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"Hey, bro, I'm back," Jake called out as he teleported back into Sirzechs' office. "Whoa, what happened to you?" He asked in concern. Sirzechs did not look good. He had bags under his eyes, and he looked exhausted.

"Hey, Jake!" Sirzechs sent him a small wave from behind his desk. There was a lot of paperwork piled in front of him. "The paperwork... it just wouldn't stop. I kept signing and reading and reading and signing, and yet the pile of documents in front of me never got any smaller!" Sirzechs whined with tired-looking eyes. That sounded awful. Jake had been gone for almost the entire day, after all. Grayfia, standing next to him, also looked tired. Had she been standing there the whole time as well? What a dedicated maid-wife she was!

"If your job is too tedious, have you considered quitting?" Jake said jokingly. Grayfia tiredly scoffed, while Sirzechs had a hopeful look on his face, like he'd just had an epiphany!

Grayfia saw her husband's look and shut it down immediately. "Don't even think about quitting. Without you at the helm, our race will be doomed," she said in a completely serious tone. That didn't sound ominous at all, Jake thought sarcastically.

Suddenly, the office door slammed open, and in barged Rias. "Well, well, well," she said slyly, "look who's back. I just got off the phone with Sona, and somebody," she grinned at Jake, "apparently had a hot date with Serafall."

"So, I take it you succeeded in cheering her up, then?" Sirzechs asked Jake, to which he nodded. "That's good," he said. Grayfia agreed as well. Serafall moping around was part of the reason for all the backed-up paperwork.

"So, what did you two do? Your big sister wants details," Rias asked Jake.

"It wasn't anything major," he just shrugged, but from their expressions, he could tell that they did not believe him.

Rias just stared at him intensely. "You went on a date with the most eligible bachelorette in the underworld. Sona's peerage is full of mostly teenage girls. They will gossip, and by tomorrow, the entire underworld is going to know about you. In fact, they're probably going to know about you anyway, considering you'll be facing Riser soon. Though, compared to dating a maou, hardly anyone's even going to give a crap about your duel. So…" she trailed off, "details!"

Sirzechs, watching from his desk, snickered. "Yes, Jake, give us details."

Rias and Sirzechs then turned to Grayfia, expecting her to join in on hounding Jake too.

"No," she bluntly said.

Jake just let out a sigh. He figured he might as well spill to get them to stop teasing him. "Alright, fine, you two win."

He started off by telling them how messy Serafall's room was and he compared it to someone else's he knew of. Rias just scoffed at him. Then he told them all about their touching, heartfelt reunion, followed by their impromptu date to Akihabara, where apparently the ordinary people there were oblivious to real magic.

"Hold up a minute," Rias spoke with a pout before turning to Sirzechs expectantly. "Why is it he gets to go to Japan and have a fun time, meanwhile, me and my peerage are stuck holed up in this manor the entire summer!?"

"Because our mother said so, and Jake doesn't have an inbred chicken after him... well, he didn't," Sirzechs said. "I suppose he does now, though," he trailed off. "Maybe it would be best if you stayed in our or the Sitri mansion as well until your duel, Jake."

"What?!" Jake exclaimed. "Why?"

Grayfia spoke up, "Riser Phenex is not known to be the most honorable of devils." Rias scoffed at that statement. "We don't know if he wouldn't take the opportunity to try and attack you before the duel in order to injure or kill you to make him win by default."

"So this guy would basically try and pull a Malfoy," Jake joked to himself.

"Yes," Sirzechs continued. "What you may be forgetting is that pretty much that entire boy's future will be riding on this duel. If he loses, then his chance with Rias is finished for good. He's also a third son with some questionable parentage, as you well know. There won't be a single other pureblood female devil whose family would ever allow him to be with her." Jake wondered how proud Riser was going to be of his supposed noble lineage at that point.

He also wondered why Rias was ever engaged to him in the first place? It didn't really make a lot of sense. He asked Sirzechs, and he told Jake it was because their father and the Phenex clan head were best friends, and the red headed trios father was totally fine looking past the whole incest baby son-in-law. Jake was, honestly, looking forward to meeting the guy less and less the more he heard about him…

"…"

Jake decided to continue his story. "And then we ran into some girl who Sera called the Red Dragon Empress," he said nonchalantly.

