บท 49: Hunt for stray devil

"To think there would be such a master swordsman in the school, you got keen eyes Masaru"

Baldor was walking next to Masaru, he knew Sona and Rias along with their few members have been in the school for a long time but even they did not take note of this girl.

"How did you know?" Masaru chuckled at Baldor's question,

"I didn't, I honestly only thought of trying out Kendo because I was interested after I read a bit about it. I only knew that the girl was skilled when I noticed her posture, movement of her eyes and hands. Even the swing of her sword, that refined basic swing holds countless of effort that only those who experienced it themselves can see. As for her true ability? I only knew about it the same time as you"

"You fought her without knowing the level of her ability? Heh, that is Masaru-sama for you. Well, I will have to head to the Occult Club before Rias-sama looks for me, see you tomorrow" Baldor waved at Masaru before leaving Masaru behind.

"Yeah, let's talk some more tomorrow" Masaru muttered as he starts walking to the building near the tracks, Masaru arrived in front of the Disciplinary committee office.

When Masaru entered the office he saw Ichika holding a notebook with a smile, "Welcome back Masaru-sama, there are several reports and complaints you need to review. You also have to attend the meeting with the teachers to present your plans for the school otherwise they might protest to have us close down and leave this work to the Student council, and Sona has just sent a message as well"

"Message?" Hearing Masaru's question Ichika nodded

"It says: You lost that last game of chess against me on purpose just to annoy me, haven't you? I demand a rematch. It says"

Masaru chuckled feeling his prank of Sona has been discovered faster than he realized, taking a breath of free air he smiled "Well let us proceed with the documents then. How is the distribution progress of the advertisement pamphlets in Kobe town?"

While Masaru was signing off some documents that were related to territories of the Belial Family he was in charge of as training, while correcting some minor mistakes on reports. Ichika placed a cup of warm tea on his desk before she began to report.

"We have used our Familiars to hand out the pamphlets, Shirone and Yui have already gone to their first clients"

After thinking for a moment, Masaru felt it was strange since such reports were normally done by Akeno yet she is not in today.,

"Why is it you being my assistant today? Where is Akeno?"

Ichika sighed looking at her master helplessly as this was not the first time this happened when Masaru ask a question when he realize a change much later, "You only realized that now? Akeno is having a meeting with Sona, apparently, the upcoming Parental Visits that will be taking place next month they want to plan it out ahead of schedule since the disciplinary aspect is under our jurisdiction. So Akeno wants to make sure what is expected of us on that day"

Masaru nodded as he forgot about that, it was a good thing Akeno went to deal with that since he would be bored out of his mind with meetings discussion obvious things. "Any requests from Ajuka so far?"

Ichika checked the book and shook her head "None for today"

Masaru smiled feeling quite relaxed, he finished drinking his tea while thinking that there was another day off with no need to hunt devils or ancient creatures. "Thank you for your hard work"

Ichika bowed before leaving to get another pot of tea for Masaru, Ingvild was currently sorting out a large stack of letters on her table. "Are those love letters?"

Hearing Masaru's question Ingvild nodded helplessly, "Most of them are love letters for the girls in the office, it's hard to sort them out since there are complaint letters within them"

Masaru wondered since when did they deal with complaints, normally complaints were sent to Sona and she simply tells them what is important to deal with and what's not. "Complaints?"

Ingvild looked at Masaru with a wry smile wondering if she could tell him about this since he is the primary focus. "It's complaints from the boys about you of which almost everything is related to us."

"Oh..."

When he heard what the complaints were about, not only did he not care about it but he instantly forgot about it as well. it was simply worthless to him, so he left his desk to take a seat on the couch where their relax area is at.

'Did expect it, but they sure do move fast. Since you all declared war on me, then I will ensure to make you all envy me to the point you cough up blood for me. It's not like something of this scale can hinder my life or duties anyway' Masaru thought while smiling sinisterly.

"Masaru! Rias just sent a request for us to handle a stray devil, apparently Sara, Kiba and Baldor has been sent to their clients and she does not have anyone available who can go"

Masaru who heard Everest's shout from the Reception thought 'What about that lady-boy vampire of hers? Oh yeah, almost forgot about that incident for a moment. Aiya, I really have to go spank her butt so she can fix her peerage as soon as possible'

Standing up from the couch, he stretch his neck and arms a bit before smirking

"Very well, call Jeanne and Angelica. Meet me near the entrance gate of the academy"

"Should I call Akeno, Shirone, Yui and Ingvild?"

