The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 78

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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 78.
[Notification]
Criminal apprehended successfully.
Good Deed Gauge +5
[Current Score: 79 / 1000]
Even as that notification appeared, I felt nothing.
If anything, those cold numbers felt so distant from my heart that I couldn’t even muster a hollow laugh.
After sending Seria to the dungeon, I’d spent days locked in my quarters.
I could barely eat, and I found myself spending longer stretches sitting by the window, staring blankly at the sky.
“……Diane.”
Becky knocked softly and entered the room.
“You’ve skipped another meal.”
“……I don’t have much appetite.”
“This is the second day now. You’ll make yourself ill.”
Becky approached with a worried face and sat down carefully in front of me.
“Diane. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but…….”
“It’s fine.”
“……Is it because of Seria?”
The moment her name left Becky’s lips, I found myself swallowing hard.
Becky knew I’d cared for her, after all.
“……Yes.”
“It must be terribly difficult. Being betrayed by someone you trusted.”
There was genuine concern in Becky’s voice.
I shook my head weakly in response.
“I’m angry. I’m so angry that I still can’t believe I was betrayed. But then I remember how she lived well here in the Temple, and——”
I couldn’t finish. I buried my face in my hands.
“……I can’t make my heart choose either way.”
Becky watched me quietly for a moment, then gently took my hand.
“It’s not strange that you feel this way, Diane. It’s perfectly natural. Human hearts don’t divide so cleanly, after all.”
Those words offered me some small comfort.
But the heaviness in one corner of my heart didn’t fade easily.
After several more days had passed, Liam arrived at my quarters with an urgent expression.
“Your Holiness. A message from the Pope.”
At those words, I rose from where I sat.
“From His Holiness?”
“The High Priest has submitted a report. It seems the matter can no longer be postponed.”
It was about Seria.
My heart sank.
“……And?”
“His Holiness said he would personally interrogate Seria. And——”
Liam paused for a moment.
“He asked whether you would attend as well.”
I couldn’t answer for a long time.
I’d been locked in my room for days, avoiding even facing this matter.
I wasn’t sure I had the courage to face Seria alongside the Pope.
But at the same time, I knew I couldn’t simply turn away.
“……Tell him I will attend.”
I managed to answer that much and rose to my feet.
For the first time in days, I steadied myself and dressed properly.
The face reflected in the mirror was still exhausted, but my eyes held a different light now.
* * *
On the stairs leading to the Underground Dungeon, an unfamiliar footstep mingled with the others.
I knew who that footstep belonged to.
“……Diane. Will you be all right?”
The Pope asked quietly. His words carried the weight of a confirmation more than a question.
“Yes. I want to hear it too.”
Behind the narrow bars, Seria was still huddled in the corner.
As she lifted her head at the sound of footsteps and saw the Pope, her eyes froze in an instant.
In the days that had passed, Seria’s appearance had visibly deteriorated.
Her cheeks had grown gaunt, and deep shadows lay beneath her eyes.
Yet there was no will to resist left in those eyes.
Just the face of someone who had resigned themselves to everything.
“……Seria.”
The Pope’s voice was glacial.
“You planned two murders within the Temple, carried out one, and showed the audacity to disable the Temple’s guards. These are your crimes, are they not?”
“……Yes.”
Seria answered weakly, her eyes unfocused.
“You killed Basil. That was you?”
“……Yes.”
“You targeted Hanna. That’s true?”
“……Yes.”
“You tampered with the guards’ water.”
“Yes.”
Seria merely acknowledged each crime in turn, as though recounting someone else’s deeds.
No rebuttal. No excuse.
That very compliance only deepened the cold in the Pope’s gaze.
“……Then there is nothing left to defend.”
“No, Your Holiness.”
At that ready admission, the Pope’s brow furrowed further.
“Not a trace of remorse. In fact, you carry yourself as though you’ve simply given up.”
“…….”
I stood in that silence, unable to speak.
Surely this wasn’t all there was. Shouldn’t I step forward and defend her?
‘……Why can’t I say anything?’
A betrayal that wouldn’t fade still dwelt in a corner of my chest.
“……Seria.”
The Pope spoke again.
“The Temple took you in. We brought a child with nowhere else to go, gave you education, gave you a place to live. And this is how you repaid that kindness.”
“…….”
“What I want to know is one thing. What was lacking that drove you to this? Did the Temple neglect you? Or did you enter here from the beginning with some other purpose?”
At those words, tears began to fall from Seria’s eyes.
