Ch.9393. Setting Sun

“It’s a demon’s corpse.”

I was certain when the demonic energy that had been wafting from outside spread even more intensely as the coffin lid was opened.

It was just the corpse of a demon that had burned to death, dressed in a nun’s habit by someone.

They had cut off the horns and tail that could be identified as traces of a demon, and they had thoroughly burned the corpse not only to prevent facial identification but also to hide the distinctive skin color unique to demons.

The demonic energy had settled strongly around the convent because the demon’s corpse had been laid to rest in the ground.

It seems it was quite a powerful demon to still emit energy even after death.

“What?”

The Mother Superior, startled by my words, speaks with a cracked voice. She was shocked by something so unexpected and unimaginable.

“So, what I laid to rest was… a demon? No, but why would a demon be dead here?”

Two summoned nuns and a dead summoned demon.

And it was dressed in a nun’s habit.

This was clearly a scheme intended to cause confusion at the Ellia Convent.

Though I’m not a detective, it was time to organize the situation.

“This case had many puzzling aspects.”

Outside, demonic energy hung thick in the air, but inside was completely peaceful without a trace of demonic energy.

I couldn’t determine why the nuns, who serve God, would summon a demon.

Even if it was to harm the Saintess, it was strange that a demon of this level would respond to a summoning without any sacrifice.

Also.

I questioned whether the demon really needed to hide.

After all, the nuns could only handle mana without any special powers, and Stella had lost her divine power.

Yes.

This is where the problem arises.

While talking with Stella, I felt truly magnificent emotions.

Her nobility contained a beauty so blinding it could make one’s eyes go blind.

My heart raced as I enjoyed my time with her, but my mind continued to think with remarkable coldness.

Being in that room, more and more questions popped up in my mind.

First.

How could a Saintess who lost her divine power repel the Dark Spiritmaster?

Clearly, the Dark Spiritmaster tried to pass through the door before the lock was opened but couldn’t enter.

Second.

How could a Saintess who lost her divine power detect my true identity?

Special and unique power?

Is that something a retired Saintess could see through?

Unfortunately, that wasn’t very convincing.

And finally, the third.

It was truly laughable.

I wondered why I hadn’t realized something so obvious. An error anyone could have noticed if not for the confusing situation.

As I slowly turned my gaze toward the convent, others followed my movement.

We all saw Stella at the high window on the top floor of the Ellia Convent.

She still had a faint smile on her lips.

“Huh?”

Only then did the Mother Superior sense something strange and look back and forth between me and Stella.

In fact, the Mother Superior had a chance to notice this discrepancy yesterday, but she missed it because she was distracted by me.

Seeing the Mother Superior’s expression that said this was impossible, I asked in a somber and somewhat heavy voice:

“How can you be visible at the window, Stella?”

She has no legs.

More precisely, she has legs as withered as tree roots that haven’t received water, so she cannot stand at the window.

She cannot sit in a chair either.

Because there is no chair in that room.

That’s why I stood while talking with her for a long time.

Going back.

All the way back to the beginning.

Findenai and Illuania pointed at the window and said:

‘There was some woman there.’

‘Yes. I definitely saw her too.’

Someone was there.

Thinking about why I missed something so simple.

Perhaps it was because her comfort was so warm. Because she was such a charming person that my thoughts couldn’t properly connect.

“Demons may look down on even human kings, but they have a strict hierarchy among themselves.”

That’s what the Dark Spiritmaster told me.

“There is only one case where a sacrifice is not needed to summon a demon. Only when a demon of higher rank than the summoned one calls it.”

It wasn’t summoned by humans.

It responded without any sacrifice because it was summoned by one of its own kind, and a stronger one at that.

Also.

“High-ranking demons can emit, bury, or hide their energy.”

This was also what the Dark Spiritmaster told me.

Until now, we thought the demonic energy spreading outside couldn’t enter the convent.

It was the opposite.

