18 Overlord of a High School (11)

Momonga walked toward the academy as routine, or as routine as one day of doing it, anyway. More specifically, toward the gate separating the academy grounds and the outside world, trying to internally prepare himself for another useless day of grind. In this case, grind his knowledge.

'Hah, maybe I could ask Pandora's Actor to study carefully in school, and then just make him give me everything he learned in one go? No, that's a bad idea. If I do it that way, he'll immediately have questions about why I don't know such basic things – and I can't admit that I only went to elementary school. Not to mention that Nazarick might not know what elementary school is… Or, even worse, Actor might imagine something incredible and teach me some esoteric things instead, forgetting to mention something important because he thinks it's obvious.

Ha, the problem of my subordinates being so much smarter than me, all because I once thought that making Pandora's Actor a 'super genius' was 'cool'. Am I now suffering, just because, for once, I wasn't able to not keep my chuunibyou syndrome under control!?'

Momonga almost raised his fist to the sky and screamed his frustrations, but the suppression of emotion kicked in exactly the moment he approached the school gate, and exactly the moment a stranger's female voice invaded his thoughts.

"Halt evildoer! You shall not pass!" Momonga's entire train of thought suffered a catastrophic crash upon hearing such chuuni exclamations. Then, like a wooden doll, he turned his gaze and found a short girl in pink clothing that could not be called other than 'cute' or 'evoking cute' blocking his path to school. The girl wore a pink top and skirt and beret ensemble that looked like a very expensive, and yet tastefully cute dress. That, along with the girl's overall height and her hair, fashioned into two ponytails descending from the sides of her head, instantly made Momonga think of a mahou-shoujo.

A thought that was only reinforced a moment later when Momonga also noticed the staff in the girl's hands pointed in his direction. It was a white staff with a golden star on top surrounded by a ring, and two small bat-like leathery wings just below the ringed star.

The girl lifted her staff and struck it to the ground, completing her pose, then with a determined but still cute expression turned her gaze to Momonga.

Momonga was instantly ready to attack this unknown potential danger. '[Silent magic: Life Essence], [Silent magic: Mana Essence].'

Momonga's gaze immediately changed – contrary to his expectations, the flame that appeared before him was only suitable for the first level, before his [Arcane Sight] broke through the illusion and spells like [False Data: Life] and [False Data: Mana]. The illusion the girl hid her true capabilities under quickly gave up under the onslaught of his abilities.

'Oh, surprisingly strong being for this local world, at least so far, complacency kills and all that. I would say… hmm, she's about equal to a level seventy mage? Her staff is enchanted, as are all her clothes, though I can't really tell their ranks… At the seventieth level, a mage already has tenth tier magic, so she may well sense my use of [All Magic Item Appraisal], not to mention the possible passive protection from surveillance… Okay, the correct thing to do here would be to start preparing for any possible attack and find out exactly who she is.'

The girl, clearly not expecting Momonga to actually stop after her commands and the 'menacing' stomp of her staff, blinked in confusion, before the previously 'menacing' expression on her face disappeared. Almost immediately after, Momonga had to force himself to remain alert, as the girl devolved into a childish tantrum.

"No, no, not like that, that's not how you're supposed to respond at all! After I proclaimed my command, you were supposed to start walking slowly and inexorably toward me, so I could copy the scene further. Don't you have any respect for the feelings of magical girls at all?!"

After being bombarded by a litany of complaints that didn't make sense at all, Momonga blinked before nodding internally, praising his opponent's tactics. Trying to confuse an opponent is a simple, but very effective PvP tactic, after all. The girl in front of him might pose no threat to him, but if there is an ambush team of several hundredth level creatures nearby while she serves as bait, the situation can become dangerous in a flash. She's definitely distracting enough.

'Hmm, I would use [Gate], but I'd better get information before retreating…'

"I'm sorry," Momonga took a few more steps, deciding to humor the girl to get any information he could. "I didn't know it was so easy to meet a mahou-shoujo in this town just by heading to school."

"Not 'mahou', but 'maou'!" The girl held up her forefinger instructively.

"Maou-shoujo! Do you get it?"

