That day, Yukino Yukinoshita was traveling to Sobu High School in the family's private car.
Since it was just the start of the school year, her mother and older sister were also in the car besides her.
However, on the way to Sobu High School, a dog suddenly ran out and blocked the car's path.
To make matters worse, a boy rushed out, hugged the dog, and shielded it in his arms.
At that moment, everyone panicked—those in the car, the one blocking the car, and the one who failed to hold the leash, causing the whole incident.
If nothing unexpected happened, a traffic accident was imminent.
The instant she realized this, a powerful emotion erupted within Yukino Yukinoshita.
Immediately after... something incredible happened.
Yukino Yukinoshita would never forget what transpired at that moment on that day.
First, a whistling sound reached her ears, as if a fierce wind had blown from beyond the heavens, strong and vigorous.
This was followed by a sudden drop in temperature, like abruptly moving from the scorching summer into the freezing winter, causing white mist to rise.
Then came a piercing kacha kacha sound, as though something was solidifying.
When these strange phenomena vanished, Yukino Yukinoshita realized that her mother and sister beside her were hugging their arms, shivering uncontrollably from the cold. The private car she was in had stopped at some point, less than a meter from the boy blocking their path, making the look of fright on his face strikingly obvious.
He, too, was shivering from the cold, with frost clinging to his eyebrows and eyes. It was said that he later missed the opening ceremony, the reason for his sick leave being a severe cold.
The tires of the suddenly stopped car had fused with the ground, frozen solid by ice.
Furthermore, the entire street they were on showed varying degrees of freezing, including the road surface, streetlights, and buildings on both sides of the road, all covered with scattered, intertwined ice and snow.
As for everyone present, they all fell ill afterward. Some were even frostbitten, while only Yukino Yukinoshita was unharmed, standing dumbfounded in place.
This strange phenomenon troubled Yukino Yukinoshita for a while, until people later retrieved surveillance footage and discovered that a sudden freezing wind had blown down from the sky, causing the scene.
The event was attributed to the increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns in recent years, deemed a pure accident and coincidence. Yukino Yukinoshita gradually put the matter aside and stopped paying attention to it.
Now, with Leon deliberately bringing up the incident, an incredible possibility instantly came to Yukino Yukinoshita's mind.
"Are you saying, everything that happened then was caused by me?"
Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Leon with an expression of disbelief.
"Don't doubt it. It was caused by you." Leon didn't allow Yukino Yukinoshita any false hope, stating bluntly: "I was at Sobu High School then, not far from the scene, so I can tell you responsibly that was the situation you caused."
"Although I didn't witness it firsthand, I definitely felt a powerful energy manifest at your location at that moment."
"That day, perhaps due to your overly intense emotions, you first awakened the Sacred Gear residing within your body, allowing its power to burst forth."
"And it was also on that day that the Three Factions noticed the anomaly here and discovered the existence of the Sacred Gear inside you."
This was why Leon had made Yukino Yukinoshita his primary target, wanting her to be his first Peerage servant.
To this end, he had secretly helped Yukino Yukinoshita solve some problems; otherwise, the Church personnel stationed nearby would have long since come knocking and started approaching her.
Compared to him and the Church, the Fallen Angels were slow to act. After all, Chiba Prefecture was not the Fallen Angels' territory; even if they noticed something, it would take some time for them to take action.
Unexpectedly, once they did move, they aimed straight for Yukino Yukinoshita's life.
"You also have bad luck, running into the faction with the strongest reaction towards Sacred Gear possessors."
Leon continued to stir the black tea in front of him with a spoon, grimacing under Yukino Yukinoshita's stunned gaze.
"The Fallen Angels are the most researched, concerned, and valuing of Sacred Gears among the Three Factions. They even established a central organization—the 'Grigori' (Watchers of the Son of God)—whose duty is to specialize in researching Sacred Gears, finding living Sacred Gear possessors, monitoring or recruiting them, and if they deem a possessor to be a harmful influence, they dispatch someone to eliminate them."
Hearing this, Yukino Yukinoshita involuntarily clenched her hands.
"Just because of that, I encountered that kind of thing?" Yukino Yukinoshita bit her lip and said, "By what right do they unilaterally deem others to be dangerous elements?"
"Are you not?" Leon stopped his action, narrowing his eyes, and said: "Think carefully, what would the result have been if the Sacred Gear that awakened within you that day had exerted just a little more power?"
