Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.
Updated: 16/03/2015
- Story Start -
"Ouch."
It was after school and like usual every member of the Occult Research Club gathered in the club room in the old school building.
At this moment, Ise, who had bruises all over his body, was being treated by Asia.
"Stop whining. You're a man aren't you?" Archer said while pouring everyone in the club room some tea.
"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who got hit by a bokken that's as strong as metal for a whole hour." Ise grumbled at Archer.
"Then you should quickly learn how to block, parry or evade my strikes." Archer countered without even showing any signs of remorse at having mercilessly beaten up Ise for the better part of an hour.
"Damn it! If only I could find a way for my punches to hit him! I was sure I could hit him most of the time but somehow it always misses! How does he keep doing that?...Mmm~ this is good." Ise was mumbling to himself while enjoying the dango that Archer brought for the club.
Ignoring Ise's constant complaining, Archer decides to ask how Asia was doing. "By the way, Asia. I heard you finally moved in with Ise this morning. Were you able to get all your luggage?"
"Yes. I didn't have a lot luggage anyway so I've already moved everything into Ise-san's home." Asia smiled happily.
"Were there any problems with Ise's parents?"
"No, Ise's parents were quite happy to have me. I feel so loved. Thank you, God. Ouch!" Like this, Asia reverted to her sister persona and prayed to God while completely forgetting that she was Devil and received damage.
Archer could only chuckle a little at Asia's antics.
About a month ago, Asia was killed by a priest named Freed Zelzan when she tried to save Ise from the priest's bullet. Afterwards, Rias had revived Asia using one of her Bishop piece which turned Asia into a Devil as part of Rias's peerage.
There were some concerns whether Asia would be able to accept that she was revived as a Devil since she obviously had a strong faith on her religion but Asia's declaration that her friendship with Ise was something more precious to her than her faith had put everyone else at ease.
After that, she was registered into Kuoh and was placed in the same class as Archer and Ise.
For the past month, Ise had been helping Asia integrate into the Japanese society. Archer also helped from time to time but he mostly left the two alone as he deemed that his presence was just a nuisance to the two of them.
Archer could easily tell that both Ise and Asia were already in love with each other if their happy expressions just from seeing each other was any indication. He considered this a good thing since Ise's perverted tendencies seem to calm down a little whenever Asia was in the vicinity.
Perhaps if he could just push the two into an honest relationship than maybe he wouldn't have to worry about Ise's libido becoming the source of the word's downfall anymore.
"Fufufu. Ise has become manlier ever since Shirou took up his training. Work hard, Ise." Akeno who had finished her own portion of the dangos encouraged Ise.
"Yes, Akeno-san! I'll definitely become stronger for the sake of becoming a Harem King!" Ise declared enthusiastically.
...Never mind.
Archer sighed as his small hope of preventing a world disaster was dashed. It was then that he noticed that one of the club room's occupants was acting strangely.
It wasn't Akeno as she was teasing Archer again by pressing her boobs to his arm.
It wasn't Ise as he was being his perverted self as usual, staring jealously at Archer's arm that was between Akeno's boobs.
It wasn't Asia as she was happily enjoying the dangos and didn't notice Ise's behavior.
It wasn't Kiba as he was quietly enjoying the dangos while sitting on one of the sofas like a gentleman.
It also wasn't Koneko as she was eating dangos who's portion was 3 times more than the others (Archer always gave a larger portion to her after learning of her appetite) with a speed that can match Saber's.
The person who was acting strangely was Rias. She had a dazed look on her face while staring into space. She wasn't even eating her dangos.
"Master, is there something bothering you?"
...
No reaction.
Rias only kept staring into space. She sighed a few moments later but she never showed any indication that she heard Archer.
Hmm, this might be serious. Archer started speculating on what could trouble Rias so much that she started to ignore her surroundings.
Akeno had also realized Rias's strange behavior and started to get worried about her best friend as well.
"Buchou, are you alright?"
At the lack of response from her question, Akeno approached Rias and raised her voice a little.
"Rias!"
This time, Rias seemed to have heard Akeno as she came back to her senses.
"W-What?" Rias who was a bit confused at the situation could only ask that one simple question.
"I asked if you were alright?" Akeno asked worriedly.
"I-I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." Rias replied hastily.
