The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 70

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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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# Episode 70
“Seria, we’ll go for another walk together tomorrow, won’t we?”
As they left the dining hall after supper, a young trainee caught hold of Seria’s sleeve and asked.
“……Yes, of course.”
“You promised!”
Seria nodded with a faint smile. The other trainees beside her chimed in with soft laughter, adding their own words.
“And lately your expression has looked so much brighter.”
Seria faltered for a moment at those words, then smiled again.
“……Is that so. Sleep well, all of you.”
“You too, Seria!”
The children called out their farewells and dispersed.
Seria watched their retreating forms for a long time, then slowly made her way to her room.
The moment she closed the door, the smile crumbled from her face.
* * *
The night had grown deep.
Seria sat hunched in the corner of her room, wrapped in darkness.
Even the moonlight beyond the window was dimly obscured, and the darkness within the room felt peculiarly thick and heavy.
The laughter she had shared with the children moments before now seemed like a distant memory.
She drew the Obsidian Fragment from her bag. The fragment was already trembling faintly.
The vibration felt as though something were clutching directly at her heart.
Seria hesitated briefly, then closed her hands around the fragment.
[……You’re taking your time.]
The voice that burrowed into her mind sent a chill down her spine.
It was far too withered for a human voice, utterly devoid of emotion.
“……I apologize. Security at the Temple has grown strict.”
[Excuses aren’t needed. When do you intend to deal with Basil and Hanna.]
Seria steadied her breathing.
“Soon. As soon as the investigation concludes.”
[You’re waiting for the investigation to end? What if you’re caught first.]
“I’m only trying to move carefully. If I fail, none of this will matter.”
It was a lie.
It wasn’t caution that held her back—it was terror. She simply couldn’t bring herself to move. But she couldn’t let that be discovered.
[……Fine. I’ll give you four more days. If you haven’t finished by then, we’ll have to find another way.]
“……Four days?”
[It means there are plenty of methods to carry this out, whether you’re the one or not.]
At those words, Seria’s breath caught sharply.
She didn’t need to ask what “another way” meant. She already knew.
“……I’ll do it. Within four days.”
[I’m counting on you.]
The voice faded, and the trembling of the fragment gradually subsided.
Seria finally exhaled the breath she’d been holding.
Her entire body was damp with cold sweat.
‘……Four days.’
Only four days remained. If she couldn’t finish within that time, someone else would step in and handle it in far more terrible ways.
It was possible that even Diane and others could be put in danger.
‘……Rather than that, I should be the one.’
Seria pushed the fragment back into her clothes and squeezed her eyes shut.
* * *
Her body already knew.
That when an order came, refusal was impossible. That no matter how much her heart resisted, she would ultimately move as the fragment commanded.
Countless repetitions had seared that truth deep into her bones.
When she closed her eyes, that room always returned to her.
Cold, damp stone floors. Air thick with the stench of iron and chemicals.
And children about her own age, disappearing one by one.
‘Next.’
A low, emotionless voice called the children by no name. Those who answered never returned.
‘Failed Subject.’
That word was spoken instead of their names.
Every time she heard it, Seria was seized by the terror that she might be next, unable even to breathe properly.
Locked in that dark room, never knowing when her turn would come, huddled in waiting—the chill from those hours seemed to linger still in her fingertips.
The sensation of a syringe piercing skin, the scorching burn of unknown drugs spreading through her veins, and the endless fever and retching that followed afterward.
Seria endured every step of that process countless times.
Other children couldn’t bear it and disappeared one by one, but Seria alone survived in a way that seemed almost impossible.
‘……This child has high Compatibility.’
When she heard those words, Seria couldn’t tell whether to feel relief or terror. The relief of survival was overwhelmed by the despair that this hell would continue forever.
The only warmth she could feel came from Noah, locked in the adjacent room.
Those nights when they could only confirm each other’s breathing through the wall.
A single verse of a song Noah would hum softly was all Seria had in those days.
‘……Seria, are you asleep? I’m still awake.’
‘……Me too, I’m not asleep.’
That brief exchange was Seria’s only comfort. Clinging to mere existence across a single wall, day after day.
And then one day, she could no longer hear Noah’s breathing.
‘……Is the next Failed Subject prepared?’
That cold, unconcerned voice from beyond the door still echoed clearly in her ears. Noah simply disappeared, as if it meant nothing.
