Hello, Soluxy here with another chapter.

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Tales of the Past World I
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Ambros | From the Family of Vieth

I was just a slave.

Serving the great house of Vieth, it seemed that the whole family had gathered for the holidays. To discuss their business and more. I was just 13-years-old, and I lived here in this giant mansion.

Since there were three servants way older than I was, I was their subordinate. And I was tasked with the most demanding jobs.

Mainly gardening their massive flower field, and cleaning the boiler room, and more. I didn't go to school. I was raised in an orphanage and chosen by the Vieth family to live with them. And I have lived here ever since as a servant. So you could say I was a child slave, working for the family of billionaires—that usual type of story.

The family of Vieth is wealthy and lives in Europe, and their grandness applies to their personality as well. However, they weren't that famous. Amongst the billionaires, they didn't even rank in the top 50. And there were more famous people here in Europe, and the Vieth family kept to themselves most of the time. If you asked 9 out of 10 people in Europe who the Vieth Family was, they wouldn't know what to tell you.

There was someone here I deeply respected.

Mistress Julianne was quite the sight to see. She was there, sipping tea on the grove of the garden, with a book in her hand. She was 10 years older than I was and was the only one who really interacted with me, not counting the more senior servants.

Deep dark hair and blue eyes. With a tanned skin complexion and heavy eye-makeup.

Julianne was the most enigmatic person in this family. She always spoke in riddles, and her words were not too kind to those who heard them. She was pretty strange.

"Ambros, stop looking like a fool. Stop narrating what you're feeling and speak to me, and if not, then read a book."

"I'm sorry, Mistress Julianne, I have to do my chores in the garden."

As I was distracted, a rose thorn was stuck to my palm. I didn't complain about the pain, but I did flinch.

"A rose of thorns, thorns of roses. Hahaha, You flail about so much, and it's entertaining me, Ambros. A child that had no choice but to serve in life. Will you die after being stabbed by countless roses, or will you wield the shears and then prune out the dangers?"

"I don't understand what you say, mistress Julianne."

Sometimes, his mistress spoke with too many difficult words, and it made him dizzy.

"Oh, Ambros, will you, or will you not understand me? When will the time come where you will understand my words?"

"Maybe never, it would take a thousand years, and I won't live that long. I'm sorry for being such a useless servant, mistress."

"Where will that anger take you, I wonder?"

"I'm not angry, mistress. I was just..."

"No, Ambros, you are just filled with wrath within every cell of your body. Within every single thought in your brain. And I can see that. You are made of rage, and I wonder where that will take you."

"I—"

"Ambros, what will you have after 500 years? I want to know."

She gave a soft smile. Julianne had a terrifying smile. Something that drew in the shadows to her and then made me feel like I was put in a freezer.

Julianne was a most terrifying person.

The grand servant of this place was an older woman named Anna. She was shrewd and quite the irritable older woman. She was quick to snap at any servant for any mistake, and most of that anger was focused on me.

"I swear, one of these days, you'll regret ever being born. Ambros, the Master of this place, is just another slave owner. Even in modern times, we have this happening."

She told this to me in the servants' room.

"I, I don't have any dreams, so serving the family is the greatest honor for me, Anna."

"You're just another fool, Ambros. I am paid a great salary, have sick days off, and have 60 days of vacation with my family. And what do you have? Sleeping in a shed, eating leftovers. You are working for nothing and no one. Isn't it better if you'd just die?"

Anna said it in a soft voice to me.

The Master of this house was an older man who needed special attention since he was in his 90s. And then there was his old son, already a grandfather. His name was Hilbert.

The one who would have the most considerable inheritance if the Master died. Hilbert was a busy man and a billionaire of his own. An intelligent businessman and the one who found me and 'raised' me.

Hilbert was a man that liked dangerous things… There existed a tale where this man had jumped out of an airplane without a parachute once and survived. Since he had already achieved everything in his life by becoming a billionaire, he wanted to explore the most dangerous sides of being a human.

He liked owning slaves because it gave spice to his life. The one before me was a young girl of twenty years old, with all her limbs chopped off. She was his pet for a year before she died of unsanitary infections on her wounds, I hear.

Then again, this was the same man that funded 9 different charities. And also the man who wanted to experience the old European fiefdom ways by owning a child servant. His thought processes were never normal, and Hilbert was wildly different from every other member of this family.

Safe to say, Hilbert was insane, and an evil scumbag.

"Ambros, one of these days, I'd swear I'll kill you."

One of Hilbert's quirks was sending death threats to those who messed up in his presence.

I just stayed silent since Hilbert was a large man. Probably the size of an American Basketball player. And then worked to clean his office, the man typed away in his computer.

However, one day I wanted to take my revenge on Hilbert...

