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Life.6 White Dragon Emperor of Black History

This was an event which occurred near the end of the preliminary stage of the Rating Game World Tournament [Azazel Cup]. Visiting us in the Hyoudou Residence with a request was — a blonde beauty who adorned a white robe and white pointed hat which accentuated her image as a witch!

“Good day to you, Oppai Dragon-san.”

The female magician who revealed a brilliant smile was Lavinia Reni-san! She was a transcendent beauty who was a member of both the Grigori’s covert [Slash Dog] team and the Magician association known as [Grauzauberer]! She also happened to be a possessor of one of the Longinus — [Absolute Demise]! At the same time, she was also an existence akin an older sister for my destined rival, Vali. In fact, she was an incredible person that even Vali didn’t dare to antagonise. Well, as far as appearances went, I couldn’t see her as anything other than an attractive and kind older sister…so I couldn’t quite understand why Vali had a hard time coping with her. A man and another woman accompanied Lavinia-san.

“Yo, Chichiryuutei.”

“We’ll be in your care for the next few days, Hyoudou Issei-kun!”

The handsome, delinquent-like guy was — Samejima Kouki-san, and the lively girl with tied-up hair was — Minagawa Natsume-san (also a beauty!). These three individuals had become our comrades after they provided assistance with the Grim Reaper attack that occurred not long ago. Due to the arrival of these three rare visitors, we wanted to entertain them in the VIP Room on the top floor of the Hyoudou Residence, but they indicated otherwise to us,

“We aren’t such worthy figures, and we didn’t come here for anything that important.”

And so, we welcomed them into the living room. All of the girls who lived in my house were filled with curiosity, and so they gathered into the living room while Akeno-san brewed fresh tea for our three guests. After getting simple greetings out of the way, Rias asked them anew,

“For the three of you to come by here, I assume that something must have happened?”

After listening to Rias, Lavinia-san quietly took a sip of tea and then shared a glance with Minagawa-san and Samejima-san, revealing a wry smile. Minagawa-san began by saying,

“Umm, you see—”

Although she had only gotten that far, everyone sensed something in the air as they looked towards the living room door. There, everyone took notice of three people — Bikou of the Vali team, revealing only his face beside the frame, along with a scarlet-haired girl and a beast man with a pig-like head! Bikou was with the current generation Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie—. W-When did those guys enter my house!? The three of them were startled as soon as they noticed our collective gaze!

“Ah! Uwah, Bikou-san, we’ve been discovered!”

While Sha Wujing appeared flustered, Bikou simply clicked his tongue.

“Tch! We’re getting out of here, Wujing, Bajie!”

As soon as they were busted, Bikou and Sha Wujing quickly made an escape.

“…Alright alright, I’ll listen to what you say…”

Zhu Bajie complained as he chased after the other two. Rias immediately declared,

“Someone go after them.”

““Understood!””

Xenovia and Irina promptly responded to the call for action, going after Bikou and the others. Given the unexpected situation, most of our members could only stay affixed to the spot with our mouths agape. With a foreboding sense of trouble, Rias sighed as she supported her forehead with one hand.

“…Those few are from Vali’s side.”

Minagawa-san forced a smile as she nodded.

“…Umm, so actually, Vali…sent those assassins after us, or perhaps just Lavinia.”

—!

…The news was shocking for everyone, though it also aroused everyone’s interest at the same time. Vali actually sent his comrades here as assassins to target Lavinia-san, whose existence was like an older sister to him. Ah, speaking of which, Kuroka and Le Fay who were residents here were not present! W-Was it possible that Vali gave them some kind of order…? I questioned Samejima-san and Minagawa-san,

“Samejima-san and Minagawa-san…can I address you two like that?”

“Just Natsume is fine.”

Minagawa-san — Natsume-san casually replied to me. I then asked,

“Isn’t Lavinia-san like an older sister to him? Why would he send Bikou and the others as assassins…?”

Natsume-san heaved a sigh.

“There’s a rather complicated reason behind it…well, putting the reason aside for now, we’d like to ask for your help given that you’re Vali’s rival, Hyoudou Issei-kun.”

