Youngest on Top - Chapter 257

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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 257

* * *

The beastkin were dangerous and beautiful.
People stole glances at them as though witnessing rare, ferocious beasts.
The most astonishing thing was….

“Amelia, you have a petal on you.”
“Oh, thank you. Rashka.”
“…Should we just leave it?”
“Reks?”
“It suits you.”
“Hehe, what do you mean? Then I’ll just leave it as you say, Reks.”

The beastkin, who possessed the raw savagery of the wild, were infinitely tender toward Amelia alone.

The Parmanase Temple’s regional branch.
Those who had come upon hearing the rumors watched Amelia and the beastkin from a distance in admiration.
Men who were fierce beasts incarnate.
The way they showed warmth toward the Sacred Maiden Amelia—warmer than spring sunlight—stirred the heart with romance.

“It seems to be true.”
“So Amelia really did…the beastkin.”
“Wow, now I’m not sure. I naturally thought Saelika would just become the next Grand Maiden.”

And these people did not merely exchange words.

Countless photographs and eyewitness accounts flooded the Manashell.
The Manashell ignited once more.

-That wolf beastkin over there is mine.
-It was real. Amelia did stop the mass slaughter of beastkin midway.
-I got chills seeing how they tried to bury the truth about Sae’s father;;;;
-Whenever anything remotely positive is said about Amelia, those people can’t help but lose their minds lol

Distorted accounts of public opinion quickly surfaced, blaming Saelika’s fanbase for the backlash.
As time passed, the discourse intensified and shifted in a different direction.
Now targeting Saelika herself.

-Saelika went around saving the Asura and Muzika tribes and all that, hyping herself up so much, but Amelia did the same thing.
-Amelia was humble and didn’t show off, but Saelika broadcast her arrogance everywhere lololololol
-And Saelika is a Grand Priestess chosen by the gods? Give me a break

“These barbaric fools…!”

Crash!
Terese hurled Manashell across the room.
Even after that, her anger remained unquelled, and she fumed.

“When did our Sae ever broadcast her arrogance?! She never even revealed years of noble service and sacrifice!!”
“Terese.”
“The broadcast happened during the Grand Priestess mission, so what?! And even that broadcast suddenly became unclear!!!”
“…Calm down.”

Tarasius tried to restrain his raging sister, but it was futile.

“Our Sae didn’t show off, but that amoeba spread gossip and rumors everywhere!!”
“Yeah, yeah, I understand—.”
“Are all of amoeba’s fans just amoebas? Can’t you remember what actually happened? Huh?!”
“Thunder’s about to strike outside. Calm down.”
“Unfair~? Do I look calm to you right now?!”

Terese glared daggers at her brother.

“The noble service, sacrifice, and love our Sae showed shouldn’t even be compared to what that amoeba did!! And amoeba’s fans are distorting the truth itself!!!!!”

Rumble boom boom!!
Lightning flashed and thunder roared across the sky.
Tarasius regarded his sister with weary eyes.

“Many within the Empire have benefited from Amelia’s help. Public opinion has been so heavily skewed toward Saelika that it’s been suppressed—this backlash is proportional to that.”
“…”
“In any case, the Empire holds the most influence among humans. Just look at the population numbers.”

Seeing Terese’s silence, Tarasius felt relieved.
Terese was rational and clear-headed, despite her appearance.
It wasn’t for nothing that she held the position of Palace Master across five palaces.

‘Good. Now she’s calmed down—.’

Thwack!
A pillow flew toward his face.

“Who doesn’t know that! But that still doesn’t make sense! What could you possibly understand!!! Just because some beastfolk showed up… wait.”

Tarasius slowly lowered the pillow, his expression displeased.

“Even for you, that was excessive. Apologize at once to the Crown Prince for your disrespect.”

Tarasius, who had been sternly reproaching his sister, flinched.
Terese’s eyes gazing at him were gleaming.

‘Could it be… tears?’

His body went rigid.
Before his sister’s tears, his anger evaporated in an instant.

But looking more carefully, those weren’t tears at all.
Terese’s eyes were gleaming with a dangerously bright intensity.
Directed at Tarasius!

