Story 2: Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Story 2: Bune Farmer 

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 8: Passing Time

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

- Mathias -

I looked at the sight in front of me and smiled.

It’s been three months since the Rating Game and the debut of Armin and the people who gathered in my farm had increased by a lot.

For one, both my fiances were actually doing physical exercises with other members of their peerages.

Seeing Armin's performance had lit a fire in the girls. Till now they knew we were strong but had no idea about how strong.

And when they did… this was the result.

Since his Rating Game, Armin had been hounded by several devils for different kinds of things, especially marriage proposals. His mother had been furious, especially because several of the houses who had made fun of him before the match were now requesting to sign marriage contracts with him.

Armin just got up and left. He‘s been staying here for the last three months and plans to stay here for a year or so to avoid all that mess. His pawn, Lisbell, joined us as well. She felt that she was too weak and Armin’s mother didn’t want her to be left behind so she sent her.

I finally tested out my Biotope Creation Skill and made a zone with different gravities. The more one goes towards the centre, the more the gravity they experience.

The upper limit of the gravity is two hundred times earth’s gravity.

Armin and Sairaorg were at thirty times the gravity while the girls were at five times gravity right now.

Gravity training was much harder than what I had guessed previously.

It exerts pressure on all of the body, even the internal organs and makes blood flow harder as well. That said, it does push the Gourmet Cells harder to make them adapt. So, I too use it for my training.

Apart from this, I also changed the area where the Dragons live to double the normal gravity and plan to slowly increase the gravity to higher levels. Tiamat suggested this method. Dragons are extremely adaptive and they would grow faster this way.

I train at a much deeper level though. At the centre.

The only one beside me who trains there is Crom. Even Tia can only take one hundred and fifty times without challenging magic. And that was the purpose. To adapt the body to higher gravity. Using magic wouldn’t give the same results.

“Gyaaaaahhh!” A shout attracted my attention and I turned towards the side to see Gasper running around to save his life. There were two dragons following him.

This was Tia’s training for him. Those two dragons were taken in by Tia and she was training them herself.

Right now they were assigned to follow Gasper and breathe wisps of fire to scare him a little so that he runs for his life. The funny thing is that both the dragons actually enjoyed it. An even funnier thing is that Gasper actually never actually complained. In fact, he got along very well with both the dragons. The funniest thing was probably Valerie and Shirone, riding the dragons while they chased Gasper around the field.

In the last two months, several of my Dryads had evolved to the C+ Rank and now I could relax somewhat.

At this rate, I think I will be able to upgrade my farm in around three years.

Right now, I am working on something else entirely. Something to assist my other Skills, especially Life Magic and Touki - Senjutsu.

It was suggested by Euclid and Kuroka was a good teacher. There were still three years till I could upgrade my farm so I decided to try to learn this one on my own instead of using the System to learn it for a change and I have to say that the feeling was wonderful.

When used together, it gave me a lot of ideas about how to enhance my Life Magic.

Armin finished his training and came and sat beside me. “How is your training coming?”

“Good. The Underworld in general is not a good place for learning Senjutsu due to all the corruption nearby. This sub dimension is much better though. How does thirty times gravity feel?”

“I am getting used to it. The gravity itself is not a problem but spending a long time here without reinforcing myself with Demonic Power can be stressful.”

“You could easily go to fifty though.”

“I can. I am just waiting for the others to get a bit stronger. In the meanwhile I will work on my Magic. Father is happy with my progress but as the next Head of the House, I need to practise my House magic as well.

“You look stressed? Did something happen?” I asked.

He let out a sigh and closed his eyes. “Tobio and the rest were quite worried lately. The supernatural scene in Japan has changed a lot.”

“Oh? What happened?” I asked.

“You know the basic information about the Shinto, Youkai and the Onmyoji of Japan, right?”

“The most famous ones, yes.”

“As you already know, members of the Five Principal clans are quite intolerant towards anything they consider different from them. As to how Akeno or recently Sona’s new Queen, Tsubaki Shinra were treated due to their lineage and Sacred Gears. In fact, even Tobio’s Grandmother was similar.”

“Exiled.” I supplied. “Yes. They do that a lot.” I replied, mildly disgusted. I mean what’s the child’s fault if they were not blessed by a Shinto Gods? They even exile those children.

Like dude, what the fuck.

Most Gods are known to be whimsical. One could wake up on the wrong side of the bed and send a plaque to the world. While this is often overlooked, in some cases, Gods have caused just as much if not even more destruction than Devils.

