My teenage romance highschool can't be this perverted! Chapter 95 (Patreon)

Not beta read yet.

Chapter was done nearly 2 days ago, forgot to post it before I went to work on An Archer's Promise... Just remembered when I noticed I got no messages for the story lol.

Also still working on the collections and added one for snafu. Noticed a bug, for some reason it ONLY shows be the last 20 posts, even if I add the snafu tag to filter everything it doesn't show me everything. So I had to manually write every chapters title or number one by one to add them to the collection... And I KNOW I may have missed some chapters. So I'll have to recheck my other collections.

Next is update is of course, An Archer's Promise and Broly

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-Kuoh Academy-


What was this scenario? I felt as if I was transported into one of those interrogation rooms you constantly see in thriller detective movies. The imaginary intense white light beamed upon my head. Despite me being the one who was asking the question, I felt an enormous sense of dread and confusion. 


“How did you know, Aika?” I asked the bespectacled girl as she sat across from me, casually enjoying her lunchbox. This particular question burned in my mind the moment we returned to the clubroom after finishing helping the gardening club. The girl acted casually the entire time, her attitude making me that much more uncomfortable. “Best we discuss this matter now before the others return.”


In the middle of eating her bento, she placed the chopsticks down, giving me a confused stare. 


“How did I know what exactly?” she said with such a tone, acting ignorant and innocent. I was not planning on being fooled by her deception.


“Stop it. You know very well what I am saying. How did you learn about the supernatural world?” I asked again calmly, not breaking eye contact once. Had I been deceived this entire time and this person happened to be a mage or something else hiding in plain sight? Couldn't be, even Vritra never sensed anything and he spent a lot of time around her to sense something. 


"Huh, you're not going to take the subtle approach of acting oblivious and ignorant to my words? I expected a bigger challenge, buchou!"


I was glad that there was no one else in the room other than the two of us. If either Asia or Xenovia were present, I didn’t trust either of them to keep their mouths shut and not blurt out every single event we had been through so far. I knew Akeno would have just played along or found the entire thing amusing, most likely grabbing a bucket of popcorn and watching me handle the case as if it were a comedy show.


Waving my hands, I dissuaded that idea. “It wouldn't have worked in the place, you already called me a bad liar in the past, not like I've gotten better these last few months.” 


“Wrong, you are a good liar by keeping some matters hidden from every student with that dead fish eye stare of yours. You just never bothered to actually try lying to my face in the past.” 


“Have you become a psychologist? I thought you were planning to become a living human x-ray.” 


“I can be both.”


This girl wouldn't stop any time, “Let's get back to the topic at hand. You're not the type to mess around with such things when I ask you seriously. How long have you known, and why didn't you say anything before?"


The chances that she was afraid of the aftermath of me finding out was a possible solution. Taking the logical route, if she was aware of this fact for a long time and wished to remain anonymous then it made sense to hide it. But that still brought up the question as to why she chose to bring it up now. 


I was going through every single interaction we have had from the beginning of this year until now. There were just too many moments to count and to accurately guess honestly. At no point did she suddenly change or behave with me out of the ordinary.


"Che! You're no fun." Finally looking like she was going to take me seriously, the girl took a deep breath. "Well, it happened quite recently, to be honest. The day when we helped out the drama club with their assignment, around that time we had to help that stray cat from the tree.”


“You're serious?” It hit me like a bolt of lightning, dawning upon my conscience when this event took place in particular. My eyes widened as I gave her a look of pure disbelief. 


‘The day of the Three Faction Meeting!?’ I thought to myself, wondering how that was possible in the first place. Without needing to interrupt her, I continued to let her speak.


"You're probably wondering how the hell I am even alive.” 


“You weren't part of the summoned mages were you?” I asked, unable to hold myself back from asking that question.


“Let me finish!” Thankfully her reaction said otherwise, so I let her speak. “You see, on that day I happened to forget my belongings in the storage room used by the drama club to store their props — I had to get them back for an assignment. I don't know if you have noticed, but the school doesn't close its doors, only the outer gates.”



“...” 


