10. Saegusa Family

We arrived at a huge gate with a wooden sign with the word 'Saegusa' written in it. Seeing the car, the huge gates opened albeit slowly. I was amazed at the serenity of the place, we were met with a huge field of garden filled with different kinds of flower. Seeing me interested, Mayumi took the chance to brag her grandmother and her mother's work.

"Those garden at the front were designed and taken care of by my mother and grandmother with the help of the servants, pretty right?" Mayumi explained

"Yeah." was all I replied

We drove for 15 minutes before reaching a cluster of mansions, 4 of them to be exact. 3 smaller ones and one big one. The smaller 3 must be for the family while the big one was for the gatherings and where the current head's family resides. We stopped at the east wing mansion. We got down from the car and the others knew who were the person inside it but was surprised to see a young man getting down on the car. They speculated things that I was an important guess of the family.

We went inside the east mansion and was greeted by a servant followed by someone. Mayumi's eyes lit up seeing the figure coming out of the kitchen.

"Mom! Is grandma in there with you? I miss your cooking!" Mayumi exclaimed while her mother was appraising me.

"Ara~ you brought your boyfriend already?" Yep now I know where she got her playfulness from. Yep. It runs in the blood.

"Mom!" Mayumi shouted but her expression and her red face destroyed it all.

Meanwhile Eiji was running anime tears streaming down his two eyes.

"My granddaughteeer!" but immediately stopped himself when a black miasma was emitting in the kitchen.

"WHAT IS THAT 'BOYFRIEND' THING I'M HEARING OVER THERE?!" An old woman soon burst out from the kitchen holding a pan of pancakes, I assume is Mayumi's favorite.

"Not you too, Grandma!" Mayumi shouted trying to be angry but was grabbed by her grandma.

"Where?! Where is your boyfriend?! Tell me! Where is he." She then noticed a young man she never saw before. She joined Mayumi's mother in appraising me.

"What do you think, mom?" Mayumi's mother asked.

"Hmm, a fine young man. Indeed. His demeanor and calm and collected aura was slipping out."

I shrugged at their appraising eyes while Eiji and Genzo was looking at the scene with amusement.

"Hello young man, my name is Minerva, and here is my daughter Rie. What about yours?" Minerva asked me with an inquiring tone and glancing at Eiji as well.

"Finally, someone with manners. Vergil. Vergil Redgrave. A pleasure to meet the previous matriarch and the current matriarch as well."

Eiji and Genzo shrugged which didn't escape their eyes while the clansmen and the servants are looking at me in disdain but seeing they didn't take action they simply ignored it but others were left with resentment which I wholeheartedly ignored.

"Eiji looks like we have a lot to talk about." Eiji was sweating and Genzo was holding his laughter.

"How about you enjoy the pancakes I've made as this old man here and I will have to talk about something." She then dragged Eiji and Genzo finally burst out in laughter.

"Well then now that that's out of the way, Vergil, Mayumi, uncle Genzo, come on in. Mayumi, your grandma made a lot of pancakes for you." I smirked at her with a look saying 'busted' making Mayumi pout.

"Awe, my adorable daughter, you don't have to hold back. Come in."

We then followed her and sat at the dining table followed by Rie bringing in stacks of pancakes in a plate, Genzo's plate only has the minimum amount he needed as he said his blood sugar will act up if he ate too many.

We then ate the pancake, which is unbelievably good. I started eating without reserve and I looked at Mayumi who is fully enjoying the pancakes. Out of us four, she has the most pancakes stacked and I used it to tease her.

"Someone's going to be fat." What I didn't expect was Mayumi stopped eating and glared at me an waves of icicle flew towards me which I caught and dodged the others.

"WHO'S GOING TO BE FAT?!" Oops looks like it backfired. Fat and weight must be a taboo in the dining table. Rei dispersed the situation as she said to Mayumi.

"Ara~ lover's quarrel in front of the dining table." I nearly stumbled from my seat as she seems to add oil to the fire, but it seems to stop Mayumi who has a mix emotion and glared at me fiercely while blushing as well.

"Quickly finish up your meal, we should meet up with your grandparents after."

We then ate the pancakes and head to the main hall. I saw 8 people at the main table waiting for me and I saw Mayumi's siblings. Rie said that Mayumi has two older brothers, the eldest was already married and 2 twins as younger sisters.

The eldest refused to take the head seat as he wants to focus on making their business larger as he already has a wife while the second eldest wants to focus on practicing mage arts, leaving the young Mayumi as the heiress as her younger sisters are just too young to take the place. Two little girls came rushing to Rie and Mayumi circling the two of them.

