AN: hello new and old to this little fic of mine, here is the fourth chapter
Disclaimer: I don't own HighSchool DxD or any character from other sources that may make their way into this, and neither I own the Waifu catalogue.
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The opening of the door gathered the attention of the room's occupants. The oppressive atmosphere previously settled over the clubroom seems to swell as the upcoming event draws closer.
It was regrettable then that one red-haired devil entering the room couldn't pass up the chance to mess with his mother to save his life, let alone be serious about the current state of affairs.
"Careful girls," Millicas said seriously as he opened the door. "An ancient evil walks the earth once more."
By the time he had finished opening the door, he was greeted by the incredulous looks of every member of Rias' Peerage, his grandmother's polite smile and his mother's left eye twitching in annoyance at his attitude.
"Hello Mother" he continued with an innocent smile on his face. Just because his dear mother knew where he was going with this didn't mean he would stop telling his joke.
With a defeated sigh, Grayfia stood up from the couch before walking up to her son and greeting him with a hug, regardless of how rebellious he was and how annoying he could be at times she loved him greatly and had honestly missed him while he was in the human world.
Knowing how rare it was for his mother to show her affection openly, Millicas just shut up and returned the hug.
"It's good to see you Millicas," Grayfia said to her son before stepping away from him while Venelana took her place.
"Hello dear, we missed you at dinner yesterday," Venelana said happily, hugging her grandson tightly.
"Oh, Sorry about that I kind of forgot the family dinner with all the running around I have been doing this week." The younger devil apologised honestly.
He had forgotten that the family got together every Friday night. Still, he had spent so much time training with his Peerage and collecting materials for some of their projects that the usual gathering had slipped his mind.
"Speaking of get-togethers, what are you guys doing here?" He asked lightly. "Rias didn't tell me you would be joining us today."
Knowing exactly what her little brother would do to her the moment they found themselves alone, Rias attempted to explain herself. She may not be one of the men in the family but that didn't stop her from using a slight variation of the traditional method to distract an angry family member.
"Nii-sama told them that you had 3 Peerage members already and they wanted to meet them." Rias quickly said.
When in doubt, blame your older brother.
Regrettably for the crimson-haired devil princess her application of the family technique was found lacking.
"And how did Dad find out about that? Sister Dear." Whatever kindness could be found in the smile he gave his older sister was eclipsed by the slightly crimson tone of power that flashed across his eyes.
Luckily for Rias, her mother chose that moment to interrupt them. "Speaking of which," she said while eyeing the trio of girls entering the room after Millicas. "I believe that introductions are in order."
Momentary letting the issue with his sister go, and knowing that he could get even with her later, Millicas stepped to the side. He presented his companions individually as they made their way into the room.
"Some of you have already met her but this here is my bishop Sesshouin Kiara," Millicas said as the beautiful doctor greeted everyone with a smile.
"Second is my maid and knight, Tarte." He continued as the blond assassin curtsied to the other occupants of the room; he easily ignored his mother's expected sharp focus on Tarte, not many knew of it but Grayfia took great pride in both her skills as a Maid and her training of the Gremory Clan Maids as a whole.
Millicas was certain that his mother took offence to the fact that he added a maid who wasn't personally trained by herself to his Peerage.
"And last but not the least is our youngest member, my Pawn, Ruby Rose." In contrast with her friend's restrained greetings, the red-haired speedster waved her hand happily at the occupants with a bright smile on her face before she dashed up to his grandmother and eagerly shocked the surprised devil's hand.
"Hello there madam I'm Ruby, it's a pleasure meeting you." Stopping for a second, she quickly moved up to Grayfia and repeated her greeting and the handshake getting only a raised eyebrow at her speed and disregard of protocol from the Queen of Lucifer.
Seeing her fellow servant breaching social protocol without a second thought Tarte intervened while ignoring her Master's laughter at the sight. Dashing to the younger girl's side the blond maid took hold of Ruby's cloak and stopped her.
"I'm terribly sorry for her actions Lady Gremory. Ruby! You can't just dash around the room as you please there is a proper place and a time for everything." Tarte bowed apologetically at the oldest devil in the room while dragging the younger girl back to their group.
"Don't worry about it dear, no offence was made." Venelana easily forgave the younger girl's action before sending a look to her grandson when he finally stopped laughing.
After presenting his Peerage, Millicas proceeded to present the rest of the room to them starting with his grandmother and his relatives before going over Rias' Peerage members while ignoring Tarte's whispered reprimands to Ruby and Kiara's whispered attempts at mediating, Ruby for her part looked a little guilty but not much.
Once presentations were done, Millicas and his Peerage sat on the couch opposite the women of the Gremory clan, Millicas taking the middle sit while Kiara sat at his right, Ruby at his left and Tarte stood by the right side of the couch.
"Now that presentations are out of the way," Venelana said with a kind smile while observing her grandson and his friends. "I must confess that the family was certainly surprised with you adding 3 members to your Peerage so quickly."
"As you must already know Grandma," said Millicas. "I had already recruited them before I got my evil pieces."