I wasn't sure whether to be worried about that particular piece of information and mention it to Sona about the staff not doing their jobs properly. But then again, it wasn't uncommon for schools to do so, only certain classes with valuable or dangerous equipment were locked.


Perhaps I just expected a more strict environment with Kuoh. 


"So, I decided to make a quick stop and retrieve them on the way back from the supermarket since it was nearby."


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(Night of the attack, 3rd person PoV)


"I knew I had forgotten it here!" 


Aika released a sigh of relief upon finding her belongings left in the large storage room, the heavily decorated bag filled with trinkets and stickers sitting on top of a cloud made of cardboard. It was cold, eerily silent and the place was dimly lit to top it off, with the only illumination coming from her own phone flashlight. Truth be told, the place was kind of spooky, and it gave her the chills.


"If it weren't for tomorrow's assignment given by my English teacher, then I would have just left it here," she muttered to herself. She couldn't afford to be late on her homework anymore, especially since she already had a lot to catch up on due to her procrastination during the last few days. 


Not to mention how notoriously strict that teacher was with late assignments. 


She wasn't searching to be scolded by her parents again.


"Huh?" Her interest peaked as she was about to open the front door to the hallway, her ears picking up a number of footsteps drawing closer. "Shit, it must be the old man! I swear I didn't see him outside when I came earlier." she exclaimed, not wanting to get involved in another set of troubles with the school staff.


Quickly, she ran deeper inside and hid within the props and stores racks of costumes, holding her breath as the doors slid open with a low thud. 


Tap


Tap


Tap


Though it wasn't a single pair of footsteps that echoed in the silent atmosphere but two, further emphasized by the distinct voices speaking at the same time, voices that did not sound like that of the elderly security guard who worked here.


"The location is secured, no signs of any anomalies. You can proceed to the other areas, Lucifer-sama and the representatives should be here soon enough." The first person spoke loudly, his tone thundering within the room.


"I told you we should have done this earlier! Now you also have to keep an eye on those fucking crows and pigeons stationed outside. I bet my left wing they're trying to find an opportunity to kill both of us," the second man exclaimed in frustration, sounding harsher than the first guy and far more annoyed. “This is a bad idea, we are just asking for another conflict with so many of us gathered in a single spot. What kind of peace treaty needs so many armed soldiers? It just looks like we're trying to intimidate one another!” 


"Enough, we've already discussed this. Don't say too much or others will hear and we'll be in a lot of trouble with Lucifer-sama. Let's just patrol the hallways as soon as possible and return to our post," the second man said hastily, though he didn't deny the first man's words.


“Tch, at least we got to see the legendary Gabriel, can't say I won't be thinking about her for the next few months in my private time hehehehe~!”


‘A pervert,’ Aika didn't know who the hell this Gabriel was but this person sure did sound like bad news. Unlike Issei and the other members of the perverted trio who were just horny teenagers easy to tease, this one made her feel uneasy and disgusted.


The lights were turned off once again, and the door closed, leaving the young girl frozen still in her spot with her hands covering her mouth. Making sure not a single sound escaped her mouth by accident.


"Lucifer? Crows? What the hell is going on here?" she whispered to herself, her heart racing like an engine. 


She was pretty certain that there were no club activities at this time of day with any group. One of the few perks of being a member of the Service Club was that she had a pretty good idea of every single event that was going on and being planned by each club before even most of the school teachers even knew about it. She was certain that no groups of students were supposed to be in this place. For a brief moment, the young girl considered the possibility that an infamous mafia group or a band of delinquents might have come to Kuoh Academy for the night to cause trouble.


"I have to get the hell out of here!" 


Despite being in a panic state, she was still able to think carefully about her next actions. Instantly, she thought about all those games and manga she had read, where the main character used shadows and sneaking skills to avoid enemy detection. Though her knowledge was limited and couldn't be compared to the likes of the perverted duo trio, she had no other choice but to mimic some of the things she had seen.


"A-Alright, so no boots to avoid unnecessary noise, keep my glasses inside m-my bag so they don't fall on the floor and make another set of noises, and make sure to leave the door open in case I have to run back and hide again." Even as her voice quivered, she proceeded to do those things and carefully peeked out of the door onto the hallway.


