Dungeons and Devils (Chapter 61) (Patreon)

A girl squirms under the disappointed gaze of her uncle and father.

"I-I'm sorry! It's just- I-I wanted mom back." She whispers.

"And you sold your soul to a devil."

"But he brought mom back!" The girl exclaims.

"Yes. But now he can do literally anything to you!" The blonde man snaps.

"H-He won't!" The young rose protests.

"You've only known him for a month. You don't know that!" The blackish grey haired man growls.

"Qrow. Taiyang." A cold sounding voice cuts in.

Summer Rose is stood behind them with her arms crossed. "I believe that is enough. You are scaring her."

The blonde lets out a long sigh and rubs his temples.

The silver eyed woman slowly looks in between the two huntsmen. "Let me be perfectly clear, as I don't think I have so far... I was never dead. All this time I was alive. If you could call being in constant suffering 'living'. This 'devil' erased the last ten years of my memories. Ten years of torture. He did not have to do that. If he was truly and mean and hateful as you two think, he would have simply dropped my mentally broken, more grimm than human, body right in front of her to complete his deal. He did not do that and he has killed Salem who was immortal."

"W-Who's Salem?" The young rose weakly asks.

"Immortal?!" Qrow frowns. "Ozpin never said anything like that-"

"Ozpin never said a lot of things." The girl's mother snaps.

She takes a deep breath, then exhales. "I am saying, that we should stop worrying about what has been done, and move on. From what I have seen, the devil is perfectly reasonable."

The red haired girl guiltily looks to the floor, she just doesn't know what she did wrong.

She saved her mom. Why are they being so mean to Gaius? He cares about her, right?

She blinks slowly as she realizes something.

Wasn't Gaius supposed to fight today?

She has already bet all of her current wealth on him yet again. The rates were far more even than last time, yet they still lean in his opponent's favor. It's roughly three to one.

Three to one with her fifteen million Lillum bet. If she keeps betting like this, how much money could she possibly have?! She already has enough to live comfortably for the rest of her life...

If she remained human...

She doesn't regret agreeing to become a devil in exchange for her mother! That is a fair price!

The girl bites her lip quietly tears prickle her eyes. "I-I know Gaius better than you! H-he- he's always helped me when I needed it! H-he saved mom! He didn't have to save mom! I-I was going to become a devil because I wanted to! B-but Gaius talked me out of it and told me not to do it for free! I-if he was going to take advantage of me why would he do that?! He's been helping me this whole time! H-he made me wealthy! He made Crescent Rose magic! H-he made my clothes protective so I wouldn't get hurt! Why are you all treating him like a monster?!"

Her tears fall down her face as she turns away and disappears in a flurry of rose petals, she speeds up the stairs.

"Ruby!" She hears her father call after her.

She turns the corner and rockets into her room, the open door slams shut as she locks it and curls up under the blankets, her shoulders shake slightly as her breath comes out in stifled sobs.

She stares at the wall for a long moment, eyes straying to her dresser.

Her eyes snap to the door as she hears a gentle knock.

"Ruby?" She hears her mother weakly mutter through the door.

"Y-Yeah?" The young Rose questions.

"Can I come in?" Her mother asks.

The girl slowly get up, wiping her eyes as she approaches the door, she undoes the lock and open the door a moment later.

The woman shoots the girl a sad smile as the young rose steps aside.

"Mom... did I do a bad thing?" She questions meekly as she looks at the floor.

"Ruby." The woman sighs, brushing a strand of hair out of the younger Rose's face and pulling her into a hug. "It's okay. I don't believe you have made any mistakes."

A buzzing noise coming from the nearby dresser draws the attention of the woman, a large flat screen of light shoots from the small rectangular phone atop the wooden top.

"Hello rating game fans! My name is Naud Gamigin." A man with a slight mohawk-esque hair style appears on the screen, his hair is a light blue and falls to his right side, leaving the shaved left side of his head on full display, and showing off his apparent original hair color, being a deep greyish color.

He has a thin, shaved, and well-kept beard, and mustache.

"What is... that?" The girl's mother questions slowly.

The young rose squirms under her gaze.

"Today we have something really special for you all! A deciding match in the rating game scene! The up and coming tenth place, Gaius Decarabia, versus the third place, Bedeze Abaddon! Today, I am here with my co-host, the strongest Reincarnated Devil, and seventh place who was sadly removed from the tournament far too soon, Rudiger Rosenkreutz!"

