A Life Kept Simple (DxD/Hentai Chaos Gacha OC-SI) — Chapter 29 (Patreon)

On the morning of July 26th, everyone gathers at my house. It’s sort of become the natural meeting spot after Serafall’s renovations. The house itself is entirely untouched above the ground level except for a little shed in my garden that is instead an elevator leading to the rest of the house. Honestly, everything below feels more like a leisure centre than it does a home. I did have to text Serafall my requests after Mary reincarnated our friends into her peerage, so the sub-levels were made with an entire peerage in mind.

Again, it was free, so you won’t catch me complaining at the addition of two full-sized swimming pools, a magical weightlifting room, multiple sparring rooms for armed and unarmed combat alike, a movie room, a straight-up storage room, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I probably haven’t touched since the day we moved back in. Which means, at any given time, there are a bunch of people downstairs. Mary’s entire peerage has basically moved in.

Of course, Saki’s been living here, too. A few weeks after she was reincarnated, she had to go back to Osaka so the police could take a statement from her. Her mood had already picked up considerably afterwards, even if the experience put her in a slump. She’s probably the most excited out of everyone to see what the Underworld is like, oddly.

As for everyone else, well, they’re here most of the time, if only to make use of my resources. It’s like Sir Blob, Ibaraki, Mary, and I are the only ones using the top floor of the house anymore… but I’m perfectly fine with it. Honestly, it’s good to know they’re all safe.

“We really just step into the elevator to go to hell?” Murata asks. “It’s a little bit boring, is all.”

Thanks to the bullshit that is devil magic, the inside of the elevator is much bigger than the outside, so we all fit in here without any trouble at all. I’ve left my house—and Sir Blob—in Tajima and Sasaki’s care for the few days we’ll be in the Underworld. I could have left him in the familiar space, but I don’t see the harm in keeping him around since I’ve left him home alone before.

We’re all dressed pretty casually since the peerage is headed to Baron Naamah’s place to introduce themselves a few days before the meeting. After a month of training, they’re finally up to snuff, I think.

Mary puts her hands on her hips as she glares up at him. “Oh, I’m sorry… but my house is just a barony! I dunno what you were expecting. We can’t afford a goddamn train into the Underworld like the Gremory do!”

“There’s a train into the Underworld?” Miyata asks, grinning, only to stumble straight into Kyouka’s cleavage.

“...Well, if you wanted to cop a feel, all you had to do was ask~!” She wraps her arms around his head, suffocating him in her bosom with a grin on her face. Miyata eventually extracts himself, not at all frazzled despite Murata’s jeering.

Seto watches this all and sighs, making Saki laugh at his resignation. Kyouka, Leona, Mrs Houjou, and a bunch of prostitutes have long since beaten the naivety out of these guys, I think.

“Can we get a train or something?” Miyata asks, fiddling with the wolf-headed band on his ring finger. “Like, eventually. It seems cooler than an elevator. …Is this thing even safe?”

Leona laughs derisively. “Oh, sweet summer child. You think we’re taking an elevator?”

She pumps a little bit of magical energy through the circle on the floor. The sigil of house Naamah lights up pink against the floor.

“We’re going by teleportation circle,” Mary says.

“Oh!” Miyata’s face brightens. “That’s all good, then.”

The light beneath our feet intensifies.

“Wait,” Seto says. “I’ve got a—”

The elevator disappears in a brilliant flash of light.

“—question?”

Instead of the elevator, we’re standing in the entrance hall of the Naamah townhouse.

Seto blinks. “The Underworld is… Europe?”

Miyata and Murata laugh as they look around. Saki joins them in glancing around the building. Unfortunately, Baron Naamah’s place isn’t particularly hellish. It’s not too different from Mrs Houjou’s mansion, if I’m being honest. The double doors glide open to reveal a maid.

“Welcome home, Lady Mary.” She bows. “And welcome, everyone, to the Naamah residence.”

Mary beams at the woman as everyone bows—well, everyone except Ibaraki.

We’re taken through to the dining room after that, where Baron Naamah is already waiting for us for lunch.

He rises when we enter. “Welcome, newcomers… and welcome back, Arima, daughter.”

