The estate. Living room.
Called by Ravel, Ram, and Rem, the entire Eligos peerage had gathered here.
Yukino, Asuna, Utaha, and Mahiru had left their rooms the moment they heard Leo was back, hurrying over to find him standing with Kanna and Stella behind him.
"President!"
"You jerk, about time you showed up."
"Where on earth did you go?"
"We were so worried..."
Asuna's face lit up with joy. Utaha's tone was pure complaint. Yukino fired off a pointed question. Mahiru's eyes still held lingering worry. Each reaction was different, but all reflected who they were and how they felt.
Ravel, Ram, and Rem understood and stayed quiet, watching from the side.
As for Kanna and Stella, the former was eyeing the assembled girls with open curiosity, studying each of them as if cataloguing something. Stella's gaze flickered briefly, seemingly surprised by how many striking beauties were present.
These are all his servants?
Stella glanced at the faintly smiling Leo, thought this privately, but kept her silent, withdrawn demeanor.
Leo stood up, a smile on his face that was equal parts relieved and exasperated.
"Long story. I'll explain later." He looked at Yukino and the others. "How are your injuries?"
He'd done a rough assessment. No visible external wounds, at least nothing obvious on the surface. Internal injuries were harder to gauge.
Their complexions weren't great. There was a pallor to them, a frailty, as if they were recovering from a serious illness. They were all still in sleepwear with jackets draped over their shoulders, giving off a fragile, convalescent air.
Leo would have liked to check them over properly, but he wasn't skilled in healing. Even if he tried, he probably wouldn't find much.
So he just asked directly.
"We're fine. Just a little weak."
Yukino's expression softened when she saw Leo worrying about them first. She was clearly curious about the two girls behind him, but answered his question before anything else.
"After we escaped the pocket dimension that day, we received initial treatment right away. We didn't have Phoenix Tears like Ram and Rem, but by now, most of our injuries have healed."
Asuna gave the detailed rundown, her warm, gentle voice drawing glances from both Kanna and Stella.
"Mainly because the Gremory peerage's Bishop is really good at what she does. Her Sacred Gear seems to heal any wound almost instantly. That's why we recovered so quickly."
Utaha mentioned Asia. Clearly, the one who'd treated them that day was the former Church saint, the Gremory peerage's Bishop who wielded Twilight Healing.
"Asia-san's healing ability is incredible. My and Asuna-senpai's recovery abilities can't compare at all."
Mahiru sounded a bit self-conscious. She'd apparently tried treating her companions with her own abilities, but the results were far inferior to Asia's Twilight Healing.
"Their external wounds were actually the easy part. Those were mostly healed the same day," Ravel chimed in. "The real issue was everything else. They fought way too recklessly that day. If they hadn't pushed so hard, they wouldn't have needed this much bedrest."
At that, several of the girls lowered their heads. Even Ram and Rem.
Leo raised an eyebrow and called Ravel over.
"What exactly happened that day? Give me the full breakdown."
Ravel was the strategist of the group. Her understanding of the battle would be more comprehensive than anyone else's. Asking her was the obvious choice.
The girl wasn't remotely surprised by the request. She seemed to have prepared for this and began her account.
Through Ravel's detailed narration, Leo gradually came to understand how the battle between his servants and the Hero Faction had unfolded.
According to Ravel, after Leo and Cao Cao had moved their fight elsewhere, the Eligos peerage and the Hero Faction entered into a full set of individual matchups.
Yukino was immediately targeted by Sharon, who'd been obsessed with her since their last encounter. They clashed instantly.
Asuna was challenged by Jeanne, the inheritor of Joan of Arc's soul and a fellow wielder of Blade Blacksmith. A battle between holy sword-wielding women.
Utaha was matched against Heracles, the inheritor of the great Greek hero's soul and wielder of Variant Detonation. One specialized in offense, the other in defense. The ultimate clash of spear versus shield.
Mahiru was singled out by Siegfried, the former Church elite and inheritor of the dragon-slaying hero's genetic legacy, armed with multiple demonic swords including Gram. She had no choice but to fight the powerful demonic swordsman.
Ravel, Ram, and Rem ended up facing the remaining two top-tier Longinus holders together.
Georg, a descendant of the legendary Georg Faust, a master of Norse formulas, demonic arts, fallen angel arts, black magic, white magic, and spirit magic, who also wielded the Longinus Dimension Lost.
Leonardo, a descendant of Leonardo da Vinci, the genius artist. The youngest member of the Hero Faction, wielding the Longinus Annihilation Maker. Despite his youth and incomplete mastery of his Sacred Gear, he possessed terrifyingly dangerous battlefield control capabilities.
Against those two, Ravel, Ram, and Rem had to fight together. Solo, their odds weren't good.
That was Ravel's judgment. She'd even prepared for the possibility that other Hero Faction members would interfere, devising contingency tactics. Thorough as always.
The Hero Faction naturally had more than just the members mentioned above. Plenty of outer members existed too.
They were either Sacred Gear users or inheritors of some historical hero's bloodline or abilities. Decent in strength, just not on the level of the main fighters.
That day, the Hero Faction had deployed in full force, vastly outnumbering the Eligos peerage.
