They're Calling Me What?! (Part 2)

Notice:

A Demon Lord's Hero isn't mine, it's written by the author Fahad09 and can be found in FF or Ao3. I'm mainly doing this to spread the word that the author Aerle is not the author of Dxd: A New Hero. Do not subscribe to his patreon to read chapters behind a paywall when you can read it for free from the real author on FF net or Ao3.

I'm doing this cuz I thought it looked familiar and realized it was just plagiarism, I went to ff net to see and in one of the comments another use was also stating that Aerle was copying and trying to get people to sub to his P@treon. Looks like it's not his first time doing this too, since that commenter said he also plagiarized a Naruto fic called "With the Eyes of God," by the author cloud9stories

Since in Webnovel Aerle can delete comments and bad reviews, it's quite easy for the dude to scam people and get away with it. 

I'm extremely petty and I liked the original fanfics so Ima just post most of the chapter to fuck this guy over lmao. Also if you see a Patreon link with the title of "Aerle" at the end, it's most likely a scam lol.

=========Chapter 2 (part 2)==============

While Sona was still lost in thought, one of her Peerage members, a handsome looking blue haired girl raised her hand. I felt a little too much like a teacher as I indicated for her to speak, "You said you fought this 'Caster' person right?" Seeing my nod, she continued, "Well, seeing as you're here with us alive and well, you obvious must have won right? So how did you win?"

I broke out in a smile at that. Even though I knew it was my Pride getting to me, as I would never have even imagined myself behaving like this before, I couldn't resist a chance to show off one of my swords.

Plus, seeing as how Sona and the rest of the Peerage were watching me as they waited for my response, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to hammer the lesson in.

I raised both of my hand before me palms facing upwards, as if I was holding something invisible within them, I began to project a sword.

Though perhaps calling it a projection is no longer accurate. In this world, one without Gaia's interference or degrading of magecraft, my swords have become something more than a mere projection. They may be copies still, but they're copies that would no longer fall so short from the original.

That was not all that changed with my magic. Since becoming a Devil, I no longer need an Aria to activate my circuits. That's because my circuits are always on. The amount of Od I now hold in my body was ridiculous. At a level that would make even Rin turn green with envy. That's not even mentioning the changes that my circuits have undergone.

Right now my circuits have reached a standard of quality that would have been impossible for a human to achieve. Nothing short of a Dead Apostle could channel anywhere near as much Prana as I was currently capable of. That was the reason why I no longer needed to close my circuits; they no longer even noticed the strain of being kept open. Plus as a devil I needed to have my Prana, or Mana as they refer to it here, flowing throughout my body to survive. Mana is apparently is the equivalent of blood for Devils, we need it to keep pumping through our body or we'd drop dead.

A web of lines formed over my hand for the briefest of instant, shaped in an outline of a sword, before with a flash of light, it was replaced with the real thing.

Exclamation of surprise and startlement came from all around me, which I ignored as I looked down at the sword that I held in my hands.

Caladbolg II: The Fake Spiral Sword

It was a modified sword, one that never existed in real life, at least not in its current form. Based on the demonic sword wielded by the Irish hero, Fergus mac Róich, it had been altered to become more aerodynamic so that it may be fired from a bow.

Honestly I'm not entirely sure if I could even refer to it as a sword anymore. Unlike most swords, the blade of this one was not straight or even curved, but spiraled around like a twister. It looked more like a revolving drill bit than anything. If not for the hilt that was attached to the end of this spiraling blade, I doubt anyone would have guessed it to be a sword.

Done with my examination of the sword, not that it needed one, my blades are always perfect, I looked up to find every person in the room staring alternatively at either the blade or me with expression ranging from absolute shock to one of wonder, as if I had performed a miracle worthy of Christ himself.

What? What is going on? Why are they acting so surprised? Something like this shouldn't surprise them, everyone here has seen magic before, and hell, they should all be capable of performing magic themselves. I mean, they're Devils for Hell's sake-

Oh~ right, Devils, forgot.

Devils are inherently beings born of magic. Unlike humans, who can easily survive or even thrive without even a drop of magic, Devils will drop dead without it. This makes them especially sensitive to magic and magical anomalies, far more than a human mage or magus could ever be. And what did I do inform of them? I summoned a Noble phantasm packed with so much power, that it's more that capable of wiping the entire school off the map in an instant.

From their point of view I had just summoned a sword that can tear down mountain tops with a single swing, from what appeared to be nothing but air. And I currently have that very same weapon of mass destruction draped across my lap like one would a cat.

Thinking about it that way, their surprise is starting to make a lot more sense.

Sona being the first to recover, not surprising considering she probably witnessed her sister do far more outrageous things growing up, was the one to ask the question they were all thinking. "Shirou," never taking her eyes off the Noble Phantasm, "what is that?"

"This?" I repeated as if I wasn't sure why she was asking, "This, Sona, is a sword."

"That's a sword?" The boy asked this time and the words came out of his throat in a strangled almost terrified whisper. Clearly he never experienced power even approaching this scale before. Most likely because he was only recently reincarnated. What I did was impressive, yes, but the supernatural world was full of monsters. Compared to what some of those beings are capable of, what I just did was nothing special.

