“What did you say?! Impossible!” Caron ground his teeth. “I understand what kind of person that bastard is better than anyone. That appearance couldn’t possibly be something he disguised, and there’s no meaning in him doing it at all!”

‘That’s why I’m saying you’re terrifyingly stupid, Young Master Caron. I’m already starting to regret cooperating with you.’

‘As for the meaning of doing it—I think any single-celled organism could figure that out.’

Hearing that, Caron fell silent. “Impossible. Absolutely impossible. He absolutely isn’t the kind of person with that kind of scheming. That bastard has always been purely evil!”

‘Alright, put those weakling grievances about not being able to accept reality aside for now. Young Master Caron, you wouldn’t have just contracted the strongest [Divine Armament] and then gotten taken down by your opponent, would you??’ To be honest, [Blood-Debt] felt this was the most unlucky it had been in centuries. The moment it was forced to choose a disposable host, it ran straight into the awakening of a House of Facilis Saintess that had been declining for a hundred years.

No way, right? It couldn’t be that after lying low for centuries and waiting until that blood-calamity incident had completely blown over, it came out at the exact wrong time, could it??

All along, [Blood-Debt] had a secret no one knew.

It wasn’t a case where it could truly swap hosts freely in the strict sense.

There were heavy restrictions.

For example, once it contracted a host, the first three days were a break-in period. It became tightly bound to the host, and within those three days, it couldn’t abandon the host.

If Caron lost, that meant it would go down with him.

So how unlucky did it have to be to run into a host that was this idiotic and dense, while also running into a powerful enemy that hated it to the bone??

A Saintess of House of Facilis was completely hostile to things like it. They never let them off, and their temptation almost never worked.

But fortunately, this Saintess had clearly hidden her identity on purpose and hadn’t received much in the way of resources. She hadn’t fully grown yet. There was still a chance.

‘Hurry up and get serious, Young Master Caron. If you perform badly next, don’t tell me you held back because you care about some “I don’t hit women” principle.’

‘A Dawn Saintess is hard to deal with. If you don’t use full power now, the two of us are going to get packaged up and cleaned out by this pink-haired woman.’

“...If her blood of Facilis is real, do we have a chance?” Caron stared at the cherry-haired holy girl walking toward him. Her cherry hair swayed, peach-pink holy light spilling from her body, as if every step she took automatically purified the filthy soil around her.

‘No chance means you’re not fighting? Right in front of a Dawn Saintess you turned to a demon, tried to kill classmates, and you’re still dreaming about whether you can surrender? Young Master Caron, can you be any more naive?’ [Blood-Debt] sneered.

‘Don’t worry. I’ve lived this long—I’ve seen plenty of Dawn Saintesses. As far as I know, no matter how weird any generation’s Dawn Saintess is, the moment she sees anyone or anything tainted by evil, she never shows mercy.’

‘Understand? Stop roleplaying a knight and a human. You’re standing completely against humanity now. I don’t need to remind you what you should do, do I?’

‘Deal with the Dawn Saintess.’

Caron watched Vanessa and clenched his fist. Even though he had finally obtained the power he’d dreamed of, for some reason, the pressure he felt from Vanessa only grew heavier.

Suddenly, a razor-sharp wind swept in, wrapping around Vanessa’s slender, beautifully shaped legs. She kicked off the ground. Creases formed at the ankle of her white high-heeled boot from the deformation, and a gale shoved her body forward as she closed in.

She shifted her posture midair, and a fierce spinning kick wrapped in storm power smashed toward Caron’s temple.

[Tempest Wind-God Kick]

Vanessa was too fast—so fast that Caron couldn’t react at all. At the last instant, [Blood-Debt] thrust out living blood vessels and blocked her flying leg.

Even so, the torrent-like wind pressure riding her kick shredded quite a few of those living blood vessels.

‘This wind pressure is off. Don’t tell me her wind-element affinity is [Excellent]??’ [Blood-Debt] analyzed.

‘Idiot—why are you spacing out? Get into it already??’

Caron’s scalp prickled from the wind pressure. He snapped back and swung the crimson demon sword in his hand, slashing at Vanessa.

