Chapter 3: Broken
The boy was... underwhelming. Or that's what Ajuka thoughts at he walked in. His eyes sharpened as his mind instantly started to notice inconsistencies with what he had heard about the supposed Gremory prodigy and the kid before him.
He was skinny.... too skinny, even though he was draped in proper noble clothes and his skin look relatively rosy, he could see the gauntness of his face. He was sure that under the clothes his skin would be sticking to his bones. His hair was a little frayed and more interestingly brown, instead of the red known for his clan.
The most noticeable part though, were his eyes.
They were... dead.
Ajuka had seen eyes like that over the years, most notable in those that had been in the great war, or soldiers.
But it wasn't the same, it wasn't PTSD.
It was a blankness behind his eyes that should not be seen in one so young, not a Gremory.
They treasured family over everything else, or that's what it had been like over the last hundreds of years... 'though', his eyes flickered to his hair once more before his look went neutral.
The two approached, Zeoticus keeping a guiding hand on the boy's shoulder, his own look stoic, but there was a nervousness behind his eyes as the two men locked eyes. Zeoticus was the first to break eye contact, and place his other hand on the boy's shoulder, steering him along.
If Ajuka noticed the flinch from the boy he didn't say anything as he greeted them.
"Lord Gremory."
"Lord Beelzebub... thank you for allowing this selfish request of mine." With a small apologetic look in his eyes Ajuka smiled back, though it was stiffer than usual. Looking down at the boy that had still not talked, he went to address the boy, but was interrupted by Zeoticus.
"I have another meeting with the Phenex clan in an hour, I'm sorry to rush you, but we'll have to make this quick." Ajuka knew that it was a distraction, for a reason that was becoming more obvious as he spent time with the Duo. He gave the man another look before once again turning to the boy.
He wasn't the best of men out there; he was the devil king Beelzebub and had killed more people than most would think in the great war. But he had changed over the years, ironically enough because of the influence of his long-time friend Sirzechs.
The thought of his long-time friend asking him for a 'favour' like this, in all honesty made him loose a little respect for his brother. But as his mind raged between his friend and what was happening right now, he had to do... say something to the kid.
"Do you understand, that you shouldn't be getting your piece's until you're older?"
He could tell that Zeoticus wasn't too happy about him addressing the boy, but that didn't matter what mattered was the boy's response and Ajuka had to admit it was sad to see.
The boy was in Ajuka's opinion lost; he didn't know what he was doing here. He didn't know what was happening at all and if his mind continued to piece together what he had heard about the prodigy over the years, mainly the fact that no one knew anything about him and he was never seen.
Well... did he even know how to respond?
As if to answer the Maou's question the boy blankly looked at the man that was addressing him before stiffly turning his head towards Zeoticus. Zeoticus gave the kid a murderous look that was poorly disguised and obviously drew a reaction as the Boy timidly nodded his head to affirm his question.
Ajuka resisted a sigh as he steeled his heart. Turning his back on the boy and moving towards the back, both following closely behind.
Ajuka's mind was lost in thought as he started to fit all the pieces he had gathered in his mind. It wasn't a pretty picture once you factored in the young miss of the Gremory clan that Sirzechs doted on, how close her age was to the 'prodigy', their 2nd son.
'In the end we are all Devils. We all have our sins.'
With that final thought he shunted what was happening to the back of his mind as he mechanically went through the process. The boy was confused and he would say scared a little when the input device came up from the ground.
Zeoticus himself almost man handled the boy into injecting his magic at the start and with that it was done. The device to forge the 'evil pieces' was a complex machine that had little revisions over the years as it was his magnus opus.
There wasn't anything to improve at this point. All he and Zeoticus had to do now was wait for the magic to be injected into the set and...
'Well, the conclusion was already set...'
The magic was drawn from the boy as the machine got to work. A pained expression appeared on the face of the boy as his magic was drawn out and used for the process, but no words were uttered as after 2 minutes the process finally finished.
Slowly the tray at the back of the machine slowly started to lift as steam came off the newly created brief-case, it was pitch black with a metalic lustre that shinned in the dark room. Though most devils got rid of the case at some point, it was a default that any devil could use and purposely stylish mainly because the pieces were made for the noble class.
A full chess set sat in their designated positions, locked in place until they would be taken out.
But it was as Ajuka thought, the magic wasn't enough. Even from a distance he could see the cracks in the pieces. Some were broken clean in half while others had multiple places destroyed. If he was being honest with himself this would be the worst set, he had ever produced.
Sure, some wouldn't have enough magic to produce a full set, but usually only 1 or 2 pieces were 'cracked', not this set.
It was worse than useless; it was completely broken.
His eyes flickered to the side for a second to take in the look of utter joy that appeared on Zeoticus' face before turning back to the boy. Once more he didn't know what was going on, he didn't even make to grab his set.
Sighing for real this time, Ajuka made his way over to the set, solemnly closed the case. Picking it up he returned to the two.
"I'm sorry lord Gremory, it looks like Eric's pieces have 'cracked'. He'll have to nurture them over a long period of time to fix them..." Even as the words came out, he knew it was impossible to fix them.
He would never have a peerage in his life.
Zeoticus also knew this as his smile got wider, though he tried and failed to hide it. Clapping his hand on the Maou's shoulder he was almost jubilant as he reached for the case and prepared to leave.
"Thank you once again Lord Beelzebub! Now I really must be getting back, the appointment is fast approaching!" As he watched the hand come closer and closer to the case, finally Ajuka made one final decision for the poor boy.
Holding the case back and just out of reach, Zeoticus gave him a quizzical look. Putting on one of his best fake smiles he motioned towards the boy who still hadn't moved.
"I'm sure young Eric would like to take his pieces himself."
Zeoticus looked like he was going to argue about that, but stopped himself. Thinking for a few seconds the red-haired man gave a nod in agreement as Ajuka moved forwards. Reaching the young boy, the smartest man in the underworld looked the boy over once more before, kneeling down and holding out the case.
"This is for you." Eric looked confused at the case before him as Ajuka forced it into his hands his small frame hugging the case to his chest. Ajuka could only give one small sad smile towards him and a few words before he backed away.
"These are yours and yours alone. In the future use them for those you love."
The boy continued to look blankly at the man as he stood back up, the words not registering in his mind, not even knowing what the word 'love' meant.
But as if on a subconscious level his small hands gripped the case tighter to his body as he nodded towards the man.
Nothing else could happen as Zeoticus quickly walked forward and maneuverer the boy towards the exit. Ajuka didn't say anything as they left.
He didn't even say anything as the rest of his researchers moved back into the base. What he found interesting was that there was already a rumour going around that the Gremory prodigy had visited for his 'evil pieces'.
No one was supposed to know about his visit... unless the Gremory's spread the news.
Ajuka had a lot to think about as he went back to his personal lab... but on the way he did stop off for one of his best whisky cases, he needed a drink right now.
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It was as Ajuka was going through his 4th bottle the news reached his ear that the young Gremory prodigy had been lost in a freak teleporter incident as he was going back to their territory. Unsurprisingly Lord Gremory made it back to the territory and was spending all his resources to find where the boy had disappeared to.
Looking down at the glass in his hand for a few seconds the man downed the rest of it in one go before standing up and heading to his lab.
He needed to distract himself.