The arena was in an uproar.
The thing is I didn’t know if people were excited or pissed off. I think it was about split down the middle.
I could imagine that a lot of people who placed bets on the match were not in a good mood right about now.
But for me, I couldn’t be happier.
Serafall was grabbing her pigtails, pulling on them while she cried out. “Rias, why did you do this to me, Rias!? Do you hate me this much, Rias!?”
Of course, Rias on the screen had the most smug look I’ve ever seen.
It was a large contrast to Riser screaming, stomping, and making a scene. Right up until he literally got dragged away because of quite a few words he said.
But Rias just ignored him.
Which….I’m pretty sure just made him even more pissed.
Well done.
People are going to say she didn’t earn it, but I knew the truth. I knew where her skill level was at right now. While I thought Riser was a dumbass, he wasn’t weak by their generational standards.
He was on a level above Rias.
Not only that, but his sister was probably stronger than Rias now too.
His Queen, at a minimum, was on par with Akeno, if not stronger too.
I would say that his pawns were…lacking, and Rias beat out his peerage in quality otherwise. But he also had quantity on his side.
Now, that isn’t to say that Rias couldn’t beat Riser in a fight. ‘Weaker’ people could beat ‘stronger’ people; there was no inviolable measurement of strength in the world. Many factors came into play in a fight.
Rias had a great many things stacked in her favor that might have let her win in the traditional way.
She had closed the gap over the past months rather impressively as well.
But she didn’t take him in a direct fight at all, which was, in hindsight, rather smart. If she started throwing around her strength, Riser may have started taking things serious.
As it stands, from start to finish, Riser looked down on her and her peerage even as they eliminated the majority of his peerage beforehand.
Confidence that is intertwined with arrogance.
Blind confidence.
Rias’s first attempt to drown him was, well, I wouldn’t call it inspired. I pulled that same shit with Akeno, but kudos to her for trying to apply it.
It’s not like I don’t copy other people all the time.
That was the first nail in the coffin.
If it worked, great; if it didn't, that was part of the plan.
It made Riser think that Rias couldn’t find him for real. That she was much weaker than she actually was.
He let his guard down, ironically enough, despite nearly getting drowned.
It was a stupid trick.
That or some iteration of it was probably what he told himself.
Even the next time she ‘engaged’ him, she just tackled him blindly while shouting.
It must have been ridiculous to Riser, who had fought other opponents in rating games who could actually challenge him.
And Riser was completely unconcerned about help because his strong sister and strong queen were taking care of his other peerage members.
In his mind, they were taking care of business, but in actuality, Rias’s peerage was doing their best to keep them busy and out of the way.
That led to Rias being able to pull her little stunt.
It was planned.
Maybe it wasn’t the plan, probably one of several plans. If the potion thing failed, I have no doubt that Rias would have started fighting for real.
But she most certainly earned it in my book.
A win is a win, and a loss is a loss.
The burns across her body proved her victory.
Venelana grabbed my arm. “Come on, let’s go see my daughter. ”\
“I’ll go handle things with the Phenex family; go congratulate Rias on her victory.” Zeo told her.
“Thank you, Zeo.”
Venelana was, without a doubt, beaming with joy. I don’t know if it came from the fact that her daughter won or the fact that she could gloat in front of her friend.
Either way, Venelana was happy, so I was happy.
She didn’t bother to bring along her peerage or drag them along. She didn’t need to drag them along for every little thing, and this was her going to see her daughter.
Mozart gave a polite wave of goodbye.
“No, take me with you, Momma Gremory; I want to have words with Rias.” Serafall’s very fake smile twitched.
Venelana didn’t seem to mind.
I looked at my birth father.
He was happy.
He wasn’t shouting about it, nor was he overly concerned. He seemed more thrilled at the outcome of the match rather than the specifics.
I kept my opinions quietly to myself. If not for Venelana, I felt like I owed it to Rias. This was her moment; regardless of the steps taken, she should be able to enjoy her victory.
She grabbed my arm, hooking hers around me as we moved towards another part of the arena. Locker rooms, were that what they were? Where the participants hung out before the rating game started.
I honestly didn’t know the name as we entered.
“Mom!” Rias’s voice called out as she ran up and hugged her mother.
The only time Venelana let go of me was to hug. “I’m so proud of you.”
I looked around the room; it was more like a hotel room if I were being honest.
But devils are ostentatious by existence, so I wasn’t surprised.
I looked at a certain kitty, and she met my gaze.
I raised my thumb up.
She raised hers up in response in a very proud way.
Well done, kitty.
You did well.
I promised myself to secretly send her more guns in the future. Stronger guns, bigger guns.
“Rias!” Serafall collapsed to the girl’s legs. “Whyyyyyy, do you have any idea how much whining I’m going to have to deal with now?”
Rias, to her credit, simply struck a pose, I think the one from Sailor Moon. “Not my problem!”
“Waaah!” Serafall fell to the ground.
“Big Brother!” Rias threw herself into her brother’s arms. “I won.”
