DXD SI : Chapter 60 : Hindsight 20/20 & Candid with Mia..... (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Bael House, Underworld

–Magdaran Bael–

It was the next day, as he found a letter waiting for him just outside the Garden, with yet another day passing without any news or sighting of Zekram or any of his antics. No people around the garden, no feeling of a gaze on the back of his head, no subtle inquiries, nothing.

It was as if Zekram truly had given up and was just waiting with his head on the chopping block, which he refused to believe to be true. Just what had the Satans done to him or told him that made him take such a position of inactivity? It was baffling, and yet, it was one of the best things to happen to him.

He picked up the letter and read through it, walking back into the garden. 

“4 days once they know the exact location of the destination.” He murmured to himself as he realised that he still hadn’t received the exact location from Odin. Odin himself had shortlisted some locations and was going to get back to him after inspecting the available locations, but soon it was not going to work for him.

According to the team here, they only needed one more day to analyse the garden side, then a day more to get the destination nodes, and after that, they would need three days to calibrate both sides to ensure a seamless transport.

The part of the team needing to know about the destination was not something he was aware of beforehand when he told Odin to find him a location for the Garden. This meant that the team, and by extension, the Satans, would know of his destination. He really should have thought of that before.

Now, he will have to do something to hide the actual location, creating a problem he hadn’t foreseen. In hindsight, it was quite stupid of him.

How exactly were they going to transport anything if they did not know the intended destination, especially with such a complex spell with nodes and everything?

Hastily penning the reply, he sent in the confirmation before he began inspecting everything in the Garden. Once that was done, he went to the Oppai Club, more so for breakfast rather than to just inform Odin since he had a way to get information directly to Odin, as long as he was in the Oppai Club Main Branch, that is.

The moment he passed the reception and entered the pocket dimension in which the entire Club was located, he sent the message with a thought, as the entire thing was entirely mental instead of having to write something. With that done, he went to his booth but stopped in his tracks as he found his booth occupied. Not by a group or a stranger, thankfully, but by a rather familiar Devil face.

She noticed him and raised her drink, inviting him. He smiled slightly and walked to his booth, sitting down opposite her. “You seem to have hijacked my booth.”

Mia raised an eyebrow at him, “I didn’t know that you could have personal booths here. I was told that only Thor had the privilege, and that is only because no one else dared to ever sit in his favourite place, except for when he is present and invites people personally.”

He tapped his finger on the table, ordering his smoothie along with some scrambled eggs, and replied, “Well, it is not my booth, per se, but I have always sat here whenever I come here.”

She sipped on her alcoholic drink, raising an eyebrow as his drink of choice appeared in front of him, “I know. Which is why I sat here. Also, an interesting choice of drink.”

He looked up from his drink, “Hm? Oh, this? Yeah, I love the strawberry quick of this place for some reason.”

She smiled, amused at him, “Well, to each their own, I suppose.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean? Can’t someone just enjoy their strawberry quick?”

“They certainly can. But I thought beings of higher calibre can no longer enjoy mortal stuff without some serious kick behind it, hence the almost exclusive drinks menu here.”

He shrugged, “Well, that might be true. But I guess I am just too young for that.”

She nodded, a look of realisation on her face, “Ah! I see that you subscribe to that theory.”

He quirked an eyebrow at the smug tone, “What theory?”

“The theory that as you grow older, especially in the supernatural community, you stop being able to appreciate everything around you, instead focusing on bringing everything to your state, be it in age or quality.”

“....What? This is quite literally the first time I have ever heard of it.”

She shrugged at him, “Well, that is expected. After all, I haven’t published it yet.”

He gave her a dry look at that, “That was a very bad joke.”

“It’s not. I have an actual theory here. I have even shown it to Mephisto.”

“Oh, yeah? And what did he have to say about that?”

“...He told me that it was a nice theory and instructed me to find a way to prove it.”

“And how exactly are you proving it?”

She gave him a look before replying slowly, “Travelling the world. Supernatural & mortal worlds alike. Meeting all kinds of beings. Gaining experiences. Recording any changes I could find in my own mind. Recording changes in other beings. Compared it to previous readings and more.”

Huh.

“That actually sounds like a real theory, then.”

“Like I said, it is an actual theory.”

“Alright. Tell me more about it.”

She looked at him, unsure for a moment before continuing, the words just tumbling out of her mouth as it seemed like the theory was the most important thing in her life.

“So, I have interviewed many humans, pre and post Reincarnation process. Some even centuries old. Don’t tell anyone, but I have interviewed even a few Stray Devils, all of varying power levels. I have found some pretty interesting stuff that would most definitely see me dead, so we will skip that stuff.”

