Well wot's all this then? You have a fanfiction-readin' loicense?
So, you're probably asking yourselves for the reason of the delay in the update, when I had picked up a good pace already, no? Well, my classes have restarted, and more intense than before, so I'll generally be relegated to writing on weekends unless I get some sort of break or Holiday.
It's the weekend at the moment, so I'm typing right now, though I'm not sure if I'll manage to finish the chapter and upload it on the same day which I started it on.
Despite all of this, I'll still try to do my best in updating as much as I can.
With that all of the way, I would like to thank Jarod, Joshua Garrett and Michael Ifidon for their support and donations.
If you wish to support me via donation as well, you can easily do so at "Pat reon -dot- com -slash- FrancoGamerxz" or "subscribestar -dot- com -slash- francogamerxz" . Other than that, I appreciate reader feedback of all sorts, so don't be shy with the reviews and PM's!
Now, onwards to the story!
To say that there was tension in the air at the moment would be akin to saying that the ocean is a bit wet.
A massive understatement.
Issei and Lilith had been escorted into the student council room after Rias' demanding shouts, when Sona reminded her that discretion was the better part of valor, and that certain things were to be dealt with in a private setting.
This had culminated in bemused Issei sat on a stuffed armchair, his arms wrapped around the waist of Lilith, who had contented herself with plopping straight on top of his lap with a happy smile, while Sona, Rias and their respective underlings were spread out around the room.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Rias spoke up in a civil, yet cool tone of voice.
"Lilith-san, while I apologize for the tone I took when addressing you earlier, I must still respectfully demand clarification. Certain..." Here, Rias' gaze moved slightly towards Issei, before returning to Lilith "...agreements were made, and what I've witnessed of your behavior so far seems to be in contravenence of such agreements."
While Issei tilted his head curiously at that, his eyes moving towards a smiling Akeno and being met with a small shrug, Lilith rolled her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest as she spoke.
"I have not, at any moment, broken any of the terms of the currently standing agreement between our families."
Rias visibly bristled at the dismissive response, drawing herself up angrily for a response, only to be cut off by Sona's cool tone.
"Perhaps a few cold beverages would help us mantain the cool heads required for a discussion of this sort?"
Akeno preempted the likely response from the Sitri queen by taking a step forward and bowing lightly, a demure smile on her face as she spoke.
"I'll fetch us some refreshments, however I shall need some help in bringing in the amount required for the number of people present. Hyoudou-san, would you mind accompanying me and lending me your strength?"
The brunet raised an eyebrow at Akeno's words, before looking at his girlfriend. Seeing her amused look and feeling her placing her hands atop his own, giving him a mild squeeze before releasing, the brunet shrugged before effortlessly lifting her off of his lap by the waist, surprising many in the room with the ease and lack of strain involved in the act, placing her on his seat after he had removed himself from it.
Giving Sona a raised eyebrow and receiving an inscrutable look in return, Issei shrugged before following after Akeno as she left the room, softly closing the door behind himself.
"Hey Akeno..."
The black-haired fallen/devil hybrid turned towards Issei, prompting him to continue.
"Why did your club president look like she wanted to strangle my girlfriend with her bare hands?"
Rather than respond to the question, Akeno's eyes narrowed, her tone turning sharper as she spoke.
"For someone who noticed that, you seem to have left her with remarkable ease."
The brunet snorted at that, waving his hand dismissively as he responded.
"Aside from the fact that Lilith is a big girl capable of taking care of herself, I trust Souna-senpai to make sure that tempers remain reined in and for cooler heads to prevail. Plus, despite the fact that your boss seemed to be really really annoyed at her, she didn't make any move to actually physically attack my girlfriend, otherwise I'd already have taken action."
While she was somewhat mollified by the fact that he hadn't just thoughtlessly left his girlfriend behind helplessly in the middle of possibly hostile territory, Akeno's curiosity and her loyalty to her King prompted her to speak.
"Say, Issei... What do you mean by 'taking action' ?"
"Well, it depends on the way that events occur, really, but punches were very likely to make an appearance, as would kicks. Maybe throw Shitori-san's desk out the window or something."
Akeno gave the brunet an amused look, her tone light as she responded.
"I'm not quite sure Souna-san would appreciate that."
"Oh, I know. I just want to see her emote properly, rather than mantaining that constant 'stoic leader' face on."
