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Although they were on the student street, given that children nowadays were no longer of the era when holding hands would make them blush for half a day, coupled with the increasing severity of aging and declining birth rates in Japanese society, the presence of a love hotel near the school was not particularly strange.
In fact, because it was on the student street, the price of the rooms was considerably cheaper than in tourist areas, and the rooms were fully equipped with all amenities. A wide, soft, and bouncy mattress, warm, soft, and suggestive mood lighting, and the little umbrellas placed conspicuously in a lit cabinet in the entryway, just in case you didn't notice them.
Mhm, one could only say that certain things were about to happen.
Although Rias hadn't actively explained the reason for this yet, given Hanakain Reiji's intelligence and the strange attitude she had displayed both before and after, he could guess the truth with a high degree of accuracy even if Rias didn't say it.
The perspective shifts to the hotel interior. The two had booked a large double room.
Inside the room, under the bedside lamp, the red-haired girl sat on the edge of the bed, her legs dangling in mid-air from the knees down to her toes, gently swinging back and forth, occasionally brushing the floor with a slight sound.
"Um... Reiji, do you want to take a shower first... or something?"
Perhaps influenced by the lighting and atmosphere of the room, Rias hunched her shoulders, lowered her head, and buried her face low, her voice barely a whisper. It was hard to imagine this was the same person who had just boldly grabbed Hanakain Reiji and publicly fled the school gate.
"No rush. I didn't sweat much today." The young man's voice came from the coffee table by the window on the other side of the bed. As he spoke, Hanakain Reiji had just plugged in the electric kettle, which he had filled with water from the bathroom. This type of electric kettle automatically shuts off after the water boils, so no one needed to constantly watch it. Based on past experience, if he started the water before they began, it would be ready to drink by the time they finished.
After confirming the electric kettle had started heating the water, Hanakain Reiji walked around the foot of the bed and sat down next to Rias.
"So, the favor you want me to do is..."
"Mhm." An extremely soft affirmative interrupted the young man's last words. Rias blushed, raised her hand, and tucked the lock of hair falling over her forehead behind her ear with her little finger. Her legs beneath her skirt shifted slightly, rubbing against each other. She turned her body slightly and nudged the young man beside her with her shoulder, her tone somewhat petulant. "Don't say it directly! I... I'm really embarrassed about this, you idiot."
But immediately after, Rias took a deep breath, as if making a firm decision.
"But since that's the case, let's just begin." Saying this, she rose from the edge of the bed, turned 180 degrees to face Hanakain Reiji, then placed both hands on his shoulders, leaned her body forward, and bent her right leg, pressing her knee onto the bed.
But then, her movements suddenly halted.
Hanakain Reiji had reached out both hands: one wrapped around the girl's waist, and the other hooked around the curve of her left thigh.
The sudden physical contact made Rias tremble slightly.
"W-Wait... Reiji, what are you doing..."
"Hmm?" Hanakain Reiji stopped his movement and looked up in confusion. "I'm holding you up, of course. How else would you sit on top? Is something wrong? Hmm~ Could it be, Rias, that this is your first time..."
"Of course, it is!" The red-haired girl's face was completely crimson. Although she was a pure-blood Devil with virtually infinite lifespan, having stayed in the Human World for so many years, her outlook on life had gradually begun to shift toward that of a human. An eighteen-year-old girl who would graduate from high school next spring, yet was still a virgin... and hadn't even been in a relationship—in today's Japanese society, that was simply humiliating!
"Ah, no, I meant knowing about this kind of thing." Hanakain Reiji deliberately used a more roundabout phrasing.
But he still met with a strong reaction from the red-haired girl.
"I-Idiot, I certainly haven't done that either!" Although the basic biology of having a baby—including what should go where—was taught in school science classes, the detailed steps, various techniques, and guidance were outside the scope of the school curriculum. And as for learning about it herself... that would be even more impossible! As the successor head of the Gremory family, if she were caught looking at that kind of material every day, her career as a Devil noble would be instantly over.
With her rare blind spot of knowledge suddenly exposed, Rias could only clear her throat, forcefully masking her internal embarrassment. "A-Anyway, let's just take it slow. We should have plenty of time."
