"Sorry, everyone. Pufft! Cough! Cough! Sorry," Azazel stood up, fixed his chair, and sat back down while casually apologizing to everyone. However, the moment his eyes met Yusuke, he could not help but start laughing again. He quickly suppressed the urge, waved his hand apologetically, and said, "Phew! That was some good laughter."
"Yusuke, it has been less than two days since we last met. How did you end up like this?"
As he spoke, Azazel glanced behind him with the corner of his eye and saw Vali glaring at him. Seeing the small shota version of Yusuke reminded him of the good old days when he used to prank Vali. One time, he had turned him into a shota just for fun.
"Azazel, you are being annoying. If you keep polluting my ears with your nasty voice, I will pull your tongue out of your mouth," Yusuke said while scratching the back of his head in annoyance.
Grayfia pulled the seat out for him. He sat down and glared at Azazel.
Rias and Akeno stood behind him, along with Grayfia, Kalawarna, Sona, Murayama, and Aika. The rest of the peerage members stayed behind in the Occult Research Club with Eleonora, Xenovia, and the others.
Hearing that the first words this boy uttered were a direct threat to the leader of the Fallen Angels, those who did not know him became serious. Especially the angels' side. Michael looked rather concerned, worried that such words might spoil the entire peace talk.
He did have some information about Yusuke, but it wasn't very detailed.
However, to his surprise, he noticed that neither Sirzechs, Serafall, nor even the person being threatened showed any particular reaction at all.
"Hay, Vali. He threatened me. Shouldn't you say something as my guard?"
Azazel turned to Vali, who was standing behind him, and pointed at Yusuke. He spoke as if he were complaining to his babysitter.
"You brought it upon yourself. Deal with it," Vali snorted coldly and looked away.
Now that he saw Yusuke in his current shota form for the second time, he was once again reminded of his own dark past. He glared even harder at Azazel.
Knock! Knock!
"Excuse us."
The sound of knocking on the door interrupted the meeting.
The door opened, and three men entered the room, a brown-haired boy and two blond men.
They were Issei, Kiba, and Riser.
Issei became clearly intimidated the moment he stepped into the room. Seeing so many high-ranking figures gathered in one place made him swallow audibly. He looked nervous as he trailed behind Riser and instinctively reached out to hold Kiba's hand.
"Sirzechs-sama, everyone," Riser greeted with a small, respectful bow. He then quickly positioned himself behind Sirzechs, along with the other two.
"Oho, isn't this the current generation Red Dragon Emperor?"
Azazel suddenly seemed to lose all interest in teasing Yusuke and Vali. His attention shifted completely to Issei as he looked at him with gleaming, curious eyes. Truthfully, he had wanted to make contact with him before the peace talk, but unfortunately, he had learned that Issei was in the Underworld at the time.
"Y-yes!" Issei instinctively replied nervously. Without the big-breasted maid around to guide him, Issei found it hard to deal with this kind of situation.
After everything he had gone through in the Underworld, Issei had instinctively developed a strong sense of dependence on her. She had guided him on how to take his revenge, trained Kiba, Riser, and Saji, and helped make them part of his harem. He had even become so emotional that he managed to achieve Balance Breaker when he finally took his revenge on Riser.
Though he could only maintain it for an extremely short time due to his weak body.
When he looked around carefully, Issei noticed the small Yusuke sitting on a chair much larger than himself. He felt that this person looked somewhat familiar and wondered why a kid would be present in such an important meeting.
On the other hand, there was another person paying extremely close attention to him.
Her beautiful blue eyes were fixed on Yusuke so intensely that she forgot to breathe. Her heart, which had only ever belonged to God until now, seemed to be invaded by another existence. Another person was slowly squeezing their way into it. She had never experienced this kind of feeling in her entire life and never knew she was capable of feeling something like this.
It felt as if a brand new world was opening up before her. Waves of happiness, longing, and even love began bubbling up inside her mind. She felt herself irresistibly drawn toward this person, like a powerful gravitational force pulling her in. Her vision was filled with nothing but his face. Even from this distance, she could somehow smell his scent, and it was intoxicating her.
'Yusuke? Yusuke... Yusuke! Yusuke!! Yusuke!!!'
In her mind, his name repeated endlessly in an endless loop. With every repetition, her obsession with him grew deeper and stronger.
However, as one of the top 5 female Exorcists in the church, she possessed strong self-restraint and willpower. Even though she suddenly found herself overwhelmed with the urge to get to know this person, to hug him tightly and do all kinds of intimate, touchy things with him, she kept everything sealed deep inside her heart and maintained a calm, composed expression on her face.
'She stared at me, didn't she?'
How could Yusuke not sense her intense gaze? He immediately asked B2 in his mind.
'Is she a yandere?'
[Stupid cunt, aren't you tired of hearing the same answer? I don't know, but she looks suspicious,] B2 replied with her usual sarcastic tone.
'When will that stupid feature of yours be unlocked?' Yusuke asked B2 in his mind. He had already classified the blond mature nun as a yandere for now, just to be safe.
[Hmph! I'll tell you some good news. You'll be unlocking it soon, once you finish that twintailed slut's quest,] B2 snorted coldly before replying arrogantly.
'Really?! Finally, you are becoming useful!' Yusuke's eyes brightened, and his mood improved significantly. The way he spoke to B2 also changed. 'I'll take back what I said, B2. You are the best system in the world. I love you!'
[...Eh!]
For some reason, B2 let out a soft, faint sound and suddenly fell silent.
