Youngest on Top - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 17

“Everyone, gather up.”

At Saelika’s command from the platform, the children’s faces twisted in displeasure.

“What is this… Why is she stepping forward?”
“Does she not know her place?”
“Coming in through the back door and now barking orders like she owns the place?”

The children merely sneered, showing no intention of moving.
Seeing this, Dmitri suddenly bellowed.

“Can’t you hear? Move it, now!”

Why was Dmitri taking Saelika’s side?
While the children struggled to comprehend,

Click.
The sound of the door locking rang out distinctly loud.
Ilay, who had locked the Training Room door without warning, smiled wickedly.

“Why would you lock the—”

The children couldn’t keep pace with the bewildering situation.
Shouldn’t they simply mock and ignore this interloper’s words as always?
Why were Dmitri and Ilay siding with her?
What in the world was happening…

Yet one thing they could sense instinctively.
Something was terribly wrong.

* * *

I surveyed the children scattered about.
They remained sprawled out as they had been playing.

Since they only ever played around, I thought they’d never faced off against another temple before.
I didn’t even harbor expectations of winning.
These were people who hadn’t even awakened their divine power.

‘Now I understand why those Reyatan fools crawl forward without knowing their place.’

With trainee priests like this, they have no choice but to crawl forward.
Having faced them once, they’d understand even better now.

Watching these children still unable to grasp the situation, standing there dumbfounded, made my blood boil.

You lost to Reyatan and now you’re sleepy?
With that level of ability, you don’t even train as instructed and just play around all day?

‘I understand, Artemia. These children are lost little lambs worthy of pity.’

If the Saintess had appeared normally and Artemisia Temple hadn’t suffered from a shortage of personnel, these children wouldn’t have ended up like this.

‘Guiding these pitiful little lambs onto the righteous path is surely my mission as well.’

“What are you staring at?”

At that moment, one of the little lambs whose eyes met mine spoke with a stiff tone.

‘Behold, Artemia. A little lamb so lost that it has become rigid.’

“What, what?! What’s with that look in your eyes!”

‘Making the rigid soft is also my mission, is it not?’

By directly showing them the greatness of Artemia through their own bodies!

“Do you trust Artemia?”
“Of, of course!”
“No. You don’t trust her.”

How could a lost little lamb see the path of faith?

“What—”
“It doesn’t matter.”

I smiled with gentle benevolence.

“True faith cannot be forced or coerced into existence.”
“….”
“Faith must spring forth from the depths of one’s heart.”

I swiftly raised my fist high.

“Don’t worry. I’ll carve it deep into your heart.”

Following the movement of my fist, the young lamb’s brow furrowed.

‘Is the fist glowing? Why is it shining?’
—that was the expression on their face.

Well, of course.

“In the beginning, there was light.”

I shine to guide the lost lamb.
Like a lighthouse.

And that lighthouse, capable of illuminating the path through any darkness, tribulation, and suffering, had descended upon the young lamb.

“Bite down hard.”

*WHOOSH!*

“Aaaagh!”

The young lamb performed the miracle of flying through the air.

“What are you doing? Why are you getting knocked back by a mere rat? Stop being pathetic and get up.”
“This is why children raised without parents don’t work out. Throwing punches first, no less.”

Of course, I was a fair guide, so I didn’t show favoritism to just one person and lead them down the righteous path.
I had to fill everyone’s hearts with faith.

“Aaaagh! Argh!”
“I, I never thought I’d yield to such violence… gaaah!”

Violence?
That was a terrible misunderstanding.
I was sacrificing my own body to teach them directly about the greatness of Artemia through their own flesh.

The fact that they misunderstood like that must be because I was being too gentle, right?
My fist of faith blazed with even more powerful flames.

“Kwaaaaah!”
“S, stop! Stop!”
“I’m sorry! I won’t call it the back alley again— argh!”
“Sae! Please save us! Sae!”

I could hear it.
The sound of lost lambs returning to the fold.

‘Surely this beautiful sound is a hymn to you, Artemia.’

I was deeply moved.

I finished my prayer of gratitude and looked around.
Children were scattered throughout the Training Room.

“C, crazy…”
“What is that, exactly…”
“Not human.”

I tilted my head at an angle.

“Still making noise? Got some strength left? (Still making noise? You got some strength left?)”

The children instantly shut their mouths.

“Gather. (Gather.)”

The children rushed over and lined up in formation.
I felt a sense of pride seeing how much sharper they’d become.
A seed of trust had truly sprouted in these children’s hearts.

“Wow, those stiff kids suddenly became flexible.”

