Raphiel pondered for a moment, then decided to reveal some information to a certain big idiot demon, so that Satanichia could also play with Vignette and Gabriel at night in the future.
Good friends shouldn't only spend time together at school during the day, only to cut off contact after going home at night.
Sacrifice Satanichia a bit, then find some little angels and little demons who were interning elsewhere. As long as she could remove herself cleanly from this matter and stop being targeted by Iris, that would be enough.
Even though Gabriel and the others would definitely still keep her in mind, if it was just them, she wasn't that worried.
What really worried her was Hachiman, this boy favored by various races and factions.
Before, she had only been teasing Gabriel and Vignette. She never expected things to develop to this extent between them and Hachiman.
Even if they hadn't engaged in those extremely frequent "service activities" like Iris and the others, whether for angels or humans, it had already gone far beyond the boundaries of ordinary friendship.
It was quite entertaining, having an angel and a demon serving the same human. She was a little curious what kind of expression Gabriel's older sister, the "Hand of God", would show when she saw her younger sister's situation during her worldly training.
But even now, she still couldn't understand why Hachiman could ignore the holy light on Gabriel and Vignette. This situation was far beyond her control, which was why she had always resisted personally contacting him, only observing from afar using divine techniques.
If she got involved herself, one misstep and she'd become the joke instead.
"About that… actually, Raphiel, you could join us first, and then help us take down the other angels and demons."
Iris smiled and shook her head, rejecting Raphiel's proposal for cooperation.
In truth, if Gabriel and Vignette didn't already have a closer relationship with the leader, she would have most wanted to take Raphiel first.
With Raphiel joining, all the other angels and demons, including Gabriel and Vignette, would definitely be dragged in by her initiative.
"Isn't it enough if I help you take down Gabriel and Vignette? I don't have anything with Hikigaya—"
"Raphiel!"
Raphiel paused, about to negotiate again with Iris about not targeting her, but was suddenly interrupted by a voice.
At some unknown point, Gabriel and Vignette, who had been in the Service Club, had already taken advantage of Raphiel talking with Iris to quietly approach her.
"Surrender now! Raphiel!"
"If you sincerely repent, we can consider reducing your punishment."
The moment she saw Vignette and Gabriel coming to arrest her with a trident in hand, Raphiel immediately withdrew her clairvoyance, a golden halo lighting up above her head as pure white wings spread behind her.
She used her power to flee the scene at full speed, completely ignoring the "kind reminders" from the angel and demon behind her.
At this point, did saying those things still matter?
If she actually believed Gabriel and Vignette's words, wouldn't she be even stupider than Satanichia?
If she were in their place, she definitely wouldn't let it go so easily. Unless everyone had compromising black-history recordings of each other that couldn't be made public.
But in that case, what difference would it make whether she joined or not? After being subjected to all kinds of things by Hachiman, she'd still have to hide it? That would be an even worse deal.
"Lala, Ursula, let's go help out. Let's see if we can catch Raphiel this time~"
Noticing that the conversation with Raphiel had suddenly cut off, and that Gabriel and Vignette had already disappeared from the Service Club, Iris paused briefly, then quickly reacted and looked at Lala and Ursula with a smile.
She had originally planned to capture Raphiel and pull this ever-observing angel into their group, and had already discussed it with Gabriel and Vignette.
She just hadn't expected that before they even went to find Raphiel, Raphiel would expose her own whereabouts first, unlike before when she had been so cautious.
Maybe today they would have a chance to pin Raphiel down and let her experience what Gabriel and Vignette had gone through. Gabriel and Vignette were surely thinking the same.
"No problem! Let's go right away."
Hearing that they were going to catch an angel, Ursula immediately stood up.
She didn't have any grudge against Raphiel. In fact, she barely even knew who Raphiel was.
But she couldn't stand someone watching her embarrassing moments from the sidelines.
If everyone was embarrassing themselves together, she could accept it. But if someone was just watching her alone, even if it was an angel, she couldn't accept that.
An angel… she wanted to see just how powerful this angel really was.
