Anything you recognise isn't mine.
"So..." Sirzechs looked between Roxas and Palutena, as Grayfia took her place behind him and Millicas (who were sitting on a sofa), and Zeoticus and Venelana adjusted themselves on another sofa, and Alice took a sip from a glass of wine while sat in an armchair. "Palutena's pregnant?"
It was two days after Roxas, Palutena, and everyone in Roxas' and Rias' peerages had headed back to Roxas' home in Greece, and Roxas, Palutena, Sirzechs, Grayfia, Millicas, Zeoticus, Venelana and Alice were all in the lounge of the Gremory Manor, and Roxas had just broken the news to everyone in the room (except Palutena and Venelana, who already knew) that his wife was, indeed, pregnant.
"Yes." Palutena replied to the Crimson Satan. "I'm pregnant. I'm more surprised than anything that it didn't happen sooner, but I'm no less happy that it finally happened." Palutena wrapped an arm around Roxas and gently hugged him, and Roxas hugged back.
"Aww~" Alice smiled, putting down her glass and sitting up (noticing but not acknowledging the fact that Roxas' eyes flicked to her huge, bouncing breasts for a couple of seconds). "My little roommate is all grown up and ready to be a mom!"
"Well... heh." Palutena chuckled, nervously before looking down at her legs. "I'm... not sure I'm actually ready to be a mother yet."
"No-one is on their first time getting pregnant, Palutena." Venelana spoke up, gently. "It's fine to think that. Alice, Grayfia and I will be happy to help you with anything you need. Won't you?" she added to Alice and Grayfia, looking over at both her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who nodded in unison.
"Definitely." Alice replied.
"Of course." Grayfia affirmed.
"Good." Venelana replied, smiling. "Anyway, congratulations to both of you on finally conceiving a child." she warmly said to both Roxas and Palutena. "I know your son or daughter'll be in good hands when they're finally born."
Roxas blinked, and looked over at Palutena.
"You didn't try and find out whether we're gonna have a boy or girl?"
"We can't, yet." Palutena replied. "We'll have to wait a few months for that." Roxas nodded as Millicas slid off the sofa he was sitting on with his father, and toddled over to his big brother.
"Will you tell us when you find out whether it's going to be a boy or a girl, big bro?" Millicas asked. "I'm really excited to be an uncle!"
"Of course, I will." Roxas replied, rubbing Millicas' hair as he did so. "Pipsqueak." he added, causing Millicas to silently pout as he walked back to Sirzechs and sat on the sofa next to him again, as Roxas and Palutena both quietly laughed.
"Well, since my wife is so willing to give advice on being a first-time mother, Roxas," Zeoticus looked over at his silver-haired grandson. "I'll be happy to help you if you want help with being a father for the first time, as I did when I first had Sirzechs." Roxas blinked, and shot a sideways look at Sirzechs, who was blushing slightly.
"It'd be appreciated." Roxas nodded in reply. "Thanks."
"No problem." Zeoticus replied. "I can't wait to meet my future great-grandson, or great-granddaughter."
"Good." Roxas smiled as he looked over at Grayfia, who had stepped around the sofa and had leaned down to talk to her oldest son. "What's up, Mom?"
"Don't think for a second that this isn't the only child I'm expecting from you, Roxas." Grayfia informed Roxas, sternly. "I know full well that there are members of your peerage, and most likely other women that you've bedded, will want your children. I want as many grandchildren as possible out of you."
"Yes, ma'am." Roxas replied, taking on a slightly dry tone with his voice for a moment, before Grayfia wrapped her arms around him momentarily.
"That said, I'm incredibly happy that I'm finally going to be a grandmother." Grayfia added, her voice quieter than it usually was. "I'm proud of you, Roxas."
After a second or two, Roxas wrapped his arms around his mother, and while resisting the urge to bring his hands down to her ass, held her for a few seconds before letting go.
"Thanks, Mom." Roxas replied, as Grayfia went and took her place behind Sirzechs and Millicas, the former of whom began talking with Palutena about potential names for her and Roxas' baby. Roxas himself zoned out of the conversation a little bit, only really taking in the potential names that both his father and wife offered (those being Anna, Jean and Lucy if the baby turned out to be a girl, and Logan, Scott and Charles if the baby was a boy), and just decided to check up on a couple of things on his phone.
Including a couple of sexy pictures of herself that Valian had sent him (which comprised of her wearing sets of lingerie that she had modelled while on summons), a text from Michael that Dark Pit had been sighted somewhere in Gibraltar and a missed call from Kuroka telling him that she had eaten through his house's entire supply of tuna and that he needed to buy more, which made him snort and roll his eyes.
Roxas rolled his eyes and looked up as he heard the door opening and a young woman with dark blue hair and violet eyes, wearing a black business suit, entered. She walked over to Zeoticus and whispered something in his ear, before leaving (with Zeoticus getting up and following her). Roxas remained silent for the next few minutes, just going through his phone a bit more, before Venelana called to him.
"Roxas. Do you mind stepping out with me for a minute?"
