The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 15

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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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Magical Saint Seraphina
Episode 15
“Vice-Master, d-didn’t you see something like a rainbow outside just now?”
“You must have been mistaken.”
“But I’m sure I—! There were even flower petals flying around!”
“Don’t you need your medicine?”
“I don’t!”
“For what a dog’s worth, that’s all I can give you.”
The warehouse window bore no Ancient Protective Spell.
Which meant the alarm wouldn’t sound even if I smashed through.
A warehouse plastered with explosives marked with the Ingrid Merchant Guild’s seal across one entire wall.
The Vice-Master, dismissing Pepper’s talk of a rainbow outside as the rambling of an addict, opened the desk drawer sitting alone in the center of the warehouse and withdrew a small pouch and a folder of documents.
Watching the pouch pass from the Vice-Master’s hands to Pepper’s, I murmured quietly to myself.
“A hit brings clarity.”
The elongated Rubber Mallet landed in my grip.
‘That folder must be the Ledger recording transactions with Temeren Ho.’
Since they weren’t legitimate records, they’d be hidden away.
No time to hesitate. I swung the Rubber Mallet straight at the window before me.
The rubber mallet stuck to the polished glass with a squelch.
Boing!
“…….”
Let’s pretend that didn’t happen.
No time to hesitate. I drove my elbow straight through the window in front of me.
Crash!
“Who’s there!”
“If I tell you, you won’t know anyway.”
I vaulted over the jagged glass fragments of the broken window.
The Vice-Master, who’d just drawn a pistol from his pocket, caught sight of me and let out a harsh laugh.
“A girl?”
“Not a girl, exactly.”
“How’d you get in? …Never mind, I’ll just grab you and interrogate you afterward.”
Apparently thinking me an easy mark, he didn’t fire—just swung the pistol barrel at me.
I caught the gun as it flew toward my head.
And crushed it flat.
“?!”
“You done?”
“What kind of girl has this kind of strength…!”
Power of Justice.
“Now it’s my turn.”
I swung the Rubber Mallet with a grin.
Thwack!
“Kill a person, stuff them and display them, you’ll get arrested for it—you know that, right!”
Crack!
“So why do you think it’s okay to stuff an animal?!”
Are animals easy targets?!
Bang!
“And you people give drugs to humans too, don’t you?”
You just think all life is disposable!
“To people who care only about money, no matter what happens to anyone else!”
Valuing life—hammer strike!
Smack!
“This is confiscated.”
From Pepper, who’d already collapsed without me even finishing my swing, I seized the pouch of medicinal herbs, and from the desk I recovered the Ledger.
“No!”
Still not in his right mind, reaching for the narcotics, I brought the Rubber Mallet down on Pepper’s head with a solid whack!
“Cough!”
“Ugh, what—!”
At the same moment, black liquid spilled from Pepper’s mouth.
“…….”
I looked back and forth between the writhing Pepper and the Rubber Mallet.
Smack!
“Ugh! Cough! Hack!”
Smack!
“Urgh!”
Smack!
“Hack!”
The drug aura accumulated in his body… it’s coming out when I hit him?
The Rubber Mallet has this function?
Then take more hits.
Smack! Crack! Whack!
“Please, help me!”
“Yeah, this is helping you~”
Thwack thwack thwack—after roughly a hundred strikes, the liquid dripping from Pepper’s mouth finally ran clear.
He stopped reaching for the drug, and seemed to be slowly remembering how he’d ended up here in the first place.
“Think that’s it!”
“No no no. Don’t say that.”
In this world, the moment you think it’s handled is the moment it comes back to bite you.
“We need another hundred hits at least….”
“Whine.”
“What is it, Collie?”
You want to take a turn hitting him? I asked. But Collie shook his head.
He whimpered pitifully, then crawled over to the collapsed Pepper and nudged his cheek gently with his nose.
“He’s saying not to hit his master,” the dog’s voice came through.
Tofu translated for me.
“This is the master who tried to sell you off?”
“He knows you only became like this because of that strange snack. He says it’s okay,” Tofu continued.
“Whimper.”
Collie whined softly and licked the back of Pepper’s hand, looking up at me while his tail wagged.
This time, I understood what he meant without translation.
‘Love my master!’
“Collie….”
I’m sorry… Pepper sobbed from where he lay crumpled on the ground.
Sting….
Why are my eyes watering?
“Fine. Then I’ll just beat this guy instead.”
As I enthusiastically worked over Pepper, the Vice-Master tried to crawl away—so I planted my foot firmly on his back.
“Eeek!”
He trembled and looked up at me, so I leaned my face in close to his.
I smiled wickedly and asked:
“You grow drugs, right?”
“Y-yes….”
“In the Empire, if you’re caught cultivating illegal crops, you get a life sentence on the spot. So you wouldn’t have set up a farm anywhere else, and it’d have to be somewhere in the residence… where? Where’s the medicinal herb field?”
Crack!
“Sorry? Didn’t quite catch that.”
Crack!
“Sorry? Speak up a little louder.”
“I’ll—”
Crack!
“Huh?”
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you! Don’t hit me!”
Crack!
“Behind the main house! Behind the main house! In the back garden behind the main house!”
Crack crack crack!
“Gahhh!”
“You should’ve just said so from the start.”