"Well, yes and no," I answered, "To be accurate, it was a sword, now it's more of an arrow. It's called Caladbolg, and it was this weapon that was able to slay Caster"

Patting the side of the sword, careful not to cut my hand on the sharp edges, I explained. "This was my solution to the Caster scenario. Caladbolg, in the hands of a skilled archer, can basically be fired upon a target like an arrow." I traced a path on the coiling edge of the sword. "You see how the blade corkscrews, when fired, it will cause the sword to spiral so fast that it can penetrate any target by creating a twisting distortion in space. The effect was so powerful that it tore thought Caster's magical defense like paper and was so fast that she didn't have enough time to even try to teleport. Even if she had, I honestly believe that she would have been twisted along with the space anyway."

Ok, I admit. I basically ripped this move from Archer, but so what? He was essentially me anyway; you can't plagiarize from yourself, now can you?

"Wait, wait," I was interrupted by blondie again as he pointed an accusing finger at me. Seems I was right in pinning him as the loud mouth. "You have a Sacred Gear too?"

I smiled at that, it wasn't a bad assumption by any means. It made sense too. No magic was able to craft swords out of thin air, at least not of this quality. Sacred Gears on the other hand were famous for doing things that were supposed to be impossible, magically or otherwise. It was, at least to them, the only thing that could explain what I had done.

It wasn't a bad assumption, but that still didn't make it the right one.

"No, I don't." I told him, and left it at that. It'll give them something to ponder on.

"Anyway, back to the original topic. Sona," She looked up from her examination of the blade, "this was my solution to Caster. An extremely powerful non-magical long-range attack. When I found I didn't have the speed to get close to her, nor the magic to match hers, I relied on the pure destructive power of this weapon to win."

"So answer me, Sona," finally getting back to the original question, "how would you have dealt with Caster if you and your Peerage had to face her as you currently are?"

This time I made sure not to interrupt Sona as she pondered the dilemma. I merely sat back and watched her think. Sona was a smart girl, far smarter than me if I was being honest. I had no doubt she'd figure out what I was trying to tell her on her own.

The fatal weakness of Sona's Peerage is the pure lack of fire power. I wasn't exaggerating when I said that this world was filled with monsters. Ones so powerful, that no amount of strategizing or planning can let you defeat them, simply because most people just lacked the strength to even scratch them, let alone actually injure them.

Compared to them Caster was nothing more than a fly. Yet Sona didn't even have anywhere near the power to defeat her.

Even that Gremory girl's Peerage had a better chance against Caster. Though I doubt she'd win considering how cunning Caster was, but in a straight head-to-head battle she'll at least have a fighting chance. With her Power of Destruction and her knight, who was reported to be one of the fastest Devils alive, there was the real, if small, possibility of them winning.

With Sona, even that small possibility doesn't exist.

"Shirou," Sona called out, knocking me out from my thoughts. I looked up to find her watching me with a rather suspicious look on her face. "You've been taking a great deal of interest on my Peerage today, almost unusually so. In fact I can't even remember a single occasion where you actually brought up the topic before." I resisted the urge to look away from her violet eyes that she locked onto me. "So, why the sudden interest?"

Now, you see, that's the problem with smart people. They make it almost impossible to sneak anything past them.

I shrugged, "Isn't it only natural to talk about Peerages after you brought up the Young Devils Gathering?"

"Actually," if anything my attempt in deflection just seemed to have made her even more suspicious, "I'm pretty sure it was you who brought it up."

"Did I?" Crap, I'm not even sure if that's true or not. "I honestly can't recall."

"Shirou, enough." She crossed her arms and glowered at me. "Just tell me what you're up to."

Ah well, looks like the jig is up. Even if I've gotten better at it recently, I've never been any good at this subtle manipulation stuff.

I rubbed my hand through my hair a couple of times as I looked away, "Well, it just since the Gathering is only a few months away I just thought you could use a hand in getting yourself ready, that's all."

She actually looked surprised at that. "You want to train us?" Her frames slipped down her nose as she said that. Huh, I guess, whatever it was she was suspecting me to say, it wasn't this.

"Pretty much," I crossed my arms and nodded at that. "So what do you say, want me to help out?"

For a long while she just sat there, staring at me in disbelief before she slumped back in her seat with a sigh. She took off her glasses and began massaging the bridge of her nose, "My sister put you up to this, didn't she?" It wasn't so much a question as it was a statement.

"What?! No! Of course not." My denial was so over the top that I doubt even a kindergartener would have believed me. "She will never do that, never. Especially since she knows that her beloved little sister would never accept anything from her if she believes it might be taken as favouritism. On the other hand sometime over the last month she gained the most peculiar habit of talking to herself out loud. She kept repeating the same thing too. She kept going on and on about 'If only there was someone who would help my dear So-tan train, I wouldn't be so worried' or something like that. It was actually starting to get a bit creepy by the end."

It really was. The last night I spent in the Underworld, I ended up waking up to find Serafall standing next to my bed, just watching me with unblinking eyes and repeating the words over and over again. I suppressed a shiver at that memory. I'll give her this much at least, Serafall sure knows how to get what she wants.

