Chapter 11: The Bael Clan's Banquet (1)
In the middle of the night, I silently got up from the bed, making sure not to wake Latia up accidentally.
Alice, who stood beside our bed, handed me a pair of sunglasses and a face mask similar to the ones she was wearing.
Since the teacher and her student were bound to share the same brain cells, I wore them without any complaints.
"Alice, did the target leave?"
"It did." Alice nodded.
"Then, let's go."
Leaving the peacefully sleeping Latia alone, we teleported away to complete our 'secret' mission.
.
.
.
[The Kuoh Park.]
At the park's centre, a man and a woman were standing in front of the fountain, hugging each other as tightly as they could. It was apparent that neither of them wanted to let the other go.
Naturally, the lovebirds were none other than Cleria and Masaomi—a couple that chose to stay together despite their differences, standing against the world for what they cherished the most.
It was a beautiful sight—was what a romance lover would say, but sadly, that wasn't a genre I preferred.
"My, this is quite the spectacular display..."
Alice looked amused by the sight of a couple meeting in secret during the middle of the night.
"This is a breach of privacy, but yeah, it's interesting to watch."
I removed the mask and sunglasses from my face.
"But it's rare… For a High-Class Pure Blooded Devil to fall in love with a Human from the Church."
"I would've understood if Cleria was playing around with that exorcist to pass some time, but it looks like she genuinely loves him."
"That's cruel, Azrail..."
"I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but isn't that the 'normal' for Devils, though?"
Some of the Pillar Clans even taught their descendants that there was nothing wrong about playing with human lives for entertainment, after all.
"You're not wrong about that, but… I don't like the thought of someone playing with a person's feelings, even if they're an enemy."
Should Alice be considered compassionate or naive?
I had no idea.
"You seem fascinated by the idea of enemies becoming lovers, don't you, Alice?"
"A-Ahem!" Alice faked a cough, looking a bit embarrassed. "No, I was just intrigued."
"Are you sure about that? Weren't you the one reading the book about Sirzechs and Grayfia's love story…" Alice's body froze at my words, but I continued with an overly dramatic tone. "You even commented on how they fell in love amidst the Devil Civil War, saying that love knows no bounds…"
"H-H-How do you remember that!?"
The blonde's face reddened almost instantly.
She once read that book to me as a bedtime story three years ago, and even though I could speak fluently back then, she probably never imagined that I'd remember something from that age.
"Hmmm. What did you say back then? Ah, right. Your exact words were, 'Ah… How I wish for someone to pin me to the wall and express their feel—Mmpph!!!"
"S-Stop!"
Before I could continue about Alice's lovely yet perverted fantasies, she placed her hand on my mouth and pinned my back on the tree with a red face, tears forming at the corner of her eyes.
I wanted to laugh, but with Alice's left hand forcefully closing my mouth, it was hard to breathe.
I had waited many years for the right moment to say these words, and honestly, it was worth it.
"I know I shouldn't… but I will still ask. Lady Alice, why are you here? Didn't we meet a few hours ago when we had dinner together?"
"Hold on, Cleria… The important thing is, why is she assaulting a child while wearing a mask and sunglasses in the middle of the night?"
"Don't worry too much about it, Masaomi… It's not unusual for young devils and their guardians to have some 'special' relationships…"
'How I wish those for those words to come true…'
"Your race is weird… This looks like assaulting to me…"
Cleria and Masaomi, who were supposed to be observed by Alice and me, were now watching us.
"A-Assaulting? No! I was just—!"
Alice finally regained her senses and released me after hearing Mosaomi's comment, and I coughed a bit.
"It's not that, we were just..." Even I had no idea how to explain an adult pinning down a six-year-old child while covering his mouth in a way that wouldn't make it sound illegal.
I resisted the urge to call Alice a paedophile and decided to change the situation, turning the question around. "No… More importantly, what's up with your relationship? Do you have any idea what the consequences would be?"
'Yeah, when you can't answer a question, it's best to ask another question and hope it works out…'
That technique worked most of the time.
Cleria looked like she wanted to ask more about what was going on here, but Mosaomi was able to take my hint and didn't ask any further.
