5 Chapter 5:

Rule 8:

Most often than not, a young master is loved by his parents who want the best for him. Be a filial son and listen to their wishes unless they directly contradict one of this book's core rules.

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Damira Phenex's POV:

Motherhood was hard, more so when your third and youngest son decided to come back from his little suicidal adventure accompanied by a SS-Rank criminal wearing a disguise that would only fool those with a room temperature IQ, meaning that it would work on the average devil quite well.

It was a shame that they could not simply throw the girl to the authorities and be done with it. Not only would that be the same as going against Ophis' will, but she really didn't want to do that to her son.

Oh well, this wouldn't be the biggest scandal that Damira would have ever hide.

"This isn't happening, it is not really happening." Her beloved muttered to himself over and over in an adorable fashion that made him look vulnerable, so she gently elbowed him a tiny bit.

While she would have loved to devour him right here, they probably should deal with this situation first.

"My lords, it's my honor to have the opportunity to meet you." At least the nekomata knew how to act politely when the situation required.

"Riser, I see that you have brought…company." Sweet Aurelio commented, utterly ignoring the cat in favor of focusing on their child as he should.

The criminal shot wary glances at her oldest child after being ignored, but soon calmed down when Riser whispered something into her ears.

Her child was already a gentleman capable of soothing a lady's worries! She wished that she could take a photo without ruining the moment.

"Fear not, my phoenix father has not begotten a canary son. I had some fortuitous encounters and met this wonderful young lady. Her name is-"

"Kaguya. Her name is Kaguya. She is a kitsune with black hair and yellow eyes that just happens to know some basic senjutsu." Aurelio interrupted in his favorite commanding tone. "Did I make myself clear?"

Damira smiled in satisfaction at the sight of her husband demanding respect with his mere presence.Tonight she would break his hips twice as a reward for helping their child to keep what she assumed to be his new pet or lover. Worse came to worst, they could always get rid of the cat at any given moment.

Parents should support their children's growth, especially when it could lead to some grandchildren in the near future.

"Did you follow my advice? The last thing I want is to watch my little sibling getting hurt because of his own recklessness." Damira could only sigh at her second child's question.

She should not have been surprised that Revive was the first one to open his mouth after that warning. Among her children, he had been the only one who inherited Aurelio's orange hair and eyes so looking at him was like staring at a younger and much more flamboyant version of her husband. An admittedly more cunning one if the way he was subtly studying the criminal's reaction to his seemly innocuous question was anything to go by.

"My jewels are safe." Riser rolled his eyes.

"That's great to hear." Her oldest child, Ruval, cheerfully said, carefully positioning himself between his father and the nekomata just in case. "Why don't you stay with mother while we have a talk with Lady Kaguya about her new salary?"

He was such a dependable young man.

"Try not to threaten my soon-to-be Dao Companion."

Her little chick could be so silly at times, he should be worried about himself right now.

"Riser." Damira finally uttered this single word after forty–five minutes of silence that probably was agonizing for her child. "Your strength is absolutely useless."

The other had left the room a while ago, so it was just the two of them that were here.

Maybe she should not be using so many intimidating tactics when talking to her son, but it was more likely for him to learn his lesson this way. That and his gobsmacked face was like his father's.

"Oh, I don't mean that there is something inherently wrong with that." She assured her to avoid hurting his feelings. "To be honest, I think that we should have had this conversation way earlier."

Riser wanted to speak up, but she gently silenced him with one of her sweetest smiles that people who weren't her husband found quite unsettling.

"You are, for better or worse, just like me. Doing things just because it feels that not doing them is the worse alternative."

Her sweet boy did not even like sitting in the same spot for hours, and yet he did all the same every single day. It honestly brought her some less than pleasant memories.

"Have I ever told you the story of how I met your father?"

She had, a lot of times in fact, but Damira just loved to reminisce about her own love story so much she couldn't help it.

"As you know, I was originally part of Dantalion Clan. The cute and beautiful daughter that was there to look nice and proper in front of the guest." She explained with her mouth twisting in a sneer. "I practiced with my magic, learnt to fight, studied ancient history, learnt about politics and a bunch of other silly things because they seemed somewhat useful."

Back then she didn't mind, but now she utterly despised every single second of that bland hell almost as much as she hated those women who attempted to get closer to her dear Aurelio. There was no place in the world for those hideous memories nor for those harlots.

