*Tetsuya*

Yuko flew over to the strange young man and hugged him. "Nori! I missed you!"

"Yuko!" he said, grinning.

"I did too, Yuko!"

He dropped referring to himself by name?

Serra gasped. "Wait, you're Nori? Here I thought you were some relative of his."

Nori chuckled. "Yeah, Nori is Nori."

Or maybe not...

Serra narrowed his eyes at him. "Took me years to build muscle and you did it in weeks..."

"He was always wearing those loose robes, though," I said.

"True, Nori might've always been ripped underneath them."

Osamu sighed. "You dolts are wondering about that at this time?"

"What about it? Nori has taken down all of them," I said.

Osamu scanned the skies as the flames died off. They hadn't even left charred remains behind like was usually the case.

"I always knew that you were powerful, child," Osamu whispered.

Nori glared at him. "Nori isn't your weapon, nor will I ever be. Nori's only helping because I hate demons," Nori said.

"Seems he has to work on how he refers to himself," Azami said, chuckling.

Nori's face flushed. "Xime, Anis, and my auntie have helped me, but seems Nori still has to work on it..."

Right, when Ma was teaching him and Yuko how to write back in the palace. Well, at least he was more ahead than Yuko.

"Yuko will work hard to not refer to Yuko as Yuko when talking about Yuko too!" Yuko said, grinning.

"Sis...," Onami said, flying toward us alongside Setsuko.

I couldn't help but snicker. While I did wish her to use 'I', 'me', and 'myself', I would miss her cutesy way of talking.

"Seems everyone is fine," Setty said, smiling.

Her father kept an eye on the sky. "For now. We still don't know what those demons are plotting."

"They wanted to take Conrad away," Onami said.

"Who is with my brother right now?" Serrano asked, flying toward the girls.

"Rosa, Naoru, Kohri, and the Raiyama siblings," Onami said.

"Nori, did you take care of the generals?" Osamu asked, turning to look at him.

Nori nodded. "My attack should've taken them down too."

"We better hurry to Conrad, just in case," Azami said, rushing away. His oldest son chased after him.

The king took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Was he paranoid or did he sense something bad was coming?

"What's wrong, Dad?" Setsuko asked.

Held up a hand and raised his index finger, telling her to be quiet for a second.

"Seems that Nori did get them all. Those archdemons either underestimated us, or their strong ones are some place else."

"Might be why the archdemons decided to show up, to make up for their lack of manpower," Setty said, raising her hand to her chin like her father was doing.

I gasped. "Wait, if they came for Conrad, couldn't they also be going after Piedad?"

Setsuko grasped her wheel-shaped necklace. "Seems that she's safe, for now."

"That can tell you?"

She smirked. "Sort of. It's Valencia's angel tool, so she can alert me to these things. I considered giving it to Piedad, but..." She lowered her gaze. "I'm not sure if I can trust her, or rather confident that Mammon won't take her over."

"Indeed, that demoness is a crafty one. Piedad's freedom might only last until she obtains that angel tool," Osamu said.

"I don't think so," Onami said. "Having Zangetsu on him saved Conrad just now. That might be true of Valencia's angel tool too, should they come after her."

Setsuko curled her hands around him and smiled slightly. "You make a good point, Onami. I should go and see her. I'm worried she might be next."

"Where was she taken to anyway?" I asked.

"To your alma mater," Osamu said.

My eyes widened. "Elitia University? I know that it was started as a military fort, but isn't it risky now that it's a place of higher education?"

"True, but it's the safest location that I could think of. The palace and the Makkuroyama households couldn't keep our captives secluded. Plus, we aren't trying to keep Piedad imprisoned either."

"Kuroriku isn't doing that? Those places were all prisons," Yuko asked, raising an eyebrow.

Nori nodded. "Yeah, you kept Nori in the former!"

Osamu sighed. "The Angel Domes there are the key. If I didn't want to keep you and the abysmals as captives, I would've put you there instead."

"Think I get it!" I said, slamming my fist into my left palm. Pain rushed up my right arm. Probably shouldn't have done that...

"Master alright?" Yuko asked.

I rubbed my arm. "Y-yeah, it's just lingering pain from the battle just now."

"I got a potion that might make it go away," Onami said, reaching into her brown satchel. She pulled out a small thin veil and popped up its cork. 

All of us quickly covered out noses. That thing smelled like rancid fish!

"Fish gone bad!" Nori said, rubbing his nose.

"W-what's in that?" I asked.

"A bunch of herbs from Kyuu Seishin. Know it stinks, but it really works wonders."

"Well, they do say that the best medicine is the most bitter," Setsuko said, smirking slightly. She seemed to be enjoying this more than she should've. Was she mad about my indecisiveness still?

"Bitter, not stinky," I said, lowering my head.

"If you want to bear with the pain rather than take it, that's fine too," Onami said, sealing it up.

I sighed. Felt good to breath again. I blinked. "Huh, that's strange. The pain's gone!"

