Hello everyone, it's been a while~
Feels kinda fast release compared to the chapter before~
Before going to the chapter 10, thanks for the read, fave, follow, and reviews, I really grateful of them.
Now, without further ado, enjoy~
Disclaimer : please read the disclaimer on chapter one :P
After leaving Asia in Sona's care, Issei and Raynare went to the old school building led by Akeno. In front of the building, Issei could feel someone with strong presence beside Rias and her peerage.
They entered the building and headed straight toward the ORC room. Akeno knocked the door and the word 'come in' resounded from inside.
After Akeno had opened the door, the red-haired girl and lady with long silver hair wearing maid uniform came to Raynare's and Issei's view. The nasty smell of greed still etched to the Gremory, and now the rotten smell of manipulation also mixed in the fragrance. Issei decided to endure the smell for the sake of their plan.
Seeing unwanted guest, the maid released Angry smell while glancing toward the teenager king.
"What is the meaning of this, Ojou-sama?"
"It can't be helped, Grayfia, I already made the appointment long before, he should be the one who delays it."
Rias brushed off with a light tone. The maid called Grayfia only sighed seeing her young mistress' behavior. She walked toward Issei and Raynare who just entered the room.
"Greetings, I'm Grayfia, Gremory house's head maid."
"I'm Hyoudou Issei, and this is Amano Yuuma, pleased to meet you Grayfia-san."
Issei and Raynare bowed toward Grayfia as he introduced themselves, Raynare was sweating since the one in front of her was the queen of Devil Lord Lucifer whom entitled as the strongest queen.
The maid could felt that the boy had a sacred gear and the girl was fallen angel, but at the same time, she was not. She felt that Raynare was different from half like Akeno and she just couldn't determine what the former fallen angel is.
"What kind of business you have with Rias-ojousama? If it doesn't take a long time you have time to finish it before another guest arrives." Grayfia said in a dignified tone, she tried to clear Issei and Raynare because there's a good chance that they will be a nuisance in the meeting with the 'guest.'
But it was too late, even before Issei said anything magic circle emerged in the room. Fire flickering as a man appeared from the middle of it.
"It's been a while since I visited human world."
A wild looking gentleman with blond hair appeared from the circle, Issei determined that he is Raiser Phenex, the heiress of Gremory's fiancée. Rias who saw his figure snarled in irritation.
"I've come to meet you Rias."
"Raiser…"
Everyone present could feel the hate behind her tone, especially Issei who sniffed extra aroma released from her.
"I'm really sorry, but could you please return another day for your business with Rias-sama?" Grayfia bowed toward Issei and Raynare so they would leave and spare them from trouble with Raiser.
"You can't do that to my guest Grayfia! The one who should leave is Raiser rather than them!"
The Phenex then looking at Issei and Raynare, he was offended since he was less important than people who not a devil.
"How awful of you Rias, how can a chummy human like them are more important than Raiser?"
He intentionally provoked them, but Issei didn't change his expression while Yuuma almost gives in to the provocation but quickly calm down.
"Well, uh… Raiser-san, we were here before you, as someone who more important than chummy human then at least you should know how to be in line."
Issei and Yuuma agreed to meet with Gremory today because they need to stir a problem with Raiser and purposely demonstrate the dragon boy's power to some extend to bait the devil lord to approach Issei to help him to free his sister from the marriage.
Honestly, Ise just wanted to kill the Gremory heiress here and now. But, that would make him a fugitive of the devil. That would definitely make his important people be in danger. So he held back his desire and showed neutrality toward Rias, after all, there's no way he could achieve the goal if he openly hostile.
"Why should I queue behind a lowly human? And don't casually call me by my name, Trash." Raiser shouted.
Grayfia observed two of them carefully. And quite surprising for her, rather than the boy, it was the girl who wore angry expression. Then she knew that the boy was abnormal, like, he was missing something.
"Well then Gremory-san, what you will do about this situation?" Issei turned toward Rias and ignored Raiser.
"I'm sorry, but could you two wait? I will deal with him swiftly so we can proceed to our business."
Issei nodded as an answer.
"Yuuto, Koneko, prepare the seats for them, Akeno, prepare snacks."
"Yes, Buchou." Three of them answered and moved.
Raiser became even more offended with Rias' action, he knew that the boy had a sacred gear and there's a possibility that he will be a thorn in his path to marry Rias.
Not long, Yuuto and Koneko returned with table and two chairs and put them in the corner. After that Akeno returned with a bowl filled with snacks and sweets and presented it on the table for Issei and Raynare.
"Dear costumers, the table has been prepared, please this way."
"If you wear a maid uniform, it will be perfect, senpai."
Raynare replied lightly to Akeno's little joke then the pair of dragon moved toward their designated seats.
Raiser tried to protest, but after being silenced by the Queen of the Lucifer, he reluctantly ignored them.
To summarize the meeting between Rias and Raiser, Rias doesn't want to marry him because of their paralleled interest. Raiser only wanted to marry the Gremory heiress for the prosperity of the devil, while Rias doesn't want to marry the Phenex because she doesn't love him.