"We are... There's no point in hiding it. I love Cleria."
"And I love Mosaomi."
Well, that was a fast confession.
By now, Alice had returned to her normal self after removing her mask and sunglasses, although her cheeks were still slightly red.
"But… You know this kind of relationship will not end well, right? It's only a matter of time before things escalate."
Although Alice was fascinated by the idea of such a love story, she did make a good and realistic point.
Currently, I couldn't see the Devils or the Church allowing such a relationship, and neither were Cleria and Mosaomi the 'protagonists' of the story.
"From what I know, it'll take a year or two until you two are separated, even if it's by force… From that Shidou's expression, I think he's well aware of your relationship, no?"
"Yes." Mosoami nodded at my words. "But lately, he has stopped persuading me to give up on this relationship and has been just quietly watching us. Maybe he's willing to accept it?"
Or maybe Shidou was simply observing you to see if you were willing to give up on Cleria.
It could also be that he decided something by himself.
"And I take it that the Belial Clan is somewhat aware, too?"
"They are not, but my brother won't oppose our relationship, I am sure... I planned to ask him for help if the situation calls for it and to also tell him about..."
From how Cleria trailed off mid-sentence, it became apparent that something else worried her, but she didn't seem willing to talk about it in front of us.
"Hmm… If it weren't for the banquet hosted by the Bael Clan for youngsters, I would've spent some more months here. It's a shame that I'll need to leave tomorrow morning."
Although my words were random, Cleria's slight change in expression caught my eye.
'Hm? Does she have some history with the Bael Clan?'
My curiosity kept rising the more I stayed here.
And from how it looked, Alice noticed Cleria's change in expression, as well, and she asked. "Is something wrong?"
"No. I was just wondering..." Cleria shook her head with a calm expression. "Isn't it a little too early for Azrail to start attending official banquets?"
"It sure is..." Alice nodded. "Normally, a banquet for the younger generation would happen when most candidates are around the age of eight, so I was a bit sceptical as well. After all, they invited everyone to the banquet on such short notice, but it makes sense since the Bael Clan will also announce and introduce their new heir."
'It's almost as if the Bael Clan wants the Underworld to focus on them for a few days...'
My conclusion didn't seem too far off from the truth.
"I feel out of place..." Mosoami awkwardly scratched his cheek, which made the three of us laugh a bit. "Although I don't know a lot about the workings of the Underworld, it would've been much better if only the rest of the Devils were like you all."
If all Devils were like me? I couldn't even begin to describe how disastrous that would've been.
Forget about all—even if there were a few more like me in the past, the world would've been a mess right now... That was if it still existed.
It was hard to imagine the progress I could've made if I had been born a few hundred years ago, much less thousands of years ago.
'That was a world I'd love to witness…'
"But seriously, are you both willing to go through all the troubles? Logically speaking, ending this relationship would be for the best..."
Alice's words changed the atmosphere, and Cleria and Mosoami's expressions turned serious.
"We can't do anything about it."
"After all, you can't decide who you'll fall in love with, right? If required, we are thinking about running away."
'Well, let's see how things turn out for them…'
There was more to this than I knew, so it'd be good to return to Kuoh after the Bael Clan's banquet ended.
"By the way, Cleria, can you show me the [Worthless] ability?"
At my question, Cleria smiled.
"Of course. Since Astaroth Clan's [High IQ] is something I can't invalidate, how about using an elemental spell instead?"
"That sounds good enough..."
I only wanted to see the [Worthless] ability once with my eyes since it was already on my target list.
'Great Sage, analyse what you can from this...'
[Answer. Understood.]
The Astaroth Clan's Magic Circle appeared in front of me as I raised my hand, and soon, a fireball twice the size of an adult human shot towards Cleria.
She smiled, pointing her finger towards the fireball before it disappeared.
'Hmm… So that's how it works…'
[Notice. The ability of 'Worthless' was able to cancel out the Demonic Power Master used to cast that spell, along with the spell formation.]
'How very interesting…'
"That's a cheat-like ability."
My comment made Cleria giggle.
