Volume 4, Chapter 2-1 – I Told You We’d Meet Again, Didn’t I?

Gehenna and Katerina retreated to the edge of the training ground.

The Principal and Vice Principal, one big and one small, stood with their backs to Stella, their heads pressed together as they spoke in hushed voices.

“How did she…”

“Shh, keep your voice down…”

“Gehenna, can the racial characteristics of succubi really produce a mutant that simultaneously fuses three bloodlines?” Katerina asked softly.

“It’s theoretically possible.” Gehenna replied. “But the odds are vanishingly small. Succubus reproduction is highly compatible, but simultaneously fusing three different bloodlines and allowing them to coexist stably… This isn’t a matter of talent anymore. It’s a miracle.”

“I don’t even know how she survived. Give her a few more bloodlines and she’ll turn into an Abyssal chimera.”

Gehenna secretly glanced at Stella’s dragon horns.

“Vilpana and Vivian Valentine having sex and producing Stella was already outrageous enough.” she said, struggling to hold back her laughter. “But I never, ever imagined that one of the people involved would turn out to be some Samael clanswoman we’d never even heard of.”

Katerina bit her lip.

Her heart slammed heavily against her ribs, and for reasons even she couldn’t explain, a sudden surge of anger welled up inside her.

Even Katerina couldn’t say where the emotion had come from.

Maybe jealousy?

Or maybe she was simply speechless at Vilpana’s private life.

“Do you know which Samael clanswoman it was?” Katerina asked. “Could it be the current Family Head of Samael?”

“Impossible.” Gehenna shook her head immediately. “Who in the Abyss doesn’t know that Vivian only likes women? And the Samael Family Head is obviously not on Vivian’s menu. No question about that.”

“Besides, Samael values purity of blood above all else. They generally reproduce among close relatives, so that’s even less likely.”

“Speaking of which, Katerina, do you have anyone in mind?” Gehenna asked.

Katerina fell silent for a moment.

“Could it be…” Katerina’s voice became extremely slow. “The Bone Dragon, Aetlana?”

“The Bone Dragon just happened to appear on Nightmare Street recently.” Katerina paused. “Didn’t we originally think Aetlana came to the middle layer of the Abyss looking for Stella because she wanted to resurrect the Pale Lord?”

A fanatical follower of the Pale Lord, once the sharpest sword of the Samael family.

She had escaped from the White Tower of the Holy Prison and traveled an enormous distance to Nightmare Street. Everyone had assumed she was there for the Pale Daughter.

But…

“What if Aetlana didn’t come to capture Stella…” Katerina murmured. “But came to see her?”

Gehenna nodded.

“Stella went to Nightmare Street once.” She said. “Given Aetlana’s strength and obsession, there was no way she wouldn’t have noticed Stella. But…”

Rеαd oո KatReaԁіngСаfe

“But Stella came back completely unharmed.” Katerina finished for her.

“I originally thought Stella had just gotten lucky.” Gehenna said. “But thinking about it now, how could there possibly be such a coincidence?”

The two looked at each other, and a bold conjecture gradually took shape in their minds.

“Aetlana left the Samael family back then and followed Vilpana.” Gehenna said slowly. “If, during that time, something happened between her and Vilpana…”

“And then Vivian Valentine barged in between them?” Katerina asked with a complicated expression.

“…It could have happened the other way around.”

“You mean Vivian got together with Aetlana first, and then Aetlana introduced her to Vilpana?”

“Given Vivian’s style, do you really think that’s impossible?”

Katerina fell silent.

Indeed, given Vivian’s style, nothing was impossible.

“So…” She began with difficulty, “Stella is Vilpana, Vivian Valentine, and Aetlana Samael’s…”

She couldn’t finish.

Gehenna completed the last word for her.

“Daughter.”

The two Principals fell silent again, their expressions so complicated that they were difficult to describe.

There was both the awe of having stumbled upon a truth they were never supposed to know and the satisfaction of uncovering juicy gossip, the two emotions mingling on their faces in expressions that were almost theatrical in their exaggeration.

“So, we’re eight or nine out of ten certain?” Katerina asked.

“Eight or nine out of ten.”

Gehenna nodded.

Stella watched Gehenna and Katerina whispering to each other, feeling a little at a loss.

“What are those two talking about?”

She could vaguely make out a few words, but not clearly enough to understand them.

Stella scratched her cheek.

‘What’s wrong?’

She’d only grown dragon horns, dragon scales, and a dragon tail.

‘Is that really worth making such a fuss over?’

Rеаⅾ оո ΚαtRеaԁіnɡСαfe

Stella lowered her eyes.

The fine dark-gold scales shimmered faintly, and even her nails had become sharp, like a bargain-bin version of dragon claws.

Stella tried clenching her fist.

It felt absolutely packed with power.

An extraordinarily scorching heat was also surging through her chest. Stella even felt that if she opened her mouth right now, she could breathe out a proper blast of dragon breath.

If she let the Blood Shadow digest for a little longer, she might even be able to transform into a dragon like Lavinia.

