The engine fell silent.
Dust drifted lazily through the shattered entrance as splintered wood and broken stone settled across the marble floor. The grand reception hall, moments ago filled with conversation, had fallen into complete silence. Every noble, every servant, and every guard stared at the lone rider seated atop the black scooter, orange Hellfire dancing within the empty sockets of his skull.
For several long seconds, no one moved.
Then hurried footsteps echoed through the hall.
"Ethan!"
Issei Hyoudou pushed his way through the stunned crowd before stopping directly in front of the scooter. Without the slightest hesitation, he spread his arms wide, shielding Rias behind him as though he alone could stop whatever was about to happen.
"I'm not going to let you take President Rias away!"
The declaration echoed through the silent hall.
The burning skull turned toward him.
For a brief moment, Ethan simply looked at Issei.
...Hopeless.
Without acknowledging him, Ethan stepped off the scooter and walked straight past.
"H-Hey!" Issei called after him. "Didn't you hear what I said?!"
Ethan didn't even slow down.
He stopped in the middle of the reception hall.
The old leather suitcase slipped from his hand and struck the polished marble with a heavy thud.
Every eye followed it.
Without a word, Ethan drove the toe of his boot into the latches.
The suitcase sprang open.
Four severed heads rolled across the marble floor before coming to rest at Riser Phoenix's feet.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Riser's confident smile disappeared.
His pupils contracted as he stared at the faces lying before him.
"...Impossible."
He recognized every one of them.
Around him, members of the Phoenix household reacted much the same way. Shock spread across their faces as they recognized the missing retainers.
Ethan's voice shattered the silence.
"Yesterday..."
His burning gaze settled upon Riser.
"...they came to kill me."
No one spoke.
"I came here for only one reason."
The flames surrounding his skull flickered slightly.
"Rias Gremory attempted to use me."
His words caused Rias to stiffen.
"Ordinarily, I would have ignored it. I have no proof she did so deliberately."
His gaze shifted back to Riser.
"But your people..." He gestured toward the severed heads. "...left me with no reason to ignore the matter."
The hall erupted into murmurs.
"An assassination?"
"The Phoenix family?"
Riser finally tore his eyes away from the heads.
"I never ordered anyone to attack you."
Ethan remained silent.
"I don't even know who you are."
Several members of the Phoenix family exchanged uneasy glances, while others frowned, clearly trying to understand what had happened.
Before anyone else could speak, an elderly devil slowly stepped forward from among the gathered nobles.
His gaze remained fixed on Ethan's burning skull.
"...Those flames..."
His brows slowly knitted together.
"And that appearance..."
The old devil studied him for another long moment before speaking again.
"...Are you connected to Lord Hades?"
The question immediately drew the attention of everyone present.
Countless pairs of eyes shifted back toward the burning skeleton.
A skeletal figure wreathed in supernatural flames.
To many of the older devils, there was only one being whose appearance bore even the slightest resemblance.
Murmurs spread rapidly through the hall.
"...Hades?"
"Did the Greek Pantheon interfere?"
"Is he one of Lord Hades' subordinates?"
Even Sirzechs narrowed his eyes.
He knew Ethan had nothing to do with Hades. Yet... the resemblance was enough to make even him hesitate.
For a time, the murmurs didn't settle down. If anything, the old devil's question had opened a door, and the room's attention was sliding away from Riser and onto Ethan himself—onto what, exactly, he was.
Riser felt the shift as well, but he wasn't thinking the same way as everyone else.
"Hades," he said, letting the word linger. "How convenient. Nobody here recognizes him, and I'm meant to answer accusations from a thing no one can name?"
The murmurs shifted—not into agreement, but into uncertainty, doubt finding somewhere new to settle.
Sirzechs said nothing. His narrowed eyes hadn't left Ethan, though the question behind them had changed shape: not who had sent the assassins, but what was standing in his hall.
Ethan could feel the room tilting against him. Being an unknown existence was becoming a problem.
"I have nothing to do with Hades," he said.
Flat.
There was no performance in his voice, because for once, performance wouldn't help.
Hearing him, Riser's smile returned, thinner now.
"Then perhaps the real question isn't whether I ordered an attack." He straightened his cuffs without hurry. "It's what every person here is doing while an unidentified thing walks into this hall carrying heads like trophies and making demands."
His eyes flicked briefly toward Sirzechs, gauging how far the room's uncertainty would carry him.
"That isn't an accusation. It's simply a statement. Yet nobody seems willing to do anything while my family's honor is being insulted."
"Riser."
Sirzechs' voice carried a genuine warning.
"With all due respect, Lord Sirzechs," Riser replied, "he made this a matter for my family the moment he opened that suitcase. Whatever he is doesn't matter anymore."
As he finished speaking, flames slowly gathered around Riser's shoulders, patient and controlled, nothing like the earlier heat of wounded pride. It was the fire of a man who understood that his dignity was on the line.
"Last warning," Ethan said. "Give me the people."
Riser answered with action instead of words.
A line of fire tore across the hall, racing straight toward Ethan's chest.
Issei was the closest—still standing where he'd tried to block the scooter only moments earlier—and he saw the flames cut through the air before anyone else.
"Move! Move! MOVE!"
His arm shot toward Rias, more instinct than thought, shoving her back a full step before his mind caught up with what his body had already decided.
The floor cleared before the flames even landed. Nobles peeled away from the open space in one motion, robes and formalwear sweeping aside as though the marble itself had caught fire.
Near one of the pillars, an older devil pressed his lips into a hard line, his arms folding tightly across his chest—not out of fear, but something closer to distaste, gone again before it could settle into words.
A reception hall wasn't a dueling arena, and everyone backing away from it understood that. No one needed to say it aloud.
Issei's voice cut through the chaos a second time, cracked and far too loud.
"Somebody stop this!"
Seeing the flames racing across the hall, he instinctively grabbed Rias by the wrist and pulled her back.
"President, let's go both of them have lost their minds!"
Then the silence the room had been holding finally shattered. Nobles screamed, guards scrambled into position, and Issei continued shouting over the chaos, desperately trying to make someone—anyone—listen.
Authors note: that was more challenging than I had anticipated, especially when it came to starting a fight, which I tried a lot of different approaches to. Even now, as a draft, there is a problem that I can try to fix again, but someone pointed out in the last review that there were too many mistakes that I decided to fix, which is putting me in a loop and making this book situation similar to the doctor faith, which I decided to rewrite whose result clear to everyone where I haven't updated as single chapter 😔