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Volume 5 Chapter 2 Part 4

The person who appeared was Taishakuten, Mikado Tokuteru, and the other one, the woman with a long, black ponytail who was accompanying him was Uesugi Kenshin.

Due to the unexpected appearance of the Chief God of Indian Mythology, Kuro Usagi became quite flustered, and while she made a hastlly bow, her ears were darting around all over her head, almost as if they themselves did not know how exactly they should be reacting.

「L-Lord Tokuteru? Lady Uesugi? W-What are you doing here?!」

「There is something that I wanted to discuss with Shiroyasha, so we came here for that. 「Demon Lord of the White Night」, would you mind sparing us a moment of your time?」

「Oh. . . . . . .  OOOOOHHHHHHH! ! ! ! Of course! For you, I will find a moment, or even several of them if need be! Hooo boy, what a good and nice timing you picked for paying me a visit! Really, you could not have picked a more appropriate moment to show yourselves here even if you tried!」

「「Hmm. .  .? ? ?」」

Tokuteru and Uesugi both tilted their heads in confusion. Tokuteru was especially surprised at Shiroyasha expressing readiness to talk to him even though he did not even say what exactly he wanted to talk about, but before he could inquire about that any further, Shiroyasha grabbed both him and Uesugi by the collars and began dragging them away to the side, not wanting to lose the momentum and a chance to escape from being grilled by Scathach and Queen Halloween any further that the arrival of the two members of 『The Twelve Devas』 have given her. But before she got too far away, she looked at her table over her shoulder and shouted:

「We shall continue this conversation once I finish talking with these two, so make sure that the three of you wait right here and enjoy the show in the Viewing Crystal! Especially you, Kuro Usagi! Look forward to some great news when I get back!」

「Y-Yes, I will! I ma going to be waiting with my prized ears standing on ends the entire time!」

Scathach and Queen Halloween also send the three of them off with smiles on their faces, although inside they were pretty dissatisfied that their plaything tucked its tail between its legs an scoured away at the first opportunity that presented itself to her, because they wanted to tease and torment her so much more! Kuro Usagi also wanted to say something more to her, but she ultimately did not dare to mention it because she did not want to show disrespect to the other guests, whom she considered to be much more important than herself. Admittedly, Shiroyasha was feeling a little bit guilty about this whole charade, but this was all for the sake of her saving her own face, so she sucked it up and continued to drag Tokuteru and Uesugi as far away from the table as possible.

*          *          *

When they were finally dragged by their collars to an entirely different wagon of the Great Spirit Train, Tokuteru and Uesugi inquired about the meaning behind Shiroyasha’s abrupt, and admittedly quite strange, actions as they enjoyed the taste of the tea which was being served to them by a lantern walking on two legs.

「Be honest with me, 「Demon Lord of the White Night」. You. . . . . . .  you have gotten yourself in some kind of mess again, right? So, what did you do this time?」

「U-Umu. I. . . . . I think it might be exactly as you say, Taishakuten, and I think I have a pretty good idea of why it ended up like this this time, but first, I would like the two of you to listen to me, because I have a real emergency on my hands right now.」

You cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, so Shiroyasha decided to come clean before the two Devas right from the get-go. And so, she told them about how she borrowed Kuro Usagi to act as a  「Judge Master」 and a referee for the entirety of the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority and that apparently they even signed a Geass Roll that confirmed it, but she does not remember any of those things happening. When she was finally done with her explanations, Tokuteru looked very seriously for a moment, but then he actually started laughing. Usually he is a useless good-for-nothing with a tendency for compulsive gambling and embezzling money that does not belong to him, but every time he wears his serious expression you could be sure that he would act like it befitted a God of his fame and stature, because that is essentially his “serious mode”. But Shiroyasha’s  little problem must have been more amusing than she was initially giving it credit for, because it was enough to break Tokuteru out of his serious mode and even caused him to laugh.

「Hahaha. . . . . . . . This is the first time in a long while when I had a chance to laugh so hard, 「Demon Lord of the White Night」. Who would have ever thought that you would forget the contents of your own Geass Roll? If poor Kuro Usagi heard you right now, you can be sure that she would have been very depressed.

「Guh, gununununu. . . .  I want to refute that so badly, but in this case I have nothing that would make for a valid excuse! Yes, this is all my fault and I know it! A-Anyway, I am ashamed to ask this of you, but I need to consult you about a certain matter. Would you not happen to have some members of you Community who would just so happen to not have anything in particular to do at the current moment? Preferably strong members capable of pulling their own weight in battle and the ones that can be rely on in times of crisis?!」

「Strong, capable, and most importantly free members of my Community, you say? Hmm, let me think. . . . . . .」

Tokuteru stroked his chin as he immersed himself deep in thought. An opportunity to have Shiroyasha owe him a favor is not something that happens every day. If he lends some of his men to Shiroyasha, then it might be possible for him to use that opportunity to not only do something about his debt to Homura, but maybe about his other ones as well!

(That being said, I am pretty short on human resources myself. I do have some of my subordinates stationed in the Outer World, but calling them here on such a short notice would take too much time.)

After what happened last night, it is more than certain that both Saigo Homura and Sakamaki Izayoi are going to end up being dragged into the incidents that are happening in the Outer World as well. And when that time finally comes, they are definitely going to need a reliable piece capable of freely operating in the Outer World while remaining at their beck and call.

(. . . . If they manage to solve the 「mystery of the Chief God’s declaration」, both of them should become aware of the exact nature of the relationship between Little Garden and the Outer World and understand how other parallel worlds should be. And if that is going to be the case, then the preparations that are already underway thanks to Surya and his people absolutely cannot be abandoned no matter what.)

There is a very good reason for why Mikado Tokuteru. . . . . . .  for why Taishakuten decided to run a mercenary company in the Outer World. It was all so that he could have as many members of 『Twelve Devas』 to available in the Outer World when the time would finally come for the brothers to finally face the crisis in there at some point. There is also a possibility that since Sakamaki Izayoi effectively did not exist in the Outer World for the last five years, he might not be up to date with the Outer World’s official history and the ways in which the Outer World is operating right now, and that he might try to act there just like he did in Little Garden: charging straight at the enemy without even trying to think of a strategy and trying to think about what his opponents might try to do next in order to counteract their plans before they even had the chance to execute them properly.