Her hands hesitatingly holding her phone, she scrolled through her contacts and found the name of her club president.


"No, if I call him for help, then he'll be in trouble as well. I can do this myself and call the police when I'm outside. Oh, what the hell, I should call them right now. Why wait?" She proceeded to do so but was quickly taken aback the moment her phone showed no signal on its screen.


“Fuck!" she cursed her luck, having no other choice but to leave this place on her own. The whole way was dark, a scene straight out of a horror game where a ghostly girl with her hair covering her face could pop out from the corner at any moment. 


Or the eerie pair of red eyes observing her movement from the corners, for whatever hid within the veil of darkness would continue to stalk her like a hungry predator. Her vivid imagination conjured up the sounds of deep heavy breathing, heartbeats that echoed throughout the hallway and the absolute absence of sound. 


Chills and goosebumps spread across her skin at the image of such an event. She wasn't good with such environments, and it only made her more determined to leave.


“What?” 


But alas, all of that determination was completely thrown out of the window as soon as she looked out of the windows and came face to face with something beyond her wildest imaginations.


"A cosplay get together?"


A numerous number of people were gathered on the school grounds, where just a few minutes ago it had been completely empty, now filled to the brim with individuals she had never seen in her life. Not just any kinds of people, but rather of what she expected to be a but a bunch of riders, mafia thugs, and delinquents were instead people in black robes and white armor of sorts. 


Each one of them had a distinguished set of wings, a third that resembled angelic wings, with another similar sized group were the same but colored black. Then lastly were people flying around with bat-like wings, though thinner and bony — a scene straight out of a manga.


Her whole world turned upside down as she had no explanation for what was going on here. Her knees became weak, causing her to fall to the ground, momentarily thinking about the end of the world apocalypse event she had heard some of her religious friends speak about from the Bible. But this sight was different. There was no red, no fire, brimstone, or catastrophic earthquakes under her feet tearing the town apart.


Everything looked like… like a military drill almost. As weird as it sounded, that was the closest she could come to explaining the weird phenomenon. Unfortunately, she had no time to contemplate on the details and quickly made her way down the hall with hushed steps. Regretting coming here in the first place just to retrieve a few goddamn books for her homework.


"I could have just said my dog ate my homework. Even calling in sick for the day would have been a much better outcome than this!" she muttered to herself.


Fortunately, she managed to reach the stairs without encountering anyone so far. But her relief did not last long the moment she saw a shadow of a person float right behind her.


"What are you doing?"


"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" 


She never screeched so loudly in her life, even putting a literal banshee to shame. But much to her horror, the scream itself barely lasted a fraction of a second before it was completely silenced by an unnatural sensation spreading all around her. Her voice was completely gone without explanation, which only fueled her terror.


"Noisy," the voice remarked.


Even as she fell down the stairs, the fall made no noise each time she let out a grunt of pain or any noise from the impact, yet that voice spoke with so much clarity that it became the only source of sound around her.


‘Ouh, my head,’ she tried to mutter but no sound came out, those words only audible in her own mind. Thanks to some formal training in gymnastics during her years in middle school, Aika managed to avoid getting seriously hurt or fracturing a bone, only suffering from a minor headache from hitting the wall but avoiding a concussion.


She quickly looked up, her blood running cold when her eyes did not see the stairways but only two pairs of dark eyes so close to her face where only a few centimeters separated them.


"I recognize you," the voice said. It was a girl, no, more accurately a child whom she had never met in her life. 


Pale-skinned with heavily dark hair and clothing one would describe as gothic. If this were any other time then she would have commented on the pair of tapes covering the person's nipples, perhaps complimenting the lewd outfit — despite it being worn by someone who looked to be a few years younger than her. But even Aika would not consider this individual as human, given the fact she was floating in the air and managed to delete all sounds from her surroundings somehow.


“—!?”


She tried to scramble away, her gestures erratic and without any sense of control. There was no calmness left within them, this was exactly the scenario she imagined one of those protagonists in a horror film encountering. 


