Volume 4, Chapter 1-2 – Vivian, Aren’t You Playing Way Too Wild?

The atmosphere inside the Principal’s office was a little strange.

Stella sat across from Gehenna on the old sofa specially reserved for receiving problem students, her hands resting properly on her knees as she tried her best to look like a well-behaved model student.

Gehenna sat behind her desk, her hands clasped beneath her chin, her pale golden eyes slightly narrowed.

They stared at each other.

The two of them just kept staring at each other, and neither spoke first.

Stella’s sitting posture went from obedient to proper, then from proper to rigid.

She had even grown so bored that she had started counting how many layers there were in the piles of documents on Gehenna’s desk.

Thirty-seven layers.

She really had no idea how the tiny Principal normally managed to climb her way out from beneath that mountain of paperwork.

“…Um.” Stella finally couldn’t hold back any longer. “Principal, why did you bring me to the Principal’s office?”

“Ah… oh, right. Sorry, I was so tired just now that I fell asleep.” Gehenna rubbed her drowsy eyes.

“…”

The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched.

“There are a few things.” As she spoke, Gehenna bent down and began rummaging beneath her desk.

The piles of documents rustled loudly.

“First…”

“Hold on a moment…”

There was the sound of something being kicked.

Then Gehenna called out in a muffled voice.

“Ah, found it!”

Gehenna stood up, holding an exquisite silver birdcage in one hand.

Inside the cage, a long-tailed owl had its claws hooked around the perch, its wings drooping weakly. Its originally plump body had become an entire size thinner from hunger, and its feathers were an utter mess. Its beak hung slightly open, while its two round eyes looked as though they had rolled halfway into the back of its head.

“Is this your bird?” Gehenna asked.

Stella froze.

There was no way she could be more familiar with this long-tailed owl.

It was undoubtedly the exclusive messenger the Inquisitor used to contact her.

How had it somehow ended up in Principal Gehenna’s hands?

Stella’s gaze moved back and forth between Gehenna and the birdcage.

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Had Gehenna intercepted the long-tailed owl while it was delivering a letter?

Had the encrypted letter sent by the Inquisitor also fallen into Gehenna’s hands?

Was she now caught red-handed, with both the evidence and culprit right here, and Gehenna was about to hold her accountable?

Stella grew a little nervous.

But the next second, she relaxed again.

‘Wait…’

‘Is this actually even that big of a problem?’

‘Who would think I am a human Saintess now?’

She was a succubus who had just laid an egg, the legitimate heir of the Valentine family, the master of the blood shadows, a monster who had eaten a Chastisement spirit, and a contestant about to participate in the Abyss Supremacy Tournament.

Even the most vicious felon demons in the Abyss didn’t have résumés as glorious as hers.

Even if a handwritten letter from the Inquisitor were placed right on the desk, everyone else would only assume someone was trying to frame her.

“I caught this long-tailed owl at the highest level of the Nexus Council.” Gehenna said casually. “It kept flying around above several areas with extremely high confidentiality classifications. I suspected it was a spy sent by some faction, so I knocked it down while I was at it.”

Gehenna tapped the birdcage.

“But after checking it over, aside from the fact that it can eat an absurd amount, I didn’t find any abnormal magical fluctuations or communication spells on it.” Gehenna lowered her hand. “So at first, I just kept it locked up for fun. It’s pretty unusual.”

“But then I remembered that you seemed to have a long-tailed owl too.” Gehenna raised an eyebrow. “Is this your bird?”

Stella blinked.

No wonder she hadn’t seen her fat bird anywhere ever since she woke up last time. So it had gone wandering off on its own and gotten caught red-handed by Principal Gehenna.

Come to think of it, the Inquisitor really hadn’t sent her a letter in quite a while.

What was her superior all the way over at the Holy See doing right now? Had she seen Stella thriving so spectacularly in the Abyss and really decided to sell her off as expendable goods?

