Volume 3, Chapter 9-1 – MAN!

Though the night was dark, the outlines of the mountains were strangely clear and distinct, while star-like lights flickered among the silent woods.

Suddenly, a stream of misty white light swept past. It was another Nightmare carriage traveling from north to south, brushing past them through the heavy darkness of the night.

At this very moment, Stella was staring fixedly at the Marauder’s Map.

【Aetlana Samael】

The pitch-black ink mark rested precisely on the spot representing the carriage she was in.

Stella blinked, her brain freezing for several seconds.

Then it repeatedly rebooted.

‘There has to be some mistake.’

‘Right, there absolutely has to be some mistake.’

‘The Marauder’s Map is broken.’

That antique magical item she had gotten from Principal Gehenna had probably fallen into disrepair with age. Or perhaps she had overused it on Nightmare Street just now, causing the Marauder’s Map to overheat and malfunction, which in turn scrambled the ink marks.

Otherwise, how could Aetlana’s ink dot possibly overlap with her own?

Could the Bone Dragon have turned into an actual dragon and was now crouching on the roof of the carriage?

‘…That’s even scarier.’

Stella rubbed hard at the map a couple of times, trying to wipe away the ink mark.

Naturally, the ink dot did not budge in the slightest.

Stella folded up the map.

She quickly gave up on this attempt at self-deception.

Ever since she obtained the Marauder’s Map, it had displayed an almost frightening degree of precision.

Whether it was Lilith School’s hidden passageways and corridors, the maze-like back alleys of Nightmare Street, or even the three aliases she herself kept switching between, it could label every single one without the slightest error.

When it came to making mistakes, it had never made one.

But…

If the map was not broken.

Then how was she supposed to explain the fact that the actual Bone Dragon herself was sitting right in front of her?

Stella raised her eyes. Her gaze passed over the flickering demon crystal lamp on the low table and landed on the girl sitting across from her.

Crimson hair, a pitch-black Lilith School uniform.

Well-behaved and quiet.

Even her hands were properly folded over her knees.

She merely watched Stella without saying a single word.

No matter how carefully Stella examined her, the person before her was undeniably her cheap little sister Cheryl, whose thought process had always been wonderfully bizarre.

Aside from not speaking, she was almost identical. Even the beauty mark at the corner of her eye was exactly the same.

How had she done it?

A possibility immediately surfaced in Stella’s mind, splitting through all the fog like a bolt of lightning.

‘Could it be… Polyjuice Potion?’

Stella recalled the street stall selling magical items that she had passed while traveling along Nightmare Street’s main road earlier.

She distinctly remembered hearing a goblin merchant wrapped in a headscarf boasting to his customers that the premade Polyjuice Potions at his stall were the purest on the entire street and could perfectly transform someone into another person’s appearance.

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The merchant had even complained that some stunning beauty had thrown money around like dirt and bought out his entire stock of premade potions.

But a high-level magical potion like Polyjuice Potion was not something one could simply pick up and drink.

Just like succubus elixirs, this kind of disguise potion required a sample from another person before it could take effect.

A sample…

Stella recalled something she had seen on the Marauder’s Map.

In a dark alley on the outskirts of Nightmare Street, the ink dot representing Cheryl had come into contact with the ink dot representing Aetlana.

The two ink dots briefly overlapped, traveled together for a short distance, then separated.

Cheryl’s ink dot remained inside an inn without moving.

Meanwhile, Aetlana’s ink dot steadily moved farther away and left the dark alley.

Originally, Stella had assumed Cheryl had made a tactical retreat and run into the inn to hide from the higher demon pursuing her.

But now, when all the clues were pieced together, they formed an utterly absurd yet perfectly reasonable closed loop.

Stella finally understood.

The stunning beauty who had bought out all the Polyjuice Potion was Aetlana herself.

She had been lying low on Nightmare Street for an entire month, waiting for the leave period to begin, waiting for a Lilith School student to end up alone. Then Cheryl, that silly little sister of hers, had delivered herself straight to Aetlana’s doorstep.

That encounter in the dark alley earlier had never been a battle at all.

Aetlana had simply acted directly, using the overwhelming strength of a higher demon to knock Cheryl unconscious before stuffing her into some room at the inn and hiding her there, keeping her around as a source of material.

Then Aetlana collected Cheryl’s hair or blood and drank the Polyjuice Potion.

Borrowing Cheryl’s face, the Bone Dragon swaggered openly through the streets of Nightmare Street and successfully slipped past layer after layer of searches.

