Youngest on Top - Chapter 230

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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 230

Soldiers rushed forward and pinned down Shuellina’s body.
Shuellina struggled and cried out to Perardin Noishurael Duke.

“Father, why are you doing this? It’s me, Lesha. Reyarsha!”
“Take her away.”
“W-wait, did Saelika tell you something strange? It’s all lies!”

Crack!
Shuellina shook off the soldiers and clung to the feet of Perardin Noishurael Duke.

“You love me more, Father. You should trust me more. I suffered so much to prove that I’m your daughter!!”
“….”
“You said I was your daughter. That’s why the vote—!”

Shuellina gestured toward the massive voting scoreboard and froze.

“Th-that’s… why…?”

The voting results that had overwhelmingly crushed Saelika had completely reversed.
The gap was displayed in unmistakable numbers.
Only then, as she became aware, did the surrounding atmosphere seep into her skin.

The eyes of Perardin Noishurael Duke, cold and sharp as ice picks.
The contempt in the spectators’ gazes.

“How shameless…!”
“How can she be so vile?”
“Get out of here!”

Boooooo—!
Jeers erupted from all directions.
Shuellina stood frozen, hearing those sounds.

Why?
Why?
Why?

Something caught Shuellina’s wavering gaze as she lost her bearings.
A massive crystal display screen.
Her own face filled it entirely—drenched in black blood, grinning like a demon.

“…!”

Everyone saw her like that?
But how?

Saelika’s brooch had already shattered to pieces.
It was never meant for broadcasting in the first place—only for storage.
So how could this be….

Ziiiiing—
Then, a faint wave-like sound reached her.
She hadn’t actually heard it with her ears.

An incredibly subtle, barely perceptible fluctuation of mana.
And its source was—

‘My… earrings?!’

—The earrings hanging from her ears!

‘No, surely not!’

Shuellina’s eyes trembled as she looked up at Perardin Noishurael Duke.

“Here. The earrings you wanted so badly.”
“I, I didn’t want them that badly!”
“Your eyes couldn’t leave them.”
“You knew?”
“It’s our Lesha’s matter. Of course we would know. We pay attention to your every glance, your every breath, your every expression.”
“You’ve given me so many other things already….”
“No matter how much I give you, it’s never enough.”
“Hehe.”

A surprise gift that had filled her with happiness and joy.
But its true nature turned out to be—.

‘A magical artifact meant to monitor me?!’

Now that I thought about it, something had been off.
Perardin Noishurael Duke had bought me everything I wanted right then and there.
So why would he need to give me a separate gift later?

‘He must have taken time to modify the earring into a magical artifact!’

And it was an extraordinarily precise modification at that.
Even though I wore it directly against my skin, I never sensed any magical fluctuation.

‘With that level of craftsmanship, it wouldn’t have been easy to modify in a short timeframe. He must have planned it from the start.’

Back then, instead of suspicion, I’d thought it was a cute gesture.
After all, the Duke indulged my every whim and held me close whenever I asked.
He acted nothing like the Perardin Noishurael Duke at all.

‘It really seemed like he loved me. But. But!’

Shuellina looked up at the Duke with a wounded expression.

“You doubted me from the beginning?”
“….”
“Even after I suffered so much and proved the mythology in my blood, you still didn’t believe me? Was all my effort pointless from the start?”
“….”
“You would have believed her if she were Saelika!!”

Perardin Noishurael Duke gazed down at the tearful Shuellina with cold eyes.

In truth, Shuellina possessed every piece of evidence of being his daughter.
There was no reason to doubt that she was Reyarsha.

The only differences were trivial ones.
Her blonde hair was slightly lighter.
The blue in her eyes had a slightly faded hue.
Such minor differences could easily change as one grew.

Rationally speaking, Shuellina was certainly his daughter.
But.

‘My heart simply wouldn’t settle on her.’

If you truly are Reyarsha, then I’m committing an unforgivable sin.
After putting her through such agonizing verification, and still unable to trust her, watching myself resort to surveillance—
All because of this irrational, illogical reason that my heart won’t accept her.

Even thinking this way, I couldn’t shake the suspicion.
If Shuellina is a fake, she must be connected to my daughter in some way.
This was, in a sense, an opportunity to find my daughter.