Propping her head on one hand, the one that still held her glasses, she just gave me an exasperated look. "So let me get this straight. The entire 'chess is worthless' speech you just gave me was basically nothing but a sales pitch, wasn't it?"

"Yup." I nodded, not even bothering to deny it, "It was completely true, mind you, but yeah, basically that's what it was."

Covering her face in her hands, she just tiredly muttered through them, "You could have just asked, you know?"

"Actually no, I couldn't." I corrected her, "Not only would you have probably refused my offer if I just flat out asked you, but I'm technically not allowed to. Remember, my orders clearly state that I'm not allowed to directly interfere in your business. Butting into your training, even if it ended up becoming beneficial, would have qualified as direct interference. On the other hand, if you came and asked me to train you, it would not count as interfering as I would have been invited to join thus I'd have been perfectly in my rights to accept and help you train."

Rather convoluted, wasn't it? I personally thought the entire situation was rather stupid, but apparently Devils love this kind of stuff. From the very first day of me setting foot in the Underworld, I've had it drilled into me that as a part of Maou's Peerage there were formal rules of behaviour that I was expected to follow. That was especially true since the Maou's themselves seemed to disregard them so completely, that their Peerage members are forced to pick up the slack by following them extra hard in their place.

Favouritism, for example, is one of the key issues. Apparently when the four new Maous were coronated, there was a big fear among the Devils that they would end up using their power to unfairly support their family over everyone else. That was actually a rather valid concern since nepotism was widely practiced in the Old Devil faction. So to dissuade those concerns, the new Maous willingly distanced themselves from their family by throwing away their old clan's names and adopting the traditional names for Satans.

That's actually why Sona refuses anything from her sister. Everyone knows how much Serafall loves her and Sona is apparently terrified of getting her sister in trouble. Unfortunately, it's actually a valid concern.

Just look at Grayfia. She has to go so far as to dress herself up as a maid to make it clear that she's not expecting to get any special treatment by marrying Sirzechs, and she's his bloody Queen. Well, actually, I've heard a few rumours say that she does it because Sirzechs has some kind of maid-dominatrix fetish, but that was too disturbing to contemplate, so I decided to just disregard it.

While it's not as bad as I'm making it sound to Sona, who has always been a stickler for the rules, has always taken things a bit to the extreme to make sure they're followed.

Raising her head from her hand, she gave a dead-pan stare, then without warning she just started laughing. Not a little one either, but an actual full-bellied laugh that shook her entire body. That actually caught me off guard a little bit as I had never actually seen Sona laugh so much before and, going by the looks that the rest of her Peerage were giving her, neither had they.

When her laughter finally subdued, although she still let out an occasional chuckle, she looked up at me with shinning eyes, "I can see why my sister chose you. A better match in hell has never been made before."

"Don't you mean heaven?"

"I know what I said, Shirou," she returned her frames to their usual place and give me one of her rare smiles "and trust me when I say there is no way heaven would ever approve of the two of you."

In spite of myself, I felt oddly pleased with that.

Letting out one final chuckle, Sona took a deep breath before shutting her eyes. Remaining almost completely still, she released her breath in one slow exhale. When she was done, she opened her eyes again and I found myself staring at a completely different person.

Gone were all the traces laughter and humour, disappearing as if they were never there. Sitting ramrod straight in her seat, Sona looked at me with a face that was equally formal as it was cold. Not a hint of warmth remained; it almost felt like I was looking at a stranger.

This was a side of Sona that I rarely saw, although it was the one she apparently wore the most. This Sona wasn't my master's little sister nor was she the girl that was quickly becoming my friend. This was Sona Sitri, the heiress of Sitri Clan, the president of Kuoh Academy's Student council.

Cold and formal, it was something that I have only seen once before, the side of her that she wore when we first met, though it didn't last as it quickly melted away when Serafall introduced us and told her who I was.

It was as if she had some kind of internal switch that she could simply flick and switch between personas.

She looked at me straight in the eye before lowering her head in a formal bow, "Emiya Shirou," She stated, "I, Sona Sitri, heir of one of the 72 pillars, humbly invite you to attend the training session of both my Peerage and myself and grant us whatever assistance that you are willing to offer."

See what I mean? Complete stickler for the rules, this one. She could have just said 'can you please help us train?", and that would have been enough. Honestly, even most of the older generations aren't this formal outside of work, but since she choose to go down this route that means I have to respond in kind and, honestly, I'm still not used to this kind of thing.

Returning a bow that was equally deep, "I, Emiya Shirou, servant of the Leviathan, gladly accept the invitation." I'm pretty sure that wasn't the proper response, but it will do. Now with that part over, I made sure to come out of the bow the same time she did.

Then like that her mask was gone, and the usual semi-formal Sona was back.

"Well," she adjusted her frames, "That was twenty minutes of my life I'm never getting back." Though she said it with a smile to tell me she was kidding.

She then looked over my head at something behind, "We've been here longer than I've originally expected. You'd better hurry up if you want to have time to eat."

I twisted in place to look at the clock that was mounted on the wall behind and found that she was right. Lunch was almost halfway over.