"My parents would bring me to parties to show how much better I was than everyone else in my age group. It was…so utterly boring." She said with a heavy sigh. "I wasn't particularly talented, but I kept training and learning for the sake of it. What else was I supposed to do? I didn't really have a goal in mind."

And all of the sudden, her somber mood was replaced by a wild expression that very few would dare to call a smile.

"But then one day I met your father at a party in the Bael Castle. He was bowing his head to a devil much stronger than him and gritting his teeth while listening to the stronger devil mocking him, the last living member of the Phenex Clan, for being so weak. To be fair, it was the truth, your father was too weak to be considered a high-class devil despite being already an adult. It was pathetic sight, yet your father just accepted all the insults with his head down."

One of her biggest regrets was not claiming him as hers right there.

"I didn't do anything; at that moment I didn't even bother to learn his name. My Aurelio, my dear Aurelio…Oh right, it wasn't until the next year that I met him again at another party."

The great poison master of the Phenex Clan laughed jovially, smiling as if someone had given her a puppy.

"He was there, drinking a cup of wine while watching a devil begging for his help. That was the same devil that mocked him last year, it seemed that he fell into bankruptcy and was asking your father for a loan."

Her breathing became ragged just by remembering how manly her husband looked back then. The contrast between that and his shy side was just delicious.

"Your father just looked at him…and accepted. There was no hatred in his cold eyes, no fear, no happiness, no delight in watching his previous oppressor kneeling in front of him. That devil was nothing more than a tool in your father's eyes."

Damira hugged herself in an attempt to stifle her moans, there would be a lot of time for that during the night.

"That was the moment when I finally found something that I actually wanted. "

For the first time in her life her actions had a meaning.

"My parents weren't particularly happy when I declared that I would marry your father of all people, but nothing that a bit of blackmail, threats, poisoning, extortion, defamation weren't able to fix."

And that was one of the multiple reasons why the Dantalion Clan hated the Phenex to the bone, but nobody cared about the opinion of those pathetic winged worms.

"My little chick, you are just obsessive as I am." Her voice was filled with pride. "Why are you getting so strong?"

"To survive and protect our ancestral house."

"In other words, out of fear and a misplaced feeling of duty." She shook her head and embraced her dear son in a tight hug. "My poor little bird, do you even care about the stray that you brought here or is she a tool to assure your future?"

Her kid did not care about the criminal he brought with him. He merely saw her as a means to an end.

He was obsessed with getting stronger, but he himself did not care about personal strength. This boy was an empty child doing things that he did not understand out of inertia just because he read about them in a book.

Ah, she could not wait for the day her child actually fell in love and gave his obsession a meaning just like she did.

"Everything is fine, mom understands. You are as obsessive as me, training so much for reasons that aren't even yours." She caressed her child's golden hair in a soothing manner. "But don't worry, sooner or later you will find something that you actually want for yourself and only for yourself. When that happens, promise me something."

"Don't lose. Be a coward, lie, be cruel, be mean, cheat, run away, try again, but please don't lose."

Her child was very much like her, meaning that the world would not survive him losing the object of his obsession.

...Such a bland world had no reason to exist after all.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kuroka's POV:

Life did not always go the way one first expected. Even the whims of a cat made more sense than the turns that fate seemed to take whenever it got bored or decided to be particularly cruel.

Oh, she did expect her parents to get themselves killed, leaving she and little Shirone to fend by themselves. Not that it changed anything to be honest, she had been taking care of her younger sister for years by that point.

She also expected that making a deal with a literal devil would backfire sooner than later, but even she had to admit that she found herself surprised by how soon that happened. Who in his right mind would speak about forcing a little girl to go through countless extremely painful experiments in from of her older sister? It was almost like the devil had forgotten that living beings could feel actual emotions instead of merely mimicking them.

Being forcibly recruited by the Apex of Infinity after barely escaping alive from the entirety of devilkind was certainly included in the list of things that she wasn't prepared for. Ophis had just appeared from nowhere, declared that Kuroka would be working for her, and then left her in the middle of Japan. There were no words to describe how lucky it was that Yasaka had a heart almost as big as her boobs (those melons were even bigger than hers and the nekoushou was not lacking in that department at all) and let her stay in the city for a while until she found a place to hide.

