DXD SI : Chapter 91 : Self Imposed Vacation & Post-vacation blues (Patreon)

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

Inner Sanctum, The Garden 

–Magdaran Bael–

It had been a quiet month after the Asgard fiasco, mainly because he had kicked out Vali and barred any visitors, and just rested. A few times, he helped Aldric, who just seemed so happy to be left to his own devices inside the garden. More than once, he’d seen Aldric Zagan, just hovering somewhere, hunched over and looking at the Mother Tree’s root network with awe and reverence plastered all over his face.

The Mother Tree too seemed to have taken a liking to Aldric, and so, he would see scenes such as the Mother Tree’s roots being used as a slide for Aldric, who seemed to be having the time of his life. Knowing that no tomfoolery was afoot, and that the Zagan was not using his powers on the Mother Tree, he let the Devil be and just focused on relaxing.

He had sent out explicit messages to Azazel that he did not want to be disturbed, unless it was an emergency on the same level as the one he just had to go through in Asgard. Judging by the way he still hadn’t heard from Thor or Odin, it meant that either they got the message from Azazel or, and this was the more likely option, they were still engrossed in their “celebrations”. 

He was going to have to sanitise each and every surface the next time he was back in Asgard, because what do you mean that the entire civilisation indulges in orgies whenever they have a celebration, sans the underage Asgardians, of course. He reckoned that they had some sort of rotation system to keep a watch over the kids, or maybe a small minority did not partake in the festivities.

Shaking his head, he turned to the side, taking the straw in his mouth and sipping on a delicious cocktail, courtesy of a direct line to the Oppai Club’s Main Branch Kitchen, one of the perks he got in exchange for helping in Asgard.

He no longer had to travel all the way to the Main Branch of the Oppai Club to get all these exotic dishes. Also, he was now on the same level as Azazel when it came to expense accounts and privileges. He wondered just what Azazel did to get that in the first place, though?

Maybe he could ask him that in the next week, when his self imposed isolated vacation was coming to an end. His social battery had accounted for just the food competition and then a brief lunch, instead of the days long mess he had been roped into, partially because of his own fault. Well, the initial part of fighting and using his power at its max was not mentally taxing at all.

In fact, he would say that he rather enjoyed using his power in a never before used manner. It was the latter part that bothered him a bit. The flowery speeches, being paraded around Asgard on Odin’s orders, drinking with Asgardians who never seemed to understand the word NO or STOP when it came to forcibly drowning people in high tier alcohol, and then witnessing public sex.

That had been the thing that had drained his social battery the most. Which is why the month long full isolation vacation. And surprisingly, Azazel hadn’t pulled an Azazel and ruined it somehow by doing something over the top like trying to host a party in his honor in his Garden. Well, he would have failed, but then, being forced to interact with people alone would have been enough to ruin this very well deserved vacation.

He hadn’t even touched anything that could be constituted as work, spending most of his time here, in the pool he’d created in the middle of the Inner Sanctum when he realised that he did not have a suitably large pool to laze about inside his Garden.

He had also procured a nice little air bed thingy to sleep on for long periods of time. Perks of being a Devil, he had no issues being in a water body for days at a time. All the food and water he might need were summoned directly to this location, courtesy of Odin’s gift, which is why he had spent the better part of the week just moving about in the pool.

Normally, he would have been quite averse to just lazing about for weeks at a time. Sure, he took a day off here and there when things got really hectic, even though it was quite rare, but never for such a long period of time.

There was always something or other to do, some goal to achieve, and a self imposed deadline to fulfill. That was because, even with all his current strength, he was still looking for more. More power. More skills. More Demonic Energy reserves. More Allies.

Always more, because he knew that technically, there was no such thing as a power ceiling in this world. Sure, he had learned to enjoy life along his way to become uber powerful, but for the most part, he was laser focused on getting stronger.

Now, though? Now, he had allies. Sure, he had the Norse as allies long before today, but it was just not as tight knit a bond as it is now. Right now, he was pretty sure that he could call upon either Thor or Odin, just in case something unexpected happened, like the Four Satans joining hands with Rizevim to mount an attack on his Garden. 

Sure, they probably wouldn’t join him if he tried to do something absurd like genocide an entire race for no fucking reason, but he wouldn’t do that. Anything he might reasonably ask of them, he was pretty sure they would say yes.

And that alone was such a stress reliever, especially since the power up both of them had gotten recently. He hadn’t checked the Top Ten Strongest Beings list, but he was pretty sure that Odin alteast deserved a name on it. 

Odin was probably not on that list by choice.

Either way, their strength alone was such a massive gain for him that he could finally afford to just sit back and relax, atleast temporarily. The fact that he finally had people stronger than him that he could count on, and a place he could safely relax in, was a huge burden off his back. 

It practically felt like retirement compared to the constant stress of having to look over his shoulder back when he was in the Underworld. Even after that, when he had his own place, he always had that fear of the world coming to know about his true power, and rushing forward to either take control of him for their own purposes or to destroy him once and for all, so that no one else could use him.

Shaking his head, he put those fears to rest before leaning further on his floatie, enjoying the magical sun’s light hitting his body at just the right angle, enough to make him feel pleasantly warm with the cold water below him, but also not hitting him in the eyes, so he could sleep much easier.

“Ah,” He exclaimed, “This is life.”

