Volume 1, Chapter 55 – Eye of the Black Mass

Stella’s feelings were difficult to put into words.

The moment she returned to the dormitory, she collapsed straight onto the soft bed, burying her entire face in the fluffy pillow without moving an inch. Only a few strands of silver hair slipped over the edge of the bed.

Looking back on today, it had practically been a compilation of disasters.

After blowing up the Mirror of Desire at the opening ceremony, she had once again successfully reduced the Eye of the Abyss to a pile of utterly worthless dust today.

And happily earned herself a six-year volunteer service contract that might as well have been a deed of enslavement.

And that still wasn’t the end of it.

Stella rolled over and stared blankly at the patterns on the ceiling, imagining this thin line as a river and that patch of mottling as a mountain range, while trekking across mountains and rivers within them in her mind.

‘Lord!’

‘Why is my career as a spy so miserable?’

Stella couldn’t help lamenting.

She had finally made it through the duel on the Day of Rest and survived the bloodline inspection that should have meant certain death, so why had she somehow inexplicably gained the identity of an illegitimate daughter of the Valentine family, along with an equally inexplicable bargain-bin little sister named Cheryl Valentine?

‘Oh… no.’

Strictly speaking, she’d gotten a mother too.

In any case, the Valentine family was absolutely going to come looking for trouble after receiving the Principal’s official letter.

Why did everything involving the Valentines always turn out so terribly?!

Clatter.

The crisp sound of colliding metal interrupted Stella’s thoughts.

She lowered the hand she had been using to cover her eyes and hide from reality.

Lainia stood beside the bed, her amber eyes staring unblinkingly down at her, the collar around her neck gleaming coldly.

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“Master… a fat chicken was pounding really hard on the window just now, so I let her in without asking.”

‘Stop calling me Master, sister…’

Stella couldn’t even be bothered to get up.

They were all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Disaster was upon them, and soon enough they’d all be going to meet the Lord together.

‘Wait.’

‘What fat chicken?’

Stella froze, then immediately looked toward the perch beside the bed. At some point, a plump long-tailed owl had landed there and was leisurely preening its feathers.

She had been so busy escaping reality that she had completely failed to notice the owl’s presence.

The Inquisitor had written back.

‘I am saved. I am saved!’

‘Care from the organization, concern from my superior, support from the Holy See’s treasury!’

Now that the Inquisitor knew about her current predicament, she would definitely send over some powerful holy relic, or maybe even simply a ticket out of here.

Stella threw herself in front of the perch.

The long-tailed owl cautiously took half a step back and tilted its head, its sharp eyes examining the succubus girl before it from top to bottom. Only after confirming that familiar aura of poverty did it finally loosen its beak.

An envelope drifted down.

Stella picked it up, took a deep breath, and broke the wax seal.

She unfolded the letter, and familiar handwriting came into view.

The very first sentence was as infuriating as ever.

【To my dear Miss Stella Darkfallen, who has not hesitated to sacrifice her reputation for the mission:】

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【I have already learned that on your very first day of school, you forced a classmate to kneel, enslaved one of our own, studied dark magic, and even participated in the development of a terrifying interrogation art whose mere mention strikes fear into people’s hearts…】

Stella’s hand trembled, nearly flinging the letter away.

Even though the wording had already been prettied up for the letter, thinking about it now, these were still the kinds of deeds that could get her dragged onto the pyre as a heretic in a matter of minutes.

Stella forced herself to keep reading.

【——Excellent work, Stella!】

【I was originally worried that your soft personality would make it impossible for you to establish yourself in the Demon Realm. I never expected you to possess such astonishing resolve. In order to win the demons’ trust, you did not hesitate to stain your own hands and disguise yourself as an existence even more evil than the demons themselves.】

【Praise be to your sacrifice!】

The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched.

‘Sacrifice?’

‘Who sacrificed anything?!’

She really had just been unlucky.

Besides, if this whole image of becoming a pervert for the sake of the mission became firmly established, how was she supposed to survive after she went back?

She turned the letter to the second page.

