Capítulo 3: Problems
"Heiress Gremory happened to recognize me from the Sitri Estate and decided to say hi, nothing more," Julius said. The last thing he wanted was for Riser, apparently Rias' fiancee, to get the wrong idea.
Julius could see the brief flicker of irritation on Rias' face when he went back to addressing her as Heiress Gremory, but she could see why he'd done it so the look quickly vanished.
"Yes, well I certainly drew the attention of quite a few people at the party," Riser said, gesturing around them. "Some would say it's in poor taste so soon after our engagement."
The sheer disgust on Rias' face when Riser mentioned their engagement was jarring. He'd heard a little about Riser, most of which just said he was a notorious playboy, but then what devil wasn't? It was borderline underheard of for a devil to be monogamous, the only notable example being Sirzechs Lucifer. That didn't quite explain why Rias hated him so much.
"Then perhaps it's best that I take my leave," Julius said.
Riser smirked, feeling like he'd won. "Good that you know your place. Rias, it wouldn't do to mingle with lesser devils."
His mom had grilled Julius until he knew how to handle proper etiquette with pureblood devils and he hated every moment. It was all so pretentious, and he certainly didn't think any of them were better than him. However, he couldn't afford to offend every single person at this party by causing a problem, and he didn't want to make an issue for Sona on her big day.
"It was nice meeting you," Julius said, extending his hand for a handshake.
"I don't shake the hand of lesser," Riser said snidely and walked forward to bump Julius' shoulder as he moved past him. When he made contact, Julius activated his magic. His control was good enough now that unless someone was massively more powerful than him, they wouldn't even notice him affecting them.
He quickly made the change in that brief moment of contact and shrugged, before sending Rias an apologetic look and walking away. As he did, Sona came up to him with a worried look.
"I can't wait to disappear for the next few months into my work, I hate all of this," Julius muttered to her.
The amused look on her face certainly didn't help. "Yes, well I'm sure it's fine if you leave now, but I'd like to talk to you later. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't be okay with Riser doing something like that, so what'd you do?"
Julius put on a mock hurt look. "Do you have so little faith in me? To think, you believe I can't let a simple insult slide."
Sona certainly wasn't going to play along. "Julius, when I asked you to join my peerage when we were kids you didn't talk to me for two weeks. If you're anything, it's petty when you're slighted."
He laughed remembering that time so long ago. "Fine, I'll talk to you after the party."
"Good, come to my room in a few hours."
Before Julius could even comment on the potential misunderstanding there, Sona had moved away to go to Rias, who was still being accosted by Riser, and help her out. Julius, for his part, was just about done with his night, so he quietly slipped away from the party to bide his time until he met up with Sona.
----
"How did this turn into an entire get-together?" Julius asked confused. He'd made his way to Sona's room when it was time, and instead of finding her and Tsubaki, he found the two of them plus Rias and Akeno waiting.
"Sona said you'd say something that'd make me feel better after having to deal with Riser," Rias commented. "I'm sorry, by the way. I should've known he'd do something like that when I approached you."
Julius shot Sona a look, clearly not happy with that. "Some secret Sona, are you trying to get the Phenex family pissed at me?"
Sona had the decency to look abashed. "I'm sorry, I just saw how miserable Rias was and wanted to cheer her up."
Julius sighed, leaning back in a chair as he considered the group for a moment. "Fine, but none of this leaves this room."
He received nods of acknowledgment, and Sona looked at him curiously. "So what did you do?"
"For those who don't know, I work in the Sitri Hospital, and my magic is focused on manipulating biology," Julius explained. There wasn't any point in hiding what his magic did, devils were a race that prided themselves on showmanship. If he ever wanted to make a name for himself and be acknowledged as powerful, he had to show what he could do. Hiding his abilities would never get him anywhere with a race like this.
"And you used those on Riser," Sona said. "Then, what exactly did you manipulate about his body."
Julius, smirked as he explained. "I gave him erectile dysfunction for the next two weeks. The notorious playboy is going to have some performance issues."
