Chapter 13: Keikaku Doori

"Eh?" This seemed to throw Rias for a loop and I understood perfectly well why. 

This girl had no experience in recruiting people or negotiations in general. Almost all of her peerage members she had found half dead while taking a stroll and the other one had literally been gifted to her.

And I wasn't someone down on their luck or mentally vulnerable for her to recruit with ease. 

"Why should I join your peerage? I am an alchemist, so becoming ageless is not a big issue for me, I can probably figure that out in a year or two. The same thing goes for flight as well, not too complicated. Language is tough but I can live with it." I said, my voice tone staying consistent as I sipped the tea Akeno had placed in front of me.

Wow, that is quite a nice tea.

I could see that they were taken aback, I am not surprised, they see me as yet another student after all, Rias most likely as an inexperienced alchemist.

To put it bluntly, they did not expect me to be so self-assured.

Right here, I was not the weaker party in this negotiation, I was the one with the upper hand even though I was the no-name mage while she was basically the princess of the underworld. 

It was simply because they were the ones asking me to join, they were the ones that needed to satisfy me and my conditions, not the other way around.

After a few moments of thinking Rias replied to me with a more serious face.

"Well, that... may be true. But you cannot deny the fact it would help right? Besides, if you join my peerage I will also offer you the full support of the Gremory family and as well as my protection, after all, it must be difficult to be a lone magician." I nodded lightly at her reasoning and offer. 

To be honest, it was quite lucrative, the full support of an entire Devil Noble house as well as the protection of both Rias and by proxy Sirzechs, the very strong guy. That coupled with the benefits becoming was a very tempting and frankly one of the best deals you can get.

Sure, you lose most of your political freedom until you can get strong enough to say fuck the rules. But Rias was someone that truly treated her peerage as family and would throw away her life to protect them.

But.

She did not know I knew that did she?

"Tempting as it sounds, I still have to refuse. While support from you sounds lucrative I do not it's worth selling my soul for and becoming a slave in my process." 

"That may be the case but Takumi-kun, I can assure you. I treat my peerage members as family, if you truly don't want to I won't force you to do anything out of you really don't want to." Well, I believed the truth of her words.

She goes really easy on her peerage members and treats them truly like family.

Perhaps even too easy, to the point she wouldn't force them to even try to use their absurd-shit bloodline powers like Akeno's light and Koneko's senjutsu with her own freedom on the line. Not that it would have helped that much.

I am almost certain if I joined her now, she would treat me as a family, even fight on my behalf if I needed her to after a few months. 

Hell, fucking Vampire Femboy Gasper exists, the pinnacle of being straight up a useless waste. He has fucking time-stop Sharingan-level bullshit eyes and can't even be bothered to get out of a coffin to help save the woman who saved his worthless ass.

Forget Issei, Gasper is the true definition of being a useless unworthy sacred gear user.

That aside, if she is willing to let Gasper waste away in a coffin chances are she isn't really going to force peerage members to do anything.

But this isn't about her and her character. It is about how much I can get.

"Maybe, but how should I know that? I met you today, I met Akeno yesterday, I never met Kiba, and I certainly don't know enough about you to know that. For all I know you could be lying through your teeth and will go back on that the moment I become a slave."

Rias' brows furrowed in offence but I lifted my hand and cut her off.

"You could be right. But do excuse me for wanting to be cautious with a devil. After all, if our positions were swapped would you sell your soul to me?" This made Rias sigh. But after a few beats, she suddenly seemed to have recovered her resolve to recruit me.

"That may be true Takumi-kun. But that just means that I have to try harder to convince you to join my peerage, doesn't it? And I have to say I can be very convincing." She said, uncrossing her legs and re-crossing them again, flashing me once more as I grinned.

Keikaku doori.(A/N: means all according to plan)

Gambling on Rias' pride and general naivety as well as her arrogance was the right move. Now that she feels challenged and needs me as a very talented asset, she will try her best to recruit me. Which is something to my benefit, I am in no hurry to join anyone so why not reap the profits of them trying to make me?

Her plans should slowly escalate as the date of her arranged marriage gets pushed further and further. And unlike cannon, if I have my way she won't have a convenient Red Dragon Emperor dropped into her lap.

She won't have any way out of her fate, except for me that is. I will remain as the only key she can get to resolve her issues with Riser. But I am not so easy to get, after all, I am not very enthusiastic to fight Riser. 

She will try to sway me to her side more and more. After all, if I prove my abilities to her I will become the solution to all of her problems that she HAS to get. And who gets the most benefits from her desperation?

Me.

