Chapter 56: Outside Context
"How dare that little upstart disrespect us like this?" Lady Vapula's voice was low, dangerous, "Who does he think we are?"
Another lord remarked, "Letting this humiliation go unanswered would diminish our standing amongst the citizenry. Already his popularity with the reincarnated filth was high, if they see him as some sort of figure to rally behind…"
"I understand your concerns." Lord Bael spoke, attempting to project a sense of being calm and in control, "But there are matters that you are all unaware of that means we have to proceed carefully."
"And just what could that possibly be?" Lord Paimon was incredulous, "He humiliates me in public and our response is to do nothing?!"
"We will respond. However, the response needs to be measured and applied carefully. Already his power base and monopoly on several rare items has given him significant leverage. Should we push back too hard he could utilize both that as well as his senate vote to interfere with us heavily." Was the response, the Lord wishing dearly he could just be done with this meeting.
Why could these fools never follow orders?
Lord Paimon was enraged by his almost bored response, but was stopped from getting a head full of steam by the doors to the meeting room slamming open, showing an imposing figure framed by the entryway.
All present knew who he was by sight, of course, but that was hardly needed. There was only one person who had the authority to interrupt them like this.
"I wonder." Zekram Bael spoke out, his voice purposefully clear of emotion, "Which part of 'Do not interfere' was unclear to you all."
Although his words were perfectly cordial, everyone in the room could feel his displeasure at the current situation.
"My Lord." Paimon spoke, his voice shaky, "I just thought-"
"You? Thinking?" Zekram interrupted, "You should know better by now. It was never your strong suit."
Lord Bael stood, bowing to the ancestor of his house, "Grandfather. Thank you for gracing us with your presence."
"Well I hardly had a choice, now do I?" The reply was icy, the Great King glaring down at his faction, "Now tell me which one of you was the cause of this? Hmm? Did my grandson fail to convey my instructions, or did you decide you didn't need to listen, Lord Paimon?"
Lord Paimon looked like a chastised child, yet still attempted to ineffectually defend himself, "My Lord, I assumed that you wanted to bring him into our orbit. With his presence at the Ball, you would more… easily… be able to…"
He trailed off, the expression on the Elder Bael's face activating his self preservation and stopping him from talking.
"In what possible world," He spoke, his displeasure palpable, "Would I need anyone's help to talk to a child of not even two decades?"
Lord Paimon could not find an answer. Zekram stared at him, the silence becoming oppressive as he drew it out deliberately. The other Lords and Ladies around the table shuffled uncomfortably, not used to facing the ire of their patron so directly.
The first to crack was Zekram's grandson, "Grandfather, I promise that we will-"
"You will do nothing." The response was swift, the Great King not even raising his voice, merely speaking as if he was stating a law of the universe, "I will handle this matter personally."
"Of course My Lord." Lord Bael responded instantly, causing a chorus of agreements to sound out from the other gathered Lords and Ladies. All except one.
"Paimon." Zekram's tone was casual, but his demeanour was anything but, "Let me elaborate. I understand that you fail to understand you are not the centre of the universe."
He placed a hand on the other lords shoulder and suddenly every single Devil in room felt themselves bowing their heads as the aura of The Great King slammed down it's weight upon their shoulders.
"If you even so much as think of approaching the Sagan without my direct, explicit approval, You won't have to worry about the promise that he made to you when you made a fool of yourself in that restaurant." His gaze was deadly serious, impressing this decree upon the very soul of wretch he was holding, "I will kill you myself."
He released the other Devil, turning, his authority still emanating from him radiantly, making it clear that he was not to be tested on this matter.
"This is not our usual political games, the pleasant distractions you have all grown so fond of. This involved the very future of our race." His eyes swept the room, before alighting upon his grandson.
Said grandson was the only one capable of mustering up the will to ask, "May I be allowed to know why?"
Zekram did not grow angry, knowing that the other man would not have the spine to go digging if he was denied, "You may not. There are secrets too dangerous for you to be aware of just yet. This requires a delicate touch, without any competing desires or schemes to interfere."
His grandson nodded, Lord Bael accepting the disguised order for what it was, "Very well. It will be done, we shall leave this matter to you."
