The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 51

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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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Episode 51
What is an Indulgence?
It is a certificate issued by the church in exchange for money or donations, claiming to remit God’s punishment on behalf of the sinner.
Formally, it did not erase the sin itself, but rather claimed to absolve the karma incurred by that sin.
In essence, the catchphrase of the Indulgence boiled down to: buy God’s forgiveness with money.
My reason for introducing it was simple: drain the wicked of their coin! And by tacking on the Confession requirement, I could extract information as well.
After all, legal punishment could not be pardoned through an Indulgence.
The wording on the Indulgence was “you *may* receive forgiveness from God!”—not “you will certainly be forgiven!”—which, when you thought about it, was sleight of hand.
Look at lotteries. You pay money, buy a ticket, and *might* win the prize, but you’re not guaranteed to. My logic was exactly that.
What was wrong with squeezing money from villains? Besides, I’d already consulted with Caritas through prayer. She won’t forgive them, but she’s fine with me exploiting it.
Of course, she didn’t say it directly—but when I saw her in my dreams, her eyes seemed to say as much.
I believed in Caritas.
In any case, even as I introduced this medieval-era abuse from my memories, I was acutely aware of the Indulgence’s dangers.
So I devoted nearly a third of the *Manual for Temple Operations That Our Descendants Must Follow—Written by 3rd Saint Sierra of Caritas Church* to safeguards I’d established.
The conditions I’d laid down were strict from the start. Look, let’s examine Chapter 3 of the *Manual for Temple Operations That Our Descendants Must Follow—Written by 3rd Saint Sierra of Caritas Church*, the section on Indulgences.
Article 1
An Indulgence is not a document that erases sin.
It is a sacred contract that grants the possibility of receiving forgiveness before God for the afterlife punishment incurred by that sin.
Article 2
The issuance of an Indulgence cannot rest upon a single clergy member’s authority.
The approval of six parties is required: the Saint, the Inquisitor of Doctrine, three High Priests, and the Keeper of Records. If even one dissents, issuance ceases immediately.
Article 3
Money cannot be the price of absolution.
Donations are merely a means of maintaining the Temple, not a substitute for Penance.
Article 4
Indulgences cannot be issued for any crime that harms another.
Even for minor offenses, if there is a victim, the victim’s written consent is required before an Indulgence can be issued.
Should any evidence emerge of coercion used to obtain that consent, the Indulgence is permanently forbidden.
Article 5
Penance cannot be delegated to another.
Any Penance not directly borne by the person who committed the sin is rendered void.
Article 6
All Indulgences are permanently preserved by the Keeper of Records, with reason, conditions, and whether obligations were fulfilled documented for future verification.
Article 7
The issuer of an Indulgence bears responsibility for that judgment before God and history.
Unjust issuance reverts as the issuer’s sin.
[God’s name is not a license for absolution.
The Temple holds no right to sell forgiveness.
—Sierra Nomendis]
Grave crimes like murder, treason, and deliberate massacre, as well as crimes that harm others, were ineligible. Indulgences were permitted only for accidents and minor transgressions.
The intent was to utterly block the notion that one could violate another’s rights and make it all disappear with money.
I also kept issuance authority to an extreme limit. I couldn’t issue them alone; five priests below me had to consent and leave a record before it could be officially issued.
Any unjust issuance meant defrocking from the Order, and the frequency was capped at once per month to ensure the Temple wouldn’t appear to abuse Indulgences.
But what is the situation now?
A man beats a servant to death—murder—gets an Indulgence issued, and walks free from criminal prosecution. The five-person consent requirement I’d put in place to prevent personal greed simply became a mechanism for the Archbishop and the Cardinals to collude more tightly with one another.
The issuance frequency was still once per month, but if you paid double, you could get two per month. Triple the payment, three times. Quadruple, four times. Damn it all.
Oh, Caritas! Show this spectacle to those who called me greedy and to my ex who accused me of self-interest!
*This* is what real greed and self-interest look like! At least I never implemented such a system.
Because our successors ignored the guidelines entirely, and the Temple’s status grew so high that it now operates above even the Imperial Court, the Indulgence has become a complete crime license for the wealthy, and the Temple a seller of forgiveness.
I wanted to show Wilson Junior just how it felt—courtesy of that nameless successor who expanded the Indulgence’s authority to include complete exoneration from murder charges.
Who was the first bastard to argue that such crimes could receive complete pardon? Once that door opened, there was no closing it.
And I’ll take all the blame—I’m the third Saint who first introduced the Indulgence system!
Lord! I introduced it to save the Temple, I wrote out all the precautions and guidelines filling a third of an encyclopedia, and still I get cursed for it!
“Just to be sure—if I don’t stamp this with my Seal, this Indulgence gets rejected, correct?”
I asked Archbishop Marius, and he nodded benevolently with a smile.
What? Really? They’re giving me that much power? That can’t be right, can it?
The moment I thought that, he added:
“Of course, the advance payment for the returned Indulgence must be covered from Your Holiness’s personal funds.”
Cunning bastards. Look at their determination to ensure they take no loss while heaping all responsibility onto me.
I clicked my tongue at their shamelessness and pressed my Seal. I made sure not to forget scanning the Indulgence’s contents.
What kind of half-baked felonies am I stamping approval for? If men with money just throw cash around to dodge punishment and commit crime again, how is the security of our empire supposed to hold?
Simply pressing the seal felt like I was committing sin myself.
Caritas, couldn’t you just strike down these men who buy indulgences with a bolt of divine punishment instead of me?
Only after stamping every last page of the indulgence document did I leave the Hall.
My wrist ached, but that was the least of it—my mood kept sinking deeper. The stamps on the paper were perfectly aligned, yet their clarity felt like they were mocking me.
I cast Self-Healing Magic on my wrist and trudged out through the door, only to find Commander Arden waiting by the entrance with his arms crossed.
“What happened inside?”
Whether my spirits had flagged more than usual or my expression had grown plainly melancholy, Arden stepped forward as he spotted me and asked.
His gaze swept across my face.
“Did they diminish your achievements, or did they pin you with heresy again?”
It was the upper hierarchy who’d done it, all of it.
But that no longer made me angry.
“I just stamped the indulgences. The 3rd Saint wouldn’t have created the indulgence system for this.”
“Then how do you judge the 3rd Saint’s true intentions?”
Of course I knew—I was the 3rd Saint, after all. I remembered every thought, every calculation behind creating that system back then. But those words could never leave my lips, so I swallowed them down.
“Do you really think the 3rd Saint created indulgences to satisfy her own greed?”
Arden neither nodded nor shook his head. He simply spoke with a faint sneer crossing his face.
“I wouldn’t know. She claims otherwise, but the results speak plainly for themselves.”
His words lodged in my chest with unusual sharpness.
I could have countered. I could have argued logically. But for some reason, in that moment I wanted to say nothing at all. Because looking at results alone, the indulgence system had become something entirely different from what I’d ever intended—a monster.
I swallowed a sigh and moved forward again.
“If I can’t say it wasn’t my doing, but also can’t say it turned out the way I wanted, what then?”
“That doesn’t absolve you of responsibility.”
In that instant, I stopped dead. It felt exactly like standing before Valente again. My past life had turned into a full-blown fight the same way.
…Hm?
Arden too had stopped abruptly, looking at me with confusion in his eyes.

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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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