Akeno watched Rias worriedly until she seemed to have figured out something. "It's about that isn't it?"
Rias sighed before replying to Akeno in a resigned tone.
"Yes."
"...I see." Akeno sighed as well. She had a very troubled expression which was quite rare for her.
After a few moment of silence, Archer decided to interject before this depressed atmosphere starts to affect everyone in the room.
"Care to share with the world what the two of you are talking about?" Archer asked sarcastically.
"I-It's...well...umm..." Rias started to mumble.
Archer easily noticed that Rias was hesitant to speak about the issue for some reason. Since he was also keeping some secrets from them, he decided to just let the matter drop since he had no desire to be a hypocrite at this moment.
Archer sighed before saying his piece.
"If you don't want to talk about it to us Master, it's fine. Since Akeno seem to already know about it, it means you've already talked about it to those you trust. You can tell us what it's about when you're ready."
"That's right, Buchou. We're all here for you if you need us. Right guys?" Ise said encouragingly while holding up his fist right in front of him.
Everyone just confidently nodded at Ise's words.
"It's just as Ise said, Buchou. We're all here for you." Kiba said while smiling reassuringly at Rias.
"...I want to help." Koneko said in her usual soft voice.
"If there's anything I can do, please tell me. I'll do what I can for Buchou-san." Asia said with serious expression that looked very cute.
"Ufufu. Everyone cares about you, Buchou." Akeno said with her usual smile.
"...Thank you, everyone." Rias said to everyone with a mixture of gratitude and sadness in her expression and voice.
She sighed a little. "Making everyone worried about me when I'm supposed to be the one who leads everyone. Looks like I'm still inexperienced as a King."
A moment later, Rias's usual confident expression returned as she seemed to have made up her mind about something.
"Akeno, can you please stay after this? There's something that I need to settle and I need you to be there as my Queen."
"Of course, Buchou." Akeno said while she gracefully bowed to Rias.
Satisfied at Akeno's reply, Rias continued to address everyone else in the room. "Everyone, there's a certain business that I need to attend to, so today's club activity will have to be cut short. Since this will take a while, I will give everyone a time off for tonight as well. Dismissed."
Seeing their leader's confidence returning, no one had anymore doubts as they left the club room.
Among everyone who left however, the only one who chuckled at Rias getting back on her feet was Archer.
She's still green and there's a lot of places where she needs to improve but for someone her age in this era, she's doing just fine. Now, let's see if I can use the mansion's training grounds for my own training session this time.
- Scene Break -
Phew. I'm out of practice. Looks like I need to focus on my own training as well instead of just Ise's.
By the time Archer had ended his training, it was already night time.
Archer had went through the obstacle course that he had originally set up for Ise himself to see if he could handle the traps that he had spread out on the mountain. Even though he already knew where all the traps were located, he had intentionally sprung all of them to see if he could escape all of them unharmed.
Naturally, he was able to do so but he had expanded more energy than what he had originally estimated. The him before this would've been able to get past those traps with less effort. This was the best proof that he was out of practice.
Once he had cleared the obstacle course, Archer had started to do some basic training to improve his foundation. However, he was so into the training that it was almost midnight by the time he noticed that day light was gone. It didn't help that Devils had better visions and became more energetic at night so it took a while for him to notice that there was actually no light left.
Fortunately, the mansion's Magic Circle can also be used to teleport straight to the dorm so he didn't have any problems getting back even if all the public transport was unavailable. The problem however, was that the moment he entered his room,
SSSHHHH
the sound of the shower running meant that someone was taking a bath in his bathroom.
It's probably Akeno, if the smell of ozone mixed with Holy and Demonic aura is any indication. Looks like whatever business she and Rias was tending to, it had went on quite a while.
Judging that Akeno might be slightly hungry if she had to skip dinner, Archer decided to make a light midnight snack for the both of them. He himself was quite hungry and famished due to becoming too absorbed in his training.
Deciding that some tuna sandwich and salad would be appropriate, Archer started his preparations.
It was about ten minutes after he started making the sandwich that Archer heard Akeno coming out of the bathroom from behind him (the miniature kitchen was directly in front of the bathroom). He was already finished with the sandwich and was just preparing the salad when he turned around and saw Akeno's naked self coming out of the door.