And what about Stella?

She had even adorably and stupidly walked right up to her.

Under the station sign, she had patted a higher demon on the shoulder, put on the stern dignity of an elder sister who was practically a mother, and given her a scolding.

She had even…

She had even forcibly grabbed Aetlana’s hand and dragged a max-level wanted criminal onto an enclosed Nightmare carriage, personally creating this desperate situation of being trapped in the same compartment with her!

Stella had rendered even herself speechless.

Aetlana had probably spent the entire journey laughing inwardly at her ignorance.

A dragon-species demon who had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years was now sitting quietly across from her, deliberately refusing to expose the truth and simply watching Stella make a fool of herself like some ridiculous clown. For all Stella knew, Aetlana might already be laughing herself silly inside.

Now Stella was genuinely panicking.

The most, most, most, most unexpected situation had occurred.

She had dodged and avoided everything she possibly could. She had not even dared accept the mansion Vivian had given her, all so she could avoid fanatics drawn by the name of the Pale Daughter.

And yet she had run straight into the Bone Dragon.

And inside a Nightmare carriage flying high through the sky, she did not even have a chance to escape.

‘What am I supposed to do?’

‘I couldn’t exactly jump out the window, could I…?’

Pretending nothing was wrong, Stella casually lifted the curtain beside her.

Howling wind instantly flooded into the carriage.

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Looking down, she saw the endless wilderness of the middle layer of the Abyss.

There were no lights and no buildings, only a churning sea of dark-red mist and a bottomless abyss stretching ten thousand feet below.

Stella silently drew the curtain closed again.

Jump down?

Don’t be ridiculous.

Even if she used the Pale Sacred Remains to protect herself, she would definitely die.

Leaving aside whether a few incorporeal ribs could withstand the impact of falling from ten thousand meters in the air, the defensive mechanism of the Pale Sacred Remains did not protect beneath her feet at all. She would have to adjust her posture properly first.

Speaking of which, what about her wings?

Stella subconsciously moved the bat wings at her waist.

Ever since that whole mess with the Laxia Ritual, she had indeed grown wings belonging to a succubus. They were even considerably larger than those of an ordinary succubus, with broad frames covered by a thin layer of wing membrane.

But using them to escape did not seem workable either.

For one thing, as a Saintess candidate who had always lived a sheltered life, she had barely even climbed trees a few times in her entire life, let alone ever tried flying.

Asking her to take off directly from ten thousand meters in the air right now was no different from jumping off a cliff to commit suicide.

Secondly, the Bone Dragon was right in front of her.

The moment she even thought about escaping, the moment she showed the slightest sign that she was preparing to run…

With the reaction speed of a higher dragon-species demon, Aetlana could absolutely spring into action the instant Stella leaped out of the window and knock her unconscious with a single chop of her hand.

And then?

Then Stella would be tied up nice and tight and carried all the way to the Ashen Sanctuary that existed only in rumors.

A group of fanatical Ash Drinkers would surround her, chanting ancient incantations as they prepared to resurrect their old master and let the Pale Lord seize her body.

Just thinking about it terrified Stella.

She was a fake!

A fake Pale Daughter!

Who knew where the real egg had gone by now? Maybe someone had already fried it into an omelet and eaten it.

And when they tried to use her to resurrect the Pale Lord, who represented the most extreme evil of the Abyss?

God only knew what bizarre situation would happen.

Maybe halfway through the ritual, the Holy Light inside her would suddenly go berserk and blow the entire Ashen Sanctuary into the sky, purifying every Ash Drinker along with Stella herself into ashes.

Stella felt like her head was going to explode.

Warm, heavy night fog closed in around her, as though countless leeches were sucking at her heart. Gradually, she began to feel drowsy and powerless, while a hazy, indistinct sense of frightened unease swept through her mind.

Her future in the Abyss was actually this bleak.

Stella moved her hand away from the Marauder’s Map.

But…

It was not as though she had absolutely no way out.

There was still one option.

Play dead.

Pretend she had no idea Aetlana had used Polyjuice Potion to disguise herself as Cheryl.

Although Stella had no idea what the Bone Dragon’s purpose was in disguising herself as the young lady of the Valentine family, since Aetlana had chosen to remain silent ever since boarding the carriage and had not taken any drastic action, Stella had no need to beat the grass and startle the snake.

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‘Acting, huh?’

As someone who possessed multiple aliases, that was one of Stella’s basic skills.

