Contract Finalized

Don't Own DxD or D&D, Only The Oc

'thought'

"Speech"

System Text

'Ddraig Mental'

"Ddraig Vocal"

"Tvs, Radios, and Text via book or newspaper... when those are around..."

[Starting Split]

In devil society... it's all about give and take.

Reasonably the Sitri family won't just give Sona to me for free... despite the fact that they are basically tossing her on me.

It's devil nature to expect something in return.

And I am fully prepared to give... something... to the Sitri family in exchange for Sona's engagement and Serafall's possible future engagement.

A cure light wounds potion machine.

This will cut into my profits, sure, but frankly, I don't exactly make that much money through the potions.

Not as much as I will from white apple cider or basic catering.

The tier one potions are practically useless for me. Merely taking up my demonic power whenever I have to recharge the batteries. Then most of the profit from the potions goes into buying more bottles and buying herbs. The latter of which have been increasing in price recently... perhaps from the demand of my automatic potion creators. It may be more profitable to hop out of the potion business now and come back in the future when I have 'perfected' the formula.

"So... uh... Gaius. You said that you had things that you didn't like about Rias?" Ravel slowly questions from a nearby sofa.

"Eh, I don't really want to get into it right now. It's sort of in poor taste to talk about my friends behind their backs."

"Master, Lord and Lady Sitri is here to see you. They have brought along Sona Sitri as well." Virgo states from the screen that appears before me.

"Good." I mutter as I look back to Ravel she looks a little nervous, but seems to be resolute. "Please bring them to my office."

Ravel and I wait for a moment, then eventually a black haired man and woman enter the room, guided by Virgo. They are followed by Sona who looks about as nervous as Ravel does.

Her eyes scan the room, briefly lingering on me for a moment only to seemingly remember the fact that I've seen her naked, she swiftly breaks eye contact with a blush before locking eyes with Ravel.

"Lord Sitri. Lady Sitri. Sona." I greet. "Welcome to my humble abode."

"Greetings Lord Decarabia. We are here to negotiate the potential union between our two houses." Sona's father greets, a kind looking man with short combed black hair and purple eyes.

"I am aware." I nod. "Serafall gave me a heads up earlier today. And after some thought... and considering my current Fiancée's agreement, I have decided that it would be beneficial to create a lasting relationship between our two families. Provided, of course, Sona still wishes to go through with this."

"I-I do." She weakly mutters from the side as her mother and father take a seat

The older man nods with a small smile. "Sona has very rarely been beaten in chess. So we weren't expecting to have this sort of conversation yet."

"It was... unexpected for me as well." I agree.

"This is the contract we have for the engagement. It is fully negotiable, so if you have any issues, please speak them."

I take the stack of papers and skim through it, an impassive frown on my face.

Yes this is very standard. They have indeed asked for something. They request that I grant them twenty percent off any potions purchased from me.

The rest is a majority of the same.

Blah blah blah, Sona's virginity is mine. This won't be dissolved unless both parties agree. That sort of thing.

"There is one small problem with the potions thing." I begin slowly.

"Oh? Is twenty percent too much?"

"Too little." I answer, causing the two adults to look at me weirdly.

I lay the contract down.

"To be completely honest. I find managing the potion machines a little... annoying. The price of the herbs required to create the healing potions are going up, and it's frankly not enough money for me to really bother with. It saves people, sure. But why use my energy to keep them running when they aren't turning much of a profit. That's why I am going to give all three of my completed machines to your hospital. That way you can keep getting these life saving potions easily, and not only that, but for far cheaper than buying from me."

"Oh? That is... unusual. Not many devils would part with any form of way to make money." Sona's mother blinks.

"It's just not really cost effective." I shrug. "I'm creating other methods to generate money and as I said, the price of herbs is rising, and eventually I fear that I'll actually be losing money by keeping up to your demands. A way to get around this would be to create some farms to grow the herbs, yet they aren't profitable enough to really bother with that, either. We would take a large profit hit getting these herbs ready for farming, and realistically wouldn't see any gains at least for a decade or two."