She only had a towel that was currently being used to dry her hair so Archer had a completely clear view of her voluptuous and highly seductive figure. The moist from the shower made her already smooth and silky skin to have a sort of lustrous effect that made her more lovely. If someone like Ise ever saw Akeno as she was at that moment, they would either die of blood loss or immediately ejaculate at the scene or both.
"Ara. You're finally home, Shirou." Akeno greeted Archer innocently.
Archer however, already knew that Akeno was trying to tease him so instead of blushing or being embarrassed, he decided to just speak out what was currently in his mind. "You're beautiful, Akeno."
The effect that Archer intended was immediate.
Akeno suddenly blushed. Her face was as red as a tomato and Archer could swore that steam was coming out of her head. She was also smiling happily while putting both her hands on her cheeks.
After a month of Akeno's constant effort in trying to either seduce or tease him, Archer found out that despite Akeno's perverted nature, she was still a teenage girl at heart. Archer felt a little guilty at teasing her in this way but it was something that came straight from his heart so it's not like he was lying.
Seeing Akeno act like any normal teenage girl, Archer could only chuckle a little.
Akeno's blush turned into a pout at his chuckle. "Mou. You were just teasing me weren't you?"
"Not at all. I was telling the truth." Archer gave a Akeno one of his innocent smiles.
"Besides, weren't you trying to tease me yourself just a moment ago when you came out of the shower while completely naked?"
Akeno just sighed at Archer's counter argument. "It used to be so easy to tease you when we were kids."
"That's what happens when we get older. We mature." Archer said solemnly while making the finishing touches to the salad.
"Are you trying to say I'm not mature for falling for your teasing?" Akeno into a tone of mock annoyance.
Bringing the salad that he had finished preparing to the dining table that already had the tuna sandwich he made earlier, Archer took a seat on one of the two chairs that surrounded the small round dining table. "You're matured enough already. I could even easily picture you being a mother holding her baby."
Instead of taking a seat opposite him, Akeno had opted to sit on Archer's lap instead. Putting her slender arms around his neck, Akeno pulled herself closer to Archer. She looked at him with lust filled eyes. "Is that a marriage proposal?"
Archer didn't even have any time to think of a retort as Akeno kissed him.
It was slow at first.
She started by kissing him on the lips but it got more intense as the seconds rolled by. Akeno moaned in pleasure as she stuck her tongue in Archer's mouth to play with his tongue and Archer responded in kind. Putting his hands behind Akeno's back, Archer pulled her soft and supple body close to him.
Archer might not want to admit it but he was starting to enjoy having a warm beautiful woman in his arms even if he was conflicted whether he was being a pedophile or not considering their mental age gap. His raging teenage hormones weren't making things easier either.
Their kiss continued for about a minute before they separated. A long thin thread of saliva was visibly connecting their lips.
Archer could see that Akeno was really satisfied with the kiss as her lust filled expression from just a moment ago was replaced with a face that had a calmer expression. Another thing that Archer noticed in the month after he reunited with Akeno, was that her sexual desire seem to be gradually calming down and became less intense and infrequent after every sensual night they had together.
She would still desire some 'skinship' almost every night but their sensual nights together had become more... controlled. Akeno seemed to be getting better at keeping herself from completely giving in to her lust for him.
Archer had at first thought that Akeno was starting to lose interest in him but after talking to her about their lives after their separation he had found another reason for it. It seemed that when Shirou had came for her eight years ago, Akeno had already started to harbor strong feelings for him.
It had gone to the point that she would fantasize about him to relieve her of her sexual frustrations once she had reached puberty but it didn't seem to be enough. This resulted in her becoming more perverted and her complete awakening as a Super S. In other words, she had accumulated a lot of pent up sexual frustrations throughout the years.
Akeno's sexual desire was probably because of her Fallen Angel heritage as there were records that described female Fallen Angels as insatiable seductresses. At least, if Archer recalled correctly from the various myths and superstitions in his world.
When Archer and Akeno reunited again, Akeno was able to let out and indulge in all of her accumulated sexual desire. Basically, once Akeno was able to let out all of her pent up desires, it became easier for her control her lust as it went down to manageable levels.
Archer was relieved that his previous estimate on how long he could last until he finally gave in and took Akeno's virginity (he confirmed it with Akeno that, yes, she was still a virgin) was actually more far off in the future.
