?
It was late at night.
Meanwhile, at the "No Name" Community's residence, just outside one of the seven gates in the Little Garden, the meeting hall was still brightly lit. It was the same hall where a certain carefree young man had once punched a hole in the wall, which had since received only a quick, simple repair.
The lights were still on because the higher-ups of this Community, which had lost both its name and its flag—the Black Rabbit, Izayoi Sakamaki, Asuka Kudou, the recently recovered You Kasukabe, the vampire girl Leticia, who Annie had freed from petrification that afternoon, and Russell, the Community's de facto leader—were all gathered there.
There was no doubt why they were there. They were worried about the potential consequences of Annie forcibly taking Leticia and antagonizing the "Perseus" Community, including the possibility of an armed conflict.
They were a "No Name" Community with neither a name nor a flag, at the very bottom of the Little Garden's social order, a group that could be ignored or done away with. Their opponents, on the other hand, were "Perseus," a Community with a long history and some renown throughout the Little Garden. They were part of the ruling class in the middle ranks, and the gulf between the two sides' status and strength was enormous.
But now, the other side had lost one of their people to them. On top of that, they had killed a number of their subordinates and thoroughly humiliated them during negotiations. Putting themselves in their opponents' shoes, it was only natural that Izayoi, the Black Rabbit, and the others couldn't sleep at night, worried that Perseus might come knocking at any moment and destroy them. Their fears were hardly unfounded.
Especially since that troublesome little girl still hadn't returned,