Volume 2, Chapter 31-2 – Twin Towers

The Divination classroom was located on the highest floor of the north tower.

In fact, it didn’t look anything like a proper classroom.

It looked much more like a café.

There were fewer than twenty round tables crammed into the classroom. The entire room was like a dark yellow picture frame surrounding the vast painting beyond the windows.

The shimmering, gleaming sea surged all the way up to the curtains, dyeing even their edges blue.

Stella sat at one of the round tables with her chin propped in both hands, questioning every choice she had made in life.

The source of her distress was none other than the succubus daughter she had somehow acquired through sheer accident, along with the ever-mystifying Professor Shanoti.

Of course, there were also the… weirdos currently gathered around her.

Stella looked around.

On her left, Remedios was acting like some creepy auntie, pulling beautifully wrapped snacks from her pocket and trying to tempt Dorothy.

“Here, cutie, want a taste?” Remedios coaxed with a beaming smile. “These are rare premium candies. Not only do they taste wonderful, you can even customize them to whatever flavor you like. As long as you promise to cooperate with Elder Sister on just a tiny little bit of research in the future… they’re all yours.”

Clearly, this Book Demon had not given up on the idea of studying the Girl in the Mirror.

She had even begun dangling tempting proposals in front of Dorothy, claiming that she could help her develop even more of the Girl in the Mirror’s latent powers.

Dorothy did not immediately take the snacks.

She turned her head, those large, moist eyes looking toward Stella as though asking for her parent’s permission.

“Um… Dorothy?”

Stella tried to tug back the sleeve Dorothy was gripping tightly, but failed.

“Hm?” Dorothy immediately raised her head, blinking like a puppy waiting for instructions. “Is something the matter, Mama?”

The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched.

“Could you use a different form of address when we’re in public?” She whispered.

“No problem, President.” Dorothy obediently nodded, then added, “Then I’ll only call you that in private from now on.”

“…”

Stella had completely run out of things to say.

At first, she had tried to make Dorothy stop calling her that.

But very quickly, she was horrified to discover that Dorothy seemed to enjoy calling her Mama. In fact, the word was coming out more and more naturally, and with greater and greater confidence.

‘What the hell.’

‘I’m only fourteen years old. I’m still going to school. How have I somehow ended up with a succubus daughter?’

‘If word of this got back to the Holy See, what would happen to my reputation as a Saintess?’

Stella let out a long sigh and decided not to think about that headache for now.

She considered Remedios’ proposal.

After thinking it through carefully, Stella had to admit that both publicly and privately, there really was a need to let Remedios get involved in studying the Girl in the Mirror.

For one thing, Stella still owed Remedios a favor from their last trip into the Forbidden Forest. Although the process of catching Dorothy this time had been bizarre and convoluted, Remedios’ melodramatic script had indeed helped.

For another, Stella herself wanted to figure out exactly what the Girl in the Mirror was. It was, after all, an existence on the level of a holy relic. For an ordinary demon like Dorothy, carrying something like that around was no different from holding a nuclear bomb in her arms. There were bound to be enormous hidden dangers.

“Fine.” Stella nodded. “As long as Dorothy agrees, I have no objections.”

“Wonderful!”

Remedios’ eyes lit up.

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Miss Book Demon immediately leaned across the table. Then, before anyone could react…

Smooch.

Her lips lightly touched Stella’s cheek, leaving behind a soft, moist sensation.

“Thanks, Stella~” Remedios smiled like a fox that had successfully stolen a bite of meat, her eyes filled with sly delight. “Just in case you didn’t know, you have no idea how important this is to me.”

“Eh?”

Stella was stunned too.

She covered her cheek, her entire body seemingly frozen in place as her mind went completely blank.

Remedios’ face had also turned red, the faintest trace of color drifting across her cheeks. She quickly closed her book, put on a casual expression, and began scribbling away in her notebook.

‘Just now… did something just happen?’

Before Stella could recover, a crisp cracking sound suddenly came from beside her.

The handle of the teacup in Cheryl’s hand had been crushed off, and her crimson eyes looked ready to spit fire.

‘Stella is my Elder Sister!’

‘She is part of the Valentine family!’

‘And this Book Demon who didn’t know her place actually dared to take advantage of my Elder Sister right in front of me?!’

“You…”

Cheryl had just begun to stand up, ready to teach the insolent Remedios a lesson.

“Quiet down. Divination is not a place for you to flirt with each other.” Professor Shanoti had approached at some unknown point.

She carried several delicate coffee cups over and gently placed them on their table.

“Ah, youth is wonderful.”

She sighed with feeling.