'Hmm? Why is Yu-tan looking at me like that? This is bad. If he keeps staring at me like this, he'll make my heart flutter! Kyaah!' When Serafall noticed the way Yusuke was gazing at her with such intense and heated eyes, her heart skipped a beat. Her thighs clenched tightly together under the table.
"Cough!"
Sirzechs coughed lightly to clear his throat and spoke, "Since everyone is here, shall we begin?"
"I will state the preconditions for this meeting. The people present here acknowledge the most important event and forbidden subject."
"The death of God."
Just like that, the conference officially began. The atmosphere in the room grew significantly more solemn.
Azazel, who had been fooling around earlier, now wore a serious expression as he discussed the matters with the others.
When the topic of Kokabiel was brought up, he immediately apologized without attempting to make any excuses. He offered to compensate those who had been affected by what that brain-dead fallen angel had done.
One thing that everyone in the room tried to ignore was Grayfia, who was clearly standing behind Yusuke and acting as if her husband did not exist. Azazel knew the full story behind this situation, so he wisely chose not to comment on it.
He also knew that if he tried to poke fun at Sirzechs, he would end up getting screwed by not only Sirzechs himself, but also Yusuke and Grayfia.
On the other hand, Michael was curious, but he was not the type to ask about other people's private matters. He believed he would eventually find out anyway.
The conversation went much more smoothly than anyone present had expected. It clearly showed the sincerity and willingness of the three parties to truly let go of their dark and bloody past and work toward a new, brighter future together.
There were moments when the atmosphere in the room would suddenly freeze whenever Azazel spoke. Yusuke suspected that the Governor of the Fallen Angels was doing it on purpose and secretly enjoying the tense reactions he provoked.
This time, Sirzechs looked at Azazel and asked, "I want to ask you one thing. Why have you been gathering owners of Sacred Gears for the past several decades? At first, I thought you were collecting powerful humans to increase your battle potential. I even anticipated that you would eventually start a war against Heaven or us."
Michael shared the same doubts as Sirzechs. "Even after such a long time, the war we had been expecting never came. When I heard that you had obtained the Vanishing Dragon, I was once again filled with strong wariness."
Hearing the two's opinion, Azazel spread both his hands, smiled bitterly shaking his head.
"It's all for the sake of Sacred Gear research. If you are really that wary, should I send you a portion of the research materials as well? Even if I conduct research, I have no intention of waging war against any of you. I have no interest in war at this point in my life. I am perfectly satisfied with the world as it is right now."
"Damn, is my trust in the three factions the lowest?"
"That's true."
"That's right."
"That's exactly it☆"
"You have the face of a fishy guy."
Yusuke, Sirzechs, Michael, and Serafall spoke at the same time, voicing their opinion in unison.
Upon hearing that, Azazel uninterestedly picked at his ear and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk! I thought you guys were better than God or the last generation's Lucifer, but you all are troublesome in your own ways too."
"Let's talk about the important thing we came here for. Let's make peace. Wasn't that the original intention? For Angels and Devils as well?"
Michael, who was surprised by Azazel's proposal, smiled gently and said, "Yes, I also planned to propose peace to both the Devil side and the Grigori. If the three factions continue their hostile relationship as before, it will only bring harm to the current world. As the leader of the angels, I say this because the original cause of the war, God and the Maou, have already been annihilated."
Sirzechs also voiced the same opinion. He had been the one advocating for peace the most among the Devils.
"We are the same. Even if the Maous are no longer here, the Devils have continued to move forward in order to ensure the survival of our species. We do not want war either. If we start another war, the Devil race will face the danger of extinction."
"Hey, Yusuke, shouldn't you also say something at this point?" Azazel suddenly spoke.
"What do you want me to say? That war is bad, and if you guys like it so much, you should just duke it out among each other and leave everyone else alone?" Yusuke shrugged casually. "I don't like conflict, and it seems you guys feel the same. I'll give you my blessing, and I will try to help you maintain this peace as well."
"After all, if there is no peace, my life will also be affected."
Hearing Yusuke's answer, Azazel smiled and turned to Vali.
"Vali, what do you want to do with the world?"
Upon Azazel's question, the Hakuryuukou, Vali, smiled faintly, "If I can fight strong guys, then it's fine."
"Then, Sekiryuutei, what about you?" Azazel asked, turning his gaze toward the nervous Issei.
"...Me?!"
Issei pointed at himself with wide eyes. Seeing the three leaders nodding at him and the silver-haired man staring expectantly, he scratched his cheek, feeling both embarrassed and a little scared.
"I... I... want peace!"
"If there's a fight, then there's no sex. If there's peace, then I can have sex all the time."
"Without peace, I won't be able to make my dream come true and become the Harem King!"
Everyone, "..."
"Hahahaha! This generation's Sekiryuutei is really interesting!" Azazel was stunned before he burst into loud, hearty laughter.
Rumble!
Suddenly, the entire school building began to shake violently. Yellow and red flashes of light rained down from outside as the powerful barrier surrounding the building came under heavy attack.
Groups of mage-like figures dressed in black robes were relentlessly firing magic bullets toward the barrier.
Azazel stopped laughing. He stood up and walked over to the window, looking outside with a calm expression. "We're under fire. In any era, when one power tries to form peace with others, there will always be those who dislike it, feel threatened by it, and try to disrupt it."
...
Caught up with the last chapter? Why don't you try reading my original novel: I Don't Die When I Am Killed.
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