Samejima-san also laughed as he said,

“Well, to cut things short, if you can help us protect the Ice Princess for a while, it’ll make things go a lot easier. In fact, some magician comrades associated with Team [DxD] will gather near this town in three days’ time. We’d be grateful if you could lend us your help until then.”

A gathering of magicians associated with [DxD] would occur near this town in three days? Ah, I did seem to recall Rossweisse-san mentioning it. Rossweisse-san just so happened to raise her hand.

“Ah, I also intend to partake in that gathering. I see, so Ice Princess Reni-san will be the representative for [Grauzauberer].”

Lavinia-san then responded to Rossweisse-san’s realisation,

“Yes, that is the case.”

I suddenly noticed that some people weren’t present, so I asked Natsume-san,

“You didn’t come here together with Ikuse-san and the rest of the team?”

I had noticed that their team leader, Ikuse-san, was missing. Natsume-san replied,

“Tobio and our other members are on a different mission. So, our leader Tobio said ‘For the time being, please protect Lavinia from Vali’s schemes’. But as expected, those of us who aren’t on a mission probably won’t be able to take all of them on.”

—Natsume-san shrugged. …‘Vali’s schemes’ huh…. So even the Strongest White Dragon Emperor in History was just a lovely old friend to some people? As the person in question, Lavinia-san—

“Fufufu, so it’s like a game of tag with Va-kun.”

Even after being targeted by assassins, she appeared rather upbeat. Well, maybe it did feel like playing a game with her little brother Vali. Xenovia and Irina returned after giving chase to Bikou and the others.

“Kuh, they slipped away.”

“They were too quick.”

Both of them seemed rather annoyed. Xenovia mimicked Bikou (she occasionally imitated others) as she said,

“I wonder what Bikou meant when he smiled and said, ‘We’ll definitely retrieve that thing first’?”

Upon hearing that, Natsume-san smiled and said,

“Is Monkey-san also participating?”

Though, this only puzzled me further. On the other hand, Rias nodded, more or less understanding the nature of the request.

“Let’s reconsider Vali’s reason for sending assassins. It’s a fact that Bikou and the others have tailed them here…. But, we’re not entirely free during this time either.”

Rias said. Indeed, the preliminary stage of the World Rating Game Tournament that we were participating in had also reached its final phase. Although we did have moments of free time such as this, there were actually many things that had to be done. But, since we had no intention of ignoring a friend’s request, Rias and I shared a glance as we nodded. Rias said,

“Movement is somewhat inconvenient with a large contingent of bodyguards, so we’ll pick a bodyguard each from my peerage and Ise’s peerage.”

“Understood.”

I expressed my agreement in doing so. Considering availability and the need for familiarity with magic, I chose Rossweisse-san from my peerage, while Rias chose Akeno-san from her peerage given that she had a close relationship with some members of the [Slash Dog] team.

“This is a great opportunity and I think I’ll be able to see the Ice Princess’ techniques up close.”

“Ufufu, how should I put this? It sounds like fun.”

Both Rossweisse-san and Akeno-san unexpectedly seemed to look forward to it. Naturally, since my rival was the mastermind behind it all—

“I, Hyoudou Issei, will also assist!”

—I declared to announce my participation. And so, along with Akeno-san and Rossweisse-san, I joined Natsume-san and Samejima-san to become Lavinia-san’s bodyguards. Now, just what was Vali up to…?

 

Akeno-san, Rossweisse-san and I escorted Lavinia-san as we arrived at a twenty-storey apartment building that served as the office of the [Slash Dog] team. Their office was located in a town that was only two train stops away from Kuoh Town. In the building that we entered, the first and second floors were retail stores that consisted of convenience stores, chemists, beauty salons and the like. There was an office with no signage located at the innermost area of the second floor, and that was the [Slash Dog] team’s office. Ordinarily, it seemed like some kind of technique was used near the entrance to keep humans away, so it was impossible for the average person to approach the office. Well, it felt as though the entire apartment building itself belonged to the Grigori… Coincidentally, the [Black Dog Bar] that Ikuse-san worked at was fairly close to this apartment building. Ikuse-san was the bartender there, while Lavinia-san was the singer. There was also a restaurant on the first floor of the building that the bar was located in, which was where the other members of the [Slash Dog] happened to work. Apparently, Ikuse-san would occasionally cook up some incredible dishes for the customers there.