With that problem solved for the time being, he should really start to seriously planning on how he could become a hero. Fortunately, his status as a Devil meant that his lifespan would be in terms of centuries so he didn't really need to rush.
He will have to first become a High-Class Devil if he wanted more freedom of movement so that would be one of his aims for now. In the meantime, he'll serve Rias as her Pawn since he at least owed her that much for saving him and become stronger before setting out.
Who knows what kind of monsters that existed in this world. It would be best to be fully prepared for them before departing on his quest.
In that sense, serving a High-Class Devil was one of the best ways to learn the ins and outs of the Devil community which was essential when one was aiming to become a High-Class Devil.
It was also quite fortunate that Devils had a body that can be developed faster than an average human. Which meant that he can become much stronger in a shorter time frame compared to when he was human.
Ending his short rumination, Archer addressed Akeno's naked state. "Why don't you put on some clothing first and we can have some light midnight snack? I thought you might be a bit hungry if you had to skip dinner because of your business with Rias."
"How thoughtful. You were right, I did have to skip dinner. Do you mind if I borrowed one of your shirts?"
"Go ahead, but didn't you already bring some of your clothes here since you come here so often?"
Akeno just gave him a teasing grin that said she was scheming something before heading to the bedroom.
She's probably planning something perverted again.
True to his predictions, Akeno came back to the miniature kitchen wearing one of his old shirts that he had long grew out of.
The effect of this was that he could clearly see her cleavage as the buttons around her boobs could not be buttoned because of her cup size and the shirt hugged very closely to her perfect body, leaving nothing to the imaginations of those who saw her.
Also, she wasn't wearing anything else besides the shirt so the form of her nipples could also be seen protruding on the shirt.
Basically, she looked very sexy.
Why is it always that when it comes to these things that I become the prey while the female becomes the predator?
Archer didn't voice out his thoughts as he offered Akeno some of the tuna sandwiches. They ate in silence, enjoying the taste of the sandwich or in Akeno's case, she was enjoying the way Archer's eyes seemed to always unconsciously get drawn to her cleavage while eating.
Damn teenage hormones.
"Aren't you going to ask?"
The question came out of nowhere but Archer could easily deduce what Akeno was talking about. She was most likely curious why he hadn't asked her anything about what she and Rias was doing the whole day.
"No." He answered honestly.
"...Aren't you curious?"
"Yes, I am."
"Then... Why?"
"Because the two of you trusted me enough not to pry in my own secrets, so I'm just returning the courtesy."
Akeno smiled softly at him. "I see. Well, everyone should find out about it tomorrow anyway, so I guess there's no need to rush."
Archer lifted one of his eyebrows at that. "Anything I should expect?"
"Hmm... I think you should prepare more desserts for tomorrow. Enough for more than 20 people."
"Will do." At this, Archer started brainstorming on what might be suitable for tomorrow's menu. It looked like he was going to have to pull out all the stops.
After they finished eating, the both of them quickly went to bed with Akeno snuggling comfortably in his arms. Sleep came easily as both of them were already quite spent and their warm bodies pressing against each other was a welcoming presence.
xxx Scene Break xxx
This is just silly.
It was the next day and just like Akeno said, there were many guests that day when he entered the clubroom. Said guests who were all women except one however, were now being pinned by a few dozen black rapiers to their shadows and unable to move even a finger. The only ones who were spared were the club members, and two other guests.
The black rapiers were known as Dark Keys.
They were the result of Archer and Kiba experimenting with Sword Birth's ability to produce Conceptual Weapons instead of just the elemental swords that Kiba kept producing. Unfortunately, their experiments ended in failure. However, that is not to say that they didn't gain anything from the experiment itself.
Although Kiba had failed to produce a true Conceptual Weapon, he was able to create weapons that manage to imitate, to a certain degree, the effect of a concept. They decided to call them Enchanted Weapons instead of Conceptual Weapons and the weapon's properties as enchantments instead of concepts. It took a lot of coaching on Archer's part but Kiba was able to finally produce swords that had enchantments imbedded in them instead of an element.
