High School DxD: The Lucifer's Devil Trigger — Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Blood Thicker Than Water

“Karna versus Arjuna. When those two clash, mutual destruction is the only logical conclusion.”

Levi nodded, taking a seat beside Sakura. “Then we just have to win even more decisively. For Karna’s sake.”

He had assumed a heavy atmosphere would hang over the room. A comrade had just been eliminated from the Holy Grail War, after all. He prepared a few more words of comfort, but the words died in his throat when Sakura simply stared at him, her eyes wide with mild astonishment.

Beside them, Ingvild covered her mouth, a soft chuckle escaping her lips. Across the low table, Artoria gave him a rather strange look. “Master, you don’t actually think we are sitting here mourning a comrade’s elimination, do you?”

“If not, then why the grim faces?” Levi scanned the room. Shirone and Irisviel were already shaking their heads in unison.

Finally, Sakura leaned closer. She gave his sleeve a gentle tug, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Levi-sama, we were just discussing how to handle my sister. Grayfia-nee caught her snooping around earlier. Rin is currently locked in the basement.”

Levi sat in silence for two full seconds. “Let me get this straight. You aren’t sad. You’re holding a committee meeting on how to deal with your sister?”

Sakura nodded earnestly.

Levi pushed himself up from the sofa, releasing a long sigh. Fine. Off to the basement it was.

Sakura fell into step beside him, making no effort to refute his phrasing about her sister. She kept her gaze fixed on the dimly lit stone corridor ahead, her voice barely a murmur over the echo of their footsteps. “Even if you don’t do anything, Levi-sama… just having you by my side makes me feel a bit more at ease.”

Her emotions were a tangled knot. “By all rights, that person is my sister. The man in the Tohsaka household is my father, and then there is my mother…” She trailed off, her fingers brushing the cold stone wall. “But I was sent away when I was six. My memory isn’t perfect; I can only recall things back to age four. At most, I spent two conscious years in that house.”

“Those two years were peaceful, but there is nothing truly special to remember.” She paused, pressing her lips into a thin line. When she spoke again, a faint tremor laced her words. “When I was six, that man handed me away with his own two hands. Then, I lived in hell for ten years. Ten years of suffering, compared to the happiness of these past few days… both leave a much deeper mark than those two fleeting years in that house.”

She stopped and turned to face him. “Levi-sama, do you believe that blood is thicker than water?”

Levi knew the script. At a time like this, a normal person would nod, offer a warm smile, pat her shoulder, and spout some positive nonsense about looking at the big picture and the unbreakable bonds of family.

He couldn’t bring himself to say it.

In his previous life, he had been an orphan. In this life… his situation was arguably worse. His grandfather had killed his father. His younger brother had run off. He had existed as mere air in his own home, watching relatives either die or flee. He had transitioned from an invisible ghost to a convenient tool. Given the absolute state of the Lucifer clan’s family dynamics, asking him to preach about blood being thicker than water was a sick joke.

Taking his silence as an answer, Sakura turned her gaze back to the corridor. “It seems you don’t have an answer either. I am the same.”

“You might not believe it, but Rin recognized me at first sight. Yet, when I stood outside the Tohsaka residence, watching their family get along so harmoniously… I had to guess who was who based on their ages.”

“Ten years is too long.” She hugged her arms across her chest. “That is why I didn’t let you knock on the door, nor did I go inside to see that home. My memories of what lies beyond those doors are incredibly blurry. Father, mother, Rin… I no longer hold their true images in my mind.”

The heavy oak door of the basement loomed ahead. Sakura didn’t stop talking. “Perhaps we technically count as family. Rin probably considers me family, too. But to me…” She looked up, her eyes reflecting the dim magical lighting. “Levi-sama, Kuroka, Shirone, Grayfia-nee, Ingvild, Irisviel, Artoria, and Mr. Karna… you all feel more like my family.”

