The Peerage's Clubroom

Sobu High School, school building hallway.

Leo and Yukino Yukinoshita walked together toward the Service Club's clubroom. One walked in front, while the other followed just a step behind.

Leo was clearly in a good mood. He hummed a tune as he walked, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. Yukino, on the other hand, was the complete opposite: she looked dejected, and was even starting to question reality.

"How did I end up becoming a Devil?"

Yukino had been thinking about it the whole way, and the more she thought, the more miserable she felt.

Not only had she faced a brush with death, but the very next day she'd woken up to find herself stripped of her humanity. She'd gone from being a young lady to someone else's servant. If she hadn't seen all of this with her own eyes, Yukino would have thought she was still trapped in a nightmare and hadn't woken up yet.

The people at Sobu High had no idea how miserable Yukino felt. They merely stared in surprise at the two walking together, then began whispering and gossiping.

"Isn't that Leo Eligos, a third-year, and Yukinoshita, a second-year?"

"Why are those two walking together?"

"Could they be... dating?"

"No way."

The whispers weren't very loud, but Yukino still heard them, making her feel even more miserable.

"Ugh..."

At that moment, sunlight streamed through the window beside her and fell on Yukino, making her feel uncomfortable again.

"...Did I really become a Devil, and not a vampire?"

Yukino voiced her complaint under her breath.

"Who says vampires are the only ones who hate sunlight?" Leo replied without turning around. "Devils are creatures that are active at night and can use their powers better then. Just wait until tonight. You'll feel power welling up inside you. That's a Devil's power."

"What about you?" Yukino asked, looking at Leo, who showed no sign of discomfort in the sunlight. "Why don't you seem to mind being out during the day?"

"Because I'm used to it." Leo kept talking without turning around. "You're only like this because you've just been reincarnated as a Devil. Give it some time, and you'll adjust completely. Then you won't feel uncomfortable anymore."

"But I should warn you: Devils are still creatures that dislike light. The stronger the Light Power, the worse it is for our bodies."

"Light is poison, at least for us. Angels and Fallen Angels wield it as a weapon, so they're our natural enemies. If you ever run into one, don't fight them head-on, got it?"

Leo's words reminded Yukino of the Fallen Angel from the day before.

Back then, the other had gathered a dim light and shaped it into a spear, then run it through Yukino's body.

"Angels and Fallen Angels can both control light?"

Yukino was beginning to understand.

"That's right," Leo said calmly. "Devils use Demonic Power, while Angels and Fallen Angels use Light Power. We can control Demonic Power to create Supernatural Phenomena, while Angels and Fallen Angels can condense Light Power into different shapes to fight."

"By the way, the exorcists from the Church use Light Weapons too. They receive blessings from God, draw on the Light Power of Angels, and use the physical strength they've built up over years of training to exterminate Devils. So they're our natural enemies as well."

Yukino couldn't hold back any longer.

"Doesn't that mean everyone is a Devil's natural enemy? Do Devils have that many weaknesses?"

Devils, Angels, Fallen Angels... Those were all the supernatural beings from the Underworld Society that Yukino knew about. Yet the other two factions could both counter Devils, and even the Church, which was under the Angels, opposed them. What was that supposed to mean?

Was she surrounded by natural enemies, or surrounded by weaknesses?

Yukino had founded the Service Club with the goal of changing the world by changing people's weaknesses. Now she was being told she'd been reincarnated as a race riddled with weaknesses. How was she supposed to accept that?

Leo couldn't help but laugh.

"That's an interesting thing to say. Do you really think Devils have more weaknesses than humans?" Leo said, exasperated. "Look at humans. Get stabbed in a vital spot and you die. Get shot in a vital spot and you die. Even an accidental bump or fall could kill you, not to mention all the different illnesses and incurable diseases."

"And what about Devils? We live for a long time, rarely get sick, and are strong and healthy. Most human weapons can't kill us. We can even do what I did: if someone dies, we can save them by reincarnating them as a Devil."

"Compared to humans, Devils are only afraid of light—and even then, it has to be highly concentrated Light Power released by Angels or Fallen Angels. That's hardly any weaknesses at all."

Yukino was at a loss for words, though she still wasn't entirely convinced.

