About three years ago in Paris, Naoki had interacted with Ciel. If he wanted to investigate Misaki Town for the sake of the vampires, asking for her help was a good choice.
Therefore—
"You really surprised me. Suddenly the church people said someone was looking for me; I thought headquarters was sending people again for me to deal with, but I didn't expect it to be you."
In a restaurant, Ciel stared at Naoki sitting opposite her.
"It's amazing that you, as a Magus, dared to come directly to church territory; aren't you afraid of being attacked en masse?"
"In that case, at most I'll destroy the church; you'll be the ones at a loss."
Hearing that, Ciel was immediately stunned.
'Almost forgot, this guy is a monster who can fight a Pseudo-Dragon head-on.'
The incident in Paris three years ago, Ciel still remembered it clearly. After all, seeing a Dragon once would likely never be forgotten in a lifetime, and Naoki could even directly knock down a Dragon with a single punch.
"You're really the same as you were a few years ago; it feels like you haven't changed at all."
"You too. Your appearance and figure are still the same as before; have you been eating well these past few years?"
'That's because my body stopped at that time...'
Smiling wryly and sipping her red tea, Ciel asked, "So, what brings you to me? Seeing your condition, it seems you already knew I was here? Where did you get the information?"
"It concerns my personal secrets; I don't want to say. Besides, my purpose in looking for you is also simple: it's been a long time, so I wanted to reminisce—and also discuss vampires."
Seeing Ciel about to leave, Naoki hurriedly added the last half of his sentence.
Vampires.
This topic made Ciel's expression serious, and she sat back down: "You encountered a vampire?"
"The morning news, and I also went to see the scene earlier." Naoki said, "I'm looking for you just to ask a few things."
"What do you want to do?"
"I told you, it's to maintain peace—do you believe me?"
Ciel's eyes flickered, then she smiled: "If another Magus said something like that, I wouldn't believe it. But if you're the one saying it, I think there's a bit of credibility to it. After all, you're the fool who could fight against a Pseudo-Dragon to protect civilians. Alright, I'll consider you to have half a heart of justice."
"Can't it be a whole heart? What's the meaning of half?"
Chuckling lightly, Naoki said seriously: "There are several vampires, right?"
"I've dealt with five already; I don't know how many are left. Although because of my activities, the remaining ones have been hiding lately, there are still reckless ones causing trouble like last night."
"Then, the one from last night, did you deal with it?"
Ciel shook her head: "When I arrived, it had already fled. At that time, I was eating curry in the Town center; I only rushed there after receiving a call from my subordinate. Because of that, I didn't even finish my curry."
When speaking at the end, Ciel's tone clearly contained strong resentment.
'Come to think of it, she really loves eating curry.'
No wonder she was resentful.
"Then, regarding the appearance of these vampires, do you have any clues?" Naoki continued to ask, "Counting the ones you mentioned, the number of confirmed vampires is almost double digits. The appearance of so many vampires in a Town shouldn't be a coincidence."
"I'll ask directly—is this Roa?"
Roa.
Ciel's gaze instantly cooled for a moment: "Why would a Magus know about this?"
"About twelve years ago, a large-scale vampire incident suddenly occurred in France; almost all the villagers turned into vampires." Naoki recounted another incident, "It was the work of a Dead Apostle named Roa. Although the investigation was a bit troublesome, the Clock Tower at least had some information, and I also have my own ways."
—The French Incident.
This was information that Naoki investigated after returning to the Clock Tower from Paris. He didn't get many details. How did it happen? How was it resolved? What were the results afterward? He didn't know all of that; all he knew was one thing—a girl named Elesia was the root of the incident. And Elesia was Ciel's real name.
With that, the conclusion that the French Incident was related to Roa could naturally be drawn.
This time was also the same.
"You really have nothing better to do." Ciel sighed, "Aren't Magus busy to the point of not having time to eat in order to reach the Root? It's amazing that you can spare the time to investigate an incident from so long ago."
"Because I'm not interested in the Root, so I have more time—it is Roa, right?"
"Yes. But, not just Roa." Ciel said, "According to information from the church, among the currently confirmed True Ancestors, there are two heading towards Japan."
Some of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors were heading to Japan?
Naoki frowned: "Why?"
"The reason is unclear, but... it should be related to Roa. Roa is a Dead Apostle who has been reincarnating for 800 years. Although every time he reincarnates, he is immediately exterminated, there are also cases where he is only discovered and exterminated after reincarnating for a very long time. No one knows what he has been doing for those 800 years."
"In other words... he's calling the True Ancestors who are willing to help him so that he won't be exterminated this time?"
"It's not impossible."
Even so, almost all of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors did not acknowledge Roa's status as an True Ancestor. The reason they were coming... instead of protecting him, it was more accurate to say they were coming to witness how long he would be exterminated this time.
"Sorry for the wait, here's your curry rice."
The waiter placed a plate of curry rice in front of Ciel. It was already noon, lunchtime. Ciel picked up a spoon: "Then, are there any other questions? If not, I want to eat."
"Last question—if I say I might kill all the Dead Apostles and vampires causing chaos, will you help?"
Scooping a spoonful of curry rice into her mouth, Ciel licked her lips.
"Of course."
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
After eating, in front of the restaurant, Naoki watched Ciel leave, then took out his phone and sent a message to Aoko, telling her about the situation there.
[Thank you for your hard work, I also asked a friend to investigate some things about vampires, I'll tell you later if we meet]
"Friend... did she go to look for Kuonji Alice?"
In that case, there was no need to worry about Aoko.
Next was...
*CLANG!*
A feeling like being pierced by something suddenly attacked Naoki.
Behind!
"Crows?"
Naoki, who turned around, saw a row of jet-black crows standing on the streetlights. Whether it was his illusion or not, he felt that the crows were constantly staring at him.
Crows... birds... beasts...
"Nrvnqsr (Nero) Chaos?"