~Scene Continues, Soutarou POV~
Every Devil in the room felt the danger of it, but Soutarou didn’t aim the weapon.
He simply let Serafall see how naturally it obeyed him.
Then his hazel-golden eyes sharpened.
The air changed.
Soutarou’s voice carried a weight no ordinary command possessed as he firmly ordered, “Freeze.”
President’s Mandate answered…
Reality tightened around Serafall and for less than a split second…
The fluttering edge of her skirt stopped…
Her hair became motionless…
The demonic power surrounding the Devil King ceased moving…
As though time itself accepted the order.
Then her active resistance and his lazy use of the command shattered it.
*CRACK!*
Serafall’s power surged and the imposed stillness broke before most of the observers could consciously understand what happened.
Grayfia understood.
Serafall understood too.
The magical-girl wand slipped several inches in her hand.
Sona stared at Soutarou.
Tsubaki’s eyes widened behind her glasses.
Rias looked from Soutarou to the place where Serafall’s movement had stopped.
Even Akeno momentarily forgot the holy light.
Soutarou dismissed the lance.
Soutarou calmly explained, “Valefor through my father…
Marbas through my mother.”
Serafall remained silent.
Grayfia lowered her head.
Not the shallow acknowledgment offered between political equals…
A deep formal bow of one eternally indebted to another.
The room became even quieter.
Grayfia solemnly said, “House Lucifuge has not forgotten what House Valefor sacrificed.”
Soutarou studied her.
The words were restrained.
The emotion beneath them was not.
Grayfia straightened before continuing, “Nor have I.”
Rias’s blue-green eyes widened slightly…
She’d seen Grayfia bow before…
To Sirzechs, her brother…
To the formal authority of the other Satans…
But never like this.
And then Serafall finally moved.
She walked toward the far corner of the clubroom with stiff steps…
Turned away from everyone…
And crouched beside a bookshelf.
Sona stared at her.
Serafall began sniffling and muttering beneath her breath.
Serafall bitterly whispered, “It was supposed to be me…”
Sona adjusted her glasses as she cautiously asked, “Onee-sama…?”
Serafall pressed her forehead against the shelf.
Serafall continued muttering, “I waited…
I actually waited…
500 years…
All those idiots thought my standards were impossible on purpose…”
Grayfia closed her eyes briefly.
Sona’s expression became increasingly alarmed.
Serafall’s shoulders trembled and Serafall aggrievedly complained, “Then I become Leviathan for everyone…
Do all the work…
Stay unmarried…
And the instant a Valefor finally appears, the contract falls to So-tan…
Why…
Why?
It’s not fair…!”
The clubroom became silent again.
Sona slowly turned toward Soutarou.
Soutarou raised one eyebrow and scratched his head in confusion.
Rias looked between them.
Akeno’s smile began returning.
Momo covered her lips.
Tsubaki’s composure weakened.
Yumi blinked.
Sona’s voice became very careful as she asked, “What contract?”
Serafall lifted her head from the shelf.
Her eyes shimmered with a mixture of jealousy and self-pity and seemed a bit watery.
Serafall mournfully explained, “The Sitri-Valefor marriage vow…”
‘Eh?
I’m all for cliches…
But author-san…
This…
Is CLICHE.’
Sona froze as Serafall pointed accusingly toward Soutarou while still crouched in the corner.
Serafall continued, “The original vow named me…
The Sitri heir was supposed to marry the surviving Valefor heir and help restore the house if one was ever found.”
Sona’s lips parted as Serafall’s expression crumpled further.
Serafall complained, “But I became a Devil King…
So the obligation passes to the next eligible Sitri heiress…!”
Everyone looked toward Sona.
Sona stood perfectly still.
Soutarou watched the information settle behind her violet eyes.
This morning, she had corrected his tie…
Recorded a uniform violation…
And classified him as an irritating irregularity…
Now an ancient contract apparently considered him her intended husband.
Sona pushed her glasses upward.
The movement was precise.
Her voice was even more precise.
Sona firmly declared, “No.”
Serafall flinched.
Sona continued, “I will not marry someone because an agreement made before my birth demands it.”
Soutarou felt no offense.
If anything, the refusal matched exactly what he expected from her.
Sona narrowed her eyes, perhaps irritated that he didn’t argue.
Serafall rose from the corner and desperately protested, “So-tan, it isn’t that bad!
Souta-tan is handsome…
Powerful…
A real Valefor…
And sure technically he was mine first…
But we can shar-”
Sona’s aura sharpened.
Serafall immediately returned to muttering and drawing air circles on the ground all the while Sona looked directly at Soutarou.
Her composure had recovered enough for strategy to replace shock and Sona challenged, “A vow between noble houses was meant to be honored by both sides.”
