The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 13

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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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The Magic Paladin, Seraphina
Episode 13
“Seraphina, where are you headed today?”
On the way home from work, parting ways with colleagues.
They called out to me as I turned in the opposite direction from usual.
I winked.
“A tavern.”
“Since when? You always said you couldn’t afford to ruin your health with drinking, and wouldn’t touch the stuff.”
“But why go alone? Come with us!”
“Can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because today I’m going to cut loose and be reckless.”
Scout the place, dispense some justice, transform if needed.
“Weren’t you supposed to not show your reckless side to coworkers?”
“True. Can’t help it.”
“Too bad. I’m pretty good at being reckless too.”
“So am I.”
“I mix drinks by headbutting the table.”
“I climb on tables and sing.”
“I roll around on the floor.”
“Oh.”
Isn’t that just being a nuisance?
“Anyway, see you tomorrow, Seraphina!”
“Go have fun rolling around!”
I never said anything about rolling around, though….
Regardless.
“Let’s go.”
I nudged Tofu, who was lying on his side on the pavement, with the tip of my shoe, and he reluctantly rolled his eyes to look at me.
He’d eaten five roasted sweet potatoes that the Costume Department colleagues had given him, his belly was bulging, and he hadn’t been able to move for a while now.
“Get up. You don’t want to go?”
“Too full to move….”
“I’ll buy you whipped cream at the tavern.”
With your money.
At those words, Tofu jumped up instantly.
“Let’s go!”
“…….”
Pig….
We caught a carriage and headed for the White Whale and Foam Tavern.
‘There’s a famous tavern called the White Whale and Foam near the 3rd Pier.’
Not that I was taking that Silver-haired Man’s word for it.
“Driver, take us to the White Whale and Foam Tavern!”
That’s because Tofu shouted it to the driver the moment we got in the carriage, taking my place.
So I had to apologize to the startled driver, who turned around saying “Did the dog just speak?”, with “I was using ventriloquism, ha ha ha”….
“Can’t you sit still?”
“Can’t sit still.”
“No whipped cream if you can’t.”
“Grrr….”
I walked into the White Whale and Foam Tavern with Tofu hanging from my skirt hem, trembling.
Just as the Silver-haired Man had confidently promised, the place was packed with people.
The moment I stepped inside, my eyes locked with an especially loud group among the drunk, merry men.
Sun-darkened skin, roughened by sea wind. Forearms thickened from hauling nets and pulling ropes every day. A brash, ringing voice—the kind that comes from a lifetime of shouting to be heard. There was no mistaking it.
“Those people… they look like…?”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
There was the smell of the sea. Tofu, who’d already settled into a spot, said as much.
“What can I get for you?”
“An orange juice for me, and whipped cream for the dog, please.”
Less than a minute after I ordered from the server, our drinks arrived.
“Thank you—”
Before I could even finish speaking, Tofu bolted and gulped down the whipped cream straight from the paper cup.
“Smack smack slurp slurp gulp gulp rumble purr.”
“…….”
Tofu pressed his nose into the cup while he signaled the barkeep toward the sailors.
“Those gentlemen are sailors, aren’t they?”
“Yes, they’re crew from the Temeren Ship that arrived in port today.”
“I see.”
Found them.
“Slurp-slurp!”
I stroked the crown of Tofu’s head as he concentrated on the whipped cream, watching the sailors.
“So anyway, I punched that shark with my bare fist and—Bang!”
On the surface, it was ordinary sailor talk.
‘But nobody’s actually paying attention to the conversation.’
Instead, they kept glancing at the door in rotation.
The way our eyes had met the moment I walked in—that told the same story.
‘They’re definitely waiting for someone.’
Pepper’s father had eaten a foul-smelling cookie and gone strange overnight.
What if something addictive had been mixed into it? What if these people had eaten the same cookie?
If they’d all become drug addicts together, then after a long voyage at sea, they’d be desperate for their fix right now.
Sure enough.
