Issei
It was the day after I arrived at Buchou’s home in the Underworld.
And since morning, I have been forced to study.
Not train.
Not spar.
Not even go sightseeing around the huge, ridiculous, unfairly amazing Gremory territory.
No.
I was studying.
“In other words, for high-class devils, high society is—” the etiquette teacher droned on.
I could barely force myself to pay attention.
And I was struggling not to fall asleep in my seat.
I sat at a polished desk in one of the residence’s quieter rooms while a posh looking Devil lectured me about high-class devils, noble society, the structure of the upper echelons, family customs, proper forms of address, the Devil alphabet, the relationships between the old families, and enough other things to make my brain feel like it was being tenderized from the inside.
This was my exclusive tutor, apparently appointed for me by Buchou’s parents.
When they introduced me to the tutor they told him I was ‘one of the’, whatever that meant.
The tutor devil sat across from me with an open book and the terrifying composure of a man who had probably lived his whole life watching young noble devils and their future spouses break under educational pressure.
He looked at me over the edge of the book.
“Are you following so far, young master?”
I gripped my pen harder.
“Y-Yes. Mostly.”
That was a lie.
I was following enough not to drown, but only just.
I had been writing everything down that Icould, but I knew nothing about Devil society so it still wasn’t enough.
Thankfully the tutor wasn’t annoyed by all the questions I had to ask and the clarifications I needed.
My notebook in front of me was already filled with hurried writing. Messy notes. Little arrows. Underlined words I absolutely needed to remember later. Terms I still didn’t fully understand but had become too proud to interrupt every five seconds to ask about.
The tutor had explained things carefully enough.
I had come to the Underworld expecting a vacation with some training and social events mixed in.
I had not expected summer homework.
Millicas-sama was taking lessons too
Millicas-sama sat in the seat beside me, diligently studying his own materials.
Unlike me he was composed and did not look like he was lost at all.
He really was a smart kid.
At one point I glanced over and saw that his writing was neat too.
He was apparently a very diligent student too.
I looked back down at my own notes, which looked as though they had been written during a small earthquake
Right now Buchou was taking the others on a sightseeing tour around the Gremory territory.
They were even going to visit Buchou’s personal castle.
And I was stuck here learning how to greet people and not embarrass myself or Buchou.
“Young master, have you learned the Devil alphabet yet?” The tutor asked.
“Ah, N-no I haven’t.” I replied
“Very well. We will start with the basics first and I will have you memorize each letter. I will have to teach you that, etiquette, and everything about the Gremory family as well. You will have to dedicate yourself to it, young master.”
Since last night the maids, butlers, and other servants had been referring to me as young master.
But I didn’t have a clue why they had started calling me that.
I set down my pen and looked at him.
“Umm… why have you been referring to me as young master?”
My tutor stared at me for a moment.
“…We will now focus on the history of the previous heads of the Gremory family.”
And I was ignored as he avoided the question.
I had tried asking several servants the same question but hadn’t gotten a proper response.
I didn’t know if it was a part of my etiquette training, but I was the only one receiving it so I couldn’t know for sure.
Xenovia, Asia, and Yuki-san all weren’t required to take the lessons.
Granted I don’t think Yuki-san would have needed them besides maybe some history lessons.
Millicas glanced at me, then at the tutor, then back to his notes as if he had already accepted that I was going to suffer during this lesson and there was no need for him to involve himself.
I let out a breath and went back to writing.
Honestly, since I didn’t know much about the Underworld in the first place, some of it was useful.
I had to admit that.
Learning how the aristocratic world functioned, how the families related to each other, what customs mattered and what kinds of mistakes would reflect badly on Buchou all were useful.
But did I really need this much of it?
I wanted to go look at devil castles and walk around pretty Underworld scenery with a bunch of beautiful girls, not sit in a room learning the Devil alphabet, history, and political structures until my hand cramped!
I groaned inwardly and looked back down at the page.
Fine.
Fine.
I’d learn it.
I was Hyoudou Issei, the [Pawn] of Rias Gremory! If I had to survive noble devil cram school in order to stand next to Buchou properly, then I’d do it!
Even if it was extremely unfair how much more fun everyone else was having.
I bent back over the notebook and kept writing.
Somewhere around the point where my brain was trying to understand the structure of noble family obligations and also wondering if there was a way to fake unconsciousness without losing face, the door opened.
