Youngest on Top - Chapter 289

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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 289

“W-well, you see.”
“We were trying to brag about the child to people….”
“Y-yes! It was praise!”

The brothers made efforts to soothe Saelika.
Yet Saelika’s eyes grew only colder.

“The Angel of Blood is praise?”

Kailros, Serha, and Enrik fell silent.
Honestly, they had nothing to say.
But Anakin was different.

“It’s cool, though.”
“….”
“….”
“And it’s not like we made it up. Wherever our troublemaker goes, blood bursts brilliantly like fireworks—.”
“Be quiet!”
“Shut your mouth!”
“But it’s the truth.”
“…Well, that’s true, but.”
“…The youngest created a river in the Heavenly Realm with his blood.”
“Just a river? The reason roses are red is because they absorbed the blood our little brother spilled—.”
“Stop teasing the child.”

A frigid voice cut through the brothers’ words.
When I turned my gaze, Asquiel had appeared.

“Saelika.”

Asquiel approached Saelika directly.

“Let me see.”

He examined Saelika’s condition with an impassive gaze.
Checking for any injuries or abrasions.
Whether her feathers were full and lustrous (the plumage that Misa had torn out had been restored when she met with Artemia).
Finally, whether her Divine Circuit remained stable.

Only after confirming there was no damage inside or out did Asquiel open his mouth.

“I told you to avoid that perverted bastard at all costs, not to engage him. I’ve taught you this so many times.”
“Why should I avoid him? I won!”
“The best strategy against a lunatic is to flee, not to fight.”

Asquiel spoke coldly to Saelika, who answered with stubborn defiance.

“Next time you encounter that perverted bastard, call for me without fail. Don’t engage yourself.”
“Tch.”

Saelika pouted her lips.
Asquiel gazed quietly at the youngest sibling he had raised,
and asked.

“Did you land more blows?”
“Of course! I punctured holes right through his membrane!”

Saelika boasted, raising her fist.
The other brothers immediately praised her.

“Well done—that’s my sister.”
“Our youngest must always land the harder hits.”
“As expected, our youngest is a blood angel!”

Asquiel, who had asked the question, turned his head away in cold silence.
But Artemia saw it.
The corners of Asquiel’s lips curling upward as he turned away.

Artemia smiled and stroked Saelika’s hair.

“How fortunate you are to have such good brothers.”

At those words, Saelika’s cheeks flushed crimson.
Her heart fluttered.

The brothers were always the same.
Even though the other brothers, excluding Asquiel, must have just learned that she was Artemia’s daughter.

‘Nothing had changed at all.’

Saelika was still the youngest of her brothers.
Just as before, a troublemaker who needed looking after—

‘—though I don’t quite like that!’

Yet their unwavering nature brought her comfort.

‘And.’

Saelika glanced at Asquiel.
Her eldest brother, always stern and intimidating.
Even now, his face bore that characteristic detached, cold expression.

But now Saelika had learned many new truths she had never known.

When she first called him “Ashu.”
When her first teeth came in.
When she took her first steps.
When she succeeded in her first flight.

That Asquiel, who had always seemed so indifferent, had actually shed tears each time.
That whenever she kicked off her blankets in sleep, Asquiel had always gently tucked her back in.

Enrik asked.

“But where did Asquiel go? He acted like he was coming straight with us to see the youngest.”
“I had something to check on.”

Asquiel offered no further explanation.
But Saelika immediately understood what he had gone to verify.

“Did you go to see Parmanace?”
“…Yes.”

I had erased the fragment of Parmanace that dwelled within Amelia.
But his true form still remained in the Heavenly Realm.

I clenched my fists tightly.

“I want to meet Parmanace.”
“Saelika.”
“There’s something I need to do when I meet him.”

I looked up at Asquiel directly as I spoke.
Asquiel’s eyes narrowed.

He had no desire to let this precious youngest child, whom he had raised with such care, meet someone like Parmanace.
But whenever she looked at him like this, he had never been able to refuse her completely.

That was when it happened.

“Very well.”

Artemia smiled toward me.

“My daughter should do whatever she wishes.”
“Artemia.”
“Do not worry. You, who raised her, know better than anyone how strong this child is.”
“….”

