Answers to reviews:
Frostspiderman: She's engaged to Riser, but Damian plans to free her from it.
Disclaimer: I do not own High School DxD. I only own the OC Damian Mammon-Lucifer.
"Apologies for the interruption, Lady Rias." Grayfia Lucifuge, Head Maid of the Gremory Clan, spoke upon entering Rias' bedroom. Rias could be seen sat on her bed, flicking through a manga that one of her brother's servants had purchased for her directly from Japan.
Rias- now seven years old- looked up from what she was reading as Grayfia pulled the door almost shut.
"It's fine, Grayfia. What's up?" She asked.
"Your parents have requested your presence downstairs in the main lounge." Grayfia explained. "They have guests that they'd like you to meet."
Rias frowned a little but nodded and got up, making sure to bookmark the page she had been reading before closing the manga. She followed Grayfia out of the bedroom and down to the main lounge, where she found her parents and-
"Why is he here?" Rias asked with a deep frown as she saw the smugly smirking Riser Phenex sitting on the couch across from her parents, looking very much at home and like he owned the place. His parents were with him as well and judging from the exasperated look on Lady Phenex' face, she had tried to make her sit sit more formally.
"Sit down, Rias." Venelana gestured to the space between her and her husband. "There is something you must know."
"Well, can it hurry? I am going to meet Damian today." Rias said. She was so sure she had a scoff from Riser at the mention of Damian, to which she would've glared at the arrogant bastard for his insults on the boy she'd got a crush on.
"Rias, this is something important." Zeoticus scolded his daughter lightly. "This is something about the future of our Household and Devil kind as a whole."
"Right..." Rias replied, slowly walking over to the couch that her parents were sat at, and taking a seat between them. Her eyes flicked from Lord Phenex- sat opposite Zeoticus- to Lady Phenex- sat opposite Venelana- to Riser, who was sat directly opposite her.
The twelve-year-old blond boy looked like he was holding back a triumphant smirk, but Rias didn't have a clue what could have gotten him in such a good mood.
"So, what is this about?" Rias asked, looking at her parents.
"Well, Rias..." lady Phenex began, bringing Rias' attention to her. "As you know, our kind took a severe hit from the Great War, our numbers dwindled and it only got worse after the Civil War. Our kind has not recovered since and there's only reincarnated Devils, barely any purebloods left."
"If something is not done, our kind could go extinct." Lord Phenex took over for his wife, smiling at Rias assuringly. "Which is why your parents and us made an agreement many years ago, shortly before you were born, in order to ensure a future for our Households and hope for Devil kind."
"Which is?" Rias asked, not liking the dread building in her stomach as Riser continued to smirk at her, his eyes roaming her body. Even for a seven year old, Rias was showing signs of great beauty like her mother. Rias was disgusted, especially since the boy had tried to touch her at that event a while back only for her to back off and stand by her parents. She didn't know what Riser's deal with her was, but it disturbed her.
"Why, my lovely Rias, it shall be us in matrimony!" Riser announced with a wide smirk as he leaned forward. "We are to be married!"
"WHAT?!" Rias shouted, her eyes wide.
"I know!" Zeoticus replied, looking down at Rias and smiling. "It's truly a wonderful thought, isn't it? The grandchildren of our clan being the ones to lead the next generation of Devils!"
It was then that Zeoticus, and everyone else, really, noticed Rias' reaction to what Riser had just said. Rather than break out in floods of happy tears at the prospect of now being formally engaged to one of the Underworld's youngest bachelors, or any kind of positive reaction at all, her face seemed to be stuck in some kind of mixture between shock and horror. It was as if she'd frozen entirely, and was trying to reboot.
"Uh, Rias?" Riser, after a couple of seconds, spoke, leaning forward slightly further and waving a hand in front of her face. "Hello? Anybody home? What's with that look? Why isn't she happy?" He asked, leaning back and looking from his father to his mother. "You told me she'd be happy about this."
"That's what I thought." Lord Phenex said, equally confused as his son.
"N-No! I don't want to marry him!" Rias said, standing with an enraged look on her face. "I don't even like him nor will I ever! I want to marry Damian! Why couldn't you have made an agreement with his family?!"
"As if that pathetic excuse for a Devil is worthy to even be mentioned." Riser scoffed, causing Rias to glare at him.
"Do not insult him! He's far better than you!" Rias claimed.
"Ha! Hes nothing more than a wretch like the rest of his family. After all, he has Lucifer blood in his veins, and we all know that the Lucifer Clan was loyal to the Old Satan faction." Riser said with his arrogant sneer on his face. "Makes sense the son of the original Lucifer would lay with a wretch from an Extra Demon Clan-"
"Enough!" Venelana stood, an angry expression on her face as she stared Riser down, her demonic power rising which made the Devils tense. Venelana turned her attention to Riser's parents. "I will not tolerate my best friend being insulted. Temper your son's insults and his arrogance before his mouth gets him into trouble. Revan made sure to cast out the bad blood of his clan, and those loyal to his brother and the Old Satan Faction. He ensured the Lucifer Clan would not crumble to extinction because of the actions of it's members. As for Sarlith, she alone made her Clan become one of the 72 Pillars once again. I'd respect her rather than insult her."
