Chương 196: Welcoming

As the mist surrounding them dispersed Anne, Yue, Shia, and Hajime were all surprised to find themselves in a forest above ground as the heat of summer hit them. As they had all been underground for the last week the light was very blinding for a few moments, before they all adjusted. Grayfia then immediately asked Alex,

"Did you mean what you said about restoring Miledi's body?" At her question everyone looked at him, to which he replied,

"While she may be annoying, Miledi has been through a lot for the sake of humanity, if someone should get another chance at life she does." Though they seemed to not want to say something nice about her, everyone reluctantly agreed with Alex's words. Shia then asked,

"Then how do you plan to get her body back for her? It's probably rotted or something by now, or do you think an age of gods magic will work?" Alex shook his head at Shia's question, confusing everyone that hadn't come with him from the dxd world. He then explained,

"I plan to ask the user of the Holy Grail to help us." At his words Rias, Kuroka, and Grayfia made an 'of course' look as they thought of Valerie, while Shia and Yue had cute looks of confusion since they never heard of the Holy Grail before, and both Hajime and Anne turned pale as they recalled stories from earth. Alex then went into a brief explanation for their benefit of the situation regarding the Holy Grail, but there was one thing that concerned him, and it was the reason he only said they 'might' be able to restore Miledi's body; the fact that using that function of the Holy Grail too often would drive the user to madness. Though he doubted using it once to create Miledi's body would be too drastic on Valerie, it was ultimately up to her if she used it or not. After explaining to the four of them, Alex then turned to Grayfia and asked,

"Can you return to the manor and have them start preparing for an event tonight? I plan to introduce these guys since they're here in Asora for the first time." As Alex didn't want to do big introductions too often, he waited until several new people were with him before bringing them to Asora to meet everyone else, though some of them had already met a few others through them challenging Orcus. Grayfia immediately left to do as he asked, when Hajime spoke up,

"About that, can I refuse this time?" Everyone looked at him questioningly, to which he explained,

"I want to try out some new ideas with the resources I got from Miledi, plus I'm not big with parties. If it's ok I'll wait until later." The real reason however was that Hajime already expected most of the people they would be meeting are Alex's girls, and wanted to use the time to upgrade his equipment instead of meeting someone else's harem. Alex shrugged in response to Hajime's refusal, and had Kuroka drop him off just outside Brooke.

After that he then led the group of girls towards the main settlement of Asora, where Yue and Shia saw modern buildings for the first time, and Anne saw them for the first time in twenty years. While both girls from Tortus were looking in wonder, Anne was fighting back the tears and nostalgia. Alex smiled as he watched their reactions, and said warmly,

"Welcome to your new home."

***

A short while later they were seated in one of the lounges of Misty Manor with several of the residents crowded around them, mostly those who weren't helping set up the party or hadn't met any of the new residents by challenging Orcus. Many of the girls were fascinated with Anne, Yue, and Shia since this was the first time they met someone from another world, even though Alex had been in Tortus for several months now. The three were answering questions from the others as they were crowded by the others, as Alex watched with a smile from the side. They seemed to be uncomfortable, but he hoped it would pass with so many people around them to converse with. Unknown to him Valerie and Tosca had both arrived and were talking with Elmenhilde in the next room over.

"ANOTHER VAMPIRE!? Is he trying to replace me? What should I do?!" The devastated Elmenhilde shrieked to the only other female vampire in Asora until now, Valerie. Valerie looked helpless at Elmenhilde's concerns as she didn't think it was a big deal there was another vampire, truthfully she felt it was a good thing there was more of them now. She continued to try and pacify the distraught Elmenhilde for a while, before Alex seemed to notice their presences and entered the room. His gaze focused on Valerie and he said,

"Valerie there's something I wanted to talk to you about if you don't mind, would you come with me?" Valerie was interested in what Alex wanted from her and accepted, but felt that it would be better if he knew about Elmenhilde's concerns. As if he was reading her mind he suddenly said,

"And Elmenhilde," making the former noble vampire to jump as she exclaimed,

"Y-yes!" Causing Alex to smile as he calmly said,

"No one can replace you you know, if you want me to prove it then I'll do so privately later." As his words reached their ears Valerie smiled as Elmenhilde blushed deeply, quite the feat for a vampire. Leaving the blushing vampire behind, Alex went to talk with Valerie regarding Miledi's situation.

A few hours later the sun was going down and several people had gathered behind Misty Manor to welcome the new residents. Gasper had also shown up to accompany Valerie, who had agreed to Alex's request to attempt to recreate another body for Miledi if she chose to join them in the future. Alex felt like he was taking advantage of her kindness, but Valerie waved away his guilt saying that she didn't mind helping someone like Miledi out.