“It’s mine.” Stella nodded. “I probably didn’t feed it in time while I was sleeping, so it ran off on its own.”

“A bird you lost at Lilith School somehow running all the way to the Nexus Council is pretty strange. But I suppose a strange owner raising a strange bird is perfectly normal.” Gehenna unfastened the latch on the birdcage. “Take it back.”

Stella took the birdcage and placed it beside her feet.

“Be more careful from now on. Don’t let it run around everywhere.” Gehenna said. “If it barges into somewhere like the Nexus Council and gets spotted by another demon, whether it’s a spy or not, they’ll definitely pluck it on the spot, roast it, and eat it.”

“Now, onto the main topic.”

Gehenna pushed the documents on her desk aside.

“According to tradition, in a few days, the opening ceremony of the Chalice of Sin will be held in Lilith School’s central plaza.”

“As for the Abyss Supremacy Tournament, I pulled some strings, but I still couldn’t get you out of it.” Gehenna said. “So you need to understand the rules first.”

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Stella nodded.

“The Abyss Supremacy Tournament is usually divided into three events.” Gehenna raised three fingers. “Each event is a riddle. The difficulty increases with each one. The objective you’re required to accomplish could be located on any layer of the Abyss. And the one setting the questions is the Chalice of Sin itself.”

“Only by solving the riddle and bringing back the target specified by it will you be considered to have completed a trial.”

“What were the events like in previous tournaments?” Stella asked.

“That was quite a long time ago.” Gehenna paused and took a sip of coffee. “The answer to the first riddle was to go to the poisonous swamp on the Fifth Layer of the Abyss and bring back the poison gland of a nine-headed hydra demon.”

The corner of Stella’s eye twitched.

“The second was to infiltrate the frozen tundra and capture alive a rampaging bone boar capable of destroying an entire city.” Gehenna gestured briefly. “Its body was more than three times larger than my office, and its skin was covered in thick bone armor that even high-level magic couldn’t penetrate.”

“The third was to steal the golden apple from the deepest reaches of Asmodeus territory while it was being guarded by a three-headed hellhound.”

“The strangest one was the last tournament. The Chalice of Sin gave five incredibly bizarre requirements all at once, and somehow every single one of them was completed in the end.”

“In short, there is no fixed pattern. The targets of the missions could be hidden in any corner of the Abyss, and you’ll have to find them yourselves. There is no time limit and no restriction on your methods. The seven heirs may cooperate, betray each other, or kill one another, but ultimately, there can only be one victor.”

“You can steal another person’s mission item, set traps in a swamp and kill every other competitor, or hire thousands upon thousands of desperados to throw away their lives for you. As long as you’re the one who brings the item back to the Chalice of Sin in the end, that’s all that matters.”

“But when all is said and done, don’t worry. No matter how dangerous it sounds, it’s still only a game of power. The Chalice of Sin won’t really send you heirs off to die.”

“The opening ceremony is only a few Watches away.” Gehenna stood up. “As the heir of the Valentine family, your name will automatically be entered into the chalice. You cannot withdraw.”

“And if you win, the Regency Authority you receive will be immeasurably valuable.”

“Even though you’ll only be Regent, it’ll still be enough to let you accomplish a great many things.”

Stella was already completely dumbfounded.

Go into a poisonous swamp and chop up a hydra?

Go to a snowy mountain and wrestle a rampaging boar bigger than a house? Steal an apple right out from under a hellhound’s jaws?

These were supposed to be tournament events?

‘This is clearly just an execution list in disguise!’

‘Vivian, you daughter-screwing bastard!’

‘If I’d known this earlier, I would’ve slapped her a few more times!’

Clap.

Gehenna brought her hands together and clapped once.

“The Abyss Supremacy Tournament might sound dangerous. But as a game of power, it rarely truly lets the heirs of the Electors die in it.”

