Adrien stirred as the first rays of morning light filtered through the curtains, casting a soft, golden glow across the room. He felt an immense sense of warmth and weight pressing against him from every angle, a tangled web of soft skin, fragrant hair, and rhythmic breathing. He was supposed to wake up refreshed, but the sheer physical presence of four naked women occupying his bed made the simple act of moving nearly impossible.
The air was thick with the scent of sleep and the lingering musk of intimacy. Mary was sprawled directly across his chest, her breasts pressed firmly against his ribs with. She had claimed him as her personal pillow, her face tucked into the crook of his neck, her lips occasionally brushing against his skin in her slumber.
To his right, Saeko was fast asleep, her head resting comfortably on his right hand. Her long hair spilled across his arm like a silk curtain, and her breathing was shallow and peaceful. On his left, Celia had mirrored the position, using his left hand as her own pillow.
Lower down the bed, Xenovia lay stretched out, her long, toned legs occasionally intertwining with his. She was positioned slightly lower, but her hip was pressed firmly against his thigh. The curve of her waist and the flare of her hips were starkly visible in the morning light.
He lay there for a moment, trapped by the weight of four naked women, feeling the slow thrum of his own heart beating against Mary's cheek. The bed was a chaotic landscape of limbs and curves, a real life 'Snow bunny heaven'.
A week had passed since they returned from the Underworld. Today was the first day of the second semester.
Adrien pulled out a demonic phone.
It looked almost identical to a human smartphone but the Underworld had rebuilt the concept from the ground up, swapping out the engineering for communication circles and private magical networks. It was still new enough that most devils hadn't seen one outside of noble circles. He'd picked it up during his stay.
The icons were almost recognizable. A few of them he still hadn't figured out. His thumb found the one he was looking for.
He opened Nethergram.
The whole platform was exploding. Diodora Astaroth—one of the young heirs tied to the remaining Seventy-Two Pillars—had been assassinated in his sleep.
Adrien carefully made his way through the sleeping bodies without waking anyone. It took more effort than he wanted to admit.
Somehow, he escaped.
He stretched his shoulders lightly and walked toward the panoramic windows of his luxurious room. The city beyond the glass was still half-asleep, buried under a thin veil of morning haze. Towers rose in the distance like dark teeth, their edges glowing faintly under the early sun.
Adrien stood there in his underwear, staring down at the world.
Then he picked up his other phone. The one he used in the human world and called his assistant Watari.
"Hello, my lord."
Adrien's smirk deepened slightly. "Watari. How have you been? And how's Takemichi doing?"
"I am doing well, my lord," Watari answered, his voice as calm as ever. "As for the boy, I have already sent him. He is ready."
"Good work. Make him send all the information you have on Diodora to the Astaroth family. Force them to shut up."
"Are you sure, my lord? They could track the leak back to me. And from there, they may discover my connection to you."
Adrien's expression did not change. "I don't care, he was a traitor and a sick bastard. Send a copy to Ajuka too and add a note telling him everything."
"As you wish," Watari replied.
Adrien hung up the call and sighed.
He had known about Diodora's betrayal for a while now, thanks to Kuroka. According to her, Diodora had been plotting with the Khaos Brigade and preparing another terrorist attack during his next Rating Game. His plan was to open a path for them to invade during the match, turning what should have been a controlled noble event into a massacre.
Adrien had already decided to deal with him. The question was never whether he could kill Diodora. That part was easy. If he wanted to, he could enter Astaroth territory, assassinate their heir in his sleep, and leave without anyone sensing him or finding a single trace.
But that was exactly the problem.
A perfect assassination would only point back to him. If Diodora died without a trace, without witnesses, and without any clear method, the Four Satans would start looking at the very small number of people capable of doing such a thing. Adrien would not need to leave evidence. His lack of evidence would become evidence by itself.
So he had to make the murder useful.
First, he wanted to create a rift inside the Khaos Brigade. If Diodora's betrayal was exposed after his death, the organization would realize that someone had leaked information from inside. Their eyes would eventually turn toward Kuroka, the spy Adrien had planted there.
Second, he needed them to find Kuroka and come after her. When they did, Adrien would save her. That would allow him to frame the situation properly: Kuroka had betrayed a terrorist organization and helped prevent an attack on the devils. With that, bringing her into his peerage would become much easier to justify.
Lastly, there was the mission he had assigned to Watari and Takemichi, the boy he had recruited earlier. Since then, the two had been searching for information on Diodora, and they had found something very interesting.
Diodora's obsession with nuns and Holy Maidens was not just a strange preference. It was a pattern. He had preyed on famous nuns and Holy Maidens from different countries across the human world, using sweet words and careful manipulation to make them fall in love with him. Once those women were cast out by their churches and left devastated, he would appear before them like a savior, pretending to rescue them from despair just to eventually rape them and take advantage of them before adding him to his peerage.
That information alone would cause an uproar if it reached the Church. The Three-Faction peace had only just been formed, and a scandal like this could threaten the fragile trust between the Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels. Adrien planned to use that pressure to force the Astaroth family into silence. The Four Satans would not allow one noble house to endanger the new treaty just to protect Diodora's reputation.
Then came the final piece.
From what Adrien had heard from Issei, Diodora had been sending love letters to Asia Argento. That detail bothered him enough to investigate personally. Adrien went to the church in Italy and searched for any clues about Asia's past. As he expected, Diodora was the devil Asia had healed—the same devil whose healing had caused the Church to brand her a heretic and cast her away.
In other words, Diodora had likely been trying to finish what he had started.
Adrien gave that information to Issei and told him to file a complaint with Sirzechs himself. Issei was no longer just some unknown reincarnated devil. He was the newly rising Red Dragon Emperor, and his words now carried weight.
If Issei brought the matter directly to Sirzechs, the Gremory side would have no choice but to take it seriously.
A smile formed on Adrien's face.
"Checkmate."
He turned around and saw that some of the girls were stirring themselves awake. With a flick of his finger he put on his school outfit and he left.
'I want donuts.'