The Cowardly Baby Saint Sees Ghosts - Chapter 79

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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 79.
In the basement of the Old Mansion, within a dimly lit chamber.
Rinok sat before the Black Crystal Sphere, peering at its surface through half-lidded eyes.
Waves of emotion transmitted faintly through the crystal—indistinct, layered.
Urgency, agitation, and fear tangled together.
The atmosphere of an interrogation happening somewhere within the Temple was bleeding through to him in fragments via the Shard.
“……She holds her ground well.”
Rinok murmured in a languid voice. A subordinate standing beside him ventured carefully, “……You mean Seria?”

“Yes. By now the Temple people should be pressing her hard, asking questions from every angle. Yet she seems not to have broken yet.”
Rinok drummed his fingertips lightly against the sphere’s surface.
“Still, she’s a subject who’s been trained for quite some time. She won’t crumble carelessly.”
A faint smile crossed Rinok’s lips.
It held no warmth.
It was closer to the satisfaction of a craftsman watching his well-made instrument function exactly as intended.
“……Does the Revelator still not know of this matter?”
His subordinate asked cautiously.
“Not yet—he needn’t. Reporting now would only cloud his judgment needlessly. Once the situation settles, I’ll present the results cleanly, and that’s all there is to it.”
“……Then, if Seria truly does break and speak……”
“There’s no help for it.”
Rinok answered flatly.
“I’ll resort to the final measure. From this distance, eliminating her completely is hardly difficult. It’s wasteful, but unavoidable.”
As he spoke, Rinok reached toward the sphere.
It was a gesture suggesting he stood ready to trigger that switch at any moment.
It was in that very instant.
The waves of emotion transmitted through the sphere suddenly convulsed. Fear, and then rushing in behind it came an alien certainty.
Rinok furrowed his brow and leaned forward.
“……What is this reaction?”
And in the next moment, a shock of incomparable magnitude slammed into Rinok.
Cracks appeared instantly across the sphere’s surface.
It felt as though something powerful had burned through the very connection line itself linking the Shard.
Rinok instinctively jerked his body backward.
Crack—
The sphere shattered completely. Fragments scattered in all directions, sharp noise filling the chamber.
“……Ugh!”
Rinok gasped, shielding his face.
The backlash from the severed connection struck his senses directly.
The impact was sharp enough to momentarily cloud his vision.
“Rinok!”
His subordinate rushed forward to support him.
Rinok waved him off with a sharp gesture, brushing aside the support, and stared at the shattered remains of the sphere.
“This……what in the world……”
His voice carried a thick undercurrent of fury.
“The Shard—it’s been completely destroyed?”
The subordinate examined the debris carefully and reported, “……The connection is entirely severed. I can no longer detect any resonance at all.”

“I felt it too.”
Rinok clenched his teeth.
“This isn’t mere shattering. A backlash of this magnitude means it was struck head-on by considerable Holy Power—power strong enough to erase the Shard’s very existence entirely.”
Rinok rose and began pacing the chamber.
With each step, irritation etched deeper into his movements.
“……How many within the Temple can wield Holy Power at that level?”
“……Perhaps only the Saint or possibly the Pope.”
“The Pope.”
Rinok’s face twisted further.
“Then this has already been reported to the highest levels. The situation has snowballed much faster than we anticipated.”
Rinok clenched his fist tightly.
“Seria, that woman ultimately……”
“What will you do?”
“……We’ve lost all means of tracking. Now there’s no way for us to know what she might reveal inside the Temple, what she might spread. And everything she knows—all the information we embedded in her—all of it could now fall into the Temple’s hands.”
His subordinate’s face had gone pale.
“……Then the location of the Experimental Facility as well…….”
“……Yes. At the very least, Seria would know the general area. Even if she’s never been there directly, she’s had more than enough clues to piece together a reasonable guess.”
Rinok stopped walking and stared at the worn map hanging on the wall.
It was a map crowded with markings of the Temple, the city, and various locations on its outskirts.
“We’ll need to prepare a withdrawal. At minimum, every facility that Seria could pinpoint with accuracy.”
“……How will you report this to the Revealer, sir?”
Rinok said nothing for a long time.
His face bore the expression of a man calculating how this failure might affect the position he had built up.
“First, we assess the situation through other channels.”
Rinok spoke quietly.
“Mobilize all the eyes we’ve planted within the Temple. Our priority is determining exactly what Seria said and how much information has been compromised.”
“……Understood, sir.”
“And.”
Rinok’s gaze turned cold.
“If Seria has fully sided with the Temple, then there’s no reason for mercy anymore. Her usefulness as a tool is finished. In fact, she’s become our most dangerous variable.”
“……Shall I reclassify her as a disposal target?”
“Yes. The next time we encounter her, this will be the end. Whether inside the Temple or outside—it makes no difference.”
Rinok picked up a fragment of the shattered Black Crystal Sphere between his fingertips.
The black shard lay in his palm, its light fading into dimness as it lost the last of its power.
“……I’ll report to the Revealer once everything is settled. And.”
Rinok clenched the fragment in his fist, crushing it to dust.
“We’ll need to prepare the next subject. Something we can handle far more decisively this time.”
Heavy silence fell over the room. The remnants of the shattered Black Crystal Sphere faded completely into the dim darkness.
* * *
“…….”
At the very spot where the Pope had shattered the Obsidian Shard, I found myself unable to speak for a long while.
Seria stared at the black fragments scattered across the floor, her expression vacant.
Her face held a peculiar mixture of relief and loss.
Relief that the chains binding her had vanished, and at the same time, the grief of losing her only evidence.
“……Your Holiness.”
I finally gathered my composure and opened my mouth.
“The marks that might remain in Seria’s body, and the information she remembers—we can still track the Heretical Organization with just that.”
The Pope regarded me for a moment, then nodded quietly.
“Then we shall proceed according to Seria’s testimony. However.”
The Pope’s gaze turned toward Seria.
“……You must tell us everything you know, without omitting a single detail. That is the only sincerity you can show us now.”
Seria nodded with difficulty, tears still wet on her cheeks.
“Yes. I’ll tell you everything.”
I looked at Seria and made a silent vow to myself.
From this moment on, I would help her uproot the darkness that had weighed on her shoulders.
And beyond that, I would reach the children I hadn’t yet saved—Noah and the others.
“……Liam.”
I called out to Liam, who was waiting outside the door.
“Please prepare the knights. We need to search for traces of the Heretical Organization based on the locations Seria provides.”
Liam bowed his head respectfully.
“Understood, your Holiness.”
My footsteps as I left the Underground Prison felt lighter than when I had first entered.
There was still a mountain of things left to unravel, but at least now I felt certain we could bear that weight together.
“Your Holiness.”
It was Seria’s small voice that caught my ankle just as I was about to leave.
When I turned back, I saw the radiant smile on Seria’s face that I’d so longed to see.
“……What has you so happy?”
I’m still not ready to let go of my anger, I thought.
“Now that I can finally bare everything―”
She bowed her head deeply.
“―I’m just happy.”
“……!”
“I wanted to grow closer to you, your Holiness, but I couldn’t bring myself to approach you because there was so much I had to hide.”
“…….”
Her chest tightened.
Wasn’t it already too late to turn back?
“The sin I’ve committed, I’ll atone for it my whole life long. But right now—right now, I just feel relief more than anything.”
She smiled sadly.
“At last, I’ve finally reached it.”

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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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