Karuizawa Kei lifted her head, looking at Hachiman's eyes that showed concern, and spoke cautiously and hesitantly.
She only wanted to please her master, not cause trouble for him.
"Got it. Don't worry. Kei, as long as you're not hurt, that's fine. I'll deal with them."
Hachiman nodded, gently comforted her, then looked toward the three boys on Banjo's side who were frozen in place, too scared to move, and summoned his female imp, Ursula, over to handle it.
He had thought that the blond punks of Sobu High no longer dared to show their faces, yet there were still people daring to cause trouble in his territory, even targeting his people.
They must be tired of living. Do they not know that the entire student council and disciplinary committee of the school are under his control?
———
Sobu High was not without delinquents, both boys and girls. If there were no delinquents, there would be no need for the disciplinary committee to patrol daily to maintain order.
It was just that not long ago, a few delinquents with bad reputations had died in an alley not far from the school gate. No one knew who they had offended, but in the end, the matter was dropped.
Now, with the transfer of many demi-humans into the school, the student council president had specially ordered many additional surveillance cameras to be installed throughout the school. Even though privacy could not be completely ignored, leaving some blind spots, those delinquents had kept quiet and refrained from making trouble on campus.
Were this group of guys now thinking that the storm had passed, that they could even dare to lay hands on a disciplinary committee member? Or were they truly so stupid as to think these girls were easy prey?
Hmm… the girl beside him named Yaegashi Shizuku, just by looking, you couldn't tell wheather she was a heroine from the 2D. But Karuizawa Kei, who had once been bullied, really was easier to pick on.
Hachiman, while gently stroking Kei's back in his arms, gazed silently at the three would-be-r*pist scum across from him.
In truth, Kei's dependence on him, combined with the Servant's Halo bonus, had already greatly improved her physical condition. If it really came to a fight, she could probably pin these three pieces of trash down and pound them into the ground.
However, Kei had never trained before, and because of the bullying she suffered from delinquent gyaru in middle school, her psychological shadow was not so easily dispelled. With him at her side, it was fine, but alone in such a situation, she would panic and freeze up.
Even making her a disciplinary committee member to build her confidence couldn't immediately erase the trauma.
Still, Kei was his little pet, of course he wouldn't blame her.
And Yaegashi Shizuku encountering such an incident wasn't something she had planned either. He couldn't blame the victim here.
After thinking it over, the only conclusion was, these three guys had to die. The only question was how.
"Master? Do you want me to serve you again?", Ursula's petite figure appeared in midair outside the railing. She swept her gaze across the people in the hallway and, smiling, landed beside Hachiman, hugging his arm.
Although she greatly wished to rebel, to make Hachiman remove her collar and kneel beneath her feet.
Right now she was still under Hachiman's control. Usually, without him having to say much, she behaved better. When the Servant Collar transmitted his summons, she had flown straight over.
"We'll talk about serving when we get home. For now, take care of these three people. Hmm… same method as last time with that burger shop. No need to be too cruel."
Hachiman rolled his eyes at Ursula, who deliberately called him "Master" in front of everyone, and didn't bother with her little schemes. He merely lifted his chin to indicate she should deal with the three men.
Iris had already arranged for the former forest guardian Sylpha to be at the school, always nearby awaiting his orders. He could have asked Sylpha to handle this.
But elves were ultimately a peace-loving race, and it wasn't right to have them do such things. It was better to let Ursula handle it.
"Someone offended your little pet, Master? Hehe, then I'll take care of these three."
Ursula glanced at Kei, who looked obedient and cute in Hachiman's arms but was tense and uneasy, and immediately understood why she'd been called over. Smiling, she turned her eyes toward the three boys on Banjo's side.
She already knew Hachiman had taken in a new pet. She had been watching him, waiting for the moment he showed weakness so she and the succubus vampire could strike together.
But she had never found the chance and didn't dare to force it. Instead, she had to play the obedient dragon, working hard to raise her own status so he would lower his guard.
Although now there was another pet competing for favor, she didn't care. Just an ordinary girl without even a collar, hardly a threat to her position.
These three humans seeking death were the perfect chance to earn merit in front of Hachiman.
Hmph! Hadn't they noticed that whenever something happened, Hachiman always called her, not Iris? An elf might be pretty to look at, but they could never compare to a powerful dragon.
"Wait! Let us go! We acted on impulse!"
"It was all Banjo! He told us to!"