"It is, but unfortunately, I'm not even half as good as my brother."
'Of course, you aren't...'
If it were that easy to become the 1st Ranked in Rating Games, there would be no difference between geniuses and mediocre people.
After Cleria had nullified dozens of spells using [Worthless], Great Sage had collected a good amount of raw data on how the Belial Clan's Trait affected my demonic power, so it was about time to go back.
"Then, please nullify this spell, too..."
As my words finished, a Magic Circle appeared between me and Cleria, which caused her to frown.
"Is something wrong?"
"This spell…" Clearia observed the Magic Circle for a few seconds. "Isn't this the Astaroth Clan's Dimensional Storage? But the formation is a bit…"
"Ah, right. I modified it a bit."
Belial Clan's [Worthless] required them to completely understand the power they wanted to nullify, whether it was a spell or another clan's trait, so if they couldn't understand something, it'd turn their ability worthless instead.
It wouldn't be surprising if they had records on all the clan traits, customs and personal spells that were created throughout the years.
After all, Clearia's knowledge about the Astaroth Clan's main custom spells didn't seem out of place.
"Modified it…?"
"You know that Dimensional Storage created a single space with its size depending on the user's Demonic Power, right?" Cleria nodded at my words, waiting for me to continue. "I divided that space into many sub-spaces, with each functioning as a separate storage space to sort out my things better."
It took me a few hours to improve the spell formation, but the results were satisfactory.
"Sort your things out…" Cleria's mouth twitched in disbelief. "How many sub-spaces are in that one spell?"
Her reaction wasn't out of the ordinary.
When I showed the improved Dimensional Storage to my family, they had a similar reaction.
Those from the Astaroth Clan would rather use multiple [Dimensional Storage] spells simultaneously than divine a single one in sub-spaces because of how complex the spell would turn out to be, especially if they wanted to preserve the things inside forever.
It took Lord Astaroth a few weeks to copy the 'new' Dimensional Storage. On the other hand, Ajuka did it in under a minute.
His mastery of our clan trait was on a whole other level, or maybe he had already created this spell but didn't want to ruin my small achievement.
"326… Each sub-space has a different password, too."
Although the number was huge, the individual storage space of each sub-space wasn't that large.
"Haah…" And Cleria's jaw dropped, completely dumbfounded. "I'd expect nothing less from Lord Beelzebub's brother. You are far better than the rumours say…"
'Well, those rumours are thoroughly controlled by Lord Astaroth, so the things people know about me outside the Astaroth Clan were superficial at best…'
My status in the underworld could be summed up in a single line: Satan Beelzebub's talented brother who trained under the Strongest [Knight].
The clan's higher-ups would scold me if they learned how carelessly I trusted Cleria and Mosaomi, but it was only about a minor spell.
Not that I cared about their lectures, to begin with.
"It's nothing much."
Even after several attempts, Cleria couldn't nullify my Dimensional Storage and gave up, looking disappointed in herself while her partner tried his best to cheer her up.
The four of us talked for a while before parting ways.
---
"So the Kuoh Town also has a Dimensional Train Station under it, huh?"
Since it was our last day in the Human world, Alice proposed that it would be good for us to return using a Dimensional Train, something we didn't mind.
As we walked through the station, a random thought crossed my mind.
"Wait a minute… The Belial Clan doesn't own any Dimensional Trains, so why is there one in their territory?"
As the monopoly in the technology market, the only one who produced Dimensional Trains was the Astaroth Clan. Not to mention, the head of the branch that assembled them was none other than my father, so I had good knowledge of them, mostly thanks to the time I spent in his office after being kicked out of Ajuka's lab countless times.
"Ah, you don't know? Kuoh Town is a shared territory between the Bael and Gremory Clan. The Dimensional Train in this place belongs to the Gremory Clan."
'The Bael Clan, huh? I've been hearing their name a lot these days...'
And the Gremory Clan.
Hmmm.
That was one thing that linked Rias to Kuoh Town.
Bzzz!*
Bzzz!*
Taking out my phone, I looked at the notification that just popped up.
"Oh, c'mon, it's the third one this month."
