Yeah, I am going to hell—to the Underworld. You’re surprisingly on the mark, my close friends. The day we set off. The first place we headed to was—the nearest station. Everyone was wearing Kuou Academy’s summer uniform. Buchou said that, if we were entering the Underworld, this was our best uniform. This was the station where people usually took the train…Why were we going to the underworld from here? I was full of questions, but Buchou and Akeno-san determinedly headed towards the elevator installed within the station. I remembered that it was a small elevator that could only hold five people at most. Buchou and Akeno-san entered it first, and then spoke. “Then, please come in first, Ise, Asia and Xenovia. We’ll be going down from here.”
“G-Going down?”
I was puzzled by Buchou’s words. After all, this station could only go up. “Come on, stop blinking in surprise like that and come in.”
Buchou beckoned us while smiling wryly. While those of us in the new devils group exchanged glances with each other, we complied with Buchou’s words. “Yuuto and the rest of you who are used to it, please come together with Azazel afterwards.”
“Yes, Buchou.”
Kiba answered to Buchou, and then the elevator doors closed. Since we had some big luggage with us, the inside was quite small as a result. As I thought, the floor display only had floors “1” and “2”, but…Buchou took out what seemed to be a card from her skirt pocket and turned it towards an electronic panel. Pi. Some kind of electronic sound…It had reacted to the card, and then. Gakun. I was seized by a sensation of going down! Eh!? There was a bottom!? Asia and I couldn’t hide our surprise! Xenovia just tilted her head as a small reaction. Buchou and Akeno-san saw the shocked state of Asia and I, and giggled a little at us. “Beneath this station, there is a secret level.”
“Buchou, even though I grew up in this town, this is the first time I’m hearing of such a thing!”
“That’s only natural. It’s a route that is exclusively for devils. Ordinary humans can’t arrive here even if they struggle their whole lives. Areas for the exclusive-use of devils are hidden within the town in this way, you know?”
There seems to be many places I don’t know about in my town. Just how far has the devils’ business world penetrated into this town? We kept descending for another minute. At last, the elevator stopped. After the doors opened, Buchou urged us forward with a “Go ahead”, and what confronted my sight as I went out first was—a vast artificial space! It was some kind of huge cave! Rather, it seemed to have the structure of a station platform. Though there were a few differences from the design and structure of those in the human world…Wait, there were train tracks! As I thought, is this a station? After we waited a little, we were also joined by Kiba and the others from the elevator. “Now that all of us are here, we’ll walk to platform three.”
With Buchou and Akeno-san in the lead, we began to walk. Hah. But what a vast space. I felt that this place was several times the size of the station we usually used. The ceiling above was also distant. It seemed like your voice would echo if you yelled out “Hey!”
There was no one else here besides us. The wall lamps that illuminated this place gave off a magic-like mysterious glow. Before I realised it, Akeno-san came to my side—and suddenly grasped my hand! Does she intend to walk while holding hands? I was shocked, but for some reason I grasped her hand back like I always did with Asia. “—”
Though that was all I did, Akeno-san’s face turned red and seemed happy! Eh!? Is this okay!? Aaaaah, but, when she has such a girlish reaction, even I don’t know what I might do! Even though she is usually very erotic, she sometimes acts like a young girl. That difference provokes my male instincts! “……”
“…*sob*”
Uu, Buchou and Asia’s gazes were sharp…Asia even had teary eyes. Sorry, Asia. After taking passages left and right, we came out into an open space again. Oh! Ooooooh! There was what seemed to be a train in front of us! I say “seemed to” because its form was more peculiar than the trains I knew. There were many devil-representing patterns carved into it at acute angles…Ah, it’s the Gremory pattern! And there was also Sirzechs-sama’s pattern! Could this be—. “It’s a train owned by the Gremory family.”
Buchou answered without hesitation! Amazing, so the Gremory family also owns trains…
Bushu. While I was surprised, the train doors opened automatically. With Buchou in the lead, we entered the train. I had once again reconfirmed my master’s huge scale, but that was just the prologue. Riiiiiiiiiiiing. The departure whistle sounded, and the train began to move. We had gone to sit down in the centre of the train. Buchou was in the first train car ahead of us, and it appeared that the rest of our group had to sit in the central train car behind it. I thought that there were surprisingly minor customisations. Asia and I sat together on the seats facing away from the train’s motion, and Akeno-san and Xenovia took the seats facing us. Koneko-chan, Gasper and Kiba took the seats next to us. And there was Azazel-sensei sitting at the end of the car, but—he had already entered sleep mode. The train started running for several minutes. The train advanced down the dark tunnel. I’d been told that this train was powered by a unique fuel that existed in the Underworld. There were a lot of things I didn’t know about the world, weren’t there? “How long till we get there?”
I asked Akeno-san that. “We’ll arrive in about an hour. Since it seems that this train passes through the dimensional barrier using official means before it eventually arrives at the Underworld.”
“I thought that we could just jump with a magic circle and enter the Underworld like that.”
“Usually that’s fine, but if Ise-kun and the other new household devils don’t enter at least once by the official route, you’ll be punished for illegally entering. That’s why Ise-kun and the others have to properly finish the official entry procedure.”
“Eh!? Seriously!? But I’ve jumped using the magic circle and entered Buchou’s engagement party before!?" Yes, I had entered Buchou’s engagement party in the Underworld with a transfer magic circle given to me by Grayfia-san. Was I going to be punished!? There wouldn’t be any police who were going to cuff me as soon as I arrived at the Underworld, right!? Akeno-san gave a small smile despite my worries. “It seems that was a special case because you were transported with Sirzechs-sama’s back-door magic circle, you know? Of course, doing it twice is impossible.”
“I-Is that so…So my instant ticket to jail for going there has been pardoned…”
I was a little relieved. It’s because I’m ignorant of the rules of devils even though I’m a devil myself. Not only was I unskilled, my devil knowledge was even more limited than Asia and Xenovia. I had survived up to now like this.