“Pardon the intrusion, members of the Occult Research Club.”
“Yo—, Nakiri — and Millarca-san.”
The other person was a female student who donned enough clothing to cover her entire body. She wore a hood and thick glasses. She also had a muffler wrapped around her neck, a jersey tied around her skirt, and wore gloves on both hands; this made her defence even more complete than Elmenhilde’s. She had tried to expose as little skin as possible. In fact, Millarca-san was a pure-blooded vampire who represented a major pillar of the Carmilla faction as a princess-sama of the Vordenburg family! That was why she tried to expose as little skin as possible. She was like Elmenhilde, so she was not a Daywalker, which made it very strenuous for her to be active during the day. Not only did she participate in Ajuka Beelzebub-sama’s ‘Game’, she also investigated the remaining Longinus wielders together with Nakiri —[Innovate Clear]and[Telos Karma]. The heavily dressed female student — Millarca-san leapt over to Elmenhilde as soon as she saw her. As the target of that, Elmenhilde seemed surprised by Millarca-san’s actions, but the two of them appeared to know each other. “M-Millarca? Why are you here?”
“Is it that strange? I attend school here at Kuoh Academy, didn’t the motherland send news about it?”
Millarca-san stepped back a bit as she asked with an expression that seemed to convey a slight amount of disbelief. “I know that. I was referring to the fact that this is Hyoudou Issei-sama’s team meeting place, right? Did you come to join?”
Millarca-san and Nakiri looked at each other, and then nodded. “I suppose it’s something like a visit? I’m just tagging along though. They are the ones who want to meet senpai though.”
It wasn’t Millarca-san, but Nakiri who wanted to see me? But, Millarca-san said ‘they’. Did that mean there were other people who were coming here aside from Nakiri and Millarca-san? Nakiri scratched his cheek with a troubled expression. “…Well I’m not sure how to say this, but suppose I came to visit senpai as there’s someone that wants to be introduced to you…. Basically, we wanted Hyoudou-senpai and Phoenix to meet someone.”
The way that he addressed Ravel as ‘Phoenix’ was rather refreshing. So a male classmate calls her ‘Phoenix’ huh. Hmm? No, wait. Since a moment ago, Millarca-san and Nakiri were saying something about ‘wanting to meet us’ and ‘introduce’. Originally, we came here to invite people over…but the other party actually wants to see us and be referred? At that time, Ddraig spoke to me
[…I have a bad feeling about this, partner.] His voice was rather low. What’s happened to you, partner? —And then, there was a knock at the door. Another person stepped into the room. It was a beautiful lady with straight long blue hair! She was an incredible beauty who wore a matching navy blue skirt! It was needless to say that the person with blue hair was not a human; they were clearly someone from the occult side. Her entire body was doused with the colour of deep blue, and even her irises were dark blue. The woman looked around the entire clubroom, and then rested her gaze on me — to be more precise, on my left arm. “Long time no see, Ddraig.”
The woman spoke towards my arm — to Ddraig in the Sacred Gear. And then, the gauntlet appeared on my left arm by itself rather naturally. The jewel glowed with light. [—Tiamat. Ah, really…. I had a bad premonition about this, but I didn’t expect it to be you.] —T-Tiamat!? One of the Five Great Dragon Kings!? Known as the strongest Dragon King, and the [Chaos Karma Dragon], Tiamat! I believe I did hear about Tiamat’s involvement in Beelzebub-sama’s ‘Game’…. I whispered to Ravel
(Today’s events…the candidates are Nakiri and Tiamat?) (I was originally after Nakiri-san…but it only turned out like this because Nakiri-san said that there was someone who he wanted us to meet.) I see, so Ravel originally sought Nakiri. And then someone acquainted with Nakiri wanted to see me. Moreover, it was Tiamat—. I never imagined that she would come to see us directly…no, she came to see Ddraig…. She was also in her human form! The blue-haired woman — Tiamat…san stroked her long hair as she sighed and said
“How unpleasant your words are. You obviously escaped from my hands quite a few times. After you became like this, you’ve always asked your host to run away as soon as you detect my presence.”
[…N-Ngh.] “Unfortunately for you, you were unable to run away this time. After all, I’ve already mastered a method to suppress my presence so that you won’t notice. What a wonder it is to live for so long.”
[…S-So that’s why I failed to notice it until you came all the way in here…]
Based on Ddraig’s tone of voice, it was possible to discern that he was not very good at dealing with Tiamat-san at all. But I finally understood why Tiamat-san had come to visit — she came to see Ddraig! “…What’s wrong, Ddraig? Did something happen between you and this beautiful woman?”
I asked my partner. —But the one who replied was Tiamat-san. “Before being sealed, theWelsh Dragonasked to borrow some legendary items from me. He said it was to strengthen himself so that he could defeat the Hakuryuukou. After borrowing them, he started a big fight against Albion during the Great War between the Three Factions…as for what happened afterwards, I’m sure that you can also understand as the current host, right?”
After Tiamat-san sat down on the sofa in the clubroom, she then said
“So, Ddraig borrowed a bunch of treasures from me and acted on his own to get defeated along with Albion, and sealed into Sacred Gears as a result. Because Ddraig was eliminated, the treasures that I loaned out were all taken by human thieves and scattered around to every corner of the world.”
…Oh, so after borrowing these legendary items, he started a fight with Albion and never returned because both of them were turned into their present forms. Looking at it like this, I feel sorry for Ddraig. […Uuu, I-I’m sorry.] Ddraig honestly admitted to it. But in front of me, Tiamat-san sneered coldly, and then made a request. “I don’t care, just return them to me.”
[…I-I’m already in such a state, so I can’t return them even if I want to!] Tiamat-san sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. You were the one who went and got yourself killed in a fight. The responsibility for that is still your own.”
Ah—, so Ddraig kept running away because he couldn’t return the treasures that he borrowed, and felt that he would be chased for it. Also, it was extremely difficult for him to recover the legendary treasures that had been stolen after being sealed into a Sacred Gear. However, that was one matter, and this was another. “…Well yeah, you should return the things that you borrowed.”
I let my honest opinion slip from my mouth. [Ah, even you too partner…!] Surprised at my reaction, Ddraig seemed to be suffering. I mean, it isn’t right to borrow someone’s things and not return them…. It was also you who went off to pick a fight.