"Yes, Rias has already mentioned that," ignoring the betrayed look her daughter gave her Venelana continued with her question. "But I was more interested in how you met each other than when you got them to agree to be reincarnated."
Venelana saw how Millicas looked at his servants as if to decide how to start answering her question before her attention was pulled to his pawn.
"Oh, can I answer?" Ruby said, smiling innocently and raising her hand as if to get a teacher's attention during class.
Venelana nodded to the girl before Millicas could say anything, the look in his eyes let her know that, for whatever reason, he wouldn't have started with the youngest one if given the choice.
"I don't know the details for the others but Millicas approached me late at night while I was in a store and he convinced me to follow him to a dark alleyway before he confessed, he was a devil and promised me anything I could wish for in exchange for my eternal servitude."
Of all the different methods that were used by Devil Kind to make contracts, the granting of a wish was considered the most ancient and effective one, as long as the wish could be granted and it not been just an excuse to manipulate an unsuspecting human.
It wasn't one of the methods that Venelana thought Millicas would default to but all in all, she was happy with the knowledge that he didn't seduce the girl into his bed and service like her husband would have, she wasn't against that method or against Millicas sleeping with his servants, she didn't want her grandson to overdo it as Zeoticus did.
She knew for a fact that her husband had slept at the very least once with each and every one of their servants in their mansion, he was a bit of a manslut but his heart was in the right place and Venelana loved him.
"What did you wish for?" asked Rias to the younger girl, curious about the whole thing having never actually used that particular method to add one of her servants to her own Peerage
"It's a little complicated," Ruby replied with an awkward smile. "But I asked him to revive my mom."
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Seeing their surprise at the impossible wish and interest in how she would end up joining his Peerage if he couldn't grant her wish the younger redhead proceeded to explain.
Her Mother, Summer Rose, was a monster hunter who had disappeared during a mission while Ruby was a child and had been presumed KIA for years. Millicas, knowing that he couldn't revive the woman promised to find out what had happened to her in exchange for Ruby's friendship instead.
He then spent the next couple of years investigating the fate of the elder Rose while visiting Ruby and getting to know each other better, their tenuous friendship blossoming into a proper one as the years went by.
Then some time ago his constant investigation finally bore a long-awaited fruit.
Only to discover that Summer hadn't died during her mission all those years ago but had been imprisoned and tortured by an enemy for close to a decade. Once he discovered this Millicas made haste and tracked down the enemy's hideout.
Once the location was confirmed he attacked them with extreme prejudice, killing every single one of the wardens and kidnappers that watched over the location before rescuing the wounded Summer Rose and returning her to her family.
He even arranged for Kiara to heal Summer with her Sacred Gear and help her with the trauma with weekly meetings, a process that continues to this day.
"Even before he rescued Mom, I was fond of Millicas and was considering joining his Peerage," Ruby explained to her enraptured audience. "So, when he finally granted my wish after so long how couldn't I follow up with my part of the deal? Even if the big dork insisted that there was no need for it as we never ended up signing a proper contract in the first place."
While listening to the conclusion of Ruby's story the majority of the room felt happy for her and her family. There was however one individual that couldn't help but feel bitterness and jealousy at how the tale ended.
Trying her best to not let Rias and the others see how upset she was, Akeno could not help but rage internally at the injustice of it all, not out of malice but out of longing and heartbreak.
'Why Her?' she asked to no one in the privacy of her mind, barely keeping the resentful look out of her face when seeing Ruby's carefree smile.
When the younger devil had explained how her mother had died and that she was willing to sell herself body and soul into the service of a devil to get her back Akeno felt that she was looking at her younger self.
She would give up everything to see her mother again, both now and back then.
When she had first met Rias, she had asked her king if she had a way to bring her mother back only to learn that the resurrection granted by the devils had many limits.
Two of them in particular stopped her from reviving her mother. Devils couldn't resurrect someone without a body and the resurrection of the dead only worked during the first hour of death.
So, hearing that Ruby experienced a similar situation, Akeno couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl at first. That feeling of sympathy however had changed when she learned that Millicas had miraculously found Summer alive after so long and reunited the missing mother with her loving family.
'Why does she get a happy ending while I don't.'
Even knowing that it was neither Ruby's nor Millicas' fault but a twist of fate that decided the different outcomes of their similar stories, Akeno could stop the ugly feelings from growing like a poisonous infection in her heart.
And neither could she stop herself from deep in her heart resenting Ruby and Millicas for it.
Ever since she had seen them in those pictures that her husband had acquired from their spies and showed to the family during dinner last night Grayfia had been judging Millicas' Peerage members.
The strongest queen wasn't as delusional as to think that every fault she had found in the 3 younger girls since then up to the moment she met them was not her overprotective nature imaging reasons for her to dislike them.
Whether her overprotective nature was simply reacting to their position as Millicas' servants or at the fact that her son had apparently in some way chosen to move out of their home to be alone with his 3 pretty female servants was a question that Grayfia ignored with consummated ease.
