[Richter's POV]
The second table was louder than the first.
Of course it was, it was the Devil Team's table, and devils had never known the meaning of the word 'subtle'.
"Richter-sama~ please, sit here!" (Venelana)
"No, here! Next to me!" (Rias)
Mother and daughter had each pulled out a chair, one on either side of the same empty seat, which was to say that whichever seat I took, I would be sandwiched between two Gremory women with eyes shining like hungry cats. Riser, sitting at the far end, looked at me like I had stolen his dessert... which, considering his fiancée, I suppose I had.
'Is this the plan Layla mentioned? It is... not very good...'
"Venelana-sama, Rias. Sit down" Morrighan said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She was the leader of this team and my Bishop, and the leader of the Nephilim had very little patience for amateur hunters.
"B-But Morrighan-sama..." (Rias)
"Sit~"
*THUD!*
Both of them sat. Sona coughed into her napkin, Seekvaira pushed her glasses up to hide her smirk and Ravel looked at the ceiling as if the golden sky of the Pearl was suddenly very interesting. Kuisha and Zephyrdor exchanged the glances of people who had been sitting through this for the whole dinner.
I took the seat Morrighan pushed out for me instead, at her side. A shrimp platter appeared in front of me. Good.
"How are your members, Lucy?"
"Weak, master~ but they listen... sometimes" She leaned her head on my shoulder for only a second, enough for Venelana to bite her lip. "Rias especially, she has so much talent and wastes it on staring at you".
"I wasn't staring!" (Rias)
"You were~" (Ravel)
"Ravel!" (Rias)
I ate a shrimp. Then another one. The Gremory girl's face was the colour of her hair and I found it a little amusing.
"Richter-sama..." Venelana tried again, this time with a voice soft as silk, "In the Gremory household, we have a tradition... a mother always introduces her daughter properly toâ€""
"Venelana. You're going to choke on that tradition, eat your food".
"...Hai".
**
**
The third table was the Knights.
The moment I approached, Kiba Yuuto stood up and bowed so deeply his forehead almost hit his plate.
"Richter-sama, about what you said before... the sacred sword..." (Kiba)
"I'll give you one when you have the points. Or you can make one yourself, which would be better" I patted his blond head and he stood there frozen, not knowing whether to be honoured or humiliated. "A swordsman who needs to beg for swords is only half a swordsman".
"...I understand".
"He doesn't" Annette whispered.
"He'll understand when I break his blade tomorrow" Benneth whispered back.
"No, I'll break it first, little sis".
"Try it~"
*CHING!*
Their swords were half out of the sheath before Xenovia and Irina grabbed one arm each. The Pendragon boy, Arthur, kept drinking his tea as if nothing was happening. The three at the end of the table, Karlamine, Liban and Beruka, looked at me with the hope of being noticed.
I didn't remember their names.
"Good luck... you three".
"He talked to us!" (Karlamine)
"He doesn't know our names" (Beruka)
"He TALKED to us!" (Karlamine)
**
**
The Sorcery table smelled like tea and danger.
"Arara~ the Golden Dragon finally graces us with his presence" (Akeno)
"Nyahaha~ you made us wait, I was starting to think you only liked goddesses, nya" (Kuroka)
The two women were sitting much closer to each other than their glares suggested they wanted. Lavinia was poking a frozen cherry with her fork. Coriana was pushing her chest forward every time Akeno did. Le Fay had built a small wall of bread between herself, Asia and Gasper and the 'big ones'.
And standing behind them, pouring tea with the perfect posture of a maid...
"Grayfia".
"Master" (Grayfia)
"Weren't you supposed to be resting?"
"I am resting. I am merely serving tea, master. I am not coaching anyone" She refilled Tsubaki's cup while whispering, very quietly, "Your left hand flinched when you cast the barrier, fix it", to which the poor girl nodded like a woodpecker.
"I see. You're not coaching anyone".
"Not at all~"
I placed my hand on her belly for a moment. Warm. Strong. And underneath, that thing I couldn't take out without hurting them... it stirred, as if it knew my hand was there. Grayfia's smile didn't change, but her fingers tightened on the teapot.