Sona's mother nods slowly while cupping her chin.

"This way, you would be able to get those potions for far cheaper, saving many lives, and over time, build up a stable farm without seeing a large hit to your family's wealth." I continue.

"Hn." Lord Sitri hums. "I would have to be a fool to not agree to this. Very well. Would it be possible to ask you to build more machines for us as well?"

"Perhaps, but I'm going to warn you, these potion creation machines are not cheap."

"Let us create a new contract, then." The man smiles.

[Split]

I look to Sona and Ravel staring blankly at each other. the prior looks apologetic and the latter looks mildly annoyed.

Sona's parents left a while ago to 'let us talk it out'. They said that they are going to prepare some rooms for the potion factories.

Ravel suddenly lets out a sigh. "I... know I wouldn't always be the only girl married to Gaius but... I never thought I would have my position challenged so soon."

Sona frowns. "I don't want to 'Challenge' you."

"Hn. But we are both engaged to the same man... so realistically we will always be trying to get his affection. Conflict is inevitable."

Man. Ravel is such a downer. She'd call herself a realist perhaps? I can't say she's wrong, though.

"I-" Sona begins. "Hn. You are surprisingly negative."

"I am just a realist." Ravel states. "I believe that Gaius deserves a harem, yet at the same time I'm allowed to not like it because he won't have as much time for me anymore."

Sona slowly looks at me, causing me to shrug. "Anyways, I suppose we should get back to Kuoh. I'm going to attempt to gain a couple new peerage members."

Ravel shoots me a confused look, but it quickly morphs into a look of recognition. "Oh! Are you going to finally reincarnate Le Fay and Meredith?"

"I'm going to ask them if they want to be reincarnated, yes."

"Oh! I see." She beams.

"…"

"Who?" Sona blinks.

"Oh, I've had a sacred gear user- who doesn't know how to use her sacred gear- and the descendants of king Arthur- staying at my home for the past like... three to four months?"

"And you didn't tell Rias or myself?!" The glasses wearing girl exclaims.

"Well, to be fair, Kiba would probably snapped like a twig if I told him that two people related to the thing he hates most is now in Kuoh." I humorlessly scoff.

"Wh- what?" Sona whispers.

"Kiba hates Excalibur. Enough to potentially attempt to murder anyone wielding a fragment, or even Arthur's great great- numerous greats- grandchildren despite the fact the pendragon family hasn't had anything to do with Excalibur for the past two thousand years or so."

I look over Ravel as I continue. "Oh yeah. You asked about my problem with Rias earlier, right? It's not big enough to really matter, and I'm sure there's parts she doesn't like about me. But I sort of hate how she hasn't made any honest attempts to help her peerage members through their trauma."

She opens her mouth to say something.

"Kiba is a ball of rage. Akeno hates herself and limits her power. Koneko is scared of herself and limits her power. And Gasper is scared of... well... everything, but primarily his own power."

"I see. I see." Ravel nods. "A reasonable annoyance. She is squandering her peerage's potential, no?"

"Should... you really be talking behind Rias' back like this?" Sona asks.

"It's not really talking behind her back." I shrug. "I'm not being all 'damn that Rias' I genuinely still like her, and she probably confided in you about my clan trait and more than likely said something along the lines of 'Why did he have to have THAT clan trait! Now whenever I see Gaius I'll think of HIM!"

Judging by how she stiffened, I assume I hit right on the mark.

"That clearly wasn't big enough to bring to my attention, and she seems to have moved on."

"You should really bring it up to her." Ravel shrugs. "Peh. And she wants to be the rating game king and she doesn't even bother to help her peerage deal with their traumas?"

"First off. That's a little out of line, Ravel." I frown.

"S-Sorry." She whispers as she ashamedly looks at the ground.

"But, do you have a point on the first thing." I concede. "I know I should, but it doesn't exactly feel like it's my place to say anything."

"It really isn't." Sona says, causing Ravel to slowly nod. "But if you feel it's right, maybe you should just tell her."

"Hm. I may tell her when she tries to track me down for food."

Sona flinches and blushes profusely, causing Ravel to slowly look between us.

