Reincarnated into the Multiverse, but High School DxD

Ren gave Lavinia the hotel's address. After memorizing it, the girl used magic to teleport back to the Inner Shrine.

After Lavinia left, Ren had planned to return to the battlefield to take a look as a member of the Hero Faction. However, by the time he got back, the battlefield was already empty. Even Jaucusta's corpse had been taken away.

There was nothing displayed on the system map either. They had most likely withdrawn after realizing the mission had completely failed.

He would have made the same choice in their shoes.

With nothing else to do, Ren returned to the hotel at two in the morning.

The moment he opened the door with his keycard, an object flew through the pitch-black room in an arc.

Ren caught it and felt it over. It was a pillow.

Soon, a timid voice came from the living room sofa.

Asia's soft voice carried a trace of unease and a slight sob as she asked, "I-Is that Lord Ren?"

"It's me."

When Ren turned on the lights, he saw the girl curled up on the sofa, her eyes slightly red around the rims. She had a blanket draped over herself and was pointing what appeared to be a TV remote at him.

But the moment she saw it was Ren, Asia's expression changed. Overjoyed, she tossed aside the blanket, hurried down from the sofa, and trotted over to him, as though only being near him could make her feel safe.

"I... I followed your instructions the whole time. I didn't let anyone in!"

"Good girl."

Ren did not know what else to say, so he simply patted her little head.

The girl had probably been frightened badly by everything that had happened over the past few days.

On top of that, she had personally seen him fight those rogue exorcists. Having never traveled far from home, she had likely come to see Ren as her only source of support.

The warmth from his palm gradually relaxed Asia's body, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"Go get some sleep."

"Mm!"

With Ren there to make her feel safe, Asia, who had been curled up tensely on the sofa all this time, finally felt wave after wave of drowsiness wash over her.

She narrowed her eyes and yawned, then slowly headed toward the bedroom. But when she saw the layout inside, her little face suddenly reddened. Thinking of Ren, she seemed to make up her mind and prepared to turn back.

But Ren had already entered the bathroom.

After being busy all night and fighting several powerful opponents in succession, Ren was drenched in sweat.

Sadly, even after becoming superhuman, he could not casually circulate energy through his body like certain novel protagonists and instantly become as clean as if he had just come out of a washing machine.

He still had to bathe, sleep, and eat. None of those could be skipped.

Since it was the highest-class suite, the bathwater was kept at a constant temperature. Ren stripped naked and submerged himself completely. It felt as if every pore on his body had opened, leaving him incomparably refreshed.

After soaking for a while, Ren took out his phone and called Griselda.

Sleeping Alone Is a Little Scary

To say nothing else, Griselda answered the phone quickly enough.

"What is it, Ren?"

That familiar mature voice came through again.

"Hm? You're still awake?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment.

"Should I be asleep at this hour?"

"Oh, damn it, I almost forgot it's only just gotten dark over there!"

Ren had originally wanted to play a prank, but he had not considered the time difference.

Hearing that, Griselda was instantly speechless. He was already grown up, yet he still wanted to pull such a childish prank.

Then she remembered that she seemed to have called him late at night before. Was he trying to get back at her?

What a petty man.

"Then I'll call you again in eight hours."

"Huh?"

"Just kidding. I just got back from the Inner Shrine."

"Oh? Tell me about it."

Ren then briefly described what had happened at the Inner Shrine that night.

After he finished, Griselda was silent for a while.

"I didn't expect those fallen angels to still refuse to give up on researching Sacred Gears. Fortunately, you stopped Satanael's plot. If he had truly succeeded, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

"But this may cause the Five Great Houses to tighten their scrutiny of outsiders. Of course, you don't need to worry too much. At the very least, they'll need some time to recover their strength. Still, I advise you to leave Kyoto as soon as possible. Who knows when those extremely xenophobic devil exorcists might suddenly lose their minds."

"I know what I'm doing," Ren replied.

"As long as you do. Stay safe at all times, and get some rest for the next while."

Griselda sighed softly.

Though she did not know exactly what had happened that night, just from the few condensed sentences Ren had spoken, she could tell the situation had been exceptionally dangerous.

It suddenly made Griselda feel guilty.

After all, she had involved Ren in such a dangerous mission. One careless mistake could have doomed him beyond redemption.

Fortunately, Ren was even stronger than she had imagined. He had actually managed to deal with Satanael, a fallen angel executive. That outcome had greatly exceeded her expectations.

But Ren was a little displeased when he heard that.

