Under the clear sky, the boy with demonic wings on his back overlooked the scene below from above. Black streaming flames seemed to flicker in his eyes, and a faint smile always played on his lips.
"The school looks much better from this angle."
Leon spoke to himself quite comfortably.
Chiba Municipal Sōbu High School, located in Chiba City, is the high school with the highest deviation value in the city, making it a key educational institution.
The school buildings have a somewhat peculiar shape. When viewed from above, they look a bit like the character "口" (mouth), and with one more building added slightly below, it forms the school's entire aerial view.
Along the road is the main school building, and opposite it is the special building. Walkways connect them on the second floor, forming a quadrangle. The space enclosed by these four school buildings is Sōbu High's courtyard.
It was currently afternoon, and many students in uniform were moving back and forth in the courtyard. Some were sitting on the lawn or benches chatting happily, and others were chasing and playing. The whole scene looked very harmonious, forming a comfortable everyday landscape.
Yet, Leon himself was the most incongruous element in this everyday scene.
"Do you believe in the existence of devils?"
The question he recently posed to the famous figure of Sōbu High, the second daughter of the Yukinoshita family, was now being answered in the most direct way possible.
Leon Ellig, a third-year student at Sōbu High, was, in fact, a devil.
Once, he was one of the most ordinary people among the general public, but after arriving in this world eighteen years ago, his life began to change.
It wasn't until he was three that he learned his father in this life was an exorcist and his mother was a devil. The two had met in Chiba City about nineteen years ago, immediately and dramatically falling in love, embarking on an unblessed romance.
This romance was destined to be a tragedy, as the two had once been deadly enemies. Even when hatred turned to love, the scars of the past still accompanied them.
Consequently, as the crystallization of their love, Leon lost his heavily injured parents one after the other when he was three, becoming a lone orphan.
Although he was a devil, what could a three-year-old devil do?
In any case, the Leon of fifteen years ago thought he might very well die on the street.
Until... Leon met another devil.
"Long, long ago, devils, angels, and fallen angels fought constantly, causing extremely painful casualties to all sides."
"That was a terrifying great war, lasting thousands of years, pushing all three factions to the brink of collapse."
"To this day, although the three factions are still hostile and resentful of each other, and the fighting between them has never ceased, they have all fallen to the point where they cannot survive without humans."
"The Angel faction needs the power of the churches built by humans to crusade against devils and fallen angels; fallen angels have been trying to manipulate humans to fight angels and devils; and devils accumulate power by contracting with humans to extract payment. This is the current situation."
"But even so, we have not given up on finding our former comrades."
The individual informed Leon that in primordial times, devils not only had the Four Great Satans but also seventy-two devil families with noble titles—the legendary Seventy-Two Pillars of the Demon Gods.
Each of these seventy-two families had once led dozens of devil legions; they were the first and purest devils. However, during the war that lasted thousands of years, many of the seventy-two houses were cut off.
Nevertheless, some descendants of these extinct noble houses survived by chance in some way and scattered all over the world, even living in seclusion in the human world, unknown to others. To this end, the devil faction had continuously investigated, searching for the descendants of these extinct noble houses, and entrusted high-ranking devils living in the human world to protect and even nurture them.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Leon was the descendant of one of these extinct pure-blooded devil families.
"Ellig, the 15th-ranked devil family among the Seventy-Two Pillars, also known as Eligos. It is an ancient devil family with the rank of Duke, which once commanded sixty devil legions."
"Your mother was one of the Ellig family bloodlines scattered in the human world, and the only remaining bloodline of this family. Unfortunately, she too passed away."
"Although you are a hybrid of a pure-blooded devil and a human exorcist, you are still qualified to inherit the surname 'Ellig.' If one day you can become a high-ranking devil, we will restore the status of the Ellig family, returning everything the Ellig family once possessed to you, including the title and territory."
Thus, Leon received aid from the Underworld. Under the official arrangement of the devil government, he was protected by a pure-blooded devil living in the human world and was given methods to train his power.
Leon, knowing what kind of world he had come to, also worked exceptionally hard, continuously delving into his power as a devil and improving himself. He finally spent fifteen years to be promoted to a high-ranking devil and was awarded a treasure in the Underworld that could be used to recruit subordinates—the Evil Piece.
