"Oh, Vigne, you're here just in time. Come, come, come, let's go find someone together."
Vignette, having just finished touring the inn, was pulled into the team Gabriel had formed for her own selfish desires before she could even grasp the current situation.
Vignette held back Gabriel, who was charging forward aggressively like a wild bull. "Gab, wait a minute. What are you and Satania planning to do? If it's something stupid, count me out."
"What do you mean, Vignette? Leaving Gabriel aside, do I look like the kind of demon who does stupid things?" Satania crossed her arms, showing absolutely no reflection on the stupid things she had done in the past.
"You guys seem to be talking about something interesting. Let me join in too?"
Raphiel appeared beside them with a delightful smile, as if her 'fun radar' had been activated.
Let me see what stupid... no, wise thing Satania is up to this time.
"Raphiel, it's even better that you're here." In Gabriel's plan, the more people in the team, the lower the probability of her being suspected. She naturally wouldn't refuse Raphiel's participation. Instead, facing Raphiel's confused expression, she began explaining how great Jhin's photo was—stopping just short of claiming it could be used as a holy relic.
"In other words, Gab, you want Jhin's photo, so you're going with Satania to ask someone else for it?" Raphiel keenly pointed out the essence of the plan.
"Tsk." Gabriel wouldn't admit she wanted it herself, turning her head away in disdain. "What are you saying? It's clearly because this Angel saw how pitiful Satania was for not getting a photo, so I'm accompanying her to go get it."
"? Is that so?" Satania was bewildered, raising a finger to point at herself. "...Turns out I want Jhin's photo?"
"Just treat it as such." Vignette didn't hold much hope for Satania's intelligence and didn't bother refuting Gabriel's stubborn words.
"Oh, oh, then everyone is here. Let's set off. Gabriel, hurry up and lead the way!"
"Don't rush, don't rush, aren't I looking for them?"
Watching the two noisy figures walking in front, Raphiel leaned close to Vignette and whispered, "Vigne, what do you think?"
"What else can I think? I use my eyes."
"I'm not talking about that. I mean Gab's feelings for Jhin."
"Isn't that obvious?" Vignette didn't think a fun-seeker like Raphiel would fail to see that Gabriel held affection for Jhin.
As a demon, Vignette had also vaguely sensed that Jhin had unusual relationships with some of the girls from Mihama Academy. However, since the Demon Realm itself permitted the existence of polygamy or polyandry, she didn't treat it as a big deal.
"As expected, you think so too." Raphiel's golden eyes narrowed slightly, staring at Gabriel as if trying to pierce through to her heart.
Gab, have you realized your own feelings and are feigning ignorance due to the regulations, or have you truly not noticed?
"Say," Vignette glanced at the silent Raphiel, recalling a certain rule in the Angel codes. "Love between you Angels and humans in the Mortal Realm seems to be absolutely prohibited, right?"
"Yes, because human lifespans are simply too short. They cannot bear our nearly eternal lives."
"The lifespan theory, huh..." Vignette had read quite a few romance novels where love between different races was obstructed by the issue of differing lifespans. She just hadn't expected such a thing to happen around her.
"Even now, there are still some Angels living in monasteries in the Heaven Realm who couldn't bear the mental shock of their lover passing away."
"Who told your Heaven to have such harsh conditions for extraditing souls?"
"Didn't your Hell also recently start screening the souls falling into it?"
"I heard it's because too many souls have been pouring in recently. The Demon Reincarnation Department was so swamped they almost went on strike, so they started screening."
"Vigne, Raphiel, what are you doing? Hurry up and follow us!"
Gabriel's voice interrupted the two who had strayed from the topic of her romance to reincarnation. They stopped their conversation and caught up.
Before long, Gabriel found Irisu Makina lying on a table playing games. She nudged Satania's shoulder. "Satania, it's your turn."
"Oh, oh, just follow the plan, right?"
"Alright, this Great Archdemon is going in!"
Satania took small steps up to Irisu Makina and cleared her throat. "Cough, Irisu-san, what game is this?"
"Oh? This is called Tuna Man: Man of Steel. Have you not heard of it?"
"No... but I'm quite interested."
"Yay! I found another companion who likes Tuna Man. Sit beside me, I'll teach you."
Satania just sat down next to Irisu Makina and happily started playing games with her, throwing her true objective completely to the back of her mind. Gabriel watched with itching teeth, wishing she could pull out a hammer to crack open Satania's brain to see if it really ran on a single thread.
Can only execute one command at a time, is that it?
Left with no choice, Gabriel had to step up herself. Vignette and Raphiel couldn't be relied upon at a time like this; neither of them was as stupid as Satania to obediently do as she said.
"Satania, didn't you have something to ask Irisu-san?" Gabriel walked up to them, trying to remind Satania in this way not to forget the real reason she came over.
Satania had absolutely no time to pay attention to Gabriel. Holding Irisu Makina's game console in hand, she was playing enthusiastically. "Ah, you wait a little bit, I'm almost past this level."
On the other hand, seeing that Satania had already mastered the basic controls, Irisu Makina curiously asked Gabriel, "What business does Satania have with me?"
Irisu Makina asking me directly works too. Since Satania is addicted to the game now, I'll just dump all the blame on her head.
Gabriel smiled faintly, adopting the posture of a good friend solving problems for a companion. "Actually, she fell asleep on the bus and didn't manage to get that photo of Jhin, so she came to find you."
"Oh, so it was for Brother's photo. That's simple, I'll just send her a copy."
Seeing Irisu Makina pick up her phone to look for Satania's contact, Gabriel hurriedly stopped her. "Satania is still playing games. You send it to me first, and I'll just forward it to her."
"That makes sense. Tuna Man's levels still have some difficulty." Irisu Makina readily sent the photo to Gabriel.
Having obtained the photo, Gabriel immediately signaled Vignette and Raphiel to slip away. As for Satania, she would come find them after she finished playing the game anyway, so there was no need to worry about her.
She hadn't even had time to enjoy the success of her plan and the joy of getting Jhin's photo when she bumped into him speaking to Nijika and the others.
"Kazuki just sent me that photo. I put it in the group chat; if you want to see it, go look for yourself."
Gabriel was full of question marks.
The photo I worked so hard to figure out a way to get... you just gave it away for free?
____
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