Youngest on Top - Chapter 27

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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 27

I swallowed hard.

‘If I scream, will the adults come?’

What would be faster—the adults arriving in this room, or the intruder pouncing on me?

‘Obviously the latter.’

I was doomed.

‘But I won’t just take this lying down!’

Before my regression, when I knew nothing, I would have simply endured it.
But in my prime? I never tolerated anything—I’d beat down the other angels without hesitation.

Of course, that’s precisely why I’m suffering this punishment now.
Sigh.

I let out an exaggerated yawn and lay back on the bed.

“Yaaawn! So sleepy…”

Eyes closed, I waited for the intruder to make his move.
Sure enough, within moments, I sensed him approaching.
Cracking my eyes open just slightly, I caught the silhouette of a dark shadow creeping toward me.

I remained calm and patient, waiting for him to draw closer.
The moment he bent over me,

“Hah!”

I shot upright and drove my forehead into him with all my strength.
Like a meteor colliding with a planet—devastating!
This is holy magic without divine power—pure physics!

The intruder crumpled with a cry, unable to rise, trembling uncontrollably.

‘How’s that taste, my forehead strike!’

Hmph!
I rose proudly and looked down at the intruder from my bed.
But then….

‘Isn’t the intruder a bit small? No, they’re really small?’

Just then, the moon emerged from behind the clouds.
At the same moment, the intruder holding their face lifted their head.
Moonlight illuminated the intruder’s face brightly.

“Ro, Roana?!”

Tears glistened in Roana’s eyes.
Roana, cradling her nose, glared at me with resentment-filled eyes.

“You….”

She flinched as she was about to say something, then lowered her hands from her face.
Then slowly, she looked down at her own hands.

“Blood, blood! There’s blood coming from me…!”

Roana cried out with an expression as if she might faint.

I looked at her face awkwardly.
There was blood, certainly….
But it wasn’t coming from just one nostril.
Both nostrils were bleeding.

‘…Did I go too far?’

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

* * *

Good heavens! What an absolute humiliation!
Roana couldn’t believe the situation she found herself in.
As a noblewoman befitting her station, she had never once seen blood from her own body.
She’d never even gotten a paper cut, and certainly never had a nosebleed.
Roana was an exceptionally healthy girl.

The mere fact that she was bleeding from her nose was enough to make her faint, but on top of that—

‘A d-double nosebleed!’

Well, even a double nosebleed could be overlooked.

“What do I look like?!”

Roana’s face crumpled as she stared into the mirror.
Rolled-up tissue was stuffed in both nostrils.

“I look like an idiot! Like some kind of fool!”

Her voice came out nasally and distorted.
What made it worse was that the tissue in her nostrils moved every time she spoke!

“What do I do! My dignity! My nobility! It’s all ruined!”

Saelika sighed deeply as she adjusted the tissues.

“Stop looking at the mirror. It won’t change anything anyway.”

Roana’s eyes widened in fury.

“How dare you say that?! This is all because of you!”
“But I… I’m not a bad person, I swear…”
“Why would a bad person even be in the Temple!”

Roana shrieked loudly.

‘Is she an idiot?’

Saelika thought without much consideration.
There are bad people, so a fire broke out.

‘Well, she’s just a child, after all.’

Satisfied with her reasoning, Saelika tried to comfort Roana.

“Anyway, I treated you, didn’t I?”
“Stuffing tissue in my nose and calling that treatment?”
“I’m sorry. Did it hurt?”
“….”

Roana pouted her lips.
But she didn’t complain further and fell silent.

“But why did you come? Sneaking around like a thief.”
“A thief?!”

Roana reacted like a cat that jumps at the slightest touch.

“…I just heard you were sleeping, so I came in quietly to avoid waking you.”
“….”
“And then you were praying, so I didn’t want to disturb you….”
“Prayer finished.”

She meant why didn’t I make a sound when the prayer ended.
Roana looked at Saelika with a tearful expression.

“You finished praying and shouted that you’d die if caught!”