Upon entering the office — it looked like an ordinary office with rows of desks that various documents and computers were positioned on. It was essentially no different from my own office. —At that moment, a large black dog named Jin silently appeared from the depths of the office. It was actually a bit scary that I hadn’t been able to detect its presence at all…. Natsume-san petted Jin’s head.

“Oh, Jin. Is this where Tobio left you by yourself?”

Jin’s eyes shifted from Natsume-san to us — more specifically, to Akeno-san. Jin walked up to Akeno-san and then sat down in front of her. Jin seemed to be rather fond of Akeno-san. Perhaps the aura that she emanated was similar to that of its owner. Seeing this, Natsume-san laughed.

“Of course, since Akeno-chan and Tobio are cousins, it seems Jin has also noticed their likeness.”

Just as Natsume-san said, Akeno-san and the [Slash Dog] team’s captain — Tobio Ikuse, were related as cousins. Hence, the black dog — Jin, had also lent its assistance to Akeno-san before.

“Ufufu, long time no see. Jin-chan.”

Akeno-san also looked pleased as she stroked Jin’s head. Watching Akeno-san’s expression, Natsume-san seemed to recall something as she approached her.

“That’s right! Did you hear about Suzaku recently!?”

Akeno was surprised by the mention of the current head of the Himejima clan, who was also Akeno-san’s cousin.

“H-Has something happened to Suzaku-anesama?”

“She really went and did it! Geez, Suzaku is so unreasonable—”

In that manner, Akeno-san and Natsume-san positioned two chairs as they sat down together and began to speak about their common acquaintance with excitement. On the other hand, Rossweisse-san and Lavinia-san sat down on the sofa in the office and began to chat about some old and difficult-looking books on magic.

“T-This book is…! [Grauzauberer]’s interpretation of the [Book of Oath], right!? There’s also commentary on [Picatrix] by Mephisto Pheles here! Wow, so many incredible books like this are just lying around!”

With sheer excitement overwhelming Rossweisse-san, she picked up books from a pile that was stacked on one of the office desks. Lavinia-san smiled as she said,

“If they’re books published by our association, you can borrow as many of them as you like.”

“I-I couldn’t possibly! These should all be books that aren’t publicly released by [Grauzauberer]! C-Can I really borrow such valuable books!?”

“It’s probably okay. I’m sure it would be fine if I asked the director.”

“…Once again, I feel as though [DxD] is so useful!”

In any case, the conversation around the books on magic seemed to be fruitful. Ah, it appeared that Akeno-san and Natsume-san, as well as Rossweisse-san and Lavinia-san had begun to spiral into deep conversations.

At that moment, a new person entered the room. She was a beautiful woman with European facial features, and dark blonde double-ponytails! She also had prominent heterochromatic pupils, with her right eye being light blue while her left eye was pure black. A strange creature was cradled in her arms…with something like a mask over its face (it looked like a four-legged animal of some sort…). —As soon as I thought that, another two approached and leaned in around her legs. Leading three strange masked creatures, the beauty greeted me.

“H-Hello. My name is Nanadaru Shigune. I’m a member of the [Slash Dog] team.”

Although it was the first time that we had spoken to each other directly, I had a previous recollection of her. Nanadaru Shigune-san! I replied with,

“Hello, I’m Hyoudou Issei.”

Noticing that Nanadaru Shigune-san had greeted me, Natsume-san said,

“Speaking of which, it might the first time for this combination. She’s also one of the members who has been around since our formation. As you may already know, she’s the toughest power type member of our team as the wielder of the strongest ever [Toutetsu].”

Indeed, I had witnessed her during the matches of the tournament — she was a power type despite her slender proportions. —Even so, although being described as a ‘power type’, that was only in the form of a creature called Toutetsu, one of the [Four Fiends]. It was an independent avatar type Sacred Gear. Presented before us now were miniature versions that could be held in her arms, but it could actually transform into a ridiculously large monster during battle. Based on footage from the Rating Games, it was clear that the demonic energy of Devils, magic techniques of magicians, and even the abilities of Sacred Gears could be devoured in their entirety. Apparently, even the abilities of the Longinus could be devoured by it. In addition, it also boasted power in proportion to its enormous body and speed unimaginable for something of its size during the matches. Even then, only one of them had been deployed in those matches, so if all three were sent forth, how would one deal with them…? Within me, Ddraig said,

[Even among the monsters in China, Toutetsu is quite the monster. It can devour anything in the world. It can even devour things that are conceptual. It’s said that the people capable of wielding it are rare. If she can control three of them….kukuku, then that truly makes for a formidable team.]