Ichika arrived without the tea, she already placed it in a space isolation zone to keep it warm since Masaru was about to leave now. Masaru hearing Ichika's suggestion shook his head,

"No need. Stray devils sent to Rias are normally never stronger than Mid class devils, since the high class and more dangerous targets are normally sent to me. Going with everyone will simply be too overwhelming"

>\/<

"With this, we can conclude everything"

Sona sorted out the documents, their meeting was in regards to the parental visitation that they needed to ensure everything will go according to plan as they can't have the school's reputation going through the mud because of its students.

Akeno who was a bit curious about the queen of Rias who rarely speaks, she once tried to converse with the girl as a fellow Fallen Angel who reincarnated but that girl simply answered it short at the time.

"Sona, could you perhaps tell me about Sara, you see I can't ask Rias about this but as a fellow Fallen Angel I am curious about her especially because she rarely talks"

Sona who heard this stop, it was not a nice thing to talk about other's personal matters like this but she knew Akeno for a long time especially Rias so she took the chance of maybe Akeno could provide a solution on how she could help Rias deal with it. Sona began to tell Akeno the story she heard from her sister, Sara Gesualdo sister of Dulio Gesualdo.

"There is not much information about her past but from what I heard from Rias was her history was no worse than yours, she is, after all, a victim of the orphanage that was raided in the Vatican after all"

"You mean one of those children?"

Sona nodded towards Akeno's question, she could sense Akeno's anxious feelings that Sara might bear hatred towards Masaru. If that was the case then Akeno would deal with the problem here and now, she had a tendency to deal with problems to prevent her from having a sweet time with her beloved master.

"It was not Masaru's fault. Because right after he chased away the mixed-race from performing a crazy experiment Sara was discovered by a wandering devil who found her by chance, it was after a while she been with the devil he realized the fact that she was an angel hybrid.

"For the sake of his curiosity, he tested different methods to understand how an angel falls, what conditions are required for his amusement. And he did not stop at one, he even had women help him after all.

"I guess this is why she has difficulty to speak with either gender but I don't know why she feels comfortable with Rias, apparently, Rias met Sara by the time she already fell and became a fallen angel."

Tsubaki brought tea for the two girls to which they thanked for, Sona took a sip before continuing

"It might appear the story behind her is short, but the cruelty that girl suffered is something even Rias is finding it difficult to treat it other than to let time naturally cure it"

Akeno nodded feeling she could understand why the girl is quiet and cold, but towards Rias she was warm.

'Well, although I only wanted to know why she is the way she is. I will just keep this in mind for when Masaru ask but I doubt he will like to get involved in this matter' Akeno took a sip before looking at Sona,

"Thanks for telling me this Sona Kaichou"

Sona smiled helplessly, she felt powerless due to her status in the devil world that prevents her from doing what she wants. Due to that, she could only watch her friend suffer.

"Honestly I want to help Rias with her problems, each of her peerage except for Barold has a trauma, a problem that needs to be resolved soon... or she will never be able to move forward"

"I can understand your sentiment as a friend, but as a king, this is something Rias has to deal with herself since this is her trial as a King who is responsible for her peerage"

Hearing Akeno's point Sona could only nod, what Sona did not know was that Akeno spoke form Experience. Although Masaru did not deal with it proactively, he managed to resolve most of his peerage's trauma almost on his own.

"I did think at first to ask Masaru to see if he could help but--"

Akeno could only shake her head, it's not that she did not want to help. But Masaru and Rias were both heirs of families, if Masaru stepped up to help Rias. Then it will create a scandal where it will appear Rias is incompetent and needed the help of the wonder child to resolve her troubles.

"That's impossible, you see Master grew up being trained to the bone for the sake of survival, he was not given chance to be spoiled all the time he was trained to think for himself, to tackle the problems early.

