Ophis stared up at Izumi with her usual expressionless face, tilting her head slightly.
"You're acting strange," she said flatly.
"…I seem excited?"
Izumi rolled his eyes.
Looking at the blank-faced Infinite Dragon God, a mischievous idea suddenly flashed across his mind. A grin crept onto his lips.
"Come on, Ophis. I'm taking you somewhere."
Before she had time to reply, Izumi grabbed her hand, and the two vanished from the beach—entering his personal Small World.
For over an hour they wandered inside: Izumi fed her lollipops, showed her the giant goldfish he had been raising, and let her poke around freely.
When the two finally returned, Ophis' small face was flushed pink—rare for her—and she looked more animated than usual.
"…Your world is fun," she murmured, almost sounding pleased.
Meanwhile, the battle on the beach had concluded.
Predictably, Rias Gremory's group had been flattened by Avrora, the idiotically-cute pseudo-loli Primogenitor.
The girl now stood proudly over the sprawled, groaning devils, puffing out her chest.
"Hmm-hmm! Avrora is the strongest!"
"A bunch of devils is nothing!"
"Avrora sweeps them aside with one hand!"
The self-proclaimed strongest raised her chin triumphantly, practically sparkling with pride.
It had taken her over thirty minutes to finally beat them all—
But she still felt like she had climbed a mountain.
Izumi stepped out of the small world just in time to hear her declaration.
"…Are you kidding me?"
He appeared behind the little vampire and gave her a firm karate-chop to the head.
"So inflated already?"
"Want me to fight you instead?"
Struck by surprise, Avrora's bravado crumbled instantly.
She crouched down, clutching her head like a scolded child.
"Uuuu… bully… you're bullying me again…"
Izumi crouched down, aggressively ruffling her silver hair.
"You idiot. You're still way too weak."
"Beating Rias' group isn't something to brag about."
"I could beat you half-asleep."
"In fact—these days, even Le Fay could probably make you cry."
Hearing that, Avrora puffed her cheeks in protest.
Among everyone at home, she clearly had the lowest standing. Truly tragic.
Her gaze drifted toward the newcomers—Sakura and Rin.
…These two seemed bully-able.
And maybe Illya… except Illya was nice to her, so she wouldn't bully her.
Izumi noticed the scheming sparkle in her eyes and flicked her forehead sharply.
"Don't even think about picking on them."
"If you don't summon your familiars, Rin will beat you bloody."
"She's basically a demonic muscle-head."
"And Sakura? Touch her and you can forget about eating dinner."
This was outrageous.
Even with new arrivals, her ranking in the household was still dead last?!
Avrora suddenly felt deeply wronged.
She was a Primogenitor! A being of legend!
And yet her life had become—
A bullied mascot.
The family pet.
Dominated daily by a certain terrifying demon girl.
She trembled.
When—when could she, the mighty Avrora, rise up again?!
Izumi ignored the despairing vampire child and snapped his fingers.
In an instant, Rias and her unconscious party were spatially transferred to his side.
Spatial manipulation was simply too convenient.
He turned toward Asia Argento and Irina.
"Asia, Irina—please heal them."
The group of beaten devils lay limp on the sand, drained of all strength, swimsuits half-destroyed, hair and skin slightly scorched from Avrora's merciless blasts.
The only one relatively unharmed was Himejima Akeno, though her swimsuit was practically in ribbons.
Maybe because she fed Avrora snacks sometimes?
…Izumi wasn't sure.
Asia and Irina hurried over and began casting healing light.
Rias was the first to regain consciousness.
She sat up with a sharp inhale.
"Hahh—A-Avrora! You didn't have to be that harsh!"
The girl hadn't held back at all.
Her familiars had bombarded them nonstop.
If Avrora had known how to fight properly from the very beginning, Rias suspected she would've been defeated instantly instead of lasting half an hour.
Still—
The training was undeniably valuable.
The others soon awakened, groaning, clutching their aching bodies.
Their mana reserves had been completely drained—leaving them exhausted and hollow.
Avrora looked at them disdainfully.
"You were having fun beating up my familiars at first."
"Now you complain?"
She snorted.
Izumi clapped his hands to gather their attention.
"Alright, that's enough for today."
"Rest. Tomorrow we continue."
"And tomorrow will be worse for you."
"Because not only are you getting stronger… Avrora is too."
"So enjoy the suffering that's coming."
He grinned with pure schadenfreude.
If they wanted strength, they needed to endure pain.
He wasn't going to hand them power for free.
Loaning them Avrora for training was already extremely generous.
If they couldn't withstand this, they should go home and continue being pampered heiresses.
Once he ensured they were resting, Izumi turned to Megumi and the others and began their individual training sessions.
His goal:
Get them to E+ or even C-rank by the end of summer.
For Katou Megumi, the only thing he could really teach was dagger handling and basic support magic.
Sawamura Spencer Eriri, however, was more troublesome.
Her ability was bizarre—she could summon things she drew.
A true summoner-type ability.
So Izumi could only train her stamina for now, and later help refine her artistic skill.
Her summons scaled with her own strength—
She couldn't just draw a world-ending character and expect it to manifest with world-ending power.
That would be absurd.
So beyond learning a few usable skills, she mostly needed to build mana and physical endurance.
Izumi even considered giving her a transformation device like Le Fay's to boost her mana in one go.
But…
A magical girl paired with tentacle monsters?
…The mental image was wrong on every level.
Also, knowing Eriri… who knew what weird experiments she'd try with it?
He abandoned the idea immediately.
No telling what chaos that girl would unleash.