Trouble with Dragons!?

"I know you barely came back from a big battle and all, but it appears you have trouble this time or should I say one of your peerage members is in trouble"

Masaru who took his seat, Yui just inside placing a cup of tea in front of them both before taking her seat since Ajuka called her here for some reason.

"Everest is quite famous in the Dragon Valley, especially with Tiamat"

Masaru who heard the name Tiamat naturally understood more or less what was going on

'Could it be they feel discontented with him making her his peerage?'

Ajuka continued despite Masaru wondering about his situation,

"There is many who wanted to wed her and because of her defeat at your hands it shocked them, but since you have not paid a visit to the Dragon Valley even once they are demanding you to go visit them. Naturally, you will face a trial of combat when you go"

Masaru leaned backwards on his chair wondering why he was being worried, if it was only a trial then all he had to do was beat it. Despite it sounding arrogant, but the situation was simple.

"If you consider Everest important, then you must leave for Dragon Valley"

"Yui, you will be leaving together as Masaru's support. Although there will not be any immediate danger the presence of a peerage member will be necessary, and the other peerage members of Masaru are busy"

Masaru who heard Ajuka's arrangement could only agree since the girls are visiting Rias while he will be gone for a while, he could not remember the exact dates the girls arranged but it was fortunately in the same time frame which will be fine.

"Yes, Ajuka-sama"

Yui looked at Masaru smile thinking she finally had some time alone with Masaru to learn more about her master whom she will share a long time with because she had no intentions of starting her own peerage in the future when she becomes a high-rank devil. For now, that is

"Since I have received a rare short vacation time, please take care of me"

Masaru could only chuckle at this, even he knew the researchers rarely take time off. He originally planned to head towards the mountains to train during his vacation period, but this was good as well.

"Now with everything been said and done, you two can get ready and leave for the Dragon Valley. Enjoy your trip"

Ajuka spoke while looking at the report while Masaru and Yui left the office to prepare for their trip,

"I forgot to ask him about that vapour bomb. Oh, well I will ask him later since it was only an idea I could use vapour bombs to replace fireworks on new years after all"

"Ah, it's been a while since you came to visit the technology department"

Elizabeth was working on her last month notice before she will be leaving to work at the Laboratory in the Belial Territory, the object she was currently working on was a thin fingerless glove that was made from threads composed of finely crushed dragons scales, the blood of the black turtle, hair of a thunder tiger using alchemy to transform the ingredients into threads while maintaining their individual characteristics in a single thread.

"Hello elder sis Elizabeth, I'm here to visit since we will be leaving shortly"

"You were making a different kind of armours lately"

Masaru who was inspecting the gloves made of such rare ingredients was definitely interested in this, although he had the spellbook he never started to dabble in alchemy using it making him feel he was not fully utilizing this power he has control over but another problem was the fact his sacred gear still has not shown any active signs of waking up at all.

"These gloves are what I made for you, I heard that the dragon valley requested you to visit them and knowing those dragons you will probably end up in a battle match with at least one of them because of your status"

Elizabeth hands over the two fingerless gloves that is black on the bottom and silver on the top which was the natural colour of the dragon and turtle with a purple thunder embroidered on the black surface of the palms.

"This gloves will work perfectly with your senjutsu, as long as you don't face a strong Ultimate Rank scale you should be able to handle attacks with your hands a bit more compared to your bare hands"

Masaru slipped on the gloves, the hands felt quite comfortable and when he operated his touki he noticed the density of the aura was several times thicker than before around his hands.

"Thank you sis!"

Masaru hugged Elizabeth firmly, he felt blessed having such incredible family members after all.

"I did not make anything for Yui to welcome her into our family but I will be sure to make something when you come back!"

Elizabeth spoke in a machine-gun style feeling embarrassed but Yui walked over touching her hand,

"Elizabeth, you supporting me and welcoming me into the family as Masaru's Pawn is already more than enough"

Elizabeth's smile became more natural and warm,

'As I thought, the peerage members around Masaru are influenced by him'

She thought while seeing Yui feeling relaxed to speak casually ever since she joined Masaru's peerage.

"We will be gone for a few days I suppose, please give these letters to the girls and father"

Elizabeth thought that Masaru could simply send them via magic but Masaru shook his head,

"Deliver them for me please, sis"

He never spoke of his reason for doing so but Elizabeth did not question it and accepted the letters, chatting a few minutes longer about her plans to do in the laboratory Masaru and Yui left the Research Facility since most of the other colleagues they knew were too busy with experiments so they decided to come to visit them again when they come back.

According to the map of Mephisto Pheles's territory within the devil world he was closely located in the southwestern region where fruits that certain dragons love to eat flourish, it was the dragon fruit that showed Masaru where the location was where the Dragons were living in the underworld.

