...Socializing?

"Have you seen them?"

Alaric forced himself to look away from the table that had been stocked full of various beverages that he was pretty sure had some amount of alcohol hidden within them when Ajuka addressed him, shooting a questioning look at his friend who subtly indicated over to the center of the ballroom, a place where he had been avoiding like the plague from the moment he'd been directed here by their hosts while his family was escorted to a greater ballroom where all the Pillar Nobility and a few special additions were mingling without having to deal with their children.

The first thing he'd concluded upon directing his gaze in that direction was how right he was in doing that, seeing as it wasn't exactly hard to not notice a scene made by a pair of children that looked like the very definition of the stereotypical depictions of a jock and his cheerleader arm-candy. A giant of a boy, older than he it looked like, basking in the attention that a circle of sycophants lauded him with while the girl, who looked like she was at a middle stages of adolescence vapidly hung off of his arm and made a show of giggling every time he decided to show off.

He couldn't make out any insignia's that would clue him in as to who they were, so he was quick to turn away from the scene and back to Ajuka, "Someone I should watch out for, I'm guessing?"

"Correct, they are both children of the Kings Zagan and Viné." He mentioned over to the boy, "Makthos-" He then pointed at the girl, "-and Lilith, respectively." Huh... That presented some questions, "Currently betrothed to each other, an arrangement that has been made recently." Such a match was... unusual, unprecedented even, so much so that it was a wonder alone that the other Kings had even allowed such a thing to be considered, let alone be put into action.

He made to ask Ajuka just what had brought it on, but was cut off when the commotion coming from the center intensified, a distinct sound of girly shrieking echoing through the room amidst the sound of laughter. A quick look in that direction confirmed that the sound had originated from the girl named Lilith Viné, who looked to be hiding her steaming red face in her intended's overly posh-looking coat as the boy, Makthos Zagan, laughed with his fellows.

"They certainly seem to have warmed up to each other fast, especially for such a recent match." He muttered, before shaking his head and continuing on his previous thought, "Though I wonder why it was allowed to go beyond a simple affair..." Affairs were common, especially among higher ranked Devils. For the scion of an Ultimate Class family that had particularly looser morals for a member of Devilkind, their marriages were nothing more than simple guideline on just who they were supposed to have an offspring with and who they were allowed to sleep to their hearts content.

Ajuka stood silent for a moment, before leaning down to pick up a glass filled with a viscous red liquid, which Alaric strongly believed to be a mixture of blood, though he wanted to refrain from thinking overly much about just what it belonged to lest he lose his lunch. "Lord Beelzebub has practically sponsored the match, despite protests from the Great King."

"Huh..." He articulated.

They didn't talk more about the subject after that, and any possible continuation was interrupted with the arrival of Serafall and Falbium, but the implications that resulted from it would stay in the forefront of his mind for the duration of this little shindig.

Home Base

Alaric's fist, enveloped in a blinding flash that looked like it was sucking the light out of the very air, collided into the unprotected face of a grotesque looking canine.

The Once-Fearsome Beast, having been put through the wringer for long enough that it would never be able to properly function again even if it somehow escaped its current predicament, expired immediately when the super-heated limb caved through any resistance its body could offer, leaving behind nothing but a battered corpse that barely resembled what it once had been.

Alaric sighed with upmost satisfaction as he shook his hand to relieve it of its very faint numbness, a condition that had once left him unable to even move his arm when he had first used his power to its fullest potential just some weeks ago, but had since been able to rapidly overcome ever since his mother began tutoring him and he started to push himself even harder with his training.

He could not say that he was not satisfied with the results...

He shot only a brief look at the mangled corpse he had just created, -noting with no small amount of relief that it had also gotten easier to stand the sight of the more mutilated bodies he left behind- extending his senses forward as his eyes raked through the thick treeline to make sure that there weren't going to be any unwanted surprises the moment he dropped his guard.

Once he was satisfied that nothing was going to do so, he quickly withdrew his senses and examined his surroundings now that most of the things distracting him had been shown the error of their ways.

The part of the forest he was on was pretty secluded; a moderately sized clearing that had managed to come out relatively flat and barren considering its location, sandwiched between the base of a steep cliff that was also a part of a mountain range that was large enough to cover almost half of this gigantic forest and the aforementioned trees that did an excellent job in obstructing the clearing from view.

It looked like a secluded location from just the general unmolested look of the place, though he was knew there was bound to be some critters that frequented this place, seeing as this was a forest and of course a forest would have critters, even if those critters had more in common with scavengers than they had with what one would call critters above-ground, they had most likely ran away the moment they had heard the signs of his explosive entrance.

He absentmindedly waved a hand and willed the corpses that were littering the formerly pristine environment to be thrown back into the forest and out of his sight. With that done, he moved deeper into the clearing and stopped as soon as he reached the center.

He had an idea...

He ran a hand through his hair as he cleared his mind and took a deep breath as he examined the entire clearing from a different perspective, this time with an entirely different intention as to just what he was looking for. In his head, several images of the same clearing with entirely new additions that would be his doing flashed, and it continued doing so until he was sure that the possibilities of just what he could accomplish if he were to take the plunge were endless.

So he let out the breath he was holding and grinned and got to work.

Looks like I just found myself a new sandbox...

Asset Procurement

"Sire."

