Alex sat in their room with a serious headache as he thought back to the day's events, first he went on a date and found Myuu which prompted him to hunt down the crime families in the city- planned
He then reunited with Haulia for the first time since before challenging Raisen labyrinth and found out about Hajime corrupting them- not planned.
Now he had to deal with Tio who was despairing because she found out that Rias, Kuroka, Grayfia, Yue, and Shia were all officially his servants while their relationship was simply akin to a vassal and her lord, something her newfound preferences couldn't allow- not planned.
Alex rubbed his head as Tio knelt in front of him with determination in her eyes to become his servant, or if it wasn't possible, his slave. The rest of the girls were sitting to the side snickering in amusement while Hajime had returned to his room to work on a project, and Grayfia took Myuu out to eat, as neither her nor Alex wanted Myuu to be around when they were discussing servants and slaves. Hajime was still unaware that Alex planned to get back at him, but he needed to deal with this first. He then looked at the dragon that looked so earnest at the moment no one would have thought she was currently having one of her perverted episodes. He then said,
"Tio, I don't plan to add you to my peerage." This almost caused her to become disappointed, but she then regained her fervor and asked,
"Then master can we go slave collar shopping for this one?" Alex sighed again, as since he was promoting peace between the races as the champion of Gabriel he couldn't walk around with one of them actively displaying they were enslaved to him, even Shia had long since removed her own collar. Before he could say anything Rias spoke up and asked,
"How come you're not going to add her to your peerage, she's fairly strong isn't she?" Which made everyone else look at Alex questioningly. He then said,
"The main reason is that while Tio would make an excellent rook with her insane defense, she would in fact be closer to an all round like Grayfia and Kuroka with both physical and magical attacks. I want to add more diversity to our group and people who strongly specialize in one aspect rather than a bunch of all rounders." Alex already speculated that several powerful all rounders would probably join his group in the future, and wanted to limit any he'd get right now and focus on diversity; for example even though Grayfia was currently training with them, there was no sword user in their group. Though this would decrease their flexibility in some situations, it would help in the long run with everyone mastering their respective abilities. Rias frowned at his words though and asked,
"But didn't you make me practice close combat to the point where I even got a job from it?" Alex however shook his head and explained,
"That was to cover your weakness for close quarters and physical attacks, not to turn you into an all rounder. Though you'd be stronger than an average opponent now, you'd easily be beaten in terms of pure strength by Grayfia, Kuroka, and of course Shia." Rias sighed in acceptance of Alex's words as they did make sense when she recalled the time she was beaten by her cousin in the rating game. She was about to say something else when Tio intervened,
"What about this one becoming thee's slave master?" Though Tio wouldn't mind just referring to herself as her masters slave, she would simply be considered a self proclaimed slave compared to the official servants Alex already possessed, it was for this reason she focused on buying a slave collar as they were even magically enchanted to bind slaves to their master. Alex groaned at the situation until he recalled that he had "that" magic he got from his fellow other worlder. As if in response to his thoughts Lauren piped up,
'You may eventually need to use that power someday anyways, so why not try it out before hand on a willing participant?' Alex was surprised at Lauren's suggestion, but disagreed. He may use it to make Tio officially his slave, but he didn't intend to test it on her just to experiment. He then recalled something else he had almost forgotten, no rather someone else that he could use to experiment on with a clear conscience, as well as the three people that were knocked out and laying in a pile in the corner. After deciding what to do he broke the silence in the room,
"There's something I need to try out, but I'll give you an answer in the morning Tio." Tio looked hopeful at Alex's words while everyone else looked confused. He then turned towards Kuroka and said,
"Kuroka I might need you and Grayfia for what I want to try, so meet me in Asora when she returns. Shia I'll have you look after Myuu for tonight since she'll be staying with us while we travel for a while." Kuroka was curious about what he was doing and agreed before Alex gathered the three crime bosses and entered Asora. Mere moments after the most cleared around him, Alex dropped the bosses he was holding and raised his hand to deflect a punch from a white gauntleted arm. Alex looked up to see an obviously angry Vali and asked,
"So how was Raisen?" Vali's eye twitched at Alex's question and he spat out,
"It would've been better if I had known beforehand that I wouldn't be able to use magic!" Alex shrugged and replied,
"The labyrinths won't really be as challenging if you walked in knowing everything about what you'd face, and I thought you wanted a challenge?" As most of those staying in Asora were using the labyrinths for training Alex hadn't mentioned much about Raisen except that they'd face the actual maker at the end in order to increase the challenge, though he'd tell them about a labyrinths secrets if there was the real chance they'd lose their lives over it. Vali was understandably angry since Alex neglected to mention that Raisen sealed ones magic power, while he relied mostly on his magic to fight. Vali's eye twitched again as he couldn't refute Alex's words, and he dispelled his armor. Alex then asked,
"So how was it fighting without all your magic power?" Vali smirked before saying,
"I simply had my team help me by using divine dividing and attacking with the excess magic their power gave me." Alex only looked at him dumbfoundedly and mentally wondered if Vali would be able to survive the later labyrinths where they were designed to seriously mindfuck the challengers. After separating from Vali, Alex sent a message to Ravel saying to meet him in the training area when he was finished with his current errands, and went to talk with Serafall and the Grigori. With Serafall he discussed a change in plans to the Haulia's new home in Asora since they now turned chuuni as well as another issue, and with the Grigori he promised that once he was done with what he wanted to experiment with the crime bosses they would be turned over to them for any experiments that required a live person. Alex had decided on this with the crime bosses since if he sent them to 'Magical Girl Island' they may eventually become happy with their new life, which would defeat the purpose of trying to punish them. After finishing up his errands, Alex went to the training area where he met Ravel, Grayfia, and Kuroka.
"I want to go to one of the training rooms while we test what I wanted to, as a measure of extra security." Though they still had no idea what Alex was planning all three girls followed him while Seekvaira went to activate the time manipulation formation at his request. Once inside Alex explained his plan to the three girls, which earned him several wide eyes in response.
"This will be quite interesting fufufufufu..." Ravel said as she thought of what Alex just told her, while even Kuroka and Grayfia were acting in a similar manner to what he told them. Alex didn't mind their behavior and removed something from his personal storage space, one of the jewels that came from his boosted hear gauntlet. He deactivated the sealing on it and a second later was looking at his first test subject for his enslavement magic who glared at him with hatred, the goddess of night and darkness Nyx.