12 Chapter 9: Meeting an Old Friend, Dealing With a Princess's Problems & a Disrespectful Chicken

A/N:

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts,

"Bold text": Ddraig & Albion.

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Haruki POV

Three weeks have passed since I started training Rias and her peerage and since the day I had won Sona in chess. I had done a few things in that time, the most notable being talking with Sona about her engagement terms.

*Flashback no jutsu*

"Hello again, Sona. I believe you've had enough time to think about getting engaged to me." I tell her as I take a seat. "How'd you know?" She asks after a some seconds of silence.

"It'll have been harder for me to not know. The heiress to Sitri and younger sister to Satan Leviathan, that was against the arrangements made for her engagement chose to take matters into her own hands. She said she'd only marry someone smarter than her and so made the condition for earning her hand beating her in a game of chess." I tell her the well known backstory behind her criterion for her engagement.

"But of course, this wasn't what made the news of your decision blow up. You absolutely routed anyone that played a game of chess with you, until me. Now I'm really wondering how your sister's going to take the news, if she's heard of it." I said, genuine worry in my voice.

"That's the thing, I haven't told her about it yet." She said, slightly embarrassed. "If that's the case, then it's good. It means you can have more time to think about this decision." She looked at me as if she was offended.

"Before I make any assumptions, could you please explain what exactly you mean by that?" She asked after exhaling a deep breath. "Ah, I'm not saying that you aren't attractive. I'm saying that if you're really interested in me, get to actually know me. If you are, then cool. We'll enjoy our time together. If you're not, then cool. You can actually go ahead and fall for someone you know and love." I told her, taking a sip of the tea that Tsubaki brought.

"I see." She said, understanding that I was being considerate of her situation. "Then I hope that we'll get along well, Haruki-kun." She said with a smile. 'Guess no matter how moral they can be, devils are still devils.' I think to myself as I feel the faint air of lust on her. Safe to say, I'd probably still end up getting engaged to her.

*Flashback end*

Some other things include helping Koneko get more used to senjutsu and yojutsu, helping Akeno get closer to fully manifesting Holy Lightning, teaching Rias to take inspiration from different anime to create new attacks with her PoD, teaching all of them how to use Shūndō, and teaching Issei a fitting martial art.

For Issei's martial arts lessons, I taught him one of the most damaging barehanded martial arts I knew, the Kyotōryū used by Shichika Yasuri from Katanagatari. For someone like him that has a gauntlet with edges that could be used for stabbing, it would maximize the possibilities of his damage output.

I haven't started teaching him magic just yet, but maybe I will when we get back from the underworld.

About a week ago, I had intentions of going to the underworld to visit Tia, then Akeno told me about Rias and Sona having some contest to determine who would have greater priority to go to the underworld to get familiars for their members from the Familiar Forest, where coincidentally, Tiamat stays.

From what she told me, they'd played tennis and ping pong, and came to something of a draw both times, due to them destroying the paddles and rackets with their strength.

They eventually settled for a dodgeball game including the members of their peerages. And since Issei and Asia joined the ORC, they were also included on Rias' team. Long story short, Rias won and is going to be go there in a few days.

As for Asia, Issei was able to convince her to join in the training. I've been able to help her gain a better understanding of Twilight Healing so that she can get rid of her mental limits on healing others. It helps that I know how to use healing myself.

I also got her into the general physical and combat training so that she could at least protect herself or run away successfully if it ever came to it. She's also moved in with Issei properly, so that's good.

Surprisingly enough, my relationship with Rias has improved drastically. She's a lot more supportive of my relationship with Akeno, and she's also been trying to get a piece of me. She's acted seductively multiple times during the training sessions, and while the clones don't really feel anything, I feel almost everything that they're meant to be feeling.

I told Akeno about it and she kind of got pissed off, but at the same time massively horny, and almost competitive. But she still chose to blue ball me. It's almost like she's baiting me to go wild one day. Thank goodness I learned senjutsu so I can still keep calm, but I can tell that is only temporary as my body is steadily becoming more draconic.

Whoever said that devils were creatures of desire and sin has never faced the sheer impulsiveness or desires of a dragon. At this point, I feel that the only part of Akeno that I haven't touched is her honey pot, and I'm slowly losing patience.

Skipping past that, the day for them to go to the Familiar Forest is here and I'm headed to the ORC clubroom right now. Rias and her peerage are there with Issei and Asia, preparing to teleport there.

