LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 34 – Challenge
The beautiful woman in maid's clothing and silver hair blinked at the sight of Rias Gremory, half-naked, so close to me.
"You were going to break the deal, weren't you?" Grayfia asked, looking at Rias with a disappointed expression.
"If I don't go the distance to show my resolve, my father and brother will never listen to me. I know that, you know that."
"Both the Sirzechs and the Master will be sad when they find out that you tried to give your purity to a commoner."
"What's wrong with giving it to someone who deserves it? I don't have a master, and I can do whatever I want to repay my servants. Besides, calling one of my servants a commoner? Grayfia, I can't..."
"It's all right, master." I said, treating Rias with more care than usual, and got up from the bed to pick up Rias' clothes, which were lying on the floor. "I don't understand what's going on, but when someone working for your family comes to stop you, things must be serious."
"Leo, how do you...?"
"What's your name?" I asked the silver-haired woman as I turned to her to let Rias get dressed.
"My name is Grayfia. Nice to meet you, I'm Rias Gremory's brother's [Queen]."
I bowed my head slightly in respect, causing her to wrinkle her forehead in surprise, disguised as seriousness.
"My name is Leonard Tonello."
"Leonard? Wait, you're...?" Grayfia couldn't hide her surprise this time.
"Yes. He's my only [Pawn]. The [Boosted Gear] user." Rias said, putting her skirt on last.
"The Devil Possessed by the Dragon Empress..."
"Grayfia, let's go back to my room. I'll listen to what you have to say. Akeno can also attend this meeting, right?"
"The Priestess of Thunder? I wouldn't mind. It's a custom for high-level devils to have their [Queen] by their side at all times. "
After that, Rias and Grayfia gathered around a magic circle, said goodbye, and disappeared from my room.
I took a deep breath, a little more relieved. But a part of me really wished I'd taken the opportunity.
In any case, the first part of my plan was complete. I had rejected Rias, but soon I would have her all to myself.
The next day, Asia and I went to the Occult Research Club building. I was serious, very serious, and Asia could tell.
"Leo, are you okay? You barely ate breakfast today, and you're so... down."
I looked at her and shook my head. "Have you noticed how Rias has been acting lately? She's in trouble, serious trouble."
"What?"
I stopped walking at that moment. The Occult Research Club building wasn't far away.
"Asia, no matter what happens at the club today, please stay behind me and don't say anything or try to stop me."
"Leo... you're scaring me."
Looking into Asia's eyes, I took the two hands she was timidly clutching to her stomach and said:
"You just have to promise me. Will you?"
At that moment, she also looked into my eyes and could see that I didn't show any fear or any emotion that could look like fear or uncertainty. In fact, I had nothing to be afraid of. Let's just say that my trial period was over. I'd already understood how far my abilities as a devil went, and on top of that, I'd had the conversation with Ddraig earlier that morning that I'd been waiting for.
"Hey, are you there, Ddraig?" I asked, speaking with my left hand after waking up.
Suddenly, a green glow came out of the back of my left hand, the same place where the green gem would normally be when I activated Boosted Gear.
"Yeah, kid. Finally decided to stop being a hormonal teenager and tried to talk to me?}"
"Did you see all that? Khum! It doesn't matter. I need to talk to you seriously about the concept of partnership that you talked about in the dream."
"I can see that you're very serious, child. All right, ask me anything. I'm listening."
Ddraig was inside me, and I could talk to her mentally. But all the time she couldn't read my thoughts because of the difference between soul and brain.
Ddraig was tied to my soul, while my thoughts were cognitive, i.e. exclusively in my brain, so what distinguished my natural thoughts from those she could hear was nothing more or less than will. If I wanted to talk to her, she could hear my thoughts. If not, she couldn't, so Ddraig knew nothing about me, my world, the system, or my plans, at least until that moment.
I explained to her in detail what was going to happen in the next few minutes and what I was going to do. The only thing she asked me when I was done was:
"{Boy, how do you know all this?}"
"I don't know. It's an assumption and a projection. As for you, you're sure you can do what I've asked, right?"
"Of course I am! After all, I am the Red Dragon Empress!"
'It's this gender switch that always reminds me that I don't live in the canonical universe of High School DxD... I thought and took a deep breath.'
Hours in the future, I pushed open the door and entered the main room of the Occult Research Club. Koneko, Kiba, Akeno, Rias and the silver-haired maid from the night before, Grayfia, were already there.