The mood dips a little as they lay eyes on him for the first time, and understandably so. Mary made sure of that beforehand by telling everyone that not only is he emotionless, but he can read their thoughts if they think too loudly. Introductions take a while. Baron Naamah already knows Leona, but the boys, Kyouka, Saki, and Ibaraki are new.

He takes his time with each of them as lunch arrives piecemeal under Ibaraki’s eager watch. Murata ends up sitting directly across from Baron Naamah, with Kyouka to his right and Ibaraki to his left.

“You know,” he says twenty minutes in, roughly as we wrap up the main course, “for an emotionless guy, you’re pretty neat!”

Across from me, Seto closes his eyes and mutters something under his breath. Miyata turns woodenly to Murata while Kyouka leans in to hiss something in his ear.

Baron Naamah merely smiles. “Thank you. I do believe being considered ‘neat’ by my daughter’s Knight is preferable to the alternative.”

Murata visibly deflates. “Oh. Yeah. D-Definitely.”

“I’m glad.”

Mary puts her face in her hands.

Dessert thankfully arrives without Murata finding another shovel for himself. Baron Naamah actually seems interested in getting to know everyone, or at least interested in knowing the people his daughter has chosen for her peerage. He asks about school, their training, how they’re adjusting to being devils, and what they intend to do during the Young Devil Gathering.

Then, sometime during dessert, his attention settles on me. It’s been drifting to me occasionally, but it sort of stays there this time. I try to ignore it until I can’t anymore.

“... Sir?”

Baron Naamah tilts his head. “Arima. Would you accompany me for a moment?”

“Uh... sure?” I get up and follow him out of the dining room, feeling Mary’s curiosity behind me. Baron Naamah leads me a short distance down the hall before stopping.

He turns and continues looking me over. “You’re a demigod. I admit that I find the situation somewhat difficult to understand, considering you were incensed at the somewhat baseless rumour I’d engineered not so long ago. You’re not one to lie, so I find myself at a bit of a loss.”

I start laughing. The last time we had this conversation, I was ready to throttle the man after finding out my supposed demigod status was a fucking marketing campaign. Now I’ve come back with actual divinity sitting inside me.

Baron Naamah waits patiently for me to stop. “You very clearly weren’t one before, yet now you are.”

“Yep.”

“How?”

I grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Baron Naamah sighs. “...I believe I preferred this arrangement when only one of us was withholding information.”

“Yeah? Funny how that works, huh?” My grin gets wider. “Jokes aside, if I could tell you, sir, believe me... I would. Being completely honest, this turn of events confuses me just as much.”

“I’d imagine so. It’s not every day that one ends up blessed by Hera Basileia.”

My mood summarily falls off a cliff. What the fuck am I even meant to do about this blessing? I’m pretty sure getting it removed through anything that isn’t Gacha-provided will kick up even worse of a shitstorm than leaving it on me will cause. It’s just not worth it… but leaving it on is an infinite source of stress for me, damn it!

“That being said,” Baron Naamah continues. “I think we should return before your oni familiar finishes all the strawberry cake?”

“Probably… yeah, we probably should.”

The dining room is filled with raucous laughter as we return. Murata is practically folded over the table, Miyata’s got his face buried in his hands, while Seto looks like he’s struggling not to join everyone’s laughter. Saki giggles after Ibaraki loudly demands that someone explain whatever joke she missed. I do wonder who told the joke until I turn and find Sigmund Ringeck sitting in my abandoned chair with one arm thrown over the backrest.

His eyes find me almost immediately. “Ah! There he is!”

Sigmund’s forest-green eyes warm at the sight of me, though he’s dressed considerably more casually than the beige tunic he wore during my training. “Takezo!” He closes the distance and catches my forearm. I return the grip. “I heard you were back in the territory. You could have told me yourself!”

“I was planning to! I got here less than an hour ago.”

“More than enough time!” He gives me a disapproving look.

“You were training me for two weeks and never gave me your number!”

“...That is a fair point.”

“Besides, I thought you were busy being five hundred years old somewhere,” I say after noticing Leona staring at him with a blush on her face.

“Sigmund came by while you were talking to my father,” Mary says. “I was introducing everyone.”

“So I heard.” Sigmund looks over the table with a fond smile. “A peerage of your own! I remember when you were barely tall enough to reach my waist… actually, you’re just barely tall enough!”

