The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 8

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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 8
“They’re keeping us locked in this room, aren’t they?”
“So it would seem.”
Of course, we could smash through that door easily enough with an axe and sword, but being trapped in this cramped room without explanation in a village that showed us no kindness was hardly a welcome turn of events.
—Keep the barricade up from your side!
Rufus’s urgent voice came from beyond the door. But without knowing whether the priest was ally or enemy, following his orders blindly carried too much risk.
“What should we do?”
When Arden asked, I gestured toward the furniture in the guest room.
“Don’t seal the door completely. Instead, arrange the furniture around it so we can block it quickly if we need to.”
As Arden and I were shifting the furniture toward the door, something kept rattling inside an armoire we’d moved to the side.
Curious about what could be making such a noise, I opened it and found objects I never would have expected.
“Holy artifacts.”
Arden confirmed it for me. In the old days, we’d simply blown holy power into items lying around the temple and called them artifacts, but these ones looked so fine and polished that anyone could see they were luxuries.
‘If I’d indulged like this back when I was the third Saint, they would’ve had my head. Tsk.’
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I reached out and picked up a holy artifact that resonated with my divine power—a Lantern-shaped Holy Artifact classified as a high-grade piece. Its holy power was completely full without a single trace of depletion.
For reference, the grade of a holy artifact is determined by the amount of divine power contained within it.
“It seems they haven’t used the holy artifacts here. The power expended is barely enough to treat a common cold. That’s nowhere near enough to cure an epidemic that swept through an entire village.”
The other low and mid-grade artifacts also showed almost no depletion of holy power.
Given that every holy artifact crammed into this armoire was for healing, there were two possible hypotheses.
Either they were in a situation where they couldn’t use these artifacts at all, or the village’s problem was something that healing artifacts couldn’t solve.
‘This is strange. I clearly saw epidemic symptoms in the villagers….’
As if something were obscuring my vision, an inexplicable frustration crept into my chest. What was I missing?
I surveyed the guest room, its surface coated in a fine layer of dust from lack of cleaning.
Apart from the holy artifacts discovered in the armoire, there was nothing particularly suspicious in the room where Rufus had confined us.
But why had the priest reacted so intensely at the sight of dusk and locked us in this room?
Now that I thought about it, the old woman had also warned us to lock the doors and windows once night fell and never venture outside.
The common thread was the time after sunset.
I had to understand what was happening in this village at night before I could solve anything. Being trapped in this cramped room was unbearably frustrating.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just then, something struck the inn window violently, interrupting my thoughts. The wooden planks nailed solidly over the window prevented any view outside, so I couldn’t tell what was pounding against it.
The force of the strikes intensified until the boards covering the window creaked ominously. I hurriedly retrieved the axe I’d leaned against the wall.
“Fall back!”
As Arden shouted—
Crash!
The window shattered completely, and massive black arms—slicked as if covered in tar—thrust into the guest room, competing for space.
Dodging the hands flailing in all directions, I pressed myself against the door, only to have something pound violently from the other side.
With the door threatening to give way at any moment, I quickly joined Arden in stacking the furniture we’d positioned beside the door into a barricade to seal it firmly shut.
“That’s a demon, isn’t it? They said the village had an epidemic, not that there were monsters!”
“I received no such report either!”
Crack! Thud!
Our voices were nearly drowned out by the sound of destruction on all sides, so our conversation came out as little more than shouting.
Though Arden accompanied me as my escort knight, with a demon now at large, I couldn’t rely solely on his protection.
I twisted my body to evade the demon’s hand reaching toward me and brought the axe down with all my strength.
The severed arm sprayed blood thick with demonic energy, then writhed and reformed into the shape of a limb.
As soon as it had reshaped itself into a hand, it pursued me relentlessly, dodging my attempts to grab it with surprising agility and attacking me from just beyond my reach.
“Damn it all!”
As I swung the axe repeatedly, severing the continuously regenerating arm and cursing irritably, Arden—who had been blocking the other hand with his sword—turned to me in surprise.
‘A swearing saint candidate? First time seeing that. Well, consider this your lucky day.’
While I continued hacking at the demon’s arm with the axe, I noticed something odd about Arden, who was similarly engaged with the creature’s limbs.
“Arden! Is your sword not blessed?”
“When I acquired this new blade, the blessing was scheduled for a week from now! It’s my carelessness for not expecting to face demons like this!”
Ah, that explained it. I’d been wondering why a paladin’s sword deployed against a demon wasn’t even cutting through it properly.
Applying a blessing to a weapon takes five minutes. And not just five minutes—five minutes that demands considerable concentration.
It’s hardly a simple matter to bestow divine protection upon a lifeless object.
In this situation, with demon limbs tearing through the room trying to seize us, it was nearly impossible to channel a blessing onto the axe and Arden’s sword.
That meant the only remaining option was….
“Arden! You’re going to have to be bait!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I need you to let it grab you so I can immobilize it! Without a blessed weapon, the only way to make it irreversible is through Purification!”
“Can you truly handle holy power to that degree?”
“I wouldn’t have brought it up if it were impossible!”
I’m not just someone who beats monsters with a mace — I’m skilled in bare-handed purification too.
Arden, facing me, lowered his sword with grim resolve, disengaging from the monster.
As if waiting for that moment, the creature’s hand swept over Arden’s body, engulfing him in its palm.
I seized the enormous hand as it began to squeeze, crushing him. My palm burned and the acrid stench of char filled the air, but I didn’t let go — I immediately attempted purification with my Holy Power.
The Holy Power I channeled surged through the hand I’d seized and flooded into the monster. A fierce struggle erupted between its Demonic Energy and my Holy Power, each fighting to repel the other.
But there was no way a mere monster could withstand the Holy Power that kept pouring in without end.
“Hack! Cough!”
Arden gasped in agony. Seeing his skin flush red and begin to scorch, I intensified the flow of Holy Power even further.
The hand convulsed, and its grip on Arden loosened. He seized the moment and wrenched himself free from the creature’s grasp.
The Holy Power the monster couldn’t contain overflowed, radiating sacred light that purified the Demonic Energy all around.
At last, the suffocating air began to clear, replaced by a clean, bright atmosphere.
The black hand that had resisted with such terrible force went limp, and the monster’s arm began to——
“What?”
My bewilderment spilled out at the sight before me, which diverged sharply from what I’d expected.
It should have petrified and crumbled, or shattered to pieces — instead, the arm was gradually transforming back into something human.
As the limb shrank, the monster’s body outside the room regained its original size and was drawn into the guest chamber.
“Merciful Caritas…….”
Arden murmured a whispered prayer at the sight of the figure transformed back into human form — what had moments ago been a monster.
The face held in my grasp, eyes closed, collapsed and familiar.
It was the woman who had dragged her pleading Daughter away and returned home.

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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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