“Winning or losing doesn’t matter.” Gehenna walked over to the desk. “But as my disciple, you absolutely cannot embarrass yourself in front of the entire Abyss.”

Stella blinked.

Winning or losing didn’t matter?

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Since when had Principal Gehenna become so easygoing?

“So.” Gehenna continued, “I plan to continue the lesson we never got to start last time.”

She stood in front of Stella.

“I’m going to teach you how to control your shadow abilities.”

Stella froze.

“Just the shadows?”

“What else?” Gehenna glanced at her. “You can’t keep relying on Pale Power to protect yourself forever, can you? Something will definitely go wrong if you use it too much. Katerina should have warned you.”

Stella shut her mouth.

Katerina had indeed warned her.

More than once.

If everyone else in the Abyss learned that she was the ‘Pale Daughter’, the Nexus Council might haul her off for a public trial within minutes.

Even if she was the heir of the Valentine family, at best that would only keep her alive. She would definitely still end up in prison.

But she already understood how her blood shadows worked. Weren’t they basically mobile Laxia and black flames?

She had already figured out that trait on her own.

Back in the dark forest outside Nightmare Street, when she had used her blood shadows to trap Lavinia and the two dragon attendants, she had already completely mastered it.

She didn’t really need Gehenna to give her any additional instruction, did she?

Though there was indeed one small problem.

Stella instinctively lowered her eyes and looked at the shadow quietly curled beneath her feet.

The blood shadows had plundered Lavinia’s essence.

The essence of a higher dragon demon was currently hidden in the depths of her shadow, undergoing some sort of indescribable transformation.

Stella had no idea what she was supposed to do about it either.

But she couldn’t exactly ask Gehenna about it.

She couldn’t very well come right out and say: Principal, I just ate the current Administrator and I’m feeling a little stuffed. Could you teach me how to digest her?

Stella thought about it.

That sounded way too absurd.

There were so many things wrong with that sentence that even she didn’t know where to begin roasting it.

“Come on.”

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Gehenna pushed open the door to the Principal’s office and tilted her head, motioning for Stella to follow. Stella pressed a hand against the armrest of the sofa, stood up, picked up the birdcage, and followed Gehenna outside.

The two of them headed down the stairs.

“Speaking of which,” Gehenna slowed her pace. “Your human slave has been behaving herself quite a bit lately.”

Stella raised her head.

“Lainia?”

“Mm.” Gehenna nodded. “Recently, she seems to have gotten together with Riko, the Blackthorn Guard Captain responsible for protecting you.”

“…Gotten together?”

Stella blinked.

Several rather questionable images instantly flashed through her mind.

Gehenna turned around and glanced at Stella, looking utterly speechless.

“Not that kind of gotten together.” Gehenna said expressionlessly. “Someone saw your human slave asking members of the Blackthorn Guard how to become a perfect and elegant Head Maid.”

“Stella, you’re getting more and more skilled at taming humans.”

“…W-What?”

Stella stared blankly.

“Not long ago, I even saw them doing maid training together.” Gehenna added. “Walking in a straight line with four stacked bone-china teacups balanced on their heads, holding eight table knives while practicing ninety-degree bows, and sweeping fallen leaves with a broom while blindfolded.”

The corners of Stella’s mouth twitched twice.

‘A perfect and elegant Head Maid?’

‘Lainia?’

That idiot nun who had burst into tears after Stella smacked her around three times with her shadow in the training ground?

‘Better forget it.’

She might barely qualify as a gatekeeper for Blood Demon Manor.

‘Could I have beaten her too hard not long ago and knocked something loose in her head?’

It wasn’t impossible.

Stella really found it difficult to believe.

The stereotypical impression that Lainia would do absolutely anything as long as someone gave her something to eat had rooted itself far too deeply in Stella’s mind.

Expecting her to become a perfect maid was less realistic than expecting apples to start raining from the skies of the Abyss tomorrow.