Volume 4, Chapter 8-1 – The Power of Colleagues, the Power of the Holy See! Delicious!

Stella stood in one of the corridors of Blood Demon Manor.

She blinked, somewhat bewildered.

‘What is going on?’

Hadn’t she just lain down on a bed in Blood Demon Manor? How had she suddenly ended up in the corridor for no reason?

Question after question popped into her mind.

Had she been sleepwalking?

But that shouldn’t be possible either.

Lainia might not be as smart as her, but if she saw Stella sleepwalking, she would definitely quietly follow behind her.

How could she possibly let Stella wander around the manor alone?

Stella looked around.

‘Hmm… something is wrong with Blood Demon Manor.’

The wallpaper covering the walls was a vivid dark red. Even the classical landscape oil paintings hanging in the corridor looked remarkably new, their colors so vibrant that they seemed to have been hung up the moment they were finished. The carpet beneath her feet felt wrong too. It was much thicker than it had been when she moved in.

Stella frowned slightly.

Blood Demon Manor had been abandoned for nearly a hundred years. No matter how thoroughly Patolize and the others cleaned it, there was no way they could renovate a century-old mansion into something like this.

Stella thought for a moment.

Maybe this was a lucid dream?

But then the question was, why would she have such a strange dream?

Even if dreams reflected what occupied one’s thoughts during the day, there was no reason for her to dream about what a secondhand mansion looked like before it was renovated, right?

Before Stella could think any further, a miserable scream suddenly came from the end of the corridor, immediately followed by the sound of blood bursting outward, like someone had sliced open an orange filled to the brim with juice.

Then came unhurried footsteps, as though someone were taking a leisurely stroll.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The footsteps gradually drew closer.

Stella instinctively tried to summon the Pale Sacred Remains, but for some reason, she was frozen in place and couldn’t move at all.

Damn it.

What was going on?

She couldn’t possibly be having a nightmare and a lucid dream at the same time, could she?

Before long, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows at the end of the corridor.

Its face couldn’t be seen clearly. Only a vague silhouette was faintly visible.

Stella’s heartbeat involuntarily sped up.

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An inexplicable fear gripped her, a terror with no reason behind it.

Stella was a little stunned.

It was clearly just a lucid dream, so why was she afraid?

The soft footsteps stopped not far away, and the newcomer spoke.

“Ariel Casteya, where do you think you can run?”

Stella froze.

Ariel Casteya?

Who was she calling?

Wasn’t her name Stella?

The stranger’s words reminded Stella of something, and she immediately noticed what was wrong.

Her line of sight was much higher than usual.

Her clothes had changed too. She was wearing a classical Lolita dress stained all over with dark red blood. The long hair hanging over her shoulders wasn’t silver-red, but pale red.

And the name Ariel Casteya sounded somewhat familiar too.

She had seen it on the Marauder’s Map. If she remembered correctly, it was the name of Blood Demon Manor’s previous owner.

Remedios had also mentioned that Blood Demon Manor used to belong to a collateral branch of the Valentine family. Its owner had been a succubus so socially anxious that she never left the house, spending all day holed up in the manor researching blood magic until she somehow managed to develop an entire method of bloodline rebirth. Then, during the Pale Lord’s reign, everyone in Blood Demon Manor had been massacred.

Stella suddenly understood.

‘So what I am dreaming about now was… the past of Blood Demon Manor’s previous owner?’

‘So this is the price of sleeping in a haunted house?’

‘Getting dragged into horror movies in my dreams?’

Stella heard herself speak.

“Colonel.” Ariel said fearfully. “If I give you the secret bloodline art, will you let me live?”

“Of course.” The Colonel said. “Hand over the secret art. If you pose no threat to me, then naturally I’ll let you go.”

She raised a hand. Pale golden light gathered in midair, tracing out complex runes before slowly dissipating.

“A Verbal Covenant. You recognize it, don’t you?” The Colonel said. “I swear by the rules of Bathory in the Abyss. I will do exactly as I said.”

Ariel seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Alright.” She said. “I’ll give you the secret art of bloodline rebirth.”

Ariel bit her finger. A drop of blood seeped out and floated in midair.

Countless tiny runes could be seen circulating inside the bead of blood, densely packed and layered one over another.

“The method of bloodline rebirth requires a close blood relative to serve as a medium, allowing the dead to be resurrected through a ritual.” Ariel said. “The most crucial part is that there must be blood and a body from the same lineage for the dead person’s soul to occupy.”

She hesitated for a moment, then said. “The method for performing the ritual has already been recorded within the blood. But aside from that, at least five essential materials are required before the ritual can begin.”

“What materials?” The Colonel asked.

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“Bowlstone powder deposited in the River Styx, a Thousand-Eyed Jade Branch from the Wailing Wasteland, Fire Rat hide from the Scorching Sea, Five-Colored Dragon Jade from the deepest reaches of Dragonbone Land, and the Beian Stone of the Dome Sparrow.”

Ariel spoke word by word, very slowly, as if terrified that the other person might remember something incorrectly.

Bowlstone powder deposited in the River Styx?

A Thousand-Eyed Jade Branch from the Wailing Wasteland?

Just listening to it made Stella want to laugh.