Hell, who knows she might even offer some drastic things in order to save herself and her peerage from that fate.

I would be eager to see that.

"Well, maybe Rias, that remains to be seen. However, I do have a proposition, one that benefits us both. How about making me your contracted magician? After all, I am sure it would be far easier to convince me to join your side after we get to know each other better right?" Rias' eyes lit up at the prospect while I held back a sigh.

She was supposed to be the one to offer that. She really did not think about contracting the lone and talented magician in front of her even though he was friendly and not too against joining her peerage.

"Ah, yes. We should do that! But before that, I would like to know you a bit better Takumi-kun. You know, formalities. Besides I really do want to know more about you." Well, I have no objections to that so I nodded my head. Rias on the other hand shared a look with her queen before dismissing Koneko and Kiba from the room for some reason.

"Now that we are alone, want to play some chess? While we are at it we get to know each other some more." I agreed, I had quite a bit of confidence in my chess ability.

"Well, how about we make it a bit more exciting? A bet. Let's say, the loser owes the winner a favour, nothing too big of course." Rias nodded as Akeno came back with a rather ornate chess set, the pieces looked to be gilded in gold. Fancy.

"Of course, I do wonder what you would ask for if you would win Takumi-kun, but don't expect me to go easy on you." Rias started her move with the white piece while Akeno looked from the side in curiosity.

We played at a relaxed pace, taking sips of tea in between. Also making idle conversation too. 

"So, Takumi-kun, do you happen to have a sacred gear?" Rias said while moving her pawn to make space for her other pieces. She was not very good at probing for information too, she was a very honest person and that was also reflected in how she played chess as well.

"Hmm, I don't know. Do I? Maybe if you won you could use your favour to find out." This got me a slight pouting but also a challenged look from Rias as I grinned internally, I won't give her any information for now beyond the very basics. Enough to wonder but not enough to know.

"We will see who is the victor Takumi-kun." Well, I already have.

I would estimate Rias' chess skill to be around... the 1500 - 1550-ish range, which is actually rather good. But I also used to play chess semi-regularly in my past life. 

My elo was around 1900.

She thought that she was probably winning but in reality, it was a mate in 3 for me.

And lo and behold.

Rias looked dumbfounded at the chess board while Akeno placed a hand over her mouth while also looking amused.

"Ara~ ara~ this quite unexpected." Akeno said with a giggle in her voice as Rias frowned at her. But turning back to me she sighed and gave me a sigh of resignation.

"Well, good game Takumi-kun. I did not expect you to be so good. Well then what is it that you desire?" Well, what I wanted was quite simple. I could ask for materials but I can always get those from the contract we would make. No, I would ask for something different this time to build our relationship more.

Plus I actually want to do this. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Not everything is about getting a material benefit.

"I want to touch your wings." I said with a serious expression as both Rias and Akeno did a double take.

"...Eh? Come again?"

"I really want to touch your wings. I have never seen a devil before obviously, and I am really curious about how wings feel like." Rias blushed a little while averting her eyes while Akeno chuckled.

"Well... I guess it's fine."

...

"Hmmh~ How long do you plan on doing that?" Rias said in a downright sultry voice as I stroked her wings, they seemed a bit sensitive and her voice certainly tickled my big man downstairs but I was really taken by her wings.

They felt both leathery and soft at the same time, like real bat wings but in a more comical demonic shape. I kept stroking her wings while Rias moaned slightly on the side.

"Wow, your wings are really soft Rias-san." This was a genuine compliment from me and Rias while she did smile in pride it was a bit crooked due to me still gently stroking her wings. 

"Geez, I get it but how... mh~ how long do you plan on molesting my wings?" I grinned at her a little before letting go of her wings making her sigh in relief.

 "I have seen enough I am satisfied. This was a very valuable learning experience, thank you for the learning opportunity." I bowed deeply as Rias looked bewildered as she retracted her wings.

"Ara~ ara~ how naughty Takumi-kun. You have got Buchou panting already." Akeno commented from the side as Rias shot a small glare at her before turning to me.

"Well, since you are done playing with my wings, will we talk about that contract now?" Rias said while hiding her blush.

This will be fun. I can already tell.

---If you liked the chapter then drop me some stones---

A/N: Takumi is a bit manipulative.

While he is not malicious toward other people nor is he needlessly cruel he will manipulate others to reach his goals. He has moral boundaries(not killing innocents) but even those are loose. That does not mean he isn't capable of caring about others, however.

And as for joining the Gremory Peerage, well that remains to be seen. But what is for sure is that he will milk her for all she is worth.

What did you think about the interaction between Rias and Takumi? Did you like it?

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