File 25: Ingvild Leviathan

It has been four days since their meeting with the Shinto faction representatives. Despite expectations on what is to come with their arrival, things actually ended up normally with no incident, not even a minor conflict. Well, there is that one time where a moderate amount of magic was detected in the forest area near the border but that was because the Shinto faction is reclaiming one of their own abandoned shrine.

That part of Kuoh is a rather odd place. There are lots of youki in the air around there but there are no signs of youkai at all throughout the years. Usually, stray youkai or even youkai in general will be drawn to a place where there are lots of youki around but there are no sighting of youkai for many years around Kuoh, not even stray ones. Hell, not even stray devils go there!

Ingvild was curious about that place and did enter the shrine area once to investigate but despite the thick youki, she and her peerage couldn't find anything out of place. It is rather odd but that matter is no longer in her hand. The shrine and its territory have now been returned to the Shinto faction. That is now their problem… as well as their official embassy office.

Right now her concern is her own territory. Though that said, there is nothing much going on right now. Nothing important or pressing that needs her immediate attention. That means her job today is simple contracts and patrols. Right now she is looking through the contracts they made today. Since there are no contracts that directly request her that means she will be on patrol duty, as like most times.

It's not that she's unpopular but to contract her for a day is quite expensive, especially if it is only for mundane tasks, so usually those who do contract her needed some help with a more serious problem. Most of the time, it involves her being a supernatural detective to solve unnatural cases that can't be left to normal authority. Though that doesn't mean she doesn't get clients that requested minor things but those are fewer in numbers and are usually people who have too much money in their hand and don't know what to do with it.

So most of the time, she was the one saddled with the job to patrol the city. She can't just sit around and do nothing… actually, she could do that but after three days of no contracts and just waiting around for her peerage to finish their contract, she got the idea to patrol. Even if it is just a glorified midnight stroll, it is much better than sitting around doing nothing and it lets her stretch her leg. Not like it's useless anyway. She had personally stopped five infiltrations by stray devils in this month alone, and it's only been half a month!

"There are no contracts that requested me and most of these are the usual. That means first come first serve. So who wanted to skip out today?"

Ingvild asked her peerage who are currently sitting on the sofa in front of her desk.

Being a relatively young devil, Ingvild hadn't completed her peerage yet and as a result, she has only a few members in her peerage. But even if they are few in number, Ingvild had made sure that all of them are very capable, and he does mean VERY capable. After all, the peerage is a reflection of their King. As someone who will become a Maou in the future, she made sure that her peerage would reflect her ambition. They are her pride and joy. Her comrades. The only other peerage she knew that train harder than them is Sairaorg Bael's peerage and that said something.

"Ooh! Pick me nya~! Let me patrol with you, nya!"

Of course, the first person to try getting out of doing a contract is the most popular out of them all and the one who received the most contract. The one who raised her arm up is the first Rook of Ingvild's peerage. She is a tall and busty young woman with long black hair and a pair of cat ears on top of her head. There is also a black tail peeking out of her skirt as she jumped up and down, trying to get Ingvild to pick her. All in all, she is a nekomata that fits the very definition of a Cheshire cat and the mood maker of the group, Toujou Kuroka.

"Nee-san, no. You already skipped out these past two days. You are not allowed to skip another."

"Ehh, but Shirone, all the contracts I kept getting are perverts who want to see me in cosplay nya! Please give your nee-san a break nya!"

The second rook of the peerage and the one who pulled Kuroka's tail to force her to sit down is a short girl with shoulder-length white hair and a stoic expression. As can be guessed by her calling Kuroka as 'nee-san' she is Kuroka's little sister, Toujou Shirone. She is also a nekomata like her sister but unlike Kuroka who let her ears and tail out in full display, Shirone tend to hide her nekomata features unless she is in battle. She was shy about her nekomata features due to a past incident with human children but had since got over it although she still prefer hiding her nekomata features, mostly due to doing it for so long that it's just instinct to her.

"Muu~ Just because you like being told to do cosplay doesn't mean that I do, Shirone! You got the same kind of contracts I do and sometimes even more than me nya! It's her fault isn't it?! Sera-tan had managed to corrupt you, didn't she nya?!"

Kuroka pointed at Shirone who refused to look at her in the eyes. A tinge of red adorned her cheek and it is all Kuroka needed to confirm that yes, Shirone had been corrupted by their master's adoptive mother.

