Ch 282: Interrupting the Lion King Organization’s ritual.

"Welcome back, Mistress Akeno." nodded Sayoko as Akeno landed on the campus behind the clubhouse. She had just returned from the Chinese Federation's territory, keeping her promise about making a few eunuchs one head shorter, and had dealt with the Demonic Pillar the day before.

Standing beside Sayoko were Da Vinci and Alice, now wearing a maid uniform and glaring at her. Until Sayoko gave her a side eye, and Alice, noticing, flinched before forcing her expression back to neutral.

"Thank you." smiled Akeno. "Is everyone ready?"

"Almost, Mistress Akeno. Mistress Nunnally and Master Lelouch are saying goodbye to Empress Cornelia and Princess Euphemia. Everyone else already packed their belongings and are waiting in the living room."

"We almost finished with the drone factories as well." said Da Vinci. "Rakshata won't have any trouble giving the finishing touches. As long as Ohgi doesn't mess up too badly, Japan will be safe."

"That's great. But you didn't have time to design your Demonic energy sensor, right?"

"I didn't, and I am not certain I will have time for it. Once we are back in Chaldea, I intend to remain there for a little while, and make myself available as a reinforcement for when one of our teams stumbles upon this world Lilith and Athena warned us about. I really, really want to take apart those machines and see how they work."

Akeno smiled at Da Vinci's eager expression, and they entered the clubhouse.

"You probably won't have much more than wrecks to work with, however." warned Akeno.

"I will make do with them. And you'd be surprised with how much can be learned from wrecks. I shouldn't have trouble filling in the holes." nodded Da Vinci.

"According to Olga-Marie, Team Asuka and Team Rin have already returned, and Team Chisato just received the location of their Pillar. The three other teams have no particular issues but will likely require a few weeks to return." continued Da Vinci. "That's going to mean a lot of Soul Contracts for you to create within the next few days, and then we will set foot on four new timelines."

"I look forward to seeing them again." nodded Akeno.

"I am going to fetch the others, Mistress Akeno." said Sayoko, taking her leave, and Akeno entered the living room.

"Welcome back, Mistress Akeno." greeted six maids in unison, curtsying at her. Milly, Shirley, Nina, Anya, Jean, and CC.

"Thank you, everyone." smiled Akeno, still dressed in her white and red leather Kyuubi suit.

"We're about to depart, and I must tell you something. I know that Sayoko and I trained you to refer to me as 'Mistress Akeno', but from now on, you can call me Akeno-sama or just Akeno if you wish. Even Noah likes to be called several ways depending on his girls' preferences. Some call him just Noah, others Noah-sama, or simply Master. As long as you use a respectful tone, we will not mind. Since the day you girls signed the soul contracts, you became members of our family, first and foremost."

"Do that mean that we won't be disciplined anymore?" frowned CC.

"No. It means that you have the choice. You can decide to follow a discipline regimen very similar to the one you experienced, and you will be expected to follow the rules and be punished if you violate them, but you can also choose not to. In which case, there are only three principles you must adhere to. Be loyal to the rest of the family, contribute with spending some of your time doing humanitarian work, and do not have any physical or romantic relationship with someone who isn't Noah, or a member of his harem."

"I understand. I am fine with things as they are, Mistress Akeno." smiled CC.

Akeno nodded and sat on the sofa. As Sayoko made the rounds, informing everyone of their imminent departure, the room was gradually filling up. Some were people who hadn't been trained yet, like Leila, Sakura and Sakuya, the three engineer girls from Europia, Chloé, Ferilli and Hilda, as well as Izumi and Kasumi. The former Valkyries and Knights of rounds, all dressed in maid uniforms.

Akeno nodded to herself with satisfaction, thinking that this world have been a very good harvest for Noah's harem.

Nunnally and Lelouch walked in, followed by Kallen, Alice, Ayano and finally Sayoko.

