Overlord of High School (23)

In the end, Momonga couldn't think of a decent way to deal with his bedding, or what it had become as a result of his second bout of intercourse in this world. Actually, what happened to his bed in Nazarick? Did one of the Maids cleaned it… He wouldn't be returning and found his bed still soiled, is he?

"I wonder if the experience was pleasurable… According to porn, and the various Eroge that Peroroncino recommended, shouldn't the girl be saying that they liked it, and quite vocally at that? I hoped it was not disappointing to Albedo and Shalltear… Should I ask?"

Remembering his latest escapade and the mess he had left again, Momonga remembered that he was also quite dirty again, – and he just took a bath as well! Seeing nothing to it, and that Shalltear was probably also cleaning herself, occupying the bathroom, Momonga just used [Create Body] again, creating a pristine, clean body. Though, another cold shower wouldn't exactly be amiss, maybe he could ask to join in on the shower with Shalltear…

"Yes, that might be a good idea, maybe another try wouldn't be amiss, I should try to be more vocal as well this time… But it's so hard! When my tongue was not literally tied with kissing, the words wouldn't just come out! So, maybe the third time is the charm?"

Momonga felt his body's reaction to this thought for a moment before forcibly suppressing it, shifting his thinking instead to something more pertinent. "Well, then, it's official now. I have a harem… Peroroncino, I'm sorry I did this to your daughter! No, wait, wait, you're the only one whose reaction I can absolutely vouch for, you wouldn't mind something like that… No, I can literally see you giving me the thumbs up!"

Momonga chuckled at the strange image, before a moment later his suppression of emotion dissipated the mental picture of Peroroncino showing him the thumb, returning to reality.

Taking a deep breath, Momonga scrunched his nose as he was buffeted with an unusual smell, before quickly realizing what it was that he was smelling. Needless to say, his previous activities had left quite the peculiar smell in his room, a mix of perspiration and sexual fluids, one that Momonga tried his best to remove by opening the window.

Once that was done, and smelling the room again, Momonga realized that the smell seemed to have clung to his body instead.

"I've recreated my body, so I should be perfectly clean…? Is it simply a phantom smell? Because I haven't washed up, and felt my body washed by the water, my mind still thought that I'm still dirty? I don't even know which is better in this case, trying to ignore this weird feeling of phantom smells and fluid on me. Or putting off meeting Albedo and Shalltear for a couple dozen minutes and going back to Nazarick, to the bathing room floor. Which is ruder?"

Momonga thought about it for a moment before his sharp hearing caught the sound of water he was hearing in the background in the past few minutes ceasing. Apparently Shalltear didn't think it was necessary to spend much time cleaning herself – especially when her Lord was waiting for her, planning a briefing on the current state of their surroundings and Momonga's plans… Which was very simple and short, Momonga was forced to admit.

She was to sit quietly by herself in Miki's house, while Momonga gathered information, and dealt with the Demons.

The latter, however, was on hold at the moment due to the fact that no matter how much Momonga thought about the whole situation, he could not find any decent resolution to the conflict… If that conflict existed at all, of course.

Judging by the fact that the demons never contacted Momonga again from their first meeting, perhaps they simply decided to ignore Momonga? At least for now, there was no overt movement, seemingly they're most likely focusing on gathering information about Momonga, to make the first step on their part the most effective.

"Maybe I could ask Demiurge's help? He's a Demon after all, and he's smart, so he can probably find common ground with the Demons of this world… But no, no, that would be too hasty, Demiurge is one of my trump cards at the moment, I shouldn't let the Demons know yet that I'm not on my own, that I have allies. Besides, although the Demiurge is much weaker than an ordinary level 100 Creature in direct combat, his intelligence, planning, preparation and a lot of different tricks allow him to adapt to any opponent… But even so he is much stronger than a seventieth level like Serafall. I might have hidden information about my strength level, but the appearance of Demiurge will reveal information that I am strong enough that the Demons would probably send in their heavy hitters…"

Thinking about it, sending in Serafall is a stroke of genius, she's strong enough to scout out anyone strong, but not too important that losing her would be too costly to the Demons.

