Inside the ORC Room
"Nyanpasu!" After I greeted them, no one reacted or even greeted me back. Shame on them! Uncultured swine!
"Nyanpasu!" "Nyanpasu!" "Nyanpasu!" Okay not all of them are uncultured swine as Koneko greeted me back, mimicking my gesture while her mouth was still full of fried chicken. Easy on that chicken, Koneko. I know it's good, but damn, eat fast. Koneko wasn't the only one who greeted me; the twins on the side of Riser did the same greeting I did. The twins earned a glare from Riser, who was looking at me with intense eyes. But I ignored that and focused on the twins.
If I remember correctly, their names are Ni and Li. As I observed them, they appeared to be in their teens. Being twins, they sported similar appearances, with the major difference being Ni's red eyes and blue hair, in contrast to Li's blue eyes and red hair. Also, Ni tied her hair in a ponytail, while Li had hers in a braid with a pink bow tied at the end. Due to them being Nekomatas before being reincarnated as devils, both of them retained their trademark light brown cat ears with black stripes. They also wore piercings on their ears, with Li having two gold earrings on her left ear and Ni having blue-colored ones on her right. Similarly, both of them had a fang sticking out of their mouths, with Ni having hers on the left and Li on the right, thus mirroring each other. Both wore short, skimpy white sailor uniforms that revealed their abdomen, shoulders, and lower breasts, and short black skirts. They also tied their orange ascots in different ways. Additionally, they always wore red and blue fighter's gloves and leg guards matching their hair color respectively.
Damn, those underboobs are nice to see, but just like Rias said, they are low to mid-tier in appearance. They are so irrelevant to the story that I almost didn't remember their names. All I know is they are Nekomata just like Koneko, but Koneko is a special variant or the strongest kind of Nekomata called Nekoshou. "Oh, so that's why they responded to my greeting! They are cats through and through," I thought to myself.
After they greeted me, I patted Koneko again, which made her close her eyes, enjoying it as usual. Cats really love being patted on their heads. The twins on the other side of the couch looked at Koneko with envious expressions before looking at me with expectant gazes, hoping for a pat. Sadly, I wasn't going to do that as Koneko was giving me those cat eyes, begging me not to. I complied because I didn't want to pat them—they already had Riser for that.
Anyway, what was it that I was going to do after greeting them? Ah right, I needed to give them some KFP. But when I was about to pull it out of my dimensional pocket...
"Nyanpasu!" Ravel greeted me, or maybe she just wanted to say it like Koneko and the twins. "Wait a minute... let's see if we all have the same brain cells, right?" I inwardly thought as I looked at Ravel with a smile.
"Nyanpasu," I said again.
"Nyanpasu," Koneko greeted, a bit louder than mine.
"Nyanpasu! Nyanpasu!" Not wanting to be left out, the twin Nekomata joined in, but Riser glared at them with piercing eyes.
"Nyanpasu!" Ravel shouted.
"Nyan..." My words were cut off by Rias the killjoy as she shouted at us, clearly annoyed, raising her hands in the air. "Stop! Stop that annoying greeting!"
Gasper seemed to want to join in, but after hearing Rias, his shoulders dropped in sadness. Valerie, noticing this, patted him while smiling helplessly. Grayfia gave a thankful look to Rias for stopping us from continuing further.
"Boo..." I made a thumbs-down sign. Koneko did the same, even while holding a drumstick in her other hand. Ravel also joined in, but the twins didn't dare as Riser was glaring at them. Akeno and Valerie chuckled at our antics.
"Stop being childish, Oreki," Rias said in an almost annoyed tone, glaring at me angrily while putting one hand on her hip. Her movement made her gravity-defying boobs jiggle against the laws of physics. I don't think Einstein or Stephen Hawking could explain the theory behind that jiggle.
"You too, Ms. Ravel. Don't do such an unladylike thing," Rias scolded. Though they don't have any real connection yet, I'm about to change that by convincing Ravel to join my harem wholesale style. But first, I need to give Rias a piece of my mind.
"You're the last one to talk, you uncultured otaku!" I shouted.
"Being an otaku isn't unladylike, you idiot!" Rias retorted.
"But you're uncultured for not knowing 'Nyanpasu'," I quipped.
"Oh, I know that. I just don't like the anime," Rias explained.
"Then you have terrible taste... just like your personality," I said. The devils heard the first half of the sentence loud and clear, while the latter part was almost inaudible, but they still caught it.
Rias shot an arrow made of destruction energy at me, which I countered by opening a portal and swallowing the arrow.