"Its... something like the Vytal festival but for devils?" The young silver eyed girl weakly explains. "G-Gaius gave me something that can connect to their home... I've been using it to watch movies and shows... and rating games... h-he also gave me a little money and some advice to b-bet on him... he- uh... made me a millionaire with a single game."

"Strongest Reincarnated devil may be stretching it just a bit~" the blonde man sat beside the first smiles. "Tannin still exists after all and I doubt I could defeat him in a one-on-one fight."

"But the young lord Decarabia did." The host points out.

"You've been gambling?" The woman mutters with a disapproving frown.

"I-It's not bad if I always have a chance to win, right?" The girl whimpers. "I-I just want you all to be h-happy. I-I don't want us to ever worry about money again... and this is Gaius' fight... I-I trust he can win against anyone! He said so himself!"

"He did. Which is why I believe he will go a little further in this tournament."

"Oh? And what do you mean by that?" The host asks.

"I believe he could potentially be a number eight or nine candidate." The co-host answers honestly.

"Do you think he has a chance against the resident rank three?"

"That depends." The reincarnated devil answers. "Is his peerage strong or not. Most devils assume that his peerage will be considerably weaker than normal due to the sheer size of it. Yet there's' a chance it's not... Bedeze here clearly seems to think that his peerage is weak and he may be in a tough spot if he is incorrect."

"Is this... the devil that saved me?" The woman asks.

"He is fighting." The girl slowly nods.

"Would... you care if we watched this in the living room?" Her mother quietly asks with a gentle smile. "I'm personally curious about the strength of the devil who saved my life as well."

"So you believe that Lord Decarabia's peerage may be more than Bedeze's can handle?" The host questions.

"I never said that." The co-host continues. "But... Mutation pieces exist. It is a poor idea to overlook a peerage without knowing the true capabilities. We have only seen two of his peerage fight as of right now. A rook and a bishop. And both were capable of defeating the draconic rooks of Tannin. Anything is possible."

The young rose looks embarrassedly at the floor, the last time she tried to show her dad anything she was interested in, he didn't understand and just started cracking jokes the whole time. Will they really understand? "I-I... alright?"

**Linebreak**

A young girl sits with her family and uncle in the living room, squirming slightly as she watches the rating game.

Gaius' team is super strong!

*Clang*

A blue haired girl with a green highlight deflects a gauntleted punch from a humongous man, in her hands is a sword that is frankly ridiculous in size, its slash leaving a glowing blue groove in the side of the huge man's gauntlet.

Her opponent, is as previously stated, a giant. He towers at nearly three times the height of the girl, he has lightly tinged blue skin and white braided hair and beard.

A white outline surrounds the girl as a beam of blue light strikes the giant in the back, causing him to stagger forwards slightly.

In the distance a twin-tailed blonde cringes as a whirlwind of red swords surround her, twisting and churning as she tries to fight off the speedy knight zooming around her.

A woman appears to her left and flinches as her attack is deflected by the wall of blades.

The golden white sword in the ex-exorcist's hands swings out and launches a beam at the knight.

She disappears with another blast of speed, it looks as if she is going to Xenovia yet again, but a hail of stars smashes into the ground just in front of the knight's trajectory.

Those two are honestly lucky... Ruby saw how fast that knight was originally. If the twin-tailed goth blonde didn't do something to weaken her, she would have been able to take out both of them in an instant.

The trio itself is steadily making their way to the enemy castle in order to promote, leaving the giant worth two pawns, and the knight to the two Decarabia pawns.

With a flash a second sword appears in the blue haired girl's hand, it is blue in color with gold accents, it is quite thick, a great sword of some kind with one sharp edge.

She slashes it upwards as she deflects another blow from the pawn, cutting a deep wound into the giant's chest.

"Is that Durandal?!" The announcer exclaims.

"It appears... Bedeze was incorrect about Gaius' peerage. This is... horrifying." His co-host mutters.

Blood falls from the corners of the giant's mouth as he slowly falls backwards.

He gains a bright blue glow and disappears.

"Bedeze Abaddon's Pawn has been retired." The announcer states, two miniature cameras in the corners show off the reactions of the two kings, Gaius smiles and nods slowly while the blond man he is fighting simply frowns and tilts his head with a small nod to say 'well, that's not unexpected'.

The world suddenly shatters, revealing the pink, brown, and white haired girl that the two pawns left behind with Gaius after their teleportation move.

A blade extends from her parasol, and in the next moment, the blade stabs into the back of the knight.

She glows blue and in the next moment she disappears.

