Volume 2, Chapter 25-2 – The New Saintess

Stella did not even know what sort of mood she was in when she returned to the dormitory.

The endless string of trouble today had squeezed every last drop from her already pitiful reserves of energy.

First there had been Katerina’s deliberately difficult Defense Against Holy Magic class, then the Lionheart Society’s Holy Communion that had nearly turned into a mass funeral. The ghost incident still had no leads, and afterward, she had somehow been inexplicably targeted for assassination by a group of Valentine family servants…

Before she had even finished cleaning up that entire mess, along came a Laxia Ritual that was outright trying to get someone killed.

‘I’m so tired…’

‘Really tired.’

Stella lowered her eyes. All she wanted was to find somewhere without succubi, without Saintesses, and without any damned rituals, then get a proper night’s sleep.

She pushed open the door to her private dormitory. It was pitch-black inside, so she pulled aside the floral curtain formed by hanging vandas and wandering jew plants, allowing the moonlight to spill in.

By the moonlight, Stella immediately spotted the girl curled up in the pile of straw beside the bed.

It was Lainia, who had been sent back after Katerina finished treating her.

She was sleeping deeply, her brows tightly furrowed as though she were still fighting the Blackthorn Guards in her dreams.

“For… Master… Stella… defeat… defeat them…”

Despite her young age, her face was filled with stubbornness and unyielding determination, while her pallid complexion looked somewhat haggard.

Stella stood quietly where she was.

Listening to Lainia’s sleep-talking, she could not help recalling the scene from not long ago.

Faced with a group of demon assassins who had clearly come to take Stella’s life, Lainia had stood firmly in front of her door like a little wolfhound guarding its food, refusing to yield even a single step.

Such loyalty, merely because Stella had casually told her to wait outside the door for a while.

Stella was too embarrassed to face heartfelt emotion directly. Every feeling had to be tucked inside a bag of nonchalance before she could bring herself to accept it.

After accepting it, she would wait until no one was around before opening the bag and quietly savoring it by herself.

This truly was beyond her expectations. Even in the perilous Demon Realm, she had managed to encounter a nun as loyal and devoted as Lainia.

“…What an idiot.”

Stella sighed softly, without the slightest hint of reproach in her voice.

She bent down without the slightest hesitation, showing no disgust at the lingering smell of blood on Lainia’s body. She simply slipped one arm beneath Lainia’s knees and the other behind her back.

With a slight exertion of strength.

A perfectly standard princess carry.

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“Mmph…” Lainia whimpered uneasily in her sleep and instinctively nuzzled closer to the source of warmth, like a kitten searching for a hearth on a cold night.

Stella gently placed her onto the rather narrow bed and carefully tucked the blanket around her.

After finishing all of that, Stella did not immediately leave. Instead, she sat down beside the bed and extended a hand. A cluster of gentle Holy Light appeared in her palm as she carefully traced along Lainia’s meridians, examining them little by little.

Stella frowned slightly.

It was not because the injuries were severe.

Katerina’s potion truly was impressive. Lainia’s external injuries had already healed for the most part.

What surprised Stella was Lainia’s physical condition.

Firm muscles, bones as dense and tough as steel, even the extent to which her meridians had expanded… compared with when they had first met, the difference was like heaven and earth.

During the time Stella had been asleep, Lainia clearly had not been slacking off.

Eat, then train. Train, then eat.

“Come to think of it, I really didn’t max out my meal card for nothing.”

Stella withdrew her hand and nodded thoughtfully.

It counted as the only piece of good news today.

Stella considered things for a moment, and the obscure, difficult passages of The Asrita Scripture surfaced in her mind.

Since the most basic stage of physical conditioning had already been completed beyond expectations, then now… perhaps it was time to try that.

The first step of the nineteen paths of ascetic cultivation, Heart of Holy Light.

Use highly purified Holy Light to envelop the vessels around the heart, forcefully accelerating the rate at which blood was pumped, like installing a turbocharger onto an engine.

Even under extreme conditions involving oxygen deprivation, severe injuries, or even the brink of death, the recipient could rely on that continuously beating heart to squeeze out the very last bit of fighting strength.

Although the spell placed high demands on the caster and consumed a tremendous amount of energy, in a hellhole like the Abyss, it was unquestionably a divine lifesaving technique.

Besides…

She would need Lainia’s help in the future.

Stella lowered her eyes. Her gaze swept across the thorned-rose emblem faintly visible in her palm.

The Laxia Ritual…

Sisters killing one another…

She would put that headache-inducing future aside for now.

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At the moment, she just wanted to do something that would improve her mood.

“You’ve earned this, my little slave.”

Stella gently placed her palm over Lainia’s heart.

There was no need for a complicated incantation. She only had to pour Holy Light into her through pure will.

The Holy Light became golden threads, piercing through skin and winding around the vigorously beating heart, weaving themselves into a precise and sacred net.

“Lady… Saintess…”

“You’re watching over me, aren’t you?”

Lainia seemed to sense something. A comfortable murmur escaped her in her sleep, and her tightly drawn brows gradually relaxed.

When the final thread of light closed into place, the steady, powerful sound of a heartbeat echoed through the quiet dormitory.

Thump, thump.

With every beat, blood containing sacred power was pumped throughout her entire body.