"Hmm, in that case, perhaps I should just ignore the Demons for now? Hmm, no, wait, there's an even better idea! Albedo, Shalltear and Demiurge ended up here because they had nothing better to do, didn't they? So why not use them instead? Shalltear can still somehow pass for human to be able to leave the house, though I'd have to think of a suitable cover for her. It's unlikely that the demons would miss the appearance of a new, unknown girl near me… At the same time, Albedo would have to stay inside the house, and in that time I could have her analyze the demons with Pandora's Actor and Demiurge – the three smartest NPCs in Nazarick."

Cringing inwardly at calling his 'son' smart, Momonga soon calmed down after a bout of Emotion Suppression.

"Shalltear, in the meantime… Hmm, what to do with her? I can't change Shalltear's appearance except by illusion, and illusions are always a risk, especially given that the headmaster has the ability to see through them. I'm not a specialized illusionist, I can't create perfect illusions that cannot be seen through… Sure, I can create high rank illusions, but the right magic can overcome them. A simple use of a Cosmetic Change item might work? Maybe the Demons would figure out that she's a Vampire, but that wouldn't be too much of an issue for Demons, right?"

Inside a room of the old Kuoh Academy building, a dhampir of questionable gender, sneezed.

"No, disguising Shalltear might make her pass as a human for others, but just her presence alone might attract unneeded attention. Appearing in school would draw attention from the Schoolchildren and definitely the Demon's, in fact, letting her walk outside would draw attention regardless. After all, just like me, her youthful appearance would raise questions of why she's not in school, just like Miki did to me. So, her job must be somewhere away from Kuoh… Huh, does this not mean that I have to send her away just after entering a relationship with her? Wouldn't this look like I was just taking advantage of her and sending her away after having sex with her? Argh, why is a harem so difficult?!"

Grabbing his head with his arms, Momonga once again was troubled by his budding relationships. At least, he thought, there would only be two of them, right?

***

Azazel was old, to put it lightly. Though, barring some exceptions that could be counted in one hand, most of the mighty entities of the world were old. Either because they were gods or godlike entities that originated when their religions were first created, or because it took time for those who weren't created that way to reach their current level of power. A lot, a lot of time.

Either way, Azazel was old, not so old that he stopped being interested in women or anything like that, but old enough to realize that he could not spend all of his free time on pleasures and his hobbies. Not that he would do his best to claw more of that 'free' time, that's why peace is best.

Azazel was old and experienced enough to realize that his hobbies were only worth devoting limited time to, and the rest of Azazel's time had to be spent on things he didn't enjoy, but that were necessary. For example, ruling the faction that he was the head of, due to his power.

Too bad that the faction he's 'ruling' was that of Fallen Angels. It might be much easier to herd cats.

Azazel didn't initially want to become a ruler or a general or anything like that, he had tried to escape the scrutiny of Big Daddy precisely because he didn't like doing what he was assigned to do. Ruling, commanding, wars… He really rather not do any of that. There were other things he rather be 'doing'.

Well, sex – sex was another big reason for his, ahem, as others called it, betrayal of the Big G.

But Azazel didn't betray the Father, at least not in the creepy way that other factions, nations, and people usually imply. There was no moment when he suddenly announced that he would now fight God, conquer the world, and the like, in short, Azazel didn't do what Lucifer did. He just, ahem, violated the job description, yes, that works.

And for that, he found himself… Fired from his previous job.

And, as is often the case, when one of the department leaders in a company unexpectedly quits his job, quite a few of the staff below him would follow after him. Azazel was certainly pleased that many of his fellow Angels chose to follow him, troublemakers they all might be, but…

But Azazel didn't want to rule.

Honest, he didn't want to! He just wanted to detach himself from all those divine affairs, from wars, from the iron-clad rules of Father. He simply wanted to enjoy the earthly pleasures, communicate with people who might not be on Daddy's good list, and sometimes do his magical research. More specifically, on one subject in particular – Sacred Gears.