"Maou-shoujo?" Momonga depended on his skills heavily to maintain a poker face and calm in the eve of a battle happening, and even then, his eyebrow raised a little.

'Hmm, so she's a demon? A Demon lord, if I still remember correctly, what 'maou' means… Hmm, quite expected, actually, considering what Pandora's Actor told me about who's ruling over Kuoh Academy, and a level seventy at that. So she's one of the local rulers? She's stronger, higher in base level than any of the Pleiades, excluding Omega, but depending on her equipment level and specific build, her danger level could change drastically. Given how much time and effort the members of Ainz Ooal Gown have put into providing the best equipment for their created NPCs – I'd say she's as strong as Narberal Gamma. Though, given the strange abilities in this new world, I still shouldn't let my guard down. If she's, for instance, specialized in facing Undead, she could be as strong as a level 100 Player.'

"That's right, the cutest demon lord girl in the whole world, Serafall Leviathan, is here!" She smiled while doing a pose with her legs shoulder width apart, extending her hand to the side with the staff to form a triangle. Her other hand was on her face, so her eye was between two fingers, as she grinned. It was clearly a practiced pose, one to display the cuteness of the Maou-shoujo in the best way possible.

Momonga felt his jaw involuntarily fall wide open. 'God, she's like Pandora's Actor! No, worse, Pandora Actor was cool, while this one is trying to be cute instead! Wait… did I just seriously think that Pandora's Actor was 'cool'?! No, get away you dreaded disease! Don't come back to me, I've learned from my past mistakes!'

Inadvertently, Momonga suffered a massive amount of SAN damage.

A moment later, Momonga's brain was forcibly cleared of the shame that struck him in the depths of his soul, far more damaging than any magic Serafall could use. Momonga spent a few moments recovering from the savage blow, after which he returned to his cold reflection. 'Hmm, Serafall Leviathan, is it? She was identified as one of the people responsible for creating the door in the principal's office. And according to Pandora's Actor, she is one of the four demon rulers in this world and probably the strongest demoness – or is it daemonette? In this world. It eases my paranoia somewhat, that even the strongest demoness of this world is someone with level seventy. But then again, it still doesn't mean that she's the strongest demon there is, or that there isn't a demoness significantly stronger than her in hiding. Actually, it doesn't ease my paranoia at all!'

Momonga once again cursed the fact that there are so many unknowns, and even things that he doesn't know, he doesn't know.

"It's nice to meet you, lady Leviathan." Regardless of his inner turmoil. Momonga replied calmly, not allowing any of it to appear on his face. And thanks to his [Create Body], which maintained the last facial expression automatically without his interference, namely his usual quiet politeness, his poker face is impeccable. "My name is Satoru Suzuki."

"I already know that!" Serafall smiled momentarily, as if revealing that finding his identity was something trivial to her, perhaps to intimidate Momonga further? That remains to be seen, Momonga would remain vigilant nonetheless.

"But I still don't know who you are! Would you mind revealing your secrets to this cute magical girl?"

After another moment, Momonga saw Serafall trying to use a spell, reflexively, he was about to use [Triplet Maximized magic: Reality Slash] in response, before Serafall could attack him. Such a spell would have guaranteed that Serafall would suffer catastrophic injuries, unless she had used another illusion under the first level of illusion that concealed her even higher level. Luckily for Serafall, Momonga decided to pause his casting when he realized that the Serafall's spell was not an attack spell, though perhaps not quite innocuous either.

Judging by the way it tried to touch Momonga and dispelling without even reaching him, it was a spell of gathering information.

"It's quite rude, lady Serafall, to try to learn the secrets of your new acquaintances the first minute you meet them." Momonga squinted his eyes slightly, preparing himself to attack or instantly retreat into Nazarick with [Gate], if Serafall decided to increase her aggression.

Serafall, blinking stupidly in surprise as if not expecting the outcome, squinted back, looking at Momonga as she clutched the staff in her hands a little tighter. It seems that the time for playing is over, as the Maou's expression finally turned serious. "I think you understand that I can't just let you into the Academy, can I?"