"Ah, Haruki-kun. We've been waiting for you to get here." Rias says as I enter the room and everyone else greets me. "Yo." I return their greeting while stroking Koneko's head. "So I take it that we're ready to go?" Rias nods and Koneko goes to join her, Kiba and Akeno, then they teleport away to the underworld.

"Okay, you two ready to see what the underworld is like?" Issei and Asia both nod, and I open up a portal not far away from Rias' group. We walk in and not long after come across Rias and the others at the outer parts of the Familiar Forest.

"So, you ready?" I ask Issei and Asia and they nod. This trip was mainly for them to get their own familiars since everyone else on Rias' side had gotten one.

Rias had a bat as her familiar, Koneko had a small white cat with heterochromatic eyes, Akeno had an imp as hers and Kiba had a small brown wolf with black lightning bolt shaped marks at its feet. Another thing to make note of is that many of the underworld's versions of mythological creatures are quite different from what someone would expect.

For example, Undine, the high ranking water spirit looks a lot like a muscular man with tits rather than the elegant, ladylike woman one would expect. Mermaids here are still half human, half fish. It's just that they're in reverse when compared to the normal imagery of a mermaid. I told Issei about this some time ago so that he won't get his hopes up.

As a matter of fact, it's a lot safer to try getting a more animalistic familiar rather than one that is humanoid. Case in point, Rias' bat, Kiba's wolf and Koneko's cat.

Similarly to the anime, we met Zatouji, the Ash Ketchum ripoff, who's somehow lived a great part of his life here in the Familiar Forest.

We all walk into the forest while keeping an eye out for what would be suitable familiars for Asia and Issei. During the time we spend walking through the forest, I spread out my power, influencing the forest to eventually lead us to Tiamat.

As a result of the dense natural energy being emitted from me, many animalistic familiars were around us, even elemental spirits moved a bit closer to us from where they stayed.

And not long after, the little reptile that was a sworn enemy to Issei came by, a blue sprite dragon with the power of lightning. Due to the fact that Issei is more subdued with his carnal desires, the little blue dragon doesn't have as much animosity towards him. It went to Asia, as expected, and similarly was named Rassei, due to Asia's infatuation with Issei.

The one thing that did stay away from us was the slimes, as the combination of draconic power and natural energy was far too concentrated and pure for them to bear or approach.

Some more time passes and we eventually come across another relative of dragons, a Salamander. One of the most powerful fire type familiars and a cousin to dragons. For Issei who has the dragon with the most powerful flames as his partner, there couldn't be a better familiar. Issei made a familiar contract with it and, would you know it, named it Ignia.

After he did that, I kept walking forward, which confused them as they had gotten the familiars that they were here for. As soon as I had reached a point without trees covering the area above us, I flexed my draconic power to its limits and let out a roar that resounded throughout the entirety of the Familiar Forest.

Zatouji immediately began panicking and calling me crazy. "Do you know what you've done?! You've basically challenged one of the scariest beings to exist." I look at him with a raised brow, as if he was crazy. "Tia isn't so bad when you get to know her, especially when you don't piss her off."

Before he could respond, a loud roar comes from above us and the sounds of wings flapping overwhelmed any screaming that any of them would have done, if they weren't just shocked from the immensely large blue dragon that has landed in front of me.

"It's been quite a long while, little hatchling." The dragon, Tiamat said, her voice booming. I pout at the title she gave me all those years ago. "Hey, I'm at the Ultimate Rank now! I at least qualify to be called a juvenile." Rias just looked at the interaction with her jaw dropped.

"Hmph. Until you reach the level of a dragon king, you're still a hatchling. But I guess that you've done well enough to become a whelp, seeing as you've reached the ultimate rank before you came of age." She said, trying to hide that she was impressed.

"So, you've got proper draconic power now. Mind explaining to me how you did it." She said as she lowered herself to the ground and lay down on the floor. "Sure. But first, I wanna introduce my friends here to you." I tell her as I walk over to her and seat myself on one of her arms.

"Friends, you say? The strength of your scent on those 3 is a lot stronger than the other 3." She said, pointing to Akeno, Rias and Koneko. "Whelps these days. You haven't even grown properly and you're already trying to have multiple mates at once." I control my blood from rushing to my face and pout.