So as much as it irritated her to do so considering how much she disliked the idea the silver-haired maid chose to hold herself back and let Lady Venelana do the questioning while she observed the group, their reactions and interactions.
While Grayfia would, momentarily, hold her judgement of the other two for later, especially the blond one dressed like a maid, she was certain that she had a proper understanding of the youngest one at the very least.
The one presented as her son's Pawn, Ruby Rose, was a pretty and innocent girl who had chosen to join her son's Peerage after knowing him for some time and as payment for bringing the girl's mother back home from the dead.
Grayfia's opinion of the girl was heightened by the knowledge that she ignored Millicas' forgiveness of the debt owed from the miraculous save by properly repaying him with her servitude.
It was also obvious to the silver-haired maid that the young pawn had a considerable crush on Millicas, a crush that had most likely only grown larger by his incredible rescue of her mother.
"Millicas," she said to get her son's attention. Considering the story that she had heard there was still one thing that stood out to Grayfia.
"Miss Rose said that you approached her at first with the offer of joining your Peerage, correct?" She asked for confirmation. Seeing her son's confused stare before he nodded in agreement to her statement Grayfia asked about the one thing she didn't understand about the encounter.
"Why did you approach Miss Rose with the offer in the first place?"
Some may not see the issue as important but to Grayfia the reason why her boy chose his Peerage pieces was as important if not more so than who those pieces were, more so taking into account his current choices.
He will need strong allies he could rely on in the future as any young devil would in their society and this important fact was even more so for Millicas himself, whose status as a son of one of the new Satan, the only one in fact, had put a target on his back from even before his birth.
While other devils could afford to be frivolous with whom they chose and their reasons as to why, Millicas himself could not afford to waste his pieces as those same servants were not only meant to be his companions but also his allies and defenders in combat.
Seeing the three attractive girls that had joined her son and hearing the comments made by Chysis last night forced Grayfia to wonder if her little boy had fallen prey to the misgivings that so many young devils seem to fall into these days that led to them seeing their Peerage as nothing more than some fancy way to collect and show off their personal harems of pretty little toys to their contemporaries.
Even knowing the nature of his character and having raised him personally Grayfia couldn't help but worry for him, even if she was sure that in this particular case that worry was misplaced. A mother couldn't help but worry for their child.
"Oh, that? At first, I approached her because of her abilities but in the end, even if she didn't have those, I wouldn't ever regret asking her to join me, I'm lucky to have her or any of them in my life." He answered with an honest smile while turning around to look at his companions in the eyes.
The girls responded with two loving smiles and a crushing hug from the youngest of the group at his words.
"Does that mean that She has a sacred gear or something similar?" Rais asked curiously at her little brother's statement.
Millicas stopped Ruby before the hyperactive reaper could answer by placing one of his hands over her mouth. "Sorry, Sis but I have no intentions to let anyone know what my girls can do that easily, keep your hand close to your chest and all that."
Rias responded with an angry pout at Millicas, she knew that keeping your member's abilities hidden from others was a valid strategy in the Rated Games but he already knew what her pieces could do so it was only fair that he let her know.
Sadly for her, it would seem that her little brother wasn't feeling as generous at the moment as to care for fairness, not that it was out of character for him, Rias knew that he was going to be angry with her for quite some time from previous experiences.
At the very least for Grayfia, knowing that Millicas' initial selection of Ruby Rose as a Pawn had been a practical one instead of one directed by physical attraction made his mother relax slightly.
"Any particular reason for you to be so cautious Millicas?" Laughing lovingly at the youngsters' cute interactions Venelana chose to comment. She always enjoyed seeing Rias and Millicas interact with one another and it had been some time since she had seen her daughter so relaxed while spending time with her.
Lately, it seemed that every time they were together in the same place for any amount of time Rias would find a way to complain about the marriage contract. She had complained a lot more lately after she found out that Venelana was the one who set it up instead of Zeoticus.
The fact that she even went as far as to not come to the weekly family dinners, just to show how much she didn't like the arranged marriage, was unbecoming of a noble lady but Rias was young and she will grow up eventually, for now, some childish indiscretions were expected and even allowed as long as they didn't reflect poorly on the family.
"I just think it is funnier that way Grandma," Millicas replied easily. "you know what they said after all, surprise is the spice of life."
Both Venelana and Grayfia could see that he hadn't been completely honest in his answer. He may be a great liar when the need arises but they had raised him since birth, so it was obvious that he had a reason not to show off his servants' abilities just yet.
While Venelana didn't know why nor did it truly bother her that he kept it a secret, Grayfia was certain that she knew the reason but chose not to comment on it.
'It's moments like this that make me feel like he inherited some of our worst traits, his father´s disregard of others' opinions and my stubbornness make for a frustrating combination." Grayfia thought to herself.
"So that's one down, how did you meet Millicas Sesshouin-san?" Rias asked, accepting that her brother could be an asshole when he was annoyed with her and moving the conversation along.
Remembering how Millicas had ended their last conversation before they could go over that particular detail Kiara happily indulged the younger girl's curiosity, even if she had to use a fake version of her life to do so.