"I never would have thought that a maou-shoujo would be so opposed to people getting an education…" Momonga spoke before pausing, remembering Demiurge, another Demon, and the fact that almost all the Demons in YGGDRASIL possessed extremely negative karma, in fact the lowest, and immediately corrected himself. "Though I suppose it's to be expected for demons…"

After these words, Serafall only squinted her gaze more, looking at Momonga with no small amount of apprehension.

Momonga sensed that the situation was close to the start of a battle. If Serafall was planning to attack him with an ambush – now was almost the perfect time for that, further delaying was useless. At this point Serafall's thoughts were completely obvious and all Serafall needed was a sign to attack, a second of distraction from Momonga, and with his delayed magic already prepared, she would die at that time as well.

So, Momonga decided to spring the trap himself.

Momonga surreptitiously glanced to the side, taking his eye off of Serafall, waiting for this distraction to serve as a sign to start the battle. There was little point in killing Serafall, with her level, unless she was cloaked in a second layer of abilities that Momonga could not passively ignore, and she was, in fact, much stronger than she first appeared. She was more of a distraction, a decoy and a mild inconvenience, quite likely meant to make Momonga spend some mana before the true battle began.

Depending on her build and abilities, she could withstand several low-level spells from him, opening himself from attack from the hidden assassins. That is, if he didn't want to risk it, he would have opened the battle immediately with something strong like [Triplet Maximized magic: Reality Slash], overkilling her. Which, in turn, meant that he would start the battle with the real enemy with mana spent on one of the most mana inefficient spells, with an expensive metamagic in addition to that.

It wasn't any significant waste for Momonga, but depending on who exactly was sitting in ambush at the moment, it could affect the outcome, as could any minute detail.

'If I knew exactly where the people in hiding were located, I would have already attacked first, but my [Arcane Sight] can only pass through magical obstacles like illusions or invisibility. While the enemy can hide behind a rock and go completely unnoticed to me due to the fact that I have no single [Ranger] level or similar abilities. Casting any detection spell at this point would definitely be construed as an attack.' Momonga continued to stare into Serafall's eyes, letting her do the same in return.

The silent duel of glances dragged on, seeing who would blink first, literally and figuratively. But Momonga, with his undead racial advantage and the ability not to blink if he wished, won the silent confrontation, causing Serafall to blink slowly and very slowly, clearly trying not to lose sight of Momonga. Instead of attacking, Serafall decided to put her staff down and speak. "Maybe we can come to an agreement? A [Contract], to be exact?"

Momonga, instantly sensing the danger of battle beginning to recede, and that talks would begin with Serafall, and probably the Demon side, began to relax. Not fully, of course, springing your trap when you've put your opponent at ease is simply the basics after all.

But… a [Contract]? What does Serafall meant by that? Momonga doubts that it would be the same contracts he was accustomed to during his time as an office worker in his former world. Still, since Momonga lacked the ability to read minds, he decided to let Serafall present what she's talking about and nodded slowly.

Serafall, seeing Momonga accepting her suggestion, seems to return to her previous cheery self, so quickly it was almost as if her previous serious expression were nothing but a mirage.

"How about… Something like you won't attack Sona Sitri and Rias Gremory and their [Peerages]?"

Momonga, now smelling blood in the water like a shark, instantly lunged forward at this vulnerable target. "How will I know which one is which, which students are members of the two's [Peerage], and what about a case of self-defense? If they attack me first, or if they attack my subordinates? What about the theft, the invasion of my house, besides, don't you think, Lady Serafall, that in this case this contract should continue with 'in return I' because, at this point, this contract is extremely one-sided, isn't it?"

Serafall, hearing this such a rapid and verbose response, slowly squinted her eyes, but interrupted herself halfway through, whereupon, a moment later, her gaze changed completely, and her smile returned to her face. And, in an exaggeratedly childish, or 'cute' movement, she stuck her tongue out. Then she covered one eye and touched her head with her fist, as if trying to pull off a mahou-shoujo scene in reality.

Once again, Momonga suffered massive SAN damage, but forged on.

"Oops, magical girls aren't good at bureaucracy, and complicated words. You better discuss those with complicated people!"

