3 Learning and Contract

Making my way inside the building, I went up to the front desk and talked to the lady at the front desk.

"Hello, I'm Harry Potter here to see Paolo Blandelli."

"Of course head right up through that elevator, top floor." The lady said, while looking somewhat nervous.

'Huh, why do I scare her so much.'

Thanking her I went towards the elevator and entered. No one else was in it, so I just pressed the highest floor and waited as the elevator went up. Once it reached the floor, the door opened and I went down the hallway to the only door that was present.

Knocking on the door, I heard a voice call out come in, so I opened the door and entered to find Paolo sitting behind a desk looking over some paperwork.

"Harry, it's nice to see you again. What was it that you needed help with?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

"I realized that the wizarding world probably didn't have very much information on the other magical communities, so I thought I'd ask you which ones I should look out for."

"Yes, with their isolationist policy they wouldn't have that information. You came to the right place. Do you want an in depth look or just an overview?"

"I think an overview is fine for now." I replied.

"Alright then, there are three major groups you need to look out for. The first are the different mage associations around the world like this one. They may send gifts to you or attempt to woo you to their side, so be watchful for that. Mage associations are the group you will be most used to. The next two groups are different. The second group to watch out for are the demigods." Paolo said.

"Demigods, so would they be children of heretic gods?" I asked.

"Yes. There was a time where Campione were hunting down heretic gods constantly, so they banded together and formed the pantheons similar to their myths. The biggest of these is the Greek pantheon. The heretic gods of this pantheon are led by the Olympians and these gods had children with mortals, which resulted in demigods being born. Monsters hunt these demigods, so the Greeks decided it would be best to form a safe haven, a camp for them to go to be protected."

"Do you think I will come in contact with demigods?" I asked.

"Most likely not right away, they tend to stick to themselves. Sometimes, though, their conflicts bleed over into other areas and you might get involved, so it's good to be aware of them. The last group, however, is the one that is both the most worrying and the most likely for you to run into. The devils."

"Devils as in like the bible?"

"Somewhat similar. Devils live in another plane of existence known as the underworld. Angels, fallen angels, and devils are all real, but devils are the ones you're most likely to interact with. Thousands of years ago their was a war between those three factions, which led to the devils numbers dropping. To fix this, one of their leaders developed a system known as the Evil Piece system, where high class devils for peerages made up of reincarnated beings. These reincarnated devils become servants to the high class, known as a king because the evil pieces are based on chess pieces."

"So they reincarnate humans and other sentient beings to become slaves? Do you think they will try to reincarnate me?" I asked.

"Of course not. They can only reincarnate people weaker than them, and Campione are at the top of the food chain. The last time someone tried to force a Campione to serve them, she rampaged through the underworld and wiped out half of the pillars. They outlawed it after that. What they will do is attempt to form a contract with you. Essentially, you would work with them to do jobs or services in exchange for items. It isn't a bad practice, but you have to be careful you don't agree to something too binding." Paolo said.

"What's your advice for my dealings with the devils?" I asked him.

"My advice is to form a contract early on. Devils are beings of sin, but they aren't inherently bad. We have summoning contracts for each of the pillars, you could use one of our rooms to summon a devil and form a contract with them. This way, the more unsavory devils will leave you alone, and you can potentially gain a lot from the contract."

"Alright, do you have an recommendations for which devil to summon?" I asked, trusting his advice. He had helped me a lot so far.

"Of the pillars, the best options to summon would be either the Gremory Heiress or the Sitri Heiress. The Gremory family is known to treat their peerages with respect and the heiress is a bit of an oddball among the devils, so she might be the easiest for you to relate to. The Sitri heiress is known to be logical, so she will see the best options for a deal between the two of you, but you're more likely to be manipulated by her."

I thought about it for a second before realizing that the choice was clear.

"I'll go with the Gremory Heiress, I don't want to deal with someone who's overly logical right now."

Paolo nodded his head and reached under his desk, pressing a button that opened a wall in his office. On the wall were numerous pieces of paper with designs inscribed on them. He moved towards one of them and pulled it off the wall, handing it to me.

"This is the summoning circle for the Gremory heiress. I'll lead you to a room you can use for the summoning." Paolo said.

I followed him out of the room and he pressed his hand against the wall, opening the door to a room. Entering inside, the door closed behind me and I looked at the paper in my hand.

'I guess I just channel magic into it.'

Channeling my magic into the paper, it lit up with a red glow and a circle appeared on the ground with the same symbol. In a flash of red, a beautiful girl with deep red hair and blue-green eyes appeared out of the circle.

"You summoned me." She said.

"Uh yeah, I'm Harry Potter." I said.

"I'm Rias Gremory..." She then paused concentrating on me again. "You're the newest Campione."

"Yes I am. I want to form a contract with you." I said, becoming more confident.

"A contract with a Campione huh. What would be the terms of the contract?" Rias asked.

"Before we do that, I want to know something. What do you think of the peerage system?" This was an important question to me. Paolo had helped me a lot, but I wanted to hear it directly from the source what they thought of the system.

"Do you want the honest answer, or the family answer?" Rias asked.

"The honest one."

"I hate it. I understand it was necessary at first, but at this point it's devolved to the point that it's a sign of status and power. I tried bringing that up to my family once and they laughed it off, saying I just didn't understand how important it was. Yeah, because clearly showing off your slaves like it's a sign of power is important." Rias said, getting more disgruntled as she went on.