He always wanted to say that while being truly relaxed, and on the verge of sleeping.

____xx___

His eyes snapped open, a sigh escaping his lips as he realised that today was the last day of his vacation, self imposed as it was. To get somewhat used to his regular life routine, he had foregone sleeping inside or adjacent to the water body he’d created in the middle of his Garden, and had chosen to sleep in his regular bed.

Getting up, he got ready and walked to the kitchen, and ate his breakfast. He was in the middle of eating it when he got the first ping on the wards of the Inner Sanctum. Seeing that it was a polite ping instead of Vali’s usual punch, he let her in. Azazel followed suit a moment later.

As they arrived at the kitchen, their movements were closely watched by the Mother Tree, which was something they were used to, as the Mother Tree monitored everything inside the Garden. He continued eating his breakfast, not looking up to greet them.

He supposed that after vacation blues could hit even him, seeing that he was no longer a human but a Devil, and had been so for the last 23 or so years, so he was in kind of a down mood, too busy wallowing in his sadness to even greet them, which was fine, as they were both not the kind of people to take offense to something as trivial as a lack of greeting.

Unfortunately for him, he should have looked up and seen the expressions on their faces.

Azazel cleared his throat. “Ahem, Oh Great Magdaran, a minute of your precious time, please?”

The exaggerated quality in Azazel’s voice, as well as Vali’s snort, made him pause mid bite, before slowly looking up to see Azazel looking down at him with a smug smile plastered on his face, which was alarming. Vali’s equally smiling face just increased that alarm.

“What is it?”

“So, I heard that the great Magdaran Bael, Devil wielding the Power of Destruction, a True Devil, had assaulted Asgard and succeeded in doing so, judging by the hours-long curtain that persisted around Asgard.” Azazel loudly read from his phone, barely fighting back a snicker as he did so. Vali was not nearly restrained enough to do so, laughing her ass off in the background.

What?

He snatched the phone from Azazel’s hands and read through the posts on DevilNet. Speed reading through the whole thing, as Azazel sat down at the table and unceremoniously helped himself to the breakfast.

Setting down the phone, he glared at Azazel and Vali, who were undoubtedly laughing because they were simply following his orders when he told them that he was not to be contacted unless an actual emergency emerged.

Looking at the hundreds of posts on DevilNet, supporting him as a True Devil amongst a sea of Fakes, he realised that even the world did not know what had happened on Asgard. It must be those Old Satan Faction people who just saw that curtain around Asgard and assumed that he was attacking.

Moreover, they had leaked the information that he was behind the Vampire attack, and the reason for the death of the entire Vampire higher ups. Thankfully, Dracula had not risen up yet, so the backlash from other factions was non-existent, but if Dracula rose up sometime in the future, he was sure to be targeted.

It was a mess all around, and something he would prefer to be in the private domain.

Vali finally calmed down and sat down at the table as well, helping herself to the rapidly dwindling breakfast he’d cooked for himself, forcing him to push that news to the back of his mind as he tussled with the Governor General of Grigori and the youngest Lucifer for breakfast.

Great breakfast, sure, but still, it was just breakfast.

Which is why he retreated and gave up, seeing that they seemed far more desperate than he was, to eat the food.

In the meantime, he wondered what the repercussions of this becoming public would be? Nothing too serious, considering Azazel did not bother informing him until the very end. At least, it was sure to have induced panic in Serafall, considering he was pretty sure that Asgard was still on a strict no contact and party policy even now.

The implications for the Pharmacist business were probably far heavier, which was probably why Azazel was here. Sure, seeing his shocked look must be amusing, but it would not be enough to bring Azazel here. The man had a ton of work to do, especially in the wake of the Auction house administered by the Norse on paper and by the Grigori in reality.

With that in mind, “Let’s talk.” He had a prank of his own to pull on Azazel.

Azazel straightened up from the table, nodded at him before following suit. Vali stayed where she was, because she was both not involved in that business and also not interested in it. She just got a monthly salary from both Azazel and Odin at this point, which was basically unlimited as far as Vali was concerned because nothing she did actually required too much money.

The most expensive stuff she consumed in her life was the produce from his Garden, and she did not pay him a cent for that. 

He and Azazel walked out of the Kitchen and towards the meeting hall, and on the way, he sent a mental ping to the Mother Tree that promptly grabbed Aldric and threw him in their path.

Aldric recovered and landed on his feet, looking at both of them with surprised wide eyes.

“Ah,” He paused before continuing, gesturing at Aldric, “Let me introduce you to my first official student.”

Aldric raised what it was, and quickly changed into appropriate, royal ceremony type clothing.

He smiled internally before continuing, “This is Aldric. Aldric Zagan.”

The reaction was immediate, as Azazel paused from extending his hand for a handshake, his eyes on Aldric, his body frozen, before he had to use his power to tamp down the aggressive magical response from Azazel.

“Relax. He is the last of their kind, and nothing like you imagine him to be.”

Aldric looked resigned at the reaction, and he winced internally. He kinda felt bad at subjecting Aldric to this just because he wanted to get back at Azazel.

“I am sorry, Aldric. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” He smiled apologetically at Aldric.

Aldric waved his hands. “Ah! No need for that, Magdaran. I love doing my tasks, actually. I will just get back to it now.”

He saw the man leave, cursing himself internally for what he had just done.