Before Romonus said anything to Miria, he decided to at the minimum begin to move around the room to speak to every clan Lord. Funny enough despite their being female Clan Lords they were not called Ladies, just Lords. There were 32 pairs of them and there was nothing wrong with building a connection to a few.
This was irritating to him as this day these same people had been bad-mouthing Silvana. If they had a problem with what he accepted they could tell him to his face. If they had to whisper it in secret then they did not have the stones to say it to his face, then they shouldn't even bother.
When Romonus finished with his actions he decided to spend the rest of his time with Silvana and his lovers. He had to stop because Miria ended up drinking some alcoholic fruit drink. She had only drunk a few glasses, but that was enough for her to start entering an alcoholic rage. Her getting violent when she drank alcohol was true. The instant her body metabolized alcohol she started to go berserk.
Romonus had to intervene and catch her before she lunged at Zekram because he was the first thing she saw. She was about to start blasting Demonic Lightning in her drunken rage so he put her to sleep with a simple spell.
Once Miria was asleep he was curious if she could become a drunken brawler. It might be a good path for her because her strength rose when she was under the influence.
Though, since she was out for the count he let her sleep in his room until she worked the alcohol out of her system. With that out of the way, he spent the rest of the time with Latia, Serafall, and Silvana to get to know his In-Laws better.
All three of his lovers had great loving parents and he even got to speak to Sona a little for the first time. He knew her from the Anime and Light Novel, but she was quite clever for her young age.
She started to ask him questions about his Peerage members and why he chose them. He kept it on the down low as he didn't want all his information out there with a strategist like Sona. She let slip her dream to create a School for Low-Class Devils to play in the Rating Game.
He felt it would be a good idea so he told her if she wanted he wouldn't mind supporting this goal. Sona was over the moon that she got someone of high ranking to support her dream aside from Serafall. Romonus was someone who was not bound by tradition so she was grateful.
That was not the only event that happened as Zeoticus and Marcina arrived with Asterion. Romonus could tell his Father was not looking good because now three of his heirs had jumped ship. Rias openly quit, Romonus left for House Bael and Sirzechs became Lucifer.
That just left Millicas and Asterion who had issues. Asterion was born without House Gremory Clan Trait and Millicas was the son of Sirzechs, not him. He tried to beg Rias to come back, but she refused stating that she was not going to go back.
Zeoticus was already becoming the butt of the joke because of his heirs running away. He was nicknamed the worst Clan Lord of Gremory in history because he couldn't get 1 heir to want to be Lord Gremory.
It was so shameful that Zeoticus did not stay for long and left. Romonus, Sirzechs, and Rias despite being former heirs had no intention of resuming their former titles. This was all a result of Zeoticus being a terrible husband.
After his divorce looking at Rias became hard for him because she reminded him of Venelana. He pulled away to spare himself, but he had pushed her away so far that she ran to her Mother.
Overall, House Gremory was in a downward spiral as long as Zeoticus allowed his mind to keep deteriorating. This was sad because before his divorce he had been an okay Father.
Romonus though just knew that if Zeoticus didn't do something House Gremory would lose its standing. Though before the Ball ended Romonus clapped his hands together to get attention to himself and Silvana as she was his fiancé now.
Sometimes, Romonus questioned the ethics of noble engagements as they were fast-paced. A few phone calls, a meeting and now they were engaged. On another note, he would not give it or his power up.
Once everyone was looking in his direction he began to speak in a disappointed tone.
"Today could have gone better. My uncle showed he was never fit to be a Father or a Lord. My fiancé Silvana was disrespected, and my legitimacy of being the heir was called into question. Nothing I wanted on the day I celebrated two important milestones. This opened my eyes. Things need to change for Devils to have a shot at prospering without the failures that were the original Satans and their offspring."
Instantly, all eyes were on Romonus. He was openly questioning their society, but he had the power to back it up.
"I will say this, this will be the last social event I will be present at for the next 6 years. I will be in travel so I will be unreachable. That is all."
Everyone was interested in where he would go first, but they didn't ask. The guests began to leave one after the other. Before she left, Silvana looked over to Romonus.
"Where will you go first?"
He already had his first locations until he turned 13.
"Romania, I have some business with the Vampires. After I get what I need, I plan to spend time at The Golden Dawn Mages Association for a few months. There is a Necromancer I plan to apprentice under. After that, I will spend it in China."
Silvana looked down as she thought they were going to be able to spend time together.
"When will you leave?"
