The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 43

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 43
I gazed down at the jewel, rubbing the space between my brows where tension had settled.
“So it was inside after all. I’d hoped it wouldn’t be.”
The moment I saw the stone still clouded with murky energy, I understood at once why purifying this single small doll had consumed so much Holy Power.
This was a Demonic Crystal Stone.
What is a Demonic Crystal Stone? It’s a jewel buried in earth near the Demon Realm, deeply tainted by Demonic Energy.
Minerals could absorb far more Demonic Energy than soil alone.
So five hundred years ago, when the Demon Realm’s influence was at its thickest, Demonic Crystal Stones pulled from mines actually circulated in the marketplace—and there were countless cases of people who became consumed by Demonic Energy simply from wearing accessories made of them.
“You dared destroy a doll that might be connected to my granddaughter! If anything happens to Elise, I will personally hold your Church accountable!”
Arden pulled the frantically shouting Count Le Bon away from me.
“The connection snapped when I purified it. If you don’t trust me, have someone confirm your granddaughter is safe, then we can continue talking.”
The Count irritably tugged the bell pull to summon a servant.
“Go at once and confirm that Elise is unharmed!”
And shortly after.
“Miss Elise did have a seizure, but her complexion has improved considerably. She no longer seeks out that doll either.”
At the servant’s report, the Count said nothing, only alternating his gaze between the jewel on the floor and the doll split cleanly in two.
There was shock at the pitiful state of his granddaughter’s doll, but something greater than that—his instincts had grasped the meaning of what this scene implied.
“This isn’t a simple doll.”
I stooped to pick up both halves of the broken doll and the jewel, one in each hand. Then I straightened and fixed my gaze on the Count.
“Do you know what this is?”
Arden stared at me intently and asked. Of course I knew. I’d seen it five hundred years ago too.
“It’s obvious. A doll shaped like a person, a Demonic Crystal Stone in place of a heart, and a connection to its owner.”
I shrugged.
Damn these later generations. The Church sends only me and Arden out alone to a place crawling with Demon-Worshipping heretics? Is this supposed to be their way of disposing of me using those heretics?
“I don’t understand… You mean to say it wasn’t merely a doll tainted by Demonic Energy…?”
Despite my spelling it out this clearly, Count Le Bon still seemed unable to grasp it.
“Human Sacrifice. Your granddaughter would have been the vessel.”
I spoke it low. The Count’s face drained of color.
“Still, choosing this doll as a test to measure me was a reasonably sound decision on your part.”
Thanks to it, I’d avoided wasting time wandering the territory purifying every corner, and could move straight to the heart of the matter. Because this had spread meant this was now truly a race against time.
“And the fact that such an object fell into your granddaughter’s hands means—”
I paused, and the silence in the reception room settled heavier.
“There are at least ninety-nine more children holding dolls just like it.”
The Count’s face hardened completely. He no longer had the composure to doubt the Church, nor the heart to test the Saint.
For the first time—truly the first time—he understood that this calamity could swallow his House and Domain whole.
“At least I’ve bought your granddaughter some time.”
Count Le Bon, swaying, collapsed into a chair.
“This can’t be… Something this grave, and those damned Church fools didn’t even bother to look closely, just dispensed their useless purification and left…”
They probably had looked. And the moment they realized it was tied to the Demon-Worshipping Cult, they’d decided to deploy me.
“You don’t know of the Ecclesia Cult that the Third Generation Saint destroyed? Those mad Demon-Worshippers who tried to sacrifice the hearts of one hundred pure children to summon a Greater Demon to this land.”
“Ah, you speak of the joint effort between the Hero and the Saint? The Hero was the first to notice the Demonic Crystal Stone inside the doll.”
“The Third Generation Saint was the first to sense something wrong with the doll. Wasn’t it because the Hero wanted to smash the doll connected to the children without thinking, and the Third Generation Saint stopped him?”
“That’s—!”
They pushed back and forth, fiercely defending their ancestor’s credit. Perhaps because their family’s honor was at stake, Arden didn’t back down easily when the Hero was mentioned either.
“If you know, then this moves faster. It’s dolls from that place. Originally they targeted one hundred children for abduction, but never managed to exceed eighty before getting caught repeatedly.”
Naturally, eighty or so children disappearing simultaneously all at once couldn’t escape dark rumors, and no nation would leave such a matter uninvestigated.
So they had to think. They developed a Sorcery that could claim children’s hearts, their very lives, without needing to abduct them at all.
Five hundred years ago was an age of such barbarism.
Between those psychopathic cult members and sociopathic cult members who lived off smooth talk and fraud, our Church stood as the sole conscience.
Back then, everyone was heretical in someone’s eyes. Now everyone but us has become the heretics.
“So they shifted strategy, using Demonic Crystal Stones to assimilate the dolls with the children, planning to collect all the dolls at once and pierce the hearts of dolls completely fused with the children. Children taint quickly from Demonic Energy, so their assimilation through Sorcery using that energy was equally swift.”
“You speak of it as though you lived through it. You must truly adore the Third Generation Saint.”
I was grateful that I’d already established in Arden’s mind the image of me as a fanatic devotee of the Third Generation Saint.
That way, even if I drew on memories and knowledge from those days, he’d think—well, a devoted fanatic would be expected to know this much.
“The question is whether they’re the same people. If their method is different, I won’t find it in the Third Generation Saint’s chronicles, so that discovery will take some time.”
I judged that confirming the granddaughter’s condition came first, so I accepted the Count’s guidance and headed toward Elise Le Bon’s chamber.
It was the innermost room of the castle. The windows were sealed thick, and the air, rather than the sweet scent natural to a child’s room, held a faint but unmistakable trace of Demonic Energy.
The girl sitting on the bed lifted her head carefully as we entered. Though her face was still young, her eyes held a wariness unbecoming of her years.
As the child regarded me for a long moment, the wariness faded from her eyes, replaced by a sparkling brightness. The girl opened her mouth hesitantly.
“Is it… Are you the Saint…?”
I approached the girl’s bedside with the gentlest smile I could muster.
“That’s right—I’m the Third Generation Saint.”
As I said this and extended my hand, Elise hesitated for a moment before taking it. The sensation alone that traveled through her fingertips was enough to gauge her condition.
Fortunately, the Demonic Energy hadn’t burrowed deep into her body, but the remnants clinging to her skin and veins were slowly consuming the child from within.
I carefully channeled my Holy Power, systematically cleansing away the lingering Demonic Energy. I felt the girl’s shoulders gradually relax, her breathing growing steady and even.
“You’ll be all right now.”
Elise nodded, exhaling as though in relief. Once I’d confirmed her state, I asked carefully.
“Where did you receive that doll?”
The girl pressed her lips firmly shut. Instead of answering, she simply shook her head slowly.
“Then can you tell me who gave it to you?”
This time, too, the child exercised her right to silence.
“Elise, you must tell the truth. The fate of our Domain depends on it.”
I gave Count Le Bon a gentle nudge to push him back. Pressing a child like that would only seal their lips shut.
Even faced with her grandfather’s reproach, Elise kept her eyes averted, clutching the bed sheet in silence. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t speak—it was more that she couldn’t.
I squeezed the girl’s hand a little tighter for a moment, then posed the most crucial question in a measured voice.
“Did someone tell you that if you dripped blood onto the wooden doll’s chest, it would become your eternal friend?”
At that moment, Elise’s hand trembled visibly.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————