The Beastial Teacher (2/3)

The Occult Research Club's room was bathed by the light of multiple candles. The old building could be called ruins before the intervention of the Gremory workers, who restored it but kept the old vibe, figuring out it would be fitting for the cover their young mistress was using to recruit peerage members. The curtains were always closed, as devils were somewhat weakened by light. It wasn't necessarily dangerous, but it always gave them an uncomfortable feeling, one that Deo never felt due to his special race.

The atmosphere inside the club's room was perfect for the popular occult activities. Obviously, since most didn't believe in the supernatural, they wondered what was the use of such a club and why it even got accepted in the first place, but no clear response was ever given to them. The fact that the two great beauties of Kuoh Academy were in this club might have explained why those people never tried to uncover the truth. The English teacher for the 1st-years, Mr Aellias being the advisor for the club also hushed some of the rumours about the utility of the club because of his popularity among the female students that were overwhelming in number compared to the male students, although it created a different kind of rumours.

Kuoh Academy became mixed ever since the renovation and upgrade of their buildings. Rias and Sona simply didn't want to miss on possible peerage members. Thus, Kuoh Academy was considered a heaven for the young male population of Kuoh, although that dream quickly stopped when they realized the harsh requirement in order to enter the school.

Akeno stepped into the main room of the Occult Research Club, a plate with one teacup on top of it in her hand. She delicately laid down the plate onto the president's desk. " Rias, no sugar as usual? " asked Akeno. Although Rias was called President by her peerage members, only Akeno had the privilege to call her by her name in private.

" Yes, thank you Akeno. " said Rias without lifting her eyes off the file she had in hands.

" Ara ara Rias, still so preoccupied with Mr Aellias? " said Akeno. She smiled wryly at Rias, knowing that she was probably invested as much as her King in the man, " Still nothing on him or his background? "

Rias sighed, " Well, his background is clean, albeit there are a few inconsistencies that suggest contact with the supernatural world, but it doesn't tell me what kind of contact. " The Gremory heiress asked her family to run a background check on her English teacher, and she received surprising results. Technically nothing was out of order, but pictures of him prior to his arrival in Japan suggested otherwise. After all, nobody grows from 1,86 meter tall to 2,25 meters tall in a matter of months normally. His body has changed considerably and was it not for the few similitudes on his face, she probably would have to say that they were two completely different people. " This kind of change suggests the awakening of either a hero bloodline or awakening of a Sacred Gear, but alas we didn't manage to verify either of them and nothing Mr Aellias does seems unnatural either. "

Akeno was still standing behind her King, the training with the Silver-haired Queen of her King's brother deeply ingrained in her. " There has to be something, that men simply isn't normal, everyone knows it, even regular humans. Though if I may say, whether or not he has something doesn't make any less worthy of being in our family. " said the Gremory queen, blushing a bit.

Rias put down the file she had on Deo, and read out loud one more time what was written on it, " Deo Aellias, place of birth unknown, orphan, grew up in an orphanage in Lichfield, displayed impressive competence in foreign languages ever since young, sponsored by the orphanage to pursue his studies. Got a job offer from Kuoh Academy and accepted. 2,25 meters tall, weight unknown, Greek origins, a possible descendant of Hercules. " The Gremory heiress sighed and made her last rook piece appear in her hand. " You're right, whether or not he has some sort of power, I'll make sure he becomes mine. "

Akeno smiled a bit teasingly, knowing fully well that becoming her King's rook was definitely not the only way in which Rias wanted to make him hers.

" Akeno, I think our team's training has resumed and we must not trail behind. " said Rias, standing up from her chair, not acknowledging her queen's smile.

_____________________________________________________________________

It has been a few months since the start of school, and thanks to my training, I have made great progress towards my objectives. Creating for yourself deadlines is a great tool to improve and have clear objectives. As I was thinking of what would be the ideal way to grow stronger, I was currently lifting a bar of what looked like iron. Obviously, with the Hanma bloodline and the Nord body, I already had surpassed the limits of normal humans a while ago, without using my devil side. The bar was made of a special ore only found in the Underworld. If I dropped it on the ground carelessly, it would create the impression of an earthquake for the surroundings.

I realized that teleportation and charm were natural skills of a devil because they appeared automatically in my status when I used Devil Apparition for the first time, making my bat-like wings and tail appear. With it, once I got the skill to level 3, I could teleport to other planes. The only reason why I couldn't go to Asgard, for example, was because of the protection, there was no protection in the Underworld for a devil, so I simply toured the equivalent of Japan in the Underworld a bit. I learned a bit about the devil culture and the beast that were present in the Underworld. I obviously hid my face just in case and managed to level up thanks to the demonic beasts present everywhere.

It was a great boon for me since not only I had to share the number of stray devils in the city with both the Gremory and the Sitri group, but I also had to be discreet about it and end the fights quickly. Most of the strays in the area were extremely weak, and they were also rare, so I simply couldn't farm decently. Even if the demonic beasts were weak and didn't give me a lot of experience, it was a better trade than killing stray devils.