"Hm?" Roxas looked up. "Sure. I guess." he placed his phone back into his pocket and got up, following his grandmother out and leaving Palutena, Sirzechs, Millicas (who was playing Kirby: Star Allies on his Nintendo Switch), Grayfia and Alice (the latter two had gotten in on suggesting potential names for her and Roxas' child) alone in the room in the Gremory Manor they had all been sitting in.
After taking a couple of steps away from the room, Roxas spoke the first two things that came to his mind.
"What did you bring me out for? And who's the woman who pulled Zeoticus out? I haven't seen her before."
"Her name is Saji Takami." Venelana replied. "And Zeoticus and I hired her to be Zeoticus' new personal assistant, slash business mentor. In order for him to learn how to run the Gremory Large Enterprise without my constant help and guidance." she added. "As from an outsider looking in, it currently looks like I'm the one running the show, which wouldn't be good. For rather obvious reasons."
"Yeah, I see that." Roxas replied. "Someone with no Gremory blood, no offence, running the company that is meant to be owned by the Head of the Gremory Clan. The idea of that would fuck things up royally for any Gremory Head."
"A position you could've held if you hadn't left." Venelana reminded Roxas, a smile appearing on her face. "But at least you managed to go and start your own business instead of just relying on the 15 billion Souls that you so sneakily made off with."
"Yeah, yeah." Roxas replied, idly scratching an itch on the back of his head, while shrugging. "What's your point?"
"My point, Roxas," Venelana replied. "Is that aside from offering to help your wife with being a first-time mother, I want to look at the way you run your own businesses, and offer you help if I feel you need it."
'So, she's offering to jump ship from Zeoticus' businesses to mine.' Roxas thought, inwardly smirking. 'Just like she jumped ship from Zeoticus' dick to mine.' The silver Nephalem momentarily considered Venelana's offer for a moment or two (and he would've been lying to himself if the thought of Venelana wearing a business suit similar to one of Sairaorg's Bishops (Coriana, her name was? Roxas didn't quite remember) didn't cross his mind at least twice), before nodding.
"You know what? Sure." he replied. "Can't be too bad."
Venelana smiled, and wrapped her arms around Roxas, holding him like Grayfia did a couple of moments ago.
"I'm glad you trust me, Roxas." she replied, before letting go and following him back into the lounge. "By the way, do you want that new gun of yours made into a tattoo, like with Clarent Galatine?"
"Oh yeah." Roxas turned around and nodded at his grandmother. "Sure thing. Let's go get it done when it's time for me to leave."
Line Break
A few hours after Roxas and Palutena had left the Underworld, and after Roxas had gotten the Vindicator turned into a tattoo and placed on his left bicep (under the sleeve of the Marilyn Manson t-shirt he was wearing), Roxas travelled to Zurich, Switzerland, where he had arranged to meet a good friend of his for a few drinks.
After jumping through a portal in the back room of a regular-looking bar, Roxas found himself emerging from said portal in a dim, yet lively, bar, that looked to be currently frequented by a large number of Fallen Angels and Devils, with a few Sex Demons (mainly Succubi, who looked to be putting the moves on some of the Devils and Fallen Angels, both male and female) and no Angels at all.
After looking around and seeing that the friend he planned to meet wasn't here yet, he idly walked towards the counter, and took a seat on a stool where he made eye contact with the bartender and proprietor of the bar that Roxas currently sat in: The Gates of Hell.
The man was tall, well-built and black, wearing sunglasses in spite of the bar's dark atmosphere. He wore a long, light brown leather overall coat with a lifted collar and black fur coating on the inside. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows revealling the same black fur coating on the inside, and a similar set of light brown leather pants, with a pair of black boots with untied laces and a red scarf completing the ensemble. He also wore a light grey, diamond-patterned shirt.
"Hehe. Look who it is." the bartender gave a dark chuckle and addressed Roxas. "Everyone's favourite Nephalem. Roxas Gremory."
"Hi Rodin." Roxas replied, adjusting his position on the stool. "How's business?"
"As good as it's ever been." Rodin replied. "What with the Four Factions signing that treaty ending the Great War and all. Everyone's a bit more willing to mingle with each other."
"To sexy results, no doubt." Roxas retorted, prompting a chuckle out of the dark-skinned bartender.
"Indeed." he replied. "So, what'll it be, Roxas? The usual?"
"The usual." Roxas nodded. "Two, please. Got a friend coming "
"Hmm." Rodin hummed, giving Roxas a searching look from behind his sunglasses. "Alright." He snapped his fingers and summoned two glasses from somewhere, before pulling a large bottle towards him with magic, uncorking it and pouring a red liquid into both glasses. "There you go."
"Thanks." Roxas smiled at Rodin before taking the glasses and walking towards one of the few tables that weren't taken, and sitting down at it. While taking a few sips from one of the glasses, Roxas looked around for a few minutes, waiting for his friend to arrive.
And after a few minutes, said friend did arrive through the same portal Roxas had come through earlier; he recognised him immediately.
