Kapitel 10: 10. Time Skip and the Engagement.
│1st Person POV of Meliodas│
[Underworld Realm, Valefor Territory, Valefor Lord's Mansion…]
[A Year Later…]
How swiftly time passes when you are enjoying yourself, doesn't it?
A year had passed since I marked my Parents and their Peerage members with the Binder Essence.
Every day since then, I have been increasing the strength of their Essences little by little. Now, they can use the Blank and Archmage Essence at five percent of their full capacity.
All of them have weaker versions of Binder Essence too, however, Mother and Father decided that only I should mark someone new if it came to it.
'Meliodas…"
Because of the Essences, Father, Mother, and their Peerage Members, everyone got stronger.
Father, his Queen, Maxwell Faulker, and his sole Bishop, Jacob Parker, have even advanced to the Mid-Ultimate Class while three of his other Peerage members broke into the Ultimate Class.
On the other hand, only Samara from Mother's Peerage became an Ultimate-Class Devil while the others are at the pinnacle of High-Class.
I estimate that within six months, all of them will become Ultimate-Class.
"Meliodas…"
A few days ago, Father asked me if I was alright with sharing the existence of the Sigil with Uncle Falbi.
According to him, The Satan of Military Affairs was happy when he sensed the increase in Father's strength.
However, when he found out that five of Father's Peerage members also grew stronger at almost the same time that Father did, he sensed that something was up.
Uncle Falbi had asked Father about the unusual matter and when Father responded that he wished to keep quiet about it for some time, the former easily accepted the answer.
As the head of the Military Department, Uncle Falbi could have pushed for an investigation if he so desired, however, he didn't. He trusted Father to disclose the secret on his own.
This happened a month ago.
"MelioDAS!"
So, when Father asked me the question, I reassured him that I would take care of the matter soon.
After all, tomorrow I will mark Serafall, and it is also the day of the Four Satans' Bi-Yearly Meeting.
Tomorrow will be interesting.
Now, I have to take care of a little gremlin.
"MELIODAS!!"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you. What is it?"
"Grrr!!" With an enraged growl, the red-headed girl beside me threw a punch at my face.
I didn't look away from the magic circle above my left hand as I easily blocked her punch with my right index finger.
It wasn't that her punch was weak, she could easily take out most beings under Peak-High Class level with a single punch after all, it was just that I am the one who is too strong.
Her frustration grew as she saw her attack being so ineffective and she let out an even louder shout before hurling a barrage of punches at me.
Still, I only used one finger to stop all of her attacks.
If I wanted, I could have restrained her easily. However, she had been grumpy since arriving and she needed to vent, so I intentionally goaded her into attacking me.
When she finally started to slow after releasing all her pent-up stress, I dispersed the magic circle above my left hand and stood up.
Seeing this, she stopped her attacks.
Without any words, I pulled her into a hug, threading my fingers through her long red hair while saying, "You once again took the words of some extras to heart, didn't you?"
"Devils from the Pillar Clans aren't extras." She mumbled into my chest.
I immediately retorted, "Pathetic waste of spaces that couldn't muster enough brain power to think about the consequences of antagonizing the strongest Devil in existence are extras.
"Without their identity of being members of Pillar Clans, they won't amount to anything. You, on the other hand, are already stronger than them at the age of 8, nearing 9, years old."
I could feel her pout at my words before she commented, "You are younger than me and you still effortlessly stopped all of my attacks."
"Morgiana, you shouldn't compare yourself to me. After all, I am just built different."
The redheaded girl laughed upon hearing my declaration and I smiled too.
Morgiana's situation is not quite good right now. Being the child of the Strongest Devil comes with lot of expactation after all.
She finally awakened the Bael Clan Trait, Power of Destruction, a few weeks ago. This should have been an event worthy of being celebrated.
However, the potency of her Power of Destruction is so strong that moments after awakening it, she lost any control over it and it raged out of her, dealing massive damage to her surroundings.
She was being trained by Macgregor Mathers, Sirzechs' Bishop, at that moment and even a legendary Magician like him was unable to fully protect himself from Morgiana's outburst.
He had lost a big chunk of his flesh from his upper right arm.
His right arm would probably have been severed if Sirzechs hadn't arrived just in time after sensing the commotion moments earlier and sealed Morgiana's Demonic Power, cutting off the source of the energy of the rampant Power of Destruction.
Even after the wound was healed, a scar remained, a constant reminder of the unfortunate accident.
This incident left Morgiana scared of her own power and she chose to have her mutated Power of Destruction sealed instead of training to tame it.
However, things deteriorated further when it was discovered that if her Demonic Power wasn't sealed below a certain level, it would automatically convert into the Power of Destruction, breaking through the seals and going on a rampage.
Because of this, she couldn't even use her other Clan Trait, Ice Manipulation inherited from Grayfia, effectively.
This resulted in her being scorned by Devils from the Pillar Clans that supported the Old Satan Faction in the Civil War.
They think that just because they were spared by the New Satans to avoid the eradication of more Noble bloodlines, they were somehow important enough to not face any retaliation after blatantly insulting the current Lucifer's daughter.
They don't even have full information about the issue. They just know that Morgiana is unable to use any of her Clan Traits.
Sirzechs was only restraining himself because the Great King Faction might take advantage of the situation and further undermine the Satans' influence on the Devil Council.