Akeno's amusement was almost palpable at that moment, her eyes shining brightly as she responded.
"Basically, you want to tease her until she gets too frustrated to hide it?"
"Bingo."
The girl added another tally to her mental list of reasons to keep an eye on Issei, their conversation stopping as they reached a vending machine.
The mood within the student council room was very much different. While they had stayed silent for a while after Issei had left the room, as soon as Tsubaki had confirmed that she sensed Issei and Akeno to be outside listening range, Rias tore into the succubus.
"One of the stipulations for the agreement was that Kuoh's civillian populace would not be unduly inconvenienced by supernatural activity beyond the norm!"
"I am aware of that," Lilith said in a bored tone "though I still can't see why you seem like you're just a step away from ripping my throat out with your teeth."
Straightening her back, Rias managed to recover some of her composure before Sona felt herself forced to intervene again. Having managed to get her footing back, so to speak, Rias spoke up.
"Your enthralling of Hyoudou-san, a civillian, could very well be considered a breakage of the terms agreed upon by the Devil leadership in response to your faction's proposal. Just because he is not seen favorably by the individuals within our academy, does not mean that I will not do my best to protect him from the dangers of the supernatural.
"He is, after all, an inhabitant of my town."
Sona focused her gaze upon Rias, equal parts pleasantly surprised and annoyed. On one hand, Rias was willing to fight to protect Issei, despite the fact that she couldn't help but draw parallels between him and the person she detested the most, which tilted her personal opinion of the young man.
On the other hand, she spoke of Kuoh as if she were the sole individual responsible for ensuring it's orderly functioning in spite of any supernatural activity. Despite being more than just a bit annoyed about this, Sona decided to allow it to slide as nothing more than a lapse of judgement of Rias', while she turned her gaze back to the oddly amused succubus.
Lilith, for her part, saw herself barely capable of holding back the deep laugh that wished to bubble forth from her chest, though she couldn't really supress her smirk, nor the amused gleam in her eyes.
'They think that Issei is a civillian? They think that I enthralled him? Oh my my my, how amusing! They act like the owners and protectors of the town, but they don't even know they have a fox in the chicken coop!... Well, a Dragon in the chicken coop would be more correct. Still, if Ise hasn't outted himself as the true 'Final Boss' of Kuoh, then who am I to do so?'
She leaned back into her seat, crossing her legs over one another while her gaze fell onto her fingernails, her act purposefuly tailored to further aggravate the redheaded girl.
"Well, what you said would indeed constitute a breakage of the previously agreed upon terms, however..."
Lilith met Rias' gaze, her face spreading into an amused smirk, before she spoke.
"That is not the truth of the events."
Lilith relished the look of annoyance on Rias' face, finding it a fair punishment for having tried to order her and her boyfriend around earlier that day, however, before things could escalate further, Sona spoke up.
"Would you explain to us the full situation then, so that we can stop jumping to conclusions-" Sona's gaze was Rias as she said that, before it returned to Lilith "-please?"
"Well, since you said please~" the succubus said airily, holding back a snicker when Rias all but growled at her "Issei and I met at Amsterdam, before the start of the current school year. He was vacationing there, and we met completely at random.
"A... difficult individual decided to target me for my looks, but Issei saved me from him, getting beat up in the process. I stuck around him until he was alright, but then we decided to spend more time together.
"After getting to know each other better, and after a few difficult situations, we ended up getting together."
Giving her an incredulous look, Rias spoke.
"That's it? That's the story you're going to give us? No charms, mind magics or thralls?"
The purplette rolled her eyes before speaking up in a bored tone.
"Yes, that's the story I'm giving you, because that is what happened. The only charms I used on Issei were my riveting personality and stunning good looks."
Scoffing, Rias crossed her arms before responding.
"You're saying that you didn't have him under the effects of your mind magics at one moment or another?"
While most people in her position would either lie or fudge the truth, Lilith was honest and shameless with the truth.
"No, I did not, and it was not due to a lack of trying. In our first few meetings I tried to get to him, to make sure that he gave me what I wanted from him, yet he managed to knock aside my influence via raw willpower, before flipping me onto a bed and threatening me with a sharp weapon.
"I think that was about the time my interest deepened into a crush, actually."
The two Kings blinked owlishly at that, before Sona cleared her throat and spoke up, ignoring the pinkette's words, spoken in a tone much too affectionate for the situation she described.
