Volume 4, Chapter 5-2 – Come Love Me, Mom

Remedios did not pursue the matter. She raised her arm and held her wrist out in front of Stella. At some point, a blue ring of magical power had appeared around it.

“What’s that on your wrist?”

“A freebie from the Chalice of Sin.”

“Once you cast your true name into the Chalice of Sin, the contract is established as well,” Remedios said, giving her wrist a little shake. “Every contestant who obtains qualification automatically receives a mark. From this point onward, every individual event and question set by the Chalice of Sin during the Abyss Supremacy Tournament will appear on it in sequence.”

She paused.

“Of course, its most important function is serving as proof of your qualification to participate. It also monitors your vital signs.”

“Proof?”

“Mhm.” Remedios nodded. “The elimination rule for the Abyss Supremacy Tournament is very simple. If the wristband is erased, you’re out. There are no restrictions on how it’s erased.”

Stella pulled back the sleeve of her evening gown.

Sure enough.

A ring of magical light was also quietly encircling her left wrist.

Except unlike Remedios’ dark blue one, hers was an eerie deep purple.

If the ring disappeared, she was eliminated.

Stella’s eyes lit up.

In that case, wasn’t this simple?

She had never wanted to participate in some damned Abyss battle royale in the first place, hacking apart hydras in swamps or chasing wild boars across snowy plains. All she wanted was to stay safely at Lilith School with her head down until graduation, occasionally taking a stroll around Nightmare Street.

“Erase the wristband…” Stella murmured. “What if I erase my own wristband?”

Remedios froze.

“…You want to forfeit?”

“It’s not exactly that I want to,” Stella said, scratching her cheek. “I just feel like I don’t really have any reason why I absolutely have to participate, right? It’s not like I actually want to become Regent.”

Remedios thought for a moment, then casually added.

“Generally speaking, the easiest way for us to eliminate an opponent is to cut their arm off. After all, everyone here is an heir to an Elector. It wouldn’t be very good if someone actually died during the tournament.”

Remedios revealed a gentle, elegant smile.

“As long as the arm is severed, the contract naturally ends. Very civilized and very gentle, don’t you think?”

“And we’re all demons anyway. Growing another hand is easy.”

‘How is that civilized?’

‘How is that gentle?’

‘…Demons really did play rough.’

Stella immediately threw the idea of voluntarily forfeiting out of her mind.

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Although she had no idea how much human purity was still left in her body, if she could avoid the pain of losing an arm, then she would rather avoid it.

After all, who knew whether her demonic bloodline could actually help her grow another one?

“I suddenly think participating in the tournament sounds pretty good.” Stella spoke without changing her expression.

Remedios laughed.

“I knew you’d say that.”

Stella rolled her eyes.

“But seriously.” Remedios said, restraining her smile. “You’d better find somewhere to hide tonight.”

“Hide?”

“Mhm.” Remedios swept her gaze around the room. “There are definitely going to be a lot of people who want to deal with an easy target like you ahead of time. So just stay at Blood Demon Manor tonight. Even if they turn the school dormitories upside down, they’ll never imagine that you’ve already gone straight through the Mirror Door and are sleeping in the manor on Nightmare Street.”

Stella thought about it.

That made sense.

And she could take the opportunity to inspect the Lionheart Society’s headquarters.

Although Stella had tricked the Lionheart Society members into going to Nightmare Street because she wanted them out of sight and out of mind, Remedios genuinely intended to turn the place into a military springboard for invading the Human Realm.

As a spy of the Holy See, if she really allowed a group of succubi to successfully carry out a plan to invade humanity, then she truly would become the greatest human traitor in history.

“Right, how are things going at Blood Demon Manor now?” Stella asked.

Remedios’ eyes lit up, and she instantly became enthusiastic.

“Patolize took half the people with her. They’ve already cleared out all the dust and junk that had accumulated in the main building for hundreds of years, and they’ve returned to school. As for Dorothy…”

Remedios paused.

“She’s taking the others all over the Abyss, searching for suitable nodes and using the Girl in the Mirror to create hidden teleportation gates one after another. The basic framework of the logistics network has already started operating.”

Cold sweat poured down Stella’s back.

‘Isn’t the Lionheart Society’s ability to get things done a little too terrifying?’

‘…They aren’t actually going to pull this off later, are they?’

Stella could already imagine how future history books would describe her as a human traitor.

“However…” Remedios paused, her tone becoming somewhat subtle. “There really is one small problem.”

“What problem?”

“We’re missing a gatekeeper.”

Stella blinked.

“…A gatekeeper?”

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“Blood Demon Manor is too large, and the members of the Lionheart Society are still students. They need to keep up with their schoolwork, so there’s no way they can stay on Nightmare Street all seven Watches. Once Dorothy’s mirror network is fully established, Blood Demon Manor will become the core hub, which makes it even more impossible to leave it unguarded.”

Remedios sighed.

“If random outsiders or hostile forces sneak in later, wouldn’t all our hard work go to waste? Speaking of which, do you have anyone idle you could assign there?”

“Preferably the kind who… does absolutely nothing useful all day, obeys you completely, and is especially good at taking a beating.”

An idle person.

Does absolutely nothing useful.

Especially good at taking a beating.

A candidate immediately appeared in Stella’s mind.

The hiring requirements Remedios had just listed practically sounded tailor-made for a certain novice nun.

And hadn’t Lainia recently been undergoing maid training with Blackthorn Guard Captain Riko?