The three on Banjo's side saw Ursula suddenly appear on Hachiman's orders to deal with them. They had thought they'd merely provoked someone recently riding a wave of popularity.
Even if the disciplinary committee had some connection to him, they didn't think he could really do anything to them. But now this demi-human, rumored to be the dragon clan's leader, was listening to Hachiman, even calling him "Master." They panicked.
Most demi-humans at Sobu High were peace-loving, but this one, petite and cute in appearance, yet with a vicious and violent temper, was different.
When she first transferred in, she was openly domineering in class, attacking anyone she disliked. If not for the peace-loving elf princess and her guards helping to handle the confrontations until she calmed down, there might have been deaths.
They weren't afraid of things being handled by the rules. After all, that wouldn't threaten their lives. But Ursula, unbound by rules and unwilling to follow them, terrified them.
A dignified dragon clan leader could probably crush them in front of the police, and the police would pretend not to see.
"Shut up! All of you, be quiet!"
Ursula glared impatiently at the three. Instantly, an invisible force pinned them to the ground.
Then she reached out with a grasping motion, binding them with magic, and flew away with them.
Last time, how had she handled it? Oh right, deep frying. From bottom to top, let them feel being burned and fried again.
Once she finished with them, she'd surely get a nice reward.
Come the weekend, she and Iris and the rest would drain Hachiman dry, and on Monday, her plan to reverse their positions could begin.
Whoosh!
Ursula, still daydreaming about her glorious comeback, was startled as several beams of white light suddenly shot up at her from below.
Sensing danger, she dodged them instinctively, then glared down to see Origamine Ouka.
"Little oni tribe brat! Tired of living? You dare attack me?"
She hadn't even gone looking for trouble with this oni tribe girl, and yet the girl had the nerve to provoke her?
Did she think that just because Hachiman controlled her with the collar, she had grown weak?
It made her furious.
Origamine Ouka frowned slightly as she looked at the students bound by Ursula. Without speaking, she drew several talismans, infused them with spell power, and flung them at Ursula again.
This time, however, Ursula was ready. She didn't even dodge, she simply moved the three from Banjo's side in front of her as shields.
The beams of white light sank into the three boys' bodies, and their miserable screams echoed in the air. In moments, they were near death.
As the oni tribe's strongest shrine maiden, even without using overly lethal talismans, her offensive spells were far beyond what ordinary humans could endure.
"If you have the guts, keep throwing. I'll make them my shields and see how many of your spells they can take before dying."
Ursula moved her human shields aside, looked down at Origamine Ouka with her brows furrowed, and spoke arrogantly with smug pride.
Even though she was under Hachiman's collar and had to obey his orders, her power had grown rapidly lately. She was much stronger than before, though still behind the elves who received his favoritism.
A mere oni tribe member wanted to contend with her?
If she revealed her true form, she could probably kill this shrine maiden in one strike.
But that would be too brazen and might get her suppressed by Hachiman. Using three doomed humans as shields to infuriate the shrine maiden below was far more satisfying.
"Origamine-san, there's been a bit of a misunderstanding. Come up here and I'll explain," At that moment, Hachiman leaned out from the hallway, calling to stop Origamine Ouka from attacking again.
Ursula's guess was right. He didn't care where those three died. Dying here was fine too.
But he knew Origamine Ouka had joined the student council as vice president to maintain campus order and prevent demi-humans from abusing their power. Seeing Ursula carry students away was sure to cause a misunderstanding.
"Tch, then I'll just go deal with these three first," Ursula realized she wouldn't be fighting the oni girl and quickly dragged the barely-breathing three away toward the school gates.
They were nearly dead already. She had to hurry to torture them a bit more, or else dragging three corpses around as the dragon clan leader would be disgraceful.
Hmm… since they were almost dead, she might as well toss them into a human crematorium.
She could breathe fire and use all sorts of dragon magic to burn them to ash, but did these little punks deserve her dragonflame?
Seeing Ursula fly off with them, Origamine Ouka didn't take her time on the stairs. With a few leaps, she reached the fourth-floor hallway, her face stern as she looked at Hachiman and asked coldly, "Hikigaya-san, why did the dragon clan's Ursula take them away? What is she planning to do?"
She was here to supervise demi-humans, she couldn't just ignore them attacking ordinary people.
If not for knowing Hachiman was on good terms with the student council president, who had specially asked her to join to help maintain order, she would never tolerate such wanton demi-human behavior.