“……I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want an apology. I want an answer.”
“…….”
“Silence will be taken as admission that you have no excuse at all.”
Seria offered no rebuttal to that.
She only bowed her head, shoulders trembling as tears fell—those vacant, glistening eyes making her look like someone who desired nothing but to accept punishment.
I stood watching the scene unfold.
The desire to understand Seria and the wound of being deceived by her occupied two different spaces within me simultaneously.
Feeling tears gather, I bit my lip.
“……Your Holiness.”
I managed to open my mouth. My voice trembled slightly.
“Please. Give her a little time.”
“Are you defending her?”
“I’m not defending her. It’s just…….”
I couldn’t find the words.
Betrayal and an inability to abandon this child twisted together inside me, and no proper words would come.
Tears finally spilled down my cheeks.
I looked at Seria without even thinking to wipe them away.
“……Seria. I’m still angry right now. That feeling of betrayal hasn’t faded.”
“…….”
“But I don’t want to lose you without understanding—without knowing the truth.”
At that, Seria could no longer hold back and began to sob.
“……I’m so sorry, Saint. I’m so sorry.”
I couldn’t count how many times she had apologized.
Yet it seemed Seria had no other words to offer.
“Enough.”
The Pope cut in quietly.
“I’ve heard apologies enough. What’s needed now is truth—whether your claim of being used by the Heretical Cult is real or not.”
The Pope’s gaze turned toward Seria.
“……Tell me the truth. Did the Heretical Cult put you up to this?”
The moment those words fell from his lips, something flashed through my mind.
The Heretical Cult.
Hearing that name, I suddenly recalled a name I’d nearly forgotten.
‘……Noah.’
I caught my breath sharply. It was the name Seria had mentioned when she first opened up about her past in the dungeon—and now, in this moment, it collided with the present like a thunderbolt.
“……Seria.”
I turned toward her urgently.
“Do you know a child named Noah?”
The moment the name left my lips, Seria’s eyes widened dramatically.
“……How do you……know that name……?”
“Answer me. Do you know Noah?”
Seria bit her lip for a moment, then nodded with visible effort.
“Yes. I do. That was the only friend I had close to me in that place.”
“……And now?”
Seria’s eyes filled with a deep, impenetrable darkness.
“……She’s dead. Long ago.”
Her voice cracked. Seria could say nothing more.
“That’s not true.”
I cut off that thought.
“Several days ago, the Temple Knights raided a facility suspected of being run by the Heretical Cult. It was disguised under the name Lumen Orphanage. Among the children rescued from that place, some knew Noah. The age and physical description match everything you told me.”
“……!”
“That child is alive.”
Seria froze completely at those words. Her eyes flew wide, and her lips began to tremble.
“That can’t be. I saw clearly…….”
“But you didn’t witness the child’s death yourself, did you?”
Seria’s body began to shake like an aspen in wind.
The root of the guilt that had weighed on her for so long was suddenly trembling.
“……Is she really alive? Truly?”
“……Yes. But we’ll need your help to bring her out.”
Tears that Seria had been holding back suddenly poured from her eyes.
For the first time, something layered beneath the despair began to glow with a different color.
“So I’d like you to tell me in detail what kind of life you lived in the Heretical Cult.”
Seria spoke in a trembling voice.
“……Saint. First, there’s something I want to tell you.”
Seria moved her bound wrists with difficulty and struggled to pull something she’d hidden deep in her garments.
A knight moved to stop her, but I raised my hand to let her continue.
“……It’s all right. Show me.”
Seria finally drew out a small fragment that gleamed black.
An Obsidian Shard. The moment it rested on her palm, the fragment began to tremble faintly.
“……This is what gave me orders. Inside it, the voice of the one who controlled me……”
That was when it happened.
“Stand back.”
The Pope’s low voice cut through the air.
And from his hand, pure white light exploded outward.
“……Your Majesty, no!”
I cried out urgently, but it was too late.
The light struck the fragment head-on.
With a sharp, crackling sound, the Obsidian Shard shattered into pieces.
Black fragments scattered across the floor, wisps of faint smoke rising in their wake.
Seria stared at the fragments with a hollow expression.
For a moment, I lost all words.
I could guess that Seria had meant to use that object as evidence—and perhaps as the only clue.
“……Your Majesty. That was likely the only link connecting the Heretical Cult to Seria.”
“Then all the more reason it should not have been allowed to remain.”
The Pope answered without hesitation.
‘How could you just……’
How could you carelessly destroy what might have been evidence……?

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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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