"Maa maa, calm down Kuroka-san. Besides, Shirone-chan is right. You have skipped out for two days straight. I know that you don't like the requests you are getting but it is still our job."

A blonde young man try to pacify Kuroka who is getting too worked up. The handsome blonde man is Kiba Yuuto, currently the only Knight of the peerage and the only former human among them. Ingvild met him during one of her trips in Europe. Needless to say that it was a very interesting day to her where she was almost killed by a powerful exorcist.

"Ufufu, Yuu-senpai is right. You can't skip out on our job everyday, Kuro-chan. Besides, cosplay is not all that bad. Although we do get a large number of those requests. I wonder why?"

An unnaturally feminine voice said to Kuroka. The owner of said voice is a red eyed girl around Shirone's height with long blonde hair and pointy ears. Out of all of them, she is the only one who is not wearing the school uniform but instead a blood red frilly gothic dress that would fit on a high born young noble from a fantasy story… except she is not actually a 'she'.

'She' is the only bishop in the peerage and is actually a boy one year younger than Kiba. His long hair is actually an extension and his voice is actually modified through extensive training in a specific part of shapeshifting, namely his voice box. His name is Gasper Vladi and is perhaps the most eccentric person in Ingvild's peerage. She wouldn't ignore the possibility of an even more eccentric person joining her peerage but Ingvild hoped that Gasper will actually be the most eccentric individual in her peerage. She simply can't imagine worse.

"Shut up you damn trap nya! It's all your fault that most of the contracts we got are about cosplay!"

Ingvild sighs. That is true. The influx on cosplay request came only after she forced Gasper to actually do contracts in person instead of through computers. To think that he used to be a very shy boy who hides in a cardboard box when she first found him. That was the last time she ever requested her adoptive mother for help in dealing with her peerage member's personal problems.

"I blame myself for ever entrusting him to be educated by mother."

Ingvild muttered to herself. She is very grateful to Serafall Leviathan for taking her in after she lost her parents to an attack by her aunt (?) Katerea. Some years ago, the Old Satan faction is gathering their power and are in the process of recruiting devils who follow the old regime. With her father being the descendant of the Maou Leviathan, he was of course approached by his fellow descendant, Katerea Leviathan. But her father is more content with living in peace with his family and refused. Not taking the refusal very well, Katerea killed his wife, Ingvild's mother, and tried to kill her and her father.

Her father managed to fend off their attacker for a while but Katerea was not alone. She had the help of Shalba Beelzebub and Creuzery Asmodeus. While her father is actually stronger than any of them individually, he couldn't fight all three of them and their forces alone on top of protecting her. When her father fell, Ingvild unleashes her sacred gear. The immense power of her heritage and sacred gear combined managed to injure many of them and push back the other descendants but since she was so young back then, she doesn't possess the power to fight them back.

But her burst of power did destroy their barrier and caught the attention of Serafall Leviathan who arrived just in time to rescue her. She was then adopted by her and since then, she had been grateful to her adoptive mother… when she's not in her crazy mood or trying to corrupt her peerage.

"…Kuroka, just complete your contracts. No more patrols for you this week or the next. Rias, you're with me today."

"There's never a boring day with every around, isn't it, Ingvild?"

Rias Gremory, the Queen of the peerage and Ingvild's childhood friend chuckled. It is times like these that makes Rias glad that she accepted the offer to join Ingvild's peerage to help her achieve her dream instead of starting her own. Yes, there's never a boring day with the Leviathan peerage.

Her patrols are glorified night strolls. If anyone were to say that to Ingvild, she wouldn't mind because most of the time, it is. At least it beats sitting in an empty clubroom doing nothing other than fiddling with her phone. It's unproductive.

Devils are creatures of darkness and even as a half, she always find herself more active at night than at day. Back when she was a child, it became a problem where she prefer sleeping in the morning but became very active at night, unable to sleep until dawn.

It is one of the more minor problems also experienced by reincarnated devils and other dark creatures who are part human or trying to live in human society. The difference in biological clock is not a hard one to overcome but even then, it never really go away.

Which is why Ingvild love her midnight stroll. It is a way for her to spend her energy and it help her fall asleep easier when she came home. Of course, simply walking around town, even running one lap around Kuoh won't even spend much of her energy, but it would at least stretch her muscles.