Asia immediately felt the tension in the room and clasped her hands in awe.
"Everyone is finally here." Rias said, and at that moment a magic circle appeared on the floor.
This magic circle was big, bigger than any I had ever seen, and the symbol differed completely from the magic circle I was used to. However, I knew that it was the Phenex Family's magic circle.
A circular wall of fire emerged from the edges of the magic circle. From the flickering flames of this fire, the silhouette of a tall man appeared.
"Arhh! It's been a while since I last visited the human world!"
Standing in the center of the circle was a man dressed in a red suit. He had yellow hair and an expression of confidence on his face as he stood with his hands in his pockets. When this man's eyes caught sight of Rias, he walked up to her and said:
"My dear Rias. It's good to finally see you." He opened his arms as he came over for a hug. "I've come to pick you up so you can have a look at my- I mean, our ceremony hall. The date for the ceremony has been set, so we need to check it out before then."
"Don't come any closer, Raiser." Rias said angrily, holding out her arm to keep him from getting too close.
"Ah? Who is he?" Asia asked.
Raiser's attention was diverted from Rias as soon as he heard another female voice in the room. "Oh? Rias, why didn't you tell me you had such a cute servant? I would have taken her as my servant. And you didn't tell them about me? What? Don't you like your servants?"
"I didn't tell them because there was no need to break the news of something that wasn't going to happen."
Grayfia-san joined the discussion.
"This person is Raiser Phenex-sama. He is the third son of the House of Phenex, a man of high nobility, and he is also the husband of the next heiress of the House of Gremory, Rias Gremory."
"Yes, yes! I am her husband." Raiser tried to approach Rias again for a hug.
"Stop right there." I said, stepping forward.
"Tsk! Who are you?"
"Leo, what are you..." Rias was about to speak, but I decided to answer Raiser directly and without fear.
I walked to the center of the room and said:
"I could give you many answers right now. Nobody has just one name. People call me 'Leonard', those closest to me 'Leo', but I can also be known as 'The Bearer of the Boosted Gear' or 'The Devil Possessed by the Dragon Empress'". I looked at Grayfia briefly and then at Raiser: "However, I will soon be given the title 'He Who Killed a Phenex', although I would prefer to be called 'The Only Man Who Ever Kissed Rias Gremory'."
"You... bastard...!" Raiser was embarrassed by my audacity and fixated on the last thing I said. "No matter what you have or what you've done to my fiancée, I will never allow such an outrage against the Phenex family to come from a mere servant, a mere reincarnated devil like you!"
Raiser gritted his teeth and thrust his right hand forward, creating sparks from a fireball.
"And to think that a man with such a fragile ego once thought he was worthy to have Rias Gremory as his wife." I spread my hands and mocked Raiser's uncontrolled reaction.
"You think you can defeat me? I'll burn you alive, boy!"
"Stop right there, both of you." Grayfia ordered, causing Raiser to slowly lower his trembling hand. "And you, Leonard, what do you think you're doing, threatening Lord Raiser? Do you realize how serious it is for a low-level devil to threaten someone of nobility? You could be banished to the underworld forever."
"It wasn't a threat, Grayfia. It's my will. So, in case it's not clear yet, I'll tell you: if this man doesn't give up the idea of marrying Rias Gremory right now, I'll kill him. Either he gives up the idea of marriage, or he accepts a public duel to the death against me, without all the bureaucracy of an 'rating game'."
*
*
*
Support me to write more and read chapters ahead of all regular readers!
P-atreon.com/palmer1998
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)
In chapters R-18, there are original and exclusive images for the patreons!
NEXT CHAPTERS:
Chapter 35 - Raiser Phenex, The Worst
Chapter 36 - Boosted Gear X Phenex
Chapter 37 - Explo... sion?!
Chapter 38 - Devastation of Destruction
Chapter 39 - Gremory Mansion
Chapter 40 - System Update
Chapter 41 - Your chances? Very High! (R-18)
Chapter 42 - Asia Deep Throa... Khum! (R-18)
Chapter 43 - My First Time with a Nun (R-18)
Chapter 44 - Rhythms & Poses (R-18)
Chapter 44.5 - Asia Argento POV (R-18)
Chapter 45 - Attribute Points
Chapter 46 - Welcome Back
Chapter 47 - Collecting Artifacts
Chapter 48 - New System Challenge!
Chapter 49 - Heating Akeno (R-18)
Chapter 50 - Tight Walls (R-18)
Chapter 51 - Arara~ (R-18)