"If you were to compare the manner how he grew up and Rias, although he might consider helping but with Rias's stubborn personality the two of them might break in a conflict the moment Masaru points out her mistakes. Masaru might not be perfect, but he knows what is required of him as a king. Right now, Rias need to realize that she is still to dependent on her brother"

"You really look out for your master, you are right. The two of them will fight when that happens, if one she could listen without letting her pride get to her"

Akeno who heard Sona's praise smiled bitterly.

"I am only being honest, the way the two of them live their lives are simply too different. I beleive Master would have already done something, but he keeps ignoring this problem which could only mean one thing. He believes Rias will be able to fix it"

>\/<

"So this is the place?"

The place where Masaru and the girls were was a small size forest near the town about the middle of the south side of the forest that was planned to be turned into Real Estate buildings, Masaru pulled out his phone opening Google map to see the surrounding forest how far it expands but luckily it was not.

"The heck? This map keep rotating! bah! whatever... Everest, you will go to this point and search in this area"

Masaru showed the area which was the North-Western block, he looked at Jeanne who was wearing her knight clothes and Rapier "You will be the North Eastern block over here"

Angelica was wearing black tight lightweight leather armour with her bow, "You will be the southwestern section while I will head out to the southeastern side"

[Sometimes I wonder just what has my main soul only thought of fighting instead of just leaning back and chill a bit, maybe then he would see this world amusing as I do]

"Heh, but you go mad when you taste blood"

Masaru commented with a smile while Drago rebuked him in the form of a protest

[It's an error! My program has an error since I am practically something akin an Artificial Intelligence like those books told me]

Masaru who heard modern terms coming from the mouth of this ancient dragon was really amused at this, even the thought of an "error" almost made Masaru slip over his own feet wanting to laugh.

"What books? I haven't seen any official statements about artificial intelligence yet?"

[Oh haven't you been reading books in Fanfictions? They have this long list of books about systems, I mean an Artificial Intelligence that simply powers up the Main Character like the things are cabbages sold at the super market]

Masaru did not want to comment, he was more surprised at the fact how this sword could even move to read books in the first place!

[The most amusing thing is when the readers complain about the main character getting too strong or the abilities are stupid then the Author will only say sorry it's a system error, which is why I am telling you it's a system error that I go mad. You have to fix me!!!]

"How the hell do you read in the first place?"

[Oh that? Your spellbook can support me too you know, although it only allowed me to learn how to use Telekinesis so I could control the mouse and keyboard]

This news caused Masaru to feel utterly shocked, his thoughts keep running 'This spell book simply keeps surprising me with its functions, I never thought about this before but to think it would help the sword read books, did it take pity of Drago who was left at home?'

Masaru began to search through the forest, for some reason ever since the topic of webnovels were brought to light this dragon could not keep quiet.

[But you see according to the books I read the funniest thing I found was this term people call it Beta when the MC listens to a girl they riot at it like madmen which are quite funny to watch. I mean, after my experience living with you I can only ask myself do these people even understand?]

[What does it mean to understand and agree when something is reasonable and when someone is simply a yes man? Or the fact Beta means the main character will never get to eat some meat... Honestly, I wanted to suggest them to read the novel Trial Marriage Husband: Need To Work Hard, so they could gain enlightenment and understand how relationships work]

[But... aiya... If my main soul could read the things I read, he would laugh himself close to death while thinking the world of humans is like a jack in the box... Full of surprises]

"Do you sense the stray devil?"

[Ah, although I can't sense it I do feel disturbing elements in the middle of the Forest]

Thankfully he managed to divert the Dragon's attention, as for the answer was the same as what Masaru was feeling. Right now he could not sense any living being except for mana being disturbed near the centre of the forest. But fate was not of Masaru's side.

[Where was I again? Ah yes... I rarely read the books on the site you know? I mean you get books that are complete crap but for some miracle, their defy the heavens and reach highest-ranking place with bots giving reviews at how good the book is but when you open the book and read the first few paragraphs it feels like you saw a golden door leading you into a room full of dung...]

