Pen pals meet.
"Dulio let go of Luka." Griselda looks irritably at the blonde exorcist who is hugging Luka tightly and refuses to let go.
"I don't want to be separated from my adorable son! Luka just accepted me as his father. It's not fair!" He complains out loud.
"One: I didn't accept you as my father. Two: Life isn't fair. Now let me go." Luka struggled against the blonde's hold without much success.
The reason for Dulio's annoyance is that the high officials of the church assigned him a highly urgent mission that will take him to the other side of the world, to Japan. Ever since the Externum Concilium meeting ended with the Devil Faction claiming another territory in the mortal world, members of the church have been seething with anger and outrage. They went through the thousands of Articles agreed upon by the council over the past few millennia looking for any clauses that would invalidate clan Belial's claim; they were unsuccessful. The devils covered their tracks and all their actions were in accordance with the laws agreed upon by the council.
Legally they can't do anything, apparently the devils acted obeying the laws. Their actions were apparently legal, "apparently legal" being the key words. The members of the church, especially the Pope, distrust the devils and think they must have used some dirty trick and they plan to find out the truth. To investigate everything that happened in Kuoh in recent months, the Cardinal Deacon, Ewald Cristaldi, formed a team of elite exorcists, the best of the best.
Dulio, being one of the most powerful exorcists in the world, was recruited by Cristaldi. The mission is of vital importance to the Church as the Devils have been increasing their influence in the mortal world too much for their comfort. The number of devil contracts completed in the last year is higher than the number of contracts they completed in a decade a few centuries ago. The increase in the population of mortals as well as the decrease in the influence of the church in the majority of the population are some factors of this.
The church fears that if things continue like this within a century the devils will be more influential in the Human World than the church.
Since Dulio's mission is so important, he can't take Luka with him, something that annoyed the pinkhead a bit because he would have loved to visit Japan. In his past life, Luka spent most of his free time reading manga, watching anime, and playing video games. Like most "cultured people" Elysia loved Japan and thanks to her profession and her high income she was able to visit the Nation of the Rising Sun several times, but because of her demanding profession she was never able to spend much time exploring Japan. None of her visits to the Nation of Webs lasted more than two weeks, and on each visit she had to spend several days working (giving interviews, signing autographs...).
It was agreed that Luka will stay with Griselda for the next few months until Dulio finished his mission. During the last few months, Griselda and Luka's relationship improved a lot, the exorcist even got Luka to become the pen pal of her apprentice, a girl Luka's age named Xenovia.
The friendship between both protégés developed slowly but steadily. Both children were formal and quite dry with the first letters but when Xenovia commented in one of her letters how peaceful her life is in the absence of her mentor and legal guardian a door opened. Luka mentioned in his next letter some of Dulio's nonsense and Xenovia responded by mentioning similar things Girselda did at some point.
They both realized that Dulio and Griselda are much more alike than expected, especially when it comes to their behavior around the children they practically kidnapped against their will.
Xenovia was an orphan who lived on the streets of Sicily, in one of the poorest areas of the island, one day she stole the wallet from a mafia famiglia lackey and that lackey accompanied by other lackeys chased her into an alley. Before they could lay a finger on the girl they were practically slaughtered by Griselda Quarta, the exorcist was visiting her hometown when she saw the whole thing.
One moment Xenovia was about to be killed by some members of the local mafia and the next she was in a car with a very scary woman. Griselda had all the adoption papers signed before nightfall and by the time Xenovia was able to process everything she was already Xenovia Quarta.
Luka looked at Griselda in disbelief when he finished reading that letter. The exorcist always seems so serious and formal but it turns out that she is just as peculiar as Dulio.
`On second thought, Dulio appears to be the perfect hero, always kind, gentle and helpful. Under that facade he is clingy and needy. Powerful people always seem to have unique personalities, exorcists are no exception.` Luka manages to free himself from Dulio's grip thanks to the help of Griselda. As soon as he frees himself, he runs a few meters to put some distance between him and the exorcist.
Dulio is pouting, Girselda placed herself between him and Luka effectively preventing him from catching the boy with his claws again.
"Hahah." The other witness to this scene is laughing out loud, clutching the sides of his stomach and barely keeping his balance. "Who would have thought the Golden Ace is like this when he is not working."
