Volume 3, Chapter 8-3 – Aetlana Samael

Now that Stella had accomplished her goal of bringing Cheryl back, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Although she really did have quite a few questions.

For example, what exactly had happened between Cheryl and the Bone Dragon?

How had Cheryl run into the Bone Dragon in a dark alley, and how had she managed to escape unscathed from the sword of a higher demon?

Why had the two ink dots moved together?

Why did Cheryl now look as though her soul had left her body?

But after thinking it over, Stella decided that this clearly was not the time to talk about any of that.

The Bone Dragon was wandering somewhere around Nightmare Street. Every additional minute they remained here meant another minute of risk.

Whatever they had to say could wait until they returned to school.

The problem was… how were they supposed to get back?

Stella tilted her head and looked in the direction she had come from.

The tower of Cloudtop Manor was faintly visible through the night fog.

When she came here, she had used Dorothy’s mirror to travel directly from the Lionheart Society clubroom to the Queen of Eternal Night Suite in Cloudtop Manor.

But that route was no longer available.

She had only just crawled out from under Franleya’s bed, used the Eye of the Black Mass to counter the other girl’s dream, and even taken advantage of the prestigious family’s Young Miss while she was sound asleep to impose a command of forced obedience on her.

Go back there now and borrow the mirror?

Wouldn’t that be walking straight into a trap?

“Sigh, how are we supposed to get back now?”

Stella looked around.

Right beside them happened to be Nightmare Station. Several black open-top carriages bearing Lilith School’s crest were parked along the bluestone road.

Harnessed in front of them were Nightmare beasts whose four hooves burned with ghostly green phosphorescent flames.

‘That’s right!’

Stella smacked herself on the forehead.

How had she forgotten about that?

Nightmare Street had dedicated carriages that went directly to Lilith School!

She had only overlooked that option on the way here because she had been in such a hurry, and because Remedios had provided the shortcut through the mirror.

Although she could no longer use the mirror, taking a carriage back was perfectly possible.

Stella walked over to the station sign. A timetable was written on it in the Abyssal language.

Departing from the station, crossing the wilderness of the middle layer of the Abyss, and arriving at Lilith School would take a full three Watches.

‘…Three Watches?’

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It actually took three Watches to get from Nightmare Street to Lilith School?

Stella felt terrible all over.

She looked at the faint outline of the school on the horizon and could not help grumbling inwardly.

It didn’t look that far away at all. Why did it take so long by carriage?

Transportation in the Abyss was way too inconvenient!

If some means of transportation appeared that did not require three Watches of being jostled around on the road, it could probably monopolize the entire transportation industry of the Abyss outright.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t one.

Stella could only sigh and accept her fate.

She would just have to chat with Cheryl in the carriage later to pass the time.

Stella looked back and met the gaze of Aetlana, who was standing motionless behind her.

Those crimson eyes quietly looked back at her.

Not making a fuss or causing trouble, perfectly obedient.

Exactly how a little sister ought to be in Stella’s mind.

But…

Stella still felt that the other girl was acting strangely today. Her usual domineering arrogance had completely disappeared, and the complicated look in her eyes was impossible to understand.

Still, now that Stella had brought her back safe and sound, she could overlook a little abnormal behavior.

At least she had gotten her back with all her arms and legs intact. Everything else was a minor issue.

Maybe the Bone Dragon had frightened her so badly that she could not recover for a while.

Once they returned to school and she got a good night’s sleep, she would be fine.

“Let’s go, Cheryl.”

Stella pulled her toward the entrance of the station and raised a hand to hail a carriage bearing Lilith School’s crest.

The coachman was an elderly demon. The moment he saw the Valentine family crest on Stella’s chest, he immediately lifted the curtain with great enthusiasm.

“Please get in, Young Misses. This is the last special carriage back to the school tonight. Service will stop in another half Watch.”

Stella nodded, jumped into the carriage first, then reached out her hand.

“Come on.”

Aetlana looked at the hand stretched toward her.

Fair, slender, warm.

The Young Mistress’s hand.

Aetlana did not care where the Young Mistress wanted to take her. Even if the path the Young Mistress was taking now did not lead somewhere she herself wanted to go, as long as she could go together with the Young Mistress, she could go anywhere.

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She hesitated for a second.

Almost instinctively, with a hint of eagerness, she raised her hand. Sure enough, another hand immediately reached forward and grasped hers.

That hand was smaller than she had imagined, yet stronger than she had imagined. With one gentle pull, it brought her up into the carriage.

Her heart also felt as though it had been spread beneath the sunlight to bask in its warmth.

“Shall we go?” Stella leaned closer to Aetlana and asked beside her ear.

