The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 5

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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 5
At that same moment.
The imperial capital, Ruar. District 1, Number 1.
“Is it so hard to look me in the eye?”
……
“Were you at that boarding house again today?”
……
“My son, who are you talking to?”
The woman waved the fishing rod she held. Look here.
The “son” remained motionless, but an innocent gray cat floundered upright on its hind legs. Arden, glancing at the struggling creature with evident annoyance, gave a terse reply.
“Yes.”
“Is that your answer?”
“Yes.”
“Heavens.”
The woman struck her chest.
Though the hour had long passed midnight, the room blazed with light.
Documents piled like mountains here and there, an enormous map of the empire spread across the central table, countless flags planted upon it, and ancient magical incantations carved in blue across the glass windows.
This was District 1, Number 1—the Imperial Palace. More precisely, the Emperor’s study.
The Emperor addressed her son.
“Why are you still clinging to that place? It’s nearly three months since you graduated from the Academy.”
……
“Won’t you answer?”
“It… is my choice.”
“Is it only your choice that matters? Mine counts too.”
The words that fell from the Emperor’s lips were childish for his station, but Arden pretended not to hear.
“Shouldn’t you start wrapping things up and come home?”
“I don’t wish to.”
“Then why—”
……
“My son, let’s be reasonable about this.”
The Emperor struck his desk. The fingers that had been deformed by a lifetime wielding pen and sword pointed at his child.
“You are the Crown Prince. I haven’t held your enthronement ceremony yet, but as my only child, it will come in due course. So how much longer do you intend to hide your identity and masquerade as a common knight out there?”
“Mother ordered it.”
“That was only supposed to last until you graduated from the Academy!”
I told you to graduate through merit, not when to enlist in the Order of Knights! The Emperor drummed his chest.
“Yes, I told you to graduate from the Academy through your own strength. To live among the empire’s people as a commoner, without the halo of being Crown Prince. So is this rebellion now?”
……
“What I gave you was a sort of reprieve. Once you become Emperor, you’ll spend your whole life doing nothing but work, so I thought you should live freely until then. But this—”
Do you think it makes sense for the sole heir to the throne to grovel at the bottom of a knight’s order! the Emperor declared indignantly.
“If I’d known this would happen, I’d have revealed your face to the empire’s people long ago!”
With only one child, afraid he might suffer assassination threats, I hid your face away carefully—and now the boy uses it for his own convenience!
“What reason could you possibly have for enduring that filthy hovel? You, who are such a neat freak!”
Is there some treasure hidden there?
Even as he spoke, the Emperor didn’t believe his own words.
What treasure could that boy possibly have? At most, there’d be a bathtub that ran with scalding water and soap that never wore away.
He fixed his gaze sharply, ready to blame the cat if it spouted nonsense.
But something seemed off about his son—the boy who usually remained expressionless and sullen no matter what his mother said.
Arden was pretending not to notice as he tightened his already well-knotted necktie, and his ears had flushed red.
“My son?”
The Emperor pressed the matter.
“The ro—”
“The room?”
The room what?
“The room isn’t cleaned.”
“What?”
“I’m living in a pigsty. It bothers me.”
“What did you say?”
“I’ll go back.”
Before the Emperor could press further, Arden vanished.
“What did that fool just say?”
He turned to the chamberlain standing beside him, but the man only tilted his head in confusion.
The Emperor sighed once his taciturn son had departed.
“With a disposition like that, how on earth will any woman ever take him?”
Fussy, devoid of charm, sensitive to the core, and at his age still uninterested in the opposite sex. And barely says a word!
“I wonder if I’ll live long enough to see that stubborn boy actually initiate a conversation with a woman…….”
A cat yawned widely in the Emperor’s study, where worry hung heavy in the air.
Having left the palace, Arden found himself wondering.
‘What could she be doing right now?’
When he’d gone to buy a handkerchief that afternoon, she’d looked exhausted. One of the staff had quit, apparently.
Seeing that senior working in the Tailoring Room always irritated him.
It wasn’t the work in the Tailoring Room that bothered him. It was watching her do something she never wanted to do.
The Academy that had already milked him for tuition while he was enrolled, then demanded more money at graduation, annoyed him. Imperial Law that prohibited the Crown from interfering in university affairs, however sensible, annoyed him. Yet the law had a point, which annoyed him further…….
In short, everything annoyed him.
Arden’s pace quickened toward the Boarding House.
‘What exactly is she doing?’
Not that he was particularly curious. He just wanted to know.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
The senior he wanted to know about was——
* * *
In the middle of transforming.
Her hair, which had been twisted up tightly to avoid hindering movement, came loose.
Her raven-black hair shifted to a golden blonde much like Arden’s own.
Her clothes changed as well.
In place of the black shirt came a pure white blouse with fluffy cotton-candy sleeves, and instead of dark trousers, a scarlet lace skirt that rode high above her thighs.
A massive ribbon of matching color adorned her chest.
