Chapter 56: Farfetched Theories
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[Third Person Point of View]
Half an hour earlier, inside a Middle Shore pocket space, in the yard of an old Japanese mansion, a large round table was kept. Two Gods sat behind it, and opposite them, two Satans sat.
There stood two lackey Gods behind the Gods in the chair, and likewise, two devils stood behind the two Satans.
"How gross," Yatagarasu, one of the two Gods who were standing, said with a smile. "That we are having to share a table with devils."
"Yatagarasu, don't say stuff like that," the Chief Goddess of Shinto, Amaterasu, said, as she covered her mouth with a sleeve. "No matter what, they are our guests."
"Guests who we should be fighting to the death with," the God on the other chair, Bishamon, said. She had her legs crossed as she looked at the two devils. "Sakuya could have died, if not for that young man."
"Entirely untrue," it was one of the devils who had the guts to reply, she stood behind the chair of Sirzechs Lucifer. Sapphire said, "I was just there to stop anything serious from happening. We wouldn't want to mess with Shinto, after all."
The other devil who stood beside Sapphire, Grayfia, looked at her and then nodded at the Gods. "She is right, we tasked her with it. If the situation came down to Ranefer killing Sakuya-hime, Sapphire would have stopped that. That is why Satan Lucifer had sent her, to begin with."
That was a lie, of course. Sirzechs Lucifer didn't even know about this until the incident already happened. But, this was how politics worked, filled with lies.
The Satan who sat beside Sirzechs, the girl who was making her name as a human idol in Japan, looked at the Shinto Gods with a soft smile. "Hey, look, my Levia-tan would be out of commission if we picked a fight with Shinto. Do you think I'd enjoy that?"
Bishamon frowned at the magical girl, the dangerous devil Serafall, who had the guts to play idol in Japan. "As if something so trivial would matter to people like you."
"Of course, it would." Serafall gasped. "I am serious about this whole idol business; you know? Really, trust me when I say that the Satans had no relation to this incident. It was the Phenex Household on their own who pulled off this incident."
"Then hand those birds over to us," Bishamon demanded with a scoff.
"I'm afraid that'd be too much," Sirzechs Lucifer, the strongest devil in history, spoke up for the first time. He had an elegant smile on his face as he looked at the Gods. "They will be thoroughly punished for this incident by the underworld's standards. The devils are ready to compensate the Gods with any other things."
"Doesn't seem very convincing," the loli God, Yatagarasu, said. "Correct me if I am wrong but, I heard that the Phenex Household's third son is engaged with the Gremory Household's heir?"
Sirzechs smiled kindly. "I don't see the point you're trying to make. I'm sure you know that although I was a Gremory in the past, my last name ends with Lucifer now. The Satans aren't allowed to give their families any special treatment."
"Enough, you guys," Amaterasu cleared her throat, looking up from behind her long sleeves. The Satans focused on her. All knew that this meeting would only end when she talked, the other Gods' battering didn't do anything. "Since there weren't many casualties during this incident, and in fact, the Phenex Devils lost more than us, and now the Satans are ready to compensate us, we shouldn't drag this situation on. We shall let them know what we want, and then move on from this."
"Of course, great lady Amaterasu," Serafall replied. "I'm glad you're so understanding. As a token of my gratitude, I'll sing a song about you in my next concert."
That sounded like a polite compliment, but such an incident would cause Amaterasu's popularity to rise. Her faith would increase.
"Mhm? Thank you." Amaterasu nodded. "Though I do hope that's not the only thing you meant when you said you'd compensate us."
"Naturally," Serafall spoke again. Sirzechs leaned back in his chair to let her handle it, she was the one in management for foreign affairs, after all. "Let us discuss that."
After that, for the next half an hour, they went back and forth about what they wanted and what they could get. Bishamon grew bored out of the meeting, she was annoyed that they had to talk things out to begin with, but at one point things came to a solid agreement.