"""What?!""" Not only Rias and Sirzechs but, to his surprise, even the usually stoic Grayfia shouted out questioningly!

"Yeah," he just continued. "Sera told me the girl had an unawakened Sacred Gear, and that it was apparently the Boosted Gear. –Whoa, Rias, calm down!"

Rias ran up to Jake and started shaking him back and forth, completely excited. "Where is this girl now, Jake!? Did you say her Sacred Gear is still unawakened? Do you have any idea how huge a deal she'll be in the future?!" Rias rambled off quickly.

Jake gently removed her hands from his shoulders with a shrug before continuing. "Yeah, I said Sera told me that I should take the girl into my peerage, but honestly, I just wasn't feeling compatible with her. I figured that you would probably be a lot better off with her, Rias."

Rias had metaphorical stars in her eyes when he said that. She ran back up to him and wrapped him in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She exclaimed in glee. "So where is this girl!?" She asked again excitedly. With the Red Dragon her dreams of being rating game champion could become a reality!

"Indeed, I would like to know as well," Sirzechs said. He was a bit nervous that such a future powerhouse had somehow slipped under everyone's radar and stumbled right into his little brother.

Jake just snickered at what he was about to tell Rias. He figured it would shock her for sure and make her feel silly. "You won't believe this, Rias, but the Red Dragon Empress actually goes to your school. Her name is Isane Hyoudou."

Rias' enthusiasm sparked even higher at hearing the girl actually went to Kuoh with her! "How did I miss her when she was so close!?" Then, however, she heard the girl's name, and her enthusiasm plummeted. "Oh," she said despondently. "She's the Red Dragon Empress...Isane Hyoudou…" Rias trailed off with a sigh. That was a strong shift in emotion there.

Sirzechs and Grayfia just looked confused. "Is there some kind of problem with her?" he asked, concerned.

"Haha, yeah, I met that girl," Jake replied, "and let's just say that if Akeno is a 5, then that girl is an 11 on the lust scale. Anyway, good luck with her in the future, Rias." He laughed at her despondent pout. She'd have her work cut out for her with that girl.

...

A bit later, Jake had finished up his tale and had left behind the sulking Rias with Sirzechs in the latters office. Jake was wandering the mansion hallways absentmindedly at this point, thinking about the future. Him kicking Riser's ass was already a foregone conclusion in his mind, but what did he want to do after that? He figured that he would have to confront his old man at some point as well. Especially so Jake could find out why Zeoticus ditched him in the human world with a seal on all his powers.

"Chirp chirp."

Jake heard a familiar chirping, and he turned around and saw Luna coming down the hallway with Blaze in her arms. Now that Blaze was fully grown after all these years, he did look a bit silly being carried by such a lithe girl, but Jake was sure he didn't care by the way the bird was snuggling right into her chest.

"Hello, Jake," Luna called out to him as she approached. "I'm sorry I had to leave you so suddenly earlier. It's just that I had some business to attend to. And yes, sadly, I mean actual business. Being an adult is not as fun as I thought it would be as a young girl…"

"That's alright," Jake said. "I got to spend some time with my new sister, and I visited Serafall. It was a pretty eventful day for me."

"That's nice," she replied with a smile.

"I also saw Fleur," he added. "She looked like she was doing well. She also had the sexy teacher vibe going on for her," he joked.

Luna laughed at that. "Yes, she's taken quite well to being a devil, I'd say the same as I have, I suppose." She gave him a smirk.

He smiled at that. "Speaking of, I've heard that you've been quite shrewd in the underworld business world."

Luna blushed at that. "Well, I had a lot of free time on my hands, and with my gift of foresight, it was quite easy to see what was the easiest way to make money. It would have been a lot harder without Blaze." He could see she was trying to downplay her achievements.

"And yet, the only reason I even have Blaze as my familiar in the first place is because of you," he reassured. "Also, exactly how much money have you made?" He knew he was supposedly loaded because of her and Blaze, but he didn't know just how much they'd made.

Luna leaned in and whispered to him a number that made his eyebrows raise in shock. "Holy shit! That's with a 'b' and not an 'm'?" He asked her, to which she just nodded with a smile. "Wow..."