Rising from my seat, I started to make my way to the door, "Well, while I still have a few things I wanted to talk to you about, they can wait until after our first training session at least. When is that by the way?

"The next planned training will be tomorrow at seven in the evening in the school courtyard." She replied, "Now go to lunch, Shirou, I don't want you slacking off on your first day at school because you were hungry."

"Got it," I had just reached the door at that point and had slid the door half way open before I remembered something.

"Oh, and Sona," I looked at her over my shoulder, "It's up to you whether or not you choose to listen to my advice, but when you choose your remaining Peerage members make sure they're the power type."

She just waved me away, "Understood, now get going already."

Nodding, I turned to leave, but was stopped when I was halfway out the door.

"And Shirou," I turned to find Sona staring at me, "call me Kaichou when we're at school."

I smirked at that, "Alright, Kaichou." And shut the door behind me, walking away to find a quiet place I can have my lunch at.

Inside the Student Council room the remaining occupants silently waited for the sound of their departing visitor's footsteps to recede. When it could no longer be heard, the entire student council appeared to release a breath of relief as they all relaxed.

The blue haired girl, Tsubasa, dropped a stack of paper she was working on onto a nearby desk and pulled out a chair before slumping down in it.

"Well," She said after running a hand through her hair, "that was unexpected."

Turning her head towards Sona, she commented, "Kaichou, when you told us to prepare for guest a today, I didn't expect it to be him."

"Who was that guy anyway?" Saji, the only boy left in the room, asked.

"You mean you don't know, Gen-chan?" Momo looked surprised at that, before with a small exclamation of realization the raven haired beauty she palmed her head, "Ah, that's right. You were just reincarnated a couple of months ago, weren't you? Of course you wouldn't have heard."

"Heard what? Is that guy a big shot or something?"

"Something like that," Tomoe, a cheerful looking girl with pigtails responded. Glancing at Sona from the edge of her eyes, she added with a playful smile, "Although what really surprised me was how open Kaichou was acting. I don't think I've ever seen her act like that outside of us, Rias and her precious Onee-sama. Normally she's so shy that she barely says anything more than she needs to."

"That's true." Tsubaki agreed as she handed her King a cup of steaming tea, "I honestly didn't expect them to get along so well this soon."

Taking the cup from her Queen, the topic of the conversation decided to interrupt. "How many times must I tell you not to talk about me as if I'm not even here?" Lifting the cup to her lips she paused, "And besides," she added before taking a sip, "I'm never shy."

"Sure you're not." Tomoe's playful smile turning into a teasing one as she insincerely agreed.

Letting out a sigh, Sona decided not to comment on her knight's tone, "I don't see what's surprising about my behaviour," deciding to go back to the original topic of the discussion, "It's only natural; after all, it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say he's practically family."

"Ehh~~~!" Saji yelled out in surprise, "You mean that guy's your relative?"

Grimacing at the sound of her pawn's overreaction, Sona set her tea cup down, "I guess it's not surprising that you don't understand", she muttered quietly to herself before making her decision with a sharp nod, she stood up and faced Saji.

"Very well then, as your King it would be remiss of me to keep you ignorant." She clapped her hand and pointed at a chair for Saji to sit on, "so it's time for a history lesson."

Pacing across the room with her hands folded behind her back, Sona waited for Saji to settle himself on his chair before asking, "What do you know of my sister?"

"Ah!" Seemingly startled by the question, Saji needed a moment to think on it before answering "Well, your sister's a Maou right?" He said almost questioningly. Seeing Sona encouraging nod he carried on, "The Leviathan, one of the four leaders of the underworld and is responsible for foreign affairs. She and the other three are war heroes from the civil war and are considered to be among the strongest Devils in history."

"Correct," She said as she continued to pace in front of him, "And what about her Peerage?"

"Her Peerage?" He repeated before he tried racking his brain for an answer. "I…I…" he muttered out for a couple of seconds before slumping forward, disappointment filling his posture.

"Sorry, Kaichou, I don't know." He said, looking more than a little ashamed by his inability to answer.

The smallest hint of a smile made its way to her face at her Pawns overreaction, "Don't beat yourself up over it, Saji, it's only natural for you not to know." She told the depressed boy, "After all, she doesn't have one."

"Really?" The shock of that seemed to knock him out of his depression. "Even though she's a Maou?" He asked, incredulity clearly written all on his face.

Grimacing at the question, Sona nodded her head as she subconsciously increased the speed of her pacing.

"Since the end of the Civil War against the Old Devil faction, my sister has refused to form a Peerage. Not even a single member." She lectured. "As you can no doubt imagine, my sister's lack of a Peerage came as a surprise to a lot of people. It soon became a huge subject of controversy in the Underworld. Add the fact that it had been over two hundred years and the problem only grew. It reached the point where rumours began to spread about her."

Her grimace turned to an outright scowl, "Rumours," Spitting that word out like a curse, "which claimed that the reason why she refused a Peerage was because she disapproved of Reincarnated Devils as a whole. That she considered them a blight on the purity of Devil-kind."

She angry waved her hand before her as if dismissing the idea, "Preposterous, of course, my sister has never cared even the slightest bit about the blood purity of Devil-kind before, but that didn't stop the rumours from spreading anyway. And every year the problem just seemed to keep getting worse.

