Chapter 31 - Calm Before Storm

"Melissa! Melissaaaa! Hey! Melissa wake up!" A voice called out to Melissa Wargrave coaxing her awake from a nap she had been taking on a simple school desk.

"Ugh! How is it that you can get such good grades yet you're always sleeping! Life is so unfair!" The girl which had been attempting to wake Melissa up through words seemed to grow fed up and slammed a text book on her desk.

Melissa rather than being startled lifts her head casually and yawns with a long stretch.

"Schools over already?" She asks, scratching the back of her head without much care at all.

"Obviously!"

"Do you have to yell so much?" Melissa complained, picking her ear as if she was checking for damage.

"You won't wake up if I don't!" The girl complained. The girl was Melissa's one and only friend Mary Sue.

After her mother was assassinated by rebels Melissa Wargrave was taken in by a kind man named Lawrence who sent her to school with kids her age rather than simply having her be home schooled as she was in the past.

While she was excited at first since she liked meeting new people most avoided her because of her big family name and so with no people to talk to and having already been taught the material they were learning she couldn't help but be bored.

That was until she met the rambunctious, energetic, and fool hardy Mary Sue. The girl, while perhaps easily ticked off, was a great addition to Melissa's life and quite entertaining to be around.

She had helped guide Melissa in the ways of the common man, that is to say, she showed Melissa how interesting the world outside of her stuffy mansion could be. Shopping, restaurants, parties, and all manner of exciting activities that Melissa Wargrave was never able to experience before.

"What if I told you that I was already awake?" Melissa joked with a slight sly smile.

"I'd say that you're a liar!" Mary yelled with a joyful smile and a bombastic wave of her arm.

"Truly I'm hurt." Melissa stood up with a joyful and light smile. A smile that in the near future would be twisted in rage as soon she would become an enforcer and go on to hunt and kill the rebel leader known as Andrew Sue.

A murder over a lie.

If only she had been clear of mind Melissa Wargrave and Mary Sue might have ended up on the same side.

Perhaps then her end wouldn't have been so tragic.

–

Cebrail Caritas woke up for once quite nicely after such a pleasant memory of herself and Mary Sue in their schooling days. Though she was a bit confused about the pit she felt in her stomach, as if something bad was going to happen.

She didn't have time to dwell on this however as the moment her foot touched the cloud-like floor of her room a dozen maids flooded in with various supplies such as makeup kits, hair curlers, and a pristinely ironed uniform.

"Adriel… what is this?" Cebrail could barely get this question out of her mouth before the maids were on top of her. They tossed off her nightgown and put her into a school uniform.

The uniform was simple consisting of a white buttoned-up undershirt, a red blazer with black accents, a black tie, and a simple black skirt.

As they tried to get a pair of panties on Cebrail is when the Seraphim Princess finally put up some resistance, she hooked her fingers on the sides and attempted to tear it apart only to fail.

"How?"

"Young miss, unfortunately, you're wearing a skirt, I won't let you not wearing any underwear slide this time." Adriel informed her only to get her pouting face as she kept her fingers hooked. While if all the maids tried to force it onto her they could obviously overpower her doing such a thing would be reckless and foolish as if they were indeed to accidentally hurt her it would be quite the issue.

"Why do you hate underwear so much anyways?"

"Clothing is sin."

"Ugh… don't try using the Bible to justify yourself."

"'And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?' Genesis 3-11, look it up." Cebrail said staring at Adriel with a determined look.

"I'm an Angel I don't need to look that up…" Adriel was a bit flabbergasted that she had memorized that entire verse just to back up the fact that she didn't want to wear any panties. Though perhaps he shouldn't be so surprised since she quoted things a lot.

"Plus wearing a skirt is even better."

"Huh?"

"I like the breeze."

"..." Everyone in the room paused for a moment at these somewhat innocent words and Adriel visibly twitched.

"Right… no… if I let Lady Gabriel's daughter turn into an exhibitionist I'm as good as dead…" Adreil mumbled to himself before looking at the maids and nodding. He had been letting Cebrial get away with it for too long due to her wearing longer dresses and pants normally.

Anything that happened next he would explain to Gabriel personally.

The maids nodded back in response and forced the blue striped panties on the Seraphim Princess anyways.

"Ouch." She cried a bit quietly as she was forced to pull her fingers out of the sides.

The moment they got on her body a sound could be heard like that of a door being locked. When Cebrail attempted to pull off the underwear it stayed on rather tightly.

"What if I need to use the restroom…?"

"I'm sure that you can figure that out young miss." Adriel said with a smirk causing Cebrail to frown. She knew he was probably joking but it didn't change the fact that she wasn't being allowed to wear what she wanted.

"From today until further notice you and the rest of the Novice Four will be attending the Devil school called Devolos Academy."

"I was going to attend school in the human world though…"

"You can do that next year. For now, Lord Michael wants to try getting the next generation of Devils used to Angels by having you guys attend a school with the high-class youngsters."

"Isn't this dangerous?" Cebrail asks after being carried to a chair and sitting down in front of a mirror.

"That's why for now it's only you guys, the Novice Four. You guys are strong enough that just about none of the Devil kids could so much as lay a hand on you."

"You sound a bit like my mother…"

"Young miss it's only the truth, young Devils haven't even developed a resistance to the power of God's name much less light power."

"I don't have a lot of light power though." Cebrail stared at Adriel's reflection in the mirror curiously as one of the maids fixed up her hair and tamed her now wagging Ahoge with a black bow.

"You're a special exception young miss. You fight a great deal like a human would. It doesn't matter how much light power you have."

"Hmm…" An Angel commenting that another Angel was more 'human' or did things 'much like a human' was a high compliment indeed. However for Cebrail, a half-human, it didn't mean much in the slightest. It only made sense that she acted like a human, being a human is all she had ever known before being reincarnated. She even still breathed despite technically not needing to since Angels were spiritual beings.

"Also Lady Gabriel said that you should try your hardest to avoid Rias Gremory."

"Avoid Rias Gremory? Does she perhaps have a grudge due to me kidnapping her? She really shouldn't take something like that so personally…"

"Well I don't know all the details but it seems like her older brother is plotting something, though… he's 1000 years too young to be trying to play around the same way Odin does." Adriel mumbled the last bit under his breath as though he wanted to scold Sirzechs for trying to play games with Gabriel despite the massive difference in both age and experience.

"I see that makes sense." Cebrail stands up from her chair and moves to leave her room with Adriel following her.

"Is the car ready?" Cebrail asks lazily.

"The other Novice Four have been waiting outside for around ten minutes or so now." Adriel didn't even bother to ask Cebrail about breakfast as he knew she ate rather sporadically throughout the day rather than at set times.

"Really? I'm going to be riding with them?"

"Indeed." Adriel opens the front door of the mansion revealing a sleek black limo with greatly tinted windows.

"Have a good day at school young miss." Adriel said sincerely and handed her an empty school bag gingerly.

"Thank you Adriel. I'll see you after school then." Cebrail said while walking away and waving behind her. "Remember to take care of Reginleif and Tosca while I'm out. Good food, good training, and good sleep."

"Of course young miss." Adriel responds with a smile and Cebrail steps into the limousine and finds herself sitting with three other familiar children.

"It's about time you showed up!" Yelled Puriel in rage.

"It's good to see you after so long, Cebrail." Gadreel greeted politely.

"Let's just go already." Azril said to the driver before Cebrail even had the chance to sit down, his arms crossed in annoyance.

(I wonder if there's a way I can just skip this whole drive?) Cebrail thinks, already feeling a bit exhausted having to deal with these people. She won't even be able to take a nap.