Ch. 15 - The Underworld is such a big world!

The entire dining room was very awkward as I sat beside Serafall, who was busy munching the meat on her plate.

Whh awkward you might ask? You see, there's a gruff man staring daggers at me from across the table. If looks could indeed kill, no doubt I'd be dead on the floor.

This man is Ms. Emilea's husband and lastly, Serafall's father, Gideon Sitri, the current head of the house Sitri.

"Ehem! My dear, this is Serafall's friend, Chamber, he took a magic bullet to the chest to save Serafall, you should be thanking him instead of glaring at him like that, you'll scare him." Thankfully, Lady Emilea noticed my predicament and gave a hand.

Serafall also chimed in with an 'Umu' as she nodded her head. Her mouth is currently full of food, hence.

"….I see. If that's the case then you have my gratitude, Chamber." Gideon nodded his head, the glare in his eyes changing and turning into gratitude.

"It's my pleasure to help Lady Serafall during such a situation." Smiling at him, I noticed the playful smirk on Serafall's face by my side.

I see, so she likes this kind of thing huh? Lying to her parents and messing with me?

Although it feels childish, I couldn't help but want to play along with her.

As we resume eating but this time, minus the awkwardness, I heard Gideon speak.

"So Chamber. Where are you from? I heard you're an orphan, right? Where exactly?" Hearing his question made me think he was investigating me, perhaps assuming that I might be a spy sent to go to extreme measures to get their trust.

I understand him. Considering he's the head of one of the biggest pillars in the Underworld, it's pretty normal to have that kind of thinking when there's a stranger intruding their home.

'Do I look like a bad person?' I mused to myself, wondering whether there's a magic that could make people calm and trusting around me.

"I'm from…" Still that doesn't mean I know the answer to his question. I have no idea what the names of the cities in the Underworld are.

"He's from Lucifaad, dad, you know, the city ruled by Lord Lucifer himself." Thankfully, a savior in the form of a busty devil came to his rescue. Serafall's words made Gideon raise an eyebrow, it seems like whatever this Lucifaad city is, it caught Gideon's attention.

"Hmm, this is the first time I've heard an orphan hailing from Lucifaad itself, are you sure you don't remember who your parents are, boy?" Gideon shifted his attention back to me and asked again.

I shook my head and replied.

"I apologize, Lord Sitri if it offends you, but I truly have no idea who my parents are. They died a few months after I was born."

"Is that so? Do you want to know who they are? Since you saved my daughter, this is the least I can do for you." His words might sound like he's compensating me for what I did, but knowing the truth, his words are like sharp daggers slowly inching towards my heart, making me gulp my saliva nervously.

"Y-You don't have to, Lord Sitri, although they're my biological parents, I don't feel any sort of attachment towards them." Shaking my head, I tried my best to calmly reply, making sure there are no holes on my fake story.

"Are you sure? I insist." Gideon pressed on.

I only replied with a nod of my head.

It seems like Gideon noticed that I really don't bother with my 'parents' so he didn't press further.

The rest of the time was spent on eating with peace, sometimes asking me questions such as my likes, dislikes, what do I think about the Sitri family and the others and finally, he asked me one last question.

"What do you think about the Great War? Do you think us devils will win?"

"The Great War…." I muttered to myself, I could see Serafall perk up at the question from my peripheral vision, clearly she's interested on my answer.

Now, I have two choices. Answer with what I truly feel or give him a fake answer that will only serve to flatter the devils, praising them and such stuff.

I trusted my instincts and answered truthfully.

"I think this Great War is useless." My answer made both the Lord and Lady Sitri shift their eyes at me in surprise. Lady Emilea looks like she wanted to hear more of my words, and so I did.

"You see, war brings nothing but devastating consequences on each party involved, not to mention those who doesn't want to be." Now that I even got Serafall's attention, I continued.

"It also drains our resources, the same resources that we could've used for more useful projects such as improving the daily lives of the devils both inside and outside the Underworld. If the war goes on for a few more years, I won't be surprised if the economy of devils will be crippled." My words seemed to have struck directly inside their heads, as I saw the contemplation of my words flashing in Lord Sitri's eyes.

Of course, these weren't enough as I kept continuing, listing problems upon problems towards the Great War to the point that Lord Sitri was now frowning heavily.

It seems like my words are influencing him. Is this a good thing?

"But if we win the Great War, not only we'll gain the recognition and honor that we deserve, but we'll also gain the other pantheon's respects. Clearly they look down on us due to rebelling against our creator, something that is frowned upon by everyone." Gideon spoke, making me almost leak out a chuckle.

"Honor? Recognition? Respect? With all due respect but those things won't bring back the lives that are lost. Can I feed my children honor? Will they be satisfied with that? No, they won't, instead it would just form a very long instability to the devils."