"It reached the point that the other Maou's tried to intervene and attempted to force her to form a Peerage, even one just in name but that ended up blowing up in their faces. She was steadfast in her refusal to form a Peerage, not even a single member. Even informing her that she was running the risk of losing her position as a Maou, if public unrest on the matter continued to grow, failed to persuade her."

"In the end it only made matters worse, as when the public found out how hard she fought against the idea of forming a Peerage, it only helped to feed the flames." She paused her pacing and turned to face Saji as he continued to listen attentively.

"Honestly, Saji, things were getting really bad. You have to understand that one of the biggest issues that plague modern Devil society is the subject of the Reincarnated Devils. Remember, we have only been able to reincarnate humans to Devils for the last couple of centuries and while that may appear as a long period of time for you, for Devils, who can measure their lives in millennia, that was practically only two decades ago at most. Over two-thirds of living Devils still remember a time where the evil pieces system didn't exist."

She turned and resumed her pacing. "In recent years tension between Pure Devils and Reincarnated Devils has risen to an all-time high. And with the numbers of Reincarnated Devils steadily increasing compared to how the number of Devils from the 72 pillars keeps declining no matter what we do with each passing century, the situation didn't seem to be getting better any time soon."

"Despite all that it wasn't an immediate issue. Devils, because of their long lives, take far longer to change socially than humans do. While it is a growing problem, it was not one that had to be dealt with immediately, but it's only a matter of time. A few decades, maybe century or two, then the issue will become too big to ignore anymore."

"The Maous, still dealing with damages from the Civil War and the remaining threat posed by the remainder of the Three Factions, could not afford to alienate any member of the Devil communicate and thus have decided to remain neutral on the issue."

"So that means-" Saji muttered out as he connected the dots.

"Yes," Sona agreed, "that means that my sister's persistence in rejecting a Peerage was seen as her supporting the Pure Devils agenda. Which meant that as far as the public was concerned, the Maous where no longer considered neutral and have already chosen a side to support."

Releasing a frustrated sigh while adjusting her glasses, Sona continued, "Instead of being something that could be put off for a later time, it quickly became an issue that had to be addressed immediately. And just when it reached the point where the Maous had no choose but to leave their neutrality and publicly take a stance on the matter," Sona walked up and stood right in front of Saji before spreading her arms open, "the entire issue became pointless as one day out of the blue, my sister pranced into the middle of a press conference that Sirzechs was holding and informed him that she got a new Peerage member and pranced right out without saying another word."

"Ehh~~~~~!" Saji shouted in shock and truthfully she couldn't blame him for his reaction, as that was the same response that every Devil in that room gave at the news, Sirzechs included. Which was unfortunate for him as many of the reporters had cameras.

His surprised face (jaw opened so wide that it reached the middle of his chest and his eyeballs bulging out) made the front page over Serafall's new Peerage member in quite a few of the newspapers. The newspaper companies have reported record breaking sales that day, though whether it was due to Serafall's announcement or Sirzechs picture was debatable.

A smile that was a cross between fondness and exasperation graced Sona's lips as she muttered, "That's just like her."

Shaking her head at the memory, she continued, "Anyway, that occurred a little over six months ago. Not surprisingly, after all the problems that was caused by her refusing to get a peerage for two centuries, only for her to turn around and suddenly get not just a new member but a Queen at that, had the whole supernatural world buzzing."

"Yeah, I remember that," Tsubasa interjected, finally breaking the silence from the rest of the Peerage, "the Underworld's social network was filled for weeks about people messaging and tweeting each other over Serafall's new queen. Yet at the time all anyone knew about him was his name."

"Emiya Shirou," Sona confirmed, "his name and his picture was the only thing Serafall released to the public. That was however enough to trigger a global wide search effort for any information they could find about him.

"In the end, he turned out to be someone no one ever heard of before, and I mean no one. Every news network, spy ring and government agency within and between heaven and hell tried to find everything they could on him.

"All for nothing, the collective effort of the entire Supernatural community failed to uncover even a scrap of information on the Leviathan's new Queen." The edge of Sona's lips lifted slightly, giving her an almost proud look. Her sister's ability to drive the entire world crazy with frustration was something that she couldn't but find amusing, especially after experiencing it herself for most of her childhood. It was nice having the rest of the world finally understand how she feels.

"The only thing they were able to confirm was that he formerly was a human, but that was only because he showed no physical or magical traits of any other race, rather than any success in their search effort."

Walking up to the seat she recently vacated, she sat down and took a sip of her now cool tea before she spoke again. "But that brought up another issue. A minor one, sure, especially compared to the ones his appearance solved, but something that needed to be dealt with."

Holding out her now empty cup towards her Queen, who quickly poured her a new one, which she proceeded to drink instead of speaking.

Seeing that his King had no intention of continuing, Saji quickly reached the end of his patience, "And? What's the new problem?"

Lowering her cup and shooting her pawn a mildly disappointed look at his inability to wait and mentally promising herself to correct that weakness, answered. "His rank."

"That's it?" Saji complained, clearly not understanding the problem.

