8 The Kuoh Town (1)
Chapter 8: The Kuoh Town (1)
"Mother, release me this instant!"
Despite my desperate attempts to wiggle out of my mother's embrace, she kept hugging me from behind.
Regardless of how comfortable it was for me to sit on her lap, the fact that she kept rubbing her face against mine was embarrassing.
"Why? Is it wrong for me to hug my son who wants to leave his mama all alone for more than three months?"
With those words, her hugs became even more intense, and soon, I glared at my father, who sat on the opposite side of the couch, calmly sipping his tea.
Our eyes met, and thanks to the father-and-son bond we had built over the years, I could send him a telepathic message by furrowing my eyebrows.
{Help me!}
{No. Watching this is quite entertaining.}
{I trusted you, Father!}
{You came out of her. Deal with it.}
{Only because you came inside her! Take responsibility!}
"Pfft…!"
Sebastian choked on his tea at my telepathic message, but no one paid much attention.
"Mom! Let me go!"
Latia was in a similar position to me, with her being held captive by Vanessa while throwing a tantrum, trying to escape from her mother's embrace by moving her hands around.
"My baby girl, why can't you stay with mommy?"
Latia struggled desperately to resist Vanessa, unlike me, who had given up on the thought of escape.
It wasn't hard to figure out that Celis and Vanessa decided to bully us through this method before we left on our trip to the human world. After all, I had never seen them talk to us as if we were in some family drama show. They were affectionate, yes, but not clingy.
For Lucifer's sake, grow up already.
"By the way, where is Sebas? I thought he'd be here to see us off."
There was no point in trying to escape from Celis, so I decided to change the topic instead.
When it was something concerning Latia, her parents weren't clingy, but Sebas was a bit too 'protective' of her. As the saying goes, a father loves his daughter more, while a mother loves her son more.
And since that was the case, it was weird that Sebas wasn't here to see us off.
"Due to some urgent work, Sebas had to leave for the Vassago Clan's territory on short notice…" Father answered my question. "He said not to cause any trouble in the Human World—especially when you're out of the Astaroth Clan's territory."
'The work must've been pretty important for him to miss out on seeing Latia off…'
Honestly, it was somewhat surprising.
"I'm pretty sure he meant only Latia, father."
"Hey! That's mean!"
Except for Latia, everyone liked the little joke I made.
"But why are you so interested in the Human World, Azrail?"
Father placed the teacup on the table and looked at me with a somewhat serious expression, not expecting an elaborate answer.
"I am just curious about some things, and I wanna become the overseer of a territory in the human world in a few years..."
"Become an overseer?"
"Yes." I nodded at Sebastian, or at least tried to since my head was held in place by my mother's bosom, and I could barely hear things with my ears covered in her soft flesh. "If possible, I'd like to become one before turning 10."
Vanessa, who had been annoying Latia by herself, turned towards me and asked. "Isn't that a bit too young?"
"Then what age do you think is appropriate, Vanessa?"
"I'd say fifteen or sixteen."
Well, her point was logical, but there was no way I'd wait that long.
"I'm smarter than most fifteen or sixteen-year-olds, so it'll be fine…"
"But being smart doesn't cover for being inexperienced, does it?"
"It can, in this case, at least… Managing a territory isn't even that difficult if I decide to put my mind to it."
Looking at the exchange between me and Vanessa, my mother commented.
"He's growing up even faster than Ajuka did."
"I know, right?" My father chuckled at her comment. "It's weird for Devils to go to the Human world before getting their set of Evil Pieces, but..."
'Evil Pieces, huh?'
After reading dozens of books on Evil Pieces and realising that no one except for Ajuka knew something important about them, everything related to them was put on hold, at least until I got my own set to play around with.
"We can't judge our son by normal standards." My mother completed what my father was about to say, and soon, she started playing with my hair instead of hugging me.
The four of us chatted for a while, ignoring Latia, who was still struggling in Vanessa's embrace.
After a few minutes, a Magic Circle appeared on the ground, and Alice appeared inside the room.
"I'm finally done..." My favourite Knight exclaimed, letting out a long, tired sigh.
From how it looked, even she had things to take care of before leaving.
Taking up the chance to escape we had been waiting for, Latia and I jumped away from our mothers, running towards Alice.
"I am jealous of how close you are with them, Alice." My mother sulked, and Vanessa nodded in her support.
Even after being with them for over half a decade, their relationship looked more like blood-related sisters rather than mother and daughter-in-law.
"Ahaha…" Not knowing what else to say, Alice let out an awkward laugh before turning towards us. "Have you two packed everything?"
We both nodded.
After that, my father stood up from his seat, walked towards us and crouched in front of me.
"Make sure not to do something you shouldn't, alright?"
Understanding what he was talking about, I nodded.
"Don't move around in any other faction's territory when you're alone, especially the church… And always stay close to Alice."
I nodded again.
"And if you visit a Devil's territory, go visit the Overseer if you have the chance. It's a good way to build connections."
Father was correct, but there was no way I'd go through such a hassle for some random overseers.
"Most races have a prejudice against Devils, which is justified, but still, don't provoke anyone because Alice has a very short temper."
Alice gasped in utter disbelief while Vanessa and my mother giggled.
"I'll keep that in mind, father."
"Don't worry, grandfather! I will take care of Azrail since I'm the older one!"
Latia puffed her chest out with a proud smile, and I had to say, the silence after that was loud.
"I'm sure you will." Sebastian smiled at her declaration, patting both our heads. "And most importantly, have fun while you can. Growing up sucks." He stood up after finishing his words, only to turn towards Alice. "We'll leave them in your care, Alice."