Therefore, Leon set his sights on the celebrity at his school—Yukino Yukinoshita.
"What choice will you make?"
Looking down at the school buildings below, Leon played with a Western chess piece that was entirely blood-red, the smile on his lips growing wider.
"I hope the result won't disappoint me."
As a hybrid devil who had just recently managed to be promoted to a high-ranking devil, Leon was quite looking forward to his first subordinate.
This was not only related to whether he would gain an appealing and capable subordinate but also to his future development.
Thinking of his own unique trait, which was distinctly different from the rest of the devils, Leon smiled faintly and put away the Evil Piece in his hand.
Immediately, the devil wings on his back flapped, and he swiftly flew towards another direction of the school building.
...
Chiba Prefecture is a place surrounded by the sea on three sides, with warm winters and cool summers.
The prefecture is nestled in the embrace of the magnificent Pacific Ocean, possessing a vast and rich natural environment with lush greenery. It is also adjacent to the capital, Tokyo, giving it an excellent geographical location and extremely convenient transportation, making it one of the leading prefectures in the country.
Leon currently resides in a corner of Chiba City's Chuo Ward.
It is a manor that looks somewhat retro from the outside, like a small castle.
The manor is not particularly large, but it has a villa-like mansion. In front of the mansion is a garden, planted with many flowers and plants. One can see many men and women dressed as servants moving through it, either trimming the vegetation or maintaining the flowers and grasses, giving it a strong aristocratic aura.
Leon suddenly descended from the sky, landing directly in the garden in front of everyone there, folding his devil wings on his back as his toes touched the ground. The surrounding servants immediately turned and bowed to him.
Leon, however, had no intention of greeting the servants. He walked straight into the mansion.
His destination was the dining room. Although it was overly luxurious for a single person, he had grown accustomed to it.
Compared to eating lunch boxes at Sōbu High or quick meals in the cafeteria, Leon undoubtedly preferred the delicious meals made by the chef at home. At the very least, they wouldn't contain seasonings and ingredients he was unaccustomed to.
"Bring me a Chinese meal, the same as the day before yesterday."
Leon, sitting down in the dining room, casually instructed. The chef, who had appeared next to him at some point, bowed respectfully and retreated to prepare his lunch.
A maid in a uniform silently appeared, pushing a tea cart, making and pouring tea for him, and assisting him with washing and drying his hands. She served him quite meticulously but never spoke to Leon.
There was no helping it. Neither the chef nor the maid, nor the servants outside, were actually human. They were familiars gifted to Leon along with the manor itself.
The function of these familiars was to maintain the operation of the manor and cater to Leon's daily needs. They had no other purpose, so they essentially lacked the function of conversation. They would dutifully perform their responsibilities until they vanished.
The manor even included a dedicated driver to pick up and drop off Leon from school, but Leon usually preferred to fly home himself, so the service was rarely used.
Of course, such a luxurious manor and setup were certainly not bought by Leon's own hard work.
It wasn't that he couldn't do it, but he had been diligently working on becoming a high-ranking devil before, and hadn't focused on earning money. Thus, before that, he actually lived in a normal private house. It wasn't until he became a high-ranking devil that the devil responsible for liaising with him gave him this manor as a gift.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear. As Leon was waiting for his lunch, a magic circle the size of a palm suddenly appeared next to him.
"Good afternoon, Leon."
A girl's figure emerged from the magic circle, speaking in a cool, clear voice.
Seeing this, Leon also smiled.
"Good afternoon, Sōna."
Sōna Shitori, true name Sōna Sitri, the next head of the Sitri family, the 12th-ranked devil among the Seventy-Two Pillars, and the younger sister of the current Satan Leviathan.
Yes, the devils who had been assisting Leon all this time were from the Sitri family.
Although Sōna Shitori was a young devil who had only recently arrived in the human world a few years ago, since coming here, she had taken over some of the Sitri family's work in the human world, including the duty of assisting and protecting Leon, the descendant of an extinct pure-blooded devil family.
When Leon was promoted to a high-ranking devil recently, she was the one who sent him to the Underworld and presented this manor to him as a gift.
Therefore, Leon's smile was genuine, unlike the playful amusement he displayed when facing Yukino Yukinoshita.