16. First Peerage Member. Visiting the Human World.

│1st Person POV of Meliodas│

[Underworld Realm, Valefor Territory, Valerfor Lord's Mansion…]

I looked at the case that contained the set of 15 intricate chess pieces in front of me. My Evil Pieces. All of them are Mutated.

Normally, Evil Pieces are mostly white in color with some black markings on them.

However, since all of my Evil Pieces are Mutated, their predominant color is golden-yellow, matching the color of my magic circle.

I received my set of Evil Pieces a few months ago, shortly after my 10th birthday.

Pure-Blooded Noble Devils like me, who are High-Class in rank from birth, become eligible to obtain their set of Evil Pieces after the age of 10.

However, they generally don't accept their Evil Pieces before the age of 12. This is done because it is the popular belief that the stronger you are, the better your chances of getting a Mutation Piece.

This obviously isn't true as the Satans received their sets after the Civil War.

If the chances of a normal Evil Piece to change into Mutation Piece depended on the strength of the King then, almost all of the Satans' Pieces would have been Mutation Pieces.

Even the Strongest Devil, Sirzechs Lucifer only had a single Mutation Piece, a Rook, which he used to reincarnate Surtr Second, the ultimate Rook.

Because this is pretty much common knowledge, I believe that most parents stop their children from getting their own set too early to prevent them from reincarnating others recklessly.

Once an Evil Piece is used to reincarnate someone, the Piece is gone until the servant is either dead or traded to other Devil Kings for their Piece.

A King is obviously not allowed to kill their own servant, directly or indirectly, as once caught doing so, the punishment is very severe.

Anyway, I opted to get my set a week after my 10th birthday and my parents didn't have a problem with this either. They completely trusted me with matters related to my Peerage.

Additionally, as I already knew everything about the Mutation Pieces from my deal with Ajuka, including the knowledge of how to turn a normal Evil Piece into a Mutation Piece, I didn't wait to get my set.

When I first received my set, there were only 2 Mutation Pieces in my set. A Rook and a Pawn.

Then, using my knowledge, I successfully transformed my normal Pieces into Mutation Pieces.

Now, the reason I am fiddling with my Evil Pieces at the moment is that tomorrow, I will be visiting the Human World for the first time to search for Peerage members.

Suddenly, Morgiana barged into my room and she saw me and my Evil Piece case.

A look of determination appeared on her face as she looked me in the eye and declared, "Meliodas, I want to join your Peerage."

My jaw hung open upon hearing that sudden declaration from Morgiana.

I mean, what..? Where did that come from?

I took a few seconds to regain my composure before asking, "While I don't have a problem with adding you to my Peerage, I want to ask, why and when did you come to such a decision?"

"Well, apart from the boosts I will gain once you use your Evil Piece on me, I also have no interest in forming a Peerage of my own.

"Additionally, I want to help you manage your Peerage as your second-in-command, just like Mother does for Father."

Hearing her explanation, I can see where she got the idea.

Even so, I couldn't just take her into my Peerage just because she decided it. So, I asked, "Have you talked about this with your parents?"

She nodded and answered, "Mother approved of my decision—" Of course she does.

"While Father was opposed to this idea initially, Mother and I managed to persuade him to give his permission."

"Is that so?" I muttered as I pondered on what to do.

Honestly, so far, I've only decided on four people that I want in my Peerage. So, I don't have any problem accepting Morgiana into my Peerage.

"Alright. What piece do you want me to use on you?" I asked.

"The Rook Piece." She answered immediately.

I nodded before picking one of the two Rook Pieces from the case. I knew why she didn't ask me to use the Queen Piece on her.

She still hasn't overcome her fear of her mutated Power of Destruction and likely doesn't want to find out what will happen once her Demonic Power also gets enhanced by the Queen Piece.

While I am sure that she will be able to beat the likes of Great Red with just her physical strength in the future, I will have to force her to overcome her fear and learn to control her abnormal Clan Trait if she doesn't take the initiative in the future.

"Come sit here." I gestured to her to sit in front of me and when she did, I said, "Morgiana Gremory, would you please be a part of my Peerage?"

When adding someone alive to your Peerage, the target must explicitly agree for the ceremony to proceed.

Even a person in near-death condition must agree for the process to succeed. Only someone who has died recently can be reincarnated without their consent.

"Yes, I would like to be a part of your Peerage and help you in any way I can."

At Morgiana's words, the Rook Piece floated out of hand and moved toward her.

The Evil Piece shone with a golden-yellow brilliance as it got close to her. Morgiana closed her eyes as the Piece sank down to her chest.

The next second, her Devil Wings burst out from her back as she glowed for just a moment.

Opening her eyes, Morgiana checked her situation as she clenched her hands tightly.