"Think about it, Gen-chan," Momo interjected. "What does a Devil's Peerage represent?"

"Themselves," after taking a moment of thinking on it, "a Devil's peerage is a representative of the Devil in question."

"Correct," Sona nodded approvingly, "now taking that into consideration, tell me what should his rank be? Not only was he the Queen of a Maou, but he was also the only member of her Peerage, and since it took my sister so long to find just one member, it appeared that he would remain the only member for the foreseeable future. Thus the burden of representing her falls completely on his shoulders."

Taking one final sip of her tea before setting it down, she resumed "Before Shirou's arrival, every appointed Queen of the Maous were either already high ranking Devils before they became Queens or renowned warriors of Ultimate-class fighting abilities. Shirou on the other hand is a complete unknown, for all they knew he could have been a weakling. Considering that it was my sister who chose him as her Queen made that a frightfully realistic possibility."

Sona repeated her original question. "So, what should his rank be? Too low a rank, and it will basically be an insult to a Maou, something that no one involved wanted. Yet they could not give an unknown a high rank. Not only would it stink of favouritism, but they couldn't grant a high rank to what was potentially a weak Devil.

"Before it became too big a problem however, my sister gave an outrageous suggestion. Even by her standards it was considered insane." Her completely grim expression was all that Saji needed to know that even after the fact, Sona still didn't approve of her suggestion.

"What did she say?"

"She wanted to arrange a fight between Sirzechs and Shirou." Sona stated calmly before closing her eyes and leaning away in anticipation of the yell of surprise that would no doubt be coming from the easily excitable teen.

After several seconds had passed and the anticipated yelling had yet to come, Sona slowly cracked open her eyes to see what the matter was, before blinking in surprise. She blinked again, and again, and one more time to be sure. Yet there was no denying what she was seeing.

There, sitting stock still before her, was a completely frozen Saji. Jaw hanging open and eyes wide in shock, his skin having paled by several shades, he remained seated completely motionless before her.

"Ah…Saji?" her voice held a rare tone of uncertainty as she questioned her unmoving pawn. "Are you alright?" When he didn't show even the slightest sign of responding to her comment, she began to worry.

"Gen-chan?" Momo spoke up as well, and when he still didn't respond, the rest of the peerage started to worry.

Ruruko, a twin-ponytailed girl, walked up to her fellow pawn and waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello~~~ is anybody home in there, Saji?" When he still didn't react, she reached out a hand and gave him a gentle poke on his shoulder.

The moment she made contact, Saji reacted.

"Ehh~~~~~~~~!" Saji ended up screaming so loud that the windows shook in their frames. Every Council member in the room reflexively clamped their ears, while poor Ruruko had almost fallen over as she jumped back in fright.

"SHE DID WHAT? IS SHE INSANE?" He shouted out, skin still pale with shock. "She wanted him to fight Sirzechs, as in the Super Devil Sirzechs? The strongest Devil in recorded history, that Sirzechs?"

"No, we're talking about the other Sirzechs, the one that works as a part-time accountant in the local mall." Tsubasa snarked, before reaching across the table and gently cuffing Saji on the back of the head. "Yes, that Sirzechs, and keep it down, you almost busted my eardrums."

"Normally I'd take offence for calling my sister insane, but in this case I'm inclined to agree. What she wanted was completely insane." Pinching the bridge of her nose to stave of the headache the mere memory of the event brought on. "Somehow she was able to convince everyone else to go along with her madness, and before I knew what was happening, Shirou and Sirzechs were already fighting."

"Well, what the hell happened?" He asked before noticing the serious expression his master was sporting and began feeling a little nervous. "He didn't win…did he?"

"No, of course not. He most certainly did lose." Sona assured him with a slow shake of her head, "Then again, no one expected him to win nor was it the purpose of the fight. What everyone wanted to know was how strong he was and well… He proved himself to be most worthy of being my sister's queen."

Her eyes lost focus as she got lost in her memory "Sirzechs wanted to test Shirou, so he didn't initiate the fight and merely sat back and waited for him to strike the first blow. Instead of simply charging in, Shirou began to chant.

"Chanting?" Reya, a Bishop and thus one of the magic experts of the group, asked. "Like for a spell? But he's a Devil now; doesn't he realize that unlike human mages we don't need chants or circles to cast spells?"

"That's what we all thought too." Sona agreed. "Some of the Elder Devils watching actually started laughing and claiming how it was too soon for the kid to fight if he doesn't even know how to cast a spell properly."

Frowning at the thought of the Elder Devils, she continued, "As much as I hate to ever side with those old fools, at the time I was forced to agree. If Shirou didn't even understand the basics of how his Devil powers worked, it was going to end becoming even a bigger massacre than anyone ever expected."

"Honestly I was already apprehensive enough about the fight already, finding out that he was unable to use Devil magic however pushed me over the edge. I quickly turned around to find my sister and convince her to end this fight before she got her Queen killed, but the moment I caught a glimpse of her face, I froze in place. She was wearing a look that I recognized all too well, a cocky 'I know something you don't know' expression of hers that she always wore just before she was about to prank someone…" she paused before admitting, "which was usually me."

