Chapter 276
Ignoring Professor Rahol’s orders without hesitation, Lete strode purposefully down the long cathedral hall after slipping out of the mass chamber.
Murmur, murmur.
The Efnelle students who spotted her began whispering among themselves.
As the number one top student and a prominent candidate for the next Saint, Lete drew attention and gossip wherever she went.
“Sister Lete!”
A girl in a white Efnelle uniform came trotting up, calling out Lete’s name.
“?”
Lete turned around with a blank expression.
It was a classmate. She came up beside Lete and made the sign of the cross.
“Laus, Sister Lete. May the Goddess' blessing be with you!”
“Laus. What is it?”
“Ah, well…”
The girl blushed and spoke quietly.
“For this visitation assignment… are you going with anyone?”
In Efnelle, the missions carried out on the surface were called ‘visitation’.
“Alone~”
“Huh? But it’s supposed to be done in groups of four!”
“It’s a hassle. And if it’s work for four, I’m enough to handle it alone.”
“You really are amazing, Sister Lete!”
‘So, it’s visitation season already. What a bother.’
Lete yawned, slipping her hand into the pocket of her skirt with a bored look.
And then things truly started becoming bothersome. As she stood alone, a crowd of Efnelle students rushed toward her.
“Laus! Sister Lete!”
“Have you already formed a team?”
“Sister Lete!”
Including Lete in your team was like securing the best insurance possible, this reaction was only natural.
Of course, Lete’s response was indifferent.
“I said I’m going alone, so please leave me alone.”
As Lete replied cynically and continued walking, someone was approaching from the opposite side, accompanied by even more students than those swarming Lete.
In Efnelle, where male students only made up about 20%, he was a boy of extreme popularity.
With his dazzling red hair fluttering in the breeze, sculpted looks, razor-sharp nose like it could cut paper, and gentle smile, he was more than enough to capture hearts.
When he spotted Lete from the other side, he smiled and called out.
“Laus! Top student Lete! Good morning.”
He raised a hand in greeting, but Lete walked straight past him.
“Laus, vice-top Romain. Good morning, so keep walking.”
“Haha! Can’t you spare a moment to chat with me?”
Lete ignored him and kept walking, while Romain tried to draw her attention, walking backward in front of her.
“Whaaat, I’m doing this visitation solo, though.”
“Oh, no, not that—I was just wondering how you’re doing on Professor Rene’s sacred relic crafting assignment.”
“That’s none of your business. I’ll be going.”
“Actually, I found a place where I can get a ‘Moon Pearl’ to use as a material for my rosary.”
At the mention of Moon Pearl, Lete’s expression twitched slightly.
Of course it did. As a top-tier sacred relic material, just obtaining it would guarantee the highest possible score on the assignment.
Romain pulled out two tickets.
“I’m heading to the surface by train this evening. Want to come with me?”
A few nearby girls let out sounds of envy, but Lete casually waved her hand as if uninterested.
“Congratulations in advance on scoring first place on the relic assignment. But didn’t you consider that if I take that rare item too, your rank could drop?”
“That’s fine, top student Lete.”
Romain winked.
“As your only rival, it’s just a little gesture from me. Let’s go together.”
“Haa—”
Seeing Romain persistently tagging along, Lete finally began to feel her annoyance boiling over.
“I’ve been keeping quiet after getting scolded by Professor Rahol, and now he’s just crawling all over me with no end.”
“L-Lete?”
“Rival, my ass. Don’t make me laugh. Know your place before you run your damn mouth.”
There wasn’t a single person in this school that Lete considered her rival.
“Top student and vice top student, what else would we be, if not rivals?”
Romain laughed and continued following.
“And that white robe you keep wearing lately is kiiiind of outdated.”
Romain placed his hand on her shoulder.
“When we go down to the surface, I’ll buy you a new—”
BOOOOOOM!
Suddenly, Romain felt his vision spin wildly. Next came the searing pain in his back and neck. When he came to, he was sprawled on the floor.