But the problem was… the one sitting across from her was a dragon-species demon who had lived for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years. Would her acting skills really be enough?

‘Whatever.’

She had already fooled far more than just one or two people.

All she had to do was keep the other party calm and stall for time.

Once the Nightmare carriage reached Lilith School’s territory, they would be on Principal Gehenna’s turf.

At that point, all Stella needed to do was get off the carriage, sprint over as fast as she could, find some way to cling tightly to Principal Gehenna’s leg, and shout, “Master, save me!” That would settle everything.

No matter how strong the Bone Dragon was, faced with the authority of a thousand-year-old Archdemon and the principal of Lilith School, she would still have to obediently take the fall.

‘Right, that’s the plan.’

Stella adjusted her sitting posture and casually folded up the Marauder’s Map.

She leaned forward, lifted the cloth curtain at the front of the carriage, and called out to the old demon driving up ahead.

“Sir, how long until we reach Lilith School?”

The wind was loud, and the old demon shouted back in a hoarse voice.

“Three Watches to go, Miss! This route’s a long one!”

Three Watches.

Stella said nothing.

Her gaze passed over the old demon’s shoulder. Far behind the carriage, amid the dark-red clouds, she could faintly make out several moving shadows.

They were enormous, their outlines indistinct within the rolling mist. They did not seem slow either, and they were following closely behind the Nightmare carriage.

Stella couldn’t tell what they were.

After thinking about it, perhaps they were other Nightmare carriages.

Although the leave period had only just begun today, she certainly couldn’t be the only student returning to school.

The old demon in front seemed to notice Stella looking backward as well. He flicked the whip burning with phosphorescent flame in his hand and turned around rather smugly to shout.

“Miss, what are you looking at? Don’t worry, none of them are faster than me. Mine’s the fastest Nightmare carriage within a hundred miles! There were so many carriages at the station, and you specifically picked mine. Those heaps of scrap behind us won’t even get to eat the Nightmare beast’s tailwind!”

“Then you’d better drive a little faster,” Stella retorted mercilessly. “Otherwise, I’m genuinely worried I’ll die in this carriage.”

Expressionless, Stella lowered the cloth curtain.

She returned to her seat inside the carriage.

The ‘Cheryl’ sitting across from her still maintained that same quiet posture. Her crimson eyes watched Stella without asking a single question, but she seemed to… narrow them slightly.

Stella instinctively wanted to stuff the Marauder’s Map back into her pocket.

But before putting it away, she subconsciously lowered her gaze.

The ink lines on the parchment seemed to have changed again.

On the empty route not far behind the spot representing the Nightmare carriage she was in, several new ink dots had appeared out of nowhere.

They were moving extremely fast, visibly closing in on the carriage.

【Lavinia Samael】

【Samael Dragon Attendant】

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【Samael Dragon Attendant】

The three ink dots streaked across the entire map in long strokes, almost reaching their position.

Stella blinked blankly.

‘Lavinia?’

‘Samael Dragon Attendants?’

‘Weren’t they patrolling the streets of Nightmare Street?’

‘Why have they come all the way up to the aerial route?’

‘And they are even right behind me.’

Moreover…

Stella had the distinct feeling that their formation and speed absolutely did not resemble an ordinary patrol.

It looked more like a hunting formation.

In an instant, the scene from before she boarded the carriage flashed through Stella’s mind, with Lavinia standing at the street corner, her gaze fixed directly on the carriage.

‘Could it be…’

A faint suspicion formed in Stella’s mind.

She instinctively turned around and yanked open the cloth curtain covering the window behind her.

She wanted to see exactly what was happening outside.

The raging wind instantly whipped her long hair into the air.

The moment she leaned out of the window, an incredibly violent current tore straight through the dark-red clouds.

The blurry shadows she had seen earlier were completely exposed before her eyes.

The driver’s boasting abruptly stopped.

Stella heard him curse in Abyssal profanity, then snap his whip even harder.

They were not other Nightmare carriages at all.

Huge dark-gold scales gleamed with a cold metallic sheen beneath the faint starlight. Broad leathery wings suddenly beat, stirring up hurricanes powerful enough to overturn the carriage.

They burst from the clouds, their enormous bodies blotting out the sky above.

Scarlet vertical pupils lit up in the darkness. Their low roars tore through the air like the sound of souls being ripped from their bodies.

They opened enormous maws filled with fangs and charged straight toward the fragile wooden carriage.

Dragons.

No…

That wasn’t right.

Dragon-species demons.

Translator Note

Runnnn!!