Their dragon race was strong, but angels were even more mysterious. In their world, angels were extremely rare beings, only recorded in a handful of texts and legends. Even as the dragon clan leader, she only knew from inherited memories that angels existed, she had never seen one with her own eyes.
She hadn't expected to actually encounter angels training in the human world here.
Well… although Gabriel and Raphiel had already revealed their identities, judging from their appearance and behavior, you really couldn't tell at all.
"Let's go too, Suzu and I. Didn't Gabriel say they can't freely use their power in the human world? With more of us, Raphiel might just surrender."
Kaede, who was sitting together with Rurikawa Tsubaki, and Yukinoshita Haruno, stood up as well, pulling Suzu along to go trouble Raphiel.
She didn't have any particular hostility toward Raphiel, nor was she interested in her angel identity. She just didn't want Iris to recruit Raphiel to her side.
Vignette had originally rented a place in this apartment, and Gabriel had transferred into Hachiman's class. Both of them had come to the house to cook for a while.
In terms of how long they had known each other, Kaede had known Vignette and Gabriel much longer than Iris had, so she wasn't worried about them turning against her.
If not for Hachiman's absurd strength, and the precedent set by Tsubaki along with all the girls at school, Vignette and Gabriel probably wouldn't have gotten entangled with him at all, let alone spending entire nights with them.
But only Gabriel and Vignette cared about past ties. Raphiel was only familiar with those two and wouldn't side with either Kaede or Iris.
If Iris managed to pull Raphiel over now, things would fall back into that intense competition again. She would have no choice but to find ways to pull Gabriel and the others in as well, otherwise the game couldn't continue.
"Kaede and Suzu, huh… that works. There's no danger this time. But what about tonight's game? Kaede, are you not going to continue playing? Planning to concede?"
Iris considered for a moment and didn't refuse them, instead asking about their plans.
Because of their lack of real combat experience, even though Kaede and Suzu were much stronger than most after transforming into magical girls, they weren't suited for battle.
But this time it was just a small chase with Raphiel. There was no danger, so experience didn't matter.
However, the hide-and-seek game tonight hadn't ended yet.
The most important part hadn't even begun.
Her elf faction had many demi-humans and quite a few elves. Whether she was present or not didn't make much difference.
But Kaede and Suzu were the core of the human faction. Without many strong pillars, if they left, the human faction would likely be crushed outright by the elf faction.
"There's nothing to think about. With so many of us, it won't take long to catch Raphiel. Besides, Tsubaki doesn't need to go. She can stay here. With her serving Hachiman, I feel at ease."
Kaede casually jerked her chin toward Rurikawa Tsubaki.
The hide-and-seek game was just a game. Winning or losing didn't really determine their standing in Hachiman's heart. Otherwise, she wouldn't be competing with Iris so freely.
Her real opponent was only Iris, that scheming blonde princess—not the others.
More precisely, she had already lost before, so what was there to be afraid of?
No matter how much Iris tried to please Hachiman, she, as his childhood friend since they were little, was unbeatable.
And she and Suzu were twin sisters on top of that.
"Mm… u-uh…"
Hearing Kaede push her out again as a shield, the carefully chosen good friend Rurikawa Tsubaki could only lower her head, blushing and stammering.
Even though she was already extremely familiar, arguably even more familiar than Kaede, with Hachiman's body, she still felt shy whenever the topic came up.
"Hehe, that's true."
Seeing this, Iris could only smile and shake her head.
She had really found Kaede a good helper.
In fact, aside from Ichinose Honami, who had a wide social circle, there weren't many human girls who were frequently favored by the leader.
And Rurikawa Tsubaki was the most obvious one. In some ways, she even enjoyed it more than Kaede and Suzu.
Because the way she had gotten together with the leader in the beginning hadn't been entirely proper, Kaede felt the need to compensate her.
And because of that same "betrayal," Tsubaki had no intention of resisting any of Kaede's opinions or ideas.
Even though Kaede didn't use it to threaten her, she constantly had Tsubaki take the initiative to serve her boyfriend, even stepping in for her when she got tired.
Their friendship had become somewhat twisted, yet remained extremely close.
