But right now, the Savior really could improve the overall strength of the elves in every aspect, so she had no way to use her completely unconvincing hypothetical scenario to argue against the scheming angel Raphiel.
She had heard from Iris that this angel wasn't like Gabriel or Vignette, who followed the rules.
Not only did she spy on the Savior helping them every day, but whenever she was being chased, she would stop at nothing to deliberately run into the territory of evil forces, trying to drag them into the conflict and use them to stop her pursuers.
Although Iris and the others always ended up cornering and capturing her, bringing her back to receive the Savior's punishment, Raphiel clearly wasn't the kind of angel who gave up easily or rigidly followed the rules by refusing to use her power.
So the reason Raphiel had deliberately emphasized in front of Falma that she couldn't help was obvious.
Princess Nina's thoughts raced, but her expression remained calm.
Even though she knew Raphiel wasn't the kind, innocent angel she appeared to be, Nina had no intention of exposing her lie.
As long as Falma could be persuaded to serve the Savior too, bringing the humans down to the elves' level, then with the elves' abundant experience, defeating Falma and the other human girls would be easy.
When it came to purity and beauty, the elves had no fear of losing to any race.
"Thank you for the information, Lady Raphiel. As for the mastermind behind our world..."
Unaware that the scheming angel Raphiel was pretending to be powerless to deceive her, Falma met Nina's expressionless gaze and slowly took a deep breath.
After wavering for a moment, she suddenly made up her mind.
Just like Alice before her, she knelt on one knee before Hachiman, reverently raising both hands together and slowly lowering her head.
"If my sincerity is enough to satisfy you, Lord Hikigaya, I hope you'll con... consider..."
"As long as you're willing to save our kingdom, I'll do anything..."
Just Raphiel alone had already shocked them beyond words, let alone angels whose holy light far surpassed hers.
But just as Raphiel had said, Lord Hikigaya had never even been to their world. What happened there had nothing to do with him.
Even if he agreed to help because Iris and the others lived in the same world, he would be helping the elves, not their kingdom.
After all, the relationship between elves and humans had never been good. Among human kingdoms, having merely average relations with the elves was already considered fortunate.
Fortunately, Eos had never carried out large-scale hunts of elves like many other human kingdoms had, so they probably wouldn't become targets of hostility or retaliation from the newly revived and greatly strengthened elves.
But simply avoiding revenge from the elves wasn't enough.
She wanted Lord Hikigaya's help as well.
To obtain his assistance for her kingdom, she had to win this fiancee role-playing game.
The game would be judged personally by Lala, Lord Hikigaya's real fiancee. Whoever played the role of his fiancee more convincingly would be the winner.
La Folia and Charlotte had already offered themselves. If she didn't go that far, she would have no chance of winning.
"Ahem..."
Seeing how innocent the princess of this otherworldly human kingdom was, and how easily Raphiel had tricked her into bowing her head before him, Hachiman felt a little embarrassed.
He believed that if someone truly needed help, Raphiel would never ignore them, but the problems of another world really were too far removed.
Scheming behind the scenes to manipulate every race into war and uncovering the mastermind controlling the entire world, those weren't problems suited for little angels who were still attending school.
If some major crisis occurred in another world, he certainly wouldn't ignore it.
But he would naturally put Iris and the others first. There was no way he would neglect his own people just to help complete strangers.
Since he knew Falma had no other choice but to serve him, rejecting her only to make her beg would be far too cruel.
As usual, it was better simply not to refuse.
Thinking that to himself, Hachiman gently stroked Falma's red high ponytail while lowering his head to look at the delicate, fair face of the human princess.
"Falma, we're inside a barrier right now, so you don't have to worry about outsiders seeing. You can undo a few buttons on your clothes. It'll be more comfortable."
Seeing Falma take the opportunity that should have been hers, Shafi wasn't upset at all. Instead, she offered some advice from the side.
What a pity about Princess Iris's plan.
With the angel Raphiel here, there had been no need for her to think of a way. Falma had already lowered her head.
That worked too.
Now that Princess Falma and the church priestess Alice had both submitted to the Savior, they could use them as a breakthrough to bring Eos, and eventually all the other human kingdoms, to submit beneath the Savior's feet.
However, seeing Shafi treat Falma so differently, Alice couldn't help bumping Shafi with her shoulder.
When it had been her turn to serve, Shafi had competed with her so fiercely, yet now she was patiently helping Princess Falma serve the Savior.
"Alice, what are you pretending for? Falma's cleaning up after you right now."
Shafi glanced at the corner of Alice's mouth, which hadn't been wiped clean, then suddenly thought of something and pulled Alice over.
"Right. Falma already told us why she came to this world. Aren't you going to tell us why you came?"
She was an elf with excellent talent, strength, looks, and figure, so being chosen to serve the Savior was only natural.