Even though Azazel was resentful of Big Daddy, the old man was a master artificer, the [Sacred Gear] system alone was proof of his genius, not to mention [Heaven System] and the [Longinus]. Multiple artifacts capable of killing gods, and Father was the one to make all of them, and even after countless years trying to do the same, Azazel could only make a pale imitation of a [Sacred Gear].

But the funny thing was that, being free from divine oversight, did not make Azazel any freer. On the contrary, the situation only got worse. Suddenly, it turned out that, if before, he could at least rely on the judgment of Big G and the help of his Angelic allies for a job, now he's without any of it. And credit goes where it is due, Michael, was an absolute beast as far as bureaucracy was concerned.

Now that he found himself the supreme ruler of his faction, he now had to allocate resources, direct their agenda, control the cliques to make sure the infighting remained in control. All that balancing to watch his colleagues closely to make sure that, this time, those who followed him out of Heaven did not once again decide to change their 'place of work'.

After all, once you've already decided to break the rules, what's stopping you from doing it a second time?

It's not that Azazel is completely against free will, no, as a rule breaker himself, it was the farthest thing from his mind! The Fallen were allowed to do their own thing, he even agreed to Baraqiel having a daughter! To a human!

Sure, it ended in a mess of tears and depression… But it's the thought that counts!

However, his subordinates decide to defect to the side of Angels or more likely to the Devils? That he could not allow – at least for the sake of preserving their numbers if nothing else, there's not exactly a way to make more of them after all.

Well, there's always Resurrection… Well, it's not that it's impossible at all, in a sense, the Devils have achieved, with their [Evil Pieces] system have achieved a measure of it. And it has already shown to work on Fallen, well half-Fallen, but relying on that method is like putting the cart before the horse.

Some extremely powerful gods or a certain weaker but with a helpful domain could accomplish such a task like Resurrection. Azazel knew that Asclepius of the Greek Pantheon had done it before… And of course there's Big G, he was even quite good at it, and he was the only god who had ever done such a feat with any sort of regularity. Well, there's also Osiris and Isis, but uh… The least said about those two, the better.

But anyway, in modern times, with a lot of research, some artifacts could do similar things, the [Evil Piece] is a good example of that, but the Fallen Angel lacks an equivalent artifact. And so, unable to reverse the failures of his decisions, deprived of the patronage of Big G himself in this not-so-big world and caught in this unloved position, the position of ruler, Azazel was forced to act. Sometimes harshly, sometimes effectively, sometimes both at once.

And this led to the current situation.

Did Azazel enjoy periodically appearing to his subordinates as a shining angel, ha-ha, lol, of vengeance? Raining fire on the heads of those who failed to accomplish his orders and errands, or worse subvert them entirely? No, absolutely not.

Azazel preferred peace, quiet, tranquility, well, and rest, of various kinds.

For one thing, he knew very well that most of the world's population was made up of idiots. Even his adopted son, Vali, actually, especially his adopted son. Give the White Dragon Emperor even an iota of freedom, and in a minute you would hear a pitiful squeak from Mount Meru. Because without oversight, Vali would demand a fight even from Indra, actually, especially from Indra.

And only because trying to reach the Great Red is challenging to say the least, residing as he is in the Dimensional Gap, and Ophis the Infinite Dragon, is even harder to find.

Vali fighting Indra? Azazel couldn't even laugh at the massacre that would happen – Indra would curl Vali into a squeaky little lump of wings, his white glittering armor of the [Dividing Mechanism] into so much scrap. While Vali might be the most extreme, all the Fallen needed, to a degree or another, supervision, if simply so that they would not harm themselves in their idiocy.

While they might chafe at having their freedom curtailed, Azazel still remembered the 'bright' ideas his subordinates would think up, and he could only shiver at how badly they would go.

The second reason why he required, preferably, absolute oversight over his subordinates, arises from the first. The reason being that although beings who could read minds were quite rare, among those that could, those that could read the mind of someone as powerful as Azazel could be counted in one hand, mostly being gods.

That was why Azazel took extreme care to make sure that in informational warfare, there's no leak.