"Actually, Iris, shouldn't you be asking Lala instead? Lala, aren't you going to take care of your two sisters?"
Kaede ignored Tsubaki's bashful expression and turned to Lala and the tied-up Momo and Nana on the table.
What had to be done was already done. There was nothing inappropriate about it.
No matter how shy Tsubaki was, she couldn't hide how she would cling to Hachiman, unwilling to pull away.
"Just let Momo and Nana stay here. Hachiman will come looking for them anyway. Let's see if they fall in love with him at first sight. If they like him like I do, I'll just tell Mom."
Lala stood with her hands on her hips, puffing out her ample chest as she spoke cheerfully.
Although seeing everyone bringing their sisters along made her think it would be nice for Momo and Nana to join her in playing with Hachiman, she still respected their opinions and wanted them to decide for themselves whether they liked him.
"Alright then, Aegis, go get two bell collars for them."
"No need for Aegis to get them. Suzu and I can use ours."
Iris nodded with a smile and was about to have Aegis fetch the game items for Momo and Nana when Kaede immediately stopped her.
Staring at the pink-haired twin beauties on the table, Kaede and Suzu exchanged a glance, then removed the bell collars from their own necks and put them on the two girls.
Even with the advantage of being childhood friends, as more girls gathered around Hachiman, the appearance of sister pairs and twin beauties was inevitable.
Thankfully Lala wasn't like Momo and Nana. Otherwise, if there were triplet beauties, she might actually feel some pressure.
This was all Iris's doing.
As Kaede fastened the red collar with a golden bell onto Momo, she couldn't help but glare at Iris, who was covering her mouth and laughing softly.
"Mm! Mm!"
"Mmm…"
Watching their elder sister not untie them right away, instead letting Iris and Kaede decide their fate, Momo and Nana, bound tightly and lying on the table, could only tremble.
Even though they didn't fully understand the situation, just looking at the many beautiful girls in the restaurant, all wearing red collars with golden bells while dining, told them something was very wrong.
'What does she mean by whether we'll fall in love with Hachiman at first sight?'
'Do we even have a choice?"
"Don't worry, Hachiman is a good person. When you meet him for the first time, he won't force you. But you have to be obedient too, don't make him angry."
Lala stood in front of the table and earnestly reminded them.
If she were the only one who liked Hachiman, maybe her mother wouldn't approve of their marriage.
After all, Momo and Nana had come to Earth, yet their mother was still handling affairs in the palace and hadn't shown up. It didn't seem like she supported the marriage much.
But if Momo and Nana liked him too, then their mother would have no choice but to agree.
"..."
Momo and Nana both fell silent.
'We're about to lose our chastity here!'
'And big sister is only worried about whether we'll make brother-in-law angry?'
"Hehe~"
Seeing Lala wholeheartedly thinking for Hachiman's sake, Iris smiled softly.
Just as well, she had made a slight miscalculation tonight.
Because she usually dealt with demi-humans, magical girls, and girls with special constitutions, she had overestimated the endurance of the wealthy young ladies like Shinomiya Kaguya.
The noble girls who were supposed to be offered up tonight for the leader had all left due to physical discomfort. In that situation, she couldn't exactly drag them back.
If they had come voluntarily and then forfeited, she wouldn't have been so forgiving. But since they couldn't endure the sensations transmitted by the bell collars and had to withdraw after collapsing into the bath, she couldn't really blame them.
If anything, she could only blame herself for not preparing properly, making their first shared-sensation experience a bit too intense.
Now that Lala's two sisters had "voluntarily" delivered themselves, she felt reassured.
Lala had Charmian blood, so Momo and Nana did too. Maybe, like Lala back then, they would fall in love with the leader at first sight.
"Are you done? Let's go. I can already feel the energy fluctuations from afar."
Ursula glanced at Iris, who looked pure and cute on the surface but was actually calculating, and urged impatiently.
Iris, the elf princess, had excellent social skills, but in their strength-oriented world, that didn't always get you far.
The elf race was indeed powerful, but other races were not weak either, some even stronger. Their population and reproduction rates far exceeded the elves, and they didn't have to worry about mana depletion or a drop in overall strength.
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