Rias, along with the rest, had watched the entire battle closely.
Even though Daniel hadn't used many of his cards and had focused mainly on testing his physical strength, she was quite pleased with his performance.
Quick adaptation, sharp instincts, and a tactical mind—Rias nodded to herself; he truly was talented. No wonder he had managed to survive so many dangers even before being reincarnated as a devil.
Rias smiled in satisfaction as Daniel walked back toward them, muttering something under his breath.
Koneko immediately stepped forward, scanning him from head to toe.
Akeno let out a playful giggle at the sight.
"Ara, is little Koneko-chan worried?" she teased with a mischievous smile.
Koneko huffed and stepped back.
Rias also approached, asking Daniel about the strange logic behind his 'headbutt' strategy against the stray devil.
Meanwhile, Issei watched from the side, looking somewhat lost.
He couldn't help but compare himself to Daniel.
They had both been reincarnated on the same day and both possessed Sacred Gears, yet Daniel seemed to be the only one progressing—fighting fallen angels and stray devils naturally, battles Issei couldn't yet handle.
On top of that, everyone seemed so close to Daniel…
Issei shook his head, driving away the melancholy. Determination filled his eyes as he repeated to himself, "I'll be the Harem King—I just have to work harder."
With renewed resolve, he joined the group just as Rias summoned a magic circle and cast a destruction spell on the stray devils' corpses.
"Well, that's all for today. Let's return to the club. Akeno?"
"Understood, Buchou," Akeno replied, summoning her own magic circle to teleport.
Everyone gathered a bit closer, and soon a red light illuminated the night, leaving the ruins in complete silence once again.
---
•••
Time slipped by like sand between their fingers, and before anyone realized it, four days had already passed since Rias's "practical lesson."
Daniel wasn't satisfied—he still had questions and plenty of things he wanted to test. That was why he asked Rias for permission to hunt stray devils whenever they appeared.
Rias hesitated. Normally, they acted as a group, and letting him go alone felt irresponsible.
But Daniel insisted. He wanted real combat experience.
He was tired of ending up stabbed and wanted to grow stronger, to understand his limits—without risking his neck unnecessarily.
He had noticed that stray devils were weaker than him and wanted to use them as "test subjects."
He wasn't a battle maniac nor did he take pleasure in violence.
When he explained all this to Rias, he only received a puzzled look as she turned toward Akeno.
"So… you want to 'bully' weaker enemies?" Rias asked, raising an eyebrow toward Akeno, who was already walking toward Daniel with a playful smile.
"Fufufu~ I didn't think you had those kinds of hobbies too, Kouhai-kun," Akeno whispered near his ear. "But don't worry—I don't discriminate between the weak and the strong, you know?"
Daniel shivered, trying desperately to explain the misunderstanding. He wasn't sadistic—he simply wanted to test things out scientifically, to measure his abilities.
After some persistence, Rias finally gave in and allowed it—on one condition: he would never go alone.
Thus, over the next four days, Daniel hunted stray devils alongside Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba, taking turns as his companions.
Rias, seeing how her territory was becoming increasingly peaceful, concluded that Daniel's idea had been an excellent one.
Thanks to his summoning abilities, a 1-on-1 encounter could quickly turn into a full-blown gang fight where the stray had no chance of escape.
"Maybe I should let him go on his own once he gets more used to it," she thought to herself.
---
The sunset cast a faint glow through the treetops as the day slowly gave way to night.
Deep in the forest, heavy footsteps echoed—thudding, desperate sounds revealing the urgency of whoever was running.
Soon, a massive figure burst out from between the trees.
Its body bled profusely, leaving a scarlet trail as it struggled to flee. Anxious, the creature—a goat-headed monstrosity—looked back over its shoulder to see if it was still being followed.
Seeing nothing, it pushed itself to run faster. But then, a calm voice rang through the air:
"Trap Hole."
The creature's feet suddenly sank into the ground. Panic spread across its face as its body was pulled downward, as if swallowed by a bog. Desperately, it flailed, trying to grab onto a tree, but before it could, a metallic spear pierced through its side, drawing out a loud, agonized scream.
Hovering above, a young man with gray eyes smiled, his large wings unfurled behind him.
Daniel felt pleased; saying the card names out loud when activating them was oddly fun.
"Isn't that the essence of dueling?" he thought.
Telling your opponent which card you activated, even explaining its effect. Even if his enemies couldn't understand him, it still looked cool—just like the protagonist of that manga Morisawa had once recommended.
A soft voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Ara ara… Kouhai-kun looks so cute when he smiles," Akeno said, floating closer with a teasing grin. "Fufufu~ Are you enjoying watching it scream?"
Daniel stopped smiling. Akeno's jokes about sadism never seemed to end—and the screaming stray devil certainly didn't help his case.
"That's not why I was smiling, Akeno-senpai."
"Eh? Why not? Don't deny your tastes, Kouhai-kun. Accept them~ You'll feel so, so much better," she whispered in his ear.
Daniel shuddered as her breath brushed against his skin. Then he slowly descended, thinking to himself, "Why won't that stupid goat devil just die already?"
Akeno followed, smiling playfully. Teasing him was entertaining. He wasn't exactly stoic—Akeno could tell he simply pretended to be calm.
She wanted to see just how long that composure would last.
They both stopped near the goat devil, who was still being repeatedly stabbed by the Ancient Gear Knight.
"He's got quite the vitality, doesn't he? Are you sure you're not torturing him?"
This time, Akeno didn't sound teasing; she seemed genuinely puzzled.
"I didn't think he'd last this long—he looked weak," Daniel said, shrugging and stepping a bit farther away from the scene.
Akeno shook her head with a smirk and began electrocuting the goat devil.
"If we want to go home soon, I might as well help. Besides, it's not easy finding one this sturdy~" she said between soft laughs.
Daniel just nodded and walked a little farther away.
---
Healing quickly is an advantage in most cases—but when you were caught between a sadistic woman and a teenager with a scientist complex, it was the worst curse imaginable.
Daniel was genuinely amazed; at least ten minutes had passed—maybe more—and the goat devil was still alive.
"You didn't lower the voltage just to make it suffer longer, right?"
"Believe me, Kouhai-kun, I didn't," Akeno replied. She wasn't laughing anymore—she even sounded tired.
Daniel grimaced.
"Let me try something," he said, channeling more gray energy into Trap Hole.
That had been one of his discoveries during these hunts: the power of spell and trap cards depended on how much duel energy—or gray energy—he poured into them. The longer they remained active, the more energy they drained, just like the act of summoning itself.
The goat devil began sinking deeper. It flailed helplessly, trying to grab something, but Akeno's magic had numbed its body, and the Ancient Gear Knight kept stabbing relentlessly. Still, the process was slow. They needed a push.
Daniel spread his wings and took to the air. He then coated his body in devil energy to strengthen himself.
That was another thing he'd learned during his hunts with Koneko. Unlike her, Daniel didn't possess the [Rook]'s physical boost passively. If he wanted to increase his strength or defense, he had to rely on his own devil energy.
He suspected that was due to interference from the system on the day he was reincarnated.
High above, Daniel folded his wings and dove down like a missile. With a thunderous crash, he slammed into the goat devil, driving it deeper into the earth.
Then, rising a few meters back into the air, he canceled the energy flow, and the trap vanished.