The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 50

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

Chapter 50
“I’ll provide you with regular healing.”
Rillet’s eyes widened.
“Since I’ve started this, I ought to see it through to the end. It’s my responsibility now.”
I had no intention of dressing up my words with excessive warmth or false nobility, nor of attaching conditions to this regular healing. That would only make it seem more transparent.
People are swayed by what they lack, or so they say.
And the deepest thing that can bind them is emotion itself. Dependence and a narrative of salvation.
I don’t hold Rillet’s family’s lives in my hands. Even without my intervention, she’s managed to quietly support them all this time, and she’d continue to do so if I withdrew now.
But if I involve myself, Rillet will be freed from the burden of responsibility and financial strain. Once you taste that lightness—that weight lifted from your shoulders—you don’t forget it easily.
That’s how I can make Rillet into someone who could never betray me.
Rillet’s hand trembled faintly. She stared at the hand I’d offered for a long moment before finally grasping it carefully—as though it were an opportunity that wouldn’t return if she let it slip away.
“I will serve you with loyalty all my life, Your Highness!”
Rillet gripped my hand firmly and bent at a sharp angle, like a gangster’s underling swearing fealty to his boss.
She hadn’t had a moment to consider that her kindness might be mixed with calculation. It was the instant when someone—anyone—had extended a hand without condition, willing to carry her burden alongside her.
I held her hand and thought briefly to myself.
Yes, this is enough. More reliable than money for binding someone to my side.
“And since we’ve caught the culprit who poisoned the apple, I’ll report the details right after my leave ends!”
Yes, no matter how much loyalty springs up from the depths of one’s heart, a vacation is still important.
I’d never seen Rillet’s eyes shine so brightly before. I thought she was born with dead eyes. Today I’m seeing many new facets of her.
At those words, Arden’s head snapped around.
“The poison wasn’t only in the meal—it was in the apple as well?”
At that chilling question, Rillet’s eyes went wide and she cried out sharply.
“Was there poison in the meal? Did I bring Your Highness poisoned food?”
It was nothing short of a complete catastrophe.
After barely calming the two of them down, I exhaled as though I couldn’t hold on any longer and spoke.
“I need to rest now. Let’s call it a day.”
Rillet glanced around briefly, then bit her lip with an awkward expression. Her house was, quite literally, barely large enough to lie down in. There was only one space that could be called a room, and it contained a single makeshift bed.
“Staying the night here would be rather difficult for you, wouldn’t it?”
“Right. That’s how it looks to me too.”
It was impossible to add ourselves to that cramped space.
Rillet hesitated for a moment, then finally lowered her head apologetically and led us herself to the village inn.
As we passed through the narrow alleys, her shoulders flinched several times, and I felt both the apology and relief contained within them, so I said nothing.
“This is the cleanest inn in our village.”
Though modest in appearance, the bedding was as Rillet had said, and the room’s cleanliness looked quite adequate. Satisfied, I secured two rooms.
After settling my breathing in my room, my thoughts suddenly felt muddled, so I crossed the corridor and knocked on Arden’s guest room door.
Knock, knock.
The door opened to reveal Arden, fresh from bathing. Water droplets fell steadily from the ends of his hair, where a towel lay draped. He seemed startled by my sudden visit, his eyes widening briefly.
“Is something the matter?”
“They failed to link me with heresy, and they failed to have a heretic deal with me. So what do you think the Church’s next move will be?”
I entered the room and got straight to the point.
“What’s your read on what card the Church plays next?”
Arden thought for a moment, then spoke calmly.
“The cursed room didn’t work, poison in the meal and fruit proved useless, and even when sent to where heretics were, you returned unharmed. They’ve surely realized that killing you won’t work.”
“Then…….”
I paused and asked.
“Is there a way to make me step down from the position of Saintess without killing me? To establish a new Saintess, I’d have to either die or step down. But killing me is off the table now, isn’t it?”
Arden’s gaze fell to the floor for a moment, then rose again.
“There are methods, though not many.”
“What? Framing me with false accusations and driving me out?”
“If they do that, I cannot guarantee your life. However, if they sully your reputation, the Church’s honor falls with you, so they won’t spread rumors unless it’s ‘you were actually a heretic’—anything less would be worthless to them.”
Well, if there’s a way, I need to know what it is so I can prepare. Is there really a method to drive me out without damning my name?
As frustration stirred in my chest, Arden gently grasped my hand to stop me.
“As always, I’ll bring you answers. Please believe and wait. Am I not a knight sworn to your loyalty?”
Arden’s lips brushed softly against the back of my hand. The warmth of his touch burned.
Someone’s long habit overlapped within me, and I flinched at his grasp—but ultimately didn’t pull away, letting it remain.
I realized then that I too had been craving warmth.
***
The Archbishop and the Church’s leadership regarded me as they would a Cursed Doll when I returned, having cleanly resolved everything.
This confirmed once more that these damned subordinates had pushed me into a pit.
“How did you know that was the Ecclesia Church’s distinct form of sorcery?”
So they tried to paint me as a heretic, but…….
“You all claim to revere the Saintess, yet have you even read a single record of hers? How could you not know the sorcery of the Ecclesia Church when it appears in every page of her writings?”
“No, it’s not that we don’t know…….”
“≪The Essential Manual for Temple Operations That Future Generations Must Protect—Written by Sierra, the Third Saintess of the Caritas Church≫ and you haven’t read that either? You’re trying to brand me a heretic? Look, if you won’t even read such an essential manual and don’t follow the will of the Third Saintess, aren’t you the heretics?”
“You go too far!”
Too far? If you truly followed the will of the Third Saintess, you wouldn’t turn your backs on her own written records and only invoke her name when it suits you. You’re the heretics, not me!”
“Your Highness, accusations of heresy cannot be made so carelessly! Why else would we have heresy inquisitors and religious trials?”
“That’s exactly what I should say to you! What you did to me—was that not heresy accusation? If it’s romance when I do it and infidelity when others do, is that the standard?”
As I bounced up and down, spewing righteous indignation right back at them, their attempt to brand me a heretic evaporated entirely.
“Have someone investigate the territories around Lebon County. It seems those heretics are plotting something.”
I waved my hand dismissively, wrapping up my report on the Lebon County dispatch. The gaps in my account would be filled in later when I summoned the branch leader I’d called for help. Either way, that place had been quite the ordeal, and as for me……. Come to think of it, I’ve done quite a lot myself.
The Archbishop, having dismissed all the upper ranks of the Church including the cardinals, set the documents before me.
“Saintess, we ask that you provide final approval here.”
With each page I flipped through, my expression grew more rigid.
Of course, inside I was laughing until my sides split, but outwardly I arranged my features into one of shock.
“This is…….”
“Only with your seal does it become recognized as the Will of God in the name of God.”
The moment they handed this to me, the Church’s upper ranks had placed the noose in their own hands.
Funds, slush money, dealings with nobles, all the dirty records they’d buried under the name of God. Now my name would be inscribed at the very beginning of it all.
My greatest original sin and karmic debt, the Church’s mightiest instrument of business and sharpest blade.
At last, the authority of absolution had returned to me.

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