If even Ddraig said so, then surely…. Nanadaru-san introduced the three Toutetsu to me.

“This one is Poh-kun, this one is Pooh-kun, and this one is Pon-kun.”

“““Pooh”””

Simultaneously with their introduction, all three of the Toutetsu cried out at the same time…but all of them looked exactly alike. If I hadn’t kept up with her introduction of them, I wouldn’t have any idea about which one was which! —And then, Nanadaru-san said to Natsume-san,

“Ah, that’s right. Hey, Natsume-chan. Because of Vali-kun, Genbu-chan—”

Oh, it seemed like Nanadaru-san had started to join the chatter as well. Just as I felt out of place with nothing to do, Samejima-san came over and pat me on the shoulder.

—!

The cover of a DVD instantly caught my attention. The title on the cover read <<Legend of the Sacred Breasts ~Tale of the Pinal Fantasy~>>, along with a picture of an erotic onee-san-type woman! A wide grin spread across Samejima-san’s face as he said to me,

“Well, why don’t we head over to that side to appreciate this?”

What!? I felt grateful that my senior shared my interests!

“Alright! Take me there!”

I answered without hesitation, thus an appreciation meeting with only males in participation commenced in the room next door—.

While various things happened in the office simultaneously, another incident occurred on that day following Bikou’s assassination attempt. The person who came in through the office’s entrance was — Kuroka!

“Yahoo, I heard that everyone was here.”

Kuroka appeared before us! She swaggered in and didn’t stop her stride until she stood directly in front of a certain someone.

“Princess Lavinia-chan, please give that thing to me nyan ♪.”

Kuroka arrived in front of Lavinia-san and stuck her hand out. Lavinia-san smiled as she said,

“That I cannot do. It’s a rather important thing, you know?”

Upon hearing that, Kuroka giggled ‘nyahaha’ and then made a mischievous expression. Ooh, whenever Kuroka made an expression like that, it meant that she was probably up to no good! Just as I put myself on alert, Kuroka extended her hand and created a magic circle.

“In that case, I’ll just have to bind you up for a little while nyan! I’ll make use of that to…mufufufu!”

Hey hey hey, the Nekomata is back at it with its mischievously naughty deeds as usual! Just as I was about to push forward to stop Kuroka, Samejima-san rushed ahead from my side, removed a small pouch from his pocket, and then threw it towards Kuroka after tearing it up. The torn bag was aimed directly at Kuroka’s head, and the powder within it instantly spurt out and coalesced with the air. A distinct and slightly unpleasant smell permeated the entire room. Immediately — its effect on Kuroka was activated.

“……U-Unyaaan ♪”

She curled up into a ball on the office floor with a numbed expression as if she was intoxicated. And then, she began to play around coquettishly on the floor just like an ordinary house cat! —At the same time, Samejima-san’s kitten [Byakusa] which had been next to Kuroka also rolled over and exposed its belly playfully. Samejima-san gently laughed as he said,

“I used the matatabi that I got from the Grigori for Byakusa, which has also worked on Nekomata before. As expected, it works on all cats, huh?”

Ah, so that was the effect of matatabi! It was also produced by the Grigori! That was why even Kuroka reacted to it in such a playful manner. Its effect was profound given that Kuroka had come here to stir up some kind of trouble, and yet she had instantly been intoxicated by it…. Samejima-san smirked as he said to me,

“Do you wanna have a go with this stuff too?”

And then, he whispered to me,

(If you use this, you could have your way as much as you want with that Nekomata, you know?)