"Resting is one thing, but don't you know me? The state of the world is hanging by a thread right now. There must be plenty of urgent missions that need handling. How am I supposed to sleep? If there are any extremely important missions, hurry up and assign them to me. Only people who are useless to world peace get to rest!"

Griselda: "..."

She felt that she had been far too kind to Ren.

She had always treated Ren like a younger brother, not merely as a mercenary. Yet Ren did not appreciate it at all.

At first, she had even thought she should take better care of Ren in his daily life. But now, it seemed completely unnecessary!

Still, there really were no suitable missions for Ren at the moment.

She could hardly send him to deal with weak rogue devils or rogue exorcists again, could she?

After hanging up, the freshly washed Ren decided to stay and observe the situation for a while before choosing the right time to leave.

On one hand, he wanted to see how the Five Great Houses would respond. On the other, he still had to wait for Lavinia, that blonde bombshell, to come over.

After leaving the bathroom, Ren lay down on the living room sofa.

But before long, he heard a faint rustling sound.

In the glow spilling out from the bedroom, Asia stood timidly at the doorway in plain pajamas, holding a pillow in her arms.

Her emerald eyes looked toward Ren, and her expression seemed hesitant, as though she wanted to say something but could not.

"What's wrong? Can't sleep because of the time difference?"

"N-No... I... I'm just a little scared to sleep alone."

The past few days had been more turbulent than all of Asia's previous decade-plus years combined. Not wanting to be all alone, the girl had tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.

After hearing movement from the bathroom, she had hesitated in bed for a long time before finally getting up.

Yet the words she had prepared became lodged in her throat the moment she saw Ren.

The words, I don't mind sleeping with Mr. Ren, felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, impossible to say aloud.

"If you can't sleep alone, come over here."

Ren generously patted the empty space beside him on the sofa.

Though it was called a sofa, it was no smaller than a bed. It could easily fit two or three people sleeping on it.

Ren had only said it as a joke.

But Asia, as the listener, instantly showed a hopeful expression.

With disbelief on her face, she asked, "R-Really?!"

The girl's expression was innocent and expectant, and she unconsciously tightened her grip on the pillow in her arms.

If Asia had a tail behind her, it would probably have been wagging like a rattle drum by now.

That left Ren at a loss.

But there was no taking back words once they had been spoken.

When Ren nodded, Asia quickly came over, set down her pillow, and climbed onto the sofa on all fours. Her face flushed as she said, "E-Excuse me."

Then the girl lay down on her side beside Ren and instinctively wrapped herself in the only blanket on the sofa.

Seeing how straightforward Asia was, Ren did not think much of it and simply lay back down.

When he lifted the blanket, a faint, refreshing fragrance drifted from the girl's body. Ren was not nervous at all, but Asia, who had been the one to come over, was not truly asleep either.

Only after lying down did she realize what exactly she had done.

A lone man and woman in the same room—what if Mr. Ren did something to her?

Should she gently accept his sin?!

No, no! Mr. Ren could not possibly be that kind of person!

Amid the fierce struggle in the girl's mind, drowsiness quietly crept over her before long.

And Ren did not actually do anything to Asia.

It would have been different if she had truly made the necessary preparations, but with the way she trusted him completely now, he simply could not bring himself to do such a thing.

There would be plenty of time in the future, anyway.

Nothing happened that night.

As morning arrived, warm sunlight once again spread across the island nation.

The turmoil of the previous night had not affected the world as ordinary people knew it, but Ren could sense a faint atmosphere of tension in the air.

But that had nothing to do with him, a passing mercenary.

After all, compared with that sort of thing, Ren felt that the girl in his arms was far more appealing.

When Ren woke up, he found that there was now a soft "body pillow" in his arms.

Asia was not a well-behaved sleeper. There should have been around twenty or thirty centimeters between them, but by morning, the girl had pressed herself right against Ren.

Though it had been an accident, Ren had to admit that Asia might not look like much on the outside, but she was actually quite soft.

Jeanne: Calling Me This Late?

Ten minutes later.

Asia slowly woke up.

She must have heard movement in the living room, so the girl propped herself up and sat upright.

Perhaps because her blood sugar was low after waking up, she sat on the sofa for quite a while before groggily opening her eyes.

What greeted her was not the church dormitory where she had lived for over a decade, but a luxuriously furnished presidential suite.

At a table not far away, Ren was eating while playing on his phone.

Though he had transmigrated, Ren still scrolled through his phone to pass the time whenever he had nothing to do.