My exams ended!... momentary happiness...

The moment the notification appeared, an explicit smile formed over Noah's face. He felt relieved. The mission stated to "help Rias" but didn't state whether it should be direct or indirect.

He was glad that "helping Rias" didn't mean to directly interfere but just helping her to win was enough.

He raised his hand and a small fire appeared over his finger. It moved wherever he moved his finger too as if dancing with joy.

It made Noah's eyes narrow slightly. His control over the manipulation of fire was already quite good, the reason being obvious, but he always felt whenever he used fire, it was not "his".

It felt more like borrowed power, but right now, he felt closer to the created fire than ever. It felt like another part of his body!

He raised his other finger, clasping it together with his index finger, a small spark happened before some electric current danced around them—Lightning Bending!

To be honest, in all honesty, in the whole Avatar World, the only bending that he really loved was Fire Bending. And it was not the fire that he loved, but the sub-bending one would get from the Fire Bending—Lightning Bending!

Though all that dancing part was cringe, he could feel that he didn't need any of that really. Maybe it was an Avatar World thingy?

Anyway, now that his mission was completed, there was no need to stay there any further so he stood up and said.

"I will take my leave then, anyway, there isn't anything else to do here anymore. It is definitely not because of the presence of some black-haired dude beside me."

"Are you talking about me?" Tobio felt all this hatred pointed at him was confusing. It was not like he had attacked Noah's family or something.

"Oh no, dear me, why would you think so?" Noah looked toward him with an aghast expression before smiling. "It is definitely not because of you. I am just talking about this imaginary black-haired dude…"

"... Not going to wait till Rias comes?" Ignoring the awkward atmosphere, Sona inquired.

"Hmmm nah! She is probably going to meet with her brother first and then come back. It is probably going to take her some time." Noah said and shrugged. "I'll just wait. Either meet her tomorrow or…whenever, I don't know."

Sona nodded in understanding.

"Oh! I almost forgot, but did you get a new member in your Peerage recently, no?" He did hear it from Rias that the time he was training in the mountains, Sona got another member in her peerage.

"Yes. I will introduce her tomorrow. She is quite… "weird" per se. But I think you will take quite liking to her."

"Oh." Noah looked genuinely interested. Though most of it was due to "he" changing to "she". "By the way, what is her sacred gear, if she has one?"

Sona's eyes shone as she stared at Noah's face weirdly before shaking her head. "You will know it once you meet her."

"Being mysterious now, really? Well, anyway, I will leave then." He waved his hand before leaving the ORC room.

Sona turned to look towards Tobio, making him embarrassingly scratch his cheek. "I will leave too then. Thank you for having me." With a bow, he also left.

"What now Kaichou?" After Tobio left, Tsubaki softly inquired, making Sona raise her brow.

"What do you mean what now?"

"Are you not interested in the titles Tobio-san called Noah with?"

"You are saying as if you are not."

A blush crept on Tsubaki's cheeks after she was caught. Indeed, like Sona, she was quite interested in the titles Tobio called Noah with. She realized she didn't know much about Noah's past, as someone who she loved, she really wanted to know more about him.

"I will ask my sister." Staring at the face of her Queen, Sona sighed helplessly and said. "I am sure Onee-san must know the truth. The way both Tobio and Noah were talking, it seemed to be some higher-ups secret or something. Even if we want to know, we might not get it from normal means. Asking my sister might be the best option we have."

Tsubaki nodded. She also understood this, so she didn't add anything else to the convo.

"Then, let's go. With Rias's engagement canceled, we also have no reason to stay. I need to go through some papers, let's go home and check them."

…

"You are going to meet Rias?" Sitting in the observation room, Ajuka asked his friend, the current Satan.

Sirzechs nodded his head with a smile. "I must go and congratulate her. Anyway, it has been a while since I met her. We barely talked to each other after she went to the human world, so I will take this opportunity to talk with her."