"Bedeze Abaddon's Knight has been retired." The co-host smiles.

"Good job, Neo... I wasn't sure how much longer I could have occupied her... even though she was weakened." The strawberry blonde huffs as numerous swords clatter to the floor, disappearing into motes of light as her shoulders shake in slight exertion.

The blond king of the knights rockets to his feet, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.

Two bat-like wings sprout from his back as he slowly lifts from the ground and flies off the balcony he was sitting upon.

Near the other king, a blonde with drill-like hair brings a hand to her ear and quickly shouts something. "Bedeze is leaving the castle! Get out of the sky!"

Across the field the trio of pawns, a wizard hat wearing girl, a brown haired girl with braids, and a gothic blonde with four pairs of mismatched wings fall from the sky, they land a moment later, the witch girl and the brown haired girl casting some form of spell over them that hides them from view.

The young Rose's uncle frowns as he cups his chin.

"What the hell is going on over there?!" The host questions slowly.

"What-" the co-host echoes as the screen shifts.

A lake is bubbling and churning as numerous white draconic beings appear in a large magic circle above it, everything has a slight purple tinge.

Three girls are stood alongside one another, one with white hair, blue eyes, and a ponytail is kneeled on the grass, stabbing a rapier into the dirt and channeling the large summoning magic circle, the next, is a beautiful girl with long blonde hair and pointed ears, in between her hands are three glowing chalices, the final is floating slightly above the ground with twelve large bat wings, her eyes are closed as her lilac hair billows, she sings a haunting melody that causes even the young rose's blood to pump in excitement.

"Schnee?" She hears her uncle whisper under his breath, his eyes widen slightly at the sheer power the teen is showing off... it is far beyond what a normal semblance should be capable of.

There's a sudden shriek as the lake behind the three rises up, a massive churning snake made of water rising from the surface of the churning lake, large white tentacles rise up next as a large pale masked being thrashes in the water, some form of colossal squid grimm. Its limbs swing out onto land as it is shifted in the churning almost sentient water.

Those two pawns and a queen... are bearing the brunt of all of Bedeze's remaining peerage. His three remaining pawns, his two rooks, his queen, and remaining knight.

"This is incredible!" The host exclaims! "A mere three pieces of lord Decarabia's peerage is holding their own against the full force of the Abaddon peerage! How the hell is this happening?! And those wings! Is that truly a descendant of one of the original satans?! I didn't think they were the type to bend a knee to anyone!"

In the background a red and black knight combat a lanky man, every now and then, a gout of purple flames shoot from the black knight's hands,

"Oh?" The host blinks. "it appears that we have been given permission to view information about Lord Decarabia's peerage in order to explain what the heck is happening! First and foremost, those three clashing with the entirety of the Abaddon peerage. The one summoning endless hordes of beast is a singular mutated pawn named Weiss Schnee. A human. Her birth place and history isn't listed, however, she was reincarnated- wait... three months ago?! What?! How did she grow this strong in a mere three months?!"

"Could it be that she was always this strong? Now with a slight boost due to devil reincarnation?" The co-host questions.

"I... suppose. She appears to be quite experienced with her magical power." The host relents as a random draconic- what appears to be grimm- steps on a glyph and lunges forwards at high speed, body checking a pawn which had been fighting one of those Teryx grimm from Atlas

Suddenly a massive lung-dragon rises from the thrashing lake, its scales as white as snow as its gleaming blue eyes gaze out across the battlefield. It has a white mask upon its face with blue markings on it.

It opens its mouth and unleashes a torrent of what appears to be blue lightning, but everywhere it touches is incased in large shards of ice.

Its wings flap as the beam passes over a large flaming man, knocking him back and cooling his lava-like skin.

"Lord Abaddon's second pawn has been retired." The co-host announces.

"Let's see here." The host continues. "The second person, the blonde, is Valerie Tepes, a Dhampir of the Tepes clan, she has been in lord Decarabia's peerage for quite a while it appears... one of the longest, in fact. She does indeed have a sacred gear, but they have refrained from commenting about what it is."

"Finally, the half human descendant of Leviathan with a sacred gear and the ability to use her clan trait, Sea Serpent of the End... something that not even the leviathan descendant in the old satan faction is capable of! She is Gaius Decarabia's p- pawn?? I mean, it's a mutated pawn, but... really? He managed to reincarnate a Satan descendant with a sacred gear with a SINGLE pawn?!"

"Wait, what's going on over here?" The host instantly gets sidetracked.

The camera rapidly shifts to show a blue haired girl slashing downwards.