"Mother! Mother! Elder brother Koujiro showed us magic tricks like 'puwaaaah!' then the rocks go 'kaboom!' and after that a bird appeared and we can't see the rocks anymore! And older brother showed us a cooler magic trick! He picked up a stone and made it bounce the water and it bounced for 10 times!"

As Rie explained the eldest brother Tomokazu focused on propagating their business. While the second eldest was named Koujiro focused on the mage arts and taking the mantle as the family head will only distract them on their practice. The twins name are Kazumi and Izumi, Kazumi being an tomboyish aggressive one while Izumi being the bookworm type of child.

Kazumi then noticed me and turned aggressive to me.

"Are you also after for Mayumi-nee? Mayumi-nee is leagues above you so stay away from her." 'Oh please, she's the one bugging me all these years.'. Izumi just sayed silent while the other family members just stood there watching in amusement but Mayumi pulled her sister and headlocked her.

"S-s-sister what are you doing?! I'm just warning him okay?!" which made Mayumi tighten the lock further more.

"I-I'm sorry Mayumi-nee... Let me gooooo." Mayumi lets go of her and Kazumi immediately runs behind Rie and stuck her tongue out. I just shrugged at her antics. It was until then that the silent head of the family spoke up.

"Now now, Kazumi, Izumi. Can you leave us for now? We need to discuss things about big brother over there." Saegusa Kouichi, the current head of the family spoke up and Rie dragged the two out of the main hall

Kouichi is a thin man that wears sunglasses to hide his artificial eye, he looks like a sharp businessman rather than a leader. I also got the feeling that this man is a 'sly fox'.

"Come sit young man." Kouichi motioned and all of us sat down. Usually Tomokazu was always attending to business meetings and Koujiro was usually locking up to practice magic and research about it more, but coincidentally they were at the Saegusa mansion and Koujiro just got out of his 'bunker' as he seems to be at an impasse on his research.

"Young man, I'm Kouichi the current head of Saegusa family, care to share yours?"

"Vergil Redgrave, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kouichi."

"Now then Vergil, can you tell me, how did you notice that an attack was incoming at Mayumi's friend's house?" 'He's a straightforward man?' I looked at him in the eyes which is blocked by sunglasses before speaking.

"I'm sensitive towards magic disruption. I sensed an abnormal signs of beings with different magic signals and I immediately knew that someone dangerous were coming." although the mission scroll showed me that an attack was going to happen, as soon as, I saw the contents of the mission. I immediately spread out my senses while keeping an eye if a cadre level fallen angel would be coming. Luckily all of them are fallen angel grunts.

"I see, care to tell us what happened that day?" Kouichi seems to want me to share what happened.

"I escorted Akeno to the shrine and Shuri contacted her friend to save their family. Now they are under the protection of that said family." I explained the simplest way to at least divert some of their attention and not focus entirely on me

"Care to tell us which family? Mayumi has been hounding me all day that we should just protect the two." Kouichi said looking at the root of his massive headache beside me.

"Gremory's" It was all I said, they nodded while Mayumi was confused

"Have you seen what her friend was like?" He continued to ask me.

"A silver haired french maid."

Genzo then whispered something to Kouichi

"Seems like there's still gaps in your story, Vergil." He asked me

"Shoot." I said making him continue

"You said that a silver haired maid arrived there, as far as we know about her, she would've used her magic to torture her enemies, but the corpses we found that day only have stab wounds, and clean cuts."

"I told you that her friend arrived, but I didn't told you who massacred them, right? Turns out... I did it." I've got no one to fear as I need pressure to make my stagnating martial arts move forward to reach the peak.

"Aren't you arrogant, brat. Saying you massacred a group of fallen angels?" this time Koujiro spoke with a mocking tone

"Me? Arrogant? Oh please, I can be arrogant as much as I want if I have the power to be one!"

In the midst of the tension a scroll unfurled itself in my mind

[A show of might

Description: The Saegusa thinks that, your 'master' was the one who massacred the attackers in the Himejima household and plans to rope him in to the Saegusa family. Show them that you can be arrogant as long as you can back it up with strength.

Rewards: Depends on your style points]

'Pfft, I do have a master, 3 in fact. The problem is... they're not here. They're trying to rope in someone who doesn't exist in this world. Pfft~ that was fun.'

"Then show me what you can do arrogant brat." Koujiro said making me smirk

'Its show time.'