The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 11

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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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Chapter 11
I held out my hand toward the girl, still wearing a smile.
“Come on, let’s give it a try. Will you take my hand?”
Her small fist hovered in the air without grasping mine, trembling with hesitation and fear. I held her gaze steadily and spoke in a soothing tone.
“It’s alright. It won’t hurt at all. This will heal you so you can sleep soundly at night without transforming strangely anymore.”
“But the Cardinal who came to the village before died too…….”
“Don’t worry. I’m far stronger than that Cardinal was.”
At my confident declaration, both Arden and Rufus gave me deeply uncomfortable looks. But what could I do about the truth?
Reassured by my self-assured words, the child finally reached out and grasped my hand carefully.
Interestingly, the Demonic Energy accumulated in the girl’s body was less than what had built up in the village’s adults.
It was strange, considering that despite her small frame, the Demonic Energy should have accumulated in her more quickly.
I took the girl’s hand firmly in mine and slowly gathered my Holy Power.
A quiet radiance pooled in my palm with each heartbeat. It began as a faint warmth, then spread gently like a breath.
Because the hand I held was so small, I didn’t force the Demonic Energy out as I had with the adults. Instead, I chose to slowly and gently envelop the Demonic Energy, even if it took more time.
The Demonic Energy tangled within the girl’s body tried to flee from the light, but like darkness engulfed by radiance, it gradually lost ground and faded away.
‘Ah, so that’s why.’
As I poured in my Holy Power, I understood how the girl had managed to endure until now.
Finally, the last speck of Demonic Energy remaining in the girl’s body was annihilated by the Holy Power.
“There. All done. Not so bad, was it?”
When I released her hand, the small fingers clutched my sleeve once more. Then, feeling the lightness of her body and the clarity of energy within it for the first time in a long while, she seemed relieved and slowly let go.
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Lina.”
Her voice rang out bright and clear. Just hearing it, she seemed remarkably composed and sharp.
“That’s right, Lina. You said you had something to tell us earlier—that the village had become strange, yes?”
When I brought up what Lina had said before her mother grabbed her, the girl nodded.
“Can you tell us when things started to go wrong?”
“Um…… Four months ago.”
Lina held up four fingers as she spoke. It roughly aligned with the date the Old Woman had mentioned when animals and babies began to transform.
“Then even before that—before the village became strange—did anyone come to visit the village? Or was there some major incident?”
Lina shook her head firmly.
Looking at those truthful eyes, which showed no hesitation or anxiety, it seemed she genuinely didn’t know.
“How did the village become strange?”
“A chicken attacked Peggy’s house, and Mary was eaten by a goat. The baby Margaret gave birth to suddenly bit off her finger while drinking milk. And…….”
The child clamped her mouth shut and shook her head, clearly unwilling to say more. The next ones would likely be children around her age—her playmates, or close younger or older siblings she used to play with.
“You don’t have to say anymore. Thank you for telling us.”
I placed my hand on the child’s head and bestowed a gentle Blessing upon her. A Blessing of brilliant dreams.
From now on, this child would have no more nightmares to haunt her future.
“The Old Woman’s account and the child’s testimony align. It doesn’t seem she was lying.”
Arden appeared to share my thoughts.
I addressed the woman who held the child tightly, tears streaming down her face as she repeated words of gratitude, speaking with solemnity.
“Madam, this child is a Holy Power bearer.”
It was something I’d realized while channeling Holy Power into the child.
Lina possessed Purification Holy Power. That was why, when other children her age became corrupted by Demonic Energy rapidly, only this child’s corruption progressed more slowly.
Thanks to that, she was the only one who survived when the other children died at their parents’ hands.
Though she was still too young to wield Holy Power properly and could only purify the Demonic Energy accumulated in her own body rather than cleanse others, as she grew and mastered her Holy Power, it was clear she would develop into a genuinely valuable talent for the Holy Temple.
Holy Power bearers, especially those with Purification Holy Power, were quite useful after all.