"Chirp!" Blaze puffed up his chest feathers, proud of himself. Jake gave him some scratches while telling him how amazing he was. He must have been crying a lot of tears to make those kinds of numbers possible...

"You've had quite a long day, I suppose, Jake," Luna said. "Why don't you turn in for the night, and we'll catch up more tomorrow." He agreed and told her goodnight as he attempted to search for his room.

...

Before Jake made it back to his wing of the mansion, one of the many maids intercepted him and told him that the mistress of the manor wished to speak with him. He nodded and followed behind her. He tried to ask her some questions about Venelana, but the maid didn't respond…

A few minutes later, after walking in awkward silence, she eventually led him to a new door and told him, "The mistress is waiting inside, and it is fine for you to enter."

He opened the door and across the room, he saw Venelana Gremory sipping tea on a nice sofa. "Hello, Jake. Come and sit with me." She turned to the maid. "You may leave us. Thank you." The maid bowed and left as he made his way over to her. He had to admit that he was still slightly nervous around her. His existence did apparently cause her husband to be kicked out after all.

She gave him a warm smile. "You don't have to be nervous around me, Jake." She could tell from his expression, he figured. "To be honest, I'm quite thankful to you, in all honesty."

He was surprised at that. She was thankful to him? For what? "Why?" He asked.

She set her teacup down after another elegant sip. "I have been married to my husband for over 700 years, you know..." she said, and he almost did a spit take at that number. She laughed at his shock. "Your brother is over 600 years old, you know. The same as Serafall, actually. Did you never take the time to think about how old his parents were?"

"I... I guess I never did," he stuttered out, still in shock.

"That's fine," she said. "We can get to that later. The reason I'm thankful to you is that it's because of you my marriage was actually dissolved by your ancestor, Runeas. It had been quite a few years since your father and I were truly happy together, and in these last hundred years, I might have seen him a few hours a month at most. He truly spent most of his time gallivanting around with his ever-changing harem." She said a touch bitterly. Jake knew it was apparently okay for devils to have harems, but he correctly figured they weren't supposed to indulge so completely as to ignore their spouses.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said sincerely. The guy was apparently a womanizing dick. He wouldn't turn out the same, he vowed to himself. He couldn't imagine himself ever throwing away Serafall or possibly anyone else like that in the future. Venelana smiled at him before continuing.

"Your ancestor, Runeas, had one rule for her entire clan before she went to sleep for a thousand years..." She trailed off.

"A thousand years!?" Jake questioned again in shock! Venelana glared at him for interrupting her. Jake apologized and told her to continue.

"As I was saying," she said, "Runeas's one rule was family before everything. It's why the Gremorys are known as the most benevolent devil clan and the clan that treats their servants as family members," she explained as he nodded along. Rias did call Luna big sister, after all.

"I myself am not completely sure of the exact reason as to why your father hid your existence from everyone, but in doing so, he sealed his fate and was stripped of his position by her as clan head and banished from these grounds. Furthermore, when I asked her to dissolve our marriage contract, she did so." Venelana seemed happy about that part the most.

Jake figured that in the end, he would have to confront his father about that true reason after all.

"That being said," Venelana added on, "I do know that when Zeoticus was pleading his case to Runeas, he kept trying to warn her that a terrifying powerful enemy would come after our clan because of your existence. This enemy had apparently tracked down your birth mother and killed her along with the rest of your human family…"

Jake felt his wrath popping up a bit at that! He was always under the impression that his birth mom had died because she was sick or something. Did someone truly hunt her down like an animal and kill her!? If that turned out to be the case, then he vowed that he would find them and get revenge!

Venelana sighed at his expression of rage. "I can see that you wish to walk the path of vengeance," she said. "Make no mistake, I won't ever dissuade you or tell you to turn the other cheek." She laughed at the irony. "Just know that Zeoticus had the most powerful son in the entire underworld, one of the world's top ten beings, your brother backing him, and yet he was still so afraid of these supposed enemies that he chose to abandon you. If these enemies are truly real, then they are going to be extremely dangerous!" She warned him with a very serious tone. He gulped and nodded to her.

He had made a sound speech about it to Serafall earlier, but it was looking like he would truly have to train to get stronger. And he would, of that he had no doubt.

-End Chapter-

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