"It seems the Piece provided about 60% physical enhancement to me," she remarked after a moment of self-inspection.

A regular Rook Piece would have given her just a 30% enhancement, but the boost provided by a Mutation Piece is double that of a normal Evil Piece.

As she retracted her wings, I asked, "Who accompanied you today?"

"My mother. Why are you asking?"

"Since you are now a member of my Peerage, I want you to come with me tomorrow. I wanted to get your parents permission to take you along with me."

Saying so, I stood up from my bed after stashing the Evil Piece case back into my personal pocket dimension.

"Well, I already have permission to accompany you though."

Her words stopped me in my tracks. After a second, I shrugged and said, "It wouldn't hurt to ask again, I guess. I also have to inform Mother about you joining my Peerage."

Morgiana nodded in response and we then made our way toward the front garden where Mother and Grayfia usually spend time talking with each other when the latter visits.

A few minutes later, as we walked into the front garden, I saw Mother whispering something in Grayfia's ears, causing the Strongest Queen to let out a giggle.

The silver-head woman schooled her expression the next second as she turned to look at us.

"Mother, Mother-in-law." Both Morgiana and I greeted in unison once we reached in front of them, prompting them to nod at us.

"Mother, Mother-in-law, meet Morgiana Gremory, my new Rook."

Both of them had an amused smile on their faces as they watched my theatrics.

"She finally asked you to do it, huh?" Mother remarked calmly.

What..? I expected Grayfia to say something like that, not Mother.

"Seriously, did everybody apart from me know that she wanted to join my Peerage?" I couldn't help but ask.

They just chuckled upon hearing my question.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask for your permission to take Morgiana along with me for my visit to the Human World tomorrow, Mother-in-law. May I have permission?"

Grayfia nodded gracefully as she said, "You have my permission, Meliodas. However, in addition to Samara, I would also ask you to let Souji accompany you on your trip."

I accepted her request as I didn't have a problem with it. In fact, with Souji along with us, I have one more reason to visit Japan now.

After all, I have to make good use of the Astral Projection technique that I painstakingly recreated for the sole purpose of extracting a Sacred Gear without killing the host.

And there is one Sacred Gear in Japan that I want to get my hands on.

Without this Sacred Gear, its current host will essentially be a non-entity in this world and if my speculation is correct, this may even slow down the invasion of ExE Gods, assuming they exist here.

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"Samara, I am giving you the duty of pinching Meliodas every 15 minutes and check if he is using his clones to sneak somewhere all by himself."

What..? Don't you have any trust in me, Mother?

I mean, I did plan to do something like that, but still, you can't do this to me.

"As you command, Lady Mari." Samara replied with a small bow causing Morgiana to snicker beside me.

Even Souji was watching the interaction between Mother and her Queen with an amused smile on his face.

Well, I guess I will leave the job of sneaking around to my clones then.

Then, Mother crouched down to give Morgiana a hug while saying, "Be careful and be sure to pay attention to Meliodas. Try to prevent him from making any trouble, alright?"

"I will, Mother-in-law." Morgiana responded while nodding her head seriously.

"Hey!"

They ignored my indignant shout as they separated.

Only now did Mother look at me. She hugged me too, only saying two words, "Take care."

"I promise I will."

Once she separated and stepped back, I took hold of Samara and Morgiana's hands, while Souji stood behind us with a hand on my shoulder.

A big golden-yellow magic circle appeared beneath us, courtesy of Samara.

Samara, Morgiana, and I waved at Mother while Souji just nodded before the magic circle flashed brightly.

The next second, we were in a different teleportation room.

In the room, near the door were two people.

One of them was a middle-aged man dressed in a butler uniform while the other was an older woman, around 40 years old appearance-wise, dressed in maid attire.

Both of them bowed to us, giving a respectful greeting, before leading us out of the room.

Right now, we are in a mansion located somewhere in Paris, France. This mansion was one of the many properties owned by my family in the Human World.

This place was the first stop for us because some of the major food businesses in this city were owned by us and also because Morgiana wanted to see the 'City of Love'.

This girl got addicted to Western romance novels and I may be responsible for such a thing.

When I accidentally learned that she was reading Japanese romance novels, I took action to save any chance of having real romance in the future.

I gifted her more than dozens of Western romance novels, all good books, to stop her from reading Japanese romance novels.

I was successful in my endeavor but she got addicted to Western romance novels in the process.

Anyway, the butler and the maid lead us towards the rooms they have prepared for each of us.

In our rooms, we were going to change into clothes that wouldn't stand out much while we took a tour of the city.

Half an hour later, the four of us departed from the mansion, our first destination, the Eiffel Tower.

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A/N: Sorry for not updating the last two days. I was busy with shit happeing IRL and didn't get time to write anything.

Anyway, If you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to point it out.

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