It felt like things were getting boring again.
Chewing the banquet food in his mouth, Cid kept his gaze fixed on Diodora, who was chatting with Rias and the others in front of him.
Even after Cid warned her, Rias had only responded that she would be careful. She had not chosen to leave immediately.
That was normal. After all, until Diodora actually did something wrong, he was still the heir of the Astaroth family. No matter what, Rias could not possibly turn against him on the spot.
But how should he put it? Cid just felt that this guy named Diodora was not a good person.
Of course, saying a Devil was not a good person sounded contradictory, but everything was relative. Compared to Diodora's pitch-black soul, Rias and the others were practically qualified to call themselves saints.
That said, judging a person solely by their soul was still too rash. Maybe there really was someone in this world whose soul was as black as a black hole but who was actually a good person.
Still, since he could not make a move, this place really was boring.
He swallowed the food in his mouth and swept his eyes over the noisy crowd around him. Everyone had their own social circles. He was the only newcomer who barely knew anyone.
Without saying anything, Cid picked up another dessert from the table and kept eating. Since no one came over to talk to him, he was happy to enjoy the peace. Rather, this was even better. No one would notice a low-presence extra like him, so he could simply feast on all this delicious food.
He would say it again. Cid had never understood how these nobles' minds worked. They spent piles of money preparing all kinds of delicacies, only to treat them like decorations. After an entire banquet, they would only eat a few desserts.
"Wow, Cid, don't just focus on eating. That's really rude. No matter what, you should at least leave Rias some dignity..."
Who?!
That gentle voice, carrying a hint of teasing, made Cid jolt in surprise. He stopped what he was doing and turned to see who had actually found him while he was hiding in the corner with his presence reduced to one-tenth. When he turned his head, he saw Akeno Himejima standing beside him at some point.
"What's wrong, Cid? Why are you looking at big sister like that?"
Meeting Cid's startled gaze, Akeno Himejima even winked playfully at him.
"Nothing. It's just... Akeno-senpai, is it really all right for you to come look for me instead of staying with the others?"
"Hmph, how narcissistic, Cid. You're so sure I came here to look for you? Maybe I just happened to walk over, saw you, and came to ask. Or were you watching me this whole time, so you knew?"
Akeno Himejima raised a finger to her lips, tilted her head, and smiled as she spoke, every word carrying a teasing edge.
Cid only smiled and said nothing. He was hiding in the corner, and his presence had been reduced to one-tenth. Unless she had been deliberately searching for him, even if he walked right in front of Akeno Himejima, she probably would not have noticed him.
"Tsk, no fun. If I didn't know about your past, Cid, I'd suspect you were some kind of expert with women. Can't you act like a normal high school boy? Blush, get flustered, have your heart race, and start stammering, little brother Cid?"
Seeing that Cid did not take the bait, Akeno Himejima lost interest in continuing the game. She sighed and complained about how boring he was.
"Maybe it's because I'm pretty carefree. So, Akeno, why did you come looking for me? This is my first time here, so I don't know many people. You shouldn't be the same as me, right? Didn't Rias say the point of this banquet was to socialize with the others?"
Cid looked around at the people nearby. Under the influence of his extra position, Akeno Himejima's presence had also been reduced quite a bit, so no one was paying attention. But if enough time passed, someone might still come looking for her because of her identity. So Cid wanted to know why Akeno Himejima had come to him, finish this quickly, and avoid attracting attention.
"No need to worry about me, Cid. Actually, I don't know many people here either. Most of the ones I do know are only familiar because we run into each other often. With how well I know them, missing one or two so-called social meetings like this doesn't matter."
Akeno Himejima waved her hand, completely unconcerned about what Rias had said before the banquet. She even waved toward a group of women who seemed about her age, apparently wanting to greet them, only to be ignored by every single one of them.
"Uh... I think they probably just didn't see me. So, Cid, don't look at me with those strange eyes. I'm not some social failure with no friends who can only imagine fake ones."