Akeno carefully looked at everyone, making certain all the members of her faction were present in the now crowded living room, and brought out the Sanctuary.

…

Jinah looked with an apologetic smile at the five girls standing in a line in front of her, back in their school uniforms.

"Are you still angry at us?" asked Jinah.

"…A bit." sighed Reina after a quick glance at the others. "I don't like how you forced this on us. Even if I understand it is ultimately for our own good, and becoming immortal as soon as we can meet with your friend Akeno is a decent compensation. But you guys better take responsibility for making us, like this. And we’re not doing any of that in public, ever!"

"Of course." nodded Jinah.

"Beru is flying toward the location you gave us. We should be near now." said Gudako, standing beside Jinah. "Are you girls okay with this? You likely won't need to fight the members of the Lion King Organization, the four of us should be enough."

"Yes." nodded Yukina, sighing in turn. "There is no question that they are at fault in this matter, and we need to do whatever is necessary to save Avrora."

Jinah was satisfied with that. The girls' training was far from being complete, but they had reached the point where they accepted that they were going to follow Jinah and the others from now on.

That fact that they were all orphans, that most of their lives had been spent training, not socializing, and that the Lion King Organization had kidnapped an innocent person and refused to even tell them why, or even that they hadn't told any of them about the fate that ultimately waited for the Schneewalzers's yielders, had helped a lot in them reaching that decision.

Jinah connected her senses to Beru. He was still flying a few hundred meters above ground, high enough that few people would spot him, much less identify him as a black, flying, humanoid ant. Beru could still read the signposts of the nearby highway, and using them, Jinah saw that they were about 15 kilometers from the Lion King Organization's headquarters, a large temple in the mountains.

"We'll be there in about five minutes." said Jinah to the others, and they nodded. On Jinah's right, Mash gently squeezed Nagisa's shoulder for support.

"We will save her, one way or another."

"And if we can't, we'll just ask Noah to revive her." nodded Gudako.

"You think we can ask him to revive our parents?" asked Yuiri with a short hesitation.

"I'm sure he will agree, but he already has a waiting line, so it may take a while." nodded Jinah. "Are there any force fields, magic arrays or things like this in the Headquarters we should take into account?"

"There will be some patrolling Shikigamis and a detection array, but nothing that should be a threat to you guys." frowned Yukina.

"Shikigamis?" asked Jinah.

"Magic familiars, like animated paper talismans. We Shamanic War Dancers often use them." explained Shio.

"We'll go through the front door. Hopefully, there will be a physical door we can kick down, to show we mean business." said Gudako.

"I think they already know." sniffed Medb.

Once Reina had agreed to give them the location of the Lion King Organization's headquarters, Jinah had stopped the time dilation inside the Sanctuary and contacted Tiné for news. Tiné had informed Natsuki of their intentions, as agreed, and warned Jinah that Natsuki had given them some delay before informing the Lion King Organization that Jinah and the others had left Itogami Island, and demanding once again that they release Avrora.

According to what she said to Tiné later, Paper Noise had issued some threats of her own, saying that they had the cooperation of the JDSF, and that interfering with their matter would have severe consequences.

Jinah didn't care.

A few minutes later, they stopped near the foot of the mountain, before a long flight of stone stairs surrounded by torii gates.

"No gates to kick down." shrugged Jinah as she let the group and passed between the red wood pillars.

"Yes." said Gudako as she shot a warning glance at Beru, who looked like he was considering the wood pillars as an acceptable replacement for missing doors. "Destroying torii gates would be a major sin. The gods wouldn't like that."

Beru nodded, and followed behind them, not bothering to hide his aura. Jinah had removed her ring as well.

By the time they reached the top of the stairs, a black cat was waiting for them.

"Nyanko-sensei. Where is Avrora?" asked Yukina, her silver spear in hand, but not pointed at the cat.

