Volume 4, Chapter 3-3 – Poaching Talent

Stella was completely dumbfounded.

‘What is going on now?’

‘Mom?’

‘Veronica was calling me Mom?’

“Elder Sister, you really smell a lot like Veronica’s mom. Veronica’s mom disappeared.” Veronica said very, very softly. “But Father said he couldn’t find Mom no matter how hard he looked, and he even brought me somewhere I don’t know at all.”

“But you really smell a lot like my mom.”

She raised her eyes, her dark-gold pupils reflecting Stella’s face.

“So… can you be my new mom?”

She said it again.

Stella stood there at a loss, staring at Veronica as she clutched the corner of her dress.

Truth be told, the instant she saw the Samael heir, the first thought that popped into her mind was that Veronica had smelled Lavinia on her with the keen sense of smell possessed by dragon demons and had specifically come over to seek revenge.

Stella had even prepared herself to draw upon the power of the Blood Shadow and have a full-blown fight with Veronica.

Although this was the banquet hall of Lilith School, and the surrounding area was filled with the Family Heads and heirs of the Electors.

If they really started fighting, the scene would be extremely ugly, but at least Stella wouldn’t be fighting alone.

Vivian was nearby, and Gehenna and Katerina were here too.

Franleya might even help her.

But…

Mom?

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What mom?

‘Veronica had come all this way just to call me Mom?’

“Um… Stella.” Franleya spilled her drink all over the floor. “Why did she… call you Mom?”

She had probably assumed Veronica was here to cause trouble for Stella too. After all, the Samael heir approaching the Valentine family’s heir looked like the prelude to trouble no matter how you looked at it.

But what did it mean to open by calling her Mom?

Franleya’s thoughts were a little scrambled.

The heir of the Samael family was calling the newly appointed heir of the Valentine family Mom.

If word got out, there would be no need to wait until tomorrow morning. It could parachute straight onto the front-page headline of Prophet Weekly tonight, probably bolded and highlighted in red too.

“I don’t know.” Stella said dryly.

She thought about it very seriously, almost to the point of thinking a hole through her own skull.

Franleya had just said that Veronica’s mind seemed rather abnormal, that she was extremely destructive, and that she rarely appeared at formal occasions.

In other words, she was a pureblood monster who had been kept hidden away for years.

And Lavinia, an Observer of the Nexus Council and a trusted confidante of the Samael Family Head, would have had every reason to privately call herself Veronica’s mom in order to soothe her.

Stella also remembered Gehenna saying that Lavinia was Veronica’s favorite toy. Back then, Stella’s thoughts had gone in the wrong direction, and she had assumed it meant some kind of unspeakable toy.

Only now did Stella realize that she had completely misunderstood what kind of toy Gehenna meant.

‘It was actually a role-playing toy for playing house?!’

‘Just what exactly did the noble Samael heir treat Lavinia as?’

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Stella had completely figured it out.

Veronica had probably mistaken her for Lavinia, mainly because Stella had Lavinia’s essence inside her.

And to Veronica, Lavinia was Mom.

Then…

Veronica naturally ended up treating Stella as Mom too?

‘What kind of bizarre relationship is this?!’

No wonder the Samael Family Head was so furious over Lavinia’s disappearance that he was even willing to confront people publicly at the banquet.

How could he not be furious?

The child’s mom was gone. Veronica’s giant pacifier had gone missing, and for the moment, he had no idea who he could find as a replacement.

‘Wait.’

Stella sized up Veronica in front of her.

Golden hair, golden vertical pupils.

She was even about the same height as Stella.

If Lavinia was Veronica’s mom, and Stella had eaten Lavinia…

‘Then didn’t that make me… the murderer who ate someone else’s mom?’

“…”

The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched.

Although that was indeed what had happened, it sounded wrong in every possible way.

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‘Veronica is too much for me. Forget it.’

She already had Dorothy as a daughter. If she added Veronica too, the numbers were really getting unreasonable.

More importantly, the other party was the heir of Samael.

The heir of Valentine becoming the mother of the heir of Samael.

A family relationship that crossed factional lines like this could trigger an utterly terrifying political tsunami in minutes.

Besides.

Stella felt her list of identities was already explosive enough.

Gehenna was her Master, Katerina was the losing dog who loved her but could never have her, Cheryl was her bargain-bin younger sister, Aetlana was her bargain-bin guardian, Remedios was her bargain-bin sister, and Dorothy was her bargain-bin daughter.

Now she was supposed to add another bargain-bin daughter?

And a dragon one at that?

‘No, no, no.’

The relationships around her were already chaotic enough. There was simply no room to squeeze in a second precious daughter.

“Sorry…” Stella said. “You’re a good child… but this is a little too sudden… anyway, no.”

“Alright…” Veronica said very, very softly. “Now Veronica is a child without a mom again.”

At that moment, she obediently let go of the corner of Stella’s dress. Her chest rose and fell slightly. Stella didn’t notice it, but Franleya did.

“Veronica.” The Samael Family Head had also stopped arguing with Gehenna by now and looked over. “Come back. It’s time for us to leave.”

“Understood, Father.”

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Veronica walked toward the Samael Family Head.

After taking three steps, she looked back at Stella. Her reluctant gaze lingered for several seconds, then she took another two steps and looked back again. Over and over, her golden eyes were filled with reluctance to leave.

Seeing those reluctant little movements, Stella trembled slightly. While carefully keeping her face expressionless, she turned away and glanced at Franleya. When she saw Franleya rubbing her head hard as well, Stella simply followed suit and casually rubbed her own head too.

Only after Veronica had completely disappeared into the crowd did Stella let out a long breath.

‘What exactly had today’s encounter been?’

Stella went over the entire sequence of events in her head.

She had eaten a Samael confidante alive, intercepted her essence, and now had even publicly rejected the Samael heir’s request to acknowledge her as family.

‘Wait, when I put it like that…’

First she ate a dragon demon and acquired dragon traits, then the dragon heir mistook her for Mom, and then Stella rejected her attempt to acknowledge her as family…

So basically, she had eaten someone else’s mom, then refused to become their new mom?

Stella fell silent.

Eating someone’s mom and then refusing to be their mom.

‘What kind of hell-tier shameless behavior was this?’

Stella felt like she could run for the Abyss’ Scumbag of the Year award.

‘Come to think of it…’

‘Had I just accidentally poached the Samael family’s own heir?’