Gently deposing the bar of devil iron, I opened my status.

Name: Deo Aellias

Race: Nordic Devilish Hanma

Age: 22 years old

Title: None

Job: Martial Artist (87)

Job Available: Apprentice Devil Slayer, Pyromancer, Great Mage, Apprentice Soul Warrior

Level: 3

Job History: Jobless, Apprentice Devilish Mage, Mage

Passive skills:

- Hanma Body: Level 1

- Devil Mana Manipulation: Level 4 (NEW!)

- Aura Manipulation: Level 2 (NEW!)

- Frost Immunity: Level 5

- Ki Manipulation: Level 6 (NEW!)

- Longevity: Level 10

- Fire Manipulation: Level 1 (NEW!)

- Enlarged Mana Pool: Level 1 (NEW!)

- Devil's Charm: Level 2 (NEW!)

Active skills:

- Battle Cry: Level 1

- Devil Apparition: Level 1

- Ki Reinforcement: Level 2 (NEW!)

- Aura Concealment: Level 6 (NEW!)

- Concealment Barrier: Level 3 (NEW!)

- Superior Martial Arts: Level 7 (NEW!)

- Yvherd Aeos: Level 1 (NEW!)

- Svkeryh Aeos: Level 1 (NEW!)

- School of Destruction: Level 1 (NEW!)

- Teleportation: Level 4 (New!)

Although a few things surprised me, I still managed to surpass my estimates in terms of skill growth, which was a good thing since the class growth was lacking. During a fight against a problematic stray that had fire magic, I understood why my life force was represented by fire, as I tried to manipulate his own fire against him and managed to do so with surprising ease. After that, I tried to convert my mana to fire and create basic spells often seen in fiction. Instead of the various skills appearing, the School of Destruction skill appeared, definitely because of my Nordic lineage. It didn't register the growth of individual spells, but it cleared up my status so it was good in the end.

I was able to skip the Apprentice Martial Artist class due to my rapid growth in the subject, shown by the level 7 Superior Martial Arts skill. The two Aeos skills were supposedly linked to my Sacred Gear, I couldn't see why they would appear otherwise, and when I activated them, except having my tattoos emit some sort of black light, nothing I could notice change. Without further experimentation, I didn't make any advancement in figuring out my Sacred Gear.

Overall, my level and classes didn't represent my actual power level due to my skills, and I would have loved it if it weren't for the fact that I can't find decent opponents without exposing myself. I wouldn't keep this appearance for long from the devils, but for my plans, I still needed to play this persona a bit longer. Plus, I was far from being able to kill Riser yet, which would be my first step into this world.

There was another subject in which I progressed quite a bit, my relationship with the Gremory group, mainly Rias. I decided to take the seduction route because of my initial approach of the devils in Kuoh Academy, but over time I found myself more and more drawn to her. She was not as easy as I would expect a 16-year-old highschool girl to be, but that only compelled me to try harder. The fragment of normal humanity left in me stopped being reluctant of doing so when I realized that she was far more mature than her fellow students, even among the devils. Although that begged the question of why was she portrayed in the show in such a manner if she was actually mature, or why she never trained to defeat Riser.

Though there were some moments that made me notice she still was young and green in terms of relationship, especially when we were alone together, it was still fun to be around her. What I took as an easy way to start making my way to the top of this world became something I greatly enjoyed doing. We still had to maintain a proper image as teacher and student, so even if some rumours flew around, there was nothing consequential to them.

My victory over Riser would be used as the main point to make her take my relationship with her as paramount because since I didn't intend to take over her whole peerage, I needed her to leave them alone for a while and travel with me to other worlds, although we could always come back here later. The battle royale I was partaking in should be first in priority if I wanted to make a good peerage.

Considering her attachment to her servants, this was hard to do so, but slowly I was able to make her see things differently. Although I didn't outright say these things to her, I sometimes turned the conversation to these kinds of subjects, that without proper context of her situation sounded like philosophy.

My biggest achievement was to make her train with her peerage. She understood the need to rely on one's own effort to succeed in life, no matter what kind of privilege you were born with, if you didn't utilize them correctly, then you didn't deserve them. This was something I believed in and applied perfectly to her situation, and ever since I could sense each of her peerage member and especially herself grow stronger each day.

Despite the fact that I had a cold sweat when Rias suggested that her brother wanted to meet me to thank me for the life-saving advice I gave her and that I had to find an excuse to decline the offer since I knew that my concealment would go down the drain if I were to meet Sirzechs, I still managed to influence her in a direction that would lead to where I wanted her to be.

Complete subtle manipulation I admit it, but she would be a better person at the end. In fact, those kinds of things should have been told to her by her family already, considering that they were devils that could go to war at any moment, but they apparently didn't. While I understood that they wanted her to be raised far from war and conflict, they didn't realize that they did her a great disservice.

Getting out of my shower thoughts, and my shower, I sensed the presence of a stray nearby. Quickly dressing in my devil hunter clothes, I sped towards my next food for growth.