"How disrespectful, to greet your teacher in such a manner." squinted the cat before staring at Jinah. "Avrora isn't here… And unless you are prepared to make yourself an enemy of the Japanese government, you should return to Itogami Island and forget about her."

"That doesn't sound like you intend to release her." frowned Jinah. "Why did you really kidnap her?"

Jinah was looking behind the cat at the temple buildings, not seeing any movement.

"If you are searching for the others, we preemptively evacuated them when we learned you were coming. I am the only one here… And Avrora, this artificial, incomplete soul… will be sacrificed, in order to save several people."

"Sacrificed!" choked Nagisa, outraged.

"Explain." ordered Jinah, her pupils shining purple from the magic power she was unleashing. "Or I will spend the next few weeks hunting down every single member of your organization."

"…Somewhere in Japan, something is sealed. It is rumored to be a god-slaying weapon or demon, something from the age of the Deva. And the seal is failing. Every three years, we had to perform a ritual and sacrifice a shrine maiden to reinforce the seal. Avrora possess so much more magic power. With her, the seal should be able to hold for at least five decades. And since she isn't human, she is more… expendable."

"You can't to that!" yelled Nagisa. "I won't let you sacrifice Avrora-chan!"

"You bunch of fools." sighed Jinah. "Tell me where that seal is, and call your colleagues and tell them to stop the ritual right away."

"I won't. You can kill my familiar if you wish, but that will not change anything. And those buildings can be rebuilt."

Jinah frowned, and for long seconds, stared at the cat. But she wasn't staring just at the cat. She was also staring at the faint mana threads linking the cat to one of the more remote and smallest buildings, toward the north-east corner of the temple complex.

Since Jinah had gotten so strong after defeating the Monarchs' army of monsters, she has prioritized her Perception attribute with her daily training since then, and now, it was paying off.

Then she made a thin smile.

"You think you can hide behind a familiar?"

Before the cat could do more than narrow its eyes, Jinah already had used Shunpo to reach the small building, and she did kick the door open.

Sitting cross-legged on the tatami-covered ground was a young woman with a pale skin, chestnut brown eyes, and semi-long blonde hair gathered at he base o her neck into a ponytail. But her most striking feature was her ears, pointy like those of elves. She was dressed in a sleeveless green kimono.

She looked at Jinah in shock, then slowly stood with a vexed expression.

"How did you find me out?"

"Where is Avrora? This is your last chance before I stop being polite."

"You would sentence many shrine maidens to death for the sake of saving her? You barely know her. You have only been in our world for a few days, if you told us the truth about yourself."

"No, you idiot!" spat Jinah. "I will do something about that seal, to make sure no human sacrifice is ever needed again! But if Avrora is hurt, I will go medieval on your butt!"

"I do not believe you can. And I am prepared to withstand torture. By the time I break, everything will be over." replied the woman with a cool tone.

"Stubborn fool." grumbled Jinah as the others joined them.

"Huh? Are you Nyanko-sensei?" asked Yukina, seeing her for the first time.

"I am." nodded the elf. "Although my name is Yukari Endou."

"Medb, she still refuses to tell us where Avrora is." glared Jinah, ready to erupt into violence if Yukari tried anything.

"I see. I will get her to talk." smiled Medb, moving closer and using her hypnosis Magecraft.

For almost a full minute, Medb and Yukari stared at each other, one with a defiant expression, the other with a confident one. But by the end of it, it was Medb was scowling, and Yukari was smiling.

"I can't get through her mental defenses." sighed Medb.

"This is my specialty after all." shrugged Yukari.

"Give me ten minutes with her." said Medb, already taking out the sanctuary.

"Okay. We'll search their papers or computers while you do." nodded Jinah.

"We do not have any comp..." said Yukari before both Medb and her disappeared.

"…Your teacher is a though cookie." sighed Jinah to Yukina.

"Yes. She trained me as well. But I only ever saw the cat familiar." said Sayaka. "Is Medb going to torture her?"