A blond man deflects the slash with the side of his hand, his fist lashing out and snapping her head back.

He holds a hand back without looking and what looks like a black hole appears and absorbs the teal-ish meteor that rockets from the heavens.

A second hole appears near the strawberry blonde as she readies a sword, to shoot at the devil.

"Gaaaah!" She winces as the bolt strikes her and scorches her arms and legs as she is flung through the air.

Her body gains a blue glow and she disappears a moment later.

"Gaius Decarabia's first pawn has been removed from combat."

The blue haired girl wipes her bleeding mouth with a glare, her laser-like sword disappearing as she takes the blue sword in her offhand with both hands.

She lunges forwards suddenly, a pale white outline appearing around her.

The man ducks the slash easily and knees the girl in the stomach, causing her to gag.

He suddenly whirls around and holds out a hand, narrowing his eyes as a thin blade pierces about an inch through his palm.

The blade is pulled free and the multicolored girl wielding it disappears with a noise akin to shattering glass.

The devil abruptly whirls around and blocks the blue haired girl's slash with a magic barrier, his feet sink into the earth up to about his shins as the ground violently cracks, a crater forms underneath him as his arm is slightly forced downwards.

The third-place devil ranker grits his teeth.

"Unless Bedeze can do something soon, it looks like this will be a total victory for Lord Decarabia!"

He swings and arm up and swings his other arm forwards, blood dripping down his hand and into the dirt.

A blast of red energy shoots from his palm and into the stomach of the blue haired girl, she is shot backwards, the orb exploding a short distance away.

"Gaius Decarabia's second pawn has been retired."

His head snaps to the side suddenly as a hole appears in reality, a long umbrella slides into the portal, along with a hand, the appearing figure's eyes widen as she rips her hand back, avoiding the closing portal as quickly hops backwards.

The blond devil lunges forwards, hand wrapping around the girl's throat.

"Tch." He scoffs. "As much as that fucking runt pisses me off, you have to admit, he knows how to pick his girls."

He slowly reaches out a hand to the multicolored girl's chest as her eyes flash white.

A hand grabs his wrist before he can make contact.

"Hn?" The blond hums, coming face to face with a very angry looking black haired devil.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" He seethes, causing the young Rose to freeze.

She has never heard him so... uh... pissed before...

Nor did she see when he entered the battle field... according to the corner camera, he was sat in his castle mere seconds ago! His friends are even looking around in surprise!

The girl being held up by her throat shatters like glass, reappearing away from the blonde devil.

"I was seeing in your fucking whore felt nice. What of it." The devil in question, questions. "She's just a low class despite her strength. Who cares what I do to her."

"It appears the Lord of the Abaddon family is being abrasive again!" The host exclaims. "I wonder how the young Decarabia will respond to his taunting?"

"A small part of me wonders if that is merely some form of ploy... or if he is truly this annoying." The seventh-place co-host scoffs.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The younger devil lowly growls. "Trying to molest a girl I care for... regardless of social class."

The Abaddon lord is suddenly blasted back, spittle flies from his mouth, he slides to a halt a short distance away.

His eyes widen as he touches his stomach, there is a smoking and slightly blackened spot in his clothing.

"Rudiger did... you see that punch?" The host questions slowly. "Was that even a punch?!"

"I... didn't." The man co-commentating slowly whisper. "I don't know either."

"You know..." the black haired devil states as he brushes a hand through his hair. "I try to portray myself as a greedy devil... perhaps a lustful devil... or maybe even a slothful devil, but you want to know what my cardinal sin is, you insect? Its wrath. It's just that not much actually makes me angry enough to snap..."

His voice seems to shift into a far more authoritative and resounding tone that causes a bead of dread and fear to form in the stomach of the young Rose. She feels as if she had made a critical error, despite the fact that Gaius opponent is the only who angered him.

"Congratulations. You just did two." He snarls, eyes narrowing, his purple eyes seem to gleam in poorly hidden malicious intent.

"Neo... I would suggest you leave unless you want to get burnt. I'd suggest grabbing the peerage outside and hiding out... or just retiring all together. It's about to get messy out here." He announces over his shoulder as he gives the girl a half-lidded stare, a slight blush forming on the girl's face as her eyes gleam slightly.

She does a few quick sign language gestures and disappears.

"Tch- lucky hit-" Bedeze scoffs as he regains his composure.

The black haired devil reappears behind him with his arms crossed, back facing his own with a good twenty feet of distance in between the two of them.