Said friend was a young man who was an inch or so taller than Roxas, with spiky black hair and blue eyes. He wore a black jacket that he kept unzipped with skull-motif buttons, zipper tag and sequin details on the pockets. The jacket had a leopard print on the inside. Underneath, he wore a steel-grey shirt with skull prints. He wore black cropped trousers and black buckled boots with red soles along with black gloves.
"Hey, Kirnk!" Roxas raised his glass and called out to his friend. The newly-named Kirnk turned around, saw Roxas, and walked over to him while pulling a spare chair towards the table. "Been a while, hasn't it?"
"Sure has, Roxas." Kirnk Naberius, President of Roxas' technology company and a Devil born with a devastating, yet unknown, disease that robbed him of most of his demonic power (a disease that Sairaorg, as well as Kirnk's brother Linby Naberius, President of Roxas' motor company (RoxMotor), was also born with), replied, sitting down and fist-bumping with the silverette Nephalem. "You've gotten rid of your hairband."
"Yeah. I have." Roxas replied, idly flicking a bit of his hair out of his face. "And replaced it with something else." he showed Kirnk the sword-tattoo on his right arm, and after looking at it for a second, Kirnk reached into one of the pockets of his jacket and pulled out a pair of glasses, putting them onto his face and looking closely at the tattoo, as the lenses of the glasses flashed white for a fraction of a second, and scanned the tattoo.
"Dwarven magic?" Kirnk asked, taking the glasses off and putting them back into his pocket.
"Dwarven magic." Roxas confirmed, handing Kirnk the second glass of red alcoholic drink, which he accepted and took a gulp out of. "So, how've things been with you? Developed any new shit that you want me to see?"
"Yeah, I'd say." Kirnk replied. "I'll show you when we get back to my office, though. Anyway..." he took another gulp from his drink. "What's going on with you?"
"Well, I'm gonna be a father in nearly a year." Roxas replied. "I finally knocked Palutena up."
"You did?" Kirnk grinned, slapping Roxas on the back. "Congrats, man. Palutena's a perfect 10 for sure." Roxas chuckled and took a sip from his own drink.
"Agreed." he replied. "Though in all honesty, I'm more surprised than anything that I haven't knocked anyone else up before now."
"Yeah, with how many women you've banged, it's shocking that there aren't a couple of hundred mini-yous running around and causing havoc in the world." Kirnk replied. "Wouldn't that be terrifying?" He chuckled as Roxas playfully punched him.
"Shut up!" Roxas replied, though he was supressing a laugh himself. "There can only be one me to have casual one-nighters with hot actresses, models and cheerleaders. Or anyone else who fancies a go."
"Well it's not like you're gonna be saying no, unless you're really not interested. Or tired."
"Or hungry." Roxas replied, taking a large gulp of his drink. "As I often am." Kirnk nodded and took a drink himself.
"True." he remarked. "I haven't a damn clue how you pay for all the food that you and your peerage doubtlessly eat."
"Easy." Roxas replied, taking another large gulp out of his drink. "Being as rich as me is how I do it." Kirnk nodded silently as he took a drink himself, conceding that Roxas, who had dozens of billions of Souls to his name, had a point, in spite of how simple it was.
The two continued their drinking (with Roxas ordering one more drink for Kirnk and three more for himself), and made small talk with each other about things that were going on in the Underworld, how things were generally going at RoxTech and the fact that things between Roxas and the Avengers were no longer as tense as the US and USSR were at the height of the Cold War.
"But didn't you order one of your servants to go and steal a file on Bruce Banner a couple of weeks ago?" Kirnk asked, gulping down the last of his second glass. "The super-cute mute one?"
"Oh, they don't know it was me." Roxas replied, taking a swig from his fourth glass. "And besides, I had Neo return the file once Raven didn't need it anymore, so it's not like the situation would get any shittier now, right?" he let out a belch as Kirnk nodded.
"True. Also, ew."
Roxas shrugged and downed the rest of his glass before standing up.
"Whatever. Anyway, let's go see what you wanted to show me. Rodin?" he called to Rodin, who looked up. "Put those on my tab." Rodin nodded as Roxas and Kirnk left the Gates of Hell, and made their way (with Kirnk driving, as Roxas had no driver's license) to the high-rise building in the centre of the city that served as the headquarters for RoxTech, as well as the home of Kirnk himself, which was a penthouse apartment on top of the HQ. Half of which functioned as a home office/laboratory and the other half of which functioned as a semi-high-class home.
"So, Kirnk." Roxas pulled up a chair in Kirnk's office and sat down, looking at his best friend, who flopped down into his chair and booted up his PC. "What have you got to show me?"
"Well to start... this." Kirnk replied, reaching into a drawer on his desk and pulling out a smartphone, which looked rather similar to the Samsung Galaxy S9 that Roxas himself owned. "This is a prototype of a potential flagship phone that I had the guys in R&D manufacture a couple of weeks ago. Large screen, as you can see, runs on Android, 20-megapixel camera, water and dust-proof, same processor and amount of RAM as a Galaxy S10, actually has a goddamn headphone jack-"
"Sounds like a techy's dream." Roxas replied, cutting Kirnk off. "Anything that would make this phone stand out among anything else?"
