Volume 2, Chapter 24-2 – I Won’t Disturb You, I’ll Be Going Now

“Quiet.”

Katerina impatiently knocked the messenger unconscious with a single punch, then bent down and picked up the secret order.

‘What exactly is the Valentine family trying to do?’

Katerina frowned slightly.

First, they had sent an entire squad of fully armed Blackthorn Guards to assassinate this student who annoyed her simply by being in sight. Then, immediately afterward, they had sent a messenger specifically to deliver a new secret order?

The contradiction between the two was practically schizophrenic.

Katerina lowered her eyes, her fingertips lightly brushing across the golden-thread seal on the parchment.

It would not open.

It had been reinforced with an arcane lock unique to the Valentine family. Unless someone was a member of the family, any outsider who tried to force it open would only cause the secret order to destroy itself.

“Boring little trick. I’ll deal with all of you later.”

Katerina snorted coldly and took the secret order with her.

She turned around and once again fixed her gaze on Stella, who was doing her utmost to make herself invisible.

Compared with the Valentine intruders, she had something even more important to deal with.

Katerina approached Stella step by step, her black robes billowing in the night wind.

“Miss Stella Darkfallen, let us continue our previous discussion regarding compensation for this incident…”

“By a rough estimate, the material costs plus the craftsmen’s emergency repair fees.” Katerina quoted a cold, merciless figure. “Come to a total of four thousand eight hundred demon crystals.”

“Considering you’re a repeat offender, I can round it down for you.”

“Four thousand.”

“Of course, if you can’t afford to pay, then you’ll have to use something else as collateral.” Katerina continued.

‘For example…’

‘Selling her into slavery?’

‘Or perhaps signing a lifetime contract as a teaching assistant, forcing her to spend the rest of her life following around the Vice Principal she hated and enduring her strict supervision.’

After all, as long as Stella was saddled with a debt she could never repay in her lifetime, Katerina would have a perfectly legitimate reason to keep this troublemaker firmly tied to her side.

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‘It’s absolutely not to protect her.’

‘Absolutely not.’

‘It’s only to prevent the ticking time bomb known as Stella Darkfallen from going out and wreaking havoc on the school again.’

Katerina firmly told herself this in her heart.

‘Four thousand?’

Stella immediately began calculating her pitifully small allowance and scholarship.

Subtract food expenses, subtract Lainia’s meals, subtract tuition and miscellaneous fees…

She could save less than fifty demon crystals each month.

“P-Professor…” Stella swallowed and made one final attempt to struggle. “Could I maybe… get some kind of student discount? Like fifty percent off or something…”

“Student discount?”

Katerina almost laughed when she heard that. To think Stella was naive enough to mention such a thing in the blackhearted world of demons.

“You’re dreaming. It seems we’ll have no choice but to…”

“——I’ll pay for it.”

At that very moment, a crisp voice tinged with arrogance suddenly came from the other end of the courtyard.

Stella was stunned.

She raised her head and looked toward the source of the voice.

Atop the moonlit ruins stood a red-haired girl with her arms crossed, looking down from above at the farce unfolding below.

Stella could not have been more familiar with that face.

Cheryl Valentine.

Her bargain-bin little sister.

“…Cheryl?” Stella blinked. “Why are you here? It should still be student sleeping hours, shouldn’t it?”

“Sleeping hours?”

Cheryl raised an eyebrow and lightly jumped down from a broken stone column, her black knee-high boots making crisp sounds against the rubble.

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“Please. This is the first Valentine Watch, my Elder Sister. During the Watch symbolizing awakening and blood, I, just like you… find myself unable to sleep through the night.”

She glanced at the devastation covering the ground, then at the Blackthorn Guards and messenger sprawled all around them, and fell silent for a moment.

“Besides, the commotion you caused was enormous. You’re lucky this is the most remote part of the school and far away from the dormitories. Otherwise, even a dead pig would’ve been woken up.”

“So, what happened here?”

“Magical-dust explosion.” Professor Katerina said without even looking up.