The demon sword dragged countless fine red threads, carrying a sound of ruin as it cleaved toward her.

Vanessa had been ready. The mithril flanged hammer in her hands filled with light-element power, and she slammed it into [Blood-Debt] head-on.

[Stored-Light Smite]

Cherry-colored radiance burst out like fireworks blooming.

Fennia stared at the scene in shock, whispering, “Such an amazing [Stored-Light Smite]... Is this Lady Saintess’s light-element affinity??”

Unlike Fennia’s [Stored-Light Smite], Vanessa’s [Stored-Light Smite] had no charging at all—she released it the instant she wanted to. Yet the power was at least ten times stronger than Fennia’s fully charged strike.

Even so, Vanessa still didn’t completely evade [Blood-Debt]’s slash. But she didn’t get hurt. Using the recoil from the magic collision, she launched herself into the air, flipped backward, and landed steadily, escaping Caron’s continued pursuit.

Seeing that, Caron raised his hand. Countless living blood vessels burst from the ground and lashed toward Vanessa, trying to bind her again and restrict her movement.

But Vanessa’s speed and reactions were on a completely different level from before. She dodged the blood vessels pulling toward her with quick, precise bursts of movement. Finally, she shifted to the side, grabbed the last living blood vessel trying to wrap her, and with her pale hands in white gauze gloves—one gripping the front, one gripping the back—she put her full strength into it and tore it clean in two, tossing it by her feet like trash.

A thread of holy light bloomed over Vanessa’s hands, clearing away the filth on them in a kind of “high-temperature sterilization.” She was clearly extremely repulsed by those disgusting things.

When those ordinary methods could no longer do anything to Vanessa, Caron’s pupils constricted. Veins bulged across his body. He moved like lightning, charging in.

Vanessa lifted the mithril flanged hammer to block and counter. Their speeds were so fast they left afterimages. You couldn’t see the shapes of any individual exchanges—only endless metal impacts, spraying countless sparks.

Watching from the side, Amisha and Fennia stared in stunned disbelief. They both felt their eyes couldn’t keep up at all, and they couldn’t help but worry for Vanessa.

In only an instant, the mithril flanged hammer clashed with [Blood-Debt] back and forth several times.

Caron hadn’t expected Vanessa to be this capable. Even with the enormous boost from [Blood-Debt], he was still trading blows with her.

Under such violent collisions, the pulsing demonic power around [Blood-Debt] kept battering the mithril flanged hammer. Hairline fractures spread across it. Finally, during one clash, the cracks widened. The hammer couldn’t endure it, and it shattered into two pieces.

Vanessa had already realized the mithril flanged hammer was about to fail under [Blood-Debt]’s relentless pressure, but she was being tangled up by Caron and couldn’t withdraw. All she could do was watch the mithril flanged hammer that had followed her into battle ever since the goblin cave get cleaved in half by [Blood-Debt].

Caron and [Blood-Debt] naturally wouldn’t let such a perfect opening pass. The straight blade stabbed straight for Vanessa’s heart.

Vanessa’s eyes narrowed slightly. And at that moment, a dazzling sacred light formed at her wrist—and at the same time, a slightly childish shout rang out.

“Charging’s finally finished! Don’t be scared, Facilis big sister—I’m here to save you!” A golden-glittering, platinum, zither-shaped half-body cross shield appeared on Vanessa’s slender wrist wrapped in white gauze.

From both sides of that platinum cross shield, a pair of huge angel wings spread open. A platinum-white barrier like silk and gold gauze rose up, protecting Vanessa entirely inside it.

“Clang! Clang!” The sword edge carrying heavy dark-element power was blocked dead by the cross-veil barrier.

Caron felt like he’d been carried forward by his own sword and slammed into a mountain mid-sprint. He was forced to a stop so hard his whole body felt like it was going to fly from inertia.

‘That winged shield is...? ...Why does she have that??’ [Blood-Debt] felt like it was on the verge of collapsing.

It had thought she was only a not-yet-grown Saintess of House of Facilis—but she even had the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield]!

If she also had that thing on her, and she was even in the Master realm, then she’d be a complete Dawn Saintess!

