Chapter 4: Birthday Party & Sudden Announcement

Just so everyone is once again aware of this, this IS an AU, so ages might seem different than they do later on, but this is how they are in this novel.

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Pulling back from my mother, I stopped hugging her, "When are the Lucifuge and Sitri houses going to arrive?"

"Soon, they should be arriving any minute now, here comes your sister now." She replied. Not a second after, my sister walked into the room, and sat down next to me hugging my now free right arm and laying her head on my shoulder. I'm quite large for my age, and have the body of a 7 year old, and I was already slightly taller than my sister, so she could comfortably lay her head on my shoulder.

We waited for a few minutes before my mom stood up and said to us, "Alright you two, the Lucifuges are here, lets go greet them." We both nodded and stood up, following her out into the courtyard in front of our manor.

Our manor is quite nice, and not much different than the Lucifuge manor. One side has a garden, but the back of the manor there is a coast with what looks like an ocean, and opposite of the garden is a bamboo garden.

Arriving at the courtyard, we see a silver magic circle form on the ground with the Lucifuge clan symbol on it. Out of it appears three people, in front is Grayfia, and standing behind her are her parents holding hands. Uncle Rey and Aunt Anala smile at us and greet us, "Hello." Grayfia follows by bowing to my mom before running up to me and giving me a hug, then my sister.

She is followed by her parents, and Aunt Anala hugs my mom before releasing the hug. Both her and Uncle Rey turn around before standing next to my mother and facing from the direction they came. Grayfia notices what her parents did and stood next to me hugging my arm while my sister did the same.

Just like before, but this time a Blue magic circle formed on the ground with the Sitri clan symbol on it. Out of it walked three people, Lord and Lady Sitri, and a short girl with black pig tails and bright blue eyes that had a bright smile on her face.

The three of them walked up to my mom and Uncle and Aunt Lucifuge saying greetings, and introducing their daughter behind them, who I knew was Serafall.

They then walked over to the three of us and introduced themselves. Lady Sitri started first, she knelt down, "You must be Kouko, Valerian and Grayfia. My name is Zira Sitri, you can call me Aunt Zira. I'm good friends with all of your mothers." She said with a smile. We nodded and returned the greeting, introducing ourselves as well.

Next was Lord Sitri, "My name is Soren Sitri, please call me Uncle Soren." He said with a gentle smile on his face. Lastly was Serafall who stepped up with her bubbly attitude, "Hello! My name is Serafall Sitri, I'm 8 years old!" She ran and gave each of us a hug before going back to her parents.

"Happy Birthday Valerian, one more year and you can start training." Uncle Soren said to me. I smiled, "Thank you Uncle Soren, but I already started training last year, I actually got my third pair of wings today." I said as I released my wings and aura of a high-class devil.

He opened his eyes wide in surprise and let out a hearty laugh before looking at my mother, "Your son is extremely talented, only one year of training and he is already a high class devil. Even most noble devils can't reach high class after a hundred years, congratulations." The other two, Serafall included were stunned with what I said while staring at my wings.

Serafall broke out of her stupor before her mom, and ran up to me grabbing my hands, "Woah! Your so strong, yet you're younger than me! How did you do it?"

I smiled at her and replied, "Nothing special, I just trained hard every day, it's all I really did other than hanging out with my family and Grayfia whenever we had free time."

Serafall puffed her cheeks out and had a jealous look on her face, she had been training with all her free time as well, yet she was still weaker than me. I knew that I would be, and technically already am, much stronger than anyone else could dream of being, but obviously no one else knew that.

"Well, now that introductions are out of the way, how about we head inside and catch up, while the kids get to know each other better." My mother spoke up, breaking me out of my inner thoughts.

We all follow her in and are lead to the ballroom that occupies the entire west side of our manor, since the party is in an hour. We decided to just mingle between ourselves until everyone else showed up. The first clan to show up was the Gremory Clan, which was just Zeoticus Gremory, and Venelana Gremory. Apparently, Sirzechs wasn't born until later. Thus we quickly got acquainted with the Gremorys through the friendship between Lady Sitri and Lady Gremory.

Though we have only had basic introductions, and I've only listened in on a few conversations, from what I can tell, Zeoticus is a real piece of shit. All he cares about is his families standings and nothing for his actual family. I can already tell he treats Venelana like his personal slave. There's a good chance I won't let him live long, I have never been a fan of NTR, but people who treat their wives/gfs like shit don't deserve them, so I don't count it as NTR.

Next to arrive was the Astaroths, which there was three people, two adults, who I assume are Lord and Lady Astaroth. Then a kid around 9 or 10 with green hair and blue eyes, they also walked over and introduced themselves. The boy was Ajuka Astaroth, later Ajuka Beelzebub.

