บท 16: Ch. 16 Progress in the Underworld

The surprise announcement of my engagement to Serafall through many people for a loop.

I actually admired Lady Sitri for her move.

It was never said, but what exactly did people think devils would be trying when they are mainly patriarchal and an extremely powerful pure blooded noble who is gaining a lot of influence happens to be a beautiful single woman? They'll try to marry her so they can either try to 'have', control, or show off the lady like the complete morons they are. All so they can 'become more powerful', instead of actually training or doing something more difficult than harassing a woman and her family.

Honestly wondering what goes on in their heads when they think they can somehow 'tame' such a powerful woman against her will. The only reason she didn't just make an example of those people, like I would, is because her parents straight rejected or disposed of the 'offers' and she's just too nice.

But in one move, Lady Sitri not only satisfied her and her daughter's desires of finding someone who actually cares for and is cared by Serafall, they also secured an alliance with a second Satan-Class and created a lot of economic possibilities with a rapidly rising and developing territory, but she also used me as the perfect fiancé that no one could do anything against. Effectively shutting down any way of someone trying to stop it.

No one was stupid enough to publicly do anything against someone who beat down an old Satan and had a now famous military force behind him, while also having numerous ties to other powerful houses and the current Satans. It also helped that I was officially politically neutral and was known for focusing on my territory and pure trading right now.

Meanwhile the other Satans were actually quite happy about the betrothal, after initial shocks anyway.

Sirzechs openly congratulated her and thought it was worthy of celebration, which ended up being a get together between the six Satan-Classes currently in the new leadership: Sirzechs, Grayfia, Ajuka, Falbium, Serafall and myself.

I took it upon myself to use the chance to give them a tour of my capital since they had been curious from Sera's stories and I thought the food and drinks were the best here anyway.

Turns out Grayfia was already beginning to work as a maid for House Gremory, even as her own engagement was being settled, mainly helping Sirzechs with his own work. She was surprisingly cheerful all things considered. The animated and intimate atmosphere amongst peers who treated her well and the fact that we were also celebrating her own engagement to the man she's loved for a long time also helped.

And also the booze. Don't forget the very strong booze.

Ajuka was being teased relentlessly by my own fiancé as he had apparently told her she would never find a husband when they were younger due to her father or something, and then said even he would marry before 'an obnoxious girl like her would.' Now he was kind of in denial over us actually doing this. Thinking over his options as he debated focusing on his beloved hobby or getting a wife so he can shut up Serafall.

Meanwhile Falbium took the opportunity to get black out drunk as quickly as possible to avoid Serafall's teasing. Letting him happily sleep.

"I can't believe no one is crowding us." Sirzechs commented as he worked on his ale and looked around the pub.

"That's because MY fiancé is that great. He's always taking time to go around the city and everyone got used to just being able to talk to us. It's great when those uncles and aunties give free food too!" Serafall bragged she responded as she puffed her chest out.

*boing*

Her small frame makes those look bigger.

"Hehe. Do you like what you see?" She teased as the alcohol she had drunk affected her, making her squeeze her two mounds together with her arms.

"That I do." I declared shamelessly as I pulled her to my lap, making her break out in a happy/excited squeal and giggle, "But they're mine and i'll enjoy those in private later."

That got her to blush massively as Sirzechs and Ajuka did a double spit take over the blatant words.

Grayfia was actually drunk enough to approve.

"Why can't you say things like that Zechy~? I want to feel wanted too~!" A Grayfia I now declared as completely plastered said.

"*cough cough cough!* But i get smacked when I try to flirt with you!" The poor man complained as you could already see who wore the pants in the relationship.

"Because you don't do it right~! Be more manly~." She complained as she downed another ale, "And get some muscles! Just look at those!"

"Hey! These are mine!" Serafall possessively announced as she grabbed one of my exposed arms.

That little bit made the two most powerful devils, probably in history, look at their bodies and doubt themselves.

"Yes yes. They're all yours Sera. Grayfia was just admiring the aesthetics." I said to the girl.

"Then that's alright! Fia, come feel how hard and soft they are! It feels great!" Serafall suddenly said with a 180 now that no one was trying to steal me in her mind.

Sirzechs decided that drowning his sorrows and enjoying the straight up wondrous food none of them had expected from a simple place like they were in with his best friend was the way to go, while i was being borderline molested by the two drunk women.

The rest of the night ended up with myself talking with Sirzechs and Ajuka about the latter's project and what we could do to control the predictably foolish behavior Devils will have when it has been completed and about our two future weddings. We weren't exactly all there, but some human civilizations had their decision makers look at proposals sober and then drunk before deciding if it was a good idea. So it couldn't hurt to reverse the order.