Without the ability to read his mind, at least without attracting extreme attention, such beings would need to rely on the much weaker Fallen Angels. So if they were to peek into his subordinates' mind and heard Azazel say something like 'Well, now, you're all free.' the first thing they would think of would be that Azazel had lost his grip on the Fallen. And more importantly, that Azazel would slack in controlling his subordinates… Not that it would be that much of a false impression.

Yes, it was free to be taken, please. Azazel would have been only much too happy to put the whole faction of the Fallen in the hands of someone else… If they were competent at least, and Azazel wouldn't hold his breath for that.

As the saying goes, the person who is best fit to rule, was one who didn't want to rule at all. So does this actually meant that he was the best person to rule after all? Bleh, he just wants to retire now, those people that want to rule have no idea the amount of work necessary, but who could he hand the keys to the Kingdom to?

Of his Cadre, Shemhazai was constantly buried under the rubble of bureaucracy, Baraqiel had a very little idea of what it even meant to rule, and the remaining members of Grigori were either incompetent, unmotivated, or Kokabiel.

That last one needs all the special mention it could. Kokabiel is competent, strong, motivated, he even has a measure of personal charisma to him, and he might as well make Vali the leader of the Fallen rather than him.

Sure, with Vali as the head, the whole of the Fallen would start having duels against him non-stop to sate his need to fight strong opponents, with nothing else fruitful being done. It would last until he got bored fighting the same opponents, before he would go on a journey to fight Great Red, and probably die horribly. But at least, with Vali, the Fallen would still exist.

It would not be so with Kokabiel. Kokabiel was blinded by the memories of the past, he missed the great battles of the Three-sided War, wishing to restore the Fallen as they were back in those times. He missed the glory of the battlefield, missing the amount of dead bodies strewn about in that battlefield in the process.

The great battles spoken about in legend and myths – those times have already passed.

Never mind the fact that their population wouldn't survive even one such large battle, the Age of Mythologies has already passed. Mythologies were dying, religions were disappearing – and they themselves, the Fallen Angels, would one day become extinct. The Devils would find themselves more and more like the Humans, as even now, Reincarnated Devils outnumbered the Devils four to one. So too would this fate befall the Angels and the Fallen – when it takes an average of three hundred years to try for one child, that's to be expected…

It takes a literal Miracle for an Angel to conceive, Angels seeking to conceive have to dance around for months before they can try to make love. Sure, failure would only mean another Fallen Angel, but without Angels in the first place, there wouldn't be any Fallen.

The old mighty Pantheons of gods were dying and in the process of being forgotten, their number of believers dwindling by the generations. Sure the Christian Factions and the Hindus still reigned supreme now, their believers in the billions… But for how long?

Even the monsters had long ago fled with their tails tucked into their sanctuaries.

The world of the paranormal was dying.

It would take a miracle to make the world actually shake the way Kokabiel wanted, it would take no less than the Apocalypse or the Second Coming to rekindle the long-dead fires of the Great War of the past… Not that Azazel was in any hurry to make that happen, mind you.

But Kokabiel would not listen to Azazel's words, he couldn't achieve his goal, and he would kill the Fallen Angels to seek his dreamed battlefield, for nothing. And because of this, Azazel was now forced to pretend that he was too busy to notice Kokabiel's movement, to make sure that he committed something heinous enough to keep him in captivity.

At the very least, so that in his madness, Kokabiel would not do something that the entire faction of the fallen would regret in the future.

But now, reading the report placed on his desk, Azazel wondered if he should've just tossed Kokabiel in Cocytus and thrown the key into the Dimensional Gap, no matter how much headache it would cause. Three Fallen Angel had just infiltrated a town ruled over by two sisters of the Satans, both siscon, and had just tried to assassinate the possessor of the [Boosted Gear], apparently all under his orders. Oh, and they failed in the latter, so it's very possible that a pissed off Red Emperor Dragon is moments away from going [Juggernaut Drive] over the Fallen's head. He was truly surprised that those four wasn't dead right now. Joy.

Cataclysmic Dragon attack dropping on his head aside, how should Azazel react to the fact that his order, false as they are, were not completed?

