The following days became very calm, with nothing noteworthy happening.
Leon and Yukino Yukinoshita's lives became very routine. By day, they went to school as students, and by night, they engaged in activities as devils—peaceful and fulfilling.
The life at school was uneventful. Although Leon and Yukino Yukinoshita going in and out together caused quite a bit of discussion and sparked numerous rumors, neither of them were the type to care about others' opinions, so they continued their school lives as usual.
In the evening, Leon would begin his arduous training, constantly honing his ability to use his Sacred Gear. Yukino Yukinoshita also gradually found her stride, no longer feeling the initial unease, and the progress of her devil work was truly gratifying.
Given the circumstances, Leon no longer asked Yukino Yukinoshita to do grassroots work like handing out flyers, but instead allowed her to begin handling devil commissions.
Every night, Yukino Yukinoshita would sense the summon of a petitioner within the magic circle, using the circle to teleport to the petitioner's side and help them achieve their wishes.
Initially, this work didn't go smoothly. Yukino Yukinoshita's interpersonal skills were, after all, a fatal flaw, and she possessed a blunt, venomous-tongue personality. Sending her to interact with people who had activated a devil summoning due to their own desires naturally led to less than desirable outcomes.
If the desires were merely sparse and ordinary, it would have been fine, but human desire is boundless. Some desires were so ugly they disgusted even a devil. Facing such people, how could someone of Yukino Yukinoshita's nature tolerate it?
Thus, Yukino Yukinoshita's devil work was genuinely difficult to start, and she had even, much to Leon's amusement, struck out at a summoner once.
Fortunately, Leon himself wasn't a devil in the traditional sense, and it wasn't unheard of for him to disagree with a summoner in the past. Some summoners indeed possessed impossibly ugly desires. The way he dealt with those people was far more severe than Yukino Yukinoshita's actions; "humane destruction" was putting it lightly.
Therefore, he had absolutely no intention of blaming Yukino Yukinoshita; instead, he encouraged her, telling her not to take such things to heart.
"Don't feel burdened. We are devils, after all, and we are aiming to collect the souls of the summoners. You just need to follow your heart and do what you think is right. Ignore everything else."
Leon's statement made Yukino Yukinoshita begin to feel that becoming a devil wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Of course, this approach by the master and servant led to poor performance in their devil-related metrics. This might affect the evaluation of the higher-ups on the devil side, thereby influencing their future promotions.
But neither Yukino Yukinoshita nor even Leon seemed to care about that.
He had operated with this style since before, and didn't he still successfully become a High-Class Devil?
Devil work and performance were certainly factors influencing promotion, but they weren't the only ones. As long as they were outstanding in other areas, they would ultimately succeed in being promoted.
Besides, Leon and Yukino Yukinoshita weren't completely without performance; they could complete some normal commissions quite successfully.
For example, Yukino Yukinoshita was recently summoned by a Sobu High female student. Her wish was simple: she wanted Yukino Yukinoshita to teach her how to make cookies, which she intended to use to thank someone who had helped her in the past.
"A Sobu High female student?" Leon asked thoughtfully. "What kind of person is she?"
"...A very flashy girl," Yukino Yukinoshita was silent for a moment before giving her assessment. "And very annoying. She has a timid personality and wants to give up as soon as things go wrong. It's unpleasant to watch."
However, Yukino Yukinoshita didn't dislike the person.
Because the person didn't hold a grudge even when criticized by her, and instead said she liked Yukino's ability to express her thoughts candidly.
She said she could never do such a thing herself, always paying excessive attention to others' feelings and overly focusing on the atmosphere.
Therefore, she said she was a little envious of Yukino Yukinoshita.
Remembering the other party's eyes, which held admiration mixed with a hint of reverence, Yukino Yukinoshita pursed her lips.
"In short, she's an unsettling individual, but since I have been summoned and commissioned, I will help her until the end."
For this reason, Yukino Yukinoshita had been busy with this inconspicuous commission recently, even turning down many other, more important ones.
Seeing this, Leon did not stop her; instead, he said with a smile.
"Be sure to get along well with her~~~"
Of course, during their free time outside of devil work, Yukino Yukinoshita had also been reading and hadn't stopped pondering her own Sacred Gear.
Her talent was truly impressive. In less than a month, she was already able to control the power of the Sacred Gear. Although it couldn't be called operating it freely, it was definitely obediently at her command.