"Not sure whether to feel reassured or even more terrified by the revelation, I decided to simply stand out of her line of fire for the time being and watch how things played out. By the time I turned back towards the match, Shirou had just completed his chant and…well, to say what followed was unexpected would be putting it mildly.

"A ring of fire emerged from beneath his feat, quickly spreading across the field to encircle Sirzechs within its embrace and with a flash of blinding light, the ring was replaced with a giant dome of flames.

"It was a brand of magic that no one had ever seen the like of before. Despite its appearance, what we first believed to be flames were actually not, as it emitted no heat and a Phenex member in the audience could sense no fire in its construction.

"Not only were we faced with a form of magic that we could neither understand nor identify, but we also lost track of the two combatants as none of the cameras or sensors we had scattered across the battlefield could see through the dome. The few that were caught within its range did not transmit any images, which was supposed to be impossible. The only thing we could confirm was that both Shirou and Sirzechs were inside of the dome. And within nothing else we could do, we resigned ourselves to waiting it out.

"Fortunately our wait was not a long one. Hardly a minute had gone by since the formation of the dome, than it began to collapse as abruptly as it had appeared. We could finally see what was within the dome, but what greeted our eyes however was a bloody and wounded Sirzechs Lucifer…

…who had been brought down to his knees."

For a single moment, the entire Counsel room became so silent that you could have heard a pin drop before the silence was abruptly broken by the combined yells of shock from each and every member of her Peerage.

"EHHH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!"

Rubbing her head at her Peerage's overreaction, Sona muttered under her breath, "By the Satans, they're multiplying."

"He did what?" squeaked out a frightened Ruruko.

"B-b-but didn't you just say he lost?" a confused Saji question.

"I haven't heard anything about that! I thought all that happened was him giving Sirzechs a good fight." Tsubasa exclaimed, eyes wide in surprise.

Raising a single hand up, Sona signalled her Peerage to be silent, which they immediately complied to. After waiting for a few seconds to make sure that they would remain silent, Sona continued speaking.

"I believe you are all misunderstanding something. First of all, Saji." She locked her sights onto her Pawn, "Shirou did lose. He was spotted a few seconds later, unconscious and lying face down on the ground only a few yards away from Sirzechs, having succumbed to his wounds."

Turning her eyes away from her Pawn's onto her Knights, "As for why you haven't heard of this, Tsubasa, I thought it would have been obvious. Sirzechs is widely considered to be the strongest Devil in existence, his strength is so acclaimed that most people actually consider him invincible, untouchable even.

"While that is for the most part untrue, it is a useful image to have. As the public face of both the Maous and the New Devil faction as a whole, he needed to be viewed as a perfect and unmatched being. Despite that possibly Ajuka Beelzebub may actually be as strong as him, the entire Maous and Elder Devils agreed to make Sirzechs as the new poster boy for the New Devil faction when the war ended, so they did their best to bolster his admittedly already high reputation.

"That's why they could not allow the details of the match to spread. Even if he did win the fight, that he was injured at all, by a newly minted Devil at that, could not be allowed to be known to the public. All the High-Ranking Devils that were there were unanimous in that. Even my sister agreed.

"Besides, Shirou had a distinct advantage in that fight. Sirzechs's primary weapon is his Power of Destruction, something that is simply too dangerous to be used outside of a life or death situation. While he could still use it defensively, it is highly unlikely that he was able to utilize it to its full power offensively against Shirou without taking the risk of killing him.

"On the other hand, there is no way of telling if Shirou would have also performed better in a life or death battle. Each and every one of Shirou's swords struck Sirzechs in non-fatal points, or not imminently fatal at least. Whether Shirou would have done better or worse in a real fight," she shrugged "who knows?"

"Swords, Kaichou?" Her so far silent Queen asked.

"Ah, that right. I didn't get a chance to explain that, did I?" She recalled, "When we first caught sight of him, Sirzechs body was completely littered with swords. There easily was over half a dozen blades piercing his entire body, his chest, back, legs, shoulders - everything. And there were even more planted on the ground around him. Because of that, many theorized that Shirou's magic was based on swords somehow."

"You mean just like the one he showed us." Tomoe realized.

"If he made dozens of swords like that one, I can completely understand why he did so well." Momo barely withheld a shiver at the thought of that weapon. She may not have been the most knowledgeable about swords, but she was the best in the Peerage at sensing magic. Even when she sat on the other side of the room, she was overwhelmed by the pure power that poured out of that sword, it was so dense she could almost taste it. "That sword was dangerous, Kaichou, easily a Maou level weapon."

"I, as well as many other of the Devils there, agree with you. Some even speculated that some of the swords that were spotted may have been of God-slaying level, but the swords all dissipated into bits of light before anyone got the chance to examine them."

"Either way, while Shirou may not have been able to beat Sirzechs, he was able to wound him. His blades were able to reach him, to pierce the armour of the strongest Devil. At that point Shirou's strength could no longer be denied."

"That was enough to silence any dissenters. The Leviathan's Queen had proven his worth and was acknowledged by both the Elder Devils and the Maous as an Ultimate-level class Devil and was awarded the rank of prince, making him an equal in status to heirs of the 72 Pillars.