Hearing my unintentional grumble, Latia and Alice turned towards me.
"What's up, Azrail?"
"Nothing, my social media account was banned... again."
"What did you even do?"
At Latia's question, I showed her my mobile screen.
"Your account has been banned for the promotion of Sexual Abuse, Gender Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, Hate Speech, Spreading Misinformation, Defamation, Harassment, Bullying, Threats..." The list was so long that Latia's words trailed off halfway. "A true keyboard warrior, aren't you?"
It was one of the many pastimes I had.
"At this point, I won't even ask what happened for it to get this bad." Alice, like always, gave up.
"You seriously need to learn to keep your opinions to yourself..."
It felt weird being lectured by a six-year-old, so I decided to create another account later.
It wasn't my fault, alright?
"Oh, the train's here."
Latia and I turned towards the approaching train.
'So that's how it functions…'
It was my first time seeing an actual working one since I had only seen the ones that were on display or the ones that were under production.
After the train staff confirmed our identities, we settled down in our seats.
Placing my mobile back into my pocket, I summoned Artemis from my Dimensional Storage, finally deciding to finish the last dozen or so pages.
As for Latia, she was surfing through the DeviNet, trying to decide what she wanted to wear for the banquet, frequently asking Alice for her opinion.
My fashion sense was at rock bottom, and everyone in the family knew of this, so my clothes would most likely be decided by my mother.
I'd wear anything as long as it wasn't gaudy.
And from what Alice said, she had already decided what she would wear at the banquet.
Honestly, I was looking forward to seeing her in a formal dress.
---
"My babies!"
"Mother, I can't breathe!"
"G-Grandmother, Mmmph—!"
'She must've missed us…'
As Latia and I struggled in my mother's embrace, I realised that the feeling of having a home to return to was very nice.
I couldn't help but remember the 'home' I had in my previous life, and even though it had everything I would've needed in my daily life back then, this feeling of fulfilment and happiness wasn't there.
After I became old enough to inherit everything from the trustee, the first thing I did was sell the house I was born and raised in, as it reminded me too much of my family.
Following that, no place ever felt like home, at least not until now.
It was nice to know that I had a place to return… However, it'd be scary if something happened to this place.
"Let them go, or they'll pass out…"
After he rescued me from my mother's embrace, I gave my father a small smile.
"I am back."
"Welcome home, son."
But the happiness didn't last long as the door opened with a loud thud. Through the opened door, Vanessa came running towards us.
"My cuties!"
Not this again.
This time, I didn't even try to struggle, holding my breath and letting Vanessa hug me and Latia in a way similar to Celis.
We couldn't escape until Sebas came running after his wife and rescued us.
"So, how was your journey in the Human world?"
"It was a lot better than expected…" I smiled at my father's question. "I brought a lot of things with me, and we met a lot of Devils who oversee their territories in the Human world…"
"They didn't cause any trouble, right?"
Vanessa looked at Alice, who shook her head with a smile.
"No, they behaved and listened to me without any complaints."
"Were you attacked by someone on your way?"
"Not much… And even if someone tried to attack us, Alice killed them within seconds! She was so cool!"
Latia seemed accustomed to witnessing the death of strangers.
We talked about our journey within the Human world for the next few hours, and when the mountain worth of things poured out of my dimensional storage like a waterfall, everybody realised that I might've spent a bit too much money.
However, that wasn't even the best part.
After some calculations, it seemed like the amount spent on my food far exceeded everything I bought on my journey.
If Devils were assigned sins, my prominent sin would be Gluttony. [1]
The same happened with Latia, who summoned a mountain almost as large as mine from her dimensional storage.
My father and Sebas were considering whether it was necessary to limit the amount Latia and I could spend, but they both erased that idea after getting glares from my mother and Vanessa.
Alice quietly watched the family drama going on with a smile on her face, occasionally speaking.
"So, are you two ready for the Bael Clan's banquet?"
"Mmh."
"Yes, Grandfather!"
---
Words: 3,126
A/N:
1. No. Devils don't have assigned sins, and they don't need to 'fulfil' their seven sins to keep their minds in check. That's headcanon.