The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 45

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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 45
Whether this was a preliminary symptom of the Demon Summoning Ritual using the Doll, or merely a seizure caused by Synchronization, I couldn’t distinguish between the two in that moment.
With each breath Kana drew, her chest rose unnaturally, and between broken gasps came low, fractured whimpers.
“Kana!”
As the Nanny’s cry rang through the room, the child’s body convulsed more violently in reflex. Her fingertips scratched across the floor with a sharp, scraping sound.
“There’s no time! Find the Doll! Confirm whether it’s here or not!”
I barked the order at the Nanny and Arden, and in the same instant, seized Kana’s hand as she clawed at the floor.
Her hand was so cold I wondered if she’d already stopped breathing. Keeping my grip firm, I channeled Purification Holy Power into her.
Under normal circumstances—in most cases, at least—this amount of holy power should have been enough to purify the Demonic Energy and calm her.
But Kana’s condition didn’t improve at all. In fact, the moment my holy power touched her, I felt her breathing quicken even more.
I was thrown off balance. My sacred power wasn’t working on her. This was truly the first time I’d encountered such a case.
“Kana, can you hear me? Where is the Doll?”
I couldn’t rule out the worst possibility—that the Summoning Ritual had already begun in part, even though the Doll had been taken from her.
At my question, Kana suddenly gasped in fits, and now she’d begun to choke. It was less crying than a plea for mercy.
“I don’t know…… I told you I didn’t know, please…….”
Her eyes lost focus, wandering into the void.
“My mother hid it…… The young lady had her Doll taken by the Count, so I couldn’t bring the young lady’s Doll…….”
I stopped short.
“Who are you talking to right now?”
At my question, Kana shook her head violently, choking on her breath.
“Please save me, sir…… *choke*…….”
Sir? But I was plainly a woman standing right in front of her.
That single word, though, told me everything. It wasn’t the Doll that had put her in this state—it was a dark Ecclesia Cult man.
If that were the case, what she needed now wasn’t Purification Holy Power, but Healing Holy Power.
I immediately shifted the flow of my holy power. Not purifying the Demonic Energy, but channeling it toward healing the pain inflicted upon the child.
I placed my hand on Kana’s heaving chest and poured out Healing Holy Power without restraint. As time passed, her breathing gradually deepened, and her convulsing body slowly went slack.
That was when it happened.
“Found it! I found it!”
At the Nanny’s cry, I heard footsteps. She came bursting into the room almost flying, the Doll cradled in her arms.
The moment I took the Doll from the Nanny, I unleashed my Purification Holy Power at full strength without a shred of hesitation.
I thoroughly smashed the Doll with a mace, then finished purifying the Demonic Stone inside.
“My girl!”
“Mother……!”
Kana, barely conscious, collapsed weakly into the Nanny’s embrace, and the two held each other for a long while. I watched the touching reunion for a moment, then let out a short sigh.
“Really, true to form for a Cult full of psychopaths. Where do they get off torturing a child like this? Torture, of all things?”
Caritas, I ought to exact proxy vengeance on Kana’s behalf—wouldn’t that restore the prestige of the State Church? Absolutely not because I want to torture people. And not to relieve stress, either.
“These trash are so intent on sacrificing a child’s life, surely they wouldn’t balk at a little torture.”
Oh, Arden just sounded remarkably like Valente—my ex. Like an ex who’d grown more world-weary and cynical.
I turned my head to glance at him, then let my gaze drift back to Kana.
“So, shall we hear what happened?”
Once Kana had steadied her breathing, she continued in a trembling voice.
A strange man had forced his way into the house and demanded the Doll. When she couldn’t find the one her mother had hidden, he’d begun to torture her.
He’d threatened her to bring him the Doll she’d received from a friend, and when he heard it had been taken by the Count, he’d tortured her again.
He’d ordered her to find it by tomorrow, or else he’d kill Kana and her parents both.
As I listened, I nodded. Now that the Synchronization had progressed this far, they must have been planning to gather the Dolls and perform the Ritual.
“Do you remember where you received the Doll? What did the person who gave it to you and told you to drip blood on it look like?”
Kana thought for a moment before answering carefully.
“They had a hood pulled over their head, so I couldn’t see their face well. It was at the Intra-Gate Town Market…… at the seventh stall on the left.”
As I processed Kana’s words, another puzzle piece clicked into place in my mind.
“It sounds like they don’t have a hundred Dolls yet.”
A sudden flash of insight struck me, and I clapped my hands together.
“If they had sufficient surplus, there’d be no reason to torture and threaten a child into finding them.”
Of course, if it were me, I would have made spares long ago—not that I plan to—but from a purely strategic perspective. It seemed the Ecclesia Cult really was staffed entirely by fools.
Five hundred years hadn’t just corrupted the Caritas Sect. It had also lowered the average intelligence of the Ecclesia Cult. There was a time when their scheming gave me headaches.
Arden raised one more possibility.
“It’s possible they’ve prepared a few extra Dolls as a contingency against unforeseen circumstances.”
“That’s possible too.”
I nodded.
“So we’ll need to check that marketplace where he bought the Dolls.”
We immediately headed for the Intra-Gate Town Market that Kana had mentioned.
The hour when the sun began to sink, and the market still thronged with people. I drifted slowly between the stalls until I halted near the seventh vendor’s stand.
Oh, completely suspicious people over there, seriously!
The moment I spotted figures with hoods pulled deep over robes, my heart quickened with a subtle thrill of excitement.
I leaned Wilson Junior casually against a nearby pillar and moved forward with Arden, blending in as ordinary passersby.
Since no one in this world existed who could make off with Wilson Junior, my mind was at ease.
The Intra-Gate Town Market remained bustling, the laughter of children and the hawking of merchants mingling to fill the air.
Amid that clamor, their stall stood with an eerie quietness that somehow made it the most eye-catching of all.
The moment I saw the items arrayed on their stand, I was certain. Among the cute, charming things that could easily draw children’s eyes, a single wooden doll stood out unmistakably—it had to be the one.
I exchanged glances with Arden almost simultaneously.
We did not approach at once. Excited though we were, there was no reason to rush. If we descended on them in the guise of a saint and a holy knight in the middle of the market, the first thing those people would do would be to hide the doll or scatter.
I changed direction toward a nearby clothing shop and picked up a robe. The cloth was coarse and the tailoring sloppy, but what we needed now was concealment, not a fine new garment, so it mattered little.
“Will this do?”
When Arden, holding the robe I had handed him, asked the question, I nodded with confidence.
“It’s enough for now.”
We donned the robes and cinched the cords to hide our forms. Arden’s sword, too, vanished seamlessly beneath the robe. We looked less like a saint and holy knight and more like a pair of wandering customers such as one might find anywhere in the market.
At last we arrived back in front of that stall. I drew one steadying breath and, feigning ignorance, pointed to the doll and asked.
“How much is this?”
I asked lightly, as though I had merely spotted something interesting. The man in the robe lifted his head.
The line of his mouth visible beneath the hood hardened at once. He looked me over from top to bottom, then spoke curtly.
“We only sell to children.”
His tone carried both wariness and irritation. I nodded and gazed down at the doll.
Hmm, I couldn’t exactly claim to be six years old without it being obvious nonsense.

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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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