Leon really hadn't expected that after being away for only a short while, these bratty girls would be gossiping about him at home, even preparing to launch a "mutiny."
Looking at the three beautiful girls standing there with guilty expressions, Leon clicked his tongue in wonder as he walked into the living room.
"So, when the three of you get together, you actually produce this kind of chemical reaction? Should I praise your boldness, or should I punish you a little?"
Leon's words sounded like a joke, but the girls hadn't met him yesterday; they knew that with this master's mischievous personality, he definitely wouldn't mind making the joke a reality.
Thus, the three of them spoke up decisively.
"Um... Minister, have some tea first."
Asuna Yuuki took the emotional route, pouring a cup of steaming tea for Leon in an attempt to curry favor.
"We were just having a casual discussion. Even as servants, we should still have that right, shouldn't we?"
Yukino Yukinoshita took the rational route, pretending to be calm as she tried to reason with Leon.
"What we said wasn't wrong to begin with. Who told you to forget your old loves the moment you found a new flame?"
Utaha Kasumigaoka took the headstrong route, deciding to confront Leon head-on.
"Heh heh."
Leon accepted their gestures while remaining completely unmoved. He simply kept smiling, causing the three girls to subconsciously swallow hard.
"What about Shiina-san?"
Finally, Yukino Yukinoshita was the first to find the atmosphere unbearable and chose to change the subject.
"Didn't you go to make her your servant? Did you fail?"
Her ability to change the subject was certainly improving.
"I didn't succeed," Leon said, giving the girls a peevish look. "There was a bit of an accident."
Speaking of this, Leon was also somewhat caught between laughter and tears.
He had set the mood perfectly, even stirring up Mahiru Shiina's emotions by exposing her old wounds. Finally, he had even revealed his identity—his devil wings had unfurled, filling the entire space of the living room. It was fair to say that everything was ready; all that was missing was for Mahiru Shiina to agree.
In his view, given the situation at the time, there was a high probability that Mahiru Shiina would have impulsively agreed, just like Utaha Kasumigaoka had before, and naturally become his fourth servant.
That way, Leon could also verify whether his "Peerage Formation" trait, when developing a servant's potential through the medium of the Evil Pieces, could actually attract masterless Sacred Gears, turning his servant into a Sacred Gear wielder just moments before they were reincarnated as a devil.
As it turned out, he had planned everything and laid all the groundwork, yet he never imagined that Mahiru Shiina would simply faint on the spot...
Yes, the "Angel" had actually fainted in front of him for the umpteenth time.
Actually, it wasn't surprising. At the time, Mahiru Shiina's body was still very weak, and she was still running a fever. Yet Leon showed absolutely no tenderness toward the fair maiden. First, he stimulated her with the matter of changing her clothes, and then he tore open the scars in her heart, causing her already poor mood to fluctuate violently.
If that wasn't enough, Leon had unfurled his devil wings and directly revealed his non-human identity, shattering Mahiru Shiina's worldview and causing another violent tremor within her heart—her pupils were practically undergoing an earthquake.
Under all these various stimuli, combined with her existing illness, Mahiru Shiina fainted quite spectacularly, falling into Leon's arms for the second time...
At that moment, the expression on Leon's face had frozen. His mind was a chaotic mess of frustration and helplessness.
But he couldn't exactly shake a sick person awake to continue the recruitment process, could he?
Left with no choice, Leon could only carry Mahiru Shiina back to her room. He didn't even have the heart to leave a note and returned home feeling quite depressed.
"Ah... that..."
After learning the full story, the three servant girls looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously bursting into laughter.
"...Is it that funny?"
The smile on Leon's face vanished. He looked at the three girls expressionlessly, causing them to quickly stifle their laughter.
"So, does the Minister still plan to continue inviting Shiina-san?"
Asuna Yuuki asked with some curiosity.
"Forget it, let nature take its course," Leon replied, having apparently already considered this question. He shook his head and said, "It was originally just an attempt. Since an accident happened, I'll put it aside for now and deal with it later."
"Can you really bear to?" Utaha Kasumigaoka said skeptically. "That's the 'Angel' who caused a school-wide sensation and was labeled an 'Unattainable Beauty' as soon as she enrolled this year. You've already made contact with her and revealed your identity—can you really just leave her be?"
"What else? Can I really have the thick skin to go back and continue recruiting under these circumstances? Do I not care about my image anymore?" Leon rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Besides, I don't want people to mistakenly think I have some kind of 'harem collection' obsession, where I only recruit unattainable beauties."
That was the truth.
Leon really didn't have the intention of just "collecting" girls. The reason he chose Mahiru Shiina was simply because she, like Yukino and the other two, was a heroine in her own story. (T/N: I'm not buying it.)