'Well I didn't expect that.' I thought.

"Do you not have a peerage then?" I asked.

"I do, although it was out of necessity. I only have three members of my peerage. Kiba was on the brink of death when I found him and the only way to save him was to reincarnate him. Akeno needed protection from someone, and the only way to give her that protection was to join my peerage. The last one, though, is the reincarnation that I hate the circumstances of the most." Rias said, looking angry at the end.

"Why, how did you get the last member of your peerage?" I asked, curious on why that specific instance would get such a reaction from her.

"There was a devil who killed her master. They told everyone she went mad with power, but I somehow doubt that's true. It didn't matter to anyone though, since a reincarnated devil killed a high class devil, she was automatically marked as a stray to be put down. And do you know what happens to the rest of her race in the underworld. They were killed, just because they were 'a potential threat' or some stupid reason like that." Rias said.

'Not making me love devils, but at the very least she does seem angry about it, so I'll hear her out.'

"So how does this relate to your last peerage member?" I asked.

"Because my last member is that devils sister. Somehow, in the satans great wisdom, they decided they would publicly execute her, but my brother, who is one of the satans, decided to gift her to me instead. He acted like it was some great gift, walked up to me holding her and and presented her. 'Look Rias, I got you a rook' he said like he was giving me a toy. It made sick, but I couldn't do anything about it. If I said no, she was going to be executed. So I added her to my peerage." When Rias got to the part about her brother, her hair started to stand on end and she began to glow with red power.

'So this is a devil's power. Interesting. That story though, the callus way devils view lives that aren't their own is terrible.'

Reaching out my hand towards Rias to try to comfort her, I stopped halfway realizing I didn't really know her well enough to try to do something like that. She noticed my hand though and seemed to calm down, with her aura disappearing.

"Sorry about that, I get angry when I think of that story. I just wish their was a way I could remove the binding part of the evil pieces. So does that answer your question?" Rias asked.

"Yes, very clearly. Now, for the contract. Frankly, I don't want to deal with more devils contacting me, so having a contract with you helps me stop them, but now I'm curious about the evil pieces themselves. I wonder if their is a way to remove that binding part while keeping the reincarnation aspect of them." I said. I had spent a lot of my time in school holding myself back because of Ron. Now that I wasn't, I could show my intelligence and I was curious if I might be able to figure out a way to remove the binding.

"Do you think you could do it?" Rias asked, getting in my face and looking excited.

"I don't know, but I'd like to try. Do you think you could let me see an evil piece?" I asked.

Rias nodded her head and held her hand out, summoning a red, glowing pawn piece. She held it out to me. Picking it up, I activated my Senjutsu and sent my magic into it, scanning the infrastructure of it.

'Whoever made this is a genius. It's the most complex thing I've ever seen. If I had time to study it, I might be able to work out a way to fix it. I need to switch my classes at school to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy though.'

"This is the most complex thing I've ever seen. I'm not sure I could fix it, but I'd like to try. Would you be willing to form a contract based on that?" I asked Rias.

She looked thoughtful for a second and then responded. "If you think there's even a chance you could fix it, then I'm willing to form a contract. What would be the terms?"

"You would provide me with an evil piece to study and if I solved the problem, I will change your pieces so that they no longer bind the person to you."

"Those terms are acceptable, but I would like to add something, if you are up to it. I need to train, but anyone my brother gets goes easy on me. I don't get anything out of it because they coddle me, due to being scared of my brother. If possible, I would like to train and spar with you when you have the time." Rias said, looking more unsure then she had the entire meeting.

I thought about it. 'I need to train to get more used to the combat capabilities of my authorities. No wizard is going to be any help in training them, so I could use this as an opportunity to train as well.'

"I'm fine with that. So we have a deal then?" I asked, holding out my hand.

"We have a deal." Rias said and met my hand for a handshake. I could feel a surge of magic go between the two of us before disappearing.

"Alright, I go back to school in a week. When I go back to school, I'll find somewhere for us to train and for me to work on the piece. The library should be able to help me." I told Rias.

"Sounds good, summon me again when you're ready to go get started." Rias said, opening a magic circle below her feet and disappearing.

'Well I think that went well, all things considered. I'm glad I chose the Gremory instead of Sitri. I don't think I would've gotten along well with someone overly logical.'

Making my way to the door of the room, I pressed the button and opened the door to find Paolo waiting.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"It went well. I formed a contract that wasn't too binding and would help me."

"That's good. Is that all you needed, or is there anything else? It would be good to introduce you to the head of the Witenagemot." Paolo asked me.

"No, that's all. I've deal with enough today, meeting another official can hold off until later. I appreciate all the help you've given me. I would've been lost without it."

"It's no problem, I'm glad to help a king." Paolo said.

From there I made my way to the elevator and out of the building, making my way back to the burrow. It seemed to be a little into the afternoon, so I still had some of the day left. Walking up to the burrow, I entered the house to see that no one was in the living room at the moment. Walking up the stairs to Ron and I's room, I found that he was somehow still asleep.

Taking a piece of parchment and a quill out, I wrote a letter to Professor McGonagall asking to switch to Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Even if she said I couldn't switch, I would just self study anyways.

With that done, I didn't have much else to do, so I laid down and decided to take a nap. I got woken up early because of the Death Eater attack, so it'd be good to get a little extra rest.