But Alice and Falma hadn't even known the Savior before coming here. They definitely had their own missions.
"My purpose? My mission... Well, it isn't exactly a secret. I was simply entrusted by Christiabel, the Chief Inquisitor of the Inquisition."
Alice licked her soft, glossy lips, looked up at Hachiman, hesitated, and spoke quietly.
"She discovered that the Hero Emilia, who once chased the Demon King into this world, is still alive. She wanted me, when I came here with all of you, to investigate Emilia's situation and find out whether she can't return because she exhausted all her power."
"If possible, she'd also like me to bring Hero Emilia back."
Now that everything had already happened, and both Falma and Shafi, her fellow members of the Hero's party, had submitted to Lord Hikigaya, she might become his woman as early as tonight.
She might as well surrender early.
"Hero Emilia..."
Hachiman couldn't help falling into thought upon hearing the name.
He hadn't expected that although Shafi, Alice, and Falma's Hero wasn't here, another Hero named Emilia had appeared instead.
If she really was the Hero Emilia he was thinking of, then the angels of that other world might not be good people after all.
Actually, this world probably had Heroes too.
Since Naruse Mio from The Testament of Sister New Devil was already here, then the Hero Village that specialized in fighting demons in the original work likely existed as well, such as the Hero sisters Nonaka Yuki and Nonaka Kurumi.
Even though he had never actually met a Hero himself.
Instead, he'd met far more magical girls, and even demon extermination was usually handled by shrine maidens.
Bang!
"Hm? Did a fight just break out?"
A sudden explosion rang out.
Hachiman, Raphiel, Lala, and the others all turned toward a certain direction inside the convention hall.
"The aura of Sacred Mana..."
Feeling the same unusual aura, shock flashed across Alice's eyes.
As far as she knew, Sacred Mana was a power used by people connected to their church. No one in this world should be able to use it.
At present, besides herself, the only one who should be capable of using Sacred Mana was the Hero who had come to this world while pursuing the Demon King.
They had just been talking about Hero Emilia...
And now Hero Emilia had appeared?
———
[Elsewhere Inside the Convention Hall]
Komachi, Shion, Yukari, Naruse Mio, Naruse Maria, and the others wandered around, browsing the convention together. Like Kitagawa Marin and Lumilia, they bought things they liked from various circles.
Aside from Komachi, the others were either snow women who had spent most of their lives isolated in snowy mountains or demons from the Demon Realm. Although Shion and Mio were human, neither had learned much about this sort of thing growing up.
Even though none of them had ever attended a convention before, because of Hachiman, they had become very interested in the games and doujinshi covering all kinds of themes.
Even those who weren't especially interested in anime culture could learn new techniques and improve their performance in the service games.
After all, each service game theme wasn't meant to be played only once. Compared with themes like the elf-exclusive Elf Tavern or blindfold parties that couldn't be used too often without losing their novelty, cosplay themes were suitable for everyone.
And it wasn't limited to cosplay-themed games.
As long as they found characters that suited them, they could role-play in any game later to make it more fun.
Still, not many people in Komachi's group were focused entirely on cosplay ideas.
Most were simply enjoying themselves as though they were out shopping.
Besides the younger-sister group, the Tohsaka sisters, Hanabishi Haruka, Hiiragi Utena, and the magical girls, there were also many transfer students who had only recently joined the school and hadn't yet developed such a strong gaming mindset.
"Moeha, you've got the wrong one! I don't think we're old enough to be looking at this! Put it back!"
"I didn't get the wrong one! This is exactly what I want to buy!"
"For convenience, Miss Himeragi, you can just call me Shizuri."
"Ah? O-Okay! Shizuri, you don't have to be so polite either. Just call me Yukina. You're the senior here, I might actually be younger than you."
"Karuta, why are you still eating? Did you come here just for the food?"
Watching the classmates clustered around her in twos and threes, chatting and laughing as though they were close friends despite only having known each other for a few days, Komachi couldn't hide the complicated expression on her face.
A politician's daughter, a modern magician, exorcists, a nun knight, an unawakened demi-human...
There were no fewer girls on her side than on Hachiman's.
In fact, there were even more.
There had once been a time when she worried about Hachiman's future happiness. When she saw the runaway Shion in low spirits, she'd immediately decided to take advantage of the opportunity, bring her home, and help them grow closer.
Now, setting aside the girls at Hachiman's school and the girls at home, the number of beautiful girls who had voluntarily gathered around her at school alone had far exceeded her imagination...
Of course, Yukari the snow woman and Naruse Mio, the Demon Lord candidate, weren't ordinary people either.
It was just that after getting used to them, Komachi naturally forgot about their identities.
"Komachi, has Mr. Hikigaya arrived at the convention yet?"
A black-haired girl carrying a black guitar case noticed that Komachi had been silently watching them and suddenly asked.