Though, according to Kiba, it would be almost impossible for him to be able to produce an Enchanted Weapon due to the difficulty in imagining something abstract like an enchantment. The only reason he succeeded was because of Archer's help and even then, it was because Archer had an almost complete understanding of the Black Keys.
Black keys were Conceptual Weapons that people from the Burial Agency in Archer's world used against Dead Apostles, though the only one who knew about this was Archer and of course Kiba was kept in the dark about the existence of Black Keys. The Dark Keys were created based on the Black Keys, hence, their similar names.
Still, despite their failed experiment and difficulty in producing Enchanted Weapons, this was a breakthrough in uncovering more of Sword Birth's ability, so Kiba was quite elated and continued training to produce other kinds of Enchanted Weapons. Unfortunately, he kept failing repeatedly if Archer didn't help coach him to produce the swords and even then, the success rate was low.
One of the guests that didn't have their shadow pinned by Dark Keys was a silver haired, beautiful and busty maid by the name of Grayfia. Apparently, she was both the Queen and wife of one of the 4 Maous that were ruling the underworld, Sirzechs Lucifer. She was here on behalf of her King and husband to act as a mediator between Rias and one of the guests since Rias was actually the younger sister of Sirzechs. Grayfia was watching the incapacitated girls with calm curiosity.
The other guest who was spared was currently watching the current scene with utter disbelief. His name was Raiser Phenex. A pure-blood High-Class Devil, and the third son of the House of Phenex, one of the seventy two Devil clans that survived the war between the three factions of Devil, Angel and Fallen Angel.
"It can't be! My whole peerage!? Even Ravel and Yubelluna got caught! Who? How?" Raiser said eyes wide in disbelief.
"I can't move! What's going on?"
"Raiser-sama! Help!"
"Onii-sama! I can't even lift my finger!"
"Th-This can't be! I can't breakthrough this... whatever it is, even with my power as a Queen!"
That's right.
The people who were being pinned by the Dark Keys at that moment were the entirety of Raiser's peerage. The reason for their incapacitation was quite silly and the cause of their current dilemma was due to one hot-headed and extremely jealous Pawn.
Hyoudou Issei.
This all started a few minutes ago when Ise, Kiba and Asia arrived at the clubroom.
Raiser and his peerage arrived a few minutes before Ise and the others. Rias, Akeno and Koneko were already present in the clubroom by then.
At the time, Archer was busy with the finishing touches with a parfait batch in the kitchen beside the clubroom that was prepared specifically for his use after his talent in the culinary arts were discovered.
He had already sent the desserts that were finished to the clubroom and gave a simple greeting to the guests. Due to time constraints, Archer had asked the school for a day off to prepare for the expected guests.
Thanks to that, he was able to create several desserts that hailed from both Eastern and Western origins like crepes, dorayakis, dangos, cakes and other types of desserts. However, this also meant that he was not present to see what had transpired that caused the initial hostility.
By the time he had entered the clubroom with a trolley of the parfait, Ise was already yelling at Raiser.
"Like hell I'm gonna give Buchou to a two timing yakitori like you!"
"Yakitori!? Y-You Low-Class Devil! Don't get ahead of yourself! That's not the way you talk to a High-Class Devil! Rias, what's going on with your discipline towards your servants!?" Raiser was furious with Ise's provocation.
Rias just looked away and said "Like I care."
"Hey Yakitori-guy! I will just beat the crap out of you with my Boosted Gear!" Saying that, Ise manifested his Boosted Gear on his left hand. "We don't need to have a game! I will just take you all down, right here, right now!"
Boost!
Ise seemed to be confident with his abilities but in response Raiser just sighed.
"Mira. Do it."
Whoever Mira was however, none of the girls Raiser had brought with him responded to his call. All of them were enjoying the desserts Archer had prepared on a medium sized dining table at the back of the clubroom. Each of them were sampling different foods.
"Mmm~ this is soooo good."
"I think I can die happy now."
"This is incredible. Even our best chefs haven't been able to make something like this!"
"I hate to admit this but this is just... otherworldly."
"This cream is delicious!"
"Must... find... secret... recipe."
Seeing no one had responded to his call, Raiser became annoyed and wanted to raise his voice to make his peerage listen to him but was cut off when Ise charged him.
Explosion!
"Oryaaah!"