"I'm not sure." admitted Jinah. "Let's explore the other buildings. Maybe we'll find a clue."

"The building on our left is the dormitory for the Shaman candidates. I don't think we'll bind anything useful there." pointed out Reina.

Jinah nodded, and they searched the other buildings.

They didn't actually find anything, but Medb returned with a grin.

"I got her!"

"You did?" asked Jinah, feeling relief.

"Did you torture her?" asked Sayaka with a bit of worry.

"Not in the way you seem to imply." snorted Medb. "If her mental defenses were too strong, I just had to bring her to a battlefield that is favorable to me! She couldn't keep her defenses up while in the throes of an orgasm."

"Ah, I see…" nodded Sayaka with a blush, feeling both relieved and a bit sorry for her former teacher.

"So where is she right now?"

"Depowered, and secured in the basement. We're keeping her, right?" asked Medb, already knowing the answer.

"…We're keeping her." confirmed Jinah. "So, where?"

"Lake Kannawa, sixty kilometers north of here. They will perform the ceremony at noon, so we have almost two hours to get there. But there is more."

"More?" asked Mash.

"The JDSF soldiers accompanying them. They are cultists of Cain who infiltrated the military. The three Saints of the Lion King Organization planned to use what is at the bottom of the lake as bait to bring them out in the open, then crush them when they attempt to disrupt the ritual and break the seal."

"We'll deal with them as well if necessary." nodded Jinah.

Medb gave the sanctuary to Beru while Jinah looked at her smartphone for the equivalent of google maps, and found Lake Kannawa.

She showed Beru the satellite view of the way from their location to the lake, and he nodded, having memorized it.

I will carry you there right away, my Queen." promised Beru.

"Thank you, Beru. Stay just under the speed of sound. We do not want to break windows for thousands of people." said Jinah before they entered the Sanctuary.

…

Less than 15 minutes later, they arrived at the lake.

Jinah, looking through Beru's senses, spotted on the shore a military camp with a dozen large tents and at least thirty people in uniforms, as well as a half-dozen young women. Some of the soldiers were sitting in front of computers.

Beru only gave them a glance, feeling only one fairly strong aura coming from one of the women, one with long black hair tied into twin braids and blue eyes behind thin oval glasses, and wearing a purple priestess outfit. She sensed him and looked up, meeting his gaze with a frown. Beru, however, broke eye contact as a more urgent matter attracted his attention.

Floating near the lake's center was a wooden platform, with an altar made of wood at its center. Avrora, dressed in a white and red shrine maiden's outfit, was laying on it, and beside her was another decently strong woman, one with long silver-blonde hair and dusty blue eyes. The traditional blue kimono she wore was strained by her very large bust. She, too, had sensed Beru.

Beru squinted his multi-faceted eyes as an elaborate, glowing blue magic array was already floating over Avrora's body.

"They have already started the ritual!" exclaimed Jinah inside the Sanctuary. "We're still mid-air, but I'm going in! Mash, Gudako, with me! Medb, wait twenty seconds for Beru to land before bringing the others out!"

Jinah didn't wait for confirmation before getting out of the sanctuary, creating light footholds and using Shunpo to appear near the priestess. Before she could react, Jinah held the tip of her spear against her throat.

"Stop the ritual, right now!" ordered Jinah.

The woman took an instant to recover from the shock, then shook her head.

"It can't be stopped at this point. It is going to…"

Gudako, who had landed on the other side of the alter, took her black sword from her spatial ring and slashed at the glowing array, making it shatter.

"W-What have you done!" gasped the priestess, horrified.

"We're saving our friend, whether you want it or not!" said Mash with a glare.

"But the seal!" protested the priestess, stopping when Avrora suddenly opened her eyes, and an intense golden aura burst from her body.

"No!" gasped Avrora, and a large familiar materialized above her, looking like a giant mermaid with a golden mask and glowing red eyes.

