Fortunately, Irina, that was Shidou Irina, my childhood friend, was just kidding around when she said the other one could start swinging her sword. Unfortunately, the blue haired girl didn't think it was a joke and Irina had to physically restrain her so that she didn't hurt me. Anyway, after that, they explained that they were representative of the Church and they were sent here with only their objective in mind. What objective that was, they didn't tell me anything because as the blue-haired one, Xenovia-san said I was just an outsider.

I had a feeling Xenovia-san didn't like me.

"Yes," she replied. Whoops, did I say it out loud? I scratched my cheek awkwardly.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, then." That was all I could say when I didn't even know why she didn't like me.

"It's your disrespect. Lady Gabriel is not someone you can casually put '-san' behind her."

My eyes twitched. I was getting lectured of using the appropriate suffix by a foreigner? If she didn't have a sword on her waist, therefore able to kick my ass, I would have picked a fight with her.

"Maa maa, Xenovia. Issei is just casual like that, you know? You're the one who's always uptight. Relax a bit, would you?"

"And the lax protestant spoke out," Xenovia-san muttered under her breath.

"What did you just call me?!"

"That's for calling me trigger-happy catholic before! Don't use my faith as a mockery!"

"You didn't even deny the trigger-happy part?!"

Rather than a duo tasked by the church, the two were more like a comedic duo.

We arrived on the second floor of the apartment. "You want to see Gabriel-san, right? This is her room." I knocked on the door three times. "Gabriel-saaan, there's people asking for you."

The door was instantly opened and from behind the door Gabriel-san appeared. "Ise-kun, Good Morning. Who's that behind you?"

In an instant, Xenovia-san and Irina kneeled, as if they were knights in the presence of royalty. Well, technically Gabriel-san was one of their leaders so they were knights in the presence of their superior.

"Ah, the people from the Church that I asked for. Come in, come in!"

The two was still too starstruck by Gabriel-san. I had to shake them for a bit. "Come on, girls."

"Huh?"

I gestured for them to follow me inside. We were treated to the sight of Gabriel-san sitting on her sofa gracefully. "Please sit there," she mentioned to the two guests. Meanwhile, I moved to the kitchen to prepare tea for them.

"Wait. Where are you going?" Xenovia-san looked at me suspiciously.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm making your drinks. Oh, by the way, do you want coffee or tea?"

"Tea is fine, Ise-kun," Gabriel-san smiled at me. "Your tea is always delicious."

"Also tea for me, Ise-kun," Irina raised her hand.

"...Coffee," Xenovia-san answered after a second of deliberation. She still hadn't lost her look of suspicion.

I brewed three cups of tea and a cup of coffee and brought them to the living room where Gabriel-san was holding talks.

"-hope you can enjoy your stay here," Gabriel-san smiled at the two of Irina and Xenovia-san, who apparently had a lost expression.

"Here's the drinks. Enjoy yourself! I couldn't help but overheard that you're going to live in the apartment? As a fellow resident, I welcome you to Serene Apartment!" I put the tea and coffee on the table.

Irina and Xenovia-san grabbed their cups and sip at them. Then, they looked at each other, before nodding.

"Please excuse me, Gabriel-sama. But we weren't told that we're going to live here? We were sent to this city because of the case of that missing item," Irina explained carefully.

Xenovia-san nodded and continued Irina's words. "Yes. That item which is classified and a normal civilian shouldn't hear about," she looked sharply at me.

Gabriel-san was confused for a while before she realized whatever the topic of the conversation was about. "Ah! You mean the stolen Excaliburs?"

I can see Xenovia-san and Irina's hand twitched. They wanted to facepalm hard, I was sure. Because that was what I did.

"Gabriel-san, are you sure you should say that so carelessly?" I said after palming my face hard.

"What? The stolen Excalibur? Ise-kun here should've heard about it anyway. If what the Church said about it being in this city is correct, I was about to ask Ophis-chan to find it. I'm sure she can find it in one hour at most."