Screams and chaos erupted all around.
“Where do you think you’re touching me with those filthy hands?”
Lete muttered coldly.
At the same time, Romain felt his patience snap entirely.
Just as he scrambled up and tried to slap her across the cheek—
CRACK!
Her shoe drove straight into his abdomen. He let out a choked gasp.
‘I—I can’t… breathe…!’
THUMP.
Lete grabbed the back of Romain’s head with one hand.
“Efnelle is good for this one thing at least.”
CRASH!!!
She then slammed him into a glass wall. The supposedly reinforced wall cracked and splintered with a thunderous sound.
“You can beat someone up without worrying they’ll die.”
With a chilling gleam in her eyes, Lete dragged him by the head, pressing his face into the wall.
“You can beat someone up without worrying it’ll leave scars or marks on their face or body.”
GRRRRRRRK!
She kept walking steadily.
Romain’s face scraped along the wall, making a horrible noise. As she dragged him, a crimson smear followed like squeezed paint.
“Even if you beat them within an inch of their life, Efnelle’s great healers will fix them up and revive them without issue, so no worries.”
She didn’t even use white magic.
Just solid fundamentals of holy combat and her overwhelming might through sheer divine energy.
Romain, the so-called second place, couldn't even resist.
“As expected, what a fair and equal fight between rivals, vice-top.”
She mockingly wiped Romain’s blood off her cheek with her index finger.
“There are people stronger than you who keep quiet. And yet you’re flapping your lips just because you ranked second once? Pathetic.”
Romain lay face down on the ground, his face a mask of blood, eyes rolled back.
Silence fell over the surroundings.
When Lete turned around, the Efnelle students who had been watching quickly averted their eyes.
“You girls there. Take this guy to a healer.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
The students hurried over to support the fallen Romain, while Lete strode away down the hall, her white hair fluttering behind her.
* * *
Click!
Lete entered her dorm room, unlocking the door.
“Laus~ Sister Lete!”
Her roommate, a girl sitting at her desk doing homework, waved both hands in welcome. Lete nodded in greeting.
“Laus, Lilinet.”
“Something happened at school? It’s been noisy.”
“Not that I know of.”
Feigning ignorance, Lete first removed the robe from her shoulders and hung it on the rack. The outer layer was white, but inside, a black lining was visible.
“Oh, a letter came for you. I left it on your desk.”
“A letter?”
“Yes, from that old lady who always comes to visit…”
“!!!”
The always-expressionless Lete suddenly lit up with excitement.
“No way!”
She darted over to the desk and snatched up the letter.
<To Lete>
That graceful, elegant, and dignified handwriting—she recognized it at a glance.
Of course she did. She’d seen it tens of thousands of times.
“Uwaaaah!! Teacheeerrr!!”
Finally, a letter from Anna!
Overjoyed, Lete hugged the letter to her chest and hopped around the room.
To send a letter from the Dark Alliance to the Holy Federation, one had to use a somewhat unofficial route, and the courier was that old woman who had just delivered the letter.
Lilinet gave a mischievous grin.
“If people found out that Sister Lete actually had this girlish side to her, what would they say? I’m dying to know!”
“Shut your damn mouth, I’m in a good mood.”
She immediately went to bathe and cleanse herself. She wanted to read Anna’s letter with a devout heart.
After washing herself clean and changing into comfortable clothes, she set the letter down on the floor and respectfully knelt before it.
The driving force that allowed her to endure this grueling life at Efnelle.
A ray of light.
Her heart pounded so hard she thought she might go insane at the thought of opening the letter.
“But, Sister Lete~”
Lilinet swiveled her chair around and spoke.
“Who’s the letter from, for you to be so happy? Is it a guy?”
“Do I look insane to you? If you don’t want to get smacked, shut it.”
With the utmost care, as though performing a solemn ritual, she broke the seal of the envelope and unfolded the stiff stationery.
Just seeing that elegant, refined black handwriting on the white paper made it feel as though the whole world was flooding with happiness.