“Happy memories together. Enduring hard times, teasing each other to get by, showing genuine kindness, forging bonds that can actually be felt… Isn’t that what constitutes a family?” Her voice grew firmer. “Those without memories, those you cannot see or touch, those where you cannot recall even a shred of warmth, and the only things you do remember are unpleasant… Levi-sama, can that truly be called family?”

Levi didn’t reach for the doorknob immediately. He stood there, organizing his thoughts.

“I am not very good at counseling people,” he finally said, his tone even. “And I have no right to make this decision for you.”

Sakura opened her mouth, but he raised a hand to stop her.

“But I do know that the past is the past. If something makes you feel bad, you don’t have to engage with it. If something makes you happy, do more of it.”

He leaned against the heavy doorframe. “Don’t try to calculate complex relationships, and don’t get hung up on memories or bloodlines. Honestly, I am just glad you were able to tell me all this. If you keep it bottled up, chewing on it over and over, you will eventually make yourself sick.”

A dry smirk touched his lips, and he offered her a quick wink. “You should be a bit more free. Learn from Kuroka. Though, don’t tell her I said that. If she were any more ‘free,’ I’m afraid she would tear down the Lucifer castle brick by brick.”

He pushed the basement door open.

Standing in the hallway, Sakura felt a genuine smile tug at the corners of her mouth. Freedom. Levi hadn’t directly resolved her confusion, but his pragmatic dismissal of tradition made the weight on her chest significantly lighter. She realized then why she felt so conflicted: she simply didn’t want to choose either side.

Levi had already figured that out. As he pushed the door, he caught her faint smile from the corner of his eye. A quiet sense of relief settled in his chest. She hadn’t wanted an answer; she just needed permission to let go.

Within the eccentric ranks of the Lucifer peerage, Sakura didn’t stand out through sheer chaos. She was quiet, gentle, and pleasant. Keeping that in mind, Levi stepped into the basement with a relaxed smile.

The smile shifted into something far more predatory the moment he laid eyes on the prisoner.

Rin was bound tightly within the glowing perimeter of a blue magic circle. Restraining runes wrapped around her limbs, and a silencing spell sealed her lips, rendering her completely mute. She glared daggers at him.

“The two Heroic Spirits from your Tohsaka faction are already gone,” Levi began, his tone light and airy as he strolled into the room. “In your household, there is only your father left, alongside a traitor with a Heroic Spirit. Given your father’s current state, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were eliminated any day now.”

He stopped just outside the circle, looking down at her. “So, Rin. Would you consider surrendering?”

He snapped his fingers, manifesting a parchment scroll. “We devils are sticklers for contract integrity. Come, sign this—let’s call it a lifetime labor debt repayment contract. Do that, and I will consider saving your father. How about it?”

Miles away, a room was plunged into pitch blackness.

Thick, metallic-smelling blood pooled across the hardwood floor. Tohsaka Tokiomi lay paralyzed, his eyes blown wide in absolute disbelief. His jaw worked, trying to form words, but his lungs refused to draw breath.

In the ornate mirror across the room, the reflection told the entire gruesome story. The person standing behind him had driven a blade straight through his back, piercing his heart. It was the Azoth sword—the very mercury blade Tokiomi had gifted his student.

His strength vanished. Tokiomi collapsed into his own blood, his life fading into the dark.

Kotomine Kirei stood over the corpse, watching his teacher breathe his last. A slow, dark smile stretched across his face.

This man had not been an enemy. Tokiomi had never made things difficult for him. In fact, he had been a generous and patient mentor. Yet, in the exact moment he murdered someone so close to him, Kotomine Kirei felt an intense, electrifying rush of pleasure—a sensation he had only experienced once before.

He turned away from the body, knowing he could no longer remain at the Tohsaka residence. As he walked slowly toward the door, taking in the familiar study he had visited countless times, the twisted joy in his chest surged like a rising tide.