So it wasn't just Ravel. Yukino and all the others had prepared themselves for being outnumbered and overwhelmed.
But to everyone's surprise, the Hero Faction's remaining members didn't join in.
No, they'd intended to, but were stopped.
"The Hero Faction members are all human, but they carry ideals that weigh too heavily for ordinary humans. I could see it clearly: they genuinely didn't want to rely on others to beat us. They preferred one-on-one duels, winning through their own strength."
Ravel's analysis was calm and precise.
"Of course, that was only the situation at the time. Given their nature, if it became necessary, they wouldn't hesitate to gang up on us. They'd use any means to achieve their goals."
"The reason they didn't that day wasn't so much a sense of heroic honor as it was overconfidence in their own abilities. It had curdled into arrogance without them realizing it."
"They probably didn't think they needed help to beat us. They didn't say it outright, but I could tell. They were looking down on us."
Ravel's words drew cold or bitter smiles from Yukino and the others.
Leo understood. It was perfectly natural.
In the entire Eligos peerage, aside from Leo himself, every single member was a girl no older than eighteen. They were all pretty and delicate-looking. Of course they'd be underestimated.
Yukino, Asuna, Utaha, and Mahiru especially. Yukino had been the earliest to join, yet even she'd only been a devil for half a year. Longinus holder or not, how strong could she possibly be in that time?
The Hero Faction were all human, and nearly all Sacred Gear users. Their understanding of Sacred Gears far exceeded the norm. They knew that in just half a year, even a Longinus holder couldn't have grown that much, let alone girls who'd been ordinary humans before reincarnation.
The Hero Faction members, while also human, had mostly inherited some legendary hero's power. Both their potential and abilities far exceeded those of ordinary people.
So in their eyes, ordinary-born girls like Yukino couldn't possibly have surpassed them in six months.
That was the Hero Faction's arrogance.
They called themselves heroes, yet they'd inherited none of the virtues and all of the flaws.
This was what Leo despised most about the Hero Faction. They talked about being weak, ordinary humans, but the people who actually looked down on the weak, the ordinary, the unremarkable the most were precisely these so-called hero descendants who'd been born with inherited power.
Just like in the original story. Issei, derided as the weakest Red Dragon Emperor in history, a regular human, had been dismissed by Cao Cao. That arrogance later cost Cao Cao an eye.
Of course, after that lesson, the Hero Faction never underestimated Issei again, even treating him as a priority threat. Credit where it was due: once they recognized a mistake, they corrected it fast.
But that only happened after they'd already paid the price.
At least on this first encounter with the Eligos peerage, with Yukino and the others, they were still arrogant.
Their overconfidence in their own strength made them stumble badly.
The first to fall was Sharon, who'd charged straight at Yukino without a second thought.
She'd come for revenge, burning to reclaim her dignity after the last defeat. She'd prepared extensively, determined not to fall for Yukino's tricks again.
What she hadn't imagined was that Yukino had grown immensely since their last fight.
After the Lafei Trix incident, Yukino had gone through multiple rounds of special training, pushing herself again and again. Compared to the last time she'd fought Sharon, she was on an entirely different level.
Back then, Yukino had been a novice whose demonic power hadn't even reached High-Class Devil level, who was still figuring out her Sacred Gear's abilities. Now, her demonic power had broken through to High-Class Devil level, she'd fully mastered Absolute Demise, and she'd even achieved Balance Breaker. She was a completely different fighter.
Sharon, by contrast, hadn't changed much since last time.
She'd assumed her previous loss was just carelessness, that she'd fallen for Yukino's trap. This time, as long as she stayed alert and didn't get tricked, she'd win.
After all, she'd held an overwhelming advantage last time. If not for Yukino's trap, there was no way she could have lost.
She never expected that this time, Yukino didn't need any tricks to beat her.
Without even activating Balance Breaker, Yukino displayed overwhelming power and crushed Sharon from the very first exchange. She went all-out immediately, giving Sharon no room to fight back. Sharon couldn't even believe this was Yukino's strength.
Before she could even process her shock, she ended up exactly like last time: a frozen statue.
The difference was that last time, she'd been caught by a spell Yukino had specifically learned for the occasion. This time, the Ice Princess, acting on Yukino's command, had simply breathed on her and frozen her solid, stripping her of all combat ability.
"My feud with that woman should be over now."
When recounting this, Yukino wore a complicated expression.
In her view, after this battle, Sharon was no longer her equal. She couldn't threaten Yukino anymore, and naturally couldn't keep pursuing her.
Yukino hadn't even needed to use Balance Breaker. She'd one-sidedly dominated and easily defeated Sharon. How could Sharon possibly challenge her after this?
From now on, that woman wouldn't be able to bother her.
"Don't be so sure. Who knows what that lunatic might do next?"
Leo figured that given Sharon's obsessive nature, gaining some forbidden power to rapidly close the gap wouldn't be surprising at all.
Ophis's Snakes, for instance. The Hero Faction members might be too proud to consume them directly, but Sharon might not feel the same reluctance.
If that woman swallowed one of Ophis's Snakes, she might actually become a threat to Yukino again.
But that was a concern for later.
Yukino's victory was the Eligos peerage's first highlight of the day.
What followed was the Hero Faction's turn to shine.