.
The child appeared to be roughly ten years old.
“Meow.”
The girl whispered softly.
“You were alive.”
But then, as if catching herself, she wiped her tears and murmured.
“No. You must be dead too.”
Something hot surged up from deep within my chest.
Cheese cried out.
As if suddenly remembering a master long forgotten.
The longing in that voice was so achingly tender that my own eyes began to sting.
“I’m sorry.”
The girl said.
“I couldn’t come look for you.”
Watching Cheese respond softly with a meow, she smiled faintly.
Her transparent fingers brushed gently across Cheese’s head. Cheese closed his eyes at the touch and leaned into it.
Cheese must have been waiting for this girl too.
She was as dear to him as his own master.
I forced down the trembling in my heart.
‘That’s right. Cheese is a ghost too.’
It was time for him to achieve Transcendence.
I had always known he could not remain at my side forever.
And yet,
‘This feels so sudden.’
“Thank you, Holy Maiden. For saving those children.”
Erin bowed deeply to me. Her courteous manner seemed to carry traces of the hardship she’d endured at such a young age.
“……Were you also in that place?”
Erin smiled sadly.
“Yes. I died long ago. It seems Cheese stayed on in my stead for a time, watching over the others.”
My chest grew heavy.
It meant that old Underground Facility had existed since before Erin was even alive.
“How long ago was that?”
“……I’m not sure. My sense of time has already grown hazy.”
Erin shook her head.
From the sorrow in her expression, I couldn’t even begin to fathom how many long years she had wandered alone in this place.
“Cheese, would you like to come with me now? To somewhere you can rest peacefully?”
Erin asked gently.
Her voice held both the longing of ages and the quiet resolve of farewell.
Yes. He had to go.
But why did my chest ache so?
Cheese hesitated at her words. He looked up at Erin, then turned back to me, and gazed at her once more.
And Cheese stared at Erin for a very long time.
A very long time indeed.
Then, slowly, he turned his head toward me,
“……?”
and looked at me.
Why?
‘Don’t ask me.’
You know as well as I do that this isn’t my decision to make.
I bit my lip.
My locked voice cracked.
“You can go, Cheese.”
Each word felt like it was scraping my throat raw on its way out.
“If you want to go, you can go. I’m fine…… ah.”
The lie wouldn’t let me finish.
Truth is, nothing about this is fine.
I felt tears threatening to spill.
‘No, I’m not five years old.’
Why was I acting like a child?
Don’t cry. Ascension is a good thing.
Then.
“……?”
Cheese approached Erin and pressed his small head against her palm.
For a long moment, as if it were a final farewell.
Erin watched him, then smiled very slowly.
“I see.”
Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“So you’ve found someone to protect.”
Me? Me?
“……Meow.”
[System]
Cheese has refused Ascension.
Reason: Change of Protected Target.
The system window appeared. My eyes widened before I could help it.
“Cheese, are you really sure about not going?”
Meow.
Cheese answered curtly, then came back to my side and leaned against me.
As if to demonstrate his resolve to stay, he pressed his front paws firmly against the edge of my blanket, over and over.
At the sight of this, Erin’s eyes glistened with tears for a moment, then she smiled softly.
Erin looked at Cheese with an expression mixing wistfulness and pride.
“Then I’ll entrust this child to you, Holy Maiden.”
“Yes, yes…….”
Erin turned to leave, but suddenly looked back at me.
“Oh, if I may ask one more favor?”
I nodded.
“Please find Noah. He was with me, and he might still be back there.”
“Noah?”
“Yes. He was a boy younger than me. He’s easily frightened, but he was always beside me, looking after me. Please…….”
Erin’s form began to fade gradually.
“Please find him.”
With that, Erin vanished completely.
Silence fell over the room again. Only Cheese remained curled quietly beside me.
“……Noah.”
A new name settled heavy in my heart. I had a sudden premonition that this incident might not be truly over—that perhaps it was only just beginning.
This Noah and the “Higher Powers” that Basil had spoken of seemed connected somehow.
I stroked Cheese’s back gently.
“Cheese, you really don’t mind staying with me?”
“Meow.”
Cheese bumped his head against me.
“But who’s protecting whom here, exactly?”
Clever little fox of a cat.
I laughed and poked Cheese lightly on the forehead.

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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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