To be a heroine in her own story meant there was a high probability of having something extraordinary about her. Even if there wasn't, Mahiru Shiina was excellent enough in her own right to barely qualify to be his servant.
If there were some "nobodies" among the unattainable beauties of Sobu High, Leon really wouldn't have considered recruiting them as servants before they showed a certain degree of potential.
It could only be said that those destined to be heroines in their own stories were bound to attract attention. Currently, the five unattainable beauties of Sobu High were all heroines in their respective stories, which was why they caught Leon's eye.
Leon only had two criteria for choosing servants.
One: they must be female. Their orientation didn't matter, as long as they weren't male, because he had absolutely no interest in male servants.
Two: they must have a certain amount of potential, allowing him to gain satisfactory feedback through the "Peerage Formation" trait so that he could quickly become stronger.
Yukino Yukinoshita, Asuna Yuuki, and Utaha Kasumigaoka were all chosen because of this. As for whether they were beautiful or had good personalities—while Leon didn't find those things irrelevant, he considered them secondary factors. As long as there was a sufficient reason, he wasn't above compromising on them.
"Do you understand now, Kasumigaoka-san?" Leon said to Utaha Kasumigaoka with a half-smile. "If I find out you're gossiping about your master behind his back and trying to incite the other servants to rebel again, I'll have to put a curse on you."
"A curse?" Utaha Kasumigaoka was stunned. "What kind of curse?"
"Don't worry, you are my lovely servant after all. I certainly couldn't give you some kind of malevolent curse." Leon's smile became even more radiant, but his words were chilling. "At most, it would be an insignificant curse, like giving you hemorrhoids for a month. That punishment is light enough, right?"
As soon as these words were spoken, not just Utaha Kasumigaoka, but even Yukino Yukinoshita and Asuna Yuuki felt their hearts tremble. The eyes they turned toward Leon were filled with horror.
"Are you a devil?!"
Utaha's face turned pale.
"Sorry, but I am a devil."
Seeing their reactions, Leon smiled quite happily.
The three girls stopped talking. They all secretly swore in their hearts never to offend this petty-minded master.
Otherwise, the physical suffering would be minor compared to the total social death.
"You are the master; we have no right to interfere in how you recruit servants." Yukino Yukinoshita remained calm, but her tone made it clear she was no longer going to try and reason with Leon. She shifted the topic as a compromise. "By the way, did Shiina-san trigger a reaction from the Evil Pieces?"
Leon curled his lip and nodded.
"The Evil Pieces did indeed react, and in more than one way."
"Rook," "Bishop," "Pawn"... Mahiru Shiina had triggered reactions from three types of pieces, proving her excellence.
However, mere excellence was not enough.
Without a special potential, no matter how excellent Mahiru Shiina was, she was still within the realm of ordinary people.
The evidence was that while all three pieces reacted, the reaction wasn't strong. He estimated that even if he recruited her, she would only have low-level potential.
If not for wanting to verify whether a servant reincarnated by his "Peerage Formation" trait would attract an unpossessed Sacred Gear, Leon wouldn't have considered recruiting this kind of servant.
If Mahiru Shiina could attract a Sacred Gear into her body, that would be a different story.
Ultimately, Leon was actually hesitating whether he should take the gamble.
If he lost the bet, he would lose an important servant slot, and the feedback he would gain from his trait in the future would be one portion less.
Even a single portion could have a major impact on his future development, so he couldn't help but hesitate.
This was also a major reason why Leon was able to so cleanly set aside the matter of recruiting Mahiru Shiina after things didn't go smoothly.
"As for Mahiru Shiina, I'll just leave it be and let nature take its course."
Leon reaffirmed this decision and looked at the group of girls.
"More importantly, you should have all finished your devil work for today, right?"
The girls nodded one after another. Even Utaha Kasumigaoka had finished distributing the flyers she was supposed to deliver.
"Is there something else to be done tonight?"
Asuna Yuuki picked up on this and asked softly.
"That's right." Leon smiled and said, "After all, our club was just established today. It's the perfect opportunity to launch our first club activity."
At Leon's words, the girls all became curious.
"What exactly are we going to do?"
As a cold and distant person, Yukino Yukinoshita was predictably the least patient and couldn't help but ask.
To this, Leon simply said:
"You should all be familiar with familiars by now, right?"
They were certainly not unfamiliar with them.
In this manor, everyone besides the three of them was a familiar.
"For a devil, familiars are quite important. They might not be useful in battle, but signing a contract with a creature you can order around at will, making them obey you and help with various chores—that is undoubtedly a very convenient thing."
Leon stood up and smiled at the girls.
"Today, I'm taking you to find your familiars."