Meanwhile Serafall and Grayfia were enjoying some girl talk as the two had gotten engaged and were dealing with the changes this brought to a relationship. They also used some magic to doodle on Falbium's head as 'payback for passing out so soon.'

I think everyone had a good night as Ajuka carried Falbium out by default due to Grayfia taking Sirzechs to her guest room, which I and Serafall encouraged. I could already hear her trying to hide her embarrassment the next day by being strict. Finally, Serafall was dragging me to 'my room' to snuggle with, which was much better than I remember.

I just felt almost content when I had her in my arms in bed, with her showing a cute little smile while she slept.

But yeah, it was nice making friends and getting closer with people I would be working with for the next few hundred years. Even if I'm not a Satan, I was going to marry one and I told them that as long as they were working towards the betterment of the Underworld and our race then I'd support them in more subtle ways.

The next morning came to be an entertaining one as Grayfia did her best to either make everyone forget how she acted, once she remembered, and trying to knock a memory out of Sirzechs head which had apparently given him nosebleed.

I secretly received a thanks from the man as he held some ice provided by Serafall on his bumps. Drove home that this was technically an anime verse with that sequence of events.

But fun things aside, the Underworld was finally stabilizing properly.

Zekram had gathered most traditionalists under his banner and directed them to get everything up and running properly again. While the new Satans were doing their best to properly organize their own departments as they worked.

Sirzechs technically had the easiest time to get things going, but he also had the least control over his part due to Zekram holding a firm reign on many Houses, while Sirzechs had to gather support at a slower pace. Grayfia was proving to be quite invaluable to him as she helped balanced his more laidback and kind nature with her discipline and strictness.

Falbium was being himself for the most part, mainly making sure the Underworld had a United army to fight the other factions and Pantheons if needed, while ignoring pretty much everything he could in favor of sleep.

Ajuka on the other hand had near total control over his research department, ignoring everything as he completely focused on his current project. Said project was making good progress too, especially with the ressources and hints I was sending his way, while he was sharing more about everything so I could help better. Too bad I couldn't be there personally.

And Serafall was facing the steepest climb due to having to handle foreign affairs. She had to carefully screen her personnel and at the same time try to maintain the uneasy peace the current Cold War between us, the angels and the fallens had created. I was helping her by sending some talented people I had already 'screened' and had 'educated', something which she appreciated enough to give me her first kiss.

On the cheek but it was still the first time she had initiated such contact to anyone outside her family, plus she looked adorable being all shy afterward.

This actually started a groove for the Underworld as everything seemed to blend together due to our race having a different view on time. I mean, technically I don't think any devil has really died of old age yet. We have people like Zekram Bael who's a first generation devil and he still looks middle aged at worst.

With time came progress.

Sirzechs and Grayfia had officially wed. It was quite an auspicious day as the majority of the Underworld celebrated the union of two powerful devils. It was both a surprise and not when they seemed to hold the wedding in near catholic style, but without anything remotely close to God. The couple had even asked for my people to cater the event, which I approved as it gave a chance to gain a new type of fame and advertise our cuisine to help bring in tourists.

Nonetheless, Grayfia was radiant that day as she walked down the aisle towards her soon-to-be husband with Zeoticus due to her father's passing.

It was a surprise that I was invited as a groomsman alongside Serafall's invitation as a bridesmaid, but I did understand that Sirzechs just didn't have many true friends who weren't just there for his power or influence. Ajuka was the best man of course and Falbium actually stayed awake the whole time.

The ceremony went without a hitch, and the two resumed their lives afterward with almost no changes. Grayfia was very dedicated to her job as a maid, which somehow lead to her becoming rather close to my own Fia, and several new reasons to smack Sirzechs.

I wonder when the Harisen was invented and when she will discover them.

Regardless of their personal lives, Sera and I decided to wait before holding our wedding, much to her mother's bemoaning and to her father's happiness. As much as we cared for one another, Serafall was still too new to proper intimate relationships between men and women, so we were slowly exploring everything together. She was thankful that I wasn't pushing her and that I let her figure things out, with some… Light pointers from time to time.

I will say that after our first make out session, she was rather hooked. The look on her usual innocent face when it happens almost makes me lose control at times.

Outside of my personal life, I was making solid progress in four main areas: mastering my evolved energy and enhanced capabilities of [Space], using my [Space] to constantly train my body and reaching the point of Satan-Class and full grandmaster in skills, my studies of all the knowledge I had acquired, and learning proper demonic magic.