Had that been everything, she could have understood. Life sucked sometimes; it was like a box of chocolate, yada yada yada. She got it and could live with that...as long as Shirone was safe.

And then…. bullshit happened.

In hindsight, it was her own fault for deciding to stick around and annoy the little sister of the devil that was apparently looking for her. It was a bad idea, but she really wanted to tease the little blonde for as long as possible. It may not have been nearly as heartwarming as teasing her own little sister, but Ravel was adorable in her own way, so it was better than nothing.

The fact that she found the rumors about a Buddhist devil hilarious may also played a part in her deciding to meet the Phenex boy.

Riser was, for the lack of a more accurate word, a moron. Kuroka had more than her fair share of morons during her life but never one like him. When she noticed that the apparently talented Phenex reciprocated her advances, she was ready to throw our panties away and make some fire kitties... but then he managed to see through her disguise.

Did she mention that he was immune to most poisons? That had been pretty annoying. While she did have some poisons that likely could affect him, she really didn't want to hurt Ravel by accident in the process.

And then he offered her a job offer out of the suddenly; a great one at that. If he was speaking the truth, then she would be able to enjoy living in a great mansion and watch over her little sister in secret.

The problem was that her very healthy distrust issues were still a thing.

At that point, maybe Kuroka really shouldn't have been surprised when he proclaimed that he would talk to Ophis just so she could come with him. The only reason she even told him about Ophis was so he would step back like anyone with an ounce of commonsense would do.

Imagine, a young and rich scion decided to confront the most terrifying dragon in existence just for the sake of a beautiful wanted-fugitive he had just met early that day. It was like the plot of a very trashy romance novel that people liked to read. The idiotic bird was certainly interested in her body and was more than happy to cup a feeling when she offered, the problem was that he refused to go any further than that…he really clam jammed. The very idiotic bird kept insisting on trying to win her affection before committing the act for some unholy reason.

In all honesty, the effort he put into it was certainly flattering. The problem was that the nekoshou really wasn't interested in a committed relationship after that clusterfuck known as her parents. Did that mean that she has both mommy and daddy issues? Probably, but she didn't feel like changing that anytime soon.

Oh, and then he managed to actually convince Ophis...somehow.

The funny thing was, instead of exasperation, she could only feel relief over the fact he survived that self-imposed suicidal mission. Just because Kuroka didn't want to reciprocate his feelings, didn't mean that she wished harm to fall upon him or anything.

The fact his family just accepted that he brought a criminal back home after having a conversation with the most dangerous creature in existence told Kuroka everything she needed to know about what her new job would entailed.

Had that been all, Kuroka maybe could have accepted that life was filled with unexpecting things.

But this…

"In order to become one with the universe, I must first accept that I have always been connected to it, but my pride blinded me of such simple truth. I have always been an extension of all things."

This was...

"Sister Kuroka." He slightly bowed. "I humbly thank you for this lesson. I was blind and you offered guidance."

BULLSHIT.

This could not possibly be happening right now.

Riser was currently touching a wild bush on the ground, helping it to grow beautiful red flowers by sharing his natural energy with it… and Kuroka knew for a fact that bush should have blue flowers instead.

Kuroka lacked the words to express her feelings at this moment. Being a natural born genius at senjutsu was her thing. Her entire species was literally bred for senjutsu and yet this random devil had shown a talent comparable to hers.

This was too much; she was so fucking…wet? A jolt of pleasure of pleasure ran down her spine as legs started tingling in excitement.

Was she still furious by this nonsense? Yes, but also extremely aroused.

"I'm so above good and evil." Riser bragged with a big and stupid grin on his face. "We should watch a movie after this to celebrate...actually, I don't know that many movies now that I think about it. I'll have to ask Ravel for a recommendation.

Without even realizing it, Kuroka was smiling too, albeit in a somewhat more lascivious fashion. Despite all his…riserness, the blonde's enthusiasm had started to grow on her, like fungus. Looking at his shirtless and sweating figure was making wonders for her mood.

''I'm certainly in the mood for something spicy ~ nya.''

Maybe if she were to push his face into her cleavage while nibbling his ears right at this moment, she would finally get her feathered kitties. Unlikely, but trying was part of the fun.