Youngest on Top - Chapter 87

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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 87

“If you need anything, tell me.”
“Ilay.”
“You can tell me too.”
“Ilay!”

It was Ilay I needed.
Kaiser, who had been watching me for a moment, murmured softly.

“Ilay, that Trainee Priest.”

Again, I heard the grinding sound of teeth.

“Understood.”

With those words, Kaiser picked up his empty bowl and left the room.
I tilted my head as I watched his retreating figure.

‘Why does he keep grinding his teeth?’

Perhaps he was under considerable stress.
I should check on his dental health sometime.

In any case.

‘Good. Now I might be able to find out.’

If it was Ilay, he would have gathered information about the things I was curious about.

‘The adults surely must have investigated that demon.’

I had casually asked Kaiser about it before, but he hadn’t given me a proper answer.

That made sense.
I had asked while half out of my mind because of what Enrik said—what adult would answer properly to that?

So I waited for Ilay.

Enrik: Ugh, I thought I’d die from frustration.

Enrik had returned once more.
I contorted my face into an expression of pure annoyance.

Enrik: Aren’t the rules way too strict?
Enrik: No, it’s because you’re too weak.
Enrik: You’re too fragile to accept the secrets of this world.
Enrik: Weakling! Weakling!
Enrik: And you used to go around beating everyone with brute force!
Enrik: How does it feel to be the weak one now?
Enrik: This is karma, plain and simple.

“Just shut your mouth already!”

I finally lost my patience and shouted.
I was already frustrated that my strength had become as feeble as an infant’s compared to my days as an angel.
But with Enrik acting like this, my irritation reached its peak.

“Argh! I can’t even hit you!”

Enrik: You can’t hit me! You can’t hit me!
Enrik: Bahahaha!
Enrik: Annoying, isn’t it? Annoying, isn’t it?

I gazed calmly at the words rising within me, then smiled slightly.

‘Artemia, if I were to die, could I be reborn as an angel?’

I prayed earnestly.

‘If it’s possible, I’d rather die right now and be reborn just so I could beat this bastard!’

Enrik: Wow, your character;;;
Enrik: But if you’re reborn, you’d be so weak you couldn’t even look me in the eye lol
Enrik: A newbie angel trying to pick a fight with a senior like me lol

“….”

Artemia, goddess above.
Did I really fail so badly?
Is that why I’ve been exiled here, forced to witness this spectacle?

Enrik: Honestly, you did fail. A lot.

“This is—! (Just wait—!)”

The more he spoke, the further my grip on reality seemed to slip.
If that’s the case, even if Ilay came, he wouldn’t be able to speak properly.

“Got it?”

Enrik: Yeah, I understand.
Enrik: I wasn’t trying to get in your way.
Enrik: It’s just been so long, and I’ve been waiting for a chance to talk, so… that’s all.

The dialogue window hesitated before appearing, arriving a moment later than usual.

Enrik: I was just glad to see you.

I froze.
For a long moment, I simply stared at the words that had just appeared.

Glad to see me?
That was unexpected.
I thought everyone would be relieved to see me gone.

The headache of Artemisia’s messengers.
Artemisia’s only blemish.
The heavens’ greatest nuisance.

Those were my nicknames, after all.

Enrik: What?

At that moment, I heard a knock at the door.
It seemed Ilay had arrived.

‘I’ll keep quiet as promised.’

I made one final request and called out toward the door.

“Come in!”

The door opened and Ilay entered.
Over the past few days, Ilay appeared to have grown somewhat gaunt.

He caught sight of me and drew closer.
Ilay wore his usual sweet smile.
But today, for some reason….

As I examined his face, Ilay suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.

“…!”
“I was worried. So very worried.”

His gentle voice settled softly against my ear.
I relaxed my body and leaned quietly against him.

“Yeah….”

Enrik: That, that bastard!
Enrik: How dare you pull such moves on my sibling!

Less than a minute after I’d asked him to stay quiet, Enrik couldn’t hold back and blurted something out.
He spoke so rapidly that I couldn’t even read it properly.

‘…It looks like half of it is profanity.’

Enrik: That ♪♩♬ bastard daring to ♩♩♬♬ from where!
Enrik: I really want to ♪♬♪♩♬ and just ♪♩♬♪♪♩ him!

[Notice] Communication has been temporarily suspended due to frequent use of profanity.
[Notice] We ask all users to use our service in a courteous and orderly manner befitting an angel’s dignity. Thank you*^^*

‘…Is Enrik a bit of an idiot?’

To be honest, I’d suspected something was off for a while now.

“Sae?”

Ilay gazed down at me with a puzzled expression.
It was understandable—I’d suddenly gone blank, staring into empty space.