At those words, Asquiel finally relented.
He had never once defeated this mother and daughter pair.

* * *

A heavy oppressive force weighed down on all sides.
A place unworthy of the name Heavenly Realm—dark, damp, and filthy.
Parmanace writhed there like an insect, his entire body pierced through.

“Saelika!”

Clank, clank!
The chains piercing through Parmanace’s body rattled violently.
It was because Parmanace, upon discovering Saelika, convulsed and thrashed about in spasms.

“I was right! In the end, I was correct!”

Eyes drenched in bloodshot madness fixed upon Saelika.
His gaze seemed to drift between reality and illusion, blurred and unfocused.

Even as the chains pulled taut and wounds tore open, Parmanace reached toward Saelika.

“Come now, die quickly and surrender that power to me! I alone am the true— aaaaaahhh!”

Terrible agony crashed down upon Parmanace.
As if electrocuted, he convulsed and curled his body inward.
Soon after, he lifted his head.

“Ar, temisia.”

The face that murmured lowly had regained some semblance of reason.
Parmanace’s gaze turned toward Saelika.

“…So you’ve finally mastered all that power.”
“….”
“I should have killed you when you couldn’t even properly wield it and taken that power for myself.”

Piercing regret caused Parmanace to grit his teeth audibly.

“If only I had known sooner…! I could have confirmed it then, yet a mere human obscured my vision!”
“….”
“Cursed Kaishurit! Cursed Empire!”

Saelika gazed down silently at the raging Parmanace.
A being once revered as a high god had become utterly pathetic.

The fragment painstakingly torn away had already been annihilated, leaving only half remaining.
Moreover, having lost most of his divinity, it was shameful even to call him a god.

“Parmanace.”

Saelika approached Parmanace slowly.
As she reached out her hand, Parmanace’s head was forcibly wrenched back.

“…!”

His right eye, hidden beneath disheveled hair, was laid bare.
A deep scar marked that eye.
No—it was more than a scar; the wound still gaped fresh, robbing Parmanace of his vision even now.

“How dare you!”

A shameful wound inflicted by a human.
Parmanace tried to cover his eye, but he couldn’t even mount a proper resistance.

“So you’ve been hiding it with divine power all this time, pretending it was fine. Now you don’t even have the strength for that.”

Kailros’s power remained embedded in that wounded eye.
Even after centuries had passed, it persisted.

It was possible because it wasn’t merely power—it was divinity accumulated by transcending his own limits.
He had devoted that precious strength solely to protecting Saelika.

Kailros’s power did not fade; it continued to wound Parmanace.
Preventing his eye from ever healing.

‘Shuri.’

As if forever shielding Parmanace’s eye to protect Saelika—.

‘What were you thinking?’

Giving everything to protect Saelika without ever showing it.
Erasing Saelika’s memories of you with your own hands.

“Krraaaaaaagh!”

Parmanace shrieked as his eye burned with agony.
As the power lodged in his right eye drained through Saelika’s hand, a terrible wave of pain surged through him.

Saelika cradled the recovered power with reverence.
It was Kaishurit’s divine essence—how could it be anything but precious?

“You, you wretched creature! How dare you!”

Parmanase lunged at Saelika in a convulsive frenzy.
It was an attack that channeled every ounce of his remaining strength.
And yet.

“Why, why! How is this possible…!”

He could not inflict a single wound upon Saelika.
He could not even touch her.
No matter how desperately he thrashed, he merely floundered helplessly.
As if to demonstrate the vast chasm that separated them.

“That I, of all beings, should fall to such a lowly angel…!”

The Brothers laughed at Parmanase’s outrage.

“How amusing.”
“You spent your entire existence harboring suspicions that the child possessed something extraordinary, constantly coveting her power.”
“And now that your youngest sibling surpasses you, you cannot accept it.”
“Silence!”

Parmanase roared in fury.

“That power is mine! I am its rightful master! Everything has been wrong from the beginning! It should have been I who possessed the Creator’s power, not Artemisia…!”

The oppressive weight he felt whenever he stood before Artemisia.
Each time, it was unbearably humiliating.

‘…How can he be so identical to Amelia?’

Saelika marveled at the observation.
Then, Artemisia stepped forward.

