Volume 4, Chapter 8-3 – The Power of Colleagues, the Power of the Holy See! Delicious!

Stella placed the plush toy on her lap and decided to accept Ariel’s apology.

Hmm…

But still…

For some reason, the plush toy Ariel had given her looked strangely familiar.

Those identical cherry-pink eyes, combined with the toy’s soft pink coloring from head to toe and that pouty expression brimming with tsundere attitude…

For some reason, Stella thought of Franleya Belphegor from Cloudtop Manor.

The Young Miss of the Nightmare race.

Come to think of it, Franleya’s eyes were exactly this shade of cherry pink, and that tsundere expression… it was practically identical.

Stella stared into the unmoving kitten plush toy’s eyes and muttered aloud, “It can’t actually be Franleya, can it?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Stella couldn’t help laughing at herself.

The Nightmare Young Miss had grown up surrounded by luxury and been pampered since childhood. Although Stella was the heir of the Valentine family, their relationship was limited to the alliance formed through the Chalice of Sin. Stella had no interest in befriending a Nightmare either. There was no way the two of them would have any further connection.

Besides, how could a Nightmare Young Miss deliberately turn herself into a plush toy and appear beside Stella, curling up next to her like a cat by the hearth, soft and delicate as a doll?

Stella almost laughed aloud.

What a joke.

How could that possibly happen?

Stella pursed her lips.

No matter how much the Nightmare Young Miss enjoyed teasing people, no matter how twisted her sense of fun was, she couldn’t possibly turn herself into a stuffed toy of her own accord and follow Stella around every day, right?

What would she even get out of it?

She was the dignified heir of an Elector. Did she not care about her dignity anymore?

Still, the more Stella looked at the little pink plush toy, the more she liked it.

From now on, it would be her sleeping companion.

She stuffed the plush toy directly into her little bag.

“Lainia?” Stella called out into the corridor.

Outside the door was completely silent.

There was no response at all.

“Where did that idiot nun run off to?”

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Stella tilted her head.

Hadn’t they agreed that Lainia would guard the door?

Abandoning her post on her very first day of work?

That fit Stella’s impression of Lainia perfectly.

But speaking of which, while Stella had been sleeping so comfortably, had the Chastisement spirits arrived?

As a thoroughly orthodox Saintess of the Holy See, she had been eagerly counting on her good colleagues from the Church to protect her fragile little life.

Stella lowered her eyes and examined her palm.

The Chastisement Brand that represented the highest-level wanted order was now shining extraordinarily brightly. It was several times brighter than before she went to sleep. Even with her eyes closed, the light still pierced through.

There was no doubt about it.

The Chastisement spirits had definitely arrived, and they were somewhere nearby.

But then why hadn’t she seen so much as half the shadow of a Chastisement spirit after waking up?

Had they left?

That seemed unlikely.

The White Tower’s Chastisement spirits were famously stubborn. They would never stop until they accomplished their objective, so how could they possibly leave on their own?

Then where had they gone?

Were they all playing hide-and-seek?

Boom—!

A deafening explosion erupted from the direction of Blood Demon Manor’s courtyard, making even the wooden floor beneath Stella’s feet tremble slightly.

She could vaguely hear surging magical power booming outside, along with the repeated thunderous crashes of collapsing buildings.

It sounded as though someone was fighting out there.

‘They are already fighting?!’

Stella’s eyes lit up, and every trace of sleepiness vanished.

There was no need to think about it.

The assassins who had come looking for trouble must have started fighting the Chastisement spirits!

A perfect opportunity to watch the show!

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Stella rushed to the floor-to-ceiling window in a few quick strides, pushed it open, and looked outside.

The courtyard of Blood Demon Manor had already completely transformed into a battlefield.

The scene could only be described as extremely brutal.

The once-flat courtyard paving had been torn apart beyond recognition, with terrifying craters and scorched marks everywhere.

The six imposing Samael Dragon Attendants had already fallen all over the place. Some were embedded in ruined walls, while others lay sprawled among piles of rubble. Dark golden dragon blood had spilled all across the ground.

Only the Samael Dragon Attendant Captain, who appeared to be their leader, remained struggling desperately at the center of the battlefield.

He stood in place, panting heavily.

His entire body was covered in wounds, and large patches of his hard dragon scales had peeled away. He was obviously already at the end of his strength and wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

Surrounding him, a group of Chastisement spirits had completely encircled him.

Beneath their hollow hoods, pure white holy flames watched him menacingly.

Hmm…

Though the White Tower’s jailers weren’t in much better condition either.

Stella noticed that quite a few Chastisement spirits had also suffered severe damage.

Their once-solid pure white spirit bodies had become extremely dim. Some couldn’t even move anymore and could only float weakly in midair.

But they had not completely dispersed, because that was simply how Chastisement spirits worked.

As long as the spirit core at their center wasn’t completely shattered, they wouldn’t truly return to the White Tower. They merely needed some time to gather the free-floating Holy Light particles in their surroundings and reconstruct themselves.