"I... see... is there some way to confirm your words? I don't wish to cast aspersions upon your honesty or honor, but the safety of our town and it's people are the priority, you see?"
Lilith raised her eyebrow at that, pleasantly surprised at the fact that at least one of the two 'heads' of Kuoh had her priorities on point. The redhead wasn't necessarily bad, she did make mention of the safety of the town, however she displayed the tendency of hyperfocusing on things that should be secondary.
She didn't need her empathic abilities to tell her that her words were about 3/4 assertion of authority, and only 1/4 actual responsibility for the 'civillians'. Definitely not a bad person, but someone who would probably benefit from some added maturity, and/or a paradigm shift, making her someone perfect to needle and tease.
The other one, Sona Sitri, seemed to be much more level-headed and moderate, more focused on getting the full spread of the facts than in simply asserting her authority, yet not above ensuring that it was made known, as her last sentence and the redhead one's mild wince showed. Overall the easier to deal one as far as mundane matters go, yet the one that presented the highest risk of figuring out Issei's 'secret identity'.
Pushing aside her observation of the two devil heiresses, Lilith decided to finally stop needling Rias and deal with them seriously.
"Check the eyes. I'm sure you know about as well as I do that hypnosis and most other mind-based magics show in the eyes, sometimes it being the pupil constantly contracting and expanding for no reason, wavering, trembling, shaking or simply being unable to fully focus on a single thing.
"Just look at his eyes and check, that's common sense."
Sona's eyebrow twitched at the simple, yet overlooked, solution, while Rias turned her face away to hide the sheepish look that came over it. Before Lilith could comment on their reactions, Issei and Akeno's voices drifted in from the corridor.
"...And then I picked him up by the top of his pants and tossed him out an open window!"
"Ufufufufufu~, such a fun place you seem to work at, Hyoudou-san."
"Sure it is... Until you have to deal with drunken, crowbar-toting Yakuza."
"You have to deal with armed Yakuza?"
"Well yeah, but they're just an annoyance, really. Beat the crap out of them enough times and they start respecting you enough to not make trouble. Actually, that's pretty much the standard clientele of the place."
"Do you have to deal with violence often?"
"Not as often as it did when I first started, but we still get the occasional 'untrained puppy' that I have to... housebreak... every once in a while."
"Ufufufufu~, how delightful~"
"Uh, Akeno-chan... You're starting to scare me..."
The door into the student council room opened, admitting a bag-carrying Issei trying to inch away from a creepily chuckling Akeno, before Lilith's voice cut in in a tone as amused as the look she gave her boyfriend.
"Akeno-chan?"
Issei shrugged, answering as he handed out canned juices.
"We're friends, and friends are familiar with one another. In fact, she's already offered to let me feel her breasts."
Rias' spit take at that ended with a surprised Issei covered in juice, a slightly wide eyed Sona, with the rest of her peerage showing varying levels of surprise, Yuuto smiling just as placidly as ever, and Lilith visibly trying to hold back her amusement.
Issei wiped some of the juice from his eyes, a grimace on his face as spoke.
"Apple Juice. Why did it have to be apples?"
Akeno passed Issei a small towel to wipe himself with, speaking in an amused tone.
"What's your problem with apples?"
"They're an offense to the good name of all things fruit, and a disgusting abomination that must be destroyed for the good of humanity."
Issei's utterly serious response resulted in a deep silence within the Student council room, a breeze crossing past the reunited people.
"Well..." Sona said, finally having recomposed herself "we can procceed with the... examination... now, no?"
Lilith shrugged at that, before speaking up.
"Ise, could you please look into the eyes of miss Student Council President, please?"
"Why?" the brunet asked in a curious tone, before his eyes widened to the extreme. He nodded to himself as if he had reached an incontrovertible realization, smacking his fist into his hand as he spoke.
"She fell in love with me and asked for a chance to look at me from up close!"
The majority of people in the room were gobsmacked, and their faces reflected that, while Sona choked on air, and Akeno giggled into her hand, extremely amused at this.
Lilith's face changed, her mouth stretching into a grin much too large to be comfortable - especially for Sona - as she placed both hands on Issei's shoulders, her tone earnest as she spoke.
"That is absolutely correct, Issei! Kaichou-san here asked me for an opportunity to look into the depths of your eyes, all on her own. Now go and give the lady a good look at the peepers, hun!"