"It's rare, me getting involved directly in a matter like this." Zekram mused, his voice sounding as if he was talking to himself, "One would think that alone would have been enough to impart the seriousness with which my original instruction should have been treated. But no, some of you thought better."
"Now I had to come here personally to make sure that the message was properly received." He continued, before his voice turned casual, almost carefree, his aura disappearing like it never existed, "Don't make me do this again."
His piece said, he turned and left the meeting, his feet taking him through the halls of the Senate. The whole reason he had passed the Bael lordship onto his puppet of a grandson was to not have to spend anytime in this depressing place and yet, here he was regardless. Truly it was a depressing state of affairs.
Still, this setback was ripe, prime for turning into an opportunity. He was going to wait, seeing the fractures in the relationship between the Gremory and the Sagan houses coming soon, but perhaps with this latest occurrence, he should take the initiative.
He did wonder how his dear granddaughter was doing.
I must admit, this did take a while. I was aware that the Old Satan faction had a reputation for being pompous assholes, but I believed the issue to be exaggerated.
It very much was not.
Constant attempts to change the venue, attempting to move up the time, it was tedious in the extreme to deal with the old Leviathan, even through correspondence. Still, finally they had decided on a time that was acceptable for both parties, despite the complaining that ensued from the other side of the arrangement.
I was waiting in my meeting room, the Leviathan arriving soon. I had no idea what the meeting was to be about, my every inquiry into the matter being rebuffed, so my interest was definitely piqued.
Seeing as they did follow my rules for this meeting, albeit under duress, I was happy to grant the audience regardless. I had set myself up as a third party, a neutral party, declining a meeting purely for who the other side was would make my neutral position seem deceitful. Thankfully, despite the upcoming meeting, I had the feeling that Katerea would do something to give me the pretense to no longer affiliate myself with the Old Satan faction.
Suicidal tendencies were not my thing, it turns out. They were welcome to turn the entire world against them with their harebrained schemes all they wanted, so long as they left me out of it.
Of course, seeing as they were part of the Khaos Brigade, I would likely have to deal with them sooner or later. Hopefully later.
Ranni would not be present for this meeting, taking the opportunity to train Shiro in magic, an activity that Selene gladly joined in. I was not worried when it came to the threat posed by my guest. There was a reason Serafall was the Leviathan of the underworld and not Katerea, as much as I loathed her. She was many times superior to the old Leviathan descendant.
If Katerea wished for a fight, I would be happy to oblige her. With myself and CC, we should be more than enough to defeat her.
I was broken from my thoughts by CC announcing from outside the room before opening the door, "Katerea Leviathan, here to meet Damocles Sagan."
The open door revealed the rumoured Katerea. The first thing I thought when I saw her was that for someone attempting to bring back the dignity of her name and reclaim her title from the usurper who had stolen it, she sure liked to cosplay as a sexy librarian.
Did she think Serafall's power came from her magical girl costume or something?
Regardless of her strange choice of attire, the gaze she fixed me with was certainly stern and serious enough to befit the situation.
"Lord Sagan." Her voice was rather terse, "Thank you for meeting me so… timeously."
"You are most welcome." I smiled guilelessly, pointedly not standing when she entered the room, "I afforded this meeting all the urgency it deserved."
The corners of her jaw tensed at that, but instead of exploding as I expected her to at the slight to her pride, she swallowed her words.
"The… difficulties you have been experiencing at the hands of the Usurpers are widely known, I would have expected one of your pedigree to realise who your potential allies were." Her voice was lecturing, slightly condescending.
"I know exactly who my trustworthy allies are in the Underworld, who the Sagan House knows they can rely on. That is why I officially aligned myself with them, after all." I remarked, not rising to the bait.
Of course, the faction I had officially declared myself to be on the side of? No one.
"Being a lone wolf is appealing to youth, but it allows you to easily be picked apart by vultures, especially if you surround yourself with and confide in ones of…" Her lip curled as she looked at CC for the first time, "Lower pedigree."
"Should my King need any advice on hiding in the sewers like rats, I will be sure to advise him to seek you out." Like always, the sharp tongue of CC cut deep.
