Chapter 18 - Canis Lykaon & General Meeting

"Oh? Who are you?" Lavinia asked with a smile. Her cold eyes, however, hinted at her readiness to freeze the girl if she was an enemy.

"M-My name is Minagawa Natsume. That boy is a student from my school. Can you guys let him go?" Natsume said, hesitating slightly. She had been sent to deliver an egg to Tobio, but upon arrival, she saw him fighting with a girl and realized she stood no chance against either of them.

"Let him go? Hehe. How about you come down here first? I don't like it when someone stares at me from above." Ryuuga said coldly, creating a magical chain to bind Natsume.

"Ah!" Natsume couldn't react in time as the chain wrapped around her and her hawk, pulling her toward the ground.

How dare she look down on him (literally)? Court death! He was an Immortal Emperor, and no one had ever dared to do that in his previous life. Even before he became one, he had killed all those who looked down on him.

"Ugh!" Natsume groaned in pain as she landed on the ground.

Ryuuga and his maids knew who Minagawa Natsume was. She was the current wielder of Qiong Qi, one of the Four Fiends, and a primary target of the Utsusemi Agency. The hawk on her shoulder was the avatar of Qiong Qi, which she called Griffon. Quite a weird name for a hawk.

"You reek of fallen angels. Are you connected to them?" Akeno suddenly asked, sniffing Natsume. She could sense a connection with the fallen angels.

"Ugh… Fallen angels? No, I've never met them." Natsume answered, sitting on the ground, still chained. Despite the discomfort, her enhanced physique from awakening her Sacred Gear kept her from serious injury.

"No, you're right, Akeno. She is connected to Azazel." Ryuuga said. Knowing the plot, he was aware of her backstory.

"Azazel? The Governor-General of Grigori?" Lavinia said, surprised. She hadn't expected the girl in front of her to be connected to Grigori. Didn't that make her an enemy of Akeno?

Hearing this, Akeno's eyes turned murderous as lightning crackled in her palm. She was ready to electrocute Natsume.

"W-Wait! I did know about the Governor-General, but I didn't know his name was Azazel!" Natsume panicked, seeing the deadly intent in Akeno's eyes. She knew she was in real danger if she didn't come clean.

"She's not lying." Rias said, nodding. As a devil, she could use her power to read Natsume's mind and knew she was telling the truth.

"Hmph." Akeno snorted, deactivating the Holy Lightning in her palm.

Seeing this, Natsume sighed in relief, having narrowly saved her life.

"Don't you know? You're being used by Azazel right now." Ryuuga said. He had read the Slash Dog series in his previous life, though only three volumes had been released.

It wasn't clear yet how Natsume had met Azazel, but he could guess. Azazel had probably approached her directly and told her about her friends.

"Used? I don't know what you mean. The governor-general came to me and said he knew about my friends' condition and told me about the supernatural world. I followed him only because I wanted to save my friends. I didn't even ask his name before." Natsume explained, confusion evident in her voice.

It seemed Ryuuga's guess was spot on. That's just how Azazel operated. As expected of the leader of the fallen angels, he was manipulative as always.

"Wake up. Azazel is the leader of the fallen angels. If he wanted, he could save your friends directly. The fact that he asked you to join him means he has something else in mind. He probably wants to make you part of his force alongside this Tobio guy." Ryuuga continued. Azazel himself was on par with a dragon king. How could he be threatened by mere monsters and humans?

Natsume fell silent as she listened. What Ryuuga said made sense. Why had Azazel approached her by talking about her friends? Couldn't he save them himself if he wanted to?

Ryuuga smiled as he saw Natsume contemplating. It seemed his words were sinking in. He continued telling her about Azazel and Grigori, exposing their true nature.

As he went on, Natsume's view of the fallen angels changed. She realized she couldn't trust them anymore. Ryuuga wasn't lying though. Many male fallen angels had fallen from Heaven because they couldn't control their lust.

"Then, how should I save my friends?" Natsume frowned. She couldn't do it alone, but she also didn't want to have any relationship with the fallen angels.

Especially after seeing Akeno and Ryuuga's might. She didn't think the fallen angels stood a chance against them. She didn't want to be hunted by Akeno, who hated those affiliated with fallen angels.

"Can I take her with me?" Akeno, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up. It seemed she was planning something. Natsume immediately felt a chill run down her spine.

"Sure." Ryuuga answered with a smile. He could guess that Akeno probably wanted to use her to fight against Grigori. Using someone Azazel had targeted to become one of his underlings to fight him seemed like spitting in Azazel's face.

Because it was intriguing, Ryuuga accepted it without hesitation.

Most of you may ask why he suddenly became evil and started hunting supernatural forces. His only answer was because he didn't like them after reading the novel. The plot was okay, but the characters were just pure trash.

It was like they were being portrayed too positively for their backstory. Not only that, he had had enough whenever the protagonist got powered up by touching breasts and nipples.

This kind of novel only showed the good side of the characters and not the bad side. Like how Azazel fell from Heaven because he had sexual intercourse with a human. It didn't mention his other evil deeds, such as how many humans he had experimented on in the past.

There was no way he could research Sacred Gears without finding their wielders and conducting inhumane experiments on them.

