The Star Festival - 1

Sekke and company soon appeared at the Black Bulls HQ as they looked around and soon spotted Yami.

Asta then started to show off his fixed arms to Yami who simply ignored him. He then proceed to tell him about the mana stone that they found and immediately Yami felt excited and told Asta to bring some booze for him.

Sekke then showed the mana stone to Yami who looked at it for a while before throwing it back at Sekke once he noticed Asta who brought back two barrels of alcohol.

Sekke who saw how the mana stone was handled by Yami complained to him and was about to catch it, but before he was able to Secre caught it with her beak and flew somewhere else.

'...Well, it's fine anyway.' thought Sekke. He knew that Secre was collecting mana stones for some reason, which according to him was stopping the revival of elves, reviving the first wizard king, or both. It didn't matter much to him anyway.

He still had one of the mana stones with him, and he was not going to announce it anyway so for the time being he was relatively safe.

He also didn't care about the change in the plot, since according to him, it's the dark lord who directs the plot not the other way around.

Soon the other black bulls came back as well and were surprised to see that Asta was healed. Although some were pissed that they wasted their time for him only to find him fine, all of them were glad that Asta was back to his top condition and congratulated him for his recovery.

Just like that, a few days passed without much happening, Sekke did go out to do some missions, making up for the ones he didn't do during the time he went for his training. He wanted to spar with Yami wanting to check where he was currently standing when compared to Yami, though the muscle brute ignored his request saying that he was busy and all.

"Today is the day, I challenge Yami!!" declared Sekke as he returned from a mission. His clothes were dirty and he was sweaty, but none of that mattered, he quickly finished his mission so that he can arrive early in the morning and catch Yami before he makes another excuse and run away from the fight.

Sekke opened the front door of the HQ and entered the common room only to find the room in total chaos.

Vanessa passed out only in her underwear.

Magna and Luck bleeding from various places.

Asta lying down in a pool with his face down and his clothes completely in tatters with bite and claw marks all over his body.

Charmy passed out with her face planted in a plate of food.

Gauche sitting on the sofa with his head resting against the support and blood dripping down his nose.

Grey and Ainz sitting in a corner suspiciously staring at Sekke.

And finally, Gordon who had a sharp knife covered in a red substance in his hands looked at Sekke with a creepy smile on his face.

"It's surprising that no one is causing a ruckus in the morning. And yes Gordon I would like to have a sandwich," said Sekke as he registered everyone in the room as being normal.

Gordon nodded and whispered something and started preparing a sandwich for Sekke with the same creepy smile on his face.

Once he was done he placed some sandwiches on the table as Sekke came back after washing his hands and the two of them sat down and started having their breakfast.

Gordon was happy seeing that Sekke was enjoying the sandwiches that he prepared a lot with him.

"These are good. By the way Gordon, do you know where is Yami-san?" asked Sekke as he took another bite.

"Hm? Captain Yami? Must be the bathroom right?" replied Gordon in his usual whisper.

"I went there to check but he wasn't there."

".....That's shocking. I don't know then," said Gordon as he felt mildly surprised after hearing that Yami was not in the toilet.

Sekke gave a nod and decided to leave the topic. He will find the brute another time and have his battle.

He then decided to take a bath and get refreshed and was joined by the rest of the male members of the squad.

Once all of them were refreshed they went on with their antics when suddenly the front door of the HQ slammed open.

"All right, all eyes up here."

Hearing the familiar voice Sekke and the rest of the squad looked toward the man who called them and immediately Sekke's eyes widened in shock.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING?!" yelled Sekke as he saw Yami wearing a happi coat and a loin cloth.

Yami stared at Sekke for a while but soon ignored him and said, "So, yeah, there's a festival happening."

And just as those words left his mouth Asta got excited and started asking about the festival.

'...So he was busy preparing for the Star Festival, huh.' thought Sekke as he started at Yami.

-------------------

In the evening the whole squad went to the festival and immediately Sekke was surprised to see the number of people currently present in the town.

"This is awesome!" declared Asta.

Hearing him Yami smirked and looked at his squad members.

"All right! Go live it up, you dumbasses! There's still time before they announce the ranking!" said Yami as immediately the whole squad cheered.

