DXD SI : Chapter 20 : Honor of becoming Overseer? Headache more like it....

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Kuoh Town, Japan

–Cleria Belial–

She rubbed her forehead as she heard the report from her Queen. She knew she had jumped the gun a bit when she heard his goal of reincarnating humans, but could anyone blame her?

She had just had a rare month without some asshole coming to her territory and trying to order her around, to give them the list of any special individuals in her territory for them to reincarnate, forcefully or otherwise.

More than once, she had to be rescued by Satan Leviathan when she had to lay down the law to stop the Pillar Devils from reincarnating anyone they thought was interesting. For Satan’s sake, she had to stop a devil from forcefully reincarnating a pastry chef because the poor human denied the devil’s offer to become his full time private chef.

And that was not even a one off event. Apparently, devils, especially devils around her age, were extremely competent, and when the news of humans refusing to be reincarnated as devils spread around some of the smaller circles, the other devils took that as a challenge, coming up with increasingly convoluted ways to reincarnate the humans into their peerage, and not even for any logical reasons.

I mean, what was the pastry chef going to do as a peerage member?

She had all but begged Satan Leviathan to tighten the scrutiny on the devils allowed to come here, but apparently, she couldn’t do it because this was a novel experience, a new thing for Devils in the underworld, and Satan Leviathan wanted support for this model to grow everywhere, not just in Japan.

For that, she wanted everyone in the Underworld to support the initiative, a tall task for anything, and because of that, for a time, she was genuinely proud to be the one chosen to become the overseer. It was only after she spent some time managing everything and losing a small chunk of her immortal life that she realised that it was not a blessing but a curse to be the one saddled with this. 

Not only did she have to deal with the general purpose maintenance of the town and negotiate with the supernatural scenery in and around the town to make sure no sudden engagements endanger the treaty they had with the Shinto faction, but she also had to deal with the Devils who waltzed into her territory and had the audacity to move around and disturb things without even saying a hello to her.

She wasn’t asking for much, just a small window during which she could decide on what to do. Should she let them move about freely? Should she supervise their movements personally? Should she let her excellent and capable peerage members do it? Or should she just call up Satan Leviathan and beg for some backup?

The last option was surprisingly used the most in the earlier years, as the Satan had to come up and lay down the law for some of the older devils who were only amused by her attempts to make them understand the laws of this place and how breaking them might endanger the treaty with the Shinto faction.

She’d read part of the treaty, and it was incredibly beneficial for the Shinto. She didn’t know what Satan Leviathan had to give up for them to agree, but she did know how easily the Shinto could deem them in breach of the contract and take the territory back nearly instantly, without having to hand over whatever it was that they got to let her operate here.

Which is why she was understandably hesitant and apprehensive about the new Bael Heir moving into her territory, to see what the fuss was about. He wanted to find peerage members, and as much as she hoped that someone as important as the Bael Heir would use more than just his hormones to decide something as important as a Peerage member, she would have to look at only one such heir who had, so far, only collected dolls, as he called them affectionately in public company.

Diadora Astorath.

The heir of the Astorath house, the former house of Satan Belzebub. By all rights, the heir of such an important house must be incredibly focused on getting the best possible peerage members, so that he can build a good peerage to get a good ranking in the Rating Games, to increase the strength of his house.

But no. He did the exact opposite of that.

Sighing, she told herself that her decision to send her Queen to watch over the Bael heir was the right decision, especially once she heard what he had done. Eaten a lot of food, which was fine. The Bael heir seemed to have a sweet tooth, which is what he’d done for half the day. Moved around town, went into a lot of stores, ate, and took a lot of confectionery with him.

Thankfully, without any offers to the chefs to become devils, which was a little relieving. Things were fine up to that point. He could eat all the sweet treats the town had to offer, and she wouldn't bat an eye. No, he just had to take the food and go and stand in front of the local church for over 10 minutes.

She groaned, her face hitting the table. Now, she was going to have to meet Touji and assure him that this was just a visiting devil and that he was not going to do anything to harm the relationship between them. She had already counted herself extremely lucky to have Touji as the one who headed the local Church chapter, as the man was far more reasonable than she expected him to be.

There was a mutual respect between them as he made sure to inform her of any ongoing Church activities in the town, and both of them had teamed up more than once to deal with a stray devil and multiple mad Youkais who were written off by the local factions, allowing them to deal with the rabid Youkais with full force.

Shaking her head, she turned to her Queen, who was standing stiffly in front of her, waiting to be dismissed, “And you say he hasn’t  left his hotel room?”

Eleanor, her Queen, shook her head, “No. I have Shin keeping watch nearby, but he hasn’t  reported anything, meaning he is most likely still in the hotel.”

She wondered why.

Her mind went back to the orders she got from Satan Leviathan, about the newest Bael Heir. Frankly, the only reason she approached him at the Coming of Age Ceremony was that she was curious, and also because she was not really afraid of what he could do. Sure, his power level in itself was an anomaly, which is probably why Satan Leviathan told her to know more about him.

There really wasn’t much he could do unless he was really petty and could use the significant resources of the Bael House just to spite her, which could be possible, but she was confident in the support of Satan Leviathan, which is why she acted as casually as she did during the ceremony.

She had no idea that her small chat with him was noticed by the Satans. Which is why she heeded their orders and made sure to show him around the town, which is something she would have done for any devil of note anyway.

So far, there wasn’t really much to report aside from the unusual move of staring at a church and not doing anything about it. Hopefully, he was not one of those fanatical ones.

Before she could dismiss her queen and decide on her course of action, she perked up as she looked towards the window, at the white pigeon sitting innocently just outside, with a small letter around its neck.

Her queen was the first to react, talking out her staff. She opened the window in one fell swoop and cast a multitude of spells on the pigeon to make sure the letter was safe. The spells were mostly the ones used by human magicians, a habit she hadn’t bothered breaking because she was more comfortable with those spells, and as long as she did her job right, Cleria herself had no issues with what magic system her peerage members used.

Recognising the letter and the pigeon, she sighed and realised that Touji had sent a letter. He must have freaked out over the presence of a strong devil like Magdaran just appearing on his front door without any explanation whatsoever. Plus, if she recalled correctly, there was a big Church event in Kyoto, and all the members of the Church were recalled for that, leaving behind only Touji to look after the church for a short while.

The fact that he had told her about this beforehand showed his trust in her, and the fact that he had to find out about the devil directly must have soured his perception of her.

She winced at that. She couldn’t inform him because Bael heir’s whereabouts couldn’t be leaked. Satan Leviathan’s orders. Sure, Touji himself might not do anything, but he was duty bound to report the presence.

And the same could not be said about the Church higher-ups, not to mention any leaks that might occur. There were still many people in the supernatural community who would love nothing more than to see all Three Factions’ might culled, and what better way to do that than restarting the Great War?

A disturbing thought, but she’d heard the warning enough times from Satan Leviathan that she knew it was a reality for them.

Before she could open the letter and read it, though, a magic circle manifested right next to Eleanor’s ear, her expression giving nothing away as her Queen turned to her after a moment of listening to whoever was on the other end, likely her pawn, “The Bael Heir has left for Kyoto.”

What?!

The letter from Touji forgotten in her hands, she immediately called her Pawn stationed right next to the Hotel, to get a better read on stuff, because she was entrusted this by Satan Leviathan. If he had left for Kyoto, then she herself might have to go with him.

Argh.