So I attached a Shadow to her.
That alone wasn’t enough—I even equipped surveillance magical artifacts.
The colder my heart grew, the more an inexplicable revulsion welled up, the kinder I acted toward her.

Shuellina was cautious in her own way.
Even as I swayed her however I wished, she didn’t easily reveal her tail.
Only when the mission was about to begin did she finally make contact with her cohorts.

“How could you do this to me? If you were going to betray me, at least do it well. I was left completely in the dark, like a fool…!”
“Why are you acting like the betrayed one?”

Saelika, unable to listen further, cut off Shuellina’s words coldly.

“From the beginning, you were the one deceiving the Duke and everyone else. You didn’t just exploit people’s desperate hearts—you toyed with them. And now you spout such nonsense?”
“I didn’t toy with anyone. We were all happy. Everyone was so overjoyed to have me back. And I finally had a family to support me.”
“What?”
“If it weren’t for you, our family would still be happy now. Yes, if only you didn’t exist.”

Shuellina stared blankly ahead, muttering to herself as she gazed at Saelika.
More precisely, at how the Perardin Noishurael Duke was protectively shielding Saelika behind him.

‘He was right. He said that since she doesn’t die even when trampled, I need to handle her properly.’

A few words to distance my family from that cunning woman wouldn’t be enough.

‘I should have pulled out the root of the problem from the beginning.’

Shuellina’s fingers cracked and bent in a grotesque manner, like rigid talons.
Her hand shot toward Saelika with terrifying speed.
That hand flew swiftly toward Saelika.

In that instant.

“What are you doing?”

A firm hand twisted Shuellina’s wrist.

“Ahhh!”
“To my sister.”

It was Mikhail.

“Ah, it hurts! Brother Mikhail, I’m in so much pain…”

Shuellina looked up at Mikhail with tears streaming down her face.
Mikhail was rough, but he had always been weak to her tears.
The fact that he hadn’t appeared at Saelika’s family seating when she cried proved as much.

“Let me explain. I fell into a trap. Everyone was jealous of me—.”

But Mikhail wasn’t looking at her.
He gazed at Saelika with an expression I’d never seen before—as if he might cry.

“Mikhail?”

Saelika called out to him, confused.
Mikhail flinched but remained rooted to the spot, as if nailed in place.
He looked like a child who had done something wrong, utterly at a loss.

‘Is he sorry for not sitting with the family?’

Saelika tilted her head and spoke.

“It’s fine. I don’t care about that—.”

Whoosh!
Saelika’s words caught in her throat as strong arms pulled her into an embrace.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I… I’m truly sorry.”

Warm breath touched her shoulder.
Mikhail, his face buried against her, continued whispering his apologies.
This was the first time Saelika had seen him like this, so she hesitated before finally patting his back.

“It’s just because I didn’t sit in the family section—why are you making such a fuss—.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I… I’ve wronged you…”

His endless apologies made Saelika pause.
Mikhail’s voice was strangely discolored, as if bruised.
And so she understood.

‘He’s not apologizing for that reason.’

Then why…?

‘What did Mikhail call me just now? Not Saelika, but—.’

Thump.
Her heart suddenly plummeted.
Her entire body grew cold as if all the blood were draining away, tingling with numbness.

‘No, Mikhail has called me his sister since we met in the desert, so that means…’

Thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—!

“Ah.”

As her heart clenched, her divine power resonated in harmony.
A strange sensation of weightlessness, as if her body were floating.
The Divine Circuit within her body spun rapidly.
Along with the elation came a feeling of connecting to something distant and vast.

“I… right now…”

My vision twisted strangely.
The sounds around me alternated between muffled as if heard underwater and piercing as if screamed directly into my eardrums.
I couldn’t understand what was being said at all.

The bracelet Mikhail gripped tightly appeared blurred.
It twisted and wavered as if multiple bracelets were layered on top of each other.

“Ugh, erk…”

My breath caught completely.
I blinked my eyes with difficulty, and when I opened them again, my vision finally became clear.
The breath that had been blocked also flowed freely once more.

“Ahfu, aaayam!”

Huh?
Saelika froze.
What was that sound just now?

“Abya?”

It wasn’t a mistake.
Babbling sounds were flowing from my mouth.

‘Calm down.’

Saelika took a deep breath.
There was no way I would babble now—I hadn’t even done it back when I was a newborn angel at the very beginning of creation.

