Chapter 84: A Request of the Fallen

Japan was a nice place for the rich. Not Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, or the like. But, say, Hokkaido, or a random town like Kuoh.

It had been a while since I came here, with the majority of my days being spent around the other cities, especially Kyoto. But I found my way around, having lived in Kuoh for a few days now.

“So, why not handle the mess yourself?” I asked, pouring myself a nice cup of coffee.

The ridiculous amount of caffeine would’ve given any normal person a heart attack, but my constitution made it impossible to feel anything without dumping an entire kilo of coffee powder into it.

“And make a mess of the situation?” Azazel snorted. “You may have some privileges across races, we don’t. You can move freely between devils, vampires, and now even Yokai territories. If I tried messing around, it would spark another war.”

Yeah, I wasn’t looking forward to that anytime soon. Having been part of one war already was all the experience I needed.

“And Kuoh is, at the end of the day, still Shinto property,” I said, not bothering to offer him a cup. “So, a Governor of the Fallen Angels making moves would cause chaos.”

With a snap, he pointed towards me. “Why even bother asking when you already know?”

That made me shrug. “Making small talk.”

“So, anyhow, would you take this?” he asked. “It’s not like we haven’t worked together before.”

That was true. We had worked together.

Not long after Azazel left the teleportation item in my hands, I decided to break it to meet him. Sure, Serafall wasn’t keen on the idea, which was why I did it behind everyone’s back.

And there was only one reason for it. To see what the Fallen Angels were all about, and what they could offer.

Turns out, a lot.

Azazel had more than enough spies hidden all around the world, and he let me in on enough information that ultimately allowed me to meet the gods of Shinto. And this happened separately from the Kuoh deal between Shinto and the Satans.

So, all in all, we did work quite a bit together.

A few ‘trips’ here and there with Vali, some with Azazel’s most powerful group, Slash/Dog, and a few with the crazy Fallen Governor himself.

And now that I was in Kuoh, I had already guessed he would contact me regarding his Fallen issue.

“What will the payment be this time?” We may have worked together, one might even argue that we were close, but we weren’t close enough for me to work for free, even though I had already planned on involving myself in this thing from the beginning.

He sighed in disbelief. “You have all the riches in the world, your potions are sold throughout the realms, and you have trade routes that not even the devil race as a whole possesses. Not to mention, you are someone whose engineering marvels annoy even me, so what can I even give you?”

I did grow my fortune quite a lot during this period. I even ended up dipping my toes into the human world’s investing scene. Though humans genuinely sucked, the politics involving money were probably even dirtier than those of the devils, and that was saying something.

Though he had a point, I had enough money to collapse the economy at this point. My factories were practically working overtime because of the demand for potions, my estate was always filled with tourists, and I had constant applications being mailed to me from new devils wanting to join my legions.

This allowed the golems to be utilized for labor even more, and my peerage had been working quite hard to keep everything running.

“I am rich because I am greedy.” That was true.

“That you are,” he laughed again. “I have heard about what you did right after rejoining society. The ten-year plan you suggested was a death sentence for the devils.”

The old devils were slowly catching on to what I had done.

Offering to take only forty percent of the resources had made them lax, and giving them a ten-year time period had felt like an easy win for them.

But it wasn’t.

With my production lines, potions, medicine, engineered gadgets, weaponry, armor, and other top-of-the-line products, I had carved out a large chunk of the market for myself, and that had led to a decline in demand for their products, driving down their prices and income.

The part of my estates they still held was now more essential to them than ever. Handing them over to me was like cutting off a limb from their own body.

But not giving them back wasn’t a choice either. They were legally bound, and magical contracts were no joke.

“They are at your mercy now,” the man scoffed. “Then again, you are a devil. It’s in your blood.”

He got a shrug in reply.

I wasn’t trying to drive these Pillars to ruin, nor was I planning on bleeding them dry. Instead, I wanted them to owe me. Promises, deals, and, as Azazel said, be at my mercy.

With them owing me, I practically had additional votes in any political matter through them.

Playing the long game is always the right choice. And maybe, in this case, it wasn’t even a long game. Our lifespans were immense.

“So, what are you offering?” I asked again, and he leaned against the wall, thinking.

“What do you want?”

That was what I was waiting for.

“This is what, our dozenth mission? And out of all of them, I have saved your ass more times than I can count.”

With political threats, with supplies straight from my inventory, through my engineering endeavors, and I even helped prevent the relationship between the Fallen Angels and Shinto from falling apart.

I wasn’t paid enough for any of those, so once again, it was the same thing.

“And they call me shrewd,” he clicked his tongue. “You are basically trying to get me to owe you, just like the devils.”

“Maybe?” I shrugged. “Though with you, it isn’t anything legal. You are even allowed to decline.”

“And make myself look bad in front of Shinto, possibly even Serafall?” He rolled his eyes. “As if. What do you want?”

Finally.

“I currently have a rook, queen, bishop, and pawn. But I am still missing a few pieces.”

That suddenly made him frown. “Who?”

“Not many, just one,” I said. “I have yet to decide, but I might have someone in mind.”

“Who?” he repeated.

“Slash/Dog.”

“Impossible.” He pushed himself off the wall. “They are too precious a group, and far too dangerous to let go.”

“I said one.” I didn’t need them all. “And I don’t even want you to force them. I want you to let me convince them. If they say no, it’s fine. If they agree, I get one more peerage member, and you keep your end of our pact while I keep helping you whenever trouble comes up.”

It’s not like I had been helping him without a selfish reason. And he would be a fool to think I wanted money. I had money.

