Small girls being strong sure is filled with romance, right♪”
The unexplainable pressure which is being released from the girl. Just like Crom Cruach before, the atmosphere she is releasing is something to be feared. ……The strongest Evil Dragon, the son of the former Lucifer, and the other Ophis—. Those who are insanely strong that surpasses my imagination have gathered to this castle! “Now then, I’ll be passing through here since I have something to discuss with Marius-kun. Let’s be peaceful here~. This house belongs to the Vampires~. Fighting isn’t good~. An enclosed country where those who live there have so much pride is wonderful♪”
Rizevim who is having fun to his heart’s content walks past us while taking the other Ophis with him. We……can only watch him walk past us without being able to do anything! Sensei says to Rizevim while he disappears from in front of us. “Rizevim, Vali is after you.”
“Oh yeah, if I remember now, the Grigori took him in and raised my Grandson-kun.”
Rizevim turns around and asks Sensei. “Did he get a lil’ bit stronger? Though he was stronger than my foolish son who happens to be his father.”
“He’ll be able to take your head one day.”
Hearing that, he makes a big smile. “Woah, as his grandpa, that makes me so happy that I want to cry.”
Then Rizevim moves his gaze to me. He narrows his eyes while having fun. “The current Sekiryuutei, aye. The one and the only existence who has a premium value for having the power of Great Red and Ophis. —Wanna come to my side?”
—So he’s scouting me! Hell no! “There’s no way I will.”
I decline right away! Rizevim smiles happily seeing my reaction. “Oh my, that’s unfortunate♪”
Rizevim advances through the corridor as he leaves his creepy laughter behind. As he puts his hand back and waves to us—. “If you are trying to start a coup d’état while teaming up with Carmilla, then come at us anytime♪ I’m really looking forward to it.”
The middle-aged man who speaks in an improper way till the very end, Rizevim. —Then the sound of a huge destruction echoes through the corridor. Sensei shows a rare side of him where he destroys the wall with his fist because he can’t supress his anger. “……Vali, I can’t help but understand how you feel.”
Tepes’s main castle that has turned into a nest of monsters—. After we moved to the room prepared for us, we decided to meet the Head of the House of Vladi, in other words Gasper’s father, who is in the basement. It’s silent inside the castle and the only ones we come across are the maids who walked pass us and the soldiers that are on patrol. We, the Occult Research Club members, are being guided by a maid to the underground room where Gasper’s father is enclosed. Rias and Gasper are taken to the throne room because Valerie wants to see them while Sensei followed a Vampire with a high social status who seems to be someone under Marcus. The former is probably a normal talk with Valerie. The latter however is probably because they want to ask Sensei about the knowledge he has with Sacred Gears. ……And we are told to be on standby here, but since the meeting with “Gasper papa” was approved, we decided to see him instead. It’s inside the castle made from stones. We go down the stairs while the maid who is holding the light leads us. We exit out to a spacious floor after we went down stairs quite a bit. There are many doors and the maid approaches one of them. “This is the guest room where the Head of the House of Vladi is staying.”
A guest room, huh…… It’s quite a plain place for welcoming a noble…… I guess it’s better than a place which looks like a prison though. The maid knocks on the door and informs the person inside by saying, “There are guests here to see you”. She opens the locked door and urges us to go inside. We nod our heads to each other and enter the room. The interior……of the room is much more gorgeous than I imagined. There is an expensive looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling. All of the furniture looks expensive. I see, it certainly is a room that isn’t lacking for a noble to be locked in. The person sitting on the sofa inside the room stands up after seeing us. A young man with blond hair. He seems to be in his 30’s. He seems to be Gasper’s father, therefore he resembles him. Akeno-san takes a step forward and greets him. “How do you do, we are the servant Devils of Rias Gremory-sama. I am Rias Gremory-sama’s [Queen] and my name is Himejima Akeno. I thought I should give our greetings to you today, so we came here to see you.”
While Rias is absent, Akeno-san becomes the leader of our group. She’s acting in an elegant way where she isn’t rude to him. The man nods his head once and urges her to sit on the sofa. “Please sit down. –That, no, you came to discuss about Gasper, correct?”
Seems like he understands our business here immediately. Akeno-san sits on the sofa, so we stood in a line behind her. ……He resembles Gasper, but he has a paler skin than Gasper so his beauty makes me feel as if he’s artificially made. He also doesn’t have a shadow. It means that he’s a pure-blood Vampire daddy. Gasper’s dad speaks. “I have spoken to Rias-sama already. We exchanged information regarding that. I was summoned to this castle while we were discussing how the Gremory and the Vladi should handle that thing……and it’s quite a pathetic thing to say, but I ended up getting locked into this room. I never imagined a coup d’état to happen this quietly and for King Tepes to retreat. It seems like his highness Marius’s group gave an order to bring Rias-sama here by using my son.”
His voice is quite calm despite explaining what had happened here. He doesn’t seem like he’s that agitated by it. I can even accept the impression that he has come to accept this situation he is in. ……But there’s something which has been bothering me since before. About the word “that” he has been using from before. I don’t want to imagine what he’s referring to, but is that……
“That, as in?”
“That……it seems like Gasper is functioning as a Devil. I was shocked when I heard that from Rias-sama to be honest.”
For a father to call his son “that” huh. ……That’s horrible. Even if there is discrimination between a pure-blood Vampires and half-blood Vampires, for him to call his son in such a way is……
“……As we thought, Gasper-kun’s mother is……”
When Akeno-san asks him in such a way, Gasper’s dad shakes his head. “Yes, she has already passed away. Right after giving birth to that.”
“You are saying that it was a difficult childbirth?”
The Head of the House of Vladi changes his expression for the first time at Akeno-san’s question. He narrows his eyes and brings his eyebrows closer. “……No, she died due to the shock.”
—! What does he mean by that? While everyone here is finding this suspicious, Gasper’s dad puts his hands together and speaks in fear.