A long year had passed since Ravel had joined my peerage, I spent that year training with her both mentally and physically and I was yet to gain another member to my peerage but we did have a Rating Game. The Rating Game was rather poor in truth as Guy's speed and Sacred Gear were too much for our opposition taking out the five member of the 6-man peerage leaving me to defeat the somewhat downcast King. Despite Ravel not even moving a finger in that match, she was willing to fight there was just no need. She had skill but no real application at the time which I had dealt with by doing with her what I did myself, manipulate our flames into a free weapon which like mine, was a bow.

Ravel's training was slower and more tedious than mine, she held our nobility in a higher light than I did. I was more than willing to get dirty and push my limits too improve, she still held the opinion that she was invincible thanks to the hereditary ability of the Phoenix clan. That is still something i'm trying to fix as she is a lot more stubborn on it that I thought. There was one thing though that I didn't have to teach her and that was her marksmanship, she had great eyesight just like all Phoenixes.

Since she had joined my peerage, she took it upon herself to go everywhere I did while saying it was a necessity for the King to be followed by his most prized servant. While I replied that that rule and saying is just about the Queen, she argued with me that in the absence of a Queen is the next strongest and as she is a noble unlike Guy was she was to accompany me. I tried to get back-up on this but Guy was very reluctant to on the terms of his phobia, that didn't feel like the only reason to me though.

So I had to deal with a jealous Ravel as I continued to get to know Rias better. While it wasn't anything other than eyes glaring at my back the whole time i'm at the Gremory Castle, I get everything on the way back and when we actually arrive back at the castle and by Maou does she have a set of lungs on her. I never knew anyone could speak for that long without needing to take a breath, it was both impressive and rather annoying but as a closet sis-con I did nothing. The only free time I had to myself was in the bath which I had only just got Ravel to stop joining me with, even my swordplay had her around which she said she had to watch. I'm starting to wonder what's going through her mind when she says and does these things, are all little sisters this close to their brothers? The only other little sister I know is Rias but Sirzechs is busy and I have barely seen him.

…

In the small patio-esque area of the Gremory Castle, I was sitting off to the side with one of Rias' new servants. A blonde haired boy much like myself who was her Knight. Unlike me though, he was a reincarnated devil but he had a Sacred Gear. The one he had was Swords Birth, the demonic version of Guy's. It was the ability to create any demonic sword he wanted. The other new servants was elsewhere and a little jumpy, he was a half vampire with the Sacred Gear: Forbidden Balor View. He was a little too strong to be real by stats alone, it's a shame that he is too jumpy to control it.

Breaking us all from our individual talks was a loud but short series of knocks on the door. Seconds later, it opened to show Grayfia who stayed in the doorway.

"Lady Rias, Reon-sama. Lord Lucifer would like to see the both of you."

I internally frowned as I heard what she said. At times I feel like she prefers being the Queen and Maid rather than the wife. Her whole demeanour is a little off-putting to me.

Rias was the first to get up and walk towards Grayfia as I finished off the conversation between myself and Kiba before getting up to join them. Once we were out of the room, Grayfia then led us through the castle towards the centre and then towards the back where we saw Sirzechs standing in the doorway to the garden like he was in thought. As our footsteps sounded on the marble flooring, Sirzechs turned around to greet us … well Rias.

She left our side and ran straight to him being enveloped in a hug that Sirzechs was more than happy to give her. I decided to interrupt on this so I wouldn't have to deal with being berated by Ravel for a long time, the less time I spend away the better.

"So … What's up Aniki?"

Sirzechs smiled at me when I addressed him, he had asked for me to call him Nii-sama but I'm slightly against using that form.

"Have a look-see."

I followed his gaze and saw two young girls in the garden sitting in the shade under a tree. I moved away from Grayfia and walked out into the garden first. I kept my pace slow as I edged closer to them, they were both nekos as both girls had cat ears and a tail each. The girl on my left was slightly smaller of the two and had snow white hair with two longer bangs either side of her face reaching down to her slightly quivering shoulders. The other girl looked up to me and I smiled to her but was answered by a slight tilt of the head. This second girl had blonde hair like me although hers was a little darker, possibly a honey colour. In her hands was a Bo staff that easily trounced her height and at the age I am now rivalled my own, probably beating me too. The staff was a charcoal black in colour with an azure blue stripe near each end.

I turned my head round to see Rias behind me with both Sirzechs and Grayfia.

"These two girls were orphaned because of the current extermination on any form of Nekomata. I was able to save these two however on the terms that they can be kept under wraps."

"We are both young and don't have too much experience with possible unruliness which Nekomata could be, especially with the case that caused this unneeded storm. Rather than take them in yourself, you are passing them to the next best people. People who you think will look after them properly and with care, the care that they need after all this."

I let out a slightly frustrated sigh as I knew full well how harsh the devils are being on them. I was lucky to get this chance and so are they, they don't deserve to be treated so poorly.

"Fine by me, can't have them being put to death for something so trivial."

"You heard what happened Reon-kun?"

The question came from Sirzechs who looked rather intrigued, maybe more like he was wondering the extent of my knowledge.

"Yeah, this case happened to be one of the ones that came up when Chichi-ue takes me with him to meetings. I had a hard time staying quiet about it. I'm really perplexed at how their minds can come up with eradication of an entire race being equal to the death of one high-class devil that isn't even from a pillar family. If it was a pillar family then I can understand them wanting to try and enforce it but I don't know why it actually went through. It's too cruel really, i'm happy at least that Chichi-ue voiced against it although I can surmise that he probably wanted to appease me in some way."

"You really do seem to know your stuff, Reon-kun. Would this happen to be why you are the heir instead of your three brothers?"

I let a small smirk come to my face, I was a little surprised that he already knew.

