"Uhm, miss Deviant…"

"I just said it's 'Deviantt'! Extra letter!"

"Right, miss Deviantt… What, exactly, did you mean by 'demon of love and justice'?" Iris squinted in suspicion.

"Oh, ha-ha, uhm…" 'demon' suddenly sweated, "Uhm, please don't tell my big bro that, ha-ha… I am not a demon, of course, I just loved this greeting one time, and then it just kinda stuck…" she munched on her food to calm herself down.

"I-I see…" Iris clearly didn't believe girl's words, but wisely decided to not press further.

"Hey, what does that mean, by the way?" Alexia interjected, "You know, that part about Cid killing a lot? This… guy doesn't even have the guts to become a knight, let alone kill someone…"

"Huh?" Deviantt blinked and turned to Cid.

He sat there, seemingly indifferent to their speech, simply tapping his finger on the table. However, Deviantt knew Morse code, and Cid actually was tapping 'I dare you to explain that'.

Well, please forgive him for trying to maintain his mob persona… at least what was left of it, anyway…

"Oh, that's just another one of my customary greetings, e-he-he… Whenever I find a person I like the most in a new group, I immediately give them some cool introduction!"

"…Is that so," Alexia smiled, dark aura looming over her, "Aren't you a lucky guy, Cid? Being in presence of so many women…"

"Would you believe me if I said that I am as bothered by this as you are?" huh, Deviantt tapped back… 'Come on, man, I am just here to have fun'? Well, not at his expense!

"Actually, yes, I would believe you," younger princess sighed, "and that's the reason I don't understand why do they seem to appear in your circle…" tap, tap, tap… 'How the hell did you even appear here, anyway? Clearly you're not of this place'.

"What can I say? You, girls, sometimes don't even understand yourselves, how am I supposed to understand you?" 'Oh, you won't believe it, but this world's protection is quite cool! I had to use an asteroid to do a deep-dive!… Weird, to be honest: how did they protect against dimensional attacks so well that even my big-but-not-biggest bro would struggle against it, yet forgot about space assault? Are they stupid?'

…Alright, that's on him.

"I am sorry, Ciddy, did you say something?" Alexia cutely leaned in.

"Just how lucky I am to have such an understanding girlfriend as you," uh, Iris is giving him a stare over that tapping between him and Deviantt. 'Later.'

"Yes, yes, praise me more!" princess puffed up her chest.

"Hmm, well, actually…" he suddenly realized something, "I have prepared something for you?"

"You? For me?" Alexia slammed her hands on the table, "You're not kidding?"

"Of course not… Let me just find these things…" he placed his hand into his bag (actually reached out to Soul Space) and took out a bracelet and figurine.

"W-What's that?…" Alexia's voice quivered.

"Remember when I told you I would make you that figurine back then, right after Goddess Trials?" he reminded her, "It surely took some time, but here it is," and presented a serpent-like figurine to Alexia.

Yes, it was figurine of that Serpent whose scales he used so much now. He created one first back then with just his magic carving abilities, but since then he had no time to present it to Alexia, and once he remembered about that, his abilities got a huge upgrade, so he decided to redo it. Of course, the principle stayed the same: it was still quite a rough copy of Serpent himself, many small features missing, but the overall shape stayed similar!

He-he, this is peak mobfu!… Um, why is this comically oversized hat girl eyeing him so strangely?

"Wha- Whu- Guh?" very intelligent and wise words of Alexia reached his ears.

"Yes, I made this figurine myself. Take it, it's a gift," he looked at her seriously.

Alexia went as red as tomato.

"…Is this a confession from your side, Cid Kagenou?" Iris suddenly went all serious.

"Hm?" he blinked at her.

"I can see that you have, indeed, made figurine of that anomaly from back then yourself, but…" she gazed over the intricate crimson bracelet made from strange stone that had a large ruby and two smaller diamonds embedded into it, "This accessory seems more like a wedding gift."

"Huh?" no, wait, that was not in the plans, "No-no, you misunderstand, this is just my gift to Alexia-"

"Even someone in the higher echelon of aristocracy would probably not be able to find something like this no matter how much they tried, and yet here you are, bringing it as just a gift?" Iris squinted.

"Yep, indeed," Cid sweated bullets.

Fuck, should've probably did it one-on-one.

"Even though just a month ago you had to earn money by yourself?" Iris leaned in… menacingly.

"Uh, yeah?…" he sweated even more.

"…Alexia, if you do not accept this confession, I am taking him to myself," the heir princess suddenly retracted.

"W-Wha-?!" Alexia jumped up, "Who said I do not accept?! I accept!" she snatched the bracelet from his hand and wore it on her left hand, "See?! I accept! Don't you dare-!" she suddenly stopped in realization.

After a moment she became even more red than before, immediately falling back on the chair and hiding her face in her arms.

"Fu-fu-fu…" Iris chuckled menacingly, "It seems like you still have much to learn from me, Alexia."

"Shut. Shut up. It did not happen," Alexia peeked to reveal the dangerous glint of her crimson eyes.

"Of course, it didn't," Iris nodded with the most serious face, "You just so happened to stumble upon Cid Kagenou who just so happened to prepare the gifts for you, and it just so happened that they appeared in your possession."

"Yes, that's exactly how it happened… Um, Cid?" Alexia suddenly realized that the only boy in their company has gone suspiciously silent.

Upon noticing that the state of aforementioned boy was very far from normal, Iris became nervous, too.

"Mister Kagenou, if you actually were not ready yet, I severely apologize for my intervention…" she started in panic.