"How can you marry me to someone like that?!" Rias pointed at Riser while glaring at her parents, tears beginning to run down her face. This isn;t what she wanted. She knew about arrnaged marriages, but she had hoped that due to how close her and Damian were, their parents would make a marriage arrangement between them. She was so sure that Venelana and Sarlith would make one, given how close they are and the fact that Sarlith has always been like an aunt to Rias.
"Rias, that's enough!" Zeoticus sternly said.
He opened his mouth to continue trying to calm Rias down, but Rias suddenly vaulted the back of the couch that she and her parents were sitting on, and sprinted from the room before either of her parents could call her back.
The sound of Rias ascending the stairs could be faintly heard before disappearing, as the five remaining Devils in the room were left in silence.
"Well, that could have gone better." Lady Phenex remarked.
"I really thought Rias would be more open to this idea than... that." Zeoticus replied, looking at the open door that Rias had dashed through, taking a breath. "Not to worry, though. She's got until she reaches adulthood to come around to the idea."
"Hmm, now that's quite an image..." Riser said with a grin s he imaged an older Rias in her teen years, long beautiful red hair, a body to put even her mother's to shame, and huge-!
"Enough Riser." Lady Phenex said with a sigh, sometimes she wondered how Riser fell for lust so much. Maybe it was because of that Yubelluna girl he picked as his Queen, she was quite a well-endowed girl after all. She smiled at Venelana in apology. "I apologize for my son's attitude. Hopefully he and Rias can spend a bit more time together and she'll come around to the idea of marrying him."
"Yes." Lord Phenex. "After all, how can she not see the potential in this?"
"We'll talk to her." Was all Venelana said before she left to go speak to her daughter, while mentally wondering how Damian might take this since he and Rias never kept anything from each other. She had been surprised Damian's parents had not mentioned it, but they probably did not want to upset their son. The Gremory Matriarch had to sigh.
Politics were so tiresome and a mess.
"Damian! Rias is here!" Damian heard his mother shout and his eyes widened before a wide smile came onto the young boy's face. Quickly, he got off his bed, having been reading some books for his studying lessons. and raced out of the bedroom and down to the main hall where he found Rias with his mother. However, he immediately noticed one thing wrong.
Rias had been crying.
"Rias? What's-" Damian was cut off with a grunt when Rias slammed into him with a hug, her arms wrapped around him tightly as she cried into his shoulder. Confused, Damian just hugged her back while sending his mother a confused look, but she seemed to know what was going on as she sighed sadly.
"I guess they told her." She muttered, but Damian heard her.
"What do you mean, Mom? Told her what?" Damian asked with a frown before looking at Rias. "Rias? Why are you crying?"
"Why? Why do our kind have to be the way we are?! Why can't we choose what we want?" Rias sobbed into his shoulder.
"Come children." Sarlith gently urged the two children forward before looking at Esdeath. "Esdeath, could you prepare a nice cup of hot chocolate for the children?"
"Yes, my Lady." Esdeath bowed and left while Sarlith took Damian and Rias to the living area where Revan had been reading a human newspaper, apparently he liked to read about European football lately. However, as soon as he looked up and aw a crying Rias clutching his son, he knew something was wrong.
"What's wrong?" He asked right away, putting the newspaper down.
"They told her." Was all Sarlith and to say for him to understand and he sighed.
"Mom, dad, what's going on?" A still confused Damian asked.
Sarlith and Revan shared looks before they nodded. "Sit, Damian." Revan told his son. Damian did so, but Rias sat with him, refusing to leave his side as she continued to cry into his shoulder. "It's time we told you something, something we were hesitant to tell you because we know how you'd react."
"What?" Damian asked.
Sarlith and Revan looked at each other, then at Rias, who had stopped crying but was still sniffling every few seconds, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands.
"Do you want us to tell Damian, Rias, or do you want to?" Sarlith asked, her voice soft.
Rias didn't verbally reply immediately, shakily nodding her head a couple of times as she took a breath in an attempt to calm herself.
"You can t-tell him." She replied, before continuing to take breaths.
"Okay." Sarlith replied. "Damian, do you remember the name Riser Phenex?"
"Wasn't he the guy who disrespected you at a gathering, some time ago?" Damian asked, in reply. "A year, I think?"
"Yes, that's exactly right." Sarlith replied. "Well, Damian, Riser's parents- Lord and Lady Phenex- have made an... arrangement of sorts with Rias' parents that Riser is to marry into the Gremory Clan. To marry Rias."
