Chapter 18

Once Riser and his harem minus his sister teleported back presumably to the underworld Grayfia was still in the room and giving Rias a bit of a disapproving look until finally with Riser being gone, Rias snarked back. "Yes, Grayfia? Don't you need to report to my father about my little rebellion now?" hearing those words from Rias made Grayfia's calm disapproval break down into a sad smile as the silver-haired maid shook her head.

"Rias, I care for you deeply, but this little rebellion as you call it, is only going to cause problems between you and Riser should you lose." Then as Rias grimaced at the reminder and both in contrition at how she snapped at her sister-in-law Grayfia continued. "Not only does Riser have a full peerage but they actually have rating game experience and just much more combat and training experience in general. Whereas you have coddled your peerage for last couple years since you have come to the human world."

Grayfia didn't get into the sensitive stuff like how Akeno could use her divine lightning or even how Koneko could use Senjutsu or whatever. No, she calmly asked if they even were doing their exercises or training programs that extremely powerful people like Okita Souji crafted for her peerage members.

Which was a resounding no, for all the peerage members basically.

"And who even are you, and who gave you the right to be so mouthy during a meeting between your betters?" Grayfia demanded of me not even trying to insult me with how she called me her lesser. I truly was her lesser in all things for now and I had no shame in admitting it.

Then as though in response to her words, the Boosted Gear formed on my arm with the large emerald glowing as Ddraig who I could feel had been watching my actions since a few hours after I made Monet speak out. "He is the Red Dragon Emperor and thus has the right to speak his mind as all my wielders are capable of killing an ultimate class being even with zero training or talent should they be willing to give up their lives." Ddraig's subtle reminder of Juggernaut drive that could steamroll Riser even if I didn't care about the life force loss as I felt that it was likely I could replenish the damage done to my body was also a warning to Grayfia not to treat me as gutter trash as it were.

"Ah... The Red Dragon Emperor resurfaced. And has even joined my sister-in-law's peerage who is the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess. it seems that the rumors that Rias may have the Gremory luck trait may ring true." Grayfia mused with a wry smile before she bowed to me.

"Jake, wielder of Ddraig's power I apologize for my insult. But this marriage has strong political effects on the devil race and I as a servant of Lucifer and the Gremory clan ask that you do not interfere unduly." Grayfia spoke as though reciting something and I realized she truly was just going through the motions and wondered if this room was bugged or something as she actually fucking winked at me.

Realizing that there was a more subtle game at play here, and with how everyone else in the room had gone silent waiting for my refusal to the Strongest Queen or my acceptance that would alienate from the peerage forever I merely smiled as I clapped my hands.

"Yeah, I am afraid not. I joined Rias's peerage in good faith, and I will not betray her for some devil nobles not even related to her, wanting to interfere with our lives." I said with Rias exhaling in relief at my strong stance against betraying her and the peerage.

"Very well then... All of you I suggest you take this week to do a gauntlet of training in order to knock off the dust off your skills in any case." Grayfia said before she was engulfed in her whole teleportation sigil and disappeared from the room.

"Akeno reset the wards so people can't teleport in anymore," Rias asked her queen who nodded and began to be messing with a couple spell sigils that lit up on the wall like some kind of thermostat.

"Haaaa..." Rias sighed brushing her hand across her face in relief at the meeting's ending then once she took a breather, she looked over her peerage and seeing Kiba still chilling with a sword in his lap she looked over to me and deadpanned seeing I already had Koneko's head on my lap and was playing with her hair.

"Jake. why are you... Wait it was Koneko, wasn't it?" She asked with a quirked-up eyebrow, and I nodded as Ei who was pouting beside me seemingly wondering why she never had the idea to do just what Koneko did.

"Master, I want my own head scratched, she looks like she really likes it," Ei said bluntly further ruining the prior solemn and heated atmosphere.

But then the Boosted Gear which was still on my right hand that wasn't petting Koneko's head as that would be kind of weird, lit up again as Ddraig's voice rang out with his deep draconic voice. "I can see that my wielder has made great allies. I feel quite a bit assured that you won't fall against the White One. But this rushed awakening to enlighten that devil as to your position has tired me..."

As Ddraig continued to speak I saw that the light in the large green gem in the center of my gauntlet was dimming. "I will awaken once you get into a heated battle but if it isn't against that Riser brat, I won't bother staying awake, so Jake Bariss you aren't allowed to die except to the wielder of the White One and even then, you need to make them die of the wounds you give them before you die." Ddraig all but ranted at me before falling asleep and no matter of me slapping the gauntlet or even trying to push mana into it made the dragon come back awake.

"Well, I guess a training montage is in order?" Rias pondered and I nodded as my creations definitely needed some grounded combat training with Artoria Alter who was still silently sitting in the background waiting for some kind of instruction being an especially strong case in this as she will be fighting in the actual rating game in Rias's peerage.

"Rias from the videos you have seen of Riser, what do you think of our chances against him?" Akeno asked and Rias shrugged, she honestly shrugged.

"Well with Jake being able to heal us of all but the most debilitating wounds that would eject us from the Rating Game, the biggest issue is honestly the bomb queen who you can match even if it would be difficult with her having more experience but otherwise all of my adorable peerage members are as a whole stronger than there individual pieces so it's just a matter of whether we can defeat Riser in the end." Rias thought aloud with everyone throwing their own little two cents in for strategy before I raised a hand as an evil thought came to me.

"What's the rule of bindings and armor for Rating Games?" I asked and then I grinned evilly as Rias explained that any armor was allowed along with any kind of bindings we wanted to so long as they didn't stop someone from forfeiting and stop the Rating Game system from teleporting them out.

"So... Rias can you use your connections to get me a fuck load of Golden Orb Weaving spiders or otherwise still living magical spiders with extremely strong webbing along with snails or bugs that can make super durable ceramic shells?" Hearing my request, she blanked before she realized I may have had an idea and then I went into it.

Taking some inspiration from Skitter I thought that flesh crafting spiders into making massive pools of silk and making the clothes would be the best option as I was capable of making the Nextel ceramic fabric that used quartz sand basically woven into the fabric which would be furthered refined by the mollusks, I was going to have to inhabit the clothes and reinforce it with the super ceramic I was going to cook up.

I was going to make a massive blanket that could act like a fire blanket so we could bind Riser up in it and then beat on the man like a pinata while also making some suits for ourselves to cover up when we mobbed the man as he would obviously wait for us to eliminate his peerage and swoop down on us like some stereotypical villain.

"Jake that idea is so terrible that the Rating Game Commission may literally make a rule to ban such things in the future... Let's do it." Rias grinned obviously enthused for the idea.

"Rias then we should get going to the lodge for training so you can make some calls for whatever we need." Akeno cutting into Rias's diabolical planning of beating Riser with one of Kiba's swords like it was a baseball bat.

Rias then nodded with Koneko hissing as I made to sit up so we could teleport. I could only deadpan as Koneko grumbled. "You scratched away all the nerves in my legs. So, carry me because it's all your fault." Koneko said completely shamelessly, and I could see had most definitely been mentally practicing that little line.

"Fine, it's not like you weigh anything," I muttered picking up the petit cat girl as Ei stood up beside me. "Akeno, can you get Monet and Klee? If we leave them behind, they will riot." I said wryly and then after a couple minutes of the peerage members running around to get Monet and Klee ready for the teleport, we were then teleported into Rias's large five-bedroom lodge in the middle of nowhere for training for the next week.