Volume 2, Chapter 30-1 – Mom or President, That Is the Question

“Lies…?”

Dorothy staggered back two steps.

“Fake… It was all fake…?”

If everything had been a lie…

If all that talk about taking back the sunlight had been nothing more than a story Stella made up…

Then all the effort she had put in until now, all those countless late nights when she had worked herself to tears…

What had it all been for?

To prove how stupid she was?

Or to become the most pathetic clown in this absurd play?

Warm tears slowly slid down her cheeks.

Dorothy’s vision blurred, and the world before her seemed to drift beneath the surface of the water.

Everything was so elusive, everything was so unbelievable, everything was so uncertain.

Everything, all of it, seemed no more than an illusory and distant dream.

Emptiness spread through her, as though she no longer existed in this place.

Then anger suddenly began boiling within her heart. Her sorrow found another outlet, transforming into agitated grief and indignation. That hollow feeling came from her clear understanding of the situation before her, and from the helplessness of knowing that nothing had changed despite it.

“If it was all lies…” Dorothy murmured. “If it was fake… then purify all of it.”

“Purify her… Purify the liar.”

The instant those words fell, the Girl in the Mirror floating beside her moved.

Countless shattered mirrors trembled violently, emitting a piercing hum.

Silver holy fire reflected wildly between the shards, illuminating the surroundings with a dreamlike radiance. The surreal scene seared itself into everyone’s eyes as the holy fire roared toward Stella.

“Elder Sister?!”

Cheryl, lying in a pool of blood, stared at the silver blades raining down from the sky and struggled to get up.

The holy fire had been enough to vaporize her feathered thorns. Against a demon, its destructive power was undoubtedly comparable to divine punishment.

“Get out of the way!”

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Yet Stella did not move.

She merely stood there quietly, without the slightest ripple in her indifferent eyes. She even felt like giving a soft snort.

Once again, the same question presented itself. What would happen if you used a Holy Art against a Saintess who had Holy Light residing inside her body?

It would be just like what had happened in Defense Against Holy Magic class, when poor Professor Katerina had tried using a Holy Art on her.

The answer, of course, was… nothing.

Even a clergy member who had only just joined the Holy See knew that the essence of Holy Arts was not the violent seizure of power, but resonance between powers of the same source and the circulation of grace.

It was light greeting light, water embracing water.

Trying to attack a high-ranking Saintess with a lower-tier Holy Art was logically absurd.

No matter what, she, Stella Dark… Stella von Einzbern, was a Saintess with S-rank Holy Light affinity.

The silver radiance filling the sky slammed into Stella.

There was no anticipated explosion, nor any horrifying sight of flesh dissolving away.

The holy fire capable of burning through souls became incomparably docile an instant before touching Stella’s skin. It transformed into countless specks of starlight that affectionately circled her, coating her silhouette in a layer of radiance.

Then, like wanderers who had spent years away from home finally seeing their mother again, they affectionately dissipated and merged into her. Streams of silver light flowed into her like rivers entering the sea, slipping straight into her body with a soft whoosh.

A warm, melting sensation spread through her. It was as though a pair of warm hands had stroked over her entire body in the depths of winter, leaving every part of her thoroughly comfortable.

The light faded.

Stella remained standing exactly where she was, without even a strand of hair out of place.

“I don’t believe it…”

Dorothy’s fingers clawed frantically at empty air.

“Purify! Purify! Purify her!”

The Girl in the Mirror raised her arm again. Blades formed from holy fire became streaks of afterimages as they slashed down madly.

Once, twice, ten times.

Yet there was no sensation of impact.

The blades collapsed the instant they touched that wisp of silver hair, turning into docile motes of light that melted into her skin.

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The holy fire that scorched demons was so gentle when it fell upon Stella that it could not even stir the corner of her clothes.

Whether slashing, piercing, or burning.

Every Holy Art became useless before Stella.

“…Eh?”

Dorothy was stunned.

“Why…”

“No matter what I do, I can’t hurt you at all…?”

“I suppose that makes sense… After all, I only wielded this power in the first place because I wanted to help you.”