"Respect? More like fear, and fear births to future conflict, every living being be it devils or Gods, will do whatever it takes to remove their fears. I'm sure, Lord Sitri can understand what I'm trying to imply here."

Lord Sitri looks like he wanted to say something against my words and I was already ready to apologize when Lady Sitri beat him to it.

"Your perspective is quite…intriguing, Chamber. Say, I can sense that you're a Mid-class devil, not bad for your age. What do you think of joining Sitri family?" As soon as those words dropped from her mouth, both Lord Sitri and Serafall stared at her in shock, as if they couldn't believe the words she just said.

As a matter of fact, I was also surprised by it. Being asked to join them, its almost too hard to refuse.

Not because its tempting but refusing it would be rude, I won't even mention the excited grin that was plastered on Serafall's face.

"I…can I refuse?" I cleared my throat and stated my answer, hoping she wouldn't take offense of my refusal.

I was already expecting too head either Lady Sitri or Lord Sitri for refusing such an offer but contrary to my expectations, Lady Sitri simply nodded her head and replied.

"May I know the reason why?" She asked.

"…I have been living on the human world for almost my entire life now after my parent's death, I made many human friends and it would be hard for me to part with them."

"I see…I can understand, so let me change my offer. How would you like to work as Serafall's advisor?"

"Huh?" I was shocked. Not only me but also Serafall, who stared at her mother, not expecting to hear her name from the discussion.

"Mom? Advisor? Do I need one?" Her question were also mine, so I looked at Lady Sitri, anticipating a logical explanation.

"Oh Sera, you'll be the future head of our Sitri family and you're gonna need an advisor to help you become fit for the head position. I'm sorry that I have to tell you this but what me and your father noticed about you is that you're not…quite right in the head when it comes to family matters." As soon as I heard her last sentence, I almost howled in laughter.

"Eh?! M-mom what are you talking about." Instead of getting angry, Serafall was simply embarrassed, especially when she saw me holding myself from laughing out loud.

"It is what it is, Sera. So how about it, Chamber? If you work as her advisor, considering how she'll always visit the human world a few times and as her advisor, you'd be joining her during those visits. So it's a win for the both of us, right?" Hearing her explanation, I thought about it for a few minutes before finally nodding my head in agreement.

As for Serafall? After seeing that she can't exactly fight her mother's words, she simply went silent and resumed eating.

Now that everything was settled, the dinner resumed and finished a few minutes later whereas Serafall immediately grabbed by arm and dragged me out of the dining room under the amused stares coming from her parents.

***

"Why did you agree with her?" Upon arriving at an unknown room, Serafall pushed me against the wall and glared at me.

Since she's a few inches shorter than me, I was rather looking down at her eyes while she's on the opposite.

"What do you mean? Being your advisor isn't that bad right? Or are you planning to make me suffer and treat me like a slave as soon as I start working as your advisor?" I teased her slightly, making twitch her mouth in annoyance.

"You know that's not what I meant! I was talking about the other thing. Do you think I'm not right in the head?" She crossed her arms under her large bosom, trying to magnet my eyes to it.

Thankfully, I was a strong warrior with an unyielding will, so I managed to resist after a short millisecond of glimpse.

Can't help it.

"Well, I'm not sure, we just met a month ago and we barely interact with each other soon after. So I don't know you that well yet." My answer seemed to have soothed her a bit.

"Good. Then mom's wrong and I'm right in the head." She smiled in satisfaction.

That's far from my answer. I just said I have not yet gotten to know you better and you're already assuming I don't agree with your mom.

"You're lucky you know." She sighed.

"Hm? Why?" I asked, why the sudden change in topic?

"When you said you were friends with humans."

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"If you said the same exact words to other devils, they would skin you and kill you on the spot." She dryly chuckled, as if her words didn't just made my blood run cold.

"W-Why?"

"Well, let's just say, our Sitri family is among the 90% of the devil's population that doesn't resent the humans as much as they resent the Angels." She said, then continuing.

"Our family are unlike those devils who hate the humans to the bone, so consider yourself lucky."

Wow, from the looks of it, I seemed to have just dodged a bullet.

"Where are we by the way?" I asked, noticing that the room we're in was quite beautiful and spacious. Although it lacked design, but the furnitures are enough to be considered as designs. A fancy big bed, windows as large as the room's door and a shelf containing….nothing. Not even a single book. Seriously, why even bother buying a shelf if you have no books?

Is this the master bedroom of the manor?

Serafall, the moment she heard my words, immediately blushed as she pushed me towards the exit.

"Wait what?"

"Get out of my room!"

"Weren't you the one who brought me here in the first place!?"

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 16 - The Underworld is such a big world! [2]]

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