The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 16

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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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Magic Saint Seraphina
Episode 16
“So my father, who created an atmosphere of terror at home, was actually forced into Addiction by drugs, and the moment that problem is solved, he reforms?”
It’s a fantasy more unrealistic than any story I’ve heard.
“Pepper is fortunate. Most domestic abusers would never repent.”
“Is that from experience?”
“No? I don’t have a father.”
“Ack—cough—”
“I’m joking.”
“Why would you joke about something like that!”
“But I really don’t have a father.”
“Cough…”
“Sorry, sorry.”
Eat the sweet potato. I pressed a peeled Roasted Sweet Potato to Tofu’s mouth.
While setting the fire earlier, I’d also snagged a butternut squash from the kitchen on the side. I’d roasted it in the blazing fire, so now it was time to eat.
“Ow, wait a moment. I need to peel the skin off, right?”
“Ar-ar…”
“Wait.”
“Woof!”
“Easy, wait.”
The moment Tofu caught the scent of the sweet potato, his eyes began rolling back in excitement. I pushed his forehead back and peeled the skin off the fresh sweet potato.
Sitting on the roof, I looked down below as we took turns eating—a bite for me, a bite for you.
“Collie!”
“Woof!”
“Collie! Oh, come here!”
Far below, Pepper came running with her mother, throwing her arms around Collie’s neck. Pepper buried her face in the yellow fur and burst into tears.
“I thought I’d never see you again…”
“Bark!”
Journalists with large cameras alternated between capturing Pepper and the still-smoking Ingrid Mansion.
After burying her nose in the dog’s fur for a while, Pepper lifted her head.
“But what’s this?”
She tilted her head and pulled out the Card that had been tucked into Collie’s collar.
Since Pepper was too young to read, her mother read the Card aloud for her.
“I fed Roasted Sweet Potato to Collie earlier. Don’t give him any more, Magic Saint…?”
“Bark!”
“The Magic Saint saved you?!”
“Woof! Woof!”
Startled, Pepper cried out, and Collie barked toward the empty air in her arms.
“He’s telling them that the sister he met during the day is the Magic Saint, and that she’s sitting right now on that roof over there.”
“Well, this one’s a Retriever who can’t keep secrets.”
I downgraded him mentally to a Silver Retriever.
“Woof-woof-woof!”
The good news: dogs and humans don’t speak the same language.
No matter how much Collie barks, Pepper won’t understand him.
“Collie? What’s wrong?”
“Woof-woof-arouf-warouf-arouf-wooooof!”
I watched Collie, dying of frustration, and Pepper, looking confused, as I finished peeling the sweet potato skin in my hand.
“Ow, ow.”
I’d singed my fingertips a bit while setting the fire. Tofu scolded me as I brought my reddened, swollen fingertips to my mouth.
“That’s why I told you not to start fires.”
“But it felt amazing, didn’t it?”
I don’t deny it.
Tofu poked his nose at me, asking if there were more sweet potatoes, so I spread my hand and showed him ‘there isn’t, really there isn’t,’ and turned my gaze toward the front gate.
“But what was he doing here?”
At the front gate, visible from the roof in a single glance, Arden was escorting Guild Master Ingrid and the Sub-Master away.
Apparently unwilling to touch drug offenders, he wrapped both his hands in a Handkerchief and led them to a carriage. The luxurious carriage that the Guild Master had ridden in when attending a social gathering had become an escort carriage as is.
‘So they’re heading straight to the Investigation Bureau. Or maybe the Imperial Knight Order.’
Cultivation of Illegal Crops and trafficking is a serious crime, after all.
But really, what was he doing here at this hour?
Did something Pepper said during the day bother him too?
But this fast?
‘How did she figure it out when I spent all evening staking her out and tailing her?’
I was staring at her with a sour expression when Arden suddenly lifted his head. I startled and threw myself flat.
“What? Why are you staring at me?”
“Looks like he wants a Roasted Sweet Potato too.”
“Are you still watching?”
“I’ll tell you if you give me a Roasted Sweet Potato.”
……
Either way, I’m relieved the Ledger is in Arden’s hands now.
‘Knowing Arden, he won’t handle this carelessly.’
Which means the only thing left to do is—
I poked Tofu in the ribs; he was still going on about something.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the other Temeren Ho sailors’ homes.”
I’d already gotten all their addresses from Pepper’s father earlier.
“Why there?”
“Why? To give them the Addiction Cure Hammer Strike, of course.”
Addiction Cure Hammer Strike☆
“Thank you so much, Magic Saint!”
I took one last look at Pepper, whose cheeks were streaked with tears as she grinned sheepishly, and Collie, who was still whimpering, before we left.
……
“Seraphina, why are you smiling?”
“Just am.”
* * *
“Did you hear? The Magic Saint appeared again last night!”
“She exposed the corruption of the Ingrid Merchant Guild!”
“They say she set fire to the fields at the Guild Master’s mansion where they were cultivating Illegal Crops!”
“It’s absolute chaos right now!”
The Ingrid Merchant Guild affair had become an enormous sensation among the people of the empire.
A fire at a grand mansion in District 2, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the Capital; the cultivation and distribution of Illegal Crops, strictly forbidden by the empire; and a conspiracy to bring down the Temeren Ho, the very symbol of a successful commoner—it was a spectacle.
