Volume 4, Chapter 4-4 – Thank You, Lavinia!

“I know you have a lot you want to ask. Go ahead.”

Remedios took the initiative to pull Stella into a corner.

Life was probably just one long series of shocks. Stella remained stunned for a very long time.

The heir of Faust.

The successor of the Book Demon family, one of the Seven Electors, the legendary heir so mysterious that no one had even seen her face, was actually one of her best friends?

“Wait…” The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched slightly. “You’re the heir of Faust? That incredibly mysterious Elector family?”

“Bestie, you’re this big a deal, and you actually hid it from me for this long?”

“Mhm.”

“Then why did you keep it from me all this time?”

“You never asked. Besides…” Remedios tilted her head. “Does who I am really matter? I’ve always been Remedios, and you’ve always known me as Remedios. As for what my surname is, what does it matter?”

What Remedios said did seem to make sense, but Stella still found the whole thing ridiculous.

Normally, everyone sat around drinking tea and shooting the breeze in the Lionheart Society lounge, going on about criticizing the Electors all day long.

Yet in the end, the biggest Elector in the entire club had actually been right beside her all along, pouring tea and fetching water.

Stella instinctively ran through the people around her.

Gehenna, Principal of Lilith School, a thousand-year-old Archdemon.

Vivian, Valentine Family Head, an Elector.

Katerina, Vice Principal, master of potions.

Aetlana, a higher dragon demon, former follower of the Pale Lord.

Cheryl, Valentine heir.

Franleya, Belphegor heir.

Veronica, Samael heir.

And now Remedios too, Faust heir.

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‘Good grief.’

She was a pure-blooded human Saintess standing right in the middle of the highest-ranking dignitaries in the Abyss. She was basically a sheep that had wandered into a wolf pack, and somehow she was even doing pretty well for herself. She had practically built a whole family there.

“But Faust is the Book Demon family, right?”

“Mm.”

Remedios nodded.

“But Lilith School is a succubus school,” Stella asked in confusion. “How did a Book Demon like you end up studying at a succubus school?”

Remedios blinked.

“Good question.”

As she spoke, she opened the book toward Stella.

Stella instinctively leaned closer to take a look.

The pages were blank, but the instant her gaze landed on them, rows of fine text began appearing across the empty page.

【Sixth Watch.】

【As the Faust heir, I revealed my identity to Stella before the Chalice of Sin. Stella’s expression right now is very interesting, like a cat whose tail has been stepped on.】

“This is…”

“You could say it’s my true form,” Remedios said lightly. “I’m a Book Demon. Our true forms are books that can walk. The humanoid form you’re looking at right now is merely an alchemical shell specially made to make interacting with demons more convenient.”

Stella thought the Abyss was amazing.

So the cheap bestie she’d known all this time was actually a book?

“The writing on it is…”

“Basically my memories.” Remedios turned a page. “Everything that happens each day is automatically recorded in it. Whatever page you turn to, you’ll be able to see what I experienced that day.”

Stella watched the ink continuously forming across the pages, and her thoughts couldn’t help wandering.

If her true form was a book, then a book’s thickness had to be limited, right?

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What happened when every page was filled?

And…

If the writing on those pages was equivalent to a Book Demon’s memories, then what would happen if someone forcibly altered the text or added new writing?

Wouldn’t that be the same as directly tampering with Remedios’s memories?

If she wrote some strange settings into it…

The physiology of Book Demons felt like it offered way more possibilities than succubi.

‘Mm…’

Stella hurriedly stopped herself.

Her thoughts had accidentally gone somewhere weird again.

She shook her head, driving all those bizarre ideas away at once.

Recently, her thoughts had been getting more and more crooked. At the slightest opportunity, she’d start thinking about all sorts of improper things.

‘It had to be because I’d awakened too many demon bloodlines lately, severely corrupting her pure and immaculate Saintess nature.’

“What?” Remedios looked at her with interest. “Thinking about doing something bad?”

“No.” Stella’s expression didn’t change. “I just think the Book Demon race is much more interesting than succubi.”

“Is that so?”

“Mm.”

Remedios stared at her for a while with a faint, knowing smile, but didn’t pursue the matter.

Stella breathed a sigh of relief.

“Right.” She hurriedly changed the subject, “if your background is this impressive, why did you still come to study at Lilith School?”

“Because books feed on words.”

“…What does that mean?”

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“Exactly what it sounds like.” Remedios shrugged. “Book Demons need to read in order to grow. I visit the libraries of different schools one after another, and once I’ve finished reading all their collections, I leave.”

“So you came to Lilith School to…”

“Go through its collection.” Remedios nodded. “Besides, I also need to consult a large number of forbidden texts to break my elder sister’s curse. She’s the true heir of Faust. Right now, she can’t move, so I can only take her place.”

Remedios’ elder sister.

Stella remembered that she was the core driving force behind everything Remedios did.

“You have to handle all sorts of family affairs at the same time, so you’re actually pretty busy normally, right?” Stella asked.

“Of course.” Remedios smiled. “Coming to Lilith School wasn’t a bad thing either. After all, I met you. There aren’t many succubi as interesting as you, ones worth preserving in my memories and words.”

Stella was caught completely off guard by her bestie’s sudden straight shot.

“…Oh.” She nodded stiffly.

“Back to the point.” Remedios didn’t say anything more. Her smile faded, and her tone grew serious. “Stella, you really need to be careful.”

“Careful of what?” Stella asked.

“You’re competing under the name Darkfallen now, not Valentine.”

Remedios’s gaze swept across the scattered groups of Elector family members around them.

“Although you’re still the Valentine heir, to outsiders, you now look like an heir who’s somehow fallen out with her own family. You’re the softest target here. Anyone can take a shot at you.”

“And there are no records of any Darkfallen family in the Abyss. You’re representing some unknown minor family while competing on the same stage as the Electors. That also makes you the most conspicuous target.”

Remedios paused.

“Tonight, someone is definitely going to come looking for trouble. They’ll want to eliminate you early.”

Stella swallowed.

“No way…”

“They will.” Remedios spoke with certainty. “And I think the first ones to attack you will be the Samael people.”

Remedios pointed not far away.

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The Samael Family Head was standing in a corner, saying something to Veronica.

His expression was stern, and from time to time, he glanced at Stella out of the corner of his eye.

Veronica had her eyes lowered, her long golden hair covering half her face, making her expression impossible to see.

“Veronica, the Samael heir. Her mind may not be entirely normal, but her strength is absolutely that of a higher demon. If she decides to attack you…”

Remedios didn’t finish, but her meaning was already obvious.

“You’re in trouble, Stella.”

Stella could roughly guess what they were talking about.

Lavinia had disappeared, and Samael had lost one of his trusted subordinates. Now that he saw the Valentine heir competing alone, he would definitely think she was an easy target.

If Stella were the Samael Family Head, she would order herself eliminated too.

Half a Watch ago, Stella might genuinely have panicked over this.

But…

Stella thought about it for a moment, then immediately stopped caring.

‘Well, well.’

‘What is there to panic about?’

‘Wouldn’t the person I’d just poached from Samael come in handy right away?’

‘Thank you, Lavinia!’

Translator Note

What the hell. I didn’t expect Book Demon is literally a demon in the form of book lmao