I was so startled thinking you were talking to me that I touched the bookshelf.
I thought you’d fallen asleep right away, so I approached to check, but….

“But why is Roana so scared?”
“I-I’m not scared!”
“….”

Saelika gazed intently at Roana.
Roana couldn’t bear that gaze and rolled her eyes away.

“…That, that is. I’ve been wondering if I was perhaps, unkind? To you during all this time?”
“….”
“…Of course, you weren’t scared at all, so it’s not like I was really tormenting? You or anything.”
“….”
“But I think I may have, done something? Wrong.”

The more she spoke, the smaller her voice became.
Roana’s face flushed crimson as she hung her head low.

“Don’t lower your head.”
“Sae….”

Roana lifted her gaze, her expression touched with emotion.
Was she an angel?
To accept such a clumsy apology—.

“Your nose is bleeding even more. Gush!”
“Ugh!”

Roana sprang to her feet, pushing off from her seat.

“What I’m trying to say is!”

She spoke to Saelika with indignation.

“I’m sorry for treating you badly all this time!”

Before Saelika could even respond, Roana’s face burned crimson as she bolted upright.
“Anyway! That’s all I wanted to say! My business is done, so I’m leaving!”

And in the blink of an eye, she vanished.

Saelika stared blankly at the closed door.
She was quite the whirlwind of a girl in every way.

But.

‘Not bad, though.’

A faint smile graced Saelika’s face.

* * *

Despite the calamity of the fire, the atmosphere within Artemisia Temple was remarkably bright.
All the children were safe, and Saelika, the primary architect of their salvation, had awakened without complications.

“If it weren’t for Sae, we would have faced catastrophe.”
“Without her, I can’t imagine what would have become of the other children… The very thought is horrifying.”
“We were worried when she arrived so late, but instead a blessing has rolled right through our doors!”

The Priesthood praised Saelika and laughed.

“And did you witness the sacred power of Ilay and Dmitri? I was utterly astounded.”
“Ilay had awakened his sacred power before, but never to such a degree. When exactly did he grow so much?”
“Dmitri hadn’t even awakened yet before, and yet he displayed such formidable strength.”

Without a Saint, the sacred power of the Priesthood inevitably weakens.
Yet a child who had only recently awakened displaying such power was truly remarkable.

“What’s even more astonishing is the other children. The majority of them awakened their sacred power. Many seemed to awaken right there in that moment…”
“But the most astonishing thing is something else entirely.”

At those words, everyone swallowed hard.

“Resonance.”

A harmonization of sacred power led by the Saint had occurred.
It was a sight Artemisia had not witnessed in a very long time.

“How was all of this even possible… I hadn’t even properly observed the children myself. I did hear that they had begun intensive training in preparation for the gathering conference…”

At Beckman’s words, the Priesthood recalled what the children had said.
When asked when and how they had awakened their sacred power, the children all spoke the same name.

“It’s all thanks to Sae. She taught us… well, she instructed us.”
“Sae kept hitting me like this, ahem, stimulating me…”
“When we just did what Honeybun told us to do, everything worked out! Right, Captain?”

Saelika.
That child had made all of it possible.

“She’s an absolute blessing, a true blessing!”
“When we lifted her, she awakened the Divine Beast, and after that, we discovered the treasure.”
“That’s not all! Didn’t she knock that damned Shedmen down a peg or two! I’ve never felt more satisfied!”
“We only learned that the statue from Parmanace carried a vile curse because of her.”

Looking back at it all, she truly was a blessing that had rolled in with the vines attached.

“And now she’s even guiding her fellow trainee priests!”
“The youngest one at that, the last to arrive.”

While I felt warmth, anger burned in a corner of my heart.
Toward the arsonist who had hurt our precious blessing, our youngest.

“We must identify the arsonist without fail.”
“At least thanks to Sae, it ended like this. If it hadn’t been for her…”
“Who on earth would do such a thing?”

Then Gawain carefully opened his mouth.

