Shokei Shoujo no Ikiru Michi (Virgin Road) (処刑少女の生きる道) is a light novel series written by Mato Sato and illustrated by Nilitsu. It also received an anime adaptation back in 2022. The series is now complete with 11 volumes (released between 2019 and 2025), and I have already read 9 of them as of today.

The story follows the life of Menou, a top-class Executioner for the Church. She goes around killing people who get summoned to this world. This is necessary to prevent them from becoming major disasters once they inevitably lose control of the power they gain during the summoning (becoming Lost Ones that would ravage the world).

Her current task is to kill a high school girl named Akari Tokito, who was summoned by King Grisarika (since the clergy sits above the nobility in this world). The issue is that Akari holds the "Pure Concept of Time" as her power, making it impossible to kill her through normal means because time just reverts immediately upon death.

Menou decides to play friendly, forging a bond with her while subtly escorting her to a specific location where her death can be finalized using powerful magic. She is supported from the shadows by another Executioner and close friend, Momo.

Of course, things are not that simple. The story takes different turns at every step, and the scope of Menou's journey becomes bigger and bigger as more secrets about the world, Akari, and herself are revealed volume after volume.

The main characters of this story are:

Menou

A serious and unwavering agent of the Church against the Lost Ones. As a child, she was the sole survivor of an accident involving a Lost One. The disaster left her soul "bleached" and wiped away her memories, according to Flare and the Church.

Akari Tokito

Beautiful, energetic, and cheerful. She is completely clueless about the things happening around her and seems to think that her meeting with Menou is destiny.

Momo

A young priestess working under Menou. She is deeply in love with Menou and views Akari with jealousy due to how close she gets to Menou during their travels.

Ashuna

The Warrior Princess from the Grisarika Kingdom. She doesn't care at all about the kingdom and is only focused on finding stronger opponents to fight. She seems to have taken a liking to Momo and continues to follow her during the journey.

Flare

Menou's teacher and superior officer. She's the most powerful Executioner and has big influence in the clergy. She has the ability to remember what happened in previous iterations of the world, which allows her to plan accordingly for Akari's death.

Pandæmonium

One of the "Four Lost Ones" that ravage the world endlessly. She appears as a 10-year-old girl, even though it has been over a thousand years since she became a Lost One. Her Pure Concept is "Evil", which allows her to summon endless armies of monsters.

From this point on I will talk about spoilers assuming you have already read the content up to volume 9, so be aware.

I was quite surprised when Menou learned about herself being just a fragment of the "White Hero" Shirakami Hakua. This makes most of her past actions complete lies. There was never a real risk for the Lost Ones because the old world possessed technology to restore their memories, meaning they would never become Lost Ones as long as they used it.

Everything was driven by Hakua's wish to get back to Japan together with Akari. She learned that in the future, Akari would reach this world (carrying the Pure Concept of Time necessary for the procedure). So, she started preparing everything needed to teleport back, even at the cost of destroying this planet.

She betrayed her friends (like Maya, who became Pandæmonium) to create a mass of energy large enough for the travel back. She manipulated the clergy to control the world and kept track of every summoned human, waiting for the moment to act once Akari was summoned.

In the climax of the first half, when faced against Hakua, Menou and Akari get separated after Akari temporarily goes into Lost One mode and Menou absorbs her Pure Concept. Menou then has to use Akari's time power to prepare to face Hakua, despite losing her memories with every usage. It got to the point where she forgot the very reason she was fighting in the first place.

The second half of the story delves into the past, explaining more of Hakua's motives and the lives of her friends before they became the monsters ravaging the world. It is really nice to have context about how things unfolded before the final showdown, though I have to say that some of the developments felt a bit quick due to time constraints.

My favorite character so far is definitely Maya, the fragment of Pandæmonium that regained her memories as a human from before the betrayal. Her relationship with Sahara is extremely fun to see, and I generally love her way of speaking. Plus, she is extremely cute

As of the end of the 9th volume, the trio (Akari, Momo, and Menou) are finally back together with their memories restored after a huge journey of Akari and Momo to try and restore Menou memories and prevent her death. They are now prepared for the last battle against Shirakami Hakua to decide the fate of the world.

I am going to read the last two volumes in the coming weeks to complete the series and I will do a post for each one. Looking forward to seeing how they wrap up the story.