The room looked rather shocked for a moment before Rias burst out laughing. Tsubaki and Akeno both looked quietly amused, while Sona just sighed and shook her head. "Why am I not surprised that was what you went with? At least you had the good sense to not make it permanent, even if he's a third son making him unable to reproduce would be a problem."
That comment drew Rias' attention quickly and she turned to me. "If you made it permanent, wouldn't my family have to break up the engagement? The whole point was to produce a child with both of our bloodlines, but if he can't do it then there'd be no point."
That was the problem with pureblood heirs, they had a certain inability to see the bigger picture. "It might, but I'm sorry I'm not doing that. If I made Riser infertile, it'd draw a good amount of attention, and with how high profile your engagement is, someone suitably strong could investigate and find out I did it. Devils value every kid they can get with how low our birthrate is, that could get me killed."
"Is there no way you could hide it," Rias persisted, but this time it was Sona who cut in sharply.
"No Rias, it isn't worth the risk. If you want out of your engagement, you're going to have to find your own way out of it like I did. Julius is not getting involved."
Rias slumped down in her chair as she nodded. "I know, I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do. I don't have something I excel at like you do Sona, and even if I doubt my parents would go for it like yours did."
"You'll figure something out, I know you will," Sona said, comforting her friend. The mood had been destroyed, so Julius ended up quietly taking his leave while the group thought about Rias' impending marriage.
He felt for the girl, he valued his freedom too much to ever be okay with an arranged marriage, but that didn't mean he was going to get involved. He simply didn't have the status to take part and not have it blow up in his face, and he wouldn't risk his life for a girl he hardly knew.
Unfortunately for Julius, neither he nor Sona was aware that a certain Satan had set up cameras in Sona's room to watch her without her knowing. When she'd gotten wind that her little sister was meeting up with a boy in her room, she'd made sure to be watching the cameras at that time. It so happened that another Satan had caught his sister going that way as well, and joined her to listen in.
----
"Sirzechs, don't," Serafall Leviathan said sharply. She'd been having a good time spying on her Sona, but it'd taken an unfortunate turn and she regretted letting Sirzechs join in now.
She sat in her chair, dressed officially for once in a green pantsuit instead of her usual magical girl attire. She'd had to be proper for Sona's debut, no matter how much she hated it. Her long, black hair was tied up in twin tails and she had bright, blue eyes. She was on the shorter side but was rather well-endowed for her height.
Sirzechs Lucifer sat next to her, leaning back in his chair in thought. He had dark, red hair and blue eyes and was dressed in a dark cloak and suit.
"I'm just considering my options Serafall."
"No, I know that look. Don't involve Sona's friend in one of your games. They were right, if he gets involved his life is over," Serafall chided, her normally childlike tone absent.
Sirzechs gave her his assurances he wouldn't, but Serafall knew better. The man adored his sister, and he'd been opposed to her engagement from the start but had been unable to interfere due to his status. The other factions in the Underworld were just looking for a chance to cause a problem, and Sirzechs Lucifer abusing his power would give them the opportunity.
There wasn't much she could do, other than keeping an eye on Julius. She was a busy woman, and couldn't be there 24/7 to make sure Sirzechs didn't try something. The man had found an opportunity to help his sister, and he wasn't likely to give it up for the sake of a Mixed-Heritage devil he couldn't care less about.
----
The next couple of weeks passed relatively quietly for Julius. Funnily enough, Riser had ended up coming to the hospital where he worked for a checkup due to his "ailment." Dr. Pycelle had been the one to check him over, and when he'd done his checkup he took Julius aside to speak to him.
"I know your magic signature at this point. How long will it last?"
Julius knew it wouldn't get by the man. Of everyone in the Underworld, he was the only one who could identify when he used his magic after all the time he'd spent helping him develop it.
"It should go away in a day or two."
"Good, I'm glad you had the sense to not make it permanent. Good job getting back at him though," Dr. Pycelle said and clapped him on the back before delivering the news to Riser.
