Chapter 465: The Night at Petra’s Mansion, Part 2

"For now, why don’t we continue with what we were actually supposed to talk about?"

Kouhei decided to steer the conversation back toward the subject they had originally come here to discuss. If Petra continued following every joke and teasing remark that came to mind, there was a very good chance that they would get completely sidetracked again, and considering how easily she seemed to derail the conversation, Kouhei figured that he had better put things back on track before they somehow ended up talking about something completely unrelated.

"You really are no fun at all," Petra said, although the disappointed tone she tried to put into her voice didn’t quite match the expression on her face. She looked far too entertained by the whole situation, which made it obvious that she was mostly teasing him anyway. "Well, for now, I suppose it would be better if we actually talked about it. What I already told you earlier pretty much gives you the gist of what Aegis’s personality was like, though. I told you that although she seems like a good girl on the surface, she was actually a perverted freak underneath it all. She wanted to get fucked so badly that she even imagined herself getting gangbanged right there on the street. Honestly, I don’t think there is much more I could say that would have quite the same effect as what I’ve already told you about her."

After hearing what the nun was apparently like, even Kouhei found himself having trouble believing that someone like that actually existed. He didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about it, though, and judging from the fact that Petra herself had already explained how easy Aegis was to seduce because of her particular nature, there seemed to be a considerable chance of success if Kouhei approached the situation carefully.

"You have to be absolutely careful about something, though," Petra said, suddenly shifting back into a more serious tone. "I forgot to tell you this earlier, but... the college she was attending wasn’t a normal college at all. The students there were being trained to become people capable of fighting those who had strayed from the heavens, as well as those who had been deemed evil by them. Demons, fallen angels, witches, and even mermaids were included among the races they were taught to fight. They are basically people who don’t want those kinds of races or concepts to continue existing, because what they ultimately want is for their own race, along with those from the heavens, to be the only ones left in this world. They are basically the soldiers of Yesh, and they are trying to fulfill Yesh’s prophecy. You do know about the prophecy of Yesh, right?"

Kouhei understood what she meant, especially after having the prophecy explained to him several times before. It was the prophecy in which the Heaven race, together with its allies, would exterminate the demon race along with the other races that were considered threats to humanity.

In simple terms, it was essentially a prophecy centered around the extinction of entire races, leaving the Heaven race standing above everyone else once all of the races they considered enemies had been eliminated. If that prophecy were ever fulfilled, the Heaven race would be able to live in a world where they stood alone, believing that they had finally succeeded in vanquishing what they considered evil from existence.

The whole thing sounded like the sort of plot that belonged in an over-the-top fantasy novel, but Kouhei had a strange feeling that the Heaven race would genuinely attempt to carry it out if they were given the opportunity. Considering everything he had already learned about them, he also suspected that they weren’t simply waiting around for the prophecy to happen by itself.

They were probably preparing for it even now.

"You are the person who can stop that prophecy from being fulfilled," Petra said. "Basically, you are someone who can prevent the extinction of all of us from happening. You are our last hope."

She paused for a moment before continuing, her expression becoming noticeably more serious than it had been when she was teasing him earlier.

"So, having been placed somewhere where you could potentially be discovered, and considering that there is also a possibility that you could be killed, I think it is only natural for you to be extremely careful, especially in a place like that. You cannot afford to become careless when the consequences could affect far more people than just yourself."

Kouhei understood what she meant, and there wasn’t really much he could argue against when she put it that way.

"Fufufu, good," Petra said with a small smile after seeing that he understood her warning. "By the way, are you really not going to have your way with my body? Just so you know, even though I am a witch and have lived for quite a while already, my body is still pure."

Petra was basically implying that she was still a virgin, and the casual way she threw that information into the conversation made Kouhei wonder whether she had been deliberately waiting for the opportunity to say it. He couldn’t exactly deny that continuing in that direction would probably make the situation considerably worse for him, especially when he had already gotten the information he came here to obtain.

Rather than giving Petra another opportunity to tease him, Kouhei simply stood up from his seat.

"I’m thankful that you were willing to have this conversation with me," he said, keeping his voice polite despite the increasingly strange direction the conversation had taken.

After saying that, he turned around and left the room, apparently deciding that leaving was considerably safer than remaining there while Petra continued throwing unexpected comments at him.

Petra simply watched the doorway where Kouhei had disappeared, and a small smile gradually appeared on her face as she thought about the conversation they had just shared.

"Kuhihihihi... he is really interesting," she muttered to herself. "I guess this is why Yui fell in love with him."

Petra hadn’t told Kouhei any of this, even though Kouhei had been wanting to know where Yui was. Yui was a friend of Petra’s, although describing their relationship as an ordinary friendship didn’t really capture the complicated nature of their connection.

Yui had been visiting Petra’s mansion every now and then, and while the two of them were certainly familiar with one another, their relationship was far too complicated to simply call them friends. At the same time, calling them mere acquaintances would have been just as inaccurate, considering how much time they had spent together and how much they already knew about one another.

Their relationship existed somewhere in that awkward middle ground where neither label seemed quite right, which was probably why Petra herself rarely bothered trying to define it.

Petra had heard quite a lot about a man named Kouhei. Yui had mentioned him enough times that Petra had gradually become curious about him, even before she finally had the opportunity to meet him face to face.

That curiosity had only grown after seeing him for herself.

While Petra was thinking about that, a black cat suddenly appeared inside the room.

The cat slowly began transforming, its body changing shape until it eventually took the form of a human woman standing before Petra. The transformation itself happened so naturally that Petra barely reacted to it, as she had clearly seen the process countless times before.

It was Wanda, Petra’s only servant, who was also, by extension, a witch herself.

"It seems that you have been really, really intrigued by him," Wanda said while looking at Petra with an increasingly curious expression. "You were even willing to go as far as asking him to sleep with you, so I have to wonder whether this is actually part of your goal, Lady Petra."

"Oh my, are you jealous, Wanda?" Petra asked with an amused smile, clearly enjoying the reaction she had managed to get from her servant.

Wanda immediately blushed.

"I-It’s not like that," she protested. "I am simply asking why you are going so far for him when you barely even know him."

Petra looked up toward the ceiling and began thinking about the question, her playful expression slowly becoming more thoughtful as she remembered something from before.

Her mind returned to something Yui had said shortly before she left the country.

’He is coming here for some kind of advice, I feel like, so I would like for you to help him.’

It had been the first time Petra had heard Yui speak about someone in quite that way. Yui had always been a lonely fallen angel who had been betrayed by her own people, cast down from the heavens, and left to deal with the consequences on her own.

She had spent so much time keeping other people at a distance that Petra had become accustomed to seeing that guarded side of her.

Yet something about the way Yui had spoken about Kouhei had been different.

It was almost as though that lonely fallen angel, after everything she had experienced and everything that had happened to her, was finally beginning to trust someone again.

"It was something that a friend told me to do, I guess."