That night, the party would begin. Where the relatives would arrive, so many cousins, daughters, and sons. Brothers and sisters and aunts and nephews. The family of Vieth was quite large. And I felt intimidated because I couldn't remember half the names of those that would come here today.

Neither did I realize that this would be the start of a long murder mystery that started with my own death.

I died with strangle marks. Now, who was the one who killed poor Ambros?

Does it even matter?

A thirteen-year-old brat that nobody liked?

I was killed, and nobody even cared.

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Tartarus Stories I
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Riser | A young noble in prison

That... wasn't the most pleasant dream.

I received some of my memories of my previous life. I died when I was only a 13-year-old boy, a slave to a great family. And now I'm one of the sons of a great noble family. The difference between the Vieth family and the Phenex family was that the former was a human family. At the same time, the latter was a devil family.

In any case, if you're counting my age, then it would be 13 + 9 = 22 years old.

It would mean that I am 9 years old currently, and I feel a bit out of it.

I was given this power of the gamer by someone. And I don't know who killed me before I came to this life. So is it going to be a mystery forever?

Honestly, I wanted to go to my old world, to the Vieth family, and find out who was the one who killed me. There were so many choices, Lady Julianne, Master Hilbert, and Anna. All of them could be the ones who killed me. And I really wanted to find out the reason why.

I have unfinished business with the Vieth family.

But I also want to explore the universe. One of my singular dreams in life is to travel out to space.

"There's no sky in the underworld," I complained as I looked through the window of Tartarus and sighed.

Yes, I was locked in this jail as I saved the Nekoshou race from extermination, and I've been here for a few months. You could say that I've been fighting for that race for two whole years as I fought to end the genocide. With the Gamer power by my side, I have evolved to become firm, not the weakling child slave I was in my past life.

Though Julianne's words still haunt me deeply.

My cellmate was quite the sick old man. He was here ever since the civil war and aged due to his illness.

If I use [observe] on him, this is what comes up.

Name: Kadius Belphegor | Title: The Lasting Death | Age: 355
Condition: Demonic Cancer.

Level: 1,245
HP: 56/1M | SP: 3/5K

He was quite the tough old man. However, that was all over. He was afflicted with our variation of cancer. Hundreds of years of eating sewage would even do that to an immortal person. The cells were full of mites and crawlers, the heat was harsher than anything, and there were diseases aplenty in this place. There were so many prisoners and yet this was the loneliest place on the face of the underworld.

"I wanted to grrrrrghhh *cough* *cough.* I wanted to see my daughter once again."

"It seems she's on top of the rankings of the Devil's rating game or whatever. If your last name is Belphegor, then she's there."

Of course, I tried extending his life with my tears, but after a month of his skin bleeding out and pustules and hard nodules under his skin tormenting him, I stopped. Kadius wouldn't live to see tomorrow. My tears had healed him, but in turn, it made him suffer even more.

These shackles were straining on my hands and impeded some use of magic. However, it wasn't enough to contain me. So I infused some of my magic into the bread and made him eat it—a little painkiller, something that destroyed the connection between his pain receptors and his brain.

Though I worsened his situation by doing that, at least today, he could speak and lift his body up to talk to me. Just giving a little breath of life to this old man.

-3 Hp

"Thank you, but this place won't ever let me see my daughter."

"I don't know her either, so don't expect me to carry your message or whatever."

I complained as the old man guffawed at my answer.

-3 Hp

"Quite the angry young guy you are *cough* cough* cough*."

"Hmph, go relax in your corner, old man, and keep your last thoughts to yourself."

-3 Hp

I said to him, yet he still kept to my side. And spoke of his life. He was quite the warrior in the last civil war. He was drafted by the old devil faction, so he was just a soldier. Thankfully his daughter escaped persecution after the war ended. Kadius talked about how hatred and anger was the driving motive for that war after it began.

I was just a thirteen-year-old slave when I died. I didn't have it within me to care about his glorious exploits in the so-called civil war. Though I was constantly fighting and trying to assert my opinions and views on others in this new life, I wasn't that keen on the glory of combat or whatever it was.

Battles were only meant to assert my views on others through physical dominance. It was just a tool, nothing else.

-5 Hp

"*Cough* You're a great listener, you know."

"Huh? Are you deaf and blind as well? You're a wreck and scream every day in my ear, I just made that painkiller because you were annoying. If only you'd die."

I complained again.

And yet, he kept smiling at me.

"You kept me alive for months, didn't you?"

"I just didn't want your corpse to stink in my cell."

"Then why are you so considerate towards me, even though you insult me with those words?"

-10 Hp

This old fuckwit thinks that I care about him. I don't. If only he'd die away from my eyes. Where I can't see him die.

