The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 72

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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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The Magic Saint Seraphina
Chapter 72
“I didn’t study to make the world a better place…….”
I studied for my own advancement.
To graduate from a good school with good grades, land a good job, and live a stable, comfortable life.
“The truth is, I didn’t much care how things turned out in the world…….”
If things had gone differently, I might be the one sitting in Judge Cameron’s chair.
Someone who’d never known what it meant to be powerless, and so had no need for empathy.
“Sob, sob.”
Seraphina grabbed the sleeve of Arden’s jacket hanging by the door and covered her eyes with it.
What in the world was she saying?
Bewildered, Arden found himself remembering the conversation between them from the day the Magic Saint first appeared.
‘You can change too.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes. Isn’t that why you studied?’
‘That’s right. True. I studied to change the world.’
“…So that’s all you have to confess while drunk?”
Huh? Then what exactly should Seraphina be confessing to you?
Arden didn’t have a ready answer to that question either, but…….
Still, that wasn’t the point…….
“…….”
All the wind went out of him, and Arden exhaled heavily.
Only then did he realize he still wasn’t wearing a shirt.
As Arden fumbled into his clothes, Seraphina whimpered.
“I broke the door too….”
“Don’t worry about it.”
He took her hand as she struggled to wedge a roasted sweet potato into the hole in the door to block it.
“Come on. I’ll take you there.”
Small hands.
Had Seraphina known that Arden—fastidious as he was—would clasp her hand so unselfconsciously, she would surely have been astonished.
Unfortunately, Seraphina was intoxicated.
And Arden didn’t register what he’d done himself.
Because it didn’t feel unpleasant.
In fact, he wasn’t even angry that she’d gotten roasted sweet potato skin crumbs all over someone else’s door handle.
“You eat the rest.”
“Okay.”
“You always sprinkle cinnamon on it, right?”
“Yes, yes.”
Taking the still-warm roasted sweet potato, Arden led Seraphina toward the stairs.
“Be careful. There are stairs ahead.”
“The stairs should be careful of me…….”
It wasn’t until they’d descended to the second floor that he realized he’d left his own door standing wide open while looking after Seraphina.
It didn’t matter.
The door was broken anyway.
“Do you have a key?”
“Here.”
Seraphina pulled her room key from Arden’s coat pocket and held it up, turning it back and forth to show him.
Arden blinked as he reached to remove the key that seemed to be stuck in the lock.
‘She’s strong.’
Didn’t she break the door handle by force too?
Strength is a good thing.
‘The Magic Saint was strong too.’
That person—she broke a clock with her bare hands, didn’t she?
And there she was looking up at him in surprise, and for some reason he couldn’t move…….
‘…Why am I thinking about that weirdo?’
Arden’s brow furrowed, and when Seraphina thrust the door open with a bang, he reflexively scolded her.
“Get it together. You’re going to break this door too….”
Tap.
“Your eyes are still red, Arden…….”
“…….”
“Did it hurt terribly? I’m sorry…….”
“…….”
She’s touching my cheek right now.
“Don’t worry. You’re not alone.”
Is she wiping my eyelids with her fingers?
“I’ll work hard too, so we can build a better world.”
With her hands.
“Let’s do this together.”
“…….”
Against my face.
“Promise?”
Promise?
What kind of promise?
A marriage promise?
“You won’t?”
“…Oh.”
Arden snapped back to himself just in time, nodding slowly.
Honestly, he couldn’t remember what his senior had just said. His mind held only the words marriage promise.
“Great!”
Since this is yours, I’ll give it back to you.
Seraphina pressed the broken Door Handle into Arden’s palm and slipped into her room.
Click.
The sound of the door closing echoed.
Left alone, Arden stood silent, the Door Handle in his grip.
After a long moment, he touched his own cheek where her hand had rested.
“Ah… for real.”
‘Arden’s eyes are still red’, ‘Did it hurt terribly?’, ‘I’m sorry.’ He remained blissfully unaware of the enormous hints he’d just received.
He saw nothing of the Transformation’s lingering traces still scattered across Seraphina’s room, the creaking window, or the flower petals strewn across the floor.
* * *
The next day, in the Courtroom.
A Retrial for the Academy Law School third-year student’s case, held unusually early at the request of Judge Cameron.
“Ugh……”
I’m never drinking again.
I can’t even remember how I made it home.
‘I was only going to pretend to drink. I actually swallowed it by mistake.’
I think I bought a bag of Roasted Sweet Potatoes, but when I woke up it was gone. Strange.
‘Tofu must’ve eaten it all. Pig.’
Still, thanks to sleeping well, my cold cleared up.
I rubbed my throat and muttered to myself.
“I want some hot broth. Or pizza.”
