The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 38

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Magic Saint Seraphina
Chapter 38
“I told you, didn’t I? How you became the teacher you are now because you accumulated experience getting away with unreasonable actions without facing consequences.”
Isabel Golly, treating me like someone too weak to even squirm when stepped on, acting exactly as she pleased.
“So I—the victim—need to make you pay the price. Teach you. That there are consequences when you mistreat others.”
Baron Tram’s wrongs belong to Baron Tram; the teacher’s wrongs belong to the teacher.
And that’s how I ended up filing a lawsuit.
“When I was little, I didn’t know better, but the day I went to the library and looked it up, I found out what the teacher did violated the law.”
Conveniently, the evidence was still there.
The Reflection Essay I’d written, the Apology Letter, the Disciplinary Record, even the Letter of Recommendation the teacher had given me.
All of it stored intact in the staff office of Luar 13th Regular School where I’d studied.
“It makes no sense. Writing a letter of recommendation for a student who’d just caused such an incident. That alone is evidence. And.”
“And?”
“I’m not sure how it happened, but the principal was incredibly cooperative.”
The moment I went to the school, he came rushing out to greet me.
Like he was urging me to file the suit.
“The principal even collected testimony from the other teachers at the time, and introduced me to some lawyer with access to the Imperial Palace.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. The student who caused the incident back then was named Paul, and apparently this lawyer is Paul’s uncle or something. I have no idea why he’s helping me, but.”
“That’s strange.”
“It is strange.”
Is there some fairy helping me from behind the scenes?
I tilted my head in bewilderment. Beside me, Arden brushed the dust from his sleeve without a word.
“He said I can receive the reparation I should have gotten then, plus nine years of interest.”
“That’s a substantial sum.”
“It really is. And the news made quite a stir, naturally.”
Normally it wouldn’t be headline material, but right now the Golly Family is at the center of attention because of the Magic Saint and the <Dancing Boy> incident.
They’d made such a fuss about being helpless victims, yet it turned out they’d pinned their responsibility on someone even more powerless than they were—a parentless fourteen-year-old girl—and when that came to light, you can imagine how furious people became.
“This morning she came to find me at the costume room to ask for a settlement, and Ellie chased her out.”
“She should have come earlier. We could have chased her out together.”
“Turns out she wasn’t strict just with me. Apparently she was quite harsh with the household servants too.”
After my lawsuit made the newspapers, the maids who’d suffered under the Golly Family for years filed suits of their own.
(That lawyer—Paul’s uncle—is taking their cases too. Without charging a fee. Does anyone know why he’s doing this?)
“And conveniently, the Corporal Punishment Law for Rudeness to Staff was passed around the same time….”
I really do wonder if there’s some fairy grandmother working to help me from the shadows.
In the end, the Golly Family had to spend a substantial portion of the money they’d raised from auctioning the <Dancing Boy> on reparations for their customary conduct.
They barely avoided bankruptcy, but had to sell their prized residence in District 2 and move, and their youngest daughter—who’d tormented the maids—now had to do all the housework herself without servants.
(By the way, the maid whose hair that daughter had grabbed at the time also received reparation and found a new job.)
Teacher Isabel, who after getting married had quit school midterm saying she’d never do such a thing again, tried to return to teaching at a regular school.
But no school would take her, so she apparently works as a shop clerk somewhere now.
I’m not ashamed of myself working as a clerk, but I’m not sure how the teacher feels about it.
‘If you think your life is hell, it is hell. If you think it isn’t, then it isn’t.’
“If she felt wronged, she should just file a lawsuit against those parents from back then.”
I said this while sipping the milk tea Arden had brought.
Lunchtime. Children ran and giggled around us as Arden and I sat by the Square Fountain.
Arden, worried their spit might get into the drink, was covering the rim of his cup with his hand when he asked.
“So you’ll be quitting the costume room work then.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re getting the reparation.”
“Oh, I’m donating it.”
To the Orphanage where I grew up. Unlike Arden, I sipped my milk tea carelessly, not bothering to shield it from flying spit, and answered lightly.
At my words, Arden turned his whole body to look at me.
“Why?”
“Why, you ask?”
“With that money, you could probably cover at least half of the school development fund, even if not all of it. So why.”
“Because if there’s another child going through what I did, I want them to know they’re not alone? I want to show them an adult who cares and wants to help.”
That at least one person exists who takes an interest in their situation and wants to support them. I want to convey that feeling.
“That’s….”
“That’s?”
“An irrational choice, isn’t it.”
But surely I need to save myself first, Arden said, his face darkening.
I answered lightly as ever.
“I know. But sometimes—”
“Sometimes?”
“I want to be someone who makes irrational choices even while knowing better.”
To the fourteen-year-old me who had to shoulder everything alone.
I want to tell you: you went through all that and still grew this wonderfully.
That everything will be all right.
“This much is cheap payment for comforting a wounded heart.”
And I won’t tell you, Arden, because I’m afraid you’ll drag me back.
The stipend from my Magic Saint Activity work is more substantial than I expected—enough that I can spend this much as I please.
I calculated it all before I did it.
♡☆♧I’m worn down, after all♡☆♧
“Anyway, that’s how it happened. I wanted to tell you. You were with me that day.”
He even offered to go to the Imperial Palace together. I added it with a smile.
Arden said nothing.
I watched his profile, unable to guess what he was thinking.
A spray of water from the fountain touched Arden’s cheek lightly.
I thought to myself.
‘Is fountain water not dirty?’
Are you okay? Obsessive about cleanliness?
* * *
At that moment, Arden’s mind was elsewhere.
‘Why was I shocked when this senior said she’d donate?’
With anyone else, I would have simply passed it off—’do more of it’—whether they donated or not.
But why did it shock me?
No, even before that.
Whenever this senior does anything, don’t I stagger under the weight of even trivial matters as if struck by a wave three hundred meters tall?
Why?
Why??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
‘Why am I so hung up on this person’s affairs?’
When I think about it, this senior is a stranger with no connection to me whatsoever.
She just saved me once back at the academy.
‘And she probably doesn’t even remember it.’
Yet why do I alone get swept up like this in melodramatic emotion over every little thing, losing all composure?
The violent anger I felt witnessing her suffer an injustice.
The satisfaction I felt watching her take revenge with such flair.
The bewilderment when she donated the money I’d pushed the headmaster and lawyer to secure swiftly, saying ‘sometimes I want to make irrational choices’… the shock… the admiration… the lo—
ve…?
No, no, no. That word came out wrong.
In any case, there had been only two people who shook his emotions this deeply of late.
The senior standing before him, and the Magic Saint.
Of course, the Magic Saint had been negative, but…
This is bewildering.
And yet, I don’t dislike it.
Losing my composure because of this person, being shaken like this—it’s not bad.
I want it to continue.
I want to know what she really thinks.
I want to understand her thoughts.
I want to know what happened to you in the past I don’t know about, and how it shaped you.
I want to keep learning how you feel and react as you encounter new situations.
I want this instability to go on.
To reduce this feeling I don’t yet understand to a single word—
“Senior.”
“Hmm?”
I ask the face turning back to me, a face that’s been appearing in my dreams lately.
“I became a dedicated investigator for the Magic Saint case.”
“It’s finally happened!”
“What?”
“No, nothing. Congratulations. So what?”
“Ahem. *Cough*.”
“Hmm?”
“So. The Imperial Palace is holding an Inspector’s appointment ceremony and a ball… *cough cough*!”
“Are you all right?”
“Would you like to go together?”
“What?”
“Let’s go to the ball together.”
“…….”
“Will you be my partner?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————