“Mm.”

Aetlana spoke her first word.

The inside of the carriage was far more spacious than it appeared from the outside.

Two rows of dark red velvet seats faced each other. A flickering demon crystal lamp sat on the low table between them, and there was even a small bookshelf in the corner stuffed with several old issues of Prophet Weekly.

Stella sat down by the window, then patted the spot beside her.

“Sit here.”

Aetlana paused, then sat down opposite her.

Stella blinked.

“Why are you sitting opposite me? Come sit over here.”

Aetlana shook her head.

“…Fine, suit yourself.”

Stella did not force her and merely shrugged.

The coachman’s shout came from outside the curtain, followed by a slight tremor.

The wheels of the Nightmare carriage left the ground. The carriage swayed gently as it slowly rose into the night sky.

Stella instinctively lifted the window curtain and looked outside.

The lights of Nightmare Street gradually shrank beneath them, turning into a bizarre sea of glowing dots.

The bustling crowds along the main road, the crooked buildings, the ghost lanterns floating in midair, everything grew farther and farther away, smaller and smaller.

Then Stella’s gaze casually swept across a street corner.

Someone was standing there.

Dark golden hair, dragon horns curving backward from either side of her forehead, golden slit pupils faintly glowing in the night.

Lavinia Samael.

The Nexus Council’s observer stood in the distance with several attendants, staring directly at the carriage Stella was riding in.

Stella froze for a moment.

Why had she run into them again?

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What kind of haunted patrol route was this?

But they… what were they looking at?

Before Stella could examine them more closely, the carriage had already risen higher.

The outline of Nightmare Street rapidly shrank, and Lavinia’s group disappeared from sight along with it.

“…Strange.”

Stella muttered and lowered the curtain.

Whatever. They were already flying. She could hardly jump out of the carriage and ask Lavinia what she had been staring at.

Besides, what mattered most right now was…

Stella turned her head and looked at ‘Cheryl’ sitting opposite her.

“Come to think of it,” she began, “Vivian said you didn’t seem to be doing well. What happened? Would you mind telling… telling your Elder Sister about it?”

There was no response.

‘Cheryl’ merely looked at her quietly.

Stella waited several seconds.

“…Are you all right, Cheryl?”

“…”

Aetlana lowered her eyes and remained silent.

“Cheryl? Cheryl? Cheryl? Are you all right?”

Stella called her several times in succession.

Only then did Aetlana slowly nod once.

Stella: “…”

“Cheryl, I seriously can’t deal with you. Normally you never shut up, like some gossiping old woman, and now you’ve suddenly become mute?” She said in a tone full of exasperation at Cheryl’s failure to live up to expectations.

“Forget it, forget it.” Stella waved her hand. “I’ll just assume you’re in a bad mood. Anyway, once we get back, you need to have a proper talk with me about what exactly happened tonight.”

Only the howling of the wind could be heard inside the carriage. Stella leaned back against the seat and stared blankly at the intricate patterns on the ceiling.

“I wonder how long it’ll take us to get there,” Stella murmured.

She touched the Marauder’s Map tucked inside her clothes.

She really had Principal Gehenna to thank for this map today. Without it, she would have run into quite a lot of trouble.

Never mind the possibility of running straight into Franleya completely unprepared the moment she came out of the mirror. Just trying to find Cheryl among the endless crowds of Nightmare Street would have been enough to keep her busy all night.

Come to think of it, Principal Gehenna had probably given her this map so she could actively avoid Aetlana, hadn’t she?

At that thought, Stella could not help growing a little curious.

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Where was Aetlana now?

According to the map, after separating from Cheryl, she had gone somewhere else.

Maybe she had already left Nightmare Street by now?

After all, Principal Gehenna’s reputation spoke for itself. No matter how crazy Aetlana was, she probably would not dare casually enter Lilith School’s territory, right?

Might as well take a look.

Stella pulled the Marauder’s Map from inside her clothes and casually unfolded it.

Ink lines rapidly crawled across the paper, outlining Nightmare Street, the location of Lilith School, and all the large and small buildings in the surrounding area.

Then Stella’s gaze landed on an ink dot.

That ink dot..

Was right where the carriage was.

【Aetlana Samael】

Stella froze.

She rubbed her eyes and looked again.

【Stella】

【Aetlana Samael】

The two ink dots almost completely overlapped.

One location.

One carriage.

She looked at ‘Cheryl’.

‘Cheryl’ was also looking at her.

Stella’s brain stopped working for three seconds.

Then an enormous question mark appeared in her mind.

“???”

Translator Note

oof that’s surely awkward xD

Anyway, next is another very long chapter and I only split it into two parts~!