However, there's a limit to everything.
Once Sirzechs snaps, he may even unleash his True Form on the Devil Council.
This series of events has increased the respect I have for Sirzechs.
He has incredible self-control, managing to refrain from taking any actions that could lead to political ruin despite him doting massively on Morgiana.
Now, with her Demonic Power being greatly limited, Morgiana had to focus on only relying on her body to become stronger.
Her family also supported her decision as they knew that pushing her to overcome her fear could lead to disastrous results.
In one of her previous visits to my home, before the disastrous awakening of her Clan Traits, she found out that I was training my physical parameters too.
So, after the incident, she started coming over more frequently to train along with me when I didn't show any scorn towards her.
Today, however, is different.
Today, her parents accompanied her as well. Normally, she visits with only Okita Souji or, on rare occasions, Grayfia.
An interesting fact I have noticed is that during her visits here, Grayfia doesn't wear her usual maid outfit. She is either in a dress or in a business suit.
[Image 1]
[Image 2]
And she spends most of the time with Mother during the visits.
I can sense that something fishy is going on here.
Right now, Sirzechs and Grayfia are having a meeting with Mother and Father. It's been half an hour since their meeting started.
Suddenly, I felt multiple gazes on me.
Looking towards the source of the gazes, I noticed my parents and Morgiana's parents observing us from the window of Father's study room.
They were smiling too.
I raised an eyebrow at the spectacle.
The next moment, they moved away from the window.
What's just happened?
Before I could ponder on it more, Morgiana forcefully turned my face in her direction. "What are you looking at?" She asked.
I shook my head and answered, "Nothing important. Let's go get some food."
She nodded and we both made our way into the mansion.
A few minutes later, as Morgiana and I were enjoying some snacks, Fleur approached us and said, "Little Master, Miss Gremory, Lord Valefor has summoned you both to the study room."
Morgiana and I shared a look before I answered Fleur, "I understand."
Then, I started my trek toward the study room with Morgiana beside me.
When we entered the study room a few minutes later, I witnessed the scene of my parents and Morgiana's parents sitting with a solemn expression.
Fleur didn't enter with us as she closed the door and stood guard outside.
As we reached in front of our parents, Father looked at me with a grave expression and began, "Son, I have some news for you."
The tension in the air was making me feel nervous, so I just nodded without a word.
"Son, you Mother and I along with Sirzechs and Grayfia have come to a decision."
Father, please don't build up the tension anymore.
Wait! What did he say?
'Sirzechs' and 'Grayfia'?! Not Satan Lucifer and Queen Lucifuge?!!
Since when was he so familiar with these two to call them by name?
Wait a damn second!!!
This setting… Is this what I think it is?
My face became blank and then, I watched as a smirk grew on my Father's face like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
"It seems you have an inkling as to what I am talking about. Very well, I may as well rip the band-aid off then." He said, an infuriating smirk on his face.
"Son, congratulations on your engagement with Morgiana Gremory."
Yup, called it.
From the corner of my eye, I watched as a red blush exploded on Morgiana's face.
This girl even started wringing her fingers together in a typical Hinata fashion.
Anyway, I looked at Father and asked, "When did you all decide this?"
"The subject of this engagement was first discussed during the meeting between Grayfia and I. It was on the day you were visiting Miracle Studio for the first time." Mother was the one who answered my question.
Father continued after her, "For the next year, we all watched the interaction between the two of you and determined if you would be happy to be engaged to each other."
"It was also decided that none of you will know anything about the engagement talks. This subject would only be disclosed to you if we decided to go through with it." Grayfia spoke up next.
Why are they taking turns explaining this? Who's next? Sirzechs?
"Finally, when you didn't change your behavior toward Mori-chan after the incident, the engagement was a go from our side. Your parents were also in agreement and today, we finalized the contract.
"Now, if both of you don't have a problem with this, you two can sign the contract and make it official."
Sirzechs really did take up the explanation work after Grayfia.
Focusing on the subject of engagement now.
I took the contract from Sirzechs hands and gave it a read.
Although one thing I am glad about this situation is that as the Heads of the Valefor and Zagan Clans, my parents could have signed the contract on my behalf, but they didn't do so.
As I read through the contract, I noticed that even from Morgiana's side, no one has signed the contract yet.
That is good, that is good.
Once I finished reading, I gave the contract to Morgiana and gestured to her to read it too while I thought this through.
…
…
…
Honestly, I didn't have any problem with this engagement.
Although I haven't once looked at Morgiana as a romantic interest, I see her as a good friend.
And this is just an engagement contract.
According to it, if any one of us wished to void the contract before our marriage, we could do so easily. No need for both of us to agree to break the contract.
I can agree to this engagement now and see if my feelings for her will grow in the future. If not, I can always cancel it.
With this thought in mind, I declared, "I am not against this engagement."
Then, I took the contract that Morgiana had just finished reading, picked up a pen from Father's study table, and signed it with a flourish.
"I- I am also okay with this en- engagement." Morgiana muttered in a low voice, her face scarlet. And then, she also signed the contract.
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A/N: Guys, I am looking for a good reference pic of Morgiana. So far, my search has not been fruitful. So I can only ask for help from you, my dear readers.
She looks just like her namesake from Magi. It would be prefered if she is dressed in formal clothes, not her usual knee-length short one-piece.
Your help will be much appreciated.
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