"Ahem, that's..." Despite making my blood flow from causing my face to go red, the flustered feeling didn't leave. Tiamat was like a second mother to me, due to the fact that she actually acted as a mother to me whenever I visited the underworld despite me not having any draconic power flowing through me at the time.

"Hahaha. Don't worry about it. Any son of mine should have as many mates as he pleases, but remember, no matter how many rocks and pebbles you gather, they will never equate to diamonds and gold." Knowing that those were her last words on the matter, I just nod in agreement.

"Speaking of treasure treated like trash, you." She says, pointing at Issei. "Bring him out." She says with a low growl, emphasizing the him. "Do so in five seconds, or I'll burn you and make sure that even ashes don't remain." It seems her threat got through, as not even a second later, Issei activated the Boosted Gear.

It remains quiet for some seconds until Ddraig speaks. "Hello, Tiamat. It's been a while." This time, he spoke without the commanding tone he normally holds. "It's been centuries since that day, Ddraig. You still haven't repaid the treasures I allowed you to borrow, yet you still dare to be present before me without them. Do you not have any shame?" Her voice boomed, genuine anger held within it.

To keep her voice from affecting them too badly, I control the energy vectors to only cause winds that would blow past them without touching them. Akeno and Koneko notice this and nod in thanks. I also notice the emotion in all of their eyes, fear.

"Tia, calm down." I say, gently stroking her scales. "Hmph. And you wonder why I still call you a hatchling. I've told you to call me Tia-mama." Her words cause me to deadpan at her. "We specifically agreed that I'll only do that when we were alone." I say in protest and she just harrumphs.

"Tiamat, I would have returned it all by now if I could." Ddraig said, making the atmosphere tense again. "If you can't do it, then the boy will do it." She said, sealing Issei's fate. "He's my disciple, Tia. I can't just allow you to bully him like that. And besides, if it's gems, metals or precious stones of any kind, I can just create them for you."

Everyone looked at me and asked the same question. ""What?!"" I sigh and explain. "As the Nature Dragon Slayer, I can manipulate and generate anything natural, no matter how long it would take in nature, in an instant." I say, creating a cut blue diamond the size of Akeno's breast.

Everyone else is shocked, but Tia looks worried. "If you're worried about me going crazy, it won't happen." I tell her, then explain the differences between my Dragon Seed and the Dragon Seed of former dragon slayers from centuries ago.

After being reassured that I won't go mad as a result of the Dragon Seed, she let out a small huff in relief. I hear a few whispers coming from Rias and Akeno's directions about asking for gold and jewelry, causing me to let out a small chuckle.

After a while, Tia decides to be lenient with Issei and let him grow stronger, before she'll ask him to replace some of her treasure. I did tell her that I'd eventually make some space for her at my home. "Are you sure your parents won't have objections to that?" I simply replied, telling her not to worry about it. We said our farewells and went back to our respective homes.

Another routine week passes by with everyone else inching closer to reaching the high rank. Nothing of note really happens during that time, although, I do notice that Rias has become a bit more desperate to reach the high rank.

I didn't think much of it at the time. I really should have, because now, she's in my room in only panties, with her clothes on the floor, asking me to take her virginity. I didn't think that it'd be time for me to deal with that chicken, but it seems that I had miscalculated.

"Rias, calm down and tell me what's wrong." I tell her while holding down her arms. "Do you not see me as attractive?" She asks in a tearful voice. "I do. But I can also feel the desperation flowing off you right now, and I need you to tell me what's causing you to feel this way." I tell her with a stern voice, so that she understands that she'll not move me without explaining.

After a few minutes, she calms down and begins explaining. It turns out that she was being used as a political piece to join the Phenex and Gremory families similarly to her mother Venelana, who was used to join the Baal and Gremory families. This was being pushed for by her father and the Phenex patriarch, mainly because neither her nor Riser had made any notable achievements or contributions to the devil race.

"I see." I say solemnly. I stand up from my bed and go to my desk and pull out a paper. Creating a metal pen, I let my blood flow through it and write down a magician's contract and turn to her. "Take this and read it thoroughly. Take some time to think about it before you accept it."

She wanted to say something, but mom knocked on the door and said that a maid was here looking for Rias. "Don't worry. Just do what I've told you and everything will be fine." I tell her as I help her dress up and head down the stairs to the living room where her sister-in-law, Grayfia Lucifuge, was waiting for her.

The next day came by pretty quickly and I went to school. The school day ran by as routinely as always, except for the fact that every member of Rias' peerage was hailving a slightly melancholy air about them.

