Youngest on Top - Chapter 243

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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 243

[One strike…!]
[But that won’t work, will it?]

The Host was right.
The torn Abyss reformed without taking any damage.

The Abyss was a swarm entity.
Since it wasn’t a single organism, slashing it would only divide it temporarily before it reassembled.

Amelia stepped forward again.
A brilliant flash of light extended from her hands.

[Ah…. Attacks like that won’t deal any damage at all.]
[You’re just wasting holy power—wait, what?!]

The Host cried out in astonishment.
The swarm entities torn apart by Amelia’s holy power were unable to reassemble.

[They’re not coming back together!]
[Now that’s easy. The truth is, the Abyss is dangerous when it swarms together, but individually each piece is weak.]
[How did you manage that?]
[It seems like holy power is preventing the Abyss from gathering?]
[Wow, that was actually possible!]
[Incredible holy power control!]

Amelia occupied the space with her holy power, preventing the swarm from reassembling.
Simultaneously, she eliminated the divided Abyss pieces, starting with the weakest.

[The Sacred Maiden of this generation who has subjugated the most monsters and purified the most land!]
[Truly remarkable!]
[Amelia’s vote count is surging!]
[Currently in first place!]

Amelia laughed softly and looked toward Saelika.
But Saelika wasn’t even looking her way.

Saelika held her hands cupped together, peering into the hollow of her palms.
Within them, something dark rippled faintly into view.

‘The Abyss? Why would she…’

Saelika suddenly lifted her head.
After exchanging glances with the priests, she began withdrawing from the battlefield.

[Huh? It seems Saelika isn’t participating in the battle?]
[It looks like she’s leaving entirely!]
[Wait, there are monsters fighting right beside her and she’s just leaving?]
[Perhaps she thinks there’s no opportunity to shine since Amelia is leading the charge?]
[It’s rather disappointing. The Sacred Maiden we want is one who does her best regardless of circumstances.]

Amelia furrowed her brow.

‘She’s just leaving like this? What on earth is she thinking?’

[The viewers also seem unable to hide their disappointment.]
[Yes, they’re expressing their disillusionment with Saelika by voting for Amelia.]

Whatever they thought, they were wrong.
Look at the results.

‘Thanks to her, I did nothing and won again. Should I be grateful?’

Indeed, Saelika was merely a tool for my own growth.
Then it happened.

[Wait, there! Look there!]

The Host’s startled voice rang out.

[A person? Is that a person?]
[A person in this place!]
[Could it be that Saelika knew about this…?]

“Amelia?”

At the priest’s voice, Amelia snapped to attention with a sharp breath.

“The Abyss has nearly exhausted its strength! Alter, finish it and come back. The rest of you, come with me!”
“Yes? Yes!”
“Understood!”

Before even properly hearing their responses, Amelia launched herself forward with explosive speed.

‘I was careless. That cunning Saelika would never move without a plan.’

Most people had almost no experience fighting monsters.
Defeating a powerful monster skillfully.
Rescuing someone in danger.
Which of the two would impress them more!

‘Since raw skill won’t work, she’s resorting to such tricks.’

But it was futile.
This time too, I would be the one to save them first.

* * *

Upon the parched, barren earth.
Seven people huddled together.
A monster prowled and circled around them.
As if toying with prey it could devour at any moment, savoring their fear.

Grrr—
The monster, growing bored, shook its body and lunged toward the people.

In that instant, a young man emerged from among them and blocked its path.
His face still bore the softness of youth, not yet hardened by age.
Clearly no match for the monster.
At this rate, his body would be torn to shreds.

That moment.

“…!”

A brilliant flash of light pierced through the monster from above to below.
Simultaneously, the blades of holy knights on both sides began slashing at the monster.

Boom!
Beyond the fallen monster, a beautiful Sacred Maiden appeared.
Sunlight crowning her head like a halo.

“Rest assured now. I will protect all of you.”

The people in crisis stared up at the Sacred Maiden in a daze.

‘That familiar gaze.’

Eyes full of longing and reverence.
People who looked at me always had that expression.
Amelia smiled.

It was the moment she opened her mouth again.

“Saelika?”
“It’s Saelika!”
“It really is Saelika!!”
“The Crimson Sacred Maiden has arrived!!”

The people who had been cowering suddenly brightened and stood up.
Toward Saelika, who stood behind Amelia.

‘What is this…’

Unlike the bewildered Amelia, Saelika remained composed.

“Crimson Sacred Maiden? For a pacifist like me?”
“Wow, the non-violent pacifist Crimson Sacred Maiden! We’ve been wanting to see you!”
“Tsk, now you’re just teasing me.”