Soutarou nodded as Sona continued, “Then I will offer terms of my own.”
Rias watched with sudden interest, Akeno’s smile widened, but Tsubaki already knew where her King’s mind was moving.
Sona pointed toward the chess set resting upon one of the clubroom shelves and she decisively proposed, “A match.”
Soutarou followed her finger as Sona continued, “If you defeat me at chess, I will acknowledge the vow and consider the engagement binding until we decide its future together.”
Serafall’s head snapped upward.
Rias’s expression changed.
Momo leaned forward slightly.
Sona’s violet eyes sharpened behind her crimson frames.
Sona added, “If I win, the marriage arrangement is void.
Completely.”
Soutarou looked at the board.
Then at Sona.
He’d known from his metaknowledge she was brilliant…
Known chess was one of the clearest expressions of her confidence…
But knowing the result and earning it were different things.
A slow smile crossed his face.
Soutarou accepted, “Deal.”
Serafall looked from Sona to Soutarou with horror.
Serafall anxiously asked, “S-shouldn’t we discuss this first?”
Sona didn’t look away from Soutarou.
Sona coldly answered, “You’ve had enough time to discuss it.”
Serafall recoiled as though struck.
Rias hid a laugh behind one hand.
Grayfia watched Soutarou carefully.
The political problem hadn’t disappeared…
But it had become something the younger heiress could accept.
A contest.
A decision she could claim as her own.
Grayfia inclined her head and said, “The match may be witnessed and recorded as mutual acknowledgment of revised terms.”
Sona nodded.
Soutarou agreed, “Tomorrow.”
Sona immediately corrected, “Tonight.”
Soutarou blinked.
Sona’s gaze moved toward his loosened tie.
Sona added, “You already wasted the afternoon.
I see no reason to delay the only productive event remaining today.”
Soutarou laughed softly.
Soutarou replied, “Tonight, then.”
Serafall returned to the corner.
Serafall quietly lamented, “My own little sister is gambling with my husband…”
Sona’s eyes darkened.
Serafall corrected in a whimper, “Her husband…
Potentially…
Not fair…
Should’ve been mine…”
~Occult Research Club, Early Evening~
The immediate shock gradually became administrative hustle…
Grayfia and Serafall contacted the other Satans.
Records buried for centuries were secretly opened and privately copied…
Dormant accounts were traced and kept hidden…
House vaults sealed after the Civil War were identified and quietly transferred…
Grayfia handled the government side of everything…
While Serafall handled the Sitri’s personal records…
For all intents and purposes, Soutarou still didn’t exist…
Neither allowed for anything that might lead to an issued summons and neither placed Soutarou before a council or demanded he prove himself to families that had already failed his own.
They buried the paperwork beneath their personal authority and accepted the burden themselves.
Though neither said it out loud Soutarou figure it out and he understood exactly what that meant.
Two of the busiest women in the Underworld had chosen to spend political capital and personal time giving him room to breathe.
It seemed House Valefor’s old debts were not merely empty history.
Grayfia formed a large silver circle above the clubroom table.
Several objects descended from it.
The first was a heavy black seal engraved with a lion whose mane formed a ring of broken light.
The symbol of House Valefor.
Beside it came a second seal bearing the image of a great lion beneath a stylized command crest.
House Marbas.
Folded banners followed…
Formal insignia…
Two rings identifying the holder as the recognized blood heir…
A set of crystal account keys tied to the surviving monetary assets of both houses…
And several carefully preserved records that had remained untouched since the last confirmed deaths within each lineage.
Soutarou stared at the Valefor seal.
For the first time in his life, he held something created for the family whose blood shaped him…
Grayfia noticed his silence and she gently explained, “Lord Valefor…
The majority of both estates were absorbed, destroyed, or contested after their fall.
What remains has now been placed under your direct control.”
Soutarou lifted the black seal.
It was cold, heavy, but real.
Soutarou quietly said, “Thank you.”
Grayfia’s eyes softened by an amount so small most people would have missed it.
Grayfia answered, “No gratitude is required.”
Her tone became quieter.
Grayfia continued, “This is significantly less than what your house gave us.
Even a millions times this could not repay what the Valefors did…”
Rias watched Grayfia from beside Akeno.
Questions gathered in her expression…
Questions for another day.
Serafall returned to the table carrying a crimson case.
Her earlier jealousy remained visible in the occasional glance she directed toward Soutarou and Sona…
But responsibility had restored most of her composure.
Serafall placed the case before Soutarou and formally said, “As the restored heir of two Pillar bloodlines, you’re entitled to a set of Evil Pieces.”
She opened it.
Fifteen unused crimson Pieces rested inside.
One Queen… This story is hosted at g.com.
Two Rooks…
Two Bishops…
Two Knights…
Eight Pawns…
Ordinary, but clean.