"Rynar-nii is happy with his media company and isn't really interested himself. Ruval-nii was happy to see that I was even interested in it, he allowed me to take his place so he could go back to concentrating on his peerage, new family and getting back into the Rating Game scene. Then there is the idiot Raiser, you can't really trust him with anything of slight importance."

"So Reon-kun, which girl do you want?"

I was slightly confused at his question especially on this topic but once I remembered about the two female nekos, I knew that he was seguing into something else.

"Well unfortunately there is only one real choice I can make, while they are both too cute I know that i'm only allowed one so i'll take the blonde neko with the Bo staff. Names?"

Sirzechs then nodded to my question.

"Well she can take up the Phoenix name as her Senjutsuu is similar to our regeneration, albeit slower. I guess I can force Chichi-ue to adopt her into the family or just have her last name as Phoenix if he can't."

While tilting my head either side to deliberate a name, I walked up to the blonde haired neko and knelt down in front of her and looked into her eyes. Should I keep the strange and inviting 'R' repetition with my family or name her something else for differentiation but would that be fair? I'll just give her a name and see if she likes it.

Looking into her eyes, I caught her attention which came about lazily.

"Sabrea Phoenix."

Her eyes went wide for several seconds as she took in everything. She had to of known what we were talking about before, or am I being optimistic there. Well, after several seconds she nodded to me happily showing a small but sweet fanged smile.

"Koneko Toujou."

I sighed internally as I heard the voice beside me. I had expected something a little more from her, I guess I shouldn't do so much longer. To call a Kitten Kitten just in another language is rather plain, so is calling her Toujou. That easily tells me that she'll be placed as Rias' rook because Toujou means castle in Japanese and the rook piece in chess is a turret tower on a castle which form the corners. Though Rook is a good choice for a Nekomata, Rook or Bishop would be.

We both took out our Rook pieces and started the process. The pieces went into the two girls easily and knocked them both out which I thought was understandable as it allows them to have a much needed rest. I took the Bo from Sabrea's paws and coated it in my magic sending it to my dimension pocket to join my sword for the time being. I then picked Sabrea up and slung her over my shoulder and I did the same with Koneko but on the other shoulder. As I stood up I swayed slightly fully unsuspecting of their combined weight, which wasn't actually that bad just surprising.

Both Sirzechs and Grayfia looked at us with a smile and turned on their heels to lead us back inside. As we started to leave the garden Rias brought up a question.

"How will you convince Lord Phoenix to adopt Sabrea-chan?"

That was a good question and one that I noticed Sirzechs perk his ears up to.

"Firstly she is a natural blonde, the looks isn't a problem at all. I'm gonna be treating her like a little sister anyway but for actual points to convince my father then I have something that could work."

"That would be, Reon-kun?"

That one came from Sirzechs who sounded like he anticipated my answer.

"That the Phoenix clan isn't really immortal."

My statement caused the three of them to stop and turn to me with surprised looks on their faces.

"You really aren't like the others in the Phoenix clan, you really are like us Gremorys. But why do you say that?"

"From a logical sense, no such being as immortal as it is an impossibility. Our abilities come from the original Phoenix which wasn't immortal itself, rather just reverted it's own life cycle. It turned to ash and then reborn again just in a newer body but it's spirit and soul was the same. A soul is never-ending but death comes once the body has stopped not the soul. If we were immortal then we wouldn't have heirs as there would be no need. Additionally, the immortality that my family prides itself upon is just almost instantaneous regeneration and regeneration is something that everyone has, even humans."

"Even humans?"

Peering past the sleeping body of Koneko I saw a highly confused look on Rias' face. To be honest, this subject is way beyond her and really should be beyond me to but I like to learn so I am a few years ahead.

"Humans have their own regeneration albeit slow. If they were to cut their wrists then their body would work to close it up forming a scab and then eventually skin over the top, and depending how serious the wound was a scar might form. Devils though don't experience having scabs as our regeneration surpasses humans but you can still get scars and burns. The same would apply for cutting of an arm, your skin would grow and close it off but nothing more. A normal body can't recreate bone but Senjutsuu and a Phoenixes regeneration can."

"If so then why aren't you immortal? You can lose part of your head but still live and it'll come back."

"That's true Rias-chan but there is one vital part. The member of the Phoenix clan itself, the level of their regeneration revolves around the strength of that person both physically and mentally. A truly immortal being would never ever die even if they wanted to but a Phoenix can still die, if our body becomes fatigued or our mind breaks after being repeatedly beaten or maybe even a strike that is strong enough to beat us in one hit can kill us. Our ability basically revolves around our mental state, of course with being a devil, weapons of the church affect it to some degree."

Rias still looked confused to some degree, the three of us didn't expect her to understand it any time soon so we carried on back through the castle.

…

Returning back to the patio-esque area, Rias cheerfully bounded back into the room leaving me to find a place to put the two still sleeping Nekos. I placed them both down on the sofa that I was on originally and joined Rias with the others who were in the centre of the room with tea and biscuits. As I sat myself down, Ravel moved straight from her seat and placed herself down on my lap as a pout adorned her face.

"Who are those girls, Onii-chan?"

I felt a bubble of happiness appear in my mind when I heard Ravel call me 'Onii-chan'.

"They are two nekos. One for me and one for Rias-chan."

Ravel then slumped her shoulders forward slightly, she knew full well that it meant she would have even less of my time now. Although she should have known that from the start.

As I mentioned at the end of the last chapter, this is the first of two chapters today as I have more than enough time to do both.
Luckily for you guys, this chapter is also the longest so far. I have also brought back Sabrea but changed her Sword for a Bo as I feel a staff is more appropriate.
I'll put up the next chapter in a few hours.

Till then, Ciao.