"You dar-!" She was stopped by me standing, crossing my hands behind my waist.
"Katerea. You already know I will not join your faction. You have that amount of intelligence. Should that have been my goal, I would have made moves to do so by now. You will not change my mind by coming into my house and disparaging those I choose to bring into it." I stepped out from behind my desk, my forced growth actually putting me at somewhat equal height with the other Devil, "Which begs the question. Why are you here?"
She sneered, "A shame it is, to see a bloodline so storied fall into filth. You are right, I knew that you would not be smart enough to pick the wining side, if it were up to me I would leave you to exist in blissful ignorance until our eventual ascent."
"Said winning side that got almost entirely eradicated the last time you attempted anything of worth?" My Queen raised an eyebrow in feigned confusion.
"Scoff all you want, filth. But the reason for our victory is why I'm here." Katerea took out a metal circle from her bust, allowing me to catch the sight of what looked like a depiction of a snake eating its own tail, "There is someone who wants to meet with you, Sagan."
She broke the amulet and suddenly I was behind a fur clad form. The Dark Moon seemingly arrived into existence in front of me as if she was always there, apparently sensing the being that had intruded into our home.
"Intruder." She spoke, her voice full of purpose, "State thy purpose."
The expressionless dark haired girl who had appeared in a wave of rippling purple merely stared at her with a tilted head, before in an almost bored voice she deliberately sounded out, "I… wanted to talk?"
"Thy presence is a dangerous one to mine consort. Thy entered through deceit, how may we trust thine-!"
"Ranni." I touched her arm gently, my calmness shocking Katerea who had been grinning viciously at the scene she was responsible for, "It's okay. She doesn't understand why what she did could be bad."
I stepped out from the protective barrier of the Moon Goddess, causing Ranni to tense up in worry as I focused, trying to exercise as much control as I possibly could to my Demonic Power, stilling it's movement and preventing it from leaking to the air around me.
I went to one knee, smiling at the disguised dragon, who was merely staring at me and watching my actions intently.
"Hello Ophis." I spoke softly, barely above a whisper as I reached into my storage spell, pulling out a steaming tray of baked goods, "Would you like a cookie?"
Katerea's mouth hit the floor, "Are you insane? You know who she is and the first thing you do is offer her a cookie?!"
"Loud. Annoying." Ophis's words followed the first expression that showed on her face, twisting in annoyance.
Katerea paled, "I'm sorry my lady-!"
Ophis ignored her, walking towards me and plucking off the tray one of the chocolate chip cookies. Bringing it to her mouth, she bit into it, eyes widening before she started to swiftly devour the rest of it quickly.
"You can have as much as you want." I reassured before she even finished the first one.
This one was less annoying than the others. He was still glaringly loud, his sound almost deafening, but it was somehow less… irritating than the other Devils. Besides, these cookies he offered her were much better than the ones that the other one gave her. She would prefer to have these than those ones.
At his word, she started to enjoy them slower, the offerings rather delicious. Why couldn't the rest of this world be able to do this?
"Its working?" The annoying one said, staring at her eating her offerings with her face in one of those weird shapes they liked putting them in, "What in the hells…?"
"Ophis." The soft voice made her pay attention to the white haired devil, who was looking at her calmly, "Katerea is really annoying, isn't she?"
"She is." Ophis nodded at him, agreeing instantly.
"Excuse-!" The shriek hurt her ears, making her glare angrily at the source.
She would have killed her for that, but the other one who gave her cookies asked her not to. She should be kind to those that were kind to her, even if it was annoying sometimes.
"Can you send her away?" The white haired Devil asked.
That was such a good idea.
"Katerea. Leave." She ordered.
"My lady, are you really going to-?'
Annoying.
"Leave, or I will kill you." She clarified.
Katerea opened her mouth, not leaving as she asked, causing her to start to raise her hand.
Quickly, she started to move to the door, saying to the White Haired one as she did, "I have no idea how you did this, but I won't forget it!"
"Good." He smiled, she knew that one, "It would be boring otherwise."
"Melina will make sure she does not get lost." The Moon ordered.
