Kapitel 19: 19. Visiting Kouh Town.
│1st Person POV of Meliodas│
[Human World, United States of America, California…]
Once I took the Boosted Gear encased in barriers, I dismissed the clone delivering it, sending it back to where it was created.
The clone taking care of the former host of the Red Dragon of Domination will assign this new one a suitable task.
Anyway, I summoned a magic circle and scanned the Sacred Gear.
The results confirmed for me that Sacred Gear wasn't going to get called back to the Heaven System once I removed the barriers, so I removed them.
Then, the Boosted Gear in its true form was in my hands.
I traced my fingers on the gauntlet, feeling its metallic texture before placing my right hand on the green jewel on top of the palm area.
The next moment, I transferred a significant amount of life force into the jewel, making it glow brightly.
When the glow receded a moment later, I stated, "You should now have enough power to be awake and sense your surroundings freely, right Ddraig?"
"You're correct, Devil. And for this, I thank you," Ddraig's voice echoed from the jewel, which glowed as the dragon spoke.
I waved my hand while responding, "Don't mention it. Also, feel free to call me by my name. Being referred to as Devil feels weird."
"I will think about it."
"Anyway, I was thinking about shrinking the Boosted Gear and then wearing it as a locket so that you can be with me most of the time before I hand you over to your chosen host. What do you say?"
Ddraig responded with a question of his own, "And why are you not transferring me to my chosen host right away?"
"Well, I want the Boosted Gear to be a trump card of that person, not their source of strength. After all, when I free you from the Sacred Gear in the future, they will be on their own anyway, right?
"I also want you to see for yourself the qualities of your next host."
Ddraig took a few seconds to reply, "You are really planning to free me, Devil?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I can free you right now if I want to. However, I need the power of the Boosted Gear on my side, at least for the near future.
"You gave my clones a hundred years of time, right? Then, I promise to free you after twenty years. You just have to stay in the Sacred Gear for twenty years more. Is that alright with you?"
"…"
"..."
"I have already agreed to cooperate with you for a hundred years, Devil. I am a Dragon and a Dragon does not go back on their word."
Ddraig's answer brought a smile to my face.
Even in my previous life, when I used to watch and read the anime and LN of High School DxD respectively, Ddraig was one of my favorite characters.
With the Red Dragon of Domination by my side, I am sure life will be more fun from now on.
=+=+=+=< Scene Change >=+=+=+=
[Human World, Japan, Kouh Town…]
Japan wasn't our next destination.
In fact, this was the last place we were going to visit before going back to the Underworld.
However, the discovery of the Boosted Gear in Brazil prompted me to switch our travel plans a bit.
Looking at the gray-haired woman in front of me, I addressed her in a respectful tone, "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Miss Belial."
"The pleasure is mine, Heir Valefor-Zagan." She returned my greeting with a gentle and kind smile.
Then, she exchanged greetings with Morgiana, Samara, and Souji before leading us out of the teleportation room.
As the overseer of this town, Cleria was well within her rights to send some servants to greet us, however, she didn't do so.
Even when we changed the schedule of our arrival so abruptly, she was treating us in such a courteous manner without harboring any irritation or such emotions within herself.
While leading us toward the parlor room, she even offered us a place in her home during our stay in this town.
She was totally different from the other Devil Overseers of the various territories we visited on this trip.
Honestly, from her smile and demeanor, one can never guess that the woman in front of me was a Devil.
In Canon, she was somehow able to go to Heaven after her death even though Devils don't have an afterlife.
Anyway, once we were all seated in the parlor room, I asked Cleria, "Miss Belial, would you mind telling us the situation within and around your town?"
"Of course, I won't mind, Heir Valefor-Zagan. First, although the name of the place is Kouh Town, it is actually bigger than some small-sized cities.
"Additionally, the place attracts numerous rogue elements from different factions from time to time. It is hard to take care of them with just my Peerage sometimes.
"I have had to ask for help from Diehauser a few times in the past to deal with some of them."
As Cleria told the story about the last incident in which she had to ask for Diehauser's help, I concluded that Kouh Town was a hotspot for trouble even long before Rias and Sona took over the duty of overseeing this place.
Truly, this town was worthy of being the place where the protagonist of this world was born and raised.
Does that mean even though Issei doesn't have the Boosted Gear, he is still the protagonist and he has something else in substitute for the Boosted Gear?
Well, there's no meaning in pondering this. I will know the answers to my question in a few hours or a few days at most.
At this moment, Cleria started speaking about the Church, so I paid her my full attention, "There's also a Church in this town. The highest-ranking Exorcist here is a man named Touji Shidou.
"He is a Holy Sword wielder, and although the Holy Sword in his possession isn't as powerful as the Excalibur Fragments, it is still capable of causing severe damage to High-Class Devils.