Their school was haunted!


"Hah... Hah... Hah... eh? My voice is back?" 


As soon as she ran outside the building, the girl finally managed to hear her own haggard breath, the sound of her own voice, and the chilling wind outside relieving her more than she ever imagined. Having never run so fast in her life, she took some time to rest within the dance garden where, fortunately, there were none of those winged angel-like entities roaming the place. Her hands pushed against a tree to hold her balance. She could not help but take one last look at the building behind and immediately regretted her decision. 


"—!"


There she was, that young ghost girl standing at the edge of the door frame. No longer floating, but instead standing completely still with a blank face, showing not a hint of emotion. They stared at each other without blinking for a couple of seconds, not before this entity slowly became consumed by what you could only describe as moving shadows and completely disappeared the next second. It was a scene that made her nearly fall unconscious right on the spot.


"Am I dreaming? I hope this is nothing but a nightmare...!" In her panic state, she pulled her skin, hoping the pain would wake her up in her bed early in the morning, discovering that everything she had experienced so far was nothing but a dream. But unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened, and she remained sitting in the middle of the garden surrounded by these weird entities and nearly killed by a ghost of a girl who most likely died in the building years ago.


"I w-wonder if the O-Occult Research Club is aware of that ghost. I could sell them the information for a bit of money," she joked with herself, using humor to relieve some of her stress. 


Time continued to pass, and as Aika was recovering her breath, she discovered more and more of these winged individuals occupying the sky and her surroundings. So much so that even walking out of her spot became nearly impossible without being spotted, and she certainly refused to go back to that haunted building and risk getting possessed by whoever that girl was.


She once again retrieved her phone and looked at the name displayed on the screen with more hesitation. Her mind continued to tell her that it was a bad idea to call him, but another part of her became even more desperate with her opportunity to escape getting smaller and smaller.


"The moment I get a signal, I'll just call the police and hope they get here in time. But I'll need to move somewhere else to get the signal," she thought to herself.


It didn't escape her that there was a chance that these supernatural entities, in particular, were responsible for the lack of any signal, given they were able to fly without flapping their wings. It made her think about them using some sort of magic, like what you would see in games or fantasy stories. How she hadn't been discovered yet was nothing short of a miracle in her mind.


"If by the following morning they aren't here, I doubt anyone will believe my story," she murmured to herself as she continued to ponder her situation. Suddenly, the girl spotted something interesting at the corner of her eye.


"Buchou?" she murmured, hardly daring to believe her eyes. 


At first unsure, she paid closer attention, though her eyesight wasn't capable of seeing the tiniest details hundreds of meters away. But she would certainly never mistake the familiar face of her club president. He was walking outside the courtyard, accompanied by two beautiful women who looked rather familiar. The angels and bat-winged people weren't hostile toward him, nor were they doing anything for that matter. And the boy in question didn't even seem stressed or worried, treating everything as if it were normal as he walked inside the building followed by another group, which made her gasp in disbelief.


"The Occult Research Club as well, and the Student Council!?" she exclaimed in shock. One twist after another. She seriously started to believe that all of this was a dream or that she had been secretly transported into another parallel world without even realizing it.


All of the people she knew, even friends, were present at school, currently talking with these winged individuals, some even having wings on their backs themselves!


"This is too much for me. I actually stumbled upon a secret illuminati organization of some kind!" she exclaimed mentally. If she were in the journalism club, then this would have been the biggest scoop of her career by a long shot. Though she was not, her main concern so far had remained the same without question: to return to her house and hope things would return to normal the following morning.


"Kya!" she yelped, the tremor beneath her feet followed by a bright flash of light and a thunderous explosion overwhelmed her senses. Huddling into a small ball next to the tree, she covered her head, preparing for what was an actual explosion.


"What is going on now!?" she cried out as the sky truly turned red, a myriad of different colors mixed within them stretching all around the school. Hundreds, if not thousands, of magic circles formed within the air, from which emerged another group of hooded individuals whose faces were hidden by indistinguishable robes.


