TSSG - Chapter 6 : Gremory Estate pt.1 (Patreon)

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

Lucifaad, Underworld

–Shin–

Making sure he did not bump into anyone, and did not otherwise garner any attention, was a mental exercise in and of itself, as it seemed as if everyone around him was so high strung that they just needed a reason to jump someone and kill them. It was practically written on their faces, and he did the best he could to dodge them. It didn’t help matters that some of them looked pissed off when he even looked at them.

The thing was that almost all of them were just low class devils, just like him, which made sense since the majority of the Devils in the Underworld were low class devils, but it felt like they had something over the other low class devils that made them strut about with confidence. He could understand one or two devils like that, but to encounter dozens of low class devils with the same countenance? Something was clearly fishy, and yet, the old Shin had no interest in finding out.

In fact, he had taken the trouble to remember the regulars on the route, and it was so sad that even the supposedly safe route had so many ruffians who were prompt to turn a simple disagreement into a fight. In fact, he heard many fights breaking out behind him and, in one case, a fight that broke out in front of him.

A man, middle aged from the looks, though with Devil physiques, that meant nothing, was jumped by three guys and pulled into an alleyway. A spike of magic from that particular alleyway silenced the poor guy who was mumbling something incomprehensible. He made sure to look down and walk past that alleyway as fast as he normally could.

It was after dodging three such incidents that he finally reached the Gremory Estate. Something must have gone wrong in the entire Underworld for him to encounter so many violent crimes on his way to work. From the memories he got, nothing of this sort had happened before on his way to work, not out in the open and certainly not at this frequency.

That just increased his anxiety, as he walked into the streets that looked far cleaner, peaceful, and had people that looked peaceful and not as if they were just doing all they could do to get out of the open and into the safety of their homes. And he wasn’t even at the official gates.

With the size of the Underworld, and the sheer land Devils had access to, cities expanded outward instead of expanding straight up. The concept of skyscrapers was nonexistent in the Underworld, as there was simply no shortage of space anywhere. The fact that they would one day have to build up instead of across, simply due to lack of space, was incomprehensible to Devils as a whole.

Which is why, when he reached the gates of the Gremory Estate, he walked past them, ignoring the guards who glanced at him but did not otherwise react, quite used to seeing him daily at the same time. The old Shin made sure that the guards saw him, knew who he was, and knew that he came here daily at the same time and was a staff member, out of some notion that if they knew who he was, they might one day save him if they found him in a pinch somewhere.

The sheer vastness of the city meant that each Pillar House had what was essentially a small town inside their estates. For rich people, there was no lack of space even inside the capital of Devils. All the Pillars were rich, and as such, so were the Gremory, especially now that the Gremory probably had one of the only original Pillars who was still alive.

Most of the Pillar Houses had lost their original Pillars in the Great War, and the ones who were alive by now would soon be dealt with, likely by Zekram, as it was pretty well known that in the future, the only alive Original Pillar Devils were Zekram Bael and Runeas Gremory, two Dukes of the Underworld who weren’t even in the top 10 most important people in the entirety of the Underworld right now.

It was honestly amazing just how far Zekram was able to take his House, making sure that the name Bael was synonymous with strength in the future version of the Underworld. The fact that even Runeas went into long-term sleep, leaving behind Zekram as the oldest living Devil to rule over the Underworld in the future, likely meant that the whole Civil War alliance that won must be something that Zekram came up with.

The man was certainly crafty enough to do so. If he was not wrong with the timeline, then the alliance was already done, and they were likely only waiting for some kind of spark that would push the two sides against each other. 

The thought of Zekram being the whole reason the Civil War happened the way it did entered his mind, but he ejected those thoughts from his mind as he focused on the here and now. He was far too weak to even think of such things. Zekram was a really powerful Devil even now, and he was able to manipulate Devils orders of magnitude stronger than him, like Sirzechs. There was no point in thinking of such beings.

The here and now was the unassuming looking wall that was part of the border wall of Gremroy Estate, hence its pristine looking state, as it practically shone, even with there being no Sun or Moon here. It must be the Devil physique that was allowing him to see stuff, as the only backdrop of a dim Purple sky behind him should not be enough to light up everything in sight. 

Shaking his head, he dismissed those thoughts, as he placed his hand on the wall, as that particular part of the wall simply slid inside, before he removed his hand and a section of the wall went inside before turning to the side, revealing a lot of stairs that led straight up. 

