Definitely, in that child’s heart, he hasn’t forgiven himself, and still holds a grudge.”
Although Ise’s haha-ue doesn’t know their true identity, she was still able to feel the daily changes. This was probably her instinct as his haha-ue. …When there finally came a day when it couldn’t be concealed any longer, Rias had already prepared herself for that. Ise’s haha-ue continued
“It’s the same as Ise no longer fishing. It’s certain that at this time, Ise still hasn’t forgiven himself.”
Ise’s haha-ue raised a finger. “There’s only one bad habit that Ise hasn’t changed since he was young.”
“What bad habit is it?”
Hearing Rias ask that, Ise’s haha-ue lowered her head and looked at Ise in a photo of when he was younger. “If he does something wrong, he definitely won’t forgive himself. Simply mentioning that thing will cause him to apologise deeply. And his expression is always the same (pain and regret). You’ll know immediately if you look. Ise’s otou-san also knows that he has this bad habit. That child will always have that expression.”
…Indeed, he was always apologising ‘I was wrong’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘sorry’ as he was in remorse. Rias recalled that his expression was always the same each time (pain and regret). “…Rias-san, Asia-chan. Although this isn’t the time to be saying it, let me say it. —Ise, I’m entrusting him to you. He may be perverted and stupid, but he’s an honest person.”
“Yes, ogibo-sama.”
“Yes, okaa-san.”
—Okaa-san tightly held the two girl’s hands, as she deeply nodded. The next day—. I — Hyoudou Issei, came with Asia to a certain place early in the morning. It was the vast open space underneath Kuoh Town. The hollow dome shaped space was tightly covered by several layers of protective barriers. In the centre was a large round object — a dragon’s egg. This egg of a rare dragon breed was entrusted to us by Tannin-ossan before our battle against the Church warriors — a [Spectre Dragon] egg. A [Spectre Dragon] had moved to the Underworld, but the Underworld’s atmosphere was unsuitable to hatch its egg, so we placed it in this underground space below the town in the human world so that it could hatch. Since then, it was placed under the care of the members of [DxD] who were in Kuoh Town. Today it was my turn, but Asia also came along with me to watch. There was also another visitor here besides us, and upon seeing her, I laughed. “I didn’t expect that you would take care of this egg.”
I was looking at Ophis who was hugging the egg tightly. “I, have never raised children. Curious.”
Correct, in addition to us who came here in turn every day, Ophis also came here every day. Because [egg], [hatching], and [dragon] were important keywords, it had greatly piqued her interest. Ophis said that she had never seen a dragon hatching out of an egg despite living so long, so she wanted to take this opportunity to witness it. …Having said that, it felt like she was a parent as she held onto it tightly…. Seeing her adorable actions, I couldn’t help laughing. “Hehefufu—”
I don’t know who or where she learnt it from, but Ophis was currently using a breathing technique for pregnant women…. Moreover, a human breathing technique that’s for pregnant women is useless for an oviparous organism. Rather, they’ll hatch out from eggs on their own! …Ravel and Raiser would be returning in two days from the custody of Ajuka Beelzebub-sama. It was said that they were safe, but due to Beelzebub-sama’s own situation and time, there were a lot of things which needed his attention, which is why that day was chosen. …It might be something to do with politics. After all, why would Ravel and Raiser be involved with it…. “…”
In fact, this space actually had another visitor present. Sitting slightly further away, a man wearing a black coat was closely watching Ophis. It was truly unexpected, even the Evil Dragon Crom Cruach was in here! As long as he knew that Ophis was in here, he would rush over and closely observe every minute action that Ophis made. …It couldn’t be said that he was an extremely Evil Dragon…but he was still quite scary. As it was difficult to speak with him much, we didn’t have much to do besides trusting him. Although Tannin-ossan trusted him absolutely, it still wasn’t so simple to get along with him… —While I was thinking about this, Asia walked towards him. She stood in front of Crom Cruach and said
“U-Umm, this, if you want, please eat it.”
What Asia took out of her handbag was — a bunch of bananas. Ophis also always had bananas as a snack. Not only that, Asia had also talked to the four Evil Dragon brothers and Fafnir. Perhaps, in Asia’s mind she had the enigmatic thought that [Dragon = Banana]. “This is called a banana. It tastes very good, you know?”
“…”
Crom Cruach silently received a banana from Asia. I was a little troubled over how to respond to that. After Asia gave him the banana, she bowed, and then came back over. Asia made a small smile as she said
“Sometimes I come here to check on how Ophis is doing.”
The relationship between Asia and Ophis was really good. Asia was able to deal with dragons really well…. Azazel-sensei often says that she has a lot of potential as a dragon tamer. —She said that dragons had something that she couldn’t explain. “…Asia, what happened to Fafnir afterwards?”
I asked about Fafnir. During the battle in Heaven, he was injured while he tried to protect Asia. The Dragon King who received extremely fierce attacks in order to protect Asia—. After the battle with Rizevim, Fafnir had been sleeping to recover. Although his wounds were treated by Asia…Asia had a sorrowful expression on her face as she shook her head. “…I see.”
There was still no response, and even if Asia called him, there would still be no response. The severity of the injury exceeded what was originally expected. Asia told everyone that neither Fafnir’s physical strength nor consciousness had returned as there was no response from him…. Ophis suddenly said something. “You don’t need to worry. —Fafnir is currently fighting.”
As if echoing her, Crom Cruach held the banana as he said with a serious look
“He is a Dragon King. He won’t fall so easily.”
““?””
Asia and I looked at each other; we were both somewhat puzzled by the words of these two dragons. At that time, it was almost noon. “Well, it’s almost lunch time. Ophis, what are you planning to do?”
With a slightly pitiful expression, Ophis put down the egg and came over to where we were. “I, will not miss a meal.”
Geez, she was unexpectedly greedy, this loli Dragon God-sama…. Well, we planned to head home, but what did that other dragon-sama plan to do? “What do you plan to—”
Although I said that to him, he was already gone. Since he knew that Ophis was going back together with us, he quickly left…. But I didn’t expect that that guy, Crom Cruach would actually leave with the banana—. Two days later, it was the weekend—. Today was the day that we would meet Ajuka Beelzebub-sama, the day that Ravel and Raiser would return.