The latter instantly bombarded the place without hesitation. Completely destroying a large chunk of the school in mere seconds — especially the main building where she had seen multiple members walk into.


"Hachiman!" she shouted, her fear momentarily being replaced by pure worry at the possibility that her club president and dear friend was caught in the explosion. 


Taking a couple of steps forward, she wanted to rush to the place to possibly save him. But the fear was too great, having taken hold of every fiber of her being and stopping her right as she reached the edge of the garden.


"Damn it!" No matter how much strength she tried to muster, her feet just refused to move a single inch, and she couldn't bring herself to venture any further… her body choosing to cower in fear. For a moment, her eyes started to water, believing that she had witnessed the murder of her friends. 


But before despair settled in, bright flashes of light suddenly exploded from the building itself, heading outwards. In her shock, she witnessed something that one would only imagine in a shonen manga.


"He has wings?" she gasped, utterly speechless, as she watched the spectacle unfold before her.


In that moment, for the next following seconds, the girl bore witness to a conflict that became forever etched into her brain. Her entire belief and worldview had been shattered into dust, and now filled with thousands of questions, she could do nothing but quietly watch and pray that no one would notice her.


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(Hachiman POV)


“... After the large explosion at the end, I fainted and woke up the next day unharmed, luckily enough.”


I remained quiet after hearing the complete story, my prior emotions having calmed down and now all I could feel was relief. 


"You're so lucky that you weren't physically caught in the conflict. A single stray attack or a passing mage, if any one of those things made it towards you or in the case of the Old Satan Faction mages noticed you even, then you wouldn't even be alive to see the next day," I remark, feeling conflicted and angered towards myself and the Khaos Brigade once more. 


Their actions nearly caused the death of someone completely unrelated to this whole situation. An innocent bystander and friend, to have her life in mortal danger was just inexcusable! 


One who had no knowledge of the supernatural world nor any means to protect herself. If something were to happen to her, then I wouldn't be able to live with myself.


"Don't put on such a sad face, president. I came out of it alive and without any injuries, didn't I? That garden is truly the best place. Somehow, not a single one of those attacks or flying wizards tried to attack it in the first place. Though I will admit, other than watching part of the conflict, I only tried to hide and keep myself away from others' view most of the time."


"Good, in such a scenario, that was absolutely the best course of action she could have taken. I wondered why the office never bothered to mention to me about her being present in school! I could have escorted her to somewhere safer. Regardless, what was done was done, and there was no point continuing to blame myself or others for that matter."


“I… I'm very sorry you had to live through that.” Why hasn't Ophis mentioned this to me in the first place? Had I known about Aika’s presence then I wouldn't have wasted so much time handling those mages one by one! Perhaps even ask Michael or Azazel for help to make sure she was safe while I handled the Hero-wannabe Faction.


"Don't sweat it, Buchou! I had enough time to sort out my feelings and shock from that day.”


She sure did look quite casual about the whole thing, handling it perhaps better than what my past self. But then again, it could all have been nothing but a facade, keeping up a fake smile and acting cheerful as a coping mechanism for the trauma for all I knew. 


“Other than that, you were so cool out there, Buchou!" Aika shouted with stars in her eyes, her words making me flinch and retreat backwards as I had a terrible premonition of what was to come. "Those dark wings, the black-colored flames, and freaking cool black armor were so cool! You looked exactly like one of those characters ripped straight out of a shounen manga into real life! In fact, you reminded me of one of the members in Kamen Rider, the only thing you lacked was a proper stance and catchphrase. Oh, oh! You can shout an attack like, I am nuclear!"


"Please for the love of everything that is holy and unholy, stop talking!" I interjected firmly, feeling my inside twist at the thought of the imagination of myself doing such a thing. 


It was too painful! 


“Perhaps something charismatic, like, "Be afraid, evil doers! For I, Hachiman Black, have descended upon the battlefield and will destroy you with my unfathomable power!" 


“Hurgh!” The impact was more powerful than any attack Kokabiel or even Vali could have conjured, making me instantly raise an imaginary white flag to make this girl stop torturing me with her words alone! “You're killing me here, Aika! I'm not saying that anytime soon!” 


