Volume 2, Chapter 17 – The Culprit

Stella stood before the shattered floor-to-ceiling window and poked her head outside to look down. Listening to the curtains snapping violently in the wind, she blinked in mild confusion.

She cupped both hands around her mouth and tentatively called into the bottomless darkness of the night.

“Professor Katerina.”

The howling night wind instantly swept her voice away, leaving only hollow echoes drifting eerily between the towers.

“Professor.”

Stella rose onto her tiptoes and waved toward the empty darkness below.

“Are you alright? Do you need me to call the school doctor?”

The night was utterly silent. There was no response.

Everything below was empty. As far as she could see, there was no Vice Principal lying there with broken legs, only a few withered leaves caught in the wind, spiraling slowly downward.

‘She ran away?’

‘She really ran away?’

The dignified prospective Vice Principal of Lilith School, the renowned professor of potions and Defense Against Holy Magic, had actually smashed straight through a window and fled like a guilty thief just because Stella had touched her hand once?

“Maybe I can learn to use this method to skip class in the future…”

“Hmm… Principal Gehenna is the one who’ll have to pay for the window repairs in the end, right?”

“This is really… inexplicable.”

Stella muttered to herself.

She subconsciously glanced toward the stone beams beneath the vaulted ceiling of the clock tower overhead. There was nothing there but a patch of shadow so thick that it seemed impossible to disperse.

For some reason, she had the feeling that someone was watching her.

But who would stay awake in the middle of the night for no reason just to hang up there like an ornament?

Stella turned around and swept her gaze over the surroundings. The dense darkness seemed to merge into a solid wall.

Since the only teacher here had already skipped class, there was no reason for her, the student, to remain behind either.

But before that.

Stella lowered her eyes. The black prism within her right eye slowly rotated.

“Let’s try it one more time.”

There was no need for an incantation, or even any deliberate guidance. With nothing more than a thought, pale ash gathered in the air like dust.

Crack.

Three enormous ribs burst into existence. Pale flames burned silently across the surfaces of the bones, enclosing her within them.

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Hard and cold, yet carrying a strange sense of reassurance born from sharing the same bloodline.

“Woohoo, so cool… Oh, no, that’s wrong. So heretical.” Stella suppressed the upward curve of her lips.

But… It was really heavy.

At first, she had not noticed anything, but after maintaining it for a short while, an intense sluggishness immediately descended upon her, making her feel as though she had been trapped at the bottom of an unfathomably deep cavern. The magical power within her was being drained at an astonishing rate merely to maintain its form, like a reservoir with its floodgates thrown open, pouring outward without end.

“Its strength is extremely high. Whether it’s physical defense or magical resistance, both should be top-tier…”

Stella reached out and knocked on one of the pale ribs.

“But the consumption is way too ridiculous.”

At this rate of depletion, the reserves of Pale Power produced after her fusion could sustain this half-finished skeleton for only a few minutes at most.

And this should still count as an incomplete form. If it were the complete form…

She would probably be sucked dry into a husk the instant she activated it.

It seemed she could only treat it as a trump card for preserving her life, or use it to block a fatal blow at a critical moment.

“Disperse.”

With a thought from Stella, the pale skeleton instantly disintegrated, turning into countless tiny embers that vanished into the air.

The weakness from having her power drained followed immediately afterward. Stella staggered and grabbed the specimen rack beside her for support.

No matter how she looked at it, she had mastered an incredible technique tonight.

“I’ll call it Pale Sacred Remains.”

Although the process had been somewhat convoluted, and the result somewhat absurd.

Stella straightened her slightly disheveled skirt, then faced the direction in which Katerina had fled and performed an impeccably proper hand-over-chest salute.

“Thank you for your instruction, Professor Katerina.”

No matter what sort of mindset the other party had been acting under, Stella would remember this debt of gratitude for her teaching.

After completing the salute, Stella pushed open the door and left the office.

The spiral staircase remained dim, with only the sound of her own footsteps echoing through it.

And it was at precisely this moment that an extremely ill-timed growl sounded through the empty corridor.

Stella pressed a hand against her flat stomach and let out a long sigh.

Hungry.

She was genuinely hungry.

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Thinking about it carefully, she had been running around all day.

First, Katerina had knocked her on the head seven times. Then she had gone to the Lionheart Society to preside over Holy Communion. Finally, she had been dragged here for special training.

Originally, she had planned to sneak a few pieces of unleavened bread during the Lionheart Society’s banquet to fill her stomach. Instead, Dorothy had forcibly turned Holy Communion into a sacrificial ritual. Forget eating bread, if Stella had so much as touched a knife or fork, she would have died on the spot.

“I really miss the monastery’s bread…”

Stella pursed her lips. Freshly baked bread, newly stocked potatoes, freshly brewed wine, and the comforting aroma of bread surfaced in her mind.

Safe, nonpoisonous food from the Human Realm.

There was no helping it.

She would go try her luck at the cafeteria.

Although the cafeteria cooks had definitely gone home long ago by now, perhaps there would still be something left.

Besides…

Stella remembered a certain big eater who had been detained there to wash dishes.

Judging by Lainia’s appetite and the debt she owed, she should still be diligently scrubbing plates to pay it off right about now.

