Chapter 967 Heart Raising Note

Kisuke and Aika soon reached a private saloon and they immediately gathered everyone's attention, "Kisuke! You made it!" Issei waved his hand at him in glee and approached them with Rias on her side carrying their firstborn, Ex.

"Good afternoon. Sorry for arriving just now."

"It's fine. We understand where you're coming from. It's just a shame that we can't do anything about it."

Aika hurriedly separated from Kisuke and jogged toward Rias, "Looks like he got tired, huh." Aika muttered while pinching the cheek of the sleeping baby.

Rias smiled and replied, "He was awake before you arrived. Want to hold him?"

Aika looked at her and asked with shining eyes, "Are you sure? I'd be happy to!"

While watching Rias carefully pass Ex to Aika, Issei urged Kisuke to move alongside him, not towards everyone else, but outside of the saloon.

When they leave, Rias waved them goodbye while telling them to take their time despite her and Aika's confusion.

And when they got out, Issei immediately led Kisuke to the garden while casting a Veil Magic that blocked both sight and sound from going out.

As soon as Issei sat down, his calm demeanor immediately crumbled down and he let out an exasperated sigh, "Hey, that note you sent me the other day. Are you serious?"

The other day, a note suddenly came to Issei bearing a familiar scent of Magic, and written to it was, [I'm going to ExE~! If I'm not able to attend Ex's birthday, I'm probably still on the other side. And if they start looking for me, just tell them you don't know.]

The moment Issei read that, he hurriedly burned the note and tried contacting Kisuke but to no avail. Without much choice, he asked someone monitoring the vicinity around him if Kisuke was still present and got a report that he only left for the Belial-run company a week ago and nowhere else.

Kisuke also sat down on the opposite side and sighed, "Who would've thought that they'd send Riveria to my side for a forced vacation? I wasn't able to leave because of that."

Issei had also received a report that Riveria started was staying at his place a few days ago. With that, Issei also finally was able to confirm his guess that none of the girls around him knew what he was planning, else, he wouldn't have sent him that chilling note, "Tch! Thankfully, such a coincidence was able to happen. Just what the heck are you thinking when you sent me that note? And the fact you sent it to me of all people meant that you knew how dangerous what you were going to do was."

Kisuke chuckled at the angry Issei and replied, "It isn't that dangerous and I have many safety nets. But as you know, there's nothing absolute in this world and things that could go wrong, will go wrong."

"Haah!? If you're going to send your last words, please spare me from being the only one receiving them. Those around you would resent me forever."

"Hey now, those weren't my last words. I'm just thinking that if I were to suddenly disappear, at least someone should know where I went."

"That's the very definition of last words!"

"But if I were to tell it to anyone else, no one would allow me to go."

"Of course! Who in their right mind would!?"

"You?"

"Don't mistake me for not being able to stop you as me letting you go!" Issei yelled in retort. He wasn't feeling tired after the eventful day, but now he felt like dunking himself in a hot bath after talking to Kisuke for only a minute or two.

Kisuke patted his shoulder while laughing at his face, "You're a father now, so you should really watch out for your temper. Don't let that precious son of yours know that you're actually a big idiot."

Issei shoved his arm away with a vein popping on his forehead, "So? Are you still going? I really can't see much merit in it compared to the danger it poses. Give me a briefing of what you actually wanted to do. And if there's somewhere I can help, I'll gladly assist you."

Issei had already given up on dissuading him and decided to just make sure that he wouldn't be doing this alone, 'Invading ExE on his own? He's really a crazy bastard. And we're in the middle of an important conjunction with Indra gathering his forces.'

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In the end, after hearing Kisuke's plans, Issei could only scratch his head in frustration since there was nothing he could do to help him. While walking back to the saloon, Issei sighed and thought, 'At least, it looks like it's relatively safe.'

Kisuke and Issei joined the others and started catching up but it didn't take too long for everyone to bid their farewells since all of them were busy people. In any case, all of them were in constant contact so this kind of catch-up isn't really necessary and most of what they wanted to talk about couldn't be talked about in this sorta place, even though it's very private.

The first one to bid farewell was Vali's group, except for Le Fay.

Next was Cao Cao's group and finally, Kisuke's group.

But before they left, Rias approached him and secretly transmitted a message, [The Progenitor wants to meet you.]

Kisuke turned to his group and said, "You girls go ahead first. I'll follow along later."

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A trustworthy maid led Kisuke to the inner part of the mansion and stopped at a certain door. But before the maid could open it, someone else from inside opened them and a familiar woman with fiery crimson hair greeted their sight, "Kisuke~? You're here! Come in!"

"Runeas-san, it has been a while~. Glad to see you are as energetic as always~."

Runeas turned to the maid, "I'll take it from here. Good work."

The maid silently bowed and left the room.

When Kisuke entered the room, he felt that he went through a thin film of the barrier. Seeing his reaction, Runeas immediately explained, "Sorry about that. I placed it to stop her aura from going out."

And indeed, the aura of someone familiar entered Kisuke's senses the moment he went through the barrier and saw a beautiful and tall black-haired woman sitting and enjoying tea further inside the room, "Kisuke. Welcome. It has been a while."

"It really has been a while, Lilith-san. I'm happy to see that you're doing great."

"Thanks to you. I've been enjoying my time greatly. Though it's also making me worried. Just what price am I paying for all of this?"