Silence. That's all that was heard in the room, a side from the soft crackling of the fireplace. Sarlith and Revan stared at the stiff and frozen Damian, sharing a look with each other.
"W-What?" Damian asked after managing to get over his shock. He looked at Rias who nodded to confirm it. "B-But why?! All I've heard about Riser is that he's a disgusting little leech who's arrogant, selfish, and clearly thinks with what's between his legs-"
"Language Damian." Sarlith scolded.
"Whatever, why would they want to engage Rias to someone like that?!" Damian demanded to know, while a part of him wondered 'Why is it not me engaged to Rias?'
It was at that point that Esdeath re-entered the room with two mugs of hot chocolate, but no-one seemed to notice.
"Well, Damian," his father slowly began, the gears in his head turning as he endeavoured to put what he wanted to say in words that his young son would understand. "I imagine that there's quite a few reasons that Riser was chosen. The first of which being the simple fact that his family are richer than ours."
"Much richer." Sarlith replied. "I and your father only began building up our family's wealth, while most of the other families remaining in the Underworld have had hundreds- no, thousands- of years' worth of headstart on us to build up their wealth."
"But if Devils are only seeing the greed out of this, why wasn't an arrangement made between me and Rias?" Damian asked, causing Rias to blush as that was one of her thoughts on her way to the Mammon-Lucifer estate.
Revan sighed. "Despite my actions in defeating the Old Satan Faction and casting the loyalists out of the Lucifer Clan, cleansing it of any bad blood so that it didn't fall tor ruin for the actions of my brother and his son, the Elders still don't fully trust me, even after all I had done to help. And they probably think the children of two Pure-Blood houses marrying is a better idea than the child born from a Pureblood Devil and an Extra Demon Clan."
"But that's not fair!" Damian said.
"It's politics, Damian. Something you may have to get involved with as Heir of the Mammon and Lucifer." Sarlith said with a sigh. Sometimes, she hated politics. If humans thought their way of politics was hard and not easy, then they should see Devil politics.
Damian took a drink of his hot choclate, trying to calm down. The news of Rias being marriaged to Riser Phenex filled him with anger and sadness. He glanced at Rias, who was clearly against the idea of marrying Riser.
"What do we do? What can I do? Rias clearly doesn't want this! I'll challenge Riser!" Damian said, standing up.
"No." Revan said sternly, causing the children to look at him in shock. "I'm sorry, Damian, but you aren't strong enough to fight him yet. You must continue your training, which is why I have made it harsher and harder for you. Grow your power, your strength, and you must gain your Evil Pieces and Peerage Members for a possible Rating Game with Riser."
"But, there is the idea of challenging him one on one." Sarlith added. "However, like your father said, you can't do so right now. And... the only other way to end the marriage is for both parties to agree to not marry each other. And I doubt Riser wants it ended."
"Definitely not." Rias remarked, taking a gulp of her own hot chocolate. "When I met Riser during a recent gathering, he could barely keep his eyes off of me. And when he talked to me... ugh." She could only shudder. "It was worse a few days ago, when I learned that I'd be marrying him."
"I'm sure." Sarlith replied, looking sympathetically at Rias. "So, are you willing, Damian? To push yourself to the limit and beyond, to save a dear friend from her situation?"
Damian nodded, without hesitation, looking over at Rias as he did so. As that happened, Rias couldn't help but feel her face going slightly red at Damian's lack of hesitation, the conviction in his eyes.
"Good." Sarlith replied. "Now Rias, I'm sure this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, and ask you to keep this conversation a secret. I'm sure your parents wouldn't appreciate the idea of someone stepping in between the lovely marriage that they and the Phenex Clan have got cooked up."
Rias replied by drawing her thumb and index finger across her lips, mimicking the act of zipping them up...
And that's it for this chapter everyone. So, in this one Rias finds out about her engagement to Riser. Yes, she was originally meant to be engaged to Damian since birth, but SlashFan2018 and I talked and decided to change that idea, and we also gave a reason as best as we can for why that agreement didn't go through or wasn't accepted by the Elders. It is explained in the chapter, so if anyone asks why Damian and Rias weren't engaged or can't be, then go through the chapter and you'll find the bit where Revan explains that the Elders don;t trust him or the Lucirer Clan, even though the Old Satan Loyalists have been kicked out.
Harem: Rias Gremory, Akeno Himejima, Raynare, Kalawarner, Yubelluna, Xuelan, Karlamine, Tiamat, Yasaka, Kuroka, Gabriel, Grayfia Lucifuge, Serafall Leviathan, Venelana Gremory, Kiyome Abe, Seekvaira Agares.
Peerage:
King: Damian Mammon-Lucifer.
Queen: Unknown
Knight: Unknown
Knight: Unknown
Rook: Unknown
Rook: Unknown
Bishop: Unknown
Bishop: Unknown
Pawns: Unknown
