48 Vacationing in Martinique

Human World, Martinique, Sainte-Anne Village, Les Salinas Beach.

By the time The Alaverus, Gremory, and Sitri families had set off on their trip to the beach, the entire Underworld had been made aware that James Alaverus, a half-devil, had defeated Sona Sitri in a game of chess. Needless to say, there were many unhappy pure-blooded devils. A lot of the sons of the Pillar Houses have already petitioned to have James and Sona separated. Even if they have yet to announce an engagement. With righteous excuses, these noble sons wish nothing more than to have James executed for tainting a noble. The fact of the matter is they are jealous that a half-devil was able to do something they were unable to with their superior bloodlines, or so they would like to think.

On the other hand, Leona, Venelana, Rhea, Serafall, James, Rias, Sona, and their peerages were standing in the lobby of a beachside resort hotel on the island of Martinique. For the next week, they will be the only guests staying in this hotel. As this hotel is owned by the Gremory group, it does not take much effort to book the entire hotel.

"This kinda feels like a waste of money." James said while scratching his head. "I mean seriously, how much are the losses the Gremory group is taking for this little weeklong vacation?"

"That's not something you need to worry about, James." Venelana said with a smile.

"Yes, what you need to worry about is how far the other girls will go now that you're engaged to Sona." Rhea said while laughing with a hand covering her mouth.

"Absolutely not!" Serafall exclaimed before hugging Sona tightly. "I won't let anyone have my So-Tan if they aren't stronger than Sirzechs-Chan."

Putting on a sad face, James asked, "Does that mean you don't like me anymore Sera-Tan?"

Serafall froze. She was completely unable to answer James' question. Using the break in her processing ability, James pulled Sona from her grasp and wrapped her in his arms. This action caused Sona to blush even harder than when Serafall was hugging her. It also caused Rias, Akeno, Mizore, Moka, and Flora to glare at them strongly. Eventually, Serafall's brain rebooted.

"No, Jay-Kun. Of course, I like you!" Serafall shouted in panic. "I like you the most after So-Tan right he..."

Serafall finally noticed that something was missing. When she looked around, she finally noticed Sona was being hugged by James. Meanwhile, James was looking at her with a big smile on his face. The worst part of this whole situation was the fact that Sona was not struggling to escape from James. The exact opposite of her reaction when Serafall hugs her. The blow Serafall took from that image was more than she was ready for. With her head down and looking even smaller than usual, Serafall walked shakily to a corner. Once there, she crouched down and began drawing circles with her finger.

Seeing her elder sister like this, Sona looked up at James. With her gaze, she was clearly asking James to do something to make Serafall feel better. Wanting to live up to Sona's expectations, James stopped to think for a moment. When he came up with a fix for this situation, James' eyes lit up. He then, instead of hugging Sona with both arms like he had been, opened one of his arms wide and spoke.

"Hey Sera-Tan." James said loud enough that Serafall could not help but turn her head in his direction.

When she looked up, Serafall saw James with one arm around Sona's waist and the other open wide in a welcoming way.

"I think you're looking at this the wrong way, Sera-Tan." James said with a big smile on his face. "Even when I marry Sona..."

"Oh, he said when not if." Leona said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I wonder if that means greed is his main sin?" Venelana added with a smile.

"Ara, Ara, James is so domineering." Rhea said with the same kind of mischievous smile as the other two mothers. "I would have never guessed that was your type, Sona."

With the interruption from the three mothers, Sona was now leaking steam from her ears while she was red down to her collar bones. At the same time, James was a little annoyed at being interrupted.

"Do you mind if I finish?" James asked with a pointed stare.

"By all means, please, go ahead." Leona, Venelana, and Rhea said in unison.

"Ahem, like I was saying." James cleared his throat before picking up where he left off. "When I marry Sona, you won't be losing your little sister. Instead, you'll be getting a new little brother. Or am I not good enough for you, Sera-Tan?"

Serafall's eyes opened wide. She had never thought about it like that. And to be honest, that is because she never considered the possibility of James defeating Sona in a game of chess. But now, it felt like her eyes were opened and the fog was cleared. Once she had accepted James' words as truth, she rushed toward James' open arm and hugged both James and Sona tighter than should be possible with er short arms.

"Hahaha!!!" Serafall's joy was apparent as she laughed. She then spoke happily. "Now Jay-Kun is my little brother!"

While Serafall was rejoicing in the fact that she would have a new sibling, Sona was a bit worried.

"James, will this be alright?" Sona asked in a tone full of concern. "Now she'll be just as crazy with you as she is with me."

"Don't worry about it." James said with a smile. "What she does can't compare to my mom embarrassing me in public."

Thinking back to when they first started their trip to the Underworld, when Leona pointed out that James had an erection in public. Or to just yesterday when she shouted about James losing his virginity without any tangible proof, Sona could not help but agree with what James said.

Meanwhile, Leona, Venelana, and Rhea were looking at the trio with smiles.

"I don't know how many times I've said this, Leona, but that boy of yours is really something special." Venelana said. "Rias needs to do something about her own engagement. Otherwise, she's gonna spend a lot of time pouting like now."

