The heavy silence that followed Jay's question hung in the air like a physical weight, thick with the ghosts of a tragedy buried long ago.
Touji Shidou's face went sour, the lines around his eyes deepening as he cast a sharp, narrowing glance toward Griselda. His gaze was a silent accusation, asking her wordlessly why these strangers had been allowed to dig into a wound he had spent years trying to forget.
Finally, he shook his head, his shoulders slumping.
"I'm sorry, but I don't really want to talk about that. If you'll excuse me..."
Touji bowed slightly, a stiff, formal gesture intended to end the conversation.
He turned his back, preparing to walk away from the ghosts of his past, but he was stopped mid-stride. Jay's hand shot out with predatory speed, his fingers gripping Touji's shoulder with a firmness that left no room for negotiation.
"Wait," Jay said, his voice low and devoid of its usual blunt edge. "I'm sorry if this is reliving memories you don't really want to remember, and I understand how painful it might be, truly."
Jay's dark hazel eyes locked onto Touji's weathered face. For a brief moment, the coldness in his eyes shifted, replaced by some sort of understanding.
"But, we really need your help," Jay added, the weight of his sincerity causing Touji to falter.
Touji bit his lip so hard it nearly drew blood.
He looked down at the gravel path beneath his boots, his eyes a chaotic swirl of guilt, pain, and a regret so deep it seemed to age him by decades in a single breath. He tried to pull away, his voice trembling.
"I'm sorry, but I can't help-"
"Touji, this young man is the one who saved Irina during that mission."
Griselda's voice cut through the tension like a blade.
The mention of his daughter stopping Touji in his tracks. He widened his eyes, his head snapping toward Griselda as if seeking confirmation.
He knew exactly which mission she was referring to, the one where Irina and her colleagues had nearly lost their lives to the Vampire Nobles of House Manthar.
Touji hesitated, his gaze drifting back to Jay, looking at the young man who had preserved the only light left in his life. Finally, he let out a long, ragged sigh.
"I understand," he whispered. "Let's find a more suitable place to talk."
Jay and Lavinia exchanged a quick, meaningful look.
The four of them walked back toward the stone chapel, finding a quiet corner near the community service area. They sat on weathered wooden benches, the peaceful chirping of birds in the English meadow providing a surreal backdrop to the grim conversation ahead.
Touji sat with his hands clasped tightly between his knees, still visibly hesitant.
"So," Touji began, his voice raspy. "What do you want to know about the two of them?"
"We have heard about what happened, but only the rough story of what happened that day," Jay said, leaning forward.
"We want to know what actually happened that time, and... why you killed your own subordinates."
Touji's eyes went wide.
His entire body began to shake, a violent tremor that started in his hands and traveled up his arms. He clutched his fingers together, his knuckles white with the strain.
Even Griselda shot Jay a startled, slightly reproving look. She hadn't expected him to be so brutally direct, stripping away the euphemisms of operation and duty.
"That day, I... I carried out an order," Touji said, his voice breaking. He stopped, struggling to find the breath to continue.
"Masaomi had a relationship with a Devil, as you probably know. The woman was an overseer in a town called Kuoh Town. They were lovers, but during that time and even now, those kinds of relationships between Church Exorcists and Devils are strictly forbidden. So, there was an order to break that relationship."
"By killing both of them?" Jay asked. His expression remained a mask of stony indifference, his eyes tracking the way Touji's spirit seemed to crumble.
Touji closed his eyes tightly, a single tear escaping. He nodded.
"I... It was a mistake. I shouldn't have followed that order, not even if I had to step down from my position. I killed my friend just because the Church said so. I was an idiot."
Touji covered his face with his hands, his breath hitching into silent, jagged sobs. Jay watched him for a moment before turning his attention to Griselda.
"Did Gabriel or Michael know anything about this kind of order?" Jay asked.
Griselda shook her head, her expression one of deep sorrow.
"From what I've known, no. As you probably know, the Church is a very large organization worldwide. They have their own branch leaders and regional directors. Some of the operations carried out are not supervised directly by the main branch in the Vatican, let alone the Seraphs."
"Just like your stupid attack on the Carmilla faction?" Jay asked, his tone dripping with a mocking, cynical edge.
Griselda didn't flinch. She simply nodded, accepting the weight of the critique.
"Yes."
"Then what are they doing, those Seraphs?" Jay spat. "They aren't even doing their jobs properly... A bunch of good-for-nothing pricks."