"Glad working with you," Serafall smiled and reached out a hand for a handshake, but Amaterasu just had a polite smile and nodded. Indeed, though she stopped her subordinates from insulting the devils, even she herself didn't see them very positively. She didn't even want to do a handshake. Serafall kept smiling and withdrew her hand back.
"On a related note," Amaterasu started. "I heard about the incident in detail, and know about Aquamarine Hoshino's performance in this incident. Take this as a serious warning that, if you guys mess with him because of this incident, you will pay. That child is the Chosen of Tsukuyomi and is also blessed by myself. So if you mess with him, we'll assume that you're messing with Shinto as a whole."
"Ah," that took all the devils aback. Even Sapphire, who saw the young man fight. "No wonder. Hey, Sirzechs, looks like your sister caught a big fish."
"What?" Both devils and gods wondered out loud at what Sapphire said.
The Gravity Devil's eyes sparkled as a very mischievous idea came to her mind. With a shrug, she lied naturally, "Rias Gremory, the heir of our family, is a very close friend of Aquamarine. Allow me to make this clear, Rias does not like Riser, the third Phenex son. She wishes for the engagement to get cut off. So for all we know, this Aquamarine and Rias may be more than just friends, and this was their plan from the get-go."
Everyone exchanged glances as Sapphire expanded her story. "What if he picked a fight with the Phenex Household because he thought Riser would be there in Fuji, where he hoped to kill him and therefore break his lover, Rias' engagement? Sadly, Riser just happened to not be there. I know this sounds like a far-fetched story, but teens are hot-blooded, it's not unbelievable if they pulled this off, I'm sure you'd agree. So really, Gods, don't worry about him, we wouldn't harm him when he might soon be my house's son-in-law."
"...I can vouch a bit about that," Bishamon added when Amaterasu looked skeptical. "He said it himself that this Rias Gremory was a friend of his. But I'm unsure if they share any romantic relationship."
"I see," Amaterasu smiled. "That is good. I shall not judge him for befriending a devil since he already proved his friendly status to us by defending a God. Fine then, I won't make a big deal out of it if I smell devils lingering near him. However, if any devil does harm him, I will hold you Gremory accountable for it." She looked at Sirzechs with a cold smile. "Satan Lucifer, I hope you would live by your word and not press your Satan authority to help your family if that were ever to happen."
Sirzechs gave her a cold stare for a while before smiling again. "Naturally. Then, I take it that this meeting has gone well?"
"Indeed it has," Amaterasu replied as she stood up. "Now, you guys should leave."
The devils didn't waste their time and did just that. When they finally left, Amaterasu looked at the sky while Yatagarasu hummed behind her.
"He really is interesting, as you said, my lady." Yatagarasu muttered, "It takes guts to seduce the sister of Lucifer."
For once, Amaterasu let out a hearty laugh as she didn't care to cover her mouth. She looked at Bishamon and nodded, "Give him what he asked for, but tenfold. Also, prepare a few protective artifacts for his family. Ah, and give him my greetings."
The devils thought they had cornered the Gods by saying the exceptional human was friends with their Princess, but really, it was the Gods who felt triumphant. Their chosen human had seduced the devil princess.
The reality, however, was different from both accounts. Though the latter one perhaps had some weight to it.
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[First Person Point of View]
Sakuya-hime hugged me while Bishamon looked around the house, her purple eyes soon locking with Ai's own.
"Ai Hoshino, the most famous from Japan in recent times." Bishamon walked to her and suddenly patted Ai's head. "Good job."
I stared at her. What is that woman doing? Well, it's true that she's older than Ai and the previous 14 generations of her family, but isn't it too sudden to just pat her?
"Despite your busy schedule, you've raised a fine young man," Sakuya chimed into that conversation, still hugging me with her soft breasts pressed against my chest. "Tell you what, we have decided to take you in as a Regalia after your eventual death. In that case, you'll live forever as an immortal soul as a part of Shinto."
