"When is the war going to happen? And why is the tournament still ongoing?" asked Nyx.
Kisuke shrugged his shoulders and answered, "Nothing for now. Although the Alliance of Hell declared their intentions by attacking Kyoto, if they went into hiding, the peacekeeping force, DxD, won't be able to take initiative. By now, they've probably already abandoned the Realm of the Dead and concentrated their forces somewhere else."
Athena grabbed her tea and asked after taking a sip, "What about Apollo and his accomplices within Olympus? They should be able to find his connection to the Alliance of Hell."
"They probably don't have enough evidence to convict him, so the most they could do is watch them. But this is actually better since Apollo will be forced to act when the Alliance of Hell make their move or he'll forever be a sitting duck surrounded by stalkers."
In the middle of it, Seekvaira raised her hand, "Hold on. Is it fine for me to hear all of this? It sounds like you are trying to accomplish something else. And you might have forgotten, but Saji and I are members of DxD and we're obligated to share any information I have on the Alliance of Hell. The fact that the missing Athena and Nyx are here is already pushing it."
"It's fine. There's nothing that you don't know will be revealed here anyway." Kisuke answered Seekvaira's concern before turning back to Nyx, "As for why the tournament is still going, it is to reassure the people. The whole world is still recovering from the damage that Trihexa has caused, so they can't afford to slow down the recovery and development due to fear. Factions are technically nations. They may have the strongest military might, but that would be useless without their citizens."
"I have a question." Genshirou raised his hand.
"Go on."
"Hypothetically speaking, if the Alliance of Hell won, what would they get from all of this aside from making enemies left and right?"
"First is the weakening of the Tri-Faction Alliance. They are already weakened right now and any degradation will put them at the same level as the Alliance of Hell. Meaning, they'll essentially be at the same negotiation table as them."
"What!? How is that possible!?"
"Aren't you forgetting something? They aren't terrorists like Rizevim who intended to plunge the world into chaos."
"Ah..."
"They aren't 'Evil' and they'll inevitably have supporters from the grassroots community for their goal of protecting the world from otherworldly threats, making them a bonafide nation that's capable of managing domestic and foreign affairs."
"Even then, it still won't be enough since the other factions could still declare war and remove them from the world stage. These actions of theirs, aside from making a mess of everything, look essentially useless." Seekvaira commented.
In response, Kisuke playfully responded to her, "But what if they could suddenly control one of the most influential and important factions, then they'd be able to attract others to their side and intimidate the rest from taking any action?"
"...What? There's no way..." Seekvaira shuddered as she looked at Kisuke.
"I told you, right? You won't be hearing anything that you don't know."
"Wait! If you know something, please cooperate with DxD!"
"You do your thing and I'll do my thing... Although I want to say that, I'm already in contact with the DxD's leader, Dulio, so this front is already taken care of. Just make sure that Hades and crew won't be able to push you back."
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Genshirou and Seekvaira tried to pry Kisuke's secret open for a bit longer before the two of them gave up and left to meet Dulio. Meanwhile, Kisuke also dismissed the rest so that he could finally explain to Riveria her situation. And since she looked awkward with Sakura around, Kisuke brought her out on the town to have a walk while talking.
While Riveria marveled at the townscape that was very different from Orario, she couldn't help but make a strange expression while looking at Kisuke. Not being able to find any better words, she asked, "...Why are you like this?"
Currently, Kisuke was wearing a brown trench coat over a black suit. However, the strange part was his hair that was dyed black and he was also wearing a fake mustache with matching circular sunglasses. It wasn't really that bad, but he also kept wearing his green and white bucket hat, making the whole thing very mismatched.
"This? I'm actually pretty famous around these parts so I have to disguise myself."
"The point of disguising is to reduce the attention you're getting. I may not be from this world, but I know for sure that even in this place, your get-up is strange! Just look at all these stares!"
"Ehhh? I'm pretty proud of this too... Hmmm... Then shall we go somewhere else?" Kisuke then looked at Riveria from head to toe, "We should do something about your get up too. People will think you're cosplaying."
"...Cosplaying?"
Kisuke didn't answer that and urged Riveria, "Over here, to the station. We'll go to the Human World."
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"...W...What was that!?" Riveria exclaimed after getting off the interdimensional train that brought them to Kuoh Town.
"It's a vehicle that tunnels through the dimension between worlds. I'll explain to you in detail later so for now, let's take it easy and tour the city." Kisuke first confiscated Riveria's wand and put it on his inventory before returning to his usual attire, "First stop will be the clothing store. Let's have you dress like a normal person."
"Don't make it sound like I'm someone abnormal!"
"But in this context..." Though before Kisuke could finish his sentence, Riveria glared at him with all her might, but without the threatening aura she usually possesses, it only ended up looking a bit too cute, "...Right... Let me use Illusion Magic on you first to hide your ears. Elves don't really exist here." Kisuke immediately changed the subject before he succumbed to the desire of pinching her nose.
As soon as they left the station, Riveria was met with scenery that was truly out of this world. Towering buildings sprawled left and right, extremely fast mechanical carriages, unknown flickering lights and images, and a truly enormous amount of pedestrians and noise. And she noticed one more thing. Compared to everyone else, her attire is a bit out of the norm.
"There's probably a concert nearby. There are too many people today." Kisuke, without any delay, offered his hand, "Grab my hand. Although I won't really lose you in this crowd, it's better for me if you're within an arm's reach."
Riveria looked at his outstretched hand and her pulse immediately began to rise up, 'H-hold hands!?... Wait... I'm in a different world and it'll be really bad if I ever get lost in this kind of crowd... And it's just holding hands for convenience so there's nothing wrong with it. I shouldn't even think anything beyond it! That's right... I'm currently very weak so I could only depend on him to protect me from harm. The least that I could do is to stay close and the easiest way to achieve that is to hold his hand... tightly.'
After a few seconds of trying to convince herself that it was nothing more than holding hands, Riveria gritted her teeth and grabbed Kisuke's hands, only to discover that her palm was sweaty from nervousness.
Riveria instantly panicked and was about to take her hand back but a small Magic Circle briefly appeared on top of their hands, drying them off, "Let's go. It's that way." Kisuke pretended that nothing happened.
As they walked, Riveria couldn't appreciate the scenery as she looked down in embarrassment and softly whispered, "...Thank you."
The wise and brave High Elf who had been 'alone' all this time, didn't know how to deal with the current situation at all. There were so many new things, and it wasn't just about the new world she's in.