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Heh, hehehehe, hehehehehehe….”

A sinister laugh descended upon the room.
Tarasius felt an inexplicable terror.
He felt like a cow moments before being led to slaughter.

.
.

At the same time.
The Artemia Temple System branch.
Here too, there was someone speaking the same words as Terese.

“This is absurd! How can you compare Honeybread and Ameba!!”
“Be quiet, Dmitri. How many times have you said that already?”

Edmund rebuked him and then examined Manashell.

“What he’s saying is true. The reaction is definitely unusually intense.”
“Amelia saving the beastmen is certainly a remarkable deed. But.”
“It’s absolutely not something that would overturn completely solidified opinions.”
“Moreover, there are far too many for this to be dismissed as Amelia’s fans’ last desperate attempt.”

Saelika nodded at the priests’ words.

“That’s why I’d like you to do a tracking analysis.”

At those words, the man standing before Saelika lifted his head.

“Hephastos.”

* * *

Hephaestus Atas.
Even before the regression, he had made a name for himself as a brilliant magical engineer.
Now, somehow, he possessed even greater renown than before the regression.
Truly a genius among geniuses!

‘If it’s Hephastos, he would never fail at mana network tracking regardless of who the target is.’

Hephastos frowned and crossed his arms.

“You think I’m going to accept that request?”
“It’s not a request—it’s a commission. You’re getting paid. A lot, too.”
“After you’ve sold me into slavery.”

That’s right.
This brilliant genius was Madame Caitlin’s slave.

“Selling me out, are you?”
“I can still hear your voice asking Grandmother, ‘What if I became a slave instead?’ It’s fresh in my ears!”
“If you hadn’t stolen in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened.”

When Hephastos was younger, he’d had the audacity to break into Madame Caitlin’s atelier and was caught stealing.

‘My connection with him started back then.’

During the meeting with the Molloresta Temple and the Assembly.
Hephastos had crafted a special broadcast magic artifact for me and hacked into the broadcast circuit.

“That’s…! How petty, bringing up ancient history!”
“Want me to show you what real pettiness looks like?”

I smiled with a cold edge.
It was the smile that made all the angels tremble in fear.

“I’m going to tell Madame Caitlin. That you called her Grandmother.”
“…! N-no, anything but…!”

Hephastos shrank back, his face turning pale.

‘Tsk tsk, you would’ve become Madame’s slave anyway, even without me.’

Because in my past life, you’d become Madame Caitlin’s slave too.

“Sigh, fine. You want me to track them?”
“Yes.”
“You know this is incredibly difficult work, right? And it’s illegal.”
“Since when have you cared about that? You actually enjoy doing illegal things.”
“You’re the one who asked me to hack from the very first request! Do you have any idea how much you’ve made me suffer, always asking me to do impossible things?!”
“Well, but you managed to pull it all off in the end.”

What’s the problem, really?
At my look, Hephastos burst into exasperation.

“This is why humanities majors are impossible!! You all think we engineers will just make anything happen for you!!”

Ilay muttered from beside me, “When you think about it, Sae is an athlete.”
What on earth was he talking about?

In any case, it was true that Hephastos had been helpful in many ways.
They say a well-raised slave is worth ten brothers.

“The bastard really grew up well.”
“…You say that, but I, I…. Ugh, damn it! How much longer do I have to do this!!”
“The faster, the better.”

Hephastos grumbled again, saying I treated him like a tool, like a machine.
Watching him, I asked.

“By the way, why haven’t you become independent from Madame Caitlin? Didn’t she say she’d free you from slavery now?”
“That’s because you’re always coming to Grandma’s atelier— Ugh!”

Hephastos jumped to his feet.

“Anyway, you want me to do it as fast as possible, right? I’m leaving. When I come back with the results, come yourself—don’t send someone else!”

And with that, he left the room.
The children murmured as they watched his departing figure.

“He’s not even worth being cautious about.”
“After watching him from the side for years, he just seems pitiful.”
“Poor fellow….”

What? Why were they pitying a legendary genius?

“What’s so pitiful about him?”

The children looked at me with sympathetic eyes at my question.
Then they shook their heads and sighed.

