The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 68

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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 68
Click—
The doorknob jammed with a dull sound and wouldn’t turn any further.
The door to the second-floor corridor room was locked tight. For something the butler had casually explained as “the young lady’s art supply storage” during the day, it was far too secure.
Of course, it was possible that Edelin really did dislike others touching her paints and kept it locked. But when a suspicious room in a suspicious villa was locked, that was as good as an invitation to investigate.
Arden produced a thin pin from his pocket.
I watched as he lowered himself with natural ease and slipped the pin into the lock with practiced fingers.
It was convenient not to have to break the door and pay for damages, but I found myself wondering if a Holy Knight should really be doing this. For some reason, I felt like a two-person thief team, so I stayed behind watching and scratched my cheek nervously.
Well, in the eyes of the world, we were ungrateful wretches—no doubt about it. They gave us lodging and food, and we were breaking into a forbidden work studio and committing illegal trespassing.
Since I hadn’t secured solid evidence yet, we looked far more suspicious than anything else at this moment.
Click—
Finally, the lock gave way.
Arden opened the door first. I peeked my head around his back and looked into the room.
But the room was far too dark to see properly inside. Thick curtains hung over the windows, and the only light was the faint dimness seeping in from the corridor.
I gathered Holy Power to my fingertips and illuminated the room. As a gentle light spread, the space within was revealed.
And just as the butler had said, the room was packed full of art supplies.
Paint boxes, canvases, dried brushes, new brushes, cloth, palettes, oil bottles, small glass jars filled with dried pigments. It really was an art supply storage.
I searched the interior with Arden, but all that came to light was genuine evidence that Edelin had skipped dinner to work on paintings—barely dried brushes, a palette caked with wet oil paint, and paint stains scattered across the floor.
For some reason, I felt embarrassed. But there was still one more room next to this one.
I decided to give the second room the benefit of the doubt before accepting the innocence of the first.
The second room was also locked, but Arden opened it just as easily this time. Now doubt outweighed admiration. Where on earth had this man learned to do that?
Did the Holy Knight Order’s training curriculum include lock-picking? Back in my day, most Holy Knights came from mercenary companies, so they were skilled at such things—but had that continued as formal education tradition? My mind wandered oddly down that path, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
At first glance, the second room seemed unremarkable.
Only it looked far more like a proper workshop than the first room. An easel stood in the center, and a single chair was positioned in front of it.
Canvases in progress and paint containers lay scattered carelessly around, and the air in the room was thick with the smell of oil paint. It seemed Edelin really had been painting here.
But then I felt Holy Power that wasn’t mine.
Had I sensed it wrong? Holy Power, not Demonic Energy?
I approached the paint supplies slowly. A palette with remaining paint, a small glass jar with its lid open, a brush tip that hadn’t yet dried—a faint Holy Power was emanating from them.
It wasn’t strong. But it was unmistakable. A sacred aura. A sensation I couldn’t possibly mistake.
“Blessing?”
No, that couldn’t be right.
No one would be mad enough to perform a Blessing on paint used by some noblewoman artist as a hobby. Blessing wasn’t free.
Even if the Temple was drowning in money, there weren’t enough Blessing practitioners rotting around to Bless paint for an aristocrat’s pastime. The word was that they were overworked just Blessing sacred objects and Holy Knights’ swords.
Of course, if someone had paid an enormous sum, it might be possible—but then that wouldn’t explain the state of this mansion or its small number of servants.
‘…Could they have ground Holy Stones into the paint?’
It was possible.
Holy Stones could be found in decent quantities just by making rounds of villages that had barriers set up in the past. They were objects made by Blessing stone, and over time, abandoned barrier stones and auxiliary stones would remain. The Temple likely wouldn’t waste the effort recovering every single one of them.
Besides, if they were objects set up as evidence of territorial purification, it would be ambiguous to claim them as Temple property, so they’d likely just be left alone.
Which meant now there was only one question left.
Why was Edelin using paint with Holy Stones ground into it?
As I sank into that thought, I felt a presence from behind.
Sensing it just as I did, Arden immediately placed his hand on his sword hilt and turned his head.
Good reflexes. I looked past Arden toward the corridor.
Standing there was the woman who had been at the mansion entrance this afternoon—or yesterday, since midnight had passed. I’d followed her along with the Head Maid.
She held her index finger raised awkwardly. By any measure, she’d been about to jab Arden in the back.
“Um, did you perhaps… find anything…?”
She asked cautiously. The woman was wearing a maid’s uniform, different from when I’d seen her earlier. She must have been employed at the mansion.
Following the Head Maid inside yesterday hadn’t been as a visitor but as someone coming to take a job.
Yet here was a newly hired maid wandering the second-floor corridor in the dead of night.
And she’d discovered us in front of a locked room, in the posture of about to stab Arden in the back with her finger.
It seemed she too had her own reasons for being at this mansion.
Of course, Arden didn’t lower his guard. With his hand on his sword hilt, he blocked her path one step ahead, preventing her from getting any closer. She swallowed hard under the pressure, and I turned my gaze toward the corridor.
It would be troublesome if word of this got out from here. Not only had we broken into a suspicious room, but we were having a conversation with a newly hired maid in the corridor in the middle of the night—to any observer, it looked like illegal intruders conspiring together.
I grabbed the woman’s wrist and pulled her into the room. Arden immediately shut the door.
Once the door closed, the smell of paint grew even more pungent. The woman looked tensely between us in the dark room. It seemed as though she both recognized me and was pretending not to.
In any case, she already knew that a Saint and her companions were staying at this mansion, so she’d understand how strange this situation was.
I asked in a low voice.
“What were you doing during the day?”
The woman bit her lip for a moment, then answered.
“I followed the Head Maid and was shown what work I should do at the mansion. And I helped prepare dinner.”
“Did she prepare the evening meal alone?”
The woman shook her head.
“No. The Head Maid and I prepared it together.”
I narrowed my eyes and pressed further.
“Then the Head Maid didn’t add anything to the food?”
“Yes, she did. There was a white powder in a small container……. I’m not sure if it was salt or something else. Since I’m new here, I was afraid asking about it would seem strange…….”
The woman’s voice grew quieter.
I clicked my tongue inwardly. I’d been uneasy watching them all eat without suspicion, and that unease hadn’t been unfounded.
Of course, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that she was lying, but it was now nearly certain that something had been added to the food.
Arden’s expression had hardened as well. I moved straight to the heart of the matter.
“Then why did you come here?”
The woman drew a breath. I waited for her answer.
Wandering about in the dead of night, discovering us before a locked door, asking if we’d found anything——
These were not the actions of someone who’d simply come looking for work. She’d either come to find something in this mansion, or to confirm the presence of someone.
The woman clenched her hands tightly.
And at last, she answered.
“I came here to find my brother. He went missing from this place.”

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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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