"Hai, hai!" the brunet said with a mock military salute before spinning on his heel towards Sona in an extremely sudden movement, his face spread into a smile that belonged in a shoujo manga with sparkles and everything surrounding him.
He took measured, graceful strides towards Sona, walking around her large desk and standing next to her. He softly spun the girl's chair until she was looking at his chest, her face still frozen in surprise, before kneeling so that their gazes were on the same level, taking her right hand between his.
His smile became even shoujo-er, a deep purple background with blooming roses materializing behind him - in the imagination of those watching - alongside the sparkles that surrounded him becoming even more proeminent.
"My Lady~" he spoke in English, causing the jaws of those watching to fall further, while Sona's face tinted a delightful shade of red, her glasses fogging up lightly "If you ever wish to look at my eyes, feel not the need to justify yourself, or ask others, but come to me directly."
One of his hands moved away from Sona's, heading towards her face in a motion that seemed to leave in on course with her cheek, as he kept talking.
"All that I ask in exchange is that I get the same privilege from you, to look at your beautiful eyes directly, with no obstacles-" he said that while reaching for her glasses. His thumb and index took hold of one of it's arms, softly and almost tenderly removing them from her face, before he approached further, leaving the two of them nose-to-nose "-and as closely and clearly as possible~"
The only reason the girl wasn't babbling something was due to the fact that her brain had shut down all non-essential functions at the moment, leaving her as little more than a blushing shell. Her brain managed a soft reboot shortly after, though it resulted in her sputtering and letting out a high-pitched keening noise at Issei.
The brunet, finally noticing Sona's state, jumped back to his feet and pointed a finger at the girl, his tone intense as he spoke.
"I have decided! Shitori Souna, one day I will come for you, to conquer your heart! Mark my words!"
He procceeded to dash towards Lilith, picking her up under his arm, and then dashing out of the student council room, his shout of "TEMPORARY RETREAT TO ASSESS SEDUCTION METHODS!" still reaching the people within.
The only person not frozen in place or utterly stupefied was Akeno, whose coughs sounded suspiciously like laughter.
"Okay, Lilith, now that we're away from them... Mind telling me what's going on?"
"You noticed." the purplette said with a knowing look, prompting Issei to shrug as he answered.
"Between the animosity they were showing you and the fact that the extra people in the room that just stood and watched placed themselves in a way that covered all of the room's possible exits, it was impossible for me not to notice something was fishy.
"So, what was that meeting about?"
"We were discussing the conditions of me being here in Kuoh, due to a deal between mother and their families."
Issei tilted his head curiously, before responding.
"So, the two of them are some sort of important rich people? Probably in government or something, and connected to the supernatural in one way or another..."
Lilith stopped at that, staring at the mumbling brunet with a single thought running within her mind.
"You don't know."
Seeing that his attention turned back to her, Lilith looked around to ensure that the two of them were alone, before whispering.
"You don't know that those people were Devils?"
Issei's eyes widened at that, before narrowing.
"I could feel some sort of vibe from Akeno, who was the one I spent the most time around, and a little bit on Souna and Tsubaki, on the few occasions I actually meet with them, but to think that they were devils..."
"How could you not notice? Our lust-based sensory abilities would highlight beings such as Devils more so than they would other supernatural beings in their majority, due to the fact that they hold some of the closest similarities to succubi in terms of charm and seduction.
"Even if you didn't figure out 'Devil', you should at least pick up 'supernatural' !"
"Lilith, I've had the majority of my sensory abilities switched off ever since I reached Kuoh. It was picking up excessive amounts of information, so now I focus on using my physical senses more. Unless someone told me or I caught them doing something Devil-y, then I would've likely gone on unaware of it."
"It's not just them being Devils that is important, there's more. I'd rather talk somewhere more private than the corridors of your school, though, so..."
"Fine, let's find a quiet place to stay at."
"Mother, I want you to meet someone..."
Mama Hyoudou could only stare in surprise at the sight of Issei with a cute, purple-haired girl with a... prodigious body standing next to Issei, her short 5'3 stature easily contrasting with Issei's own 5'9", and an open and friendly smile on her face as she bowed, before speaking up.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Hyoudou. My name is Lilith Lilim, and I am Issei's first girlfriend."
That sentence seemed to glitch Mama Hyoudou's system for an instant, a myriad of tiny versions of herself running around the inside of her head, alternatively setting off rockets in celebration and screaming in panic at the unexpected occurence.