"Mr. Yaegaki, instead of standing there watching, you should take Dulio and leave now, or you will lose your flight." Griselda's cutting words send a chill down the back of the Japanese exorcist.
Masaomi Yaegaki is a man in his late twenties with long black hair that falls to his mid-back and kind brown eyes. Masaomi is one of the exorcists who has been assigned to Stuttgart for the past few months. After Luka`s first conversation with Griselda, all doubts and suspicions disappeared and the other exorcists and Church employees warmed up to him, but Masaomi was one of the few who was genuinely kind to Luka from day one. For this reason, Luka preferred spending time with the Japanese exorcist to spending time with the others.
Masaomi was kind and helpful, even offering to teach him Japanese upon discovering Luka's love for his native country, an offer that the pinkhead gladly accepted.
"Of course, Quarta-san!" The japanese exorcist grabbed Dulio by the shoulders and began to drag him towards the airport entrance.
Currently the four are at the gates of Stuttgart Airport, where a private jet will take the exorcists to Berlin, where the entire team will meet to discuss their plans before going to Japan.
"Have a safe trip, Masaomi-sensei." Luka waved his hand and said goodbye to his Japanese teacher.
"You should also say goodbye to Dulio or else he'll complain about it for days." Griselda's words hit the nail because Dulio already began to complain that Luka prefers Masaomi to him.
"Yes, that would be disastrous." Luka can already hear his phone, which Dulio bought him shortly after they met, ringing day and night with the blond whining on the other line. "Bye Dulio."
Dulio waved his hand from a distance.
"It's time to go, the train will leave in an hour." Griselda places a hand on Luka's shoulder and guides him towards the taxi that is waiting for them.
They will go by train to Florence, the city where Griselda is assigned most of the time. She only leaves town when she is on vacation or the church sends her on a foreign mission.
***
The train journey from Stuttgart to Florence took nine hours. They could have taken a plane and arrived in less than an hour, but Griselda remembered Luka's bright eyes when he saw the trains go by during one of their walks through the city. The decision to take the slowest mode of transportation was wise as the boy practically bounced the entire car ride to the train station, and once inside he looked at everything as if it were the first time he had traveled by train.
"Elder sister Griselda, welcome home." A girl of about eight or nine years old with long blue hair and brown eyes waits for them at the train station in Florence, she speaks in English for the benefit of the boy who she knows is not fluent in Italian.
"Xenovia, I'm sure you already know who the young boy next to me is but it would be rude not to introduce him properly: He is Luka Artois." Griselda pats her protegee on the head and points towards Luka. "Luka will stay with us for the foreseeable future until his father finishes his mission."
"He is not my father." Luke mutters.
"Did you say something?" Griselda sends him a pointed look and when Luka quickly shakes his head she turns to Xenovia. "Treat him as if he were your little brother, after all we are all children of the Lord."
"Yes, elder sister." Xenovia nods and looks curiously at her friend. They've been exchanging letters for months but that's not the same as meeting in person. "You are shorter than I expected." Her blunt words go through Luka's heart as if they were a bullet. His height is quite a sensitive issue, in his past life Elysia towered above girls her age with a height of 177cm, now Luka is below the average height of eight year old boys.
"And you are flatter than I expected." Luka's mouth is faster than his brain and he regrets his words almost before finishing pronouncing them. His quick reflexes were the only thing that saved him from a broken nose.
His speed surprised Xenovia but also fanned the fire in her eyes, the next blow came much faster than Luka expected and if it wasn't for Griselda's intervention his ribs would not have survived intact.
"Enough!" Griselda grabs both of their ears and pulls hard, causing groans of pain and complaints from both children. "A train station is not a place to fight, if you want to do it you will do it in the training grounds under my supervision. Understood?"
"Yes, elder sister."
"Yes, Miss Griselda."
Luka and Xenovia's first meeting was interesting, and quite violent.
***
NOTE: There are advanced chapter in my p@ tre on if you want to support me and read some chapters earlier. Patrons can suggest girls for the harem and I will make a poll in patre on and the most voted one will be added to the harem.
p a t r e o n. com /EdenofKovir