"Did you wait long~?"
About thirty minutes after Adelio and Hinata had started talking, Ria and [Viole] descended from the sky back to the lakeshore.
In other words, Ria had made her decision.
Whether she would accept the deal [Viole] had offered her, or refuse it.
"......"
After confirming the mischievous smile on [Viole]'s face, Adelio silently turned his gaze to Ria.
He could already guess what choice she had made from [Viole]'s reaction, but that mattered less than whether Ria herself was satisfied with the outcome.
If she was satisfied, then it didn't matter even if it wasn't the choice he had hoped for.
And then—
Reading the meaning in Adelio's gaze, Ria quietly nodded.
"Yeah, I decided to accept the deal."
Just as Adelio had expected, Ria had accepted it after all.
He had secretly hoped she wouldn't take any deal [Viole] proposed, but since this was the choice made by Ria, who knew [Viole] far better than he did, all he could do was give a bitter smile.
"If you think accepting it will benefit you more, then that's enough for me."
There was no point asking what the deal had been.
[Viole] had undoubtedly already arranged things so that Ria couldn't tell him, one way or another.
Unlike her subordinates, [Viole] was not a foolish demon.
"Yeah... thank you."
Ria noticed the deep trust in Adelio's words, and a blush spread across her face as her lips curved into a smile.
As expected, being understood by him like this made her happy.
"Heeey... are you really fine not knowing what kind of deal it was~? If you want, I could—"
"—No, thank you. You're planning to use that as leverage to make either Ria or me enter a [Contract] with you, aren't you?"
Adelio was outmatched by Luminous and Sylvia when it came to battles of words, but against [Viole], he didn't yield at all.
That made sense. Those two were rulers of great powers, heroines who had built up experience through countless situations where they had to resolve everything through rhetoric alone. But [Viole], unless she was dealing with another of the [Primordial Demons], had hardly ever had a chance to gain that kind of experience.
"Mm-hm! Blanc... no, Ria's servant, right? You really do know me well~"
Of course, that didn't mean [Viole] was an easy opponent.
At least to Adelio, she was harder to deal with than Jonne or even Rain.
If [Viole] kept teasing him like this, even Adelio would eventually be pushed back mentally.
However—
"Haha, looking at that face of yours, I kind of want to play a little longer~ But sadly, I should be going now."
—with a playful grin as she clasped her hands behind her back while looking at Adelio, [Viole] summoned a small gate connected to the [Underworld Gate], saying she had to return to hell.
The body she had forcibly manifested with magicules had reached its limit.
Unlike Adelio or Ria, she had no body she could use or possess, so she could only act in the material world like this for a short time.
That was why she sent her subordinates to countries like the [Kingdom of Raja] and [Coleus], planting seeds there and personally raising people who could become her body.
...Viole's body, huh.
Of course, Adelio knew all of that already, and he also knew about the incidents her subordinates would cause, so he fell into thought for a moment.
If he made a disposable body for her...
Could he get [Viole]'s help in return?
And while Adelio was lost in thought, [Viole] faded away like a mirage together with the gate as it steadily shrank.
"I'll make my exit here for today~ Come visit more often. If you do, I might just give you a special little 'present,' you know? Hahaha~!"
The day he met that teasing little devil again might come much sooner than he expected.
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