"What?" The blonde slowly asks.

"N-Nothing-" Sona begins before I cut her off.

"I helped Serafall make a cake so good it literally blew the clothes off of everyone at the party."

The glasses wearing girl lets out a slightly annoyed growl as she pouts.

"Huh?" The blonde blinks. "What? How does that even work?"

"They lost control of their demonic power or something? I don't really know." I shrug with a small grin. "Anyways, Sona, I'll see you later?"

"Yes. I shall see you later Gaius." She frowns, still irked from my teasing.

I turn and offer a single wave. "Tell your sister I think she's hot and that me, you, and her should have a threesome."

"W-What?!" The black haired girl blushes.

Ravel gives me a half lidded expression as she follows along beside me. "You want to let the Satan of foreign affairs to know that you think she's hot and you want to have sex with her?"

"Well, I mean she has been teasing me for basically the past three years. It's time to get a little payback." I shrug.

[Split]

I look to the man quietly sipping tea in the library. He seems to be skimming through some books about the Japanese language.

He looks up slowly. "Ah, Gaius, how can I help you."

I promptly lay a dagger on the table.

He blinks down at it then looks back up with a confused expression. "Yes? What about this knife?"

"This is king Arthur's dagger."

His eyes widen as he looks down at the knife with far more scrutiny. "May I?"

"Go for it." I nod.

He picks it up and carefully observes it. Shadows pool around the edge, eventually extending the blade to a length far longer than a knife should. It looks more like a sword at this point.

"I see... you are correct. This is his knife."

I lay a circular shield on the table, upon it is a fully restored image of the Virgin Mary that I painted incredibly recently. The paint would still be wet if magic didn't exist.

"Is this-"

"His shield?" I ask. "Yes. It is."

I then lay a spear on the table. "This is his spear. I want Le Fay to join my peerage. She still wants to join me. I'll offer your family these three items in exchange for allowing Le Fay to join my peerage."

He looks up slowly. "I see. It is finally time, hm? Well, you have my support. In these past few months, you have shown diligence and the ability to protect. I believe that my little sister would have the best life she could with you. I will send a message to my family and await their response.

I nod slowly. "I'll wait on reincarnating Meredith until you get word back, then."

"Alright." He nods slowly. "I will immediately begin calling my family."

"Okay." I state as I turn away. "You can keep those for now. Just let me know if they say yes or no."

I cup my chin. "Was there anything else I wanted to do today?"

"Eh, I'll think of something. Later, Arthur." I shrug as I turn and walk away.

[Split]

'let's try this...'

[BOOST!]

Power floods my body as I grin, I slash the boosted blade through the air at high speeds.

[BOOST!]

I regretfully haven't been using this as much as I should have been.

Lack of time and all.

But no more.

[BOOST!]

I'm going to at the very least unlock my balance breaker before any crazy events happen.

Mythic power and sacred gears...

Badass.

Now if Ddraig wasn't sleeping-

'TEMPORARY PARTNER!'

I flinch at the ear-drum shattering mental shout of Ddraig, bringing my hands to my ears despite the fact that it won't help at all.

"Wh-"

'There are sacred gear 'Feats'!'

"Huh?" I slowly blink.

I quickly open the shop and search for 'Sacred Gear'.

There certainly aren't many, but the fact remains that there still are some.

Bond with Sacred Gear:

Requirements: Human/at one point at least part human, Vitality 20, Level 4+.

Benefit: You have learned how to attune yourself with a stolen sacred gear, allowing it to be used as if you were the original wielder. Please note: some sentient sacred gears may not be pleased at the fact that you stole them from their original wielder.

Unlock Balance Breaker:

Requirements: Vitality 30, Must be the wielder of a Sacred Gear, Level 10+.

You learn how to tap into the full power of your sacred gear, unlocking incredible power. Every balance breaker is different. But even the tamest sacred gears can be made monstrously powerful with a simple balance breaker.

Induce Sacred Gear Bond:

Requirements: 'Bond with Sacred Gear' Feat, Int 30, Level 12.

