Can't Escape the Traps

After a few more persuasion from Sakura and the fact that they are broke after being scammed, they conceded and accepted her offer. Sakura talked to Akeno again for a bit before hanging up the call to attend to her business.

"This way, please." Akeno invited them inside and guided them towards the room that they'll use, "You can use this room. You'll probably never eat the food that I'll make so I ordered something from a family restaurant and should arrive a few minutes later. In the meantime, you can arrange your things here and wash up in the bathroom. The bathroom is the second door from the end of the hallway."

When they reached the room, Xenovia, who is staying quiet up until now spoke, "Are you really fine with this?"

"Ara~. I wonder what you're talking about?"

"We could hurt you, you know? I'm surprised that you would trust our words not to hurt any of those in Gremory and Sitri Household. We indeed promised that, but there's still a limit to it."

"Is that so?" Akeno then gave them a big smile, "Why don't you try attacking me then and see if you could really hurt me."

Xenovia stared at her for a while before unwrapping the big sword she's carrying and just as Akeno thought, it's a Holy Sword and a strong one at that, "I assume that's a challenge?"

Akeno only kept smiling, unfazed of Xenovia taking a stance.

Seeing that she looked confident, Xenovia flared up her Holy Power and transferred it to her Holy Sword making it glow in a golden hue.

But just as she did, a green magic circle suddenly materialized in front of her and an arrow with a head of a suction cup. Xenovia already expected something like this happening after falling victim to the first one, 'Is this why she's confident? How naive...'

With a swing of her sword, she slashed the toy arrow into to, but to her surprise, the shaft of the arrow is hollow and is containing green fluids. Xenovia couldn't dodge in time and ended up bathing in it.

She thought it was acid and braced herself to the burning feeling she's about to feel, but even after a second, that feeling never came and instead, she Irina calling out to her, "X-Xenovia!"

Irina is not looking at her face but her body so Xenovia also looked down. Most of her clothes were already melted by the fluid and a few seconds more, she would be in her birthday suit.

"Did you think that something like this would faze me? Especially when we're the only people here?" After saying that, Xenovia resumed her assault, but she miscalculated something.

After seeing that the fluids just melted her clothes, she thought that it wouldn't have any other use, but as she took a step forward, she slipped and fell forward. She underestimated how slippery the fluid is.

Although she fell for the trap, with her reaction, slipping wouldn't be a big deal for her... If not for the pitfall suddenly appearing in front of her where. Without anywhere to grab, she fell in the dark pitfall. Even Irina couldn't react to how fast things moved. No matter what Xenovia did to react to the situation, she still wasn't capable enough to escape the series of traps in a single activation of magic.

After a few seconds, they heard a large splash of water from the end of the hallway and a scream from Xenovia, "Wahh!!"

"Xenovia!?" Irina ran through the hallway and opened the door where Akeno pointed earlier as bathroom and saw Xenovia in the bathtub... shaking as she was dunk in the ice-cold water-filled tub. Irina also noticed a note posted on her forehead saying, "Cool your head, will ya~?" Along with the familiar face stamp on it.

Irina's mouth twitches, "What the hell? Why such sophisticated, non-lethal trap inside the house?" She muttered a question.

Akeno came from behind and answered her question, "It's that bastard's hobby... He's using his smarts in all things that are only useful to annoy others." She then walked towards the side of the tub and heated up the water with her magic, "I can't have my guest catching a cold, so please be careful~."

"You already knew about that trap..." Xenovia gritted her teeth in frustration and isn't a bit thankful for her gesture. After all, she's the one who led her to the trap by provoking her. Although she knew there would be a trap, she didn't expect that she has to react to it every single turn and still fail in the end.

"Nope~. I don't know about that trap at all~." Akeno said in a light laugh. She can now understand Sona's point of view of wanting others to fell victim to Kisuke's traps after experiencing it countless times. Xenovia's frustrated expression is just what she needs, 'Too bad, I can't invite others in this house without Sakura-san and that bastard's permission.'

"Huh? Then how did you..." Irina and Xenovia looked at her with confusion.

Akeno's smile suddenly froze and became a forced one. She looked at the distance with blank eyes and said, "Because I already fell for all sorts of traps in this house that I already trusted it of doing the same for both of you... You can't imagine how many times I tried to outsmart those traps." She answered honestly.

"...Irina... Staying here is too dangerous if there are traps everywhere... Let's just go to that abandoned Church that you mentioned."

Irina was about to agree when Akeno interrupted her, "If it's about that, then you don't have to worry. As long as you live here normally, you wouldn't activate any traps."

They wanted to ask her how did she claim that she fell in countless traps if that's the case but stopped themselves when they saw a strange glint in her eyes along with her smile which isn't.

'Kisuke's antics became worse, huh? That's fine though. As long as he doesn't become a Devil... Everything is fine...' Irina thought, "Xenovia, I think it's fine to stay here."

"...I-I guess you're right."

"Then I would have to leave you alone now as I still have to clean some rooms. After washing yourself and taking care of your luggage, you can wait for the food in the living room." Akeno didn't wait for them to answer and left the bathroom. After all, she doesn't plan to change what she initially planned. Even though she was able to release a bit of her stress after seeing Xenovia's 'downfall', it wasn't enough. On top of that, it became a routine for her to do it to the point that she won't feel right if she skips it.

After Akeno left, Irina and Xenovia looked at each other, "You're childhood friend is... interesting..." Xenovia wanted to comment on Irina's supposed childhood friend but didn't know how to describe him.

"He's always been an eccentric guy... But looks like it worsened these past few years." Irina replied, "I'll go get some change of clothes. I'll join you in the bath."