Who knew that hiding from people could be so fun!

My laughter was contagious as I pulled myself into a dark hallway alcove.

Hiding behind suits of armor, slipping out onto balconies, even flying up into the rafters, the past week has been an intense game of cat and mouse.

I'm sure I was giving the housing staff gray hairs, but I had to entertain myself somehow.

I was a bit older than four years old at this point and I was bored out of my mind. Nobody to play with, nothing to read.

It was mind-numbing.

One day, a bit less than a week ago, I put my foot down. If they were going to treat me like a child, I would act like one!

From that day onwards I began to sneak around, doing my best to avoid being found.

I wasn't very good at it in the beginning.

Even still, like clockwork, I began to get better and better. Hiding for longer periods before being found, and sneaking into places I wasn't allowed to be. The library mainly; mom and dad believed that if they allowed me to go in there I would be experimenting with magic without supervision or any experience.

I mean, they're right about that, but it's still annoying.
My monologue was interrupted by the approaching sounds of footsteps. I didn't want to give up my position, so I quieted my breathing. They were talkative as they approached my hiding spot.

"Do you know where he was last seen?"

"Lady Phenex was the last to see him. She sat down with him for tea an hour ago."

"Then do you think he's still with her?"

"She says that he left about twenty minutes ago."

"So what you're saying is he could be anywhere by now."

"Yes, I believe so."

The voices gradually grew quieter and quieter, and soon I was the only person around.

I recognized both voices. I didn't know the first man's name, but he was a recent addition to the staff and he was still getting used to me. The second man, Niles, had been here long before I was born. He's been dealing with me since I was in diapers.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Before they came back, I wanted to be–.

Without warning I was yanked from my hiding spot and hoisted into someone's arms.

Unsure who had grabbed me, I began to blindly kick and scratch at them, only stopping when I recognized the voice.

"Someone's rather feisty today, have you not had your morning nap?"

It was Ruval.

I could feel myself turning red in embarrassment. I folded in on myself like wet cardboard, letting myself hang from his grasp.

I could hear a low rumble from Ruval; he patted me on the head and then gently lowered me back down onto my feet.

My heart was still pounding in my chest, but curiosity was beginning to overtake fear.

I looked up at him; he was in the middle of readjusting his clothing. Thankfully, I didn't tear any of it.

"Why are you here today?"

"Am I not allowed to check in on my favorite sibling?"

I gave him a dirty glance at that. Ruval only came home on the weekends, and it was currently a Thursday.

He gave me a fond smile in return, and pantomimed zipping his mouth shut.

I let out a sigh, if he refused to speak on it, it was probably something confidential. I wouldn't press him on it.

"I wanted to see you before I left. I had heard tales of your misdeeds from mother, and I wanted to see for myself."

I hummed at his answer.

That reminded me of something.

How did Ruval know how to find me? Mom and dad had some secret technique that they refused to tell me, but allowed them to know exactly where I was hiding. Did they teach Ruval it?

I decided to subtly ask him about it.

"Mom and dad taught you, didn't they?"

I winced, I couldn't have made my intentions more obvious.

Ruval laughed and adopted a thinking pose.

"Should I tell you?" He stopped for a few moments, "Well, I'll make you a deal. Show me how you've been progressing with your lessons and I might tell you."

Since he caught me a year ago playing catch with a small fireball; he took it upon himself to teach me the basics. Using our clan power wasn't difficult, and I quickly moved past his beginner lessons. It helped that I had a good understanding of how devil magic worked. It just required a lot of imagination and willpower. With Ruvals' guidance, I had grown a lot more advanced in my usage of fire.

I stepped back five feet from him and prepared to begin the exercise. I knew the instructions by heart after all the times that I'd done it.

First, I begin by creating as many fireballs as I can actively control. They're small, but three fireballs begin to appear around me. I slowly put them in orbit around me, making sure that they won't intersect at any point.

Once I'm confident, I then start pouring more power into them, growing them from a golf ball into a balloon. I have to adjust the trajectories of the balls as they grow larger to guarantee they stay separated.

Over the next minute and a half, I begin to loosen the trajectories and take actual control of the fire. Pushing them further and closer to me, having them soar across the hallway without setting anything on fire and accurately directing them whilst I couldn't see them.

Eventually I get tired and extinguish the fire.

Ruval walks closer, slowly clapping; once he reaches me, he pulls me into a tight hug.

"Wonderful, do you have enough power left for the last test?"

I take a second to breathe, but nod my head affirmatively.

Ruval holds out his hand and a bonfire appears on top of it.

This final test is the most recent thing that Ruval has been teaching me. He explained to me that it's easy to just create a fire, but it's a lot harder to control and identify the properties of one.

"How hot is this flame?"

To allow me a better look at the flame, Ruval freezes the fire and holds it out to me. The flame is a deep orange-yellow; I touch my hand to the flame, knowing that low enough temperatures can't hurt me, and a few seconds later come to a conclusion.

"1200°C"

Ruval changes the temperature and we keep repeating the process.

"600°C"

"1900°C"

"1400°C"

"2800°C"

With the flame frozen, I'm unable to tell that the last one is painful until my hand is scorched. A golden flame quickly flickers through the burn area, and seconds later the damage is gone.

Flexing my hand, I look up to see Ruval deep in thought.

I sat there for a minute, waiting for him to finish his thoughts, but eventually I grew impatient. I'm too short to grab his shoulder, so I resort to tugging at his shirt to grab his attention.

"I just fixed that less than ten minutes ago, are you going to do this often?"

"If you're going to keep staring off into space and ignoring me, I will."

