บท 23: A no-return decision and a mutually beneficial agreement [Final Part]
Yo, author here
I apologize for the delay, I didn't post a chapter sooner because I went to the hospital for an exam, I didn't have time to write, anyway, that's it.
Entjoy reading, rejoice and...
See you all on next time
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(...Continuing)
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Reflecting on her strange behavior, it was then that an old memory came to mind.
'Right...she reincarnated Issei using nine pawns without even knowing what Sacred Gear he had...'
He no longer had any doubts, she was certainly desperate, to the point of simply accepting anything without confirming anything.
It wasn't a very smart move, but considering her situation it was somewhat understandable.
Then, deciding to lighten the girl's sullen mood, he straightened up, stretching his back as he said.
"No need to be depressed, just because I won't become a reincarnated devil under your command doesn't mean we can't have a partnership."
"Mm?"
Returning her gaze to him, she waited for him to continue.
"This is the main reason why you are here, the reason why I wanted to use something like a magic ritual to summon something, I need your help."
Leaning back against the bench, he spoke calmly as he looked at her.
"Oh, i see."
Understanding what he meant, she thought about what he had said, that supposed priest who tried to kill him, and that he even saw two similarly dressed men near the school.
She had already thought about communicating this to Sona, she wanted to talk to her about it and decide whether she should notify her brother or not, but now her mind was focused on this partnership that Micael wanted to form.
She watched as he reached out to her, before speaking.
"The partnership comes down to you helping me protect my family, and I will help you with any problems you have with my powers."
She looked at his hand in silence before looking back at his face.
Shrugging lightly, he continued
"Of course, I will help you based on my maximum capabilities."
Returning her gaze to his hand, she slowly began to smile, a full, beautiful smile appearing on her face as she moved her hand to his.
Accepting the handshake, she spoke in a cheerful tone.
"Of course~ I accept your proposal."
With lips trembling, Micael spoke.
"Are you sure you're not being naive? You are accepting a deal with me without even trying to find out the details."
Upon hearing his words, on the other hand, Rias just laughed nonchalantly as she responded.
"Haha~ don't worry, I'm not that naive, and you're the one making a deal with a devil, aren't you?"
As she responded, her blue eyes flashed a dark red for a moment, whether she was trying to intimidate him or just be dramatic, he didn't know, but Micael was unaffected and simply responded.
"Alright then."
With them in a silent handshake for a moment, with Rias smiling and Micael looking calm, he ended the shake as he spoke.
"I guess now I should at least tell you what I can do, right?"
Blinking her eyes in curiosity, she nodded at him.
Nodding to himself, he began.
"Basically, I can control the basic elements of nature to a certain extent, I can manipulate a type of energy, I can manipulate my own body, and I can also heal."
Rias, who was nodding her head at each new skill he spoke of, stopped completely upon hearing the last one.
"Wait-what!?"
"Mm?"
Muttering in confusion, he looked at her and saw how shocked she looked.
Without waiting for him to question, she asked back.
"You said you can heal, do you have healing powers?"
"Yeah."
"How strong is this cure exactly?"
"I can heal minor injuries, bruises and broken bones, I can heal ligaments too, but I don't know if I can heal lost limbs or fatal injuries."
He replied calmly as he looked at the girl, she had an unfocused look as her mind felt like it was going a thousand miles an hour.
"Is the ability to heal so rare?"
Regaining focus, she looked at him as she responded.
"Yes…healing magic is considered high-level magic, while healing-type Sacred Gears are extremely rare."
"So does this mean I have a rare resource in my possession? It's good to know, but is that the main reason you're so shocked?"
Regaining some calm, she replied.
"It turns out that healing magic is closely related to sacred magic, which is harmful to devils, which leaves us with more limited methods of healing."
"I see."
Responding in understanding, he nodded slightly.
Rias, who was still thinking about something, stood up abruptly.
Looking at her doubtfully, he asked.
"What's the problem?"
"Wait here."
Saying so, she took a few steps forward, stopping, a magic circle appeared below her as she teleported.
