The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 7

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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 7
Arden immediately shifted into a defensive stance, moving me behind him while his hand found the hilt of his sword.
The old man’s eyes, catching sight of the blade at Arden’s waist, grew darker with wariness and despair.
Still, he was a villager. Not only that—he’d approached us first, speaking to us of his own accord.
I couldn’t let this opportunity slip away. Fearing he might bolt, I grabbed Arden’s hand from the sword hilt and pulled it down, stepping forward myself.
I wore a gentle, melancholic smile—the kind that worked on elders—and spoke to him with warmth. To draw out the information I needed from people like this, familiarity was far more effective than detachment.
“I’m a Holy Maiden—well, not quite yet. I’m a Holy Maiden Candidate, so I know this well: Caritas hasn’t abandoned this village, elder.”
Since Caritas hadn’t abandoned this village, I’d come here for this ridiculous Holy Maiden Candidate selection.
This wasn’t merely not abandoning them—it was looking after them with care, wasn’t it?
I reached out to build trust by treating the plague first, but the old man flinched and scrambled backward.
“You’ve sent a Holy Maiden Candidate? Are you trying to kill us all?”
The old man shrieked at the top of his lungs, his voice rough as metal, and swung his walking staff threateningly. Arden clicked his tongue and caught the staff with one hand as it came at me.
Then an old woman appeared hurriedly from the mouth of an alley.
She rushed forward, breathing hard, and seized the trembling old man, trying to calm him as she pulled the staff away from Arden’s grip.
“That’s enough, Ben. What are you doing to them like this?”
“A Holy Maiden Candidate! They’re trying to find justification to kill us from the Temple—”
His words cut off abruptly as the old woman’s hand struck his back firmly.
The old woman hunched her already-bent shoulders further and slowly lowered her head toward us. The movement was creaky with age, but her sincerity in the apology came through clearly.
“Forgive us. The villagers have become… very on edge.”
The old woman’s face was no different from the faces of the villagers I’d glimpsed before—hollowed cheeks, skin darkened as though burned, a rosary gripped desperately in her hands.
But her eyes were clear.
“I must urge you to leave this village now. Please heed this old woman’s advice.”
Though her tone was gentler, what she was saying was identical to the old man’s—trying to drive us out.
“But we came to help. Why are you trying to send us away so urgently?”
“This village is no longer a place for people to live.”
Arden watched her silently with caution, but I could feel it.
This old woman was giving us a sincere warning.
“It seems you have no intention of telling us about the village’s situation either. I’m grateful for your counsel. But if there are children of Caritas suffering in this village, how could I, having become a Holy Maiden Candidate, turn away from them?”
I spoke with heartfelt conviction that would move anyone listening—but the old woman wasn’t swayed by the benevolent Holy Maiden character. Wow, she really didn’t fall for that.
“If the Candidate’s mind is truly set… the inn is that way.”
Seeing that we wouldn’t easily leave the village despite our stubborn resolve, the old woman pointed toward the far end of the settlement.
“When night comes, lock the doors and windows firmly. No matter what sounds you hear, you must not go outside. If you wish to leave the village, please do so after dawn breaks, in the morning.”
The old woman’s voice was earnest and trembling with fear as she urged this upon us.
“May God’s grace reach you.”
With those words, she traced the Sign of the Cross and quietly turned away with the old man, disappearing beyond the alley.
A chill ran down my spine—the sensation of countless eyes watching me. Arden, feeling it too, swept his sharp gaze across the surroundings.
“Let’s head to the inn.”
I seized Arden’s arm, still preoccupied with his vigilance, and pulled him toward the inn the old woman had indicated.
And in that moment—
the entire village seemed to hold its breath, very slowly.
***
“Is anyone here?”
I opened the inn door and called for the innkeeper, but there was no reply.
I ran my finger along the table. No dust came away.
“It seems the inn hasn’t been left vacant.”