Benefit: You have gained the knowledge of how to grant someone a sacred gear if they didn't have one originally, you must have a stolen sacred gear to make use of this feat.

Unlock Subspecies:

Requirements: Sacred Gear, Vitality 35, Level 15.

Benefit: With this feat, you give up the original ability of your sacred gear in order to grant yourself a powerful Subspecies Sacred Gear. Subspecies sacred gears typically are far stronger than a normal sacred gears of their type, their ability will always be similar to that of their original ability, but typically broken in new ways. Such as a twice critical granting a permanent boost to strength while it is in use instead of a temporary burst while also granting the wielder a new arm.

These are... interesting...

There's also an 'unlock subspecies balance breaker' feat.

And a 'Craft Sacred Gear' feat.

But that one requires me to be over level twenty one... and Mythic Tier ten.

But on the plus side, it'll allow me to create TRUE sacred gears instead of Azazel's fakes.

Wait. Are there other mythic sacred gear feats?

Mythic Sacred Gear:

Requirements: Sacred Gear, Vitality 40, Mythic Rank 6+

Benefit: You unlock the 'Mythic' Variant of your sacred gear and it's balance breaker. This is quite similar to unlocking a subspecies, however, unlike a subspecies, which takes the base powers of the sacred gear into account when making changes, this improves the base abilities of the sacred gear AND may also grant your sacred gear new powers entirely!

Note: This feat may stack with 'Unlock Subspecies', and 'Unlock Subspecies Balance Breaker'.

Ah. Shit. Still out of my reach.

Most of these feats are. My stats are sitting around twenty each, with my dexterity being the highest at twenty-seven.

"So..." I mutter slowly.

[BOOST!]

"You want me to get this?"

"With these changes, you would easily become the strongest red dragon emperor to date." Ddraig announces. "Then you'll be able to ruthlessly beat Albion's wielder."

"I don't think I'm Juggernaut Drive level quite yet."

"Hn. True. But within time you would possibly outpace him with just your balance breaker."

"Did you finally finish absorbing the sheath?" I ask slowly.

"I have. The boosted blade now has all the powers of the sheath of Excalibur. And to a limited extent the abilities of the Excalibur fragments."

"Ohohoho." I darkly chuckle. "Good. Now it can't be taken from me."

I look to the blade in my hand and watch as it suddenly shifts and becomes the classic boosted gear gauntlet, quickly enveloping my hand.

"You think I could make armor out of this?"

"That's probably a bit too far beyond the sheath's abilities. Even this is pushing it a little. It's only able to take this form as this is the original form of the sacred gear. With Excalibur mimic you might be able to extend it to your shoulder, but that's it."

"Ah." I sigh. "But we are faster now, right? And can mind control people if we punch them?"

"We should be faster, and it is theoretically possible to control people now. your control may be stronger if you absorbed Excalibur Ruler as well."

"Hn. Nah. I'm going to reforge Excalibur at some point, and I can't really do that if the boosted gear ate the strongest fragment." I grin and cock a hand back and punch forwards.

[BOOST!]

An invisible force rushes from the gauntlet and carves a trench in the earth that goes for a good thirty feet before dying out.

"Destruction is working..."

I hold up a hand and conjure an energy orb.

My other hand passes through it as if it isn't there.

"Nightmare's illusion is working." I note

The gauntlet turns invisible, showing me my bare hand underneath "Transparency is... weaker than I expected. But I suppose having an invisible weapon has its merits."

The gauntlet reappears as I give it a single nod.

"The only one remaining is blessing. And that's honestly a little worthless to me so I don't really care if it is working or not."

"Is the defense still working?" I ask suddenly.

"it is."

"Alright. Good. I'm about to reach my boost limit."

[BOOST!]

"Eight boosts is impressive for your first time using the boosted gear. Like this I bet you could defeat most weaker ultimate class devils in a fight."

"There is one more thing I want to try." I slowly mutter as I take a small stance.

Two Mythic charges disappear as raw power floods my body, my strength balloons massively. What I was before is merely a speck compared to what I am now.