If nothing unexpected happened, such days would continue.
At least, that's what Yukino Yukinoshita believed.
In doing so, she had completely forgotten that while she had indeed adapted to the life of a devil, she had become significantly disconnected from her human life.
For example, she had been living in Leon's mansion for a long time and hadn't returned to her own apartment in ages.
Coupled with the intensifying rumors at school, the time for the truth to come out had finally arrived...
On this particular day, Yukino Yukinoshita arrived at the Service Club activity room as usual and sat down in her spot.
The bell signaling the end of school had rung for a while now, and the Sobu High campus had become lively and boisterous, allowing constant noise to drift through the windows to Yukino Yukinoshita's ears.
Yukino Yukinoshita looked at the students laughing and playing outside the window, basking in the sunlight. The former look of exhaustion was gone from her delicate face.
"It seems I've completely gotten used to the daytime and the sun."
Yukino Yukinoshita propped up one hand to shield her forehead, looking at the clear blue sky and the dazzling sun, her eyes slightly narrowed.
"Is that guy... still not coming?"
After waiting for a while, Yukino Yukinoshita started to feel impatient.
She used to not feel bored even when staying here alone, but she didn't know when it started. If her master didn't arrive at the activity room and return to the manor with her, Yukino Yukinoshita would feel irritated.
"He's definitely busy chatting with some pretty senior student in his class again, right?"
Recalling some rumors she had accidentally heard before, Yukino Yukinoshita felt even more annoyed.
"Forget it, I'll read first."
Shaking her head and suppressing the frustration in her heart, Yukino Yukinoshita took out a book and began to flip through it.
The books she read now were mostly brought from the mansion's study room, no longer the literary works of the past.
Leon also allowed her to bring books out of the study, but only one at a time, and she was strictly forbidden from letting anyone else look at it; it was only for her personal use.
Yukino Yukinoshita never intended to show devil books to anyone else, so she wouldn't read them in the classroom but in the Service Club activity room.
Currently, she was reading a book about the Underworld. It documented the customs, practices, and the state of various territories in the Underworld, giving her a preliminary understanding of a world unknown to mortals.
"The territory of the Eligos family has been re-assigned to my name after I became a High-Class Devil. I'll take you back to see it when I have time."
Leon had once told Yukino Yukinoshita this, even saying he would bestow part of the territory upon her, making her feel particularly unreal.
Even Yukino Yukinoshita had never imagined that one day, she would be granted territory by a noble and become the lord of a piece of land, like someone in the Middle Ages.
Leon told her that granting a portion of one's territory to one's peerage was something every High-Class Devil would do, and whether it was her or future peerage members, he would treat them equally, granting them corresponding land.
Unfortunately, this conversation was too fantastical. To this day, Yukino Yukinoshita still wondered if he was joking, feeling no sense of reality about it.
Just as Yukino Yukinoshita gradually concentrated on the book in her hands, the door of the Service Club was opened.
"You're late."
Yukino Yukinoshita threw out this sentence without lifting her head, but she waited a long time without receiving the familiar reply.
Then, she heard a voice that was even more familiar, yet also sent a deeper tremor through her heart.
"Who is little Yukino waiting for? It couldn't be me, your big sister, could it?"
When this half-smiling voice reached Yukino Yukinoshita's ears, Yukino Yukinoshita froze, her expression completely stiffening.
She slowly and painstakingly lifted her head to look at the doorway of the Service Club activity room.
Standing there was a figure she absolutely did not want to see at this moment.
It was a woman in the prime of her youth, about two or three years older than Yukino Yukinoshita.
The person had a delicate face similar to Yukino Yukinoshita's, but her expression was not cold like Yukino Yukinoshita's. Instead, she gave off a rich, sunny feeling, transforming that face, which originally belonged to a winter flower, into a summer one—bright and radiant.
The person's figure was quite different from Yukino Yukinoshita's, being tall and voluptuous, filled with the mature charm similar to that of Tsubaki Shinra.
Looking at this person, Yukino Yukinoshita unconsciously clenched her hands, and with difficulty, she uttered a sound.
"Sister..."
Yes, that was her older sister.
The sister who made her live in her shadow, whom she both admired and resented.
"Long time no see, Yukino."
Yukinoshita Haruno, the eldest daughter of the Yukinoshita family, maintained her half-smiling expression throughout.
That expression made Yukino Yukinoshita's heart sink, rendering her speechless.
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