The Saint’s Manual for Redemption - Chapter 83

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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 83
No one stopped me as I descended to the first floor.
More precisely, they seemed unable to find a reason to. The blonde hair and jade-green eyes, the Caritas Church Priest Robes, and the scarf wrapped around half my face as an excuse against the cold.
On top of that, I’d stooped my posture at the waist and shoulders to mimic Kaliana’s build, so from a distance it would have looked convincing enough.
Of course, the price of that disguise was that my lower back and shoulders were already aching.
If that place had been a castle in the past, I could have identified the location from memory and gone straight there. Unfortunately, the place I remembered was nothing but a desolate wasteland corrupted by Demonic Energy.
‘I wonder if the Sealing Stone is still there.’
Faced with the reality that all the contingencies I’d arranged for the future had fallen to ruin, I exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
The Temple turning into a corrupt temple was troubling enough—if this continued on top of that, what was I supposed to do?
If I could at least see the Holy Stone used for the Sealing Stone, locating it would be easier. But given that a castle had been built here, it seemed unlikely they would have left the Holy Stone as it was. There was a high probability it had been destroyed long ago.
Of course, that Sealing Stone had never completely restrained Raum. Still, it had at least served to slow the pace of Demonic Energy corruption in the surrounding land, buying time to prepare a response.
Why in the world did they move the castle here?
As time passes, it’s natural for a territory’s center of commerce and importance to shift. When roads change, new mines are opened, and the gathering places of people move, a lord’s residence can certainly be relocated.
But I couldn’t understand why they would deliberately move the castle to the very place where an Archdevil had once slept.
I’d made it clear: I wasn’t dead yet, and if I recovered, there was no telling when I might awaken again. So keep watch. But they treated the Saint’s words like garbage. Unbelievable.
If I hadn’t come this early to conduct reconnaissance, if Raum had truly begun stirring in earnest, then not only would every person in this castle have perished, but everything within a ten-kilometer radius would have been reduced to ruins.
I’m not exaggerating—it really would have been that way. That’s the kind of being Raum was.
An Archdevil powerful enough to press down a mountain peak and alter the terrain itself. What audacity drove them to build a castle directly above his head and live there?
But was there actually a reason they chose to move here specifically?
Kroen said he’d have old residents of the territory brought in. Once today’s reconnaissance is finished, I’ll need to make sure the Duke doesn’t forget to bring that up.
This wasn’t something that could be dismissed with an excuse that the current lord was ignorant because he was only the first generation. This required digging through records—whether from those who’d lived in the territory for generations, or those involved in the process of moving from the old castle to the new one.
I leisurely toured the carefully maintained Garden, pretending to take a walk.
Being in the north, there were scarcely any flowers. It was less a garden than a space where plants and trees that could survive the cold weather were arranged appropriately.
Low walls to block the wind, trees sturdy enough that their branches wouldn’t break under snow, and hardy shrubs with thick leaves covering the ground. It lacked grandeur, but true to the northern style, it was resilient and sturdy.
Then, a Greenhouse in one corner of the Garden caught my eye. At first glance, it was clearly not a place to enter casually.
Thick glass and a sturdy iron frame, a Head Maid passing near the entrance, and an unmistakably well-maintained path.
It was likely a place where rare plants or crops imported from the south were grown. Perhaps even growing the ingredients for the soup I’d eaten today.
There was no need to make a fuss by entering now and drawing attention. It would be better to enter later, in my own form, with the Duke’s guidance.
I passed by the Greenhouse and returned inside the castle. I slowly wandered the first-floor corridor, pretending to be lost.
Reception Room, banquet hall, dining room, the back corridor where servants passed, and near the central staircase—I did sense a faint oddness at a few points around the castle’s center, but I couldn’t be certain yet.
I needed time to delve deeper. And today, lingering too long in Kaliana’s form was also dangerous.
I headed back to my room. Arden, who stood guard before the door, bowed with an unsurprised expression the moment he saw me.