—! A lightning bolt shot through my body as soon as I heard those words! …B-By using a portion of matatabi, I could control the naughty cat that’s always up to mischief!? It was certainly a rather attractive proposal, even though I thought that it made more sense for both myself and the other party to initiate erotic deeds through seduction instead! B-But, using matatabi to play with them was certainly tempting! Looking at how coquettishly Kuroka was acting right now, I felt rather good about it, but I began to ponder about what the Nekomata sisters would think if I used it on them! As for the outcome of my deliberation—

“Please let me think about it! In a good way!”

That was the difficult answer that I had managed to come up with! —Hence, the second assassin Kuroka was repelled by us. For the time being, I decided to tie Kuroka up and then ask about the situation—.

 

“Huh!? A diary that Vali wrote in four years ago!?”

I exclaimed with a surprised voice.

After capturing Kuroka, the answer that I received upon asking the [Slash Dog] team about it was,

—Vali wants to retrieve an old diary from Lavinia-san.

Natsume-san said,

“Four years ago, Vali…or is it five years ago now? Around that time, the three volumes of the Black History Dia — ahem.”

After clearing her throat, she began anew. …But just then, was she about to say ‘Black History Diaries’?

“Vali made three volumes of a scripture. They are the [Book of Heart], [Book of Skill] and [Book of Technique]. Although he’s already retrieved the [Book of Skill], Lavinia-san carefully protects the remaining [Book of Heart] and [Book of Technique].”

Lavinia-san took out two notebooks. On the cover of each was the name [Vali Lucifer], written in English. …I knew about them. Once, when I went to visit a bar that was run by Ikuse-san and Lavinia-san, Lavinia-san showed me one of them. Within them were lines that he had said, and one could get a glimpse of the style that he had begun to conceive four years ago. After taking a sip of coffee, Samejima-san said,

“By the way, the [Book of Heart] is full of lines that stem from his middle-school second-year syndrome, while the [Book of Skill] is full of middle-school second-year syndrome affected finishing moves.”

Back then, I saw the <<Book of Heart>>, right? It’s truly a diary that leaves people speechless, Vali! Lavinia-san cast her gaze from me to one of the diaries as she opened it and said,

“But, the [Book of Technique] contains a lot of unique insight from Vali on magic and demonic energy, so it’s a very important book.”

I inadvertently peered at a few pages of the diary. …Demonic energy and magic techniques with a multitude of strange names, as well as the poses for their activation were recorded within. Text that seemed to resemble chants were also recorded on the side. Was this the [Book of Technique]? Vali’s middle-school second-year syndrome seemed like a rather severe case…. Nanadaru Shigune-san said,

“Back then, Vali-kun seemed to write in those notebooks with fervent excitement.”

Written with excitement? I really would’ve liked to see that kind of situation…. With great interest, Kuroka said while tied up,

“That! Let me see it! Vali did tell me to come here and snatch it, but if you let me see it, I won’t hand it over to Vali nyan. Just letting me have a look will be enough ♪”

Instant betrayal! Did she come here with the intention of reading through it in the first place!? Well, if there was a record of my comrade’s middle-school second-year syndrome period, I’d want to see it as well! That was probably especially true for this mischief-loving cat! Lavinia-san shook her head as she shut the notebook.

“That I cannot do. I don’t feel that this is something that just anyone should see, aside from the members at the time and his destined rival.”

Oh, so no one except for me and the [Slash Dog] team are allowed to see it? Well, I’m sure if the contents were somehow leaked, Vali would have quite a tough time, mentally speaking…. When I heard that Vali was searching for and trying to recover these diaries, that was when I finally realised that they were in Lavinia-san’s hands. So that was the cause of this whole commotion? Naturally, if I had left such embarrassing diaries behind but didn’t know where they had gone missing to, I’d definitely do everything I could to find them. However, given the risk that one of his current comrades might sneak a peek at them, why wouldn’t he personally come to retrieve them…? Although I felt that there was still a lot to figure out, we had managed to repel Kuroka in any case, and so our day concluded.

 

Two days later — Lavinia-san and her entourage were attending another meeting close to Kuoh Town, though it was one involving the Three Factions, and unrelated to the other. We had been entrusted with the task of being her bodyguards. The meeting was attended by various representatives posted near Kuoh Town by the Three Factions for the purpose of sharing situation reports. As members of Team [DxD], our attendance was optional. Of course, if anything major happened, we’d still rush over to the meeting and provide any information on the matter that we had. On our way to the meeting, we took a shortcut through a park. At that moment, those guys reappeared in front of us!