Saelika, who had pinched the child’s nose firmly, turned to the side.
The young man who had stood before the people earlier smiled toward Saelika.

“I’ve been waiting for your return.”
“It’s been a while.”
“Yes, quite a while.”

The people welcomed Saelika and the priests of Artemia with open arms.
Amelia stared blankly at the scene.

She had defeated the monster before Saelika did.
She had saved these people.
Not Saelika. Her.
And yet.

“By the way, there are way more people than last time, aren’t there?”
“Oh, those are priests from a different temple.”
“…! As expected of you, Saelika! You brought them to their knees!”
“That’s not it—our paths just happened to overlap.”
“What? Why did they come here?”

They were treating their lifesaver as an unwelcome guest.

* * *

“How could this have happened?”
“Indeed. The Asura are known for being reclusive…”
“Yet they’re welcoming outsiders like this. They’re even guiding them into the village.”

The hosts spoke with bewildered expressions.
The stadium audience and those watching the broadcast felt the same way.

Beyond the territory of the Empire and other nations.
People live in the Asura region, known as the remote frontier.
When the barrier stones are intact, nowhere is safer than the area surrounding them.

In other words, once you venture beyond the barrier stones, countless dangers lurk.
And if the barrier stones break—

“Shouldn’t it be extremely dangerous?”
“It should be a place where people can barely survive due to taint corruption.”
“So why…?”

The Host fell silent upon seeing the displayed image.

“The village is perfectly intact, right? I mean, that’s not to say it’s bad—.”
“It’s just so different from what we expected.”

That was the truth.
Despite the barrier stone being shattered, the Asura village remained safe.
There was no contamination, no signs of monster invasion.

[Saelika has come?]
[Saelika!]
[Our Sacred Maiden has arrived!!]

And who was responsible for this became clear just from observing the people’s attitudes.
Saelika.

“What on earth is going on? Why do the Asura treat Saelika like this?”

Beatrix scraped her crimson nails against the armrest of her chair, grinding her teeth.

I knew that during those quiet years, Saelika had traveled through several remote regions.
Small villages of little consequence.
Mostly places where fraud ran rampant.

‘But the Asura weren’t among them.’

Who would have thought she’d venture to such a remote place as the Asura lands?
And yet.

[Saelika, this is my son. He’s five years old now. Do you remember? Without you, he would have died long ago.]
[Saelika, I can run now! It’s all thanks to you!]
[If you hadn’t purified the contamination seeping into our village as the barrier stone weakened, we would have died without even understanding why.]
[And what of the monsters you eliminated from our surroundings? Thanks to you, we were able to stockpile many resources.]

The words of gratitude never ceased.
The Hosts spoke with voices trembling with emotion.

“Saelika has secluded herself for the past several years. She hasn’t even participated in the official subjugation operations that the Sacred Maidens attend.”
“There was quite a lot of talk about that issue. It followed her like a label throughout the entire High Priestess selection tournament.”
“But the reason for all that was…”

The Host, whose voice seemed to catch, cleared his throat briefly before continuing.

“It was to care for the neglected regions where people’s attention couldn’t reach, where no hand could extend.”
“And yet, she hasn’t revealed this even once until now.”
“Yes, most temples typically distribute extensive press releases about such things.”
“…I find myself reflecting now. Quietly saving people whether anyone watches or not. A light shining in the darkest places. If not someone like this, then who could truly be called a Sacred Maiden?”

As if in agreement with the Host’s words, Saelika’s vote count rose at a rapid pace.

Kaiser, Randel, High Priest Anatullio, and the other priests of Artemia straightened their shoulders with confidence.
As if to say, that child is our Sacred Maiden.

Seeing this, Beatrix ground her teeth.

‘Why are the hosts saying such things? After how much they’ve taken from us!’

She found it particularly disgusting that they were even squeezing out tears.
Then, Saelika on the screen asked a question.

[The boundary stone?]
[It remains in place. Though it is broken.]

The young Asura who answered immediately began to guide them.

It was no longer surprising to casually bring outsiders into the depths where the boundary stone lay.
Yet there was still something left to surprise them.

“Is that… an Artemia Temple?”
“It’s true! There’s an Artemia Temple in the depths of the Asura realm!”
“But the Asura are unbelievers! How could— no, rather, how couldn’t it be? Saelika must have been nothing short of a savior, a true Sacred Maiden to the Asura.”

The Artemia Temple in Asura was small.
Yet it was clear that it had been carefully maintained and tended to.

