Diehauser Belial. There were few devils in the Underworld who had not heard of his name. Excluding the current and former Satans, he was arguably the most well known devil in the Underworld.
His story felt like it was straight out of a shonen manga. Born to a formerly prestigious devil house that was at the edge of poverty, yet his parents had sold few of their remaining possessions in order to give him a good education. With which he had risen up to the top of the Rating Game rankings. In the world of Rating Games, where legends such as the former Dragon King Tannin, the Blaze Meteor Dragon, and the strongest living Phenex, Ruval Phenex, had competed, Diehauser had stood unchallenged for decades.
Throughout the Underworld, he was known as...
"The Champion?" The title left Riser's lips before he realized what was happening. Then he chuckled, but it sounded strained even to his own ears. "There obviously has been some sort of mistake. There is no way for the Champion to sponsor some nameless nobody... like..." He trailed off as the room got colder with each word, and he slowly turned his head towards Grayfia; who was giving a look that was even more frigid than her usual look.
"Lord Riser... are you implying that I have failed to ascertain whether the document in my hands is a fake or not?"
"...my apologies." Even Riser could see when a battle was impossible to win. He was not going to stick to his opinion if the only result of it was an angered Grayfia Lucifuge. "I was merely... surprised."
"Sure, let's go with that." Tenma said with a smirk, getting the attention back on himself. "So, now that we have established that I have the necessary qualifications, are we doing this or not?"
"Unless lady Rias has any intent to settle this matter peacefully." Grayfia said as she looked at her sister-in-law, who simply glared at her.
"Humph, do you even have a proper peerage?" Riser asked with a scoff before he smirked and snapped his fingers, creating a flaming circle on the floor; far bigger than the one he appeared with.
From the circle, fifteen women of diverse looks appeared, all of them standing behind Riser. He then walked up to the one with wavy purple hair covering one of her eyes and threw his arm around her shoulder.
"Cause I have a full set." He declared, and Rias's grip on her arm tightened.
She might have her opinions on Riser, most of which were very unflattering, but she could not deny that he had a strong peerage.
Sure, there was a part of her that wanted to deny that since Riser made it no secret that his peerage was nothing more than a harem for him; each and every member except, hopefully, for his sister was chosen because he found them physically appealing.
And yet his record spoke for itself. Riser had participated in ten official Rating Games and had won eight of them overwhelmingly while forfeiting the other two against his own political friends. Each member of his peerage was trained to the point where they were significantly above average pieces. And that was without thinking about Riser himself and the, quite frankly, ridiculous regeneration he had as a member of the Phenex household.
Did Tenma have a peerage strong enough to stand against them. He did look deep in thought.
"Hey Rias?" He scooted over to her and whispered with one hand next to his mouth. "Why is he looking so proud of having some sort of barbie collection for a peerage? Is this something like compensation or some other thing I'm not aware of that the weak do?"
"You dare!" It seemed like Riser did hear him.
"As for my peerage." Tenma ignored Riser and cupped his chin in thought. "Well, most of them are away doing their own thing, but I should be able to get at least four of them here before the Rating Game."
"And you think that's enough?!" Riser barked, small flickers of fire on his hair as his rage grew further and further. "You think you can just come here and make a joke out of my engagement and still win?!"
"I mean... yeah." Tenma said with a smile.
"...the Rating Game will happen tomorrow morning, is that acceptable for both sides." Grayfia cut in before Riser could explode.
"It's more than acceptable!"
"Yeah, I'm fine with it too."
After that, both Grayfia and Riser and his peerage left through teleportation circles.
"Whelp, I think that went well. Does anyone wanna go out and get some sweets? My treat!" Tenma said with a laugh and Rias instinctively slapped down Koneko's hand just as the white haired girl was going to raise it.
"Tenma, are you taking this seriously?" She asked, feeling worried.
"Hmm, oh sure." He said lazily. "Anyway, I was thinking of getting crepes. But I'm fine with waffles too." She once more slapped down Koneko's hand.
"I don't think you are." She tried to calm herself down. "Riser has experience with Rating Games, he emerged victorious in almost all of his matches and that's only because he threw in with the others due to politics. I know you are not weak but you are taking this too lightly." Rias said, hoping that she had managed to keep her voice calm. No matter how much stress she was under, she was very much aware that Tenma was helping her.
And Tenma... he simply smiled at her.
"Rias, when was the last time your life was in danger?"
The question threw her off. But before she could properly wrap her head around what Tenma asked, he continued talking.
"Rating Games are certainly... interesting. But in the end, they are combat sports. Those who remain in the top ten do so because they have experience in real battle outside of these games, experience that sharpen them in a way a combat sports simply can't." He explained with a smile before looking into her eyes and Rias found herself unable to tear her gaze away.
"Throughout the last few years, I could not tell you how many times I got almost killed. I met beings of power that would destroy your self confidence with their mere presence, and those who would drive you to suicide with it." He said with a chuckle. "So trust me when I say this."
"I will win."
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