"Of course." Kirnk replied. "You know how we decided to have the R&D guys look into ambient backscatter technology a few years back?"
"Yeah..." Roxas replied, nodding.
"Well, this is the result." Kirnk replied. "We've managed to work the technology into the phone and, should this experiment turn out to be a success, remove the need for phone batteries entirely. So, when you're out and about using this thing, it'll be able to draw power from the signals sent out by TV towers and Wi-Fi routers and use it to charge the phone."
"I see." Roxas replied, nodding again. "How's the testing going so far?"
"Pretty good." Kirnk replied, handing the phone to Roxas, who weighed it in his hand before handing it back. It was quite light, a lot lighter than his own phone. "We're only in the second week of testing this phone out, but if it's still working with no issues that could be a death sentence to it in four months' time, then I say it's good to go into production. Don't you?"
"Agreed." Roxas replied, yawning. "I like it a lot, Kirnk." Kirnk scratched an itch on his head and smiled.
"I'm glad you do." he remarked, placing the phone back into one of the drawers of his desk, and reaching for something else. "Now, for something a little more personal, but no less useful." He pulled out a case of contact lenses and took a moment to put them into his eyes, and blinked a couple of times to make sure they were in place.
"Contacts?" Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Bear with me." Kirnk replied, turning towards his PC and opening a program on it, with Roxas turning towards the six monitors that Kirnk had arranged on his desk to watch. As Kirnk turned to look at Roxas, the lower-centre monitor displayed the right side of Roxas' face, which was what Kirnk was looking at.
Roxas blinked, and looked to his tech-whizz of a friend in confusion.
"Allow me to explain." Kirnk offered, before Roxas could even open his mouth to ask for an explanation. "These contacts are augmented reality lenses that I developed, in conjunction with this software" he pointed to his PC "for the purposes of personal combat training." he jerked his head towards a roped-off space in the middle of his lab, and stood up. "If you'll just hit on the program when I give the word, as I've already set a preset to what I want to show you."
"Will do." Roxas moved into Kirnk's chair and rested his hand on the mouse as Kirnk walked into the roped-off space in the middle of his lap, and dropped into a combat stance.
"Make sure to watch that monitor, it displays what I'm seeing through these contacts." Kirnk called out to Roxas, before adding. "By the way, go!"
On Kirnk's word, Roxas hit start on the application, and before his eyes, a trio of burly-looking men, all three of whom wielded large, nasty-looking knives, and all at once, proceeded to start walking towards Kirnk, with one of them in the lead.
When they came within two or three steps of him, Kirnk (who to anyone that might have been looking at him, was still standing alone in the roped-off area) leaned back as the virtual leader thrust his knife forward in an attempt to stab him, quickly shot an arm out to grab the leading man's wrist, and twisted it until the man stumbled back, dropping the knife and letting out a silent cry of agony, his wrist seemingly broken.
Ducking down to dodge the knife of the second virtual man, Kirnk picked up the knife that the first man had dropped, and threw it away, before rolling backwards from his low position, putting some distance between himself and the two remaining men that didn't have broken wrists (with the one that did so fading away).
Roxas looked up at the roped-off area that Kirnk was in, and saw him rolling to the side of something (something that, when Roxas looked back at the monitor, seemed to be a kick aimed at him by one of the remaining men), and when Kirnk drew himself back up to his full height, he jumped into the air, doing a front flip and landing both of his feet squarely on the face of the man that had tried to kick him, sending him sprawling backwards and fading away.
After Kirnk did a back-flip and landed neatly on the ground, the third virtual man (who looked to be nearly a foot taller than Kirnk, and almost twice as wide as him) decided to just forgo the knife and try to beat the shit out of Kirnk with his bare hands, as he held his fists in the air as one larger fist, and raised them above his head.
He attempted to bring his fists down on Kirnk, but he dodged to the side and quickly ran towards the man's side, giving him a quick one-two punch and following up with a kick to the back of the man's legs, sending him stumbling forward.
Before he could get up, Kirnk delivered another harsh kick to the man's lower back, sending him sprawling forward and fading away before he could even hit the floor, leaving him alone.
"And, done." Kirnk smirked, stepping out of the roped area and smirking Roxas. "So, what do you think?"
"I'm impressed." Roxas replied. "Truly, I am. Do those opponents get more threatening?"
"Certainly." Kirnk replied, as Roxas got out of his chair and back into his own, as the young Naberius plopped back into it. "It can go to just your standard-issue unarmed thug who thinks he's an absolute unit just because he's got more muscles than your average soy boy but is nothing close to trained for anything beyond Wii Sports boxing, to a trio of fuckers who're armed with knives as you aw, to basically the Navy SEALS. If you gave them the most amount of viagra possible and told them that whoever kills the guy with the AR contacts gets to keep Scarjo as their permanent sex pet."
Roxas laughed at Kirnk's analogy.
"Nice." he replied. "Anyway, have you thought about making more of these? I'm sure the soldiers at my PMC would appreciate a more efficient way of training themselves than Dani and Balalaika screaming at them 24/7."
