"Yah—!"
A terrified scream erupted from a residence somewhere in Kuoh Town.
"Oh my, isn't this little assistant Aisia?"
The young silver‑haired priest Filid wore a vile grin as the screaming sister Aisia shrank back.
"Fi‑Filid… why are you doing this?"
Aisia stared in disbelief at the scene in the room and at the cause of it—Filid.
In that room the husband lay dead, blood flowing from the living room all the way to the doorway.
"Villains must be punished—so say the words of the saints~"
Filid's nasty smile did not waver.
"Is this man… using demonic power to harm others?"
Aisia's face brightened slightly.
If that were the case…
"Nope."
But Filid denied it.
"When I came in, he seemed to be praying, wishing to save his seriously ill daughter."
"How… then why—"
Aisia's emerald eyes widened in shock.
"Oh, come to think of it, Aisia is new and hasn't learned these things yet. Listen—"
"Relying on demons means you're done as a human — it's the END, END. So I killed him."
"Cleaning up demon‑shit and the humans tainted by demon‑shit is our duty."
"How can you say that…"
Aisia took a step back, unable to accept it.
"Even demons aren't necessarily all evil. Even if someone relies on demonic power, if they don't use it for evil…"
"Hey, hey, hey, are you serious?"
An irritated voice cut Aisia off, and Filid's expression turned cold as if a page had been flipped.
"Do you know what you're talking about? Demons are shit. Whatever they do, they're shit. Humans who consort with them are shit, too! They all deserve death!"
"…Such things, the Lord will not forgive."
"Ha? Don't be stupid, you fool!"
As if a sore spot had been struck, Filid was thoroughly enraged. He drew a Light Sword and swung it at Aisia.
"—!"
At that instant, Aisia felt herself pulled into a warm embrace.
Filid's Light Sword was deflected, and in the next breat,h a lightning‑fast blade silenced him, severing his arm.
The speed left no time to react.
The instant the thought "The attack was blocked" flashed through her mind, an agonizing pain ripped through the arm.
"It hurts! My hand—! Aahhh!!!"
"Bit late, isn't it?"
The Zeroy who had appeared there didn't glance at the shrieking priest; she looked at the corpse killed in the room.
She then looked at the screaming priest and the blonde nun now cradled in her arms.
"Hmm…"
Zeroy lifted her head, thinking for a moment as she recognized the two before her.
One of the heroines, Aisia, and a mad priest.
"All right, stop screaming. You're going to die."
Off with a hand, off with a foot, then off with the head.
She ripped a chair leg free, skewered the head on it as a finishing touch.
"Done."
If she couldn't make a grand spectacle, she'd make a small one.
While using a cleansing function to wipe the crimson from her hands, Zeroy turned to check on Aisia.
But Aisia had already fainted.
"Uh… did she faint from fear?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
Patchouli replied flatly from beside her.
"Fine. Take her back."
Zeroy recalled that a group of fallen angels were watching Aisia, so she made that decision.
Ten minutes later—
Rias and her group arrived and looked at the room, which was a gruesome sight. Their expressions darkened.
"Outsiders really have no manners!"
...
Zeroy was checking mission progress.
So far, they'd collected seven Sacred Gears on this run.
Four for her, three for Patchouli—only three more to complete the set.
However, this mission required turning in the collected Sacred Gears.
If she wanted to keep a favored gear, she'd need to gather extras.
Then there was the effect on the plot—before today, Zeroy and Patchouli's influence on the story was only a few tenths of a percent.
However, today, by chance, killing the stray devil had increased their plot influence by 1%.
Killing the mad priest and taking Aisia added another 5%.
"As expected, contact with the main cast raises influence fast…"
Zeroy nodded in satisfaction.
Just killing a mad priest and bringing Aisia along had boosted their influence so much.
And she hadn't even planned it—like when she killed the stray devil, she'd simply cleared the pests she detected upon arriving at a place.
"Anyway, where are the protagonists?"
Looking at the sleeping Aisia beside her, Zeroy wondered.
She remembered that the protagonist, Issei Hyoudou, should have been present in the earlier events.
If he hadn't appeared, then he must have saved Aisia himself.
Albeit the priest had already drawn his blade, and Zeroy hadn't sensed anyone else nearby when she arrived.
It wasn't possible she'd gotten there earlier or walked faster.
Had she misremembered? Or had some unknown change occurred?
"Ugh…"
Aisia, on the bed, made a faint sound and slowly woke.
"Hi, you're awake~"
Realizing her eyes were open, she saw an unfamiliar ceiling and then an unfamiliar girl's voice.
Aisia instinctively turned and saw the beautiful face of the young woman; memories of the residence flooded back—
The dismembered priest Filid—
"Yah—!"
Aisia screamed again, a high‑pitched peal.
Her reaction was instantaneous—she grabbed the blanket and pulled it up around herself, trembling so violently that even the heavy quilt couldn't hide it.
"Cough, cough, don't be afraid, child. I'm not a bad person. I won't hurt you."
Zeroy stepped forward and gently patted the quilt; still, the girl inside trembled badly.
Since she'd been the cause of the girl's terror, Zeroy patiently soothed her with soft words for a while.
When Aisia's shaking eased and she seemed calm enough to listen, Zeroy began to reason with her.
"If I really wanted to hurt you, this blanket alone couldn't possibly stop me, right?"
Slowly, Aisia peered out and revealed her eyes.
She carefully watched Zeroy.
Zeroy offered a gentle smile.
"You might feel like you escaped one den only to enter another, but that's not the case."
"That man murdered many innocents, but I don't. I only kill bad people—like that mad priest."
"He was surely a bad person. You won't deny that, right? Killing bad people is the natural thing to do, isn't it?"
...
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