“What... is that thing?” Caron understood even less what the hell the thing on Vanessa’s wrist was.

‘Don’t worry about it. She probably still doesn’t know how to use the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield]. While you can, finish her.’

“That cross shield... it looks like...?” Fennia felt like she’d seen that white-feather cross shield somewhere before, but she couldn’t quite remember clearly.

“That is the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield], one of the weapons and sacred relics of the Dawn Saintess.” Amisha’s eyes flickered. Her tone was light, yet careful. “If I remember correctly, that holy shield went missing when the previous Dawn Saintess, Sophia Facilis, fought the Ten-Thousand-Demons Fox King in her final battle. To this day, its whereabouts are still unknown.”

The reason she didn’t call Sophia the last Dawn Saintess was because Amisha knew that Sophia would no longer be the last Dawn Saintess.

“So Lady Saintess... she already found the sacred relic left behind by the previous Saintess??”

“Looks like it.” Amisha stared deeply at Vanessa’s back as she fought. “Lady Saintess... when we didn’t know, she went through so much. She suffered so much.”

“....” At those words, Fennia felt a surge of shame she couldn’t bear. She fell silent, not knowing how to respond.

Some of that suffering had even come from her immature self back then.

She didn’t know whether she’d caused Lady Saintess too much trouble.

“You?” Vanessa also reacted—she recognized who was speaking to her, and what the cross shield that appeared on her wrist was.

“Heehee! Facilis big sister~ It’s me! It hasn’t even been that long—how could you forget me already?” Vanessa heard that extremely ingratiating, coquettish voice in her head.

How should she put it? She couldn’t quite process it.

Not that she couldn’t process who it was—just that the difference in attitude was so huge that it made her wonder if it was even the same person. Or rather, the same shield. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“Sorry, sorry! Even though I came out, I was still absorbing energy just now! I can’t come out to help you until I’m done absorbing it—don’t blame me, okay~” The little angel’s mischievous voice echoed in Vanessa’s mind.

Vanessa didn’t speak. She only watched Caron as he stabbed wildly at the cross-shield barrier.

“Ah! Facilis big sister, however you want is fine, scold me a bit if you want—just don’t stop talking! Say a few words! Don’t ignore me!” Seeing Vanessa not respond, the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] grew a little anxious.

“How could I blame you?” Vanessa’s lips curled slightly. When the girl’s smile rippled, every charm in the world seemed to bloom.

“You came at exactly the right time, Miss Holy Shield. Thank you for appearing in time and saving my life.”

“Hehehe! Really?” Being praised and coaxed like that by Vanessa, the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] practically melted, giggling nonstop.

“My apologies~ The reason I didn’t speak earlier is probably that I misunderstood you.” Vanessa’s lips held a warm, spring-breeze smile.

“Huh? Misunderstood me?”

“Yes. At first, I defined Miss Holy Shield as someone with a tsundere persona who wasn’t good at expressing herself. But now it seems Miss Holy Shield... isn’t actually that bad at speaking~?”

“When you want to talk, you’re actually quite good at it?”

“Ah—uhh.” Vanessa’s words instantly left the little angel flustered.

Of course she could tell Vanessa was openly and secretly teasing her «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» about the shift in attitude.

But still—Vanessa gave her plenty of face, pinning it on “not being good at expressing herself.”

That familiar feeling instantly reminded her of the previous Saintesses.

Still... worthy of being the descendant of the Dawn Saintesses. Even the way she spoke was exactly like every Saintess before her. Even when she’d been tearing apart those filthy living meat-snakes with her bare hands just now, she’d been that elegant—and she’d still remembered to clean the grime off her hands, keeping up a lady’s image at all times, even while fighting.

That was it. That was the feeling.

Now that hits the spot!

This was the feeling of a goddess-blood descendant—a proper lady of House of Facilis!

Completely different from how she’d been before.

When Vinny cursed her, the little angel would burn red with anger. But when Vanessa gave her that soft, cutting, sarcastic edge, the little angel only went heehee inside, begging for another line.

And at this moment, the greatest joy likely came from the fact that the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] had seen new hope.

House of Facilis...

Had a successor.