14 The Emperor's heart

He suddenly smiled, as he addressed a waitress:

"ha…They should have got enough fun. Call Ise over."

Ise entered with his shirt dripping with blood.

"I never actually drank sake, please bring it over with two cups"

He then looked at Ise who looked at him with a grateful gaze, Marek grinned:

"Ise-kun, how is my gift?"

He bent over:

"Marek-sama!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!! This was the greatest gift ever!!!"

He lightly laughed:

"I expected as much, sit down Ise-kun, let's get to know each other."

Azazel looked at him with a warm gaze:

'What straight forward yet complex person'

"Ise-kun, do you like the girls you've been living with?"

He got a fiery expression and immediately responded:

"Of course! I would die to protect anyone of them!

Marek laughed:

"HAHAHA…Indeed without the slightest hesitation! This the character of a Hero for you!"

His face turned a little bit red as he was embarrassed by being called a Hero. Marek's face then turned serious:

"I have another question for you."

The boy gulped as he nodded:

"Do they like you back?"

Azazel looked at Ise with curiosity but to his surprise, his expression was very weird.

"Like me? I…don't know. I do think they consider me as their valuable companion."

'This isn't the Ise I know'

Azazel looked at him with worry:

"I sense worry. No, this deep fear. You are afraid of them, of women. Isn't it Issei-kun?"

When Marek said that. Ise stopped as surprised filled his eyes. These feelings deep inside him, for the first time someone put them into words. He continued:

"Are you afraid of rejection?"

Azazel looked at Ise lost face as he breathed deeply.

'What a failure! I didn't know that my own apprentice has such fears.'

Marek sighed deeply:

"Let me tell you a little story about myself. When I was still as weak as a fly, my country was attacked and despite all my efforts, it was destroyed.

I watched everything I held dear burn before my eyes.

The citizens I swore to protect, the kids I watched growing up everything was slowly falling apart as I kept fighting a lost war.

Holes were torn in my body, I was so bloodied I couldn't even discern the color of my skin. The only thing that kept me going is my Elder cousin's Kosem worrying letters and Shahrazad daily care.

Yet even all this wasn't what hurt me the most.

He stoped a little as his nostalgic gaze kept flying around:

"My own father chose to sacrifice me for a ritual, because he was too cowardly to die for his country. I still Rember my mother's pleading eyes as she begged my tired father to spare me."

His gaze was deep yet indifferent. Azazel held his breath:

'For someone at this age, to have endured such things already'

He smiled faintly, he seemed like he was going to disappear:

"Yet, this wasn't also what hurt me the most, Issei."

He deeply looked at Issei's bewildered face:

"What hurt me the most is that once I survived the ritual. I realized who was the cause of the demise of my Empire."

He deeply sighed

"It was my second cousin, the one I loved the most, the one I admired since childhood and the one who has always been like a role model for me. She was smart, cultured, kind with her peers and a great role model of the Empire. I aspired my whole life to be like her. Yet she betrayed me, because from the deepest part of her heart she hates me for who I was born as."

"What did you, then?"

It was Azazel who instinctively asked the question, his hand tightened as he remembered the sense of betrayal from God that led him to lead a destructive war. This fate, will it be his?

"I forgave her."

Ise looked deeply at him :

"What? Didn't that hurt you? She played with your feelings?! You should hate her!! Shun her!!"

His voice got higher and higher as he kept rambling. He was interrupted with Marek determined voice:

"No! I will always forgive her."

Azazel silently asked:

"Even if she does things worse than that?

-Yes, indeed. It is difficult to gain this Emperor's heart but…

"If I give my heart, I will never take it back!"

This sentence resonated deep withing Azazel heart. He who have been betrayed knows most how difficult this kind of forgiveness is.

He sighed as he looked deeply at Ise:

"Take this advice for me. Loving someone means exposing yourself to this person hurting you. If you are not prepared to do that, you shouldn't think about love."

Ise had a pained face. Azazel knew how truthful Marek's words are and he knew it was something he needed to hear. People like Rias and the others doesn't have nearly the experience or the involvement to say that. But he was still worried how about how he was going to take it.

'The Raynare experience hurt him more than I thought. Damn it!'

He then pointed his index on Issei's chest:

"Yet, I believe you could get over it. I believe in your kind, heroic heart Issei-kun. I believe your love will triumph over your fear. I believe that the best Red Dragon will not be beaten easily! Isn't that right, Draig?

"Your goddamn right!!"

Ise looked at his hand with tears on his eyes:

"I will do it! I will certainly do it! Thank you for your words."

Marek laughed loudly:

"Look at that, the Great Red Dragon actually tearing up with a few words, what would Vali think! HAHAHAHA

-I am not crying!!"

As they spoke, two cups of sake appeared on the table:

"I only spoke to you because I felt we shared similar problems. Now let's share a drink!

-I am actually underrage, so…

-I DON'T CARE DO IT!!!"

Azazel hung himself down as he saw Ise begrudgingly drinking Sake.

'Well, that decided. Rias and Grayfia are going to kill me."

ONE HOUR LATER

"What are you AAAAALL Sayin…Obviously Rias Gremory is the greates women!

-THAT BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW GABRIEL. EVEN THIS OLD I CANT GET OVER HER.

-What you are all saying is BULLSHIT. When I Marry Erza Scarlet and Mira-CHAN I will show you what OPPAI is all ABOUT! YOU IGNORANT OPPAI DRAGON!!!

-HUH? How CAN Yoou even know Oppai better than me! I AM THE OPPAI!! THE OPPAI!!

-AAnyway, Kosem and MY SHAHRAZD would SHATTER all your HAREM! You hear me!!! AZAZEL BACK ME UPP!!!

-IGNORANT kids, talk to ME when you descend because of BANGIN WOMEN!!

The three of them clearly overused the Sake!!

This is a classic drunken brawl. That proved that men have bonded to the deepest level!

Suddenly Ise passed out!

The two started laughing as they immediately lost their drunken complexion:

"You hold your liquor well, for a kid.

-This Emperor will take you on, anytime!! But he will need someone to carry him home. Its super late.

-Rias is going to kill me.

-Well, let's get to the real stuff, now.