At Dmitri’s exclamation, I shrugged my shoulders.

“You tenderize meat by pounding it, you know.”

Ilay looked at me with an incredulous expression.
Meanwhile, Dmitri was impressed.

“Oh, for a simpleton, you’re pretty clever?”
“Of course I am!”

I’m someone who’s been reincarnated and regressed, after all!

“…You two play well together.”

Ilay shook his head in disbelief.

Well, I hadn’t beaten the children without reason.

‘It was all to unblock their meridians.’

The pathways through which sacred power circulates within the body.
By striking the vital points in their bodies with sacred power, the stagnant toxins would be purified and the pathways would open.
This would dramatically shorten the time needed to awaken sacred power.

The downside was—.

‘It hurts like hell.’

Watching the children, who had lined up in formation but couldn’t stand properly and were trembling, I shrugged my shoulders.

* * *

Saelika spoke.

“Priests aren’t born that way. They’re made.”
“Then?”
“They’re created.”

And here, within this secluded room sealed on all sides.
Priests were being forged.

“Roll left!”
“Roll right!”
“Slower!”

The children rolled across the floor in response to the commands.
Next came push-ups.
Of course, while bearing massive stones infused with sacred power.

“One!”
“For Artemia!”
“Two!”
“We believe!”

“Your voices are too weak! Is your faith in Artemia really so pathetic?!”
“No, sir!”
“Louder! Let your faith reach Artemia!”
“We believe!”

The children shrieked, their voices strained to the breaking point.
By now, all thought of what they were doing or why had vanished.
Only the relentlessly drilled faith remained.

“One!”
“Artemia!”

Patter, patter.
Small feet stopped before the prone trainee priest.

“Your faith is insufficient!”
“No, sir!”
“You’re not calling out to Artemia properly!”

Saelika’s rebuke made the child’s eyes widen.
The other children were no different.

‘And what about you!’

Wasn’t she the one who called upon Artemia most improperly?

“What are you staring at?”

At the child’s skeptical expression, Saelika’s blue eyes blazed with righteous conviction.
The children could not bring themselves to defy that sacred light and lowered their heads.

* * *

Beckman, the Temple Priest overseeing the children’s education, hurried toward the Trainee Priest Quarters.
Evening was already approaching.
Caught up in work, he’d only managed a brief glimpse of the children’s faces this morning, and his heart raced with urgency.

‘It’s as good as leaving them unattended all day.’

He’d even skipped lunch to arrive earlier, yet here he was at this hour.

‘At least the children are obedient and well-behaved.’

Still, it troubled him that their progress had stalled because he couldn’t properly oversee their training.
By the time these thoughts crossed his mind, he’d arrived at the Training Room.

‘Hmm? Why is the door locked?’

In that moment of confusion, the door opened from within.

“Beckman, you’ve arrived?”
“Oh, Dmitri. The door was locked.”
“Ah, I locked it briefly so we could train with better focus.”

What did locking the door have to do with concentration?
There was no one in this temple who would disturb the children’s training.

As Beckman stood puzzled, Ilay added something.

“Soon we’ll have the Assembly meeting with Reyatan. To prepare for it, we took the liberty of conducting some special training among ourselves, though it’s a bit embarrassing to admit.”

Beckman’s eyes glistened with moisture.
The children had trained themselves intensively on their own.

“How admirable, truly admirable! There’s nothing to be ashamed of!”

Beckman smiled and stepped into the Training Room.
He was about to commend these remarkable children—

“…What happened here?”

—or so he thought.

The children, who had been fresh and energetic moments before, now hung limp and wilted like a kitten caught in a flood.
It seemed like more than mere exhaustion from intense training.

“B-Beckman sir…”

The children whimpered like puppies reuniting with their master after ten years apart.

“Please… save us—”
“Hmm? Something’s odd?”

Flinch.
The puppies tucked their tails and stifled their whimpers.

“You’re not dead. Why ask to be saved?”

Did they mean they wanted to die?

Everyone present understood the implication behind his words.
Everyone except Beckman.

Beckman gazed warmly at Saelika, whose large eyes blinked innocently.
It was such an endearingly childish sentiment.

‘I was worried about her since she joined late. I’m relieved to see she’s doing well.’

Beckman chuckled and turned to look at the children.

“But asking to be spared? Is something the matter—.”
“No! There’s nothing wrong!”
“We’re perfectly fine and alive!”

We don’t want to die!
The children desperately appealed to their state of being alive.

Beckman laughed and said, “You brats,” before telling them to go eat dinner.

After Beckman left.

“If you’re going to ask me to spare you again, tell me beforehand.”