"I've... considered it." Kirnk replied, going slightly pink at the mention of Dani. It was known between Kirnk and Roxas that he had a crush on Danielle Heart, the top general of Roxas' private military company. "I know they'd sell for a lot of money."
"That's putting it mildly." Roxas replied. "At least consider it." he got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Anyway, I should be getting home. Thanks for having me."
"Thanks for coming." Kirnk replied, taking the contacts out of his eyes and placing them back in the case he had taken them out of minutes before. "Seeya."
"See you." Roxas replied, nodding and triggering a transportation-circle under his feet, disappearing from Kirnk's office in the next second, as Kirnk grabbed an external hard drive that had a piece of paper with the word "Cain" taped to it, and plugged it into his PC.
Line Break
It was a week or so after Palutena had fallen pregnant with Roxas' child, and in the early afternoon, Roxas himself was sat, comfortably, on a sofa in his home villa, a glass of soda in one hand, as he looked at the TV, which was currently on and broadcasting the opening of the Young Devils Rating Game Tournament, which was made to usher the current generation of Young Devils, which was being called the most promising generation yet, into the official Rating Games.
Before the first Game of the Tournament was to begin (with that game being Achilles vs. Seekvaira), the ten participants in the Tournament were instructed to state their dreams to the Elders, as well as to everyone watching on TV. Sairaorg Bael, Magdaran Bael, Eneely Vassago, Iolova Amon, Imogen Belial, Sona Sitri, Seekvaira Agares, Diodora Astaroth, Achilles Astaroth and Zephrydor Glasya-Labolas all stood on an elevated platform, while a group of around 15 Devil Elders were sat at a table below them, looking up at them.
Even from his position on the sofa and looking at them through the TV screen, Roxas could see that the Elders were about as happy to be below the Young Devils as Imogen looked to be there. She looked just about done with the whole thing.
Even if most of them had just recovered from laughing their demonic asses off at the thought of Sona's dream, which was to open a Rating Game school that was open to all Devils, regardless of their status (which Roxas personally thought was a very good idea).
"Alright. Ahem." one of the Elders that was sat in the middle of the table (and one of the ones that had laughed the loudest at Sona's dream) coughed, coming down from his laughing fit, and regaining his composure. "Let's continue." he took a second to choose, and then pointed to Diodora. "Heir Astaroth. What is your future goal?"
"I wish for there to be Church facilities built in the Underworld." Diodora replied smoothly, after a second's pause. "As the Four Factions of our Pantheon are reunited, it would be beneficial for all of us if we could bring Factions that were previously opposed to each other closer together."
Roxas' brow furrowed from his position on the sofa. That sounded almost exactly like something that someone with a nun-fetish that went all the way to the point of obsession would say. Maybe what Achilles said to him just before his Rating Game with Raven held some water after all.
The Elders on TV conversed amongst themselves for a moment, and nodded (though some of them looked as uneasy with the idea as Roxas felt), and moved along with asking Achilles his dream.
His answer was interesting: he wished to become a Satan and prove that blood 'purity' meant absolutely nothing when it came to the potential of how strong a Devil could become. And literally the second that those words left his mouth, it was clear that the Devil Elders weren't happy with the idea of Achilles' dream.
As the Elders moved onto Seekvaira and began quizzing her about her dream, Roxas heard someone coming, and after taking a gulp from his glass of soda, turned his head to see Venelana, who within two days of having looked at all of Roxas' businesses, had decided to take on the job of his personal assistant, something that Roxas just decided to go along with.
The outfit that she had elected to put on in light of her new position consisted of a tight-fitting purple v-neck blazer dress that went down to around mid-thigh, with a white dress shirt underneath. She also wore sheer black stockings that reached a couple of centimetres, if that, below her skirt. That would've made her legs look sexy enough on their own, but they were further enhanced by a pair of purple medium heels, to match the blazer dress that she wore. Obviously, given the size of her bust, the top few buttons of her shirt were undone, showing a hint of her lacy black bra, which naturally drew Roxas' eye whenever he looked in his grandmother's direction.
"Hi, Venelana." Roxas greeted his new personal assistant, as Seekvaira finished giving her dream, which was to work as an apprentice under Ajuka Beelzebub. "Anything going on today that I should know about?" He grabbed the remote and turned the volume on the TV down as he got to his feet to face Venelana.
"Yes, Roxas." Venelana replied, summoning a list of notes that she'd written down that morning. "First, Balalaika called in with an update regarding her negotiations with the US government as to how much the PMC is going to be paid for defending Washington DC in the event of Millennium's attack."
"Sweet." Roxas replied. "What did she say?"
"That negotiations are going well and should be expected to conclude by the end of the week." Venelana replied, dutifully. Roxas nodded, and yawned before going to get himself a bite to eat.
"Sweet." he called back to Venelana, who followed him. "Remind me to ask her later on. And has there been an update on what I asked you regarding buying out a couple of Underworld TV networks?"
"Will do." Venelana replied to the first thing, making a note. "And there have been updates, as a matter of fact. I've looked into it, and I've drawn up a list of potential TV networks that you could buy out and rebrand under your name, as well as estimates of how much they would cost."