"So, please be careful."
Cleria looked at us with a grave expression as she gave us the warning. We all nodded and she continued.
"I've also found out that another Holy Sword wielder is being sent to this town from the Vatican. Apparently to help deal with the rogue elements that keep popping up in this town."
Hearing this, I couldn't help but ask, "Is there any other Holy Sword wielder already in the town?"
"No, Shidou is the only Holy Sword wielder in this town right now." Cleria responded while looking at me prompting me to nod.
It seems Cleria and Masaomi haven't met yet. And he may just be the new Exorcist that will arrive from the Vatican.
As Cleria opened her mouth to continue, two women came into the room with an assortment of snacks and refreshments.
"Oh, would you look at that? I got carried away. I apologize for being such a gossip Heir Valefor-Zagan, Miss Gremory, Miss Archer, Mister Oukita."
I waved my hand, dismissing her apology, "It's fine. I enjoyed your tales. And also, please refer to me as Meliodas. Heir Valefor-Zagan is a mouthful."
"As you wish, Meliodas. In exchange, I want you to call me by name as well. All of you." Cleria replied, her smile becoming a little bit wider.
Suddenly, I felt a hand pinching my waist. I looked at Morgiana at my side and raised an eyebrow at her.
Ignoring me, she turned to talk with Cleria, "You can also call me by my name, Cleria."
Sometimes, I think even Beyond Genius Level Intellect isn't useful to figure out what goes through a woman's mind.
=+=+=+=< Scene Break >=+=+=+=
│1st Person POV of Meliodas's Clone│
While Boss and his group were being given a tour of the Kouh Town by Cleria, I was created by Boss before being sent to locate the Hyoudou Residence and check the situation there.
Boss is such a hard taskmaster. While he gets to enjoy being on a tour, all of us clones are getting delegated to various tasks all around the world.
I hope he gets retribution for this in some way.
Anyway, to complete my task, I first used the spell, SG Tracker, to locate the Sacred Gears wielders in this town.
This way, if Issei has any Sacred Gear, I would be able to easily complete my task of locating the Hyoudou Residence.
Additionally, the spell was improved by the original last night. So its range was quite big now, able to scan the entirety of Kouh Town in one go.
Taking the form of a crow, I took to the skies and started to fly towards one of two locations the spell detected Sacred Gear wielders to be in.
The spell was also slightly modified to ignore the Boosted Gear in the possession of the original.
A short while later, I arrived in a residential zone. The houses here were old and small.
Following the direction of the spell, I landed on top of a single-story traditional Japanese house.
Using Senjutsu and Observation Haki, I found out that there were seven people inside the house. Four adults and three children, the oldest of them being five years old.
The adults were having a conversation in the living room while the children were playing with some blocks on one side.
Probing the minds of the adults with my Telepathy, I discovered that this was the family of Genshirou Saji, the one who was born with the Sacred Gear, Absorption Line in Canon.
To find out if it was the same case with this Genshirou as well, I gently implanted a suggestion of going to the toilet in his mind.
Once he was inside the toilet, I put him to sleep and then teleported behind him. I left an illusion of a crow occupying my previous spot before doing so.
I quickly performed my scans on him.
A few seconds later, I got all the necessary data and teleported back to my previous location, dispelling the illusion in the process.
Then, I woke up Genshirou, who proceeded to finish his business in the toilet before joining his siblings, completely unaware that he had somehow fallen asleep for a few seconds there.
I had no intention of extracting his Sacred Gear at the moment.
I have a more important task to finish.
As I took flight toward the other location the SG Tracker spell detected a Scared Gear wielder to be in, I processed the data collected from Genshirou.
Going through the data, I learned that this universe's Genshirou was also born with the Absorption Line.
Well, it's good that at least some things are the same as in the Canon World.
Anyway, it didn't take me long to reach the other location.
This time, although it was still a residential unit the spell was guiding me into, the houses in this area were all much better and bigger looking than the previous place.
Landing on the roof of one of the two-story houses, I once again deployed my Senjutsu and Observation Haki to sense the situation inside the house.
The results were unexpected, however, this time I was prepared to face the unpredictable.
To confirm my suspicions, I probed the minds of the two adults with Telepathy.
Yes, it is now confirmed.
Issei Hyoudou doesn't exist in this world.
I repeat, Issei Hyoudou doesn't exist in this world.
Important things should be mentioned twice, after all.
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A/N: Sorry for not updating these last few days, guys.
The workload from my company suddenly increased, eating away at my free time massively and tiring me out.
Don't worry though. I will have some more time from tomorrwo and start posting chapters semi-regularly, at least 1 chapter in 2 days.
In the next to next week, I am hopeful we will be back to 5 to 7 chapters per week.
Once again, you have my apologies.
Anyway, If you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to point it out.
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