“Yes, I saw.” He deadpanned. “I’m not going to say I’m not happy, but we’re going to have a difficult time getting people calmed down after this.” He let out a sigh. “I’m going to get accused of nepotism again.”
What, Nepotism!?
In Devil Society?
I never!
Be nice for Venelana’s sake.
Venelana looked my way; I think she could feel it. I gave her a polite smile, and I saw her giggle silently before squeezing my arm warmly.
“That was certainly a unique plan, Rias.” Venelana spoke.
Rias flung her hair back hastily. “Well, it was one plan of a few. I’m just glad we didn’t get to Plan D.”
“What’s plan D?” I couldn’t help but ask.
I think Rias realized I was there for the first time, like genuinely surprised I was there, as she then looked at her brother, like she couldn’t believe we were in the same room together.
Fair, I guess.
“I was going to pull Riser’s pants down.” She admitted without a hint of shame.
There was a moment of silence from the others.
I raised my thumb up.
She returned it as well with a grin.
“Ewwww, why would you want to see his dick?"
I didn’t miss the reason it was called Plan D.
“His sister was right there.” Rias pointed out.
Serafall paused. “Huh.”
“It would have distracted her, probably, maybe. If she were trying not to look at Riser’s tiny dick flopping around, then I think Issei and Kiba could have beaten her.” Rias explained.
“That’s certainly a strategy.” Venelana responded.
I don’t know if she was proud or embarrassed by Rias’s plan. But hey, I think it was a good plan!
“I’m curious, how did you even think to…use the strategy that you did?” Venelana changed the subject, presumably not wanting to talk about Riser's dick anymore.
“Oh, well, I was reading the actual rulebook after I got all those potions because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t breaking a rule, you know? I never actually read them before," Rias admitted. “And I was reading over the healing items, and it actually specifies the benefit of a healing item? I think it was because some teams carry multiple Phoenix Tears on them, but only one can be used."
Serafall was done playing and was nodding along. “Right, I remember that. Ajuka wrote it because only one healing item was what was decided on to be used. But we didn’t want to limit how many could be carried by a peerage. If a rook were the type to get beat up and they were on the other side of the field, but the king were carrying the Phoenix Tear, then that would make it kind of redundant.”
The Leviathan Stan let out a long sigh. “It was meant to add a level of battlefield awareness for the peerage to coordinate on. Multiple people have a Phoenix Tear, but only one can be used by a Peerage per game. So you had to decide if you were ‘hurt enough’ or if you being healed would contribute the most to the battle if you weren’t near your king to receive a specific order.”
“And I abused the shit out of it.” Rias nodded.
“Raaah!” Serafall tried to jump at her, but Rias’s brother grabbed her by the collar.
“If only one were allowed to be carried into a match, then it would obviously only ever be carried by the King, as the King is the most important ‘piece’ considering the match is over if they lose.” Satan Lucifer weighed in. “That was the thought, and we wanted more dynamic decision-making. That, and there was an incident years ago where someone dropped their Phoenix Tear, and it shattered on the ground. Then someone else in the peerage took one, and the other team tried to argue that this counted. So we had to make sure that it clarified that someone had to be the recipient of the healing effects to count.”
It painted a rather specific picture that left it open to be exploitable.
“Yup, and it didn’t clarify that the one benefitting from it had to be the one who willingly took it!” Rias beamed. “Only that taking two would result in a disqualification!”
Sirzechs Lucifer let out a sigh just as Serafall did.
“Pheonix Tears are extremely expensive. No one thought to use one like that before. And before now, Serafall looked at me. “We didn’t have healing items normalized like this.”
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
“Ajuka was the one who wrote the rulebook.” Sirzechs pointed out.
“And now he gets to rewrite it.” Serafall’s smile twitched. “Because now we’re going to have to ban a lot of things. Like other potions and guns—maybe. And of course, clarify new rules that healing potions on opponents don’t count.”
“Don’t care, I won.” Rias said smugly.
Serafall looked like she wanted to strangle her.
Her peerage looked just as proud, though.
She looked at me. “Thanks, Wilhelm. For all the help. I honestly don’t know if we would have won without you.”
God dammit.
I’m not good at getting thanked by people who I don’t have good relationships with.
I flicked my wrist and held out a card. “Here, take this. As a congratulations for winning. I already cleared it with Odin; if you want, you can head over to Asgard and get several months of training. They’ll let you join in with the Valkyries to learn magic or go through the same training that the Einherjar do. And they have a bunch of gods willing to tutor.”
Truthfully, I was going to give it to her either way.
If she lost and fell into despair, I wouldn’t have been able to handle Venelana being sad. So I prepared this just in case that Rias was going to get depressed after a loss.
Rather than saying something, she just threw her arms around me in a hug.
She isn’t that bad.
@***@
I quickly stepped out of a portal back home.
“Wilhelm?” Yasaka was lazing on the couch. “You’re back already. Where’s Venelana?”
“Wilhelm is back?” Artoria called out from the kitchen as she peeked her head around the corner.
“Everyone else busy?” I looked around.
“They’re all elsewhere. We thought you would be gone longer. Probably spending the night at Venelana's." Yasaka said that in a joking way, albeit probably true.
