Youngest on Top - Chapter 86

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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 86

The High Priest, the Elders, the Priests, and even the Trainee Priests.
Everyone who heard the news rushed to the room where Saelika was staying.

The child sat barely upright, leaning against the headrest of the bed.
Seeing such a small child against the vast bed, everyone’s hearts ached.

How much had such a small child endured alone?

“Sae….”

I called the child’s name as if groaning.
The child’s head hung low, as if even lifting it required too much strength.

Her exposed cheeks and lips were pallid and rigid.
Her ashen face bore the unmistakable marks of illness.

“Ugh….”

My resolve crumbled.
No matter how tightly I clenched my teeth, the emotions surging from within broke through and spilled out.

In the end, they could not contain their anguish and rushed toward Saelika.

“Little one!”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! We…! Sob!”
“How much have you suffered alone all this time!”
“And we didn’t even know…!”
“Sae, are you alright?”
“Let me see. Where….”

The people of Artemisia fussed anxiously over Saelika.
The child still did not look in their direction.

“….”

This is strange.
Normally, I would touch the child’s soft cheek without a second thought.
But for some reason, I found it difficult to do so now.

Unable to bring myself to touch the child’s face, people merely shuffled their feet nervously.

“Sae, does it hurt a lot?”
“The awakening of a Sacred Maiden is difficult even for older children to endure, yet at such a tender age….”
“We didn’t even know you were suffering such humiliation, and we were laughing with that fake.”
“Not just a fake, but actually sucking on a demon—we must have been mad.”
“Um, er, could you perhaps just show us your face for a moment…?”
“Y-yes. We’ll leave after just seeing your face.”

The people waited with clasped hands, yearning desperately.
For Saelika to lift her face.

How much time had passed like this?

“Ah.”

Finally, the child’s small lips parted.
Everyone held their breath with ears perked, waiting for what would come next.

“You’re so loud….”
“…!”

Flinch.
Everyone froze at the completely unexpected words.

‘L-loud?’

This was the first time Saelika had ever said such a thing.
Even when she had scolded the Trainee Priests who were teasing her,
“Quiet!”
she had done so in a playful manner.

But to speak with such genuine sincerity in her voice….

The adults who had never heard such words before turned completely rigid, like stone.
The child who always approached before I could even extend my hand.
But—

I was rejected.
By the child.
Completely.

“W-well then, rest now.”
“W-we were too loud, weren’t we? You must be struggling with the pain as it is.”
“Y-yes, we were rather thoughtless leaving a sick child like this….”
“W-we’ll be going now, so get plenty of rest. Don’t think about anything.”

The faces of those who had spoken awkwardly, one phrase at a time, were dripping with guilt and regret.

The crowd that had gathered began slowly backing away.
They walked backward to catch even one more glimpse of the child’s face.

But Saelika never lifted her face until the very end.

Because.

Enrik: Hey. Hey.
Enrik: Sae.
Enrik: Wake up.
Enrik: Can you see my words?
Enrik: Right?
Enrik: You can see my words, can’t you???
Enrik: Huh?
Enrik: You’ve awakened. Right?!
Enrik: Hey hey hey!
Enrik: Heyyyyyy!!! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Heyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!
Enrik: Answeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!!!!!!!!!!

In my previous life as an angel.
Older brothers born from a single source.
The fifth among them.
Enrik was frantically calling out to me.

“Shut up!!”

Saelika clenched her fists and let out a sharp cry.

Her mind was already reeling from the aftermath of the Sacred Maiden’s awakening.
External stimuli barely registered for her now.

Her vision narrowed drastically, and her hearing felt muffled as if submerged underwater.
She couldn’t properly sense whether her body was cold or hot.

Only two sensations remained clear.
An immense divine power flowing through her body.
And the connection pathway to the Celestial Realm.

Only these two things were vivid.

It was only natural.
A sensation that had never existed suddenly manifested.
And it was overwhelmingly violent in its intensity.

This massive sensation was drowning out all other perceptions.
Focusing on it alone was exhausting enough to make her head throb.