In response to Venelana's words, Rhea and Leona looked over to the rest of the group. More precisely the tall redhead whose expression was closer to scowling than pouting.

"I think we should break up this little intimate moment." Leona said with a giggle. "We don't want any fights to happen on our vacation."

Nodding to Leona's assessment, Rhea spoke to the group of youngsters.

"Okay, we've got the whole place to ourselves. Go choose your rooms."

From there, the group left the lobby to search through the hotel for their ideal room. James chose a suite on the top floor with a balcony facing the beach. The suite he chose had three bedrooms, an adjoined full bath for each bedroom, a living room, a bathroom adjoined to the living room, and a jacuzzi hot tub on the balcony. Overall, he was thrilled with his selection.

When rias found out James had a suite to himself, she had a rather bold thought.

'I can share that suite with James.' Rias thought to herself with a satisfied grin on her lips.

Before she could attempt to make that thought into reality, Venelana appeared from nowhere and scolded her.

"I know what you're thinking, and I'm disappointed in you, Rias." Venelana said with a reprimanding tone. "And don't start pouting with me, young lady. Even if I didn't come to stop you from doing something shameful, James would never agree. He cares about your reputation. More than you do anyway."

With that, Rias' master plan died before it could be implemented. She then chose the room closest to the hotel's restaurant whose window faced the beach. Likewise, everyone else chose rooms of their liking. After about an hour, the group was planning to gather in the hotel's lobby. Dressed in swimwear, the boys were waiting for the girls and women to arrive.

"Why do women always take so long to get dressed?" Dante asked with annoyance in his tone. "I mean, seriously, they're just putting on bathing suits."

"Saying things like that is why you neither have a girlfriend, nor will you ever have a girlfriend." Lady said harshly as she made her way to the group of boys.

Seeing her lean and athletic figure in a sporty, black two-piece swimsuit with white accents, Yuuto and Cu Chulainn appreciated Lady's appearance briefly, then went back to simply waiting for the rest of the group to make their way downstairs.

"Shut up, Lady." Dante shot back. "What would you know about having a significant other."

In response, Lady sighed in annoyance. James checked out Lady for a little longer than the other two had previously, then offered a compliment.

"That suit looks good on you, Lady." James said with a thumbs up.

"Thanks." Lady replied simply. She then looked at Dante and spoke again. "See, that's why James has so many girls interested in him. It wouldn't kill you to say something nice every once in a while."

"Last time I said something nice to you, you punched me in the face." Dante muttered.

"If you can't figure out why, then this conversation no longer has any meaning." lady said, then sighed exasperatedly.

Leaning closer to Dante, James asked what he said that got him punched in the face. Not seeing anything wrong with what he said, Dante told him.

"One day she was leaving the shop in a pair of tight jeans, and I told her: 'Those jeans make your ass look nice and big.' Then she turned around and punched me as hard as she could."

"*Sigh* Yup, she's absolutely right." James said.

Hearing the boys' conversation, Lady nodded after hearing James agree with her. Shortly after that, Reya came toward the group. Wearing a sky-blue one-piece swimsuit with the majority of her back exposed and a white pareo tied in a way that covered her left leg, she looked to be in a good mood.

"Don't take this as flirting, Reya." James said to preface his next statement. "But you sure know how to pick a swimsuit."

With a slight blush, Reya smiled at James' compliment. That smile grew even wider when she saw Yuuto looking over her body with appreciation. Even so, she responded to James politely.

"Thank you for the compliment, James." Reya said while looking over James. "You look nice, too."

James, like the others, was wearing swimming trunks. The difference between the four boys was what they were wearing on their upper bodies. Dante was not wearing a shirt, completely topless with dark red swimming trunks with an inverted cross embroidered on each leg. Cu Chulainn was wearing a white t-shirt and navy-blue swimming trunks with a white stripe along each hem. Yuuto wore a plain, dark grey tank top with matching swimming trunks. And James was wearing an open, white, short sleeved shirt and a pair of black swimming trunks with the kanji for six framed by the corners of a diamond embroidered on the left leg in white.

The next to come down were Mizore and Moka. Wearing a light blue bikini with purple accents that matched her eyes, Mizore was skipping slightly ahead of Moka, who wore a white bikini with black straps tied behind her neck, back, and on her hips.

"James, James, do you like my swimsuit?" Mizore asked excitedly while waving her arms to get James' attention.

In response, James smiled brightly and spoke.

"Of course, I do." James replied. "You look great. So do you, Moka."

As they neared James, Mizore and Moka made eye contact briefly as they both noticed the desire in James' eyes. After that, the two girls stood on James' sides then wrapped their arms around his. James then found his arms pressed by some soft and tender flesh, as his arms were now squeezed between Mizore and Moka's breasts.

The next to arrive were Leona, wearing a simple black bikini, Venelana, wearing a violet one-piece with a diamond cut out on her chest that showed a large amount of cleavage, Rhea, who was wearing a forest green bikini and a sarong dyed with the patterns of islands dotting a sea, and Kunou, who was wearing a cute two-toned one-piece swimsuit that was red below her waist and white above it.

