The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 71

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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 71.
The night had deepened to its darkest hour.
Seria passed through the Temple Annex and made her way toward the Penitence Hall, where Basil was being held—a place where those burdened by sin came to reflect in solitude.
There were guards stationed about, but as a member of the Temple, Seria aroused no suspicion.
The Obsidian Fragment in her pocket began to tremble again, faintly but distinctly.
The vibration felt almost like urging, and Seria quickened her pace without quite realizing it.
The path to the Penitence Hall seemed unusually long.
On any other night, it would have taken only minutes to reach it, but tonight the distance seemed to stretch endlessly with each step.
As she walked, fragmented memories tumbled through her mind in chaotic succession.
* * *
She had first met Basil not long after joining the Orthodox Order.
He had been the one teaching the Saintess Candidates at that time.
He was stern, but she had believed that beneath that severity lay genuine affection.
When Seria stayed late into the night struggling to memorize the prayers correctly, Basil never once showed irritation—only patient repetition, teaching her again and again.
‘Don’t give up. You have the makings of a true Saint.’
She had heard those words countless times.
There had been seasons when she endured the dark nights by clinging to those very words.
Watching a mentor she had revered fall into disgrace and be imprisoned was far from easy.
And now, by her own hand, she had to end him.
‘Back then, he was genuinely kind.’
Each time such a thought arose, her heart sank heavier.
Seria steadied her breathing over and over, forcing herself forward.
The Penitence Hall was silent.
It had been a masterstroke to slip sedatives into the guards’ water beforehand, just to be safe.
The moment she passed the fallen guards and stood before Basil’s cell, Seria held her breath.
‘It’s not too late. I can still turn back.’
The thought flickered across her mind, but immediately the Fragment’s trembling intensified.
As if it had read her very intention.
Seria squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. Her hand found the cell door’s handle.
* * *
Basil was not asleep.
He sat on the edge of his cot, eyes fixed on a single low candle flame, and looked up at the sound of the door opening.
“…Seria?”
Surprise and gladness flickered across his face simultaneously.
At this late hour, a child he had once taught had come to find him.
Deep within the Temple, no less.
“What brings you here? Surely you know how dangerous this is.”
Basil rose to his feet to greet her.
His tone was still that of a teacher.
“…Wait, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Seria’s voice trembled faintly.
Basil seemed not to notice the tremor; he smiled gently.
“Of course. Sit down. Did the Visionary send you to rescue me?”
Seria swallowed hard and changed the subject.
“Have you been well?”
“Look at the state I’m in. Do I seem well to you?”
He laughed bitterly at himself.
“You’ve grown so much in the time we haven’t seen each other.”
There was a faint warmth in Basil’s voice—a tone that spoke of longing and pride in equal measure.
“I remember how stubborn you were, how fearful too. You wouldn’t let me extinguish the lamp at night because you were afraid of the dark.”
“You remember such things?”
“Of course I do. I taught you. You were the most fitting candidate I ever had.”
At those words, Seria felt a pang lance through her chest.
It was almost unbearable to hear that warm voice in this moment.
Perhaps it would have been easier if Basil had been cold and heartless from the start.
“…Master.”
She spoke the title for the first time in years.
Basil’s eyes widened in momentary surprise at the name, then he smiled bitterly.
“Don’t call me that. I have no right to such a title anymore.”
“Even so, you will always be my Master.”
“Thank you for saying that. Just knowing someone still thinks of me that way… it means everything.”
Basil fell silent for a moment, studying Seria carefully. Then something seemed to catch his attention, and his expression grew slightly taut.
“……But your color isn’t good. What troubles you?”
Seria started at the question.
“……It’s nothing.”
“Seria.”
Basil spoke her name softly. There was no sharpness in his tone, but beneath it lay a current of deep concern.
“You’re trembling in a way unlike yourself. If something weighs on you, tell me. I may be in this state now, but if there’s any way I can help……”
“There isn’t.”
Seria cut off his words sharply. Her voice cracked.
“This isn’t something you can help with, Master.”
Basil lapsed into silence at her response. Then he exhaled softly.
“……I see. I have no right to ask further. Not when I’m a criminal.”
At those words, something crumbled inside Seria’s chest.
Even now, in this very moment, Basil was worried about her.
“……Master.”
Seria called to him again. Tears edged her voice.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Ask away.”
“……When a person must do something wrong through no choice of their own… what should they do? Even if it goes against their will?”
Basil closed his eyes briefly at the question, then opened them. His face held the look of someone who understood something, though what exactly remained unclear.
“You ask such a question… so you carry something heavy.”
“……Please answer me.”
“Very well.”
Basil grew thoughtful, then spoke slowly.
“……Everyone must sometimes do what their heart does not wish. I was no different. When I first stole, I made countless excuses to myself—that I had no choice, that there was no other way.”
“…….”
“But I understand now, looking back. I hid behind those excuses and chose what I truly wanted all along. So Seria, I don’t know what you face, but……”
Basil met her eyes directly.
“……if it truly cannot be helped, then it is not your fault. Yet, if there remains even one thing you can hold onto within it, do not let that slip away.”
Those words tore through Seria’s heart.
She couldn’t even say what that last thing was anymore—what she had to protect.
No. She knew.
She knew, and she was about to destroy it right now.
“……I’m sorry.”
Seria’s voice trembled. Tears welled, but she forced them down.
Basil, not understanding the meaning of her apology, smiled faintly.
“Sorry for what? If anything, I’m the one who should apologize. I couldn’t even be a proper master, and now I’m like this.”
Basil gazed out the window for a moment. Dim moonlight, veiled by clouds, seeped faintly into the room.
“……Since I’ve been locked in this place, I think of it every day—whether the children I taught are faring well. Especially you. My heart has always worried for you most. You came here with nowhere else to go.”
“…….”
“When I heard you were suited to be a Saintess Candidate, I was truly glad. I thought at last you’d found your place.”
Seria couldn’t bear to listen anymore.
Something was about to tear loose from her chest.
“……Master.”
“What is it?”
“Can you forgive me for what I’m about to do?”
Basil didn’t seem to understand her meaning, tilting his head slightly.
“I don’t understand.”
With that answer, Seria could say nothing more.
The fragment in her bosom began to vibrate with an intensity she could no longer contain.
The tremor burrowed into her fingertips like an urging, like a command.
‘……No.’
She pleaded so to herself, but her body already moved beyond her will.
Her hand reached first toward the Short Dagger at her hip.
In that instant, Basil’s expression transformed entirely.
“……Seria?”
The bewilderment that had flickered across his face drained away, leaving it deathly pale.
Basil seemed to understand at once what the look in Seria’s eyes—and what she held in her hand—meant.
“Wait… wait……!”
Basil stumbled backward. His foot caught the edge of the bed and he fell hard on his backside, yet still he scrambled desperately away, pressing himself against the wall.
“S-Seria, wait! Just— just a moment! What is this…!”
The measured authority that had filled his voice moments before had vanished without a trace. Basil’s eyes held only raw terror.
“Master.”
A single tear traced down Seria’s cheek.
“Why didn’t you take your own life?”

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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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