The night had ended at the abandoned temple, but the air still carried the scent of ozone and heavy decisions.

  Akeno walked three steps behind Rias, as always.

  Her eyes were not on the path.

  They were on Rias’s back.

  Her President walked forward—steady, elegant, immaculate—speaking with Koneko about Asia’s relocation, about Issei, about sealing the area temporarily. Everything in order. Everything calm. Everything as a Gremory heiress should act after a night like this.

  But there had been a slight tremor in Rias’s right hand when she put away her grimoire.

  Barely a shadow.

  Akeno noticed.

  She always noticed these things.

  She waited until Koneko and Kiba moved ahead before drawing closer. She didn’t speak immediately—she let the silence between them settle into temperature, another way of reading someone she had mastered over years.

  Cold. Contained. The kind of silence Rias used when processing something she did not yet want to process.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Riser,” Akeno said at last.

  Not a question.

  Rias did not stop walking.

  “One month,” she replied.

  Akeno closed her eyes briefly.

  When she opened them, her expression had changed—not the usual smile, not the electric edge she used to keep distance. Something more direct. More real.

  “Are you alright?”

  Rias let out a short laugh without humor.

  “I’m perfectly fine.” A pause. “I’m furious.” Another pause. “I’m both at the same time, which is exactly how I’m supposed to be.”

  Akeno did not respond to that.

  They walked in silence for a few steps.

  “Kaelan Arverth,” Akeno said after a moment.

  Rias kept her eyes forward.

  “What about him?”

  “You saw him when you arrived at the temple.” Akeno left the statement hanging.

  Rias took her time answering.

  “I saw someone who shouldn’t be there do something he shouldn’t be able to do.” A minimal pause. “And I saw Raynare step back.”

  “Raynare does not step back.”

  “No. She doesn’t.”

  The path opened toward Kuoh. The city lights flickered in the distance, utterly detached from the night they had just endured.

  “Do you want him?” Akeno asked.

  Rias glanced sideways.

  “Kaelan?”

  “As a piece. As a variable.” Akeno tilted her head slightly. “Sona claimed him. But there are ways to access something without owning it.”

  Rias considered that for several steps.

  “It’s not time,” she said at last.

  “When is it?”

  “When I know exactly what he is.” Her gaze shifted toward the horizon. “A power that cannot be classified is either a risk or a resource depending on who understands it first.”

  Akeno smiled—this time with something genuine behind it.

  “Then you’ll understand him first.”

  Rias did not answer.

  But the tremor in her right hand had vanished.

  Akeno noticed that too.

  She always did.

  (Revised Edition – 2026)