‘Let’s be honest here, Partner, you do tend to shout whenever deploying the Balance Breaker and the name of Gae Bolga as well when you're using the spear even though you don't need to do so. So it's not that far off. I find the phrase this brilliant human suggested to be quite catchy and intimidating if spoken in the middle of a ba—’


“Shut up, Vritra!” 


“Eh?” 


“Nothing! Ignore it.” I quickly answered the confused girl, not willing to add more fuel into the fire by having her know about the dragon living inside me. I wasn't going to be labeled as a damned chuunibyou again!


I felt a part of me die when he said that, my eyes twitching most erratically, forcing me to whisper with a low voice, "All right, in exchange for you to keep your mouth shut and not such things again in front of me, I'm willing to answer you anything. I am certain you have many questions.”


“That is an understatement,” finally, Aika adopted a serious expression looking different than her previous self. “I want to know how everything, don't hide anything from me, Buchou.”


I nodded my head, she nearly died and saw the entire battle take place. Having only survived through sheer luck. Thus, she deserved to know the truth. “Alright the story is a bit long so get ready.”


{Break}


(Underworld)


“A penny for your thoughts?” 


A voice pulled me out of my funk, snapping me back to reality as I blinked and stared at the painted roof of an old castle. Turning my attention to the now freed and whimsical former member of the Khaos Brigade, Kuroka, I saw her looking at me with a small smile on her face. She was happily playing with a handheld console gifted to her by Rias, passing time by playing an online game with her sister.


“Nothing, just trying to digest everything that happened yesterday,” I replied. My conversation with Aika hadn't gone in the direction I expected. She was curious, bombarding me with hundreds of questions about the supernatural world as I explained the basics and its history. Despite my efforts, there were parts even I remained ignorant of, despite having scoured through dozens of history books since arriving in this world.


The hardest part was explaining sacred gears. Aika became ecstatic upon learning about their existence, making numerous references to anime and manga and asking if she could get one. I had to crush her dreams prematurely by stating the obvious: she couldn't just get one. There were ways around it with Azazel's artificial sacred gears, but those were still in the testing phase and very few people owned them. Not to mention, I couldn’t just give her one for no reason.


“A friend of mine, who was previously a regular human, just found out about the supernatural world recently,” I shared. “Found out in one of the worst ways possible… could have easily lost her life.” 


“Really? Though that's not that big of a deal, just use a memory erasure spell on her and we should be good nya~!” she stated, to which I shook my head.


“No, I am not a fan of that spell to begin with. Even though I realize its usefulness and necessity in some situations, I prefer to stay away from it as much as I can. Honestly, I would have felt worse if I forced her to forget everything after what she had been through. The least she deserves is to know the truth. If she desires to go back to her old life and remain ignorant of this side of reality, then all the power to her.” I had given Aika a choice at the end of our conversation, warning her about how dangerous and life-threatening it was to be associated with this side of reality. I wanted to dispel her belief that it would be all fun and rainbows; she wasn’t accustomed to violence, and I didn’t want her to become like me.


“You seem to care a lot about this person. I don't think I’ve ever seen you this worried before,” Kuroka said with a light teasing smirk. Her hands wrapped around mine as she nuzzled her head against my chest like a needy cat. “Should I be jealous nya~? Out favorite toy is about to be stolen by another woman?”


“I am not an object, and Aika and I aren’t in a relationship like that. She is my… how can I say it… She is like a trusted confidant of mine, a friend who gave a lot to support and maintain the club I built. Without her, and my continuous absence, I doubt the service club would have survived. So I owe her a lot in terms of favor.” This was another reason I was absolutely against using a memory-erasing spell on her. She had done a lot for me, and the least I could do was be more open with her. Was it enough? I doubted it. Even now, I felt indebted to her and didn't feel like I had cleared my tab. I was certain she would be offended if she knew I thought of her actions as something I owed her for, but I couldn’t let go of that feeling.


