"And what else did you find out?"
The subordinate took out a file and gave it to her, speaking with respect.
"We found that the local nest of Stray Devils has been destroyed, and only a handful of them are left in the town."
"The mysterious man again?"
"Yes. Although he is not so mysterious anymore."
Serafall Leviathan raised an eyebrow with intrigue before going through the file, only to roar out with laughter, shocking the leader of the devils who keeps an eye on Kuoh with his team, just like his counterparts that work for Sirzechs Lucifer, without alerting the heiresses.
"So, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, eh?"
Serafall grinned happily as she looked at the profile of Shirou Emiya.
"I wonder how Kiritsugu managed to keep this under wraps for this long? And how did you end up discovering this? Raol?"
The subordinate, Raol, a high-class devil, bowed as he replied with the details.
"Well, Sona-sama ended up contacting the Sitir household in the underworld for someone to investigate things discreetly in the town without alerting you. Knowing that it would be better to keep things quiet and 'in-house' so to speak, I talked to Lady Sitri and went to Sona-sama, pretending to answer her request. And given how I've kept many of her secrets from you, she readily agreed to hand over this investigation to me."
Serafall placed her face in her palms, listening with interest as her most trusted subordinate spun a tale of subterfuge and thrill, completely ignoring how he blatantly spoke about keeping things about Sona from her.
"From there, I got the details from Sona-sama about her so-called suspects, who she believed to be possible identities of our mysterious hunter. Tracking down the two, we managed to eliminate one of them, Issei Hyoudou, as a possible target. The reasoning has been compiled in that file, so you can go through that at your leisure. As a result of this, however, I came to the conclusion that the other one had to be it, and sure enough, our investigations revealed the truth."
Serafall smiled meaningfully at Raol's boast, making the devil deflate a bit.
As her oldest friend still alive after the Civil War, and her Bishop, she knew his tendency to boast better than anyone. That is why she waited until he finally realized that she had caught onto his boast and was waiting for him to come clean.
With a blush on his face after being caught, he coughed into his fist before speaking seriously again.
"Truthfully, I can only say that we found him through sheer luck. If one of our familiars had not lost its way while flying over Mount Enzou and discovered the strange barriers over the ruins of Ryuudou Temple, which in turn led to one of my people watching the place for a week from a good distance, we would never have caught on that the person we were searching for was Shirou Emiya, son of Kiritsugu Emiya."
"Hm. That answers how so many Stray Devils fell so quickly. If the boy was trained by his father, it is practically guaranteed that he would be a nightmare in combat."
Serafall smiled brightly as she thought about the human who rejected her offer to join her peerage back then. Something that basically became a legend among the few devils who knew about this matter.
Serafall was not someone who gave out invitations to just anyone, no matter the sacred gear or ability they had.
Unlike Sirzechs, who had a particular agenda he was working towards and had a specific criterion when recruiting people into his peerage, or even Ajuka or Falbium, who had their own preferences, Serafall was not interested in the peerage system in the first place.
To this day, she only has two members in her peerage. Her rook, The Magical Beast King of the Earth, Behemoth of Duidain, and Raol himself.
This is not due to a lack of candidates that she could turn into her subordinates, because if she willed it, there would be a line stretching from her office in New Lilith all the way to the old capital, Lucifaad.
She even had the opportunity to accept the previous wielder of the Vanishing Dragon once upon a time, but did not extend her offer to her.
Because Serafall did not trust just anyone to be part of her peerage. So, it was no small matter that there was a rare instance where she believed a human to be worthy of being in her peerage, only to be turned down.
Sighing a bit, she went back to reading through the file while Raol continued waiting.
Finally, after going through the full information in the file, which was admittedly not that much, only about how Shirou Emiya has been confirmed to be the one who was hunting the stray devils and what kind of abilities he might have based on circumstantial evidence, the Satan put down the file and spoke again.
"Does Sona know about this information?"
"Only about Shirou Emiya being the person hunting the strays. I kept out the speculations about the boy's probable abilities and his....unique...circumstances and his current companions."
"Good. Burn this file and scatter the ashes. This information dies here. You keep on doing what you were doing until now. As for the boy, I'll look into it personally."
The devil/magic girl's eyes gleamed with mischief, which sent chills down Raol's spine while he mentally sent a prayer to the maos in Sona's name, knowing that the poor girl he watched grow up was going to have rough days ahead.
"The Parent-Teacher conference is coming right?"
"....Yes. Incidentally, Sona-sama gave me the date-"
"No need. I already know. The Sitri family is part of the school's board along with the Gremories, remember?"
'....Forgive me, Sona-sama. Looks like this time around, you can't use the same trick as last time, even if the person delivering the fake schedule is me.'
Serafall grinned, knowing exactly what her subordinate was thinking. He was always like this, wrapped around her little sister's finger thanks to how much he cared about her.
"I'll investigate the boy myself at that time while using the conference as the guise."
"....Serafall-sama. Please don't forget that the conference also has another purpose."
Serafall waved dismissively.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. I get enough reminders from Ajuka already, don't you start as well. Besides, that conference is one of the reasons why I am doing this myself."
A rare hint of fear flickered in her eyes before her usual playfulness returned.
"If your theory is right, we don't want that man on our tail and end up as that old coot Rizevim."
"....Alright then. I guess I'll get going?"
Serafall smiled, this time genuinely.
"Go. And take care of Sona for me, yeah?"
"....I would do that even if you don't tell me, Sera."
Watching her friend disappear into the teleportation circle with the file to dispose of it as instructed, she leaned back into her seat.
Reminiscing about that time more than eighteen years ago, when she first ran into that man and his wife, just after the Einzbern family was eradicated, and made a temporary contract with him to track down a particular mage, Serafall could not help but sigh once again.
'Let's see what your 'son' is capable of, Kiritsugu. Maybe he will surprise me as you did back then? Maybe I'll push him towards Sona and have her reincarnate him? If not, at least have them make a contract?'
Her face then took on an annoyed expression while thinking along those lines.
'Hopefully, he is not as stubborn as you or Shirley, or as prone to violence on first contact. I don't want Sona to know what it feels like to eat a spell-woven .44 Magnum bullet to the face.'
------------------------------------------
Author Notes:
Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1