"Please leave it to me."
Alice gave everyone a reassuring smile, making her look incredibly reliable.
"Well, then, we'll be leaving."
"Take care."
"Have fun."
"Bring back souvenirs, okay?"
My mother, father, and Vanessa waved us off as a Magic Circle appeared under our feet, and soon, the three of us disappeared.
---
[The Human World.]
"It feels weird…"
Latia let out an unintentional mutter as soon as we appeared inside a park. It was apparent that something had changed within our surroundings, confirming that we were no longer in the Underworld.
The environment felt completely different from what we were used to, including the sun, which shone brightly in the sky.
Latia had a similar expression to me, looking at the sun with squinted eyes.
"First time seeing the real sun?"
Alice smiled at our reactions.
"Yeah, feels a bit weird."
"Indeed."
Both Latia and I agreed on that feeling.
In the Underworld, the sky was originally purple throughout the year without any change.
However, the current Four Great Satans adjusted the flow of time to match the Human world for the sake of Reincarnated Devils, creating the concept of day and night there.
They even went through the trouble of reproducing an Artificial Moon and Sun using Demonic Power while changing the night's darkness to look similar to the Human world.
It was something Ajuka called a small side project to kill some time.
"Don't you feel uncomfortable under the sun?"
"We're not Vampires, Alice."
"It's a new thing, but it doesn't affect my power."
"If you were Vampires, you would've been turned to ashes by now." Alice looked around, explaining further. "Generally, Low-Class Devils are weakened when exposed to the sun, even bringing them down to a normal human's level."
"That shouldn't be the case for strong individuals even after their reincarnation into Devils, no?"
At my question, Alice shook her head.
"But it's hard to find strong individuals to recruit, isn't it?" Latia added, turning towards me. "Except for the few Rating Game players, most High-Class Devils only have weak Reincarnated Devils in their peerage..."
"It's difficult, but the reason most High-Class Devils remain average trash is because they randomly reincarnate people on whims, and when their servants aren't strong enough, they'll trade them with other similar servants."
"You know, Azrail. While you make a good point, remember to hold back your criticism against those who don't meet your criteria in the future, even if you consider them trash. After all, most Devils are prideful; they won't take such comments kindly."
Alice wasn't wrong about that, but there was no point in holding back the truth simply because it'd hurt someone's fragile ego.
"Trash will always remain trash, no matter who they are, and if the truth hurts them, no one can do anything about it. They'll need to realise one way or another that the world doesn't revolve around them."
To be fair, it couldn't be entirely their fault since the way Pure Blooded Devils were raised, an outcome like that was natural.
"I'm worried about your future. It'd be disastrous if you were to meet Higher-ups of the Underworld with that attitude." Alice seemed genuinely concerned. "Those incompetent fools hate it when their incompetence gets mentioned by others."
"I know how to conduct myself, so don't worry about it."
"Enough about that…" Latia interrupted our conversation, looking around the park with stars in her eyes. "Hey, Alice. Where are we?"
"We are in Rome, the capital city of Italy."
Alice looked like she was in a good mood, completely ignoring the weird looks that we gave her, and Latia slowly leaned towards me.
"Hey, didn't Grandfather say not to go close to the church's territory?"
"He sure did."
"So why are we in Rome, the Catholic Church's base of operation and the place with the least Devil activities?"
"I'd like to know that as well."
I had lived in Rome for around three years in my previous life, so it was a bit nostalgic to be here after so many years.
"Hm?" Alice crossed her arms and smiled at us. "Why are you worried about the small stuff? No one within the Church is stupid enough to attack us just for the sake of it… Well, some idiots might, but don't worry about it."
"I guess it's alright."
There was nothing much we could do about it, to begin with, so we agreed with what Alice said, and I decided to check if Italy had something of interest to me or if it was worth visiting again after this trip.
"Now, where do you wish to go? I can take you around since I've been here quite a few times, but if there are any specific places you wish to go, tell me."
'Great Sage, are there any potential subjects located in Italy?'
Asking Great Sage for things like these was a lot simpler and less time-consuming than remembering everything myself, despite my near-perfect memory.
[Answer. The Catholic Church has some Holy Swords in its possession. The most notable swords are two fragments of Excalibur, one of the two Holy Swords wielded by King Arthur Pendragon.]
'Which fragments are they?'
[Answer. Excalibur Destruction and Excalibur Mimic.]
'Except for that, there's nothing much of interest in Italy, huh?'
If that was the case, then there was no need for me to visit here in the future again.
The best thing would be to spend some time here as tourists.
Although I had been to Rome in my last life, it was mostly for work, so this might be an excellent opportunity to look around.
There were also places I'd like to see all over Italy, mainly because of the food, especially pizzas and pasta, along with the ones I wanted to visit in my last life.
"How about we go to the Roman Forum first, then?"
One thing that always interested me was why people were fascinated by old, collapsed buildings with some grand history since I hadn't visited one myself, which made me wonder if it would be entertaining.
I also planned on visiting Fontana del Tritone.
For those who don't know, that was where Ceaser and Joseph met in Part 2.
"I don't mind."
"Well, let's go."
Both Latia and Alice agreed without much thinking. And with them here, I doubt I'd be bored.
With hopes that we won't somehow run into trouble, the three of us started our little journey.
----
Words: 2,200
Small chapter, I know, but fret now, the plot will start picking up soon. I'm releasing the early slice-of-life-ish and world-building chapters quickly to not make it slow for those who wait for every chapter and don't stockpile to binge-read.
And now I know what essences are. Thanks. Here are some random numbers: 501868
