After all, with so many embarrassing notes, this whole thing is like dark history! But it is pretty ironic that the woman he never wants to meet has been holding onto it the whole time. It truly is quite a dilemma. I really wanted to find out what kind of expression Vali would have if he found out about this. “…Somehow, I just feel as though all of the lines written in here sound familiar.”
I managed to squeeze out a smile, and Lavinia-san exposed a gratifying smile that seemed to indicate that she felt satisfied by the fact that her little brother had been praised. “That’s good to hear. Va-kun said that he definitely had to say those words coolly in front of his rival, and that’s why he prepared these. He must be rather satisfied now.”
Lavinia-san gleefully jumped up, and the two peaks of her chest also bounced as well! Kuh! Her oppai are massive! Please allow me to have a good look…! Just as my eyes became fixated on the marvellous sight, a voice suddenly reverberated across from the entrance. “The Ice Princess is Ikuse Tobio and Vali’s princess-sama. So don’t get too carried away, Sekiryuutei.”
As I turned to look — it was actually Cao Cao! “Cao Cao!? Why are you here?”
I couldn’t help but stand up after seeing his unexpected appearance here! Cao Cao casually sat down at an empty seat at the counter. Ikuse-san didn’t seem too surprised by the fact that Cao Cao was here. Ikuse-san prepared a glass for him as he said
“He comes here occasionally to exchange some information with me. Both of us are agents of the organisation.”
“That’s right. —Hot milk.”
Cao Cao gave his order rather naturally. …Hot milk huh. Surprisingly, he ordered a rather cute drink. I said to Cao Cao
“I saw that match of yours earlier. It was a good game.”
“I’m honoured. I’d really like to fight against both you and Ikuse-san next time.”
Just as Cao Cao said, Ikuse-san had also decided to participate in the Tournament as part of the [Slash Dog] team. Lavinia-san was also a member of that team. Of course, they had also been winning all of their matches quite smoothly. Just like us, they had yet to encounter a team of god-class beings, and even though they had encountered teams consisting of ultimate-class Devils, they had easily come out on top. Their most outstanding aspect was that their team’s overall coordination was very well rehearsed, so both Ravel and Sona-senpai praised their teamwork. Perhaps it was because they were often called into combat where they dived into the dark side of various factions, so their precision was very high. After Ikuse-san gave Cao Cao a glass of hot milk, we finally began to discuss the real topic at hand. “To be honest, Hyoudou Issei-kun, there is actually a faction acting behind the scenes of this Tournament. —The Grim Reapers of the Netherworld.”
—What! Grim Reapers! After hearing about this information, we all looked at each other. This was exactly what we were after. Ikuse-san continued
“You guys might already know this, but there have been frequent riots in the territories of various factions. They have all occurred at a similar time across the Underworld, areas under Heaven’s jurisdiction, Asgard, Olympus and elsewhere as well.”
Rias and Irina had also mentioned this yesterday. And then Cao Cao continued further
“After capturing the perpetrators, we found that all of them were Devils. However, their affiliations and identity were unclear. After comparing them to all of the Devils registered in the Underworld, we couldn’t find any clues at all. It might even have been better if they were just concealed by the higher-ups of the Underworld, but these Devils are pure-blooded Devils without any trace of mixed blood, they’re just pure and genuine Devils.”
…Pure-blooded Devils whose affiliations and identity are unknown? The entire incident seemed like it was growing more suspicious by the second. Ikuse-san said to us
“The Devils’ side has also come up emptyhanded, so the Grigori is currently performing investigations, and according to those investigations, we now know just two things about these mysterious Devils. Firstly, the report on the composition of their bodies and demonic energy indicates that they resemble certain Devils — ancient Devils, the Devils that other high-class Devils refer to as being the ‘first-generation’. Simply put, they have been able to detect from their bodies and demonic energy that they bear similarities to those such as the first-generation Gremory and first-generation Bael. Secondly, they’ve been able to detect traces of Grim Reapers in the vicinity of where these Devils have caused incidents.”
……T-This is way too shocking. These mysterious Devils who have caused riots everywhere are actually Devils who have bodies similar to that of the first-generation Bael…. And Grim Reapers have also appeared close to where these incidents occurred…? If all of these first-generation Devils have been hiding themselves the entire time, and they’ve only decided to come out to cause riots now…it would be nice if it was as simple as that. Rias and the others as were also confused. Rias placed her hand underneath her chin as she said
“…Grim Reapers have appeared close to where the incidents have occurred, so one could say that these Devils are somehow related to Hades. Is that a reasonable assumption?”
Ikuse-san nodded in agreement to Rias’ theory. “Yeah, I think most Grim Reapers act in accordance to Hades’ will. However, there are still some parts that cannot be explained. Yesterday, Grim Reapers showed up to attack you guys, and they also boldly left behind traces of their attack.”
The majority of Grim Reapers follow Hades’ instructions…and the Grim Reapers don’t seem to care that they’ve left behind traces of their attack…? In other words—. “The Grim Reapers that attacked Koneko-chan yesterday and those that have appeared near the mysterious Devils so far are not the same?”
Ikuse-san nodded in agreement to my query. “Aside from the Devils, it’s the first time that the Grim Reapers have acted on their own. And no matter how much we thought about it, we couldn’t come up with a reason as to why Toujou Koneko-san was targeted. But either way, both the Devils who have caused these incidents and the Grim Reapers that attacked you are connected to the Netherworld in some way. There have been at least two attempts from the Netherworld, and they’ve impacted various factions.”
…Hades, that skeletal god, so he’s finally making his move huh. After Rizevim’s death, Hades had become the number one threat. Because the Tournament was being held, the eyes of both Shiva and Śakra were focused there, and so we had to constantly stay vigilant of any movements from the Netherworld. Cao Cao shrugged
“Mount Meru, or perhaps Śakra has only one thing on his mind, and that is Shiva. At least until the end of the Tournament, there won’t be any movements from him.”
Cao Cao blew off the steam from the glass of hot milk as he spoke.