XIX

Previously: The answer came from Grayfia," This gentleman is Lord Riser Phenex. He is a pureblooded Devil of noble birth, the third heir in line to the House of Phenex. He is also the fiancé of the next Head of the House of Gremory."

Lucas's eyes slightly widened as he glanced at his King, only to find that she was staring at Riser with what could only be called hate and loathing. While Lucas could keep his surprise inside, Issei didn't have such ability.

"Fiancé!? You have got to be joking!"

Asia placed her hands over her mouth in surprise as Grayfia continued.

"I am not. Lord Riser has been engaged to my Lady Rias for some time now."

She delivered the news as if she was speaking of the weather, much to the shock of Issei, who was staring back and forth between the two Pureblooded devils with his mouth open.

*********************************************************************************************************-Now-

After everything was claimed down, the room was quiet as Riser was sitting on one of the sofas, one leg dropped over the over and the same cocky smirk on his face. He looked as if he owned the place as Akeno served him some tea. Taking a sip, Riser spoke.

"Aw, the tea made by Riser's beloved Rias is delicious."

Akeno politely bowed, "Thank you." She had to repress a shiver of disgust when she saw the way Riser looked at her when he said the word "delicious". Normally she didn't mind guys looking at her like a piece of meat, but there was something about the way he looked at her that made her want to take a shower, not to mention, she only wanted one person in the room to look at her like that.

The Queen of Rias Gremory made her way to stand behind the sofa her King was sitting on, right across from Riser. Kiba stood on the other side, with Koneko, Asia, and Issei next to each other. Still sitting on the window seal was Lucas, everyone made sure to make some space so he could see, but Akeno keep close to him. His presence made her feel safe from Riser's lecherous looks at her body. She just wished Rias could be feeling the same.

Rias sat with one leg over the other and her arms crossed underneath her breasts, "You need to let this go. Why can't you understand that I have no intention of marrying you?"

Riser looked at her incredulously before giving her a small smile, "But my darling, I can't help but think that your family's circumstances won't allow you to be so selfish."

That was definitely the wrong this to say to Rias and she let him know it as she stood up and glared at him.

"I will NOT bring my family to ruin. I AM the next heir of Gremory, and I WILL choose my own husband."

"I believe the lady has made up her mind tweety bird," Lucas said, drawing everyone's attention to him as he leaned against the window with his arms crossed. His taunt succeeded in drawing Riser's ire and he gave him a smirk of his own. "It's kind of pathetic that you have to force yourself into marrying a woman who wants nothing to do with you. Guess that's all you can do when you're the third son after all."

Rias looked at Lucas in surprise as he came to her defense. Not even her parents cared enough to listen to her and tried to force this upon her. Riser had a different reaction other than happiness as he looked at Lucas with a near.

"Be silent lowborn. You don't have the right to even speak to Riser."

He turned back to Rias, before standing up himself with his hands open and a smile back on his face.

"You know how important it is for Devils to remain Pureblood. We're still recovering our numbers from the last war. Noth your father and brother agreed to this marriage. They saw how important it was with the future of Devils in mind."

Lucas scoffed, once again causing everyone to look towards him.

"What is this? Harry Potter?"

That earned him a couple of chuckles from Kiba and Issei. Akeno covered her mouth with her hand to hide her giggle. Even the usually stoic Knoeko cracked a smile. If one looked closely, one could see a smile on Grayfia's kissable lips. Riser again glared at Lucas but didn't rise to the taunt this time.

"My family was too quick to rush into this decision. For the last time Riser, I. Will. Not. Marry. You."

Riser finally closed the distance between them and grabbed Rias' mouth, forcing her to look into his icy blue eyes.

"And for the final time Rias, Riser bears the reputation and name of the House of Phenex. Besmirching out good nature is unacceptable."

He began bringing his lips closer to Rias and she found herself unable to pull away from his tight grip on her chin. RIas closed her eyes, afraid to look at the scene any longer. She felt nothing but disgust and revulsion at what was about to happen. A moment she should treasure and love forever, her very first kiss, was being tarnished and turned into a nightmare she will never forget.

"Humph!" The voice of Riser suddenly said and she felt the pressure on her chin suddenly lep up. When Rias opened her eyes she was Riser getting up, supporting himself in the cracked walls. Lucas was slowly bringing his leg down.

"There isn't anything worse in this world than a man who forces himself on a woman," Lucas growled fiercely. Rias heard the growl of a wolf, but his wolf's growl seemed more menacing. He looked ferocious right then, glaring down at Riser with hatred in his eyes.

"How dare you," Riser said softly, glaring right back at Lucas. "You dare to touch Riser! Lord Riser Phenex! I'll incinerate you and every other lowborn in the room!" A small circle of fire appeared in Riser's hands with the flames a molten white color.

'As hot as he can make them.' Rias thought worriedly, looking between Lucas and her supposed fiance.

"Youn waiting on an invitation, Tweety Brid?" Lucas's ears and tails came out. He channeled his ki into his hands and baby blue flames engulfed them, his claws already out and his fangs showed when he smiled.

"That's enough," The voice of Grayfia said from in between them, just loud enough to cut off all the other noise. Riser immediately stopped forming his fire, though Lucas keep his ki going for a couple of seconds longer before stopping.

"I am here on orders of Sirzechs. Which means, there will be no disruption of peace." Her voice stated the same, but there was a slightly harder edge when she glanced at Riser.

"When the Strongest Queen tells Riser something so ominous, even he becomes fearful."

Riser had his hands up in surrender, a smirk formed back on his face. Lucas just scoffed and crossed his arms.

"My master thought something like this would happen," Grayfia began, "As such, he has come up with a solution should communication break down."

Rias lightly scoffed, looking at her brother's Queen, "Of course he did. So what's the solution?"