Everyone was talking about it when I came into the Dress Shop this morning. Even the newspaper sellers on the street seemed thrilled.
“Wow, how could they even do such a thing?”
“I know. And they’re supposed to be a major guild.”
“If it weren’t for the Magic Saint…”
“So what happens to the Temeren Ho sailors now?”
“Prison? Even though they were deceived and ate the drug?”
“Fortunately, there was evidence they were deceived into taking the drug. Instead of prison, they’ll receive Addiction treatment at the hospital founded by the Crown Prince.”
“And they’re getting compensated for the wages they were cheated out of too.”
“The Guild Master’s family assets are being confiscated, and the money will go toward relief for the Temeren Ho sailors!”
“What about the Guild Master?”
“Life imprisonment, naturally!”
“Look at this!”
[The Guild Master Who Loved Taxidermy—Will He Be Taxidermied for Life in Prison? The Magic Saint Returns]
[31 Illegal Taxidermy Specimens Found at the Ingrid Mansion… Animal Protection Salon Demands, ‘Taxidermy the Guild Master Too’]
[How Far Will We Go for Profit? The Empire’s Dark Side Laid Bare]
“She really torched the place!”
“So satisfying!”
“Yawn.”
……
……
My coworkers all turned to stare at me at once.
Ignoring them, I rubbed my eyes and swung my sore arms around.
Yesterday I’d gone around bonking all those sailors’ heads like a blacksmith wielding a mallet, so now my arms ached.
“Seraphina, what’s wrong? Does your arm hurt?”
“You look tired.”
“Did you have fun yesterday?”
“You must not have even noticed there was a fire in District 2, having such a good time.”
“Heh.”
I just laughed at my concerned coworkers’ words.
Ding.
“Senior.”
“Arden.”
The moment the shop opened, I stood to greet Arden as he pushed through the door.
He’d gone through handkerchief after handkerchief at dawn, and sure enough, he’d come straight here as soon as we unlocked.
“Here for handkerchiefs? Give me a moment.”
“What happened to your hands?”
Arden didn’t respond to my question, just studied the salve coating my fingertips with a careful gaze.
Handling explosives.
“Pressing dresses.”
I turned away, lying without so much as a blink.
‘Seraphina! Seraphina!’
‘She’s so beautiful!’
‘Eek!’
‘Shh.’
I quickly pressed my palms together and gestured at my coworkers, whose eyes were already sparkling with that obnoxious gleam, before ducking behind the counter.
As I pulled out the pre-sorted handkerchiefs, I noticed Arden standing motionless in that same spot.
‘He really is just standing there, doing absolutely nothing, like I told him to.’
Even if you tell Tofu to wait, he just growls and whines for his roasted sweet potato — the beast causes a scene.
Humans wait better than dogs do.
* * *
“Here for handkerchiefs? Give me a moment.”
……
Arden was suspicious.
After hearing Pepper’s story yesterday alongside Seraphina, the Magic Saint had appeared almost immediately.
She’d not only rescued the mangy yellow dog from being sold to the Ingrid Mansion for taxidermy, but had also exposed the illegal crop scheme tied to Temeren Ho.
Coincidence?
‘Suppose it could be.’
But.
‘She didn’t come home last night.’
The day the Magic Saint appeared — wasn’t it too convenient that Seraphina, who’d heard Pepper’s story with him yesterday, hadn’t come home?
It wasn’t that he was some creep keeping tabs on who did or didn’t enter someone else’s house. The landlady had mentioned it, that’s all.
Arden narrowed his eyes, studying the burn marks on Seraphina’s fingertips.
Yesterday, the Magic Saint had used the Ingrid Merchant Guild’s explosives to set fire to the mansion’s back garden.
And now, today, her hands bore those marks……
“I don’t think we have any handkerchiefs. I’ll need to get them from the stockroom.”
“No, Seraphina. You rest.”
“Yeah, we’ll grab them. You look exhausted.”
“Yeah, you were up all night yesterday.”
?
She was up all night?
But how would these people know that?
Could the Dress Shop staff be in on it too……
“Yeah, I heard Seraphina was drinking the whole night.”
“She was acting like a maniac.”
“Singing songs on top of tables.”
“Rolling around on the floor!”
“Wow!”
……
Not the Magic Saint?
“Seraphina, why don’t you go get yourself some water.”
The Dress Shop staff kept glancing at her with poorly suppressed giggles, then gently pushed her toward the back.
……
Not the Magic Saint, but a drunk?
“…Well.”
There’s no way that senior could be the Magic Saint.
That senior only goes to the temple when there’s food to distribute.
She’d sooner use what little faith she had as medicine than actually possess any — what could she possibly be doing as a Magic Saint?
……
Arden shook his head slightly, disgusted with himself for entertaining such ridiculous fantasies first thing in the morning.
After waiting about ten minutes,
Seraphina returned with a bundle of handkerchiefs and spoke.
“Arden, hand.”
“? Yes.”
Without thinking, I placed my hand on the bundle of handkerchiefs she held out.
“Wow.”
Seraphina marveled.
“…?”
“You’re so good at ‘wait’ that I wondered if you were good at ‘shake’ too, so I tried it—and you really are. That’s genuinely impressive.”
If the Imperial Knight Order cashiered me, I could always get hired as a dog. Seraphina handed over the bundle of handkerchiefs with a bright smile, offering encouragement. “You’ll never go hungry.”

……
There’s no way someone like this could be the Magic Saint.

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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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