Fresh green flowers and glossy wooden window frames.
The entire tribe had decorated the temple with joyful hearts.

In the center of the well-maintained temple lay a sacred relic.

“Ah… The sacred relic is protecting the village! It seems that’s why we survived even after the barrier stone shattered.”
“But an ordinary sacred relic would have struggled to withstand this level of corruption, wouldn’t it? Unless it were legendary grade…”

The question was valid.
If a single sacred relic could protect an entire village, this land would never have been corrupted in the first place.

As Saelika gazed upon the sacred relic, the Asura tribespeople spoke with proud expressions.

[The light you guided us with still illuminates us, Sacred Maiden.]
[It wasn’t I who illuminated it—it was you who did.]
[…]
[Your faith.]

At Saelika’s words, the young Asura tribesman smiled.

[As I told you, our hearts toward the Sacred Maiden will be eternal.]

The entire tribe believed with all their hearts in Saelika and in Goddess Artemia, who had chosen her as her representative.
That profound faith amplified the power of Goddess Artemia’s influence upon this land.

The stronger the faith and support, the more powerful the god’s influence becomes on the mortal realm.
It was the most basic fact that even a child knew.
Yet witnessing such a powerful miracle that completely protected an entire tribe was something I had never seen before.

“…Gathering people’s hearts as one and summoning a god’s miracle to this land.”

Perardin Noishurael Duke murmured.
Admiral Ekellan picked up on those words.

“A passage about the Great Sacred Maiden.”

Neither of their gazes left Saelika.

* * *

Inside the Asura tribe’s village.
Behind Artemia’s sacred relic, there lay a shattered barrier stone.
Saelika withdrew a branch of the World Tree from her embrace.

“Wait.”

A sharp voice stopped Saelika in her tracks.
It was Alter, a priest from the Parmanase Temple.

“Inserting a branch of the World Tree into the barrier stone is an important task.”
“So?”
“Wouldn’t it be better if Amelia did it instead of you?”
“What?!”

Dmitri immediately flared up.
Alter chuckled.

“It’s a fact that that Sacred Maiden’s abilities fall short of Amelia’s.”
“Right. She couldn’t even properly manifest her sanctuary.”
“It was our Amelia who defeated the abyss!”
“It was Amelia who saved all these people here!”

With the priests’ support fire, Alter lifted his chin with an arrogant expression.

“So you’ll step aside now, won’t you?”
“Wow, you’re really spouting nonsense.”
“If you mishandle divine power while inserting the World Tree, it will take much longer to restore the barrier. I understand the desire to show results, but this is a matter of people’s lives.”

He was treating Saelika as someone lacking in ability while driven by greed to claim credit.
Just as the priests were about to step forward, the Asura tribe intervened.

“Right, then Saelika can do it.”
“You don’t seem to understand—Amelia is far superior to that Saelika.”
“That’s exactly why we’re asking Saelika to do this for us. We wouldn’t have even let an outsider into the village in the first place if it weren’t for Saelika’s face. If you understand, get on your knees and thank Saelika.”

Their attitude toward Saelika was completely different from before.
Amelia exhaled softly.

“Saelika, I need you to convince these people.”
“Why should I?”
“Because you know as well as I do that it’ll work better coming from me. These people care so much about you—the least you can do is make a decision for their sake.”
“So I’m saying I’ll do it.”
“Sigh… why do you keep manipulating these people’s feelings?”

Amelia asked, her voice sharp with anger.

“Manipulating?”
“Yes. Saving this village before the barrier stone shattered was admirable. I’ll give you credit for that. But you were laying the groundwork for the Sacred Maiden selection all along, weren’t you?”
“….”
“Using underhanded tactics in a selection that’s supposed to be fair is wrong, but since it ultimately helped people, I can overlook it.”
“….”
“But I can’t forgive you for being so selfish with these people’s lives.”

Amelia’s eyes blazed with righteous fury.
Saelika let out a soft laugh.

“It’s really amusing hearing you say that, Amelia.”
“What?”
“When you were fighting the Abyss earlier. It was fascinating.”
“….”
“The separated swarm didn’t reassemble even though it wasn’t damaged.”

At those words, Alter let out a scoff.

“Can’t you see? You lack the ability, so you wouldn’t know—but Lady Amelia can disrupt monster swarms through advanced control of sacred power.”
“Ah, is that so?”

Saelika smiled and turned to look at Amelia.

“Really?”
“…It’s true. You saw it happen right before your eyes.”
“I see. I thought you’d gained the power of a demon strong enough to disrupt monster swarms.”
“…!”

Amelia’s face went rigid.

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