Tales of the dragon slayer

Chapter 15: Season 1, Chapter 7

"Taking care of Sona." Ambrose replied with a wink, causing Tsubaki to smile.

"I heard that." Sona playfully remarked as she came out to greet her fiance, still wearing her apron.

"I thought I was making breakfast." Ambrose commented as he sniffed the air. "Y-you're baking?"

"Thought I would do something nice for everyone." Sona said, feeling pleased with herself. "So I decided to baked a few cupcakes for us to enjoy after school. You're invited too Am-chan, you can meet the rest of my peerage after school today."

"Great..." Ambrose said trailing off before clearing his throat. "In the meantime, I've brought eggs, yogurt, fruit, and the pièce de résistance: pain au chocolat."

"It looks delicious." Sona commented as her fiance set the table.

Tsubaki nodded along, though with some reservations.

"Something wrong?" Ambrose asked the [Queen].

"No, it's just I'm more used to a traditional Japanese style breakfast." Tsubaki commented, "Though this does look good."

"I haven't had much time to settle in and learn Japanese cuisine." Ambrose regretfully admitted.

"I could teach you, if you'd like." Tsubaki politely offered.

"Well then, I look forward to your lessons." Ambrose replied with a smile.

"I filled Tsubaki in on what we accomplished yesterday at the charity ball." Sona mentioned as the three sat around the breakfast table and began to serve themselves. "Tsubaki, would you mind if I debriefed you on your weekend during breakfast?"

"Not at all." Tsubaki said in between bites. "Momo, Tomoe, Tsubasa and I successfully arrived in the Underworld and discretely made our way to see Maō Leviathan without attracting attention. After informing your sister of the situation she then called for a secret meeting of the Four Great Satans, where we recounted what had happened. Maō Beelzebub was especially surprised that we had Diodora Astaroth in custody; however, he didn't protest or proclaim his nephew's innocence."

"It took a few hours to explain everything about the Fallen Angels; their attack on the humans, the extraction of [Sacred Gear]s, their attempt to frame both peerages, and discovery of the Khaos Brigade." Tsubaki continued, "We nearly forgot about the fliers and their vulnerabilities until Maō Leviathan read the letter you gave me. That included another round of questions followed by a demonstration. Diodora was then questioned in front of the Four Great Satans and they were able to extract a list of Khaos Brigade members. After a quick discussion the Maōs came up with a plan and conscripted the four of us to help them. Momo was sent to the archives to retrieve summoning fliers from all the different Clans, including the 33 Pillars. After that things became a little disorganized." Tsubaki embarrassingly admitted.

"You see, we've only practiced summoning from within our own peerage and we're familiar with our own magical signatures but distinguishing individuals from other families proved difficult." The [Queen] explained. "While attempting to summon the Old Satan loyalists of the Khaos Brigade we… occasionally got the wrong family member, including the heads of 33 pillars. Still, even when we summoned the wrong individual the Maōs would interrogate that person. If an individual was found innocent they were drafted into summoning the actual target for questioning and were present to witness the interrogation. It was a chain reaction and Diodora proved to be the weakest link; he gave names and those names gave up others. No one, not even those cleared of wrongdoing, was allowed to leave until the Maōs rounded up as many members of the Khaos Brigade as possible. Eventually the general populous became aware that people were disappearing, a few reports of witnesses watching family members being the forcefully summoned made its way to the news. Realizing a potentially dangerous situation, the 33 pillars began to hide behind their wards; however, the fliers are keyed to their family's magic so their wards proved useless. The clans began to panic and the Maōs were then flooded with demands for answers. Still, the Maōs publicly remained silent while they continued their round up, reasoning that they had to grab as many of the conspirators as they could before the Khaos Brigade realized what was going on or came up with a defense."