Done.

Stella wiped the fine sweat from her forehead and looked at Lainia, whose breathing had gradually steadied, then nodded in satisfaction.

Now, even if she encountered that demon called Riko again, she should at least be able to withstand a few more sword strikes, right?

Although part of her little bed had been occupied, there should at least be no problem if the two of them squeezed together.

How sweet it would be to lie together on the warm bed and fall asleep side by side…

Of course, there was also an even more comfortable bed, one filled with a marvelous fragrance, and that was the warm, profound, yet unfathomable friendship between her and Lainia!

Just as she was preparing to take off her robe and crawl under the covers for a proper rest…

Flap, flap.

The sound of beating wings came from outside the window.

Stella turned her head and saw a completely snow-white long-tailed owl standing on the windowsill, tilting its head as it stared at her with a pair of large, round eyes.

Tied to its talons were an exquisite little parcel and a letter.

“What new instructions is Itheria sending this late at night?”

Stella walked over, opened the window, and let the little creature, which was shivering from the cold, inside.

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She opened the letter.

Unexpectedly, this time there was none of the usual sarcastic mockery, nor any suicidal mission that she absolutely had to complete.

The handwriting was messy. Unlike before, it seemed somewhat hurried.

【To Saintess Stella von Einzbern, codename Saintess.】

【Recently, a serious prison break occurred at the White Tower of the Holy Prison. An extremely dangerous felonious demon escaped during the chaos, and her current whereabouts are unknown. According to divination, there is a very high possibility that the target has already fled back to the Demon Realm. The Holy See has already dispatched pursuers.】

【The target is extremely cunning and highly skilled at disguise. If you discover any suspicious traces within your area of activity, be sure to remain vigilant. If an opportunity arises, do your best to capture the target and bring her to justice, dead or alive.】

【Additionally, a small gift from the Holy See is enclosed with this letter. This is a commemorative item specially distributed to clergy across the land in celebration of the coronation of the new Saintess, Sibylla.】

【——Respectfully, Itheria】

“A felonious demon escaped from prison?”

Stella raised an eyebrow.

What did that have to do with her?

The Demon Realm was already the demons’ own lair. What difference did one more or one fewer wanted criminal make?

As long as the fugitive did not cause trouble for her, Stella could not be bothered meddling in someone else’s business.

Stella casually tossed the letter aside and turned her gaze toward the pink gift box.

“A commemorative gift for the coronation of the new Saintess? It’s actually pretty fancy.”

Stella untied the ribbon, and a rich, sweet fragrance immediately filled her nose.

Inside was a box of handmade chocolates that looked expensive at a glance.

And resting on top of the chocolates was a photograph card edged in gold foil.

Stella picked up a piece of chocolate and popped it into her mouth, then casually picked up the photograph.

“Let me see exactly which grind monster managed to out-grind me…”

By the moonlight, Stella finally got a clear look at the photograph.

At the center of the solemn and sacred Holy Trinity Cathedral, countless candle flames flickered.

A girl dressed in pure white sacred robes held a white candle in her hands, her head lowered devoutly. The upper half of her face was hidden beneath the shadow of her veil, while the lower half rested within the shadow cast by the candlelight. Amid the wavering light and darkness, a faint, pale smile emerged, along with silver hair.

‘Mm…’

Stella stopped chewing her chocolate.

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Holding the photograph, she raised it beside her reflection in the mirror for comparison.

From the left, then the right.

From above, then below.

“…”

Stella blinked.

‘Why does the new Saintess look so much like me?’

Perhaps it was merely a visual illusion, or perhaps she had unconsciously projected herself onto the image.

Stella thought about it for a moment.

A similar outline alone could easily make someone mistake one girl for another. Not to mention, in order to heighten the sense of sacredness, the Holy See had deliberately added a filter to the photograph card, making the entire figure look as though she were shrouded in mist, hazy and indistinct, impossible to see clearly.

Stella had experienced similar illusions before while looking at blurry things. When a distant image was vague enough, the indistinct silhouette would sometimes seem to take on the shape of something familiar, as though her own most subtle impressions had been projected onto it.

In any case, at the very least, the new Saintess had a genuinely beautiful silhouette. She might even be around Stella’s age.

And the other girl’s talent and willpower were probably far superior to hers.

After all, the Holy See’s Saintess selection was no fairy tale.

Once every ten years, the Holy See would issue a gospel summons to dioceses throughout the entire continent.

From tens of thousands of orphans with an affinity for light, daughters of wealthy merchants, and noble young ladies, they would gradually select the purest uncut gems, then bring them to the Garden of Silence behind its towering walls, isolating them from the outside world so they could devote themselves entirely to communicating with the intangible Holy Light.

To preserve the purity of their spirituality, all communication between candidate Saintesses was limited to gestures. Unless absolutely necessary, they basically would not speak to one another.

For the new Saintess Sibylla to fight her way across that single-plank bridge against thousands upon thousands of competitors and seize the crown, she was probably one terrifyingly formidable person herself.

“Wow, the ultimate grind monster.”

Stella muttered and casually ate another piece of chocolate.

Translator Note

Now that this chapter mentioned it, I just realized these moments in 25 chapters all only happened within a single day? Feels like too much happened within one day LOL