What kind of ridiculous materials were those? They sounded completely unreliable. Did things like that really exist in the Abyss?

The Colonel nodded.

“I understand.”

Ariel finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ariel Casteya.” The Colonel said very softly. “You are no longer of any use to me. You can die with the others now.”

“You just made a Verbal Covenant!” Ariel couldn’t help shouting. “I pose absolutely no threat to you!”

“That’s right.” The Colonel laughed. “But Bathory’s verbal covenants exist precisely so you can exploit loopholes.”

“For a demon who never leaves the house, you’re far too naive. What I said was, ‘If you pose no threat to me, then I’ll let you go.’ Just now, you saw my face, didn’t you?”

Ariel froze.

“Someone who has seen my face…” The Colonel said. “Undoubtedly poses a threat to me. Therefore, killing you does not violate my word at all.”

The Colonel took one step forward, and the vague outline of a young woman emerged from the darkness.

Two steps forward, and her face could faintly be made out.

Three steps forward, and Stella could see her smile.

And Stella finally saw her face clearly.

The curiosity that had been suppressed for so long burst free without the slightest resistance.

Stella realized that this was completely different from every situation she had encountered before.

But she couldn’t understand what was happening.

How was that possible?

Platinum-blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

That was…

That was Remedios’ face.

“Good night, my friend.” Remedios said softly.

She pointed a finger toward Ariel. Green light flashed with a whistling sound, and an agonizing pain that seemed to tear her soul apart surged through her.

A sudden, piercing agony spread throughout her entire body.

‘It hurt…!’

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‘It hurt so much!’

The pain jolted Stella awake.

Ariel Casteya collapsed. She was already dead before her body even struck the floor.

—————

The instant Ariel died, the dream abruptly ended.

All that remained afterward was the frozen Blood Demon Manor, and even that eventually dissolved like dust without Stella noticing when it had begun.

Fortunately, Stella regained control over her own dream.

Although she hadn’t truly been struck by that green light, the excruciating pain had been transmitted to her all the same, and it was extremely unpleasant.

For a moment, Stella almost felt as though the pain were boundless, just like her own life. It seemed to fill her chest, press down on her heart, and seize control of her flesh.

And that really was how it felt.

It refused to leave until it had finished devouring the entire body.

Stella finally understood where that inexplicable fear in the dream had come from.

It hadn’t belonged to her at all.

It had belonged to Ariel.

Ariel had bundled together all the pain, fear, despair, and memories from the final moment of her life and synchronized the entire package directly into Stella.

She was so socially anxious that she couldn’t even bring herself to say hello.

Stella felt a little numb.

‘Fine.’

‘You’ve really outdone yourself, Ariel.’

‘You’re a ghost. At least have some sense of boundaries, would you?’

‘If you’re going to send someone a dream, then just send the images. Did you really have to synchronize all five senses too?’

‘But how did a ghost manage to affect my dream so easily?’

‘Could my mental resistance actually be embarrassingly terrible?’

Stella finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief and resumed breathing normally. No one knew that she had just stopped breathing entirely.

Ariel Casteya.

The Colonel.

The Verbal Covenant.

The secret art of bloodline rebirth.

And…

The Colonel’s face.

Platinum-blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

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Remedios’ face.

Stella frowned slightly.

Why did the person who killed Ariel have Remedios’ face?

Ariel had warned Stella before to be careful of Remedios, but Stella hadn’t taken it seriously at all.

After all, she had assumed Ariel must have mistaken her for someone else. Remedios was, at most, only a few decades old right now, while the massacre at Blood Demon Manor had happened decades ago.

Back then, Remedios would have been a little Book Demon who had barely learned how to walk. How could she possibly have gone around murdering people and setting fires?

But now…

Stella wasn’t so sure anymore.

If what Ariel said was true, if the person who killed her really did have Remedios’ face…

Then who was she?

Remedios herself?

Impossible. The timeline didn’t match at all.

Some relative of Remedios who looked exactly like her?

Stella had never met anyone like that.

Someone deliberately disguising themselves as Remedios?

There wouldn’t be any reason to do that, would there?

The more Stella thought about it, the worse her headache became.

Translator Note

Ohh! Plot reveal!!

Remedios is really Ash Drinker too??

But somehow I still have some doubts. After all, Mara was trying to kill her before when Remedios was alone in the forest. And then Mara had also met that Colonel in the beginning of this volume. So Mara at least should know Colonel’s face too, right?

Could it be… It was Remedios’ older sister? But that’s not right either. Her older sister was still sleeping because of the curse, right? But Mara had met Colonel just few chapters ago.

So the siblings should be innocent… unless the author pull an unexpected plot twist again

But honestly, so far only Remedios who actively give Stella ideas to conquer the Abyss, right? Isn’t it too strange? Is it really just Remedios’ misunderstanding of Stella? Or perhaps Remedios intentionally did that?

Mm… One Book Demon ask Stella to conquer the Abyss, and another holy book that might be a Book Demon too suggest her to conquer Holy See. Is it really just a coincidence? xD

And and and… Remember previously Ariel had said “I lied to them” out of nowhere when she warned Stella about Remedios?

Could it be… She refers to this? The materials to revive the Pale Lord actually wrong? LOL xD