Our heads popped up when no explosion sounded as the old Demon Lord stood expressionless while tapping his foot. He rolled Silizy’s heart plate on his hand while watching us. With a quick eye roll, he waved it at us.

          “It’s just a purified hellstone.” It vibrated angrily in his hand. He paused as his eyebrow rose again, “A cursed purified hellstone, which I’ll admit is new, but it’s still just a stone.”

          “…I thought it was glass?” Blackie turned to me.

          “I thought it was lemonade” Teacher hopped over to examine it, not even trying to take it from the other old monster.

          “…What?”

          “Well, my husband was quiet the cook you see,”

          “Married? Well done, Baris.”

          “Widowed, actually.” Teacher frowned at him with disappointment. “My dear child wouldn’t break any laws- any moral- no, hmm.”

          “Thank you for your defense dear teacher, when will this dear child be able to organize your second funeral?”

          “If you want to, I do have a few doubles I could spare!”

          The Demon Lord tilted his head at me in an unnervingly familiar fashion, “Gavren, is this the kid you told me about?”

          “Luci, don’t” Teacher frowned.

          “It is then, your poor, ironic brat that burned so bright only to watch her own daughter slowly freeze to death.”

          Yeah, that fit. The old man never was good at keeping quiet. I could still see her, my precious baby girl. Not a day went by I didn’t.

          My little En.

          “Aena” Blackie held my hand, worry in his eyes. I immediately turned to look at the old monsters’ look as he held my hand without smoke flying in the air.

          I grinned as my teacher looked confused while the over-cooked chicken looked outraged.

          “hehehe” My grip on his hand tightened. Blackie really, really was too kind. “Did you get the murderer?” I reminded him.

          “The what? Oh right, that.” He pointed to an odd, mostly person shaped bundle that was abandoned a ways back. His wings must be at a very odd angle. It had been trying to sneak away quietly but froze when we all turned to it.

          “No, no. We are not ignoring this. Baris, how can you hold that living piece of molten rock?”

          “A murderer? How awful! Gold-girl what have we missed?”

          “A tragic tale dear teacher. You see, not long ago-”

          “Don’t ignore me brat, I’ll skin you alive and-”

          “Ah, here the brats are. I was wondering how long it would take them.” Blackie pointed to a group of children including Tavy, Lacie, and our new friends Pelk, Quenloc, and their party.

          “…Lord Gabriel, Demon Lord Luciren.” Tavy greeted them politely now that he had back up. All of the children’s head nearly twisted off their necks as they turned to look at him.

          “Dear babies.” Teacher was holding the slightly shorter Demon Lord by the throat while smiling happily.

          “…brats.” A reluctant grumble echoed from said captive.

          “Well timed my dear little children, for now is the time to unveil the culprit behind the most recent murder.” I held up the bundle.

          Babaris grabbed the sheet and unrolled the fellow like we did with Vel earlier, but with far more force.

          I scowled; it was an angel. It was the hunched announcer.

          “I thought you looked familiar, Grakel. Long time no see.” Blackie nodded to the, apparently, alleged angel sprawled on the ground.

          …wait what?

          Blackie got this look on his face, tilting it up and smirking at us all like we were a bunch of idiots.

          “Was that necessary?” He asked me moments later, rubbing his head painfully.

          “Yes. Explain, dear.”

          “Fine. It seems that Grakel is a half-bastard. He probably has, or had, a position in both Heaven and Hell.”

          “…and?”

          “And what?”

          “His motives, how he did it, and…”

          “How the Hell should I know? You, explain.”

          “Go die and burn in light, Dusk.” Grakel’s face shifted slightly, making him look more like the rock I’d head described, and his wings changed from white to brown.

          “Oh, don’t be like that. You lost fair and square, rock-boy.” Teacher prodded him verbally without loosening his grip.

          “I wonder how is heat tolerance is…” I went to touch him, only to have Blackie shuffle me behind him.

          Babaris’s shadow stretched until it reached the culprit, a dark presence lurking within it. To avoid both my teacher and my own light, it never left Blackie’s shadow, but it was still able to reach Grakel.

          After a few horrifying minutes, a certain fellow became remarkably cooperative.

          “Why.” Blackie didn’t ask so much as ordered.

          “Stop peace.”

          “Because.”

          “…so you all tear each other to shreds.”

          “How.”

          “No one bothered to watch me when you two showed up.”

          He made a fair point.

          “Medallion.”

          “Stole it from a drawer.”

          “Medallion?” Tavy asked, I handed it to him from Blackie’s pocket. He pulled out a little notebook and looked at the serial number inscribed on the back.

          “You have a record of medal numbers?” My eyes widened a bit.

          “Just for these ones, Uriel, well a few generations back Uriel, asked me to keep it on me to find out if any…escaped.”

          “…That man never did have a lot of trust in the good nature of people.”

          “I think you are the last person who can say that about him, considering.” With a slightly disapproving smile, he finally found the page he was looking for. “…hm”

          “What?” I tried to in, but he blocked me.

          “Horce, or Grakel, whichever you prefer, you got this from Headquarters’ drawer?”

          “Yes.” He got prodded by whatever was in the shadow, but his answer remained.

          “What is it, Tavy-dear?”

          “…this was buried with a soldier over 300 years ago.”

          “Oh, how exciting!” Teacher bounced up and down, turning the Demon monster blue.

          “Who?” He finally let me look, and I saw a slightly familiar name. I frowned and let Lacie look to see if he remembered.

          “Sephr of the lesser Fire line, why is that familiar?”

          “Sephr the Robbed? From the treasure hunting stories?” Gaffe asked, pushing his way forward. He waved at his great-great-great…great…- he waved and almost snatched the book from Lacie’s hands.

          “Right! Now I remember!” I clapped, “Poor Sephr got robbed and we set off on a treasure hunt-” Tavy narrowed his eyes, “-recovery mission to return it to the poor soul!”

          “It was my favorite story!” Gaffe continued for me, “Dear comrades came to visit his grave, only to find it upturned and the coffin only had a corpse, no medal of honor to be found! Sure that they would be blamed by the main office, due to prior incidents-”

          “I was just cleaning it…” I muttered.

          “They kept it a secret, and the General herself declared with great righteous fury, ‘Whoever did this must pay, and whoever finds them rewarded. To the first, the winner. And no one tells Uriel or we don’t get to keep it.’ and so began the great hunt to find the lost medal with no owner!”

          “I think Sephr would disagree with that statement.” Quenloc commented drily.

          Tavy wordlessly tucked the medal way from our, I mean the children’s, excited gaze.

          Sephr the robbed, hm? Hm. Hmmm?

          “Wait, didn’t I find that within a decade of it going missing? I even kept it in my pocket and I didn’t let it out of…my…sight…” Tavy was frowning at me and I started to trail off, “…so I could remember to return it?”

          “If you had it, how did we get it back?” Tavy sighed.

          “…well…I have no idea.”

          “General, why didn’t you tell us it was found?” Gaffe was deflated, and so were quite a few of my old squad members.

          “Kept up moral, and made sure that grave robbers met just fates.” I nodded proudly, a good excuse.

          “…is that why we got so many complaints from the grave keepers?”