The school day ended and Rias andlh her peerage members went to the ORC clubroom, and Issei and Asia followed them. I stayed in my classroom to try and calm myself down, because I knew that dealing with Riser was going to be heavily infuriating.

Some time passes and I head to the clubroom and notice that the door is locked. Putting my hand on the doorknob, I manipulate the metal and unlock the door. I also feel a small scale boundary field that stopped at the door. I analyze it and flex my power to collapse it, the enter the room.

"Oh, why didn't anyone let me know that a meeting like this was going on?" I say, to the relief of Rias and the others and the chagrin of Riser and his peerage members. Meanwhile, Grayfia looks at me with caution.

Location: Occult Research Club clubroom

*Half an hour before Haruki entered the room*

Narrator POV

Rias had taken a seat and was waiting for Riser's arrival along with the rest of her peerage. Issei and Asia were told to stay in another room until the meeting was finished by Grayfia.

A few minutes pass and Riser Phenex's mark materializes on the ground. Following that, Riser Phenex teleported into the room with 15 girls and women, one of which looked similar to him.

"Haa, it's been a while since I came to the human world. I've come for you, my lovely Rias." Despite his sugary words, Rias only seemed to scowl in displeasure at him.

She took her seat and told him to seat on the seat opposite her, as she didn't want to sit close to him. As he took his seat, Akeno brings them both a cup of tea, and his peerage members sat beside him.

Riser took a sip of the tea and compliments Akeno with clear sexual undertones in his voice. She simply thanked him with none of her normally cheery attitude, which for anyone that knew her, showed her extreme displeasure at him.

"Riser, I believe that the agreement was that the engagement would be in effect after I finish my tertiary studies, so what exactly rushed the timeline?" Rias asked while flipping through some papers.

"It's really simple. We got tired of waiting for the heiress apparent of the Gremory family to make some relevant achievement when all she does is indulge herself and her peerage. And besides, the situation of your household is quite serious and your father and Sirzechs-sama are getting quite worried especially since we lost so many pure-blood devils during the war." His words only served to irk Rias even more than him groping his Queen.

"You see, reincarnated devils like the ones in your peerage are becoming more powerful. And while this is good, it also means that pure-blood devils like me and you are slowly but surely getting taken out of the picture. And we can't be having that. " He said, his words showing his clear disdain for reincarnated devils.

"And besides, you just need to think about it. How much greater a pure-blood devil born from the union between two high class families like Gremory and Phenex could be. A true pure-blood High class devil. That'll surely be more important than the reincarnated ones, since they would be keeping our names from going extinct. My family is safe, with us having me and my older brothers, but yours is in a precarious situation, seeing as your brother has left the house, leaving you to be the only one who can inherit the House of Gremory." Rias clenched her fists in annoyance at his words and her hands started letting of miniscule sparks of her PoD.

"The only way that House Gremory won't go extinct in your generation is for you to take a husband. So tell me, are you trying to crush the household that has been continuing for a very long time? Are you going to be the cause for another one of the 72 pillars falling? Or are you going to understand that this marriage has the future of the devils on the line?!" He said, raising his voice on the last question.

Rias looked at him with an eerie calm that her peerage noticed was uncharacteristic of her. "I won't be the end of my family line, Riser. I will take a husband. It just won't be you or someone like you. I will only marry the one I acknowledge, and you're not them." Her words cause Riser to click his tongue in anger and flare his aura with killing intent.

But before he could speak, *click*, the door which was being locked by magic was unlocked. Grayfia seeing this, quickly made a stronger barrier at the edges of the boundary field that was already covering the room, but that was also destroyed just as quickly.

Riser and his peerage were preparing to attack while Grayfia just looked at the door with caution. The door opened to reveal Haruki, dressed in his school uniform. "Oh, why didn't anyone let me know that a meeting like this was going on?"

Present

Haruki POV

Ignoring Riser's scowl and Grayfia's piercing stare, I walk up to the couch where Rias and the others are seated. Koneko stands up from her position between Rias and Akeno so I could sit. I stroke her head and take a seat, and she sits on my lap.

"So, what'd I miss?" Rias quickly told me everything that has happened since she came into the office. Her sending out Issei was a smart idea. I may have trained him, but he's not exactly strong enough to take out all of Riser's peerage on his own, especially in a small, enclosed space like this.