Just look at the Greeks.

Even Tobio’s Grandmother couldn’t use her Clan magic so she tried learning Buddhist ones and was exiled because of this.

“Now it’s come to bite them in their ass.” He scoffed.

I looked at him questioningly.

“Those exiles formed an organisation of their own. The Utsusemi Organisation.”

… I suddenly had a very bad feeling in my gut.

Armin continued. “They had teamed up with the newly rogue Fallen Angel, Satanael and the Wizards of Oz Magician Organisation and kidnapped several people throughout their country and experimented on them to make some kind of human weapon of sorts.”

The bad feeling grew stronger.

“And then went on to attack the members of the Five Principal clans. There were heavy casualties. A large part of those clans were destroyed and even two of the inheritors of the Sacred Beasts died in the fight while two others were gravely injured but managed to escape somehow.”

Shit!

“The Fallen didn’t do anything? I had heard from Leila that Azazel was not the kind to allow such things and normally intervened somehow or the other.”

“Yeah, about that. It was again the fault of the Principal Clans themselves. The shit with the Himejima Clan and Baraqiel’s wife was already a cause of anger but even when they were being butchered left and right, they didn’t allow anyone to interfere saying it was their personal matter. Those people had always used those exiles as a non liable resource. Good things were theirs and their faults had nothing to do with them.”

“But Satanael?”

“Didn’t show up until recently. No one knew of their connection.”

“It was a massive shit show. The Shinto finally intervened but their decision actually surprised everyone.”

I raised my eyebrow, urging him to continue.

“They actually proposed a deal to the exiles and offered them to take over the Principal Clans.”

“Say what?” I shouted, flabbergasted.

“Yeah, tell me. They were apparently trying to do so to maintain some modicum of balance.”

“Weren’t a majority of those exiles actually exiled because of not getting blessed by the Shinto?”

“Exactly. Too little too late. Those guys actually pretended to agree on a condition that they be compensated. Two divine blades of the Shinto Pantheons. And then they ran away.”

“… what?”

“They just got up and left. Only a handful of the members remained. And even they were being attacked by Youkai. The Shinto have become a running joke for everyone.” Armin sighed.

While I had my mouth open in shock.

This world was different. I already knew this. So, to think that all of this was my fault wasn’t exactly true but it still felt bad. Somewhat… those damn butterflies.

“I was out to bring the families of my peerage members to Devil Territories and even to other countries. It was a shitshow there. I think Lady Serafall is going to go there too to offer some help.”

“How are they filling up the power gap?”

“The Shinto are planning on creating a new group of Five Clans. Still, it will take them a long time to be established even with the leftover knowledge and properties of the previous ones. They are planning on offering rewards for anyone who can retrieve their swords or Sacred Beasts.”

“And the existing members?”

“Were all abandoned. All the blame was shifted onto them using the fact that they shared the same blood as the exiles and were also responsible for not managing the clans properly. Actually, they mostly fled to other countries or joined other factions. In fact, a part of them joined the Fallen Angels quite ironically.” He said.

“Then how many Sacred Beasts do the Shinto have?”

“None. They are hunting for them.”

“Really, and to think those Principal Clans had served the Shinto for hundreds of years. And they call Devils treacherous.” I sighed.

“Tell me about it.”

“Let’s stop thinking about these topics for a while. So, how are things at home?”

“Same old. Mother is actually searching for someone to engage me to someone so that the other houses will just shut up. It will at least keep quiet for a while. Father even asked me to search for someone if I wanted to. As long as they are Pure Blooded Devils, Pillars or Extra doesn’t matter. We just can’t give them any reason.”

“Hmm. Say, what about Extinct Pillars?” I asked, remembering about someone.

“That’s… doable.”

“Great. I just happen to know someone.” I actually did.

I explained the situation to him. “Recently, a devil had come to stay in the Gremory territory. She was chased by an annoying fly. She needs a place to live peacefully. I think you both can help each other out. The fact that she is the actual or rather Lady of her House as of recently and that her house only became extinct due to falling into Bankruptcy could help.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Lilitifa Vepar.”

“The Vepar. Yes, I have heard about them. They didn’t join any sides and were crushed in the battle during the Civil War. They were then sidelined by the Great King faction and couldn’t keep their house afloat due to the economic suppression. I didn’t know there were members alive.” He spoke while remembering the information he read.

“Basically she had moved on to the Human world in the Forneus Territory. And from there Graag Forneus has pursued her to bring her into his peerage. She is in a pinch right now. Yesterday, I came to know about this from Rias. You can ask your parents and see.”

