I've Come to Judge You, Lily (2)
Lily. It's all over now. If this were some backwater local academy, maybe it could slide. But this is the school where the empire's core nobles—rotten as they are—receive their education. Behavior like this is unacceptable.
Snap! The moment I flicked my fingers, the students erupted into a wave of murmurs. The dreamlike days Lily had enjoyed until now were finished. And the lingering grudge of the dead Olivia would finally be laid to rest.
Every noble student's face went slack with shock. I really had been an idiot. Someone who had slain the Demon King and aimed to become a grand mage, yet I never noticed that Lily had formed a contract with a succubus. Or rather, both back then and even now. Maybe the instant I entered Olivia's body, I had been influenced by her lingering presence. After all, every thought and impulse in this brain stemmed from Olivia's own experiences.
It's only a guess, but otherwise I wouldn't have gotten so emotionally involved with those brainwashed by a succubus. Even now, I feel a knot of frustration finally unraveling in my chest.
“Huh? W-what is this?”
“Ow, my head… What the hell is happening?”
The students were spiraling into confusion. The brainwashing had only just been lifted. Oh well. As both a grand mage and a saintess, I could afford to be merciful.
“In a word, this is proof that every one of you has been played by Lily.”
“That’s not true! I never played with any of you!”
Right. By your logic, you didn’t “play” with them. If we’re being a little more refined, you deceived them. So let’s end this already. You already killed Olivia—shouldn’t that be enough to satisfy you?
“Haven’t you done enough by now?”
Lily’s eyes darted around as if she still wanted to make excuses. But this time, it wouldn’t work.
“No! I told you, it’s not me! This is all my sister’s scheme! Isn’t that right?”
Her red eyes flashed again. Adran immediately wove a barrier around her, blocking the brainwashing from reaching the students.
“Olivia. What exactly is going on here?”
Aslan’s voice remained remarkably calm. Even when he had been enthralled, he had kept a cool head. So right now, he had simply lost the artificial affection he felt for Lily.
“As you can see, Lily contracted with a succubus five years ago and used it to bewitch the people in a border village.”
“Then this happened before she was adopted into the Ashtar family?”
Long before that.
“Yes.”
“Do you understand what you’re saying? If this gets out—”
It was already dangerous the moment I set up this judgment in public. I was truly grateful to Claire for following me despite being one of my mother’s subordinates.
“Yes. It would tarnish the honor of House Ashtar.”
Politically, it would be disastrous too. House Ashtar was a prestigious noble family. For their young lady to have contracted with a monster… it was beyond shameful. She would practically be expected to take her own life. The family would become the subject of vicious gossip across noble society overnight. A house with a daughter who bargained with a succubus.
“And yet you would personally condemn your own sister.”
Was that what surprised him? Even knowing the truth Olivia had suffered, could he still say something like that? Condemning Lily was obviously the right thing to do, but did he think it was too harsh?
“I am a saintess. A saintess cannot weigh her family against her duty to the world.”
The empire had lacked a saintess for a long time, so neither Aslan nor House Ashtar seemed to understand. But in the kingdom and the Holy Country, saintesses were taught this from the beginning. You could not place family and the greater good on the same scale. That was the cruel reality of being a saintess.
Of course, since both House Ashtar and the imperial church lacked proper legitimacy to begin with, I planned to do as I pleased. Lily, knowing nothing, had simply wanted to steal my position.
“To think you would abandon your own family to uncover the truth. You really are an unpredictable woman.”
I shrugged at Yuria’s words.
“The truth must come to light.”
Honestly, dealing with Lily would have been easy. She was a criminal. I could have simply eliminated her quietly, without anyone noticing. This wasn’t for the empire or the nobles. It was for the original Olivia—the greatest victim of the power Lily had abused.
Aslan, now clear-headed, spoke carefully.
“Is this really true?”
“N-no! It’s not! Sister, how can you make such false accusations—”
Calling this a false accusation? You really are something else. How far are you willing to sink?
If she had admitted it here and laughed like a proper villain, at least she wouldn’t look this pathetic. I shook my head. She really was beyond saving. Even her final desperate struggles had crossed the line into ugliness.
“Lily. If you had stopped at a reasonable point, I would have helped you.”
“Then—!”
Yes. Up to that point, fine. Let’s say you really were empty-headed enough to contract with a monster. You should have stopped there. There was no need to keep pushing.
“But this is too much, don’t you think?”
I let out a deep sigh.
“How… how can you do this? You already have everything! Why can’t I have anything?!”
For a moment, my mind went blank. I was genuinely shocked that she truly thought that way. Her sense of common morality was completely different from a normal person’s. Stealing what her sister had. Where on earth had she learned such logic?
“Did I ever say you couldn’t enjoy things? I said you couldn’t take them from me.”
I held back from mentioning her mother. It would have been too pitiful. Even a whore had worked hard for her daughter, yet the daughter turned out like this. Tsk.
“Mom told me to do it!”
Ah, like mother, like daughter. It seemed hopeless.
“Your mother was a prostitute. So of course she wanted to claw her way up by any means. If Father had hired proper tutors, you might have learned noble etiquette and basic morals.”
“I don’t know! Anyway, I didn’t do anything wrong! I never made a contract!”
She was no better than a child. Was this pure evil? Or did she not even understand what sin was? Maybe Nora had played a part in shaping her this way—giving a child power she couldn’t handle. If you were going to hand out that kind of strength, at least give it to women who only craved lust.