Julius was starting to grow worried about his mother. Her condition was only worsening, and he just didn't have enough experience trying to separate the disease from her demonic power. He couldn't experiment on the doll, it didn't truly have magic power of his own, and he couldn't afford to risk it with one of the patients. He'd spent the last couple of weeks learning how to create the Sleep Disease, hoping that'd give him a new idea, but that had been a dead end.
At this point, he needed live devils he could practice on, and there was only one category of devil he could do so without being a hunter; Stray Devils. He'd already told Dr. Pycelle he was leaving, as he'd decided to join the Agares Hunter Corp. He'd have the chance to fight Stray Devils, letting him get stronger while he tried giving them the Sleep Disease and then removing it. He couldn't afford to wait any longer.
Leaving the hospital, he teleported back to his house at the Sitri Estate, briefly checking in on his mother before he went inside to search for Sona to let her know. He found her in the sitting room, shuffling through some papers while Tsubaki sat beside her giving her some help.
"I'm joining the Hunter Corp," Julius said without preamble. Tsubaki and Sona both looked surprised at the rather abrupt news before Sona took on a contemplative look.
"I'm guessing it's gotten to the point where you have no other choice?"
Sona had made a point of asking about his progress in regard to curing his mother, and he'd kept her apprised of it. She knew this was coming, so it wasn't like he was blindsiding her with the news.
"Yeah, I leave tomorrow to go in for training."
Sona mulled over something for a bit before she raised her hand and conjured a chess set. "Then, before you leave, let's have one last game."
Julius smirked, sitting down across from her as they began to play. He knew she'd suggest this, and ever since he'd decided to leave he had spent an absurd amount of time studying the game. He wanted to beat her, just one time before he left.
The game began to progress, and Tsubaki watched as they each continued to play. "You've gotten better."
"Gotta get one over on you eventually," Julius said as he focused on the game.
Sona, for her part, looked more focused than he'd ever seen her when they played. The game progressed slowly, as the two of them took more time each turn to consider their moves.
She had begun to bite her bottom lip as it continued, and Julius couldn't help but focus in even more. Eventually, he could see his chance, and in a couple more moves he couldn't help the bright grin that blossomed on his face.
"Checkmate."
That one word contained all of the frustration from the many losses he'd suffered from over the years. Finally, after all this time, he'd managed to beat Sona. She'd probably still win 9/10 times, but all he wanted was at least one win.
"Sona," Tsubaki said carefully, looking at her King who was staring at the board in shock. After a moment, a small smile made its way onto her face.
"Congratulations, you finally beat me."
"Yeah, yeah, I know it's just one win. The record is still in your favor, but I'll take what I can get," Julius said as he began to get up. "Well, I've got to get everything ready for tomorrow, so I'll see the two of you later."
The two muttered their farewells, and Julius made his way out of the room leaving Sona and Tsubaki to themselves.
"How are you going to handle this?" Tsubaki asked her King.
Sona had never told Julius exactly what the condition she'd put behind her marriage was, all she had said was the person needed to be smarter than her.
Sona thought for a moment before a light blush appeared on her face. "I'm not exactly...opposed to this, but you know it'd be an issue. He doesn't have the status necessary to make it go smoothly."
Tsubaki's amused grin served to make Sona's blush all the more pronounced. "Don't look at me like that, I've known Julius forever. It's not that big of a surprise."
"I know, but it's nice to see you like this. It's unfortunate he's leaving for the Hunter Corp now, especially with all the peerage members that go there."
"Yes, I heard Riser sent a couple of his peerage there as well which could be a problem for him." Sona thought for a moment before she looked at Tsubaki. "I've got an idea. How would you feel about a bit of a vacation?"
----
Author's Note:
So I'm gonna clarify some stuff I'm sure people are going to wonder about. First off, Sirzechs is gonna be a villain to Julius. My MC would not just let someone manipulate him or use him to help Rias and just be okay with that, as he's demonstrated in this chapter. Julius is petty, and if you slight him he'll deal with you in kind. The problem is, Sirzechs is a damn monster, so he'd going to have to go about it carefully. Just so no one worries that this is going to be a story where the MC just saves Rias from her marriage happily, it's going to be a whole thing.
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