The two walked past the frozen woman, leaving their shoes behind at the entrance hall before making their way towards Issei's room.
Issei tossed his bag onto his computer chair, hopping onto his bed, while Lilith took the time to look over everything she could, her eyes wide in interest.
"Wow... So this is your room, Ise..."
The girl took a deep sniff, a half pleased, half lecherous smile on her face as she spoke.
"Smells like your love..."
"Yeah," the brunet said mildly, an amused smile on his face as he spoke "this is my very own fortress of self-love, if you catch my drift."
The widening of her smile into a smirk meant that Lilith understood completely, her fingers running through the grooves on Issei's desk as she spoke.
"So, where do you keep all of your... Self-love manuals?"
The brunet snorted at that, lying down in a position that allowed him to keep his eyes on Lilith as he answered.
"A thing as sacred as a man's stash can only be accessed under certain provisions, or with the correctly given sacrifice."
Lilith purred out a low "Oh~" , which caused Issei's mouth to open into a smirk, as she continued.
"I'm sure we could work out a... proper offering, couldn't we?"
The fact that she spoke while unbuttoning the top two buttons of her shirt had Issei growling at her, green flashing in his irises as he pictured the things that he would shortly be doing to Lilit-
"Refreshments!"
-Until his mother bustled into his room with a tray in hand, two steaming cups of tea on it.
"I brought you kids something to take care of your thirst."
She lowered the tray in front of Lilith, allowing the girl to take one of the cups with a grateful smile, before doing the same for Issei, whose face was contorted in an attempt at conveying gratefulness, though it could only be described as a grimace, as he spoke.
"Thanks a lot, mom. Really."
Lilith chortled into her teacup at Issei's frustrated/sarcastic response, causing the boy to throw her a dirty look with no real heat in it, to which she responded by raising her cup in a salute.
"By the way, Issei" Mama Hyoudou began, before a menacing aura surrounded her, exaggerated shadows seemingly playing on her face and contorting her features despite the lack of a positional change or a change in lighting.
"Please do remember to be corteous to visitors, and not act towards them in an untoward manner."
Issei blinked in surprise at the new facet of his mother's personality, barely managing to keep his expression even despite the fact that his mouth and eyes wished to do little more than open to it's utmost limits. Shaking off his surprise, he gave his mother a small nod of understanding, prompting her expression to return to her cheery self as if nothing had happened, the shadows previously around her face vanishing.
"Very good!"
Having given her warning, Mama Hyoudou left Issei's room, the door softly clicking closed behind her. Taking a sip of the tea and humming in appreciation about just how good it was, Lilith took a little time to collect her thoughts, before speaking up.
"Your mother is an... Interesting person, Ise."
"You're telling me..." the boy mumbled lightly, taking a sip of his tea before speaking up again "I've never really seen her like this before, so it's news for me. My dad probably knows, but if it's private between those two, then I don't really want to have anything to do with it."
"She makes good tea, though."
"Oh yeah, best tea ever."
"Would you mind if I hired her to be part of our cooking staff?"
"I don't really mind if she wanted to, though I doubt she would. Anything that takes away from her ability as a homemaker to keep her son and husband fed and moving is a big no-no in her book, so I doubt you'd have much luck."
"That's too bad, really..."
The brunet shrugged at that, focusing his hearing a bit only to hear his mother's heartbeat moving around the kitchen. Assured of their privacy, he decided to go for the serious matters.
"You said something about an agreement?"
Lilith nodded at that, moving Issei's bag from his chair to the desk itself, parking herself onto the comfortable, stuffed seat and rolling herself so that she was sat across from where issei had sat up on his bed.
"Mother decided to reconnect Luxuria to the world at large, however just doing it at once would be... Unadvisable. Instead, she desived a slow integration and trust building plan between our nation and the other factions.
"She started by making a proposal to the Devil faction to allow her to include the town of Kuoh, which is currently territory of 'Gremory' and 'Sitri'-"
"Wait, don't you mean Shitori?"
The succubus shook her head at that, her fragrant hair tickling Issei's nose, before answering.
"While the redhead mantained her name, your student council president took on a pseudonym. While the students of Kuoh know her as Shitori Souna, her real name is Sona Sitri, and she's the heiress of the Sitri family of devils, just as Rias Gremory is the heiress of the Gremory family.