Finally deciding that he was going to have do this himself, Raiser just lazily caught Ise's punch with the palm of his hand and without missing a beat, he flung Ise to the dining table like Ise weighed so much as paper with the same hand he used to catch Ise's punch.
CRASH!
"Ise-san!" Asia ran to Ise who was not moving.
After Ise landed on the dining table and broke it, all the desserts were flung away and fell to the floor.
Seeing his hard work was destroyed, Archer just sighed. This wasn't the first time something like this happened to him so he was already used to it. And since he was already used to it, he also knew what was going to happen next, so he made the necessary preparations.
""""""NOOOOO!""""""
Just like Archer expected, all the girls who were enjoying his desserts cried in despair at being denied of their desires. They immediately fixed their attention on Ise who passed out after crashing on the table. They were all projecting a strong killing intent.
"I WASN'T EVEN ABLE TO TASTE THE DANGOS YET!"
"I WAS JUST GOING TO GET A SECOND HELPING OF THE CREAM PUFF!"
"THE CREPE! NOOO!"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! DIE!"
All of the girls were ready to tear at Ise's throat but before they could take a single step forward, they all noticed that something was wrong.
None of them could move.
During their tirade, Archer had silently Projected a few dozen Dark Keys and pinned all of them on the girls shadows. As a result, all of them were now completely incapacitated without even receiving even a single scratch.
And all this was what had lead to the current situation.
Almost everyone in the whole room was dumbfounded at the scene except Grayfia and Kiba (who already knew what the Dark Keys were). Not even a hint of surprise was visible on the maid's calm expression, only mild curiosity while Kiba gave Archer a small nod of acknowledgement.
"Before this becomes a bloodbath, can someone tell me what's going on?" Archer said in an annoyed tone.
Everyone except the incapacitated girls turned their heads at him. It seemed that they had only now realized his entrance.
"Shirou? Did you do this?" Rias asked him. Shock was prevalent on her features. Not surprising since only Archer and Kiba knew of the breakthrough with Sword Birth.
"Yes."
"...*Sigh* I see. I guess I should've known when those swords came out of nowhere." Rias said in understanding.
All the club members except Kiba and Ise (who was obviously still unconscious) also seemed to have came out of their initial shock after finding out what had happened.
Raiser however, became livid. "You! You did this!?"
Archer just looked at him with an annoyed expression. "Really? I just said it was me and you ask me the same question? Again?"
"You bastard!" Archer's reply that was void of any respect only made Raiser more furious and he started to form a fireball in his right hand.
However, before Raiser could do anything else, Grayfia stepped in. "That's enough. I won't stay quiet if this continues anymore. For Sirzechs-sama's honor, I won't hold back."
Grayfia's announcement seemed to immediately douse Raiser's anger as he snuffed out his flames. "Very well. But I demand he release my peerage."
Grayfia calmly looked at Archer before stating her order that sounded like a request while bowing to Archer a little. "Emiya Shirou-sama. Please release the girls."
"I don't mind, as long as all of them have calmed down."
"That won't be a problem, I assure you. I will take responsibility and deal with them if they continue with their hostilities." Grayfia said calmly with a strict tone that said that she was willing to go through with her statement.
At this, Archer dispersed all the Dark Keys back into Prana and released all the girls. At first, all of them seemed to look like they still want to continue venting their anger at Ise but a look from Grayfia stopped them cold and they chose to only look forlornly at the food that was wasted due to the previous squabble.
Seeing their sad expressions, Archer decided to cheer them up a little by pulling their attention to the parfaits on the trolley. "Do you girls want these parfaits or not?"
At the mention of parfaits, all the girls immediately turned their heads to him. It seemed that they never realized the trolley in front of Archer that was filled with parfaits.
""""""YES!"""""" They all answered as one as all of them rushed to him and took one parfait each and started eating them with gusto.
The girls antics seemed to affect Raiser as his face was filled with shame. The other club members (except Koneko who looked on with envy, Ise who was still passed out and Asia who was tending to Ise) however only giggled at the scene while Grayfia looked curiously at the parfaits.
"Is it really that good?"
"Why don't you try one and see for yourself?" Archer said while offering Grayfia one of the leftover parfaits.
Grayfia hesitated a little before taking the dessert and took a scoop of the parfait with the spoon that was imbedded in the parfait. She looked like she was examining the scooped parfait before eating it.
