Advice

Following an afternoon of batting and fielding practice, Vahn, Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Grayfia, and Asia were in the club room, where, after serving the group tea, the latter mustered the courage to ball her hands into fists and state, "P-Pardon me, Rias-sama! But I've made up my mind—please make me into a Devil and allow me to join your Peerage!"

"Ara ara. Someone is spirited~" mused Akeno, knowing, like everyone else in the club room, exactly where Asia's courage was coming from. After all, ever since the previous Saturday, she was no longer a little girl...

"Good job..." said Koneko, speaking in her usual monotone as she offered Asia a thumbs up. Unfortunately, while Rias appreciated Asia's willingness to join her Peerage, her answer wasn't what the latter expected.

"Hmm...I admire your determination, Asia. I really do. But I can't in good conscience accept you into my Peerage. Please forgive me..." expressed Rias, closing her eyes and shaking her head as Asia, standing next to the sofa where she was seated, wearing a Maid outfit similar to Grayfia's but with a shorter skirt, stared back at her with a paralyzed smile.

Preempting Asia's asking, Rias exhaled from her nose, met the former's gaze, and explained, "Ordinarily, I would jump at the opportunity to have the bearer of Twilight Healing becoming my Bishop. However, due to the Corridor and parameter-enhancing items like Crimson Bapples and Guts Lemons, I believe it's best to let you develop as you are. If you insist on becoming a Devil, which, might I remind you, would prevent you from praying to God, you can always do so once Vahn forms his own Peerage."

"Oh..." muttered Asia, looking somewhat forlorn as she asked, "But what if the ORC has to participate in another Rating Game? I don't want to sit out or be left behind again..."

"I appreciate that," responded Rias, nodding. "But what happened with Riser was a one-off event. I'm not saying we won't have to participate in future Rating Games, but the stakes won't be nearly as high, and most of our opponents should be comparably aboveboard."

With Asia habitually looking at him, Vahn nodded, adopted a supportive smile, and surprised Rias by saying, "I understand your logic, Rias, but if this is what Asia decided, I want to support her. Is it the best decision? I don't know. But it's the one she's made."

"I never expected to have my arm twisted like this..." sighed Rias, causing Vahn to feel a smidgeon of guilt until she adopted a smile and appended, "Very well. I also want to respect Asia's resolution, so if she's certain this is what she wants, I have no reason to refuse her."

"Thank you so much, Vahn-sama, Rias-sama...!" exclaimed Asia, closing her eyes and praying for what might very well be the final time. Vahn felt this was a little biased against Devils, especially those who were naturally born and never had the option to choose what they believed in, but since he didn't make the rules, he silently observed the process of Asia being turned into a Devil while making a mental note to discuss the matter with Throne when he had the opportunity...

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"I hope you're ready, Vahn. Because I won't be holding anything back...!" exclaimed Issei, moving like a Major League Baseball pitcher as he sent a dodgeball flying directly at Vahn's face, spinning like a bullet.

"What did I do...?" asked Vahn, casually catching the ball with his left hand, causing smoke to rise from where it connected with his palm and slowed to a stop.

"Oh, I'm just preparing you for the inevitable," stated Issei, smiling wryly as he reasoned, "None of the other clubs would dare to seriously aim for Buchou, Akeno-san, Koneko-chan, or Asia-chan, so we need to be ready to endure the opposing teams' combined barrage."

"Mm...I see..." responded Vahn, tilting his head to the left and using his right hand to catch a ball aimed for the back of his head without needing to see it coming. Ever since awakening his Will of the Emperor, he had an awareness of everything within a ten-meter radius around him, and when he focused on it, he could even sense the insects moving through the soil beneath his feet. It could be a little disorienting if he tried to keep track of or react to multiple targets simultaneously, but it effectively eliminated his blind spots.

"Nice catch..." said Koneko, bending over slightly and raising her hands in a way that suggested she was prepared to receive it if Vahn threw the ball back at her.

"Alright...here goes..." responded Vahn, offering a curt nod before flinging the ball in his left hand at Koneko with a backhand throw before flinging the one in his right overhand. The thought of pelting someone he cared about with a ball made him uncomfortable, but as he and Koneko sparred on a near-daily basis, he knew she could take it even if he inadvertantly hit her square in the face.

"Toooooh~" droned Koneko, limberly bending backward to evade the ball before flipping onto her hands and performing a handspring to regain her footing and catch the second.

'She gets more flexible by the day...' noted Vahn, adopting an appreciative smile until a reverberating DOINK drew his and everyone else's gazes to Asia, who had fallen onto her butt with a red circle adorning the center of her face. With her enhanced Devil senses, she should be able to evade the ball easily, but since she wasn't used to sports, moving about quickly, or throwing dodgeballs, she ended up chucking one directly at the ground and hitting herself in the face...

"Haaaueeeh...Vahn-sama..."

Though she wasn't really injured, Vahn promptly used Wound Transfer to redirect Asia's pain to himself as he made his way over to help her back to her feet. Doing so caused his face to sting, but with his Pain Tolerance, it was similar to the sensation of opening an oven before it had a chance to dissipate its heat, causing a brief feeling of tenderness that faded in less than a second...

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"Hey, thanks again for agreeing to come over. I know at least one of you has much better things to do," joked Issei, sporting a broad smile as he, Vahn, and Kiba made their way to his house following that day's practice and club activities.