“No, I’m just a bit tired.”
“Are you very exhausted?”
“Just a little. I’ll sit here.”

I patted the chair firmly.
Uncertain when Enrik’s speech restriction would lift, I quickly broached the main topic.

First, the most important thing for Ilay.

“Once Diaena adapts a little, let’s go to Theohate right away.”

Right now, overwhelmed by all these sensations, I was actually finding it harder to control my sacred power than before my awakening as the Sacred Maiden.
I couldn’t even digest the raging force within me.

But something seemed off about the expression on Ilay’s face as he looked at me.

“Even in this situation, that’s what you think about first.”
“It’s extremely important for Ilay. And it matters for Diaena too.”
“….”
“Diaena likes Theo too.”
“…Yes.”

After lowering his head briefly, Ilay smiled and made a request of me.

“You’re important to me too, Sae. Let’s take care of your health first. Only when you’re well can you heal Theo more effectively.”
“Okay!”

Ilay is truly clever.
If the caster’s condition isn’t good, it naturally affects the patient as well.

Now it was time to bring up the question that had been bothering me.

“What was that creature?”
“The fake who pretended to be the Sacred Maiden? She was a Mirror Demon.”

With those words, everything fell into place.

A Mirror Demon.
Mirror Demons were a race with the ability to reflect and copy objects like mirrors themselves.
Lower-ranked ones could only copy appearances, but superior Mirror Demons could even replicate aura and effects.

‘Though there are some limitations in the replication process.’

In any case, a truly exceptional Mirror Demon could create nearly identical replicas.

“She replicated the sacred artifact Alpania and used it to prove herself. Since it was her own replica, manipulating it would have been easy.”
“So that’s why she asked for one more day.”

I recalled the moment she had asked for just one more day before Allis Celestia.

“Even with one more day, she wouldn’t have been able to copy Allis Celestia. She was probably trying to buy time to escape.”

Yes, that made sense.
I nodded in agreement.

With just a brief touch causing such a commotion, she couldn’t have copied it.
Even though it was just a brief touch, it caused such a commotion, so there’s no way I can copy it.

“What about the sacred power Diaena had?”
“She copied the sacred power from other priests and pretended it was her own. Especially…”

Ilay lifted his eyes to look at me.

“She copied your sacred power.”
“….”

At those words, I recalled Diana’s peculiar resemblance to me in both speech and behavior.

‘She must have picked up those mannerisms when copying my sacred power.’

Yet questions still remained.

‘…When on earth did it happen?’

As I mentioned earlier, the Mirror Demon needed to make contact with a target to copy them.
But on Diana’s first day at the temple, I had never made contact with her.
I had only seen her from a distance.

‘Oh, surely not.’

A memory surfaced, and I froze.

“You’re that girl, right? From the orphanage.”
“Not that I knew her, but my mother felt so sorry for her that she sponsored her specially. When we went to the orphanage for a charity event, she was rather dirty.”

The child who had suddenly started a quarrel when we went out with the other children.

When I told Ilay this story, he also furrowed his brow.

“Now that you mention it, I thought it was strange back then. You weren’t alone—we were all around you….”
“She just suddenly started a fight like she saw something.”

Edmund, of course, and Dmitri, Roana, and Ilay were all children who carried an air of nobility.
She should have been more cautious.

“It was suspicious how she dug her own grave with her words.”
“I thought it was just because she was a child.”

But that wasn’t it.
There was a different purpose behind it.

“Could she have been the Mirror Demon? Thanks to Admiral Ekellan, it seems contact never happened.”
“It’s not her.”

I couldn’t tell whether that child was part of the same group or not.
Perhaps she was simply being used.
Demons were skilled at inciting human emotions, after all.

But what was certain.
Back then, while my attention was focused on that child.

“That child and the valuable one—they both touched me.”

Those children were pressed close in front of me.
The distance was so natural that even brushing hands while absorbed in conversation wouldn’t have seemed odd.
Moreover, since the conversation was about me, they naturally kept pointing in my direction.

“Then that time….”
“Yeah, probably then.”

That was the only time I’d made contact with someone whose identity was unclear.

“Damn it, I didn’t notice even though it was right in front of me.”

Ilay spoke in an unusually harsh tone, which startled me.
His expression was twisted in a way that was unlike him.

“If I had noticed back then, you wouldn’t have had to go through such an ordeal.”

Startled by Ilay’s self-reproach, I quickly took his hand.

“You couldn’t have known either.”

A demon with such incredible power that it could even copy the sacred artifact Alpania.
A powerless child would have been perfectly replicated.
In fact, there wasn’t even the slightest scent of a demon.

“It’s not your fault.”

