Tohru's stir-fried tail meat actually tasted pretty good. The only problem was that the appearance was still terrifying.
In any case, no one else so much as took a bite. Only Takumi and Tohru finished off the entire platter.
As for Tohru eating her own flesh, she was already thoroughly used to it.
Sona and Rias, meanwhile, both wore the same expression: I don't understand what I'm seeing, but I'm deeply shaken by it.
The dragon from another world had really broadened their horizons!
Rias felt like the eyes she'd just had opened were no smaller than the ones Takumi had opened for her before.
Sitting among the girls, Sona suddenly realized that as this so-called fiancée, she was embarrassingly unqualified.
It wasn't hard to tell from the bits and pieces being said that one after another, these girls had apparently all already made it to home base.
And after listening more closely, Sona made a despairing discovery: even Asia had already gotten there.
This innocent, pure-hearted nun blushed whenever the topic of serving him came up, sure, but she very clearly had plenty she could talk about.
Meanwhile, Sona, the fiancée, couldn't even get a word in.
Watching Rias talk with calm familiarity, Sona suddenly felt a crushing sense of being behind.
Still, she quickly found her own kindred spirits.
Karin, Tohru, and a few others were also among the handful who hadn't yet gone all the way.
As they chatted, their gazes eventually drifted toward Takumi.
"..."
The moment Takumi noticed Sona, Tohru, Karin, and the others staring straight at him, his scalp tingled.
Reading exactly what was on their minds, Takumi chose to act like he hadn't noticed a thing.
But one thing was already obvious: he was probably about to get a whole lot busier.
"Damn it. Looks like I'm going to have to adjust my schedule again."
Muttering that under his breath, Takumi opened a communication spell with Serafall.
The moment her delicate face appeared in midair, Takumi immediately said, "I need to talk to Serafall for a bit. I'm heading outside first."
With that, he quickly walked out.
Serafall, who had only just connected to him, didn't even have time to react.
By the time she came to her senses, Takumi was already outside.
"I saw little Sona over there. Takumi-kun, are you having some kind of party? And you didn't invite me~~"
Planting both hands on her hips, Serafall puffed out her lips in a way that was ridiculously cute.
Takumi waved both hands at once. "No, not really. Sona and the others just came over to hang out."
Hearing that, Serafall immediately looked impressed.
"So that means your house is normally this crowded too. Among all the demons I know, you're the one who knows how to enjoy life the most. Can you even handle it?"
Faced with that concerned follow-up, Takumi rolled his eyes on the spot.
"I can! I handle it just fine!! I'd still be fine even if you joined too!"
"Eek~ You're my little sister's fiancé, and yet you're flirting with me, her big sister. That's just too much~"
Serafall put on an exaggeratedly girlish voice, making Takumi break out in goosebumps.
At this point, Takumi had a mountain of things he wanted to say, because that wasn't at all how Serafall had talked before.
Seeing the utterly speechless look on his face, Serafall dropped the sugary act.
"Haha~ All right, enough playing around. So, Takumi-kun, did you contact me because of the Holy Sword incident, or did you just miss your big sister and want to chat?"
Resting her chin on her hand, Serafall tossed him a flirtatious wink.
Takumi chose to ignore it completely and shook his head. "Neither. I'll handle the Holy Sword matter myself. I don't need you stepping in. What I need right now is information on the current Lucifer Maou. I'm planning to head to the Underworld and kill him so there won't be future trouble."
Hearing that, Serafall froze for more than ten seconds before finally recovering.
"You want to kill Rizevim!? That guy's stronger than I am. If we start fighting him recklessly, the situation's going to get ugly fast. My current plan has been to gradually eat away at his forces. If we go straight to war, it'll be too easy for him to retaliate."
No longer joking around, Serafall laid out the current situation with complete seriousness.
Even though her side currently held a slight advantage, she still didn't have absolute confidence she could take him down cleanly.
It was like the struggle between two superpowers. Full-scale war usually didn't break out right away. Instead, both sides would pit smaller factions against each other, gradually eroding the other side bit by bit.
"I can wipe him out in one go. I just need to be able to find him. And as for the demons under him, I don't want to let a single one of them go. Those bastards have gotten on my nerves."
Takumi laid out his thoughts plainly. The firmness in his tone made Serafall's brows knit tightly.
She could already tell what had happened. It was probably one of Rizevim's subordinates who had provoked Takumi.
Someone as young as Takumi, yet already strong enough to stand alongside her, was never going to just swallow that kind of insult.
If it were her, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance she'd lose her temper too.
Should she preserve the broader balance... or go crazy with Takumi for once?
The scales in Serafall's heart quickly tipped toward the latter.
To hell with balance. She was sick to death of all this political back-and-forth anyway. At times like these, the most satisfying thing really was the old-fashioned way—slam headfirst into the enemy and crush them outright!!!
Besides, her side was already tied to Takumi's.
She was more than willing to go all in with him. At worst, the world would just go back to the old era of chaos and open warfare. It wasn't like she didn't have the guts for that.
Suppressing the excitement welling up inside her, Serafall calmly asked, "How confident are you?"
"Ten out of ten. I'm completely certain."
Takumi's calm, confident reply traveled through the communication spell and into Serafall's ears.
Even though Serafall couldn't understand why he was so certain, she was still willing to gamble on him.
"All right! I'm in!
But if we're going to do this, then we need at least a reasonably thorough plan. Storming straight into the enemy's stronghold and starting a full-scale war would be way too reckless.
We need to find a chance to lure him out under the pretense of 'negotiations.'
Then, during the talks, we take the opportunity to finish him off in one shot!"
Serafall's mind spun at high speed, and she immediately came up with the perfect excuse.
"This Holy Sword incident concerns Heaven, the Fallen Angels, and the demons. It's the perfect reason."
Watching Serafall get more and more worked up, Takumi silently gave her a thumbs up.
This familiar sort of scheme really was much more thorough than him just barging in headfirst.
Wasn't this just a classic Hongmen Banquet?
But what made it even better than a Hongmen Banquet was that the other side would have no way of suspecting what they were actually planning.
"Since we're using that as the excuse, I'll help you along on my end. The Holy Sword matter ties directly into the plans of the Fallen Angel executive Kokabiel. He's the perfect excuse, and it'll keep Rizevim from growing suspicious. Once I'm done dealing with my side of things, I'll contact you right away."
"Mm, all right. I'll wait for your good news."
Serafall nodded, then ended the communication with Takumi.
Since they were really going to make a move like this, she needed to prepare thoroughly on her side.
What if the plan failed? What if it succeeded? What happened after that? She needed to account for all of it.
Serafall had to make sure the overall direction of events stayed as much under her control as possible.
"Takumi-kun just smacks his forehead and comes up with an idea, but I'm the one who'll be swamped with the aftermath. Still, his followers are absolutely trustworthy. A lot of things can be handed off to them."
Muttering to herself, Serafall quickly began forming several detailed strategies in her mind.
...
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