‘Babbling at over a thousand years old.’

If my brothers found out, I’d be teased for ten thousand years.

‘I am Artemia’s proud messenger!’

“Attemimibababuu!”

However, the result was devastating.

‘What on earth is this….’

Now that I thought about it, the bracelet visible before my eyes seemed strange.
Or rather, the hand holding the bracelet.

Mikhail possessed delicate and beautiful hands, but they were still distinctly masculine, not this refined.
Yet the hand before me was as pristine and soft as if carved from jade.

“My, do you like it that much?”

As I rolled my eyes, an unfamiliar woman’s face came into view.

“You like it because Mother made it for you, don’t you?”

No, she wasn’t unfamiliar.
I had seen her just days ago.
In a portrait at the Perardin Noishurael Duke’s residence!

“Our Lesha.”

The Duchess smiled brightly as she looked at Saelika.

* * *

“Sae!”
“Youngest!!”

The Temple Priests and priests of Artemia hurried toward Saelika’s side.
The Perardin Noishurael Duke and Mikhail held the unconscious Saelika tightly in their embrace.

“Move aside!”

The Perardin Noishurael Duke seemed not to hear those words at all, focused entirely on examining Saelika’s face.

“Perardin Noishurael Duke!”
“Take your hands off my daughter.”

Kaiser spoke as if he would draw his sword at any moment.
Admiral Ekellan placed a hand on Perardin Noishurael Duke’s shoulder.

“Step aside for now.”
“….”
“The Temple Priests will understand the Sacred Maiden’s condition better than we do. If we want her to recover quickly, it’s better to let the priests examine her.”

Only after hearing those words did Perardin Noishurael Duke move his body.

“Mikhail, you too.”

Mikhail remained motionless, still holding Saelika in his embrace.
Seeing his unstable state, Admiral Ekellan clicked his tongue and dragged him away.
I had worried he might rampage and blow up the entire stadium, but fortunately Mikhail remained docile.

‘But can you really call that docile?’

His eyes were almost vacant, staring only at Saelika.
As if he couldn’t perceive any external stimulus whatsoever.

‘This is only the second time I’ve seen Mikhail in this state.’

The first was long ago on ‘that day’, after he went berserk.
And now.

‘What on earth is happening?’

Before the mission started, I saw Mikhail and the Duke together in the corridor.
That fellow who usually bared his teeth at the Duke was unusually calm, exchanging words peacefully, which struck me as odd.
Then he suddenly left the stadium and didn’t return.
But when he came back….

‘No, that’s not the issue right now.’

Admiral Ekellan gazed at Saelika’s face with burning urgency.
Her small, pale face was drenched with cold sweat.

Sirius Elder’s holy power penetrated deep within Saelika.
After examining Saelika for a long while, he stood up and spoke to the operations headquarters.

“We shall take our leave now.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes. I understand.”

The operations headquarters seemed flustered by the sudden turn of events, but they nodded in agreement regardless.
How could they refuse when the Sacred Maiden had collapsed?

Kaiser lifted the unconscious Saelika into his arms.
As he moved to exit the stadium, Admiral Ekellan hurried after him.
Randel stepped forward to block his path with determination.

“This is an internal matter of the Artemia Temple.”
“B-but is the Protagonist alright—.”
“That has nothing to do with you, does it?”

His words lashed out like a whip against Admiral Ekellan.
In that moment of hesitation, the priests of Artemia cried out.

“You said your newly found daughter was far more precious, yet when were you ever careful not to wound our Honeybread?”
“Now that the daughter turned out to be a fake, I suppose your interest shifts back to Sae?”

That was never the case.
How could it be?

“I was merely—.”
“Why? Are you treating her as a replacement again?”
“…!”

The words were utterly devastating.

“A replacement!”
“Pouring affection only until the Duke’s daughter appeared—isn’t that exactly what a replacement is?”
“Perhaps to you she was merely a substitute, but to us, she is the most precious existence.”
“To me as well, the Protagonist is precious—.”
“Every time you laughed and said she was fine, that it was nothing—do you have any idea what we felt?!”
“….”
“Did you ever consider what it was like watching her smile through the pain, her eyes screaming that she was dying from her wounds?!”

At those bitter words, Admiral Ekellan’s breath caught in his throat.

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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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