Volume 2, Chapter 28-1 – Girl in the Mirror

“Remedios, Remedios!”

Stella pushed open the door. Behind it lay a dilapidated staircase leading down into the basement.

Whenever she thought about how she had somehow ended up playing the role of a morally bankrupt scoundrel who toyed with a girl’s feelings and then abandoned her, she could hardly suppress the shame welling up inside her.

No matter what, she was still a Saintess with serious principles, clumsy conduct, and impeccable moral character.

‘What a terrible humiliation!’

If Remedios’ story were ever adapted into a stage play, and there happened to be a narrator, then that narrator would plainly explain that Stella’s sense of shame was precisely the wellspring from which a shameless succubus drew her pleasure, teasing her propriety and kneading her embarrassment with all her might until it took the shape of bashfulness.

“Explain to me what exactly that was just now?”

Stella marched straight up to the mastermind, her tone indignant.

The development far beyond her expectations had left her flustered like a bride, while those brazen accusations had painted her face red with embarrassment.

Remedios was sitting before a wooden table with one corner missing. She held an exquisite quill in her hand and softly hummed an eerily peculiar little tune as she scribbled away in her notebook.

Hearing Stella’s questioning, Remedios stopped humming and tilted her head in confusion.

“Hmm? Explain what? Everything went according to plan. Cheryl performed even better than I expected. Especially her improvisation on the spot… I have to admit, it was simply the perfect finishing touch.”

“Perfect? What part of that was perfect?”

Stella’s cheeks puffed up slightly whenever she was angry, as though she had stuffed a pinecone into her mouth.

“Biting every finger? Playing with someone’s feelings? Seducing her and then abandoning her?”

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“That was outrageous. Completely out of line!”

“Have you no shame at all! Was that really the kind of character I was supposed to be playing? How could that possibly be right!” Stella suddenly shouted with heartfelt reproach.

“Outrageous? Out of line?”

Remedios put down her quill.

She tilted her head again, her azure eyes filled with genuine confusion.

“I think all of that was perfectly normal.”

“What part of it was normal?!”

“I would never do anything that despicable.”

“Despicable?”

Remedios rolled the word around in her mouth and frowned slightly.

Then she set down the quill and clasped both hands beneath her chin.

“Stella, I think you have some deeply rooted misunderstandings about the definition of despicable behavior. Or rather, about our sense of aesthetics.”

“What?”

“Especially for all higher succubi.”

Remedios raised one finger and patiently began explaining it to her like a professor giving a lecture.

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“Seducing someone and then abandoning them is not some despicable act. On the contrary, it is one of the highest forms of praise among us.”

“Lust: uncontrolled desire. Gluttony: bodily desire. Envy: the desire to act recklessly. Sloth: the desire for possessions. Pride: the desire to escape. Wrath: the desire for excellence… It isn’t just us. Aren’t most demons like this?”

“Huh?”

Stella froze.

“Think about it,” Remedios coaxed patiently. “That was the eldest daughter of the Valentine family just now, the proud red rose. And you not only broke that rose, you played with it until you grew tired of it, then casually tossed it aside like an old toy.”

Miss Book Demon continued her instigation.

“Wasn’t everything I wrote meant to demonstrate your ability to dominate others?”

“As for biting fingers and the like…” Remedios shrugged. “I never wrote any lines like that. That was entirely your convenient little sister improvising on her own. I have to admit, she has a talent for acting.”

“Now, all we need to do is wait for the Sixth Watch.”

“The seed has already been planted. Thanks to Cheryl’s tearful accusations and your sacrifice, we’ll be able to catch her very soon.”

“The ghost will absolutely be unable to tolerate Cheryl clinging to you like a lump of mud and trying to sully you with that kind of romantic scandal. In its eyes, for the eldest daughter of the Valentine family to actually dare declare in public that you owe her an explanation is simply not knowing her own place…”

The smile at the corner of Remedios’s lips deepened.

“Anger makes a blade lose its aim, and it will also make the ghost reveal its tracks.”

“…”

Stella was speechless.

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She tried to refute Remedios using human morality. For example, indulging one’s desires was the greatest source of calamity, discussing another person’s private affairs was a grave sin, and failing to recognize one’s own faults was the gravest sickness. Or perhaps she could point out that the Saintess’ teachings told her to love others as herself rather than treating them like toys?

But looking at Remedios’ utterly matter-of-fact expression, Stella sadly realized that what lay between them was not merely a table, but an entire species-wide gulf.

Remedios’ explanation churned through her mind. Stella had to admit that what the other girl said made sense, yet she truly found it difficult to agree with that kind of reasoning.

Seeing Stella remain silent for so long, Remedios seemed to notice something.

She frowned slightly and thoughtfully studied Stella’s stiff expression.

“Hmm…”

Remedios pondered for a moment.

“Stella… could it be that you belong to the very traditional and conservative type?”

“I remember now.”

Remedios let out a soft cry of realization.

She studied Stella with the gaze one might use on some rare animal, and her voice became much gentler.

“I almost forgot. According to the Mirror of Desire’s assessment during the entrance ceremony, your core traits were SSS+ level ‘Abstinence’ and ‘Tsundere.’ Rumors that are too explicit really would make you uncomfortable and embarrassed. You probably prefer something more… subtle.”

Remedios’s voice was filled with apology now, without the slightest trace of her earlier matter-of-fact attitude.

“Sorry. I didn’t think it through properly.”

Stella lowered her eyes and could no longer be bothered to speak.

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Trying to discuss morality with demons was like trying to discuss healthy living with the undead. It was nothing but talking to a brick wall.

She really did have one particular flaw. Whenever she panicked, her mind would go blank and she would hand in an empty answer sheet. Afterward, she would understand everything perfectly clearly, but in the moment, her brain simply jammed and refused to turn.

“…Forget it. I should’ve gotten used to this kind of thing a long time ago,” Stella said in resignation.

It was only one more charge of ‘toying with a young girl’ added to the already thick stack of crimes against her.

That did not mean she was a shameless Saintess.

After all, plenty of famous and important people got drunk too, and they were especially fond of flirting with one another. That was merely a bad habit, no worse than biting one’s fingernails.

In Stella’s eyes, the people who lied habitually and acted cruelly were the ones who were truly rotten to the core.

In any case, the canvas named Stella had long since been splashed all over with thick and vivid paints called evil, brutality, and sinister scheming. Adding a few more incomprehensible strokes of graffiti would merely make the abstract painting a little harder to understand.

She had already resigned herself to it.

Translator Note

If I were in Stella’s position, I think I can’t refute Remedios either xD