Mary’s smile vanishes as the room’s laughter turns on her. She puffs out her cheeks and glares at Sigmund, only for him to remain unrepentant.

“Would you like to hear about the time she—”

“SIGMUND!” Mary shoots out of her chair.

“Well, if we’re sharing stories, you all know he stabbed me, right?” I say, just to get even.

Sigmund turns back to me. “Now, hold on. You’re missing a lot of important context.”

“And then he threw me into a lake after running me through with a super big and super sharp earth spike, mind you!”

“I was teaching you to heal!” Sigmund raises both hands as he addresses the table. “He makes it sound considerably worse than it was. …I don’t remember you being this petty.”

I smile pleasantly.

“And here I was hoping to make a good impression upon your companions.”

“You made a great impression on me.”

Miyata raises his hand with a grin. “Was that before or after he stabbed you?”

“I’ll leave you guys to guess,” I say, looking Sigmund over while the laughter tapers off. “...Anyhow, wanna spar?”

“What, so you can run me through instead?” Sigmund turns around with humour in his eyes that quickly fades once he sees the look on my face. “You’re serious? Of course I do! So long as you mean a pure swordsmanship bout, you will lose.”

“Hah. I wonder why? It’s the only way you can win.”

Sigmund shrugs. “There’s no shame in it. I catalysed that growth, and you were growing at a ridiculous rate when I trained you. I can sense you’ve grown stronger still. But as I told you when you left, being stronger does not make you a better swordsman.”

I narrow my eyes… he’s not wrong, but it’s the way he said it that rankles me.

“Furthermore, I have little interest in chasing greater strength for its own sake. I’m already within, roughly, the strongest thirty percent of the supernatural world. That’s quite enough for me.”

Murata blinks. “Wait. Seriously? And you’re just... cool with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sigmund asks. “I have a home, a lord I respect, enough money for my needs, and considerably more free time than I possessed when I was alive. I teach. I travel. I fence. I play video games. It may sound like poppycock to you young ones, but endlessly chasing strength is a fool’s game. I’m sure I could rise to ultimate-class if I wanted to, but life is much more fun outside of battle at my age.”

“That’s all well and good,” I say. “But it sounds a lot like ‘no’ to me!”

Sigmund laughs. “I wouldn’t go that far. Dessert has barely settled!”

“Post-dessert exercise?”

He shakes his head, but I can already see the answer on his face. “Very well. Though I should warn you… I would hate to damage your image in front of your subordinates. From what I hear, you’ve become something of an Underworld celebrity. Your exploits are… pfft—legendary!”

“We’re not his subordinates!” Murata and Miyata bellow at the same time.

Seto adjusts his glasses. “Why is Arima a celebrity?”

“Ask him yourself,” Sigmund replies. “It’s quite the funny story.”

“Laugh it up,” I grumble. “You won’t be laughing much longer.”

Mary makes eye contact with me… and in that moment, we’re of one mind as everyone filters out of the dining room towards the manor’s back exit. Sigmund leads us down the stupidly steep trail at the back of the Naamah grounds, through the trees, and out beside the river, where he spent two weeks beating swordsmanship and touki into me.

“...You trained down here every day?” Seto asks.

“Yep.”

Miyata looks back up the hill. “Why? Doesn’t the Naamah house have training halls like yours?”

“Because isolation allows one to train without damaging the estate,” Sigmund corrects.

I smile. “And their halls aren’t as amazing as mine.”

Everyone spreads out along the edge of the clearing. Baron Naamah didn’t come with us, which isn’t surprising. Mary’s standing near the front with Saki and Seto. Murata and Miyata have already started arguing over who wins. Ibaraki plants herself cross-legged on the grass where Leona stands beside Kyouka.

I uncap Riptide, and Sigmund draws his longsword.

“First to disarm?” I ask.

“Acceptable.”

“No magic?”

“No magic.”

…Well, that rules out my chance to wow him with the shield that Notus gave me.

“What about reinforcement?” I ask.

He considers it. “Permitted to mid-class level. I’m about that strong without reinforcement.”

Blue light surges around me as I tap into my well of magical energy. I settle into position with an excited smile.

“Ready?”

Sigmund raises his sword. “Whenever you are.”

