19 - My First Misunderstanding

Stray devil was the title given to devils who abandoned their peerages and masters.

This crime was unforgivable in the eyes of underworld society, as a devil without a master posed a danger to all devils, which is why stray devils were hunted down.

If a stray devil was in Rias Gremory's territory on the surface, it was her and her servants' job to eliminate it.

I wasn't a servant, but since I had to follow orders until I got my first servant and officially started a peerage, I had to continue helping Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri with whatever they needed. That also included eliminating stray devils.

"Leonard-kun, this will be a good opportunity to see you in combat," said Rias with a determined look as she stared at me.

For some reason, her smile didn't give me a bad feeling.

I scratched the back of my neck, a little unsure how to respond without sounding discouraged.

"I don't have much experience with fighting, but I hope I won't disappoint you."

Yes, I came from a post-apocalyptic world where many animal species had literally become monsters due to radiation from nuclear bombs that devastated the continents.

But my Explorer class hadn't given me any combat skills, so the only way I knew how to fight was with tactics considered dirty.

My plan to defeat Raynare was just an improvisation of other similar plans I had already followed in my world.

In fact, thinking about Raynare made me wonder what had happened after I handed her over to Rias.

"Would it be a problem to ask?" I wondered, and just as I was about to raise my hand, Koneko raised her left arm just enough to be noticed.

"Yes, Koneko? Do you have a question?" Rias asked with her arms crossed.

"I may be being intrusive in asking, but, rookie, how did you defeat that Fallen Angel if you're not good at combat?" Koneko asked with those inexplicably serious eyes.

Just when I thought she was going to save me and ask what I had in mind, she asked something completely different!

Rias, Akeno, and Kiba turned their eyes in my direction, and I felt that it wouldn't be a good idea to lie while everyone was looking at me so intently.

"To tell you the truth, I used a treacherous plan to defeat her... Ever since she approached me the day before, I somehow knew that she wasn't what her mask showed.

Even so, I went to the meeting I had arranged with her because I knew she wouldn't give up on me. But instead of simply believing that I could defeat her with my Sacred Gear, I came up with a plan."

"A poison," Rias added.

I looked at her and narrowed my eyes. "So, you already knew... Tell me, how is she? Did you manage to arrest her?"

Rias nodded affirmatively. "Raynare is now in a maximum-security prison in the underworld. We're trying to negotiate some terms with her, but she's inflexible." Rias massaged her temples and continued, "The sad part is that my brother was leading an initiative to negotiate a new alliance between Fallen Angels, Devils, and Heavenly Angels, but since he learned about Raynare, he's been uncertain about it all."

"Hmm... Why are you trying to negotiate with her?" I asked with a frown.

Rias looked at me in surprise, as if I hadn't understood some part of the conversation.

"The City of Kuoh has been devil territory since the last agreement between the races. Raynare is a Fallen Angel. She shouldn't be here without first introducing herself to us." She explained in short sentences so that I could easily understand.

I took a deep breath and crossed my arms. "I know about that part. What I don't understand is why you're negotiating with her when I literally told you I knew where the devils were."

Akeno arched her eyebrows. "Wait, Buchou told us that you mentioned that, but wasn't that just a lie to make the Maous accept the deal so you could get a King Piece?"

"That's what I thought!" Rias exclaimed, slapping her hands on the table as she stood up. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment.

That's when a beautiful, noble laugh, like that of a prince, echoed through the room. I looked over at the sofa and saw Yuuto Kiba, laughing loudly as if he had heard the most hilarious thing in years.

"What's so funny...?" I asked, confused.

Kiba wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and took a deep breath as well, finally stopping his laughter.

"Didn't you realize, Leonard-senpai? The Maous already intended to give you the King Piece anyway, and knowing this, the President didn't even inform them of the terms you told her. She just said that you handed over a Fallen Angel and wanted to become a devil, so they agreed immediately."

"Is that true?!" I asked Rias, startled by how little she trusted me for not believing what I said.

Rias' face was as red as a strawberry, and she put both hands in front of her face to hide it.

"I-I w-was the first to interrogate Raynare because I was curious about the whole strange situation," Rias said, gradually calming down. "She told me she was interested in getting your Boosted Gear, so she approached him the day before with a false confession... She was so angry at you that she started spilling superficial information without me pressing her while I waited for the reinforcements sent by my brother."

"If I'm not mistaken, she said things like, 'How did that brat know who I was?' and also, 'He had never seen me before, and he was supposed to be just a normal student, but he still knew.'" Akeno put a finger on her chin and said.

"Yes, her statements confirmed my investigations about you, Leonard-kun," Rias agreed. "After all, I've also been keeping an eye on you since you arrived at Kuoh Academy... Every day after school, you used to go to the same bridge to hang out for a while before going home. You weren't wandering around town, investigating."

"There was no way you could have known about the Fallen Angels, at least not until Raynare approached you. After that, I could only assume that you sensed she was untrustworthy through her intentions, and so you prepared yourself, and that's why I also assumed that you didn't know about the location of the Fallen Angels as you claimed you did."

At that moment, I realized I had made my first mistake. At the beginning of this conversation, I thought for a moment that Rias was less intelligent than I had imagined, but she had actually thought several steps ahead of me.

Throughout the planning of my plan to hand Raynare over to Rias and earn a King Piece, I had forgotten to consider the biggest problem that reincarnated, regressors, and transmigrants faced: how to explain the almost incomprehensible amount of privileged information.

This wasn't just a problem for explaining now how I knew the locations of the other Fallen Angels, but also for the future when I would eventually need to tell them.

"So, Leonard-senpai actually knows their locations?" Koneko looked at me and asked. "But how does he know?"