The effect was... interesting. Grayfia didn't change her calm expression but she started eating the parfait using the spoon with mechanical movements without stopping.
It looked like she was in a trance.
Grayfia's mechanical movements only stopped when she seemed to have finally snapped out of it after finishing the parfait. She looked at the empty glass in her hands and then at Archer (who was grinning at her) with a small red tint on both her cheeks. She closed her eyes, put the empty glass down back on the trolley and faked a small cough.
"How was it?" Archer asked teasingly.
"...It was very good." Grayfia answered without looking at his face but the small red tints on her cheeks became redder. She was clearly embarrassed at her previous display of un-maid-like behavior. "Did you make them?"
"Yes. Including the desserts that were on that dining table."
Looking at the ruined dining table, Grayfia said in her usual calm tone. "...I see. I think I'm beginning to understand why the girls were so angry before."
"Right? Those crepes were so good. But now they're all ruined." Said a girl with four ponytails and looked like some kind of staff wielding martial artist. She was one of Raiser's girls.
"Don't worry, Mira. Once we win the Rating Game with the Gremory group, we can have this guy make all the desserts we want!" Said a girl in a China dress.
""""""Yeah!"""""" All of them seemed motivated at the prospect of Archer making them desserts.
Archer raised an eyebrow at their declaration. "Confident aren't you? You do realize that I incapacitated all of you at once just a moment ago without even breaking a sweat, right?"
All the girls seemed to have doubts on their faces at this.
"Also," Archer continued, "What's this about the Gremory group participating in the Rating Game? I thought Master hasn't come of age yet."
"Let me explain." Grayfia, who had recovered her composure, said.
For the next few minutes, Grayfia explained to Archer how Rias was engaged to Raiser because of their parent's orders and how Rias was unwilling to marry Raiser. In the end, the two family decided to use a Rating Game as a way to settle the problem.
If Raiser wins, then Rias will have to marry him.
If Rias wins, then the engagement will be canceled.
Archer internally sighed as Grayfia finished her explanation.
Political marriage, huh? Why, am I not surprised? Raiser already has his own harem so he couldn't be expected to be loyal to his wife. No wonder Ise was pissed off. It was probably the combination of his jealousy and his feelings for Rias. Though, I don't think Ise has realized his feelings for Rias. The guy's as thick as my younger self in these matters. There's also his feelings for Asia too. This is gonna be troublesome.
"So all this, will determine Master's future husband, huh?"
"That's right. Once onii-sama defeats Rias Gremory and marries her, our two families will join." A girl with blonde twin drill hair that reminded Archer of Luvia said. "We are the immortal Phenex. There is no way you can defeat our regenerative bodies."
Archer grinned wickedly at the girl. "Immortal, huh? Oh, I can think of a few ways for me to kill someone like that." Noble Phantasms like Gae Bolg, Gae Buidhe and Harpe that disallows regeneration came to the forefront of his mind.
"Y-You're bluffing!" Said the blonde girl. Doubt and fear were beginning to show on her face.
"You'll just have to see don't you?" Archer challenged her.
Taking a few steps back, the girl ran off to Raiser and hid behind Raiser's back. Raiser seemed to have listened in on their conversation as he looked at Archer warily.
"You scared her too much." Grayfia chastised Archer a little.
"Well, she is the enemy." Archer said non-nonchalantly.
"...Is it true?" Grayfia asked.
"What's true?" Archer played dumb.
"That you have ways to kill an immortal like the Phenex." Grayfia continued with her interrogation, unfazed with Archer's attitude.
"Yes. Though I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet."
"What do you mean?" Grayfia sounded puzzled at Archer's statement.
"He might be an immortal Phenex but he's still a Devil." Archer said in a low voice while making sure that no one else was eavesdropping on them.
She blinked once. "Ah. So that's it." She said as she finally understood what he was referring to.
"Thank you for your time. I won't keep you from your duties any longer." Grayfia said while bowing a little to him and went off to stand between Raiser and Rias who looked like they were going to start fighting again.
Archer didn't miss the hint of suspicion on Grayfia's expression even though she tried to hide it with her mask of calmness.
I wasn't able to fully bluff my way through that one even if it's actually true. Though, I guess it's expected for someone like her to partly see through my bluff.