I looked up immediately.
Buchou’s mother entered the room.
As I thought every time I saw her, she really was beautiful.
Millicas-sama lit up at once.
“Grandmother!”
For Millicas-sama, that was his grandmother.
But no matter how I looked at her, she still looked more like Buchou’s older sister than anyone’s grandmother.
The Underworld really was unfair about appearances.
Buchou’s mother came farther inside with that gentle, elegant smile of hers and looked at both of us.
“Issei-san, Millicas. How are your studies progressing?”
Millicas answered with far too much dignity for a child.
“It’s going well, Grandmother.”
I sat up straighter.
“I-I’m doing my best!”
She stepped between us and looked down at my notes before I could hide the page.
My handwriting looked terrible.
Worse than terrible.
My attempts at Devil letters were like that of a small child.
My notes were haphazard and barely legible.
I felt embarrassed immediately.
She saw all of it.
And still smiled.
“You really do work hard at everything you do, don’t you?” She said. “Sirzechs and Grayfia informed me of it in a report and Rias told me herself how hard you try at anything given to you. It seems she was right.”
I blinked.
That wasn’t the part I’d expected to hear.
She looked down a little closer at the notes.
“I can’t say that your writing is very good,” she added.
I deflated.
“But I can tell from the amount of notes you’ve taken and the detail you tried to include that you’re definitely working hard.”
That brought me back just enough.
“Th-Thank you very much.”
A maid entered behind her, carrying tea.
The moment everything was set properly,
Buchou’s mother continued after thanking the maid.
“There will be a gathering of the younger generation of Devils in the Maou’s territory today.” She said, “Rias will be returning shortly and then all of you will be heading to the event.”
“Rias will be returning soon,” she said. “Since there is a customary function for the gathering of young devils in the Maou’s territory today.”
Right.
That had been included in the schedule too.
The Young Devil Gathering.
The younger generation of High Class Devils that were heirs from noble families were gathered by the Devil leaders to assemble in one place.
They hadn’t officially debuted in Rating Games yet, but they were all the next generation.
They were expected to show their intellect and skill, as well as their worth as a [King].
In other words, it sounded exhausting.
And definitely not the kind of place where I could afford to make too much of an idiot of myself.
Buchou and Sona-kaichou had to go.
And we servants would be accompanying her.
At least we all would be going as a group and we would know another peerage there.
I was looking forward to it because I wasn’t being left alone in the Gremory residence to get drilled on devil history until my soul escaped my body.
It was also nerve wracking because we would be going to a meeting full of noble Devils and Bucho’s rivals.
One mistake could reflect poorly on Buchou for a long time.
Buchou’s mother looked pleased by the expression on my face, which made me suspicious she knew exactly how overwhelmed I was.
“When Rias returns,” she said gently, “you should prepare yourself.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Millicas looked very interested in the whole thing.
Of course he did.
I wanted to borrow some of that composure. Or steal it. Either worked.
Buchou’s mother spoke with the tutor quietly for a few more moments after that, then left as elegantly as she had entered.
The moment the door shut again, I exhaled.
The tutor did not give me long to recover.
“Then, let us continue.”
Cruel.
Still, I wrote.
And I listened.
And little by little, through sheer desperation if nothing else, some of it started to stick in my head.
By the time I heard the sounds of returning footsteps and faint voices in the hall, my hand was sore, my brain was overloaded, and I was one wrong phrase away from deciding devil society had been a mistake.
Then the door slid open again.
Buchou entered first with a satisfied smile.
And the rest of the club followed behind her.
Asia looked happy from getting to see all the sights from their small trip.
Xenovia looked around the room and looked relieved that she hadn’t been the one to suffer through hours of tutoring.
Yuuto-san gave me a guilty grin at the fact that I had been cooped up while they got to actually enjoy our summer break.
Koneko-chan was quiet, though it seemed less obvious than she had been at dinner the night before.
Gasper lingered toward the back of the group, but looked happy.
Akeno-san looked as if the entire morning had gone exactly as she wanted.
Yuki entered with the others.
She was still more closed off than normal.
She’d been like that since we had arrived.
Her posture was neat, her expression calm, and there was a slightly sharper awareness in her eyes that the Underworld seemed to draw out of her
She looked like she’d rather keep her thoughts to herself about the sightseeing, but not unhappy she’d gone.