Not once did she consider that the man beside her was the cause of this. She merely treated it as a coincidence and explained awkwardly.
"Yeah, I understand."
Cid said that sincerely, because he knew exactly who had caused this awkward situation. But perhaps because the sentence was too easy to misunderstand, Akeno Himejima took it the wrong way, and her face stiffened at once.
"Forget it. I'll just take it as you understanding. I simply... wanted to find you, Cid."
"Hm?"
What did that mean?
Cid blinked, confused. Why did he feel like he could not understand what Akeno Himejima was saying? Those words sounded like a confession. Had Akeno Himejima just misspoken? As far as he remembered, his relationship with Akeno Himejima had not reached that point.
"Hahaha..."
A bell-like laugh rang out. Akeno Himejima looked at Cid teasingly and raised a slender index finger as if to poke his head, only for Cid to instinctively tilt his head away and dodge.
"You really won't let yourself lose out at all, will you?"
Akeno Himejima shook her head, amused as she looked at Cid.
"No matter how I think about it, you're the one losing out, Akeno-senpai. Just because I laughed a little, you said something that suggestive. There are plenty of guys chasing after you at school who'd probably be begging for that."
Cid looked speechlessly at the woman before him. He had always known her thought process was not exactly normal, but that sudden confession really had startled him. For a moment, he had almost suspected he had misjudged the distance between them.
"What, are you jealous? Don't worry. So far, you're the only one I've ever said something like that to. Are you moved?"
For some inexplicable reason, Akeno Himejima smiled at Cid with a face full of pride.
"Heh-heh..."
Cid gave a few merciless cold laughs. He did not want to deal with Akeno Himejima. When handling Akeno Himejima, obediently shutting his mouth was the best option.
"You're giving up already? Fine, fine. But I wasn't lying. I came to find you simply because I wanted to find you, Cid."
"?"
"Earlier, Rias asked me to keep an eye on you. She said Diodora might bully you or make a move against you. And since the only people Rias brought were the few of us, I looked around and didn't see you. I got worried something had happened, so I started searching nearby..."
Akeno Himejima explained casually. As if she had thought of something amusing, the corners of her mouth could not help curving upward.
"This is the first time I've seen Rias care so much about someone. Since I'm Rias's Queen and best friend, I had no choice but to be a little serious about it."
She spoke eagerly about Rias, her words full of implication.
Since both of them were people she knew, and she understood them to some degree, Akeno Himejima did not mind spending a little time helping her dear friend along. She was free anyway, so she might as well enjoy the fun.
"When I first realized you were gone, Cid, I didn't even know how I was going to face Rias. Fortunately, after searching the entire banquet hall, I found you."
"I have to say, your presence is really low, Cid. I almost thought Rias was going to kill me..."
Akeno Himejima's complaints rang beside his ear, but Cid was letting them go in one ear and out the other. His thoughts were not on her words at all.
He had to think of an excuse to explain this issue of his low presence. Otherwise, if he was not careful, it might turn into another talent for sneaking in as an assassin.
Thinking about all the troublesome events that had happened around him recently, Cid could not help shivering. Only after glancing at Akeno Himejima, who was still talking nonstop, did he sigh in relief. It was true that having too many debts made one stop worrying about them, but trouble was still trouble.
Thankfully, Akeno-senpai did not seem to have noticed anything strange about him at all. In that case, maybe he could get through this without needing to explain anything.
Just as Cid thought this and secretly congratulated himself, the corner of his eye, which had been watching a certain person all along, caught that person leaving. A light instantly flashed through his eyes, and he picked up the stemmed glass beside him with one hand and drank the red wine inside.
"Akeno-senpai, you're right. But wait for me a moment. I need to go to the bathroom. We'll continue talking when I get back."
"Eh?"
Ignoring Akeno Himejima's confused voice, Cid strode quickly toward the door, leaving Akeno Himejima standing there in bewilderment.
