TSSG - Chapter 12 : Damned if you do, Damned if you don't.... (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–

Natasha’s concerns about being unable to hide his rapid growth were very valid, especially since she pointed out that even if he somehow grew just his physical body’s strength instead of his magic, which was physically impossible, he would still be unable to hide that.

Even if he was isolated most of the day, and no one really watched him work at all times, it would be the epitome of foolishness to just assume that the entire estate was not under surveillance at all times. Sure, most of it would be automated, with the bulk of the attention focused on the more important parts, and he had never gone anywhere near the main areas, but even so, it was just common sense to assume that every single inch within that place was being monitored. 

So, as he sat there, looking stunned as he realised that if he wanted to grow strong and have any chance of weathering the tremendous storm headed his way, he was going to have to leave his basically perfect job and venture out of the city, potentially, which was one of the most dangerous things he could do right now.

“You don’t have to do it right away. Your growth rate is not absurd enough that we have to leave in a few days or even a few weeks. It will likely take months before someone can notice anything wrong with you.” Nat tried to help, but honestly, the feeling of being told that the massive safety net he was relying on was going to be abandoned by him was pretty shitty.

Even if he didn’t really know anyone there, and had basically zero attachments to that place aside from a paycheck and a safe space, he felt like he was committing some kind of big mistake whenever he thought of leaving that.

Taking a deep breath, he thought about it objectively and realised that yes, Nat was right, and that he was going to have to leave sooner rather than later. He was not going to just sit around and not grow his strength and use the cheats he was blessed with, just because he was afraid that he could be discovered. That would be absurd, especially since he knew what was coming in the near future.

He was going to need tremendous strength in the future, and as such, making this step was inevitable.

“We need to figure out a way to get out of the city safely, and without raising any attention.” He told Nat, who just nodded and sat down cross legged in front of him.

“Yes. That is one of the things I need to look into. I am sure we can figure out a way to get past the guards and strict controls in place around the city. I mean, they have to be getting stuff from outside the city at regular intervals, right?”

He slowly nodded, “Yeah. Even if there is a ban on movement for anyone not in the Satan Army or a High Class devil, they still need labour to transport stuff. Even if they use Demonic Beasts to carry stuff, they would still need low class Devils. The problem will be fooling the people doing the checks into letting us leave.”

“And what after that? Do you know some place we can use to train safely? A place that won’t immediately kill you? Assuming such a place exists, how do we get there safely? Hiding me won’t be a problem, but even so, we should aim for a place that would let me train as well.”

He sighed as he realised that it was going to be far tougher than he expected to get out of this place. Even if he did somehow get out, then where was he going to go?

The old Shin had never thought of that. In some part of his mind, he had probably expected to just work until he was either kicked off the Estate and killed somewhere in the city, or worked until he died, which was never, since Devils don’t have a biological expiry date. Even the low class devils all have biological immortality. Honestly, that aspect wasn't exactly tested, as Devils as a whole were a really young species, but the common consensus was that no Devil had died of old age yet, and that should be the same going forward.

“No,” he softly replied to her line of questioning.

“Then, we just need more information. Honestly, the one thing we lack the most right now is up to date information, not just about this city but what is happening outside as well. With my limited mobility, the best I can do is spy on people or steal stuff, so unless we want to break into some government record keeping facility here, I think you are going to have to venture out of your safety bubble.” Nat calmly explained to him, and she was right. One hundred percent, he was going to have to sacrifice some of the safety he had created at his workplace and venture out.

He was pretty sure that a few days should be enough to get at least one of the other janitors and staff to talk to him. He didn’t know what he could do after that, but it should be a step in the right direction. People who had been employed at the Gregory Estate for years and years on end should know what was happening outside.

Plus, he was pretty sure that the staff at the Estate was sometimes swapped with some of the other properties that House Gremory owned. At least the manager/supervisor level staff was rotated, of that he was sure. He told Nat, who looked thoughtful before replying, “Alright. We’ll start there. But don’t be surprised if we don’t make any headway. The whole situation with your employment is fishy, so we have to be careful here.”

“Obviously.”

___xx__

It was the next day, and just like yesterday, he took the route that was supposedly the safe one, only to find open violence happening, even in places that previously were forbidden streets, as they hosted stores owned by the Lucifer Six. Now, he could see that almost all stores that were pristine just a few days ago were either broken into, sported burn marks on the exterior, or both.

There was a certain tension in the air, and he could spot many other people like him, who were all walking face down, just hoping to get out of the area as fast as possible without becoming a casualty in whatever was going down in the capital. It was clear that the Civil War was approaching, and this escalation of the Shadow War into public areas might just be the trigger for the first public battle of the Civil War.