“Yo, Ice Princess-oneechan! We’ll definitely be taking those notebooks this time!”

Bikou, Sha Wujing and Zhu Baji appeared before us again! Akeno-san, Rossweisse-san and I took up defensive positions in front of Lavinia-san. Realising that we were bodyguards, Bikou was initially taken aback, but then burst into laughter.

“Kukuku, did you call on the Sekiryuutei and his comrades? Well, why not? We may not have a dog on our side, but in order to defeat the [Slash Dog] team, we did bring a wolf!”

Just as Bikou said, a grey wolf appeared right behind them — Fenrir! Hey, come on! For the sake of retrieving just a few notebooks, they’d go so far as to bring a legendary monster to battle!?

“That’s Fenrir!”

While I became cautious, Akeno-san had already gathered lightning in her hands since she had experience in fighting against it previously.

“It looks like they’re serious about this.”

As usual, I began by equipping my armour, while Rossweisse-san prepared a magic circle with her hand. …I-I didn’t expect that they’d use something akin to a Balance Breaker just so that they could recover Vali’s diaries…. Bikou chuckled as he said,

“Kakaka! We just want to verify the contents of the diaries first! Vali seemed like he was actually panicking to try and retrieve it, so they must be some really important diaries, right? No, it’s probably just that I’m really interested now!”

Perhaps because he had the support of Fenrir, he uttered such words with a relaxed expression.

“I have a way to defeat it.”

Akeno-san said. She then raised her hand straight up — and a black shadow appeared. Leaping into the middle of our confrontation was — a large black dog, Jin!

“If our opponent is Fenrir, Jin-chan might have something up its sleeve.”

Akeno-san said. They must’ve had a considerable amount of trust in their relationship if she was able to summon it just by raising her hand. Was it because they were relatives of the Himejima clan? Jin stood directly in front of Fenrir. The legendary God Devouring Wolf and the [Dog God of the Black Blade] of a Longinus glared at each other!

“……”

“……”

Without a roar or a growl, the two creatures simply stared at each with silence penetrating the air. A moment later — Fenrir turned around, and then made a stance while facing Bikou! Fenrir bared its teeth at Bikou! It turned against them! Bikou looked so bewildered and surprised that his eyes seemed like they were about to fly out of their sockets.

“Huh, why are you coming towards me, Fenrirrr!?”

However, Fenrir simply widened its jaw to reveal more teeth than we had ever seen it display towards Bikou! Standing beside Bikou, both Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie were also confused.

“Bikou-san, perhaps you’ve been too unscrupulous…well, not that I can say…”

“This is pretty much reaping what you sow.”

Those two also seemed to feel the same way about Fenrir’s betrayal!

“Grrrgaauuu!”

“Urrrgraaaa!”

Fenrir and Jin both charged forward, approaching Bikou!

“D-Damn iiitttttt! I’ll remember thisss!”

With Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie in tow, Bikou instantly turned and fled — the scene in the park left us speechless. We relaxed and Lavinia-san also smiled.

“That’s wonderful. Jin-chan and Fenrir-chan have become friends.”

…Was it really a good thing that they had become friends? Well, a legendary wolf and dog seemed to have reached an understanding. —At that moment, Lavinia-san seemed to become aware of something, and she glanced towards a corner of the park. Natsume-san also seemed to understand what was going on as she heaved a sigh.

“Did Vali finally decide to come?”

Natsume-san asked Lavinia-san. Seriously!? I didn’t notice anything at all…. Following the direction of Lavinia-san’s gaze — Vali appeared under the shade of a park tree. He began to walk over toward us. Natsume-san made a wry smile. Her expression was akin to someone welcoming the return of a troublesome little brother.

“You finally decided to show up, Vali.”

With a fraught expression unlike any that I had ever seen Vali with before, he stammered to Lavinia-san,

“…L-Lavinia, please give them back to me.”

