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That same day—
The sun was high, warm and bright. It was already noon.
Minato came out of his room, stretching with renewed energy.
Outnumbered or not, I'm still standing tall.
In the dining room, only Artoria and a few others were around.
They looked at Minato with expressions that were… let's say, awkward.
Especially Illyena, who had dark circles under her eyes. She blushed just from making eye contact.
Seriously? All the way till noon? That's way too long…
"Ahem!" Artoria's signature ahoge bobbed. "Master, what's for lunch?"
"Medusa should be up any minute. Let's wait a bit."
"Oh, right," Minato said thoughtfully. "You're not a Heroic Spirit anymore, so we should change how we call you."
Artoria's face flushed. She opened her mouth, hesitated, then said softly, "Lord Master…"
It had pretty much the same meaning as "Master," but saying it out loud like that felt… weirdly embarrassing.
Minato nodded. Adding "Lord" made it sound kind of nice, actually.
Then he turned to Illyena and gave her a teasing smile. "What's wrong? Didn't sleep well?"
"N-not true!"
Illyena stiffly defended herself.
Yeah, yeah, keep lying to yourself.
Minato smirked but didn't press further.
Soon enough, Medusa finally showed up and started preparing lunch for everyone.
Later that afternoon—
Minato returned to Kuoh Town.
Sakura, though reluctant, chose to stay behind with her sister.
Alice Phil volunteered to look after the two kids.
…Well, half the group agreed.
Her cooking was… dangerous. Taking care of kids? Probably fatal.
So in the end, Medusa stayed too.
Thanks to teleportation magic, traveling back and forth was easy, so it wasn't a big deal.
After a quick rest at home, Minato headed to the Occult Research Club.
Rias looked at him with narrowed eyes, clearly a little miffed.
"Minato, so you do remember where this place is."
"Haha, I may have gotten a little carried away."
He suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Rias by the wrist, and pulled her in.
"Ah!"
Rias gasped and stumbled straight into his arms.
Surrounded by his familiar scent, her eyes turned a little dreamy.
"W-what are you doing? This is a clubroom…"
That last shred of awareness made her whisper a half-hearted protest.
Minato stroked her bright crimson hair and chuckled, "Koneko and the others aren't here."
"Minato…"
She looked up, her gaze locked onto his glowing red eyes as they leaned closer.
"Mmm…"
Rias's eyes widened. It was hard to say whether she was looking at Minato or just spacing out at the ceiling.
The golden sunset bathed the messy clubroom in a warm glow.
Afterward, Rias tidied herself up and gave Minato a sharp look.
"Hmph! You call that an apology? No sincerity at all!"
"What? You looked pretty happy to me."
Minato said it with a straight face.
He was very sincere about apologizing—he just took a little extra time, that's all.
"Ugh, how did this place get so messy?"
At that moment, Koneko Toujou came back from school, frowning at the state of the clubroom.
Rias froze.
Oh crap!
She should've cleaned everything up right away!
This is all Minato's fault.
Wait—did Koneko notice anything?
Her thoughts were spinning, but Rias managed to keep a calm expression and cast a clean-up spell.
What she didn't notice was…
Koneko's face had turned slightly pink.
That scent—definitely Minato.
"Koneko, long time no see," Minato called out cheerfully. "Did you miss me?"
"Why the hell would I miss a pervy demon like you?" Koneko shot him a sharp look.
"All you ever think about is inappropriate stuff."
Rias flinched.
Koneko knows?!
Nooo! What happened to my authority as a proper master?
"You're accusing me! I didn't do anything!"
Minato lied with a perfectly straight face.
Stare.
Koneko Toujou stared at Minato. Her usually expressionless, doll-like face sharpened with intensity.
But after a long pause…
Her expression slowly shifted to one of confusion.
Did she misunderstand Minato?
Well, this was the clubroom, after all.
There's no way the president would've approved something shady.
Thinking that, Koneko gave Minato a small nod and quietly sat down to the side.
"By the way," Minato suddenly remembered something and looked at Rias. "Everything okay with the fallen angels and angels? No fights with the devils, right?"
The death of a Ten-Winged Fallen Angel was no small matter.
That kind of big-shot hadn't died in their faction for a long time.
"So, you do remember that happened."
Rias had returned to her usual calm self and replied, "No, nothing major happened, actually."
"My brother, Michael, and the Governor of the Fallen Angels had a meeting. They decided to downplay the whole thing and let it go."
"Mm." Minato nodded.
That made sense.
It was really the fallen angels' fault to begin with, and Michael clearly wanted to cover up the fact that the Lord had already died. All three sides had their reasons to keep things quiet.
Still, Minato couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
Right now, he kinda wanted a heavyweight opponent to test himself against.
"You look... disappointed?"
Rias blinked, looking at him suspiciously. "Don't do anything stupid. If the three factions go to war again, it'll be a total mess."
"I know, I know. I'm not some war junkie."
Minato laughed and sat down next to Koneko.
Seriously?
Isn't peacefully building a harem way better?
A real war would be such a pain.
Seeing that he really wasn't lying, Rias finally let out a small sigh of relief.
Her fiancé...
At some point, his strength had become completely unreadable.
Which was great—don't get her wrong.
But back in the day, she used to be the stronger one!
"...Hm?"
Suddenly, Minato's expression turned serious.
He felt another summoning.
Not from a different world, but definitely not nearby either.
He looked at Koneko. "Exactly how many of those flyers did you put out behind my back?"
Expressionless as ever, Koneko replied, "I've been handing them out nonstop since becoming a devil. It's the President's orders."
"....."