That was enough to make me jealous again.
Buchou looked between me, the tutor, and the desk covered in notes.
“My, Ise. You really are studying.”
“Of course Buchou!” I said. “Did you think I’d run away?”
Akeno-san smiled. “It would have been understandable.”
“I really wanted to. But I didn’t!”
“Very brave of you Ise-kun,” she said.
Buchou shook her head with a wry smile..
“We’ll be leaving for the gathering soon.”
I nodded.
“Got it.”
She studied me for a second longer, then smiled.
“Alright everyone, let’s get ready.
____________________________________________________________________________
Yuki
Immediately after we returned from our tour around some of the Gremory estate we met with Issei and left.
The sightseeing had been nice to do with everyone and it did help ease a bit of the tension I had been feeling by getting out of the main estate.
We departed from the same train station we had arrived at and settled in for the multiple hour train ride.
The movement from one place to another in the Underworld was never as simple as distance.
Even when the route looked ordinary for a while, there were still things about it to remind us we were in the Underworld.
There were magic circles that appeared along the track that teleported the train further down the line.
The train passed through several of them and without those jumps the trip would have taken days rather than a few hours.
We sat together in one of the train cars while the scenery outside changed from a cluster of towns to broader stretches of developed territory.
Eventually we approached our destination. From a distance the city looked larger than the city the Gremory main estate was in.
The buildings were taller and looked more modern from a distance as well.
The train pulled into the station in a section of the city that Yuuto had mentioned was called the urban district.
Up close it was much easier to tell how much more modern and similar to the human world it was.
The buildings looked very similar to modern human ones rather than the traditional old European style that was used heavily in the underworld.
The station looked just like the one we had left Kuoh from.
There were even vending machines at the station.
The only major difference was the lower population of the city.
Issei and Asia were staring out one of the windows together again, looking around in wonder.
“This is the city of Lucifaad,” Yuuto said. “It was the old capital of the Underworld before the Devil civil war. It is a part of the Maou territory and was where the previous Lucifer-sama lived.”
As she spoke Asia, Xenovia, and Issei looked over the city again with renewed interest.
I only hoped that any interactions with the current Lucifer-sama would be limited.
We had changed into our summer uniforms for the outing.
The Kuoh academy uniform was essentially our uniform in Rias’s peerage so we didn’t need to bring anything different for the gathering.
For any of the more formal events we would be required to wear dresses or suits, which would be its own ordeal.
“We are going to be heading to the subway from here.” Yuuto continued. “It would be too difficult to try and head to the gathering normally.”
That made sense.
Rias was the next in line for the position of head of the Gremory noble family.
It would probably be unsafe for her to travel conspicuously through the city even with the guards that came with us..
I understood that I had misinterpreted the reason for Yuuto’s caution once we had walked for less than twenty seconds.
“Princess Rias-samaaa!”
The cry rang across the platform and pulled several others with it.
I turned toward the sound.
A group of Devil girls further down the platform had noticed Rias and were already looking at her with the kind of bright, fixed admiration that was too intense to mistake for ordinary recognition.
I had expected to worry about threats to Rias, not crazed fans.
Akeno-senpai smiled faintly at Issei’s baffled expression.
“Buchou is the Maou’s younger sister. She’s also a known beauty of the Underworld, so many Low and Mid Class Devils admire her. Think of her as the equivalent of a celebrity in the human world.”
Admired was one word for it.
The response spread quickly.
Men too this time, calling out to her with the same bright longing.
“Rias-samaaaa!”
Buchou handled it gracefully, though I noticed the strain at the corners of her smile.
I could imagine that this sort of treatment could become tiring after a short while.
Behind us, Gasper-kun made a miserable little sound.
“T-T-There are s-so many people looking at us…”
I glanced back.
He had gone pale and was edging closer to Issei by instinct.
The platform was too crowded, too noisy, too full of devils and open attention all at once.
Issei noticed immediately and shifted just enough to give him a clearer place to hide.
I shifted over as well.
“This won’t work.” Rias said. “We will need to get to the subway quickly before we get surrounded by a crowd. Has a private train been prepared for us?”
Rias turned to one of the black suited guards accompanying us.
He bowed at once.
The bodyguards from the Gremory side had stayed with us through the trip, moving around the edges of the group with the careful professionalism of people who knew their role.
