Volume 1, Chapter 45 – The Family’s Illegitimate Daughter

Stella stood in the shadows of the training arena, her eyelids lowered, her aster-purple eyes fixed on the gravel beneath her feet.

She was thinking about something very serious.

Whether she still needed to revise the will she had written before setting out.

The rows of potatoes in the monastery’s backyard had not sprouted yet. If no one watered them, they would definitely wither and die before winter.

And there was that damned Inquisitor.

If she died in the ring today, would the compensation money be sent back on time?

If they sent too little, given the old abbess’ health, would she even make it through this winter?

The most troublesome problem was the novice nun left behind in her dormitory.

If Stella kicked the bucket, that unlucky girl called Lainia would most likely be divided up among the other succubi, or simply starve to death in the room.

And then there was…

“Stop spacing out, Stella.” Remedios leaned closer.

Her long platinum-blonde hair lightly brushed Stella’s shoulder in the wind, while the blue ribbon in it swayed gently.

The unique fragrance of a young girl drifted toward her.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Remedios lowered her voice, complete certainty filling her aqua-blue eyes. “You’re thinking about how many different ways you can humiliate her, right?”

Stella was speechless.

She was actually thinking about her will…

“Don’t worry. As your substitute, I’m ready at any time.”

Remedios patted the back of Stella’s hand.

“Though I don’t think there’s any need for me to take the field at all.”

“Teach her a brutal lesson and show her who the true heir really is.”

Rеαd оո KαtRеαdingCаfе

“…What heir?” Stella asked subconsciously.

She had absolutely no idea what that was supposed to mean.

But Remedios had already retreated beyond the safety line, opened her diary, and suspended her quill over the page, fully prepared to record history.

Stella sighed.

‘Forget it. Surely it couldn’t be anything even more troublesome.’

She should focus on figuring out how to survive once the duel began.

Stella raised her eyes and saw Mara Nightsong seated on the obsidian chair at the center of the raised platform. Behind her stood Professor Katerina, Professor Novina… and an entire group of professors arranged on either side, all looking equally intrigued.

Mm… The people eager to watch trouble unfold had arrived, and there was a whole crowd of them.

Mara said nothing. She merely stared at Stella.

Especially at the tips of her hair fluttering in the wind, where a glaring streak of red stood out.

A civil war within the Valentine family.

Could there possibly be more fitting entertainment for the Day of Rest?

“Both sides, take your positions.”

The referee’s voice rang out. She was a succubus professor Stella had never seen before.

“The rules are simple. There are no rules. A head-on duel until one side completely loses consciousness.”

“Begin!”

The gong rang out, and the roar of the crowd instantly engulfed the training arena.

Stella stood where she was, completely motionless.

What should she do?

Rеаⅾ οո KαtRеαdіngCаfе

Use Holy Light?

That would be suicide.

In front of this many Archdemons, the moment white light appeared, she would not even have to wait for Cheryl to make a move. Vice Principal Mara would strangle her to death on the spot.

Use a succubus’ abilities?

But all she knew how to do was externalize the magical power belonging to Cheryl, use that inexplicable blood flame, and cast that indecent Bone Joy, Heart Dance she had only learned last night.

Stella’s fingers curled slightly.

She hesitated for a few seconds.

Yet in Cheryl’s eyes, that hesitation meant something entirely different.

Contempt.

Disregard.

Cheryl stood opposite her, crimson magical power boiling around her body, while her opponent could not even be bothered to assume a defensive stance.

“Stella Darkfallen…” Cheryl gritted her teeth, her red eyes nearly spitting fire. “The duel has already begun, and you look down on me this much? You don’t even consider me worth attacking first?”

“…Hm? What?”

Stella stared at her blankly, only further inflaming Cheryl’s anger.

‘If you insist on treating me with such contempt, then don’t blame me for showing no mercy.’

Cheryl abruptly raised a hand and dragged her nails across her wrist.

Blood gushed out, congealing in midair into dozens of sharp blood spikes, each one gleaming with a cold crimson light.

“Die, mongrel demon.” Cheryl waved her hand.

The blood spikes tore through the air with piercing shrieks, shooting straight toward Stella’s face.

Rеαԁ οn ΚаtRеаⅾinɡCαfe

A sneak attack!

Stella had no time to think. She instinctively raised her hands to protect her face.

She couldn’t use Holy Light.

Absolutely not.

The magical power flowing through her veins began circulating frantically. The magical factors belonging to Cheryl Valentine were catalyzed to their limit by the potion’s effects.

Stella felt a scorching current surge through her blood vessels and rush toward her fingertips. She did not chant an incantation or make any particular movement. She simply wanted those things flying toward her to stop.

‘Stop…!’

That was all she thought.

The air seemed to freeze for an instant. Dozens of blood spikes that had come within mere centimeters of Stella abruptly stopped dead in midair, as though they had slammed into an invisible wall.

The entire arena fell deathly silent.

Then fragmented whispers began spreading among the succubi.

“No way… She didn’t even chant a spell?”

“That’s Valentine’s blood! Why is it listening to her?”

Stella peered through the gaps between her fingers, staring blankly at the suspended blood spikes.

Instead, she felt a connection.

A sense of intimacy, as though they shared the same bloodline.

‘This blood… seems very obedient to me?’

Stella tentatively moved one finger.

The suspended blood spikes immediately turned around. The tips that had been pointed at her moments ago now uniformly aimed at Cheryl, like a pack of hunting dogs that had seen their true master and betrayed their handler without the slightest hesitation.

Rеαd oո КαtRеaⅾіոgСαfе

“…What?” Cheryl stood opposite her, still holding the pose from when she had waved her hand, completely frozen.

That was her blood.

Blood that had flowed from her own veins, carrying the imprint of her soul.

‘…Why have I lost control of it?!’

“She seized control of the Tyrannical Queen’s blood. I already knew she possessed a talent for blood manipulation, but to think she can even wrest control of blood away from the legitimate heir…”

Remedios looked at the figure in the arena before whom even blood itself had submitted and wrote down an annotation.

“Stella, you endured humiliation and carried this burden for all these years just to reclaim the family’s rightful line and take back the glory that belongs to you, didn’t you? What a sensational revenge drama.”

Up on the raised platform, Mara shot to her feet.

“Just as I thought… I knew it.”

Everything made sense now.

An illegitimate daughter carrying the bloodline of an ancient, tyrannical succubus, hidden beneath the name Darkfallen and sent into Lilith School.

Was it exile?

A trial?

Or… was the Valentine family plotting something that could never be brought into the light?

Mara could hardly keep herself from laughing.

‘Valentine, oh Valentine. You sent this child into my hands. Did you really think I could teach her to become an obedient little pawn?’

‘Or perhaps…’

‘You never intended for her to graduate alive in the first place?’