Bedeze spasms as his clothing, skin, and face ripples.

He is shot backwards towards Gaius, but he turns slowly and catches the back of his head with a single hand, jerking the blond devil's body to a halt.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" The black haired devil questions slowly. "Your ribs shattered and shot into your lungs like a fleshy fragmentation grenade... having a large portion of your skull fractured. A majority of your vital organs ruptured... how many times do you think I hit you in that instant? Ten times? Twenty times? It couldn't have been more than thirty, could it?"

He drops his opposing king as the devil begins to glow, reaching into his suit coat.

"No, no. You aren't escaping that easily." Gaius states as he pulls out a bottle and drips a single drop of fluid onto the devil.

His wounds mend in an instant, the devil rockets to his feet, numerous black holes appearing around Gaius and shooting concentrating blasts of demonic power towards the devil.

He disappears again as Bedeze seems to glow in a white light.

The devil's eyes widen as he looks down at his hands.

Gaius floats behind him with two tremendous wings of black fire.

"I just cast a spell on you... the faster the air around you moves, the more damage you take." The devil explains.

He snaps his fingers suddenly, causing an eerie calm to pass over the entire wind-less rating game arena. "Why don't we test and see how far that goes?"

The commentators have been silent for a long time at this point, they were both stunned into silence and are just watching the game.

A gentle breeze blows through the air as the third-place ranker swings a punch at the black-haired devil, cuts open along his arm as he grits his teeth, the fire-winged devil simply flaps his black wings once to avoid the swipe.

The winds intensify, causing the blond devil to grimace slightly, having wind grate on your limbs is probably fairly uncomfortable even if the ambient wind isn't causing any real damage yet.

The winds grow further, causing small scratches to be seen on the devil's clothing as he shoots a blast of demonic power at Gaius.

Trees creak and groan as the wind grows to incredible speeds over the next few seconds, numerous tornados form and tear at the ground, uprooting trees and large hunks of earth and flinging them through the sky.

Bedeze growls lowly as cuts appear across his body. "Damn I-"

"Shhh." Gaius shushes as he grabs the devil's face with a single hand. "That pain is nothing... this on the other hand."

Gaius is suddenly covered in blood as he blurs across the sky at incredible speeds, dragging the devil behind him the entire way.

The young rose flinches as the Decarabia lord whirls around, three hundred and sixty degrees, and spikes his foe into the floor, the blond devil passes through two fully formed tornados, causing them to destabilize slightly as he pierces cleanly through each with no shift in velocity or trajectory.

Gaius snaps his bloody fingers and shoots a wave of white fire downwards towards the crater the number three ranker created with his flailing body.

The rock is melted away and the blond lays there for a moment in shock, he is covered in blood, but he has no wounds, the shock of the pain must still be sitting in.

The windstorm begins to subside as Gaius lands on the floor, his wings disappearing into nothing as he slowly walks to the molten crater.

The blond man snaps to attention abruptly, sitting up with primal fear on his face. "M-Monster! You're a fucking monster! An abomination!"

"Such words... even after I healed you, rat... I'm honestly hurt." The teen sarcastically remarks with an eye roll, seemingly ignoring the fact he is still covered in blood.

His eyes narrow, causing the much older devil to flinch and cover his face with his arms as if he was about to be punched. "You brought this upon yourself, cockroach. In general, everything about you pissed me off. Your poking and prodding at my peerage, causing most of the underworld to think they were weak enough to be traded off... that I merely chose them for their appearance. Then there's the fact that you prattle on and on about how 'talentless devils have no place in the underworld'. That reeks of so much hypocrisy you make me sick."

Gaius continues his tirade of insults and threats as he looks down at the older devil. "You clearly aren't a good fighter. You are coasting on your strength. You have no technique. No skill. You are even more talentless than each and every one of those devils you ridicule."

Gaius slowly walks forwards, causing the third rank to quickly crawl backwards. "But There's another thing that truly angers me about you... a little background information, perhaps... in my life, or rather, in the past two years, I have come across five beings who have used some sort of outside source to drastically increase their power... the thing is... they aren't used to fighting on that level. They lack a certain edge and refinement that someone who earned that strength would have had... and guess what? I see that lack of refinement in you. A pathetic waste of space who spams his clan trait and blabbers on and on about how good he is. Sitting proudly at his third-place position. A second-place loser."

In the next moment Gaius moves, his hand buried deep within the devil's chest.

He pulls back his gore-covered fist, holding some form of object in his hand.