After the introductions, I spent most of my time getting acquainted with Serafall, and Ajuka more. Even though Ajuka was young, he was a genius already and was already doing experiments, so we talked some about doing some projects together in the future, though nothing in detail.

'Seems what I though before is true, I wasn't sure if it was just Grayfia, but it seems like all devils mature fast, mentally at least. All of the young devils I've met so far are much more mature than their physical age.'

After that various other clans started arriving, though I didn't meet anyone of much note. I did end up meeting Diehauser Belial, who is in his mid teens and also Roygun Belphegor, who was the same age as me. We also got well acquainted, and I admit she was cute, but I also know that later she would have some connection to those idiots on the Council. Only time will tell how she turns out, though I do remember that she didn't like what she did, so I don't think it will turn bad, maybe our relationship will grow.

There were a few young devils who tried to court my sister, but she blew them off, including a young Shalba Beelzebub, who tried to use his title as heir of the Beelzebub Clan to force my sister into a marriage, only for his parents to come and beat him half to death and then vehemently apologize to my mother. Only then did the young Beelzebub realize that our clan didn't lose out in power or influence to his own clan, though he already earned himself a spot on my shit list.

The party continued and we mingled until my mother dragged myself, the Sitris and the Lucifuges up to a raised platform by the windows that look out to the bamboo garden. The room quieted down and everyone was looking at us without exception. My mother, noticing she had everyone's attention spoke up, "Thank you all for coming, though they are different ages, this is technically a party for both my daughter Kouko, and my son Valerian. What was not announced however, was that House Maara, formed two marriage contracts years ago. One between my son Valerian and Grayfia Lucifuge, and another between Valerian and Serafall Sitri."

At this point, me, Grayfia and Serafall were all shocked, since none of us were made aware of it. Uncle Rey decided to speak up first, "Since we are marrying our heirs, once the marriage has taken place, my daughter Grayfia will no longer be the heiress of the Lucifuge clan, and will join the Maara Clan."

Following him, Uncle Soren spoke up as well, "Like Lord Lucifuge said, Once the marriage between my daughter Serafall and Valerian has taken place, she will no longer be the heiress of the Sitri clan, and will also join the Maara Clan."

For a second there was no sound in the ballroom as everyone digest what was said, that was until Lord Lucifer himself spoke up in an amused tone, "This is rather unusual isn't it? Two clans marrying their heiresses to another house at the same time. Well, no matter, you'll just have to make another heir." The other houses were surprised, some even looked discontent, but hearing Lord Lucifer say this they could only swallow their discontent and give false congratulations, though most were indifferent.

After that, the party continued with various people coming up and congratulating us, though I wasn't too interested and was questioning my mother on when we got engaged, while the other two were questioning their mothers as well. Apparently they had made the agreement before I was born, and it was a contract between all three houses.

My mother explained that the marriage contract was made after all three houses had girls first, so whichever house ended up having a male heir would marry the other two house's heiresses, provided they got along.

Leaving, still confused as hell, I continued my conversation with Ajuka and Roygun. The party went on for a few more hours with nothing of note happening, and everyone left for the most part, excluding the Sitris, and Lucifuges.

"You are welcome to stay here for a while, or at least for the night. I would like Serafall to stay at least so her and Val can get to know each other better." My mom spoke up to the two families who were getting ready to leave. The Lucifuges looked at each other and nodded. Aunt Anala spoke up, "Sure, we will take you up on that, it's been a while since we've stayed here."

My mom nodded in response to her and looked at Aunt Zira, who had a contemplative look, "Serafall can stay for sure, but Soren and I have some stuff to take care of at home, so she can stay here as long as you don't mind."

My mom sighed but nodded her head with an understanding gaze, "Well Serafall, would you like to stay and get to know your fiancée more?"

The young Sitri girl nodded her head in response and said, "Yes I would appreciate that, thank you." She looked at her parents and gave them a hug, "I'll come home soon." They nodded and stepped back, making a teleportation circle and disappearing from the hall.

My mom called a few maids in and had them escort everyone to their rooms. Since Grayfia was a regular around our house, I had noticed that she has already picked up her mother's maid fetish, and made sure all of our maids were perfect. Shaking my head, I wasn't tired, mostly because I couldn't be, but I decided to sleep and get some rest anyways.

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Some of you might be confused as to why I did this marriage contract, or might think it's forced, but marriage contracts were VERY common in devil society, especially early on, and the depth of these three houses relationship will be gone to in depth later on.