"Mmm...Rias said it would be good for me to spend more time with boys my age," revealed Vahn.

"And I've always wanted to experience a genuine sleepover~" hummed Kiba, excited by the prospect of meeting Issei's family and experiencing how normal people lived.

"Speaking of Buchou..." muttered Issei, lowering his voice and drawing closer to Vahn, his right hand shielding the right side of his mouth as he asked, "The two of you have done it, haven't you? Was it as incredible as people say...?"

Though he was briefly confused by Issei's words, Vahn quickly pieced things together, countering, "Why do you ask? Haven't you and Tsubasa-san done it...?"

Visibly deflating, Issei revealed, "We've tried several times...but while I have no trouble getting it up, I either get a nosebleed or fail to perform when we try anything direct. I think what happened with Yuum—I mean Raynare—gave me a weird form of performance anxiety..."

"Hmm...I may actually have a solution to that..." remarked Vahn, opening his Inventory before pulling out a corked glass bottle filled with tiny, red, translucent spheres. Then, holding the bottle up between his right index and middle fingers, he explained, "These are called Scarlet Yang Essence Pills. Their main effect is increasing blood circulation and production, but they have the side effect of making a certain part of your body especially active and engorged..."

"Oh, wow. So it's kind of like Viagra...?" asked Issei, accepting the bottle and holding it up to the light from the sun. The thought of ordering some Chinese medicine had crossed his mind on several occasions, but since it would be awkward if his parents discovered the purchase, he never went through with it.

With Sis informing him what Viagra was, Vahn nodded and replied, "They should function similarly. Just be mindful not to take more than one a day as the description mentions that overusing them can lead to coughing up blood or bleeding from the seven orifices."

"That...sounds kind of dangerous..." remarked Issei, the smile on his face cramping. He wanted to meet Tsubasa's expectations of him, but bleeding from every major hole in his body didn't sound pleasant.

"It shouldn't be," contended Vahn. "But if you want, I can take back all but one of them so you don't accidentally take two or more."

"That's probably a good idea, at least until I can confirm the effects..." agreed Issei, handing the bottle back to Vahn. In turn, he caused all but one of the tiny spheres to disappear before handing it back to him, smiling as he expressed, "I hope everything works out. And to answer your earlier question, it was more incredible than anything I had ever imagined..."

"More incredible..." repeated Issei, his nostrils flaring and a perverted smile spread across his face, making him look like a mischievous monkey or an old man.

"Hmm...with how things have been lately, perhaps I should start looking for a girlfriend..." muttered Kiba, crossing his left arm over his body and cupping his chin with his right index and middle fingers.

"Ugh...I can't stop you if that's what you decide, but with you and Vahn around, I feel my future harem might be filled with nothing but girls the two of you rejected or didn't have an interest in..." groaned Issei.

"Is having a harem that important to you...?" asked Vahn, tilting his head slightly as he confessed, "I understand the appeal of wanting to spend time with multiple girls, but without Rias and Sona to manage things, I'm honestly not sure how I would cope..."

"Mmm...I get what you're saying, but it's been my dream for as long as I can remember, and Tsubasa supports me..." contended Issei, shrugging as he added, "Though, if I go with her suggestion, my future Peerage will be filled with fighters and martial artist. Me, personally? It makes me sick to compare myself to such a despicable person, but my ideal harem is one like Riser's. I mean, variety is a good thing, right...?"

"It does keep things interesting," confirmed Vahn. "But you shouldn't think of girls as things to collect. Also, you should keep in mind that you're just one person. Unless you're okay with the girls in your harem sleeping with other people, a greater variety for you represents fewer opportunities for each of them to be with just you..."

"Ugh...when you put it that way, creating a harem almost sounds cruel..." conceded Issei, crossing his arms and adopting a conflicted expression. He couldn't simply abandon the dream that had defined him for much of his life, but after hearing Vahn's take, he resolved to limit his future harem to, at most, the size of a Peerage.

Shaking his head, Vahn contended, "That's only the case if you view the girls as things to collect. I don't think the number matters as much if the girls proactively join your harem and coordinate with the other members toward a common goal. You just need to be prepared to divest some of your agency and let them decide among themselves who you sleep with and when. That seems to be the best way to ensure equilibrium between a harem and the person it's centered around..."

"I see..." muttered Issei, pulling out a small pocketbook and taking notes as he reasoned, "I guess it would create problems if you were viewed as giving special treatment to certain girls..."

Nodding, Vahn revealed, "According to Rias, it's common for High-Class Devils to appoint their first wife or the Queen of their Peerage to manage their harem on their behalf. Her mother manages her father's, and she is determined to manage mine."

"Buchou's father has a harem...?" asked Issei, expecting but still surprised by the revelation.

"Nn...for a time, he was one of the few surviving descendants of the 72 Pillars," reminded Vahn. "Because of that, he, at one point, had more than a hundred women in his harem. Now, there are only thirteen, but I hear he frequently fools around with the female servants and Maids..."

"Lucky bastard..." muttered Issei, making a final note in his pocketbook before slipping it into his left inner breast pocket. By then, they were only a block away from his home, so while he was curious to learn more about Rias's parents and High-Class Devil society, he figured it could wait until after dinner...

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