Perfect timing. She could go check on her and think of a way to bring her back while she was at it.

After all, leaving her own colleague in the cafeteria to work as a dishwasher really did weigh on her conscience.

Having made up her mind, Stella quickened her pace.

She passed through the teaching building and circled around the garden in the central courtyard.

Lilith School at night was eerily quiet. Only the gargoyles on patrol occasionally swept overhead, casting enormous shadows across the ground.

Just as Stella was about to turn into the corridor leading to the cafeteria…

“Hurry up! Stop dawdling!”

A rough shout came from the other end of the corridor.

Stella instinctively stopped and peered out from the shadows along the wall.

Several figures were slowly approaching beneath the dim demon-crystal lamps. They wore Lilith School’s standard uniform, but unlike ordinary students, their uniforms had clearly been modified. Their hems were longer, their collars rose high around their necks, and black tasseled capes draped over their shoulders.

Stella remembered that these people belonged to the school’s Succubus Disciplinary Committee. They specialized in dealing with students who violated school rules and were notorious for their rough methods.

And between them, they were escorting a small figure.

The girl had her head lowered. Her short black hair was a mess, and her once-neat black-and-white maid uniform was covered in grease and soap suds, leaving her looking utterly bedraggled.

Stella froze for a moment.

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‘That figure… Why does she look so familiar?’

‘Isn’t that Lainia?!’

Stella narrowed her eyes. Her gaze passed through the gaps between the Disciplinary Committee members and landed on Lainia’s chest, where a wooden placard hung with several large characters written in conspicuous red letters.

Stella took a few steps closer and barely managed to make out the writing.

【Criminal】

‘Criminal???’

Stella stared at the dejected Lainia, the corner of her mouth twitching several times.

‘No.’

‘How did you… get arrested!?’

She knew Lainia could eat. She knew Lainia owed quite a lot of money for food.

But did eating too much really warrant being arrested as a criminal?

She couldn’t possibly have gnawed on the cafeteria’s cooking pots too, could she?

That was impossible.

Then there was only one possibility. Lainia had been captured again, and what awaited her next was interrogation and torture at the hands of the succubi.

Lainia wouldn’t confess everything just for the sake of one plain steamed bun, would she?

A scene seemed to materialize in Stella’s mind.

Lainia would be sniffling and crying as she shamelessly spilled every last one of their secrets: “Stop hitting me! I’ll talk, I’ll tell you everything! Actually, I have a new Master now. That silver-haired one is our Saintess, and the two of us came here undercover!”

Stella covered her face.

If Lainia really sold her out…

Stella glanced once more at that glaring scarlet 【CRIMINAL】 placard.

The next person forced to wear that thing while being paraded through the streets…

‘Wouldn’t it… be me?’

No matter what, she at least needed to find out what terrible offense Lainia had committed.

Surely it couldn’t really be what she’d guessed, that Lainia had eaten the cafeteria empty, failed to pay the bill, and gotten thrown in jail for it?

If that really was the case, then as a member of Stella’s spy team, getting arrested because she couldn’t get enough to eat…

If word of this made it back to the Holy See, even His Holiness the Pope would probably lose all face. The Inquisitor would probably ride a griffin over here overnight to purge the disgrace herself.

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Whatever the case, Stella had to get her out first. If bail money was required…

Hmm… she could just borrow money from her bargain little sister.

Although Cheryl was a classic hotheaded fool, the Valentine family was still one of the foremost Elector families in the Demon Realm.

As the family’s only young lady, even a little money slipping through her fingers would definitely be enough for Stella and Lainia to live comfortably for quite some time. Stella could just make up some excuse, something about preserving the family’s honor or treating it as a reward for defeating her younger sister. That tsundere young lady would probably cough up a few gold coins without much trouble.

A wave of sorrow suddenly welled up inside Stella.

Compared to the penny-pinching Inquisitor, were these demons actually the more generous and free-spending ones?

Stella had just been about to walk over and get Lainia out when a shout from the Disciplinary Committee nearby made her stop.

“Behave yourself!” The leading Disciplinary Committee member abruptly yanked the chain in her hand, producing a crisp clatter. “Don’t think we don’t know about your schemes and illicit dealings! We’ve suspected you for a while now. Hiding deep inside the cafeteria and taking advantage of your position…”

“Now we’ve finally caught you red-handed!”

“Don’t think that just because you have an SSS+ student protecting you, you can do whatever you want in this school. This is a place with school rules.”

“No… I don’t know anything…” Lainia shrank her neck. “I just happened to pass by the washroom… This really has nothing to do with me… I only just finished washing the dishes…”

‘Schemes?’

‘Illicit dealings?’

‘Caught red-handed?’

Stella was instantly baffled.

‘Wasn’t this about eating without paying?’

Judging by the Disciplinary Committee’s tone, Lainia seemed to have gotten herself mixed up in something serious.

Could it be that her idiot nun had somehow washed open a seal beneath the cafeteria while washing dishes?

Whatever the case, she should get her out first.

Stella slowly stepped out of the corridor’s shadows. She did not speak immediately, instead allowing the sound of her heels striking the floor to announce her presence first.

Click, click, click.

Translator Note

Like master like slave, both always misunderstood by others TvT