The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 62

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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
Chapter 62
Part 7. To the Honorable Judge I Respect🐶
“No matter that they’re commoners of no standing — they cross the line! Looking up to a Magic Saint as though she were something to revere!”
The old man’s shout — and he was clearly an old man, not a gentleman — rang across the Plaza.
Every eye that had been watching the children and Arden with amusement snapped toward him.
The children, scolded by a stranger out of nowhere, widened their eyes and craned their necks to stare up at him.
I looked at him too.
A classically designed bowler hat that never went out of fashion, his grey hair cut short and neat.
A well-tailored custom suit and spectacle frames set with ivory, topped off with an ebony wood cane decorated with bone inlay.
To look at him, he was the picture of a well-bred gentleman — yet here he was, barking orders at children he’d never met.
‘Like a drunk spoiling for a fight.’
Or someone for whom scolding had become a habit.
As if he believed he had the right.
The old man raised his voice again.
“Not only do you praise a criminal who disrupts social order and acts without restraint as some apostle of justice — you even imitate her?! Are you planning to become that sort of criminal yourselves when you grow up?”
“…….”
“And you adults — reflect on yourselves! If children are going to behave so shamelessly, you ought to know how to stop them!”
“…….”
The bystanders, who had been simply passing through, wore expressions of bewilderment at being lectured.
“In any case, there are far too many uneducated people in this world. With the ignorant comprising the bulk of the population, how can they possibly know right from wrong? Society is crumbling before our eyes!”
The old man clucked his tongue in disapproval and waved his cane toward the rear.
At that signal, a man who appeared to be his servant emerged from the waiting carriage and affixed a piece of paper to the notice board in the Plaza.
“How lamentable that I must personally take time to enlighten people in such basic concepts of good and evil!”
With his cane, the old man — who had just scolded dozens of people in the Plaza single-handedly — pointed at the paper he’d just had posted.
“This very evening, I shall hold a mock trial concerning the Magic Saint at the District 3 Blue Wall Salon! Come and learn how twisted our present reality has become!”
Especially you lot! Be sure you attend!
He glared at the children before turning to leave.
“Oh! Lord Arden, is that you?”
He had spotted Arden standing beside me.
“The one sane man in this chaos of a society!”
“…….”
“I’ve been following your exploits in the papers! Keep up that excellent work!”
The old man gave Arden’s shoulder an encouraging pat and departed in his carriage.
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone’s gaze fixed on the Arden left behind.
Arden blinked and spoke.
“I don’t know him.”
“…….”
“…….”
“I really don’t.”
Yet the stares persisted until Arden removed the overcoat that the old man’s shoulder had touched and tossed it into the trash.
Divested of his coat, Arden gazed blankly up at the sky.
I offered him milk tea.
“Here. Drink this.”
Arden, in his daze, accepted the milk tea without resistance.
Not entirely absent-minded, he pressed his lips to the exact spot where mine had been.
One of the watching children spoke up.
“Lord Arden is cheating on the Magic Saint.”
“…….”
“Villain, just as expected.”
That evening.
Wall posters appeared throughout the streets reading: “Mock Trial of the Magic Saint: All foolish persons who defend the Magic Saint must attend!”
I tilted my head as I looked at the posters pasted in a row beside the wanted posters for the Magic Saint.
“That old man must be wealthy. How many of these are there?”
“Sister, are you going?”
“I’m not sure. If I head over right after work, I think the timing would work out.”
“I don’t plan to go.”
“Why?”
Ellie, don’t you like the Magic Saint?
Ellie answered then.
“I mean, even if I went, I’d just end up cursing the Magic Saint anyway, right? There’s no point wasting time getting upset. I’ll just close my eyes, cover my ears, and support the Magic Saint.”
“Fair enough.”
The Emperor, a self-made entrepreneur, or friends whose opinions I respect.
People like that, maybe.
But I don’t need to waste time listening to some old man’s views.
‘Especially not if they’re insults aimed at me.’
I turned to leave after making my decision.
Suddenly, I felt the familiar sensation of a wet nose against my ankle.
Looking down, Johann Mendelssohn Handel Beethoven Bach Schubert Mozart Debussy Park Yeon Strauss III in his quilted coat gazed up at me, tail wagging.
“Pant-pant-pant.”
“What?”
“Pant-pant-pant.”
“Oh, you want to go there?”
“Pant-pant-pant.”
“What a bother…….”
“Pant-pant-pant!”
“Fine…….”
I realized I’d never had a choice to begin with.
“The District 3 Blue Wall Salon… this must be it.”
“You made it?”
After work.
I arrived at the mock trial venue with Johann Mendelssohn Handel Beethoven Bach Schubert Mozart Debussy Park Yeon Strauss III tucked under my arm—he’d only managed three minutes of walking before collapsing dramatically (which only proved he’d put on weight).
Cassian, standing at the entrance, took him from my arms.
“It’s cold. Why are you out here? You should have waited inside.”
“I was planning to, but they said I couldn’t enter without a partner.”
“Huh?”
A partner for watching a trial? I asked again, bewildered, and Cassian’s eyes lost focus.
“This is a salon that maintains decorum, so apparently you can’t enter without an opposite-gender partner.”
“But earlier today they were telling people to all come and watch.”
“You can observe without a partner. Standing out there.”
“In this weather?”
It’s freezing right now.
Even Johann Mendelssohn Handel Beethoven Bach Schubert Mozart Debussy Park Yeon Strauss III, whose whole body is covered in fur, is wearing a quilted coat!
“Is that any way to treat someone you invited?”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Ridiculous.”
I shook my head and entered with Cassian.
As soon as we stepped in, I spotted a tall judge’s chair mounted against the wall.
It appeared modeled after a judge’s bench, complete with a banner bearing the Imperial Court’s symbol, and two smaller chairs facing each other stood before it.
“Do you know what time the trial starts, Cassian?”
“Any moment now.”
I nodded and tried to find the most inconspicuous seat possible.
A figure blocked my path.
“…Arden?”
Arden, wearing a thick hood pulled low, was glaring at me.
“Did you come to watch the trial too?”
“You brought this guy as your partner?”
He pointed at Cassian with a gesture of disdain, as if unwilling to speak his name. Cassian’s eyes crinkled with amusement.
“No. We just met outside. Since you apparently can’t enter without a partner, we just entered together.”
“Hmm.”
Only then did Arden’s expression soften.
He tilted his head curiously.
“But why are you wearing that hood?”
“…If that old man finds out I’m here, he might try to get me to say things like he did before.”
“Ah, so you’re hiding your identity?”
“Yes.”
“Hang in there.”
I offered him encouragement.
Cassian asked him.
“So then, Arden—what sort of lady did you bring as your partner?”
“Huh?”
“Well, isn’t it so? To enter this place, you need an opposite-sex partner. So where’s the woman you brought with you?”
……
That thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.
……
All at once a sharp pang shot through my left chest, and I scratched at it.
Right. That’s right.
Of course Arden would need an opposite-sex partner to enter here too.
But why is my skin suddenly itching like this?
……Strange.
“So then, Arden—who did you come with?”
I asked with a forced smile, trying to hide the itch. From Cassian’s arms, Debussy poked his head out too.
“Woof.”
Arden suddenly found himself under the scrutiny of two humans and one dog, and he hesitated.
“I…”
“Yeah, and you are?”
You! What—!
Answer already!
“Why won’t you just say something?!”

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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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