“Your choices are a bit extreme, aren’t they?”
Cassian had just arrived, laughing at me.
I glared at Tofu and he held himself up defensively with the limp dog hanging there, making that characteristic yapping sound.
“Tofu, you glutton.”
“Did you mean me?”
“Yeah, you’re a glutton.”
“Whine.”
I flicked Tofu’s nose for playing dumb.
“Anyway, are we starting late again today? I only have forty minutes for lunch.”
“Hopefully not.”
Thankfully, Judge Cameron appeared five minutes before the scheduled start.
A reporter waiting in the gallery shot to his feet and shouted.
“Judge Cameron!”
It was that same reporter who’d raised his hand with questions during the Magic Saint mock trial.
Working hard as always, I see.
The reporter shook off a court officer trying to approach him and fired a question.
“Why did you accelerate the trial schedule!”
You’re handling the second hearing after the first, aren’t you! Do you think that’s a fair proceeding?!
“We heard there was a chase between the Magic Saint and Arden near your residence last night! Do you have any comment on that?!”
The Magic Saint is famous for punishing evildoers — why do you think she visited you?!
“Are you planning to hand down the same verdict as last time?!”
He hurled the question at the judge before being dragged away.
One might have expected the authoritarian Judge Cameron to lose his temper immediately and charge the reporter with contempt of court, and indeed the court clerk and bailiff exchanged nervous glances.
Judge Cameron, however, remained composed.
Seated at the bench, he replied evenly.
“To spare the victim further suffering.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Everyone’s eyes widened at words they had not expected to hear from Judge Cameron.
The clerk, the bailiff, the reporter, the defendant pressed close beside his parents along with four lawyers, and—
Even the victim, who had been glaring up at the judge’s bench with eyes full of resentment.
“Precisely as I have stated. The victim has already endured excessive suffering as a result of this case, and as a judge, the only thing I can do is minimize the time required for a retrial to ease that burden.”
……
“I shall now pronounce the sentence.”
The courtroom fell silent.
Judge Cameron, his tone now thoroughly formal, unfolded the documents he had brought.
It was a verdict written by his own hand.
“Despite the victim’s repeated and explicit refusal—”
Ignoring this refusal and attempting to invade the victim’s residence using information obtained through illicit channels constitutes a crime of the utmost severity.
“The defendant claims to have been severely intoxicated at the time of arrest, yet not everyone commits the same crime merely because they have consumed alcohol.”
The fact that the defendant committed the crime in a state of diminished mental capacity suggests that should he find himself in such a state again, he may commit the same offense without hesitation.
“To invoke an unfortunate family background is nothing less than an insult to those who, despite similar circumstances, live with integrity and virtue.”
That he is young and academically accomplished, with a promising future ahead, merely indicates he has many years in which to commit further crimes, and the potential to evolve into an abuse-of-power criminal by leveraging his accomplishments.
Therefore, should we fail to punish and correct him severely now, while he commits his first offense, he may become a blight upon the order of the Sublime Empire in years to come.
“I hereby sentence the defendant to fifteen years imprisonment.”
Furthermore.
“I strongly recommend to the Captain of the Capital Guard present that the guard who carelessly disclosed the victim’s address to the defendant be prosecuted for dereliction of duty.”
“What—!”
“This is absurd—!”
The defendant’s supporters attempted to protest but were silenced by the court bailiff.
Having completed the sentencing, Judge Cameron rose from his seat.
He glanced around the courtroom as if searching for someone, then quietly departed.
The journalists present snapped their cameras repeatedly at the verdict that directly overturned the original judgment the judge himself had pronounced.
“What did you do? How did you manage that?”
Cassian whispered, bewildered at the sudden transformation in the man.
I lifted my shoulders slightly.
“Not much.”
I simply told him to issue the sentence as if it were his own case.
The courtroom echoed now with the victim’s sobs—a different sound than after the first verdict.
I recalled the enormous hot air balloon that by now should be drifting in front of the Roar Central Court.
And the banner hanging from it.
「
All citizens are equal before the law. The system of servitude is not recognized, and no form of it may be established.
Article 1, Section 1 of the Imperial Law, protected by His Imperial Majesty, states: ‘All citizens are equal before the law, and the Sublime Empire has no system of servitude.’
‘Because he showed remorse,’ ‘because he was drunk,’ ‘because his future is bright.’
But verdicts that prioritize the perpetrator’s circumstances place shackles of lifelong anxiety and resentment around the victim’s ankles, shackles nearly impossible to remove.
Is that not servitude?
Esteemed judges, remember Article 1, Section 1 of the Imperial Law.
There is no servitude in the Sublime Empire.
Not even the servitude of fear.
–Magic Saint Seraphina💫-」

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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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