Even though Leo hadn't revealed that he possessed Zenith Tempest, his recent growth was already unbelievable in Sona and Shinra Tsubaki's eyes.
"You might actually be stronger than me now," Sona said quietly, her expression a mix of surprise and thoughtfulness.
In the past, Leo had always been weaker than her. After all, half of his bloodline was human, while Sona was a pureblood devil. Their difference in demonic power had been clear from birth, and Sona had always held the upper hand.
Not to mention, Leo had only recently ascended to High-Class Devil, while Sona had already held that rank long before coming to the human world. It should've been impossible for him to surpass her so soon—yet here he was, erasing that long-standing gap through a single servant's feedback.
If this was how strong he'd become with just one servant, how powerful would he be once he gathered them all?
"Are you trying to get me to let my guard down?" Leo teased with a wry smile. "You're Sona. Just because someone's stronger doesn't mean they can beat you."
He'd known her for years—he understood her abilities better than anyone.
Sona's raw power wasn't particularly high for a High-Class Devil. Even among the young devils of her generation, she wasn't in the top ranks. But her true strength lay elsewhere—in strategy and intellect.
She was a tactician through and through, someone who could read the board ten moves ahead. With her meticulous planning, she'd turned countless fights around, making fools of those who underestimated her.
Once, she'd even been engaged, though she'd had no intention of following through. Publicly, she'd declared that she'd only marry someone stronger than herself. Then she challenged her fiancé to a chess match: if she won, the engagement would be annulled unconditionally. If she lost, she'd marry him immediately, dowry and all. She won handily, crushing his pride so thoroughly that he went into seclusion—and that fiancé had actually been stronger than her.
In the future Leo knew of, she would go on to challenge her childhood friend, Rias, in a full-scale Rating Game—one where both sides deployed their entire groups. On paper, Sona's peerage was far weaker than the Gremory group, yet through pure strategy, she pushed them into a bitter struggle. Her performance had been so impressive that even the devils of the Underworld praised her, saying she was more suited to being a King than the Gremory princess herself.
Leo remembered that among the new generation of devils—those who would later take part in major incidents—most of them were blessed with absurdly overpowered talents. Some had Longinus possessors as servants; others gained incredible power through unique means. Only Sona's Sitri peerage consisted mostly of ordinary humans with little talent or divine blessing. She barely had one or two Sacred Gear users. Yet she still earned the title of "one of the Rookies Four."
Because of that, even the prodigious Gremory peerage viewed the Sitri group as a serious threat. They had fought gods and Maou before, but the one peerage they truly dreaded facing again was Sona's. She had outplayed them too many times to count.
So when Sona said Leo had surpassed her, he didn't feel proud—he felt slightly annoyed.
"You've already got plenty of servants, don't you? I've only just recruited my first one."
If Leo remembered correctly, Sona already had six.
"Recently, I found another promising talent at the academy," Sona said with a small smile. "If I'm not mistaken, he's a Sacred Gear possessor—possibly a rare one. I plan to observe him for a while, then bring him into my peerage. You should come take a look when you have time."
"I'll pass," Leo said, shaking his head. "It's not that I'm uninterested, but Yukino just reincarnated as a devil. I still have a lot to teach her before I start running around looking for others."
"That's fair," Sona agreed. "Sobu High seems to have quite a few talented students aside from Yukino. You might find more potential recruits there if you keep your eyes open."
"I plan to."
Leo smiled back, and they moved on to another topic—yesterday's incident with the fallen angel.
Leo had completely obliterated his opponent, which was... a bit of a problem.
But Leo's stance on the matter was firm.
"If the fallen angels had done their homework, they'd know Yukino was under my protection. Even the Church was warned. But some low-level fallen still dared to attack her. If he got erased for that, he has no one to blame but himself."
After all, the fallen had struck first. Leo had merely retaliated.
"Aren't you worried this might disrupt the balance and trigger a large-scale conflict between devils and fallen angels?" Sona asked.
Leo waved the concern off.
"The devils aren't the only ones tired of war. The fallen can't afford it either. We're not looking to break the peace—and neither are they. They were the ones in the wrong, and I doubt their Governor-General would want things to escalate over one foolish subordinate." He gave a dry chuckle. "Besides, that fallen was an idiot. A Low-Class one at that. Picking a fight with a High-Class Devil on his own turf? He was asking for it."
"If I hadn't killed him, the Church would've."
Sona eventually nodded in agreement.
It really wasn't a big deal. The fallen angel in question wasn't important—just a low-level fool acting without orders. No one would risk provoking a High-Class Devil over something so trivial.
And if anyone did want revenge, they'd have to consider the price first.
In fact, once she wrote up her report and sent it to the Underworld, Sona was sure Leo would gain even more attention—and more protection.
After all, one servant had already boosted him from a newly promoted High-Class Devil to a six-winged one, his strength now rivaling the upper tier of their class. With more servants, how far could he go?
Even if not every servant gave that much of a boost, stacking those gains would still push him to at least Ultimate-Class—and possibly even Maou-Class.
Combined with the fact that one of his servants was already a Longinus possessor, it was impossible for the Underworld to ignore him.
If the fallen angels tried to cause trouble now, they'd have to get past the Maou first.
So Sona's warning had been out of prudence, not real worry. After a brief reminder, she dropped the subject.
"I've gotten all the answers I came for. We should get going."
Sona glanced at the time, then rose from her seat.
"Not staying the night?" Leo asked, standing as well with a teasing grin.
"I have class tomorrow," Sona replied, adjusting her glasses. "Once you've settled things here, let's have our servants meet each other. They should get acquainted first—then we can talk about overnight visits."
"Fair enough," Leo said with a shrug. He hadn't really expected her to stay anyway. "Give my regards to the red-haired Princess of Destruction."
"I will." Sona smiled faintly at the mention of her friend. "Rias has been wanting to invite you for tea, actually. I'll introduce you two next time."
Tsubaki bowed gracefully. "We'll take our leave now, Leo-sama. Yukinoshita-san."
"See you next time," Yukino said, returning the gesture—her tone much softer than when they'd first met.
It seemed she'd warmed up to Sona and Tsubaki a little. Sona's calm, composed demeanor appealed to her, and Tsubaki's polite kindness had left a good impression.
Together, Leo and Yukino escorted them to the basement.
"Goodbye, Leo."
"Goodbye, Sona."
"Goodbye, Yukinoshita."
"See you, senpai."
After exchanging farewells, Sona and Tsubaki stepped into the magic circle. A crimson glow rose around them, and their figures slowly faded until the light itself disappeared.
"Are they really devils?" Yukino murmured as she watched the fading glow. "They don't look like it at all."
"What, do you think devils have to have horns and fangs to count?" Leo asked, giving her a sidelong glance. "You're a devil too now. Do you think you look like one?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned toward the stairs.
"Come on. Time to hit the books again. You'll need to learn how to be a proper devil from now on."
Silently, Yukino followed him up from the basement, her footsteps echoing faintly as the manor returned to quiet once more.
====
Note: New novel from one of my favorite authors! This is a translation — you can find the original title (raw name) in the pinned comment by me. Currently, there are only 24 chapters available, which you can read for free on my Patreon: Patreon.com/NiaXD
P.S. Goal: 200 powerstones for an extra chapter!
====