Onami chuckled. "That's because breathing it is enough to numb the pain."

"Wait, so I didn't have to drink it?"

"Well, by not drinking it, it could come back."

I rubbed my neck. That was probably worth the risk if that thing tasted as bad as it smelled. Though, for all I knew, it could've been delicious like the most stinky of cheeses.

Onami put away the veil. "Probably should work on reducing the stink. Alas, that's the price of using skunkflower. It's great at reducing the chances of infections and reducing pain, but it stinks to high Zionia"

Yeah, that name certainly was fitting for it.

I turned and saw the king had flown away. He must've gotten tired of our discussion. Or maybe the stink chased the guy away, not that I could blame him.

"We better get going," Setty said, stretching her arms. She smiled. "Though, by the sound of things, things have calmed down again."

"Hopefully they stay that way for some time."

She nodded. "Yeah. At least until we can get the other nations on the same page."

"Queen Saya plans to host a summit between the four ancient nations and a couple of the powerhouse upstarts," Onami said.

Setsuko raised an eyebrow at her as we took to the skies. "How do you know about that?"

She smiled. "You're forgetting that I was in Xeleria when all of this was being planned." She removed her hood, showing off her ears. "With these babies, we can hear a ton!"

Yuko nodded. She must've been aware of it too, then. Why hadn't she said a thing until now? Well, it was important stuff. Lady Saya must've not cared much about leakage of the information if she didn't go someplace with soundproof walls to keep interlopers from hearing it.

My eyes widened as I recalled that man that we had met alongside Bylet and his now deceased older brother. Serra seemed to have thought he was a teacher at Nine Petal. If that suspicion were correct, the summit could be attacked, assuming he also overheard.

"I think that you should tell Saya to change it," I said, glancing at Setsuko.

"Where to?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, but just someplace other than the original location."

"Okay, I'll try to get in contact with Her Majesty."

"Thankfully, there's still time! It isn't until another three weeks," Onami said.

"Yup!" Yuko said, nodding.

"Welcome back!" Mom said, waving at us as we got closer.

"Hey, Ma. You okay?" I said, landing next to her.

He petted her pegasus. "Yup, thanks to her and Selena."

My aunt puffed her chest proudly. Was she really the same one who had made my cousins' lives a living hell?

Yuko tugged on my sleeve and pointed at Rosa.

Rosa for some reason had her head down, but it didn't seem she was sad, more like embarrassed. Had someone teased her again? Though, usually Hyosetsu and I were the ones doing that.

"Something the matter?" I asked.

Rosa raised her head and laughed nervously. "No, I'm fine."

I narrowed my eyes. "Like I buy that!"

"Rosa, tell Master about the baby," Yuko said.

She furrowed her brow.

"Baby?" I asked. My eyes widened as I recalled her uneasiness in my room and in Huang's place.

Rosa rubbed her stomach. "I-I'm..."

"She's having a kid," Setsuko blurted out.

"Ehh? I'm going to be a grandma? I always expected Taku to give me my first grandbaby, not my baby."

Ma...

Osamu sighed. "So, the DNA test was right."

Serra clenched his head. "I-I remember now! You and Uncle Takeshi we're talking about that the night before I went to Abyssia with our unit."

His paternal uncle nodded. "Yeah." He glanced back at his youngest daughter. "Knew that I should've had tests done on you."

"Dad, Rosa was disturbed by the idea of going to the gynecologist at the time," Setsuko said, furrowing her brow.

He ruffled his hair. "I'm well aware. It's why I didn't force her to do so." His eyes shifted toward me. "I now know that it was because of Eiichi's mechanizations, but you should marry her."

My face heated up. I eyed Yuko who gave me a smile and a weak nod. What was going on through her head right now?

I turned back to look at Rosa and walked over to her, wrapping her arms around her. "Was planning to anyway."

Rosa's face warmed up as she pressed her head against my chest. "Tetsu, you don't have to."

I ruffled her hair. "It's fine. I couldn't decide in the end, so this deciding for me is the kick I needed."

She pouted. "How unromantic!"

Anis sighed. "Seems Taku got his dad's way with words."

I rolled my eyes. Taku doesn't have a serpent's tongue, Ma.

"You want, romantic?" I asked, leaning closer to her.

Rosa turned away. "I-it's best not to do that in front of Yuko," she whispered.

I backed away from her. She had a point there. It was both sad, but endearing how the two cared for each other despite being love rivals. Her ma and mine were the same way. Hopefully, Yuko would end up with a guy who was more affectionate than Osamu.

"Master!" Yuko said, tugging my sleeve. "Let's go inside and celebrate the baby with cookies."

"Yeah!" Serra said, moving his arms up and down.

Setty rolled her eyes. "You just want cookies."

Conrad giggled. "You know big bro well!"

Serra blushed.

I laughed. "Alright! I'll whip up Rosa, the baby, and you the best cookies yet!"

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^**