The empty eyes on his face said it all. He slumped on his chair, not even reacting to pokes from both princesses.

"Hey, if you wanna have some fun, we can go and kill some bandits!" Deviantt cheerfully added.

'Where the hell did I go wrong.'

"Mister Kagenou, I once again apologize for my actions back there…"

"It's fine."

"Come on, Cid, cheer up a little! I really liked your gifts! E-Even if you're not ready…"

"I just realized I got scammed for something I didn't know the true value of."

He never fucked up so much before; he was always careful in his attempts to cover up his double-life activities, and he clearly knew the price for most things. He did a lot of research, after all. And yet, now he somehow fucked up so hard that it gave him kick back to reality.

"A-Ahem, just so you know…" younger princess coughed, blushing, "I-I really like your gifts!"

"You already said that," he blinked at her.

"Well, it's important to say important things twice!"

Like, really, why the hell did he think giving out a bracelet made out of the molten magma and embedded with the most precious gems on the planet as a normal gift is a great idea?! Did all the new power and research really make him blind to material things?! Not cool, Cid, not cool!

At least he didn't fuck up with figurine, that's a plus.

"Mister Kagenou…"

"Come on, princess Iris, aren't we on first name basis?" he sighed.

"Right, Cid… Please excuse me for making such assumptions, but…"

"I already realized that I was simply fooled."

"You know, it kinda pains me to think that you didn't actually want to propose…"

"What?"

"Just saying that you could've been a bit more observant!"

He heard her the first time, but decided to ignore that. Man, he fucked up so hard… Hold up, he has an idea!

"Well, the merchants in Lawless City aren't exactly the most knowledgeable kind, either…"

"…You were there?" Iris leaned in.

"Where do you think I got…" a small nod towards Violet and Lilac.

"Oh, right…"

Alexia just played with her gifts.

"I mean…" younger princess started, "At least you've tried to give me some presents… I honestly thought you forgot about your promise…"

He did, but let's pretend he didn't.

"Someone is being a sad kitten, I see…" he made a jab.

"And someone wants to be a dog, I see…" she returned it back.

They both looked at each other before chuckling lightly. Iris looked at the scene with a smile.

"So, now we're alone, mister 'I-definitely-didn't-kill-nine-generations'," Deviantt's sarcastic tone was obvious.

Both princesses went home with a promise to send him some books about art and whatnot, while both Auroras decided to head back and rest at Shadow Garden's rooms in Mitsugoshi.

That left him with this seemingly otherworldly girl.

"Yeah, miss 'I-definitely-don't-stand-out-with-this-excuse-of-an-outfit'," he poked her back.

"I'll have you know, this set was made by my big bros!"

"That just means they suck at fashion sense."

"They do, but that besides the point!" Deviantt coughed, "Devourer of Gods, was he here?!"

"…Who?" Cid stared at her blankly.

"Devourer of Gods! The one that eats gods!… Um, dimensional pain in the ass? Scourge of the worlds?" his empty gaze told everything, "…Cosmic Serpent?"

"Oh, the big one that looks like a purple worm?" Cid suddenly realized, "Yeah, he was there. Died soon, though."

"Oh…" Devi went in thought.

"How did you even know that I killed so much, anyway?"

"E-he-he! That's easy! We, me and my big bros, I mean, are very keen to that as we ourselves are obsessed fighters! My big bro even relishes in all that stuff, going as far as to create scenes in various worlds to satisfy his cravings!"

That… sounded suspiciously like Cid himself.

"Oh, right, and the reason I am here is to find the guy who was strong enough to kill Serpent and then tell my bros so they can have a good fight with them!" Devi suddenly realized something, "By the way, don't you know where's that person could have been?"

"Everyone you ask will say that Goddess Beatrix punished this… Serpent."

"…Gods again? Bleh!" Devi frowned, "There goes our fun… Alright, thank you for your input! And for you paying for my drinks! Hmm, here, take it!" she took out some kind of platinum coins, "Change unneeded!"

Honestly… This girl was weak. Like, about elf Beatrix level of weak. Sure, it seemed like she had a lot of magic energy, but… She wasn't that strong.

"Alright, it's time I find that person! Bye… 'Ciddy', he-he!"

Deviantt spread her wings and flew away, not caring in the slightest about onlookers. Fortunately, he managed to go into absolutely-non-suspicious-mob mode before the attention turned to him.

Now, he had a bigger problem on his hands.

With a sigh he went to his Soul Space. Sanctuary, Hams, Todd, facilities, treasury… All that was unneeded now.

What he actually wanted to visit was…

The sealed grave of his third Beast.

What, exactly, is it? Why does it need to be sealed?…

"…Just so you know, once you open it up, it would be hard for us to shove it back…" Hams' voice reached his ears.

"Is it really that influential?"

"This is something that you've been suppressing your whole life," Todd noted, "The sealing runes are just something we added as an additional measure, but otherwise…"

"I don't remember suppressing anything," with that, he tore the grave open.

Both Greed Beasts came closer in caution.

"…And… What is this supposed to be?"

"Uhh…" they looked at each other in panic as the third Beast slowly started going up.

"Yep, this is clearly a very dangerous thing, right? So dangerous, in fact, that you decided to waste your time sealing it…"

The Beast finally reached the surface.

"Now, don't you wanna say anything to these two?" Cid turned around to the new addition in his Beast folk.

"Coo! Coo!"

From deep inside the grave, a magnificent big dove flew out.

Doves are symbol of peace.

Nuff said.