Stella tried swishing her tail. The thick dragon tail whipped through the air with a sharp whoosh.

‘Mm, not bad.’

If Cheryl dared disobey her again, smacking her with this tail would definitely work better than a wooden switch.

Stella briefly sensed the spiritual link and discovered that this transformation seemed to be only temporary.

As long as she wanted to, she could sever the link at any time and return to her original form.

That was good news, at least.

The only problem was…

‘Why did I look less and less like a human Saintess?’

As Stella pondered this, she caught sight of the two Principals ending their whispered conversation and walking toward her from the corner of her eye.

Gehenna walked in front, with Katerina following behind. The expressions on both their faces were… how should she put it?

Unreadable.

“Stella.”

Gehenna stopped in front of Stella, her voice much gentler than usual. “Sometimes, you don’t need to care so much about how you were born.”

Stella blinked.

“Birth isn’t important.” Gehenna stroked the dark-gold scales on Stella’s skin. “How many mothers you have isn’t important either.”

“Most things in life are actually the same. How you grow up, whether you love your future wife, whether you have any so-called romantic affairs. All of those things only concern the people involved.”

Katerina also stepped forward.

For once, she wasn’t wearing her usual icy expression. Instead, she looked at Stella with an extraordinarily complicated gaze.

“A person’s birth isn’t important.” She said. “What matters is the kind of person she grows into in the future.”

Stella: “???”

Rеаⅾ οո КatRеαԁiոgСafе

Stella blinked blankly, a gigantic question mark appearing inside her head.

‘What are these two taking turns saying?’

‘Hadn’t I just demonstrated my ability to transform into a dragon?’

‘How has the subject suddenly jumped to my birth, my mothers, and romantic affairs?’

‘Are all demons in the Abyss this abnormal in the head?’

‘Is there ever going to be an end to this?!’

Although Stella had no idea what Gehenna and Katerina were thinking right now, this could still be considered quite a fruitful haul.

Stella lowered her eyes.

Her gaze fell upon her arm, which was covered in dark-gold scales.

She concentrated, and within the Blood Shadow, she quickly located the spiritual link connected to Lavinia’s essence.

Sever.

With a thought, the dark-gold scales receded like an ebbing tide, sinking beneath her fair skin.

The dragon horns withdrew into her forehead, returning to the elegant curves of a succubus’s horns. Her thick dragon tail gradually slimmed down, returning to its original form with a heart-shaped tip. Her broad dragon wings rapidly shrank as well, reverting to her original bat wings.

‘Phew… Good thing I could change back.’

Stella felt relieved.

At least she looked somewhat human again.

If she’d gone outside looking the way she had just now, who knew how many people she’d scare to tears.

From what she could tell so far, the Blood Shadow seemed to use Mia’s bloodline as its foundation, then layer the essences of other demons on top of it.

That made sense. Laxia was, after all, the authority of Mia, the Lord of Blood. There was no way it would let a guest take over as master.

But…

Stella thought about it.

If she ate other demons in the future too, wouldn’t that mean she could freely switch between their abilities?

‘Mm…’

‘No. Why do I have such evil thoughts?’

‘It has to be the demon bloodline’s fault!’

“Ahem…”

Rеαⅾ οn ΚatRеaԁіnɡCαfе

Gehenna coughed, putting an end to the gossip.

Her expression returned to its usual calm.

“Since you’ve already awakened a new ability.”

“For today, stay here at the training ground and practice it with Katerina.”

“The Abyss Supremacy Tournament is about to begin. Lilith School is hosting the opening ceremony this year, so a lot of outsiders will be arriving soon. And by my calculations, the Family Heads and heirs of the Seven Electors should be reaching the school around now as well.”

“Valentine, Faust, Mammon, Samael, Asmodeus, Bathory, and Belphegor.”

“As Principal, I need to personally receive them.” Gehenna continued. “While I’m at it, I’ll also have to deal with the Samael family’s questions about the disappearances of Lavinia and those two dragon attendants. They were technically members of Lilith School’s faculty and staff, so we do owe them an explanation.”

Stella felt a little panicked.

Every time someone mentioned her right after she’d done something bad, she couldn’t help feeling guilty.

But the problem was, how were they supposed to explain it?

The culprit was standing right here, and she hadn’t even finished digesting them yet…

“The problem is… I heard Lavinia is Veronica, the Samael heir’s favorite toy.” Gehenna rubbed her head as a headache came on. “Good grief, I’m going to have one hell of an argument on my hands.”

“Hopefully we really can pin the blame on the Bone Dragon.”

Stella froze.

‘…Toy?’

‘What did she mean, her favorite toy?’

‘Lavinia?’

‘A dragon demon with dark-gold scales, golden slit pupils, and a vicious, terrifying appearance was actually the Samael heir Veronica’s… toy?’

A whole pile of rather inappropriate images instantly flashed through Stella’s mind.

‘That kind of toy? Or that kind of toy?’

‘Or that kind of… toy?’

Translator Note

Yeah, Stella’s mind has been corrupted xD