Good. So I’ve got evidence. Got the ledger. Found out where the medicinal herb field is.
All that’s left is to tie these people up and hand them over to the authorities….
“What do I do? Wrap them all up and drag them out?”
“Seraphina!”
Tofu whined anxiously.
“You haven’t forgotten, have you? Act like a Magical Saint should!”
“Of course, of course.”
I’ll handle this in a suitably holy manner.
I grabbed Tofu, grimy as he’d become, and tucked him under my arm.
I gestured to Collie. Come on. The dog barked and bounded after me.
“Like a Magical Saint should….”
Three minutes later.
I set fire to the Back Garden.
* * *
“Whinny!”
Clatter-clatter-clatter.
The urgent thunder of hooves tore through the silence of the nighttime streets.
‘More than one horse, surely.’
Arden, lost in thought as he walked, narrowed his eyes.
Dozens of horses charging through the dead of night, and by cruel coincidence, they were headed toward the very place Arden had been making for—the Ingrid Residence.
‘What’s happening?’
Curious now, Arden rounded a corner and managed to cut off one of the riders as they slowed their pace.
He caught sight of the rider’s uniform and the water barrel strapped to the saddle.
‘The fire brigade?’
“What’s occurred?”
“There’s a fire at the Ingrid Residence!”
“…At the Ingrid Residence, you say?”
But the firefighter had already raced ahead. Left alone, Arden quickened his pace to follow.
Since parting with Seraphina earlier that day, Arden himself had been conducting his own investigation into the Temerene and her crew.
The information available to Arden, as the Crown Prince, naturally exceeded what a mere commoner like Seraphina could uncover, and he’d grown increasingly convinced that something lay amiss between the Temerene’s sailors and the Ingrid Merchant Guild.
He’d meant to stop by before launching a full investigation tomorrow. Of all the timing, a fire at the Ingrid Residence right now?
‘A coincidence?’
“This way!”
“Over here!”
The gates of the Ingrid Residence stood wide open when he arrived. Fortunately, the fire hadn’t started inside the residence itself—all the people he could see appeared unharmed.
He showed his Imperial Knight Corps credentials to a firefighter standing at the entrance and asked, “What exactly has happened?”
“What exactly has happened?”
“The fire started in the Back Garden, sir.”
“In the Back Garden?”
“Yes. Simultaneously, someone shattered every window on the first floor of the main building. Fortunately, that triggered the Ancient Protective Spell, so everyone evacuated safely.”
“…So you’re saying this was deliberate arson?”
“It appears so. Because of this.”
The firefighter held up a bundle of Explosives he’d been holding. “We found this at the scene.”
“The protective spell created quite a noise, but the actual fire wasn’t as large as it might have been. No casualties either.”
“And the Guild Master?”
“The Guild Master’s family is currently attending a social gathering in District 1. They’re on their way back now that they’ve heard the news. We’re already getting the flames under control, so there’s nothing for the Imperial Knights to….”
“Over here! Wait a moment!”
“You should see what we’ve found!”
Just then, shouts erupted from the Back Garden.
“Quickly!”
The urgency in their voices suggested not disaster, but… bewilderment.
Arden started toward the sound when—
“…?”
He glanced down at what his foot had caught.
It was a man. Or men, rather.
A thick-armed fellow lay unconscious, his mouth smeared with something black—a face Arden didn’t recognize.
And the man weeping, sprawled beside him, tears and snot streaming down his face—that was the Vice-Master of the Ingrid Merchant Guild, whom Arden knew well.
And what the Vice-Master was clutching in his arms was…
“…A Ledger?”
Had he fled the residence with the Ledger while it burned?
But hadn’t they just said the residence was unharmed?
Arden tilted his head in confusion and carefully lifted the Ledger from the unconscious Vice-Master’s arms.
Just then, a firefighter’s voice rang out from the Back Garden.
“The flowers they were growing here…… are Illegal Crops!”
“Illegal?!”
“It, um… overuse causes addiction…….”
That was when it happened.
Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“!”
“!”
Fireworks tore through the night sky.
Arden, the firefighters, everyone murmuring in the residence.
All of them looked upward.
Bang! Bang!
“What is that?”
“It looks like it’s trying to write something……?”
“Write something?”
Arden’s brow furrowed, a bad premonition settling over him.
Regardless.
The fireworks, bursting haphazardly at first, gradually began to take shape.
Soon.
「How the Ingrid Merchant Guild Makes Up for Losses.
Feed Drugged Cookies to Business Partner Sailors☆
Daring to Cultivate Illegal Medicinal Herbs in the Heart of the Imperial Capital Itself—I Hereby Report This Crime!
May You Have Another Sober Day!
–Magical Saint Seraphina💫-」
「P.S. Check the Ledger the Vice-Master is carrying!」
“A fire? What’s happening?”
Right on cue, a carriage accelerated and came to a halt at the front gate of the Ingrid Residence.
The door flew open and the Guild Master leaped out.
The same Guild Master who was said to love taxidermy.
“A fire? Where exactly…….”
Swoosh.
Arden pressed his blade to the throat of the Guild Master as he came running up, drenched in sweat.
“You’ll be coming with me.”
Behind Arden, speaking with lethal calm, the fireworks traced their final message. Bang! Bang!
「The Taxidermy-Loving Guild Master—Preserved in Prison for 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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