Whoa, it was the first time that I had ever seen Vali look so weak! Could it be possible that he had trouble holding a conversation with Lavinia-san? Or was he just shy? Upon Vali’s arrival, Lavinia-san also revealed a smile unlike any I had ever seen before. Her expression was like that of a sister seeing her adorable little brother for the first time in a while.

“Va-kun. You’re finally here. Now then, let’s have some tea—”

Lavinia-san leisurely said to Vali.

“No, I didn’t intend on having tea. I just want my diaries back. I…want to destroy them as soon as possible. I’m not the same person that I was back then, and I hope you can understand that, Lavinia.”

Despite Vali’s serious expression, Lavinia-san tilted her head as if she was slightly puzzled by his words. Damn Vali, isn’t she just the cutest older sister!? You’re making me feel jealous! I asked Natsume-san,

“U-Umm, the reason why Vali never showed up in person until now…”

Natsume-san made a light smile as she said,

“He’s just embarassed. The diary is one thing, but he’s just really bad at dealing with Lavinia. After all, she’s Va-kun’s older sister.”

Vali’s ‘older sister’ said to him,

“I understand, and since you say so, I’ll return them to you, Va-kun.”

Hearing that message seemed to give Vali some peace of mind. —However, while Lavinia took the notebooks out, she continued,

“In exchange, I want to stroke Va-kun’s head.”

“—!”

Pure shock eclipsed the expression on Vali’s face upon hearing Lavinia-san’s request! Was it really that surprising!? I’d be totally fine if such a beautiful woman wanted to touch my head, in fact, I’d be okay with her touching me anytime and anywhere!

“…In front of Hyoudou Issei?”

Vali looked at me as he spoke with trepidation. As I thought, he seemed pretty conscious of the fact that I would be present. A wide smile spread across Lavinia-san’s face as she replied with,

“Yes.”

On the other hand, Vali said,

“Give me a moment to think about it!”

And then folded his arms as he began to deliberate over it with a pained expression. In his mind, it seemed like accepting Lavinia-san’s head pat was something that required significant determination. Upon bearing witness to this scene, Natsume-san, Samejima-san and Nanadaru-san each said,

“This is truly a rare sight, Hyoudou Issei-kun.”

“Well, this is a decent opportunity. If only Vali would go back to how he used to be easy to get along with.”

“This really takes me back. It used to feel just like this.”

Well, after an intense internal struggle that lasted several minutes, Vali — finally decided that retaking the diaries was his priority, and so he accepted Lavinia-san’s terms,

“Okay.”

Upon hearing those words, Lavinia-san approached Vali and then held his face close to her bosom. With an expression that was filled with affection, Lavinia-san gently stroked Vali’s head.

“…Tobi and I want you to come play with us more. I’ll always be waiting.”

Lavinia-san said. Vali — with his face burning as bright red as it could possibly be, his expression was almost indescribable. After around a minute, Vali backed away from Lavinia-san. He then immediately took the two diaries that Lavinia-san handed to him.

“I’ve gotten the diaries back.”

While saying that, Vali spread his wings of light and immediately flew off as if it was a desperate escape. And bidding him farewell, Lavinia-san simply waved her hand at him. To her, it seemed like Vali was like a child who occasionally visited her to play. However, all of the diaries had returned to Vali’s hands…. Natsume-san asked Lavinia-san,

“Was it okay to just give all of the diaries back to him?”

In response, Lavinia-san produced a magic circle at her feet, from which a large number of books emerged. Notebooks stacked up high like a mountain appeared! Facing the countless notebooks which were piled up like a mountain, Lavinia-san said,

“It’s not a problem at all. Because they’re such precious and important diaries for Va-kun, I prepared many copies.”

—! What the…! Vali, your troubles are going to be endless! Rossweisse-san then interjected from the side,

“To tell the truth, I actually helped to make these replicas…moreover, magic was applied to the production process, making the defence of each book even more perfect than the originals. I’m afraid the Vali team will have quite the struggle regardless of whether they wish to obtain or destroy them.”

Rossweisse-san also helped!? And she used magic to enhance them! How many times was Vali going to have to endure those head pats until he obtained all of them!? Despite my envy of the head patting, I could only give my heartfelt regards to my rival for the difficult future that he had ahead of him.

(All 1 of 1 parts) (25/7/20)

Continues on to Restaurant