"I see." I say then look at Riser. "So I take it that you've properly thought about what I proposed." I was surprised that Riser had kept quiet through everything that Rias had said so far, but I wanted to see what he thought about what was going to happen next.

"I have..." Rias says, manifesting the contract that I had drawn out for her. "And I agree." She says, using a small bit of her PoD to cut herself on the thumb, then stamping the part for her input in blood. Riser looks confused while I grin slyly.

"Well then, the contract is established. As of today, all that makes and is Rias Gremory is mine. All that she owns is mine and nothing is going to change that." My words hit the room like a nuke and Riser lashes out, firing a sustained blast of flames at us, which I just gulp down.

As the flames shrink, Riser's peerage members see me swallow down his flames and they are gobsmacked at someone eating flames. "*Buuuurp* Not bad, they at least have a mild taste." I say, rating the potency of his flames, which are understandably not the strongest I've seen.

The notion that his flames could be withstood, let alone consumed by a human, seemed to irk Riser, and he let out flames once again, only for me to extinguish them.

"This insult will not be forgiven, puny human! I will make sure that you will be made an example of!" He shouts as he throws a fireball at me, with Koneko still on my lap, which I just snuff out.

"I wonder how exactly you're going to do that when you're so....weak." I say and hit him with a gravity spell, breaking his leg bones and smashing his head into the floor. His peerage stands up, ready to attack, only to be hit with pressure that forced them to their knees.

Grayfia, who had been watching this happen finally felt that it was time to intervene in the matter. "Rias. Sirzechs-sama will not be happy with this." I look at her amusedly. "If he feels so inclined as to take direct action, I hope that he'll be ready to fight an angry Dragon King or God."

I tell her, making her lose her normal composure. "What do you mean by that?" I smile and stay quiet. She considered attacking me with the aim to capture, but she gave up. 'Seriously. People need to make more effective mental barriers or I'd literally read them like a book.'

I eventually release them from the increased gravity. Riser immediately stood up and was about to start shouting again, but he shut up once he met my eyes. I had been all smiles ever since I came into the room, but I had been boiling inside ever since I saw Riser, because I just knew that he had not only disrespected Akeno and Rias, but had also been planning on forcibly taking them away.

"Haruki. In as much as I am happy about this, my father and brother won't be satisfied with this. They'd just see it as me choosing to run from my responsibilities." Rias says and stands up from the couch. "So I propose something else, a rating game. But instead of me and my peerage fighting you and yours, Riser, Haru will fight all of you on his own."

While I would have had some protests about this before, now things had changed. So I had no issue with it. Not to mention, I was basically being given the chance to beat the ever loving shit out of Riser.

"If that's what you want, then fine. I'll make sure you regret this." Riser says in anger as his legs and face heal. I look at him while cycling through the different ways I was going to brutalize him during the game. "Ten days." I say, choosing to give him the same amount of time to prepare as the canon timeline.

"I'll give you ten days to prepare however you want, after which we'll have the rating game." The fact that a human had humiliated him so greatly in so little time seemed to enrage him, but he stopped himself from attacking and agreed to the proposed date and teleported away with his peerage.

"Since that is all, I'll be returning now, ojou-sama." Grayfia says and teleports away while I look at the spot where she was.

"Rias, I know that you were pretty confident about this, but are you sure that your father and brother will agree to your proposal?" Akeno asks, rightfully skeptical. "Don't worry, Akeno. They'll allow it to happen just off their interest in the man who managed to make me acknowledge him to the point that I gave him my everything." Rias says confidently.

"Speaking of which, what's that mean?" Akeno asks me. "It means exactly what it says. Everything that she is, has, will have, or will be is now mine. As for how, read this." I say, handing over the contract to her.

"You actually agreed to this?" Akeno says, looking at Rias incredulously. "Yes, and I would rather do it a hundred times over than even consider marrying Riser. Besides, I was starting to get a bit jealous of you guys being so lovey-dovey all the time, so I thought I'd get in on it." Through all this, I just continued stroking Koneko's head while she purred.

Some time passes and Issei and Asia come into the room. They ask what happened and Rias explained everything to them. Even Asia, who to this day refuses to harm a soul let off hints of aggression. Issei came to me and gave me a brotherly handshake with an approving nod.

We stay in the clubroom to pass the time and go to my home to do our routine training. The ten days pass as routinely as always and eventually the day comes for the rating game between Riser and Rias with me as her proxy.

Chapter End.

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