Balancing teacups on her head, holding table knives, sweeping fallen leaves while blindfolded…

Those exercises sounded very… very promising for a gatekeeper!

And Lainia was incredibly good at taking a beating. She had been beaten by the Blackthorn Guard Captain and swung around by Stella’s shadow, yet she was still alive and kicking.

Lainia didn’t have much to do lately anyway. Sending her to guard the gate at Blood Demon Manor would be perfect.

She could also help Stella keep watch on the Lionheart Society, and Stella could have Lainia secretly sabotage things from the inside. That way, she wouldn’t have to worry about becoming a human traitor in the future.

Perfect.

She wouldn’t even have to pay her!

Stella thought her choice was absolutely flawless.

“Remedios, what do you think about having Lainia be the gatekeeper?” she asked enthusiastically, her eyes sparkling. “She’s the perfect candidate.”

Remedios blinked, looking somewhat confused.

“Lainia? Who’s that?”

Stella tilted her head.

‘Remedios didn’t know Lainia’s name?’

Well, that wasn’t particularly strange.

Her dear friend probably had countless affairs to deal with every day and simply didn’t remember the name of one human slave.

Besides, Lainia had never done anything earth-shattering, so there was no reason for Remedios to deliberately remember her name.

“My human slave,” Stella explained. “Her name is Lainia. The novice nun. You’ve seen her before.”

“Human slave?” Remedios looked even more confused. “Stella, when did you get a human slave?”

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This time, Stella was the one who froze.

She stared blankly at Remedios. For a moment, she genuinely couldn’t tell whether she was still half asleep or Remedios was.

Even if Remedios’ impression of her wasn’t very deep, surely she had to remember that Lainia was the trophy Stella had won during Katerina’s Human Interrogation Studies class?

Remedios had been sitting right beside her at the time. Not only had she watched the entire thing from beginning to end, she had even enthusiastically helped Stella complete the perfect demonstration of a higher bloodline.

Even more absurdly, just a few days ago, when Stella had first woken up in bed, hadn’t Remedios personally told her that Lainia had planted a sign in the training grounds, challenged the entire school, and was about to get herself suppressed?

If it had been one or two years ago, then maybe forgetting would make sense. But all of these events combined had happened within the last two months.

How could she possibly have forgotten them completely?

“You… really don’t remember Lainia?” Stella asked in disbelief. “The teaching prop I won during Human Interrogation Studies. The human slave who emptied my meal card and washed thirteen thousand plates in the cafeteria.”

Remedios suddenly looked enlightened.

“Ah…” She drew out the sound. “So you mean your human slave.”

Stella stared at Remedios’ slightly exaggerated expression and somehow felt that she still hadn’t remembered at all.

“Sorry, I really did forget,” Remedios said with an apologetic smile. “I occasionally forget things that aren’t particularly important. Please wait a moment.”

Remedios took out a book.

Her gaze rapidly swept over the densely packed text, occasionally pressing a finger against her temple as though taking inventory of the words and sentences flowing into her mind.

Every now and then, she even nodded repeatedly with a solemn expression, looking exactly like someone thoroughly absorbed in a storybook.

Stella glanced at the title and the corner of her mouth twitched immediately.

‘Lilith Miscellany I?’ ¹ If you don’t understand, you can call it Lilith Miscellaneous Notes I

‘What the hell is that?’

‘Is Remedios looking up information on the spot?’

‘Does Book Demons have to flip through reminder notes all day?’

‘How were their brains even built?’

Stella found it a little funny.

As a Book Demon, Remedios actually needed to consult written records just to remember something that had happened within the past month. It was as ridiculous as a human needing to read their diary to remember what they had eaten yesterday.

“Mhm… I remember now. There really was someone like that.” Remedios finally closed the book and declared confidently, “I think she really could work. She has an extremely high resistance to physical abuse, and she’s not particularly smart. She really is very suitable for guarding a gate. I don’t see any problem with assigning her there.”

Stella watched Remedios complete the entire process with effortless fluency and, for a moment, had no idea what to say.

Book Demons…

What an incredible race.

They were completely different from succubi, dragonkind, Nightmares, and the other demons she had encountered.

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The fact that their true bodies were books was already absurd enough.

‘Right.’

According to what Remedios had said before, every event she experienced, every person she met, and every word she spoke would automatically be recorded in her true body, right?

But if it was a book, then the number of pages had to be limited, didn’t it?

What happened when all the pages were filled?

There definitely wouldn’t be any room left to write.

So… either she stopped recording new text, or…

She moved the old memories somewhere else?

Lilith Miscellany I was probably a diary Remedios used as a reminder notebook?

Stella suddenly understood.

No wonder when she first met Remedios and secretly peeked at her diary, she had found nothing but continuous little passages written like a running account.

That explained everything.

No wonder Remedios had completely forgotten Lainia almost immediately.

Because Lainia had already been categorized as an unimportant memory and tossed into the trash… no, into the miscellaneous reminder notebook…

Perhaps this really was how Book Demons survived.

Constantly recording, constantly filtering, retaining important memories in their true bodies while transferring relatively unimportant memories into other books.

Mhm…

The physiology of demons really was a profound field of study.

Speaking of which…

Stella thought of a question.

Her true body was a book that continuously recorded everything. It could store information, possessed self-awareness, could communicate with people through written words, and even knew all kinds of ancient secrets.

Translator Note

Ohh! That’s interesting xD

If a book is the true form, and memories are written there, then their lifespan is based on the limit of paper inside the book.

So, they occasionally “erase” unimportant memories in their book form, then rewrite those memories in another normal book.