185 Chapter 185: Her Highness, The Princess

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"Well, we will not know if we don't ask, right?"

Issei Hyoudou said while smiling and walked in the direction of the duo while being followed by the other curious students. Erik felt the group approaching him but kept his attention on Kunou.

"Teacher Ravenclaw?"

Issei Hyoudou said when he reached Erik and the little blonde. Both of them were going through the wares of a gift stall when Erik heard someone calling him. Erik turned to see who it was and smiled after seeing Issei Hyoudou and a group of students with him.

"Mr. Hyoudou. How are you doing? Enjoying the festival, I hope."

Erik said to the brown-haired boy, who nodded his head at the question.

"I'm fine, teacher. And we are surely enjoying the festival."

Issei Hyoudou said to Erik.

"That's good. So, how can I help you all?"

Erik said while turning back to the stall owner and handing him some money to pay for some of the small trinkets that he had bought for him and Kunou. The little blonde, shy of the strangers talking with Erik, hid herself as good as she could behind one of Erik's legs. It was easy for her because of the difference in size between the two of them and the clothes that Erik was wearing.

"Well... We were just passing by and saw you enjoying the festival and we got curious about the little girl with you. That's all."

Issei Hyoudou said back to Erik, starting slowly until he had found the right words while scratching the back of his head.

"Ah. So you guys got curious, then?"

Erik asked and the teenagers replied by nodding their heads.

"I see. Well, no trouble in introducing the both of you. After all, you all are part of the supernatural world."

Erik said while placing down an anti-eavesdrop around them. He then put his hand on Kunou's head and patted it a little before slowly pushing her to his side.

"As you all were with no doubts informed before this trip, Kyoto is one of the supernatural capitals of Japan, being the capital for the West faction of the Yokai."

Erik started saying and the teenagers nodded their heads positively. The Devils had been told about it by their Kings while Asia Argento had been told about it by Joan during one of their classes.

"This is Kunou. She is Kyoto's princess, meaning that her mother is the leader of the West Yokai faction. Kunou, these big brothers and big sisters are all students of mine and part of the supernatural world too."

Erik said while patting Kunou's head. After he finished introducing her, Kunou gave the teenagers a small bow.

"I am Kunou. Nice to meet you all."

Kunou said in a trained tone. She, being the 'princess of Kyoto' had been taught the manners of a noble since she could remember. The teenagers all gaped at her. They could never imagine that the cute little blonde with their teacher would be the princess of one of the two Yokai factions. Asia Argento was the first one to wake up from the 'shock'.

"Nice to meet you too, Kunou. I am Asia Argento, but you can call me just Asia."

Asia Argento said while smiling at Kunou, who nodded her head demonstrating that she had recognized Asia Argento's introduction. Seeing that the little girl was still a little shy, Erik decided to give her a push.

"Kunou, Asia is a student of your aunt Joan too."

Erik said to the little girls, who looked at him when he called. Her eyes went a little wide at the mention of Joan. The older woman was one of her favorite aunts and the mother of one of her big brothers. Just with that, Asia Argento had already won some points with Kunou. Erik's little comment seemed to wake up the rest of the teens too, who started to introduce themselves to Kunou. The last one had been Aika Kiryuu and Kunou looked curiously at the Devil teenager.

"What is it, Kunou?"

Aika Kiryuu asked after having noticed the little princess curiously looking at her. Kunou then looked at Issei Hyoudou and then back at Aika Kiryuu. She then raised her hand and pointed to Issei Hyoudou while looking at the girl.

"You have a lot of his scent on you, and he has a lot of your scent on him. Are you his mate?"

Kunou asked without a hint of shame showing, making all teenagers go into a quick state of shock because of it, with Erik chuckling at the scene. It took only one moment for some of the more innocent girls in the group to go red with embarrassment and the other two males aside from Issei Hyoudou to look to any other place but at the little girl. The two people who were the subject of Kunou's comment were not embarrassed at all. On the contrary, both of them were smiling widely at that, very proud of their relationship.

"I would not say, mates, Kunou. But we are something like that."