Besides, she's not just simply walking around. During patrols, she also expand her senses so she could detect anything that tries to infiltrate Kuoh. It is good training and now she is the best sensor in her peerage, surpassing even Kuroka who used to be the best sensor. It certainly helps with her magical control and whenever her control increases, the range of her senses also increase.

Right now, all her peerage members apart from Rias are working on their contracts. The new contract system Gasper setup online for Kuoh has made it easier to sort through contracts based on importance. It is a new system made so they won't have to give out summoning papers everyday and accept random contracts without knowing what it is.

Contracts in Kuoh are now done through website and an application downloaded through the client's phone. The client now simply need to open the website in the morning up until noon and write down their name, request, the devil they pick to do their request, and their email address.

The request will then be sorted through and priced based on the task and the devil picked and an email will be sent back to the client containing a barcode they have to scan using an application they have to download in their phone. The email will also have their turn number and the app will show whether the devil is done with their previous job or not. When their turn number lights up, the client can summon the devil. If the client can't wait for their turn and want to cancel, they could simply click on the cancel button. If they summoned the devil but wanted to cancel their request, they will still have to pay though.

Now this is where things gets a bit more complicated in the technical side. Once the barcode have been scanned, the summoning circle of the devil will be sent to their phone. The specialized app will then gather mana in the air to summon the devil. This is an experimental technology developed by Ajuka Beelzebub when the idea was brought up to him. It took him thousands of destroyed phone to get this idea to work.

Eventually, they managed to complete the app but its effectiveness is still shaky. There is a risk of overloading the phone that summons them if the summoning is done from a faraway place. So far, the summoning app can only summon a devil from inside the same city as the app user. That means this system cannot be used to summon a devil from the Underworld or another city, which also means that it cannot be used for major contracts. But it is useful for minor ones and minor contracts are always the hardest to sort through due to the number and scheduling.

Even as devils, they have to keep up with the time. For now, the website and app is only available in Kuoh town as most of the programs and ideas are still experimental. The website and app are now on version 3.04 with more updates and patches coming in the near future. The original version managed to destroy five phones in one day alone and as the responsible party, Ingvild and Sona had to compensate their clients with a new phone everytime it happened.

Well progress only happens through trials and errors.

Ingvild walk around some more. It's only a bit past eleven which means she has around three hours until everyone finish their contract for the night. Minor contracts can usually take up from twenty to forty minutes and they usually start at ten. Properly managing their schedule is important.

The devil expand her senses bit by bit as she moves. Right now, her senses could detect every supernatural presence in the north-east side of Kuoh. She could sense Shirone and Gasper along with two other familiar devils belonging to the Sitri family in the area doing contract. She didn't detect any problem so far and since there's no large spike in magical presence at the southern side of the town, Rias is also having a peaceful night.

Ingvild kept walking, expanding her detection range as she goes until she could reach her limit. Her limit is judged by how far she can sense things to a certain level of sensitivity. If her sensitivity dropped below a certain level, then that means it is her optimum range. A month ago, her optimum range is only a sixth of Kuoh. Right now, her optimum range is nearing a quarter. At this range, she can even sense the presence of people trying to suppress their supernatural power.

As Ingvild entered the north-western side of the town, she felt a presence of an incoming stray devil. Ingvild sighed. Tonight is not going to be as peaceful as she thought. Then again, that is the point of a patrol. Pinpointing the stray devil's presence in her extra sense, the Leviathan rushed to where the stray is located. Added by the knowledge of the geography, she only needed a second to know that the stray is located in the abandoned warehouse near the edge of town.

Leaping over rooftops, she rushed to where her target is and prepare for battle. From its presence alone, she knows that this stray is moderately strong. It is not something she cannot handle. She doesn't even need to use her sacred gear to kill this one. But just in case, she will go full power with her bloodline magic and…

'…what?'

Ingvild blinked when there's a very brief spike in power near her target and then presence of the stray devil suddenly disappeared. She landed in front of the abandoned warehouse where the stray devil was. She couldn't feel its presence anymore and she doubted that a stray has the necessary mental capacity to use any kind of presence concealment skill so it has likely been killed by someone else. All the devils are accounted for and there is no need for any of them to hide their presence from her sensing so who…

"Ahh, konbanwa, Ingvild-senpai."

