Chapter 3

"Tomorrow's the day, Magnus."

It's been 20 years since he was reincarnated into this world and living as a kid a second time was a new experience. Especially when your parents are centuries-old devils, his mother being 638 years old and his father being 492 years old. Despite their age, in a race with extremely long lives, devil society considers them to be young adults in their mid-20s.

When Magnus realized that there were some devils out there who were over two thousand years old, it led to certain consequences.

He was already a bit of a slacker in his previous life. Not to the point that he was considered lazy, but to the point where he would do the bare minimum.

Being centuries-old had led to his parents gathering a certain amount of wealth and with the fertility of devils being so low, Magnus' parents had no problem spoiling him a little… ok it was a lot. Because of this, he lived a slow life for the first 12 years of his new life without care. Magnus still trained with the inheritance he got from Reid, but it was casual, as in go-to-the-gym-on-weekends-for-an-hour casual.

Then he heard his parents talking about how Lord Sitri, their employer, was going to double the number of guards around his heir Serafall Sitri.

It was at that point he came to the startling realization that the Devil Civil War had yet to happen. It's not that he didn't know he was in the past, the lack of technology made it obvious. But because his parents were the guards of someone of importance, they lived in an area where those around them were in the same occupation. And because of their occupation, many of them did not gossip lest they accidentally reveal something important and get in trouble because of it. This also was not the age of information that Magnus was used to, so he had no way of getting an intake of information stably.

Additionally, his parents didn't treat him differently because of his low magical talent. In hindsight, he underestimated how much devils cared about their kids due to the low fertility.

It was only after that moment of enlightenment did Magnus conclude that he needed to shift his ass into gear. The next day he fully delved into Reid's inheritance with the intent to, at the very least, live through the upcoming civil war.

It wasn't easy at first, especially with the fact that he was a bit of a slacker. It took Magnus three years before he had developed some form of discipline through repetition, his newfound talent with the sword a lot. His training habits had eventually beaten the slacker out of him after another two years. Magnus still had an easy-going personality despite everything, he just didn't procrastinate and slack off like he used to.

Now after eight years of training his ass off, Magnus realized that he still had a long way to before being able to reach Reid's level. It's not that his training speed is slow, again his sword talent helped a lot here, but it's that Magnus lacks a lot of experience. The era when Reid was alive was even more chaotic than the already chaotic canon timeline of Re: Zero. In contrast, Magnus has only trained on his own, occasionally killed a beast in the nearby forests, and sparred with his parents now and then. Though he had to work a little harder when it came to the martial arts portion of his training. He couldn't do something crazy like transferring force as Reid did, but he liked to think that he was pretty good at fighting without a sword.

Therein lies another problem, after eight years, Magnus has no idea how strong he is. His only comparison was the beasts in the forest and his parents who didn't go all out in their spars. Though he figured he would find out eventually.

Then there was the summoning Magnus received from Lord Sitri to come to the Sitri estate tomorrow that his father told him about. Magnus already knew he wasn't going to be meeting Serafall since his mother was currently on duty and she had told him how she would be guarding Serafall on her trip to a small party she had to attend as heiress.

And so, Magnus fell asleep thinking about what Lord Sitri could want from him.

Edwin Sitri had seen a lot.

It was to be expected from a man who had been born during the Great War and even participated in it towards the end. He had fought against the messengers of the He Who Brings Forth Headaches and the watchers who fell. With Azazel being the one in charge of the Grigori, you tend to see a lot of strange contraptions born from an equally strange mind. He had seen Gabriel tear through the Ultimate-Classes that tried to bring her down. Of course, Edwin only observed from a distance, he wasn't qualified to participate in that fight. And so, like all long-lived and experienced beings, he too was interested in new things and anomalies, non-threatening ones of course.

This generation was filled with anomalies, his daughter being one of them. Learning about another devil that was talented and how they would reach Ultimate-Class was somewhat uninteresting, especially when considering that most of it was just pointless bragging done by parents or foolish followers who simply said what the other party wanted to hear. At this point, those kinds of information had to be taken with a pinch of salt.

However, the recent generation was different. The Gremory and Astaroth heirs were born with extraordinary amounts of power, it was to the point that as newborns they started to float with how much magical power they were outputting. Frankly, if Venelana hadn't activated her Power of Destruction, young Sirzechs might have obliterated everyone in that room as a newborn.