“It's a dangerous world out here, you know it better than anyone. Aika is not a fighter; she doesn’t possess the means to protect herself or anyone else against even the weakest threats. It doesn’t help that our enemies and friends in the Chaos Brigade and wannabe hero factions are getting more active lately. The last thing I want is for her to become a possible target.”


I received a gentle smack on my back. Looking at Kuroka, she just grinned and continued to nuzzle her head against my chest. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but her hair was easily the softest I had touched out of everyone. It felt good, making me wonder if it was a trait of her species. “You worry too much, nya. Just treat her like you do regularly and everything will be fine. You've protected the Shirone so far, haven’t you? So adding another one to the pile shouldn’t be any trouble for Mr. Black Dragon King, the harem collector.”


“Don’t bring that up. I just told you we’re only friends. Speaking of which, where is Xenovia?”


“So now you're curious? Oh, she's still in the training room preparing for the upcoming battle. You should have seen her face when you made that announcement. She has been rather eager to use her sword again, given how peaceful it’s been lately. Even I can't wait to sharpen my claws, hehehe.”


I gently pushed her away, making her pout in disappointment at my actions. “Don't say something like that. You make it sound like someone could accidentally get killed, even with safety mechanisms in place. This is only a couple of matches in a competition, not a natural death battle. So go easy on the kids.”


“Pft, you underestimate me. Being a senjutsu master means more than wielding powerful nature energy. It also means possessing great control over every aspect of our body. The one you should be worried about is your little bodyguard, swinging that sword around is especially dangerous against them.”


She wasn’t wrong, but I had to remember that the one sitting next to me was officially classed as an ultimate-class devil. “I'll keep that in mind.”


“By the way, why the hell are we here?” Kuroka finally asked the question that had been occupying her mind for the last few minutes. We had been waiting inside the castle for nearly an hour after being told to wait in the living room. Even I was starting to lose my patience, given that I had other things to do before the beginning of the Rating Games with the younger generation Devils.


“Looks like we will know soon enough,” I said as the doors squeaked open. A sheepish head popped in, showing Serafall, all donned in a formal suit with none of her magical girl outfit present. “Sorry for the wait! This is a rather important matter, so we had to take a ton of precautions.”


“Precautions?” I wondered what she meant by that. Seeing my confused expression, Serafall further opened the door, showing two individuals walking behind her: a group of elderly devils. I instantly noticed a particular detail shared amongst them—the emblem of the Leviathan clan embroidered on their robes.


“Greetings,” The eldest among the group of three stepped forward and bowed slightly and elegantly. “You must be the Black Dragon King, Hikigaya Hachiman, and the sage master, Kuroka. It is an honor to meet both of you.”


“Sage master? I like that title more than my last one!” Ignoring her little comment, I reciprocated the formal greeting with my own. 


“What is going on here, if you don't mind me asking?”


Serafall nodded her head and looked back at the elder for a moment before the latter nodded as well, signaling her to continue. “You see, these people here are some of my closest allies. They have supported my position for many years and have continued to do so without any issues. They are the elders of the Leviathan clan and are here after hearing about the news regarding the awakening of Sirzechs' mother from her Sleeping Devil Disease.”


I raised an eyebrow. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the possible reason for their presence and why I was asked to bring Kuroka. “I didn’t know the Leviathan clan still existed and had elders to top it off.” 


I was being truthful. 


My understanding was that a large portion of the upper clans were either extinct or had defected towards the old satan faction. One of them just happened to be Qataria, who we had just captured. When it came to the Leviathan clan, there was rarely any information. Only mentions that after the war, not much was known of what happened to its members or how many of them even existed till this day.


“Your confusion is understandable, the war has caused us many losses. It is always best to retreat and stay under the radar until the mist has cleared,” one of the older elders mentioned. 


“But after a certain piece of news reached our ears, we could not remain hidden any longer. We have come for your companion Kuroka, to be more precise. Her expertise to heal this disease that has plagued many devils for centuries without us being able to find a cure is remarkable. That you were able to do the impossible and remove this ailment from Sairaorg’s mother... I will be direct with you, we wish for you to do the same with one of us. Please, save Ingvild.”