"That's only compared to humans. What about compared to Angels and Fallen Angels?"

Yukino posed a rather incisive question.

"Do you think they don't have weaknesses?" Leo smiled. "Angels generally aren't allowed to have selfish desires. If they do, they fall and lose everything they once had, so they're easily influenced by others. Only firm faith can help them remain themselves."

"Fallen Angels don't have any obvious weaknesses, but they're the least numerous of the Three Factions. They usually have to rely on Angels falling to increase their numbers, and their own rate of reproduction is slow. They're the faction closest to extinction."

"Nowadays, all Three Factions have fallen to the point where they need human help just to survive. So none of us can afford to look down on the others."

As he spoke, Leo reached out and flicked Yukino on the forehead.

"Besides, even if light is a weakness for Devils, you just have to avoid getting hit by it. If you want to overcome that weakness, work harder from now on instead of complaining here."

As they spoke, the two arrived at the Service Club's clubroom and pushed open the door.

Yukino rubbed her forehead and looked at the familiar clubroom. For some reason, her feelings grew complicated again.

Was there even any point in keeping this club?

Yukino had always carried out club activities with the aim of changing other people and the world. But now, after seeing the real world, she could no longer keep going with that mindset.

She was a Devil now, no longer human. Was there any point in helping humans and solving her classmates' problems?

Yukino wondered, feeling lost.

Leo, by contrast, strolled around the clubroom as if inspecting his own territory, nodding as he went.

"Not bad. It's not as good as Sona's Student Council Office, but it'll do as our base at Sobu High."

Leo crouched down, brought his fingers together, and began drawing on the floor.

Demonic Power flowed at his fingertips, and as he moved them, strange symbols and patterns were etched into the floor. Red lines gradually appeared beneath his hand.

"What are you doing?"

Yukino snapped out of it, drawn in by Leo's actions.

"Drawing a magic circle," Leo replied without looking up. "Once I draw a magic circle belonging to the Eligos Clan here, we'll be able to use the Demonic Power inside us to teleport over long distances and instantly reach another magic circle."

"There's one like it at my manor. The one on the flyer I gave you earlier is the same kind of thing."

"I've wanted to set one up at Sobu High for a while, but I wasn't interested in running a club before. Without a base of my own, I couldn't just do whatever I wanted."

Yukino immediately remembered the parchment Leo had given her earlier.

"That was a flyer?"

Yukino voiced a reasonable doubt.

"Don't look so surprised. It was a flyer," Leo said, glancing at her. "Devils living in the human world aren't idle all day. They all have jobs."

"Just like the legends everyone knows, a Devil's job is to be summoned by someone with a desire, make a contract with them, and fulfill their wish in exchange for appropriate payment."

"Sometimes it's money, sometimes it's an item, and sometimes we take their life. That's the work Devils do in the human world. It's not so different from what your Service Club does, except the scope expands from the school to the territory assigned to you."

"Once you've adjusted to your new identity and abilities, you'll have to start doing this work as a Devil of the Eligos Peerage."

Magic circles existed for that very purpose.

Nowadays, almost nobody believed in Devils or followed ancient texts to draw magic circles and conduct strange rituals to summon them. So, to make it easier to do their work, modern Devils drew magic circles on portable parchment and handed them out as flyers.

If a human who came into contact with a flyer developed a strong desire, the magic circle on it would activate automatically.

Then Leo and Yukino could use the magic circle here or the one at the manor to teleport directly to that person.

There was something else, too...

"If we open the magic circle to outsiders, other Devils will be able to use their own magic circles to teleport here." Leo concentrated on drawing the magic circle as he spoke to Yukino. "In the next couple of days, another High-Class Devil—the one who's always represented the Underworld in providing for me and coordinating with me—will come by."

"I've just been promoted to High-Class Devil and recruited my first peerage member. They'd come to see for themselves, one way or another."

"Be ready."

With that, Leo finally finished drawing the magic circle.

It was a standard circular array, entirely red, about six or seven meters in diameter, taking up a large portion of the clubroom floor.

"Oh, right. Do you want to keep the Service Club, or give it a new name?"

Leo dusted off his hands and smiled at Yukino.

"From now on, this will be the clubroom for the entire Eligos Peerage."