Rod glanced at the flyer. With his sharp perception, he quickly discerned the girl's… measurements, cough, her true nature.
A faint trace of demonic power lingered around her, extremely weak.
He had seen plenty of stray devils before; most of them were roughly at this level. But the magical power of the girl in front of him was even weaker than that of stray devils, at best, she was merely the manifested form of a familiar.
"Please follow us!"
Feeling Rod's gaze lingering on her, the familiar grew slightly uneasy. After handing over the flyer, she immediately hurried back into the crowd. She planned to finish distributing the rest first, then report Rod's appearance to her master.
Mystery solved.
It wasn't that Rias hadn't set up any surveillance around Kuoh Town, she had simply been using familiars as her eyes and ears.
Though Rod couldn't help wondering whether a handful of familiars was really enough to monitor the entire town. No wonder all kinds of supernatural beings kept sneaking in, Fallen Angels today, exorcists tomorrow. The whole territory was practically a sieve.
Shaking off the thought, Rod examined the flyer in his hand.
The design was extremely simple. Printed on it was a complicated magic circle with the words: "Grant Your Wish."
Rod recalled that devils made contracts with humans in exchange for services.
Back then, the original protagonist had survived precisely because he received a flyer like this on the street, used it to summon Rias, and was reincarnated as a devil instead of dying.
Rod suddenly felt like trying it himself.
But just as he was about to act, he remembered that Rias and Himejima Akeno attended Kuoh Academy during the daytime.
Even if he activated the circle now, the summoning might fail, or worse, summon some other devil instead.
With that in mind, Rod slipped the flyer into his pocket and went back to scrolling through his phone.
About two hours later, he received a message from Lavinia. Their shopping was done, and they were ready to head back.
After regrouping, they drove back together.
On the way, Lavinia also showed Rod the flyer she had received.
"Although the magical reaction is extremely weak, the magic circle on the flyer is genuine. As long as the user's intent is strong enough, it will activate. Even ordinary people can use it."
"No rush. Let's wait until tonight. We've been out all day, let's go back and rest first."
When they returned to the house, the entire first floor had already been cleaned spotless by the three Fallen Angels, shining like new.
With their lives on the line, whatever schemes they might have harbored were set aside, for survival alone, they worked with full effort.
By evening, Raynare's trio had finally finished cleaning every room.
Rod called them over to eat at the table, and the simple gesture instantly left them overwhelmed with gratitude. The frustration and resentment in their hearts didn't vanish entirely, but most of it disappeared.
Back in Grigori, they had never once been treated as real individuals, only worked to exhaustion like disposable labor.
In contrast, although Rod had nearly killed them and forced them to work under a curse, he still allowed them to sit at the same table and share a meal.
It almost felt like he was treating them as his own people.
Kalawarna even began tearing up as she ate. Mittelt looked delighted, while Raynare glanced at her two companions with exasperation.
Seriously? A little kindness and you're already bought over?
…Still, the food was delicious.
After the meal, Rod sent the trio to wash the dishes. This time, they carried out the task without complaint, working diligently.
Rod himself moved into the spacious living room, took out the flyer, and prepared to summon a devil.
...…
Meanwhile, at the abandoned church on the hill behind town, a second group of visitors had finally arrived.
"What's the situation?"
Two figures stood in the open space before the church, both wearing Kuoh Academy girls' uniforms.
In the dim light of dusk, the long crimson hair cascading down from one of the girls' heads was still unmistakable. Her waist-length red hair swayed gracefully in the breeze, making the surrounding scenery seem more vivid, its brilliance accentuated by her porcelain-white skin.
Standing beside her was another girl of similar age and height, her refined face carrying a gentle smile.
They were none other than the overseers of Kuoh Town:
Rias Gremory and her peerage member, Himejima Akeno.
Rias watched as two of her servants emerged from the church basement.
Both wore school uniforms. One was a young blond boy, the other a petite silver-haired girl whose small frame made her look more like an elementary school student than a high schooler.
The former was Kiba Yuuto; the latter went by the codename Koneko.
"There's no one left in the basement," Kiba reported. "But there's a cross, a lot of unfamiliar symbols, and various ritual tools. It looks like a ritual site that was never used. The stray exorcists and Fallen Angels occupying this place were killed before they could carry it out."
"Someone acted before we did," Akeno said, gazing down at the human corpses.
When her eyes passed over Donaseek's body, clear disgust, and a hint of satisfaction, flashed across her face.
"Too little evidence to be certain," Rias said, examining the bullet holes in the corpses' foreheads. "But it's possible the Church was involved. Among the three great factions, exorcists make the most extensive use of firearms. Also, one of my familiars reported spotting a very strange individual in the city center today, someone with no detectable magic power, yet giving off an intense sense of danger."
Familiars differed from devils. Most were essentially intelligent beasts native to the Underworld, smarter than animals of the human world, but still closer to instinct-driven creatures. As a result, their sensitivity to danger was often sharper than that of devils.
"Perhaps only by finding him will we uncover the truth," Rias said, frowning at the scene.
She had actually noticed the Fallen Angels' presence in the church days earlier. However, even an abandoned church remained religious territory, and devils could not simply interfere without consequences. Damaging a church recklessly could easily invite retaliation from assassins.
She had been quietly investigating their motives before deciding how to act, but before she could uncover anything, the Fallen Angels' base had already been wiped out.
Since taking charge of Kuoh Town, she had never encountered a situation like this, which made her particularly cautious.
"President, what should we do next?" Koneko asked, her gauntleted hands idle for once.
"Dispose of the bodies and return for now. As for the person mentioned by the familiar, continue investigating. It's getting late, so tomorrow we'll-"
Rias suddenly stopped.
A moment later, she turned to Akeno.
"We have a new client. And this one specifically requested you, Akeno."
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