The inn didn’t have the feel of an abandoned house left to decay. Signs of habitation and warmth emanated from various corners.
As I was scanning the traces of maintenance, I turned to Arden to ask whether we should search for whoever was here or examine the rooms first. My eyes caught Arden staring intently at one corner, his expression quite grave.
“What is it? Did you find something suspicious?”
“I might be mistaken, but… I thought I recognized a familiar face.”
Arden strode forward and reached behind the reception desk, seizing someone by the collar and hauling them up. The person’s struggling only caused him to grip the collar tighter; resistance proved futile.
Arden addressed the middle-aged man trembling in his grasp like an aspen leaf with a calm greeting.
“It’s been a while, Rufus.”
“A priest? One from the Main Temple?”
“Yes. A priest who was dispatched to this village and went missing. I believe it was either the first or second dispatch, perhaps?”
Ten priests had been sent to this village. This middle-aged man was one of them—and dispatched quite early.
“Well, whether it was the first or second dispatch matters little… I never thought I’d find someone missing for months alive and well like this. Why didn’t you return to the Temple? Do you know the whereabouts of the other missing priests?”
Rufus kept his lips sealed, exercising his right to silence, but Arden pressed on with questions regardless.
“Where is the Holy Relic we brought to this village?”
“Were you also dispatched here to recover the Holy Relic? Or has Marcelo finally found the cause?”
Rufus’s eyes flickered with equal measures of fear and hope as he posed the counter-question.
“No, we’ve come to take the Holy Maiden Candidate examination. And I’m afraid Marcelo perished here in the Main Temple from a plague that swept through the village.”
The moment Arden finished his firm denial, the faint glimmer of hope that had flickered in the priest’s eyes shattered into fragments, and his fear hardened into something far darker—despair.
Rufus tore at the sparse hair remaining on his head and let out a wail.
“A Holy Maiden Candidate…! So the Main Temple has finally drawn its blade, seeking justification to slaughter us all! Oh, Caritas! Have you truly abandoned this village, abandoned us who suffer endlessly in this hell?”
Watching Rufus repeat the very words I’d heard from the old man moments before, I narrowed my eyes.
What could have happened in this village to make them all so certain they’d been forsaken by God?
“Leave this village at once, I beg you. Please don’t heap further sin and shame upon these suffering people. Allow us at least the dignity of a human death……”
But this made no sense. I’d come to solve the problem, not to have it obscured by evasion and deliberate silence, only to be driven away.
Besides, my own life hung in the balance.
The Inquisitor’s tortures were notorious for fabricating sins where none existed, and Caritas—who so disdainfully refused to meddle in worldly affairs—offered no guarantee of miracles to spare me from a Religious Trial and the flames that followed.
“That’s precisely why I’ve come as a Holy Maiden Candidate. I can’t help this village unless you tell me what’s happened. You must cooperate with me.”
“Holy Maiden Candidate, I who have devoted my life to the Caritas Church know better than anyone what a true Saint is. What could one bearing merely the title of ‘Candidate’—one not yet recognized as a Saint—possibly accomplish?”
Rufus’s bitter words cut short abruptly.
I followed his gaze to where he stared transfixed, and saw the sky painted a deep, burning red by the setting sun.
“Quickly! Get inside your room!”
Rufus shoved us urgently toward the staircase.
I slipped an axe hanging against the stairwell wall into my hands while Rufus wasn’t looking. I missed the weight of my familiar mace, but for anything short of a monster, a hand axe would serve well enough as a weapon.
Once we reached the topmost guest room, Rufus gave his instructions gravely.
“You must not leave this room under any circumstances. Hide yourselves beneath the bed. Do you understand?”
Bang! The door slammed shut.
I stared at the boarded-over window as sounds came from the other side of the door—a scraping, a rustling, something being dragged—securing it with deliberate care.
To keep us from getting out.
Or perhaps, to keep something else from getting in.

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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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