Momonga frowned inwardly, then smiled as he found what he thought was a simple solution to the problem, "In that case, maybe it's easier to leave things as they were before? Especially since I haven't given you any reason to suspect me in the past day at the Academy, have I?"

Serafall looked into Momonga's face with a much more keen and tenacious gaze that didn't suit her mahou-shoujo appearance at all, and then she flashed a big and slightly silly smile again. "Sure thing, cutie!"

Momonga blinked, unsure of what he'd heard. 'Cutie?!'

"But you'd better behave yourself!" Serafall raised her index finger again, wagging it slightly as if to admonish a pupil. "Or else this beautiful maou-shoujo will come back and punish you, you boring villain of bureaucracy instead of a weapon!"

Momonga blinked again. 'Villain? Why am I a villain? And why am I wielding bureaucracy instead of a weapon?!'

"Umu, of course" Deciding not to get bogged down by the girl's weirdness, which reminded Momonga too much him of Pandora's Actor, Momonga only nodded. "In that case, if you'll excuse me, lady Serafhall, I have to go… Umu, to class at the Academy."

"Of course, cutie!" Serafall grinned and then moved swiftly to stand by as Momonga walked past her, waving at him. "But remember what magical girl Levi said!"

"Absolutely." Momonga nodded at the veiled warning, as he headed forward towards the Academy. 'Huh, so this ended well without too much trouble… Huh, I'm glad another weird misunderstanding didn't grow out of it.'

***

'So he knows that much about Devils?' Serafall frowned slightly, looking at the back of the departing Satoru, but not letting the seriousness of her thoughts be reflected in her face and body movements with more than a slight frown. Not letting the inner thought of the Demon Lord in charge of Foreign Relations to show. 'What is his true identity, really?'

Devils fulfilled contracts, this part of their identity was known to almost all the peoples and pantheons of Earth. To the point that even ordinary people not privy to the secrets of this world knew about it from legends and stories.

It was also known to many that occasionally a devil could be deceived at the time of a treaty, and would still be forced to keep their part of the deal. And while a devil could pervert the spirit of a treaty, they could not pervert the letter of it, and even though humans knew that the devils would do their best to cheat and lie, humans still made deals.

The reason for this was that the Devils possessed the ability to make iron-clad [Contracts], a magical pact acting on both participants, primarily as a mental compulsion to abide by the [Contract] by reading each participant's mind and memory. A [Contract] is able to determine, on a rudimentary level, whether the Devil acted according to the [Contract]'s stipulations, using the participant's own thought for this determination.

If a participant decided that they were violating the [Contract] by their actions, punishment followed instantly, more specifically, the [Contract] took away part of the [Soul] of the target, transferring it to the other party.

Many of the old generation of Devils gained their power this way, by making [Contracts] with people, then pushing them to break and knowing they had broken it, they gained power quickly and easily. And so the Devils were wary of breaking their own [Contracts], risking losing their power, and their trustworthiness.

Because as Devils were creatures of [Contracts], just completing one would also increase their power, that was why the Devils even bother creating [Contracts] in the first place.

Trust in the devils was never too great, of course. But having a reputation as 'duplicitous assholes who always hold to the letter of a contract, if not its spirit' was better than a reputation as 'duplicitous assholes who cannot be trusted at all'.

Serafall Leviathan, as a maou, a Satan with the title of Leviathan, in charge of the entire Devil faction's foreign relations, understood this well.

In other words, approaching a [Contract] with a Devil, each party could have had different assumptions, either in respect for the spirit or for the letter of the [Contract], which each did not plan to violate. And judging by the way Satoru acted, he held the second position.

But here opened a second problem with the [Contract]. A [Contract] was a powerful and unbreakable ability, but such magic, capable of influencing the [Soul] directly, required great power for its realization.

For weaker Devils, performing minor services in the human world and guided by the 'spirit' of the [Contract], it wasn't too much of a difficulty. The simpler and smaller the request, especially in duration, a [Contract] was, the less effort was required to implement it. The [Contract] to 'cook a meal' or 'beat up my abuser' could be made by low-class devils from the first days of their lives. Fresh from their course to get themselves situated in their new life as a reborn demon, interacting with mere humans who resorted to demons solely to facilitate their otherwise disconnected from magic lives.