At my words, the child’s mother’s eyes sparkled with hope. It seemed she was already mentally marking the girl to send her to the Holy Temple later.
There were indeed children who, recognized as possessing Holy Power from childhood, were raised from an early age in the main Holy Temple.
It seemed like yesterday that people would throw salt in my face and ask if they should condemn their children to never marry and grow old unmarried, just because the child possessed Holy Power.
I’d seen priesthood become a dream profession starting from the orphanages under the Holy Temple’s jurisdiction, but experiencing it this directly was new to me.
“But I suspect that if your daughter enters the main Holy Temple early, she’ll only end up as a Holy Artifact Charger at this point.”
At my blunt words, Arden turned to me in surprise.
“And even if you send her to the Holy Temple early, without backing in our Religious Order right now, she won’t advance in rank. Your daughter would just become a perpetual low-ranking High Priest separated from you since childhood.”
Without holding back, I laid out the harsh reality of the Religious Order, and Rufus too seemed to choke, coughing repeatedly.
“So if you’re going to mark her for the Holy Temple, do it in seven years.”
Seven years would be more than enough time for me to completely overhaul the Holy Temple.
Speaking with confidence, Arden glanced back at me. He seemed to be gauging what the date of seven years meant.
But seven years referred to when the child would have grown to a certain age—it wasn’t a deadline for my upheaval—so even if Arden reported to the upper ranks of the Religious Order that I seemed about to do something in seven years, it wasn’t really my concern.
The deadline I’d set for my “cleaning” was three years.
If I couldn’t set things right within three years, I was prepared to throw Incendiary Bombs at the Holy Temple and destroy with my own hands everything I’d built.
Caritas, if I hurl an Incendiary Bomb, would you see fit to send down a thunderbolt at precisely the right moment—to make it look like divine retribution? Surely you don’t wish your sole, true representative to go down in the records as a deranged arsonist? Do you?
“Forgive me, Holy Saint… would you perhaps care for some food……?”
The woman offered tentatively. But purifying the Demonic Energy of everyone in the Village would require quite a demanding schedule.
“I wish I could, truly, but I’m afraid today won’t allow it. Once all the work is finished, might we share a meal together?”
“Of course.”
I smiled gently at her and rose to my feet.
“Shall we move on to the next house?”
With the sun setting soon, I quickened my pace and left the house—there was no time to waste if I meant to complete the purification circuit of the entire Village before nightfall.
Though purification could certainly be performed at night, cleansing a person—who was perhaps one-twentieth the size of a Demonic Beast—was surely preferable to grappling with a Demonic Beast itself.
***
After diligently purifying the Demonic Energy from every household in the Village, I finally arrived at the last house.
The last belonged to the Village’s eldest couple. The grandfather was in such a state—Demonic Energy compounded with the infirmities of age—that he could not rise from his bed, and the grandmother was nowhere to be seen.
I purified the grandfather, who was groaning in his bed, and asked him a question.
“Good sir, where might your wife be?”
“What did you say……?”
“Where is your wife right now?”
“Can’t hear…….”
“Wife! Where! Did you go!”
Only after deploying my ultimate technique—the infamous skill of mangled, discourteous casual speech—did the grandfather nod his head.
“Ah yes, my wife? She went to draw water at the Well.”
“How! Long! Ago!”
“Oh, not long at all.”
It must have been my imagination that Arden seemed slightly taken aback by my casual-speech skill. But without speaking so bluntly, the elderly never understand a thing.
We had little time to spare waiting in this house.
Sunset was approaching, and the eldest resident’s gait—weighted down by a Water Bucket—would surely not be swift.
So we opted for house calls instead, heading directly to the Well.
After asking around among the few Village people we encountered, we arrived at the Village’s communal Water Well.
Puzzled, I turned to Arden and asked.
“Sir, am I the only one who cannot see the old woman……?”
“She is not visible to my eyes either, I’m afraid…….”
What greeted us was an empty Well—not a soul in sight.

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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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