Flutter.
Pink petals drifted down through the empty air.
The moment the incantation finished, her body, which had been spinning slowly, came to a gentle halt.
“Transformation complete!”
Maltese clapped from beside me.
I was appalled.
“What is this?!”
The transformation alone takes a full minute!
I’ll get shot mid-transformation!
I glanced sideways at the philanderer—his jaw hung open. Apparently the shock was so overwhelming he couldn’t even think to pull the trigger.
Beside these two vacant fools, only Maltese was thrilled.
“Now move with confidence! The Magic Saint Battle Outfit has Facial Recognition Disabling Magic woven into it!”
“What kind of magic?!”
“Magic that makes anyone who knows the Magic Saint unable to recognize her face, even if they’re staring right at it!”
“Good grief!”
At least it preserves my dignity.
If people who know me found out I was running around outside dressed like this!
I’d die of shame.
“Villain! Desist at once! The Magic Saint, guardian of justice, has arrived!”
Maltese, growing proud despite having transformed nothing himself, pointed dramatically at the philanderer with his short foreleg. The man, who had been dazed, finally gasped in horror.
“Did that dog just speak?!”
Apparently a person transforming isn’t surprising enough!
“I’m not a dog!”
“Aaah! A ghost!”
“Not a ghost! A Divine Beast!”
“Arrgh!”
“Ha! You fear the judgment of justice, do you?”
“Aaaaah! Whatever you are, die!”
Bang!
“No—!”
I scooped up the dog and dove behind the desk.
Bang! Bang!
I waved the dog’s front paws frantically to calm him down, who’d gone terrified and silent in an instant.
“Snap out of it, boy! Snap out of it!”
A Magic Saint?!
“That’s all there is?!”
This childish outfit and Facial Recognition Disabling Magic?!
“Don’t I get a weapon or something?!”
Am I really supposed to block bullets with a mirror?!
“Die already!”
Bang! Bang!
“Damn it!”
There’s nowhere to run in this cramped space!
“Do something, mutt!”
“S-something precious! Seraphina needs to have something precious!”
“This is precious!”
I pointed to the Brooch I’d been wearing since changing clothes—the one I’d used to unlock the door.
“I got this when I was selected as an outstanding student at the Academy! It’s proof that I worked hard and achieved something! Every time some jerk humiliates me, looking at this lifts my spirits! When I feel like I’m nothing! When people treat me like a maid who can’t talk back, who exists only for their whims! It reminds me that I’m worth so much more than they are…….”
All lies, and it’s the most expensive thing I own.
“It’s truly the most precious thing I have!”
So do something, anything for me now!
In that instant, the Brooch stretched out long.
What materialized in my hand was—
A cherry-colored Puffy Hammer with wings.
“?!”
Pop! Pop-pop!
The massive, plump hammer swung wildly of its own accord, deflecting the bullets. Each one it struck transformed into a colorful candy star that scattered down like rain.
“Good grief!”
How did it know I’d been fantasizing about hitting every difficult customer I’ve ever served with a Puffy Hammer?!
Bang!
“Yelp!”
No time to marvel at this.
I charged straight at the unfaithful man.
Bang!
“Thank you for your patience, sir! I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience!”
Bonk!
“That’s not possible! I’m afraid not!”
Thwack-thwack!
“Yes! That means no!”
Pop-pop-pow!
“You’re in a hurry, you say?! Then! You! Should! Have! Come! Earlier!”
Bonk-bonk-bonk!
Every ounce of resentment carried by every worker in this world—
A customer-disciplining hammer strike!
Whack!
“Gahhh!”
Thud.
The unfaithful man crumpled to the ground after taking repeated blows from the massive Puffy Hammer to the head.
“Huff, huff…….”
I lowered the Puffy Hammer and caught my breath.
“…….”
A wave of shame washed over me…….
‘Lace skirt and a Puffy Hammer.’
Being a Magic Saint……
Do you gain power at the cost of humiliation? Like how you can run faster when you recall an embarrassing moment from your past?
“You were amazing! Seraphina! This is our victory!”
While I’d been chastising the unfaithful man, Maltese had been busy picking up the scattered candy stars from the floor, and now he finally cheered.
“…….”
Doesn’t care about anyone else’s feelings, apparently.
I glared at Maltese as he pawed defensively over the last remaining candy star on the floor, afraid I might snatch it away.
“Hm. Hm-hm~”
Mrs. Scrooge humming as she climbed the stairs—completely oblivious to all the gunfire and hammer-swinging chaos that had erupted upstairs until just now.
“…….”
The unfaithful man. The unfaithful woman. And Mrs. Scrooge.
People who’d cut off Ellie’s livelihood while she was simply trying to earn a wage.
‘Right. Since I’ve started this, I might as well see it through properly.’
“Maltese.”
While my mind had wandered, Maltese quietly lifted his front paw and fished out a star-shaped candy, so I called him over.
“You said you wanted to pursue justice, didn’t you?”

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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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