The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 34

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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
34
“The choice is yours. If you want to help, help.”
“…Cassian, are you testing me again right now? Seeing how I’ll react?”
“It’s not like that.”
The next day, lunchtime, at Daesin Hall.
The glass greenhouse where Daesin Hall’s grapevines—famous for producing fine fruit—blocked out external views.
I stroked Tofu’s head as the beast rested its chin on my knee where I sat on the bench.
Had he finally bathed?
His fur was fluffy and soft, and he smelled good.
Cassian, leaning against the bench’s backrest where I sat, urged me to try stroking the fur backward.
I was sitting on the bench, and Cassian was standing, leaning against the backrest.
Which meant he and I were facing opposite directions.
For a moment I wondered why we had to converse like spies meeting for a dead drop when we were alone in the greenhouse anyway.
‘Though, priests probably shouldn’t sit next to a woman on the same bench.’
They have that no-dating rule.
“This really isn’t a test or anything like that.”
Cassian, visible to me only in profile, swept back his disheveled silver hair and lowered his gaze.
Silver eyelashes the color of his hair fell across eyes of vivid blue, giving him an almost ice-princess appearance. The white priestly robes he wore today only strengthened the effect.
But for all his seemingly sacred appearance, what came from his lips was rather cutting.
“I wouldn’t help in your position. Why help? They lived as they chose, and now they’ve met with Divine Wrath.”
“Divine Wrath….”
“In the Eastern Empire, they call it karma.”
Cassian continued, saying there had to be at least one person in need of help who’d lived far more virtuously than that teacher.
“Even if no such person exists now, and I have time to spare, I won’t help someone who made me feel that humiliated. I can’t.”
“…….”
“Even if I saw them drowning by chance, I’d turn away and walk past them with a clear conscience.”
“…….”
“I wouldn’t thank them for helping, just as that lady’s mother didn’t.”
“Ah.”
That really had stung.
I tilted my head back slightly to look up at Cassian.
Cassian lowered his face, meeting my gaze, and emphasized his point.
“I mean it.”
“…….”
“Seraphina, this decision is entirely yours. Help if you want to, don’t help if you don’t. No one will blame you for refusing.”
I asked you to be a Magic Saint, not to undertake the penance of forgiving your enemies. That’s how Cassian’s words ended.
“Mm….”
What should I do?
What’s the right thing to do?
‘If only someone would tell me this is Justice, laid out plainly, and I could just follow it.’
Why do I keep ending up with so many things to agonize over?
Lost in thought, I stroked Tofu’s fur backward.
“Grrr….”
Even Tofu, who’d shown me his teeth complaining about me messing up his fur, seemed to sense my turmoil and simply looked up at me quietly.
“…….”
No, wait—I helped the grandmother in the first place, didn’t I?
But that grandmother put me in an awkward spot.
This time, if I help the teacher.
If I risk capture, the risk of exposure, the risk of meeting that red-eyed man again, and all manner of dangers to pull the teacher out of crisis.
And then the teacher, miraculously spared, comes back to the Costume Room and acts like an absolute menace to me, just like days ago.
Cursing, sneering, making me feel degraded.
Could I then avoid regretting that I’d helped the teacher?
‘God, should’ve just let them go under! Then they wouldn’t have had the time or money to come to the Costume Room and cause a scene! Why did I help, aaaaaagh!’ Could I honestly swear I wouldn’t rage and regret it?
“…….”
Ah…
“…After all, I…”
“You?”
“I’m going to help the teacher.”
I stood up from the bench.
Tofu, worn out from waiting and hanging his nose in a yawn, turns to look at me. So does Cassian, who’d been facing away.
“I’m not sure how to explain it.”
I spoke while watching Cassian’s eyes, which asked silently: ‘Why?’
“I’m not ‘bestowing’ Justice on people like some nobleman showering favors on his servants.”
That’s not what this is.
I’m not unilaterally providing people with the gift of Justice according to my whims.
“If I help people I like and refuse to help those I dislike, the moment I do that, my Justice becomes a favor I’m dispensing to others.”
