Volume 2, Chapter 28-3 – Girl in the Mirror

Dorothy smoothed out the last flyer and carefully placed it inside her sketchbook.

On the easel, the painting of Stella had yet to fully dry.

The oil paint sat half-congealed upon the canvas, impossible to thin or smooth out, like a soul that had been kneaded and twisted, spraying dark-red blood across a blank expanse filled with infinite yearning.

She turned her head and looked around the studio, where there was no one but herself.

Perhaps it had been a prank by the Mirror of Desire. When she was first assigned to the already-declining House of Art, loneliness had been her only visitor.

In her spare time, Dorothy painted and read. When there were no classes, she would sit alone on the terrace and stare blankly into the distance with nothing to do.

Whenever she looked up at the vault of the Abyss, a desire would rise within her to reach out and grasp the sun.

The succubi of the other Houses usually liked forming cliques, but in truth, they were hardly united.

They fought battles with words, spread rumors, and slandered one another.

Fingers painted with vivid nail polish intertwined with each other. One moment, they were sickeningly affectionate, and the next, their eyes were filled with venomous resentment.

Dorothy watched those colorful yet impure souls and occasionally heard fragments of laughter carried on the wind.

It was a strange place filled with strange people, yet she did not feel lonely. In that peaceful, undisturbed life of solitude, she had found a companion in her own heart.

Whenever she created a painting, she seemed to understand a little more about nature and about one’s true nature.

She watched everything, listened to everything, analyzed everything, and it all seemed somewhat clearer than before.

Everything was perfectly normal.

Until one day.

Dorothy was sorting through the mountain of old paintings in the underground storeroom, trying to find canvases that could be reused.

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Behind a pile of dust-covered plaster casts and oil paintings, she accidentally touched a silver mirror.

There was no earth-shattering phenomenon.

The glass mirror merely reflected her face. It was somewhat hazy, somewhat fragmented, suffused with an almost icy radiance. Her features could not be made out clearly, leaving only blurred yet beautiful lines.

For one brief instant, Dorothy felt as though she had fallen into the mirror.

Yet the Girl in the Mirror merely watched her in silence. She said nothing, yet seemed to be everywhere.

Dorothy had an intuition… if she wished it, the mirror would respond.

Dorothy did not become ecstatic. She merely remained calm, though she inevitably felt confused. She did not know what this gift was, nor did she even know why it had chosen her.

That confusion continued until she accidentally pushed open the battered door of the former Spiritual Flogging Club.

At first, she had only wanted to join the crowd and observe what sort of colors and contours that SSS+ freshman everyone in the school was talking about actually possessed.

But Stella was standing right there.

Standing on the speaking platform.

Then Dorothy heard of the ideal called sunlight, a word that had never before existed in the Abyss.

As she listened to Stella speak, Dorothy suddenly felt that Stella’s figure had become towering and grand.

Although she was not a soldier wielding a gun on the battlefield, Stella’s words seemed to contain extraordinarily profound truths. She sounded like a genuine warrior.

And the most beautiful music was not found inside concert halls, but within the human voice, in tones born from gentleness, reason, or courage in life.

There was no question that Stella’s ideals were pure.

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Although sometimes Dorothy could not help wondering whether Stella’s impassioned tone was actually some sophisticated technique for fooling people.

But very quickly, she was conquered by the color called hope.

There could be no mistake. It was her.

A leader, a farsighted demon, a great demon with the courage to strike down and annihilate her enemies!

The savior of all demons!

And so, Dorothy submitted her application to join the club without the slightest hesitation, naturally becoming its Propaganda Officer.

At first, she merely distributed flyers clumsily and imitated Stella as she gave speeches. Some people were interested, but far more scoffed at them.

“Lionheart Society? What kind of childish make-believe name is that?”

“Make demons great? You’d be better off figuring out how to pass the next test.”

“Sunlight? Give it a rest, little girl. You don’t even know what the sun looks like, do you? Who are you trying to fool by drawing a triangle?”

The flyers were crumpled into balls and thrown beneath their feet, stained with mud.

Dorothy silently bent down, picked up the trampled sheets of paper, and smoothed out the creases.

It was at that very moment that she understood the destiny behind the Girl in the Mirror choosing her.

This power existed to protect.

And also to punish heretics.

Stella was absolute light, and every shadow that obstructed that light had to be swept away.

There was far too much filth here that needed purification.

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The fools who mocked the President’s ideals were dust.

The vermin content to remain in darkness were nourishment.

Of course, at first, they were only simple warnings.

As long as she focused slightly on the reflection in the mirror, her will could vaguely guide itself toward those individuals who had openly mocked them before. The mirrors in the washrooms became windows, and holy flames scorched their skin, leaving behind words of warning.

And she never missed.

The only exception had merely been because she had been fortunate enough to partake in the President’s Holy Communion and had consequently been forced into unconsciousness.

Of course, that had been both a trial and a blessing.

After awakening, she had obtained the power of an Apostle. The power she had originally been able to barely outline only during the Sixth Watch by borrowing that fleeting instant of light at noon now flowed through her veins.

Anytime, anywhere.

“I gave them chances.”

Dorothy walked out of the studio and spoke softly to the shadow reflected in the corridor window.

“I handed out flyers. I preached about the future. I tried to tell them what sunlight looked like… but all they ever did was laugh.”

“They laughed at my pursuit as nothing but a castle in the air.”

“They laughed at the President’s ideals as nothing but a fool’s dream.”

“None of that matters. Sooner or later, they’ll wake up. As long as the pain cuts deeply enough.”

Dorothy stopped walking.

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“But Cheryl Valentine… she’s different.”

She raised her head, and mist began to gather across the surface of the glass.

“She isn’t merely ignorant… she’s poison. She actually dared to use such a filthy method… to defile the President.”

“If that was true…”

Dorothy’s voice abruptly turned cold, like a piece of ice plunging into a deep well.

“Then she deserves to die even more.”

“Let’s go.”

The Girl in the Mirror’s blurred and sacred figure slowly overlapped with her own.

“We’re going to carry out… the purification of heretics.”

The doors of the lecture hall were right before her.

Dorothy raised her hand and lightly knocked.

Translator Note

Noooo! Bad author! What do you want to do with such an innocent girl! Don’t kill Dorothy!!