Chapter 34 - Cherry Blossom Teacher

(Does Cebrail like red hair?)

Sona touched her hair in a bit of annoyance before shaking the stupid thought out of her head.

Rias Gremory was one of the few people Cebrail actually expressed genuine dislike for. It was impossible for her and Rias to ever be all that close.

But why did Sona care so much?

She didn't really know. Cebrail could be friends with whoever she wanted. Though she would rather it not be with Rias… everyone already likes Rias, Cebrail was her friend not one of Rias' friends that she just so happens to sometimes talk with.

Sona very much wanted to keep it that way.

She'd have to make a cake and ask Cebrail about it later. Though if she did in fact like red hair, what would Sona do?

(Change my hair color?) Sona shakes her head tossing away yet another ridiculous thought. She always seemed to have them when it came to Cebrail however she couldn't even begin to guess why.

(Red hair wouldn't look good on me anyways.) She relented with a sigh letting her arms fall depressingly.

"..." Azril just looked at the Sona with a deadpan, he didn't know what she was thinking about but he could tell this tour would take up quite a bit of time.

–

"This is the cafeteria!" Rias announces as she and Cebrail stop at their first destination.

The cafeteria was just like the main hall. That is to say it was extraordinarily garish. With a huge chocolate fountain in the very center, ornate and colorful designs on the walls, shiny tables made out of the finest wood, and even a chandelier. Even the workers were rather fancy wearing suits and beautiful maid outfits.

(Has anyone ever told the designers 'less is more' because this is just too much… I can't understand it at all.) Cebrail thinks. She didn't want to judge it too much since it seemed to be some kind of Devil culture thing as she found the Gremory estate to be rather luxurious as well. It made sense too as Devils in their nature should be all about overly indulging in their desires.

Rias looked at Cebrail from the corner of her eyes and found the girl's eyes glazed over with a small frown. It was obvious that she wasn't liking the look of the cafeteria.

(Is it not impressive enough for her?) Rias thought completely misunderstanding the Seraphim Princess due to understandably not ever having met an Angel nor ever visited Heaven.

"Next!" Rias grabs Cebrail and drags her away by the hand.

"This is the gym!" Rias pushed open the large double doors bombastically revealing a wide courtyard with so much space it could probably fit the entire student body and still have enough room for all of them to play around.

For the most part other than the size it was normal until Rias sauntered over to one wall with a smug grin on her face and pressed a button on the wall. Instantly holes opened up in the floor and out of them came pristine tables with clean white cloth over them. With them came large beautifully carved wooden chairs and an entire stage.

"We use this place for class assemblies and stuff. Sometimes people get hungry though so we have maids and butlers on standby to feed us. All fine dining too!" Rias bragged before looking back at Cebrail and finding her just staring blankly.

"Okay." She responded simply without giving any real reaction at all.

(Still not impressed!??!?!?!) Rias thought and grabbed her hand once again dragging her to the girls locker room.

Golden showers, golden toilets, golden lockers, everything was sparkly shiny, new, fresh, and big. However Cebrail just looked at it all blankly, again frustrating Rias more.

"The music room!" An entire opera theater. Not impressed.

"The pool!" Two huge pools the size of lakes. Not interested.

"The art room!" Beautiful sculptures and paintings that rivaled modern masterpieces. Blank look.

Rias as they were rushing to their next destination despite the coolness of Cebrail's hand she was sweating. Not from over exertion but from frustration and stress.

You see the school year had only just started a week ago and Rias already had an F due to not doing her summer homework. This of course was bad given she had the Gremory name to uphold and she didn't want to disappoint her older brother, her parents may not exactly be expecting a whole bunch from her but Sirzechs without a doubt did. He even got her upcoming engagement to Riser postponed, probably because he felt that she could do much better than simply being married off to that moron. She HAD to escort Cebrail if she wanted that 0 in the grade book to "mysteriously disappear" as the principal had said.