"As I was saying, this territory is under their purview as far as the supernatural world is aware. Mother learned of Kuoh academy, the academy run by those two families, going co-ed, so she desived a plan.
"She crafted an agreement with the four satans that allow her to set up her own academy here in Kuoh, however this one will be all-girls, to capitalize on on quite a few of Kuoh's old clients that wished to keep their daughters, nieces and such separate from boys for the duration of their education.
"The purpose of this academy is to allow the various heiresses of different groups, clans and factions to network, resulting in the increased likelihood of future alliances. The devils accepted this proposal for a few reasons.
"One, it ensured that with the heiresses of various families together in the same town, any... 'difficult' elements of the world would be daunted by the possibility of having lots of different groups baying for their blood.
"Two, the institution of this academy came with a set of operating rules for supernatural individuals, primary amongst them being to not unduly inconvenience, target or victimize civillians and individuals unaware of the supernatural world without proper reason and without going overboard.
"And three, it places various different young ladies of importance strictly withing Devil territory. For the most part, we expect the young ladies enrolling under this program to be of privileged, higher breed, with noble blood and important families.
"With these young women here, their families would have to think twice, thrice, or however many times needed before trying to act against the Devil faction. This new school will act as a social tool to connect peaceful groups, while acting as deterrents for anyone not so peaceful.
"Of course, mother thought of the possibility as well, so in order to not turn any heiress into an instant hostage, enrolment in the academy has been allowed for mundane, non-supernatural young women as well.
"This forces the actual 'target audience' of this academy to keep their identities hidden, to ensure that the regular world doesn't learn of the supernatural one, which forces them to socialize and get to know one-another in anonimity, as if they were all regular people, rather than simply working the political angle at all times.
"The only reason I had to check in with the Kuoh girls is because mother delegated this task to me as part of my training for when I eventually take up the throne, otherwise those two would have no idea about me being a member of the supernatural."
Issei crossed his arms and legs, his eyes closed as he processed this massive information dump. His brow furrowed, Issei spoke up.
"Politics are hard."
Having said everything that he had to as far as that subject went, Issei decided to focus on more important things, such as leering lecherously at his girlfriend while releasing his Tantric Energy, causing the girl's eyes to gain a certain feral glint, her pink tongue slowly and sensuously gliding along her lips in a display that had Issei primed for action.
Issei reached out for the pinkette, his hand grasping her waist before he pulled her from the chair she had been sitting on, pulling her onto his body even as he lied back down onto his bed, their thighs pressed against the other's crotch.
Issei shifted his leg lightly, causing his thigh to rub against the crotch of Lilith's panties and forcing a whimper of pleasure out of her mouth, which caused the girl to start writhing, her own thigh grinding against Issei's erect member, causing him to grit his teeth in response to the stimuli.
The two started breathing heavily, their lips a hair's breadth from one another, before the door into his room was slammed wide open, prompting the two to jump to the opposite sides of the bed, while Issei's mother carried another tray into the room.
"I made cookies for you youngsters. After all, isn't it normal for a mother to make cookies for her teenaged, in school, 'not at all ready to be a father' son, and his equally teenaged, mostly unknown girlfriend?"
Both Issei and Lilith cringed at the pointed words spoken in a completely unconvincingly oblivious tone, as if she hadn't just been trying to impress onto them all of the reasons she believed they shouldn't 'get it on' for.
"I'll just leave the tray here."
She placed it down on top of Issei's desk before leaving his room, this time leaving the door wide open as she left.
Lilith chuckled lightly at that, a tint to her cheeks as she walked up to the baked goods and took two, tossing one of them at Issei who snatched it out of the air quick is a striking snake.
"Well, we should be expecting this, shouldn't we? Not all mothers are like my own, after all."
Issei grimaced at that thought, muttering a small 'Thank god!' before munching on his cookie. Lilith took a bite of her own cookie, chewing for a bit before swallowing. She placed the rest of the cookie back into the tray and turned towards Issei again, her face all business as she spoke.
"Are you sure your mother wouldn't work for us?"
-Chapter, End!-
Okay, folks, this was a short one, but it was what I could do with how tightly packed my schedule is with college starting back up. I'll keep working to update as often as I can, but I can't really promise much more after that.
Edits: It was pointed to me that I had Lilith as a pinkette in this chapter, despite the fact that her hair is purple. I went through correcting any allusions to her hair color for the correct one.