The dinner continued for a few more minutes in silence, the occasional angry glare thrown my way by nero was the only other thing going on.
"Mother, Step-Mother. Ill be retiring early."
Helianor waved me off while Mother gave me a small nod. I stood up, dabbing my face with a napkin before walking out of the dining hall. Valentine followed shortly after. She was always lurking in the corner while I was with my family; she was just as much a personal bodyguard as she was a maid.
"Was it really necessary to provoke Nero, young master?" She asked curiously.
I knew her well enough to know she wasn't chastising me. In fact, I had no doubt that if I decided to murder Nero right then and there for no reason at all, she would have simply asked where to hide the body. It's one of the things I—
I shook my head as we reached the entrance to my personal training room. My face grew serious as I turned to Valentine.
"Valentine. Make sure nobody enters or disturbs me in any way. You have permission to use force. Unless it's my mother."
I'll forever be a mothers boy in this life.
She simply gave a small smile as I walked into the area, closing the door behind me.
I closed my eyes, thinking back on my first life to see if there was anything useful I could take from that… I settled on something many higher-classed mages used.
A skill called [Parallel Mind].
To be honest, I didn't know the exact academic theory behind it, but I knew the core concept involved splitting the user's Ego into different parts. If I could replicate this, I'd be able to create a mind that can back up my thoughts lest I forget anything, and another to help me better manage my energy and skills.
With the constant energy supply of [Radiance of the Morningstar] and the qualitative enhancement of [Brilliance of Venus], I should be able to.
I focused inward, visualizing my consciousness not as a single point, but as a divisible mass. Using the refined control granted by Brilliance, I began to drive a wedge through my own Ego. It was a jarring, discordant sensation
Dividing my own brain into separate parts was never going to be a pleasant feeling, but I pushed through, creating my second ego, one that managed my energy flow and skills.
Ill name this one….
"Vergil." I didn't know why, but it sounded fitting.
—---------------------------------------------------------------
Dante decided to spend the rest of his time analyzing his current situation.
'Unlike my first life, ill be spending time building up my power, instead of relying on Radiance to bulldoze my way to higher orders on sheer energy quantity. I made mistakes, one being Instead of naturally reaching the realm through mind, body, and energy harmonization, I neglected the mind part and focused on my energy quantity and bodies power. How foolish.'
Demonic power was the lifeblood of our race, a force present in every demon, however small. Its potential was limited only by one's imagination, visualization, and the balance of quality and quantity. One can manipulate the world with this. Not to mention the various bloodline abilities of the Ars goetia. Some were truly terrifying.
Even though the Lucifer clans bloodline abilities aren't directly combat oriented like say the Satanichia's or Satan clans bloodline, the aspect of generating high quality demonic power 24/7 made us terrifying beyond any other.
'It might be the reason why we were attacked. Its not a well known fact, but Magecraft came to be from the study of demonic power, and the failed mimicry of it. Jealous bastards…'
"The humans and elves had built a civilization on the crumbs of our accomplishments, then called us monsters for owning the loaf."
Hours passed as Dante continued to train, getting used to his current body, testing out its flexibility, its strength, its durability, going as far as to stab himself in the lung with his own hand, just to see how much vitality it possessed.
Demons are notoriously difficult to kill; it was a well-known fact that they could survive disembowelment and catastrophic organ failure depending on the individual's willpower and the environment.
As the wound in his chest knit itself back together with a faint, crimson steam—the Brilliance of Venus working in tandem with my natural demonic constitution, he figured out his limits relatively quickly.
'My body is already quite powerful from being a royal demon, even if im not evolved to a higher level. Though—the problem of how much of the Radiance ability I can output is a problem, anymore than 8% of the generated power could tear my body apart from the inside, and while I could most likely survive it, it wouldn't be a pleasant sensation.'
It was essentially like connecting a kitchen faucet to the vast ocean. Theres no way it could handle all of that.
Dante wiped a trail of blood from his chin, his thoughts shifting to the immediate future.
'The Young Noble Gathering is in a day. With Vergil managing the intake, I should be able to push myself to the peak of the 5th Order at the very least.'
Sniff. Sniff.
He paused, his nose wrinkling in immediate distaste. The metallic tang of his own blood mixed with the salt of hours of exertion hit him all at once. Dante glanced down at his clothes—once stylish, now ruined, soaked in sweat and gore.
It was disgusting. Even for a Demon, there was a limit to how much filth one could tolerate before the royal sensibilities kicked back in.