The mermaid pointed her trident down and sunk the tip into the lake's waters, and ice instantly spread from it. In mere seconds, the whole lake had been frozen solid.

"They… must not be allowed out." gasped Avrora, looking pale as the familiar dematerialized, and she lost consciousness.

Gudako touched her, scanning her body with Greater Healing, and nodded to Jinah as she took Avrora in her arms.

"She's okay, just exhausted."

"So, what is your name?" asked Jinah with a more normal tone as with withdrew the spear tip from the priestess's throat.

"…Shirona Kuraki. One of the leaders of the Lion King Organization. Do you have any idea of the mess you caused? The seal is broken! When the ice melts, that treasure will attract all kinds of trouble!"

"We'll take whatever that treasure is with us or destroy it." shrugged Jinah. "You should be more concerned about how you will apologize to us for giving us so much trouble."

"I will acknowledge that what we did was wrong. But we had good reasons for it, and…"

Her words were stopped by the sound of something huge cracking, and a massive crack spread over the ice about fifty meters from them.

"We'll continue this conversation later." decided Jinah, starting to expand her shadow. "Gudako, Please bring Avrora to the Sanctuary and recover it from Beru. Mash, can you go protect Nagisa and the others?"

"Yes."

More cracks were heard, and the fissure was widening. Jinah could already see indistinct shapes climbing through the thick ice. She spotted dozens of them and heard the sounds of a multitude of skittering claws digging on the ice.

Jinah had left Igris with Tiné, and she didn't want to bring massive dragons or Tusk to fight a horde of small targets, so she commanded a hundred Shadow Infantry, as well as another hundred Shadow Mages and Archers to exit her shadow.

She could always bring out the big boys later if needed.

The first of the things climbing out of the fissure reached the surface, and as it deployed it bat-like wings and took to the air, Jinah decided it belonged to the "kill it with fire" category.

The yellow and gray creatures had two-meter-long serpentine bodies covered by insect exoskeleton, four large wasp legs each ending with two claws, bat wings, and their heads were those of wasps, their mandibles clacking open and close as they screeched at the humans.

"Go." said Jinah, summoning some more of her Shadow Infantry and all of her Mages and Archers, and manifesting a dozen light swords.

The snake-bugs were many, but individually weak, and the barrage cut their number down, but the crack was very long, and toward the edges, more creature were escaping. Most headed toward Jinah, Shirona and the Shadow warriors, but some also targeted the people around the military camp, and the Jinah heard the first gunshots.

She wasn't worried, as Mash, Gudako, Beru and the others were close enough to engage the insects while keeping a vigilant eye on the soldiers.

Supporting fire already came from the shore in the form of arrows made of blue energy. Sayaka, Shio and another girl with long black hair she didn't know were standing on the shore rather than heading for the military camp three hundred meters away.

They had their sword/bow hybrid weapons in bow form and were firing arrow after arrow. Furthermore, those arrows duplicated themselves as they traveled to their targets and had some homing feature, as none missed their marks. The three girls were killing almost as many monsters as Jinah's soldiers did.

Jinah smiled and decided she would have Sayaka teach her this neat trick later.

The slaughter took about a minute until no more insects came out. Over a thousand of their corpses littered the ice around the crack, and many more corpses had fallen inside.

Jinah frowned at the green ichor oozing from the bodies and turned to her shadow soldiers.

"Get those corpses to the shore, please, and burn them. Let's not pollute the lake's waters more than necessary."

The soldiers nodded and walked to the corpses, grabbing their tails. Others jumped down the crack.

Jinah then turned to Shirona, who was watching her and the soldiers warily.

She noticed something. Very faint threats of mana extended from Shirona's fingers to the ice below, then to ten of her own shadow soldiers, and when Jinah focused on them, she felt that her bonds with the shadow soldiers were slowly weakening.

