Chapter 6 I didn't know that was there.

"You're late." a tall man in an elegant silver suit said. He had gray hair that was cut within an inch of his head and a full beard of the same color. A plain longsword was sheathed at his hip. His back was to me, but he turned around as I entered. "Summon your weapon and we shall begin."

Sir Belford wasn't one to waste time, especially when it came to swordplay. Father reincarnated him centuries ago. While he wasn't knight of the round, he did serve under King Arthur. After Camelot fell, he had nowhere to go and accepted my father's offer to join his peerage. He had served as my physical combat instructor since mother and father let me begin training. We mostly covered swordplay as it was his area of expertise, but he was also imparting his knowledge of various martial arts he had picked up over the years.

With a sigh, I conjured a flaming longsword and took up a stance opposite Belford. The following hours promised to be painful.

Fourteen Years Old

"I have mail?" I said in surprise. I didn't have any friends, nor had I ever left the Phenex grounds for any extended period of time. The concept that someone would write to me was a foreign one.

"Yes, my lord. It arrived just this morning." Yuri, one of my family's many servants said as she curtsied and left.

I stared suspiciously at the letter in my hand. Surely mother and father wouldn't have let it get to my hands if it was cursed. Right?

With a wave of my hand a flame clone appeared. I took cover behind my dresser while the clone opened the letter. When nothing exploded, I peeked my head over the clone's shoulder and started reading.

The letter was plain white with gold embroidery around the edges. The elegantly styled letters thanked me for taking the time to read the letter and requested a small allowance of my precious time to consider the prospect of taking the daughter of whoever sent this on as a pawn in my peerage.

The amount of sunshine being blown up my rear was more than a little off-putting, but given whoever this was thought I was a run of the mill, stuck up Pillar Devil – Pillar Devils being members of the 72 original noble Devil clans – it was to be expected. What I didn't expect was for someone to write a request to get their kid in my peerage.

I'd received my peerage pieces, small chess pieces of mastercrafted alchemy that allowed me to reincarnate others into devil servants, of course – Pillar devils were exempted from the requirement of being a High-Class devil before receiving them. It was one of the many ways the New Satans were trying to keep the old blood happy. Not that devil politics were overly impactful on my day to day life.

I'd actually had my pieces for a couple of years now, I just hadn't really prioritized using them. I had lucked out by getting a mutation bishop, a special piece that would allow me to reincarnate anyone I used it on, regardless of how powerful they were. Typical pieces could only reincarnate someone of a certain strength ceiling with that strength ceiling correlating to the point values of actual chess pieces. A queen was worth nine. A rook was worth five. Knights and bishops were worth three. And pawns were worth one. It wasn't an exact crossover, but it was close enough to use as a guideline.

Honestly, I had expected to not get any mutation pieces. They were incredibly rare, so the fact that I got one, a useful piece at that, was a definite win in my book.

My fire clone dispersed, letting the letter fall into my waiting hand as I considered its contents. There was an address above the signature, one Akira Gale. I had no idea who that was. Deciding I really didn't have anything better to do, I made my way down to Clarissa's study. On the way I caught up to Yuri and told her to inform my parents what I was doing and where I was going. It was common sense to always give people who care about you a last known location when meeting suspicious people you have never met.

I knocked on the door and walked inside when I was told to enter.

"How may I help you, young lord?" she asked, casually setting aside a human skull she had been about to drop into a cauldron. This was fairly typical for her, so I didn't ask.

"I got a letter from someone I've never met asking me to consider their kid for my peerage. I don't really have anything better to do so I was going to check it out, but I don't want to be alone in case there's an army of kidnappers or child murderers waiting for me."

Clarissa blinked, then casually reached behind her and knocked the skull into the cauldron, causing a small amount of sickly green liquid to spill over the rim like foam bubbling over the rim of a tankard of beer. "I will gladly accompany you, my lord. Please give me a moment to prepare." She walked up to a bookshelf that slid to one side and headed into the secret room hidden behind it. I didn't know that was there.

A few minutes later, Clarissa returned. In place of the plain black robes she was wearing before, she now wore a light set of hard, leather armor that was splotched with grays and browns. A hefty, burlap satchel was slung over her shoulder. It was likely stocked with various components she thought she might need to fend off child murderers.

"I am prepared, my lord. Will you require anyone else to accompany you?"

I shook my head. "No. I just wanted someone who could stall long enough for me to teleport us away and send in the cavalry. You can do that well enough on your own." Teleportation wasn't instantaneous. You needed a good chunk of time to perform the ritual which was why it was rarely used in combat except to run away. It was also why I was so focused on perfecting my fire form. I needed a battle-applicable form of mobility that would let me keep up with people whose speed outclassed my own.