Even if he tried to suppress the news, the other Fallen would soon learn of this failure, that is, if they haven't already. If he were to simply set it aside and ignore it, a row would definitely pop up, complaints that he couldn't keep the order, or that he had gone soft. Or, and probably the loudest complaint, why did he order such a suicidal mission?

Which, sadly enough, would be his best option, what other option does he have?

Personally go and kill the Red Dragon Emperor? If he was not already a member of one of the heirs' Peerage, he would eat his hat, he might as well try to fight the Satans!

He didn't have to go far if he wanted to do that – Serafall was spotted hanging around the town. Not exactly a rare occurrence, but Azazel couldn't help but put two and two together as to the reason Satan was there.

Oh yes, Kokabiel would be delighted – the perfect prologue to the start of a new Great War!

Should he chastise them, order them to return to the Grigori's HQ? He could at least ask for more detail – sure, the possibility of attracting the Leviathan's attention would be very bad to the four's health, but they could probably justify their presence there with his letter. But if they simply refuse to return, wouldn't it only make things even worse?

So, should he send someone to pick them up, someone close to them? That's better, but who?

Vali? Oh yes, a fight between the Red Dragon Emperor and the White Dragon Emperor, probably leveling the entire town, just what the Fallen need at the moment.

A Cadre perhaps? Shemhazal would do the job perfectly, the only problem would be that someone would need to take care of his work, and that would probably be me. I could see it now, he would appear in front of my desk carrying a mountain of paperwork with him, a bright smile on his face, and he would disappear for a decade or two. No, I would probably die of overwork long before then.

Baraqiel is right out, his daughter is there. He would probably do something stupid to 'reconcile' with his estranged daughter and dying as a result of it.

Penemue? No, she would just go and pick a fight with Serafall…

Kokabiel? Ha! No. While he would be very happy to get in on some adventure, he'd hit the church with the [Spear of Light] and shout loudly that he had 'brought Grigori's judgment' or something like that… Or more likely, just kill the heirs and proclaim it to be under his command.

Azazel thought about whom he could send for a few more seconds before he sighed, there was no good way out of his current situation. Whatever option he took, it would either worsen relations with the Devils, or with his fellow Fallen.

"I'm too old for this shit!" Azazel complained before returning to his desk to start writing a reply.

"Either way, I need to at least find out what happened to the fallen and what the situation on Kuoh looks like. And, from the looks of it, I won't get much information from the Fallen there, but it's worth a try… I should also prepare someone to check what happened with the Red Dragon Emperor. If he's awakened to his power, we need to know that yesterday."

Remembering his foster son and his 'difficult' personality, he found that his hands seem to be moving even faster.

"And most of all, Vali can't be allowed to even hear a rumor of his Red counterpart. Hmm, I wonder what Tobio is doing now?"

***

Katase made her way to her house on shaking legs, she was half proud of her sudden-found determination and willpower, and half mortified by the fact that…

"I just had my first kiss!" Katase wasn't sure if what she did could be considered a kiss. Sure, she knew what a kiss was, she had seen it on TV a lot! And read it in books! And in manga and anime! She even had seen her parents kiss, though in those moments she usually looked away, embarrassed by such a public display of affection from her parents. She could only blame her inexperience and how accustomed she was to seeing that side of her parents.

"But it was a kiss, wasn't it! Wasn't it?!" Katase was one step away from a nervous breakdown or fainting, looking at just how rapid her breathing had become.

"And it was done at sunset, and he's handsome, and not a pervert like Issei… And he's so cool!"

Of course, Katase didn't want Satoru doing anything illegal, least of all something dangerous like underground fighting… But she couldn't help but say that it was cool. I mean, it was illegal and awful, but it was so cool! That was like Satoru was a character from her Shōnen Manga! I mean, Katase had competed a couple of times, and she fought regularly in the kendo club, but it's not like underground fights at all, where the blood boils and everything is real and…

"Don't let your sluggish gait mean what I think it means!" Murayama's voice broke through to Katase's mind, making her freeze standing still. "It's only your first date, where did you even find a place to do anything to make you weak in the knees?!"

