(Heartfelt thanks to '? Ji Mo Ru Yan ?', 'One Million Alpacas', 'Pokémon', 'Long Lian Qingxue', 'Yue Chen You Ye', 'Youyouzi's Lament', 'Yang Mo', 'World's End Ballad', and 'Lieyan SANAN' for their rewards!)
The sudden voice made Rias and the others freeze slightly.
Then, everyone saw him.
Ahead on the path, a young man dressed like an ordinary person—wearing a black shirt, black pants, and a white coat—was waving in their direction.
When they saw the young man, everyone except Gaspar and Rossweisse widened their eyes, their expressions changing at once.
"Teacher!" Asia and Koneko cried out in delight.
"Lord Noah?" Revelle covered her little mouth, joy appearing in her eyes as well.
Rias, Akeno, Irina, Xenovia, Yuuto, and the others were similarly surprised and delighted.
Only Gaspar and Rossweisse merely looked at Noah with surprise.
Then, the entire group ran toward Noah.
"Teacher!" Asia happily hugged one of Noah's arms.
"You're back?"
"Teacher." Koneko's expression remained as emotionless as ever, but her voice was slightly more spirited than usual.
"Welcome back."
"You finally came back." Rias led the rest of her peerage over to Noah.
"When did you return?"
"I only got back to the Gremory household yesterday. I stayed there for the night, then asked Sirzechs to open a teleportation magic circle this morning so I could return to the Occult Research Club's clubroom." Noah first rubbed Asia and Koneko's heads respectively before looking at Rias.
"After not seeing you for a month, it looks like you've had a much harder time than I imagined."
As he said that, Noah also noticed Gaspar and Rossweisse and spoke curiously.
"And it seems there are some unfamiliar faces as well?"
"Let me introduce them to you, Teacher." Rias suddenly smiled, turning sideways to point at Gaspar and Rossweisse.
"Both of