Plenty of time? Hanakain Reiji looked up at the wall clock in the hotel room and couldn't help but shake his head slightly internally. They had left school at three in the afternoon, and they were already approaching 3:30 p.m. If they needed to finish within an hour and a half, time was not plentiful at all.
In that case, they had to start as soon as possible... Thinking this, Hanakain Reiji guided the already intensely blushing Rias to slowly sit onto his lap, his hand gently supporting her waist.
"Then, we're going to start."
"Mhm..." Hearing the young man's voice, Rias pursed her lips shyly and nodded slightly.
However, the instant their lips were about to touch, a flash of red light suddenly appeared on the empty space in the room. It quickly formed a familiar teleportation magic circle, which bore the crest of the Gremory family at its center, as if it had a life of its own.
"Hmm?" Hanakain Reiji stopped his movements first.
At the same time, Rias realized the fluctuation of Demonic Power behind her. She turned to look and was stunned. A flicker of dismay was unavoidable in her emerald green eyes.
As the two watched, a familiar figure slowly materialized from the magic circle.
When the light of the teleportation magic circle faded, and the silver-haired maid opened her eyes, what met her gaze was the sight of the two people embracing on the bed.
"Grayfia-nee, why did you..." Rias murmured softly.
"One might say it's coincidence, or one might say it's intentional." Grayfia spoke calmly. "Last Friday when I came, I already noticed that your emotional state, Lady Rias, was very unsettled when discussing the subject of your 'engagement.' Although I did not leave behind any familiar to monitor or eavesdrop, I did keep an extra lookout, and I specifically chose to come by this evening to check in."
She came to check in and, indeed, found something amiss. The silver-haired maid sighed with a hint of resignation. "And Lady Rias, I told you: if you truly do not wish to accept the Phoenix family's engagement, you can petition Sirzechs-sama to intervene. No matter how much of a Satan Sirzechs-sama has become, he is still your older brother. There is no need to resort to this method..."
Engagement? Unwilling to accept it?
Sure enough, it's that kind of cliché drama. Hanakain Reiji raised an eyebrow with comprehension. He had already vaguely guessed this when Rias dragged him into the hotel, but he didn't expect it to be so accurate, with not a single detail missed.
"No, Grayfia-nee!" Hearing the words "this method," the girl, who had been flustered by being caught, suddenly found her courage and loudly retorted. But then, her voice immediately became small again. "I just... I just..."
"You just genuinely like him?" Grayfia's gaze passed over the girl's shoulder and fixed on Hanakain Reiji. "Hanakain Reiji... is that correct?"
"!" Like a keyword trigger, Rias's head snapped up sharply. "Grayfia-nee, you...!" She knew very well that Grayfia and Hanakain Reiji did not know each other, and this was their first time meeting, yet the maid was able to state the young man's name accurately. The answer could only be one thing.
"My deepest apologies. I looked through your diary, Lady Rias." Even though she spoke words of apology, there was not a trace of remorse in her tone. Instead, she seemed completely unperturbed, like a strict older sister calmly telling her younger sister who failed a test, "I found your report card in your school bag."
The silver-haired maid then turned back to the young man on the bed and bowed politely. "Hanakain Reiji, please release Lady Rias immediately. This is no longer a matter for a human to interfere with, if you do not wish to bring ruin upon yourself and your family."
"Oh?" Hanakain Reiji's tone lifted. However, he didn't argue with Grayfia. Instead, he looked directly at the red-haired girl in his arms, who was biting her lower lip and lowering her head.
"So, to summarize simply, Rias, you want me to steal you from your marriage, is that right?"
"...Mhm." Rias nodded, her arms wrapped around the young man's neck involuntarily tightening slightly. A touch of sadness laced her smile. "But now it seems it's a little too late..."
"Who says?" Hanakain Reiji's single sentence instantly shattered the carefully cultivated atmosphere of separation. Before the red-haired girl in his arms could react, he lifted Rias up right in front of the silver-haired maid, dropped the bed curtains, and rolled onto the bed.
"W-Wait a minute! Reiji, what are you trying to... Grayfia-nee is still... Mhm!"
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