Volume 3, Chapter 1-3 – The Empty Egg

“Well, well. Our Sleeping Beauty is finally awake?”

A teasing voice rang out.

Stella turned her head.

The bedroom door opened, and Remedios walked in holding a thick, hardbound notebook.

She was not wearing her school uniform today. Instead, she had changed into a dress, with her platinum-blonde hair simply tied behind her head while her azure eyes leisurely looked Stella over.

“Just so we’re clear, I didn’t kiss you,” Remedios said with a completely serious expression.

“…”

Stella rubbed her messy hair.

She had already gotten somewhat used to Remedios occasionally acting unserious.

Miss Book Demon was great in every other respect. Her logic was meticulous, her ability to get things done was excellent, and she really was reliable in a crisis. But she always liked digging pits for people in the strangest places.

“…How long was I asleep?”

“A month.”

Remedios picked up her quill and began scratching notes into the notebook.

“How do you feel?”

“Fine. Just a little hungry.”

“Mm… Day 31. Observation target has awakened. Consciousness is clear. Appetite is good.” Remedios began recording. “Although her brain still doesn’t seem particularly sharp, fortunately her condition is stable. The thorn marks have disappeared. Succubus characteristics are pronounced. No obvious signs of split personality or bloodthirsty impulses.”

“Note. More durable than expected… I mean, remarkably tenacious vitality.”

Stella rolled her eyes, too lazy to correct her wording.

She raised a hand and instinctively gathered her long hair.

Only…

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What her fingertips touched was no longer simply silver strands.

She pulled her hair in front of her eyes and discovered that the inner layers of her originally pure silver hair had completely turned a vivid crimson. Only the outermost layer still barely retained its original silver, like a thin layer of snow covering burning magma.

Stella remembered.

The reward of Laxia, Mia’s essence.

The agony that had felt as though it would burn straight through her blood vessels was gone, but the changes to her body now seemed just a little too drastic.

Stella clutched her head, beginning to panic.

‘I am not really going to turn into a succubus, am I?’

‘That damned thorn mark might have faded, but Mia’s essence had clearly already seeped into my blood.”

‘It’s over.’

‘Completely over.’

‘If I fully fell and became a demon, how am I supposed to go back to the Holy See and collect my pension?’

‘Calm down!’

Since her silver hair had not completely turned crimson yet, that meant the Sanctity was still working. And as long as the Sanctity remained inside her body, she still had a chance to turn things around. Mia’s essence might be overbearing, but as long as she found some way to strengthen her Holy Light, then theoretically she should be able to suppress the Abyssal power.

‘But… How am I supposed to increase the purity of her Holy Light in the Abyss?’

Find a church and pray?

Or maybe find a cross and smack herself with it a couple of times?

Stella frowned as she considered ways to turn herself back into a human.

Suddenly, she felt something hard pressing against her thigh beneath the blankets.

What was this?

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Stella instinctively reached under the covers.

Very soon, her hand touched something hard, round, and even slightly warm.

Stella froze for a moment, then casually pulled it out.

It was an egg.

About the size of her palm, pure white all over, with a faint pearlescent sheen across its surface. It looked like a flawless pearl.

Holding the egg in her hands, Stella inexplicably felt a hazy sense that an entire lifetime had passed.

An egg?

What the hell!?

Why was there an egg under her blankets?

Was this someone’s prank?

Had her little daughter Dorothy deliberately stuffed it in here while she was asleep?

“My, my~”

Remedios’s voice drifted over eerily.

She put down the quill in her hand. Her azure eyes fixed on the egg in Stella’s hands, and her expression became somewhat playful.

“Stella, don’t tell me this is your first time laying an empty egg?”

“Empty… egg?”

Stella felt certain she had not actually woken up yet, or perhaps that previous dream still had not ended.

“What does that mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like.”

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“Come on, what era are we living in? Has no one ever taught you this?” Remedios shrugged. “We succubi reproduce by laying eggs. Once a succubus approaches physical maturity, she’ll periodically expel empty eggs. It’s a perfectly normal physiological phenomenon. The older a succubus gets, the longer the interval between empty eggs. For a thousand-year-old Archdemon like Principal Gehenna, it might only happen once every hundred years.”

Remedios pointed at the egg.

“Judging solely from its luster and patterning, congratulations. Your constitution is very healthy.”

“By the way,” Remedios added, “I laid one a few days ago too. I diced up some ham and scallions, added them to it, and made a plate of fried rice. The texture was excellent. Much richer and denser than an ordinary chicken egg, and extremely nourishing.”

Remedios looked sincerely at the petrified Stella and offered her advice.

“I recommend you try yours too. It’s your own essence condensed into physical form, after all. Eating it lets you recover quite a bit of magical power.”

“Or… you could simply give it to someone as a gift? Succubus empty eggs are premium supplements that are almost impossible to buy on the market, no matter how much money you have.”

“Mm… especially yours.”

Stella’s brain crashed.

‘I… laid an egg?’

She, Stella von Einzbern, a Saintess candidate with S-rank Holy Light affinity in the Holy See, a future Cardinal…

Had laid an egg in her sleep?!

Calling this shocking was nowhere near enough.

Mia’s essence had opened the door for absurdity itself, and absurdity had come home.

‘It’s practically changing my race!’

She didn’t want to really become a succubus. She didn’t want to start finding an egg in her bed every few days from now on…

She had to find a way to increase the purity of her Holy Light immediately, right away, this very second!

“Speaking of which, Remedios.”

Stella stuffed the egg back under her pillow.

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She had not decided what to do with it yet, but there was absolutely no way she was eating it.

“You just happened to be beside me when I woke up. Don’t tell me you’ve been watching over me for an entire month?”

Remedios’ expression abruptly turned serious.

She stood up and straightened the hem of her dress.

“Of course not. Thanks for reminding me. I almost forgot why I came.”

“What is it?”

An ominous feeling welled up in Stella’s heart.

Anything that could make Remedios show an expression like this was definitely no small matter.

Had Principal Gehenna come to collect her debt?

“Go do something about your human slave!!!”

“She’s about to tear down the entire training arena.”

“…Huh?”

Translator Note

What the heck is that…

Is that empty egg something like a woman’s period?

Anyway, now it seems Stella’s race is like 90% succubus, 10% human? xD