"Would your mother and sister sitting next to you have just been shivering? Would the people on that street have just gotten a cold and suffered frostbite?"
"To take it a step further, if the temperature had been lower that day, and the freezing wind stronger, would that street have only been covered with varying degrees of ice?"
"Could it be that the people around you and the street itself would have been frozen solid, beyond saving?"
Upon hearing these words, Yukino Yukinoshita's heart immediately trembled violently, and her face turned pale.
"That kind of thing..."
She desperately wanted to say, how could that kind of thing happen?
"It will happen, you know." Leon mercilessly shattered her illusion, revealing the reality: "If the Sacred Gear residing in your body is truly the one I suspect, then I can only tell you that all of this is possible, and the probability is quite high."
"If the true power of that Sacred Gear within you were fully realized, pushed to its extreme, it could even completely freeze a small country, let alone a mere street."
"Now, please tell me, are you or are you not a dangerous element?"
Leon's words plunged Yukino Yukinoshita into complete silence.
"So, it was inevitable that I would encounter all this?"
Yukino Yukinoshita mocked herself with a desolate expression.
Unexpectedly, Leon's tone shifted at this moment.
"No, just as I said, you were just unlucky." Leon spread his hands and said: "Sacred Gears more dangerous than the one in you exist in this world. The Three Factions—Devil, Angel, and Fallen Angel—while wary of this power, also yearn for it to be used for their own benefit, to enhance their own strength."
"For example, the aforementioned Grigori. Their focus on Sacred Gear possessors far exceeds your imagination. Their Governor-General is an avid researcher of Sacred Gears, and to that end, has provided sanctuary for many dangerous Sacred Gear possessors, consistently taking responsibility for teaching them to control their Sacred Gears, allowing them to master their own power."
"I guess that Governor-General didn't directly order your assassination, but rather instructed the personnel sent here to temporarily observe and monitor you, and only eliminate you if you showed signs of losing control, right?"
At this point, Leon laughed mockingly.
"Unfortunately, the instruction was passed down layer by layer, only to reach an idiot who views humans as lowly inferior creatures, genuinely looking down upon all races except Fallen Angels. Consequently, he disdained the idea of secretly observing a human, and even less wanted to stay in this place where Church personnel could appear at any moment. That's why he simply attacked you to get it over with, saving time, effort, and worry."
Hearing this, Yukino Yukinoshita recalled an important detail.
"What about that person?" Yukino Yukinoshita quickly asked: "Where is he now?"
"Him?" Leon smiled, a smile devoid of any warmth: "He certainly won't be in Heaven, nor in Hell. If there's anything left of his soul, he should be waiting for reincarnation, striving to be a better person in his next life, perhaps?"
Yukino Yukinoshita understood the meaning of those words.
"You, you killed him?"
Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze towards Leon became complex.
"Do you think he shouldn't have been killed?" Leon looked straight at Yukino Yukinoshita, smiling meaningfully: "Or do you think I'm too cruel?"
Yukino Yukinoshita remained silent.
Although she was the daughter of a local wealthy family in Chiba Prefecture, in the world she knew before, she had never encountered someone who could casually talk about murder and act upon it.
The old her would have definitely thought this was wrong; even if the other person was a murderer, they should be handed over to the law for judgment.
But she wasn't foolish. She knew that the world she was now in was no longer a place governed by human law.
Thus, Yukino Yukinoshita asked another question.
"Are you truly a Devil?"
After a day, this question, which had seemed meaningless to her, was finally put forth.
And this time, the smile on Leon's face was no longer devoid of emotion; it became profound and rich.
The next second, three pairs of Devil wings unfurled from Leon's back under Yukino Yukinoshita's trembling gaze.
"A genuine Devil, no fake." Leon smiled brilliantly, not looking like a sinister Devil at all, and said: "Just like you are now."
Yukino Yukinoshita soon understood the meaning of that sentence.
As if called by her King, the moment Leon spread his Devil wings, Yukino Yukinoshita's back suddenly felt an itch, and then a pair of Devil wings abruptly unfurled from her as well.
"Congratulations, Miss Yukinoshita, your operation was a success."
As Yukino Yukinoshita slowly opened her mouth wider, Leon happily spoke.
"Starting today, you are my Peerage, a Devil reborn from a human. I look forward to working with you, okay?"
These words echoed repeatedly in Yukino Yukinoshita's ears, leaving her speechless for a long time.