Volume 1, Chapter 78 – Let’s Go, Young Mistress

“That’s enough catching up.”

Mara respectfully dropped to one knee and held out her hand to Stella.

“Let’s go, Young Mistress. The great destiny awaiting my Lord and you lies ahead.”

Her gaze flicked toward the unconscious Remedios.

“As for the little Book Demon, for your safety, naturally it would be best to silence her permanently.” She said it as though it were only natural.

“Leave? Go where?”

Stella instinctively took a step back and moved protectively in front of Remedios.

“Naturally, to the territory belonging to us Ash Drinkers, the Ashen Sanctuary.”

“At the Ashen Sanctuary, you will inherit everything my Lord left behind, and all those loyal old retainers who have remained hidden for so long will swear allegiance to you. As long as you come with me, we will hold the grandest coronation ceremony for you.”

“Your perfect vessel will bear my Lord’s fully revived soul, and when that time comes, you will become the new monarch who will lead us in ruling the Abyss!”

“…”

The corner of Stella’s eye twitched.

Even if she wanted to fool an idiot, couldn’t she at least make it sound a little nicer? What Mara was describing was obviously taking her away to be possessed and sacrificed. She wasn’t even pretending otherwise.

Go with her?

God knew how these people would tear her apart once they discovered that she was a complete fraud!

If Stella weren’t unquestionably weakened right now, she would have blasted Mara in the face with another Holy Light Eruption no matter what.

“Professor… I think school life is pretty good right now…” Stella said dryly. “And I haven’t graduated yet. I’d like to get my diploma first, so perhaps…”

“Graduate? School life?” Mara couldn’t help laughing. “Young Mistress, you truly have no idea what kind of situation you’re in right now. For you, even Lilith School is a place fraught with danger.”

‘Mm… It being fraught with danger wasn’t exactly wrong.’

Stella agreed with that much.

But what did Mara mean by her current situation?

“The outside world is far more dangerous than you imagine. Do you know what fate would await you if your true identity were exposed before everyone?”

Mara had clearly lost her patience, or rather, she no longer dared to delay.

She had spent years infiltrating Lilith School and anxiously concealing her true self from Gehenna. Hadn’t all of it been for this very moment?

Rеαd οո KatReαdiոɡCαfe

“Forgive me, Young Mistress.” A ruthless gleam flashed through Mara’s eyes. “You have yet to fully awaken and may still be bound by worldly attachments. Once we reach the corridor and complete the ritual, you will naturally understand all the painstaking effort I have put into this.”

“Let’s go, Young Mistress.” She said softly.

The instant her words fell, Mara’s hand shot toward Stella’s shoulder.

‘Fast!’

‘Too fast!’

The speed of an Archdemon’s movements was completely beyond Stella’s ability to react to. Before she could even mobilize what little Holy Light she had left, Mara had already firmly restrained her.

‘Go to the Ashen Sanctuary?’

‘Hold a coronation ceremony?’

‘Bear a revived soul?’

Stella couldn’t have understood it any more clearly. The moment she reached this so-called Ashen Sanctuary, surrounded by a group of demons who had lived for thousands of years, she, a 100% pure human Saintess, would be like a husky that had infiltrated a pack of wolves. It wouldn’t even take a minute before they stripped away every last shred of her disguise.

It would be a full-on fraud exposure scene.

The more fanatical Mara was about her now, the more furious she would become once she discovered the truth.

Even worse, the remnant soul of the master Mara was expecting had long since been used as firewood by Stella’s Holy Light, burned away so thoroughly that it hadn’t even made a sound.

She was finished.

Completely finished.

She had to think of something…

Even if she had to self-destruct…

Even if she had to…

Stella’s cheek stung again, and this time she was certain it wasn’t her imagination.

“A tracking mark?”

Unlike Stella’s confusion, Mara’s pupils contracted. She immediately noticed something.

“A tracking mark?” Stella repeated blankly.

She suddenly remembered that the place where the pain came from seemed to be exactly where Principal Gehenna had touched her before leaving.

‘Could it be…’

Rеaԁ оn ΚatRеαdіոgCαfe

Whoosh!

A sharp sound of something tearing through the air rang out without warning.

Stella only saw a flash of silver streak across her vision. In the blink of an eye, Mara had already retreated dozens of meters, several cuts now torn across her exquisite professor’s robe.

“…Tears Become Swords?”

“How is that possible… The paperwork I deliberately left behind should have piled up like a mountain… All those financial reports should have held you up for at least ten hours…”

Mara sucked in a cold breath and stared with extreme wariness toward the northeast.

Her smile disappeared completely.

Stella followed Mara’s gaze, her heart pounding wildly.

Beneath the shadows of the treetops, where the moonlight was obscured.

Click, click, click.

Footsteps sounded one after another as a petite figure slowly approached.

The first thing Stella saw wasn’t an imposing principal’s robe, but a loose and baggy set of pajamas. Above that was a crooked sleeping cap, while long purple hair hung around her shoulders. She looked exactly like a little girl who had wandered outside while sleepwalking in a daze.

