Chapter 90
As Serena held onto Shia, who looked ready to dash out at any moment, she urgently pleaded,
“Wait, calm down!”
“Why! I’m saying let’s go meet that Vice Principal right now!”
“So… we still don’t have solid evidence, you know…”
“Evidence? We can think about it after we beat him up!”
“Stella’s awake.”
At Anubis’s words, both of them immediately halted their actions and turned to look at Stella.
“Stella!”
“Stella!”
“…Ugh… it’s loud… where am I?”
Stella squinted as she slowly opened her eyes.
“Stella, are you okay?”
“I suddenly collapsed… do you remember?”
“Me? …Thinking back… Ugh!!”
As if something clicked, Stella’s face turned pale.
She quickly covered her mouth and started gagging.
“Stella! Are you alright?!”
“Wait, wait!”
Serena stepped in front of the startled Shia.
Her hands trembled, and her eyes shook with visible fear.
“Please, don’t come any closer.”
“Stella… it’s alright…”
“Ah…! Don’t come!”
Now, with her eyes shut tight, Stella screamed while covering her ears.
Seeing this, Shia froze in her tracks.
“I’m sorry, I’ll do better… please just stop…”
Stella kept repeating the same line as if her emotional mechanisms had broken down, and no one around dared to speak.
“What on earth happened to her to make her like this… Everyone, can you please step outside? I really think she needs a proper examination.”
“But!”
Serena quietly shook her head while gripping Shia’s wrist.
“Let’s just let her be alone for now.”
“…Understood.”
With worried expressions, the three stepped out of the infirmary but didn’t go far.
Always confident and unbothered by others’ gazes, there was an unexpectedly innocent and adorable younger sister quality to Stella, despite her cold appearance.
“Stella… I’ve never seen that kind of face before…”
For Serena, Stella was both an object of admiration and a goal.
She always seemed capable of anything while leading the way ahead, yet there were surprisingly things she couldn’t do, and that hardworking side attracted her even more.
“I didn’t want to know this side of her like this…”
Anubis murmured softly as he gazed at the infirmary.
“I thought she overcame it… but I guess not.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Stella I knew was like this all along. Back when we fought together on the battlefield, especially at night, she would always tremble like that.”
“So this isn’t the first time Stella has been like this?”
“Exactly. These kinds of situations were common on the battlefield. With death being an everyday affair, there were many others like Stella.”
“Then… maybe this whole situation triggered her trauma from back then…”
“Is it even possible to link this situation with that past incident? Stella’s condition stems from collective bullying…”
“It’s not impossible. Even trained soldiers hesitate the first time they kill someone, and she was just 14 at that time.”
“Ah…”
“She probably faced a lot of resentment too; she must’ve killed a lot of people begging for their lives.”
A 14-year-old forced to kill people on the battlefield. No matter how strong a superhuman she was, her mind couldn’t have been intact.
Now it made sense to Serena why Stella had been so cold during their first meeting.
Her mental state had been shattered for a long time.
“Coming here… she finally got a bit better…”
In the heavy atmosphere, a voice came from inside the infirmary.
“Guys, it’s okay now… you can come in.”
Shia cautiously opened the door and stepped inside, looking for Stella’s reaction.
“Stella, are you alright?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was a bit strange… it’s a little embarrassing.”
Stella scratched her head and smiled brightly as if nothing had happened.
As she slowly approached Stella, Shia carefully hugged her.
“It’s totally fine… you’re okay… it’ll be okay…”
“…This is a bit embarrassing…”
Watching the two cry while embracing each other, Serena asked,
“What’s Stella’s condition like?”
“She shows classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder: auditory and visual hallucinations… past memories are flashing back.”
Hearing this, Serena felt sure of the nurse’s words.
“Just as I thought… so what should we do?”
“For now, emotional stability and rest are necessary. Is there someone nearby who makes her feel the safest?”
“Someone who makes her feel the safest… Ah!”
Serena immediately approached Stella and asked,
“Stella, would you like to go see Nova right now?”
*
“Really, her recovery is astonishing. She was injured enough to need a month of treatment, yet she fully recovered in just a week.”
“So, can she leave today?”
“Yes, at this point, she should be fine to leave immediately.”
“Then I’ll pack my things right away. Thank you.”
With the doctor’s permission, Nova left the examination room, feeling strangely light on his feet.
“I thought I was going to go crazy from all that itching. Finally, escaping hospital food!”
He had been blocked by the nurses whenever he tried to do any strength training, and with no way to practice magic or shoot a gun, it had been boring.
“Still, she came by nearly every afternoon to teach me and keep me company, so it hasn’t been that dull. Not to mention the lunch boxes she brought sometimes.”
“Should I sneak into the academy and surprise her?”
He could have gone straight to the dorm to rest, but he wanted to see her as soon as possible.
He never imagined he would end up dating Stella so quickly in the first semester of freshman year.
Now that he saw her warm smiles, he just wanted to swoop her up right then.
As he arrived to pack his things in the hospital room, Nova felt a presence inside.
“What’s this? It’s still afternoon, but is Stella here? That can’t be right.”
Keeping his tension high, he opened the door to find Stella sitting on the bed.
“Oh, you’re here? I’ve been waiting.”
“Did you come already at this hour? You’re early today.”
“What’s going on? Stella looks a bit different today…”
Instead of her usual bright smile, she wore a more mature glint in her eyes and her bare legs accentuated her figure, giving her an alluring look.
“…Is there something happening today?”
“Oh, can you tell?”
She grabbed his arm and leaned against him, burying her face into his chest.
“Today… something really tough happened…”
“Tough thing?”
“Yeah, even though I didn’t do anything wrong… I got accused of things I never did.”
“…Accused of such things?”
With her head hung low, he couldn’t see her face, but he could feel her shaking body.
“Yeah, even Shia and Serena look at me with disdain, like I’m a bug…”
“I see… Shia did that…”
“Yeah… isn’t that really too much? I didn’t do anything wrong…”
“What exactly did they do? What accusations did they throw at you?”
“They said I sold my body… and even stole a classmate’s belongings…”
“Is that so?”
Click!
“Huh?”
“What? Did you do something that absurd to her?”
He no longer listened to Stella’s words and pressed the gun against her chest.
Then, without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Stella’s body was violently thrown back from the shock. The bullet had surely pierced her chest, yet no blood leaked from her body.
Stella looked at Nova in confusion.
“Why… Nova?”
Calmly rising, he glared at her with cold, red eyes,
“Enough of the act.”
“Why… did you notice?”
Soon, her surroundings began to shimmer like a mirage, and her appearance changed.
Her pink hair flowing down, she transformed into a beautiful girl with black horns, symbolizing the demonic race.
“I had taken out insurance. If the target was only Serena, I might have doubted it.”
She still looked puzzled.
“I might not know about others, but Shia isn’t susceptible to your brainwashing; ‘Divine Descent’ comes with a mental barrier as standard, so I suppose you couldn’t investigate her unique abilities?”
“You know about my abilities…?”
“Of course. Executor of Lust Lilith, a demon that amplifies hatred in people’s minds. I’ve known you were coming for a long time, and your brainwashing doesn’t work on me.”
Lilith found it hard to accept the situation.
“Ha… I was going to turn her into my pawn and then show her to that girl to completely ruin her. What on earth… who are you…”
Bang!
“Shut up and die, you damn bitch.”