Even after saying that, Ilay’s furrowed brow didn’t relax.
I quickly changed the subject.

“More importantly, a demon coming to the Temple is a big problem!”

I had suspected Diana might be a fake Sacred Maiden.
That’s why I went to investigate Alpania.

But I never imagined she could be a demon.

‘Now I understand why the Priesthood suspected me of being a demon when I first appeared at the Temple.’

The situation must have been dire enough that we had to keep that in mind.
Because demons are actually infiltrating like this.

“Normally, it wouldn’t have dared to invade at all. Not if the Sacred Maiden had been in the temple.”
“Mm.”
“So that demon clan was targeting Artemisia Temple from the start.”
….
“From the moment we first encountered it. No, even before we met at the Dessert Shop, it was all planned.”
“A demon acting alone cannot approach sacred relics.”

Ilay grasped the meaning of my words and held his breath.

“That means….”
“Someone must have helped it. More precisely—.”

My eyes glowed blue.

“Another temple.”
….

Ilay’s pupils darkened deeply.
He must have suspected as much.
But hearing it spoken aloud from someone else’s lips felt different.

After a moment of contemplation, Ilay opened his mouth.

“Come to think of it, that demon called out someone’s name as it was dying.”
“Whose?”

I asked quickly.
It could be a clue as to which temple was involved in this.

“Behi—, it said.”

Behi?
Could it be Behemoth?!

Ilay asked me, who had been startled.

“Why the long face? Do you know that name?”

Of course I knew it.
He was one of the Seven Demon Lords!

It seemed people couldn’t even fathom that they called such a terrifying creature by an endearing nickname.
And through a Messenger, no less.

“It’s nothing.”

I shook my head.
There was no point in mentioning this now.
It would only sow confusion in the Temple, which was just beginning to solidify its foundation.

“The adults are currently narrowing down a list of priests from other temples who bear the name ‘Behi’ or something similar.”

I was glad I’d kept silent.
After all, it could be someone named Behi or something close to it, just as Ilay had said.

I tried to shake off the unease.

‘Surely not. It can’t be.’

But a demon of such caliber wouldn’t be addressed with the honorific suffix unless…

No, it can’t be.
They say speaking things into existence invites disaster.
Yes, it can’t be.

‘Surely that insane stalker isn’t chasing me even after his reincarnation…’

“Sae?”
“Huh? What?”
“Your complexion looks terrible. You’re still struggling, aren’t you? Talking must have exhausted you more. Let’s get you back to bed.”

I let Ilay guide me back to the bed.
I really did need to rest.
My head was starting to throb from thinking about that insane stalker.

* * *

“He only called for Ilay?”
“W-what about us?”
“Why didn’t he call for us…?”

The Trainee Priests huddled together, their eyes glistening with tears.

“He must still be disappointed in us.”
“Ilay hates that fake, so he’s the exception for only looking after the youngest.”
“It’s my fault…”

Just then, Ilay entered the Trainee Priest Quarters.
The dejected children’s heads snapped up, and they rushed toward him like arrows.

“Ilay, have you seen Sae? Is he okay? How’s his body? Does he seem to be in a lot of pain? Huh? Huh?”
“He won’t leave his room, so is his condition really that bad? When do you think he’ll get better? Huh? Huh?”
“What did the youngest say?”
“Um, uh, does he… hate us?”
“Does he not want to see us anymore…?”

The children asked anxiously.
Ilay didn’t even glance at them and walked right past.

The children couldn’t bring themselves to follow and simply stood there, watching his retreating figure.
Normally they would have complained about being ignored, but they couldn’t even muster that.

The children who had been silent began to speak, one by one.

“We…”
“Yeah.”
“That’s right.”

The children looked at each other and nodded in unison.

“Let’s crawl.”

The Trainee Priests scattered tears across the training grounds as they rolled on the floor.

“Saelika! Saelika! Saelika!”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“We love our youngest!”
“We love Ilay!”

Instead of their usual chant of “We believe in Artemisia,” they now cried out Saelika’s name.

With a single tear,

“Children, eat these.”

The image of our youngest shyly (or not) offering cookies.
(The memory of her saying
“You must eat well to grow strong”
had been conveniently edited out.)

With a single bead of sweat,

“W-well then, I suppose I should go.”

The pitiful (or not) image of her turning away in confusion, pushed aside by the fake, like a delicate white lily.

All manner of (edited and embellished) memories clouded my vision.

“We don’t deserve rest!”
“Roll! By rolling, we prove our faith—no, our love for our youngest!”
“Let us roll!”

Somehow, they all seemed… consumed by madness.
And I was not the only one wailing in piercing regret.

—————
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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