Walburga had originally returned to the battlefield for one reason only: to recover the Longinus her master would have left behind after death.
Unlike other types of Sacred Gears, independently manifested Sacred Gears would remain at the site for a period of time after their original host died. During that window, anyone could retrieve them, and if they were compatible, they would become the new wielder of the Sacred Gear.
But when Walburga returned to the battlefield back then, she found nothing.
With no other choice, she could only leave Kyoto.
After that, when she heard that the leader of the Khaos Brigade was the Infinite Dragon God Ophis, she brought along her master's subordinates and joined the organization.
She had thought she could ride the names of the Infinite Dragon God and the Old Maou faction into something huge, but what she had never expected was that the people she was relying on would end up producing such a complete disaster.
And now she had even been captured by Rod. If she still refused to surrender, Walburga felt she probably would not live to see tomorrow's sun.
"You surrendered pretty fast."
"I thought you'd hold out a little longer."
Bullshit. If I held out any longer, who knows what kind of torture I'd be in for.
And compared to surrendering to the Three Factions, she would much rather pledge loyalty to the man in front of her.
At least with that, there was room to negotiate.
If she fell into the hands of the major factions, a brutal round of interrogation would be unavoidable, and most of the rest of her life would probably be spent in prison.
Even taking steps back,
Walburga felt that being tortured by a more handsome man was still far preferable to being tormented by some twisted executioner in a cell.
As someone well-versed in torturing others, Walburga knew exactly how many ways there were to torment a human being.
Seeing there was no more fun to squeeze out of her, and with Walburga kneeling faster than anyone else ever had, Rod lost interest in messing with her further.
He placed a hand on the woman's forehead and sent a stream of Ki into her body.
With a cat yokai living at home, and after being influenced by her for so long, Rod had picked up a few minor techniques himself.
"This stream of Ki will keep interfering with your body's magic and life force. If I don't adjust it from time to time, your body will collapse and die within three days. You understand what I mean, right?"
Hearing that, Walburga was completely stunned.
Are you even a hero at this point? You're practically a devil!
And you still had the nerve to compare her to someone from DC? This kind of evil method was something only a villain would use!
Rod's move made Walburga's expression instantly turn bitter.
She had still been hoping to pretend to submit and then find a chance to escape later.
Now that hope was completely gone.
Rod, on the other hand, had no hesitation at all about using curses to threaten people.
If it had been someone else, a terrorist would have been subjected to severe torture. All he was doing was planting a little poison that needed periodic adjustment. As long as she obeyed, she could live out the rest of her life perfectly safely.
Where else in the world was she ever going to find someone as kind-hearted as him?
Once Walburga was dealt with, the entire attack was finally over.
Just as Rod was about to leave, he heard a low, muffled sobbing coming from the next room over.
When he pushed the door open, he saw a blonde girl in a Kuoh Academy girls' uniform... no, a blonde boy, curled up in the corner of the room and sobbing without stop.
Tears streamed down like broken strings of little pearls, soaking a large patch of the front of the uniform and the hem of the skirt.
Seeming to hear Rod's footsteps, the crying Gasper lifted his tearful eyes, but the moment he realized it was someone he did not recognize, he recoiled into the corner like he had seen some kind of wild beast, frantically kicking at the floor with his black-stockinged feet.
His wine-red eyes were filled with tears, his delicate little face was full of fear, and his small body shook like a leaf.
At the same time, with Gasper's movements, the absolute territory between the hem of the skirt and the black stockings exposed a stretch of fair, glass-like skin, while the pink underwear beneath flickered in and out of view.
Rod's auto-lock activated on instinct.
By this point, his eyesight had already been enhanced almost to the limit. And now, having just obtained Fiery Eyes, Silver Eyes, every aspect of his vision had been greatly improved.
But sometimes, having good eyesight was not necessarily a good thing.
At least not right now.
With auto-lock turned on, Rod saw very clearly that there was a noticeable bulge there.
Holy shit, my eyes! What the fuck!
His auto-lock shut down instantly, and Rod immediately forced his gaze away and back up to Gasper's face.
Looking at how cute he was, Rod bitterly resented the fact that this world had such a thing as cross-dressing pretty boys.
Even though he had long known that Gasper, one of Rias's peerage, was a cute boy, seeing him in person still made him think, Isn't this just drawing a girl and insisting it's a boy?
If the God of the Bible were still alive, Rod would have prayed for this world to no longer contain such a species as cross-dressing pretty boys.
"Walburga, let me borrow you for a second."
Rod grabbed the witch by the shoulder and stared at her face and figure for a while before finally coming back to himself.
And being stared at like that by Rod, Walburga's heart couldn't help rippling a little.
She was now Rod's servant. Even if he demanded anything of her, as long as she didn't want to die, she would have no choice but to obey.
If he asked her to warm his bed, would she... have to agree? Or... agree?
"Tch. Average figure, and even your face isn't as cute as that cross-dressing boy's. I'd better just go back and look at Lavinia later to wash my eyes."
Just as Walburga's imagination was starting to run wild, Rod suddenly dropped that line on her like a bucket of cold water.
Why had this suddenly turned into a personal attack?!
You couldn't bully people like that!
Walburga really wanted to beat the man in front of her senseless. No one had ever insulted her looks and figure before.
But the moment she remembered how she had been flattened by Rod almost instantly just a short while ago, she behaved herself.
Gasper was still crying.
He didn't know Rod, and seeing him together with Walburga, he instinctively assumed he was one of the terrorists who had come to attack him.
"Stop crying. Everything's already been resolved. I'm a friend of your master, Rias."
Even so, Gasper's sobbing didn't stop.
"Can you even call yourself a man like this?!"
Because of the whole bulge incident, Rod's tone was not particularly kind.
Though, to be fair, that wasn't really Gasper's fault.
"I-I'm not a man... I'm... I'm a boy."
Hearing that, Rod nearly laughed from irritation.
So crying was only one of his talents. Talking back was another.
"You should know that because of you, a lot of people outside were frozen by your Sacred Gear, including Rias, Akeno, and Koneko..."
"President... and everyone else... wuuugh... it's all my fault, it's all because of me! If I weren't here, none of this would have happened!"
After hearing that, Gasper cried even harder.
But a moment later, he was startled out of it by a loud, sharp voice.
"What's with that expression on your face?! And what's with those tears?!"
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