"Oh? What's this." The black-haired devil questions, a smug smirk on his face. "Looks important."

*Chzzzzzzzzz*

The screen immediately turns to static, all that the watchers see is a simple 'Error' sign in the center of the screen.

**Linebreak**

Pov: Returned

Cold fury floods my veins as my eyes stray to the devil across from me as my body is cleaned thoroughly through the use of prestidigitation, more importantly, the blood covering the red chess piece in my hand is removed.

I have already looked it over in this short moment and I believe I have figured out how it works...

It's quite simple, it's a piece which artificially increases the level of whoever uses it by five... the only issue is that should it be used by anyone over level fifteen... they die. Immediately and painfully.

I don't really need this as of right now despite the fact it could transform my army of level ones into level sixes, realistically, if I ever wanted to make another I could always do so with a few uses of my omniscience ability to understand the crafting method.

Cascading cracks form across the piece as I begin to crush it in between my index finger and thumb.

"WAIT! No! I need that!" Bedeze shouts, holding out a hand as blood spews from the corners of his mouth and from his chest wound.

The piece shatters into red dust as I crush it in between my fingers, it seems to let out a small shriek as red wisps of power circle around my fingertips before dissipating. "Oops. My bad"

The devil stares blankly at me, eyes wide in shock and horror as I continue. "Ah, and a fair warning before I retire you... if I ever see you again outside of a rating game. I will end you."

I smirk down at him as I point a hand towards his stomach "So why don't you do what you and your 'misplaced arrogance' type do best... and crawl back into that hole where you belong."

Three beams of black fire pierce cleanly through his stomach.

The rank three falls backwards and disappears with a blue flash of light.

I fall silent for a moment.

"Man... maybe I should have done the 'Divide' thing to crush his will even further." I sigh as I begin to glow blue.

In the next moment, I am teleported out of the rating game arena.

I reappear in a room with the rest of my peerage, Weiss looks mildly annoyed, there's a twig in her hair, her white combat skirt has some dirt stains and grass stains.

"So." She growls lowly. "You made a massive tornado."

"To be fair, he tried to molest Neo." I shrug. "I wasn't about to let that happen and I want to accurately portray my displeasure. Casting a spell that causes the wind to cut him the faster he moves, and promptly taking several speedy trips through a tornado or two certainly helped portraying that."

I brush a hand down my shirt with a small smile.

"Well, i'm going to visit Tyra, Xenovia, and Irina." I note as I turn and make my way to the door. "The rest of you have earned a rest. You can return home at your own pace."

Tyra got taken out slightly earlier in the match due to the combined might of a majority of Bedeze's peerage. It was like a six-on one. But she did a little damage before getting taken out. That's respectable, I guess, but maybe now she'll be a little less feral and listen to orders better.

"I need a bath." The young pendragon sighs as she looks at her grass-stained clothes.

A majority of the others nod along to her statement and disappear with numerous teleportation circles.

"Gaius..." A voice begins.

I glance back to see the horned grey skinned girl that is the strongest piece in my peerage standing a short distance away from me.

"Yes, Calamitas?" I question.

"I was wondering about the blue haired girl... she was extremely open about wanting your child... is that... acceptable behavior?"

I look back her slowly, my eyes slowly straying to the side where a screen opens.

Knight 1: Calamitas:
Mood: Wondering if it is truly that easy to gain access to your bloodline. Normally someone with sheer genetic power flowing through their veins would be more protective of that power and refuse to give it to everyone who asked.

"Hn? I mean, she's in my harem, so sure." I shrug. "I care for her, so I don't see why not. But certainly not any time soon."

"I... see." The girl blinks as I give her a half-lidded stare.

"O-Oh. I see. You assume I am asking this question because I as well wish to have your child. While your bloodline is quite incredible and would result in a child of tremendous power, regretfully as of right now I will have to pass. I am not mentally prepared for a child." The girl states with a shake of her head.

"Hn. Alright." I note. "I'm off to see the three who got taken out."

"Goodbye Gaius." Calamitas slowly nods as she teleports away with a reddened magic circle.

Ravel steps forwards and flanks me, along with Neo as we turn and walk out of the room. With a wave of my hand, the grass and stains on Neo's clothes disappear with a silent casting of prestidigitation.

The ice cream girl in question looks over with a small blush and signs two words. "Thank you."

"Hey, don't worry about it, Neo... I really don't like people touching what's mine?"

A smile crosses her face as she takes my arm in both hands and rubs her face against my shoulder

We continue on our way to the hospital where my peerage is waiting.