He must have walked for about 15 minutes before he reached this part of the wall, and even now, the border wall extended as far as his eyes could see, and that was simply because of the sheer vastness of the Gremory Estate. He knew those stairs intimately, as he simply walked up to them, and the moment he placed his foot on the first step, the wall behind him slid back into place, closing the service entrance.

Technically, he could just enter through the front gate, and then take a left turn to walk through an underground tunnel that would lead to the same building he was headed to right now, but for some reason, Shin preferred taking this route, despite the tunnel route arguably being far safer than just walking out in the open, since that tunnel was inside Gremory Estate, but something about that tunnel felt like walking naked to the old Shin.

Reaching the top of the stairs, he looked at the scenery in front of him. If he hadn’t seen the same thing hundreds of times before, he would not have believed that such beautiful, pristine scenery could exist in the same city that had the slums below.

Greenery as far as he could see, massive trees that would have created shade, had there been a Sun in this place, and the sound of moving water that was seemingly coming from everywhere, as a sense of peace instantly washed over him for a moment. It was in such stark contrast to the stressful journey he made here that he couldn't help but take a moment in and soak in the peace and calm here.

A moment later, he exhaled and then walked towards his battlestation with purposeful steps. Sure, the scenery was beautiful, the vibe pretty peaceful and calm, but this was still the Underworld, and as he had come to know from Shin’s memories, even the most peaceful sounding Devil from any House could be the most brutal and violent psychopath.

Even so, there was a reason why he valued his job here in Gremory Estate so much, even though there was always the chance of being killed by some random high class devil in the background. There was a reason why everyone in the slums below were envious of his job, to the point he had to stop going there after it became clear that they did not appreciate his improved conditions.

He slipped into the janitors’ room and put on his uniform after taking stock of all the cleaning supplies, which were just as he had catalogued them yesterday before he left for home. Taking a deep breath, he put his hands on the mop, which was clearly nothing magical, but the moment he did so, he felt like he had put on a layer of protection. Like the chances of him being hurt even inside the Estate were drastically lowered the moment he walked out of here with the uniform on, and a mop in hand.

It was ridiculous, and yet, it was the truth. There really was an invisible layer of protection on him right now, he thought to himself as he walked out of the supply room, before beginning to do his job.

As far as he could tell, things had not been the same for even House Gremory, as they too were known to be the same as the other Pillar Houses, in terms of cruelty and brutality, as well as their treatment of their servants and the other low class devils.

It made sense since Lucifer and Lilith quite literally made all Devils to be machines of war, and those instincts were hard to let go of, at least for the ones birthed directly from Lilith. The effect must be a bit diluted for the second generation of Devils, which is why most Devils from House Gremory were assholes just like the rest of Devilkind.

And yet, there was a massive difference in the way Devils from House Gremory behaved with their lower class servants than the other devils. It was all due to the existence of an anomaly who was born a while ago, and while he hadn’t taken charge of the House quite yet, everyone and their mother knew that if Sirzechs said something, then no one in House Gremory had the guts to oppose him.

The invisible layer of protection he had because of his uniform was because of Sirzechs Gremory, who had done something to dissuade the idea of abusing the servants from every single Gremory Devil, as well as the ones who came to visit the Gremory Estate.

He didn't know exactly what Sirzechs had done, but whatever it was, it was impactful, to the point that even if Shin was deathly afraid of something happening to him because of a mistake, he knew that he would not die, or even if he did die, it would be a quick death instead of a long, drawn out, torturous death. That was because Shin back then did not know what kind of person Sirzechs was, and what kind of power he really wielded in all of the Underworld, to the point that Zekram’s whole plan of Civil war hinged on the two Super Devils actually participating in the Civil War.

Realistically, all Zekram had to do was convince Sirzechs and Ajuka to step up to help his friend. Serafall and Falbium, while powerful, were not really as important as the two Super Devils. He was sure that they were not at the peak of their power yet, but even their current levels should be more than enough to deal with the pathetic wastes of Demonic Energy that were the current Satan Descendants who would see the entire Underworld burned down in another Great War before watching Devilkind grow up in peace.

As he began doing his usual routes, long before anyone important actually walked through this place, he poked at Natasha, who had been oddly silent all this while, which made sense since she was a spy and their default state was to blend in and gather as much information as possible. He had been so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed her silence until he was doing his menial job, which was, at the moment, more important and safety-providing than any perk he was given by the ROB.

“Hey, why so silent?”

She replied instantly, lending further credence to the theory that she was just observing everything silently, “I was just going through your thoughts, as well as observing through your senses. I was able to pick up quite a bit more that you simply ignored. Continue doing your job; I will do my thing in the background.”