Touji looked up through his tears, startled by the sheer blasphemy of Jay's words.
No one in the Church spoke of the Great Seraphs with such blatant vitriol. But Jay wasn't finished.
"But, Mr. Shidou... I already know about all of that. The one thing I want to ask you is if you carried out that operation by yourself and your subordinates, or if there were other people who helped you."
Touji stopped sobbing. He blinked, his mind flashing back to the blood-slicked grass of that night years ago.
"I am not sure..."
"Usually, people from the Church killing a high-ranking Devil would consequently cause friction," Jay said, his voice turning cold.
"At the very least, there would be some sort of conflict, even if it didn't escalate to war. But that didn't happen. I wonder why..."
Jay leaned in closer. He let his dark hazel eyes narrow, and for a split second, the golden X of Avesta shimmered in his iris. A sudden, crushing pressure emanated from him, an aura that pressed against Touji's chest like a physical weight.
Touji felt the air leave his lungs. Looking into that eye, he felt as though his very soul was being stripped naked.
"I-I..."
"Tell me everything you know, Mr. Shidou," Jay ccontinued. "Or that guilt will never disappear... What exactly happened that day?"
Shidou went silent, his hands clenching until the skin was white. The memory, long suppressed by the weight of his own shame, finally broke through the surface.
"I... Actually, there were not only us who carried out the operation that day. There were dozens of people in black coats who suddenly appeared and attacked both Masaomi and that girl, Cleria Belial."
"Those people were Devils, weren't they?" Jay retorted.
Touji bit his lip, closing his eyes as he gave a slow, agonizing nod.
"Why didn't you tell anyone about this?"
At that question, Touji's face twisted. The sadness and sorrow were suddenly burned away by a flare of righteous, long-dormant rage. His voice became sharp and trembling with fury.
"I told them! The higher-ups! I told them everything! I asked why we were working with the Devils!? Why did we kill one of our own!? And why didn't they tell me they had been working with the Devils all this time!? But-"
Touji stopped, the fire dying into ash.
"You were secluded, scorned, and ignored," Jay finished for him, his voice blunt and clinical. "Adding the guilt of killing your own colleagues, you stopped being an Exorcist. That's what happened, isn't it?"
Touji nodded weakly.
"What is this, Griselda?" Jay asked, turning to the high-ranking blonde exorcists.
"I thought Exorcists were supposed to hunt Devils. Is God already dead that you people didn't even hesitate to betray your faith?"
"We are fully aware of that," Griselda said, bowing her head in profound regret.
Touji looked at his hands. "I... That's all I can tell you about what happened that day. I'm sorry. After they died, those people took the girl's dead body. I don't know what happened after that. I'm sorry."
"Do you not know where those Devils were from?" Jay asked.
Touji shook his head slowly. "No. It's hard to pinpoint their identity and I don't really know who-"
Suddenly, Touji stopped. He stared at the ground, his eyes darting back and forth as if trying to pry a specific detail out of the fog of his memory.
"I... I think I remember vaguely what the Devil girl said when she saw those people. I tried to report it too. I can't remember word for word what she said, but she mentioned something about The... King. Yes!"
Touji's eyes lit up with the sudden clarity of the recollection. "Yes, she said something about The King. I don't really remember the context, but she said something related to that."
"Not King Piece, but The King?" Jay looked at Lavinia, who had been listening intently.
Lavinia nodded, her expression serious.
"It should be referring to the Great King of the Underworld, Zekram Bael. There is no one else in the Underworld called 'The King' in that specific context, at least according to the Grauzauberer documents."
The others looked at Lavinia in surprise, shocked by her intimate knowledge of Devil internal politics.
It's actually not that weird considering who is their leader.
"You are from Grauzauberer?" Touji asked, his voice tinged with wariness.
"Was," Lavinia answered simply. "I am not with them anymore."
She turned back to Jay, her mind connecting the dots.
"If it was really Zekram Bael's order, then there is no mistake that those Devils were probably from the Great King Faction. It explains why they were colluding with the Church. Maybe that girl, Cleria Belial, knew something about the King Piece... hence, it put a target on her head."
"Great King Faction, huh..." Jay said, his voice thoughtful as he processed the information.
"That's very helpful, Mr. Shidou. Thank you very much. Is there nothing else?"
"I'm sorry... But I think that's all I've known," Touji said, shaking his head.
"I see."