"I see…" Ajuka nodded. He looked towards Sirzechs and said. "I will also come then. I want to ask Rias about the ability she used to reverse the effect of Phenex Tear and Riser's healing factor."

"Good." Sirzechs nodded. "Then let's go together."

Grayfia silently followed after them as they appeared in a completely different room, one where Rias and her peerage were already present and resting. The toll of using Reversal was not small, and they might need to rest for some days before going back to their normal lives.

Their presence instantly gained the attention of the people inside, making them hurriedly stand up but stopped as Sirzechs waved his hand and walked towards Rias and hugged her, making the redhead girl embarrassed.

"Rias, you and your peerage did a great job! I am proud of you!" Gripping her shoulders tightly, Sirzechs stared at her face and said with a big smile on his face.

"Hehehehe!" Rias sheepishly laughed, obviously fluttered and embarrassed to hear him. But then she remembered something and shook her head. "If not for Noah, then I might not be able to win this game… It was he who trained us and provided us with the means to defeat Riser."

"Even so, you must have put a lot in training yourself. You have grown a lot since the last time I have seen you." Sirzechs softly said before making a face of epiphany and hurriedly added. "Ah, you reminded me, be sure to invite Noah to the underworld during summer vacation! Mother wants to meet her future son-in-law for some time now."

"O-Onii-sama!" Rias flustered and shouted, embarrassed at what her brother just said.

Sirzechs sheepishly laughed before looking towards Akeno and the rest. "You guys did a great job too. I am glad that Rias has you guys backing her up, or I don't know how worried I would be for her otherwise."

'She is quite troublesome after all…' Grayfia and Ajuka said internally.

"Congratulations on your win, Rias." Seeing that Sirzechs was done talking, Ajuka said.

"Thank you Ajuka-sama."

Ajuka shook his head before asking with interest. "By the way, the ability you just used, can you tell me what it is? I am quite interested in it."

"That…" Rias embarrassingly smiled and said. "Forgive me, Ajuka-sama, but I can't share information about it. It was Noah who taught us this ability, and he asked us to not spread it out."

"Is that so…" Ajuka's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Come on Ajuka!" Sirzechs slapped the shoulder of his friend and said with a big smile. "Stop thinking about your research for a second or you will remain single your whole life!"

"I don't see how these two things make any sort of connection in the current situation though…" Ajuka tiredly said with a sigh. "Whatever. Since you are inviting that kid, I will ask him personally then."

"Anyway, Rias, you should come with me. I am hosting a party for your win, though I would love to have Noah too, I highly doubt he would come to the underworld right now." Sirzechs said with a wry smile. He seemed to know some stuff about Noah and knew he would not join the party right now even if invited.

Rias made a slightly hesitant face. She wanted to go and meet Noah right now so she can… "thank" him for all his help, but then she decided to hold it for later. She won't be coming to the underworld till summer vacation, so she decided to spend some time with her family.

"Alright. After everyone gets some rest, I will join Onii-sama for the party."

"Great!" Sirzechs suddenly felt more cheerful, a big smile forming on his face. One could easily tell that he was a real sis-con, seeing how happy he looked just by spending some time with his sister. "Then I shall go and get everything ready."

'I can finally take some break from all that paperwork… For Lucifer's sake, with Grayfia around, it is really hard to slack off. With Rias here now, I can use her as leverage to skip the paperwork!' He internally shouted with tears rolling down his eyes. He would never say that out aloud or Grayfia might really beat him up this time…

…

|—Shizume Town, HOMRA Bar, Japan—|

The soft and gentle wind of the night covered the sky of Shizume Town.

On the rooftop of the HOMRA Bar, the headquarters of Red Clan, a young man of average height with messy, white hair and amber-colored eyes stared at the night sky filled with beautiful stars.

His hand opened as if to hug the whole world, and he softly sang. His voice was neither loud nor soft, but it was enough for any person close to him to hear.