“I… will tell mother about her.” He said, thinking for a while.

We talked about several things before it was time to eat so I went ahead to prepare.

_______________________________x___________________________________

“Where are we going?” I asked Rias as she led the way.

Lady and Lord Gremory wanted to talk to me about something too.

As soon as I came here, I was jumped by Rias who seemed quite excited and began to talk about some trip.

She invited me to come.

“Father’s going to Switzerland for some business. I am tagging along for a vacation. You haven’t been to the Human World, right? Come with us. It will be lots of fun.”

“She is not wrong, Mathias.” Another voice spoke from the side as Venelana entered the room followed by Zeoticus..

“Good Morning, Lady Gremory.” I greeted.

“Good Morning Mathias. As I was saying, you have been living alone for a long time. And even though you have your peerage members and friends living with you now, the fact remains that you haven’t left your territory. By doing so, you are missing a lot of important things a devil is responsible for.”

“Making contracts?”

“Exactly. Now, we know that you will be getting those in hordes when your identity is revealed but for now we are going to bring you around the Human World to get you familiar with it.” Zeoticus explained. 

It did sound reasonable. From their point of view at least.

The human world’s knowledge was important for any Devil and while I knew a lot, there could be differences in this world too. Not to mention, I had no idea about the Supernatural side of things in the Human World. Something to learn about.

My peerage members will also need a place to make contracts. I can go and check the territories.

“Sure. When do we have to go?”

“Tomorrow.You can inform your peerage members to hold the fort till then.”

“I see. I will be here by then.”

Back at the farm, I handed over the responsibilities to Armin and Ingvild and packed my stuff for the tour.

__________________________________x_______________________________

Switzerland was beautiful.

It was also a place where the Devils currency was changed into human ones. Some of the banks here were run by gnomes. Yeah, turns out that slang did have a reason.

They were responsible for trading with all supernatural factions and changing their currencies with the human ones.

I too opened an account in the place. I mean I had a buttload of money and nowhere to spend so I decided to invest.

The year was 2002 and several good companies were going to spring up in the next few years and several more were going to rise. I instructed them to buy shares of a ton of companies which I could more or less remember who would rise in the next few years. Obviously, the names of these companies seemed to be parodies of the original ones so I had to work a bit. Still, a time well spent.

The Gremorys had an estate nearby and Zeoticus left one of his peerage members to teach me about how to make contracts with humans.

It was a relatively new experience, my first contract in fact.

Nothing special, just cook a meal for a lady who is often busy with her work.

She wanted to be my regular after that. We talked during the meal and I found that she was a business woman who actually traded food products across the world. She was here for some business deal. Such a coincidence, right? No way. It must be Zeoticus helping me out in expanding my business in the human world. 

I established a contract with her as a regular. She said her name was Alina Muller. When I was well established in the Underworld, I intended to expand in the human world too. It would be better to lay a foundation starting from here.

The next day, I was free and was dragged by Rias to explore the nearby forests. Heinrich, Zeoticus’ bishop, was stationed to protect us but Zeoticus himself didn’t mind us exploring by ourselves.

According to him, if I couldn’t protect her, there would hardly be anything Heinrich could do.

It wasn’t a lie per say. Heinrich was a D+ Ranked, Magic focused Devil whose expertise lay in Alchemy. Fighting wasn’t exactly his thing. It’s just that, hardly anyone would attack once the Gremory name and by extension, Sirzechs’ name was put to the front. Most would just back away.

“Do you think there would be any fairies in the area? Or Frost Giants? Or Jack Frost?” She asked excitedly as we explored the forests of the snow covered Swiss Alps. These forests were said to house some local spirits.

“I don’t know about the fairies though. From what I know, they had retreated to their own sub dimension, Avalon, sometime during the Great War. They haven't been seen anywhere since then. As for the Frost Giants, they were wiped out by the Norse and I don’t think they even exist here anymore.”

“Ah… that sucks. Maybe if we are lucky, we can see the Wild Hunt.”

… If that happens, I am taking you and running at my fastest speed. I have no intention of fighting them here.

As we explored the area in peace, I smelled something in the distance.

Blood?

“Hold on, Rias. There is something ahead. Be careful, it might be dangerous.” I warned her. She became serious and backed away. I couldn’t smell anyone nearby. Only one scent came from the injured person, maybe someone got injured in the forest. “Let’s check it out.”

She nodded and we carefully went forward and there we saw a figure laying on the snow, half covered by it. There was blood on the snow around them.

