The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 42

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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 42
I felt the grip tighten in the hand holding Wilson, drew a breath, and suppressed the urge to sever the doll’s neck as I would a demon beast.
True, it would feel good in the moment, but that wasn’t why I’d come all this way. Instead, I lifted the doll carefully and channeled Holy Power into it.
Proportionate to its size, not excessive. It was small enough to fit in a child’s hand, so I judged a modest amount would suffice.
Yet even as the Holy Power seeped in, the doll’s color didn’t change. The marks of Demonic Aura corruption remained perfectly intact.
I tilted my head. If it were cloth, staining or deep-set contamination in the fibers might explain it—but this doll wasn’t cloth.
It was a wooden doll fitted together with ball joints, and its surface bore a special coating; this wasn’t the sort of material that would develop such discoloration from mere washing or time.
“Hmm, this isn’t a cleaning problem, then.”
I murmured to myself as I studied the doll, then looked up at Lebon.
He stood with his arms crossed, eyes moving between the doll in my hands and me. Suspicion still lingered in his gaze, but seeing me use Holy Power seemed to have added a thread of subtle earnestness to his expression.
“Did you ever drop this doll in the Canal?”
At my question, the count paused in thought, then shook his head.
“Unlikely. Had I dropped it in the Canal, there would’ve been no retrieving it in the first place.”
The moment I heard that answer, a piece clicked into place. I nodded slowly and looked down at the doll again.
“I see. Then this is purely a problem with the doll itself.”
I continued speaking as I lightly rotated the doll’s arm joint with my fingertip.
“It seems something rather unusual is happening in this domain of yours.”
I clenched the doll in my palm and drew up Holy Power in full measure.
My earlier judgment of “this much should be enough” was cast aside. I poured out nearly the same amount of Holy Power as when I had purified the demon beasts in Delheim, pushing back the Demonic Aura that had covered the land—excessive for a mere doll, but without it, I wouldn’t be able to trace the source of this contamination.
As the Holy Power flooded into the doll, the murky color seemed to deepen to black at first.
Then suddenly, as if old grime were peeling away, the doll’s surface began to gradually brighten.
The wood grain, darkened with stain, reclaimed its pale original hue, and the lingering traces of Demonic Aura seeping between the joints dispersed like smoke.
“I think the purification is thorough enough now. What do you make of it?”
I showed the purified wooden doll to Lebon and smiled.
Something shifted in Lebon’s eyes as he beheld the perfectly cleansed doll. The lingering suspicion vanished entirely, replaced by a gaze that suggested he’d found something worth using.
“So I finally meet in person the one whose name I’ve only heard in rumor. When word reached us that you’d won the Preliminary Competition and ascended above the Saint, I assumed the Church was simply making a spectacle again.”
Lebon nodded slowly as he spoke. He’d known about my competition, yet he’d tested my abilities anyway—a cunning old fox if ever there was one.
His gaze then shifted to Arden, whom he’d continued to ignore until now.
“And who might this be?”
Arden stepped forward and offered a proper bow.
“Arden Hawelin, Holy Knight Order. I’ve been appointed as your escort, Your Holiness.”
At that name, the count’s eyebrows flickered. He could hardly be ignorant of the weight the Hawelin name carried in these lands.
He fell silent as if considering, then let out a short laugh.
“Siela and Hawelin… A most interesting pairing indeed.”
I didn’t need to ask what he meant.
A Saint bearing a name drawn from the Third Saint, and a knight from a family that carried the Lineage of the Hero.
Recalling the old tales that circulated through these lands, it was all the more symbolic a combination.
Lebon gestured us toward the opposite sofa. Once I was seated and Arden stood behind me, the count slowly returned to his own seat, interlacing his fingers and resting them on the table. Now he was ready to discuss the real matter.
“Then let me introduce myself properly, Your Holiness. I am Lebon, Count of House Lebon.”
“A pleasure.”
At his shift from casual speech to formal address, I met his gaze and lightly shook his hand.
Of course, from a Confucian perspective, it was irregular for me—only eighteen by current age—to speak casually to a man over seventy and have him respond with formal deference.
But as long as the Caritas Church is the state religion, the head of the Church holds authority equal to the Emperor. If I showed the count deference, it would diminish the Church’s authority.
Had not even the Archbishop shown me no deference when I was merely a candidate? Forms of address were the most fundamental means of establishing authority.
“I understand your domain requested aid from the Church, citing a serious situation.”
At my words, the count’s lips twisted slightly.
“Serious might be an understatement. But what surprises me more is that the Church shows interest now. Until recently, they’ve only sent priests carrying sacred relics.”
His tone carried naked distrust—an honest assessment of how the Church had abandoned these lands until now, and what his intention might be in sending me. I met his gaze without flinching.
“Is the situation truly that dire?”
“Would I have invited those sanctimonious priests if it weren’t? I’m worried they’ll demand the land itself in payment for purifying it.”
Lebon answered curtly.
“Then the Church must have been watching all along. Otherwise, they couldn’t divine precisely when danger would strike and dispatch me.”
I said this brightly, and for a moment the count stared at me as if at a loss for words.
Then Lebon exhaled a short sigh and rose to his feet.
“Very well, Your Holiness. Allow me to show you the current state of this castle and domain, and why I cannot easily trust the Church.”
Thus did our first meeting in the Reception Room of House Lebon commence—between careful courtesy and razor-edged wariness.
Before Lebon could lead us out to show the castle and domain’s condition, I stopped him.
“Wait. Before that—whose doll is this, and where did you acquire it?”
At my question, Lebon’s gaze dropped, and he answered quietly.
“……My granddaughter’s.”
At that single word, the air in the reception room grew subtly heavy. The Count continued without lifting his gaze from the doll.
“I never learned where it came from. One day, she simply started carrying that doll everywhere—all day long. While sleeping, while eating. She wouldn’t let it out of her hands.”
I looked down at the doll. On the surface, it appeared the Purification was already complete, yet something about it felt deeply wrong.
To be safe, I shook it gently—and heard a fine, crisp rattling sound.
“Count, have you tried burning it?”
“The Daughter-in-law burned it in secret while the Granddaughter slept, but it wouldn’t catch, she said. And that very day, the Granddaughter developed severe burn marks on her body. It was chaos.”
“Just as I thought.”
Muttering softly, I picked up Wilson Junior. Five hundred years ago, I’d seen something like this before.
“Your Highness?”
The Count tried to say something, but I didn’t wait to hear the rest.
I lifted the Mace and aimed it precisely at the doll. Then, bringing it down as if splitting firewood, I shattered the doll cleanly in one strike.
The next instant, the doll split vertically down the middle with a heavy crack.
As it broke, the reception room echoed not with the light snap of a toy shattering, but with the weighty sound of wood splitting.
“What in blazes are you doing!”
The Count’s roar filled the reception room.
Thud. Clink-clink-clink—
From the split interior of the doll, where a human heart would be, a single Gemstone rolled across the floor.
Neither fully transparent nor opaque—a Gemstone holding a murky, clouded light.

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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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