I dart in and swing towards his shoulder. Sigmund moves his sword in the way as we clash with a shower of sparks. I roll my wrists immediately, letting Riptide slide down his blade before snapping the point towards his chest. Sigmund shifts half a step and knocks it aside with the length of his sword. I follow the stab through, turning the missed thrust into a horizontal cut. He blocks that too, so I step across and bring Riptide down from above.

Sigmund laughs over the clanging metal.

I kick off the ground to gather my bearings. The extra distance buys me nothing, and he follows without rushing and forces me to knock aside the point of his sword so I can continue backpedalling. Our blades scrape together as I switch tune and step inside. Sigmund twists his hilt, and suddenly I’ve got his crossguard bearing down against Riptide. I wrench my sword free before he can lever it out of my hands and retreat.

“Better,” he says.

“...Don’t patronise me.”

“I cannot help being better than you!”

I drive straight through his guard, glancing at the peanut gallery for a moment before swinging. He turns with my strike before I can capitalise, redirecting Riptide past his shoulder. His sword flashes towards my wrist. I pull back and watch the point of his sword miss by inches. He steps after me. I duck around the sword tip and come up inside his reach, slamming shoulder-first into his chest.

Sigmund grunts and staggers. I go for his sword arm, only for his blade to whip around and catch mine anyway. It’s a uniquely frustrating experience, knowing I could end this fight at any time with a burst of speed. Or bat his sword away so hard it flies off, leaving him wide-open. More frustrating, I think, because his words ring home. I’m outskilled here, not overpowered.

“Oh, fuck off,” I hiss through gritted teeth.

His insufferable grin widens, and Sigmund lets me chase him for three steps before abruptly planting his rear foot. His blade catches mine near the tip and turns. I feel Riptide dragged sideways and immediately loosen my grip rather than fight the bind. His pommel comes straight for my face as I lean away.

I jerk my head aside, but it clips my cheek. “Motherfucker!”

“You left yourself open!”

We trade for another minute when Sigmund slips another thrust past my guard. I catch his wrist with my free hand. Instead of pulling away, he freezes completely.

“...W-What?”

Slowly, I keep hold of him and glance towards the small crowd. Mary gives me a shit-eating grin, one that I mirror once I realise what just happened.

During the month of hardcore training, her peerage’s duties happened to coincide with the terms of the Covenant, allowing me to give everyone one of my traits or abilities one rank lower than their original form. Leona got Hanma to beef her up a little, and so did Kyouka. Murata and Tajima got Possessing Spirit, while Seto, Saki, and Mary got Waterbending. Their form of it might be inferior to mine, but bullshit devil magic more than makes up for it.

…And in Mary’s case, her half-vampire physiology put her form of waterbending down an avenue specific to her and one I haven’t felt the need to try out myself.

Bloodbending!

Laughing, I bat his sword out of his hand, watching it bury itself point-first in the dirt several metres away.

“...I win!”

His eyes slowly move towards me. “I can’t move.”

“What?” I squint.

“I cannot move.”

He topples backwards like a fucking statue.

My eyes drift towards the river.

“Takezo.”

I sheath Riptide.

“Takezo, is it too late to talk about this?”

I scoop him up in my arms, very aware of Mary’s cackling.

“ARIMA!” Mary shouts behind me.

I start running, and everyone chases after me while Sigmund yells in my grip.

“TAKEZO, PUT ME DOWN!”

“Nope!”

“What the hell are you doing?!” Murata screams between laughs.

“REVENGE!”

The river’s frothing depths grow louder. “Takezo, I strongly advise you to reconsider!”

“You remember stabbing me?!”

“That was training, and this is needlessly cruel!”

Ibaraki’s shouting something encouraging that I can’t make out but sounds vaguely like, ‘Toss him!’

Sigmund finally starts panicking once we reach the river bank. “I cannot move! …P-Please reconsider, my favourite student!”

“Absolutely!”

I smile and throw my treasured master into the river. The splash gets my trousers up to the knees. I stand there staring at the ripples. Everyone else piles out of the trees behind me. Mary stops bloodbending, and Sigmund’s head breaks the water’s surface, gasping for air. I snap open my phone and take a pic to immortalise the memory.

…And then I make it my wallpaper!

