Volume 3, Chapter 8-1 – Aetlana Samael

“It’s over…” Stella murmured to herself.

Sure enough, she had wasted too much time at Cloudtop Manor and failed to bring Cheryl back in time.

Was she still too late?

Had she really spent too much time playing cat and mouse with Franleya at Cloudtop Manor, leaving her unable to stop Cheryl before she went off to throw her life away?

Now the two of them…

A string of bloody images flashed uncontrollably through Stella’s mind.

Cheryl summoned her blood thorns and charged forward, only to be sliced in half by the Bone Dragon with a single stroke.

Cheryl collapsed to the ground as a pool of blood spread beneath her.

Now there really would be rivers of blood.

Stella figured she would probably never see that bargain-bin little sister who called her Elder Sister ever again.

However, the name representing 【Cheryl Valentine】did not seem to have disappeared from the map.

The two ink dots paused for a moment.

Then…

They left together?

Stella watched as Cheryl’s and Aetlana’s ink dots moved in the same direction for a while before separating. In the end, Cheryl’s ink dot stopped inside an inn and did not move again.

Aetlana, meanwhile, put more and more distance between herself and Cheryl as she headed somewhere else.

What was going on?

Stella could not quite make sense of it.

Whatever. As long as her bargain-bin little sister Cheryl was fine, that was enough.

Next, she only needed to avoid Aetlana.

In fact, she did not even need to deliberately avoid her. As long as Stella stayed on the main roads, Aetlana, as a demon guilty of serious crimes, would not dare do anything to her.

Her top priority right now was bringing Cheryl back.

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She memorized Cheryl’s approximate location and put away the map.

Just as Stella was about to start walking, she felt someone pat her shoulder.

She instinctively turned around.

A familiar face entered her field of vision.

Dark golden hair, dragon horns curving backward from either side of her forehead, and a thick tail covered in scales.

Lavinia Samael.

The current Administrator of Lilith School and an observer from the Nexus Council.

“Well, if it isn’t the Valentine family’s new heir. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

The corners of Lavinia’s lips curved slightly upward as her golden slit pupils swept over Stella from head to toe.

“If I remember correctly, Principal Gehenna specifically ordered the gatekeepers not to let you leave the school, didn’t she?”

“I’m rather curious. How did you get out?”

Stella froze for a moment. No matter what she thought of saying, it somehow felt awkward, as though she were forcing herself through an unwanted social engagement.

This was what happened when she went out without praying first. Retribution always came so quickly.

She had only just escaped the crisis beneath the Belphegor Young Miss’s bed, and the moment she turned around, she ran straight into an observer from the Nexus Council.

And of all people, it just had to be the higher demon whom she had previously clashed with head-on over Lainia at the training grounds.

“I…”

Stella opened her mouth.

Lavinia immediately raised a hand.

She did not give Stella the chance to finish.

“Come to think of it, you’ve always given me a strange sense of déjà vu,” Lavinia said in a very calm voice. “Have I met you somewhere before?”

“Ms. Lavinia, that line has been outdated as a flirting technique for several hundred years.”

“This is only our second meeting.”

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Stella put on her brightest smile and kept it there until she felt as though her face was about to warp out of shape.

“…Is that so? Flirting? Perhaps. But you really do give me that sense of déjà vu.”

Lavinia stepped closer and bent down slightly, her golden slit pupils meeting Stella’s eyes.

“And… your story is rather interesting too. First, you mysteriously appeared at the school with SSS+ talent. Then you immediately became the Valentine heir. Principal Gehenna is also exceptionally partial toward you. You could even say she spoils you…”

“Every other student can freely enter and leave Lilith School, yet you just happen to be confined to campus now, and it just happens to be when the Bone Dragon has arrived…”

Lavinia did not finish.

Some things were understood more clearly through instinct. Trying to see them with her own eyes would only lead her astray.

She straightened up and patted Stella on the shoulder.

“Have fun tonight, little girl of the Valentine family.”

“And I hope… we don’t run into each other again too soon.”

With that, Lavinia paid Stella no further attention.

She withdrew her gaze and, accompanied by the two guards behind her, walked straight past Stella and headed deeper into Nightmare Street.

Stella stared blankly in the direction Lavinia had gone.

Déjà vu?

An interesting coincidence?

And it just happened to be when the Bone Dragon arrived?

Stella vaguely felt that Lavinia seemed to have noticed something.

‘Forget it, forget it.’

‘Rescue first.’

Then run as soon as she had Cheryl.

If the Abyss collapsed, Principal Gehenna would be there to hold it up first anyway.

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Stella checked the direction.

Cheryl’s last known position was in a district near the outer edge of Nightmare Street.

Most of the buildings there were hotels, decorated in gaudy reds, greens, golds, and silvers. Voices clamored everywhere, and carriages constantly came and went.

After all, if there was one business Nightmare Street never lacked, it was lodging.

The Abyss covered an enormous territory, and transportation was extremely inconvenient. Even a single round trip between here and Lilith School took several watches.

During school breaks, students lingering around the hotels and markets would usually choose to stay nearby. There were also special carriages here for students, most of their compartments bearing Lilith School’s crest.

Stella thought it over.

As long as she stuffed her bargain-bin little sister into one of those carriages, today’s mission would be complete.

It did not take Stella much effort. She had only walked along the main road for a short while before she spotted a crimson-haired girl standing with her back to her.

Crimson hair cascaded down her back, its tips lifting slightly in the night breeze. Her jet-black Lilith School uniform was immaculate.

No doubt about it.

That was Cheryl.

Stella breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank God.

Her bargain-bin little sister still had all four limbs intact.

She would not have to pay some outrageous medical bill, nor would she have to go apologize to Vivian.

Stella had even already prepared the first thing she would say when they met.

“Cheryl, did water get into your brain? You came all the way out here alone to get yourself killed by a higher demon? Do you have any idea how much danger I put myself in to come get you? If Gehenna finds out I slipped out, she’ll skin me alive…”

‘Forget it, forget it. Too harsh.’

“Cheryl, Elder Sister came to pick you up. Come back with me.”

‘Mm…’

‘That is good.’

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Gentle, yet authoritative. Authoritative, yet caring.

Stella nodded in satisfaction.

She hurried toward Cheryl, the edge of her skirt accidentally brushing against her as she passed.

“Found you, Cheryl!”

Stella stopped and met Cheryl’s eyes.

She was a little angry.

Most of the time, Stella did not get angry because something had made her angry. She got angry because she wanted to be angry.

And when she wanted to be angry, if she was not allowed to get properly angry, things would become difficult to deal with afterward.

Today should have been no different. Stella instinctively wanted to give Cheryl a lecture.

No matter how one looked at it, her little sister had stood stupidly right in front of the Bone Dragon with far too little awareness of her own limits. As her publicly acknowledged Elder Sister, it would make absolutely no sense if Stella did not lecture her at least a little.

But just as the words reached her lips, they became stuck there.

Because Cheryl’s expression…

How should she put it?

Stella thought there was something strange about it.

Cheryl’s gaze was resolute and utterly devoid of emotion, yet a faint crystalline glimmer of tears lingered in her eyes. For an instant, Stella did not dare meet her gaze directly.

‘Has she been crying?’

‘Why has she suddenly started crying when everything has been fine?’

Stella was immediately at a loss.

‘Forget it.’

‘That damned skeletal dragon must have scared the poor kid to tears.’