Aika Kiryuu said back to the little blonde, who nodded her head in understanding. The kind of relationship that she had with Issei Hyoudou was no secret to anyone there. Both teenagers were very free to do whatever they wanted. At their discretion, of course. About a half-minute later, Yuuto Kiba had recovered enough to continue the conversation with their teacher.

"But teacher Ravenclaw, what are you doing with Kunou?"

Yuuto Kiba asked Erik, who looked strangely at the boy.

"What it looked like that I was doing, Mr. Kiba? I was having fun with Kunou at the festival, of course."

Erik replied to the blonde boy while Kunou nodded her head in agreement with Erik's words. Yuuto Kiba almost facepalmed at that. But he didn't. He recognized that it had been his fault for not asking his question in a clear way. Even more when he knew his teacher had a penchant to tease others when he was not working.

"I mean, what is Kunou doing here with you? Besides having fun at the festival, I mean."

Yuuto Kiba asked again, adding the last part after seeing a small smirk adorn the face of his teacher for an instant. Erik nodded his head sagely at that before answering him.

"I am very good friends with her mother and I had found her wandering alone by the festival."

Erik started saying until he felt a tug in his clothes. He looked down and saw Kunou cutely pouting at him.

"Ok, ok. Sorry for that. Let me correct myself, yes? Kunou found me at the festival…"

Erik said, correcting himself while Kunou nodded her little head in agreement.

"... and decided to grace me with her royal highness presence."

Erik continued saying, teasing the little blonde once more while chuckling a little soon after. At that teasing, Kunou started to punch the side of Erik's leg with her tiny hands repeatedly with a cute pout showing on her face, making him and the teenagers chuckle and giggle at the interaction. While interacting with Kunou and the teenagers, Erik's senses were working at full blast. He had detected earlier, just after meeting the teenagers, a group of special individuals closing in on his location. They were very roundabout about it and seemed to be deciding on how to approach him. And by the energy signature of the group, Erik knew exactly who they were and what was probably their target. Better say, 'who' was their target.

"Well, teasing aside, after Kunou found me, I called her mom, who was very concerned about her safety. You see, Kunou had sneaked out of the palace without being seen out of curiosity about the festival that was happening. Since then, I have been keeping her company and we are enjoying the festival together while waiting for her mother to finish her work and come here."

Erik finished saying to the teenagers, who nodded their heads in understanding. It was at that moment that a wave of magic passed through them, startling the teenagers greatly. The normal humans around them robotically started to leave the place as if they had to urgently go somewhere. Immediately, the teenagers started to put themselves in defensive positions and talk between them. While that was happening, Erik was 'busy' analyzing the magic that was being involved in this ambush. And he was not even a little impressed. It was all very basic stuff with the most 'advanced' part of it being the spatial lock that was in place. And that was not even created through magic at all. It was the work of a Sacred Gear's ability.

Erik felt a thug in his clothes and looked down to his side just to see the scared face of Kunou, who was searching for some comfort in him. He put a hand again over the little blonde's head and patted it gently, making her look up at him. In answer, Erik smiled widely at her and Kunou could feel, just with that smile, that everything was going to be fine.

"Who is there? Appear before us, you coward!"

Saji Genshirou intoned loudly while every Devil was looking around, searching for the source of the magic. Asia Argento had already walked and positioned herself by Erik's side with one of her strongest barrier spells ready to be deployed.

"Coward? Us? Ha! That is gold coming from a Devil's mouth."

The teenagers heard in answer to Saji Genshirou's calling. Not ten seconds later, an athletic-looking teenager with dark purple hair appeared from behind one of the buildings on the street. He was smiling and was holding a golden spear to his back that gave the chills to the Devils. Soon after his appearance, other people started to appear all around him from behind other buildings. In total, there seemed to be around a dozen of them, with more than half having a somewhat crazy look on their faces. The Devils seemed to tighten their defenses after seeing the number of people that had appeared.

"What do you want here?"

Issei Hyoudou asked the young man who seemed to be the leader of this 'ambush' after deciding to cut the talk short. For him, it was very obvious that this group was not here to talk with them. The dark-purple-haired young man smiled at that.

"We came for the Yokai princess. Give her to us and I promise to make your deaths as painless as possible."

The young man declared while taking the golden spear from his back and brandishing it into a 'ready to attack' position.

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