A familiar voice greeted her. From inside the warehouse, two figure walked out, still dressed in Kuoh academy uniform. The two are none other than Kunou and Hyoudou Issei, the Shinto agents. The one who greeted her was none other than Hyoudou Issei. She allowed him to call her using her first name because he once called her 'Leviathan-senpai' at school, which he shouldn't have done because she is using an alias. At school, her name is supposed to be Ingvild Redheart.

Unlike Rias who didn't change her name at all or Sona who simply modify her name, Ingvild has to change her surname being what it is. Unlike the pillars, even a normal human would be able to recognize her name if they have even a superficial knowledge of western supernatural.

"Good night, Hyoudou-san, Kunou-san. Umm, did you by chance saw any stray devil around here?"

She asked politely despite knowing that they have most likely eliminated her target. Ingvild is still not sure how to interact with them, especially Issei who is too friendly in her opinion. Something is definitely off with him.

"The stray devil? Ise killed it earlier. We found it entering the town when we were walking back from the shrine. I have to say, you do respond quickly. It hasn't even been ten minutes since the stray came. You are taking good care of this town."

Kunou said with a tone of approval while nodding to Ingvild. Now that she mentioned it, the Shinto shrine is nearby so it's no surprise to find them here. As she heard it, it seems that only the Miko of Susanoo is staying in the shrine while the Kyoto Princess and the Onmyouji General are living together in a house closer to their school.

There is definitely something more going on with them, as in with Kunou and Issei. While all three of them appear to be good friends, Issei and Kunou are definitely closer with each other than they are with Akeno. In fact, whenever she saw Issei at school, Kunou will always be nearby.

"We've been entrusted with this territory by your faction. The least we could do is protect the normal people living here from any supernatural threats."

Ingvild replied sincerely. It is her honest feeling. It is an unspoken rule that the supernatural and mundane world should be kept as separate as possible. Each world's problem is their own. It is her duty as the owner of Kuoh's supernatural side to keep that boundary and she takes her job seriously. This earned her the approval of the two Shinto faction agents. It is good that Ingvild is responsible. After all, the normal humans living here in Kuoh are still their people, Japanese people. While the supernatural side of the populace is subjected to the Devils' rule while in this town, the mundane side does not. There are some territory lords that think of it like that and ignore things when the supernatural side prey on the mundane side. Ingvild is thankfully not one of those irresponsible lord.

"I say you are doing a good job, at least better than some."

Kunou muttered the second part of her sentence. She then proceed to rant about something to herself. Something about Karasu Tengu and idiots. Ingvild ignore her mutterings. It sounds like it is a private grievance.

"Anyway, Ingvild-senpai, thanks for speaking to Sitri-senpai about our club establishment. I really appreciate it."

Issei bowed to her, surprising the devil since she doesn't think that what she did is something noteworthy. Then again, Issei seems to be that polite. She recalled him saying something about always giving people a good greeting.

"I don't think it's something you need to thank me for. It's just a club."

"Even so, I really appreciate it."

Issei looked very thankful to her and it makes her feel awkward to be so sincerely thanked like that, and she knows how sincere Issei is. Sincerity is a very rare commodity among devils after all. As she thought, she really is not sure on how to handle Issei.

Ingvild didn't notice that when Issei mentioned about their 'club' Kunou's expression became sorrowful. The youkai princess quickly hid her emotion when Ingvild turn to her to look for a way out.

"Anyway Kunou-san, thank you for taking care of the stray devil. I'll go in and check the corpse, just for formality. I'll leave you two to your midnight date then!"

Ingvild hurriedly said as she rush into the warehouse, missing the interesting change in expression Kunou underwent for a moment. The Onmyouji General blinked and look back at the direction Ingvild went.

"What is wrong with her?"

"Nothing. She just want to do her job so let's just leave her to it. Let's go, Ise."

Kunou said as she walk away from the warehouse with Issei following from behind.

Inside the warehouse, Ingvild had found the corpse of the stray devil, or what's left of it anyway, which is pretty much nothing. There's very little damage inside the warehouse and the only sign that there's a stray devil here is only its lingering demonic presence and several small cuts laced with small demonic power, likely caused by some kind of bladed organs. Stray devils with mutated body tend to have limbs that became something else. It's honestly creepy and show her the danger of drowning in demonic power.