I quickly went forward and saw that the figure was that of a girl. Looked around eleven or twelve years old.

She had platinum blonde hair and a mole under her eye. She was freezing so I quickly made a fire near us to warm her up first.

“I don’t think she will last.” I brought out a Senzu Bean from my inventory and tried feeding her but she was barely conscious and it was impossible for her to chew. So I crushed the bean and pushed it down her throat with my demonic power.

The bean took effect soon enough and she was regaining colour. She was still unconscious so we decided to bring her with us. Zeoticus was away but Heinrich was there and took care of the situation. The girl gained consciousness after a while.

And boy I wasn’t expecting this at all.

- Great Red -

He watched from the Dimensional Gap as the brat of Izanami tore the Vermillion Bird out from the girl who was already on the verge of death. The other girl had the Black Turtle extracted from her already and was unconscious. She was in a better condition as she wasn’t injured but she was younger and thus was extremely weakened. She would most probably lose her life if not treated early.

The reason why he was even here was because he had seen Mathias make changes to the world. He just wanted to see how the world would look if one of the ‘Protagonists’ of the story was moved from their place. Safe to say that the result was not good.

A lot of it was the fault of those people themselves but things had changed a lot and these changes will bring further changes to the world.

Khaos Brigade or as it was originally called, the Chaos Brigade organisation was formed earlier than expected. Ophis was also tricked by them to join.

Really, Ophis was too gullible.

“Why? We have served you for centuries. Spread your name and worship you all. So why did you abandon us? Why didn’t you answer our calls for help? And now you come to even kill us when we are down.” The girl questioned as she lay dying.

“Your actions have shamed us. You share the blood of those traitors. You couldn’t keep them in check. And now the entire Shinto Pantheon has become a joke for the whole world. That Nakiri was actually working with those rebels for their help. You who have lost your faith do not deserve our mercy.”

….

With those words, he left, leaving those two dying alone.

The rage, sorrow and pain threatened to bleed out of her eyes as she finally broke down, letting out a shriek.

It had been like this for eons. Humans suffered at the whims of Gods.

And what could they do?

The God of the Bible did try to give them power but after his death, it turned into a double edged blade and harmed humans even more in some cases.

They were hunted by the Supernatural factions his followers in Church and Heaven included. Sometimes they just became outcasts. Many times, they went out of control and caused heavy destruction.

He wondered how the God of the Bible would have felt if he saw all this now, his gifts becoming a curse for the very humans he tried to protect. Even funnier was the fact that the only son who actually tried doing anything to keep that damage in control was the one who he kicked away for sleeping with a human.

Dragons are aloof creatures. They didn’t bother with ants. They only acted as they wanted and rarely listened to others.

He especially, didn’t even come to the Human World or any other world for that matter and spends his time in the Dimensional Gap.

Even today was just because of his own curiosity.

But this scene made him feel something. He understood what was happening. When you see a character you like die, you feel bad. He had read and seen everything in Mathias’ dreams and in doing so, he had developed some attachment to the so-called main characters.

And so, when he saw one of them die in front of him, he didn’t like it.

Dammit. This is why he didn’t associate himself with others.

But how can he allow this to happen? He is Great Red. And he won’t have a bad ending in his favourite show.

With this thought in his mind, he got to work. As for what to do with them?

All of them go to the one whose presence caused all these changes in the first place.

Knowing the guy, it was unlikely that he would turn them away after knowing what had happened.

- Mathias -

I looked at the girl who was crying uncontrollably from when she woke up.

This world was really the same but at the same time different in several ways.

For example, the girl in front of me. Isla.

A survivor of the Holy Sword Project and the wielder of Sword Birth.

If there were doubts, they were almost removed due to her Sacred Gear.

She was supposed to be a he though.

The reason she was crying was because of the death of her friends in the Holy Sword Project facility.

Suddenly, I recalled something. Wasn’t there another girl who survived?

Yes. There was still a chance.

With this thought, I got up.

“Mathias?” Rias asked, seeing me leaving the room.

“I need to use the toilet.” I lied.

Entering my room, I shut the door and locked it and then directly teleported to the location we had found her.

The scent was still fresh and I followed it towards the facility. There were too many people there. It seems as if the experiment had not been caught by the church. Then again, that guy had the chance and time to make the Blessing using the Holy Sword factor extracted from the children which meant that there was still a bit of time before he got caught.

Which means I had the chance.

I made some insects to scout the area first to find the details. The result was out in fifteen minutes.