"Nah, the hardest part is convincing her to do it," I put my hand on my chin. "But maybe since it's you, Gabriel-san. You can just bribe her with food."

I just had a genius idea!

"Gabriel-san! Kobe Beef! Ophis has a craving for Kobe Beef!"

With this, my master plan of having Gabriel-san buying Ophis' long awaited Kobe Beef is complete! Thank you, Irina, Xenovia-san, for providing me with the opportunity to delegate the honor to Gabriel-san!

"...I don't understand?" Irina asked out loud, not specifically for anyone.

"Yes, Lady Gabriel, if you want to ask someone else from here, why are you calling us?"

At this, Gabriel-san smiled. "It's because I was lonely here with only Asia-chan as the representative of the Heaven side. I asked my brother if they can send people here. I got you two. So you two will live here from now on."

"That's certainly true, huh? Let's see on the Devil side we have Koneko-chan, Shitori-kaichou, Serafall-san, Gremory-senpai, and Raiser-san. That's five people. And then on the Fallen Angel side we have four, Raynare-san, Dohnaseek-san, Mittelt-san, and Kalawarner-san. On the Heaven side it's only you, Gabriel-san. Argento-san was excommunicated from the church, Kuroka was a Stray Devil, so they don't count," I finished my analysis of the balance between the three factions in this apartment. I could see that Xenovia-san and Irina were still lost.

"Gabriel-san hasn't told you? This Serene Apartment is an apartment complex built in a project to uphold peace between the supernatural factions." I finally explained things to them.

They were starting to understand it seemed.

"So... you... Gabriel-san... Devils... Fallen Angels... what?" Irina pointed at me, Gabriel-san, and the door.

"I won't stand for this." Xenovia-san firmly said. "Why should we try to gain peace with our enemies?"

Instantly Gabriel-san frowned. Uh oh, this was the first time I ever saw Gabriel-san frowned. It seemed that Xenovia-san also realized what she had just said because she awkwardly tried to take it back.

"Umm... that's..."

"Don't worry, Gabriel-san," I patted her on the shoulder. "As long as it is working, you shouldn't feel disappointed."

"You're right, Ise-kun!" She instantly bounced back into the Gabriel-san that I knew. Since when was keeping an Angel happy a part of my job? Oh right, it was shoved down to me since I chose to live in this apartment.

"Xenovia-san. You're a devout Christian. I do not doubt your faith. However, for this one time, can you believe in me?" Gabriel-san asked her with a little bow. I was very sure it was a very uncomfortable situation for her when her kind superior asked her to do something that wasn't written in the protocol with a bow like that.

"I... that is... um..."

"Please...?"

"Yes!" One could not simply reject that look from Gabriel-san and came back unscathed. Either you accept her, or you would feel guilty for the rest of your life. While Gabriel-san didn't realize it, after several months of living with her, I was very sure her brother couldn't resist that look and granted the wish of her own apartment complex to build peace amongst the supernatural.

Meanwhile, as Xenovia-san was barraged by that look from Gabriel-san, Irina was emptying her cup of tea and sighed.

"What's wrong? Iri-kun? Or should I say Iri-chan now?"

"Irina is okay, Ise-kun. I'm just... a little overwhelmed, I guess? I'm pretty sure Xenovia is also the same."

Curses. I was about to introduce them to Ophis, the solution that Gabriel-san thought to get back their stolen Excaliburs, whatever that meant. Obviously, Excalibur wasn't just a single sword when three people I know deeply rooted in the supernatural were describing them in plural.

Nope. I wouldn't touch that. Yes. Excalibur sounded powerful. Nothing a normal human like me should handle. Yeah. But if it was something that would involve Ophis, then like it or not I was going to involve myself.

"So? What now?" Irina broke off the silence.