Gehenna Jelansika.

Even dressed in such absurdly unserious clothing, Stella could still feel the killing intent permeating the surroundings.

Gehenna raised her eyes slightly. Her pale golden eyes were exceptionally cold. Her piercing gaze swept over them, leaving nowhere to hide and making it impossible to meet her eyes directly.

“Doing something like this to my students right under my nose is foolish, Mara Nightsong,” Gehenna said calmly. “You will not take her away today.”

“After all these years, if not for what happened today, you probably could have continued hiding. Still, the perseverance of the Ash Drinkers truly is remarkable.”

“I didn’t expect you to have prepared another move.” Mara’s expression became extremely ugly.

She had calculated everything, yet she had never expected that the principal who would rather lie down than sit whenever possible could still spare the attention to monitor other matters while suffering beneath the deliberately induced overload of work.

“Did you truly think I wouldn’t notice your little movements and abnormalities?”

Gehenna’s voice was soft, but filled with killing intent.

“It’s just… how could a tiny bit of paperwork possibly stop me? It was merely three thousand documents finished within an hour. Merely three quill pens snapped…”

“Tch… Since I’ve been discovered, there’s nothing else to be done.”

Mara took a deep breath and stopped pretending.

Rеаⅾ оո КαtRеаdіոɡСαfе

She slowly removed the rings from her fingers, casually tossed them onto the ground, and crushed them beneath her foot.

“Gehenna, you’re always like this.”

Mara sneered as the aura around her began rising steadily. Her brownish-black curls instantly transformed into an eerie dark red, and her magical power erupted completely, contending evenly against Gehenna’s pressure.

“You guard this broken school and your hypocritical order, yet turn a blind eye to true power.”

“You have no idea what was just born here. You have no idea what kind of existence you are obstructing from returning!”

Mara wildly pointed at Stella.

“She is a miracle, the return of the Pale Lord, a greatness that an old conservative like you could never understand!”

Gehenna stared at Stella without saying a word, but there seemed to be both sorrow and anger in her eyes.

Stella could only hug Remedios and tremble off to the side, wearing a completely innocent expression.

She really was innocent.

“You’re so damn noisy. Are you ever going to stop?”

Gehenna interrupted Mara, her sharp gaze brimming with killing intent.

“You’ve disturbed my rest, Mara. Do you know that I’ve gone seventy-two hours without closing my eyes just to finish approving funding applications?”

“I had been asleep for less than ten minutes. Ten minutes!”

Gehenna merely raised one hand and pressed a fingertip downward. All Stella knew was that countless silver lights flashed around them in an instant. Two torrents of magical power surged forth, demonic runes spread throughout the entire space, and invisible ripples radiated outward with her at the center.

Mara was trying to abduct Stella, while Gehenna was absolutely determined to stop her.

Stella was completely unable to follow a battle between Archdemons with her eyes, and the commotion from their clash made her feel as though her life were entirely in someone else’s hands.

In the blink of an eye, the dark-red magical power that had been contending evenly with Gehenna only moments ago instantly collapsed.

Mara spat out a mouthful of black blood and struggled to stand, only to discover in horror that the air around her had condensed into countless blades of water, all locked onto her throat. In the next instant, they could tear her to pieces.

“Damn it… If I didn’t have to take the Young Mistress with me…”

Mara ground her teeth. She cast Gehenna a venomous look, then stared deeply at Stella off to the side.

The strength of the foremost Archdemon was beyond her ability to defeat.

She couldn’t fight head-on now. She had to bring this information back to the Sanctuary and summon the old retainers back in the Young Mistress’ name.

“I’ll be back, Gehenna.”

Rеaԁ οո КαtReaⅾіոgСαfe

Mara decisively crushed a teleportation crystal. Her body instantly began turning insubstantial, breaking apart into countless pieces of flying ash.

“You cannot stop the tide of the age, nor can you imprison her forever.”

“Young Mistress Stella, please endure. Please gather your strength. We will remain hidden in the shadows and clear away every obstacle before you—!”

The night wind swept past.

The ash filling the air dispersed, and Mara vanished without a trace.

It was obvious that everything was over. She had been no match for Gehenna and had ultimately fled.

Stella felt a little lost.

‘Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?’

She had been saved, but somehow it also felt like she hadn’t been completely saved.

Click, click…

The footsteps stopped directly in front of her.

Stella stiffly turned her neck and found herself staring straight into a pair of indifferent pale golden eyes.

At this moment, the short principal in pink pajamas and a crooked sleeping cap was looking down at her from above.

“…Professor?”

Stella swallowed.

“If I said I was dragged into this against my will, and that this Young Mistress stuff she was talking about was also the first time I’d ever heard of it… would you believe me?”

“What do you think?” There was no way to tell from Gehenna’s voice whether she was angry.

Translator Note

Whoaaa! The vibe went hype so quick! ><

Still, I feel pity for loli Principal… Completed 3k documents within an hour… what the heck LOL