"Well let's blow off some steam," said Sekke as Secre came out of his pocket and landed on his shoulder before she nodded her head as well.

Most of the black bulls left off to do their things leaving behind Sekke, Asta, and Noelle.

The rookie trio looked around and then Asta started walking seeing that Noelle and Sekke looked at each other before they started following him as well.

"Want me to give you two some personal space?" asked Sekke as he looked at Noelle with a teasing smirk.

Noelle immediately turned red and started flailing her arms around.

"W-What are you talking about?!"

Seeing that Sekke laughed making Noelle even more riled up.

"HEY!"

Hearing a familiar voice both Asta and Noelle turned in the direction of the voice seeing which Sekke turned as well.

Soon their gaze fell on a boy and girl who seemed to be of their age as well and Asta and Noelle immediately cheered up while Sekke just looked at them in confusion

"Kahono! Kiato!" called Noelle as she ran towards them.

Asta and Sekke flowed her and now the three of them stood in front of the duo.

"I've missed you guys," said Noelle as she grabbed Kahono's hands making the said girl smile as well.

"Asta! You're looking great!" said Kiato who was standing with the help of a crutch.

"How are you guys here?" asked Noelle as Asta explained that he asked Finral to get the two of them.

Finral soon showed up and said a line that he thought sounded cool and then left off to flirt with some cuties.

The duo then started to admire the festival when suddenly the girl's eyes landed on a man who was playing a song. Seeing that the girl got nostalgic while the man looked at her with pity.

"Oh that reminds me, Kiato did you bring your leg?" asked Asta.

Hearing his question the duo looked toward Asta with confusion but the man still showed the leg that he brought with him.

'...Are you sure that it's a good idea to show off a severed leg in the middle of a festival?' thought Sekke as he looked at Asta with a weird look on his face.

"Great! Oi Sekke!" called Asta as he turned towards Sekks.

"Hm?"

"Give me a bottle of witch queen's healing magic," said Asta.

"Wait, that was my compensation for dealing with her," said Sekke.

After the witch queen was done asking him to stick it inside her, Sekke asked the witch to compensate him for making him fight with her as well. And although he didn't think that the witch would give in, to his surprise the witch acted pretty generously and gave him around 20 bottles of her healing magic as compensation.

Although unknown to Sekke, the real motive of the Witch Queen was to make her impression a bit better so that when there comes a time when Sekke returns to the forest she can request his seed once again.....or use her puppet magic to make Sekke do it forcefully.

Well leaving the crazy aside, Sekke looked at the duo for whom Asta asked the bottle for.

Hearing his answer Asta got surprised as he didn't think of the possibility that Sekke would reject him.

"Hey! It's just one bottle you have many of them!" said Asta.

"Many but not an unlimited amount right, what will you do if there comes a time when we need it again? And I surely am not going back to that crazy witch to get some healing done," said Sekke.

"Please Sekke! Do me a favor!" asked Asta as he joined his hands in front of Sekke.

"I ask you as well Sekke! Please!" said Noelle as well.

Sekke looked at his fellow rookies and was about to refuse them, but seeing the look of determination in their eyes he wavered.

"...*Sigh*You two are gonna run back to the witch's forest and bring me another bottle. I don't care how you do it but you have to get me that bottle before my stock runs out. Alright?" said Sekke.

Asta and Noelle immediately cheered up and nodded their heads vigorously.

"What all does the dark lord have to do for his friends? You two line up," said Sekke as he looked at the duo.

The two nodded and stood in front of Sekke as he took out a bottle from his storage.

He then proceeded to open the bottle and immediately blood red strings came out of it and formed a blood cocoon around the two of them.

Soon the cocoons disappeared and the two of them got healed.

The two of them started crying while hugging Asta and Noelle.

Sekke sighed and then looked at the empty bottle in his hand and stored it back.

The two of them then looked toward Sekke and immediately bowed their heads.

"Thanks a lot!" said the siblings in unison.

"You are welcome. Just make sure to be safe and sound otherwise you two will have to directly meet the witch bitch," said Sekke.

The two didn't understand what Sekke exactly meant but still nodded their heads thinking that the man was just asking them to be safe.

Knowing that his threat was totally misunderstood Sekke just remained silent and let the siblings celebrate their recovery.