Outside, the energy was intensely spread due to the corpse of the summoned demon.

Inside the convent, the hidden demon was thoroughly concealing its energy.

“A woman trusted enough by the nuns to participate in summoning a demon.”

I suspect she tempted the nuns by suggesting there was a way to become a Saintess.

“One year ago, when she came to the Ellia Convent.”

I look up at her from right in front of the window.

Stella, still not erasing her smile, was standing there looking down at me.

“You had already become a demon.”

Creeeeak.

The window opens.

Then Stella throws herself out of the window like a woman committing suicide.

“Kyaaak!”

“Lady Stella!”

Despite the nuns’ screams behind me, there was an indifferent thud of her falling.

The nuns turned their heads away or screamed, saying they couldn’t watch.

On the contrary, Findenai grabbed her axe and rushed in front of me.

“I thought this was some grand case, but it was just a staged act?”

Findenai grinned, but suddenly startled by the energy emanating from Stella, she stretched out her hand as if to protect me.

“Is this punishment for the nuns digging graves? Master, we might really all die here!”

“Then stay alert.”

Crack, crack.

With the sound of bones realigning, Stella slowly rises.

Her two withered legs had regained their shape, though they were stained black.

“I was really curious.”

Stella’s still warm voice makes it difficult to accept the situation.

A gentleness that doesn’t match the atmosphere. A voice that makes reality feel like a dream.

Stella unwraps the bandage with her remaining right hand.

Her right eye was severely crushed, but her left eye had a golden vertical pupil. It was truly a demon’s eye.

“So that’s what you look like.”

Stella, making direct eye contact with me, smiles slightly. But this time, not only was her voice gentle.

A demonic voice overlapped with it, filled with pressure that felt like it was splitting my heart.

[Be careful. I think… this is a monster that falls into the category of Greater Demon.]

The Dark Spiritmaster, trembling but preparing to fight by my side. But this was the first time I’d seen him so lacking in confidence.

A look of already sensing defeat that he hadn’t shown even when facing Griffin’s evil spirit.

[Perhaps we should bring the Holy Grail. I hid it in the carriage…]

“That could be one option.”

Crack! Crack-crack!

At that moment, something began to pour out from Stella’s left hand. Dark blood began to flow like a broken dam, pooling on the ground.

Squelch!

A massive horned hand shot out from her left hand.

“The last demon who took my memories.”

Stella’s skin turned black from her left eye.

Stella continues speaking with the demonic voice that keeps overlapping.

“Vellica. One of the ten Greater Demons.”

Thud!

As the massive left hand strikes the ground, the pooled blood splatters everywhere. They soon begin to form into beasts.

It was truly a grotesque sight.

Incomplete beasts with improperly attached hands and feet screamed and charged toward us.

“You’re being so fucking helpful!”

Findenai urgently draws up mana and goes all out from the start.

She immediately begins swinging her axe to protect me from the charging beasts, and the Dark Spiritmaster also uses magic to fight back.

But I don’t step back and steadfastly look at Stella.

“Questions still remain.”

As I’ve said several times, this case is truly peculiar.

There are so many puzzling aspects.

And if we add the question ‘why’ to that,

The case becomes even more complex.

But that’s how we can approach the truth.

Only by solving these difficult problems can we penetrate the essence of this case, which appeared to be a detective drama set against the backdrop of the Ellia Convent.

“Why.”

So I awaken my mana once again.

My mana, which awakens the dead, begins to spread, shouting as if waking souls in deep slumber on this late night.

“Why did you cause this incident?”

I needed to know this.

I also wanted to know.

Even though the answer was already within me.

I specifically wanted to hear that answer from her.

Perhaps she sensed my desire.

Stella smiles gently.

“The Saintess is the kingdom’s sun.”

Her voice was still as beautiful as an opera singer’s.

But to me, it simply.

“Spiritmaster. Can you be the moon responsible for the other side?”

It sounded only like screams.

“Can you comfort me?”