'To think I will be meeting dragons other than Everest, do all dragons have the ability to transform into human form though?'

Masaru began to amuse himself with such pointless thoughts while they began travelling towards the destination by flight.

'Well since it will be our first time travelling together, I will also use this time to evaluate Yui's fighting style. Being a king of a peerage have too many things to deal with, makes me understand how much I have been relying on the girls to help me plan our formation training while researching Rating Games of top players for references. It's difficult to do all of this alone'

Masaru flapped his wings harder to shorten the time required to arrive at the Dragon Valley if Yui never trained her abilities like she had she would not have been able to keep a close distance to Masaru and instead lost sight of him.

When Masaru and Yui were close enough they could see hundreds of dragons flying around the skies, the houses they built were more modern than people thought of them, only that the houses were built larger or smaller depending on the size of the dragon living inside it.

The Dragon valley was divided in several villages to which each species live among their own, the housing style was also different from Western styles to Eastern-style according to each dragon species.

And in the middle is the famed Dragon City which is where their variety of dragons come to live and work in or when they come to leave the Village in search of a Mate if they did not find one in the villages.

The village where Tannin lived was close to the borders where one of the defending Forts which he was responsible for defending his king's territory while being a commander of the soldiers stationed in that fort, this was where Masaru and Yui were heading towards.

When they pass by the flying dragons some of them could not help but stare curiously at these two devils that are flying by, one of the guards responsible for the safety appeared in front of the two. He had a western dragon feature while being closer to a humanoid figure, wearing silver armour with a badge attached to the left side of his armour which is probably the proof that he was indeed a sort of police force.

"Halt, can I know the reason you are flying over the Dragon City without prior notice?"

Masaru bowed respectfully despite being in mid-air he could still perform such actions due to him using wind magic to create a platform for him to stand on made out of condensed air,

"Apologies for our disrupting actions, however, we have received an invitation from Tannin-sama who wants us to arrive at his Manor as soon as possible. Because of this, we could not notify your superior ahead of time of our passing by, I am terribly sorry"

"Oh, you're a guest of Tannin-sama? I can understand however I still need to know who you are"

This guard felt admiration towards this boy who knew how to display respect and knowing when to apologize, being a dragon they appreciate sincere actions more than being worshipped.

"This one is called Masaru Belial, and she is Yui Bael Asaka who is my pawn"

Hearing the familiar name the guard finally realized who this boy is and he could not help but helplessly smile,

"I see now, You may fly over Dragon City but keep it at a slow pace otherwise the guards will think your an invader and attack you"

"Thank you!"

Masaru was about to leave when he heard the guard say

"Good Luck boy. That woman is scary"

Masaru did not understand which woman the Guard was talking about, maybe he was only misunderstanding something but he did not have the time to waste so he and Yui continued their flight towards the Manor.

Tannin's Manor was built on the slope of the mountains, from a distance you can see the first floor of the house wall is almost completely made out of windows to display the surroundings, from the looks of it the manor appears to be built even within the mountain itself.

If Masaru were to describe it the way he saw, it was like an oversized alien Mothership that crashed into the mountain with half of it hidden within the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain is where the entrance for the house was, currently there were only two guards staying guard at the entrance on the orders of Tannin to welcome Masaru whom he already has been notified will be arriving shortly.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

Masaru walked out of the shadows appearing in front of the two purplish dragons that have smaller sized golden horns at both sides it's head, they each held a two-handed axe standing on the ground at their left and right side.

"My name is Masaru Belial, this is Yui Bael Asaka my pawn. I have come to answer the summons of Lord Tannin"

When the guards heard that the man whom they felt sorry for yet held some respect for him to dare come despite that scary dragon waiting for them, they thought they could at least acknowledge his courage.

"We have been expecting you Masaru-sama, the Wonder Child of Belial. Please proceed through the door, you will find an elevator. Please select Floor 21 which is the first floor of Lord Tannin's house"

"Thank you"

Masaru bowed his head slightly to show his respect to the hard-working guards before entering through the hall, it was truly like a marble cave that was smooth with no rough edges or bumps. It was truly amazing how they thought of this manner to make a pathway in the mountains,

'It truly displays the natural marble beauty in a different way like this'

Masaru gently touched the marble feeling how smooth it truly was, at the end of the path was the modern Elevator. There was no need to wait since the moment Masaru pressed the call button the doors opened immediately when inside he selected floor 21 as the guard's advice.

Little did he know the Guards actually saved him as the initial orders were floor 20 where a grumpy dragon was waiting for him, but Tannin was on the 21st floor.

When the doors open Masaru was led in a room decorated similar to western-style furniture but the floors were made of Tatami, seeing the shoe racks at the side Masaru pulled off his shoes while taking out the slippers marked as Guests even his name and Yui's name was attached with a sticky on it.