Alaric looked up from the book he was reading when Tharn addressed him, the Silent Guard bowing when their eyes met. A quick look up and down revealed that the man had just returned from his assignment.

"Welcome back..." He muttered as he closed the book he was reading, one of his more recent purchases from Grobe that detailed how the Turkic Shamans had almost perfectly adapted their wild magic to that of God and his descendants as they increasingly turned to him for worship during their rampage of the Near East, a fascinating read. "Has anyone given you trouble?"

Tharn shook his head, "My permanent assignment to you has given more leeway than I would have had otherwise," Something to keep in mind, it had not been easy to convince his family to make Tharn's assignment as his bodyguard permanent, might as well take full advantage of it. "And the Merchant has lived up to your expectations and has managed to procure everything you have asked from him, I have personally delivered the item to your chambers."

"Good." Alaric muttered as he quickly shrunk the book to a more manageable size and tucked it into a secure pocket, rising to his feet and waiting for Tharn to fall into step behind him as he strolled out of the library, shooting a look at the servants that crowded the area and making sure they were well out of earshot before asking. "And has he said anything about the note I've asked you to deliver?" He asked,

"He said that it should not be hard to find who you are looking for, though he put an emphasis on how much it would cost to recruit those particular services and his hopes on being compensated for going through the trouble of acquiring them." Typical... Though it wasn't like he was surprised by it either, and it also wasn't as if he didn't have what he was sure the man wanted.

A cut of the spoils, it wasn't everyday that one got to work with a Dragon's corpse after all...

Though... "It would be a shame to part with such a treasure..."

He knew he made the right choice when Tharn didn't even blink an eye when responding, "Grobe has powerful friends Sire, but none that would mourn him enough to want to avenge him should he suddenly disappear, certainly not enough to cross someone of your standing." That meant he didn't have any customers from a notable Pillar family, so he would be in the clear should he choose to move against the sleazy merchant.

He put that thought aside for now, he still needed the man until he could get him into contact with the person who would be helping him make something useful out of the corpse of that Dragon. His only notable action toward it had been its painful relocation to his new base of operations, the wards he'd put around the place to made sure no unwanted guests would be aiding in the further degradation of a corpse that had stubbornly resisted it thus far.

Well... Aside from the hole Alaric had torn through its head, but you get the point.

"No use in making him paranoid until I have what I need." He said, catching Tharn's silent nod from the corner of his eye as he rounded the corner. The man still hadn't asked just what he had requested from Grobe, which was fortunate for his new job because he certainly wasn't going to risk his current arrangements by entrusting such a a big secret to someone whose unquestioned loyalty to solely Alaric was still questionable.

Even the note he'd given him on the matter had been a special order from Grobe that would only show its message at the hands of a specific person who had a 'key' to reveal it, his... business partner having gotten the idea when the correspondence had gotten more and more frequent and he had to send Tharn a lot more to compensate for the times he couldn't exactly deal with it.

He was perfectly comfortable in not extending that thread of trust between his bodyguard and he any further than where it currently was, just as much as he was comfortable with not severing it completely. If his new guard was indeed betraying what little trust he put in him and singing everything he did in his presence back to his parents, whatever he said to them would just be taken as simple delinquency simply because he wouldn't have any proof to present to them beyond a few books and a couple of magical items whose presence could easily be explained now that his interactions with other Pillar Children was happening at a more frequent rate, and it wasn't as if that trait was lacking in Devils.

He wasn't the first one defy his parents to such an extent, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

But he couldn't risk his part in the death of a Dragon to get out into the open, that would bring about the abrupt end of his new and very fruitful arrangement and he could comfortably say that it was the last thing he ever wanted. He could trust Sirzechs' friends to not divulge of it, they had been a tight-lipped bunch and the details of their little trip and their involvement in it would mean they would also be in the line of fire, but Tharn was still a new factor that he was just beginning to get used to.

That said, he quickly waved away Tharn, dismissing him as he rounded the corridor that led to his room, slipping in and quickly closing it before focusing his whole attention on the package on his bed.

It was a long and thin parcel made out of polished dark wood, a quick inspection of it did not reveal anything out of the ordinary, but he was not paying that much attention to it anyway...

He ripped it open and couldn't help the smile that slowly overtook his face.

Inside the box was a mass of concentrated steel, that took the shape of a bow that was even taller than Alaric, accompanied by a a single arrow and a simple detached bowstring to complete the image. The bow itself was engraved with elaborate runes that had been handpicked by him and were just waiting for magic to flow into them so they could burst into life. It was quite simply the most beautiful object he'd seen yet...

It had been a simple idea at the start, and that idea had snowballed until it had become an avalanche that finally led up to this moment. He had already been using bows to help with his concentration training, and he knew how fragile they were with how easily they broke if he put too much stress on them, the obvious leap of logic from there had been to wonder just what would happen if there had been a bow that could handle the superhuman strength of a Devil?

Of course, he didn't have any illusions that he could even slightly affect the monster across from him until he was much, much stronger... A foreseeable side effect from having it be made out of supernatural metal by a Dwarf that had been the master of his craft, but at the current rate of his power growth? He didn't have doubts that he would be able to wield this masterpiece...

Until then?

It was something to aspire to, and simply a beginning for his non-magical arsenal.

"Happy Birthday..."