However, not all of those who used the services of devils saw them solely as another convenience of life, like a cab or home delivery. Occasionally, a Devil might encounter a powerful figure or even experienced devilogists who wanted something far more sophisticated – a hundred years of service, secret forbidden knowledge, seventh-generation lasting family protection, and the like.

And that, in turn, meant that devils, if they hoped to enter into a [Contract], needed to use a lot of their powers, and the more conditions there were, the more power a devil needed.

A high-class devil could make a [Contract] of a few terms lasting a few months long. While an ultimate class was capable of forming a [Contract] lasting years, with the terms a full-fledged document that would merit the approval of a good lawyer or notary public.

Serafall surpassed even the ultimate-class demons, reaching the penultimate level of power in the Underworld – a Satan-class devil, or Maou-class. Her class is only second in power to the two insane cheaters, Sirzechs and Ajuka, Devils who were so far removed from the other demons that it was not even funny.

For Devils of her power level, she was capable of creating [Contracts] that lasted generations long, with terms that are volumes thick. But it still doesn't mean that she was capable of creating all [Contracts], Serafall could theoretically still exhaust the limit of her powers and face a [Contract] that even she could not make.

And Satoru Suzuki, if that's even his real name, had easily pointed this out to her, simultaneously flicking the nose of Serafall, who had thought that she had the advantage in the negotiations. By reminding her that for all her power, for all the Devil's side power, Satoru Suzuki had easily infiltrated Kuoh without anyone being the wiser. That the Devil's claim to Kuoh meant little to him – all while keeping an unflappable politeness and wisdom in his demeanor.

It was the first time she was threatened so politely.

Serafall knew that she was not the strongest being of this world, she was the strongest girl in the Underworld and might even be the strongest female devil ever. No matter what people say about Grayfia! But, even though she's powerful enough to bring the apocalypse to the human world by her lonesome, she was weak compared to most of the gods of the old religions. Someone like Odin or Zeus would simply wipe the floor with her, and the less said about Sirzechs or Indra the better.

And yet she was strong, quite powerful even, not only within her own faction, but also within the world. Except for the gods, locked in their own dimensions, oblivious to what was going on in the human world, there were a piecemeal number of beings capable of resisting or even surpassing her. There were only a few in all of Japan, the current rulers of Kyoto, for example, Yasaka Kyubi, or Nurarihyon could.

And yet, none of them were able to completely escape her gaze…

Hmm, maybe Nurarihyon could do it, but only in the sense of 'not getting caught by her' rather than 'taking any form and not giving himself away' when Serafall was using her magic.

But her magic couldn't get any information to her about the unknown intruder, after which he only flicked her lightly on the nose, reminding Serafall that she wasn't the strongest in the world.

How cheeky! Serafall Leviathan is a figure known to all, as one of the Maou, one of the strongest devils, even powerful entities like the gods were wary of directly incurring her wrath. They would all play along with her play as a Maou-shoujo, and would not risk offending her by breaking character. A simple trick, but as long as it worked – no one could say that she was using it for nothing.

That, and she liked doing it too! Seeing Sona's embarrassed face is all worth it in her opinion!

And yet, the unknown Satoru Suzuki, not only threw off her act, as if he were used to communicating with the powerful personalities of this world, especially with those as 'informal' as Serafall, every day. But on the contrary, where others would only go into defense – he went into offense, easily unbalancing Serafall from her position and overturning her words. It was as if he couldn't care less about the attitude of the most powerful demoness and the entire demonic faction toward him.

As if he could afford, by right of the powerful, to ignore what world politics saw in him…

And all this despite the fact that he had invaded someone else's territory without revealing a single bit of truth about himself! He had entered the citadel to the two younger sisters of the ruling Satans. After which, when the guards arrived eager to escort the uninvited guest out, or at least to find out by what right he dared do such things now, he only gently scolded the seasoned fighters as silly children. He even politely asked them not to disturb an adult, busy with his own business.

It was as if the threats from the High-Class Devils, who were especially trained for body guarding, didn't even enter his eyes.