As he was singing merrily, another man appeared on the rooftop—a thin young man with neatly-combed light brown hair. He held a camera in his hand and an expression of surprised flash on his face as he found another man there.

"Enjoying the night sky, it sure is beautiful." He said, gaining the attention of the white-haired boy and promoting him to stop singing.

"Hm?" The white-haired boy turned around, staring at the brown-haired kid.

"Here! I got a new camera today." The brown-haired kid said joyfully. Obviously happy to get a new camera. He was excited to show it to everyone, even to the stranger in front of him. "I was thinking of catching the night stars today, how about you give me a smile? I will record it too."

"A smile?" The white-haired boy muttered before nodding, a regal grin forming on his face, catching the brown-haired boy off-guard. "How about you smile for me? It would be bad if you die without a smile after all."

"Huh?" A baffled voice left the brown-haired boy before…

BANG*

The silence of the night was disturbed by a loud gunshot before it was returned. The brown-haired boy was still confused, confused until he felt a hot tingling sensation down his chest.

Slowly, he looked down and touched his chest—warm… and wet. He was shot!

"Damn… If you didn't want to smile then just tell me… was there really a need to… shoot me? … Fuck… People sure are sensitive these days…"

All energy left his body before he fell onto the ground, blood painting everything beneath him.

"HAHAHAHA! SO WEAK! DAMN! People of the Red Clan sure are weak!" The white-haired kid laughed loudly. As if finding something hilarious before he turned around and opened his hands once more. "AHHH! It feels so fucking great to be able to move once again! Sigh… We should move then."

Saying so, he jumped off the building! But instead of falling down, as if on an invisible platform, he jumped in the air. With a sonic bomb, his figure vanished in the night sky.

Blurring past one building after another, he stopped at a building some miles away from HOMRA Bar—two people were present there currently.

One had five pairs of jet-black wings on his back while the other sat on the wheelchair, both seemed to be waiting for the white-haired boy.

"Did you kill him?"

"Okie Dokie! A bullet direct to his heart!" The white-haired boy said merrily.

"Was it really necessary to get him to do it?" The Fallen Angel said with slight annoyance. "What if that kid found out about her? We can't have our plans fail right at the end."

"Heh. Are you scared, Mr. Crow? Sure is a funny thing to hear from someone who survived the Great War." The white-haired kid mockingly said.

The eyes of Fallen Angel narrowed slightly in ridicule and annoyance but he didn't say anything else. Once the mission is complete, he will personally take the job of killing this idiot.

"Don't worry. Once he leaves the body of someone, the host will not remember anything nor would feel anything wrong. He can go back and possess her just fine, it would not be a problem." The person sitting in the wheelchair said. "With this done, we will wait till the Red King and Blue King fight among each other. At that moment… We will attack the Golden King and kill him! If you want to start the Great War once more, the presence of Slate and the existence of Kings is very crucial."

"Can you even kill that old man?" The Fallen asked with slight doubt. "I know that old man quite well. If it's him, killing him isn't going to be easy."

"You don't need to worry about that. As long as you can halt others, killing him is not hard. If there is any person in the world who can kill him among humans, not including the Silver King, then that is me!" The person in the wheelchair said with confidence before greenish energy started to form around his body. "You people just need to worry about your part and I shall do so for mine."

Instantly, his body was fully covered by a green aura before a thunderclap resounded and the person vanished into the thin air. Though the most adapted description would be that he moved at the speed of lightning that it was close to impossible to see him moving.

"Hear him? Do your part well, Colorless King. Do not disappoint me. Or I will make sure to skewer you with light spears." Saying, he flapped his wings and vanished into the night sky, leaving the white-hair kid alone.

"Stupid, so stupid! They think that they can order me around, hahaha, how stupid!" He laughed loudly into the night sky, his face turning into one filled with bliss and anger. "Just wait… I will kill you all soon enough!"