Then there was the Glasya-Labolas heir who was quickly becoming a force of his own with his Absolute Defense. Finally, there was Serafall, originally the Sitri Clan Trait was a high-level control of water magic that allowed for greater manipulation than normal, such as using water magic to assist in the process of healing. However, Serafall's clan trait took it even further and allowed her to use ice magic to an extreme level. The Satan Clans remained disbelieving that they may be outclassed in the future by four 'servants.' He had a feeling that such thinking might come back to bite them consequently.

Now, as Edwin watched the young devil of the Astrea family using a wooden training sword to push back an older and more experienced devil back with nothing but strength and skill easily, he realized that he and the other Clan Heads had missed another anomaly.

As he watched on, Edwin realized that the young devil didn't seem to take much pride in his ability.

He turned to face the boy's father Gilbert Astrea, a man who, along with his wife, had served the Sitri Clan faithfully as guards for centuries.

"Does he not understand how strong he is?"

To that, much to Edwin's surprise, Gilbert nodded.

"Yes, milord. My wife and I concluded that Magnus doesn't quite realize how much he pushes us in our spars due to how unskilled he is when it comes to using magic. If he was even slightly more talented in magic, he might have noticed, but unfortunately, he's not. And the beasts he killed fell so quickly that he assumed that it was the beasts who were too weak, not that he was too strong. So, after comparing himself to others, he's not very strong, is likely what he thinks," Gilbert answered.

"And you didn't correct him?"

"Clara thought that it was cute and decided to correct him at a later date."

Edwin chuckled at that.

"Though if you decide to add him to the guard squads, then her fun would be ruined. The only reason Magnus hadn't noticed sooner was that he doesn't interact with others his age, most of those he does interact with are the others in the guard squads, and all of them are at least High-Class. Magnus is quite smart for his age so he would notice, milord."

Edwin nodded at that, but he decided to correct Gilbert on something.

"I don't want him as a guard," he continued upon seeing Gilbert's confused face, "I want him as Serafall's escort."

Gilbert's eyes widened and he quickly bowed.

"It's an honor milord. My wife and I shall educate him on everything he needs to know. May I know when you would like him presentable by?"

"There's no need for education."

"Milord?"

"You said he was smart, correct? Do you think he could learn at the same time as he is acting as an escort?"

"He can. Like I said earlier he is smart for his age, and I don't think that we need to assist him when it comes to combat, he's handled himself well so far and he knows when to come for help. And I don't mean to be rude my lord, but is there a reason that would require Magnus to become an escort quickly?"

"That's good. As for urgency, I want him to be there with Serafall at the upcoming Gathering."

"I see."

The Young Devils Gathering. It was a yearly event held by the Satan Clans where all of the young devils that are of importance are called upon. It is not some form of social gathering to further unite the devil race, rather it is an event where the Descendants clarify that they are the true rulers of Devil Society and how all the others are merely weapons created by Lucifer and Lilith to combat Heaven and the Grigori.

Edwin was worried as this would be Serafall's first time attending. She needed someone she could trust from the Sitri Clan nearby. It was why the parents of young Sirzechs, young Ajuka, and young Falbium were also trying to quickly find their children escorts, but Edwin was sorry to say that they might not make it in time.

Edwin himself was lucky to come across young Magnus. He checks off all of the boxes he had required that were necessary for an escort according to his standards. The icing on the cake was that the boy was about to reach Ultimate-Class.

Yes, the boy who had no idea about his own strength was about to reach Ultimate-Class in what looked like a few months. He is a year older than Serafall when she reached Ultimate-Class, but it didn't matter to Edwin. The boy was after all forging a path that no devil had gone before.

Even if some devils use their bodies to fight, it is more of a Clan Trait that strengthens or a spell that does it, same with the sword. The fact that Magnus was able to get so far without using a Clan Trait or magic is why Edwin had labeled him as an anomaly. Magnus had reached this far using just his body and sword.

That is why while Serafall was at a party he decided to see what Magnus could do with his own eyes after hearing about him from Gilbert and Clara. Though Edwin figured that his daughter might be a tad upset with him as he recently was informed that members of the Leviathan Clan were going to attend as well.

As the young devil had just knocked out his sparring partner, Edwin also finalized his decision.

"Tell your son and wife that he will be assigned as the escort of Serafall the day after she returns from the party she is attending."

For those that don't understand why devils are reacting like this to Magnus using his body and a sword, do remember that Devil Society has yet to be baptized by top-tier Rooks, Knights, and Pawns. Right now strength is still perceived through magic and Clan traits.

For reference to the ages of the youngsters –

Sirzechs – about to turn 17

Ajuka – just turned 17

Serafall – 22

Falbium – about to turn 22

Magnus - 20