Issei and Raynare were amazed by that, she readily does anything for her own interest, she tried to sacrifice other's freedom for her own. The dragon boy's anger toward the Gremory flaring even more that he almost attacks her. Thankfully, the eye patch girl could calm him down before that happens.
Then Grayfia as mediator suggested a rating game between them with the condition that if Rias wins the engagement would be annulled and if Raiser wins they would marry immediately. Rating game is a game where high-class devils with peerage to compete against each other. That game was also popular not only among devil but also fallen angel. They watched it as a way to monitor the growth of the devils. But, now it was double as entertainment.
Raiser then summoned his peerage using a magic circle portal. Fifteen women came out of it and lined up. Raynare smiled wryly when she saw them, Azazel already told them about his peerage filled with girls and women, so they aren't surprised by that. The one bothered Issei was the fact that among his peerage, one had an identical smell with Raiser, the fragrance of family.
Ignoring that, the rating game match between the Heir of Gremory and the son of Phenex looked like a rigged match. The current peerage members that the Gremory had are only three people. Four if the one that sealed in the farthest room on the second floor of the old school building included, they had to fight sixteen people and among them, there are two people came from the Phenex family, the devil family that said inherited the limitless regeneration of the divine beast Phoenix, in other words, they are almost immortal. Her chance to win is close to nil yet, she fearlessly challenged Raiser for it, she hoped that her brother would get her out of this mess.
Issei thought that it's time to leave, there's nothing much else to observe.
"Yuuma-san, I don't think Gremory-san would have time for us, she had the more important appointment to attend."
"You are right."
Issei and Yuuma stood up.
"Gremory-san, we will take our leave here since there's no way we can continue to proceed with our business here, I hope you win against him so we can keep our business at later time."
Rias was flustered when they about to leave, they didn't stir anything with Raiser as she planned.
"I apologize Grayfia-san, you are right about this, we should leave earlier."
"I too, apologize for your inconvenient, Hyoudou-sama, Amano-sama."
Grayfia bowed toward two of them. They walked toward the door afterward. Rias wanted to stop them, but she can't expose her plan to Raiser or Grayfia, she was also cursing why Issei didn't even once stir a problem with Raiser even though he was looked down earlier in her mind.
While walking toward the door, Raynare knew that this was the best time to drop the bomb that they already planned that night.
"Issei-kun, what do you want for dinner tonight?"
"Hmmm… somehow because of this meeting, I want to eat grilled chicken."
Everyone in the room raised they eyebrow for different reasons when they heard Issei.
The most visible reaction was from Raiser, the blood already rushed into his head.
"What did you call me trash?! No one called Raiser Grilled Chicken and lives!"
He shouted as he conjured fire and threw it to burn Issei to ashes.
Predicted where the flame will land, he summoned the Boosted Gear and deflected it toward Gremory's desk which turned into ashes in no time, surprising everyone present as they widen their eyes in disbelieve since he could easily deflected the flame of a Phenex.
"Red Dragon Emperor's gauntlet…"
"No one called you a grilled chicken Raiser-san, or was that your nickname?"
"YOU!"
Raiser raised his voice and prepared another fire, bigger and stronger. But, the maid of Gremory decided to come between them.
"Raiser-sama, anymore ruder behavior than this, I will have no choice but to subdue you, and he didn't call you grilled chicken so cease your anger."
Grayfia said in a dignified tone. While grumbling, Raiser put his hand down.
"That was a close one Raiser-san, if you hurt Yuuma-san earlier, Rena Fangulf will descend once again."
Everyone inside the room didn't understand the name of Rena Fangulf, except for the head maid. The former host of the same sacred gear that the brown haired boy bear whom almost drove the devil family that almost immortal to the brink of extinction.
She doesn't understand from where he learned that name, but he said it without hesitation in his speech, surely he had the power to back it up. He could be the perfect person in her lord's plan to save his sister.
"Do you think mentioning some unknown whore's name will scare me? Never!"
Raiser shouted in rage. Being called a whore, the past host called Rena Fangulf currently shouting inside Issei's head to kill the Phenex here and now.
"C'mon Issei-kun, if we stay any longer, the meat might sell out. Good day everyone."
Raynare pulled Issei of the room, and they quickly walk away from the building.
"Now we just hope that the maid will take the bait, it was really scary that the one there was the legendary queen Grayfia… I thought that I will be killed on spot earlier…"
"I won't let her kill you Yuuma-san."
Raynare smiled at Issei's words, she knew that he will do it for real if Grayfia or someone else tried.
"Yes, I know you will." She muttered while blushing.
"Let's pick Asia-chan up and go to shopping."
Next day, the Gremory heiress and her peerage were absent from school, according to Sona, after Issei and Raynare left, they decided to give Rias 10 days to preparing for the game. Sona was aware that just prolonging the inevitable defeat for Rias. But there's no sympathy left for her childhood friend anymore since she heard that she tried to enslave Issei by kidnapping Hisako. Now Sona sympathized toward Raiser instead if he wins the game and marry someone like the Gremory Heiress.