'Later' I told her.
'Hai, master'.
**
**
The fourth table was a war council.
"So the plan is, we all wait for the weekend and thenâ€"" (Issei)
"Shut up you idiot!" (Saji)
"â€"we all gang up on the God Team!" (Issei)
...
The table went silent. Vali facepalmed. Sairaorg sighed with the patience of a mountain. Bikou slowly hid behind Tobio. Natsume, who had wandered over from Azazel's people with a plate in her hand and planted herself behind Tobio's chair as a 'visitor', shook her head.
And then Albedo, the leader of the Tank Team, my second Bishop, laughed... and the temperature of the whole Pearl dropped.
"Ara, the boys have a plan~ how cute. A plan to betray their own teams on the first day" (Albedo)
"I-It's not a betrayal! It's... it's tactics!" (Issei)
"It is a betrayal and I love it~" Albedo turned her head and looked straight at the Devil table, at Rias, and raised her voice for the whole hall to hear. "Since we're sharing plans... Rias~ how is your little plan going? The one with your mother? Did Richter-sama like the sandwich?"
!!!
The whole dinner turned around.
Rias' chair crashed to the floor.
"Albedo!!!"
**
**
[Fia's POV]
I had been a mother for a very long time and I knew the sound of a tantrum before it started.
This one started with a sphere of red and black.
*VWOOOM!*
The Power of Destruction of the House of Bael, inherited through Venelana, flew over three tables at Albedo's face. It was faster than last year, I'd give the girl that.
Albedo didn't even stand up. She raised one hand and slapped it to the side like a fly.
*SPLASH!!*
The sphere fell into the golden river and a column of gold-tinted water exploded upwards. Ni Jie clapped from the dragon table. "Again! Again!~"
"Is that all, Gremory?" (Albedo)
"Not even close!"
Rias jumped over the table with her wings spread. Two more spheres formed in her hands. She threw the first one straight, a loud, obvious, angry attack... and Albedo moved for the first time, rising out of her chair and stepping into the air to catch the girl by the collar.
"Got you~"
"No... I got you".
The second sphere had been thrown at the same time, but low, curving behind Albedo's back like a boomerang. Small. Quiet. Nothing like Rias.
*fsssh...*
It brushed past Albedo's head and a lock of her black hair floated down, the end of it crumbled into nothing.
...
The hall went silent again. Albedo slowly looked at the lock of hair in the air. Then at Rias, who was hanging from her hand with a triumphant, terrified smile.
"...You littleâ€""
*BONK!*
*BONK!*
My ladle hit both of their heads with exactly the same force. Because I'm fair.
"Ow!" (Rias)
"Mother Fia!" (Albedo)
"It's dinner. We don't destroy things at dinner. Sit down, both of you, and if you want to kill each other, you can do it tomorrow during the training like proper young ladies".
"...Hai" (Both)
Albedo dropped Rias and returned to her chair, but before she sat, she glanced over her shoulder at the redhead.
"Not bad, Gremory... next time I'll take your head instead of your hair".
"Next time it won't be your hair" Rias muttered back, rubbing her head.
Venelana was clapping silently with tears in her eyes. Morrighan was massaging her temples. And at the dragon table, my son-in-law...
My son-in-law was asleep.
**
**
He was sitting at the head of the dragon table with a shrimp in his fingers, his head tilted forward and his golden eyes closed. The commotion, the explosion, the screaming... none of it had woken him.
Li Suo was sitting at his side and her hand was resting on his back, a faint green light flowing into him. When she noticed my gaze, she smiled apologetically.
"Master is tired, mother Fia. The Pearl... he keeps it stable with his own energy. He should be using it to recover" (Li Suo)
"I know, dear. He won't listen though".
"He never does~" (Jie Yuan) The Devil Emperor took the shrimp from his fingers before it could fall and, after a moment's thought, ate it herself. "Mn. He's right, these are good".
I looked around the hall and, unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who had noticed.
At the God table, Nyx had her chin on her hands and her eyes on my son-in-law. She wasn't smiling the way she usually did, with that cruel, innocent mischief. She was looking at him the way a woman looks at a man who hasn't slept properly in a very long time.