Things certainly seemed to be headed that way, and unfortunately for the poor people here, even with the shadow of war hanging over their heads, they still had to go to work and do their job like it was a normal day. Because war might be a terrible thing, but not going to work meant they would lose their income and that meant going without food.

Sure, devils as a whole were far more resilient than humans and could go for days without any food, without any issue, but work was work, and there was no lack of low class devils who would take their jobs, just to get that higher standard of living.

He had a hunch that the number of low class devils was kept artificially high in Lucifaad, just to keep a steady stream of borderline slave labour on tap, instead of spreading them across the Underworld. After all, the Underworld was a vast place, and with no new Devils being created from Lilith, it meant that the current workforce was a limited resource.

A resource that was being wasted by the current Satan Descendants on petty politics. If he was not wrong, there was no such thing as resource or space scarcity in the Underworld, and if the Devil rulers just stopped creating hazardous conditions for any devil roaming around the Underworld, most low class devils would just go their own way and build a small life for themselves.

The ambitious ones might die trying to claw their way to the top, or they might even succeed, but he was pretty sure that most low class devils would love nothing more than to be let loose on the underworld.

But that would mean that the High Class devils would lose their labour forces, their expendable army, their talent pool, and more.

Devils probably did not do that for the same reasons humans did not do the same back home. It was easier to exploit a resource that thought that it had to work; otherwise there were dozens of others ready to take the same spot in a jiffy.

That disturbing thought aside, he reached his job in no time, and after putting on his uniform, got to work.

Only this time, in a deviation that made him supremely uncomfortable, he began going past the clearly demarcated boundary that he had been following for years, according to the memories he had of working here.

He strayed past the invisible lines; he strayed past the hallways he was not supposed to clean; he went past the garden lines that were not his to clean; he went past the dining spaces that were not his to clean. He went to the kitchens, he went to the gardens, he went to the stables for the Demonic Beasts, he went to the food storage centers, and more. At the end of the day, it felt like he had broken a dozen different rules, all of them coming with serious penalties.

Every single time he was in a place he was not supposed to be, he felt like any moment someone would pop up out of nowhere and either reprimand him or outright fire him, even though the latter seemed like a less likely possibility since he was not intruding on private spaces or trying to break into spaces that were not already open to everyone.

Fortunately, no one seemed to care as he did his job and cleaned the places, some of which were already spotless, which meant that his fellow janitors had already done their jobs. There wasn’t much he had received as a reward for his, in his personal opinion, dangerous actions, except one thing.

As he slipped on his own clothing and exited the Gremory Estate using the back gate, he turned on the spot and went in the opposite direction toward his home, his fists clenched inside his coat, as he tried to stop himself from turning on the spot and flee to the safety of his home, as perceived as it might be.

“You are going to the recital, then?” Nat asked him, knowing full well what the single piece of information he had managed to glean from his adventures was.

“Yup. Might as well see what the fuss is about, right?” He answered back, very much jittery and nervous about what he was about to do. They represented a significant departure from his usual actions, and getting away from the safe route at the safe time felt as if he was walking straight towards his death.

Even though it was probably not going to be as disastrous as his mind thought it would be, he was also sure that he had to do something. After all, as yesterday had demonstrated to him pretty clearly, the supposedly safe route and safe timing was rapidly becoming unsafe.

It would be much better if he could figure out a way to get past the whole unsafe thing, and if he had to take this risk for that, then so be it.

Worse comes to worst, he would at least have a few of his questions answered.

Just why was a Super Devil so invested in a choir? Also, what really happened that led to Sirzechs joining the Civil War effort?

“You do realise that the Civil War might have already started and you just might not be aware of it?” Nat’s words made him freeze briefly before he continued walking, his mind going into overdrive as Nat explained her words.

“Just because we can’t see something does not mean it does not exist. What if the Civil War is already in full swing, but only out of the Capital? What if today is the day Sirzechs’ choir was massacred? What if–” Nat’s words stopped as she likely read his thoughts about what he intended to happen there. “You are expecting that to happen. You want to take advantage of this?”

“Yes,” He replied, his thoughts slightly tinged with hysteria, “I don’t think we have enough time to be taking things slow. I think we need to either take advantage of the ensuing chaos to slip out of the city, or do something that might get us closer to Sirzechs. If today is the day his choir group is massacred, which I don’t think is possible since he too is scheduled to be there, then we are not any safer at the Gremory Estate, especially since we don’t know where any of the bunkers are.

Even if we knew that, we don’t know if they’ll even be safe. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. So, why don’t we take the route with the highest risk but also the highest reward.”

He could practically feel Natasha thinking furiously in his soulscape, trying to find a different path for them, especially with the extremely limited information they had on hand. When she clearly came up empty handed at the moment, she swore.

“Fuck.”

Fuck indeed.