"It may sound like Millicas is a lot eviler than he is seen as how Ruby explained their first interaction," the raven-haired Magus said in an apologetic tone that her King knew she didn't feel knowing full well how mischievous the normally kind woman could be. "But I met him back in the church that I was staying at back when I was a novitiate, you could say that he is the reason I didn't follow that path in life."
It took her captive audience a moment to process what she had said before they reacted.
"You seduced a nun?!" Rais exclaimed with disbelief as if she couldn't fathom her beloved younger brother doing such a perverse thing even if he was a devil. Behind the couch, the three other members of the Occult Research Club had their surprised expressions on their faces.
Akeno looked positively thrilled at the idea of a nun abandoning her faith for a devil like the plot of some dirty paperback novel.
Koneko's eyes just widened slightly from her usual expression but anyone who knew the small girl enough knew that she was cataloguing the youngest Gremory as a pervert in her mind, who else but a pervert would do something like that.
Kiba for his part looked like he didn't know if he was impressed or disturbed by the supposed seduction, but knowing the kind of filth and degenerates that made the church their home he decided that the former novitiate had dodged a bullet by living them before they could use her.
If the reactions from the youngster were amusing, the ones from the two eldest women in the room were anything but.
Grayfia felt sad and a little betrayed.
She didn't believe that Millicas would seduce a nun away from her faith just to add her to his Peerage but the previous knowledge of what he had been doing in the human world over the years only worsened when she realized that he had not only been recruiting but he had been doing so from an enemy faction inside their territory.
Her son could have gotten himself killed and she wouldn't have known until after the fact.
Deep down she could understand him wanting to be independent and self-reliable but the idea that he had purposely put himself in danger just to escape her watch broke the silver-haired devil's heart. When had she lost her son's trust that he chose to endanger himself instead of attempting to speak with her?
Venelana for her part felt validated if a little bit concerned for her grandson's safety and sense of self-preservation.
She was a little worried that Millicas would simply choose to enter a church without backup and not tell them for years about it if not forced by the circumstances but the fact that it had already happened and whatever repercussions or altercation resulting from his actions had not harmed him in any visible way some time ago calmed her greatly.
The fact that it was further proof that Venelana had been right about Grayfia's child-rearing methods and how the maid should have listened to her advice over the years certainly helped her maintain her already stellar mood.
For all her childish rebellion against her upcoming marriage, Rias had never felt the need to go to such a dangerous place alone, nor had she hidden such things from the family.
The only thing that bothered Venelana was the possibility of Millicas seducing and sleeping with his bishop at such a young age If he did, in fact, seduce her.
Unless the seduction had happened in the last 2 years then Millicas would have been a little too young for Venelana to feel comfortable with him having sex, let alone have sex with people not previously checked by any of his older relatives.
It was natural for younger devils to want to indulge in the sensual act, and in some cases even expected but between Sirzechs' lack of interest in sex back when he was Millicas' age and Rias being expected to save her virginity for her future husband because of her status as novel woman Venelana hadn't had to deal with that particular part of raising little devils before.
She had been quite sure that Millicas hadn't indulged in the act before knowing of his all-girls Peerage; even more so because as it was normally done Grayfia and Venelana had chosen some of the servants they could trust to personally attend the younger boy if the need ever arise.
At the same time, Zeoticus had explained to him on his 15[sup]th[/sup] birthday that he could play with them if he so desired while also explaining which servants were the ones approved for it by their family and the importance of the agreement.
Until last night, in the privacy of their bedroom, Zeoticus had confessed to Venelana his fear that their grandson had taken after Sirzechs a little too much and had been, as uninterested as their oldest, had been in sex at that age and the fact that maybe he had failed in some unknown but meaningful way back when raising Sirzechs that made it so his son repeated the mistake with Millicas.
Venelana for her part would be happy as long as Millicas wasn't as much of a manwhore as her husband but she did reassure him that there was nothing wrong with either of their boys and that he had done a magnificent job both as a father and a grandfather.
It was moments like that that reminded Venelana how much she loved him but by Lucifer did he overindulge in his sin, the fact their boys were not being nymphomaniacs like himself worried him so much was proof of it.
Seen the reactions from her audience Kiara lighted softly before explaining herself. "It would be best if you all didn't jump to conclusions, let me explain further." Said the Bishop.
"I first met Millicas when I summoned him," Kiara began telling the version of events created by their Paper Trail.
Kiara had been a sickly child during her childhood, expected to die before her teens. But thanks to the assistance of a passing exorcist healing her from her illness she had gotten a second chance at life.
Because of the priest's selfless act of kindness, young Kiara was inspired to help others and chose to dedicate her life to doing so by following in the priest's footsteps and joining the church at the age of 18.
After a year as a novitiate, however, things changed.
The bishop in charge of the church she was studying at revealed to the other initiates and herself the true nature of the supernatural world and the races that occupied it alongside humans. While the revelation shocked the younger woman at the time, it was the hate and zealotry with which the older bishop spoke about the other 'impure' and 'evil' creatures that shared the earth with mankind that unnerved the would-be nun.