"Ill have to clean these…I cant believe I didnt take these off before starting."
Sighing to himself, he simply continued training, manifesting various spells.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------
Two days passed, the time of the Young Noble's Banquet commencing shortly.
I finally stepped out of the training hall, the heavy doors groaning open. Valentine was waiting for me. She didn't even try to hide her expression, standing several feet back and pinching her nose shut.
"Young master, I'm going to be blunt… YOU STINK!"
I was covered in layers of dried sweat, old blood from my vitality tests, and the grime of two days of non-stop exertion.
"Hey, don't you think you're being a bit harsh?" I asked, a small grin tugging at my mouth. I took a deliberate step toward her.
"Stay back!" she yelped, scurrying away. "I don't even know what that smell is, but it's making my eyes water. Please, just go to the baths. You can't go to a banquet looking—or smelling—like that."
I raised my hand in surrender, smiling faintly.
I turned and walked toward my personal bathing area. As I moved through the palace corridors, I passed various guards and maids. They all bowed out of habit, but I could see them struggling to maintain their composure. Most tried to hide their expressions of disgust at my current appearance and the stench that followed me like a cloud.
I couldn't blame them, really. I looked like I had just returned from a slaughterhouse, except the blood and the occasional bit of clinging tissue belonged to me.
Once inside the bathing area, the steam began to rise from the large, stone-carved tub. I stripped off the ruined clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor.
I sank into the hot water, closing my eyes as the heat seeped into my muscles.
'Vergil,' I called out internally.
[Current Order is Grandmaster, one step away from the peak. Output of Radiance is now 10.5%]
The voice that answered back was much like my own, though lacking any emotion.
Im quite satisfied with my progress, even if I didnt reach the peak of the fifth order, it was enough for now, especially with my current output of radiance. A 2.5% increase may not seem like a lot, but it truly was.
A knock brought me out of my thoughts. The door slid open as Valentine stepped in, wearing a mask that completely covered her nose and mouth to block out the lingering stench.
'Dramatic much?' As if sensing my internal jab, her eyebrows twitched. She stepped closer and knelt by the tub, taking my arms with a firm, practiced grip and beginning to scrub.
"You can put on your own clothes now, but not clean yourself? Young. Mas. Ter?"
The way she enunciated each syllable of my title was dripping with sarcasm. She was one of the few people who could get away with talking to a Prince who bore the title of "Morningstar Prince" like that—partly because she had been with me since I was a child, and partly because she knew I secretly preferred her bluntness to the suffocating sycophancy of the other servants.
"I was busy," I replied simply, leaning my head back and letting her work. "Cleaning takes time I didn't have. And I prefer it this way."
"Time you didn't have," she muttered, ignoring the second part and scrubbing a particularly stubborn patch of dried blood from my forearm. "You spent two days rotting in a training hall. If the other Houses saw you like this, they'd think House Lucifer had fallen into poverty. Or madness."
I closed my eyes, a faint smirk playing on my lips. Madness wasn't far off, I was far from what I used to be at this age.
"They won't see me like this, Valentine. They'll see exactly what a Lucifer is supposed to be."
She sighed, reaching for the scented oils to mask the metallic tang of the blood that the water couldn't quite fully wash away.
"Well, you'd better be ready," she said, her voice softening as she worked the oil into my shoulders. "The carriage leaves in three hours. Lord Nero has already finished his preparations. From what I hear, he's been practicing his manners and the like all morning. He's quite desperate to make an impression."
"Thats quite alright, its good hes preparing."
'Vergil, run a probability check on the chance of other kings heirs attending. Along with any other information you can pull from my memories.'
[Analysis: Probability of multiple Kingly heirs attending is a 25% chance. Records Also indicate the Duchess house of Gremory and Grand Duke house of Bael often send representatives to this specific cycle.]
I frowned. Hopefully, Nero and I would be the only Princes at this gathering. A meeting between the heirs of different Kingly Houses almost always ended poorly—ego, pride, and the natural desire of wanting to upstage a rival almost always was the cause.
I stood up once I was mostly clean, stepping out of the tub as Valentine looked away.
"[Clean]" I said, pointing towards my pile of clothes, the grime and blood disappearing in an instant, looking brand new.
"...." I felt a bit of sweat gather on my forehead, Valentine slowly turning her head towards me.
"You could do that…the whole time." It wasn't a question, more of a statement.
I ignored her, getting dressed quickly as I made my way out. I didn't want to deal with an angry valentine.