Good thing I had prepared for this.
“If you refuse to admit it even now, I have no choice.”
It would have been better if she had confessed gracefully. Too bad. I can’t show you mercy anymore.
“Th-that’s right! Sister, please stop this now. This isn’t fun anymore!”
“Can’t you see everyone looking at you with pity?”
Aslan, the student council officers, and Adran—the key figures—were all watching her with sympathy. When someone was cornered like this yet still refused to reflect and kept making excuses, she did look pitiful. At this rate, I was starting to look like the villain.
“That’s why I prepared a witness in advance.”
“A witness?”
“Next, we have the succubus who contracted with her.”
I snapped my fingers again. Claire led Nora in from outside. It was my first official act as saintess, and having a succubus in the church was ridiculous. I didn’t know what methods Claire had used, but she seemed to have persuaded the pope well.
My job now was to use Nora to make Lily face the cruel reality once more.
“I don’t know that succubus!”
Oh, that was practically an admission that she did know her.
“Succubus Nora.”
“Y-yes!”
No need to be so scared. Do your job properly and I’ll let you live.
“Nora first met Lily five years ago in the border village of Moran. Now, tell everyone honestly what happened afterward. This will be your small act of repentance for using Lily to toy with the empire these past few years.”
Now then, Lily. Let’s see how long you can hold out.
“Yes, Saintess. I am Nora, a succubus serving under the Succubus Queen, commander of the Demon King’s 12th Legion. I met Lily when…”
Nora explained everything: how she had met Lily during the war, what had happened since, and what they had done. When Lily tried to interrupt, Adran silenced her.
“I know this might sound strange, but I’m a victim too. Succubi grow weak and eventually die without absorbing vitality. I had no other choice, so I contracted with Lily. But that woman never kept her promise. She only used her power for her own amusement. I never thought it would come to this. I’m the one whose insides are burning with regret!”
It was the first time I had ever heard a succubus speak like that. While listening to Nora’s testimony and lamentations, Adran gave the succubus a look of utter disdain.
“If that’s how you felt, why didn’t you just surrender?”
“The war was still going on, and all my sisters had already died. Do you really think they would have spared me if I surrendered?”
She had a point. At the time, both the kingdom and the empire had issued orders to kill all monsters on sight, surrender or not. It was retaliation after the Demon King’s forces had seized the empire’s supply routes to the kingdom. Until then, they had occasionally accepted surrenders from the Demon King’s monsters to extract information. But until the hero’s party and the northern Rivelth cavalry recaptured the supply lines, every last monster affiliated with the Demon King was slaughtered.
“Then you bear no sin at all?”
This part interested me.
“When we made the contract, that brazen girl Lily promised to feed me vitality once a week! She even said she would become my comrade. I believed her completely!”
Hmm. That would have been a tempting offer. For a succubus stranded alone in the empire, it must have sounded very attractive.
“Foolish! Then why didn’t you look for another partner?”
“Forming a contract consumes a lot of power. How could I? I was already using what little vitality I had just to survive. Looking for another contractor would have been too risky.”
Nora squeezed out as many tears as she could to survive. At first glance, it almost looked like Lily had been exploiting the succubus.
“So you barely kept yourself alive by taking vitality little by little?”
“There are many ways to absorb vitality. But methods other than sexual intercourse only provide enough to keep you barely breathing.”
“Then would you show us the proof of your contract?”
Seeing it with their own eyes would be far more convincing than hearing about it a hundred times. Even though the brainwashing had been lifted, many of them still couldn’t process the situation. Since there had been a war against the Demon King, some must have studied monsterology. Even these pathetic nobles should recognize the characteristics of a succubus contract.
The succubus glanced around nervously before whispering to me.
“S-Saintess. You really will spare me, right?”
If you do your job properly, there’s no reason not to.
“Of course. Just trust me.”
Or should I smack her again? When I smiled meaningfully, Nora quickly stretched out her hand and activated her succubus power.
Shaaah!
In an instant, a strange tattoo appeared on Lily’s lower abdomen. It looked somewhat erotic, but on that flat, childlike body it was just… mismatched.
“Well? Still going to deny it? Everyone knows now.”
“This is all because that succubus threatened me!”
She had gone so far as to pin every crime on the succubus. How entertaining. If I had left Lily alone, she probably would have risen to the very top of the empire.
“If that were true, you would have reported it to the vigilantes at the time.”
“Sister, why do you always torment me?”
Now she was playing the victim? Watching her, I realized Lily had perfectly absorbed only the worst traits of Cyria and Ella from the hero’s party. Cyria’s constant gaslighting had always driven me insane. Ella was the type who never admitted fault. In the end, I was always the one who suffered from their disgusting personalities. This girl had combined both.
But what could she do? I was a woman now too. I felt no sympathy for her whining, and the evidence was far too perfect for anyone to want to cover for her.
“Then shall we drag you before the knights for a proper interrogation? They have lie detectors, you know.”
If necessary, I could always beat the truth out of her with my mace.
“I-I just wanted to live happily! This is all your fault, Sister! Why is it always you! What did I ever do so wrong? Don’t you realize that everything—my contracting with the succubus—was ultimately because of you?!”
“So you admit it.”
She had finally cracked first. She had confessed with her own mouth.