A girl had indeed survived but was sealed by her own Sacred Gear. They couldn’t release her so she was locked away in the basement. A few minutes later, my insects found the location of the basement. The first thing I searched for were any cameras but there were none.

In fact, if there had been any cameras, they would have seen Isla being helped by other children to escape from there and could have caught her.

For once, I didn’t want to take any risk and directly used my Dream Magic to create a small hole in space and the girl easily slipped into the Dimensional Gap and then to me. There was not a trace of Demonic Power left in the place after all my insects came out.

I did leave one insect to blast the gas pipes to create a commotion to hide anything we might have left behind.

A perfect kidnapping….cough rescue.

We left the place soon after. I am pretty sure that my absence would have been noticed by now.

_________________________________x_________________________________

I was able to return before they could inform Zeoticus. The man did come back after an hour and I told him about what had happened. Bits of the story were edited though like, I just went out to see if there were any other survivors and was lucky to find one laying in the nearby snow. As for how she came there, it was none of my concern. It was much much more believable too as none of them would ever know that I had brought her straight from the Church’s facility.

She was sealed but that didn't prevent the first girl from thanking me profusely.

Rias didn't mind it either.

Overall, it was not a bad deal.

Still, to think a day of outing would lead to a random encounter.

_________________________________x_________________________________

I let Rias take the two girls with her. Isla wanted to come with me instead but agreed to go there with a promise that they could visit me anytime.

To be honest, I don't have the means to help them out right now.

Maybe if my Dream Magic was a few grades higher then it might have been possible.

Sirzechs and his peerage would have a better chance to help them.

Though, what was waiting for me in the farm was not at all expected.

"And you found them laying on my bed?" I asked in a monotonous voice.

"Yes." Armin looked quite abashed.

I looked at Ingvild. "Was there any letter somewhere?"

She nodded and handed me the letter.

I looked at the seal on the letter and sure enough it was from him.

"Are you sure it's safe, Matty? We don't even know who this letter is from. They got inside undetected by any of us. This could be dangerous."

"I know who this is from. Did Tia visit?"

"Tiamat? Not that I am aware of."

"I see. About this, don't worry. The guy is… a friend. I will tell you about him when you get a bit stronger. To be honest, I don't know if he would mind me telling anyone about him. So, let's keep it a secret for now. Just tell everyone that it was Tiamat."

"You… didn't get into any trouble, did you?"

"Not exactly. It's just… I will explain everything later. Just trust me on this one."

"Alright, so… who are they?"

"No idea. Will have to check when they wake up. Although, the girl is a dragon."

"Umm… she looks a bit like Akeno."

I looked again and Ingvild was correct. She did look a bit similar.

“Also, what do you mean by she is a dragon?”

“She smells similar.” I said and used Observe on the girl.

[Suzaku Himejima]

[Rank: D+]

That’s… no wonder.

The other one was Genbu Domon.

These two were the ones who were missing from the Five Principal Clans.

Just what kind of a mess did Red get into this time?

I opened the letter and blanched. Ah, I suppose even I was slightly responsible for this mess. Very very slightly.

“Is there something in there about who they are?” Armin asked.

“They… are Suzaku Himejima and Genbu Domon or rather former Suzaku Himejima and Genbu Domon. Their spirits are no longer there. It was extracted by Susanno and they were left to die. My… friend picked them up and brought them here.”

Armin had his mouth opened in shock. “But you said she was a dragon.”

“Well… yeah. She was dying. The guy kinda did something to save her life. She is now a human-shaped dragon for all matters and purposes.”

“... I see. So… what now?”

“What else? I will go find Tia and tell her about this. Then we inform Sirzechs, Rias and Akeno. Oh and Tobio is apparently her second cousin. You should call him too. As for the other girl, sigh I don’t know.”

Can’t a guy just farm in peace?

_________________________________x_________________________________

The whole matter was a massive pain in the neck for everyone.

Especially after the church duo.

The only good thing was that Susanno had basically given up his and the Shinto Pantheon’s claim on her meaning that even if we recruited her, no one could question us or even blame any of us for this. They had no claim on them whatsoever.

Akeno apparently had a decent relationship with her.

Tobio didn’t even know her but was still supportive.

She decided to remain on my farm and join my peerage. I did give her the option to join Rias’ or Armin’s peerage because she had family members there but she had a deal with ‘the voice’ to join me and in return he would grant her a chance to meet her family once more.

The hell.

Who was the devil here? Red or me?