On some level, Serafall felt anger at how simply and easily the unknown intruder had smashed her entire prepared attack, figuratively that is. Instead of being startled by the sword held to his throat, he had only noted its lack of quality before easily taking it aside. A threat known as Serafall Leviathan appeared before him.

On some levels she couldn't, even if slightly, not admire the insolent ease with which, betraying his complete confidence in his strength and power, his deep understanding of his own and his surroundings' strength. At his profound intelligence. Satoru had simply walked through every obstacle in his path, without even paying attention to the way the seemingly best guards of the fortress were trying to stop him.

On some primal level, Serafall admired this kind of bold directness, confident strength, and intelligence. Unafraid to show how deep his understanding is of the truth of this world – that with enough power, all is allowed. It's about the same level that children might admire their favorite superhero on the television screen. And yet at the same time…

'What to do now…' Serafall quietly relaxed as Satoru disappeared beyond the Academy's door, but a slight frown still tried to break through, proof of the seriousness of her intentions.

'In fact, Serafall needed to decide on what to do about his ultimatum.'

Just sit back and stay out of my way while I go about my business – I don't even know nor care who Sona and Rias are, is it?

What a bold claim, and an even bolder lie. No, the latter of his claim is impossible, everyone arriving in this town, unless they literally lived under a rock, must know about why this place is devil territory, bought from the youkai. Nor why this territory is guarded so heavily. So he must mean that…

'Hmm, I don't care about your games, I don't care about Sona and Rias, if you sit quietly, I won't even notice your presence and do what I came to do!'

Ha, what great impudence – I should add a character like that to Magical Girl Levi's new season!'

Serafall couldn't hide her giddiness at the great idea she had, before abruptly sobering up.

'But what about Sona – should she just trust him that he won't do anything? What's the alternative to that, ordering her to evacuate the city? Sona won't like that, and who knows how this Satoru will react to such a blatant action. Maybe she should call in the heavy artillery in the form of Sirzechs or Ajuka? No, that won't work, with Satoru being able to completely hide from my abilities, then he must be someone above Satan's level, which means we've got some previously unnoticed god here from somewhere.'

Wondering if she could stealthily bring the two Super Devils to bear, or if she could just evacuate Sona from the city without catching any attention, Serafall had to admit that such a thing is impossible.

'Even with all of Sirzechs or Ajuka's power, they wouldn't be able to contain him without Satoru being able to cause some great damage before he would be defeated. If he could be, that is, given his brash insolence and confidence in power… Ha, has some forgotten pantheon decided to come out of its lair? I believe in Sirzechs and Ajuka's power, but I'm not used to doubting the power of the gods either. So we're stuck with him, we don't know who he is or what kind of power he has, and we have no idea what to do unless we want to explicitly provoke him… Ha, to think, I'm in charge of all the external relations of the devil faction, the social battlefield is literally my job title, and here I am, stumped in ten seconds of negotiation, outplayed on all fronts… Okay, I admit, color me impressed.'

Serafall finally exhaled before turning away. 'Okay, so we'll have to leave him alone for now, at least just increasing the number of observers and guards in the school and preparing additional emergency evacuation methods. The Academy is our territory, so Satoru shouldn't react adversely to this – if he does, we can just point out that this is the Devil's residence, similar to how he already took the Hyoudou family residence under his control. So there shouldn't be too much of a reaction. Ha, in that case we should also stay away from his residence, to prevent any possible provocation. Satoru, why are you such a complicated person, just one meeting, and I'm already stumped! I called you a villain correctly!'

Serafall stomped her foot, not sure if she wanted to convey admiration or annoyance with this gesture, before turning and walking away, ignoring the three pairs of eyes that continued to stare after her.

***

"Is that…" The chesty low voice came from the tall woman with long, deep blue hair running down her back in a single ponytail below her buttocks, ending just above her knees. With her yellow eyes and dress, a crimson colored garment that with some doubt could be considered a short fitted coat with a shirt underneath, that looked slutty and yet still appropriate. Though very barely at that. Completing the outfit, a skirt, and black boots with a rather high heel, blared through the underneath. The figure cut an alluring figure, dripping with sensual temptation.