"What?" Katase blinked, confused by what her best friend was insinuating, actually where was she? Oh, she was actually already near her house, and the sun was already setting. It seems that her date with Satoru had ended God knows how many hours ago… Wait, why is Murayama waiting for her at her house gate?

Sure, Murayama's house was only a short walk away down the street from hers, but usually Murayama didn't go so far as to wait for her friend at the gate of her house.

"Murayama?!" Katase stomped her foot indignantly, not knowing exactly why she was indignant at the moment, before realizing what her best friend had said earlier.

"What! Wait, what are you talking about?"

"Oh, it seems the astronaut's back," Murayama mouth spread into a big grin as she looked at Katase mischievously before she then shook her head.

"You were staggering around like a drunk and wandering around the town, there are two things I could think of happening for that to happen. One, when you've just done something incredibly important with your life… Or when you're wasted. And since you're you, Katase 'I-won't-drink-until-I'm-nine-hundred' Higa, my guess has fallen to the first option. Katase, I hope you didn't lose your purity on your way to an abandoned church in some alley, otherwise I'll have to bash your hapless boyfriend's head in…"

"Purity?" Katase blinked once more, confused, before her mind finally caught up to Murayama's meaning. She was immediately struck with infernal embarrassment, crouching down as if to hide her shame. Did she really appear like a loose woman!? She's a pure girl, who plans only to lose her purity to her husband after marriage at thirty!

"No! Murayama, of course not, what is wrong with you?! What are you…" Katase wanted to lambaste her best friend, perhaps asking if she had begun to hang out with the perverted trio to ask such a question, but she cannot. She cannot hurt her friend by insulting her like that, so she chose to escape instead, covering her red face she ran to the front gate of her house intending to flee inside.

But of course, Murayama simply followed after her. "We… Nothing happened!"

"Nothing at all?" When Katase opened the front door, Murayama habitually slipped in after her. Katase's parents had long ago become accustomed to Murayama appearing at their house with the same frequency as their daughter, just as Murayama's parents were accustomed to Katase.

"Nothing!" Katase stomped her foot, trying to make her point as she fumbled around trying to find her keys, before the memory of her kiss flashed inside her mind as she opened the door.

"I mean, almost nothing…" She couldn't help but mutter the last part quietly, but of course Murayama caught it.

"Katase, for someone with zero love experience, you're too good at teasing!" Murayama hovered over Katase's back, who was just about to step inside, pressing on her back.

"Details!" Seeing that her friend was hanging on to her like a limpet, she simply chose to tell the truth.

Katase paused for a moment before she sighed. "We kissed…"

"Oh, jackpot!" Murayama clapped her hands excitedly, causing her to throw an annoyed look back as she entered her house, taking off her street shoes and putting in the indoor slippers. That is, before Murayama's words almost made her slip.

"I hope he was gentle?"

"Yes." Katase replied instantly, before slowing down… "Probably."

"Probably?" Murayama pulled her shoes off behind her friend, with a confused look on her face. "That sounds weird, how could he be 'probably' gentle? Didn't he kiss you?"

"Em…" Murayama looked into her friend's eyes, asking for an explanation, before Katase blushed and looked away, answering with a quiet voice. "I mean, I was the one who kissed him…"

"You did?!" Murayama put her arm excitedly around Katase's shoulders and began shaking her with a manic look on her face. "Who are you and what have you done to my friend, you horrible monster who takes on the form of someone else?"

"Murayama! Calm down!" Katase shoved her friend away after a moment, looking at her angrily. "Just because I've never met anyone decent before doesn't mean I can't kiss when I found one!"

"I don't believe it!" Murayama pressed back before turning around at the sound of heavy footsteps coming to the front door. "Good evening, Mr. Higa!"

"Oh, Murayama, it's just you, why are you speaking so loudly at the front door? Well, it's been a long time since we've had you, come on in," Mr. Higa, a chubby middle-aged Japanese man with a good-natured smile, the way a café owner is supposed to look, waved at Murayama's greeting.

After which, his smile became a little slier when he looked at his daughter."Oh, and what cute guy did you leave school with today?"