Dorothy lowered her head and slumped onto the ground, staring at her trembling hands.

“But what does that make me now?”

Her voice was as light as a breeze.

“My pursuit, my faith, everything I gave… Were they all just a joke?”

All this time, Dorothy had vaguely felt that her soul was pursuing something, some half-formed idea or perhaps some indistinct emotion. She could not put it into words, yet this pursuit had never allowed her a moment of peace, forcing her to keep searching even though she herself did not know where she was supposed to look.

And now, even the direction of that search had been proven to be a lie.

She had completely lost her way.

Stella looked into the emptiness in Dorothy’s eyes.

In a daze, she seemed to see a girl curled up in pitch-black darkness, hugging her own arms and sobbing softly, the sound suppressed and despairing.

Stella sighed gently in her heart.

‘Lord, look. Another lost lamb.’

‘Why are there so many lost lambs in the Abyss?’

‘Did the fence around Heaven have a hole in it, causing all of them to fall through into this godforsaken dump?’

Of course, in Stella’s eyes, one of the most precious things in life was the confusion of these lambs.

Confusion gave birth to questions, confusion gave birth to searching, confusion gave birth to pain.

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Confusion meant she was thinking. It meant she was not blindly following whatever everyone else said.

That was an excellent first step.

So…

Why should Dorothy be considered a bad child because of that?

Dorothy’s first step toward committing evil had most likely come from her inherently kind nature being led astray by Stella, this terrible shepherd.

Stella felt that she had to take responsibility for that.

No matter what Dorothy had done, at least her nature was still kind.

As long as someone was kind by nature, there was still hope for them.

Stella thought about it.

Having a little lamb like Dorothy beside her would actually be rather novel and quite fun.

A thought could not help but rise in her mind.

If she wanted to see the sunlight that badly…

Stella stepped forward and walked up to Dorothy.

“Dorothy.”

Stella called her softly.

“Even if it was because of those ridiculous rumors, you still shouldn’t have taken it upon yourself to try to kill a fellow student, nearly committing an irreversible capital crime.”

“You turned the Lionheart Society into your personal dictatorship for venting your own selfish desires, using the cheap excuse of eliminating those who disagreed with you to trample on other people’s dignity and lives.”

“And most importantly.”

Stella paused.

“Giving yourself over to another person far too easily always makes me question whether your previous struggles were sincere.”

“And once you’ve surrendered yourself, becoming unwaveringly convinced that what you believe is gospel and passing it on to others is a kind of ignorance that is difficult to tolerate, even when it presents itself in the guise of faith.”

“…I’m sorry.” Dorothy trembled and did not dare raise her head.

Stella crouched down and met her eyes.

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“Shouldn’t I be the one saying I’m sorry?”

Stella tilted her head in puzzlement.

“The sun you draw has always been triangular.”

Stella’s voice was very, very soft, like willow fluff drifting through the spring air.

“That’s because you’ve never seen it. And yet you yearn for it more desperately than any of the demons who laughed at you.”

Dorothy’s pale, unmarked lips trembled as her tears fell one drop at a time.

The wind blew past, then blew back from the opposite direction, tossing Stella’s long hair about. She reached up and brushed it aside, letting her previously hidden gaze meet Dorothy’s once more.

“I owe you an apology. I have to beg your forgiveness for the lies I told before. I lied, but those lies were only meant to help me maintain a certain illusion and balance.”

Stella gently stroked Dorothy’s disheveled hair.

“But if…”

“If you still want to see what shape the real sun is, then perhaps I can try… taking you with me to see it.”

Those words were like a pure white feather slowly drifting down onto the center of Dorothy’s lake.

There was a faint tingling sensation, followed by gentle ripples.

The endless daylight of summer, a windy dusk, a balcony nestled against the mountains.

Waves of rice rolled through the little valley, carrying the lovely fragrance of ripening grain.

Brilliant sunset clouds, gentle evening stars.

Translator Note

Hwaaaa! early chapter made me cry again!

“All the effort she had put in until now, all those countless late nights when she had worked herself to tears…”

Hwaaa! Stories about hard work that goes to waste always make me cry TvT