And on top of that—

Enrik: Why are you being so loud!!!?
Enrik: Honestly, you can’t even hear my voice anyway!
Enrik: Ugh, what a shame. You should be able to hear my voice.
Enrik: Then you wouldn’t be able to ignore me and would answer every word I say.
Enrik: You want to hear my magnificent and enchanting voice too, don’t you?
Enrik: Hey.
Enrik: Why aren’t you answering again?
Enrik: Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey!!!!!!!
Enrik: You can see my messages, right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thirty-seven messages appeared every second.

‘I’m going insane!’

In truth, Saelika hadn’t even noticed when people entered the room earlier.
Naturally, she couldn’t properly hear what they were saying either.

Some sort of murmuring sound seemed to drift in from far away.
But she had no mental capacity left to pay attention to it.
Her cognitive ability had narrowed completely.

‘Ah, I can see it. I can see it! It’s so clear it’s deafening!’

Letters could be loud too, apparently.
Saelika learned this fact for the first time.

* * *

The people who exited Saelika’s room stumbled about, unable to walk properly.
It had been that shocking.

For the first time, Saelika had rejected them.

“Saelika!”
“Children!”

The child who came running with a radiant smile.
That child had rejected them without even showing her face.

It hurt as if flesh had been torn and bitten away.
And yet.

‘Do we even deserve to be hurt?’

That thought arose in everyone’s mind.
Were they in any position to feel wounded by Saelika’s actions?

“It’s all my fault.”
“What did I even say to her?”
“I told her not to get hurt because she’s a fake. Unilaterally, to that tender child.”

The more I reflected on my actions, the more tears of blood streamed down my face.
I was so wounded by the child’s single word, “Be quiet,” that I could barely function.
What on earth had I said to that small child?

I wanted to go back to the past and punch myself in the face.

“Her complexion is completely pale. She’s regained consciousness, but she hasn’t recovered.”
“While that child reached such a state, we….”
“Blinded by demons, we couldn’t even properly recognize this child’s condition….”

The more I thought about it, the more regret consumed me.
Some of the Priests were even crying, pounding their chests in anguish.

“Ugh! Sae must be disappointed in me! Of course she is! A wretch like me deserves to die!!”
“Artemia!!! Your servant shall now go to your side!!!!!”
“Sae, I, I never gave my heart to that impostor!! Only you, only you!!!!!”

While the Priests cried out, the High Priests silently entered the Conference Room.

A long silence fell.
Breaking that silence, Randel opened his mouth.

“There must have been signs before Sae awakened as the Sacred Maiden.”

The meaning of those words was clear.

“Yes, her physical condition must have been poor.”
“When her body could endure no longer, she coughed up blood and collapsed.”
“That’s right. Thinking back to when that demon pushed the child… her condition must have been truly terrible.”

Another heavy silence descended.
The High Priest pressed his forehead.
His face was twisted in anguish, ravaged by deep suffering.

“I knew how much that child concealed her pain.”
“….”
“Yet I failed to examine her properly.”
“….”
“Under normal circumstances, I would have been the first to notice her condition was deteriorating…!”

The High Priest’s breath trembled.
Unable to overcome his anger at himself.

“High Priest….”
“I feel the same way.”
“Even though I knew how much that child suffered alone….”

Everyone’s faces contorted.

“We all knew, didn’t we?”

That was true.
Yet we never truly looked.

A longing we had awaited our entire lives.
Intoxicated by the mere fact that the Sacred Maiden had appeared.

In truth, there was reason to doubt.
Diana’s behavior had something peculiar about it.
Everyone sensed it.

But Alphania, the sacred relic that verified the Sacred Maiden, had responded.
We felt Artemeia’s divine power emanating from Diana, who had never even trained.
Could there be clearer proof of her being the Sacred Maiden?

Yet we felt something amiss.
Whenever we tried to ask Diana something, she would collapse immediately.

People could only keep silent.
If we accidentally stressed Diana and something went wrong, it would be catastrophic.

Moreover, her collapse and suffering fit perfectly with the aftermath of the Sacred Maiden’s awakening.
The fact that her condition couldn’t be healed also aligned with this.