“Yes. Please follow me.”
So we did.
The guards created a channel through the crowd for us and we quickly made our way into the subway.
We moved into one of the trains under escort.
Rias and Gasper-kun both let out sighs of relief once we started moving and moved further away from the crowd that was following us.
Five more minutes later, we arrived at the basement platform of our destination.
The meeting place was in the largest building in the city.
Even before we exited the train I could already feel the pressure from the Devils in the building.
High-class devils gathered in one place did not create the same sort of atmosphere as servants, guards, or ordinary people.
Too many strong bloodlines and too many High Class Devils made it easy to tell this was an important meeting place.
The bodyguards took us as far as the elevator and stopped there.
They would wait on standby.
Rias entered first, then the rest of us followed.
The elevator was spacious, more room than necessary for our number, and the quiet inside it felt temporary in exactly the way the quiet before an audience always did.
Rias turned to us.
“No matter what happens,” she said, “stay calm. No matter what is said, do not start a fight. The people above are our future rivals. We mustn’t act unsightly.”
Her voice was sharper than usual.
Just filled with the sort of resolve she used when she intended to meet something head on and refuse to lose.
Issei straightened immediately.
Asia swallowed and nodded.
Xenovia looked more energized than alarmed.
Yuuto simply inclined her head.
Gasper-kun began to tremble.
Akeno's smile became sharper.
Koneko gave a small nod and then lowered her gaze again.
I looked at her for a second, but she did not look back.
The elevator rose quickly.
When the doors opened, we stepped into a broad hall.
A servant was waiting to guide us.
“Welcome, Gremory-sama. Please follow me.”
Rias nodded and we followed after her.
At a turn in the corridor, I saw figures ahead.
Several.
Rias called out once we came closer to them.
“Sairaorg!”
The name caught the attention of the man ahead immediately.
He approached us with an easy stride that made no effort to hide strength.
He looked about our age, perhaps a little older in bearing if not in years.
Short black hair, purple eyes, and a muscular physique.
A body built less like a noble and more like someone who expected to use that body as a weapon.
There was a roughness to him, but not carelessness.
I understood why Issei was staring at him closely the moment he drew closer.
He looked like he could be related to Rias in some way.
His face and Sirzech-sama’s were slightly similar.
I forced myself not to frown at that realization.
“It’s been a while, Rias.”
He smiled and took her hand in greeting.
Now closer I could feel the pressure coming off him.
He was strong.
Very strong.
His servants stood behind him, and they were no less impressive for being less central.
Every one of them had the look of someone used to fighting and had the strength and experience that came with it.
Rias answered warmly.
“It has, and it is good to see you are doing well.” Rias said, then turned to us. “For those who have not met him yet this is Sairaorg, my cousin from my mother’s side.”
That explained the resemblance.
And perhaps some of the ease in her greeting.
“I’m Sairaorg Bael,” he said. “The next head of the Bael family.”
This was the next head of the Great King faction of the Devils.
Even Issei knew the name Bael.
I saw it in the way he nearly straightened in surprise.
The family of the Great King.
The house whose authority, history, and prestige were large enough that even the Maou had to listen.
My attention remained on Sairaorg himself.
He was the kind of person who would have felt dangerous even without the name.
That interested me more.
Rias resumed the conversation.
“So why are you waiting out here in the corridor?”
Sairaorg let out a short breath through his nose.
“I came out here because I had to get away from the idiocy in there.”
The answer was delivered with complete sincerity.
Rias’s brows drew together.
“Have the others arrived already?”
“Agares and Astaroth had already arrived,” he said. “Zephyrdor came last.”
His expression shifted slightly there.
It seemed closer to weariness or annoyance than anything.
“As soon as he arrived he and Agares started to argue.” Sairaorg continued.
I began to ask myself whether Rias’s warning in the elevator had somehow cursed us to have a fight break out as we arrived..
Then the building shook.
A deep, violent tremor ran through the floor beneath our feet hard enough to rattle the walls and send a huge crashing sound through the corridor.
The impact came from somewhere nearby.
My tails flared behind me as I shifted my stance towards the door.
Gasper-kun flinched.
Asia made a small sound.
Issei swore under his breath.
Rias moved first toward the large doors the noise had come from.
Sairaorg sighed and followed after her.
“Geez, this is why I said we shouldn't get together before the actual meeting.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter