"I see, thank you for informing me." Tenma said with a small smile as he lowered his phone, the faint glow of the screen fading against his palm. He didn't look surprised.
"They killed Diodora."
Valerie didn't even blink.
"Good riddance." She raised her glass lazily, swirling the dark liquid inside before taking a slow sip. "Do you think the Satans will actually help his peerage?"
"Probably," Tenma replied, just as casually. "Though they also have to make sure the circumstances remain unknown in order to keep things nice with Heaven so how valuable that help will be to those girls is up to question." A faint smirk tugged at his lips.
Valerie scoffed softly. "As expected. Cleaning up the mess without acknowledging the dirt."
Tenma chuckled at that, walking past her and toward the window.
"Come now, you don't have to be so mean to them. They are generals who were forced into position of politicians, after forced into being generals while trying to be musicians."
"Wouldn't that have been hilarious? Sirzechs Gremory spending his life trying to teach young devils how to play piano." Valerie said with a chuckle. "But they also had centuries in that position, and they still are incompetent."
"More like they have to deal with someone that is just too competent for them." Tenma said with a chuckle, but now there was something darker in his tone. "Zekram Bael is the current oldest devil alive, and once the most trusted aide of the original Satans themselves. He's not an opponent to underestimate."
He kept smiling, yet his fists clenched to the point blood started dripping on floor from his palms. His eyes seeing the murder of his parents play out before him as he thought about Zekram Bael, the man who organized the hit in order to keep his secrets safe.
"A worthy adversary indeed. One whose death that I will be sure to enjoy."
"One whose death that we will be sure to enjoy." Valerie corrected him as she got up and placed a hand on his arm. "Each and every one of us will follow you, till the deepest pits of hell."
Tenma smiled as he took her hand in his own and pulled it up to his cheek. Happy about her words, even if he knew them to be true since long before, as he simply stood in silence; enjoying this moment.
But all good things must come to an end. "Is Asia being moved right now?"
"Yes, Caren is keeping an eye on her while moving her to meet Azazel. The old crow will keep her in someplace safe, he claims that he found a good high school for her in Italy."
"On that matter, I trust him. The old Scapegoat has no reason to hurt her, especially since she will let him study Twilight Healing." Tenma said with a sigh. For all of his misgivings about the old fallen, and there were many, he knew the man wasn't one to cause unnecessary suffering if he could help it.
"Valerie, inform Zora's team that I have an assignment for them." He said as he turned around and looked out of the window. "Have them reach out to our contact in Erebus, and then have him tell Hades that we are almost ready for the next stage." He said with a chuckle.
"And you will?" Valerie asked with a tilt of her head and Tenma smile widely at her.
"There's a phone call I need to make. After that, I believe we'll be meeting the third son of the Phenex family."
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"Please move faster, sister Asia. Our contact is already waiting for us."
"Y-Yes, miss Hortensia!" Excommunicated holy maiden squeaked as she tried to catch up to white haired girl but couldn't help but blush as she looked down at the cup in her hands and asked. "But if they are waiting, then why did we stop for gelato?"
"The shop was in our path and was having a sale, it's the Lord's saying that us having dessert is a part of his grand design." Caren declared, not slowing down at all as she kept eating her own gelato.
Asia opened her mouth, and then closed it. Unable to make a comeback at the sheer shamelessness of Caren as she used the Lord Most High as an excuse to eat sweets.
"...isn't miss Hortensia a devil? How can you say the Lord's name without suffering?"
"Hmm, that's simple." Caren said as she turned her head slightly, her pale eyes settling on Asia with a faint, almost amused, smile. "I can't."
"What?"
"I suffer whenever the name of our Lord leaves my lips." Caren continued calmly. "And whenever I hear it." She took another bite of her gelato. "I simply do not care."
Asia froze mid-step.
The casualness of it made it worse.
"W–Why would you...?"
"Because faith is not something so simple and convenient." Caren replied, as if explaining something obvious to a child. "It is not something I practice for comfort, or for reward."
They turned a corner, the evening light dimming slightly as the street narrowed.
"It is something I hold." She continued. "Regardless of what that faith chooses to do to me."
Asia tightened her grip on her cup. Her chest felt strange.
That wasn't how faith was supposed to work.
It wasn't supposed to hurt.
It wasn't supposed to...
"Besides..." Caren added lightly. "...if enduring a bit of pain is enough to make me abandon it... then it was never faith to begin with."
Silence stretched between them.
Everything Caren had said and displayed was an anathema for everything Asia had been taught in the Church. They claimed that God was one true master of all and that the teachings of the Church was the sole true way of living, that all others were sinful souls who were to be pitied at best. That anything other than obedience to their rules was blasphemy.
Yet here Asia stood, excommunicated for healing without question. She knew that devils were the enemy but she had spent her whole life following the teachings of the Church. Did that not mean anything?
And then there was Caren Hortensia, who made no secret of the fact that she was a former exorcist and current devil. Yet she still proudly declared that her faith in the Lord was pure and not even the Heaven itself had the right to declare otherwise.
The thought process was the single most sacrilegious one Asia had ever encountered, yet she couldn't help but wonder...
If there would be a day where she could stand with her head held high like that as well.
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