[But for me? No don't waste my time reading the book, I rather go read the comment sections... I mean you can see how creative humans are, dishing out compliments is short like 2 words but when they start complaining it you get a short novel about everything which is much more interesting than the story itself]

Masaru who listened to this chatty dragon thought he probably went mad from being left alone in home with no one else in the house,

[But the lame complaints are nothing compared to the professionals when they begin using words from the dictionary, explaining the functions of grammar, punctuation like professors not to mention when they talk about this thing called vocabulary, I even went and given each of them an upvote to show my support to them who keep fighting the losing battle in the world of Novels written on the websites]

Masaru stopped feeling frustrated how this dragon was making the serious atmosphere so carefree that he almost dropped his guard, "You are bored aren't you?"

[What you expect me to say? I feel my screen time at your side has been too few! I mean even the invisible Yui and Koneko is more active than me!]

Masaru shook his head helplessly at this dragon who got infected by the modern society while walking deeper into the forest.

Soon explosions could be heard from a distance, from the sound of the explosion it was a fierce fight and it was not just one or two people. Masaru picked up the pace and even Drago who was chatty was quiet as it was quite strange, later during their sprint they felt like they ran through a thin transparent barrier that felt like walking through a bubble.

When they went through it they could finally sense the Stray devil being beaten up by Everest who is a bit excited. Even Angelica and Jeanne was there but the two of them did not join in the fight,

"Why are you not helping?"

Jeanne shook her head looking at the excited Everest with an envy look, she too wanted to fight but it appears this stray was not powerful enough for her.

"If we going in it will be overkill, it's a Mid Rank Devil but from the looks of it, it has the resilient of a cockroach that refuses to die"

The once silent Drago commented [Why you want the girls to jump in? Wanted to see a foursome yuri battle?]

'What the heck!? Where the hell did this come from!?'

Masaru felt like he could lose his mind with Drago today, he was not used to this dragon being so talkative and he endured listening to things that were not of interest to him but this comment hit a sore spot as this was not Masaru's intentions, he only wanted to finish the battle fast.

Luckily for him, it appears that he will not have to wait long for Everest to finish the battle, so in the meantime, he started to investigate the barrier that was placed around the area since it made him feel suspicious.

'This barrier was probably made in a rush, it did not isolate everything but only made it slightly obscure. Made from fallen angel energy? Since when did Fallen Angels hide stray devils?'

Masaru gently tapped his chin but chose to keep this information at the back of his head for later, since the mission was complete he and the girls returned to the Disciplinary office.

>\/<

"Welcome back" Akeno just began making tea when she noticed Masaru, Everest, Angelica and Jeanne just came back from the Stray Devil Hunting activity.

"Thanks, how was the meeting with Sona?" Akeno was still brewing the tea while answering,

"Everything has been planned out, we will responsible for patrolling the schoolyard at the planned sections the parents will be mostly around while doing the usual tasks"

Masaru looked at Akeno wondering why they held a meeting for something this simple, he really was on the mark as he hated having meetings when everyone already understood what they had to do. So such meetings was a waste of time, Akeno understood her master so she answered

"Because the frequency we need to monitor the areas the student council will be assisting us in this as well"

"Everest, can I leave the report for Rias to you?" Masaru yawned feeling that chatty dragon really exhausted him mentally, he placed Deadheart that very chatty sword next to his table before walking back to take a seat on the couch.

"Tired?" Ingvild asked while she took a seat next to him before he could answer she gently pulled his head onto her lap.

"Yeah, I guess I need to give that dragon sword something to do every day otherwise I will go mad at how talkative it became all of the sudden. It's similar to its personality change when I kill enemies with it, now it talks like a real otaku that experienced the world of internet for many years"

Ingvild giggled while caressing Masaru's hair gently, "Well you can't blame him. The human culture and the things they have is truly magical, even I am excited over the books and manga I could read"

Masaru smiled warmly feeling glad that the girls were enjoying themselves "Well as long as you girls are happy then that's good enough for me."

Yui just came back from her client sitting on the spot next to Masaru's other side, she gently leaned down to rest her head on Masaru's thigh "How was your first devil job?"

Yui thought about it with a refreshing smile, it was a new kind of experience for her especially after meeting such a unique client "It was quite refreshing, the client is Tio. She just moved into the town and summoned me when she desired help to carry the boxes in"

"Good work" Masaru paid her a compliment before slowly drifting into sleep on Ingvild's lap, Akeno just finished the tea seeing Masaru sleep no one woke him up, so she instead took his tea back to warm it up later when he wakes up.