From what Stella could see, the arrogant group of higher demons and the emotionless White Tower jailers had thoroughly beaten each other into mutual ruin.

Perfect.

Stella was clicking her tongue in amazement when, from the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar figure in one corner of the courtyard.

It was Lainia.

At some point, she had brought over a chair and was now watching the full-blown brawl in the courtyard with great interest.

Stella covered her face.

This girl really knew how to enjoy herself.

Stella quickly walked downstairs, passed through the side corridor, and arrived at the main entrance to the courtyard.

“Master, you’re awake!” Lainia’s eyes immediately lit up when she saw her. “You came at just the right time. You haven’t completely missed the show yet!”

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“I don’t know what happened just now, but a whole bunch of Chastisement spirits suddenly appeared around you, Master. I was completely dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do, but then someone kicked open Blood Demon Manor’s front door.”

Lainia pursed her lips.

“A bunch of people who looked exactly like robbers charged inside. But guess what happened? Those Chastisement spirits didn’t say a word. They turned around and immediately rushed over to deal with them! The two sides have already been fighting here for quite a while. Though judging by the looks of things, Blood Demon Manor is going to need a lot of cleaning up later.”

After hearing the whole story, Stella became certain that her plan of driving one wolf against another had worked perfectly.

Because of the suppression caused by her Holy Light rank, the Chastisement spirits were completely incapable of attacking Stella, who was a Saintess. They had no intention of bothering Lainia, who was human, either.

And then, by sheer terrible luck, a group of unfortunate Samael Dragon Attendants just had to kick down the door and barge in.

As pure demons, they instantly became the Chastisement spirits’ highest-priority targets for chastisement!

Stella proudly puffed out her chest.

‘Hehe~’

She might not be especially smart when it came to serious matters, but when it came to crooked ideas and underhanded tricks, she was absolutely top-notch!

As long as the Chastisement Brand remained, the White Tower’s jailers would continue protecting her.

The power of colleagues, the power of the Holy See!

Powerful, reliable, safe, delicious!

“Stella—!”

A furious roar interrupted Stella’s thoughts.

At that very moment, the Samael Dragon Attendant Captain trapped within the Chastisement spirits’ encirclement happened to spot Stella.

His face rapidly went from white to red, from red to purple, then turned ashen. Deep-seated humiliation and fury burned in his golden eyes.

“What did you do?”

“Why…” The Dragon Attendant Captain hoarsely demanded of Stella, “Why! Why aren’t the Chastisement spirits attacking you? Why did they choose to attack us instead?!”

“They… clearly came here for you… Why… Why are they attacking us?”

The Dragon Attendant Captain had completely broken down.

He could not understand the current situation at all.

They had come here to assassinate Stella, yet somehow they had ended up fighting an inexplicable life-or-death battle against a group of Church spirits.

And what truly broke him wasn’t the injuries inflicted by the Chastisement spirits.

It was Stella, the culprit behind everything.

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She looked exactly like someone who had just woken up. Not a single hair on her head had been harmed.

The Chastisement spirits didn’t even glance at her, completely ignoring the very target they were supposedly meant to purify first!

Meanwhile, Stella’s Chastisement Brand was shining so brightly that it could practically be used as a lamp.

‘What is going on?’

Never in his life had the Dragon Attendant Captain imagined that such malicious absurdity could exist in this world.

Faced with the Dragon Attendant Captain’s grief-stricken and furious questioning, Stella froze for a moment.

She couldn’t exactly tell him outright that she was actually a Saintess of the Holy See and that all the Chastisement spirits were basically her bodyguards, could she?

Stella leaned forward slightly and deliberately tilted her head in an innocent pose. Her curled eyelashes trembled gently as a faint smile appeared at the corners of her lips.

“Stella doesn’t know~”

“…”

The Dragon Attendant Captain stared at Stella’s innocent smiling face and felt as though his intelligence and dignity were simultaneously being trampled into oblivion.

“It doesn’t matter anymore…”

The Dragon Attendant Captain let out a miserable laugh.

He raised his head, his gaze carrying the resignation of someone who had completely given up.

“Young Miss Veronica… is already on her way…” he weakly spat out one final curse. “Your Blood Demon Manor… just wait until it’s flattened to the ground!”

The instant he finished speaking, the dark golden light in the Samael Dragon Attendant Captain’s eyes finally dimmed.

He could no longer force himself to stay upright.

His entire body crashed heavily to the ground, and he completely lost consciousness.

But the instant the Dragon Attendant Captain fell, Stella immediately saw a young woman standing silently in the exact spot his figure had been blocking.

She stood before the entrance of Blood Demon Manor.

Her incomplete bat wings, embedded with crystals of various colors, swayed slightly. The gently stirring breeze brushed across her cheeks, making her long golden hair flutter in the wind.

She raised her eyes.

Her golden vertical pupils stared directly at Stella.

Veronica Samael.