He already had done everything he needed so very soon.
"In 1 week. I won't be gone forever so call me when you want. Or if you want to go with me, that is fine as well. Just know I won't be always doing peaceful things. I will get into fights, make enemies, and push myself. What about you?"
Silvana had rarely left her mansion because her parents were overprotective. Avivoton though made her master her powers for her own sake. Despite almost being 40 she looked like a teenage girl as she had never been made to mature.
Much like Serafall, they looked how they saw themselves. She turned to her parents who were waiting for her.
"I can go with you?"
Romonus nodded.
"We all need to leap from the nest at some point. I did so early, but is the time right for you?"
Silvana brought her hand up and removed her collar. It and some passive Magic kept her head and body attached. She reached up and took her head off revealing a dark blazing fire where her neck would be.
Instead of a purple fire like normal Dullahans, she ended up having black Berith flames instead. Romonus was instantly curious about how that worked, but not expecting what she said next.
"Can you hold this?"
He reached out and held her head with his hands. He turned her head around as her body walked to her parents. Now he had questions as her body was walking on its own.
"Can your body see on its own? How does that work?"
He brought her head up to see her eye to eye.
"Yes. Our bodies and heads are part of the same entity, but we can function with just one part at a time. Our souls are split in two with the larger portion being in the body. A small part stays in the head still linking us together.
We also can use the soul flame of where our neck would go to see like a radar."
When Silvana's body got to her parent's side she started to use sign language to her dad about what she had Romonus talked about. It was so weird that her body could see, hear, and move around without her head. As he was wondering this, Latia, Serafall, and Roygun came over.
Serafall glanced at Silvana's head in Romonus' hands and her body communicating with her dad.
"You can think in multiple thoughts?"
Silvana would nod if she could.
"I can. I have a large soul spit into my head and body. It gives us the ability to think against ourselves so it is like we have two minds working as one."
Roygun bent down to get a look at Silvana.
"So, how does you being a Half Devil work? Since Devils are living beings and Dullahans are undead."
"We Dullahans are a unique race of Undead that the stronger we get the more life-like we get. Through contracts with our patron god Arawan, we were given a ritual to bear offspring through the union of two souls.
That is just how it happened to me just that half my soul was part of my Father's soul rather than another Dullahan. I now am the perfect hybrid of both races."
By this point her body had returned so he returned her head to her. She flipped it around and placed her head over her neck flame. Everyone saw how the flames vanished as her head and body joined back together.
She even placed on her necklace to hide where her head and body were attached. That was so interesting to see and Latia said as such.
"You will fit right in. Now, Romonus tells me you are a blacksmith?"
Silvana cleared her voice as she was unused to socializing.
"I would like to think of myself as one, but I am self-taught. I just learned by watching human videos on the internet and seeing it in person. I still got more to learn."
Latia was now curious about one thing.
"What do you think of Archaon? Romonus' armor."
Silvana gazed at the glowing dark armor constantly releasing a slight purple aura.
"It is magnificent."
Suddenly Archaon responded.
"Why thank you."
From the chest plate, the face of Archaon glowed brighter. Her mouth went agape as she realized she was looking at a set of Living Armor. Serafall and Roygun who knew nothing about this also were unexpecting it.
Romonus grinned as Archaon concealed his face once more.
"Meet Archaon The Profane, my Soul Armor."
The armor himself introduced himself.
"My Armored named me as such, a pleasure."
Now both women were interested in talking more about Archaon, but Archaon returned to Romonus' soul. Kharn was forced to float to not fall so he landed on Romonus' shoulder. The Ball was over and he didn't have long to prepare for his departure.
"Well then, I leave in a week. I might as well begin to prepare now. Shirone, Akeno, Itsuki come on."
The three girls all ran over as he began to leave the ballroom. As they all started to walk Serafall asked a question.
"How long will you be gone? Not the full 6 years right?
"No. I will still stop by to visit, but it will be much rarer as there will be times I won't be able to drop everything."
Roygun reached down and ruffled Serafall's hair.
"We will have so much time to get to know each other Serafall, more girl time."
Serafall pushed her hands away as she hated her head getting touched.
"Watch the hair, it's not easy to get it to look this good."
While they started to bicker between themselves Romonus returned to his room. Miria was all cuddled up on his bed smiling to herself about it smelling like him. He walked over before pulling the covers over her to let her sleep off the alcohol.
"Shirone, mind giving her a hand?"
"Got it."