Jay stood up, the tension in his frame relaxing slightly. But before he could walk away, Touji opened his mouth again, his voice sounding small and broken.
"I... Every day I go to sleep, I think about it. I want to end all of this, to kill myself and stop this guilt. But my family, my daughter... I can't just leave them..."
With trembling voice, he said.
"Do you think Masaomi will ever forgive me?"
Jay stopped and looked back. He didn't offer a platitude.
"How should I know?" Jay said, but after a silence.
"But, can you even forgive yourself?"
Touji's eyes widened. He sat there for a long moment before tears began to stream down his face again. He shook his head slowly.
"Then, he probably won't," Jay said bluntly.
Touji flinched as if struck, his hands clenching even harder.
"Anyway, thank you so much for your help, Mr. Shidou," Jay said, his tone returning to a professional level of gratitude. He patted Shidou's shoulder once. A heavy, brief contact before looking at Griselda.
"You two go first. I'm going to talk about a few things with Touji." She said.
Jay nodded, leaving the two old friends alone.
"Then, I'll excuse myself. I appreciate your help Mr. Shidou, truly."
Jay gave a final nod, and Lavinia bowed politely before both of them walked back toward the black Rolls Royce parked near the road.
Griselda sat beside Touji, reaching out to pat his back in a silent gesture of consolation.
"Don't take his words to heart, Touji," Griselda said softly. "He might seem rude, but Mr. Zayyn is truly a good person. He didn't mean to hurt you in any way."
"No," Touji whispered, wiping his eyes. "He was right. I should not ask for forgiveness after what I've done."
Touji then looked up, watching the distant figure of the young man standing near the car.
"You said that man is the one who saved Irina, right?"
Griselda nodded.
Touji recalled the way Jay spoke about the Seraphs with utter contempt, and the way Griselda, one of the most powerful exorcists in the world, treated him with such high regard and respect.
And that brief, suffocating pressure of his aura.
"Who is that man?" Touji asked.
Griselda followed his gaze. She looked at Jay, still marveling at how young he was, a boy who should still have been in school.
Even Dulio, who was regarded as one of the greatest talents in the Church's history, felt like a flickering candle compared to the sun that was Jay.
"Personally, I also don't know how to put it," Griselda said, her voice filled with awe.
"But Michael-sama told me that... he is probably the Strongest Human he had ever seen."
Touji's eyes widened as he watched the Strongest Human lean against the car, seemingly ordinary once more.
"The Strongest Human... ever, huh."
***
In an intricate room, filled with towering mahogany bookshelves and artifacts that predated the modern era of the Underworld.
A middle-aged looking man with dark, slicked-back hair and peaceful violet eyes sat behind a massive wooden desk.
He wore the ornate attire of a high-ranking Devil nobleman, the fabrics woven with subtle magical threads that shimmered in the dim candlelight. Despite his calm, almost unassuming appearance, he possessed an aura of immense dignity and authority that seemed to compress the air around him.
To the masses of the Underworld, he was known as the Great King, the founder of the 72 Pillars and the true architect of Devil society.
But, Zekram Bael preferred to call himself, a staunch traditionalist.
For a long time, the only sound in the room was the rhythmic, steady scratching of a fountain pen against thick document paper.
Zekram worked with a effortless precision, his violet eyes never wavering.
Suddenly, a rhythmic knock echoed against the heavy oak door.
"Zekram-sama, Roygun Belphegor is here answering your call."
The scribbling stopped instantly. Zekram did not lift his head immediately, finishing the final flourish of his signature before speaking.
"Let her come in."
He placed his pen down gently on a velvet rest, ensuring not a single drop of ink stained the mahogany.
The door creaked open, admitting a woman whose beauty was as striking as her reputation.
She appeared to be in her early twenties, with long, wavy hair the color of cherry blossoms that fell gracefully over her shoulders. Two sleek, dark horns protruded from her forehead, marking her noble lineage.
Roygun Belphegor, the woman ranked second in the Rating Games and known to the world as the Crack, stepped into the room. She closed the door behind her with a soft click and offered Zekram a deep, respectful bow.
"Thank you for coming all the way here, Roygun," Zekram said, his voice smooth and resonant.
"Anything for you, Zekram-sama," Roygun replied. Her voice was steady, reflecting the unwavering loyalty she held for the Great King.
"That's wonderful."
A thin, barely perceptible smile appeared on Zekram's face as he gestured toward the plush chair opposite his desk.
"Sit down. Let's talk about your Rating Games match next week."