Katase, who received an unexpected blow not only from her friend, who at least already knew about what happened, but from her father as well, moved her gaze to Murayama almost resentfully. But instead of guilt, she saw only surprise as well, as she looked at Katase's father, she then followed her example, making the man slightly roll his eyes.

"Our café is literally across the street from Kuoh Academy, one of the waiters saw you and a guy walking together…"

Katase could only scrunch up her face, debating whether she should facepalm, how could she have forgotten? She knew that she would forget just such a small detail, too anxious for her first date, she had just walked down the exact street where her father's café was located.

"All right, all right, if you want to tell, you'll tell!" Having achieved his goal of embarrassing his daughter, even if just a little, Mr. Higa easily retreated, but not without firing one last shot.

"Ah, youth…"

Katase could only sigh at her Father's antics before her father suddenly turned to her again. "Just, ahem… While I don't want to say anything or imply anything, but… well, ahem, I'm sure I saw someone else besides me watching you very intently. It was a girl, young, probably a student, but she was wearing a formal suit and everything so perhaps a university student, watching you two without even moving. She seemed to be in a bad mood when she paid for her coffee and croissant, she even left with a large tip."

Katase was confused by what her father was implying, if the girl was already in the Café when she left school, then she must not be a Kuoh Academy student, but so what? Her father's café is quite famous, so a lot of people visit it… She really couldn't figure out what her father was implying. "So?"

"It's nothing." The man just shrugged his shoulders, as if saying 'what can you do?' when watching someone extremely thick-headed. "Just… Well, try asking about her next time you see this guy, and try to listen first. You know, things happen in life."

Katase could only blush by what her father was implying, before looking into the face of a shamelessly smirking Murayama, before feeling her head start to overheat. 'Next time?! Am I being escorted to my next date already?!'

***

Raynare crossed her legs together as she sat on one of the church's pews as she was looking at the crucifix, on which Freed was still cowering. Still alive. For want of a tongue, though, he was unable to give any signs of life other than the jerky twitching of his limbs. Tired of watching the ordained punishment for the deviant, she surveyed the church's ceiling, more accurately at the replaced frescoes in the windows.

Raynare understood them.

There were maniacs among the Fallen who were turned on by sadism, cruelty, or torture, those kinds of people flock to the Fallen simply because of their nature. But that did not mean that all Fallen got an unhealthy thrill out of watching the agony of living people, even if it was someone as deserving of it like Freed. Moreover, even among the sadists, they could only wince when they looked at Freed's treatment, they might even offer some sympathy.

"God commands it." Raynare repeated like a mantra, trying to extricate herself from doubt with the new teaching for the father's church.

"Suffering is part of redemption…"

Raynare, as much as it might surprise anyone that might learn of her thoughts, was not much of a Christian. It might be weird for an Angel, even a Fallen one, to admit that. Of course, she believes in the Father, of course, it would be kinda hard not to, she simply meant that she was not well-versed in the theology, the teaching of the Church.

Raynare, for rather obvious reasons, had little understanding of the intricacies of the Christian theology, especially when it started fracturing into so many denominations. All the different interpretations of the Father's will, the different interpretations of His word, she really didn't need to learn about it in the past when she could hear it directly.

On the other hand, given that she was now being helped to understand His will by the Demiurge, a demon who did not correspond to any reading of Christianity at all, who instead came from Gnosticism? Maybe she hadn't lost much by not reading the various Gospels in the past.

Though, the fact that the demon himself had read the Bible in front of her and begun to analyze its content critically, only added insanity to this endless recursion of the world.

Raynare turned away from the cross and towards her fellow Fallen.

Kalawarner, Dohnaseek, and Mittelt were sitting in the pews like her, and they were pale and shaking in fear. Raynare had no doubt that they would rather run away now without looking back than go to their allotted rooms to rest. But, sandwiched between one mighty demon and another mighty demon, they were denied the opportunity to simply turn and flee. It was fear, and only fear, that held them back and the surety that they would share Freed's fate if they were to try.