All she had ever wanted to do was help people, to support others so they may find their way in the world and live a happy and fulfilling life by making the world I tiny bit kinder by her actions; just like how she felt after that kind priest helped her, she wanted to pay that kindness by being kind to others. And now after years of chasing that dream and finally joining the church, she discovers that the way she was expected to help other people was to kill and harm others.
The bishop and older nuns may call it a righteous act, a natural confirmation of humanity's divine right to walk the earth but how could Kiara mindlessly kill other sentient beings just because someone says that it was the right thing to do?
Who could it be the will of God, a god praised for his love and forgiveness, to kill others simply because of the race they were born as?
The bishop said it was because those creatures were soulless and evil. But hadn't that been the excuse for countless atrocities that humanity had made over the centuries against one another? They are different so they are evil.
Kiara couldn't accept that. She couldn't accept that there were living beings that were born pure evil. Humanity itself showed that it was not how you were born that defined how you were but how you grew up that did.
Nurture over Nature.
Because of this belief, Kiara made a choice.
Late at night that same day she sneaked into the old section of the library where all the knowledge of the supernatural was kept and researched those creatures that the bishop proclaimed irredeemable. She quickly realized that the holy texts were as biased as the bishop but over a week of sleepless nights spent surrounded by those texts she found an answer.
She found out how to summon a devil.
"From there on you could say the rest is history," Kiara commented to her captive audience with a fond smile on her beautiful face. "Afterwards I made the preparations and summoned a devil only to get a cute little boy instead."
Millicas blushed softly at Kiara's compliment and the sound of her light laughter. The other occupants of the room silently watched the interaction before Kiara continued with her tale.
"Metting Millicas was the proof I needed to confirm that just like not all humans are good not all devils are evil so from there me and Millicas formed a contract and with his help, I left the church, moved to England and followed with my back up plan of helping others by being a psychologist instead of a nun."
Seeing that the young woman had finished her tale Venelana and Grayfia attempted to ask a question that had arisen from the story but before they could Millicas interrupted them.
"Before you ask," he said while looking at the two of them in the eyes, knowing them enough to realise the most likely piece of data that they were after. "This was around 6 years ago; I was 11 back then."
They couldn't understand the answer to their unasked question.
Even knowing that Millicas had been running around the human world since that time they couldn't accept that not only had he been making contracts back then but he had answered a summon into or close to enemy territory without any of them knowing.
Who could they have been so blind, so complacent that they had let something like that happen in the first place?
The realization of their ignorance left a sour taste in Venelana's mouth that finally stopped the feeling of happy vindication that had filled her since last night while it devested Grayfia's already broken heart.
'I'm a failure of a mother. How did I not see this happening in front of me? I thought that I was keeping him safe when in actuality I was blind to the dangers he was putting himself in.' Seeing him sitting in front of her surrounded by his friends and servants, friends that she didn't know he had until last night both comforted her and pained her.
'How can I call myself your mother when you felt the need to hide your life and yourself from me.' She thought sadly to the young man sitting across the room, doing her best to not let her feelings show on her face.
The worst part of this revelation for the distraught mother was not the secrets that her son had been keeping from her but the realization that it was all her fault. At the end of the day, Millicas wouldn't have felt the need to hide so much of his life and himself from her if she hadn't been so controlling.
It was all her fault and she had been lucky that fate hadn't chosen to punish her hubris by killing her baby while he hid all his actions from his family.
While Grayfia was having an existential crisis Venelana was also filled with guilt of a different kind.
For all of their differences and their arguments with each other, there was one thing that would always be true for their family. They truly and deeply cared for each other. Having known Grayfia for centuries Venelana knew exactly what the other woman was thinking and she couldn't help but feel guilty about it.
Even if she never asked him for his motives or insisted that he take some servants with him Venelana was one of if not the main reasons that Millicas could get away from the manor and into the human world in the first place.
Like everyone else, she didn't see the harm in letting the young preteen spend an hour or two walking around in the human world seemingly alone, enjoying himself while relaxing from his studies and training.
The reason was simple.
Because of the dimensional distance between them, the only way available for Millicas to reach the human world was through a permanent teleportation array. Because of Grayfia ironfisted control over her own manor Millicas couldn't use the array on his parent's property as he didn't have the authorization for it.
He could however use that array to visit his grandparent's manor.
And because Venelana had felt that Grayfia was being stupid by not letting Sirzechs give their son his evil pieces at the proper age she had felt that Millicas should be able to at the very least have some freedom.
So, she authorized him to use the main manor's permanent teleportation array to a limited number of places in the human world that were solidly under the Gremory Clan's control. To be on the safe side she had even gone as far as to send some trustworthy servants to discreetly follow him while he was there and report back to her.
Everything had seemingly worked out perfectly.
Not only was Millicas enjoying himself but he had been so happy with his grandmother that he spent an even greater amount of time with her than before. As the years passed and Venelana's relationship with Rias grew distant because of the arranged marriage her relationship with Millicas grew closer because she was the one that defended him from his mother's tyranny.