As for the other girl, she stayed on my farm too but actually joined Latia’s peerage.

Oh and since they were no longer inheritors of the Sacred Beasts, they changed their names back to what it used to be. Suzaku became Shizuka and Genbu became Kanna.

Tia also concluded that Shizuka might have had her body reconstructed using great Red’s flesh of all things.

Was Red also inspired by the Light Novels?

Anyways, she has gained a lot of power and this power will only grow higher with training. Well, she didn’t lack motivation in any way. She trained like she was possessed by something.

Both of them had lost any faith in the Shinto Gods.

Making people lose faith in their Gods. You know what, I guess I really am a devil.

She reminded me of Lavinia when she first came here. The only thing better was that she had family… well kinda family to support her though.

That said, for someone who had lived her entire life believing in Gods, to receive such an end… Now her life’s only goal was to protect her remaining family.

Compared to her, the church duo were much better. They were grieving for their friends but were much better since they had one another. 

I asked Leila to take all of the new four members for therapy. They definitely needed it after something like this.

Anyways, we decided to remain on the farm for the next few months to not attract any attention.

- Latia Astaroth -

She relaxed in the hot springs, letting her sore body rest after the day-long training.

“How did Mathias do all this since he was twelve? I felt as if my body would give up after just a day.” Rias complained. To some degree, she agreed with it too.

She did feel the same for the first few days. Especially because she had mainly concentrated on her magical abilities before that and was only taught the basics of martial arts to protect herself.

That was what most of the Devils did. After all, what was the use of spending so much time on physical abilities when they could just use Demonic Power to reinforce themselves to the same level? They were Devils not dragons.

But this fact was changed by Mathias. Although it could be argued that he, due to his Buné heritage, was an exception, but then Armin’s as well as Sairaorg’s results came in and slapped those arguments out of the way.

They had attained a level which most devils could only imagine with the help of pure physical training. The fact that their Magical Powers only boosted those levels was a cherry on the top too.

Most of the young Devils her age had dreams.

Sona wanted to open a Rating Game School of children of all classes.

Seekvaria wanted to make Gundam and Mecha famous in the Underworld.

Rias wanted to become the Rating Game Champion.

As for her, she wanted to run the most successful business in the Underworld. She appreciated how her parents worked together to run their own business and had always loved their teamwork. One day, she wanted to have a similar partnership with her life partner.

Mathias knew this and supported her. He actually told her that he would love to have such an arrangement where he could concentrate on his farm work while she handled the business and Rias agreed as she wanted to pursue her dream of being the Rating Game champion herself.

In a way, this engagement was good for everyone.

Although she would never say it out loud, she had come to appreciate their company as well.

Mathias was different from other boys their age who had their heads up in the clouds and Rias didn’t have a scheming bone in her body. They were people with whom she didn’t have to keep up her guard as she was taught to do. It was refreshing.

She could see herself living this life happily in the future.

But now, as things changed, she realised that things might not be so simple.

The amount of proposals Armin was getting was an eye opener. People were bringing contracts for the position of wives and even concubines for him. And when she thought of what would happen when Mathias’ heritage and then powers were revealed, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.

It was a given that he would be hounded by girls and most of them would be from good families. Not to mention, they all are going to come after him like they mean business.

Mathias will be a young Devil with a Dragon lineage to boot. There was always a chance that he could slip and then some hussy might try to wedge herself in their happy and peaceful future life.

She was absolutely not going to let that happen.

Although it was normal for Devils to have harems, Heads of Houses more so than normal, especially someone in Mathias’ position who was trying to bring his House back from the brink of extinction, so she knew that there would be other girls she will have to share him with as not doing so would be detrimental to their House.

But… she could always take a middle path and ward off the gold diggers so that their peaceful life is not disturbed.

She had asked her mother for advice but was told to figure out the dynamics of the relationship among themselves.

First she had a talk with Rias. It took some time to explain things to her as she was more emotion driven, but she did get the point.

Then they asked Venelana, Rias’ mother for help. She had shared her experiences on how she managed her husband’s harem. She being the Lady of the House could tell them more about their situation and how they should handle it.

Finally both of them had come to a conclusion.

They were going to push girls who could be trusted and had genuine feelings for Mathias towards him.

No one would force anything.

If they click, everything will be fine. If not, then no harm done. They could always see another girl.

And the first targets were quite conveniently in front of them.

“Ingvild, Lavinia, can I ask you two a question?” She asked.

“Umm?”

“Yes, sure.”

“Do you like Mathias?”