“Um, would it be alright if I said something?”

The expressions of the priests looking at Gawain were not pleasant.
They knew what he had said before the fire broke out.

“Go ahead.”
“On the day of the fire, Roana did not participate in training and remained alone in the dormitory.”
“Hmm, then we could ask Roana if she saw anyone.”
“However… actually, the person who said Sae went underground that morning was Roana.”
“…Roana?”
“Yes, while she was consulting with me about Sae…”
“Consulting? What about?”
“It seemed Roana was quite dissatisfied that Sae entered without taking the test. She mentioned Sae going underground while discussing that.”

The priest who shared a study with Gawain nodded.

“Yes, I heard about it too. To be honest, I had my doubts. Whether Sae really went underground…”
“But during the fire—.”
“During the fire, the heat could have melted the lock mechanism open.”
“Or perhaps the person who damaged the core didn’t lock it again. So the fire would spread well to the underground.”

As the conversation shifted in that direction, everyone couldn’t help but harbor doubts.

“If Sae didn’t go underground, why would Roana say such a thing?”
“Perhaps she was just speaking off the cuff. Surely Roana wouldn’t have said that to frame Sae.”

As he spoke, Gawain wore a secret smile of satisfaction within his heart.
Though he’d spoken as if it were impossible, with his very words, he’d planted a single possibility in everyone’s minds.

That Roana might have pinned the arson on Saelika.

“Still, for a coincidence, the circumstances are rather too convenient.”

This meeting was not attended by high-ranking figures like the High Priest or the Elders.

‘But that’s what makes it more frightening.’

A gathering of ordinary priests.
Naturally, attendance was large.
Unlike selective meetings where discretion was maintained, rumors were bound to spread.

* * *

“—Such rumors are circulating among the Priesthood, it seems.”

At Randel’s report, the High Priest’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

“Apparently, the fact that Roana had never been fond of Sae became known as well—.”
“She wasn’t fond of that child?”
“Sae is rather a special case, isn’t he? It’s hardly surprising when you consider how the children might have perceived him.”

At the aide’s words, the High Priest’s gaze turned cold and sharp.
Seeing this, the aide quickly added with an apologetic sound.

“Of course, Sae is lovely, clever, and a blessing to our Temple. The children surely understand that now. I’m impressed that Sae has blended in so well with the children without adults interfering.”

At those words, one of the Temple Priests spoke up.

“But there’s something rather suspicious about it all. How exactly did you awaken the children? And entering the underground—”
“Ahem!”

Sirius Elder, who had been sitting in silence, let out a loud clearing of his throat.
He fixed the Priest with his characteristically sharp gaze.

“So, is it wrong to help awaken the children?”
“It’s not wrong, but—”
“Right. It was actually a good deed!”
“W-well, yes, but—”
“And going underground? What did he do down there? Rescue the Divine Beast, didn’t he? Are you saying he shouldn’t have rescued that child?”
“N-no, of course not!”

The Priest jumped up and wiped his sweat.

“Good thing you answered correctly. I was about to question your intellectual capacity.”

Sirius turned his head with a snort.
Seeing this, Devon chuckled.

“Weren’t you the one who suspected him the most, Sirius?”
“I raised rational concerns because there were legitimate reasons for caution.”
“And now?”
“Now there’s sufficient reason to lower my guard, so I no longer harbor doubts.”
“Hmph, you certainly know how to talk.”
“Unlike you, who grinned from ear to ear the moment that child found the treasure.”
“What are you saying! I simply recognized our little blessing’s charm quickly!”

The Priests watched the two Elders bicker with clouded eyes.
Devon was one thing, but… was Sirius Elder always like this?

That was when it happened.

“Quiet.”

At that low voice, every Priest in the Meeting Hall flinched.
The High Priest looked down at the assembly with a cold, charismatic face.

Perhaps I’d said too much unnecessary nonsense, and everyone tensed at that moment.
His lips parted.

“No matter what, that child likes me the best.”

…What?

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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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