Volume 3, Chapter 7-2 – Just Borrowing It for a Bit

The moment Stella stepped out of Cloudtop Manor, the clamor of Nightmare Street rushed toward her.

Unlike the eternal stillness of Lilith School, this was a bizarre and dazzling place filled with noise and activity.

The street was paved with uneven bluestone slabs, while the buildings on either side leaned every which way, like drunken giant beasts crammed together. Towering pointed-roof attics jostled against one another, and ghostly blue spirit lanterns floated in midair.

Demons dressed in all manner of clothing passed through the streets.

There were goat-headed mercenaries carrying greatswords taller than themselves, mysterious figures wrapped in cloaks hurrying past, and groups of three or five succubi lifting their skirts as they walked by laughing, their tails raised high.

The roadside vendors shouted at the tops of their lungs.

“Freshly baked Abyssal lava cake! The kind that’ll burn your mouth!”

“Moonlight grass! Moonlight grass just shipped in from the upper layer! Brew it in water and one sip will keep you awake for three days!”

“Don’t miss it, don’t miss it! The newest issue of Prophet Weekly! The latest gossip on the Valentine heir!”

“Pre-made compound potions, ready to mix and use! Just add a sample and you can take on someone else’s appearance! A potion so easy even an idiot can use it, buy now while supplies last!”

“Five hundred demon crystals? You dare charge that much for a pre-made potion? Only an idiot would buy it.”

“Customer, don’t be so quick to scoff. Today’s entire stock has already been reserved by a great beauty.”

Stella silently pulled her hood lower and walked among the stream of demons.

To be honest, ever since coming to the Abyss, this was actually the first time she had left Lilith School and truly stepped into the world of demons.

Truthfully, Stella was rather curious.

She continued along the main road.

Outside the shop on the left stood a row of glass jars, each filled with organs from creatures she couldn’t even name. The labels read “Fresh,” “Special Price,” and “Buy Three, Get One Free.”

In the display window of the shop on the right were all kinds of masks. Some were crying, some were laughing, and one of them actually winked at Stella as she walked past.

Stella instinctively quickened her pace.

She hadn’t gone much farther when a sheet of parchment pasted to the wall caught her eye.

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It was a wanted notice.

A magical image slowly rotated across the paper, outlining the slender figure of a young girl.

Long blue hair, golden slit pupils, and dragon horns on her forehead.

♥════════♥

♡ Felon Demon: Aetlana Samael

♡ Danger Level: A

♡ Crimes: Betrayal, Heretical Infiltration, Murder

♡ Bounty: Dead or Alive

♥════════♥

Stella stared at the wanted notice for three seconds, then casually looked away and continued forward.

A hundred thousand demon crystals was certainly tempting, but she didn’t have the nerve to go looking for trouble with a higher demon.

Besides, Aetlana was coming for her.

After walking for a while, Stella stopped at Intersection No. 3 of Nightmare Street.

Before her stood an enormous villa complex.

A massive red-brick wall rose high into the air. Above the main gate was an elaborate crest of thorns and roses, with tall, narrow stained-glass windows on either side. But after years without maintenance, most of the glass had already shattered, leaving only pitch-black openings.

A towering clock tower pointed toward the eternal night sky. The European-style main building with its pointed roof appeared and disappeared within the dark-red mist. The entire estate exuded the eerie, deathly silence of a place abandoned for centuries, and Abyssal roses covered the surrounding walls.

The once meticulously trimmed shrubs inside had long since grown wild, twisting into strange and distorted shapes. The fountain pool had already dried up, with a thick layer of fallen leaves piled across the bottom.

According to the markings on Vivian’s deed, this was the property now registered under Stella’s name.

——Blood Demon Manor.

Stella silently offered a prayer for Patolize and everyone in the Lionheart Society.

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The place was certainly big enough, but it looked exactly like the standard setup for a haunted house.

The Lionheart Society’s renovation crew was probably still on the road right now and wouldn’t reach Nightmare Street anytime soon.

Once they arrived and pushed open that gate, they were going to have one hell of a time.