The purple haired girl blushed to her ears while the blonde just smiled. While the other girls in the bath listened with keen interest about the matter.

“I do.” Lavinia answered simply, eliciting surprises from most of the people.

Well, at least one of them didn’t shy away.

Now for the hard part.

- Serafall -

“How was your visit?” Sirzechs asked as the meeting started.

“Not good. The Shinto are still pissed off. They are coming down on everyone regardless of faction or treaties. It has displeased several other supernatural groups who have business in Japan. Not to mention, those rebels have completely disappeared from the country with three Sacred Beasts. We might have a terrorist organisation on our hands soon enough. Satanael is a part of the organisation too.”

“Azazel?”

“Is running damage control. He had actually tried to intervene much earlier but was stopped by the Principal Clans due to their damned pride.”

“Well they paid for it with their lives. How are the new Clans chosen to replace them?”

“The Shinto just choose the largest Clans apart from the Principal Clans to take their place after giving them their blessings.”

“Wouldn’t have come to this if they hadn’t been sitting on their asses all this time and actually worked properly.” Falbium scoffed.

He wasn’t wrong either, so…

“What about our territories? We had agreements with them. Are they going back on their words?” Sirzechs asked, seriously.

“They can’t afford to do that or they would burn bridges with too many people. But they are restricting businesses for many. I think your father’s businesses were affected by those too.”

“Yes. He has been tense for the last few weeks. We had several hotels and properties in big towns and cities of Japan.”

“The Youkai are on edge too. If this goes on, sooner or later, there will be a civil war among them.”

“What about those girls brought back by Mathias?”

"They want nothing to do with the Shinto. According to them, the Ouryu was working with Sataneel to find a way to help his sister control his Sacred Gear, the Telos Karma. Not to mention, they had the Incinerate Anthem with them. So whatever that group is, they have at least two Longinus with them."

"Hmm, that's quite worrying. Do we have any information about them?" Sirzechs asked but she just shook her head in reply.

"What about the Holy Sword Project?" Falbium asked.

"Yes, that's another problem. Thankfully, it was solved quite easily. I spread the information about the Holy Sword Project and the massacre of the children in several places. The Church obviously tried to deny the allegations but there were just too many pointed fingers and the project was exposed. I think they were buying time till they completed the project first so that they can get the results before washing their hands off of those people. I don't know if they succeeded though."

"At least they will be under surveillance for a while and cause less trouble for us."

“Funny thing was that the Shinto are actually coming down on the Church to return their Holy Swords which they had usurped a while ago. The Ame No Murakumo was in the hands of a Church exorcist previously. If they don’t comply, they would probably use it as an excuse to oust them out of some of their territories. It will give them a legitimate reason to do so. They are caught in a pinch.”

“The current Japan is a powder keg waiting to be lit. I think Armin just moved away the family members of all his peerage members to different countries.”

“Yes. Tsubaki-chan was quite sad. She did have some people there who treated her well. Sona wanted to go there for her High School years but I think it would be better to send them somewhere else. What about Rias?”

“She has decided to stay in the Underworld and operate from here. All of them have been spending time on the farm and want to work for it. There were talks about expanding the farm and making preparations for cleaning the area taken over by the Demonic Beasts. Currently they spend most of their time training.”

“They are really going at it, aren’t they? Armin only returns home once every month. Mother has been constantly hounding me about this.” Falbium sighed.

“Hehehehe. Yes, being the most eligible bachelor of the younger generation is a pain in the neck. I am surprised Lady Glasya-Labolas isn’t chasing the ones proposing marriage away with a stick in her hand.” She laughed. The fact that there was a slight chance it might actually happen was equally funny.

“Apparently, Mother has found someone recently on Armin’s suggestion. I don’t know who but that side of the problem will be handled. Father for that matter isn’t worried at all.”

“Heh! Lady Glasya-Labolas works fast.”

“You tell me.”

- Mathias -

I looked at the girls on either side of me.

“So, what brought this on? Don’t tell me this is about Latia and her plan? You don’t have to do this, you know.” I assured them.

Really, I had no idea how that girl got such ideas. I knew better than to think with my dick, especially in the Underworld.

“We are doing this because we wanted to. I for one didn’t want to do this without talking with them first because they are going to be engaged to you. But now that they don’t mind, there is nothing stopping me.” Lavina spoke. To be honest, the fact that she wasn’t throwing around her air-headed self was evident of the fact that she was very serious.

“Ingvild?”

The girl flushed and bowed her head, looking at her feet.