Genshiro was the person who suffered from the disillusion the most. The most admired person in the school was doing such crime.
A week after that, a certain red-haired man came to visit Issei's apartment to strike a deal, a deal that he will regret shortly.
This is the end of chapter 10, thanks for reading :D
I will put the list from now on : Raynare, Sona, Tsubaki, Ruruko, Serafall, Kalawarner, Aika, Akeno, Irina, mysterious OC 1, mysterious OC 2, Katerea (Trial, higher chance to be stricken from the list, hope that my imagination is high enough to put her in the harem :P), Ravel, Rossweisse.
Reviews answer like usual :D
Zaralann : I don't think so, even being trophy wife, if she became cunning enough to control Raiser, it would be bad so I made something different.
NinjaFang1331 : Thank you :)
LightningBlade49 : there are few highlights in this chapter, you should get some hints about his plan *Grinning evilly.*
meirmamuka : You're right and that fact was the reason I changed the plan, I really want to say something but it would be the a spoiler. Let's just say Rias' status didn't change if she was left to married Raiser.
darth56 : I was busy months back there, I got very little free time that I ended used it up for playing Romance XIII. So here's the new chapter :)
aten92 : Thank you, the first half of the plan, next chapter is the finale. Look forward to it.
Ryuujin96 : Thank you and truthfully, I'm a bit conflicted about Serafall right now, I need to come up something different than the one for my other story for Serafall and kind of hit a dead end. For Ruruko, I wanted to try something new I guess, it's quite rare to see Ruruko-chan as part of the main harem and I think her inner conflict would help Issei a lot. Thanks again for your review, here you go, the next chapter.
Xerzo LotCN : Thank for your review, the spacing meant a lot for me, if you review this long without any spacing I might skip it.
First, Yes, using someone else pairing might be bad and might make the character feels slate or something, but in this story it would be better that way, because of one fact, Issei could understand one's feeling through his cheat nose. No matter what facade they put on, Issei could see through them, I feel that in the canon, Vali was rejecting Kuroka because of his past, if there's more relationship between them and somehow his assh*le grandfather sniffed it, Kuroka would be in danger and Vali doesn't want that. But in the end, Kuroka decided to choose Issei who have weaker resistance toward her. That was how I see it though, don't know about anyone else.
Second, about fem!Vali, I saw great stories about this pairing and I want to do it at first, but there are better things between Issei and Vali if both are on same gender.
This is my own thought when I write a fanfic, people wrote their own fanfiction was for their own fun, if they have fun with Gary stu or Mary sue character, is that wrong? I won't say you are wrong for finding them weird, it just like preferring pork over chicken or beef or the other way around.
I won't say OC replacing MC story bad, it just most of them can't built their OC properly, there are also many good stories with OC replacing MC imo.
For crossover, I don't think I really like it either, when I saw the DxD crossover section, most of the stories were in the DxD world, where the DxdXsomething characters wrecking the world because of it was less popular story if I had to admit. So I decided to write a story where my OC from my other story wrecking the world(not released though since it contained many spoilers of it XD).
I don't think I would remove my mysterious OCs from Issei's harem because they were set on stone even before everyone except Sona and Raynare and Ruruko. And your Pokemon reference, I don't really understand it since it's been a long time I watched one, but when you decided to compare canon and fanfic, that's where you start to lose the enjoyment of fanfic.
And about Xenovia, what's to hate? many things I guess.
The thing I hate the most from her is that she's a hypocrite, She wanted to kill Asia because she's still believe in god even though she's a devil, yet why she decided to became a devil and also pray to god? why not kill herself instead?
Once you hate, anything from her will also became hate, so I think I will stop here and thanks for sparing your time to wrote this long of rambling :D
Cf96 : Thanks :)
DdraigTrueEmperor9 : Thanks for the review, I personally think that this punishment will be quite nasty for her.
For Asia at least I wanted her to be able to defend herself, but when I re-read this story again, I decided something else for her.
Hisako was the closest sibling to Issei's mother, there's no way that she could left Issei alone so she decided to leave everything behind and raise Issei somewhere far away from people who know them so he could be normal, some could be said failed and succeed.
And Azazel, it is just as you said and Saji, well we never know... XD
Sorry about that, but I'm sure you can enjoy your favorite black cat even though not in the harem, but I don't think I could say the same to Xenovia.
For Aika I might struck her from the list if I can't fit her, but for Ruruko I already prepared a role for her.
For Katerea, I hope so too. :D Thanks for the review once again.
RangerElk76 : Here you go the next chapter, the arc finale will be the next chapter.
shadowwriter01 : Thanks for the review and yes, I decided something else since they can't release Akeno from her clutch and doubling with rescuing Raiser from her instead. XD
That's all for the review answer, Farcast sign off~