He looked a bit sheepish at my statement.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just thinking. You're getting rather good at this. There are quite a few things you still need to work on, determining temperatures without burning yourself is one, but that will come to you with time."

He took a second to breathe before continuing.

"I wonder if you've reached a point where you need more support than I can give you."

I open my mouth to argue, but one look from Ruval stops me.

"I don't want to hear any disagreements, I can only help you a few hours a day a few times per week. You need a teacher who can truly foster your talent."

I won't deny that it would be nice. Ruval was an amazing teacher, but he was right. I was beginning to slow down considerably. I just didn't get enough time with him to practice and ask questions.

"I'm going to speak to father about hiring an instructor for you, so be on the lookout for that.

He gave me a wink and turned away.

"I-"

I heard footsteps approaching, and returned to my hiding spot.

I could hear by the way they greeted Ruval that it was Niles and the other man.

"We are searching for your brother, Master Ruval. Have you seen him?"

I suppose enough was enough. I should go out and greet them.

I prepared myself for the inevitable scolding, but before I could walk out, Ruval responded.

"I have not seen him today. I wish you good luck finding him though. He's impossible to find if he doesn't want to be."

Really?

"I am, unfortunately, very aware. Thank you for your time, Master Ruval."

There was no more speaking as the footsteps retreated. I sat there for a few seconds before popping my head out.

Ruval smiled at me and walked back towards dad's study.

"Well, that's interesting."


In the year since that day, Ruval made good on his word.

Late next month, dad had taken me into his office to speak with me. We talked for a few hours regarding things like education and magic instructors.

He required a demonstration but quickly came to the same conclusion Ruval did. I would soon need an established magician to continue progressing. It would take some months, since he wanted to employ a rather well-known magician.

He was a human magician who had previous experience teaching devils.

The conversation soon shifted to regular schooling.

I had wanted to attend class on earth like what Rias did, only to find out that it was impossible. It was also here that I got my first history lesson.

"What do you know about the Great War?"

I don't even have to lie here. I don't really know a lot about it. The little bit I do know is that the three factions suffered a lot.

I told dad that and he shrugged.

"I suppose that is true, all three factions took major losses in the Great War. I'm curious though, do you know who won the Great War?"

"Nobody did, right? The three factions took massive losses. Heaven lost a lot of angels and archangels, the Fallen were to first to bow out of the war, and we lost half the pillar clans."

"That's incorrect, everything else you said is true, but there absolutely was a winner. It's Heaven."

I was confused. This didn't seem right to me; Heaven won? God died, but they still won despite that?

I flinched at the mention of God.

"I can see you're confused, but have you ever considered why we stay in the Underworld? If we won, why wouldn't we spread out across earth? It's much closer to the humans we make contracts with."

Ultimately, that was all that dad would tell me. I wouldn't be allowed to attend school on Earth, and so I would either spend time in a private school in Lillith or I could stay here and be privately tutored.

It was a difficult decision.

If I went I could make friends. While there was a lot of fun to be had here, it was also very lonely. I could also use the opportunity to scope out potential members for my peerage.

Then there was the promise of learning more history. The story dad told me had piqued my interest; Heaven winning the Great War wasn't what I recalled. I suppose he may have said that since I wasn't supposed to know God was dead, but he seemed to believe what he was saying.

I would also get further access to the world outside. If I was schooling in Lilith, then maybe I would eventually get permission to travel out into the city, even if it was with protection. What I would do there, I had no idea, but I had no idea because I couldn't explore it. It was a bit of a catch 22.

There were also the negatives I had to consider.

I retained enough knowledge from my past life, that I could likely blitz through standardized testing, assuming they had a similar system. If I had private tutors on top of it, I could easily imagine myself finishing my education within the next five years.

I would also have to contend with students who would buddy up to me, in hopes I would finance them. Not just students, there would be teachers and administrators who would favor me greatly, in hopes of currying favor with dad. It wouldn't work, but that won't stop them from trying.

It was a lot to consider.

I kept debating in my head, although I felt deep down, that I already knew what I was going to choose.

I pushed my hair out of my face; looked up at him, and said.

"I'd like to begin school in Lilith."


AN:

I debated whether or not to continue this chapter a bit, but this seemed like a fine end point.

We got a little bit into the lore. I absolutely changed it, lmao. I understand that the loss of God was major. To the point that it really crippled Heaven canonically. That's not really going to be the case here. God still died, but ultimately Heaven won the Great War.

Truthfully, I think that sentiment even makes some sense in the canon. Sure, we see Rias and Sona have taken ownership of a Japanese city, but they are heiresses of two major pillar families. Not only that, but their older siblings are two leaders of the entire faction. They are absolutely getting special treatment.

We see fallen angels with more of a presence on earth; they have excommunicated members of the church doing their bidding. The issue is, they're not influential enough on earth for me to consider them the winners.

Heaven has the church maintaining their influence on earth. In my head, I'm including Islamic religions in this category. As I understand it, Catholicism and Islam both believe in the same god as each other.

Power scaling is going to be rough. I don't think the rating system, the devil's use, is good. Nobility are automatically ranked as high-class, but I like to imagine that doesn't make them as strong as an actual high-class devil. Also, high-class and ultimate-class are such broad classes, I feel like there needs to be additional rankings in there. One between high class and ultimate-class, and another after ultimate-class.

I don't know what I would name the first one, but the second one would certainly be "God-class". I might end up changing it, but I like that it's an antiquated system that has a lot of flaws. It gives the world a bit more flavor.

Anyway, I'm going to struggle balancing Lucius. I'll have to carefully track him to make sure he's not improving too quickly. As much as I like strong characters, character building is nice too.