‘I can’t go back.’It wasn’t a matter of being unable to return because of the murder. It was a fundamental shift in his soul.’Now that I have finally realized I am truly alive… I no longer belong here.’

Click. The door shut behind him.

The land manager of Fuyuki City, the current head of the Tohsaka family, Tohsaka Tokiomi, was eliminated.

“Don’t even think about it!”

The silencing spell broke. The black-haired girl tossed her twin-tails sharply, letting out a cold, defiant snort.

Levi wasn’t angry. Instead, he laughed, genuinely amused. “Grayfia, look at her. I am actually looking forward to releasing her now, just so she can find out her precious father is already dead. I wonder what kind of expression she’ll make then.”

“Who would carelessly lose their own father?!” Rin snapped, completely losing her composure. She gritted her teeth, her face flushed with fury. “I admit that Kotomine Kirei is annoying, but I absolutely refuse to believe he would kill my father!”

Levi casually took a seat on a plush sofa, crossing his legs. He swept a glance over his retainers, who were watching the spectacle with varying degrees of amusement, then pointed lazily at Rin. “Don’t blame her for being stubborn. Her life was traded for her father’s. Let her act tough for a little while longer; otherwise, that little deal her father made would be a total loss.”

Rin felt a vein throb at her temple. She stared at Levi, her lips trembling with sheer indignation. She opened her mouth several times, trying to formulate a curse, but the sheer audacity of his words left her entirely speechless.

Sakura, however, stepped forward with a soft chuckle. “Levi-sama, will Kotomine Kirei really kill Tohsaka Tokiomi?”

Seeing that it was Sakura asking, Levi dropped the sarcastic drawl. “It is a certainty. You remember when I went to the church to seize the Command Spells, right? That old priest had thirty Command Spells in his possession, handed over for free by the Matou family. I wasn’t the one who killed him. The person who murdered him was his own son, Kotomine Kirei.”

Kuroka’s ears twitched. The rest of the peerage blinked in surprise.

Rin refused to admit it out loud, but her attention was instantly hooked.

“What is so strange about that?” Levi shrugged. “I am a devil, after all. Karna was using Sakura’s magical energy to maintain his form at the time, and he carried the distinct aura of a devil. Attacking the church wasn’t a huge issue—at worst, it would look like a Stray Devil causing trouble. But if he had actually killed a member of the church, the political nature of the situation would have shifted entirely.”

He leaned back. “Even if it were just a Stray Devil, the angels would have absolutely sent an Exorcist or a purge squad, right? But have any of you seen a single feather from Heaven?”

Grayfia’s eyes gleamed with understanding. “No wonder. I have been monitoring Heaven’s movements closely during this period, but they haven’t reacted at all. It turns out the one causing trouble from within was on their own side.”

Levi glanced at the silver-haired maid. This was the same woman who had once carefully taught him how to assassinate targets without leaving a trace, now smoothly changing her tune to support his narrative. Because it was Grayfia, Levi honestly couldn’t tell if her past lessons were flawed, or if she was just flawlessly playing along with his current performance. Either way, she was the only one in the room who knew the absolute truth.

The rest of the peerage accepted the logic immediately. They turned their collective gaze toward Rin. The hostility faded, replaced by deep sympathy mixed with a hint of awkward pity.

“Don’t look at me with those eyes!” Rin yelled, shrinking back slightly.

Kuroka sighed, her tail swishing in mild helplessness. “Keep acting tough for a while longer… it’s just really pitiful at this point.”

Ugh! Rin felt as if she had taken a physical blow to the chest.

Finally, Sakura stepped closer to the magic circle. “Levi-sama wouldn’t lie about something like this. Sister, I think it is better if you believe him.”

“I said, Father wouldn’t—” Rin started to shout, but suddenly froze, her eyes widening as the word registered. “Sakura… what did you just call me?”

“I called you Rin. What’s wrong?” Sakura replied, her gentle smile perfectly in place, looking absolutely no different from her usual self.