"Which ones? And how much are they individually?" Roxas asked, pulling a bar of chocolate out of the fridge (as the day was exceptionally hot), unwrapping it and taking a bite, while he reached out and took the list that Venelana procured out of thin air and handed to him.
"The TV networks I listed are the ones owned by the Sallos, Gamigin, Glasya-Labolas and Shax Clans, respectively." Venelana replied, as Roxas looked down the list. "In total, I estimate that, respectively, buying out those networks would cost 8, 14, 12 and 6 billion Souls."
"Making 40 in total if I wanted to buy all four." Roxas replied. "Well, that would certainly be a dent in my wallet."
"Indeed." Venelana nodded in agreement. "Though there's always the chance of buying one of them and expanding it to be able to rival the Phenex Clan's network, as none of the networks I listed broadcast in the human world."
"Hmm." Roxas replied, before transporting the list into a pocket-dimension. "Something to consider later, I guess." After finishing his bar of chocolate and grabbing another can of soda, Roxas walked back into the lounge and plopped back onto the sofa, and turned the volume back up on the TV, where the Elders had just gotten done quizzing Sairaorg about his dream, and had turned on Imogen.
"Heiress Belial." one of the Elders, one of the female ones, asked of Imogen. "What do you consider to be a dream of yours?"
"That I can stand up here and hope to tell the world my actual dream without the thought of being judged by a bunch of elitist assholes." Imogen replied directly, while glaring down at the Elders. "But I guess dreams don't come true." she paused for a moment to relish the shocked looks on the Elders' faces, as well as the laughter that her remark got from the crowd standing behind the Devil Elders. "I'm not telling you shit, my dreams are my business." she added, raising her voice by a couple of notches to make sure she was heard.
Roxas burst out laughing at both Imogen's direct nature and at the reactions of everyone around her, and Venelana let out a quieter laugh. When their laughs died down, and Roxas decided to turn the TV off, a silver transportation-circle opened, and Valian entered the room with Ingvild at her side.
"What's given everyone a case of the giggles?" she asked, looking around. "Did I miss anything?"
"You did, Valian." Venelana replied, nodding to her in greeting. "We were just watching the opening of the Young Devils Rating Game Tournament."
"Imogen basically told the Devil Elders to go fuck themselves." Roxas remarked, sniggering as he noticed Ingvild. "Oh. Hey Ingvild."
"Hello." Ingvild greeted Roxas, bowing her head towards him for a second before straightening up, while Roxas looked to his Queen.
"You do it?"
"Yup." Valian replied. "Ingvild is officially my first peerage member. Mutation Pawn."
"Nice." Roxas replied. "Venelana, can you go find Katerea and tell her from me to set up a bedroom for Ingvild?"
"Will do." Venelana replied, nodding, before turning around and walking out of sight, as Valian and Ingvild sat down close to Roxas and chatted idly with each other before, around five minutes later, Katerea entered the room, dressed in her sexy maid outfit as always.
"Hey Katerea." Roxas greeted the hot brunette Leviathan, smirking as her breasts bounced in her outfit.
"Good afternoon, Master." Katerea bowed her head to Roxas. "I've set up a bedroom for your Queen's new peerage member as per your wishes."
"Good." Roxas replied. "Now listen to me, Katerea, because I'm going to only say this once. Despite you and Ingvild only knowing each other before I took you in and made you my maid, I want you to be nice to her. Or no sex."
Katerea looked over at Ingvild, seemed to recognise who she was, and a little bit of the colour drained from her face. She instantly turned back to Roxas and bowed her head low.
"O-of course I'll be civil with Ingvild, Master." Katerea replied, with her head still down, and sounding incredibly sincere. "I'd never dream of going after anyone that is in your service, like I would've before you made me who I am now."
"Good." Valian. "Ingvild, go with Katerea and see if your new room is fine." Ingvild hesitated for a second, then nodded and stood up. Mumbling "Okay" to her new King, she followed Katerea upstairs and out of sight as Valian turned to Roxas.
"Don't you ever think that you and Esdeath did too good a job at breaking Katerea into your perfect submissive bitch?" she asked. Roxas hummed for a second as he considered his Queen's question.
"Hmm. Probably." he replied, standing up as he reached for his glass of soda and downed the rest of it in one go, while picking up the new can that he'd gotten from the fridge a couple of minutes ago. "Why?"
"When you threatened her with no sex." Valian replied. "I kinda got that vibe."
"Valian, as long as Katerea isn't an evil bitch that's trying to kidnap or kill me or anyone I love, then I couldn't care less." Roxas remarked, plopping down onto the sofa and cracking open the can of soda. "At least she looks fucking gorgeous in a maid outfit."
"Agreed." Valian replied. Roxas poured the contents of the new can of soda into the glass, and took a sip before putting it down.
"Anyway." he yawned. "You ever considered adding Katerea to your peerage? Because I know she's mine, but I'm okay with her being yours as well if you want another powerful peerage member."
"Hmm." Valian shrugged. "Maybe."