Other than that, the stray devil had been totally obliterated. It must've taken an instance with how little damage there is to the warehouse. The stray was probably finished in a single blow that completely erased it from existence. But what kind of power did Issei use to destroy it? She knew that he possess some kind of draconic power, likely a sacred gear. So she focus her senses and try to feel any draconic power in the area.

And that was when she realized, that she is only feeling demonic energy inside the warehouse. And it took her another moment to realize another thing.

She never felt the two agents' presence even when she was talking to them.

'Just what kind of people did the Shinto faction send here?'

Right, here is the introduction to the Leviathan peerage and a random idea I have about the contract system they are using here. It is honestly just a random idea since people seems to use apps for everything these days. Back in my time, we took the time to actually do stuff ourselves... wait, I'm not that old.

Anyway, the Leviathan peerage consists of Rias' canon peerage plus Kuroka. With Ingvild's different history, I'm trying to portray her as a protagonist type of character who actually bother to do things by herself unlike Rias in canon who kept problems piling up and let it be solved by Issei. Though the effectiveness of her solutions are questionable since sending Gasper to Serafall to teach him some confidence ended up with, well, that. Now Gasper is not just a crossdressing boy but a chuunibyou vampire who dresses like noble FEMALE vampires. He is still a boy but Serafall, in the process of upgrading his confidence, also upgrade his roleplaying and crossdressing level. Ingvild gets more headache.

I'm sorry that I have to do much modification with Ingvild's personality but I can't really use a doormat or a side heroine as a protagonist so I have to work a bit on her. In exchange though, all devil side story arcs will revolve around her and her peerage and she will earn it. Like AX and Haruka is the main group and protagonist in the Heaven side arcs and Issei with the Hero Club is the main group and protagonists in the Shinto side arcs, Ingvild and her peerage will be the main group for devil arcs. I also already have groups prepared for other mythology-specific arc but they are minor compared to these main groups. Lastly, I need a group and protagonist for the Fallen Angel side. While the group has been determined using some canon fallen angels, the protagonist will, unfortunately, need to be an OC because other than the cadre, we have no notable fallen angels in canon around the same age as the main group. Tobio is part of the Shinto faction here in case anyone want to point him out. Anyway, for the Leviathan peerage.

There's not much change with Kuroka. She is still her mischievous self and gets along well with the rest of the peerage since she didn't get an asshole for a master. Shirone though is pretty mush still Koneko but with different problems, one that I mentioned in the revised version of File 24 since I forgot that the two cats are in the peerage.

Kiba is still the same for the most part but more genuinely friendly. How Ingvild met him is also different from how Rias met Kiba because unlike with Rias, Ingvild actually met an exorcist, a powerful one that could've killed her, but didn't due to reasons. That encounter will cause some changes in Kiba, especially since we know that Tosca is currently active in AX and, a spoiler but rather obvious, she will be dispatched to Kuoh to deal with the Kokabiel matter.

By the way, I'm thinking of pairing the blonde handsome bastard with both Shirone and Tosca. Any opinion about that? I thought that Tsubaki's crush on Kiba in canon kinda came out of nowhere and to be very honest, when I first started out DxD and only knew S1 and S2 of the anime, I thought there was something between Kiba and Koneko. I mean Koneko must've thought of him as something since she went behind Rias' back to help Kiba during the Excalibur arc.

Now as for Rias. While she will be stronger, more competent, and more active in the peerage compared to canon as the Queen, I'm still working on her overall character and role in the story. She will be more driven and takes more initiative than she did in canon because honestly, in canon, she is just a glorified battery with no real importance other than being a pretty face. Well not with me here. If she want some screen time in my story then she better be ready to shed blood to earn it and feel some tragedies. It's my policy.

This arc will be an intro arc for the Leviathan peerage. Originally, I planned for this to be the intro for the Shinto side team and have Issei help Rias with the Riser problem in some way as climax to this arc but that was before I got the idea of including Ingvild as protagonist for the devil side. Now I will use this arc to introduce and show the power of the Leviathan peerage. The climax will be... Ingvild/Rias duo vs Riser's peerage. This will be a short arc because the fallen angels are not present so the whole Asia arc is nonexistent with Asia in AX and Grigori being represented by Akeno too as a half fallen angel...

Should I give Akeno an upgrade and make her a Nephilim instead of that half nonsense? Because the gigantic creatures known as Nephilim is the real result of an angel mating with a human as far as I can remember my mythology.