"Some evil organizations may have set their sights on Mr. Hikigaya recently. He could come under attack. Should we go over and protect him?"
Hearing someone suddenly say something like that, the others within the barrier glanced at the serious-looking black-haired girl before turning their eyes toward Komachi.
Although Hachiman kept to himself, rarely left his usual places, and was almost completely harmless, many organizations wanted to recruit someone with his extraordinary abilities.
On the other hand, many evil organizations hated his existence.
Even demons and the half-human, half-demon race held little goodwill toward him.
In the past, magical girls had been the greatest enemies of evil organizations because they fought evil, protected humanity, and maintained order.
Now, the Service Club could not only awaken magical girls quickly and efficiently in large numbers, but it had also united many independent magical girls through the club.
Whenever evil organizations tried to do something, several magical girls would immediately appear, with even more standing by as reinforcements.
Life had become increasingly difficult for evil organizations.
The "main culprit," Hachiman, almost never left his own territory and was always accompanied by people like the elf princess, so evil organizations had probably wanted to attack him for a long time.
Today, with the elf princess absent and Hachiman attending such a crowded event, the chances of an attack were extremely high.
"Uh... Onii-chan should already be inside the convention."
Looking at Himeragi Yukina, the short-haired beauty who was said to have received professional exorcist training since childhood, Komachi avoided her gaze and answered hesitantly.
"But there's no need to protect him. Big Sister Lala and Princess Nina are with him. They're both very strong, so it's fine even if we don't go."
She knew that almost all these girls, who were around her age and exceptionally beautiful and elegant, had transferred to her school because of her brother.
Only a few who didn't know the full story had simply come along to have fun.
Actually, taking her classmates over to greet Hachiman wouldn't have been a problem.
There were a lot of them, but simply introducing everyone wasn't a big deal.
The only reason she didn't want to bring them over was because she was worried Hachiman and Big Sister Lala might be doing something that outsiders shouldn't see.
Everyone already knew how outrageous the Service Club could be.
But this wasn't the Service Club, and these transfer students hadn't experienced it for themselves yet. They weren't insiders.
If they happened to see Hachiman in one of his less proper moments, she wouldn't know how to face them afterward.
"I see. Then I was worrying for nothing."
Himeragi Yukina didn't think as much as Komachi did. Hearing that someone was already protecting Hachiman, she didn't press the matter and simply reminded her:
"Even so, Komachi, you could also be a target for demons or evil organizations. If anything happens, remember to run toward Shizuri. I'm better at close combat than protecting people."
She actually wasn't completely reassured about Hachiman's safety.
The information she had received only described how much of a womanizer Hachiman was, how powerful his ability to cultivate magical girls and awaken demi-human bloodlines was, and how much attention he attracted from various organizations.
It said nothing about his combat ability.
She suspected he might never have fought a real battle before.
If Hachiman were attacked, kidnapped, and imprisoned somewhere by an evil organization, forced to endlessly train magical girls, that would be disastrous.
With his ability to turn ordinary people into magical girls, all an evil organization would need to do was lure in some normal girls to quickly create a large number of evil magical girls and rapidly expand its strength.
Still, now that even Komachi herself said he was protected, it wasn't appropriate for Yukina to claim she didn't trust the others.
The convention hall wasn't very large.
If an attack really occurred, she should be able to rush over quickly enough.
Before anything unexpected happened, she'd focus on protecting Hachiman's little sister Komachi.
Stories where the mission target's family member was kidnapped, causing the protected person to leave safety and walk straight into the enemy's trap had happened countless times.
She wouldn't let something like that happen in front of her.
On her very first mission, Himeragi Yukina rested one hand on the black guitar case on her back while unconsciously clenching the other. Her eyes continuously scanned the surroundings, her small face serious and focused.
"Uh... Actually, I'm not very good at protecting people either. But don't worry. If anything happens, I'll definitely stand in front of all of you."
Hearing Yukina's words, a white-haired girl about the same age, though much more well-endowed, stiffened slightly and said awkwardly with a faint blush.
She also carried a large black guitar case. Beneath her long white hair were a pair of small white horns that barely peeked out.
The Sword Shaman Himeragi Yukina and the nun knight Kasugaya Shizuri Castila had both come to protect Komachi.
However, watching Yukina and Kasugaya Shizuri taking turns speaking in front of Komachi, Saegusa Izumi, Saegusa Kasumi, Kuroba Ayako of the Yotsuba family, and the others remained silent, merely exchanging meaningful glances.
They felt that protecting her was only an excuse.
Their real goal was to get closer to Hachiman and express their interest.
Although Himeragi Yukina was indeed a genuine exorcist shrine maiden, one who specialized in close combat and swordsmanship, she herself was still young, not an experienced veteran.
Sending her specifically to Komachi's side was clearly about more than just protecting Komachi.