That’s not Justice. That’s Benevolence.
It’s just another hierarchy.
And I despise that.
I’ve been on the receiving end of it, so I won’t do the same.
Of course, I absolutely hate helping those people either!
“My teacher is a wretched man who struck my face when I was fourteen and didn’t even recognize the student he was meeting again after nine years, but regardless—he’s the victim in this case.”
“…….”
“My feelings about my teacher don’t matter. I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do.”
As a Magic Saint.
Having made my decision, I exhale with relief. Cassian simply stares at me without saying a word.
He doesn’t even blink, just pierces me with his gaze—it’s starting to feel rather embarrassing.
“What’s wrong?”
Disagree with my saintly decision? I was joking, but he doesn’t respond.
“Cassian?”
Are you alive? I spread my palm and wave it in front of his eyes.
Cassian finally snaps to attention, shaking his head.
Had he been dozing while standing? He repeats the motion a few times before—
“…No, it’s just so unexpected.”
He mutters as though speaking to himself.
There’s plenty to be unexpected about.
“Are you really not going to regret this?”
“I don’t know. But if my teacher receives punishment, I think it should be for what he did to me.”
“That’s fair.”
“And if I don’t help my teacher, Tram will escape without any consequences at all. I can’t stand that either.”
Having made the decision, I feel relieved. I dust off my palms as I speak.
“So now I need to figure out exactly how to help my dear beloved abuser…….”
Lunch period’s almost over anyway, so I should get back to the Costume Room.
“If you find any information related to this case, send Tofu to my house. I’m going ahead!”
I give Tofu’s head one last pet before leaving the greenhouse.
Cassian remained standing motionless in the greenhouse even after I left.
Only Tofu, sprawled sideways on the bench, wagged his tail as I departed.
* * *
“Cassian.”
“…….”
“Cassian!”
Why the blank stare? Are you hungry? Want to come get sweet potatoes with me? Panting and prancing about frantically, Johan keeps chattering away, but Cassian stands there dazed.
Johan gets his saliva on Cassian’s hand without even realizing it, and Cassian finally opens his mouth.
“…Johan Mendelssohn Handel Beethoven Bach Schubert Mozart Debussy Park Yeon Strauss the Third.”
“Huh?”
“The priests of the Temple can only love once in their entire lives, can’t they?”
“That’s right.”
“I think I need to be careful.”
One wrong step and I’ll fall in love.
“Really? With who?!”
With who! Where are they! Johan’s mouth falls open in shock as he sniffs the air in all directions.
“Is that person nice?! Pretty?! Do they like sweet potatoes?!”
Are they even human?! Johan throws a fit beside Cassian, who has lost himself in thought. Then Cassian suddenly looks up at the sky.
“…You said a Magic Saint would appear and save the world.”
But.
“You never mentioned that I would face a crisis because of that Magic Saint…….”
That I would feel my heart plummet the moment those two eyes fix steadily on me, saying she would do her duty.
“Why didn’t you tell me something so important…….”
Wasn’t that too cruel……. He speaks as though lamenting, covering his eyes with his hand.
A large hand covered his eyes, eyebrows, and the bridge of his nose all at once. The tip of Cassian’s ear, exposed beside it, flushed crimson.
Against his pale skin and silver hair, it seemed the only red thing on Cassian’s entire body.
And not even three days had passed before morning came.
The Empire’s citizens received an astonishing letter.
“Yawn.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to go to work… What is this?”
On a late-winter morning when the sun had only just begun to rise, before the Empire’s citizens who’d stepped out to collect the milk or newspaper left at their doors.
Small gift boxes suddenly falling from the sky.
Tied to a lollipop the size of a palm, they were.
「This coming weekend.
From Tram Baron’s Mansion, I will take away a copy of the late painter Gwobban’s masterpiece, Dancing Boy.
I’m definitely taking it, so it’d be better if you just left it outside your door beforehand!
Then here’s to having a day where you keep all your belongings safe☆
–Magic Saint Seraphina💫-」
It was a heist notice from 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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