Beloved Seraph I
Three individuals departed the main room; the servants of the Lucifuge Household made way for them to exit and head upstairs towards Richter's bedroom. For the whole time, there was mostly silence with Grayfia watching carefully any of Gabriel's movements. If the previous her, she'd have already attacked... during the second war, she rarely saw Gabriel on the battlefield, being nothing more than a soldier. She was a young devil girl from the Lucifuge Clan while Archangel was already a Great Seraph; a powerhouse from the Heavens.
With time Grayfia had mewled up, mostly due to her mother's insistence and could better handle the presence of cute angels and fallen angels from the Lucifuge Clan. She could see how most of them, standing by the side, looked at Gabriel with immense respect, but not so much as to forsake the devils that have given them everything they had, the Lucifuge.
What touched her deepest intrigue, however, was not how much closeness Gabriel displayed with her master, but instead... how he also seemed to know her from a long time ago.
...
When the three finally reached Richter's room which he shared with Layla, Fia and Grayfia. The first thing the Seraph did -much to Grayfia's apprehension- was to directly jump on Richter's back and hug him tightly. The Golden Dragon came to an abrupt stop while Grayfia got on guard, even displaying her golden demon wings, ready for anything.
However... what came after was not Richter's response, but Gabriel's sorrowful sobs.
"I love you... I'm sorry...! I-I love you..."
Her mumblings confused Grayfia, let alone the ridiculous confession that came out of nowhere, there was an apology there as well.
'Are you confessing or apologising, decide for one!'
"..." Richter provided no answer as if he had already expected this... his gaze merely focused on the windows of the room in which the clouds and broad sky from the human world were visible; his gaze seemed to be recalling a not-so-far past.
"I have always loved you...! from the first moment... for the next hundred years we spent together... I always loved you, Richter... always, ALWAYS!"
The more Gabriel spoke, the more confused Grayfia got.
"Is that so?" Richter's answer was dry still, but he still failed to shove Gabriel away as Grayfia expected him to, instead... he seemed to be waiting for more, an explanation.
"Richter-sama, could you explain to me what happened?" the Demon Goddess had reached the peak of confusion and didn't know what to even do. Thankfully, Gabriel released Richter with reluctance and turned heels, facing her with a kind smile that she wasn't expecting.
"Grayfia Lucifuge... you accomplished the mission, don't you? you conquered Richter's heart, something I couldn't do..."
!!!
It was then that the only imaginable possibility dawned in Grayfia's mind.
"A thousand years after Monique's death... Horlein departed Goldstein, having grown up enough to leave the nest... two hundred years later Gabriel appeared out of nowhere... I was sleeping at that time" Richter explained to Grayfia who gasped at having her suspicions confirmed.
Back then the system had said... that many had tried the mission before and no one had accomplished it; she was also said that if she rejected, then only someone else would be chosen. The system hadn't been lying... and one of those 'candidates' had been this Seraph. Knowing the rules, in order to be here... there was a single possibility. She had surrendered.
"In truth, I spent more than two decades in Goldestein... not knowing what to do or where to go... that place was so beautiful and captivating, right?" Gabriel asked Grayfia with a smile only to earn a blush from the demoness who nodded, Goldstein was indeed like an exotic desert with gold shining as far as the eyes could see.
"But I was told to 'conquer' the Dragon's heart... and didn't even know where to start... if you can so easily speak about it, that means she told you, right?" Gabriel inquired to Richter, referring to the fact that he previously mentioned her inability to conquer his heart. That only meant he was aware of the 'mission'.
Richter nodded and Gabriel exhaled a deep breath of relief, "I-I always thought that explaining that to you would be my most difficult hurdle".
"It was... I also panicked... when the time came for me to explain it to Richter-sama... I thought he'd kill me".
"I thought so too... that's why I never said it".
A small smile resurfaced in both beauties while Richter rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, indicating for Gabriel to continue. The three of them took a seat on the big bed with Richter in the middle; Grayfia to his right and Gabriel to his left.
"I was summoned before you, into Helius... back then, during the first war between devils and angels... the screen appeared for me as well; as it likely did for you. It said that father, the Biblical God, was going to die in the future. I could stop it by accomplishing a mission" Gabriel fidgeted and tears were clearly visible in her eyes as she spoke. Grayfia gasped, imagining what she was feeling.
The Biblical God did die during the second war, which means... the system hadn't been wrong.
'I-Is she blaming herself for it?'
...
"If I did accomplish the mission; the heavens would win this war and bring a new age of prosperity for humans and angels... the fallen angels would be forgiven and turned back into angels and everything would have been perfect. Back then I had fought against Asmodeous and was heavily injured... father was stressed and so were my brothers; my eldest sister Azrael was exiled... everything was chaotic. I didn't think twice before accepting this mission".
As if about to enter the most difficult topic, Gabriel once again hugged Richter's waist, sinking her head into his chest.
"..." Richter sighed and enveloped her in his arms as well.
"But the mission... that was the problem, Richter. Once I appeared in Helius, it turned out to be something I was unable to accomplish and completely didn't expect... I spent decades walking aimlessly in Goldestein until eventually, you appeared to fend off some Gods who were trying to steal your treasures".
Gabriel's gaze was lost as if placing herself back in those times, a smile appeared inadvertently.
"I remember... you never told me you had been walking around for decades" He furrowed his brows, realising this small detail that went under the rug back then.
"It was unimportant... the moment I saw you I grew immediately interested in you" Her hand caressed Richter's chest and even now there was endless infatuation concealed within, that gaze a gaze Richter hadn't seen her do before... it was a gaze bereft of innocent, instead there was fierce passion in it. It was precisely this gaze that she had been lacking before.
"I remember that you spoke to me without fear, instead you asked me if my scales were soft... you had no ill intention but I took that as an insult and allowed you to touch them" he smirked and both of them quickly got into a friendly mood that astounded Grayfia... a minute ago her master was visually upset... yet Gabriel's presence had managed to soothe him so quickly.
"Yes, I remember that as well~ how naive I was back then, right? I was genuinely awed by how beautiful your dragon form was... to the point at that moment I didn't even acknowledge you were the objective whose heart I had to conquer..."
"I-Is that so...?" Grayfia's eyebrows twitched at the realisation that her first meeting with her master had been so chaotic.
'Was my choice of words really so bad that it garnered him to immediately turn me into a golden statue?' All she could do was feel ashamed of herself.