"The final result ended up completely satisfying the Reincarnated Devils, as this had not only dissuaded them of any doubts of my sister's stance on Reincarnated Devils, but it was also the fastest rise in rank to have ever been recorded for a Devil, reincarnated or otherwise. To make things even better, Shirou is the first and only completely reincarnated human Queen to have been made part of a Maou's Peerage. This has caused my sister's reputation to flip among the Reincarnated Devils, actually making her the most popular among the Maous instead of the least." Sona shook her head in disbelief at that, "I swear, if I didn't know any better I would think she had planned the entire thing straight from the start."

"What about the Pure-Blooded Devils? I doubt they would have been pleased by the result." Tsubaki, the most politically conscious member of her Peerage, asked.

"That's the best part, every Pure-Blooded Devil that strongly opposed the rising pressure to grant more rights to the Reincarnated Devils were there to witness the fight and were completely cowed by his strength. For Devils power is everything, and Shirou's strength was indisputable, so they quieted down for now. Though I have my doubt it will stay that way for long."

"The problem hasn't been fixed by any means, but this event was able to buy the Maous much needed breathing space and have given them enough time to strengthen their position before tackling the issue.

"By the end of the day my sister had gotten her Queen, dealt with the population's discontent with her and also decided to grant her Queen a title to honour the occasion."

Tsubasa broke out laughing at that, "Yeah, I remember that title. It was awesome." At the words, several of the Devils in the room began to chuckle along with her.

"What title did she give him?" Saji asked Sona, confused at the reaction of the rest of the Peerage.

A small, mean spirited smile appeared on her face, making her look so much like her sister it frightened everyone watching.

"They named him…"

The Queen of swords.

===========x=============x=============

There is no doubt in my mind, that somewhere out there Archer's laughing at me.

I pushed myself off the wall that I was leaning on, that was located at the opposite end of the corridor that contained the student council. I stopped reinforcing my ears, as I was no longer interested in eavesdropping on the rest of their conversation, and made my way to a quiet place to have my lunch.

This reminds me, I have to make sure Sona starts setting up measures to protect her room from magical surveillance from now on. Just because this is a human school is no excuse for her to get sloppy. That I was able to listen in on her for the past five minutes without her noticing was all the proof that I will need to convince her.

Ok, sure, he may have been betrayed by the very ideals he had dedicated his whole life to, murdered by the very people he was trying to save and has to spend the rest of his existence in a perpetual hell as one of Alaya's Counter Guardian where he is forced to murder millions of innocent people just because they happened to be in the way, but even he has never experienced anything as embarrassing as this.

I mean, really, 'Queen of Swords', how tacky was that?

It was a good thing that there was no one in the corridor or they would have witnessed me fall to my hands and knees in despair. Knowing my luck, I would have ended up with an even more embarrassing nickname by the end of the day if anyone did end up seeing me.

I could tolerate the swords part, but Queen? Oh, come on, I'm a guy! That Serafall has kept on trying to get me to adopt one of the songs made by the 'Queens" as my personal theme song didn't make me feel any better about the matter.

Oh, my pride, my aching pride. It actually physically hurt. It's at the moments like this that I hated being a devil. When I was still a human I simply wouldn't have cared. It never mattered to me what other people thought of me and I would have barely given any thought to an embarrassing name I might have been called by. Hell, I was dubbed the 'Janitor' by most of my classmates all through junior high and all the way up to high school and it didn't even phase me.

Ever since I became a Devil however, Pride has ended up becoming my personal 'Sin'. Fortunately, it was mostly limited to my swords and cooking, but every now and then it crops up.

Like whenever I hear myself being referred to as a Queen.

Letting out a sigh of surrender, I decided to let it go. I had better things to do than waste my time over something I couldn't do anything about, like making sure Sona or the Gremory girl didn't get themselves killed.

I could feel the good mood that I had been enjoying since returning back to school plummet a bit at the thought. War was coming, whether with the other three fractions or some of the others groups that despised Devils. One way or the other, war was coming to the Underworld.

That's why I had to go to such lengths to make sure Sona allowed me to train her. Sona in the end was half-right. Her sister did send me to train her, but not for the game. I'm not sure Serafall's heart can take it if anything happened to her little sister, so I was here to make sure I'd never have to find out. Besides, I liked Sona, I would have been happy to watch over the kid even if Serafall didn't ask me to.

Oh, just listen to me, I'm starting to sound like an old man. I'm only a year older than most of my classmates and I'm already thinking of every one of them as children.

I can worry about it later. Right now I better hurry if I wanted a chance to eat my lunch. With that last thought, I quickened my pace in my quest to find a suitable place to spend the rest of my lunch.

…but still, I'm a Queen of swords.

…Shut up, Archer.

 ===========x=============x=============

Tsubaki was just finishing up some last minute paper work, when she realized that her King wasn't in her usual spot, double-checking their work. Instead she was standing in front of her chess set, glaring down at it.

"Kaichou," approaching her, Queen hesitantly asked, "is something wrong?"

"…I just realized something," Sona finally answered after an abnormally long wait, "I never got a chance to play a game with him. That jerk tricked me!"