“Don’t sully my daughter’s eyes with that hideous form.”
“Artemia!”
“I suppose that’s too much to ask of you. Your very existence is repugnant.”

Artemia placed her hand upon Parmanace’s head.

“There’s no reason to keep you alive any longer.”

Artemia had kept Parmanace alive for one reason alone.
In case her daughter came looking.

She had believed that Saelika would attempt to reclaim Kaishurit’s divine essence from Parmanace.
In other words, Parmanace was nothing more than a vessel containing Kaishurit’s divine essence.
A vessel no longer in use could simply be shattered.

“W-what are you…? Even so, I am a god! If you slay a god, you won’t escape unscathed either…!”
“True, it violates the order I created. My divine essence will suffer considerable damage. Enough to strip me of my divinity and cast me down.”
“Y-yes!”
“But I don’t care.”

Artemia smiled wickedly.

“I’m not going to be a god anymore.”
“…?!”
“I’m going to be my daughter’s father.”

Parmanace’s pupils dilated sharply.
He opened his mouth to speak, but—

“———!”

No words came out.
His existence had already been erased.
She had reduced his very being to nothingness.

Despite accomplishing such a tremendous act, Artemia rose with a composed demeanor.
She walked straight toward her daughter.

“My feet will get dirty.”

Artemia lifted her daughter into her arms.

“My daughter possesses creative power greater even than the gods themselves.”
“Artemia….”
“As my daughter’s father, I too must return to the seat of the Creator.”

Artemia smiled softly.

“So call me Father.”

As if that alone mattered.

* * *

Parmanase was confined deep within his own dwelling.
The moment Saelika escaped, she spoke to her brothers.

“You all know what needs to be done from here on, right?”

Her brothers nodded with solemn expressions.

Though Artemia had spoken of it so lightly, returning to the position of Creator was far from a simple matter.
The Heavenly Realm had its own order and rules.
And there were social norms to consider as well.

“Don’t worry. We’ll handle everything so there’s no confusion in the Heavenly Realm.”
“First, we’ll summon all the gods— huh?”
“Youngest…?”

Her brothers called out to their youngest with reluctant expressions.
Saelika, who had been smashing through the doors of Parmanase’s treasure warehouse, turned her head.

“What?”
“What are you doing right now…”
“What does it look like? I’m doing what needs to be done.”

Crack!
With a dull thud, the warehouse door shattered.
Saelika immediately rushed inside and began gathering all manner of treasures.

“….”
“….”
“….”

The brothers watched in bewilderment as Saelika bustled about the warehouse with an air of purpose.
Her hands moved with practiced efficiency as she collected item after item.

“Surely the task my younger brother mentioned wasn’t….”
“Theft!”

The brothers gasped in shock.
Yet even as they protested, their own hands moved faster than anyone’s to gather the treasures.

“This would be perfect to give to the child.”
“The little one seems weakened from causing fewer incidents—this should help.”

That was when it happened.
Commotion erupted outside.

“Gasp, the angels have arrived!”
“The gods are coming too?!”

The sudden appearance of gods and angels left the brothers in panic.
No matter how you looked at it, they appeared to be thieves at this very moment.

“Damn it, they must have sensed Parmanace’s disappearance and come to investigate.”
“What do we say about this now? Should we run?”
“But this place is ownerless now anyway. Parmanace is dead.”
“Right. We were simply collecting items scattered across abandoned land.”

Enrik, who had been listening quietly to his brothers, spoke up.

“Isn’t it more accurate to say we murdered the homeowner and took their possessions?”

It wasn’t merely close—it was exactly that.
By now, it was already too late to escape without incident.

‘I suppose I should knock out the witness from behind and slip away.’

The brothers exchanged meaningful glances.
Saelika watched them with clouded eyes.

‘Their movements are perfectly synchronized—this is clearly the work of seasoned professionals. Now I understand exactly how I got framed.’

The problem was that even if Saelika fled with them, everyone would assume she alone was responsible for everything.

‘…Of course, I did start this first.’

The brothers had taken far more than she had.
Saelika was contemplating whether to strike them from behind.

“We greet the daughter of the great Creator.”

Gods and angels knelt as one.

‘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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