“High Priestess Kaliana has returned.”
He announced it that way for those inside to hear, then opened the door. His perceptiveness was truly remarkable.
The moment I stepped inside, I unwound the scarf. I removed the Priest Robes and handed them back to Kaliana, then changed into my indoor dress.
I didn’t forget to remove the Magical Ring that changed my eye color. As the ring came off, the jade-green faded and my natural eye color returned.
Kaliana accepted the Priest Robes and exhaled a sigh of relief.
“Your Highness, you weren’t discovered, were you?”
To her cautious whisper, I nodded reassuringly. Upon hearing my response, she bowed deeply with a relieved expression and quietly returned to her own room.
Now only the Duke’s reaction remained. Would Kroen have noticed something suspicious?
I waited until nightfall. But the Duke never summoned me. No formal objection came, and the Head Maid or his subordinates didn’t subtly come to probe. At least on the surface, nothing had happened.
Seeing that, I was certain. I’d fooled him.
Of course, I couldn’t let my guard down completely. There was a possibility that Kroen, being who he is, might know and simply pretend not to. But at the very least, it meant he wasn’t raising questions about my movements right now.
***
The next day.
After breakfast, the Head Maid came to my room.
“Your Highness the Saint, His Grace the Duke requests your presence in the Reception Room.”
I nodded while draping a shawl over my shoulders.
“I’ll go.”
It seemed the next move was finally beginning.
In the Reception Room, there was not only the Duke, but also an Old Man who appeared to be quite advanced in years.
The moment I entered, the Old Man rose to his feet with effort. His back didn’t straighten completely, but his eyes were sharp. He traced the sign of the cross with trembling hands, then knelt before me to show proper respect.
“Your Highness the Saint, I am honored to meet you.”
“That’s enough. Stand up.”
I immediately extended my hand to help the Old Man to his feet. At his age, if his knees gave out from kneeling, that would become my responsibility too.
The Old Man bowed his head apologetically. I glanced at the Duke once, then turned my attention back to the Old Man.
“I hear you’ve lived in this territory for a long time.”
“Yes. My family has lived on this land since my ancestor’s grandfather.”
Good—this was sufficient for hearing stories passed down through generations. I immediately asked what I’d wanted to know from the beginning.
“Have you any record or tradition of a great earthquake in this territory—one that changed the very landscape?”
The old man blinked for a moment, then answered slowly.
“It was not a great earthquake, but… I do know of the tale that when the Third Saint captured the Archdevil Raum, the summit peak of Tiber Mountain was gouged out by Raum’s hand.”
At those words, the Duke’s brow furrowed.
“You’re saying that’s not legend—it actually happened?”
The old man nodded without hesitation.
“If you were to climb Tiber Mountain, you would see for yourself. Even though much time has passed, the traces of that day remain intact. It is most certainly not a formation that could arise through natural means.”
The Duke said nothing, drumming his fingers against the armrest.
It seemed he had merely dismissed the mountain’s peculiar topography as some quaint northern landscape while living in his territory—though it was true he had only held the land for less than a decade, so it was perhaps forgivable that he’d overlooked it.
Still, hearing such words from an old man whose family had lived in this region for generations, the Duke could hardly dismiss them outright.
I waited until I was certain the Duke was listening before asking again.
“There’s an Old Castle Site in this territory, isn’t there?”
At that, the Duke’s eyes turned back to me. I could watch in real time as suspicion, which had only just begun to cool, flared back to life.
It was inevitable. After declaring I had no interest in land, I was now asking how I knew of the Old Castle Site—it must seem deeply suspicious. But there was nothing to be done about it.
The old man stared at me in surprise.
“Yes, there is. But how could you possibly…?”
“Then do you know when and why the castle was moved to this location?”
The Duke too raised an eyebrow, his ears alert. Interest kindled in his eyes—something that had not been there a moment before. At least this question was new to him as well.
The old man’s lips parted slowly, as though searching through memory.

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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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