Chapter 9 “ The Search for Freedom”
"And all that bullshit. " He added.
"Kenji…" Zeoticus said, in a kind voice, though Kenji would never believe in his near-immortal lifetime that Zeoticus was trying to be kind. "Can't you just accept that you're going to be married? It's such a wonderful thing-"
"I'll have to agree with you there, Dad. " Kenji said, calmly.
"Is what I would say if I WAS CHOOSING MY OWN FUCKING WIFE!" he yelled. "IF YOU, YOU KNOW, GAVE ME A CHOICE INSTEAD OF SELLING ME TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER, I WOULD'VE ACCEPTED THE MARRIAGE!"
"Kenji!" Zeoticus was back to being angry. "You will-"
"PROBABLY FUCKING KILL MYSELF BECAUSE THAT'S ALL I'M GOOD FOR!" Kenji cut in. "YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ME, EITHER OF YOU!" he then ran out of the lounge, slamming the door behind him.
Three silent seconds passed.
"Do you think he meant what he said?" Venelana asked Zeoticus, her voice quiet.
"Of course not. " Zeoticus said, firmly.
"Kenji's just overreacting, like he always does. " But his firm statement did not quell the Lady Gremory's worries.
'I'll ask the new maid to keep an eye on Kenji. ' She thought to herself.
'She's supposed to be quite… capable. Zest, her name was?'
Line Break
"Zest?" Venelana asked one of the maids.
"Lady Venelana. How may I serve you?" Zest answered.
She was a tall beautiful young woman with short white hair, tanned skin, and golden green eyes. She had a rabbit tail and rabbit ears, shaped like horns.
She had a shapely and sturdy figure, and wore a modest-looking maid outfit.
"I want you to look for Kenji and keep an eye on him. " Venelana said.
Zest nodded, and teleported away.
'Well, at least I've got one maid looking out for Kenji. ' Venelana thought.
'Who knows where he could be? Out in the woods, at another concert, or down in the gym?'
Kenji, it transpired, was in none of those places. He was, little as though anyone would believe it, in the library reading.
On what else? Marriage contracts.
"Come on, come on!" Kenji muttered. "There's gotta be SOMETHING, ANYTHING, that lets me get out of this contract.
ANYTHING AT ALL. " He had been scouring through book after book after book on arranged marriages, hoping for anything that might hint on him getting out of a marriage.
His eyes lit up at a certain title on a page.
Breaking marriage contracts
"Thank you. " Kenji said, to no-one in particular.
"It only took me 13 fucking books. How many books need to be written on marriage contracts anyway?"
A marriage contract among Devil families is usually binding, and is done usually to aid in increasing the number of pure-blooded Devils after the Great War of the Three Factions and the Devils Civil War.
Kenji knew that already. He knew that there were approximately one-and-a-half million Devils that inhabited the Underworld, and that wasn't counting the number of Reincarnated Devils, through the use of the Evil Piece system.
Speaking of Evil Pieces, he had heard about his family taking him and Rias to get their Evil Pieces when they reached the age of 16.
Too bad about the 'binding' shit.
However, the marriage contract can be broken, through three different procedures. The first of which is for the two betrothed to agree to a Rating Game, and the winner of which takes control of the contract, including having the ability to break it.
Kenji scowled slightly. Neither he, or Ravel to his knowledge, had a peerage to compete in a Rating Game in the first place.
So that option was out of the window.
The second option, as one or both of the two betrothed are very commonly the Heir or Heiress to a Devil household, the Heir or Heiress must simply be disowned from the family, or relegated from the position as Heir or Heiress. The process of being disowned or being relegated is handled by the Devil Elders, the most prominent of which is Zekram Bael, the first Head of the Bael Clan, which is the one and only Clan in the Underworld to hold the rank of Great King.
Kenji scowled harder. He knew damn well that HE was the Heir to the House of Gremory.
And he also knew from Shitzechs that Zeoticus wanted to make Rias the Heir Gremory, but Zekram Bael wouldn't let him.
'Damn it, Zekram. ' Kenji snarled in his head.
The third and final way for a contract to be broken is arguably the simplest. If one of the betrothed dies, for any reason, the contract will be automatically broken.
Kenji's eyes widened. This was exactly what he was looking for! All he had to do was to break the contract between himself and Ravel was… to… die.
Hold up for a second.
Kenji wanted to break the marriage contract, sure, but he didn't want to die.
Did he?
Or did he?
"Kenji! There you are!" a voice said out of nowhere. A magic-circle came up in front of Kenji, and Zest appeared out of it.
She looked slightly hurried.
"Hey, Zest. " Kenji said.
He only knew Zest's name because he'd overheard Zeoticus telling Venelana that he'd hired another maid, and the only other maid he knew was Grayfia.
Who just so happened to be his sister-in-law.
"Lady Venelana asked me to find you because she wanted to know where you were. " Zest said.
She then noticed the book Kenji was reading. "What are you reading?"
"Book about marriage contracts. " Kenji said, offhandedly.
"Everyone and their pet Imp knows that I hate the idea of being married to Ravel. " Zest nodded, and left through the magic-circle she came through.
Zest had only been recently hired by Zeoticus Gremory a year ago, and she had come to like Kenji. She hadn't talked to him very much, but she thought that he was a polite guy, if he could get a little angry sometimes.
Kenji went back to his book.
If a marriage contract is broken, the family that profited (usually through monetary means) from the marriage will have to refund the money gained by the marriage contract in full to the family that paid them….