<Hello, Lete? It’s Teacher Anna. How’s life at Efnelle these days?>
“Auuuuh~”
Letting out a sound steeped in bliss, Lete read down the page, a broad smile blooming across her face.
As she read in this rosy, pink world—
Tap.
Another letter slipped out of the envelope.
It turned out there were two letters. Lete glanced at the final sentence of Anna’s.
<And there’s a letter Simon insisted you must read. I’m enclosing it here.>
“......!!”
Her expression stiffened as she blinked.
‘A… a letter from that guy?’
She was utterly bewildered.
Why would he send her a letter?
Insisted she had to see it?
What was he suddenly trying to say?
Flinching like she was staring at a bomb, she cautiously reached toward the fallen letter.
Brrrrrr.
Her arm was trembling violently. She quickly withdrew her hand to her chest, flustered.
‘W-what the hell? Why am I nervous?’
Out of nowhere, her heart was pounding, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
She reached for the letter several times, only to hesitate again and again.
‘Damn it! This is humiliating!’
With sudden resolve, she ripped it open and scanned the contents.
<Hi, Lete. How have you been?>
Her pupils quaked.
<Thanks for helping me during the break! I’ll think of you as my lifelong benefactor. Say hello to Lady Israfil for me. How’s Ran doing? I think of Ran sometimes, and I miss Ran.>
Miss Ran.
Miss Ran.
Miss her, my ass!
Biting her lip hard, Lete read on.
And then—
Her expression gradually cooled, turning icy.
<Remember the evidence we got on the train? Could you check if the name ‘Judah’ is on there?>
“Ah! This son of a—!”
She threw the letter down with a sharp whap. The greetings took up barely a line at the top, and the rest was just the crap he wanted her to do for him.
Still trembling with rage, she suddenly froze.
‘Wait… why am I feeling hurt that he wrote such a short greeting?’
While she sat there dazed, her roommate Lilinet snuck a peek at the letter she’d thrown.
“Oh! It’s a guy! That’s a guy’s handwriting, right? Wow, what’s this? I miss you sometimes? Kyaaa~!”
With a cold expression, Lete raised her arm.
With a burst of brilliant light, the air split open and her divine beast, the young dragon Ran, leapt out and wrapped around Lilinet.
“Kyaaaaaa!”
In an instant, Lilinet was subdued by Ran, her arms bound above her head, her feet lifted off the floor.
“I told you,”
Lete said, eyes blazing with fury as she picked up Simon’s letter,
“to be quiet.”
“Uwaaaah! F-forgive me, Sister Lete!”
“I won’t!”
Lete began lightly tickling Lilinet’s exposed underarms. Lilinet, her face bright red, twisted and writhed, laughing uncontrollably.
“Hahahahaha! Aaah! Hahhh! S-s-stop…!”
“I need a favor.”
She stopped the tickling and spoke. Tears had gathered at the corners of Lilinet’s eyes from laughing.
“J-just say the word, Sister.”
“You said your uncle’s an active inquisitor, right? Get in touch with him for me.”
In the end, Lilinet was released in exchange for contacting her uncle.
“But, why do you need my uncle?”
“Doesn’t matter, just do it.”
Lilinet took out her communication crystal and called her uncle.
“Yes, yes, Uncle! I’m doing well. Right, my friend has something to say to you.”
“It’s Lete.”
Lete abruptly leaned in, snatching the crystal from her hands. A thick, rumbling laugh echoed from the other end.
—Hahaha! Lete? I’ve heard a lot about you from my niece!
“What did you hear?”
—That the number one top student in her class at Efnelle has one hell of a nasty temper…
“Ran.”
“Kyaaaaahhh!”
Lilinet was once again seized by Ran. Lete turned her back to shield her from her uncle’s view, and spoke.
“I want you to find someone for me.”
—A request from my niece’s friend? Of course I’ll do it. Who is it?
Her expression grew serious.
“A man named Metin, an inquisitor.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time