The night was young and the ballroom of Castle Phenex was dazzled with both artifacts and people of beauty. The wine was flowing, the banquet spread stretching the entire length of it. A mangnanimous, extravagant celebration, the likes of which only the richest house could afford, and even then for special occasions, for in their long lives, devils held little regard for the usual birthday celebrations. But today, was a special day, and it came with very special guests.
As I made my way across the room giving greetings, tending to the guests and socializing as was expected of me, I spotted from the corner of my eye, my father, up in the gallery giving me the signal. 3 fingers raised. T minus 3 minutes.
Finally!
I nodded and turned to the newest and last pair of guests I'd have to entertain.
"Lady Vassago, Lord Amon, thank you for gracing my celebration with your presence." I bowed.
"How could we miss such a thing! You'll only be ten once." Lord Amon laughed jovially, his rather large belly jiggling the hems of his coat like a ship's sail.
"And congratulations. May you live a long and prosperous life." She said, brushing her deep blue hair to the side, before she snapped her fingers at a nearby attendant.
He nodded and began to bring out a series of trays, full of gifts, covered with the finest satin.
"Oh, you shouldn't have, my lady." I made the polite gesture to refuse. Of course I wanted gifts but, you know…
"Nonsense. With your friendship with Eneely and Iolava, you're practically family. You wouldn't refuse gifts from family, would you now?"
I was close Eneely, sure, but family? Pfft.
We both knew the real reason they were here. And he would he here any minute now.
"How can I, when you put it so tenderly? Which reminds me, where is Enie?" I asked.
"Oh she should be around here somewhere." She waved a hand and looked around before crying out, "Enie!"
Her voice was soft, yet by some magic it found exactly its target, disturbing nary another soul. Their clan trait, Nostalgia, the ability to find and bind both objects and people depending on the time they spend with them. A terrifying trait, when used right, as it possessed the power to enslave anyone, given enough time. The ultimate prep time power.
A little girl, the spitting image of Lady Vassago in a 1:3 scale, scuttled over, clutching her flowing rose pink dress in both hands. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.
"Riser!" She jumped on me, pulling me into a bear hug, squealing in a cute voice, "Happy birthday, happybirthdayhappybirthday!"
"Thanks, Enie." I patted her back before gently prying her off me. I am not weak of will but no way am I falling for the world's most obvious mind control, though she may not mean it.
"Where were you?" Her mother pinched her ear.
"I was looking for Iolava. He's ran off again."
"Hahaha, he's just messing around with his friends, no doubt." Lord Amon laughed.
"Don't worry, Enie. When I find him, I'll send him straight your way." I assured her, before turning to the two clan leaders, "I'm sorry I must excuse myself. But the ceremony is about to begin.
"Don't let us hold you up, now. Go on." Lady Vassago said, and waved me off.
I bowed again and politely excused myself.
Just as I made my way to the gallery, I saw a magic circle appear at the top of the stairs, bearing the symbol of the guest of honor, two overlapping Tau symbols with a devil tail curled around them like the neck of a swan.
From it emerged, a bewitchingly beautiful man with lime green hair and soft, almond eyes.
Ajuka Beelzebub.
My father and the red-haired gentleman beside him, bowed slightly in greeting before my father rang a spoon on his glass attracting the attention of everyone who hadn't already noticed the Satan's presence among them. A hush fell over the room, as all eyes turned to the gallery.
My father walked up to the edge of the railing and raised his glass.
"Beautiful ladies and gentlemen of the underworld. Lord Ajuka. Lord Zeoticus. First and foremost, allow me to thank you all for coming all the way here, to witness this celebration. Lord Ajuka, thank you for personally making the journey, and taking the time out of your busy schedule to share in our joy. We are extremely grateful for your consideration."
Ajuka Beelzebub lazily waved him off, awkwardness oozing out of every pore of his body.
"It was no matter. I was free for the evening." He replied casually.
This guy…he's just really laid back, isn't he?
Well, I don't dislike that.
I likewise walked up to them and bowed.
"Lord Ajuka, Lord Gremory. Thank you for coming to my birthday."
And they nodded in acknowledgement. I didn't mind. This was no time for small talk.
My father spoke again.
"Today is a special day, not only because it is my son's birthday, or because it is the day he gets his Evil Pieces, but also because we have another announcement to make. But all in due time. Let us first commence with the ceremony so as to not waste Lord Ajuka's time."
Ajuka Beelzebub nodded, and walked over to me, kneeling beside me at eye level. He flicked his hand and from thin air, pulled out a tombstone shaped slate made of some type of dark obsidian.
"Usually, you would have to go to Agreas to get registered as a King and obtain the Evil Pieces, but just for today, I have made an exception." Ajuka explained, pointing to the slate, "This one-time use artifact is connected to the Monument of Kings on Agreas. All you have to do is drip your blood on it, and it will summon your Evil Pieces for you."
In truth, I had already gone and secretly registered on Agreas last week, but father wanted to show off our wealth, and promised a few favours to the government, including clearing out a portion of their war debt- yes, from the civil war 500 years ago. That was still a thing, despite their best efforts. It's just the nature of governments. The post war reconciliation campaign wasn't cheap either.
All in order to reinforce the impression of our power.
He was so extra sometimes. Still, it was a brilliant move politically. I have no doubt that after this and the other announcement, clan Phenex will have secured absolute authority within the eyes of the rest of devil nobility.