【Regarding the novice nun you mentioned, Lainia Pandorica. I believe the cost of sending her back to the Human Realm alone would be too high, and doing so would also make it easy for your identity to be exposed.】

【Since she’s already there anyway, I have therefore decided to grant special approval for her to join your spy team as your direct subordinate.】

【For this purpose, I have enclosed a copy of the battle nun scripture I personally use. After all, you’re a Saintess yourself. It would be far too shabby for you not to have a nun under your command who can fight. An opportunity like this shouldn’t go to waste.】

Stella woodenly raised her eyes and glanced at Lainia, who was standing far away by the windowsill, staring outside with a blank, adorably foolish expression.

‘Battle nun?’

‘Lainia?’

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She wanted Stella to train a novice nun who didn’t exactly look very bright, right in the middle of a crowd of succubi, under the noses of a bunch of Archdemons who could swallow her whole at any moment?

Was the Inquisitor trying to turn Lilith School into a branch monastery?

【Of course, I also understand that teaching you Holy Arts alone is insufficient to allow you to protect yourself in the perilous Demon Realm. Therefore, after careful consideration, I applied for a special piece of equipment for you from the Holy See’s sealed artifact repository.】

【Sanctity.】

【This is a mysterious substance bestowed upon the mortal world by the Lord. It records the past and future and can purify darkness. Although only the Sanctity of the Heart is its true core, this fragment still possesses tremendous power. Whether it manifests as a parasitic type or an equipment type, and what effects it possesses, varies from person to person. But there is no doubt that it can grant you immense power, purify any abyssal forces that might invade your mind, and prevent you from losing yourself. I hope you make good use of it.】

【Special Note: Holy】

‘Sanctity?’

Stella froze.

She had heard of this thing in the legends of the Holy See. Supposedly, it could purify demons into dregs, but it was also extremely unstable.

Before she could react, a cube the size of a fingernail suddenly slipped out of the envelope.

The cube seemed to come alive, transforming into a streak of light that shot straight toward Stella’s left hand.

“Wait—!”

Stella instinctively tried to dodge.

But the light passed through her skin without the slightest resistance and attached itself to the back of her hand.

Immediately afterward, an indescribable chill rapidly spread through her body, followed by an extremely ominous sense of imbalance.

Stella stared at her left hand as it began glowing faintly. A cross-shaped stigmata flickered beneath her skin.

She could clearly sense that the newly introduced power of Sanctity was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, gradually shattering the precarious balance she had barely managed to maintain inside her body.

Rejection.

Sanctity seemed unwilling to acknowledge the Valentine’s magical power. The Holy Light within her body was acting as though it had finally found its backbone and was gradually beginning to drive out the abyssal magical power brought by the Valentine elixir. Even Vice Principal Mara’s medicine seemed no longer strong enough to suppress it.

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At this rate, unless she could get her hands on something even more potent than the heavy dose Mara had given her, sooner or later she would revert to a human Saintess with no magical power whatsoever right in front of everyone.

The Inquisitor had meant well. She wanted Sanctity to give Stella the strength to defend herself while also stabilizing her mind.

But!

Itheria had absolutely no idea that Stella’s current succubus bloodline had been forcibly catalyzed using the tears of the Valentine family’s eldest daughter and Vice Principal Mara’s abyssal potion worth half a treasury, and that Stella had even already been identified as an illegitimate daughter of the Valentine family!

‘Itheria, you absolute disaster!’

Stella couldn’t help cursing aloud.

【Additionally, there is another mission.】

From the corner of her eye, Stella caught sight of the final lines of the letter.

【According to reliable intelligence, the Archdemon Gehenna Jelansika recently returned to the school carrying an important sealed artifact belonging to the Church known as the Eye of the Black Mass.】

【This object contains an extremely high concentration of abyssal magical power and can cause calamities by manipulating people’s minds. The Church is extremely wary of it. Furthermore, intelligence indicates that other demons are also coveting this item.】

【Your mission is to steal it, or… if you cannot take it out, find a way to destroy it.】

【Lastly, good luck, my dear Miss Stella Darkfallen, who has not hesitated to sacrifice her reputation for the mission.】

【Itheria.】

Translator Note

Itheria is such a disaster xD