Volume 2, Chapter 29-3 – All Lies

The tiered lecture hall was deathly solemn, moonlight flowing like water and spilling silently across the floor.

Stella stood in the doorway, looking somewhat disheveled from the wind.

‘What’s going on here?’

‘Isn’t this way too excessive?’

Stella saw that the floor of the tiered lecture hall was riddled with pits, the walls covered in spiderweb-like cracks, while the desks and chairs had long since been reduced to broken strips of wood.

Her bargain-bin little sister, the eldest daughter of Valentine who was always as proud as a peacock.

At this moment, she looked as though she had been hauled straight out of a pool of blood. She knelt on one knee, her Feather Thorn already tattered beyond recognition, gradually dissolving back into blood and dripping onto the floor, where one crimson flower after another bloomed.

Meanwhile, the culprit, Dorothy, remained frozen in the posture of bringing her sword down. Beside her stood the Girl in the Mirror, holding an execution sword that had yet to fully dissipate.

“…”

Stella lowered her eyes, momentarily at a loss for words.

What in the world was this supposed to be?

When she first agreed to Remedios’ plan, she had only intended to use bait to lure the ghost out and have a little talk with her.

After all, the ghost had never once been recorded killing a student.

In her version of the script, Cheryl would probably stand there shouting and making a scene, then the so-called ghost would jump out in a fit of rage. The two sides would toss a few fireballs back and forth, and finally Stella would make a dazzling entrance like some savior, pull everyone apart, and win a few hearts while she was at it.

But what was this scene in front of her supposed to be?

An execution ground? A religious trial?

If she had arrived one second later.

No, perhaps even half a second later.

The eldest daughter of the Valentine family would have become a headless corpse, while the Propaganda Officer of her Lionheart Society would have become a murderer.

“P-President…”

Dorothy finally came back to her senses.

She hurriedly withdrew her hand, not even daring to meet Stella’s eyes. Instead, like a child caught doing something wrong, her gaze wandered around the hem of Stella’s skirt.

“W-Why… Why are you here?” Dorothy stammered.

The expression on her face was truly something to behold.

Reаԁ οո ΚatRеαԁіոgСаfе

There was both the terror of being caught in the middle of committing murder and a yearning to be praised for what she had accomplished.

Those two completely contradictory emotions twisted together, making her look like a child who had done something wrong yet remained utterly convinced that she had only done it for her mother’s sake.

“Why am I here?” Stella’s gaze swept over the barely conscious Cheryl before finally settling on Dorothy. “I should be the one asking you that. Dorothy, what are you doing?”

“I…”

Dorothy pursed her lips.

She pointed at the red figure collapsed in the pool of blood and hurriedly defended herself.

“I was… cleaning away filth.”

“President, you heard what she said, didn’t you? This woman… this shameless eldest daughter of some noble family actually dared to slander your reputation like that outside!”

“She’s a tumor, a stumbling block obstructing the Lionheart Society’s advance.”

The more Dorothy spoke, the more agitated she became. She stepped forward, instinctively wanting to seize Stella’s hand, only for reverence to stop her halfway through the motion.

“So I… I wanted to get rid of her for you. As long as she disappeared, everyone would always believe that you were flawless, that you were sacred and inviolable…”

“I did it all for your sake! President!”

“I’ve always been the ghost… I know I shouldn’t have hidden it from you, but I only wanted to clear away the obstacles in your path. As long as we eliminate those voices questioning you, as long as everyone comes to fear and revere you, the Lionheart Society can—”

“Just for that?”

Stella interrupted her.

She stepped over the shattered glass on the floor and walked toward Dorothy one step at a time.

As Stella drew closer, Dorothy subconsciously backed away.

‘To protect my image?’

‘For the sake of supposedly making demonkind great again?”

Stella looked at Cheryl’s miserable state and let out a long sigh.

With the Valentine family’s constitution, Cheryl would not die, but she really had suffered this beating for no good reason.

All she had done was cooperate in putting on an act, yet somehow she had ended up getting the living hell beaten out of her.

“That’s enough, Dorothy.” Stella sighed softly. “I don’t want to see you become like this, and I don’t want the Lionheart Society to become a paradise for executioners.”

Rеαⅾ oո КαtRеαⅾіոɡСafе

“But…”

Dorothy curled her fingers tightly into a fist.

“If we don’t do this, how are we supposed to make demonkind great again? Those idiots can’t understand reason at all. Only strength and fear can convince them!”

