Azekiel patted Raphael's shoulders. "That's much better."
Azekiel and Raphael went back, returning to Lia, who was wondering what the two were talking about. She had a feeling that they were talking about her.
"Maybe I really scolded him for no reason." Lia scratched the back of her head. "I misunderstood him."
As soon as Raphael returned, even though Lia looked somewhat hesitant, he apologized to Raphael about how she reacted. "I am sorry for yelling at you."
Raphael wanted to apologize to Lia, but seeing her apologize to him, he was taken aback.
"I am also sorry for the things I said. My intentions weren't to hurt you."
Azekiel watched the two apologize to each other, standing in the back. He could feel that the two were now finally grasping just what small thing they were fighting over before.
"Alright, that's a good beginning. Now let's talk about the main thing..."
He asked Raphael to talk about what else he saw and if there was anything significant that he forgot to tell.
"Was there any weakness that you think we can exploit?"
The man shook his head. "I didn't see any significant weakness, but I did find something that we can use to our advantage."
"And what is that?" Azekiel inquired.
"He knows about us quite a lot, but he doesn't know why we're here. He doesn't know your quest or your reasoning," Raphael explained. "He seemed really eager to know. I think we might be able to use that..."
"If we're going to fight, we need to be smart about it," he further added.
"You have a plan, it seems." Azekiel smiled. From the way Raphael talked, he could feel that Raphael had something.
"I do have something of a plan, but the chances of it working... I am not sure about that."
Raphael looked around the house as soon as he finished, as if trying to find something.
"What are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for a paper and something to write."
"Wait a minute."
Azekiel ran upstairs and returned with a pen and a notepad.
He gave the two to Raphael.
Raphael wrote something on the piece of paper before giving the paper to Raphael. He wrote something else and gave the other paper to Lia.
In both papers, he wrote something similar yet quite different. "Each of those two papers contains a plan. I want you two to go through them and see what you think is the best."
"Which one do you think is best?" Lia asked. "I think you should select."
"I want to leave that to you. I don't trust my selection at this point, so I want you both to decide. Whatever plan you choose is what we'll go through," Raphael responded, taking a step back. "Both the plans share one element between them. It's that we would need to fool Alion, but the rest is different between the two, so go through them carefully."
Azekiel went through the piece of paper in his hand, going through the plan. Lia also read her paper. After the two finished, both swapped the papers and read the second one.
It took them barely ten minutes to read both the plans.
"You think he would fall for it?" Azekiel asked, gazing at Raphael in surprise.
"That will depend on our luck," Raphael answered. "I can't say anything about that. But I certainly hope that it will work."
"So, did you decide what plan is better?"
"I think the first one is better," Azekiel commented before asking Lia. "What about you?"
"I also think that the first plan is better. It looks less risky, and there are more uncertain factors at play there. But at the end of the day, it all depends on our ability to fool that man."
"That's certainly true, but if he's certainly as curious as Raphael thinks, then it might work. We would be using Alion's curiosity to our advantage, after all," Raphael chimed in, tearing the piece of paper. He had already learned the plan.
"First plan it is then," Raphael affirmed. "I'll go and place the foundation of the plan. You two can prepare for your parts."
Raphael left the house, leaving the two youngsters behind. As soon as he left the house, his wings came out, and he flew into the distance. However, he didn't fly back to Alion directly. Instead, he stopped at a tall building in the way, sitting at the edge.
Even though he decided to support Azekiel, it was still a decision weighing heavy on his shoulders that he was rejecting the chances of receiving his body back. Before meeting Alion, he wanted to calm his head, so he didn't give anything away.
At the moment, everything depended on his ability to fool Alion, but when it came to that, even he wondered if he could do it. Alion wants an idiot that could be fooled that easily, even by him.
While sitting in the building, Raphael could see the beasts roaming around in the city. The city really had become a bastion of the beasts, and this wasn't the only city that was going through this. He was also curious about just how many beasts in total there were in the entire world.
"His army is certainly massive. But who is he? I wonder if I can get him to actually answer just how he knows about Azekiel and me as much we he claims."
After being alone with his thoughts for close to half an hour, Raphael stood up. Even now, he felt that he wasn't entirely ready, but he needed to take care of things."
He stood up and flew to the castle.
He landed before the castle, which was still as empty on the outside. There were no guards there at all.
Just as freely as last time, Raphael entered the castle. He went to the same hall, wondering if Alion was still going to be there.
Surprisingly, he was. Alion was still lying on the sofa, but he appeared to be sleeping peacefully at the moment.
Seeing Alion sleep on the couch without a care in the World, this seemed like the best opportunity to kill him