Incredulous, Jinah realized that Shirona was trying to steal ten of her shadow soldiers, maybe to try to assassinate her, maybe as a test before she did it on a larger scale.

She wasn't going to just let this happen, however, and Jinah used her Ruler's Authority to grab Shirona and lightly punch her stomach before chopping at her neck, copying what she had done with Beatrice. She drew a Stop rune on her nape, then put her in a fireman carry and used Shunpo to quickly join the others.

"Please release Shirona-sama!" shouted the black-haired girl who had assisted in taking down the insects.

"Calm down, Touka. She's not going to be hurt." said Sayaka. "But why did you suddenly knock her out, Jinah?"

"She used magic to try to steal control of some of my Shadow Infantry. You guys at the Lion King Organization really are reckless, are you not?"

"Well…" sighed Sayaka. "Maybe this is what happens when an organization doesn't meet any strong adversary for a long time."

"What are you going to do with Shirona-sama?" sighed Touka.

"I am not sure yet. First, we need to deal with…"

Before she could finish, she felt something and looked at her Shadow Infantry. One of them was walking toward her, holding in his arms an unconscious, naked girl with semi-long gray hair.

"Who is that girl?" asked Sayaka with wide eyes.

"I do not know." replied Jinah, taking a white shirt from her inventory.

"Where did you find her?" asked Jinah, and the Shadow Infantry pointed at the fissure.

"She was at the bottom?" asked Jinah again, and he nodded.

"I see. Good job bringing her to me. I will…"

Jinah hurriedly created several layers of light shields, just in time to stop a large, black flying reptile, a wyvern, from swooping in and grabbing the naked girl.

The Wyvern's legs collided with the shields, failing to destroy them, and kept flying for a second before the human riding it, at least Jinah supposed it was a human, made the wyvern turn and land twenty meters from them.

"I have no interest in you." declared the rider, their face mostly hidden by a white skull mask and a cowl. "Give me the dragon, and you can leave."

"The dragon, huh?" said Jinah with a thoughtful glance at the girl.

She looked up at the wyvern rider.

"I will decline. Rather, I am giving you one chance to surrender peacefully."

All the Shadow Infantry, Mages and Archers had stopped gathering the insect corpses and were slowly advancing toward the wyvern rider.

The rider snorted, looking at the closest Shadow Infantry, and pointed a big, strange-looking lance at him. The lance elongated suddenly, piercing the Shadow Infantry, and something strange happened. Most of the shadow soldier's mass was swallowed by the spear, who became a little bit larger, its color changing from dark gray to black with a few glowing blue lines.

Jinah felt her bond with that Shadow Soldier break, and she frowned.

"Thank you for the meal! I will swallow all of your familiars and become much stronger!" said the rider with a slightly sadistic smile.

Jinah laid the still unconscious Shirona on the ground, and activated Augment.

A fourth of a second later, Jinah's left leg was breaking the rider's right arm, making them drop the spear, followed by half a dozen ribs and violently yeeting them off the wyvern's back.

The skull mask shattered when its wearer collided with a tree, revealing a woman's face with short brown hair and blue eyes wide open in surprise and pain, before she lost consciousness due to the severity of her wounds.

"Ah! I recognize her!" exclaimed Touka. "She is Mikage Okiyama from the Japanese Self-Defense Force, the is the second of Major Azama, the leader of this platoon."

Jinah sniffed and used Shunpo again as the wyvern wisely decided to flee rather than try to fight her, appearing near Mikage. She drew a Stop rune on her before using greater healing to heal her wounds, then quickly searched her body for weapons, removing them, and putting handcuffs on her wrists.

"Who are they?" asked Medb as she joined them.

"That one's an enemy to interrogate and reform, the priestess is one of the Lion King Organization's Saints and I haven't decided what to do with her yet, and the girl with a shirt is apparently a dragon and was sealed in the lake's depths." sighed Jinah, sending a glare at the lance the woman had dropped. With a few light swords, she proceeded to destroy the evil weapon, cutting it apart.

