The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 16

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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 16
“Will it take long?”
I shook my head briefly at Arden’s question.
“It’ll be done in a flash.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I hoisted Wilson Junior from my shoulder and smashed the Magic Stone in front of me with satisfying force. Arden’s jaw dropped.
Without pause, I moved to the Magic Stones encircling the village like a barrier and finished destroying them.
The purpose of these Magic Stones was obvious—they were meant to set up a formation and obliterate the village in one strike.
If I had failed and died here like Cardinal Norman, they would’ve used this excuse to erase this troublesome village entirely with a formation powered by these Magic Stones. Not a single survivor would escape.
Faute de mieux, they’d settled for destroying the stones instead of the architects. I couldn’t very well smash the heads of the Holy Order’s upper ranks who’d ordered this setup, now could I?
Caritas, if they come demanding compensation for the Magic Stones, please grant me the fortune to beat their successors’ brains in with this Wilson Junior and still enjoy a peaceful retirement.
The Magic Stone embedded in the back of the village didn’t need to be removed. With half the barrier gone, sealing and destroying the village was now impossible.
I drove the Mace through the remaining one, cracking it in two, then turned back toward Arden with a light step, still standing there in a daze.
“See? Done in a flash. Let’s go.”
Arden finally came to his senses, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he spoke to me.
“The upper ranks of the Holy Order will certainly demand accountability for this……”
“Do you know the best way to avoid responsibility?”
At my question, Arden blinked. That habit of blinking when faced with an unanswerable question was exactly like my ex-boyfriend’s.
“Bury it under an even bigger responsibility.”
And that was my specialty—having dealt extensively with royalty and nobility whose talent for evasion was utterly insufferable.
I smiled brightly, and Arden’s expression turned complicated.
It seemed no one had ever taught him this useful truth about life before.
“Is that your natural temperament?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Beyond your fiery personality, I mean the habit of doing something first and dealing with the consequences afterward.”
Hmm, had I really acted that way in front of him? Reviewing the image I’d presented to Arden so far, I couldn’t deny there was ample room for such a misunderstanding.
I had always acted with a plan in mind, but how could a narrow-minded lamb understand such grand designs?
Experience wasn’t something easily dismissed.
Even if I looked like a pauper, I’d spent half my life as a leader of the Holy Order when it was barely scraping by, and the other half as the leader of a flourishing Order. I’d lived through every trial imaginable.
After walking for dozens of minutes from Delheim Village, the town where I’d left the carriage days ago came into view.
“Might we rest in a nearby village once the sun sets, rather than travel through the night?”
I nodded in agreement to Arden’s courteous suggestion.
The carriage, which had raced ahead at a steady pace, came to a stop as the sun began its descent. This was to be our lodging for the night.
Unlike the village where we’d stayed the night before entering Delheim Village, this one had considerable size, perhaps because it was near the Main Temple.
There were plenty of inns. We entered the largest and most respectable one and secured two rooms. The money wasn’t mine anyway—it was the temple’s, so I could spend freely.
Unfortunately, they didn’t serve Beef Stew. As a pub-style inn, the focus was on spirits and appetizers. The place was crowded and loud with drinking patrons.
Loud enough that our conversation would blend right in.
“An omelet with bacon, mushrooms, and spinach, please. Oh, and a Dark Beer and some fries as well.”
“I’ll have the meat pie, if you please.”
Once the server left with our order, a brief silence settled between Arden and me.
“Do you dislike the Third Saintess?”
I asked casually, half as an icebreaker, and Arden hesitated before answering.
“It’s not so much that I dislike her as that I’m not particularly fond of her. I can’t deny the accomplishments she brought to the Holy Order, but she’s a figure of considerable shadow as well as light.”
“Why? I understand the light, but what darkness could possibly exist in the Third Saintess’s achievements?”
“Everything she did is ultimately the root cause of what the Holy Order has become now.”
Hearing that, I couldn’t contain the fury rising in my chest.
Don’t make me laugh. I left behind enough guidelines—an entire encyclopedia’s worth—of things future generations should uphold. Am I responsible for them failing to do so? Am I?
Was I supposed to spend my whole life wretched, chopping wood like a beggar, shuttling between imperial hangovers and noble digestive issues, running house calls as a healing laborer?
It’s because he never lived through those times. If the esteemed Holy Knight Arden Hawellin had drawn a meager stipend as a faith-based salary and stood guard duty, he wouldn’t harbor such asinine thoughts.
Good grief, now that the world’s improved, there are actual fools who romanticize those brutal years as an age of integrity! I should drag them all back and let them experience that era of the Holy Order firsthand!
Oh, Caritas! If you can’t grant me time travel, at least visit upon these thoughtless wretches that experience in their dreams!
Burning with rage, I gulped down the Dark Beer that had just arrived.
“You’ve only recently come of age, haven’t you? Yet you drink remarkably well.”
Bang!
I set the glass down roughly and fixed Arden with a fierce stare.
“If you save a dying child and that child grows up to become a murderer, whose fault is it—the person who saved the child, or the child who became a murderer?”
“That’s obviously the fault of the child who became a murderer despite receiving such kindness, not the fault of the person who showed compassion……”
Arden finally recognized his logical fallacy and trailed off.
“So stop criticizing the Third Saintess!”
“Siela…… Siela…… Ah, you’re a devotee of the Third Saintess. I understand. I misspoke.”
I’m not sure how he reached that conclusion, but Arden now regarded me as a Third Saintess devotee and offered a quick apology.
“……She’s still well loved, isn’t she?”
A bitter smile flickered past, accompanied by a murmur so faint I could barely hear it.
Of course. Don’t I love myself?
***
The next day.
“Oh, that’s right! Before you head back, there’s one place I need to stop by.”
I spoke urgently to Arden as the carriage approached the Main Temple.
“Since I’m already outside the Main Temple, I wanted to gather some things from the Orphanage. Now that I’ve come of age, I need to vacate my room there.”
“Ah…… That’s right, you did mention you grew up in the Orphanage attached to the Main Temple.”
Arden nodded and requested that the driver change course.
During my time as the third Saintess, my parents existed in another world, and when I crossed over into this one, I simply inhabited a new body—so it made sense I had no parents here. But in this reincarnation, though I was born in this world, I’d been raised in the Orphanage since infancy.
In short, I knew neither who my parents were nor whether they were alive or dead.
So in this life, my home was here—the Orphanage attached to the Main Temple.
Though I’d been forced to clean the temple and conscripted as a laborer for its events, life here hadn’t been unkind.
Unlike external orphanages funded by Holy Order donations, this one ran on the Main Temple’s budget, and because the temple sent inspectors regularly to oversee its operations, the director couldn’t divert funds to her own pockets as heads of other orphanages did.
And since we were mobilized for the choir, temple festivals, temple cleaning, and worship guidance, the children had to be in good condition, so we always wore clean clothes and ate well.
So while I had no memories, I lived in constant gratitude for the Holy Order’s grace; but after recovering my memories, I’d come to respect myself for building the Holy Order into what it was today.
If I hadn’t expanded the Organization to this extent in my past life, how could they have allocated such a generous budget to the affiliated Orphanage?
My past self had been helping my present self. Of course, I never dreamed I’d be reincarnated like this.
I was basking in the satisfaction of it all when someone called my name from behind.
“Goodness, Siela!”

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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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