"If My Lady insists on putter her personal preferences before the household then she should settle it via a Rating Game."

Rias looked shocked that her brother would suggest that. Issei looked confused, like always.

"What's a Rating Game?"

Akeno answered the question, "It's a game Noble Devils play with each other. Long story short, they and their peerage compete in a battle to determine who wins."

Lucas was listening and it seemed like a hell of a lot of fun to him. His blood started to boil in anticipation a bit. Rias seemed shocked but regained composure soon enough. He stood tall and gave Rias a smarmy smile.

"Riser has played through numerous games," Riser looked over to Rias' peerage before looking back to what was his. "Rias, Riser has a question. Is that all of your peerage?"

"Yeah, so what?"

Rias crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes as Riser laughed and snapped his fingers, causing a big magic circle on the floor to glow an orangish-red as flames once again came to life for a couple of seconds fourteen shadows appeared from the magic circle and Issei was speechless at Riser's all-female peerage. It was then that Issei did the most embarrassing thing he could possibly do. He cried

"NO WAY, YOU'VE SURROUNDED YOURSELF WITH ALL OF THOSE HOT WOMEN! WHY CAN'T I BE THIS GUY!?"

Most of the Gremory peerage, minus Issei. who was crying, and Asia was consoling him for some reason, were embarrassed at the display the guy was putting on. Making all of them look bad by association. Riser looked over with confusion written on his face.

"Rias?" Riser started, "Why does your servant weep uncontrollably?"

Rias sighed and facepalmed as she answered, "Because he wants to be Harem King."

Riser had a look of understanding on his face before a smirk formed on his lips, "Riser understands. Yubelluna."

Yubelluna is a voluptuous woman with long, wavy purple hair that falls all the way down her back and matching eyes. In the front, the right side of her hair falls over her breast and covers her right eye, while the left side falls near the top of her skirt.

She was wearing a dress consisting of a navy blue tunic top with gold accents and a pale blue skirt with open sides, black shoes, and overmatching thigh-high stockings with garter belts. The top reveals much of her cleavage and is held with a gold choker with blue and red jewels. Over this, she wears a white overcoat with black and gold accents and matching pauldrons. For accessories, she wears a black headband with a red-orange jewel over her forehead to keep her long hair in place and wields a staff-like scepter in battle. She also wore purple lipstick and nail polish, matching her eyes and hair.

Everyone watched as Riser's Queen walked over to Riser as he began to fondle his Queen's large breasts, looking smugly at Issei.

"You'll never be able to do something like this, you'll always be lowborn trash," Riser said. That was enough for Issei to snap and activate his Scared Gear before charging at Riser.

"Mira," Riser called.

Lucas watched as a small girl jumped in Issei's way.

Mira, one of Riser's Pawns blocked off Issei's path to her King. Mira is a young girl with blue hair and light brown eyes. Her hair is styled with six short ponytails, with four of the six. The front of her hair features split bangs going across her forehead, with side bangs framing her face. She was wearing a white haori with a red obi, which is worn under a red happi coat. She wears bandages on her forearms and shins and wears black guards over her hands. For footwear, she wears a pair of zōri. In her hands was a long bo staff.

"What are you going to do? Your tiny,"

Issei gave the girl a skeptical look, but he found out the hard way about what she was going to do as Mira dashed forward and hit Issei in the stomach, causing spit to fly from his mouth before she threw him into the roof.

Lucas couldn't believe that Issei was so weak that he got defeated so easily. Asia rushed over to Issei and began healing him. Rias looked furiously at Riser, but before she could say anything Riser beat her to it.

"You can't blame, Riser, my beloved. It was your servant that tried to attack. Riser just responded in kind is all."

Rias knew Riser was right. The highborn devil could have easily killed Issei for attacking him.

"The Rating Game happened in ten days," Grayfia said, not bothered by the Pawn of Rias Gremory knocked out on the floor.

"It's only fair that my beloved receives a handicap."

Riser commented before he and his peerage was engulfed in the flames of his teleportation circle. Once the flames died down the ORC room was left with Rias, Lucas, Akeno, Koneko, Aisa, Kiba, and a still knocked out Issei. Grayfia walked over to Rias.

"I'll inform Sirzechs about the proceeding here. My Lady."

A white teleportation circle appeared under Grayfia and just before it activated she cast one more look towards Lucas.

Rias sighed, the tension of the whole meeting leaving her exhausted, but now she had a chance to get out of that damned marriage contract that has been haunting her since she was told of it. The King looked to her peerage, her eyes lingering on Issei and Asia

'Those two are going to need to most work out of everyone.' She crossed her arms and looked at her peerage.

"We have ten days until our first every Rating Game and I don't plan to lose. Tomorrow we'll go to the Gremory Estate in the country for the duration of our training. We'll leave tomorrow morning and start the training when we get there."

Rias was serious as she faced everyone. They all knew just how much this meant for Rias and they would do everything they could to make sure their King didn't have to marry Riser. Lucas nodded before looking toward Akeno.

"Hey, Akeno. Can you help me with Elemental Magic?"

The truth was that his guns didn't just shoot concentrated blasts of magic. While normally his magic alone could hurt someone it couldn't kill them without more power. His gun enhanced his magic before shooting them.

"~Ara, ara, I can teach you all sorts of things one-on-one."

Akeno intertwined her arm through one of Lucas', making sure to press her breasts into him, and blew in his ear. Her teasing smile widened when she saw the light dusting of pink on his cheeks. Rias saw this and her jealousy flared.

"Akeno," She said, getting her Queen and Pawn's attention before continuing, "You'll also be training Issei and Asia, so there will be no one-on-one time."

Rias narrowed her blue eyes at her best friend, which she just received, and smile.