"Going to the bathroom is one thing... but why are you taking a glass with you?"
Looking at the glass in Cid's hand as he left, Akeno Himejima commented, but she did not think too much about it. It was not a big deal. Maybe Cid was in such a hurry that he had simply carried the glass along with him. It was only an ordinary glass anyway. No matter how stingy Diodora was, he could not possibly get angry over that.
...
"Tap, tap, tap..."
His shoes made crisp sounds against the floor. Cid strode forward with an excited smile on his face. He had already seen him.
In the corridor ahead, Diodora, dressed neatly and properly, walked along the red carpet with a smug smile on his face.
Looking at Diodora's smug and leisurely smile, Cid's own smile widened. The sound of his steps striking the floor vanished. Silently, and at a speed invisible to the naked eye, he swept past Diodora as he walked, then turned into a corner on Diodora's only path.
He stopped, listening to the only footsteps in the empty corridor. Cid pressed himself against the wall and took out the stemmed glass he had stolen earlier.
"Earth: Material Reconstruction."
The name of the move was so faint it could barely be heard. Black Magical Power clung to the glass. As the glass was assimilated by the Magical Power and reshaped, it finally became a black sack in Cid's hand.
He tugged it with a little force, then let go just before it was about to snap. After confirming its rough quality and listening to the approaching footsteps, Cid showed an unusually excited smile.
What was his reason for agreeing to attend the banquet with Rias?
Part of it was because the mood led him there, and because it was too hard to explain clearly, so he came.
Another part was because Rias looked pitiful, and the coincidence was a little too perfect, so he went with the flow.
But Cid felt the biggest reason was probably that he was a rather petty person. Did this guy really think Cid had forgotten how he threatened him this morning and even tried to make a move on him?
He was thinking too much. A gentleman's revenge can wait ten years, but ten years was too long. He seized the moment.
Of course, Diodora had not tried to kill him in the morning, so Cid would not kill him either. Breaking one arm and one leg would be about right.
The footsteps drew closer and closer. The look in Cid's eyes grew colder and colder. The sack in his hand was already open.
"Hm, hm, hm..."
The other party seemed to be in a good mood. He even had the leisure to hum.
"Tap, tap..."
A black shadow appeared on the ground. Cid silently calculated the timing in his heart, seized the opportunity, leaped up, and threw the sack down from above.
At that moment, Diodora's seemingly elegant figure appeared around the corner, and the sack covered his face head-on.
"Wha... Aaaah!"
His vision suddenly fell into darkness. Diodora instinctively tried to question his attacker while launching an attack to resist, but he had only gotten out a single word when a fast, precise, ruthless strike landed in his stomach, instantly bending his back like an arched bridge.
"Gwah! Aaaah... Who the hell is attacking..."
Diodora screamed and fell to the ground. He tried to stand and tear open the sack, but before he could, Cid's next attack had already arrived.
Cid stomped down on Diodora's head, forcefully leaving an outline in the floor. At the same time, he stomped on Diodora's stomach, instantly scattering the Magical Power Diodora had finally managed to gather. Then, with simple efficiency, he broke one of Diodora's arms at the level of the soul.
"How dare you attack a noble... Gwah!"
"I am... Gwah!"
Cid lifted the struggling sack, tied a tight knot at the opening, and started walking in a certain direction. If the person inside the sack woke up, tried to struggle free, or made noise, Cid would strike him again.
"Here we are!"
After walking for a while, Cid arrived at his destination, the bathroom.
First, he checked the injuries of the person inside the sack. Then he added another strike, breaking one of Diodora's legs.
After finishing all that and confirming there were no problems, Cid nodded and casually hung the sack, along with Diodora inside it, above the urinal.
"Done. Time to head back."
Cid stretched. Guessing that Diodora would be discovered before long, he confirmed everything one last time, then chose to leave to avoid being seen.
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