If he asked and Cebrail complained it was likely she wouldn't get the bad grade expunged and this would all be for nothing! It also hurt her pride that Cebrail seemed to be completely uncaring about all of the luxury she along with the other high-class Devils got to enjoy. She was acting like she had already seen it all before. How can she be completely unimpressed!

(Could her position among the Angels be higher than my own!?!?! But we're both called 'princess' how can she be above me?) Not that Rias thought about it, Cebrail wasn't punished at all for kidnapping two Devil heiresses while Rias was scolded by her older brother for letting her guard down so obviously.

She was right.

Cebrail was a different brand of 'princess' to Rias.

She wasn't just important to her family nor just important to a certain territory nor just important to the upper class of her race.

She was important to just about EVERY Angel. She was called the Seraphim Princess because EVERY Angel expected her to become a Seraph. They expected her to be great. Just because she was Gabriel's daughter she was sitting on a pedestal so high up that most others perhaps could never fathom it. The pressure of completely unwanted and perhaps undeserved FAITH.

"Is all of this just so unimpressive to you?" Rias asked sarcastically, not expecting any answer.

"Hmm… I guess you could say that I'm not very impressed."

"Right. Right because you've seen it all before huh?"

"Huh? No, I've never seen a building like this at all."

Rias stops and spins on Cebrail with slightly widened eyes. "Then why do you look like you don't care?"

"Hmm I just don't get it."

"Don't get what?"

"The point of it all."

Rias tilted her head in confusion. "The point?"

"Indeed I don't understand the point of all this extravagance. Golden toilets? Huge Stadium like gymnasiums? Paintings that take up entire walls? Statues that tower above everything? What is the point of it all?" Cebrail questions genuinely with a cute and somewhat childish look in her cold yellow eyes.

Rias could easily tell that she wasn't being sarcastic nor rhetorical so she too strove to answer honestly as the girls elder. "W-Well… ummm… it's to show off our wealth obviously."

"But why do you need to show off your wealth?" Cebrail asked childishly.

"Well… to prove our superiority obviously!" Rias answered, puffing out her chest in pride.

"You're superior just because you have money?"

"No. We're also really strong!"

"But you're weak." Cebrail responded matter of factly, annoying Rias slightly.

"I am not weak! Just because you were able to kidnap me by exploiting my only weakness doesn't mean that I'm not a powerful pure-blooded high-class Devil!" Rias announced with a great deal of misplaced confidence.

"I still don't understand really, but I guess Devils will be Devils." Cebrail said with a sigh getting a strange look from Rias.

Rias was starting to understand Cebrail a bit more, not too much more, but a bit more. At the very least she could tell that the girl, despite her cold face seemed to be pretty naive so while what she said was… questionable… she could tell that Cebrail probably didn't mean anything by it… probably.

"We'll go to class now then, the others should be done by now." Rias said, gripping Cebrail's hand slightly tighter and dragging her away.

The two arrived at the classroom last among the escorts and their charges. From the way that they had already been seated it seemed as though they were waiting for a while.

(Perhaps I went overboard in showing her around…) Rias thought though she didn't show this on her face.

Looking over she saw Sona staring at her oddly, her eyes a bit colder than usual.

"HUH!!" She couldn't dwell on this for long though as Cebrail for the first time made a loud noise of surprise.

"What? A regular classroom impresses you!?!" Rias asked, outraged looking towards Cebrail who ignored her. Cebrail stared forward with wide sparkling eyes and an open mouth.

She was pointing forward with a shaking hand and stuttering. Her normal composure was nowhere to be found as her hand shook with shock and excitement. It was so much of a massive reaction for such a calm and reserved girl that Rias lost all her anger and instead looked to where she was pointing curiously.

What she saw had her shocked as well.

It was a woman wearing a pencil skirt with long light pink hair done in a braid over her shoulder, long horns which could almost be mistaken for ornate decorations, and beautifully mature yellow eyes.

It was the one and only Cherry Blossom Devil.

The number two rating game player.

Roygun Belphegor.