Back on topic, as agreed, he took out a Master Card and used it on Akeno.

"Hmm~" Akeno moaned as her power increased. Now, she was a sub-master of Ryuuga's vassals, and her rank had increased to High-Stage Grandmaster Realm.

"Fufufu. You will become my archer." Akeno giggled as she summoned the Archer Card into her palm. Then, she slowly walked towards Natsume, who was bound on the ground.

"W-Wait… Nooooo!"

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Arcadia, a few minutes later.

Ryuuga was alone in his laboratory, with Tobio's body resting on the lab bed. Floating above his palm was a dark black blade.

This was the Canis Lykaon that he had extracted from Tobio using 20,000 Destiny Energy. Fortunately, he had previously possessed 200,000 of them, leaving him with 180,000 now.

Carefully, he inserted the blade into his chest. If it were a normal blade, his chest might have been bloodied, but this black blade caused no injuries and was seamlessly absorbed into his body.

"Come out." Ryuuga muttered, activating the Canis Lykaon. As he did, a large black dog emerged from his shadow.

"Woof woof!" The black dog barked, its tongue lolling out in excitement. It seemed thrilled to be Ryuuga's Sacred Gear.

Having previously fought Akeno while inside Tobio, the dog now held great respect for both Akeno and Ryuuga, recognizing Ryuuga as more powerful due to the vast difference in energy between them.

"Now, what should I do with you..." Ryuuga mused, casting a glance at Tobio. Despite his initial urge to torture him, he felt a sense of contentment now. Tobio hadn't wronged him in any significant way, so he saw no reason to be excessively cruel.

"Forget it. Live on and forget about everything. Put Sae out of your mind and live peacefully as a normal human until the end of your days." Ryuuga declared, activating his Mind Control and Memory Alteration abilities. It was one of the powers available to a devil.

He resolved to erase Tobio's memories of anything connected to the supernatural world. If, by some chance, Tobio remembered and sought revenge, Ryuuga would not hesitate to deal with him accordingly.

"From now on, your name will be Kuro." he announced to the large black dog, giving its head a pat. "It's better than Xiao Hei, right? Most Chinese MCs in the novels I've read named their black dogs Xiao Hei. Although 'Kuro' and 'Xiao Hei' mean the same thing, hehe."

"Woof!" Kuro agreed, nodding its head with a bark.

"Let's see... let's see. What's your gender?" Ryuuga pondered, curious about the gender of the Canis Lykaon. He reached down to lift its hind legs, inspecting closely. Hm... he didn't see any male anatomy. Was it a girl?

"Woof!" Kuro seemed to understand his inquiry, responding with a bark and playfully nipping at his neck.

"Hey, cut it out, you silly dog!" Ryuuga laughed, taken aback by Kuro's unexpected reaction. It seemed she was a bit shy. Well, at least her playful nip didn't hurt.

Lycaon, the King of Arcadia, is male. So why is the Canis Lykaon female? Does it only inherit the attributes and story and not Lycaon himself, sealed inside the Longinus? Well, that's Ryuuga's current hypothesis.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

After extracting the Canis Lykaon from Tobio, he teleported him home using his Teleportation Magic. He knew Tobio's address because he read his mind while removing memories of the supernatural.

Now back at the Hanging Garden with the others, Ryuuga gathered them in the meeting room. There was an addition: the black dog Kuro and the host of Qiong Qi, Minagawa Natsume.

"Tomorrow, we'll go to the base of the Utsusemi Agency and obliterate them. I won't come since it's an easy task. Who among you will be the vanguards?" Ryuuga asked the girls.

Almost all of them raised their hands except for Fujimai, Cleria, and Shuri, the adults focused on teaching rather than fighting on the front line.

"Well then, Akeno, Lavinia, Natsume, Tosca, and Isabela, you will be the ones to go tomorrow." Ryuuga decided. He chose them based on their relevance to the plot and their combat skills, especially in defense and close combat.

"Nii-sama, can't I go?" Shirone asked with a pitiful face, sitting beside him. She really wanted to join them.

"...Well, Shirone can also go." Ryuuga decided, unable to resist her cute plea. He trusted his maids to protect Shirone from harm, knowing she was already on par with an Ultimate-Class Devil and would be fine even on her own.

The other girls looked at their master weirdly. This master had no integrity at all!

Fujimai and Kuroka seemed to want to object, but they ultimately decided to trust their master. They also didn't want to see Shirone become sad.

"Um... Do I need to wear this?" Natsume suddenly asked, blushing as she glanced at her maid uniform.

"Ara~ Is there something wrong, Natsume-san?" Akeno replied with a gentle yet sadistic smile, despite being only 13 years old, already acting like a sadistic older sister.

"N-No! Nothing's wrong!" Natsume shook her head almost immediately, feeling intimidated by Akeno despite her younger age.

"Okay. If there's no objection, the meeting has ended. Let's enjoy our meals now." Ryuuga concluded with a smile, waving his hand as food suddenly appeared on the table.

Having been trained for years to eat together with their master, the maids didn't hesitate to dig in. Natsume's eyes sparkled at the sight of the food, and she immediately began gobbling it down, finding it both delicious and tempting.