'Something about fear and love… Huh, until Father showed them enough love, fear would prevail.' Raynare shook her head as she looked at her fellow Fallen walking away at a brisk pace, eager to leave the church as quickly as possible. She herself could not say that what had happened today had not affected her, but she had seen not only His anger, but also His mercy, so it was easier for her to restrain herself.

Besides, though Lord Demiurge's actions spoke to the contrary, he was… Not so bad. At least in relation to the Lord's allies.

But if the Fallen did decide to escape, they would cease to be His allies – and Raynare had already seen what Lord Demiurge was capable of doing towards His enemies.

Raynare exhaled, there was no chance that Lord Demiurge was unaware of the thoughts and doubts the Fallen has, but he chose not to act at the moment. He's allowing the Fallen themselves to decide to escape, or to take control of themselves and outgrow their fear.

"Free will, as always…"

Raynare also needed to get ready for bed, and besides, she needed to remember to do her evening prayer… If that was even necessary nowadays. Did she even know any prayers?!

Raynare shrugged the thought off, at least she needed to report back to Lord Demiurge regarding the current progress of the church. They had already cleaned almost all the dirt for today, cleared away the debris, ordered new icons, pews, lamps, windows… All in all, they had done quite a bit for a day's work.

Though, it's not much done either, especially considering how monumental the task before them looked. Organizing the Apocalypse was not a task that could easily be handled in a day by a small group of Fallen.

But Raynare had accomplished something for the day, and she wanted to… Report it.

Partly because Lord Demiurge was her 'boss' now, and Raynare knew she had to report the progress to her boss. Partly because her subordinates always reported to her, and partly because Raynare wanted to report that she had acted for a common purpose today.

As she did her work, she felt something between wanting to turn her nose up a little higher and sharing her joy.

It was a strange feeling Raynare hadn't experienced before.

So, making her way to the stairs leading down to the small dungeon, Raynare quickly made her way down the steps before stopping in front of an ajar door and lightly knocking.

"Raynare, you may enter." Lord Demiurge's voice came to her from behind the door, making Raynare wonder for a moment how exactly he knew it was Raynare, but she did not take long to question it, maybe Lord Demiurge had [Omniscience] or something similar. She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Dusting off any dust on her clothes, she took a step inside the Demiurge's office.

"Your work today was worthy for a novice."

"Thank you, Lord Demiurge," As she entered the room, she was immediately greeted by an evaluation, with Raynare quickly lowering her head respectfully before she waited a few seconds to look up again.

"Are you busy, Lord Demiurge?"

"I am always busy," Lord Demiurge answered without turning his head away from the screen. "As any worthy servant of the Forty-One. But if your question concerns the nature of my current occupation, then I… Hm, I have diverted a moment of my time to appreciate the strange inventive elegance of this contraption."

"Elegance?" Raynare shifted her gaze to the object Lord Demiurge is holding.

"That's right," Lord Demiurge merely nodded, his hand moving the mouse deftly. "Humans… Most of them are devoid of even a speck of magic, the powers that others regard as natural. Humans are Weak, and yet they are inventive. Where they lack strength, they use their meager intellect to try to bridge that gap."

With a click, as if to punctuate his remark, Lord Demiurge opened a program.

"A blind man cannot learn to see, but he can find a thousand ways to pass off as sighted. Look at this machine, for instance. A few plates of silicon, metallic filaments, liquid crystals, plastic and iron, and they create such strange, yet useful inventions." Lord Demiurge slowly glanced at the computer screen, then moved the mouse to the side, allowing the cursor arrow to follow his gaze.

"Not made with magic, but such a strange, interesting imitation of it. A trick, but a trick of excellent quality, – a complex system of zeros and ones to imitate the mind, to imitate hundreds of devices…"

Raynare shifted her gaze to the computer, was it really anything special enough to interest a powerful demon under the command of the most powerful God?

"It's a shame they lack the ability to unlock the potential of their own inventions – a weak mind, a weak body, and a weak spirit…" Lord Demiurge slowly moved the cursor to the Internet browser icon, and Raynare could have sworn she could see a cruel tilt in Lord Demiurge's usual smile.

"But it doesn't matter anyway. A pig is only supposed to give meat – they don't have to know how to cook it."