Volume 1, Chapter 72 – The Sorrow of a Normal Person

The Blasphemous Forbidden Forest was still a forest, after all. It was neither cheerful nor open, merely flourishing in silence. At a glance, there was no telling how deep it went, and the frequent shrieks of monsters made it seem gloomy and terrifying.

If the buildings of Lilith School represented the civilization and order of demons, then the ancient woodland surrounding the Academy preserved the most primordial malice of the Abyss.

Crisscrossing branches obscured the false starry sky. Tree roots twisted around one another, and beneath the thick layer of fallen leaves, there always seemed to lurk the instinctive hunger of monsters.

And Remedios was clearly an expert at sneaking around and doing shady things.

The moment they stepped onto the edge of the forest, the elegant Miss Book Demon began busying herself. Her fingers fluttered, her hands flicking from time to time. Though she clearly meant to point right, she would first feint left, circle her hand through the air, then cast one incantation after another.

“——Silent March.”

“——Scent Severance.”

“——Shadowed Footsteps.”

“——Forward Phantom.”

Stella watched as Remedios casually tossed out incantation after incantation, looking so relaxed that she might as well have been preparing for a stroll through her own back garden, and found herself speechless for a moment.

Reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, erasing traces, masking scents, false decoys…

Remedios had thought of everything she possibly could and done everything that could be done.

Why was she so practiced at this?

As the second daughter of the Bledia family, just how many shady things had Remedios done in private?

No matter what, Remedios really was a reliable good sister. Whether it was academic fraud or illegal infiltration, Stella could definitely count on her in the future.

Of course, it would have been even better if Remedios had not kept asking questions the entire way.

For some reason, ever since they left the House of Terror and Slaughter dormitory, Remedios had seemed like a completely different person.

She had turned into an endlessly curious child, throwing out a few baffling questions every so often.

At first, it had been fine. They were nothing more than questions about Stella’s childhood preferences.

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Remedios asked whether Stella had been unable to fit in as a child, leaving her with no choice but to stay by herself.

Stella thought of how sparsely populated the old monastery had been and nodded.

Then Remedios asked whether she had a special fondness for blood-red things.

Stella thought of the wine used during Holy Communion and nodded again.

It was only when the topic turned to her guardian that Remedios began to get strange.

“Stella,” Remedios asked casually as she pushed aside the thorns blocking their path, “is the guardian who raised you doing well now?”

Remedios did not ask about her parents directly. Not long ago, she had asked Stella how she had been raised, and Stella’s first reaction at the time had been confusion, which fit perfectly with the persona of an illegitimate daughter.

Since she did not know her parents, then naturally, Remedios had to ask about her guardian.

Here it came.

The background investigation had begun.

Stella was already used to this.

She might as well fabricate some miserable background that could not be verified and fool her with it.

Maybe she should simply copy the Inquisitor’s character setting, then say her guardian had suddenly dropped dead, Stella thought.

She was not taking revenge through official business.

She was not.

“She… is already gone.” Stella lowered her eyes, her tone sorrowful. “I only remember that she was a very strict person. When I was little, she seemed to have fallen deeply into debt and spent every day hiding from place to place with me. In the end, after being driven into a dead end, she abandoned me and, amid the chaos… suddenly died.”

“Not even a complete corpse was left behind,” She added.

Stella felt that her lie was flawless.

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People drowning in debt and getting beaten to death by debt collectors was far too common. It made her own background seem innocent, earned her sympathy, and even explained why she was an orphan now.

The only thing Stella failed to notice was the instant look of understanding in Remedios’ eyes.

She had carried Stella from place to place while burdened by a massive debt?

Then, after being forced into a dead end, she had abandoned Stella before dying without even leaving behind a complete corpse amid the chaos?

The campaign a hundred years ago to exterminate the remnants of the Pale Lord instantly surfaced in Remedios’ mind.

The Pale Lord had undoubtedly incurred the greatest debt in all of demon history.

And the so-called creditors undoubtedly referred to the major powers of that era. After the Pale Lord fell, they had immediately begun settling accounts.

There could be no doubt about it.

Stella’s guardian had been one of the Pale Lord’s remnant Ash Drinkers, perhaps even an arrogant and all-powerful Archdemon.

‘By the Abyss below.’

‘Even an arrogant and all-powerful Archdemon had spent her final years fleeing from place to place?’

‘To protect the young Stella, unwilling to let her young mistress be furiously purged by their enemies, she had shouldered every debt herself and ultimately died a miserable death…’

Even if the other party had been an Ash Drinker from the remnants of the Pale Lord, such loyalty still left a deep impression on Remedios.

“…I understand,” Remedios said comfortingly. “That’s how the debts of an era are. At least she sacrificed herself for something great, didn’t she?”

Stella froze for a moment.

‘Uh, did loan sharking count as something great?’

“I suppose… Anyway, it was pretty miserable.”

Stella answered vaguely.

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Remedios looked at Stella’s bewildered face.

The moment Stella Valentine’s identity as the forbidden daughter was exposed, the political landscape of the Demon Realm would collapse in an instant.

The Archdemons who had once participated in the extermination of the Pale Lord would never allow the Pale Lord’s bloodline to continue existing in this world. Principal Gehenna would inevitably make another move. And then there were the fanatical believers lurking in the shadows of the Abyss, longing for the restoration of the Pale Era…

Once they learned the truth, they would definitely raise Stella onto an altar, or perhaps try to use her as a vessel for resurrecting their old master.

‘It’s even possible that…’

‘They already knew…’

As far as Remedios knew, quite a few remnants of the Pale Lord were still lurking in hiding, awaiting their master’s return. Some of them even occupied high-ranking positions.

They might already be nearby.

At the center of a storm that would sweep across the entire Abyss, the young succubus girl would have no choice but to face the malice of the entire world alone.

‘Stella… When catastrophe descends upon you, will you remain true to yourself, or throw yourself into the past?’

To an observer, history was merely a story. But to Remedios, who was about to experience it firsthand, it was a joy and sorrow she could personally feel.

So many things in life had truly happened. Even now, their traces still remained upon their skin, yet no amount of words could ever fully describe them.

Her heart, her joy, her excitement, at this moment they were like a sailboat with its sails swollen full by the wind.

‘How fascinating. I could actually personally participate in recording a chapter that would overturn destiny itself.’

‘By the Abyss below!’

“As your friend, there is something I have to tell you.”

Remedios turned around, smiled, and took Stella’s hand.

“No matter how you look at it, the debts of the previous generation should never be yours to repay, Stella.”

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After saying that, Remedios let out a long sigh, lamenting the fickleness of fate.

“You can do whatever you want at any time. I hope you won’t bind yourself to your bloodline and the past. A person’s origins should not decide the fate of her entire life.”

Stella: “???”

‘No, why did you suddenly start feeding me inspirational speeches?’

‘Isn’t this kind of line about not being bound by your origins and staying true to yourself supposed to be something I, the Saintess, said to lost lambs?’

‘How had I ended up being the one receiving the lesson?’

And besides…

Stella carefully mulled over Remedios’ words.

‘…Are the Demon Realm’s loan shark organizations really this terrifying?’

In any case, Stella keenly sensed that Remedios had discovered something. But as the only normal person in the Demon Realm besides Lainia, she was completely incapable of guessing what Remedios was actually thinking.

Presumably, this was the sorrow of being a normal person like her.

Translator Note

Now Stella’s background from being an illegitimate daughter of the Valentine family has been enhanced to the adopted daughter of the rebel who destroyed the Demon Realm

Hahaha xD