"Perfect fit"

Masaru felt surprised but also a little intimidated at this thought, this meant that the other party has investigated him to the point of even knowing his sizes. Naturally most would ignore this fact, but Masaru knew by coming here he will be negotiating thus he also needed to be wary of how much the other party knew of him.

When Masaru came to the lounge room furnished with dark brown leather couches, a black wood coffee table in the middle and a fireplace nearby. a Large humanoid purple dragon with golden thick bull horns at either side of his head was sitting, he appears to be the leader or king of the dragons who were guards at the entrance.

"Welcome to my Manor, Demonic Wonder Child of Belial. Or should I call you Masaru Belial, Everest's master"

Masaru who heard this felt that the dragon held no ill intentions nor any rage, in fact, he felt a bit warmth.

"It's an honour you know of me Lord Tannin"

Tannin could only look at Masaru up close, it has been a while since he last met this boy although it was from a distance it was the first time he meets him upfront. He could sense the air around the boy was far different compared to the past, he felt he was looking at a sharp sword that was tempered but still had potential to grow.

"Take a seat, I am sure you are confused about the manner you were summoned but this is, in fact, your own fault as well"

Masaru took his seat, one of the servants working in the manor just arrived with a pot of tea and a container with sugar cubes for them to help themselves to.

Tannin continues,

"The one who invited you was not me but Tiamat and one of my sons, Bova. You should understand that Everest who is my daughter is extremely famous and sought after for since many dragons wish to have close ties to me.

"But I don't intend to have my daughter marry for political reasons which is why I allowed her to act the way she did to deter marriage proposals with her brute force, but as a father I naturally wanted her to fall in love and hope to see grandchildren since it is any parents tiny wish after all"

Since Yui was not the focus of the talk she made tea for herself, Masaru and Tannin while handing the cup of tea to the dragon,

"Ah Thank you"

Tannin took a sip of tea to wet his throat looking at Masaru with interest.

"It was at that time your father visited me telling me how he wanted to find some peerage members for you, because you were growing stronger at a fast pace and you will soon garner the attention of surrounding nobles he wanted to fill the spots in your peerage as fast as possible to prevent nobles from sending people from their sides"

Tannin took another sip of his tea,

"It was at that time I remembered my daughter refused to marry, so I decided to make a bet with her. To have her face you for a week, although it was only a verbal bet she took it seriously which came to the week you fought Everest in the mountain"

"Honestly I was shocked, a devil was facing a dragon physically. You should know most devils take pride in their bloodline power to the point they neglect physical training, so to see you face off Everest physically was probably the reason she refused to transform fully into a dragon, if she did then you would not have been able to face her with only your strength"

Masaru nodded, this was one of the reasons he never claimed to have defeated Everest since he always wondered why she never transformed into a dragon. Tannin who saw his understanding look nodded

"That's right, the moment she realized you stopped using your magic she refrained from using her dragon form."

'Although her dragon form does have... some problems' Tannin thought

Tannin looked at the cup that was empty for a moment placing it down but Yui was fast refilling the cup causing Tannin to feel slightly ashamed that his guests were actually making his tea but he still gratefully took the cup,

"Now to come to the point of why you are here, it's simple. There will be a dragon Tournament in three days, you will not be participating but instead, we will hold an exhibition match between you and Bova.

"Bova himself wants to confirm something and I need to display your power to the dragons so they will quiet down, the fame of Everest is a bit troublesome after all. So that's why I would like you to accept this request of mine"

"Understood, I will participate in this battle. But I have been told several times to be wary of a woman, who is that?"

Tannin laughed thinking his men truly felt pity for Masaru, it was truly amusing but he could already guess that Masaru's attitude and personality were favourable for them to actually do this especially the fact Masaru was in front of him already proved this boy's demeanour was excellent.

"Well that would be Tiamat, but for now you don't have to worry too much about her, she is..."

Tannin sighed

"Well she is quite overprotective of Everest, I can't tell you the reason for it. I will leave that to Everest to tell you herself when the time is right for her"

Masaru frowned a bit hearing this from Tannin himself, from what he understood he might get off the wrong foot with this dragon due to her overprotectiveness that reminds him of a certain siscon.

'Tiamat again... She must be quite a scary existence for many people to fear her wrath, not to mention this woman could even influence Ajuka to make a fast decision by sending me here immediately'

"Well, for now, Miss Yui can you follow the servant who will lead you to Everest's Room. I will be taking Masaru to meet with Tiamat"

Yui nodded towards Tannin before gazing at Masaru who had a cramped smile, she wanted to laugh but held it in while following the servant.

Who would have thought that in the future Masaru would sympathize with a heavenly dragon who also suffered under that crazy female dragon's claw... Although for separate reasons naturally