Leaving only Seria behind.
‘……At the cost of my survival.’
That guilt had never faded. No—it could never fade.
The fact that she had survived in Noah’s place weighed on her every single night. Being the sole surviving specimen felt less like a Blessing than like a punishment.
After that day, Seria began to feel strange sensations from time to time.
Warmth or coldness emanating from empty air—a sensation she couldn’t explain. Whether it was a side effect of the experiments,
or the last trace Noah had left behind, she could never know.
* * *
Between those hellish memories, another scene suddenly intruded.
The moment Diane first reached out her hand.
“Seria, let’s eat together.”
Those simple words were strange and foreign to Seria.
That such kindness could exist without any price attached—she hadn’t known until then. In all her years, no one had ever extended their hand to her without condition.
She also remembered the day they were trapped in the storage room, when Diane wrapped around her and took the injury instead. Watching that burning wound, Seria thought something for the first time.
‘……So people like this exist.’
Someone who stayed beside you without calculation, without any desire to exploit you.
Seria’s heart kept tilting toward that warmth. And every time it did, she had to pull herself back.
‘……I can’t let myself get attached. After all, I’m——’
A being planted to be used. Destined to betray that kindness someday.
That truth became more cruel the more she felt Diane’s warmth.
Even that night trapped in the Old Annex Library, she could recall Diane’s hand never letting go of her own.
That warmth grasping her cold, chilled hand again and again.
‘……Why would she go that far for someone like me?’
She couldn’t understand it.
And because she couldn’t understand it, she wanted to hold on even more desperately.
But the tighter she held on, the more terrifying the moment of inevitable betrayal became.
The faces of those young trainees laughing together that evening came back to her too.
Before their pure smiles, Seria was already living with another face hidden away.
‘……I hate this. I really hate this order.’
She wanted to refuse.
With her whole heart, she genuinely wanted to refuse.
Basil and Hanna—they were just people paying for their own sins. Killing them wouldn’t gain Seria anything.
Rather, she stood to lose far more. Diane’s trust, the place she’d barely found in the Temple, and her last shred of self-respect.
‘……I don’t want to do this.’
She tried to steel her resolve, but the moment she reached to pull the Fragment from her breast, that dry voice from before echoed in her mind again.
[It means there are countless other ways to accomplish this without you.]
Those words shattered her resolve in an instant.
If someone else, with more brutal methods, ended up handling the task instead.
That fury might extend even to Diane, who had shown her such kindness.
‘……I can’t let that happen.’
Seria drew the Fragment back deep into her breast and wept.
Free will had never existed in the first place.
She could only barely breathe for as long as this Fragment—and the presence behind it—allowed.
Tears spilled down her cheeks.
They wouldn’t stop falling, not even long enough to wipe them away.
‘……Holy Maiden Diane.’
The name suddenly came to her.
The person who had first shared warmth with her.
From that person, of all people, she didn’t want any of this to come to light.
Or perhaps—somewhere deep down, she wanted to be discovered, to break free from these hateful chains.
‘What would the Saint have done?’
The thought caught Seria off guard. Diane would have searched for another way, even in a situation like this.
She was someone who walked the righteous path despite her fear.
Knowing such a person might have been undeserved fortune for Seria.
‘I don’t have that kind of courage.’
That truth made her feel all the more wretched.
She wanted to be like Diane, but now she was nothing but a puppet pulled along by commands.
The gap between them felt particularly vast and painful today.
But now, only four days remained.
“There’s no other choice.”
Seria murmured the words softly and rose to her feet.
Her legs trembled, but she forced strength into them to keep herself steady. Beyond the window, even the moonlight was obscured by clouds in the hazy night.
Straightening her clothes, Seria summoned Diane’s image one last time in her mind.
That smile she wore when they’d passed each other this afternoon. Seria had a premonition it would never be directed at her again. That premonition pierced her heart more deeply than any other pain.
‘I’m sorry, Saint.’
Whispering this inwardly, Seria pushed the Obsidian Fragment deep into her robes.
Then she quietly opened the door.
The corridor was silent. Everyone was deep in sleep.
That silence only made her footsteps feel heavier.
The thought that she would defile this peaceful Temple with her own hands once more was unbearable.
‘I’m the one who has to finish this.’
Retracing the remaining time in her mind, Seria stepped into the darkness.

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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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