Beside the fountain, Issei's body still lay there.
But neither Ren, nor Fou, nor Raynare remained.
Suddenly, a blood-red magic circle appeared on the ground.
Light flared — and several figures emerged from the array.
If Ren had been there, he'd instantly recognize the Occult Research Club from Kuoh Academy.
Even Koneko was there!
Curled up in her arms was Kuro — a black cat.
Koneko scolded her gently.
"I told you to stay put. Why did you follow me here?"
She'd set Kuro aside before teleporting, but the cat had leapt into her arms as the spell activated.
So here they were, together.
"Meow~~~"
Kuro mewed sweetly, melting Koneko's resolve.
Rias sighed, eyeing the cat curiously.
Strange... This cat gave her an odd feeling. Was it just her imagination?
Of course, Rias couldn't tell that Kuro's power was sealed. Even as it grew stronger, the seal held tight.
To everyone else, she looked like just an ordinary cat.
Maybe someone like Sirzechs could sense something... but even that would be faint.
Kuro grinned inwardly.
Shirone's still the same... You can't resist your big sister's cuddles, can you?
"So this is the place? But it looks totally normal."
Rias looked around. Not a single anomaly in sight.
The body had clearly been hidden before they arrived.
"But the coordinates definitely match..."
"Which means..."
Hearing Akeno's words, Rias frowned — and then raised her hand.
A blood-red magic circle bloomed outward, lighting up the area.
At that moment, Kuro sniffed the air.
Though her power was sealed, her senses were still sharp.
There was the smell of blood here! And… the scent of that Fou, as well as her detestable master!
So, there had been a battle here?
Though, more likely, it had been a one-sided massacre.
Kuroka was rather confident in her master.
After the light from the magic circle faded, the corpse of Issei appeared.
At that moment, Rias's expression darkened slightly.
In fact, she had her eyes on this human for a while, suspecting that he hosted a Sacred Gear.
But because she wasn't sure what level the Sacred Gear was, and wanted to observe him further, she hadn't rushed to use a devil piece to reincarnate him.
Yet, while she was still observing him… the guy had already died!
Moreover, the Sacred Gear reaction on him seemed to have vanished…
Rias felt utterly frustrated!
"President, he just died not long ago. Judging from the wound, it seems to be caused by a Light Spear… If I'm not wrong, it must've been the work of a Fallen Angel!" Akeno concluded after inspecting the scene.
"The Fallen Angels dared to act so brazenly… Akeno, go investigate this. Yuuto, Koneko, be ready to support her at any moment. Remember! This time we're up against Fallen Angels, so don't act alone!"
Rias's expression was clearly unpleasant. Fallen Angels acting recklessly in her territory was already an insult. To make it worse, the victim was someone she had her eye on—how could she not be pissed?
"Understood!"
Kiba and Koneko nodded in response. Meanwhile, Koneko continued petting the cat in her arms.
"Meow~~"
Kuroka purred comfortably, her sly eyes glancing at the corpse.
Ren wouldn't have attacked a regular human for no reason. That meant this guy must've had something special on him—probably a Sacred Gear… As for the Fallen Angel, she was probably not doing too well either.
Kuroka actually hoped Ren would take a Fallen Angel as a pet. That way, she wouldn't be the lowest in the household anymore! At least as a senior cat, she'd finally have someone to boss around!
If Ren were here, he would definitely shout, "Prophet!"
Because, sure enough, Raynare wasn't dead. In fact, just as Kuroka guessed, Ren had forced her into a pet contract.
---
"Welcome!"
"Please come again!"
With a stiff smile, Raynare stood at the store entrance, doing a job that made her want to kill someone out of frustration.
Sitting inside, Ren was fiddling with his system, visibly annoyed.
He had initially planned to check how to accumulate lottery draws with his system.
Then the system told him: as long as he could extract the world's inherent mysteries, he could accumulate draw chances.
Naturally, the first thing that came to Ren's mind was Sacred Gears. Then Devil Pieces. But after thinking further, he suspected that non-human bloodlines might also count.
So Ren decided to try exchanging bloodlines in the system. He used Raynare's Fallen Angel bloodline as a test. And then, he thought of something interesting—
—Exploiting the system's bug!
The system had mentioned that his tenfold feedback could give him ten times the power of his contracted pet's peak strength!
So if he contracted Raynare, wouldn't that mean he could get ten times her peak power?
Recycling her bloodline while contracting her—how satisfying!
Double the fun!
But in the end…
To Ren's dismay, the system evaluated Raynare's peak strength as zero. Which meant he could only gain ten times her current power.
Well then, so much for exploiting the system!
Feeling a bit helpless, Ren grabbed the Boosted Gear and returned with Raynare.
He hadn't killed her. Now that she was under contract, there wasn't much she could do.
Seeing how powerless she was without her bloodline, Ren simply pressed her into working as a store clerk.
The justification—he still had to run the shop, after all!
Just then, Raynare's greeting echoed from the entrance again.
"Welcome!"
Look! That smile on her face—see how happy she is! Clearly, she enjoys working here!
Ren, the kindhearted man, nodded in satisfaction.