“Slash/Dog is a group that deals with threats that can essentially end the world,” he explained. “That team is perfectly curated to cover every angle and weakness. Losing one means opening a crack, creating a weakness.”

“I didn’t say I wanted the member I took into my peerage to quit entirely, did I? They are still free to take missions with Slash/Dog. All of my peerage members are free to live their own lives.”

Not like Slash/Dog took many missions to begin with. They took one, maybe two missions a year. That’s how selective that group was.

“You won’t break the group?” he asked, unsure.

“The one I take into my peerage will stay in my mansion, or at my estate. They’ll mostly be around my work, but whenever there are missions too big for Slash/Dog to handle without that member, they are free to join at will.” I paused, emphasizing the last part a little. “Provided that my peerage isn’t already on a mission. If we end up involving ourselves in something like the vampire war again, I’ll need all of my peerage members with me.”

He fell into thought after hearing that, clearly weighing the pros and cons.

“Each of them has their own interests and passions. You can’t lock them up with work all the time,” he warned, and that made me laugh.

“You think my peerage members are doing forced labour?” I couldn’t treat my peerage that way. “Bova is out training my legions, not because I asked him to, but because he loves training others and teaching them how to fight. During the Vampire Civil War, he also discovered his talent for commanding troops and has been honing it ever since. Valerie has been busy learning about, recovering, and preserving ancient relics, as well as helping authenticate the relics we buy and sell.”

They were both doing those things because they enjoyed them.

“Elmenhilde has been busy building a great library on my estate, filling it with books of ancient magic and knowledge because that is her passion. She is also in charge of business planning, as she is talented in that area.”

All my peerage members were geniuses in their own way.

“Not a single one of them is forced to work in a field they hate, and all of them chose the sectors they enjoy of their own free will.”

As for Ingvild…

“Ingvild is a workaholic. I have begged her to work less, but she doesn’t listen. She is in charge of general management and looks after practically everything when I am not around. But that is also the duty of a queen. She is my queen.”

I was a little annoyed.

“I may use others, but not my peerage members.”

After my little rant, the man took a deep breath.

“Then I will ask one last time,” he muttered. “Will you let them continue working on Slash/Dog missions if they are not occupied with your own?”

And once again, my answer was the same.

“Then you are free to approach them,” he said. “But if they decline, you will not pester them.”

With a smile, I agreed. “Pestering is more your thing than mine. But agreed.”

That finally softened his face. “Then you are free to convince them, Faiser. And I hope you will take care of this little mission as well.”

He extended his hand, and I met it with mine.

“That I will.”

After all, I had my own selfish reasons for taking this mission as well.

“Though it won’t be an immediate mission. I will have to work on it myself, but my peerage has been busy with their own things. Only yesterday did they come to stretch their arms a little, but they’re back at my estate again.”

He nodded. “That’s fine. Once you take ownership of estates and grow from an heir into a lord, your peerage doesn’t just trail behind you anymore.”

True.

It was the case with every powerful devil I knew. Sure, some of their peerage members had promoted and started peerages of their own, but even those who still had plenty of members rarely had them around all the time.

At a certain point, being able to spend time with your peerage becomes a privilege.

“Well then, I know you won’t disappoint me, so… good luck with whatever you are really doing here in Kuoh.”

I only smiled at that. There wasn’t any reason to explain.

But once again, it was all for my peerage.

It was time to use the Sacred Gear Extractor.

* * *

{Same Time, Abandoned Church, Kuoh Town}

—Raynare—

Kuoh had been harsher than she expected, especially with the raging hormonal devils running around, playing monopoly with real land and people.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was her mission. There was only one goal in her mind: eliminating the Sacred Gear wielder.

As a Fallen Angel operating under the Grigori, it was one of her responsibilities to eliminate Sacred Gear wielders who could become a threat to the Fallen Angels and their cause. Most often, the threats were handpicked by the Grigori’s top officials, and special missions were issued to deal with them.

She, however, took a shortcut. She didn’t want to wait through such a long procedure, especially when those missions often sent Middle to High-Class Fallens to deal with Gear wielders due to the possibility of Low-Class Fallens not being efficient enough or capable enough against them.

She believed she could do it and that the rule was stupid.

‘It’s not like he has awakened the Sacred Gear, and even if he does awaken it, what’s the worst that can happen?’ She found the whole precautionary process ridiculous. ‘It’s just Twice Critical in the end.’

She wanted to challenge the rule, prove that she was smarter and more capable than what others thought of her. She wanted to prove to Azazel that she could work directly under him and that he could trust her with bigger tasks.

So, she left Grigori under the pretext of monitoring the situation in Kuoh.

But she wasn’t in Kuoh for that. She was in the town to eliminate the Gear wielder, and she knew she would succeed.

‘Once I do, he has to take notice of me and promote me.’

She was certain of it, and with that, she decided to proceed with the elimination task.

“Keep an eye on Issei Hyoudou,” she ordered the only male Fallen on the team. “I will approach him in less than a week, and we’ll be done with this mission within that same time.”

The male, Dohnaseek, a burly-looking Fallen who seemed scarier than he actually was, nodded.

“Do you want me to keep track of the devils around him?” he asked, but she decided to decline.

“No, I already know that he’s being monitored by them. I just need to approach him when they’re busy with something else. Maybe create a diversion during my approach.” She believed that she had everything planned. “Now go and keep me updated. If things go haywire, or he shows signs of awakening his Gear, inform me immediately.”

“Very well.”

She wasn’t going to fail this, no matter the cost.