Line Break
A couple of days later, and the first day of the new school term at Kuoh Academy. Rias and Mirajane (who had returned to their regular home in Kuoh) walked down the mildly-bustling streets of the town towards the school, and as they entered the yard, they saw Sona and Tsubaki walking together.
The Sitri Heiress and her Queen saw the former Gremory Heiress and her Queen, and changed course, heading towards them.
"Sona." Rias greeted her best friend. "Nice to see you back at school."
"Likewise, Rias." Sona replied. "And I'm happy to be back. Serafall and I managed to convince my parents to give me another chance and to allow me to stay at Kuoh Academy, instead of keeping me in the Underworld."
"Oh, really?" Mirajane asked. "What did you have to do to do that? Because I don't seem to remember your parents being the type to change their minds."
"Well, true." Sona replied, as she, Tsubaki, Rias and Mirajane walked into the building and headed up the stairs towards their first class of the day: Science. "Though Serafall decided to tell my parents that she was to blame for me... doing what I did with her and Roxas."
Rias and Mirajane looked at Sona, then at Tsubaki, who nodded in confirmation.
"...Well, then." Rias blinked. "That's really nice of her."
"It was." Sona looked down and went slightly red. "Truth be told, I actually never thought that she would do that." she remained quiet as she, her Queen, her best friend and her best friend's Queen walked down the corridor, and opened the door to the Science classroom that they had their lessons in.
"I just thought that she'd leave me to take the full brunt of whatever my parents wanted to do to me as punishment and take the opportunity to visit me with every second of free time she had." Sona remarked to Rias as the door swung shut behind them.
"Shows just how little you actually know your older sister, doesn't it Sona?" The voice of, to everyone's surprise, Roxas, sounded from the front of the classroom. All four young females whipped around as one, and saw Roxas sat in the teacher's chair at the desk, a steady smile on his face, wearing the same outfit that he had worn to the Underworld Gathering a fortnight ago (except the jacket was black). "Hi, Sona."
"R-Roxas." Sona shakily greeted Roxas, still surprised at seeing the man who had taken her virginity. "What're you doing here?"
"Well, why don't you figure it out?" Roxas made like a certain British playwright and replied to Sona's question with another question. "I'm sat at the teacher's desk in a science classroom at Kuoh Academy, dressed like a teacher, on a school day. What do you think I'm doing here?"
"When did you become the science teacher?" Rias spoke almost exactly what Sona was opening her mouth and preparing to say. "I never heard that you were planning to do this!"
"Can't a guy have his secrets, Rias?" Roxas asked, his smile turning into a smirk. "And to answer your question, I became the science teacher a couple of days ago. With a little help from Venelana, as she wanted to keep a closer eye on you and see how you're really doing as a member of my peerage." Rias blinked, as Roxas added "Well, that was the reason she gave. Vene probably had more reasons."
The door then opened again, and Elsha, with her blonde hair tied up in a long ponytail and dressed in a light pink dress shirt and black skirt, walked in.
"Elsha's my teaching assistant, by the way." Roxas stated in a matter-of-fact way as Elsha greeted the four young Devils (or, to be more accurate, two young Devils and two young Nephalem). "And a member of my peerage: my fourth Pawn."
Elsha revealed her three pairs of white Devil wings for a second to confirm what Roxas had said, before retracting them.
"Alright, th-then." Rias replied, going slightly pink and walking to her desk. "So what do you plan on doing today?"
"Well normally, I wouldn't tell you, but since I'm feeling generous today, I might as well let the four of you in on it." Roxas replied. "Since it's my first day actually teaching, and the first day back for all of you, I thought I'd just spend the lesson getting to know the students. If you want to, you can play along, though you don't really have to since I know you already."
Mirajane, Sona and Tsubaki silently nodded and headed to their desks as well.
Line Break
It was a quiet early morning in the seaside town of Bari, one of the largest areas in southern Italy. The streets were, for the most part, deserted and dead-silent, as almost everyone was asleep, but one person, a female, clad in a long dark-brown hooded cloak that concealed almost all of her body and outfit, save for (if one were to look hard enough) the lower half of her white face.
When she came to a crossroads, the woman looked tentatively around and behind her to make sure that there was nobody who could see her, and took a left down the road, where she saw a large hotel, her destination. After taking another look around to make sure that no-one was following her, the woman stepped into the hotel and shed her cloak, revealing herself to anyone who would be looking at her (with that only being the single female receptionist, who had brown hair tied up in a bun and was dressed in immaculate uniform).
The beauty of this woman, who looked to be around 19 years old, almost seemed unreal. Her blonde hair was done in a single, thick braid that went down to her lower back, and her eyes were an amethyst-like colour. She wore a simple dark-blue sundress and a pair of light blue lace-up shoes.
The woman, holding her cloak in one hand and putting her other hand into a pocket in her dress, praying to God that she hadn't forgotten her money, walked to the desk where the receptionist (whose name was Sofia, judging by the tag that she wore on her shirt) greeted her with a smile.
"Good evening, miss. How can I help you?"
"Hello." the blonde woman replied, smiling nervously. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like a room to sleep in tonight."
