Interlude (Rias’s New Grove)

Rias was angry, to put it lightly; her big day had been ruined by Eden and Zekram. To be honest, Rias wanted to wrap her hands around their throats and strangle them to death, but she knew she was far too weak to do that.

"Rias, you're free of Riser, no matter what those two say, you are free," Akeno said while helping her get out of her dress.

"I know, but they're kind of maybe a little bit right. If those two words had no impact on her, she wouldn't be this mad, but they were both right. She had gotten herself into this situation, and without the help of Eden, she wouldn't have been able to get out. If she had trained from the beginning, there would be no need for a party, and her winning against Riser would be a forgone conclusion.

"I have let you down as the leader of your peerage by being too lazy and not putting in effort, and I got you in a situation where I had to put you up as collateral in my contract with Eden." Akeno then caressed Rias's hair.

"It's not totally your fault as your servants; we should have been your advisors as Grayfia is to Sirzechs; we should have made you train and helped you succeed instead of just doing everything you said and thinking everything would turn out alright because we were talented."

Hearing that from her best friend since she was young almost brought Rias to tears. Rias needed to act like the king she was to the wonderful peerage she had been blessed with by Lilith.

"So, Rias, what are our plans after defeating Riser?"

"Getting stronger so we can absolutely crush the competition in the Youth Devil Gathering."

"Sounds like a plan; we will make everyone who doubted us regret underestimating our power." Akeno spoke again. "Are you going to ask Eden to give us some pointers?" Akeno asked Rias, even thinking about the man making her angry, a question in return: "Why do you even like Eden? He is the definition of an opportunist and just an asshole."

After a while of silence on Akeno's part, she answered her master. "He just checks all my boxes; he's hot, in a relationship, powerful, and I like his 'I do what I want' attitude. When he sliced Zekram, I swear I came a bit."

"But he's just a bad guy, and he does not take me at all seriously," Rias thought back to when he punched her when she wanted to stop training. She had never felt so powerless in her entire life. Honestly, for the rest of training, her motivation had not been to defeat Riser because she knew that was possible, but to get back at Eden. Even now, she wanted revenge. She wanted her peerage one day to be able to go head-to-head with Eden, and to do that, she needed all of them to get more powerful, but especially one person.

"Issei did not really get to shine during the peerage battle, did he?"

"No, he did not intentionally, but he will have his chance; he has been waiting since training to have a good fight."

"Also, we should get Issei his familiar. Maybe Sunday night, we can also get Gasper a familiar. We've been putting that off for the longest time," Rias suggested. They had to do it soon, especially since the full moon was approaching.

"Sona also has peerage members without familiars, so we could go with them. Maybe even Eden could come with us," she added.

"I know you want to fuck him, but please stop bringing him up."

"Yes, I do, but this is more about getting his help. If we invite him, he might feel obliged to help us train, and you more than the rest of us need his help."

"You are right but would

Sighing, Rias had to agree that the spells Eden had made for her were indispensable to her growth  until she could get him to teach her how to make her own spells.

"If the familiar forest does not get him to help us, maybe you can give me to him for a couple of days like Raven. I'm sure he would enjoy me much more as a slave than the bird-brained pipsqueak," Akeno said, trying to make a joke, but she knew the girl was sort of serious; she really had it bad for Eden.

"Akeno, I would never put you on the line again, even thinking that I would win. I have never been more stressed in my life than during the rating game."

"Then maybe you'll just have to do it," Akeno said with a chuckle.

"He wishes," Rias said, recalling the banquet. Even saying that the other problem she had with Eden was that he never looked at her. While she had felt his hand on her, from being looked at for her entire life, she knew it was more of a look of observation than the lustful looks she had gotten all her life and every day from Issei. This made Rias even more sure that Eden treated her like a child trying to act like an adult. One day she was going to make Eden look at her like an equal, she thought before getting back to her conversation with her friend.