She the Nekushou used some Senjutsu to let her recover faster. Meanwhile, Romonus walked into his forge room. Once he got here, Serafall, Roygun, and Silvana all were left staring in wonder. Latia smirked at the Dullahan as she knew what it was like to appreciate someone else forge room.
"Get used to it, this is what Romonus is like. Only the best for him is acceptable."
Romonus walked over to his pile of metal that went to forge his gear and stored all of it in his ring except 1 ingot. As he picked it up he fired up the Volcano Core and Tiamats Fire Seed.
They all looked at him as he cut a chunk of the ingot before placing that in the forge. As waited for it to heat up Silvana walked behind him.
"Do you need some fire? While Berith flames are cold rather than hot, they may have an interesting effect?"
Romonus thought about it as he wasn't making a weapon. He was making a set of 13 playing cards. He was going to try to make his version of the Brave Saints, but Demonic.
"Not for now, I will need to see how your Berith flames can work with flames of unique properties. For now though, just watch."
Under the gaze of everyone, Romonus waited until the metal was scorching hot before bringing it over to his Anvil. Using his many tools and skills he cut away exactly 13 card-shaped slabs of metal.
He then went on to shape them into the proper shape before quickly forming his 13 Royal Fiends. Of course, these were just metal in the shape of cards meaning they would have more use as throwing weapons than a way to turn people into his second peerage.
Roygun was curious about the cards as he started to carve shapes into them.
"Metal Playing Cards?"
He nodded.
"Yup. I know this is asking a lot, but give me your King Piece?"
She recoiled as everyone turned to gaze at her. Seeing she was caught her face turned bitter as pulled it out causing her Power to drop back to its true level. When everyone felt the change Serafall frowned.
"Hey, what's the big deal? What is that thing?"
Romonus reached out and grabbed the King Piece in front of Roygun's chest.
"This is the King Piece, a creation of Ajuka. He made 9 in total, but 6 were stolen by The Great King Faction beforehand. These little things can grant any Devil who uses one 10 to 100 times their power."
Serafall suddenly realized something.
"WAIT! THOSE FUCKERS ARE FIXING THE GAMES!"
Roygun recoiled as she could no longer play it strong.
"Yes."
Romonus chuckled as he used several analytical spells on the King Piece. He wanted to know what made it work aside from the Agares crystals. Serafall was about to pull her hair out in anger, but Romonus calmed her down.
"For now, just relax. Roygun, I have known about your use of a King Piece since we met and I never cared. However, if you are to be anything more than just a girlfriend you need to stop using it. You will never improve if you continue to use this crutch."
As Roygun was left to her thinking now that her power was not to what it used to be, Romonus continued to test it. He wanted to learn more about the Evil Piece System so he studied the purest source of it, the King Piece.
As he did that Latia sat down next to him.
"What do you plan to do with these cards? Are these the second peerage you wanted?"
"Possibly. Since I plan to gather a strong group, I may meet more powerful people I want at my side. One peerage might not cut it so I am making a second Set. Though, this is a work in progress and I only got a week to work on it."
Latia sighed.
"Wish I could go with you."
"Why can't you? Haven't you learned everything you could learn under him?"
Latia pondered on it.
"While yes, I still have more to learn and I don't think I am ready."
"I think you are, but if you don't then I won't force the issue."
By this point, Shirone came into his forge room.
"Miria is sleeping ok."
He smiled in her direction as she was honestly a better healer than Asia. Not afraid to get into a fight, cute, and not annoying if he was being honest.
"Thank you Shirone. Tell Itsuki and Akeno they can relax now."
The cat girl gave him a thumbs-up before walking back into his room from the forge. He was not going to spend much time on this as he had other things to do. His Evil Pieces were still empty so he didn't need this yet. As he did that, Latia stood up.
"Romonus, I will be back. Give me a week and I will get you a gift."
He was curious about what she was going to make.
"A gift? You don't have to, but ok."
Latia grabbed his face and gave him a quick kiss before she let him go. She teleported away back to her workshop as she had been inspired. By this point, Serafall was out of her anger with questions for Roygun.
"Come on, spill it. Who is using it? Who isn't?"
Roygun felt like crying as she was no longer special. Romonus felt bad for her, but it was better to take away the training wheels now than later. For now, he turned to Silvana with a smile.
"Your flames?"
She perked up as she opened her hands revealing a pitch-black burning fire. He was curious what would happen.
(patreon.com/A_Real_Werewolf234)