“I ran away. She threatened to break my hips," I admitted.
Yasaka opened her mouth and did a double take. “And that’s a problem. Why?"
I grabbed my favorite tail of hers before giving Artoria a kiss on the cheek. “Oh, it wasn’t. I just didn’t want to get in between her and time with her family. They were celebrating and all happy and…I felt out of place.”
“You know she wouldn’t have been upset with you there.” Artoria gave me a look.
“I know she would have happily told me to stay.” I acknowledged it. But it wasn’t just me; it was the person I also didn’t have a good relationship with being awkward that I was there. And Venelana didn’t deserve to have her son being awkward around her and her daughter while they’re celebrating.
“That and Runeas appeared, and things got rather chaotic.” That was part of it as well. “I thought it was best to escape while I had the chance.”
“We were watching the match as well.” Artoria spoke up. “It was…interesting.”
Yasaka started laughing. “I was reading all the comments online; it’s a hoot.”
“How many people are pissed?" I asked.
“Less than you think. You know Devils have a history of abusing rules and fine print. So seeing someone do so in such a blatant way actually earned a lot of respect from many people.”
You know, I can see it.
“You’re not working?” I sat down with Yasaka, grabbing multiple tails before rubbing them. As much as they were a ‘sensitive’ part of her—not necessarily because of touch, but more emotionally—she loved it when I played with her tails.
“I’m taking a short break. I came over to lay my head down. My little refuge in a world of constant working.” She let out a small whine, and I felt bad.
I hope Shield can do what I asked sooner rather than later.
Yasaka abruptly grabbed Artoria’s skirt and pulled it over, causing her to fall between us.
She let out a little yelp before settling down, presumably accepting her new seat.
“You have that look," Yasaka accused, pointing at me.
“What look?”
“Like you’re going to go wander off.”
“I don’t have a look like that," I defended.
“You do.” Artoria backed her up. “You have the wanderlust mindset. I recognize it as well. You do not like sitting still unless you have a reason to do so.”
"...admittedly, I was thinking about heading over to the world where I obtained my Divine Authority.” That had been at the back of my mind. “Maybe ask for some pointers on managing my sword.”
Artoria raised a finger and poked my cheek. “No.”
Simple, cute, and left no room for argument.
“You’re still resting. Or at least, what that amounts to for someone like you. No intentionally go looking for trouble.”
“I –”
“Going to a world where gods descend to cause chaos is intentionally looking for trouble. “Yasaka clarified.
“That’s unfair. ”I found myself pouting.
“I’ll tell you what. You can go there, or Artoria here will unbutton your shirt. You can make the choice.”
“Why me?” Artoria flushed.
“Because I like seeing them too.” Yasaka said without a hint of shame.
Artoria let out one of her cute huffs. “I do not mind. I have already given you permission to request my breasts whenever you are in the mood.”
I know Yasaka was just playing around, teasing Artoria for the fun of it, but the way she just said that, well, I really couldn’t even bring myself to reject the ‘offer’ even if it was just a joke.
I threw my hands up. “Fine, resting. I won’t intentionally go looking for trouble. But I do hate sitting still. How about we go back to that world from before? I would like to see if there are other good fruits like the apple.
Artoria’s bashful look immediately shifted. “Food? Like the apple from before?”
“A relaxing trip, and I can continue with my 'training.'" I pat the sword at my hip.
It wasn’t like I was ignoring it this whole time.
I was consciously keeping my authority contained while it was at my hip.
Yasaka, however, let out another whine. “I can’t~” she said sadly. “I have work I need to finish up. But I don’t want to stop you both from going. How about you both get a head start? I’ll join up later once I can find a good place to justify taking a few days off.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind waiting.”
She reached over and pulled at my cheek. “Don’t worry about me, dear. Go, satisfy your need to move around. I’ll be more than happy just to spend time together doing some adventuring.”
She really didn’t seem to mind.
I suppose she didn’t have the same sense of adventure that I did.
She was the type to seek out, explore, and be content enough that she was satisfied for a while after that.
I looked at Artoria. “Actually, when was the last time we went out exploring together?”
I couldn’t remember off the top of my head.
Skyrim?
“It has been long.” Artoria nodded. “I would be thrilled to go on an adventure with you, Wilhelm.”
“Would Rin or Mordred want to come?” I knew how important they both were to her, and I wanted to make sure they were included.
“Rin has secluded herself in her workshop for the time being. She said not to disturb her for a couple weeks. I believe she mentioned she was practicing her magic. And Mordred went out with her master to visit back to his home. He said that he wished to retrieve some personal items and she was going along to make sure he wasn’t harmed.”
Ah.
Well then.
I shot to my feet. “No time like the present?”
Artoria got up and took my head.
Off to a new world to explore.
@***@
A/N
The next world is coming right up. Figured I may as well jump right into it.. are talking about the rating game; I just wanted to get started on the next world arc.
Actually, I was thinking about doing a small pho segment about the Rating Game since I haven’t done one in awhile. I thought it would be better than just writing several scenes from the characters instead.