"Are you sure you did the right thing?"
Aurephion asked, what he just witnessed would cause a huge uproar soon enough.
Adrien didn't respond, he was lying on the comfortable couch in his living room, staring at the ceiling with a distant look in his eyes.
Beyond the panoramic windows of his home, the busy streets of Shibuya stretched out beneath the night sky. Neon signs glowed across the buildings, cars moved through the roads like streams of light, and crowds still filled the sidewalks even at that hour. But none of that noise reached him. The walls and windows of the house had been specially built with high-grade soundproofing, sealing the entire place in a calm silence.
"What are you thinking about, boy?"
Aurephion's voice echoed from the ring on Adrien's hand. His tone carried the same old dignity as always, but there was also a hint of curiosity behind it.
Adrien blinked slowly, still looking at the ceiling. "Something important," he said. "My bad. I promised I'd show you the world, and I will. But right now, I need to think for a while."
"It is quite alright. I am enjoying myself as well. This ring is far more comfortable than I expected."
Adrien gave a faint smile and raised his hand slightly, letting the light from the city reflect against the surface of the ring.
"Of course it is. This one is different from normal sealing rings. I made it myself using the research the Fallen Angels gathered on Sacred Gears."
"So they helped you create it?"
"Not exactly. I was already working on it by myself. Then I got access to research materials and documents about the White Dragon Emperor. The details on his gauntlet helped me tweak the ring."
He turned the ring around his finger, studying it like a craftsman inspecting a completed weapon.
"Divine Dividing is a natural Sacred Gear, so copying it directly would be impossible. But the structure gave me useful hints. Energy circulation, soul anchoring, containment stability, how the host and the sealed entity stay connected without destroying each other… stuff like that."
"You are quite intelligent for your age, boy," Aurephion said after a while. "In all my years, I have never met a teenager as sharp or as capable as you. My opinion of you has increased considerably, especially after witnessing that devious movement ability of yours. I have never seen anything quite like it."
Adrien's eyes shifted toward the ring on his hand.
"Is that supposed to make me happy? You've been a shut-in for a thousand years. The last guy you met was a mid-class devil with a talent for begging."
For a second, the ring was silent, Then Aurephion let out a low, amused sound.
"I have lived a long life, boy. Though, to be honest, I do not remember most of it clearly. A good memory has never been one of my attributes."
"Can't relate."
Aurephion chuckled slightly.
"These two who attacked your devil party. Were they part of the Khaos Brigade you mentioned before?"
"Yeah, Kuroka—the cat—is an S-ranked stray devil. Ultimate-class. She's dangerous, especially because she uses senjutsu and youjutsu instead of relying only on demonic energy. And the guy I killed was Bikou. A descendant of Sun Wukong."
Aurephion went silent again.
"That traveling monkey?" he asked, sounding more interested now. "The same line as the Great Sage?"
"Yeah, that one."
"Are you sure he will not seek revenge? Bloodlines tied to old legends tend to carry troublesome pride. Especially monkey bloodlines."
Adrien finally turned his head and looked at the ring.
"Nah, he wouldn't... Probably."
Aurephion let out a dry chuckle. "That word does not inspire confidence, boy."
Adrien shrugged without sitting up. "Look, I'm not saying he can't be pissed. But Sun Wukong isn't stupid. If he hears the details, he'll understand Bikou didn't die because of a random ambush. He died because he joined a terrorist group, attacked people under a peace treaty, and got caught in a fight he couldn't win."
Adrien finally sat up from the couch and rolled his shoulders, "And if he really does try to attack, then let him come. I'll just add him to the list of animals I've killed."
Aurephion gave a quiet hum from the ring. He did not sound fully convinced, but he also did not argue. Adrien's confidence was not empty arrogance. The boy had already shown enough skill, planning, and raw cruelty in battle to make even an old monster think twice.
Adrien knew that Sun Wukong would be a problem if he actually came after him. The old monkey was not some random beast or arrogant young fighter. He was an ancient youkai tied to one of the most famous legends in the world, and someone with that much history would not be simple to deal with.
Still, Adrien was not planning to fight him fairly.
If it came down to it, he believed he could find a way to beat him, or at least buy enough time until help arrived.
He walked through his luxurious house, the silence of the place following him with every step.
Adrien reached the private elevator at the end of the hall and pressed the button for the third floor. The panel lit up with a soft glow, and the doors slid open without a sound.
When the elevator reached the third floor, the doors opened with a soft mechanical chime.
Adrien stepped out and walked into the long hallway ahead of him. The lighting there was dimmer than the rest of the house, made to feel less like a normal corridor and more like a private gallery, with small lights placed above each display to illuminate them without making the place too bright.
The first thing he passed was the mounted head of a great vulture-like monster. Its beak was long and curved, its feathers dark and rough even after preservation, and its empty eyes still carried a predatory shape. It had once ruled over a mountain region as if the entire sky belonged to it.
Now it was decoration.
On Adrien's right hung the head of a Minotaur he had slain in the past. Its thick horns curved outward from its skull, and its broad face looked more like a war mask than a beast. In the old stories, creatures like that were treated as symbols of brute strength, maze-born terror, and raw physical violence.
Adrien walked past it without giving it more than a glance.
After returning from the Underworld, he had decided to decorate this floor with the remains of monsters he had fought over the years.
Creatures that humans turned into legends. Creatures that children heard about in stories. Creatures that lesser devils would avoid unless they had a death wish.
And yet, every single one had fallen to his hand.
Aurephion was quiet for a few seconds as Adrien moved down the hallway.
"You have strange taste in decoration, boy."
Adrien's mouth twitched slightly. "It's not decoration. It's a résumé, kind of like my CV"
"A rather violent résumé."
Now that Adrien's name had become known to the supernatural world, he figured he might as well show off a little inside his own house. There was no point in pretending to be modest anymore. Not that he ever acted modest anyway.
If they were going to build stories around his name, he might as well give them the right image.
Whether the girls living on this floor liked the decoration or not was their problem, they just got to deal with it.
He reached the door to his room and placed his hand on the handle. But before opening it, he paused for a second.
"Plus," Adrien said casually, "I have my own double agent."
Aurephion's voice came from the ring, confused. "What do you mean by—?"
The old phoenix cut himself off mid-sentence as Adrien opened the door and stepped inside.
There, lying across Adrien's bed was a young woman with long black hair, split bangs, and hazel-gold eyes with sharp, feline-like pupils and a voluptuous body that was stretching itself like a cat.
She looked at Adrien from the bed, her ears twitching slightly, "Took you long enough, nya."