【—〄—】

Days later, I wasn’t expecting to have my first impression of the Underworld’s first layer righted in such a violent fashion. See, everything I’ve seen of the Underworld so far has shown it to be a bit of an anachronistic place. Baron Naamah’s territory, for instance, is old. Like, I know modern technology exists in the Underworld and is clearly more advanced than 2008 Earth, but most buildings are medieval in aesthetic.

The same isn’t really true for Lucifaad, the capital city of the Underworld. It’s practically a modern city with skyscrapers. There’s even a train that runs through all the territories of the various nobles headed to it. See, we could’ve teleported straight to the venue, but I think Mary took Miyata’s comment to heart and decided we’d all sit through a two-and-a-half-hour train journey.

Because, of course, it stops at several territories on the way there. One of which is the Phenex territory, where a flood of people hop onto the train. The most noteworthy of which being Riser and his peerage, apparently. At least according to some of the passengers in the carriage across from us.

Mary leans out of our carriage and cups a hand over her mouth. “Ravel, fancy seeing you here~!”

They’re headed towards us, I’m guessing towards the VIP section of the train. Ravel blushes, hiking up her skirt just enough to run a little faster.

“Wait, where are you going?” Riser says, moving around his peerage to follow her. He sees Mary and grins. “You were invited as well? Is Arima here perhaps?”

“Right here, man.” I lean out from behind Mary.

“Arima! It’s been some time.”

“About two months, yeah.”

Ravel reaches us first, and Mary immediately catches both her hands. “Ravel!”

“M-Mary!” The blonde girl blushes as my girlfriend pulls her in for a hug.

“I’ve missed you~!”

Riser finally reaches us with the rest of his peerage following behind, his Queen and girlfriend, I think, looping her arm through his.

“Ah.” He looks into our carriage. “So this is your peerage then, Mary?”

Mary lets Ravel go and gestures behind herself. “Left to right we have Murata, Miyata, Kyouka, Seto, Leona, and Saki!”

Kyouka gives him a salute and a wink. Murata raises a hand while Miyata copies him. Thankfully, Seto, Leona, and Saki give considerably more graceful greetings. Meanwhile, Ibaraki’s busy chowing down on a bag of sweets I bought at the Naamah Station one-and-only vending machine.

…Seriously. That place only has one vending machine, though to be fair to Baron Naamah, there’s only one station, too.

Riser looks over everyone with open curiosity. “All reincarnated devils from Japan? I mean nothing by this, but I’m surprised you amassed such a powerful peerage so quickly. You’ve had your pieces for a little over a month? They all seem quite talented to ascend to mid-class so quickly.”

“Yep! Arima helped a bunch in their training.” She gives me a side hug.

“My brother Ruval has been putting me through the wringer lately. You all have my condolences if he’s even half as harsh a taskmaster…”

Yubelluna gives him a commiserating pat on the bicep while my friends’ smiles strain across their faces. The training wasn’t that bad. Suffering builds character so you can take things easy later!

“But it’s showing results, I think!”

I give him an appraising look because he isn’t exactly wrong. Riser was sitting at the very limit of high-class before, but he’s managed to edge into the lower end of ultimate-class. What were the Phenexes known for? Super regeneration? Going all-out, I’d still be comfortably stronger than him, but the regeneration would make it an interesting fight, that’s for sure!

Riser moves towards the carriage door to get a better look inside. “...Arima and the oni will be attending as your contracted mages, I assume? You are aware that only one contracted mage may participate alongside a peerage in a Rating Game?”

“Why would that matter?” Mary asks, frowning.

“...Let’s just say I have it on good authority that there might be a Rating Game tournament. But you didn’t hear it from me.”

“And by good authority he means,” Ravel leans in, “Satan Sirzechs Lucifer.”

I blink. “Your families are close?”

She nods.

“Oh, that’s fine.” Mary gives him an impish smile and hooks an arm around mine. “Ibaraki is Arima’s familiar.”

Riser snorts. “I would confirm that interpretation with the officials before your first match. The elders of the Great King Faction will be there alongside the Satans to evaluate us. We’re making our formal Rating Game debuts, after all.”

“...Great,” Mary says, slumping slightly. “This’ll be fun.”

Ravel nudges into her with a shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Those stuffy old codgers won’t have the chance to fuss too much. The Satans will be there.”