"Partner?! What the hell are you doing?!"

My power swells, rampaging out of control for a brief moment before I regain control.

I look to a large block of adamantine nearby. My fist clenches as I turn, I throw a punch with my weight behind it with a savage grin.

The adamantine block ripples slightly as cracks cascade across it. It is lifted off the ground as it is shot back and crashes into the far wall of my training arena.

I let out a satisfied hum as the block falls to the ground, my strength leaves my body as I fall to a knee and let out a tired breath. A crater easily a foot deep remains on the block.

"What the hell was that?" The dragon residing in my gem questions.

"A mythic ability of mine... whenever I use it, I practically just boost myself eight times for six seconds."

My arm falls off only to swiftly turn into fire and reform on the stump.

"Ah. I should probably also increase my vitality when I do that and not just strength and speed."

"You... boost yourself eight times in an instant?!"

Yep." I nod with a small grin. "I've done it for a while, but it looks like it stacks with the boosted gear to shoot me far past my limit. Luckily, I have regeneration so I don't have to deal with the pesky... dying... of breaking my body that badly."

I clench and unclench my fist as I look to the gauntlet covering my forearm and hand.

[RESET!] the green gem on the back calls out.

"Well. That's enough training for now." I note as I cause the sacred gear to disappear. "Also. Did you just call me partner instead of 'temporary-partner' or 'False Partner'?"

"…"

The back of my hand glows briefly. "No."

"Not gonna fess up? Alright. I don't really care all that much. I'm just glad that you are starting to see me as better partner than Issei would have been."

"A limbless goat would be better partner than the pervert would have been." The dragon deadpans. "it's not a matter of if you are better, it's a matter of you weren't born with the sacred gear."

"Eh." I shrug. "At this point, could someone even tell I wasn't?"

"Yes. Because if they ask, you'd probably tell them."

"True. I don't like to lie after all." I agree.

I let out a quiet yawn as I stretch. "Ah well. Shame 'Keep Watch' doesn't work when I'm training like this. I think I'll be going to bed now."

"Alright."

The dragon falls silent, seemingly moving on and going to do other things.

I hold up a hand and teleport out of the underground room.

I slowly walk up to my room and open the door. I see Ravel sitting on my bed reading a book.

She flinches slightly and looks over to the door, a blush crosses her face as she smiles brightly. "Ah! Gaius! I was waiting for you!"

She is wearing some fairly risky lingerie, the kind you can see through if you look hard enough.

With a wave of my hand, any sweat on my body from my quick training session is removed.

"I hope you didn't wait long. I was just doing a little training." I state as I slowly walk to the bed.

"Oh, not at all." She smiles with a shake of her head. "It hasn't been even ten minutes since I got here."

I take my shoes off and with a wave of my hands swap into a T shirt and my underwear and climb under the blankets.

Ravel slides down beside me and looks over with a small blush on her face as her head reaches her pillow. Her hair is let down and trails messily around the pillowcase.

"By the way, you don't have to wear lingerie if it's uncomfortable." I comment. "I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable while you sleep because you were trying to look sexy."

"O-Oh?"

"But I mean, you succeeded." I easily compliment, causing the girl's face to turn red.

"A-Alright."

She shuffles under the blanket for a moment, then tosses her bra aside.

I respond by taking my shirt off and pressing my forehead into hers, a small satisfied smile on my face.

She seems to be at a loss for a moment as I pull my head back, she looks to the side shakily.

She seems to make a split-second decision and leans forwards, her lips pressing against my own.

She pulls back a second later with a shy blush on her face.

"Well. It looks like you stole my first kiss... better take Responsibility, Ravel." I smirk as I relax into the extremely plush bed.

"I-I will... I-it was mine too s-so you as well!"

I feel her breasts press into my side as she shimmies close and relaxes in my grasp as I wrap an arm around her.

Perfect. This is bliss.

"Don't worry Ravel, one day I'll do my duty as the lord of my house and put a baby in you." I hum as I feel her face press into my chest.

"E-Eh?!" The girl stutters as her face heats up.

She's so easy to tease.

[Endsplit]