He listened intently as she told him about her theory about how the human mind was not built for immortality. It was not built to see the connections built in the early years of a human’s lifespan crumble to dust, falling prey to the passage of time. That once a human mind saw all that and the realisation of immortality settled in, then there were usually only a couple of options.

The mind cracked. Some cracked more, some less. The effects manifested differently as well. Some Devils devoted their entire self to a single thing. Be it their King, their strength, or something else.

Some Devils just stopped growing, or living. It was as if their mind was put into a freeze at that state and they became incapable of growing, learning, or experiencing new things and feeling new things. These Devils usually faded quietly, or were disposed of quietly by their Kings.

Then, came the most drastic. The ones that either had their mind fractured so badly that they either exploded on the spot, or had their entire personality warped so much that they became unrecognisable from the initial person. Being Devils with little shapeshifting abilities meant that their exterior also changed over time to reflect the interior, and that was almost always ugly.

That too resulted in kings quietly disposing of them.

He recognised a familiar theme in her research.

Then, as if recognising something, she abruptly changed gears, telling him about other supernatural veins she had researched.

In conclusion, she was of the opinion, and it seemed a pretty accurate opinion, backed with more than a few facts, that anything long lived needed something to have a stable mind, and beings of higher levels, a stable soul. A dull mind, with a dull life, with no goal in sight, led to a dull and dim soul that usually resulted in stagnation or outright degradation in power.

It was startlingly close to his own theory about needing a strong goal, a strong need to do something to have a shot at seeing a rapid increase in power, even if the person was blessed with Godly Talent or a Godly Longinus.

As she finished her words and drank a glass of water, looking at him with naked hope, he looked at Mia in a new light. It was as if she was a doctoral student and was looking at him for an opinion on her thesis.

How did that work though? He was supposed to only be 18 years old and, more importantly, have spent most of his life in isolation, with no public sighting. 

Still, though, she was correct, or at least he thought she was right. He too was not certain, and he had certainly not done the amount of work she had, but from a perspective granted by being a quasi-outsider, he could see her being true. So, he gave his honest opinion on it.

“Well, I can’t really comment on being old myself. I still have a lot of the world to see and experience, but I can say that you sound right. It can explain some of the truly fucked up stuff the Gods, the Older, more powerful Gods can do.”

She leaned forward, her eyes lighting up, “Right? Right? I thought so too. I have written that in my paper as well. In Mephisto’s words, "Any sufficiently strong being has to be gone in the head, at least partially.”

He put his glass of second strawberry drink in the air, as she clinked it with her alcoholic beverage, “Cheers to that.”

After putting her glass down, Mia looked at him with an odd smile on her face, “You really know about humans and their customs, don’t you?”

He nodded seamlessly, sipping on his drink, “Yup. I also love human food, hence the knowledge. I also know a ton of newly reincarnated folks back in the Underworld. Some of my most favourite Mexican food is from New Lilith’s Food Market. I love that place.”

“Ah, too bad I can’t visit. I would have loved to.”

He gave her a confused look at that. She replied, “Well, Mephisto has forbidden me from entering the Underworld, or a Church, though the last warning was unnecessary."

“Do you have any idea why?”

She shrugged, “Something about saving them for last. I don’t know what goes inside his mind, but I have largely been an independent agent, which is why I follow that order. It was one of the few times he was serious.”

He nodded noncommittally.

“So,” Mia got that glint in her eye as she leaned forward, “what brings the Bael heir back here once more?”

He groaned out loud in annoyance at the question, “No. Not this again!”

She laughed out loud at that, freely, the sound like a melody to his ears. 

“Well, you were clearly not going to say anything of your own volition. I have to be the one to get some crumbs out of you. Does the Heir of the Great and Almighty House Bael have to be so mysterious and dry in conversation? How do you talk to girls at this rate? I don’t hope that you are naive enough to think that girls love your stellar conversation skills.”

“And I told you. I don’t get girls, as you said. Neither through conversation, nor my power.”

“....That’s just sad.”

He glared at her, though there was no real heat behind it, prompting yet another round of laughter from the Reincarnated Devil woman.

It was strange. She did not feel as annoying as others. There was something else about her, or was it because she was both a Reincarnated human and a free one at that. The closest Devil to have a human mindset with the freedom of a Pillar Devil? Maybe not the resources of one, but even so, he supposed that being a part of Mephisto’s peerage, inactive as it might be, granted her access to a large pool of resources.

Resources that she could use to fund her research, which was rather interesting.

As he said, Interesting.