Ophis liked her voice. It was soft, not jarring like all these other ones she had been forced to hear. Of course, that was because she was not speaking normally, but rather communicating her intent directly, but Ophis vastly preferred that than making air move in those distracting waves.
She stared at the Moon while she partook in her offerings. This was who she was here to speak to, to ask the help of. She couldn't just threaten the Moon into helping her like she did the rest though. Her power, the thing that meant she could actually help Ophis reclaim her Silence, was also the thing that meant she had to do this differently.
She didn't know how, though.
As she pondered the problem, she reached for another offering, only to find that there were none left. Before she could even be disappointed, the white haired Devil produced another tray of them for her, wordlessly handing them over without her having to ask.
"White Hair." She said, "What is your name?"
"Damocles Sagan. It is nice to meet you, Ophis." He replied, again in the quiet voice he had spoken in since she arrived.
"Damocles. I like you." She declared.
This one understood her and had yet to annoy her even once since she saw him. That was some sort of new record for the things that infested this world.
"That is mine consort thou speak of." The Moon spoke.
Consort? She didn't know what that was. Thankfully the intent behind her speech allowed Ophis to figure it out.
Oh, she had claimed Damocles as hers and thought Ophis wanted to steal him away. While the thought of cookies of this quality whenever she wanted was admittedly appealing, she was unsure of adding such a loud object into her hoard, no matter how not annoying it was.
"Ah." She spoke to the Moon, "I didn't mean to claim him. Sorry."
From observation she knew that you should apologise when you didn't mean to do something, right?
"I see." The Moon replied, "You said thou wished to talk?"
Ophis thought of how to phrase this in a way that didn't come off as a demand. She knew that this would be a negotiation, not merely a decree.
"I… want to ask… you to help me." She put it together, rather proud of herself.
"Help thee? What with?" The Moon was confused.
"My Silence. It was stolen from me. With your help, I could kill the one who stole it and have it back." She explained.
In the essence of the being in front of her however, she could see that she was not understood.
How frustrating.
"The Dimensional Gap, Ranni." Damocles spoke, causing the Moon to look to him, "It is where she lived and spent most of her life. It was taken over by the Dragon currently residing there, Ophis wants to get it back."
He understood! She didn't even have to explain it and he already knew what she wanted!
How amazing.
"I see." The Moon responded, "I am sorry, Ophis of the Void. I cannot aid thee."
She felt immense disappointment at her words, "Why?"
"Mine full power if brought into conflict with the beast that resides upon the edge of the world would likely destroy not only this world, but the Gap itself." The Moon explained, causing Ophis to want to growl in frustration.
She finally found something that could defeat the Stupid Red Idiot, but if it did then her Silence would be destroyed along with him. It was almost worth it, but she would rather have her silence even if it meant longer to get it back.
"However." The Moon garnered her attention once more, "I know of one that can aid thee in your quest."
"Who?" She asked, desperate to know.
"Mine Consort.' The Moon replied.
"Damocles?" She tilted her head, examining the devil in front of her, the cage around his soul, the power that resided in his eyes, but she found nothing that indicated he could beat the Stupid Red, "He doesn't look strong enough to me."
"Not now." Said The Moon, "But in time he will grow to be mine true equal. With that power, he could destroy the Red Dragon and aid thee in retaking thine home."
"I see." Ophis responded.
She believed it. Of course she did, The Moon communicated directly through intent. She could not lie.
"I would be glad to help you in retaking your home, Ophis." Damocles spoke, staring into her eyes without fear, "But I want to ask something from you to do that."
"Oh?' She narrowed her eyes.
Here it is, the demands to give them power, to allow them to crush their enemies before they helped her. She wasn't stupid, she knew they thought they could just use her to get what they wanted then turn on her later. They didn't know that by taking in her snakes, she could directly control them. Still, the constant delays and personal dealing annoyed her to no end.
"Please stay here, with us at the Manor. I promise I will reclaim the Gap for you, but the others that said they will help you want to betray you." She knew that, but listened to him explain, "Instead of staying with people who don't really want to help you, why don't you stay here, where no one will bother you or ask you to do things for them?"
She must admit, as she took another of the offered cookies and chewed on it as she thought, the offer was certainly enticing.