Then she smiled... and that smile was much worse.
_'He needs rest... and I know just the girl who can give it to him~'_
**
**
[Richter's POV]
"Master... master, wake up~"
"Mn..."
Li Suo's voice. And a hand, Grayfia's, in my hair. When I opened my eyes I was no longer at the table but in my chambers at the top of the Pearl, a golden bed beneath me and two women beside me.
"How long...?"
"Only an hour, master" (Grayfia) "Mother carried you".
"...How embarrassing".
"Very~" Li Suo giggled and lay down against my chest, her fingers tracing slow circles. "Master, you can't keep doing this. If you hold the Pearl and also..."
"I'm fine".
"You fell asleep holding a shrimp".
"...I'm mostly fine".
Grayfia lay down on my other side carefully, a hand on her round belly, and kissed my jaw. Her voice was the voice she only used with me, without the maid, without the goddess. "Then let us take care of you tonight, master. You don't need to do anything... just rest".
"That's not resting".
"It's our kind of resting~" (Li Suo)
Li Suo didn't wait for me to argue. She knelt at my side and undid my robe one fastening at a time, slowly, as if she were unwrapping something fragile, and pressed her palm flat over my heart. Warm green light sank into me. The ache of holding a whole world up, the one I'd been pretending all evening I didn't feel, loosened a little under her hand.
"There~" she murmured. "See? You were lying. Healers can tell".
"I wasn't lying. I was rounding down".
Grayfia laughed against my jaw, the quiet laugh she never lets anyone else hear. She moved carefully, mindful of the weight she carried, and I turned onto my side so she could settle against me without pressing on her belly. Her silver hair spilled over my arm. I kissed her slowly, and she kissed me back the way she always does when she's decided something, unhurried and very certain.
"Lie still, master" she said. "That's an order from your Queen".
"You don't give me orders".
"Tonight I do".
So I lay still, which was harder than any fight in the Pearl. Li Suo's mouth followed her hands down my chest, and Grayfia's fingers slid into my hair and held me where she wanted me, kissing me deep and slow while Li Suo took her time with the rest of me. Neither of them hurried. Neither of them let me help. Every time I reached for one of them, a hand caught my wrist and laid it back down on the sheets, and someone laughed softly in the dark.
When Grayfia finally guided me into her, it was on our sides, her back to my chest, my hand spread over the curve of her belly where our child was sleeping. She set the pace. Slow, rolling, careful. I felt her breath catch every time I moved deeper and felt her press back against me for more anyway. Li Suo curled in front of her, kissing her, kissing me over her shoulder, her small hand laced through ours on Grayfia's stomach.
"Gentle~" Li Suo whispered, to neither of us and both of us.
"I am gentle".
"I know. I'm just saying it because I like saying it".
Grayfia came first, with a low sound into Li Suo's shoulder, shivering in my arms. I held her through it, perfectly still, until she breathed again and turned her head to kiss me. Then she pushed me onto my back with one hand and said "Her turn" in the voice she uses for unruly maids, and Li Suo climbed over me, flushed and smiling, and sank down with a soft sigh like someone sliding into warm water.
She rode me slowly, her hands on my chest, green light still flickering faintly under her palms, healing me even now. Grayfia lay beside us with her head on my shoulder and watched, and stroked Li Suo's hair, and whispered things to me I'll never write down.
I lasted longer than I deserved to. When it took me, it took me quietly, both of them holding on, and for the first time in weeks the weight of the Pearl felt like nothing at all.
"Better?" Li Suo asked, collapsing onto my chest.
"...Better".
"Told you~ Our kind of resting."
**
**
When they fell asleep, one on each side of me, I stayed awake a little longer and looked up at the false sky of the Pearl.
Tomorrow was the first battle royale.
Somewhere down there, Albedo was already planning to take Rias' head. The boys were planning a betrayal everyone knew about. Grayfia's not-coached girls were planning something nobody knew about. And Nyx...
Nyx was planning something too. I could feel her gaze even from here.
"Show me your best, lads~" I murmured, and closed my eyes again.
This time I slept without dreaming.