She raised her head, her eyes filled with hope and pleading.

“Wasn’t it you who told us, President? That we were going to build a club capable of changing the Abyss, that we were going to welcome the coming of a great demon.”

“That it didn’t matter even if people laughed at us now, because as long as we kept going, as long as we eliminated those who opposed us, then sooner or later, one day, we would reclaim our place beneath the sunlight…”

Stella let out a long sigh.

‘Good grief. When have I ever said anything like that?’

At most, she had only started things off. Almost everything after that had basically been filled in by Remedios for her.

But…

At the root of it all, she was still the one responsible.

If she had not accidentally used the club speech as an excuse to start preaching back then.

If she had managed to disband the Lionheart Society in time, Dorothy would never have become like this.

Since this was a cause she had unintentionally planted, then she would end it with her own hands.

Stella looked at the girl gazing at her with eyes full of expectation.

She knew that all she had to do was gently nod, rub Dorothy’s head, and praise her a little, and Dorothy would immediately become the most loyal blade in her hand. She might even offer Stella the heads of even more people someday in the future.

Extremely convenient.

For a spy who merely wanted to survive in the Abyss, this was undoubtedly the optimal solution.

But…

From the corner of her eye, Stella caught sight of the glaring bloodstains on the floor.

No.

Not this.

Anything but this.

Rеаԁ oո KаtReαdіոgCαfе

No matter how she disguised herself for the sake of survival, no matter how many lies she told, no matter how she armed herself with words of arrogance and debauchery, deep within her soul remained the vows she had sworn before the Lord.

She would never treat killing as a joke.

No one should.

No one.

Sometimes, death might be an unavoidable end, but it remained an evil thing.

Even if the other party was a demon, their life should not be casually plucked away like some weed by the roadside.

Stella had always believed that for most people, even the holiest thoughts could be mixed with selfish desires they themselves failed to notice, and even the most selfless sacrifices could hide a desire for something in return.

A kind person might make mistakes because of their kindness, while an unkind person might instead confidently wield morals they did not understand and only knew how to obey as a weapon to hurt others.

But…

True goodness was absolutely not a slogan hanging from one’s lips. It was the standard within one’s own heart that warned them not to commit evil.

It was not covering one’s ears and deceiving the Lord while committing evil, claiming that one had already done everything one possibly could out of kindness and duty, or that someone else had incited them and forced their hand onto the knife’s hilt.

If she accepted this blade, she would become a true accomplice.

Since this was a cause she had unintentionally planted, then she had to end it with her own hands.

Even if that meant personally shattering a girl’s fantasy.

“It was all a lie,” Stella said very, very softly.

The expression on Dorothy’s face froze.

Her mouth opened slightly, as though she had not understood what Stella was saying.

“A… lie?”

“Those things I said were only lies I told to go along with everyone’s emotions,” Stella said casually. “If I hadn’t said things like that, everyone would have felt uncomfortable, right? After all, everyone likes hearing pleasant things, don’t they?”

“Then… then the Lionheart Society…”

Dorothy’s voice grew faint.

“I really didn’t expect the response to be so huge, or that so many people would want to join…” Stella shrugged. “I just thought it seemed interesting. Since there was a whole group of people willing to revolve around me, I had no reason to refuse, right?”

“B-But weren’t you and us…”

Rеαⅾ oո KаtRеadіոgСafе

“I was just a little nicer to all of you because I wanted to make use of you,” Stella continued.

“President, are you… serious?”

Dorothy’s voice began to tremble.

She desperately searched Stella’s face for the slightest trace that this was a joke.

Even the tiniest bit would have been enough.

But there was none.

Only complete composure.

“Are you serious about what you’re saying?” Dorothy took a step forward, trying to grab Stella’s sleeve. “All the effort you put into the Lionheart Society… was that a lie too?”

“Yes.”

Stella did not dodge.

“And this so-called selfless devotion of yours, this so-called purification of heretics, isn’t all of that nothing more than a joke built upon a lie too?”

Dorothy’s face turned pale.

Stella spoke very, very softly, her voice cool and clear.

“Dorothy.”

“It was all a lie.”

“None of it was real.”

“Every last bit of it.”

Translator Note

NOOOOOO bad author crushing the innocent girl’s hope hwaaaaaa!! Dorothy just wanted to see the sun!! Hwaaaaa!!