“Welcome to Divination, children.” Professor Shanoti returned to the center of the classroom. “Since all of you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult art among all forms of magic, I must warn you beforehand…”

“For most of you students, what I can teach you is only a very, very small portion… namely, to lead you in wandering through the territory that books can reach.”

“Just like many Archdemons. Although their talents have allowed them to achieve extraordinary accomplishments in other fields, letting them easily tear steel apart and chant forbidden spells, even they… still cannot pierce through the mists of the future.”

“You recently gained a very good… mother-like figure.” Professor Shanoti suddenly spoke to Dorothy. “It’s just that she seems to be younger than you.”

“Younger than me?”

Dorothy froze for a moment and instinctively looked at Stella.

Stella really did look very petite. With her long silver hair and delicate features, she resembled a newborn kitten, tiny and soft.

“Do you mean… her height?”

Dorothy asked seriously.

“Perhaps.” Professor Shanoti muttered as though talking to herself.

‘…Of course she meant age.’

Stella covered her face, feeling as though an entire flock of crows had just flown over her head.

She had read in Abyssal Ecology and Demon Races that age was a very vague concept within succubus ecology.

That was because most demons were oviparous. The amount of time they spent incubating inside their eggs varied, and their growth and development were also relatively slow.

Some succubi might look only ten years old while actually having been out of their shells for fifty years. Some might even have lived for more than a thousand years, with Principal Gehenna being the classic example. Others might look mature and seductive despite having only been born a few years ago.

Therefore, when succubi judged one another’s age and seniority, they generally did not simply look at appearances. Instead, they were extremely pragmatic, using the sense of age carried within one’s magical power and one’s actual date of birth as their standards.

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In any case, among this bizarre assortment of succubi, Stella, the only human present, was unquestionably among the youngest if they went by actual age.

Fourteen years old.

If her age were strictly converted according to the demons’ growth cycle, which was so long it practically seemed frozen in place…

Mm…

Right now, she should still be an infant who had only just been born, with even her first unfertilized egg nowhere in sight.

She was at an age where not only had she yet to be weaned, she should still be wrapped in diapers and lying in a cradle listening to lullabies.

—————

“Now, I want each of you to brew some coffee and add seven and one-third spoonfuls of thick coffee grounds. Then sit down and drink it, finishing the coffee until only the grounds remain.”

Professor Shanoti continued calmly.

“Finally, place the saucer upside down over the mouth of the cup and turn it three times, then invert the coffee cup onto the saucer and let it cool slowly.”

“A very simple form of pattern divination. You can turn to page seven of the textbook and compare the patterns there to interpret your reading.”

“This year, we will be studying the basic methods of divination. Today’s first lesson will teach you how to interpret coffee stains. In the next lesson, we will study palmistry. I will walk among you and offer guidance.”

“By the way, dear…”

Professor Shanoti walked over to Remedios and lowered her eyes to glance at the coffee cup in her hand.

“Beware of slimes, Miss Book Demon. They are your nemesis, and they will also be your… opportunity.”

Remedios frowned slightly.

At first, she had looked down on the idea of using something as simple as coffee stains for divination.

By comparison, she preferred using magic. For Remedios, there was a very simple way to distinguish a genuine prophecy.

Proper prophecies always rhymed. Hidden within their obscure and difficult words, truth lay concealed like gold coins treasured inside a cabinet.

But after hearing about the slimes, Remedios began to feel that Professor Shanoti might actually know what she was doing.

After all, not long ago in the Forbidden Forest, she really had been thoroughly tormented by the Lord of the Forest, the principal’s gigantic slime. That sticky sensation was still the stuff of nightmares.

Calling them her nemesis wasn’t wrong.

But as for an opportunity…

Remedios instinctively glanced at Stella.

Perhaps that wasn’t wrong either.

“Before long, we will enter the fourth quarter, when the blood moon reaches its fullest,” Professor Shanoti continued as she walked forward. “We will progress to crystal balls… if we can complete the other portions quickly enough. But unfortunately, one among us will leave us forever.”

Her footsteps stopped in front of Cheryl.

“Blood. I see blood.” Shanoti stared at the dark-red residue at the bottom of Cheryl’s cup. “Blood flowing without end, its gurgling sound pricking my heart like fine needles. Blood is a very sorrowful color. It often represents death.”

Cheryl fell silent.

She instinctively touched the thorn mark on her palm.

As the heir of the Valentine family, blood and sacrifice were her destiny.

Shanoti’s prediction was hardly surprising.