"Ah," Ai, who was still processing all of this, blinked in confusion. "I-"
"No, she wouldn't," I said before she could. Earlier, Sakuya and Bishamon had given me a general idea about the terms people of this world use. I knew what Regalias was; it was a Noragami term for spirits whom Gods take in as their subordinate, promoting them to Minor Divinities; they are called Regalia.
The two Goddesses turned to me, Sakuya looked confused, and Bishamon raised an eyebrow. I knew they had good intentions when they said this, and they expected me to see it as a reward, but since I had finally reached Underlord, I didn't have to accept such promises.
"Because she won't die," I clarified myself to the two Goddesses. "I should be able to live for a few hundred years as I am right now, and I plan to make my mother do the same."
Ai Hoshino will never die; therefore, she doesn't need reassurance that she'll be chosen as a Regalia after death.
"Huh," Bishamon looked at me in surprise. "I have heard some expert human Senjutsu practitioners can live for hundreds of years, but it's my first time seeing such a human in person. I don't doubt you though, after the performance you showed. Still, a promise is a promise. I don't know how you plan to make your mother live so long, but if you don't succeed, or even if you succeed and she dies a few hundred years later for any reason, as long as her soul is intact we will take her in."
I found myself a little offended hearing her say 'if she were to die' when I said she wouldn't. I didn't want to agree to such a thing, it was a simple personal agenda to not have backup plans for things like this because then I might get lazy when thinking about ways to keep her the most protected. Since a part of my mind would think she'd be fine anyway let's take it easy. Also, it hurt my pride to take such backup measures when I was confident in granting her immortality.
But, then I knew what failure was. I knew what I was, how many times I had failed despite my reality-shattering powers… I claimed to be absolute, but was I really? This wasn't a bad offer. If I were to fail again, if I were to die in this world, at least my mother would live on as a spirit.
I pushed my pride aside and nodded. "In that case, she'll be in your care – only if such a tragedy were to fall upon her."
"Hey, why are you guys discussing this without me? I don't want to live forever," Ai suddenly said, making all of us turn to her. What? "I think life loses its meaning if-"
"Oh, shut the hell up, you stupid little woman." I shot her a quick glare as she shut up. What the hell was she on about? What did this child know about the meaning of life?
"...." Ai paused and then glared back at me. "Punk. You wait till our guests leave."
"Now, now, don't fight. You shouldn't be rude to your mother, boy," Sakuya-hime gently hit me on my head. "Bad boy."
"…"
"Haah, he's always like that, so rude," Ai said with a dramatic shake of his head. She managed to shoot me another glare in the midst of it, pretty mad that I snarled back at her while in the presence of literal Gods. "Forgive his insolence, Goddesses."
"It's alright, he's a fine child," Bishamon waved it off. "Plus he has a point, even though usually I'd respect the person's choice. Eternal life, if you are versatile with it, doesn't become boring or traumatic… for the most part."
A silence fell in the room, and Ai looked down on the floor. I could see that she wasn't really convinced, maybe she'll find a way to cancel this deal later. For now, I changed the subject.
"I'm surprised you accepted so easily that they are Gods?" I looked at Ai. "What if they are liars?"
"Huh?" Ai tilted her head. "They have this divine presence around them, though? Like, I saw you do magic, I saw Ruby do it, but I didn't feel this even then. Even though they are just standing, they feel divine, I guess. I feel on my entire being that they are Gods. It's kind of hard to explain more than that."
"Ah, right, the divine presence," I nodded. "My bad, it doesn't affect me so I almost didn't notice." It also didn't affect her much, I guessed, if she managed to stay on her feet without bowing and kissing their feet and shit.
"Hmm," Bishamon looked at me. "Yeah, last time, when I and Sapphire clashed our wills, you stood fine. Interesting… willpower for a human."
'Funny. Could that really be considered a will-power clash? So pitifully hilarious.' I didn't express my humor openly, there was no need to offend them.
"Anyhow, we have some gifts for you and your mother," Sakuya-hime cleared her throat and said as she snapped her fingers. Multiple lights shone and bags appeared around us. "It's a bit more than the things you asked, so I hope you'll like them."
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