"Certainly." Sofia replied, typing something into the computer in front of her. "Just for yourself?"
"Yes." the blonde woman nodded, hoping that luck would be in her favour.
"Well, you're in luck." Sofia smiled. "We have a single room open. That'll be 30 Euros, please." After the blonde woman managed to pull out 30 Euros in notes and hand them to Sofia, she reached into a drawer and pulled out a card, before handing it to the blonde woman.
"Room 18." Sofia explained. "Just head up the stairs through there," she gestured to a pair of double-doors. "to the first floor, then head straight through the door on your left as you come up to it. Your room's the ninth room on the right. You can't miss it. Just use the card to unlock the door when you get to it."
"Thank you." the woman replied, taking the card with a smile. "Thank you so much." She then did as Sofia instructed, making her way to her room with little trouble, and entering it. The room was small and rather sparse, featuring only a single bed, a bedside table and a chair, but the woman didn't care.
When the door swung shut behind the woman, she felt a huge wave of relief wash over her. Tears of happiness came to her eyes as she shed her dress and hung it over the chair, leaving her only in a simple-looking black bra and panties, which she didn't bother to get out of as she dropped to the bed. Though it wasn't the most luxurious thing in the world, that didn't stop the woman from falling asleep the instant her head touched the pillow, with only one thought in her mind.
'I have to get to Roxas!'
Meanwhile, a few streets away from the hotel, in a small 24-hour café, a pair of individuals sat, alone, at a table, sipping cups of coffee, one man and one woman.
The man was huge, two metres tall in height, with a well-built body and with shoulder-length grey hair. As the night was warm, he wore a form-fitting white tank top that hugged his large body and muscles very well, along with a pair of black jeans. He had a scowl on his face as he drank from his cup.
The woman, though tall, wasn't as huge as the man she was with. She had long purple hair that hung free and went down to her back, along with violet eyes. She wore a plain white v-neck t-shirt that looked like it was straining slightly against her large bust, which was also covered by a white lace bra, parts of which could be seen if you looked from the right angle. On her legs, she wore a pair of form-fitting jeans, and looked far more composed as she took a drink from her cup.
"Damn it!" the man growled, as he put his cup back on the table. "We've been looking for Jeanne in this town for the whole day! And fuck-all to show for it!" he breathed heavily as he watched his companion slowly finish her drink. "How can you be so calm about this, Camilla?! You know it's your turn to call Cao Cao and tell him that we haven't found her yet, and he's not gonna be happy."
"Bold of you to assume I care what that cocky, manipulative dick thinks, Heracles." Camilla replied, setting her cup down. "Hmm, that was good coffee. But regardless, you've known me long enough to know where my loyalties lie. And they're not with Cao Cao, they're with Arthur and the New Round Table. I'm only working with your arrogant self as a matter of mutual convenience."
Heracles growled again, and had to hold himself back from throwing a punch at Camilla, descendent of Bors, one of the Knights of the Round Table, who smiled and stood up.
"Anyway. We'll keep looking for another half hour, then turn in for the night. And no, before you ask, you can't sleep with me." a playful look came across Camilla's face as she began walking away, her behind swaying invitingly in her jeans.
Heracles kicked the table that he and Camilla were sat at over and walked away as it hit the floor, making a loud clattering sound.
He hated Camilla so much.
And that's chapter 34! Roxas' family have found out that Roxas has a kid on the way (I've already decided that the baby will be a girl), we're introduced to Roxas' best friend and president of his technology company Kirnk Naberius (who'll be showing up more often, along with his gadgets. Think of him as similar to Tony Stark if Tony Stark had a 10,000-year lifespan in spite of a disease that prevented him from accessing his demonic powers), Venelana is now working for Roxas as his personal assistant/secretary (and for those wondering if Venelana'll obey the old cliché of sexy female assistants and get with her boss... well, duh? Of course she will), and Roxas is a teacher at Kuoh Academy, as a replacement for Azazel, who if you remember, became a teacher at the end of Volume 4.
And for those wondering, yes that is Jeanne d'Arc from Fate in the last scene, and she seems to want to get to Roxas ASAP. Why, you might ask? Well, you'll have to stick around to find out. Also yes, before you ask, the other two people ARE Heracles from DxD and Camilla from Fire Emblem Fates (BEST FIRE EMBLEM GIRL. CHANGE MY MIND). Also, Roxas has his tenth peerage member (Elsha) and Valian has her first (Ingvild Leviathan).
Also Rodin's here. And if readers know the series he's from, you should know who'll be appearing for the first time too! And yes, she'll be in Roxas' harem, alongside Jeanne and Camilla. Because all three of them are SMOKING HOT.
Anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this chapter. Whether you did or you didn't, please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback (especially the constructive kind). If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me (because I'll be happy to answer them), let me know in a review or PM or on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)!
Three Sizes of New Girls:
Jeanne: 85-59-86
Next Time: Dildodora the Explorer, An Attack, Twilight God
Preview of Next Chapter:
"Denied." Roxas cut across Diodora before he could even finish speaking. "Get out."
Seeya!