“All of them?” Seto asks eagerly.

She nods right as the noise behind him suddenly gets louder. I look past Riser and realise the Phenex pit stop has filled half the fucking carriage with admirers. It seems fan culture is the same as Earth, huh? Hell, they might be more fucked than us on that front, considering we haven’t quite got to the point where people stop and film shit en masse yet.

“Come.” Riser gestures towards the front of the train. “We have a private compartment in the VIP carriage. There should be more than enough room for everyone and more… privacy, I reckon.”

“You have a VIP carriage?” Miyata asks.

Riser looks at him oddly. “I’m Riser Phenex.”

“O-Oh. Right.”

Ravel quickly falls in beside Mary as Riser’s peerage closes ranks around us. It doesn’t stop people looking, though. If anything, having two peerages moving through the train together only makes everyone more interested. Thankfully, the VIP carriage is right at the front of the train and away from everyone else. The compartment itself is practically a living room.

I guess only the rich people get to have infinite leg room thanks to magic. Capitalism, baby! There are actual sofas, with enough room for both peerages to spread out without sitting on top of each other.

…Well, bar one person.

“Come here~!” Mary catches Ravel around the waist before she can sit beside her and pulls her straight onto her lap.

“M-Mary!”

“I’ve missed you so much~!” Ravel squirms furiously while Mary squeezes her from behind.

Kyouka catches my eye and grins, gesturing under the table. Mary’s hands are wandering under Ravel’s frilly dress while the blonde girl nibbles at her bottom lip and keeps her gaze bowed… all in front of her older brother, mind you.

And she has the nerve to call me a casanova. I shake my head and give Leona a helpless look. She covers her mouth and looks away from me.

Riser notices and tilts his head. “What’s funny?”

“Nothing at all,” Leona says, laughing softly.

Ravel turns even redder as the compartment fills with overlapping conversations. It’s weirdly easy. Murata and Miyata are getting on surprisingly well with Riser’s Rook and Knight, whose names I’ve completely forgotten. One of whom is in stylised armour and the other in a half-face mask. They’re talking about martial arts… I think?

I lean back into the seat directly opposite Riser. I don’t know whether he’s noticed Mary getting handsy with Ravel yet, but he doesn’t seem to mind it if he has.

“How’ve you been?” I ask.

Riser extracts his arm from Yubelluna’s grip as he leans forward and props his elbows onto the table. We spend the better part of an hour till Lucifaad Central just catching up. It’s… nice, to be honest. I’ve had such a chill month that it still doesn’t feel like we’re headed to a super-important meeting with all the Underworld bigwigs in attendance quite yet.

Mary eventually lets Ravel escape her lap. The two peerages mingle surprisingly well, too. Kyouka’s winding up two sets of twins and giggling to herself. Seto and Saki are chatting with Riser’s other Bishop and a few of his Pawns, with Ravel and Mary joining in on their conversation.

It’s all quite relaxed… at least until the train rolls into Lucifaad Central Station. There are crowds of people on the platforms with their own placards and whistles. The bulk of them are supporting some variation of bigshot houses. Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri have the most fans by far, followed closely by Sairaorg Bael. I didn’t know he was making his debut, but the turnout for him makes sense knowing what I do about him now. He’s practically the prince of the Underworld.

There’s a girl called Seekvaira Agares with a similar turnout to Riser, though. Funnily, both sets of fans are mostly dudes. I guess it’s not exactly a surprise. Riser’s peerage looks like a harem from the outside looking in, even if he’s really only having sex with Yubelluna… to my knowledge, anyway.

I’m guessing Seekvaira’s a girl, then, given the compliments on her ‘icy beauty.’

Mary squeezes my hand as we walk through the crowds. At least they’re at a respectable distance on account of being on other platforms. But I guess it’s still intense for her anyway.

“Mary~!”

A fresh wave of cheers as we head down to a subway platform. There are fewer fans here since it’s been cordoned off around the stairs there. Underneath, there’ll be a shuttle train to take us directly to the venue. But before we can set off, an unexpected wave of cheers stops us in our tracks.

“Maaary~!”

“H-Huh?!” She looks up, all startled and adorable.

