Volume 1, Chapter 68 – I’m Doing It!

What a reasonable request.

What a trusting assignment.

What a perfectly normal decision.

If the ghost Principal Gehenna wanted investigated were not Stella herself, this really would have been a volunteer assignment filled with honor.

All she needed to do was play detective, investigate herself as the criminal, ultimately arrest herself as the undercover agent and bring herself before her immediate superior, the Principal, then expose herself on the spot.

“What? Is there a problem?”

Seeing that Stella had not responded for a long while, Gehenna slowly stood up and walked past her, her eyes fixed on Stella the entire time without revealing the slightest emotion.

“If you truly think so little of the volunteer assignment I’ve given you, then I suppose I’ll have no choice but to find some time to continue the investigation myself.” Gehenna said leisurely. “Though the compensation for the two items you had destroyed might become rather difficult to discuss…”

“No, of course there’s no problem, Principal!”

Stella forcibly suppressed the twitch at the corner of her mouth that was on the verge of spiraling out of control.

The compensation was secondary.

Gehenna had only been back for a single day and had already investigated things this thoroughly. Wasn’t her work efficiency a little too high?

If Gehenna personally continued the investigation, how could that possibly end well?

The Principal might be rather small in stature, but now Stella could see that her mind was anything but small.

“I was just… lamenting how cunning and vile this ghost is. To dare commit such outrageous acts right under your nose is nothing less than an open provocation against the order of Lilith School.” She condemned righteously. “Please rest assured. I will do everything in my power. No matter how deeply that ghost has hidden itself, no matter whether it’s human or ghost, I will…”

She paused for a second and swallowed back the words tear it into ten thousand pieces.

“…get to the bottom of this.”

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“Very good.”

Gehenna tilted her head. She set down her coffee cup and reached out to touch Stella’s cheek.

Stella felt a prickling sensation, like a static shock.

Did Gehenna just do something?

The instant Stella had that thought, the hand on her cheek forcefully shoved her away.

“Remember what you said before. I’ll be paying special attention to you.”

Stella heard those parting words from Gehenna, almost drowned out by the sound of the door closing.

The black oak doors shut completely, leaving Stella alone in the silent corridor with the file in her hands and a conflicted expression on her face.

What ghost file?

This was obviously her criminal record.

Seriously, Gehenna might as well have written Stella’s student number right on the front.

“I’m investigating myself…”

Stella’s head hurt.

Great.

Now she absolutely could not pretend nothing had happened. If she dragged this out for too long, the Principal herself would definitely step in.

But if she actually caught the culprit, she would be fast-forwarding straight to her own execution.

A perfect dead end. A perfect closed loop.

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“…Forget it.”

Stella straightened up and slapped her cheeks hard.

Look on the bright side.

Since the Principal had handed full authority over the investigation to her, didn’t that mean…

The progress of the entire investigation, the collection of clues and evidence, and even the final case report would all be whatever she said they were?

As long as she handled things properly, she could completely turn this ghost into a legend that could never be caught, or… simply find some unlucky bastard to take the blame?

Stella’s gaze gradually grew dangerous.

Although such thoughts were extremely unbecoming of a Saintess, everyone around her was a demon anyway. It was all for the sake of survival.

Hmm… it wasn’t impossible, but no matter what, she would have to drag things out for a while and deal with it slowly.

Catching the ghost was a troublesome task, but more importantly, she still had other things to do right now.

Stella followed the spiral staircase downward.

Her head and hands were both full. She had no attention to spare for trivial matters.

She needed to put finding a reasonable way to dissolve the Lionheart Society onto her agenda.

Although she currently had no idea how, she absolutely had to think of something. Otherwise, at the next club activity, she would have to lead twelve members off to make demonkind great again.

Lainia’s special training was also a problem.

No matter how excellent the nineteen body-tempering paths in The Asrita Scripture were, they still required initiative from the practitioner. With Lainia’s current complete lack of urgency, eight or nine times out of ten she would slack off. If Stella wanted her to train diligently and conscientiously, then unless there was some cancer upon humanity standing beside her at all times to constantly give her a sense of crisis, Stella would have to make time to personally supervise and guide her no matter what.

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Then there was the matter of the official letter from the Valentine family.

God only knew what would happen when the time came. Everything was unknown. But no matter what, she now had a bargain-bin little sister and mother to worry about too.

Busy.

She was busy to death.

Why was it that all the other Lilith students spent their free time either dating or amusing themselves with all sorts of ‘play,’ while only her schedule was packed full?

She had barely even spent any time in the common room, yet every day she was carrying a mountain of burdens on her shoulders.

Stella sighed.

And then there was this.

She lowered her eyes and looked at her left hand.

The Sanctity of the Heart had already completely sunk beneath her skin and could no longer be seen, but Stella was gradually able to sense it synchronizing with her Holy Light step by step.

She had no spare energy left to think about anything else. The most urgent matter was obtaining the Eye of the Black Mass.

Stella frowned and pinched her chin as she began to think.

Although she had failed to obtain any valuable information from Principal Gehenna and had nearly died in there besides, Vice Principal Mara had practically spoon-fed her the standard answer while Stella was eavesdropping outside the door.

She had heard those few lines of conversation through the door perfectly clearly.

Principal Gehenna had personally admitted that the treasure was under the strict guard of the Lord of the Forest. And when Vice Principal Mara left, she had even deliberately given Stella an all but explicit hint.

“We hid it in the most dangerous place.”

The clues had formed a complete loop.

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At Lilith School, when someone mentioned the Lord of the Forest and the most dangerous place, there was only one possible answer.

The Blasphemous Forbidden Forest.

Although Stella still could not figure out Vice Principal Mara’s exact motive for deliberately giving her that information, there was no way she would let an opportunity delivered straight to her doorstep slip away.

She had no choice left. If she did not do something about the Sanctity of the Heart soon, she would reveal her true nature and drop dead at any moment.

She had to stay alive before she could worry about anything else.

It was only a matter of charging into the forbidden forest, beating up the guard, then storming into the Principal’s treasury and stealing the eye of that Pale-something Lord, right?

Stella clapped her hands together.

‘I’m doing it!’

Stella made up her mind. All she needed now was a dark and windy night.

‘Principal Gehenna…’

‘That ghost you’re so wary of now has no choice but to steal your treasure.’

Translator Note

She’s so pitiful, always has endless of tasks… xD