When Kunou saw James, she shot off in his direction like a bullet. Seeing that, James freed his arms and knelt to catch Kunou. Once Kunou was in his arms, he stood and spoke while booping her on the nose.

"If I had to guess, I'd say you were excited about going to play on the beach." James said with a smile.

"Uh huh!" Kunou said with a strong nod. "I wanna swim, and play volleyball, and do watermelon splitting, and build a sandcastle, and..."

Kunou went on about all the things she wanted to do while the three mothers made their way behind her. When they reached the group, James said jokingly.

"Huh? Whose older sisters are these?" James said while looking around for another group of guests, knowing full well the entire hotel was booked just for them. "Then again, you three look familiar."

With a giggle, Leona swatted James on the arm. "That's enough, James. Being called young feels nice, though."

"Yes, it really does." Venelana said with a smile.

"Agreed." Rhea said with a nod.

As the group chatted and waited for the last seven members, Cu Chulainn's head suddenly turned. When everyone followed his line of sight, they saw Sona, Serafall, and Tsubaki approaching. To be more precise, Sona, wearing a black bikini with light blue accents and a Sitri insignia on the left cup of her top in the same color, was being chased by Serafall, who wore a frilly one-piece pink swimsuit with white accents that looked more like a magical girl uniform than a swimsuit and carrying a matching light blue swimsuit. Meanwhile, Tsubaki, wearing a yellow bikini with black accents, was following them calmly.

"Come on, So-Tan!" Serafall shouted while pursuing her little sister. "We would be matching!"

"Elder Sister, there's no way I'm wearing that." Sona screamed as she ran away from Serafall. "James, please help me. And mother, stop laughing and make your eldest daughter stop."

"Haha, since you're old enough to find a fiancé, you're old enough to deal with your sister by yourself now." Rhea said with a giggle.

"I hate you mother!" Sona shouted uncharacteristically.

Meanwhile, James was holding on to Serafall and whispering in her ear. As James spoke, Serafall's eyes brightened, and her smile widened. Once Sona realized that Serafall was no longer chasing her, she looked back and saw this sight. This, unfortunately, did not reassure her. Instead, a chill ran down her spine. She could only imagine the devious thoughts James was transmitting to Serafall with a smile. At the same time, Cu Chulainn was stammering out compliments to a fiercely blushing Tsubaki for her choice of swimsuit.

After them, Koneko, wearing a plain, one-piece navy blue swimsuit, was dragging a struggling Gasper, who wore a pink and white female, two-piece swimsuit skirt, behind her.

"Come on Gaspy!" Koneko said while dragging Gasper behind her as she ran to join the group. "Do you want to be later than Rias?"

"No, but this is embarrassing." Gasper said in reply as he tried to cover himself with his free arm.

'He is a boy, right?' was the thought that the rest of the boys had when they saw Gasper.

Once Koneko drew near with Gasper in tow, she stopped in front of James, who began to pat her head shortly after.

"Hey, Kitty. You look cute in that swimsuit. James said with a smile, which made Koneko blush slightly. He then turned his attention to Gasper. "Gasper, you're a boy. So, why are you wearing a female swimsuit?"

The boys all nodded when they heard James' question.

"Because it's cute." Gasper replied with a smile.

As the women nodded at Gasper's response, James decided that he would just let it go.

After another ten minutes, Rias and Akeno finally made their way toward the group. Akeno, wearing a white bikini with violet accents, was yelling at Rias, who wore a similar white bikini with crimson red accents instead of violet ones, while she walked leisurely and paid no attention to Akeno's complaints.

"I can't believe you took so long to pick out a swimsuit." Akeno said, her voice raised in agitation. "We're only going to be here for a week, why did you bring twenty-five swimsuits."

"So I can look my very best no matter the situation." Rias said proudly while flicking her hair behind her back.

As they neared, Rias stopped paying attention to Akeno all together and spoke to James.

"So, how do I look?" Rias said while striking a pose.

"You look great." James said with a smile before walking over to Akeno and taking her hand. He then spun her around and continued to speak. "Akeno, you look amazing in that suit."

Rias, at first, was ecstatic to hear James' praise. As he walked past her toward Akeno, her mood fell rapidly. Before she could begin to rage, this time understandably, Venelana wrapped her arms around her from behind.

"Rias, dear, we had this conversation no longer than an hour ago." Venelana said soothingly. "You have to break your engagement with the Phenex boy before James will show you the affection that you want."

Rias gritted her teeth with the flames of determination burning brightly in her eyes. Unfortunately, she did not notice the glint in Venelana, James, and Akeno's eyes. James showing more attention to Akeno instead of Rias was a little play Venelana came up with to motivate Rias. Judging by her expression, it seems like the plan worked. The only downside was that Akeno would have to deal with Rias' jealousy for a while.

*Clap!*

As he clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention, James glanced at Venelana with a smile.

'He's never going to let that go, is he?' Venelana thought with a wry smile.

Once he had everyone's attention, James raised his voice.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, let's go have some fun!"