Of course, he had some Noble Phantasm that could potentially kill something that's immortal but it was also true that there are other ways for him to deal with an immortal without resorting to them. In this case, Raiser may be an immortal but since he was also a Devil, that meant he also had their weaknesses such as the Holy elemental swords used by the Exorcists, Holy Water or the Cross that symbolizes the church.
They might not be very effective on High-Class Devils by themselves but combined with Ise's Boosted Gear's Transfer ability (which Ise called Gift) that Ise finally managed to learn a week ago, their effectiveness can be increased a thousand fold. Something like that can definitely cripple someone like Raiser. All they have to do was to find a way to safely handle those items and get the timing right to use them on Raiser.
Unfortunately, it's easier said than done. Thanks to his display earlier, the other team will no doubt keep an eye on him in the Rating Game. If only he knew that they were going to fight each other so soon then he might not have used something that would catch their attention like that.
That said, when will the Rating Game be held? Since all the people participating in the Rating Game were already here, Archer decided to just ask them. Not to mention that it might be a good way to distract Raiser and Rias from their squabble.
Walking to where the two High-Class Devils were bickering, Archer addressed Rias. "Sorry for disrupting your discussion, Master, but has the date for the Rating Game been set yet?"
Blinking a few times, Rias seemed to realize something. "Oh, that's right. We haven't agreed on a date for the Game yet."
After a few moments of thinking in silence, Rias had made her decision. "Well, since your team is so weak, let's have the Game in ten days. That should give you enough time to train your girls."
Raiser looked like he was going to explode from anger. "Are you joking? My team is obviously stronger than yours! We have more experience with the Rating Game! Why would we need to train? It's your team who needs that ten days!"
Rias just smirked condescendingly at Raiser. "If you haven't noticed yet, this person is my Pawn, Emiya Shirou. Is your memory so bad that you don't remember how he single-handedly took care of your whole team at once in just a few seconds without much effort?"
"Th-That's because he took them all by surprise! It was an underhanded trick!" Raiser almost yelled at Rias for saying that his team was weak.
Rias just looked at Raiser as if he was so below her that he was not even worth her time. "Oh? Making excuses now are we? How so unlike a High-Class Devil. Isn't that right Akeno?" Rias asked her Queen who was standing right beside her.
"As you say, Buchou." Akeno said while directing a cold smile at Raiser.
"Tch. Fine! We'll have the game in ten days! I'll definitely make you eat your words, Rias!"
Saying that, Raiser went to collect his peerage who were reluctant to leave without finishing everything on the trolley. After he was able to pry all of them from the desserts on the trolley, all of them disappeared with a light of a Magic Circle.
Before Raiser left however, Archer noticed that Raiser gave him an angry look.
He definitely holds a grudge against me. I wonder why? Archer thought sarcastically. Loudly, he asked Rias, "You really know how to make a bluff, Master."
"I agree. That was really well done, Buchou." Akeno added.
"What makes you two think I was bluffing?" Rias said innocently.
Archer only raised an eyebrow and kept looking at her with a gaze that clearly said that 'he was not buying it' while Akeno just kept her ever present smile as she joined Archer in gazing at Rias.
Rias gave in seeing that she realized that she wasn't able to fool them. She sighed. "You're right. I was bluffing. We really needed those ten days to train ourselves and make some kind of plan to defeat Raiser during the Rating Game. They won't fall for your trick again now that they know what to look for."
"Sorry. I revealed my hand too early." Archer said apologetically.
"It's not your fault. Ise might've been gravely injured if you hadn't done what you did." Rias said with a troubled expression.
"She's right, Shirou. This wasn't your fault. Rather, I should've tried to stop Ise-kun from provoking Raiser instead of letting him charge at Raiser. *Sigh* Thanks to that we've lost one of our trump cards to overcome Raiser's immortality." Akeno said while sounding disappointed at herself.
"About that. I do have some idea on how to deal with that guy. But first," Archer gestured to Koneko who was looking sadly at the empty trolley that was devoid of all the desserts that he brought in a while ago, "why don't I bring in some of the leftover desserts in the kitchen I saved for everyone?"
Rias and Akeno just giggled at the scene.
"Yes. I'd like that." Rias said with some of her confidence restored.