Events and things that she used to do with Rias slowly became things that she did with Millicas.
Whether it was a tea party with her friends from the war and their families or just a trip to Lillith City for some shopping Millicas always made time for his grandmother without complaint nor delay.
Part of her felt guilty at the time and to this day not only because she knew that she was ignoring her issues with Rias, hoping that one day her daughter would simply outgrow her childish rebellion, but also because spending time with Millicas felt like making up for all the time she didn't enjoy with Sirzechs growing up.
Her eldest had been born in a time of strife and war.
Because of this from the very beginning he had been trained to be strong, to survive in those uncertain times. His immense power had made it so from an early age the clan and later devil kind as a whole saw his potential.
He was never allowed to be a child.
At the time, the idea of a childhood was not just an afterthought but literally, it didn't even exist yet for Devilkind. How could it exist when until that time devils as a whole were a race bred for war? For the sole purpose of furthering the ambitions of Lucifer and the four Satans?
So, in some way, Venelana felt like she had gained a second chance by being the type of mother to Millicas that she wished she had been to Sirzechs even if she was his grandmother.
And now she discovers that for all the freedom she had helped him gain she had unknowingly put him in danger.
All because of her selfishness.
From her place behind and at the right of the couch her fellow servants and her dear Master were sitting on Tarte took in the silence that followed after Kiara's story. Luckily for the group, the other devils in the room haven't realised the duplicity of the retellings so far.
Ruby's answer to the current interrogation had been simultaneously the most complicated and the easiest one. The younger girl didn't need to truly lie about how she met their master but simply twist some key facts of the story as a whole.
Which was a blessing as Ruby Rose was the worst Lair Tarte had ever had the pleasure of meeting in her life. It was only thanks to her Lord sharing his Covert Talent that made it so their pawn could even make the small altered details of her answer believable.
For her part, Kiara had an easier time delivering the version of events granted to them by the Paper Trail on how she met their master, in Tarte's considerably limited understanding of magus society as a whole the art of lying and misdirection was a natural talent for them more akin to a survival instinct than a learned trade.
Knowing that sooner rather than later it would be her turn to answer the question, the consummate assassin easily and methodically prepared herself for the performance.
To lie to others, one must first lie to themselves. This simple principle was the key to how to deliver lies to others. A skill that the blond maid had learned early on during her training under House Tuatha Dé in the art of infiltration.
"Tarte-san, how did you meet Mi-chan?" asked Rias with apparent excitement at the next tale.
From the shifting of her eyes, the twitching of her hands alongside the uneven gradation in the red-haired girl's voice a dozen other physical and social queues Tarte could easily read what her lord's aunt/sister was truly feeling.
'Distressed by the silence but unable to realize the reason for it. She is uncomfortable and trying to move the conversation along to distract the other members of her family. Even though she is still truly invested in my answer.'
Looking to the side of the room and making her face blush in apparent embarrassment, an easy trick to pull by an assassin, Tarte answered Rias' question.
"it's complicated Miss Rias." The maid´s tone of voice silently pleaded with the heiress to drop the subject but convened the idea that it was out of perceived indignity at others knowing the answer.
"Come now Tarte-san! It can't possibly be as bad as Mi-chan seducing a nun away from the church and a little girl to a dark alleyway." Rias, eager to know more about her brother's friends and looking for a distraction, couldn't help but joke in an attempt to lighten the mood.
As Tarte expected from him, her master must had a sour expression on his face at the way Rias described his previous actions considering the focused looks that his mother and grandmother gave him before she responded to Rias' inquiry.
The best course of action was to deliver her story in a way that would forcefully distract the elder devils from their inner turmoil.
"I met Master Millicas while attempting to assassinate him" The blond knight replied shamefully.
The reactions that her answer got were well whiting Tarte's expectations. Thou the grand majority of her audience was stunned with expressions of disbelief at her confection, the devilish auras of the 3 women sharing the couch on the other side of the table flared violently as they processed the new information.
For a moment her finely tuned survival instincts informed Tarte of the imminent danger she found herself in as the anger of the Gremory family threatened to spill over into violence.
The temperature inside the room dropped quickly and while only Rias was visibly surrounded by her aura Venelana's fingernails had gone from the bright red of her nail polish to a nebulous crimson and black shine that depicted the power of destruction.
From her assessment of the three women, only Rias would fly into a rage at the knowledge of how she had met her master according to the Paper Trail while for their part Venelana and Grayfia were going to swiftly threaten her for a further explanation.
Tarte was confident in her training and ability to predict the actions of others. It was that same confidence that let her know that even if she felt in danger of their reactions, in actuality she was perfectly safe standing where she was.
Exactly as she predicted, before any of the three women could do anything more than flex their auras her Master's power washed over the room in his own threatening manner. His aura visibly illuminated him like a fluctuating film of crimson, violet and black colours while his power surrounded his companions in a warm feeling embrace while pushing back against his relatives' power.
"Don't even think about it," Millicas said with a cold voice, any pleasantly or hesitation wiped from his tone, showing to his family more than his actions that he will protect his servant from them even if the need for violence arises.