"Do you want to live in one place or do you each want your own?" Gabriel-san asked them.

"Wait wait wait, Gabriel-sama, before that, who will pay for our room? Please tell me the church handles all that?"

"Don't worry about it. Since I'm the one requesting you two, I will be the one to handle your payments."

"If it is acceptable, I want a room for myself," Xenovia-san stated quietly.

"Yeah. No offense to you, Xenovia-chan but I want some freedom," Irina agreed to Xenovia-san's proposal.

Gabriel-san nodded at their request. "On the second floor, there are still three vacant rooms. On the third floor, there are six vacant rooms and seven vacant rooms on the fourth floor. Please choose one for each of you."

"Is the one on the opposite of this room vacant?" Xenovia-san asked Gabriel-san.

"208? Yes. Here's the key, Xenovia-kun" Gabriel-san gave the key to her. "What about you, Irina-kun?"

"Is the room in front of Ise-kun's vacant?"

"207? Yes. Here's the key. Now, you can settle down on your room. Don't worry about the mission assigned. I will discuss it with Ise-kun Ophis-chan and it will be back in our hands eventually," Gabriel-san finished with a smile on her beautiful face.

"Um, I should call Ophis, yeah. Please wait a minute, Gabriel-san."

The three of us left Gabriel-san's apartment. Speaking of which I didn't see Argento-san in Gabriel-san's apartment, did she has her class even on weekend? Anyway, I went to my room and knocked Ophis' closet. The closet door was slid and Ophis looked at me.

"What is it?"

"There's something Gabriel-san and I want to discuss with you. Is it okay if we go to Gabriel-san's place?" I asked her. There was no need to get Kuroka and Kunou involved if Gabriel-san thought Ophis was enough. So it was better for me to bring her there.

Without replying, Ophis got out of her closet and stood beside me. So Ophis agreed. "Thanks, Ophis."

She shook her head. "No need to. I am your big sister."

I wrapped my hand around my face to hide my embarrassed face. Damn it, Ophis, you were still on that?

"Why?" It was just a simple question, but Ophis instantly understood. Such was the closeness between us.

"Lately, Ise's time is spent with other girls too much. I don't wanna lose."

So you decided that acting as a big sister would give you more time with me? Frankly, I was very honored that Ophis wanted to spend more time with me. I always thought that she wanted to be left alone. But maybe because lately there were other people, not only just the four of us plus Gabriel-san, that Ophis felt this way. For a guy who claimed to be close to Ophis, I completely misread her this time.

"I'm sorry, Ophis!"

"It's okay, Ise."

"No, it's not okay, Ophis. You're the one who chose to stuck with me when you can do better. I feel obliged to do my best, but I ended up disappointing you!"

Ophis shook her head. "You're not disappointing me. I am just selfish."

"It's not selfish at all! You're the most generous one! At first, it was just the two of us, and then you indulged Kunou's selfish wish to live with us. You also didn't complain when Kuroka entered our lives, in fact, you were the one encouraging her to open up. Now you want more time with me. That is not selfishness, Nee-chan."

A small smile found its way to Ophis' lips. "You're a good boy, Ise-chan."

She transformed from her normal twelve years old body into a mature one. Huh? It was unusual for Ophis to do this. She preferred the twelve years old body because it was more comfortable.

Ophis then patted me in the head. "Just this one time, okay?"

When I blinked, Ophis had already gone back to her usual form. I realized what Ophis had just done and my entire face went all red. "Ophissss!"

"Teasing the younger sibling. It's a perk of being the older sibling," she finished with an unfamiliar playful smile on her face.

I just sighed as my heart accepted Ophis' explanation. I shouldn't think about how her clothes followed the size of her body so it didn't get ripped apart when she transformed. That was too insane.

A/N: Who says anything about epic battles of Excalibur arc? Nobody says anything about epic battles of Excalibur arc. Also Ophis-neechan best Neechan. Change my mind.