And if Ursula really wanted to kill ordinary people, she didn't need to take them away. She could kill them on the spot before anyone could react. That was why she wasn't stopping without answers.
"Don't worry. The ones taken away aren't good people, they just tried to assault someone," Hachiman, seeing that Ouka, horns showing, was still calm enough to ask what had happened, first made clear what those three were before glancing at Yaegashi Shizuku and giving her a signal.
"Although there's no camera in the room, there's one in the hallway that recorded them surrounding disciplinary committee member Karuizawa Kei and this track club member, Yaegashi Shizuku. You can ask the victims what happened."
"Yes! I can testify that Banjo and the others tried to assault me. Kei-san overheard our argument and startled them when she opened the door. I managed to break free and run, but they still chased me. Luckily, Hachiman arrived in time, otherwise, they would have dragged us into the room!"
Yaegashi Shizuku, having watched Banjo's group get half-killed by Ouka and then taken by Ursula, quickly explained.
Though she was still a bit dazed. From the moment the three showed their ugly intent, to Kei breaking the deadlock, to Hachiman's arrival, to the sudden involvement of the dragon clan leader and oni shrine maiden, only a few minutes had passed.
Her mind might still be spinning, but she clearly knew who was right and wrong.
Since Hachiman had handled the matter, she, as the rescued victim, had to speak up for him and prevent any misunderstanding.
She was surprised that the much-gossiped-about Hachiman was so capable, able to call on the dragon clan leader and decisively determine the fate of Banjo's group.
But they truly deserved to die. If Kei hadn't appeared to help her escape, and if Hachiman hadn't stopped them, her innocence would have been destroyed.
Banjo had even claimed to like her, what kind of "liking" was that? Disgusting! Good thing she had never given him any kindness.
Now that Hachiman had them killed, she should be grateful to him.
"…Still, this should have been handled by others. Ursula taking them away on her own looks bad and could cause misunderstandings about demi-humans abusing their power."
After hearing her explanation, Ouka looked up at the surveillance camera running above the hallway. She no longer worried about those taken by Ursula but still frowned.
Though a oni tribe member, she hated evil just the same.
Whether demi-human or human, such behavior deserved punishment. But Ursula, as a student and a demi-human, killing so casually would surely cause problems.
"Then just say Ursula acted under my orders. If it's a demi-human harming humans, there'd be an uproar, but I'm human. Me acting bravely to take down campus scum is fine, right?"
Hachiman smiled. A few would-be r*pists couldn't stir up public opinion anyway. If not for wanting to avoid increasing Kaede's workload, he could have killed them here without it ever spreading.
But calming Ouka down was the priority.
She wasn't just any oni tribe member. She was the princess shrine maiden representing the entire hidden oni tribe. If she disliked him and caused trouble, it'd be a headache.
If he remembered correctly, oni tribe member Kijou Suzuka had also come to Sobu High. And Suzuka was connected to the awakening of magic essence. If Lala failed to awaken the mermaid princess Meroune's bloodline, he might have to try the original method for awakening magic essence.
The oni tribe's Suzuka, the snow woman clan's Aoe Kuon, and even the original's human-dragon hybrids, maybe he could get Ursula involved with them, too.
"Ursula acted under your orders?", Ouka was stunned, staring fixedly at Hachiman holding Kei, her eyes full of suspicion.
Looking closely now, she realized Hachiman had been calm all along, never worried about a fight breaking out between her and Ursula.
Since arriving, she'd noticed his good relations with both student council members and demi-humans like the elf princess and mermaid idol.
She had assumed he merely used words to charm naive demi-humans. She hadn't expected even Ursula to obey him.
Dragons were proud, and normally even begging might only earn scraps. To make them listen, you had to have enough power to make them bow.
But Ursula wasn't just any dragon, she was the dragon clan leader. Ordinary dragons gained great strength through inheritance; how much stronger would the clan leader be?
Faced with the powerful, violent, willful Ursula, even she, the strongest shrine maiden of the oni tribe, had to give her all and never be careless.
Yet this Hachiman, seemingly just a human with strong life force, could command Ursula? How?
"Vuce President Origamine, what happened? I thought I just saw the dragon clan leader fly off with some boys?"
"Hikigaya-kun, why are you here? And Kei, too?"
Ouka, still deep in thought about Hachiman's relationship with Ursula, was interrupted as Sakurai Hana and Asai Saki, who had been with her before, rushed up from downstairs. Seeing Hachiman and Kei in his arms, they both froze.
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