"But she…" Rias attempted to explain herself with a surprised and betrayed look on her face.
"Is going to explain how she went from an assassin after my head to being my trusted and lovely maid." He responded in a way reminiscing of his mother's own way of ordering others.
"I'm sure it is a most fascinating anecdote," Venelana said diplomatically, smiling while restraining her energy in an attempt to deescalate the situation
"So it would seem." Grayfia acknowledged, reluctantly following her mother-in-law's example and controlling her magic energy before waiting for an explanation.
Seeing as everyone had calmed down Tarte delivered her explanation.
Orphaned at a young age Tarte had lived on the streets of Paris for as long as she could remember.
Her life as a street urchin forced the young girl to steal food from others and hide from the elements at night inside abandoned buildings. It was a hard and unforgiving life where only luck and cunning saw to her day-to-day survival.
A life that ended when she was picked up by a criminal organization.
At the age of 5, she was given the name Tarte by a teacher assigned by that same organization that would train her and others who showed potential in the art of assassination for the next 6 years before she started working as an assassin for them.
The organization specialised in providing their operatives services to complete contracts posted by other elements of the human criminal underground.
As the years passed and she eliminated her targets one after the other, little Tarte was assigned harder and more dangerous jobs by the organisation, eventually leading to the first mission she ever failed, and the last one she would ever take on the organization's behalf.
The target of that mission was Millicas Gremory himself.
At the time of their meeting, Millicas had unknowingly enraged a small French mafia family by completing contracts in their territory that led to several girls they kidnapped and forced to work for them in their brothels to escape from the family's grasp and back to their home countries.
Having somehow identified him as the culprit for the missing sex slaves, the family put up a bounty for his head to the organization that eventually made him Tarte's target.
Investigating and collecting the little information available about her target, by then 14 years old, Trate finally identified a small maid-themed café that Millicas regularly visited during his trips to Paris. Seeing it as the best place to assassinate him she infiltrated the café as a newly hired maid and lay in wait for his next visit.
After two weeks of working in the café and learning the ins and outs of being a maid, her chance finally arrived one summer afternoon when Millicas once again found himself inside the lovely little shop.
She took his order with a smile and while no one was watching she poisoned his tea with a special blend that should have killed him a couple of minutes later while replicating the symptoms of a heart attack, not the best choice considering his age but it would give her the time to disappear until her next job.
"Obviously, the poison was useless as devils are naturally immune to regular poisons and venoms from non-magical sources, a little fact that I didn't know at the time," Tarte said embarrassed by her past mistake.
"Then he confronted you?" Grayfia asked.
"No," The younger maid replied with an exasperated but fond smile. "He complimented my tea and promised to visit again the next day before paying his bill and leaving a big tip."
"It was a good cup of Tea." Millicas defended when everyone looked at him in disbelief.
The next day she used a different poison in a higher concentration while disregarding the side effects that would guarantee that anyone would realize that an assassination took place, only to get the same result as the day before and once more a promise of a visit on the next day.
Choosing to change her strategy and taking advantage of his obvious interest in her, the next day Tarte made it seem like his attraction to her was mutual by flirting with him through his visit and scribing the number of the burner phone the assassin had procured for the duration of the mission on his bill.
Later that very same day Millicas called her on the phone and they arranged their first date together.
"I won't go into too much detail about it but that date ended up with me trying to stab him in the back only for him to disarm me before handing me my knife back and asking if I wanted to go out again next week."
"Really Son?" Grayfia asked as if her son was an idiot for not only letting his assassin go away but also giving her a chance to attack him again.
"I'm not apologising" Millicas answered seriously.
"And you accepted the second date?" Asked Venelana amused with the story now that she had calmed down from the initial shock of someone trying to kill Millicas.
"Even now I couldn't tell you if the reason I accepted was some morbid fascination with his reaction or my unacknowledged at the time pride in my skills as an assassin but I did end up accepting the date," Tarte explained while displaying a fond smile at the fake memory.
From them the young couple went on different dates, each of them ending with Tarte trying to kill Millicas and Him just laughing off the attempt while asking for another date as if the repeated assassination attempts were just another part of their courtship and not genuine threats to his life.
After some time, they got to know each other more and more growing genuinely closer as a couple and caring for one another. It was around the tenth date that things finally concluded.
At the end of their dinner, Millicas had walked her back to the apartment she was using as a decoy for her actual hideout on a neighbouring building like usual. When the time came for them to separate Millicas turned around a walked away from the building before stopping after a couple of steps.
The reason he didn't leave was because he just then realized that for the first time since they knew one another Tarte hadn't tried to kill him at the end of their date. Turning around he saw the blond assassin standing by her doorway looking down at her feet.
At that moment they both realized the truth; she couldn't do it anymore. After getting to know him and spending so much time with him she had truly come to care for him, he wasn't just a target anymore.
That night they confessed everything to one another.
"Of course, for my part, there wasn't much to confess apart from my feelings as it was obvious that I had been an assassin after his life but the revelation of Masters nature as a devil was comforting in a way," Tarte explained to them.
