The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 54

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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 54
“What brings the Second Prince all the way to the Main Temple? Surely you didn’t journey so far from the Capital just to meet me.”
I posed the question with deliberate casualness, and the Second Prince smiled smoothly in response.
“I simply couldn’t resist coming to see someone who became a Saint without any backing whatsoever.”
What am I, a zoo animal? Coming to gawk because you’re curious?
His eyes held no pure curiosity—only a calculation so thorough it bordered on clinical. I laughed lightly and tilted my head.
“Are you disappointed to find me so ordinary?”
“Quite the opposite. If anything… you exceed expectations.”
He settled back into his chair, slowly interlacing his fingers as he studied me at leisure. The posture of someone with no urgency, no pressure to apply.
For a time we exchanged pleasantries—weather, the atmosphere of the Main Temple, news from the Capital—meaningless talk that served as reconnaissance, both of us aware and pretending otherwise.
Then the Second Prince broached the real subject.
“I should like to invite Saint to the Imperial Palace.”
The proposal was courteous and formally impeccable.
“A formal invitation from the Imperial Household. You may regard it as an informal visit, without burden.”
I regarded him for a moment, choosing my words carefully before I spoke.
“Is this a game laid out by you, or by the Temple?”
His smile deepened—as if he’d been waiting for exactly that question.
“That’s difficult to say.”
He answered with easy grace.
“What do you think it is?”
An answer that offered no answer. But it sufficed. Whether the Imperial Household or the Temple, the board was already set around me.
I rose first from my seat. Custom dictated that a superior depart first, and while I was extending formal courtesy to the Second Prince’s royal status, theoretically I stood equal to the Emperor himself.
His father and I were peers, after all—which made me decidedly his superior.
“I accept the invitation with gratitude. However—”
His gaze remained fixed on me.
“I would hope that next time we might meet with my knight commander in attendance.”
The Second Prince gave a short laugh at that.
“Of course. We shall arrange things exactly as you wish.”
A few days later, I received a formal Invitation Letter from the Imperial Palace.
It appeared to offer a choice, but in truth it was impossible to refuse. Still, this time I would have Arden at my side.
As the Temple’s carriage began to move, Arden glanced out the window once before speaking quietly.
“A rather cunning character. I suspect his reputation is deliberately cultivated.”
“Yeah. Just from that brief exchange, it feels exactly like that.”
Idle, incompetent, dissolute—the rumors attached to the Second Prince were perfectly calibrated to suggest he posed no threat.
Too perfect. It seemed impossible that anyone who’d survived the Imperial Palace could be so hollow.
“If the information has been deliberately distorted…”
Arden added softly,
“then he’s chosen to underestimate himself. To avoid scrutiny.”
“The most dangerous type in a succession war.”
He nodded.
As we exchanged information about the Second Prince during the carriage ride, we arrived at the Imperial Palace before I realized it.
Since the Second Prince had summoned me for a private audience from the start, Arden could not enter the Reception Room where we would meet.
At the attendant’s insistence, he reluctantly stepped back.
“Don’t worry, Arden. Nothing will happen.”
I reassured him and entered the Reception Room.
The door closed, and silence fell. In the center of the space, slanting sunlight pouring through a large window, the Second Prince stood waiting.
This time he was not smiling. He had shed the light courtesy, the formal pleasantries.
He turned his gaze slowly toward me.
“We meet again, Saint.”
That’s rich, coming from the man who summoned me here.
“Let’s dispense with ceremony. It seems there’s something you couldn’t discuss at the Temple—something you brought me here to say.”
“You’re perceptive. That’s likely how you’ve survived this long, despite not being chosen by the Temple.”
So there’s a spy from the Imperial Palace embedded in the Temple, I thought, absently running a finger across my chin.
“I’ll speak plainly then. I wish to protect you, Saint.”
“Protect me?”
“Yes. The Temple is no longer a safe place for you. You already know this well.”
I didn’t deny it. Instead, I watched him in silence, gauging how much he knew and how much he intended to reveal.
The internal strife within the Temple, the movements of the Church hierarchy, the “accidents” I had endured—the scope of his knowledge would determine the danger level of this entire conversation.
After a moment of silence, the Second Prince spoke.
“The Church realized they cannot control you. So they tried to kill you—and even that failed.”
His tone was matter-of-fact, as though reading from a report—a voice reciting conclusions already neatly arranged.
“The choices remaining are few now. Remove the problem, contain it, or else…… hand it to a third party.”
His gaze fixed directly on me.
“I am here to propose that you, Saint, employ that third option.”
The words were different, but the structure was the same.
“Whether the hand His Highness extends is truly protection or merely another shackle—I find it difficult to judge just yet.”
“Which is precisely why I arranged this meeting, Saint. So you might judge for yourself.”
The Second Prince leaned forward, his smile no longer wrapped in any pretense—it was rather sly, distinctly cunning. I almost regretted calling Arden smooth-tongued in comparison.
“Should you place yourself under the Imperial Household’s protection, at the very least, overt attacks like those you’ve endured would become far more difficult. The Church wouldn’t dare reach out so recklessly either.”
The Second Prince straightened, settling back into his chair with ease.
“The Church’s authority has grown far too great. As one who has risen to candidacy, you understand this better than I do.”
Watching the arrogant gleam in his eyes—that peculiar pride of youth who believed themselves master of the game—I clicked my tongue inwardly.
“Why not remain as my fiancée, stand beside me, and weaken the Church’s influence together?”
The Second Prince crossed his legs with brazen confidence, tilted his chin up, and smiled, drawing one corner of his mouth into a smirk.
He made no effort to hide that he saw me as beneath him.
“Once the matter is resolved, I shall nullify the engagement and ensure you live your remaining years in comfort and safety.”
I let out a dry laugh. Not that I wanted marriage anyway, but apparently he wouldn’t even pay lip service to it. He was simply desperate to avoid responsibility.
“Your proposal sounds generous, but in my experience, ‘protection’ usually comes hand in hand with ‘control.'”
He nodded. He did not deny it.
“True. Your words are not entirely mistaken.”
Then he added:
“But between a Saint kept under watch and one who has been eliminated—which would you prefer? Surely that judgment falls to you.”
It was neither threat nor enticement, but something in between—a method designed to plant the illusion of choice. I smiled faintly.
But if I accepted this proposal simply out of disgust for those Church fools, I’d be trading one trap for another.
The Imperial Household currently lags behind the Caritas Church in their power game, but should they ever seize the advantage, they would undoubtedly begin suppressing the Church to establish imperial authority and make an example. I could see it coming.
Having endured the Imperial Household’s cruelty in my past life, always playing the healer, I could read that future plainly.
Troublesome and infuriating though the Church might be—constantly sizing up opportunities to cast me out—I could not fasten an Imperial leash around its neck.
Whether it crumbled or persisted mattered less than this: I would cleanse the Church myself, by my own hand, and restore it to what it once was—an institution with proper principles and a sound mind.
“The moment I become your fiancée as you propose, Second Prince, I cease to be a Saint and become a political asset.”
“Assets are protected.”
“They are also discarded once their usefulness ends.”
At my cold reply, the Second Prince’s mouth twitched.
“Therefore, I shall not demand an answer today. Think of this meeting merely as an introduction. I only hope you will remember that should you face danger, the Imperial Household stands ready to extend its hand at any moment.”
As I watched him make a gesture of offering his hand, I rose from my seat first and spoke.
“Offering a hand is simple enough. The difficulty begins the moment it is grasped. I shall defer any negotiation until I can trust you completely, Second Prince.”
Just before I stepped through the door, the Second Prince threw one final remark at my back.

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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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