"How are things around the military camp?" asked Jinah as she completed her handiwork and vented her irritation.

To her, her Shadow Soldiers weren't just undead minions or tools. They were underlings who were loyal to her, troops under her command, and she felt like she had to repay that loyalty by, at the very least, not making them face any enemy who could truly kill them. Losing one frustrated her.

"The fake JSDF soldiers have been neutralized, although not before a few of them fused their bodies with military vehicles and turned into weird golems. We dealt with them with our black swords, and the survivors are in the custody of the Lion King Organization's women. We have no injured or casualties. Here, Beru gave me the Sanctuary back."

Jinah accepted the precious artifact with a nod of thanks.

"Let's go meet with them and… what's up with me being constantly interrupted today?" growled Jinah as her smartphone rang.

She opened it and saw La Folia's name.

"La Folia?"

"Jinah! I have tried to reach you for a while."

"Sorry, we were a bit busy with saving Avrora. She is safe now."

"I am happy to hear that. I have a big favor to ask you, Jinah. Please attend the Anniversary Gala of the Warlord's Empire in three weeks."

"…Sounds like a pain. Why are you asking?"

"Because the Warlord wants you to come badly enough that he 'invited' my mother and my two sisters to come visit his empire and stay there until you meet him."

"…I see." sighed Jinah, her eyes growing cold. "I will accept, then. In three weeks? He hasn't demanded that I go there as soon as possible?"

"No. In fact, you girls should return to Itogami as soon as you can. The Warlord gave my mother an ominous piece of advice to thank her for accepting his invitation willingly."

"He suggested for me and Kanon to leave Itogami asap, before, I quote, 'we would become unable to'. He did say that his Empire wasn't involved in whatever is going to happen, but his Intelligence Service must have caught whiff of something. I hope you won't take it wrongly, but I'm on my way to the airport. I do not want to risk Kanon's safety. As soon as we reach Aldegyr, I will arrange a flight back for Tiné and Saika."

"Don't. Keep them with you, I will be more at ease with them over there, in case something happens. I can always call upon more reinforcement if needed. I'll settle things with the Lion King Organization, and we will quickly return to Itogami."

"Gladly. They're both so cute, especially Saika, having them around will be a lot of fun. We'll return to Itogami after the Gala. You're busy, so I will hang up. We'll keep in touch."

"Sure, talk to you later, La Folia." nodded Jinah, glancing down at Shirona as the call ended.

Foolish and reckless or not, she was a beautiful woman. One he was sure Noah would like having as a servant. Her being one of the Saints made things more complicated, but since they already had decided to keep Yukari… And the upcoming negotiations with Paper Noise would be easier if she didn't have the support of another Saint as well.

'In for a penny, in for a dollar.' thought Jinah with a shrug. She met Medb's gaze, nodded, and the Heroic Spirit smiled before Jinah sent her was well as Shirona and Mikage inside the sanctuary.

Sayaka and Shio on the side looked at each other and sighed while Touka protested, and Jinah ignored them, creating decent clothes for the dragon girl.

…

In the end, the 'negotiation' went better than Jinah expected. Paper Noise protested vehemently when Jinah flat out told her that she had captured both Yukari and Shirona and would punish the Lion King Organization by having them serve as her maids for the duration of their stay.

But in the end, she was powerless against someone who had just proven she had both the strength and willingness to oppose both her organization and the government and refused to budge. Paper Noise finally gave up when Jinah threatened to make her a maid as well.

Jinah didn't mention the fact that she had already sunk her claws into the five Observers, and the girls didn't reveal it out of sheer embarrassment.

And because Paper Noise missed this little detail and wanted more eyes on them, she assigned Touka Fujisaka as an additional Observer as well. Jinah glanced at the beautiful girl standing on the side and conceded with some token reluctance, letting Paper Noise think she had at least won a tiny victory over them.