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Even though they'd talked about borrowing members from Rias's peerage, there was one fundamental issue—you can't squeeze blood from a stone.
Sure, Bokue himself might have zero peerage members, but Rias wasn't exactly rolling in a surplus either. Even if they pooled together every available hand, forming a complete, balanced team was still a long shot.
The biggest issue at the moment was actually something else entirely: the overwhelming number of candidates gunning exclusively for that single Queen spot. Practically everyone had their eyes glued on becoming the Queen, leaving all other positions woefully unattended.
In short, putting together a fully operational team for a Rating Game was still a distant dream.
Thus, half an hour later, the group of girls in the dining hall had made exactly zero progress.
The one small silver lining was that with Venelana temporarily "Holding onto" the Queen position, several more girls suddenly became viable options for the Bishop role. And since Koneko had already served as a Rook for Rias's team, she could keep the same position if she joined Bokue's team.
So now, all they really needed were another Rook, two Knights, and several Pawns.
But those gaps weren't something a simple discussion could fix in a few minutes.
"Well, that's that for now."
Seeing it was about time, Bokue stood up from the table.
Sairaorg had already left about twenty minutes ago—he'd really only stopped by to drop the topic and then excused himself. After all, the whole team-building process involved specific game strategies, and his continued presence as an outsider would've bordered on spying.
"Eh? You're leaving already?" Rias blinked, momentarily confused.
She'd still been trying to reason with Akeno and Kuroka about giving up the Queen spot to her—though unsuccessfully.
But Bokue was already glowing faintly with his familiar golden spiritual energy, flashing an OK sign to the girls in the room.
"Well, as things stand now, we've still got huge gaps in our lineup—especially with the Knights and Pawns. I'll have to go figure out something. Catch you later—hm?"
Just as he was about to vanish, Bokue paused, sensing something distinctly odd. His normally immediate teleportation faltered as his eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion.
According to his usual routine, the next stop should've been Mio Naruse's location.
Everything seemed fine.
Both the teleportation spell and spirit markers were functioning normally.
But there was just one little problem—
Why were there two spiritual markers near Mio Naruse?
The teleportation spell was somewhat similar to the old radar maps in classic shooter games. Back then, games didn't have precisely detailed minimaps like they do today—just a radar displaying the positions of teammates as dots or coordinates.
You couldn't actually see detailed terrain or buildings, just your allies' positions.
For Bokue, distinguishing his teleportation targets worked the same way.
He'd placed spirit markers on people like Asagi Aiba, Nagisa Akatsuki, and Yukina Himeragi. Since they all lived on Itogami Island, their markers were clustered in that general area—Asagi in the west, and Nagisa living right next door to Yukina on the east side. Usually, their three spirit markers lined up neatly in that order: Asagi, Nagisa, Yukina.
Likewise, if there was just a single spiritual marker, that meant Mio Naruse's location.
The reason Bokue's teleportation back to the Gremory castle was always randomized was simply because, in his spiritual sensing, everyone's markers piled on top of each other inside the castle. After all, it was one big home, making individual markers indistinguishable.
But right now—what should've been just one marker at Mio's place was suddenly two.
One extra marker?
"Bokue? What's wrong?" Rias asked, noticing his unusual pause. It was odd seeing him hesitate when he usually disappeared instantly.
Bokue shook his head slightly, unsure how to explain his sudden confusion.
"Seems there's a little… anomaly. It's probably nothing major. I'll just go check it out."
Without another word, the teleportation spell activated completely, and Bokue vanished instantly.
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In the blink of an eye, his surroundings shifted completely.
Bokue found himself sitting in a softly-lit bedroom suite, comfortably perched on a plush, cushioned armchair. A gentle fragrance drifted through the air, warm and inviting.
And yet… something felt slightly heavy on his lap.
Just as he began to look downward to investigate, a playful voice floated up from below.
"Oh my~ If it isn't Bokue-san. You've suddenly appeared right where I am—and in this position too. Could it be…?"
Huh?
He looked down and immediately recognized the speaker—a certain Succubus girl wearing an elegant dress.
"Maria? Wait, no… Why are you dressed in your mother's clothes?"
Indeed, it was a bit odd.
While Maria and Sheila were essentially identical copies of each other—almost identical faces, figures, and even hairstyles—the difference was clearly noticeable in their horns.
Maria, being younger, had smaller horns that looked almost like cute little ribbons atop her head.
In contrast, Sheila's horns, while nearly the same size in terms of body proportions, were noticeably more mature—longer and more defined.
From the voice and the horn size, this had to be Maria… right?
"Clothes?" The Succubus girl noticed his puzzled gaze and glanced down at her sophisticated dress, then looked back up with a casual smile.
"Oh, this is nothing strange, really. Mom and I are basically the same size. My original clothes got pretty dirty since we were constantly on the run with Mio-sama. It desperately needed washing. But since we haven't had time to buy new clothes yet, I've had no choice but to borrow mom's dress. Now that mom's rescued and still doesn't have other clothes, we've got to make do with what's available, right?"
Was that how it was?
The explanation seemed logical enough. Bokue chose not to press further. Instead, he glanced at the book the Succubus girl had just closed and placed onto the table.
"Maria, were you just reading?"
"You could say that," she shrugged slightly, brushing it aside casually. "But let's not get hung up on that right now."
The Succubus girl placed the book down and slowly rotated her body around in his lap, finally settling comfortably facing him, knees spread apart and sitting in a duck-like position. Her small hands slid onto his shoulders as she tilted her face upward, licking her lips enticingly.
"By the way, Bokue-san, you arrived here so suddenly, carefully bypassing both my mother and Mio-sama. Could it be that you're finally here because… you want to do something naughty with Maria~?"
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