There’s a group of fans, much smaller than any of the others we saw on the overground platforms. They’re standing behind a barrier, holding up a clearly handcrafted placard that reads: Mary Naamah, Half-Devil Hero.

She gasps, letting go of my hand to clasp both of hers together as they cheer her name.

Riser looks back at her and smirks. “What, did you think your successes went unnoticed?”

“Arima isn’t the only Underworld celebrity,” Ravel says, looping her arm through Mary’s.

We stop a little to let her soak up the moment before one of the pointy-eared security guards ushers us along downstairs.

“You’ll miss the shuttle,” he grunts, though not unkindly. Behind him, the fan holding up the placard offers the placard to us.

I move past him. “...One sec.”

Now that I’m much closer, she seems young. A little younger than us, with ruby-red eyes and bright-blonde hair.

“Want me to get this to her?” I ask.

A grey-haired, wolf-eared boy gawks at me. “Y-You’re…”

“Takezo Arima, nice to meet you.”

“The Demigod!”

I wince because it’s not exactly inaccurate anymore. “...What’s your name?”

“Romulus!”

“That’s a nice name. And you,” I say, looking down at the blonde-haired girl as I take the placard out of her hands.

“M-Mischa,” she says, averting her eyes. “W-We’re not all half-vampires, but we’re all half-devils. Seeing Mary in that viral video on the devilnet was really…”

“Awesome!” Romulus finishes with a bright grin as he looks around me. “Is that her peerage?”

“Mhm.” I nod.

“...I’ll be on it when I’m older,” he says firmly.

“Well, she hasn’t used all her pieces yet, so your chances are higher than you’d think.”

Romulus’ grey eyes brighten. I look behind him to find a bushy grey tail swishing excitedly. It’s so goddamn cute that I reach over the barrier and pat his head, something that only worsens the starstruck expression on his face.

“Romulus, Mischa.” I give them a smile. “See you around!”

“Bye!”

Mary’s waiting at the top of the stairs. She takes the placard with both hands and immediately beams down at it.

“...I’m keeping this,” she says, hugging it against her chest. “Hold onto it for me?”

She heads down the stairs with everyone else. I drag my feet a little, waiting for Riser and his peerage to disappear. I toss the placard into my inventory safe and sound. By the time I reach the bottom, everyone’s already gathered at the foot of the stairs. Riser and his peerage have taken up one side while Mary and the others are standing on the other with the tracks in front of us.

“So…” Kyouka puts a hand on her hip, where her belt is fastened around her waist. “What took you so long? Bump into a different kind of adoring fan on the way down? Maybe she wanted The Demigod’s personal attention~?”

I roll my eyes. “Shut the hell up. I was putting the—”

“Riaaaaas!”

The cheer comes from above us, but it’s loud enough to make me pause. …Rias? I frown and turn back to see the group descending the stairs. The most recognisable girl is at the front.

…I’ll be honest, my mental image of her was basically gone, but it comes flooding back as she comes into view. There are other faces around her I recognise immediately, too. Akeno Himejima beside her, as well as Koneko, Kiba, Asia, and Xenovia.

Lastly is Issei Hyoudou bringing up the rear. He’s a little more plain-looking than I remember. They continue down the stairs while my brain catches up with what my eyes are seeing.

Riser stiffens a little as they reach the bottom of the stairs. Rias notices him, her eyes moving across Riser’s peerage and onto Mary’s. Her eyes widen a little when she sees Mary and I. The platform’s wide enough that they pass directly between our two groups without having to ask us to move.

Issei stops dead in front of me in shock, and I flinch a little, having not expected the recognition.

“W-Wait, you’re the guy from DevilTube!” Rias and her peerage continue walking on. “...Yeah! You made that one guy jizz his pants, I swear!”

“Come, Issei,” Rias says without looking back.

“But, Prez! It’s the guy!”

They continue down the platform, forcing him to stop his gawking to run after them.

I grimace. “...It’s that viral? How did they even get the footage?”

“I have no idea~!” Ravel smiles, though her smile fades a little when she looks at Riser. “...Are you okay, brother?”

He smiles tightly. “I’m fine.”

I don’t think anyone buys that answer, but the shuttle train shudders into the platform before anyone can say much else. The doors screech open, and we board it, counting down the mere minutes until we reach the venue.

Next Chapter