If you are going to become a ‘King’ in the future, then there is one thing you must remember.”
“What is that?”
Sensei suddenly put on a serious face and says it. “-It’s ‘Sacrifice’. During the game, there will definitely be a time when you have to abandon your ‘pieces’. How will you cope with it when that time comes? Your value as a ‘King’ will be tested then.”
“……So you are saying I should abandon the option to save them?”
Sensei shook his head at my question. “You can save them. If you can save them, then you should do that. In real battle it is a serious thing, saving your comrades that is. –But it won’t be like that during a game. Since there is a transportation when you retire, chances of you dying are slim. That being the case, you may have to abandon a critically injured comrade, and move on to the next step.”
“……You sure ask me for a difficult option.”
I can’t abandon my comrades. If my comrades are in a pinch, then I would go and save them immediately. “You have the greatest affections with your comrades in this group. And that will turn into an obstacle in future games. –Kiba.”
Sensei then moves his gaze from me to Kiba. “Yes.”
“During the game, in the worst case, who would you choose between Rias and Ise?”
“I will choose Buchou.”
Kiba answers Sensei without any hesitation. Yeah, that’s the right answer. Even I would have hit him if he chose me instead. I’m not the one who has to survive in the worst case during the game. That would be the ‘King’, Buchou. If the ‘King’ was taken down, then all is done for. Sensei continues after confirming that. “Other members also need to hold that determination as well. Maybe it’s because you guys are the Gremory group, but your love towards your comrades is strong. Your affections towards your comrades are amongst the top-class within the devils as well. That will be your weapons, but also your weak points. If other devils learn that “These guys won’t abandon their comrades”, then they will build their tactics aiming for that point. Continuing to lose the matches due to saving your comrades will lower your ratings. What you guys need in the future games is the resolve to abandon your comrades who go down in front of your eyes. Sona Sitri has shown you that during the game in the summer holiday. I’m not telling you to abandon your comrades during the real battle. But keep that in your heads during the games. Ise especially needs to understand that if you are planning to go independent. –The one who has to survive till the end in the game when you are the ‘King’ is you, and not your servant devils.”
-The resolve to sacrifice my future comrades, huh. ……Yeah, he’s right. I need to understand that. Even I, who haven’t become a ‘King’ yet, am suffering this much just by thinking of it, so I won’t be able to completely understand what’s going inside Buchou’s heart. Buchou. Do you have the resolve to abandon me and Kiba? Can you do that? If Buchou can win the game, then I will happily give up my body. I also need to hold that resolve in the future. It’s frightening. The courage to make your comrades into sacrificial pieces…. I would want to somehow avoid that……
I will have to think about it. Until that time comes. What will I have determined when I participate in the game as a ‘King’. Wait, I have to promote before becoming oneeeeeee! I’m talking big by saying that I will become independent, but I don’t know when that will happen! Vali said something like I will be able to become a high-class devil within few years, but I don’t know if that will happen. Nggggggh! Going ahead towards my dream day by day! I’m thinking of going forward step by step without any lack of working hard! But before that, I need to think about the game in front of me. I kind of understood what I have to do in Buchou’s game. I took a breath, and then said it to Kiba and Gasper. “Kiba, Gasper. It seems like we have to be resolved.”
Kiba nods. “You mean the resolve to abandon our comrades who fall in front of us during the game right?”
“Yeah, we need to ---make Buchou win the Rating Games.”
Gasper also responds to my thoughts while having rice around his mouth. “Y-Yes! That’s exactly right~!”
“That’s why lets be defeated while smiling for Buchou. Except we are to be taken down after giving it our all, and let’s be defeated while taking on the enemy head to head. We would look uncool if we were to show our back to our enemy. Let’s take them on face to face and fair and square and then be defeated.”
“Yeah.”
“Yes!”
That’s right. If we were to be taken down, we, the men's team, will go down looking cool. While protecting Buchou. But more than that, lets win. We can’t discard the feeling of wanting to win. Sensei was scratching his cheek next to us. “You are saying something cool, but you know Ise? Can you do something about yourself when you fight women….? I know that dress-break and bilingual are effective, but if you just concentrate on using that, they will aim for that point. More like the weak point of it is easy to tell. If a half-naked woman appears, what will you do?”
“My eyes will be all over them!”
Sensei lowered his shoulders at my answer. “This guy is useless. He’s definitely going to lose.”
E-Even if you say that if an erotic woman was to appear in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to calm myself! Ah, that’s why it is easy for them to aim at that and lower my guard. Hmm, so I should get used to erotic things? Impossible! I won’t be able to charge ahead while ignoring erotic things in front of me! That’s because we have to look, if there is an oppai in front of us! Phew. Well, who cares. When I finished eating the onigiri I confirmed that Kiba and Gasper also finished eating and raised my spirit. “Okay then, Kiba, Gasper! Lets do another round of sparring from the beginning then!”
Yeah! I shouldn’t think too much about it, and train for now! When I tried to spar with Kiba once again, Sensei tells me to come to him by gesturing with his hand. “Ise, come here for a bit.”
He had a lecherous expression. He thought about something again huh. “What is it, Sensei?”
“The thing is, another prototype for the Oppai Dragon came to me again. Check it out.”
When I approached him, Sensei got something out of his pocket. “W-What is this…..?”
The thing Sensei took out is…..a small figure. “It was decided that Oppai-dragon was to collaborate with a hamburger chain in the Underworld. It’s a toy which comes when you order the kids meal. This one is the toy of you. This one here is the toy of Rias aka Switch-princess.”
It c-certainly looks like a deformed toy of me in a Balance-Breaker! This one here is the toy of crimson-haired Buchou! Haa, it certainly is made delicately. It looks cute. “There is also a gimmick to it. You get a bonus when you collect both of them. When you poke on Switch-princess with your figure….”
Sensei moves the hand of the toy of me and pushed the breast of the toy of Buchou. Then…. [Iyaaan.] -!? Buchou’s voice echoed! What is this!?