Thinking about it, her casually making things up back then and pulling in a group of free laborers to clean the place for her had actually worked out pretty well.

If Stella had been the only one taking over Blood Demon Manor, she estimated that she probably would have left it in its current half-ruined state forever.

However…

Expecting them to make money through Blood Demon Manor?

Stella shook her head.

It wasn’t that she looked down on her subordinates. She simply knew at least a little about the economic structure of the Abyss. She had, after all, spent quite some time struggling through succubus school, so she’d inevitably picked up a few things here and there.

The Seven Electors monopolized every aspect of the Abyss. Every industry had long since been divided cleanly among them.

Valentine, representing awakening and blood, monopolized the wine trade and high-end medical services. Throughout the entire Abyss, only Valentine could turn blood and wine into an art form. Brewing illicit liquor might bring enormous profits, but it was also asking to die.

Faust, representing wisdom and cursecraft, monopolized book publishing and the production of magical items. Every school’s textbooks and magical items had to pass through their approval, and every library had to pay a knowledge tax.

Mammon, representing greed and trade, monopolized the trade routes between the major Abyssal city-states.

Samael, representing wrath and conquest, monopolized the mercenary industry and private armed forces.

Asmodeus, representing lust and revelry, monopolized the entertainment industry and places of pleasure. Theaters, bathhouses, clubs, anywhere demons could pay money to buy happiness had Asmodeus lurking behind it.

Bathory, representing discipline and punishment, had taken complete responsibility for maintaining order throughout the Abyss. They issued the wanted notices, they set the bounties, and even the prisons where captured criminals were locked up belonged to them.

Meanwhile, Belphegor, representing sloth and eternal sleep, monopolized dream entertainment and luxury lodging. Cloudtop Manor was the perfect example, allowing demons to experience anything they wanted in their dreams, only to wake up with empty wallets.

Seven families, seven industries, without so much as a crack left for anyone else.

And what about her Blood Demon Manor?

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A shabby, run-down haunted mansion sitting at Intersection No. 3 of Nightmare Street, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, directly across from Belphegor’s Cloudtop Manor.

Want to open a shop?

Next door was Belphegor, which monopolized dream entertainment.

Want to enter the trading business?

Mammon’s merchant caravans could swallow her goods without leaving so much as a bone behind.

Want to try something else?

The Abyss might be vast, but no matter what industry you looked at, all you had to do was raise your head and you would see an Elector’s banner flying overhead.

No wonder Dorothy kept calling the Electors parasites every day, and no wonder the Lionheart Society members had started having doubts after learning that she had become the legitimate Valentine heir.

Stella finally understood.

Rather than a congratulatory gift, the house Vivian had given her was more like an exam question.

——Here’s a piece of land. What can you make of it?

Stella thought about it, then decided to stop thinking.

Make what?

‘Whatever.’

She had never expected the Lionheart Society to make money in the first place.

If they could just clean up Blood Demon Manor, she would already be thanking heaven and earth.

As for things like “economic warfare,” “the first step toward shaking the Abyss,” and “a major historic opportunity”…

That was all nonsense she’d made up to fool people at the time.

Anyone who believed it was an idiot!

She would leave the matter of taking over Blood Demon Manor aside for now.

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Stella withdrew her gaze.

She hadn’t forgotten her real reason for disobeying the prohibition and sneaking out tonight.

Drag her bargain-bin little sister Cheryl, whose thought process was completely bizarre, back to school!

Stella unfolded the Marauder’s Map.

Ink lines rapidly extended across the paper, outlining Nightmare Street.

Stella’s gaze searched among the densely packed black dots.

Cheryl Valentine.

There.

Near the edge of Nightmare Street, close to the cluster of abandoned buildings on the outskirts, a tiny ink dot was moving slowly.

Stella breathed a sigh of relief.

Her gaze instinctively swept toward the area beside Cheryl’s ink dot.

Then she froze.

Because Cheryl’s ink dot was pressed tightly against another one.

【Aetlana Samael】

Stella’s eyes widened slightly.

The two ink dots were almost overlapping, located in a dark alley deep within Nightmare Street.

Close.

Very close.