Life 4-2

Noé didn't bother much to announce himself as he busted the door to the ORC in with a swing of his arm, strolling past the couches as Rias looked up from her desk while he tossed his bag onto the empty couch and began rifling through it as his hair and eyes returned to their real colors.

"Ah, Edelweiss…" Rias trailed off as she took stock of Noé's arrival, realizing he was in fact still dressed in his workout attire and clearly still fresh from his routines. "Um… mind my asking why you arrived like you just got done running ten kilometers?"

"Workouts with the boxing club, it's normal for me. This place has a shower in it right?" Noé got a nod in reply as he finally found his uniform. "Good, cause I'm using it. Tell me what you need after."

"Uh, wait, what?" Rias barely got a word in as Noé sauntered past the curtain and to the room beyond, the sounds of the shower started coming not a second later. "He didn't even give a proper greeting."

"It seems our new friend values efficiency," Akeno chuckled, sorting through some papers in her hands. "Noé-kun, is the shower fine in there?"

"A shower is a shower!" Noé yelled back. And not much sooner after that, Noé came back out from the curtain, pulling a towel off his hair… and still absent a shirt, considering said item and his blazer were in fact tucked in an armor.

"My my," Akeno chuckled, Noé not paying much mind as he began to put his shirt on. "You look so slim when dressed, but you're actually quite fit aren't you?"

"Hm?" Noé stopped as he was a bout to finish, taking a gander down as he noted Akeno and Rias's looks. Yuuto was busy reading and Koneko was snacking without a care. He did have to admit he made sure to keep himself in shape, but Noé had personally never thought about it much. He did have a decent degree of muscle definition going for him though, but even then, he remained rather lithe in frame. "Well considering all the combat practice I do that's kinda natural isn't it?"

"Quite so," Akeno chuckled, then looking to the somewhat flabbergasted looking Rias, "President? Is something the matter."

"Still just a bit surprised is all," Rias cleared her throat, and now Noé caught the slight flush on her face as he put his blazer on. "Ahem, I called you here for some business, as you can expect."

"It's not more damn flyers, is it?" Noé asked, fiddling with the part of his hair he normally braided, choosing not to finish the process and let the strands hang loose.

"Not quite," Rias chuckled. "As of today, consider yourself off of flyer duty. Rather, you're going to begin handling extra summoning requests. Koneko ended up with one extra today and so we need it to be covered. If it wouldn't be a problem, of course."

"So, fillin' in for the shorty huh?" Noé murmured. "Can't guess who'd be summoning her but… well no skin off my back. So, what do I get out of this huh?"

"Of course. Tell me, do you know why it is Devil's reincarnate humans to be our Servants?" Rias inquired, which Noé nodded to.

"It was a system that began development after the Great War way back when. Devils have low birthrates, which doesn't pair well with their near immortal lives. So new Devils simply couldn't be born fast enough to make up for the losses." he answered, Rias nodding, in the manner of a teacher proud that their student got their question right. Maybe mentor would be a decent phrase… Noé thought.

"Of course. But because humans who are reincarnated don't start out as the strongest of Devils, it was devised for there to be an incentive system. Reincarnated Devils can rise in the ranks based on their merits, and those who are able to achieve High Class status are then granted Evil Pieces of their own to then create their own Peerage, and thus bring in more Devils. Make sense?" Rias produced an ivory white, gold accented pawn piece as she made her point, "Now, you may not be a member of my Peerage, but, as a half-blood born outside of normal Devil society, you'd be considered a Low Rank. Of course, though, it's not like family and bloodline doesn't matter in our society, but, everyone starts out as a novice after all."

"Ah I get it. So basically, what you're saying I'm getting out of this is the chance to do whatever I need to rise up through this nonsense. And at some point, get a handle of my own peerage."

"And you have the bonus of being, let's say 'sponsored', by the House of Gremory. You do this right, and your future as a proper Devil could be a very bright one."

"Heh… something about 'Devil' and 'bright' seemingly says they don't belong in the same sentence."

"Quite."

Noé had to admit there was a good point to that. While her personally couldn't say he was terribly interested in the idea. But he could certainly say he had questions about his nature and why such a set up was even happening. Rias obviously didn't have the answers for him. And if he wanted to go about asking anyone, well, first he would need to get into a position to ask those questions in the first place. And he couldn't simply place his faith in the good will of Devils to give him proper answers when, as far as some of them were concerned, he was just some random half-blood the Gremory's plucked off the streets.

"So, in layman's terms, I get contracts from particularly greedy humans, I have the chance to move up the ranks from being some oh-so lowly half-blood of an unknown bloodline." Sarcasm laced Noé's words response, but Rias nodded despite it.

"And that's why I called you. As long as you're not counted as a Stray, even a master-less Devil like you can rise up in the ranks."

"Wow, quite the compliment you just gave me there Gremory."

"Ahem, sorry, that just came out."

"Suuuure… whatever, contract it is right?"

As was a lesson Noé had long since learned, Devils in the modern day also didn't quite perform what one would call the "classic" style of contract. Taking souls, as it turned out, was horribly inefficient for business. Van had explained it to Noé in terms of resources: "If you can only ever use a resource one time and that's it, then it has no inherent value." Noé thought it was something of a cold way to look at people, but it made sense in his mind. Why simply grant one request a person has that then ends with them dead, when it would be far more effective to turn that person into a customer?

From the perspective of business, it made perfect sense.

"Ah, right, what about going to the place this contractor lives at?" As Noé was handed a slip of paper by Akeno, he cast his eyes to the magic circle on the floor. "Because I doubt I can use that thing myself."

"That's a simple enough fix," said Rias, standing and approaching Noé. "If you'd hold a hand out, please."

Doing as asked, Noé showed the palm of his right hand. Rias gently grasped his wrist and traced a finger along his palm, a rose sigil appearing on the skin as she drew her finger away with a flick of red following it.

"This is the mark of my Household. While not a Servant, it'll at least let others know you work with me, and that you're not some Stray. Think of it as a kind of ID tag."

"That sounds more like a pet thing," Noé remarked. He quickly picked up that by focusing, he could make the mark appear and vanish at will. "But, whatever. Might be useful if anyone gets smart and picks a fight again like those idiot fallens from the other day."

"Ah, yes, about that," Rias said, "If you do get attacked again, I ask you try not to do too much damage. If they attack you, then it's self-defense and you can do what's needed to drive them off. But, don't give them a reason to try and come after you in response. Because as things are now, what you do will reflect on me as well, servant or not. Understood?"

Noé took a moment to think on Rias's tone. For lack of better words, he found it rather prissy in attitude. Seems not having a proper leash on what I do annoys her a bit. He thought with a smirk. But it wasn't like he would intend to cause trouble. And if he did get attacked again, well, too bad for the ones who decided on such a bad idea.

"Yeah yeah, I get it. I'll be sure to get this one covered."

"…Thank you for helping me out," Koneko's quiet reply came with the smallest bow of her head.

"No problem. So, we getting this started?" Noé turned around and hopped onto the circle, folding his arms as he waited.

"Just give me a moment more," Akeno giggled in an amused manner as she held a hand out. The circle under Noé's feet began filling in with red until it was fully formed, a copy of it beginning to form and rise out from the original.

"You'll be able to handle this without trouble, right?" Rias asked.

"Ah don't worry. I'm a lot better with people than you may think I am. Alright then, I'll be back with something, hopefully."