“…But at the end of the road, I see something a little different…” Shanoti frowned slightly, seemingly confused. “Clear and bright… like a ray of light… I don’t know what it is.”

“Light…?”

Cheryl blinked in confusion.

“Your turn, dear.”

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At last, the professor’s gaze fell on Stella.

Stella was extremely reluctant. The coffee cup in her hand seemed to have been glued to the table.

She had begun to feel that this mysterious professor’s abilities were far from ordinary.

Whether it was Remedios’ slime or Cheryl’s destiny of blood, she had been far too accurate.

Stella was genuinely afraid that the woman might see something she shouldn’t.

Something like Holy Light, the emblem of the Holy See, or the fact that she was a double agent.

“Why don’t I try interpreting it?”

Remedios had become interested. She leaned over to look at Stella’s coffee cup and seriously studied it while comparing it against the textbook.

Dorothy and Cheryl also curiously leaned closer.

“This part looks like a flock of sheep,” Remedios said. “It signifies guidance and being at the center…”

“Then there’s a crown… a symbol of wealth and authority. Not bad, not bad…”

Stella tucked her hands away and listened uneasily.

A flock of sheep?

Guidance?

Why did that sound so familiar?

In the scriptures of the Holy See, shepherd was one of the most sacred titles for members of the clergy.

‘Guiding lost lambs and leading the flock toward the light… wasn’t that exactly my duty as a Saintess?’

And then there was the crown…

In the Abyss, a crown represented the Queen of Eternal Night, but in the Holy See, a crown of thorns represented suffering and glory.

Stella could only pray that Remedios wouldn’t keep going and interpret something like a cross or a holy grail next.

Remedios turned the coffee cup in another direction.

“But from this angle, the flock looks a bit like a pack of wolves… and this crown seems a little crooked, almost like an overturned cage… I don’t really understand it anymore.”

“Let me take a look, dear.”

Professor Shanoti took Stella’s cup and rotated it counterclockwise.

Everyone watched in silence.

“Inverted twin towers… Dear, you have sisters.”

“Everyone knows that already, don’t they?” Remedios glanced at Cheryl, who had been silent for a while.

“More than one.”

Professor Shanoti stared at her and added.

‘More than one?’

‘What does that mean?’

Stella didn’t quite understand.

Cheryl could barely be counted as her bargain-bin sister, but there was only one of her. In the Human Realm, Stella was an orphan, so where would a second sister come from?

Did mutually calling the other nuns sisters count too?

“Then there is a pool of blood, symbolizing slaughter and ascension. After that, a dragon comes because of it, symbolizing attack and calamity arriving from afar… and the ashes of the old days are gradually beginning to burn once more… Child, your future is filled with danger, dear…”

‘A pool of blood…’

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Stella lowered her eyes.

There was no need for much imagination. It undoubtedly pointed toward the approaching Laxia Ritual.

The Sacred Blood Grail, the destiny of the Valentine family, a coronation destined to be paved with flesh and blood.

That much was within expectations.

As for the dragon coming from afar…

It was most likely the dragon-species demon Remedios had mentioned, a former follower of the Pale Lord and the rebel of one of the Elector families, the Samael family.

The Pale Daughter’s guardian, Aetlana Samael.

As for the ashes of the old days…

That could only mean the Ash Drinkers represented by former Vice Principal Mara.

Stella’s headache grew even worse.

“Finally, there are… the stars…”

Then Shanoti’s hand suddenly trembled violently. The coffee cup slipped from her fingers and landed on the table with a clang.

She bent over, drawing breath after breath as though someone were tightly clutching her by the collar.

She felt suffocated, unable to breathe. Her throat felt as though it were packed full of fishbones, something she could neither spit out nor swallow.

“Cough… cough, cough, cough…”

Professor Shanoti collapsed into an empty armchair beside her, her face pale as paper.

“Professor?” Stella panicked a little. “Are you all right?”

“My dear child…”

Cold sweat had actually broken out across Professor Shanoti’s palms. Several strands of hair stuck to her hand, like a crude and terrifying web forcibly tracing the path of fate across her palm.

“My poor child… no… it cannot be put into words… no… don’t ask me anymore…”

She muttered incoherently.

“I think we’ll end today’s class here… Please take your things and leave…”

Stella was dumbfounded.

‘No…’

‘At least explain what you mean?’

‘Is it good or bad?’

‘Am I going to die or am I going to get rich?’

‘You look genuinely terrifying right now, you know!’

Translator Note

Ohh! She has more than 1 sister!

Maybe it’s the newly appointed Saintess? Stella said her appearance is similar to her, right?

And what about the last one that makes the professor terrified? Can you guess?