Saelika smiled brightly.

“I’ll make sure you’re in a state that needs saving.”

Her fists gleamed as radiantly as her dazzling smile.

* * *

“Aching all over…”
“Ugh, ow…”

The Trainee Priest Quarters filled with groans of pain.

“Every bone aches, it aches!”
“My grandfather used to say his bones ached like this all the time.”

Young children, barely past infancy, clutched their waists like elderly folk and whimpered.

“What even is she? A pushover, yet—!”
“Why’d she suddenly get like this! And the leader too!”
“I was already annoyed that the leader only played with her, but now Ilay’s doing the same thing.”
“How is she that strong?”
“She’s seriously strong.”

The children who had been voicing their complaints began to focus on Saelika’s strength.

“I think it hurts more than when I charged at the captain and got hit.”
“Come on, the captain’s still stronger!”
“That little squirt is just a baby anyway! We’re all grown up, so it’s different! Once she grows up like us, she’ll be even stronger, right?”
“Yeah! Honestly, when she threw that punch, it was kind of… cool!”
“She’s strong!”
“Insanely powerful!”

Children naturally loved strength and power.
And these children, who called Dmitri their captain and followed him especially closely, were no exception.

“So that’s why the captain got along with her.”

The children recalled those days when they felt hurt by Dmitri.

“Captain! Why don’t you play with us anymore and only hang around Honeybun?”
“Play? It’s just… that Ilay guy’s true nature bothers me, the way he just follows along without understanding anything.”
“Who cares what some weakling like that thinks.”
“He’s not a weakling.”

The children were taken aback by Dmitri’s sharp response.

“He’s not a weakling. His fists pack a punch despite being tiny. Don’t speak carelessly about him.”
“…Pack a punch?”
“Yeah. He’s the first person to ever hit me like that.”
“…Captain, didn’t you say you won against Honeybun?”
“Huh? What?”
“Did you actually lose?”
“W-what are you talking about! How could I lose to him!”
“Right?”
“H-he was just stronger than he looked! I-I took a hit or two, that’s all.”

Back then, it hurt so much that the captain was taking Honeybun’s side over us.
That’s why I resented Honeybun even more.
But now.

“The captain was just telling the truth!”
“Honeychestnut was actually a true powerhouse!”
“Of course it’s the captain! I should’ve recognized it from the start! Your eye for talent is different from ours!”
“Ah, so the strong recognize the strong! That’s amazing!”

The children’s eyes sparkled with brilliance.

“Alright! From now on, I’m listening to Honeychestnut! I’m going to get stronger!”
“I’m going to listen even better and get even stronger!”
“I’m going to listen way better and get way stronger!”
“I’m going to listen way way way way way… ugh, my back….”

The child who had jumped up in excitement, forgetting the pain, clutched at his lower back.

In any case, these children had decided to trust and follow Saelika.
Though it remained unclear whether they believed in her words or her fists.

But there were children who felt entirely different.

“Why are they acting like that? Are they out of their minds?”
“They’re just simple idiots.”

Inside the rest quarters.
The children watching Dmitri’s subordinates shook their heads and immediately wore serious expressions.
Unlike those fools, they knew how to think.

“I can’t live like this. Why should we take orders from some orphan?”
“How can someone so violent and brutal be a trainee priest like us?”
“She didn’t even take the entrance exam. She has no credentials!”
“But if we resist, we’ll get a knuckle sandwich.”

It’s called a knuckle sandwich, sure.
One hit and you hear bells ringing in your head.
Like the tolling of life’s final bell.

The children trembled at the thought of that knuckle sandwich.

“We can’t handle this ourselves. We should tell the adults.”
“But if we tell them, won’t that make her even more special?”
“Huh?”

Saelika wasn’t simply beating the children.
She was beating them with sacred power.
And with Artemisia’s sacred power at that.

“Not only has she awakened sacred power, but she’s wielding it freely. I’ve never seen anyone use sacred power to beat people before…”
“She hasn’t even been here that long since joining. They’ll adore her as the fastest sacred power awakener!”
“Then she’ll have the adults backing her too?”
“If she gains power here as well…”

The mere thought was horrifying.
The children fell silent, unable to speak further.

Maybe living while hearing the temple bells wasn’t so bad?
It seemed better than spending your entire life ringing them…

Just as such temptations began to creep in, one child spoke up.

“Let’s wait for Edmund.”

At the name “Edmund,” color returned to the other children’s faces.

“Yes! Edmund would know how to solve this!”
“There’s no trainee priest as dignified and intelligent as Edmund!”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————