The first made me certain I was the third strongest devil currently in the Underworld. During the last few years I had managed to elevate my abilities to great heights, learning to safely access, create and use alternate dimensions, gaining further access into [Time]'s relation to space, and managing to form a massive domain which engulfed my lands.

Due to my progress I even managed to create a much more durable H.A.H to further my training. I moved my cabin to my new place and even expanded the space inside while we were in a sealed space, which was rather impressive. The new H.A.H was sturdier by far on the inside and outside, had pretty much the same training equipment, but the major difference was a time dilation ability I had managed to properly make work by making the space inside the container its own dimension I created.

As for my domain, it allowed me absolute authority over Space within it. So unless you surpassed me in Space manipulation, which I doubt anyone other than Ophis or Great Red could at this point so suck it Georg you cowardly little shit, or if one possessed enough power to either destroy or overturn my control, you were out of luck. Although it should be noted that the smaller I make my domain, the stronger it becomes, and I can actually make it much larger than only my lands but choose not too. As of now it serves to monitor anything and allowing me to be near omniscient/omnipresent within it.

My time learning dimensional manipulation has allowed me to gain usage of some dimensions to improve my options while fighting, such as dimensions related to elements or even ones containing sources which can empower me to a certain extent. I am being extremely cautious and all my dealings with other dimensions as I take an ungodly amount of preventative measures when I engage them. I am much further along my ability to create dimensions though, being able to create idyllic lands and sometimes entire cities from my past life. I used this in conjunction to an ability which basically allows me to copy and paste space to help speed up settling immigrants.

As for [Time] well even once freed it was much slower than [Space]. As of now I couldn't use any sort of abilities which didn't require some form of Spatial manipulation to also work. As of now I can decelerate and accelerate the flow of time within my domain, but these abilities are much easier to resist, and gain minor clairvoyant abilities within it as well, which I would always take with a lot of salt. I've also learnt how to basically be Orihime and 'reject' injuries, but this is by reversing that parts time and cannot be used for training since it erases any pain or damages alongside any progress.

I was kinda looking forward to further mastering this ability to shock House Phenex by basically recovering like them but without the fire.

My physical training was much more straightforward.

I had reached the point were I could soundly defeat any of the sparing golems on any setting, which had prompted an interesting message about there being nothing to teach anymore and that it was time to push beyond the limits of your path. That had involved long contemplation about my own complete fighting style, something which if I was being honest about was too compartmentalized, making me focus on integrating my skills, [Space] and now Touki together properly to form my own unique fighting style.

My body itself has also reached the point where I could have taken on Bidleid with pure brute strength now, placing it within the lower ranking of Satan-Class, but Satan-Class nonetheless.

As for my studies, they were going at a completely insane pace for anyone other than me.

Not only did I free my talent regarding learning, reading, studying and comprehension while in the library, I also prioritized magic relating to the mind in order to create a spell to further boot my retention and reading speed. The combination resulted in absolutely monstrous progress in the fields of the mind and soul, while it was still prodigious in other fields.

It could no longer be said that I was lacking in any areas as a combatant as my Arsenal of magic grew by the day. It also helped that my days were a lot longer than most people's as I used my [Time] to fit my duties, training and studying into my days, while also making sure to have plenty of time for my lovely lady.

The immense amount of knowledge I was learning also allowed me to understand more about Ajuka's project and offer much more assistance. I was slowly piecing together the Evil Pieces as we progressed and I almost became a second project head due to how involved I was in this. It was too important and I had some people in this century I wanted in my peerage.

That's why i was so excited that after years of effort on Ajuka's side of things, the first Evil Pieces were officially created in the Underworld. Dawning the beginning of a truly new era for Devils.

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EXTRA AUTHOR NOTES:

So this chapter is shorter than usual because I had a long day and had to travel which tired me out even more.

Now, the relationship between Lith and Serafall is a long term one since both are long lived and want to make things work properly. Lith because he's had failed relationships and really wants things to work out and Serafall because everything they do as a couple is a first so she's figuring out what she wants and likes.

I also hastened the creation of the Evil Pieces to give the MC time to really get to know them. Plus very early 16th century, which is when they are matches what is known about the date of creation for them. The oldest known reincarnated devil in the series is Zeoticus's Bishop, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, who historically lived during the first half of the 16th century, having 'died' 18th February 1535, so a bit over two decades early after all the help Ajuka got is reasonable.