"I *cough*. I was not proud of some things in the last year of the war. Our side got desperate, and there was an enemy commander on my battlefield who was so strong I couldn't beat him no matter how many times I tried. My leader told me to go to his house and then break his family life. Two other men and I raided his home and raped his wife and son before torturing and killing them *cough*. He later found out and then ravaged the battlefield searching for me. I was already in prison at that point. So I deserve this kind of death."

"I don't care about your past crimes and exploits. So you say you wanted him to punish you?"

"It'd be much simpler than spending hundreds of years locked in this abyss…. Was my crime so bad that I should be forced to live 200 years here? I was born on the wrong side...is all. It feels like I was forgotten by everyone, it feels like I don't even matter—to anyone, not my family, not my friends, not even my daughter. I just wanted—"

-30 Hp

Kadius recoiled into himself and rested with his eyes open. His saliva ran to his chest, full of black skin and spots. There were red rashes all over him, and there was a bad smell already, for months.

The young Riser saw the body of Kadius next to him, being eaten by insects and worms every day for at least two weeks before the guards retrieved the body. Of course, the insects and worms also gnawed on Riser's foot and extremities every day, he always tried burning them off, but they always returned the next day.

So why bother?

He'd just heal the damage.

After a few weeks of not speaking, young Riser only asked one thing to the dark of pure loneliness.

"Where will I be in 500 years? I don't know, Julianne."

I soothed myself by thinking of his lady's name. Even after he began my new life, I still remembered her words. She was the first and foremost person in both my lives. Even though I'd never see her again.

"I will remember you for a week, Kadius."

On a hidden vial of my clothes were the ashes of Kadius's heart.

QUEST [Ashes to the daughter]
Deliver Kadius' ashes to his daughter Roygun Belphegor.

Rewards
N/a

The stone cell was lonely for the rest of the months in prison… With Riser's personality being as quiet as possible. Until his family thought he'd learn his lesson in sympathizing with a race that committed atrocious acts against one of their precious Pillars. Ironic, considering nobody cared about reincarnated devils even though they were touted as their solution to the underpopulation of Devil Society.

Seven years later, I gave the vial to his daughter, one of the champions of the rating game, as I defeated her.

Roygun Belphegor was quite overconfident for being even weaker than her dad in his prime and was actually cheating to get her ranking in the top five.

As much as he hated that, he still gave her the ashes of her dad. Tartarus did not let the family bury the dead body, so Riser had kept the ashes for this reason.

Even though she threw it away and the ashes of Kadius' heart were spilled on the side of the arena. Roygun must have been irritated that she had lost, but even then. To throw away your own father's heart.

Then again, Riser or Ambros, or whatever my name was in these two lives. I did not have fathers. My dad in this life never looked me in the eye once in his life. And the only one I can consider to be a father to me was Hilbert, and the man was abusive and wanted to kill me.

Perhaps he did kill me, and that's why I am here.

So I also don't have an excellent opinion of dads. I can definitely understand where Roygun is coming from, but still. My expression after that was unreadable as I left for another game spoon after that.

Still, I took two men and three women from her peerage as prizes and as slaves.

You're surprised a former child slave is taking more slaves?

You shouldn't be. I had no issue with it.

I'm not a good person.

And then it all ended once I beat Sirzechs Lucifer.

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Review Corner
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Mistroz; Rodvek97; Uday Sra; akasuna123; Dasgun.
Thanks for reading my work always, I hope you like this chapter as well.

Zerak.
High School DxD power levels are very confusing, but I believe that with a cursory glance at the fandom of versus wiki you get a grasp at help powerful these characters really are and how overblown fanfiction makes them feel. Since I'm adding characters of different power levels from different fandoms, you could say that power levels and power discussion are off-topic for this fic, in particular, people should be more concerned about the drama and story instead since it's a more mature story.

Immortal1145.
I updated my Naruto fic, and I'm working on the next chapter on my page. Thanks for reading my works.

Piddle.
I need to get into Black Clover, it seems to be very popular lately, but there are so many episodes.

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Author's notes
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This story is growing very grey on the moral scale for the main character and the people around him, and that's what I want. There are no good guys, but there are many bad guys. This chapter grows on the idea the Devil Society is something to be shunned and that Riser is quite against it, you could say that he has a problem in expressing himself and does good but speaks badly about this. You also get a glimpse at his life before he died, quite different from the usual self-insert lifestyle. So he's a guy with quite a different set of morals because of his growing up in both worlds. The next chapter will be the introduction of the Nekoshou massacre arc.

If you feel strongly about me or my work and want to support me, search for patron and Soluxy together on Google. Or go on Pa/re on and put a /Soluxy after the com. You can view my work early and make valuable suggestions and comments right on my docs.

I would be forever grateful if you become a patron!

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