…I don’t know how heaven handles heirs, but I feel like you shouldn’t out the next High Archangel of Heaven in front of some of the strongest of your mortal enemy.

          “Oh, cool! My father is the Demon Lord!” Meanwhile our brilliant little heir decided now was a good time to pop out of the woodwork. Normally, he keeps quiet and we let him live.

          “Really?! What’s he like? My old blight is a nightmare. He’s got all these stupid plans that-”

          “Enough of that. Murder” I pointed to the corpse. “You little brats can chat about how hard your lives are and how much you hate your idiot fathers later over a bowl of ice cream and lollipops.”

          “…can we do that too?” Looking up at me with big eyes, I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the fresh waves of pain shooting up my wrist as she prodded my left arm.

          “..sure. After we catch the murders.”

          “Wait, plural? As in, there are multiple people in the worlds that’d run around under your giant old noses?” The Gaffe kid asked, with an understandable amount of disbelief.

          “Do you have a lead, sir?” our brat, who was much more promising than his father, asked after the other kid got pummeled back into his wall by Boney.

          “Yes, a few.” The medal was tucked away, we don’t need fools jumping to conclusions.

          …I forgot to ask her if she thought Tavliel would do it. Well, since he knows her personally, one way or another, I am going to assume he either doesn’t have a death wish or he’s been framed.

          Or the lead connecting him is a happy bonus for the actual idiot and they’re just having a one-night dance to oblivion with luck playing the lead.

          “Who have you seen while patrolling this side of the Isle?”

          “Sir, we saw Duke Quenloc and the angel general briefly approximately 1-2 hours ago about 30 minutes south of here.”

          “We did too, anyone else?”

          “No, sir. That, and this, both separated from the group for a break before we encountered them and we have stayed as a group since.” The brat pointed two men out as their faces stiffened.

          “Did you two see anything?”

          “NO SIR.” One shouted while the other muttered inaudibly at what was probably him best volume. A half-wraith demon child, they didn’t talk much, but they were fun to make. All you need is a baby at death’s door, a desperate mother, and-

          “We saw, oh shoot, what’s-his-name.” One of the…trained…angels chimed in to…help. “One of those demon Dukes, I think. This tall,” He indicated a height that was slightly shorter than himself, “this wide” indicated a width that was about as far as his arms could stretch, “and he looked like a rock with a bad personality.”         

          “Duke Grakel.”

          “Grakel”

          “Graky!”

          “Wait, isn’t he dead?”

          “Well, he’s not supposed to be here.” I muttered, tapping my horn. He was only one generation below the bone terror. We could take him, but the brats would have trouble if they had to handle him. “I thought the old man took him with him?”

          “..if he shows up can we go home?” Aena turned to look at me, her eyes dead serious.

          “…if he’s involved, yes.”

          “Deal.”

          “Moving on.” My rats hadn’t found any traces. It looked like we would have to search ourselves. My eyes roamed while I was thinking, debating the best route. The half brat, probably one I made but not one I remember, was trying his best to maintain his stance while leaning as far away from her as possible.

          I mentally smacked the unrelated thoughts. The area we were in was mostly residential and had a lot of rooms. Odds were there was a clue or two hiding somewhere around.

          “How well do you trust yours?” I asked her. If we could get out of doing this ourselves…

          “I would trust them with my back, with my very life.” She smiled fondly at them, only to look at me flatly and say, “Be that as it may, I seem to remember a certain incident where they were investigating a vampiric demon sighting and were unable to find it after a charming young lady who lived in a large underground black castle informed them that she’d never seen such a thing and offered them a casket of blood for the road.”

          “Ah, Lilri’s granddaughter. How is she?”

          “It just did not seem fair to hunt her after that.”

          “Hm. Right, so they can’t be trusted to investigate on their own. Pair, no, groups of four. Beat up and restrain anyone you run into.”

          “…Sir, what if we run into Duke Grackle?” Our brat, I really don’t remember his name anymore, asked nervously. The others seemed more resigned, but there was an annoying bit of expectation in their eyes.

          “I gave my instructions.”

          “Yeah, we wouldn’t want the elderly to break a hip.” The Gaffe coughed as he slowly pulled himself back out of the wall, much slower this time.

          Aena smiled gravely, the brat gave a cheeky grin back. The other angel brats had not moved from their tactical observation of the sky.

          “Blackie, how about a reward for good children?” A slight glint was refracting in her eye.

          “Oh?” smirking back, “What kind of reward?”

          “Dinner? Which ever group brings back a clue gets a meal from our dear Investigator Blackie!”

          “Wait-”

          “Is that a reward or an execution?” There was a booooof and a cloud of dust.

          The demons ignored the commotion as they divvied up the angels and organized squads. Smarter looking angels were quickly claimed and the slowest group reluctantly excavated a brat out of the hole he smashed himself into.

          They were gone in under a minute.

          “We are really quite good with motivating children.” She smiled.

          “…hm.”

          She started walking but stopped and looked back at me when I didn’t move. “What are you waiting for?”

          “What?”

          Giving me an upfronted look, “What? What?! I’m not handing my dinner to those dear children! Move! Shoooo!”