Also present was Elmenhilde, who now had a refreshed look to her face after getting more than just Alex's blood earlier. As several more people gathered Alex stood up and gestured for attention. Everyone present focused on him and the three new faces next him, Anne who was in her dancers outfit, Yue who was dressed in a simple skirt and blouse, and Shia who was fidgeting under the looks she was getting while thinking she should have changed into something other than the bunny-girl outfit she got from Alex previously. Alex then said,

"Thank you all for coming tonight to welcome our new friends to our home. Many of you have met but I'll let them introduce themselves now." With his words everyone's attention was completely on the three girls, before Anne stepped forward and started introducing herself,

"Hello everyone, I'm Anne and I'm someone similar to Alex as far as my background goes. I have no interest in it however, and chose to join up with Alex since he literally died for me before. I hope we can get along in the future." Many people were silent as they digested Anne's words, as most of them didn't know she was the same as Alex or that he actually died for her, something that shocked the girls greatly. Anne practically fled from being the center of attention, and Yue stepped forward this time.

"... I'm Yue, my name was given to me by Alex when we met and he saved me... I'm a vampire princess and Alex's second bishop... alongside a certain annoying red haired girl..." The last part of her words was said quietly, but several people still heard it and chuckled softly to themselves while the red head in question glared at Yue. Shia then stepped forward, and declared,

"Hello! I'm Shia Haulia of the Rabbitman tribe! Alex saved me and my family from slavery and we all decided to join him, I'm also his first rook!" Some people also chuckled at Shia's introduction, since she said Alex saved her from slavery yet technically she was now his servant. No one brought this up however as Shia was aware of it and didn't seem to mind. With introductions out of the way the three girls started mingling around with everyone else, but Alex noticed they seemed to stay close to him.

He then watched with a smile as they started discussing various things with those around them. Anne was approached by many of the girls since they wanted to ask about what she mentioned before about Alex dying for her, while Shia was talking with the other rooks as they wanted to know what she was able to do. Yue on the other hand was talking with Gasper, Valerie, and the now calmed down Elmenhilde about the vampire races in the different worlds. Both groups were interested in learning about the other, but Gasper, Valerie and Elmenhilde were all disappointed to hear that the vampires were wiped out in Tortus. Soon however they were approached by someone unexpected, as they introduced themselves to Yue.

"Hi I'm Serafall Levia- I mean Sitri! But if you want you can refer to me as Magical Girl Levia~tan💕!" Yue made a confused face as she never heard of a magical girl before. Normally Serafall would be devastated by someone not knowing about magical girls, but curiously enough she didn't mind it so much, in fact Alex almost swore he saw a gleam in her eye as she stated,

"By the way Yue I have something I wanted to show you, come with me real quick!💕" Serafall then dragged the confused vampire princess away for something, promising to return in a little bit. Alex pretended not to notice Yue's silent plea for help when she looked at him, as he had his suspicions what Serafall intended and couldn't deny his own curiosity for it. As he imagined the expectant scene in his head, he then heard someone else declare,

"You mean you're a decent dancer? To the point that your status plate in Tortus even made it your occupation? You have to show us Anne!" Alex looked over to see Kiryuu pushing Anne to dance for all of them, seemingly out of curiosity of her occupation, but Alex noticed Kiryuu looking at Anne's outfit and figure while wiping away a small amount of drool. As she was still the most perverted of Alex's lovers, even when compared to Akeno, he didn't doubt for a second she had her own fantasies imagining Anne dancing. But due to Kiryuu's shout several other people were interested, and Anne was pushed into dancing for them.

"Um ok, some music then please." Anne said nervously, as the only real dancing she had done in front of others was the tribal dancing during ceremonies before she met up with Alex. Someone started some music for her, and Anne started to slowly move her body. She was slow at first due to her nervousness, but nobody pushed her out of understanding since they were essentially a bunch of strangers until just a few minutes ago. However as Anne's confidence grew her pace sped up, and sped up, until she was moving at full speed in rhythm. Everyone watched Anne's movements mesmerized, as a carnal desire was evoked in them from watching her move. This was the ability of Anne's occupation as dancer, while not considered a real offensive ability, her movements could not only mesmerize those watching, but could also invoke desired emotions s well. As Anne had danced for Alex before she drew on the experience, but didn't realize she was effecting everyone else around her in such a way as well. Thankfully however everyone had enough sense of self not to lose control over themselves.

"How amazing..." Someone muttered, as everyone else silently agreed with them. There was someone off to the side however that could only think as they watched her 'I have to have her!', and started walking forward as her dance started reaching its close. As the music stopped, as well as Anne's body, there was a loud round of applause from the spectators, as everyone present had enjoyed the show. Anne was blushing hard enough that it was easily visible with her darker skin, which only made her more attractive in several people eyes. Someone approached her however, and Ingvild stated in front of everyone,

"Please become my queen!"