"How did it comfort you?" Asked Ruby from her side, apparently entranced enough by the story to have forgotten the fact that she knew that Tarte's tale had never happened.
Focusing as the young reaper turned around on the couch to look at her face, Tarte smirked before she answered. "It wasn't my lack of skill that made me fail on my task, Master cheated by not being killable to regular methods."
"Don't worry love, next time you want to stab me I'm sure you will succeed," Millicas said cheerfully. Just shaking her head in tender exasperation at his response Tarte proceeded to end her story.
After the revelation, Millicas explained the Peerage system and invited Tarte to join him as his companion and servant because he had genuinely grown fond of her after spending so much time with the blond maid when he originally had just messed with the human assassin because he found it hilarious.
Tarte, on the other hand, had enjoyed her time as a maid working at the café more than she had ever enjoyed killing people at the orders of the criminal underground and had fallen in love with the kind and cheerful boy who had accepted her and cared for her in a way that no one had ever cared for the former street urchin before accepted the offer.
"One thing led to another and here we are now." Millicas ended the tale while sharing a smile with his maid.
As everyone saw their interaction and collected their thought after the tale Kiba couldn't help but ask a question that had arisen from the story. Rising his hand to get the attention of the president's brother the blond swordsman asked his question.
"Excuse my question Lord Millicas but what happened to the assassination contract placed after your head if Miss Tarte didn't complete the mission?"
"Ah don't worry about it Kiba after Tarte accepted my proposal, I went to the organisation headquarters, had a little chat with them and convinced them to drop the issue." Millicas' reply would have been enough of an explanation for the members of Rias' Peerage if Tarte hadn't chosen to elaborate on his response.
"By that, my master means that he systematically hunted down and killed all leaders of the organisation before erasing all members of the mafia family that originally put up the contract from existence with extreme prejudice." The maid mercilessly explained, taking pleasure in the act of messing with her master´s attempt at misdirection.
Observing the terrified looks of the younger devils and the approving ones coming from his mother and grandmother, Millicas simply sighed at Tarte's mischievousness.
"You didn't need to tell them that part Love"
With the sound of Kiaras giggling at her King's side and Ruby softly patting his shoulder in support Tarte gave Millicas a cheeky wink in reply.
[0000]
[Build as of Current Chapter]
Starting World: High School DxD [Standard]
Starting budget 365
Intensity [6.25]
Legacy Difficulty 0
Mode
Me and My Girlfriend(s)(PvE) +0 [365]
You as Millicas Gremory (Substitute) of T6 -20 [345]
Bindings
Company Stamp free [345]
Lures
Sticky Fingers -5 [340]
Faerie Feast -10 [330]
Zenryoku Zenkai -20 [310]
Home Perks
Pocket Space -5 [305]
Pocket Apartment x2 -20 [285]
Sweet Home -20 [265]
Home Securityᵈˡᶜ free [265]
All Roads Lead to Home -10 [255]
Rainbow Bridge -30 [225]
Stay in touchᵈˡᶜ -5 [220]
Armoryᵈˡᶜ -10 [210]
Talents
Body Tune-Up -5 [205]
Soul -10 [195]
Martial -10 [185]
Communication -10 [175]
Template Stacking I x4 [Ruby Rose has Hephaestus/Hephaistos (Danmachi), Sesshouin Kiara (Saint) has Inoue Orihime (Bleach), Tarte has Scáthach (Nasuverse), You as Millicas Gremory has Beerus (Dragonball)] -80 [95]
Talent Sharing x 3 [Soul Talent, Martial Talent, Covert Talent] -30 [65]
Covert -10 [55]
Added Potential x4 [Ruby Rose has Sacred Gear (DxD), Sesshouin Kiara (Saint) has Aura (RWBY), Tarte has Aura (RWBY), You as Millicas Gremory has Aura (RWBY)] -20 [35]
Defenses
Body -5 [30]
Information -25 [5]
Defenses discounted for retinue members +22 [27]
Misc Perks
Universal Calibration -10 [17]
Exit Stage Left -5 [12]
We Will Meet Again -15 [-3]
Psychic Paper -5 [-8]
Generic Waifu Perks
Open Rollsᵈˡᶜ -5 [-13]
Paper Trail x4 [Sesshouin Kiara (Saint), Tarte, You as Millicas Gremory, Ruby Rose] -4 [-17]
Native Mergerᵈˡᶜ[Summer Rose] -10 [-27]
Companions bought -35 [-62]
Sesshouin Kiara (Saint)(T5)[buy] from Nasuverse
Tarte(T6)[buy] from The World's Finest Assassin
Summer Rose(T4)[used]{Familiar} from RWBY
Companions captured +36; sold +8 [-18]
Ruby Rose(T5) from RWBY
Roman Torchwick(T5) from RWBY -SOLD
Cinder Fall(T5) from RWBY -SOLD
Mission Rewards +70 [52]:
Smaller, More Honest Soul... in RWBY
Other [Ruby Rose]; Credits [20]; Credits [50];