“…Magical-dust explosion?” Cheryl blinked in confusion.

“A magical-dust explosion caused by years of poor maintenance. Believe it or don’t.” Katerina pointed at the Blackthorn Guards lying scattered across the ground. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask them later.”

“Uh… alright.”

Cheryl walked up to Katerina and reached out, preparing to take back the Valentine family’s secret order.

“That secret order belongs to our family, so I would ask… outsiders not to take it without permission.”

Katerina did not release it.

“Not unless you tell me what’s written on it.”

“Professor Katerina, please refrain from telling Valentine, one of the school’s directors, what to do. This is a private matter of the Valentine family, so there is no need for outsiders to interfere. I will personally handle it.” Cheryl refused to yield an inch. “Isn’t that right, soon-to-be-appointed… Vice Principal?”

Katerina narrowed her eyes and looked at the girl before her, who carried the blood of the Valentine family just like Stella.

One was the legitimate heir, while the other was an illegitimate daughter born from desire and sin.

And yet, this illegitimate daughter just happened to be the child born between the Valentine Family Head and Vilpana. If Stella could not distance herself from this sacrificial circle of power, she would either be swallowed by darkness or burned to ash by light.

There was no other choice.

Whenever Katerina thought about this relationship, disgust welled up inside her.

Why was everything involving Valentine always such a mess?

“…Do whatever you want.”

She swept her black robe aside and prepared to leave.

Her only purpose was to watch over Stella on Gehenna’s behalf. She did not care about anything else.

Besides, it was only a Valentine secret order. How serious could it possibly be?

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“As for the repair and reconstruction expenses here…” Cheryl waved a hand with magnificent generosity. “It’s a trivial amount. Just put it on my account.”

“Eh?” Stella was stunned.

‘Just like that… it was solved?’

‘I don’t have to sell myself into slavery?’

‘Cheryl, you really are… way too rich.’

“And one more thing…”

Katerina gave them no opportunity to indulge in any touching sisterly affection. She bent down and lifted the unconscious Lainia from the ground.

“As for your human slave… I’ll take her to the infirmary, treat her, and send her back to your dormitory afterward,” Katerina added coldly. “Of course… that will cost extra.”

“I’ll pay.”

Cheryl immediately raised her hand and answered without hesitation.

“The delivery fee will also be charged separately.”

Katerina remained expressionless.

“That’s fine. I’ll pay.”

Cheryl did not even blink.

“And that isn’t all. There’s also the enormous outstanding balance Stella previously accumulated on her cafeteria meal card…”

“No problem. I’ll pay for all of it.”

Cheryl patted her chest and continued.

Stella: “…”

This feeling of having someone smash money into her face…

How should she put it?

It felt amazing, but the dignity she had as an ‘elder sister’ seemed to have shattered all over the ground.

“Um… for that, I don’t need your char…”

Stella had just decided to show some backbone and refuse the charity from her bargain-bin little sister.

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Grrrrrr~

The sound of a growling stomach rang out at the worst possible moment.

Stella’s stomach, which had gone hungry all day, was protesting.

“…”

The surroundings suddenly fell silent. Stella’s cheeks instantly flushed bright red, and she wished she could find a crack in the ground and crawl inside.

It could have growled earlier. It could have growled later. Why did it have to happen right now…

‘This is so humiliating!’

‘What is going to happen to the dignity of a Saintess?!’

Cheryl froze for a moment. She examined Stella with an exceedingly subtle expression, looking her up and down before finally settling her gaze on that flat little stomach.

“I see…”

Cheryl nodded thoughtfully, the corners of her lips curling into an amused smile.

“Would you like me to treat you to something to eat, Elder Sister?” she deliberately added, her tone overflowing with temptation. “Don’t worry, I’ll pay.”

Stella swallowed.

People are iron, food is steel. Even a Saintess has no Holy Light if she starves to death.

But…

Living off her bargain-bin little sister like this…

Sure enough, she had better forget it.

Translator Note

Lil sis is so rich ><