Ready to accept Soutarou’s blood.
Rias glanced toward the set.
Sona watched more carefully.
Soutarou looked at the Pieces for several seconds before closing the case.
Soutarou politely declined, “I won’t need these.”
Serafall blinked.
Grayfia’s gaze sharpened.
Sona tilted her head.
Serafall cautiously asked, “You already have a set?”
Soutarou rested one hand upon the closed case and Soutarou simply answered, “A set was left among my lineage’s holdings.”
The statement was close enough to truth for his voice to remain completely natural.
The Pieces had become part of his holdings.
No one needed to know they once belonged to Cleria Belial.
Soutarou continued, “They carry another King’s blood imprint.
I need the established method for removing it and replacing it with my own.”
Grayfia studied him, Serafall did too, but neither asked whose blood remained inside and neither requested to inspect the set.
After all, the surviving heir of two extinct houses could reasonably possess any number of hidden inheritances.
Serafall slowly closed the crimson case and pulled a thin black folder from the dimensional space beside her.
She placed it in Soutarou’s hands.
Inside were detailed instructions…
The structure of the blood anchor…
The order in which the connection had to be unlocked…
The method for purging the original imprint without damaging the Pieces…
The amount of blood required from the new King…
The stabilization period…
And warnings regarding mutation, damaged sets, and incomplete ownership transfers.
Soutarou read the first page and began dissecting the procedure.
It was elegant…
Far simpler than reverse-engineering the entire Evil Piece system…
And exactly what he’d entered Kuoh Academy to obtain in the first place.
Serafall watched him read.
Her fingers moved toward the dimensional space again.
Then stopped.
For the first time since arriving, she looked uncertain even Grayfia glanced toward her.
Before Serafall sighed and she reached into the space and removed a long white key.
It was unmistakably a key rather than a chess piece…
A narrow ivory shaft ending in complex teeth designed to fit no physical lock…
Yet every line carried the visual language of a chess set.
The bow resembled a stylized crown rising from the top of a King…
The shaft was engraved with alternating squares…
And the guard widened into the sharp geometric contours of a Rook’s battlements.
Blank white material reflected the clubroom light without revealing a single magical signature.
Serafall held it for several seconds.
Then placed it beside the instructions.
Serafall reluctantly explained, “The written method is enough to understand the process…
But this key performs the actual unlocking without requiring an Evil Piece workshop.”
Soutarou looked at the artifact.
The white surface appeared empty.
Lion’s Gaze saw thousands of microscopic channels folded through it.
A universal transfer implement…
Designed to enter the metaphysical lock surrounding a Piece’s blood imprint and temporarily reduce the connection to a blank state.
Exactly what he needed.
Serafall’s hand remained upon the key.
Her eyes moved toward Sona.
Then toward Soutarou.
A complicated expression crossed her face before she finally released it.
Serafall quietly said, “I’ll come back for that tomorrow.”
Soutarou closed his fingers around the white key.
The artifact felt almost weightless.
Sona folded her arms and reminded, “After our match.”
Serafall’s expression collapsed again.
Rias stepped closer to Soutarou and looked at the key with open curiosity.
Akeno watched the golden holy light finally disappear around him.
Yumi remained attentive beside Rias.
Tsubaki moved toward Sona as the chessboard was placed upon the central table.
Momo stood slightly apart…
Still glancing at Soutarou whenever she thought he wouldn’t notice.
Soutarou looked down at the instructions in one hand…
The white key in the other…
Then toward the house seals resting upon the table.
He’d entered Kuoh Academy expecting to spend weeks creating pressure…
A few clues for Sona…
A few for Rias…
A carefully timed reveal once both sides were invested enough to summon the people he needed.
Instead, Rias had asked him to stay beside her forever before the first school day ended.
And Soutarou had answered that sincerity with the truth.
Now Grayfia Lucifuge stood beneath the symbol of House Valefor while Serafall Leviathan muttered some extremely jealous comment about a marriage contract in the corner…
Sona Sitri waited beside a chessboard prepared to decide whether that contract survived…
And the method for claiming Cleria Belial’s mutated Pieces rested in Soutarou’s hands.
His primary objective was complete.
Soutarou’s hazel-golden eyes shifted toward Sona.
She adjusted her glasses and took the seat…
Rias settled beside the board with obvious interest.
Everyone else gathered around them.
Soutarou placed the key and instructions beside the Valefor seal.
Then he sat opposite Sona.
A slow smile crossed his face.
‘One day…
Haa…
This was supposed to take weeks…
Well whatever…
All for the best I suppose.’
Soutarou looked once more toward the blank white key.
Fifteen mutated Pieces waited beneath his home…
And tonight…
They would finally recognize their King.