A hooded man approached their table a short while later.
He quickly exchanged something wrapped in cloth beneath the table.
There was nothing more to see.
“Even if I seized those drugs right now, it wouldn’t solve anything, would it?”
“Munch-crunch-smack… Huh? What’d you say?”
“Nothing. Come on, get up. Let’s go.”
I left the Temeren Ship’s sailors behind as they fumbled to unwrap the package with trembling hands, following the hooded man instead.
‘First I need to find out who he is, then figure out what to do about it.’
Outside the tavern sat an old carriage, apparently his ride.
He must have been imitating a hackney driver coming to pick someone up late at night—he climbed directly onto the driver’s seat himself.
“Giddyup!”
The moment the carriage lurched forward, I slipped into the empty interior and hid.
“Seraphina? Where are we going anyway?”
“Hush. Keep quiet or we’ll be spotted.”
Unaware that anyone had boarded, the man picked up speed. I watched him through the window connecting to the driver’s seat and scanned our surroundings.
I’d assumed a man peddling mysterious drugs would head to some dingy place on the outskirts of the capital,
but after leaving 3rd Pier, the carriage was heading toward……
‘District 2?’
Not quite as prestigious as District 1, where the Imperial Palace and Ministerial Hall stood, but District 2 still had its share of venerable noble houses and merchant mansions.
Finally slowing, the carriage turned toward the grand gate of an imposing residence.
The moment it paused at the entrance, I jumped down and ran.
I read the name carved into the gate—not a family crest, but a merchant guild’s.
“……The Ingrid Merchant Guild?”
A massive trading company that did business with the Temeren Ship.
They were also notorious for recruiting Academy graduates who couldn’t afford to finish their coursework, working them cheap, and firing them at the eleven-month mark to avoid severance payments.
“…….”
The whole picture was starting to come into focus.
Good grief.
Are they insane?
* * *
Meanwhile, at the moment Seraphina had left.
On the second floor of the White Whale and Foam Tavern, overlooking the main hall.
“Hey, is that a woman over there?”
“Where?”
At the words of a friend returning from the restroom, a group of men who’d been drinking beer together lifted their heads in unison.
“Where? Where?”
“By the staircase.”
“Really?”
“What’s a woman doing here?”
“Hey, she brought a puppy with her.”
“That’s adorable.”
“Should we go talk to her?”
“What?”
“Just let me pet the dog once.”
“You’re insane!”
They giggled among themselves for a while.
“Hey, isn’t that woman pretty?”
“Go talk to her then.”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s getting up, she’s getting up.”
“Come on, hurry!”
It was the moment when one of the impatient men hastily lifted himself from his chair.
Thump!
A silver-haired man who had lurched up from the adjacent table struck the impatient one’s shoulder.
It was a light collision, but the Silver-haired Man’s weight was considerable despite his delicate features. Unable to overcome the difference in build, the impatient man staggered and caught his beer glass with his elbow.
Thump! Crash!
Chaos erupted.
“Hey, I’ll be right back!”
She’s my ideal type! I can’t miss this chance! The impatient man soaked his shirt in beer and tried to grab Seraphina, but—
“Whoa!”
Losing his balance as the Silver-haired Man leaned against him, he dropped straight to the floor.
Now the back of the impatient man’s trousers were thoroughly drenched in beer.
No woman could be seduced by someone who looked like he’d wet himself.
“Ugh, seriously!”
“My apologies.”
Contrary to how he’d been swaying as if about to lose consciousness moments before, the Silver-haired Man’s voice was very clear as he apologized.
“Oh, no, it’s fine….”
His companions, overwhelmed by his imposing build, politely accepted the apology.
“Come on, wipe your pants down quick.”
“Yeah. That’s disgusting.”
“Why didn’t you be more careful?”
As the Silver-haired Man departed with unhurried grace, his friends said nothing to him and instead reproached the unfortunate impatient man.
By the time the situation had barely settled.
The woman and the dog were already long gone.

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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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