“Sigh, never mind.”
“Even if we told you, you wouldn’t understand. Even if we told you.”

What on earth was this about!

* * *

“Sae.”

After Hephastos left.
The children left to train, but Ilay remained behind.

“What is it?”
“When you met the beastmen. You said you saw traces of Amelia, but there was something else you wanted to say too.”
“Ah.”

I nodded.
The children had come in with the newspaper in the middle, so I hadn’t been able to tell them everything that happened back then.

‘Ilay really does have incredibly sharp intuition.’

Without me even saying anything, he noticed from my expression alone that there was more I wanted to tell.

“I heard something strange from the King of the Beastmen.”
“Something strange?”

“You’re a minion of the Demon God.”

Reks had definitely said that to me.
But that wasn’t all.

“Why would you use such tremendous power wagging your tail to filthy demons?”
“Or did you gain such power by wagging your tail to demons?”

When I told him that, Ilay furrowed his brow.

“A Demon God? Is there such a deity?”
“Of course not.”

At least not in the divine realm.

“There are plenty of strange gods like Parmanase and Preytsha.”
“But I don’t think we should put those two on the same level.”
“That’s true. Anyway, from what I know, there’s no being called a Demon God.”
“…Then what is it?”

The divine realm contains all manner of gods.
Before the covenant was established, there were even mad gods who would rain divine punishment upon the human realm whenever their feelings were hurt.

But fundamentally, gods were beings faithful to their own desires.
Would they be called Demon Gods simply because they acted as they pleased?
They all did that.

‘The very fact that someone as wise, thoughtful, kind, and merciful as our Artemia exists among them is a miracle.’

“The beastkin have no connection to the divine realm. That’s why their terminology might differ from ours.”
“Right, I heard the beastkin receive divine revelations through fortune tellers and astrologers predicting the future.”

The beastkin have no temples.
Since they have no connection point with gods, there are no descended angels either.

“…So ‘Demon God’ might not be a proper noun but rather a metaphor for someone.”
“Right, it could be a god or it might not be.”
“Then the problem is figuring out who it refers to. For now, that Demon King seems the most likely candidate, but….”

Ilay brushed his hair back as if exasperated.
I spoke.

“There’s one solid clue.”
“…?”
“It’s connected to the cult. In the memories of the past I witnessed, there was the emblem of the cult we’ve been investigating.”
“…!”

A spark of realization lit up in Ilay’s eyes.

“If we dig into the cult, we’ll catch the tail.”

* * *

The day of the Sacred Maiden Selection Finals.
The stadium was packed with crowds as thick as clouds.
It wasn’t just inside the stadium.

“Wow, there are really so many people waiting outside the stadium too?”
“It’s record-breaking, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s the long-awaited final selection, after all!”
“Today’s victor will become the Sacred Maiden!!”

The people listened to the Hosts’ voices and speculated on who would emerge victorious today.

“It has to be Saelika, right? Look at the last mission.”
“Who knows? Amelia saved the beastkin. Wasn’t it Amelia who prevented the massacre?”

Opinion was evenly divided between the two sides.
Considering the last mission, it was remarkable.
Then it happened.

“B-Beastkin! They’re here!!!”

At that cry, everyone’s gaze turned in one direction.

“Wow! The beastkin are coming!!”
“Did they come for Amelia?”
“Whoa, incredible!”

The stadium erupted with excitement in an instant.

“There’s no comparison! Being friendly with a small ethnic minority from the borderlands versus saving the beastkin, who are called the strongest warrior race!!”
“Wow, that’s really cool!”
“Yeah… seeing the beastkin in person really hits different.”

The stadium quickly filled with talk of the beastkin.
And with each passing moment, Amelia’s stock soared to the heavens.

At that moment.

“Wait, over there—.”line>

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 344]

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 346]
“Elves? The Elves came last time too.”
“No, look carefully.”
“What is— Gasp?!”

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 351]
People doubted their own eyes.
A being entirely different from the other Elves.

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 355]
“T-the King of the Elves…!”

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 358]
But that wasn’t all.
Suddenly, an enormous shadow engulfed the stadium.

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 362]

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