The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 24

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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
24
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Tell me about it.”
(The person answering is not me.)
“How dare you trample a woman’s dream!”
“Exactly.”
(Not me.)
“Seraphina, show him the righteous flame of justice!”
“Absolutely!”
(Not me!)
I watched Tofu gnaw on my pillow with a fixed stare.
Ever since Cassian and I had conspired and deceived him, he’d been watching for signs of our treachery, but now he seemed to have forgotten all about being cautious—he was too angry for that.
“You need a lesson to get your head on straight!”
The night had crept toward midnight.
Moonlight streamed through the open window.
A bed facing the window, the Magic Saint sprawled prone clutching a pillow, and a divine beast straddling her head and spewing lectures—
and…
“Why are you here?”
I glared at Cassian, who had made himself entirely too much a part of the scenery.
Cassian, who had been leaning against the wall beside the door with his arms folded, shrugged annoyingly at my question.
Instead of his usual shabby errand-boy clothes, he wore formal evening wear of obvious quality. Gloved hands held an Opera Glass—white ivory adorned with blue enamel designs.
The delicate shade of blue and the pearl trim along the rim looked unmistakably feminine, no matter how many times I looked at it.
But regardless of that, I wanted to know why Cassian was here.
Why he kept answering “Exactly” to everything Tofu said!
“Can a priest just walk into an unmarried woman’s room like this?”
“You invited me in.”
“But if someone’s standing in front of someone else’s house with a dog balanced on their head, you’re not going to invite them in?”
“Would you always invite someone if they were doing that?”
“That’s different, but still—if people find out we were alone like this, you’ll never get married!”
Please don’t ask me to take responsibility for this!
“Don’t worry. The puppy’s here, so we’re not alone.”
“It’s not a puppy.”
“Why did you come, anyway?”
“Because I saw the performance today too?”
“How is that related to you being here now—wait, didn’t you say tickets were impossible to come by?”
“And what’s that to me? I have a ticket.”
Then Cassian brushed dust from the Opera Glass and gestured with his chin toward a man’s suit hanging on the clothes rack.
“Whose clothes are those? They look like Imperial Knight Order uniform.”
He asked the question and answered it himself.
“Is it that blond-haired knight who lives upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name?”
Cassian moved in front of the rack and read the name embroidered inside the jacket.
“…Arden.”
I glanced at him, surprised by the pronunciation.
Usually when people see Arden’s spelling for the first time, they read it as “Ardenen,” but he’d read it correctly on first sight, which struck me as odd.
“The Imperial Knight living upstairs is Arden?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m going.”
Without another word, Cassian scooped up Tofu, who lay belly-down sprawled across the bed, and disappeared out the window.
Whoosh.
In the space where Cassian and Tofu had vanished, only a single newspaper clipping remained, cut out from somewhere.
“What on earth…”
Why did he leave through the window instead of the door?
Shaking my head in bewilderment at how quickly Cassian had vanished without a trace—
Knock, knock.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Arden.”
“Oh.”
I got up and opened the door.
Arden, who’d been standing in front of me, took a step back.
He acts so reserved, even though this isn’t his first time seeing my room.
He seems to think he’ll burn to death if he ventures too far inside.
Unlike certain high priests who waltz into women’s chambers without a second thought.
“I heard voices earlier. Were you having another conversation with Tofu?”
“No—just practicing my acting.”
Today’s performance had left such an impression that I’d decided to debut myself. I rambled on while retrieving Arden’s jacket from the coat rack.
‘If Cassian had only dawdled a bit longer, or at least stepped out through the door, the two of them might have crossed paths.’
But Arden wouldn’t have recognized him even if they’d stood face to face.
Because Arden was just an Imperial Knight.
The High Priest was so devoted to secrecy that people said he only knew the Emperor or the Crown Prince by sight.
“You’re home early. I thought you’d come back later.”
“I left right after the cast was dismissed. It wasn’t my shift anyway, s-so—”
“It wasn’t your shift?”
Then why did you work? I asked, puzzled. At that, Arden’s voice turned suddenly stiff.
“That was…”
“That was…?”
“That was…”
“Was…?”
“Because I was worried the Magic Saint might appear.”
“Huh?”
Just like that?
“Today’s performance at Opera Sernié drew many high nobles. I thought if the Magic Saint appeared again, this venue would be the most likely target, so I volunteered to come early.”
“Ah.”
Sharp instincts. And he was right—I did show up.
“So that’s why you went ahead of time.”
“Yes. But she didn’t appear.”
Arden sighed.
“I wonder if she appeared somewhere else while all eyes were on Opera Sernié. I wish she’d at least send a warning beforehand.”
“A warning? That’s actually a good idea.”
Good for people trying to catch her, anyway.
I filed that away firmly in the back of my mind: absolutely do not do that.
Warning letter (no).
“You’re really serious about catching the Magic Saint.”
“I take my duty to apprehend all deviants in this world very seriously.”
“…”
“…”
That actually hurt.
We stood there in silence for a moment before I asked on impulse.
“Arden. Don’t you have any memories you’d rather forget?”
Something shameful, humiliating—something you pray no one else ever finds out about.
“I do.”
“What is it?”
“When I was young…”
Arden’s eyes rolled upward as if searching for the memory.
“I once touched a cicada with my bare hands.”
“…”
“Even after scrubbing them raw, I can still feel the texture thirty years later. Ugh.”
“How old are you anyway?”
“Twenty-one, ma’am.”
“Good grief.”
“And you? Do you have such a memory?”
“As for me…”
I have plenty. But let me start with one.
“When I was young, I got blamed by my teacher for something another student did, and I couldn’t speak up for myself.”
I’m fine with it now, but for a long time afterward, every night before bed I’d replay that moment in my head, thinking ‘I should have said this’ or ‘I should have said that,’ seething alone with indignation.
“So if someone brought up that incident in front of everyone right now, how do you think you’d react?”
“I wouldn’t let it go.”
“Neither would I.”
The Right to Know of the Empire’s citizens.
Does an actress’s past belong to that right?
“…….”
Honestly, I’ve never given that question serious thought—not once.
To be more honest, I don’t really know.
But I think the Right to Know isn’t meant for this.
It’s for exposing a powerful person’s criminal history, a politician’s corruption, fraud…
That’s what the Right to Know is for, isn’t it?
How does knowing that someone wasn’t as beautiful in the past serve the public interest?
‘I was already uncomfortable just watching Rozena cry out like that.’
Someone’s bare face they never wanted to show the world.
Isn’t kindness supposed to mean pretending we never saw such a thing?
Why dig it up and drag it into the light?
“…….”
Rozena said she regretted it.
She said she never would have become an actress if she’d known this would come out.
Why should the victim give up her dream?
‘I don’t know.’
Consuming someone else’s painful memories on the front page of a newspaper doesn’t feel like justice worthy of such grand talk about rights.
I’ll pursue the justice I believe in.
Once I’d made my decision, I looked at Arden.
He’d been waiting patiently while I fell lost in thought without a word.
He really is good at waiting, I thought with a small laugh. “But Arden.”
“Yes?”
“That memory about you touching the cicada—it’s something you’d rather others didn’t know about, but you told me anyway. Why?”
Was I two years older than him or something?
“Did you tell me because I’m going to die soon?”
“No, that’s not… I mean…”
“Pfft!”

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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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