Grayfia frowned, noticing how much power that arrow of destruction had. If it had touched anything slightly, it would have exploded and erased the town due to its compressed destructive power.
"That could have killed us, you witch!" I said, pointing my finger at Rias. But she is my witch, so I'm the only one who can call her that.
"You too, Koneko! Stop copying this idiot!" Rias scolded Koneko, who practically ignored her and took another bite of her chicken drumstick.
"Hey, don't ignore me," Rias shouted at Koneko before staring at me with questioning eyes, but I just shrugged. She sighed and asked, "Is she eating fried chicken? It looks good." She stared at the drumstick Koneko was holding and the bucket of chicken in her arms.
Before I could reply, Koneko answered, "No, Lady Rias, I'm eating cake," in her usual flat voice.
"Up top!" Koneko and I high-fived each other.
The rest of the peerage chuckled after hearing that sassy reply from Koneko, and even the enemy peerage started laughing.
Angry tick marks appeared on Rias' forehead. She took off her heels and threw them in my direction, or at least tried to, but missed me completely. Instead, she aimed at Kiba, who easily dodged.
"Your way of..." Before I could finish my sentence, I instinctively teleported Kiba in front of me to shield myself from the flying heel that Rias threw.
"Ugh," Kiba grunted as he got hit in the forehead, almost stumbling but quickly regaining his balance.
"How dare you hurt your knight in shining armor, Rias! Apologize now!"
"How dare you use those words against me!" Rias shouted as we continued arguing. The devils looked at us weirdly, probably thinking we were just being childish, which was absolutely true. Oh right, sometimes I unintentionally activate my Omni POV in small scales, seeing from different angles in the room. Right now, I can see Grayfia sighing and shaking her head as Rias and I continue arguing like kids.
"Rias-sama, Oreki-sama, I think it's time to stop this childish act," Grayfia sternly said to us.
After hearing Grayfia's scolding, we stopped, but not before engaging in a staring contest to see who would back down first. I don't know why we're even doing this, and I'm not going to back down as Rias is clearly enjoying messing around with me. Maybe she's just trying to alleviate her nervousness about the upcoming rating game.
Akeno and her fellow peerage members smiled, watching the staring contest between me and Rias, while Riser and his peerage, except for Ravel, were getting angrier at being ignored. Riser, in particular, was fuming at this interaction.
After a while, seeing Rias's eyelids about to give out, I smirked and said, "Checkmate."
"Damn it! I'll get you next time," Rias said, blinking as many times as she could.
I teleported both of us to the couch where Rias's peerage was standing behind but stood up again to introduce myself to the other group of peerage. "Oreki desu! I'm the future husband of Rias after the rating game," I said before sitting again beside Rias while she put her head on my shoulder.
"In your dreams, human. I will make it so that this bitch here loses miserably," Riser said, pausing a bit. "And after that, I will break the engagement myself just to make your family experience what my family felt when..." Riser looked at Grayfia, seemingly afraid of badmouthing Sirzechs in front of her.
"When Sirzechs coerced and forced your family to agree to this rating game. That's what you meant, right?" I said with a smile, looking at the sweating Riser. "But that's on you for being weak," I added with a smirk.
Hearing that, Riser was about to say something, but I interrupted him.
"And why are you afraid of badmouthing Sirzechs? Grayfia here won't do anything even if you insult him a little bit. Right, Grayfia-chan?" I asked, only to receive a flat stare. "Never mind then."
"Anyway, Rias here already told you that she would apologize for the tarnished honor," I said, holding Rias's hand. "And I will offer some compensation to your family and maybe an advance dowry too. Would that suffice, Ravel?" I said with a wink at Ravel while Riser fumed with anger at my shameless action.
"You really are beyond ten," Ravel said, staring blankly at me while blushing after receiving that killer wink. But as soon as she realized, she shook her head before saying, "Who's going to marry a weak human like you?" She was still blushing.
I wanted to retort, but I thought it was time to start the rating game and maybe eat the KFP I brought later for celebration. I asked Grayfia, "Are we going to start the rating game here or somewhere else?"
"We were waiting for you to arrive so we could leave at the same time, but things got out of hand fast after you arrived," Grayfia blamed me for the earlier antics, which I just shrugged off before replying, "Then let's get going." I stood up and walked towards Grayfia. The others did the same to make it easier for Grayfia to teleport all of us.
After everyone gathered close to Grayfia, she cast a teleportation spell, bringing us to the venue.