(Thank you very much to 'Heartbroken, Heartless', 'Long Qian Yue', 'Gossip Mage', 'Yume no Shouyou', and 'dawd' for your rewards!)
Gensokyo, Scarlet Devil Mansion...
Sitting at the round table on the platform at the top of the stairs in the hall, Patchouli wore a pair of glasses and held a book in her hands. She looked like a scholar expanding her knowledge, with an indescribable air of serenity about her.
Beside Patchouli, Koakuma held a tray as she continuously watched her mistress, her face carrying a trace of helplessness.
Although Koakuma was a demon, she was not particularly powerful among demons. That was why she had become the familiar of a witch like Patchouli.
Ordinary demons could also become familiars for witches and magicians, but if witches and magicians wanted powerful demons to become their familiars, they had to pay a certain price.
After all, the ones becoming their familiars were demons, weren't they?...
However, Koakuma was relatively weak among demons. Therefore, even if she became someone else's familiar, she had no leverage to demand anything from her mistress.
Because of that, Koakuma had become Patchouli's familiar entirely of her own free will.
It was precisely because Koakuma had willingly become Patchouli's familiar from the bottom of her heart, and sincerely respected her mistress, that she noticed a detail no one else could detect.
Although Patchouli looked as if she were reading seriously, she had certainly not taken in a single word from the book in her hands.
After all, the fact that Patchouli, who had always stayed in the underground library of Scarlet Devil Mansion, was reading in the mansion's hall already proved that reading was not her true purpose.
Furthermore, ever since Remilia and Sakuya had left Scarlet Devil Mansion for Hakurei Shrine, Patchouli had not turned a