Now, to do my part in this charade.
I transformed my left hand into a claw, and decisively slashed off my right hand at the wrist, without so much as a whisper. It took all I had to contain myself from crying out in pain, and my teeth clench so hard I could almost hear them creek for a moment as they ground against one another, mitigating the waves of pain wracking my body.
I could see both Zeoticus and Ajuka wince at that, but what came next shocked them even more.
Catching the severed hand mid-air, I squeezed it into little more than mangled paste, draining the blood onto the slate, in a show of utter ruthlessness. It was a message.
We don't hesitate to do what is necessary. No matter the cost or pain. A masterclass in politics.
As the last of the blood drained into the slate, it seemed to absorb it all hungrily, like an insatiable sponge. Then, it began to shine, emitting an eerie blood red light. And from within the slate, began to emerge sleek, bone white chess pieces, marbled with wine red veins of blood that seemed to pulse as if they were alive.
Fifteen of them.
Then Ajuka Beelzebub's perfect eyebrows perked up in surprise. I followed his gaze to see a pawn emerging at the end of the slate with an additional set of grey veins alongside the red ones, like calcite upon marble.
"A Mutation Piece!" He pointed out.
"How rare!" Zeoticus Gremory added, "Shame it's just a pawn."
A Mutation Piece, the bug in the Evil Pieces system. It was a special kind of piece that contained far more power than usual. It was said that if a member of their peerage required more than one piece to reincarnate, a devil could substitute all those pieces with a single Mutation Piece. Though, it was just as rare as it was overpowered. Only one in ten devils had a single mutation piece in their set, not to mention more than one.
"I'm happy there's at least one. Doesn't matter if it is a pawn or not." I said, "I will cherish it all the same."
"Well said, son." My father patted my back. He then turned to Ajuka Beelzebub and thanked him again.
"Lord Ajuka, I would like to thank you once again for doing us this favor."
"Don't mention it." Ajuka once again waved it off.
"Though, if you wouldn't mind, we would like you to stay with us for one more moment. We have an announcement to make, and we would like very much for you to witness it."
"That's fine with me." He shrugged, and slunk back from the foreground, as my father began his speech.
"As we said before, today, we have one more announcement to make. Tensions have been rising as of late, the number of stray devils…." My father droned on as I retreated next to Ajuka, and grabbed his attention.
"If it isn't too forward of me, I would like to ask you a few questions." I whispered in a soft voice.
"Shoot." He replied nonchalantly, already lost in thought ,about some new invention most likely, zoning out.
"Can regular Evil Pieces change into Mutation Pieces later on?"
With that, I got his attention again.
"Sometimes, when a devil, reincarnated or otherwise, experiences explosive growth in power, their Evil Pieces can evolve into a Mutation Piece. But this is even rarer than the chances of a Mutation Piece appearing in a regular set. I can count the number of times it has happened on my fingers."
"Which is?" I pressed and he gave me an amused look, unused to such interrogation from others, in fear of his status.
"Eight times."
"A lot more than I thought." I mused.
"And what if I used the Evil Pieces on myself?"
And finally, he stood up straighter, eyes peeled on me, intrigued.
"That is…certainly a novel view. But as the pieces are tied to you, you cannot gain anything even if you used them all on yourself. They are a part of you, so doing that would be no different of self-cannibalization."
"But isn't there one piece missing in the set. There should be a king piece too, right?" I asked innocently, and for a moment his face flashed with suspicion. But then, it subsided as quickly as it came.
"There is no king piece. " He said, his expression softer now, and he pressed one finger to my chest, "Because you yourself are the king piece."
Heh. So, he has already invented the King Piece, huh?
Guess, I was a little off about the timeline. Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Kuoh sooner rather than later.
"And what if someone has already been reincarnated, but their master is dead? Can they be reincarnated into a new peerage then? In that case, what happens to their original piece? Is it like trading peerages or do the pieces merge? And what if-"
"I think that's enough curiosity for one day, little Phoenix." He cut me off, and pointed at my father, "You might want to pay attention to what your father is saying now."
I returned my attention to my father and Lord Gremory and saw them holding hands, raised high.
"…and in that spirit, we would like to announce the union of our two great houses, through the engagement of my third son, Riser Phenex and the heir to the Gremory clan, Rias Gremory."
A wild cheer erupted from the crowd, and my father called me up forward, but I noticed something they hadn't.
"Father, Father-in-law. Where is my child bride?" I asked.
Lord Gremory looked behind him, and saw no sign of his daughter. He let out a sigh, muttering 'Satans damnit, Rias' under his breath, while an unexpected peal of laughter rang out from behind me.
"Pfft…fuahahahaha!" Ajuka Beelzebub was laughing, clearly amused, as he pointed at me, "I like this one."
Lord Gremory just shook his head and held up a finger.
"Just a moment."
He cast a magic circle on the ground, and from it emerged a redheaded little girl in a pure white dress, going just, full hog on a piece of strawberry shortcake. As the light of the teleportation circle subsided, the little gremlin froze mid-bite, like a deer in headlights, scanning over us from the corners of her eyes before slowly taking one last bite, and swallowing the entire half of the pastry that was left, whole.
"Why are you like this Rias?" Lord Gremory groaned, rubbing his temples in disappointment.
_____________________________________________________________
Rias Gremory (5) being an adorable little gremlin.
Riser milking Ajuka.
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