“Don’t bully her, Matty. You want her to propose to you?” Lavinia scolded me and I realised my mistake.

The girl was here of her own will, which was saying a lot for someone as shy as her. To force her to word out everything was kinda bullying so I changed my question.

“You are not doing this against your will, are you? You both are amazing girls who would make anyone lucky to have you as a partner, let alone both of you but… I need to know that you are not doing things under any kind of obligation or any other similar thoughts.”

“I… I don’t mind. I want to do this.” She stuttered a bit.

Well, that’s good then.

I won’t be a hypocrite. Who wouldn’t want to live with such cute girls? It’s just that I didn't want them to think of this as a way to repay me for something. That kind of relationship never ends well for anyone.

All these years in the Underworld has made me understand that people had a different way of living in the place. Harems were actually more common than people around here realise.

The fact that even Leila and Venelana of all people made me sit and explained this was telling. I was getting engaged to their daughters.

According to them, the only thing I had to pay attention to was to not get any other pure blood devil girls pregnant before Rias and Latia. Those could lead to succession issues and were better avoided no matter what.

So many things to pay attention to.

Not to mention my Dragon side has some effect on me.

“Let’s take this at our own pace, shall we?” I tried to break the awkward silence which was developing in the room. They nodded and just lay in the bed on each side of me.

Ingvild was shy but Lavinia didn’t mind as she clung to me.

So I took the initiative and hugged Ingvild to my other side.

Yeah… this is comfortable.

I will have to spend more time with Latia and Rias so they don’t feel left out.

- Tiamat -

She watched as the hatchlings trained against each other in this new dimension which Mathias had created for training. He called it the 10G Mountains.

Creating an entire sub dimension like this with its own gravity was a massive feat only those extremely well versed in magic like Ajuka could do.

It was much more complicated than just creating Rating Game dimensions because these types of dimensions were permanent and more stable.

The sound of an explosion attracted her attention. In one of the corners of the dimension, near the edges, the new girl was training.

It was still hard for her to believe that he would do such a thing for someone.

Was there something special about this girl? Or was it just a whim once more?

In fact, from what Mathias had said, this was not the only time he had done something like this. There was once that he did something similar. And that event resulted in her own creation.

Another thing which she didn’t understand was how he got interested in Mathias. Did he know about him already? About it? Was that why he was keeping an eye on him?

But according to Mathias, his Appetite Demon must have only recently awakened.

Then again, no one knew exactly what he was capable of.

But whatever the matter it doesn’t change the fact that this girl was now basically a hatchling of the Dragon of Dreams.

The amount of people who would be after her after finding this out would be insane. The Shinto… especially the Shinto. Do they even realise just what kind of enemy they had created for themselves out of sheer pettiness?

Probably not or they would have been trying to get her back. Not that they would have a chance anyway. Mathias wouldn’t give her up. He was extremely stubborn that way.

Then again, if the girl was trained well, she could become a massive support for him. She did seem extremely loyal to him somehow.

People who lose their faith always latch on to the next pillar of support they can find. This was true for most of the races and not just humans.

And weren’t the Buné Dragon Tamers?

The boy doesn’t realise it yet but he is already stronger than most people in this world. It’s just that due to his unique case, he needed to be stronger.

Once people realise the true extent of his abilities, the only thing which will protect him is strength and the support of more people.

Then again, at the rate at which he was progressing, it wouldn’t take much longer for him to reach such a level. And with the support of his creations, he could be truly safe. To achieve this, she wanted to assist him as well.

It wouldn’t look good if her so-called King was harmed by others, right? And if in doing so, she can pay her debts off to Great Red for giving her life, then all the better. WIth these thoughts in mind, she walked towards the girl who was currently laying on the ground, trying to grasp her breath.

“Do you want to get stronger?” She offered the girl her hand.

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Author’s Note:

So, I decided to let the Butterflies flap their wings this time.

Most of the stories I read have future events just as they were with no changes to it no matter how much the plot is changed.

While some things might remain the same, most of the things change if such major plot changes are made.

I tried to show an angle on what might have happened if things had been slightly different and there was no plot armour to save the day.

Mathias has his first trip to the Human World.

I tried to show how business was run in the Supernatural world and how it was connected to the Human World. I hope you all like this.

We also got a Latia’s Pov and got to know more about her thoughts.

This was more of a transition chapter before the next arc starts. I just couldn’t gloss over them because the entire Slash Dog plot was there and so I used a small chapter instead.

The main reveal is coming soon.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.