With the girl teleporting out of nowhere, Micael just stared at nothing in silence wondering if he would have to wait, but he didn't have to wait long, as not a minute later the magic circle appeared again with the girl appearing from it.
Taking a few steps and standing in front of him, she showed him a piece of paper, precisely a contract.
Upon seeing the contract, Micael got up from the bench and picked it up.
"So does this mean we have a deal?"
Nodding in confirmation to his question, Rias pointed to a spot on the paper and spoke.
"You just need to spill a drop of blood here and the contract will be active."
Reading what was written, Micael saw that it wasn't much, it was a simple proposal as he had said, in exchange for her helping him protect his family, he would help her with his powers.
In reality, it was very vague and had many exploitable loopholes, nor did it have a penalty for him or her if either of them didn't keep their end of the bargain.
Lifting his head from the contract and looking at her, he saw that she was smiling, then, without comment, he stuck out the tip of his index finger and pressed it to the paper.
With that, the paper glowed red, with the printed gremory magical symbol glowing brightly, this lasted for a brief moment before stopping.
He moved his hand towards her and she took the contract, then, holding out her hand, she spoke.
"I'm happy with our agreement, Micael, I'll be under your care from now on."
With a soft smile on her face, she waited for him to accept her handshake.
Snorting weakly, Micael had a slight smile on his face as he accepted the handshake as he responded.
"I say the same, I will be in your care, Rias."
With the two maintaining the handshake for a moment before finishing, Micael then spoke.
"I would like to talk more and discuss the details of our partnership, but it's late, I have to go back for dinner."
"Alright, we can discuss the details tomorrow."
"Alright, see you later."
"See you."
With her saying goodbye last, Rias turned away from Micael and activated the teleportation magic, waving goodbye with a smile as the magic circle appeared below her.
Returning the farewell wave, Micael watched as she slowly disappeared.
With Rias leaving, the park reigned in a momentary silence, Micael stood there for a moment looking at the ground, then raising his head and looking at the night sky, he murmured.
"Okay, maybe I'm a little idiot."
He was saying this because since the beginning of the conversation, Micael had been reading Rias' thoughts using legilimency.
He did this, because in the end, even though he believed in Rias and that this wasn't an evil version of her like in those crackfics, his cautious nature didn't let him let his guard down completely.
So, even though he felt a little bad about it, he remained reading her mind throughout the conversation, naturally, they were just superficial thoughts, he didn't want to be more intrusive than he already was.
But with that he was able to realize that even though it seemed like Rias was being very naive and hasty, it wasn't exactly like that, she really believed in him and was really following her instinct when she said she wanted to recruit him.
But this rash behavior of hers was also a test, to know if he was truly trustworthy, even though she chose to trust him and believed he was a good person, Rias knew that she couldn't act without thinking because she wasn't acting just to herself, but also for her peerage.
The most obvious example of this was the contract, as the lack of penalty could be interpreted as a message that she was taking a gamble and trusting him.
If it weren't for him reading her mind from beginning to end, this final act of the contract would have helped him understand what she was trying to do, but he already knew everything from the beginning.
In the end, the emotions she displayed were indeed genuine, her enthusiasm for him joining her peerage was real, but she was neither naive nor stupid.
Her confidence to act like this, following her intuition and trusting him, was that in case she was wrong about him, she had a backup plan called Sirzecs, so yes, Rias was smarter than she seemed.
"If I want to have genuine relationships in the future, I won't use this."
Knowing that he couldn't use that if he wanted to have a genuine partnership relationship with Rias, trusting her like he trusts Saji, he couldn't use that, but this time he made an exception.
As he told himself before, he has to be cautious, but not to the point of distrusting his own shadow, if there's anything he learned from Batman it was how not to be a person incapable of trusting anyone.
Exhaling through his nose, he looked up at the night sky one last time, placing his hands in his hoodie pocket, he turned around and began walking.
Continuing to walk through the park in the silent night, Micael walked back home.
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