Though, at this point, with her pupils opened wide in shock, and her expression full of terror, her attractiveness took a great hit. Not at the strange sight of a person cosplaying as a mahou-shoujo right in front of a school, but at the identity of the cosplayer. "Tell me I'm dreaming."

"This will be the first time I won't be glad to upset you in any way, Kalawarna." A high voice came in response to these shocked words, as if from a little girl. Though the identity of the voice looked unmistakably like a young girl, she was anything but, though one couldn't tell from the way she dressed. Dressed in a black dress with white lace and a big black bow in front, the short girl looked like a young, innocent girl. With her blond hair gathered into two ponytails by another black bow, her blue eyes just make her into the complete package of a jail bait.

Seeing that the girl is older than most nations, the dress style might simply be an ironic appellation, or perhaps simply her hobbies. One couldn't really tell with Fallen Angels, after all.

"We, to our great regret, are not asleep."

"Why is the fucking Leviathan here?!" Completing the trio, the source of the cursing was a middle-aged man with a slight unshaven look on his serious, as if carved out of stone face. Wearing a wide cloak over his white shirt and black pants, and a pair of leather gloves that literally made one look at him exclaim 'detective!'. He managed to ask the world only once before Kalawarner, pushed him to the ground and his mouth was immediately clamped by the other girl's hands.

Without even the sudden act of violence, the trio looked completely out of place.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" On the verge between panic and hysteria, the girl continued to press her palms to the face of the man. "Just shut up, Dohnaseek, you're going to kill us all!"

Dohnaseek, realizing he had spoken too loudly, instantly stopped resisting, showing his acquaintance that she could stop choking him, but doing so was not so easy. She was gripped by deathly terror, like she was swimming only to discover that a Great White Shark was just passing by in front of her.

"We're all going to die, we're all going to be killed!" Delirious and mumbling her words, the girl continued to press Dohnaseek to the dirty pavement of the alley. "We're all…"

Abruptly, the sound of a slap resounded through the alley, along with the sound of the girl's body falling off the tall man's body.

"Mittelt, you either come to your senses – or we'll throw you out to Leviathan as a distraction," Kalawarna's harsh words instantly made Mittelt come to her senses before opening her mouth in a mute question and immediately closing it.

"Well, at least that answers the question of where Raynare went and why the hell Issei is still alive." Dohnaseek hummed almost hysterically, which didn't go well with his appearance, before casting an insane look at Kalawarna, who seemed to be the only one in his current state maintaining a semblance of sanity.

"So what do we do now? Run for our lives?"

"If the Leviathan wanted us dead, we would've been dead long ago. If nothing else, how are we supposed to escape from her!?" Kalawarna replied sharply, watching Dohnaseek try to rise from the ground and shake Mittelt off.

"If we try to, we'll just attract more attention to us, but not succeed – someone like the Leviathan only needs to think, and our heads would explode or something."

Mittelt, obviously still not recovered from her panicked state, wrapped her head around herself, as if hoping that in this way she could avoid the fate Kalawarna had described.

"There's no point in trying to kill Issei now, as long as the Leviathan is around, we should sit quietly in our church and pray, ha-ha, to God that we might live to see tomorrow. You can cross out the possibility that Raynare is still around, she probably did something stupid and mouthed off to the Leviathan and got erased for all her troubles. We will have to send Lord Azazel a message that the mission is impossible to accomplish now."

As much as Kalarwarna tried to hide it, her plaid pallor still showed that she was truly shaken from almost coming face to face with the crazy strong Devil.

"Hahaha, of course, Lord Azazel will easily understand us abandoning the mission! He'll have to!" Dohnaseek only threw a half-hearted smile at his exclamation, ignoring the two girls looking suddenly ahead, as if the monster might return suddenly at that point.

"What are you saying, Kalawarna! He may be one of the good ones, but he's still a Fallen - our bosses won't take 'impossible to do' as an answer. What if he ordered us to monitor the Leviathan's movement instead!"

"We'll cross that bridge when it comes – we'll definitely at least get to live another day or two." Kalawarna swallowed nervously before turning her gaze to the morning sky, and sighed.

"I never thought I'd miss Raynare… But the world, as it turns out, is full of surprises."