‘It’s just that as a demon, she couldn’t be healed by divine power…!’

Thus we treated Diana like fragile glass that would shatter at the slightest touch.
We couldn’t do anything even when Diana overstepped her bounds.
Terrified of losing the Sacred Maiden who had barely, barely appeared.

In that desperation, I turned away from Saelika, my soul already sold.

“Even if that demon truly was the Sacred Maiden, I’ve done something unforgivable to Sae.”

I was turning a blind eye to that small child suffering alone.

The Sacred Maiden is the most precious and special being in the Temple.
But that doesn’t justify allowing that small child to be hurt alone.

“Sae is precious and special even if she’s not the Sacred Maiden.”

I don’t regret my actions because Saelika is truly the Sacred Maiden.
That doesn’t matter.
Sacred Maiden or not, Saelika was already precious to them.

That truth was so obvious that everyone had overlooked it.
Only when I saw the child collapse did I realize it anew.

“…I can never forgive myself.”

* * *

Three days had already passed since I regained consciousness.

In that time, I spent more than half of each day sleeping.
Kaiser would wake me, I’d eat a little, then immediately fall back asleep.
There were brief moments when I’d wake between these cycles.
During those times—.

Enrik: Why do you look like such a sickly chick?
Enrik: Is the air down there bad?
Enrik: It’s been so long since we descended to the mortal realm.
Enrik: These days the Sacred Maidens have so little power anyway.
Enrik: They can’t even summon us anymore.
Enrik: Oh, that’s right. You’ve never been summoned even once, have you?
Enrik: What a useless one.
Enrik: Puhahahahahaha!

“….”

I was busy wrestling with Enrik.
Honestly, I wanted to ignore him, but whenever he spoke to me, it was still difficult to focus on anything else.

‘It’s certainly better than right after I first awakened, though.’

I was gradually adapting to the enormous sacred power surging through my body and the connection pathway to the Celestial Realm.

But there was something strange.

‘Normally, Sacred Maidens wouldn’t communicate like this, would they?’

Enrik: Ah, that?
Enrik: That’s
Enrik: (forbidden word) so
Enrik: (forbidden word) and
Enrik: Ah, why do I keep hitting forbidden words!
Enrik: Anyway, (forbidden word)!!

[Notice] Communication has been temporarily suspended due to frequent use of forbidden words.
[Notice] We ask all users to use our service in a respectful and orderly manner that does not contradict causality. Thank you *^^*

‘So there are things that can’t be said.’

It made sense.
Even during my days as an angel, I vented my frustrations more than once while watching the Sacred Maiden from the heavens.

“Those Reyatan bastards! Why do they believe in him! All his followers look just like that bald fool—so gloomy and damp!”

Of course, my words never reached the Sacred Maiden.

Usually, such things were conveyed meaningfully,

“A serpent hides within the flower placed before your path. Child, beware of flowers that emit sweet fragrances.”

Like words wrapped in such packaging.

Unfortunately, my words never reached her, even wrapped in such guise.
Unlike my brothers born from the same source, I was merely a lowly angel who could not even serve Artemia directly.

Anyway, it was nice that Enrik had quieted down.

‘This is my chance.’

I hopped down from the bed.
I planned to quickly handle what needed to be done.

How exactly had a demon become a fake Sacred Maiden?
How had she replicated Alpania?
There was so much I needed to find out.

I was about to leave the room—.

“You’re awake.”

By sheer coincidence, Kaiser entered the room.

“Leaving now will strain your body. You need more rest.”

He effortlessly lifted me and set me down in a chair.
Then he blew on a spoonful of soup and fed it to me.

‘…I still can’t get used to this.’

That cold Kaiser was blowing on soup and feeding it to me.

I obediently accepted it and spoke to him.

“There’s something I need from you.”
“Of course, ask for anything.”

His voice sounded like he would do whatever I wanted.

“Please call Ilay.”

Flinch.
Kaiser’s expression hardened.

“…Ilay?”

Crunch.
Why does it feel like I’m grinding my teeth?

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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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