I appeared in the Gremory estate, stepping out of a teleportation circle, dressed down from my usual official attire, partly because I expected a fight, if all went downhill and they insisted on a physical demonstration with Surtr, and partly because it was a casual party, quite unlike my own birthday a few months ago, and they had only invited close family and friends. Magdaran was one such, of course, along with Sectaas Barbatos and Seekvaria Agares, and their minders, of course- one servant each as was appropriate.
There was also Sona Sitri, the bespeckled little shit and her older sister, Serafall as chaperone, a role usually left to servants, but then again… she was a sis-con. And a Satan. And a family friend and coworker. Makes sense she'd be here, however, unexpected.
Tch! I clicked my tongue in annoyance before I caught myself.
No. I shouldn't have a hostile view of her just because our families are feuding. Let's be genial and polite.
Yes. Gotta be polite.
Though, if I had known, I'd have brought Ruval along. Too late for regrets now, though.
I looked at the servant sent to escort me, and more importantly mind my manners in polite company. An officer from our legions, undercover.
Oh daddy… so little faith in your son~
Well, its not like he can stop me.
I chuckled internally.
The gift would already be in Rias' hand before anyone noticed it and the rest…
Hehehehehe~
It would be historical!
I just know Serafall is gonna be so damn jealous. She is obsessed with magical girls.
Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.
Especially because I copyrighted the magitech and every other concept related to it over the course of last month through Rigal's underworld subsidiaries.
She won't be able to copy it even if she wanted to. And she certainly won't be able to ask Rias, a six year old child for her toy, her birthday gift from her.
I can just imagine the frustration, juicy, delicious frustration!
A subtle fuck you to the Sitris.
But first, it's time to meet and greet the in-laws.
It wasn't hard to find the Lord of the Gremory clan. His striking red hair and charming good looks drew your gaze naturally towards him, and his height, though far from unnatural, helped his flowing red hair stand tall like a beacon. That and the inch high platform shoes he was clearly trying to hide under those awful seventies' disco pants.
They really are keeping it informal, if he's wearing that monstrosity of fashion to the birthday. Now I feel overdressed.
Why a man already so tall felt the need to wear platform shoes, however, was beyond me.
"Lord Zeoticus." I bowed in greeting, "Thank you for inviting me to Rias' birthday. I appreciate the opportunity to spend more quality time with my future wife."
"Oh, think nothing of it-" Lord Zeoticus spoke thoughtlessly, when he was suddenly pinched by Lady Venelana, appearing from behind him.
Long, flowing flaxen hair draping softly over her even softer features, with big, round, drooping eyes in a deep royal purple, that mesmerized you every time you looked into them. Her figure looked to be straight out of a renaissance painting, not angelic, but rather more… homely, in a sort of ethereal sense of the word.
She was the archetypical image of a loving wife, like some sort of pre-christian goddess of the fertility, the home and hearth. Hestia, I would say, but knowing Ishibumi, Hestia in this world, was propably a red headed shortstack with tits out to Jupiter.
To describe her in a word, I wouldn't call her pretty. No. Cleria Belial was pretty.
Hot? Yes, but not in the way the arouses raw, naked lust.
Rather, she felt like someone you wanted to come home to after a long day's work and hug till you fell asleep in her arms. Someone you would want to, not fuck- no, that word was too base to use for her- but rather make love to. Gently. Softly. Lovingly. With a lot of positive affirmations and tender kisses.
The kind of woman you'd call honeybun or sugarplum out of affection.
There was only one word to describe this woman- beautiful.
Looking at her, I felt not lust but a simple warm feeling of awe, like a sunbeam creeping in through the window in the morning, with a cat resting in its light.
"You're our Rias' future husband, after all." She spoke in his place, smiling gently, "It is only natural to invite family."
"I appreciate it nonetheless, Lady Venelana. As do I appreciate the chance to meet you too." I kissed her hand, with all the politeness and courtesy hammered into me during my etiquette lessons, "I had heard of your beauty, Lady Venelana, famed in the underworld, but to see it in person, I can say for certain, no nymph nor apsara can compare to you, and neither would they dare compare, for they would hide away in shame upon the barest glimpse of your visage."
I turned to Lord Zeoticus.
"Lord Zeoticus is a very lucky man."
"Ara ara~" She smiled warmly, cupping her face, "You haven't even married Rias, and you're already eyeing your mother-in-law?"
"Why choose the cake when you can have the bakery?" I joked, and she laughed.
Lord Zeoticus on the other hand, wrapped his arm around her waist possessively, giving me a dirty look.
Lady Venelana noticed it too and kissed him on the cheek.
"No need to be jealous dear~" She put her hand over his and knit her fingers through his, "Little Riser is just being playful. Besides, a ten year old is hardly your competition for my affections. Not when you're being so adorable~"
She nuzzled up into his face happily and he blushed red enough to blend in with his hair.
He really is adorable.
I chuckled, drawing their attention and Lord Zeoticus gave me a stern, questioning look.
"Ah, I'm not mocking you, Lord Zeoticus." I said, raising my hands in a calming gesture, with a warm smile, "I just admire your relationship with Lady Venelana. I hope mine and Rias' marriage is as happy as yours."
"You have quite the way with words, young phoenix~" Lady Venelana praised and Lord Zeoticus huffed, though I could see he was warming up to me.
That child bride comment and the subsequent twink trouble really must have soured his impression of me. But that's nothing I can't solve, even just today. In fact, I planned to, right from the start. Dad's orders and all.
"Thank you. I live to please." I accepted her praise, and looked around excitedly for the belle of the ball, "Where can I find my future wife? I'd really like to give her her present!"
"Oh. She is in the garden, just across the hall." She pointed me in the right direction, "Come, we were just going there."
I followed the two to the garden where Serafall was putting on a storytelling session for the kids, in full magical girl cosplay. I spotted Sairaorg in the crowd too, with his family's butler, the only staff his mother could afford to keep because he was part of her peerage. We had arrived separately to keep up appearances, and I had gotten him a distinct but separate gift for Rias too. Special chocolates from the Vapula territory, fitting his cover story.
She stopped just as we arrived and turned to us, giving me a curious look. I could feel the terrifying amount of power hidden behind her gaze, given that she barely made an effort to hide it and her intentions.
If it weren't that we were at a birthday party, I had no doubt she'd have actually just scanned me with magic before interrogating me forcefully about all of our recent projects.
Thankfully, she can't do that here, and I would never give her the chance to catch me outside, unattended and unguarded.
I smiled back politely before turning to the little cannonball of red that was running at me.
"Riser!" She strutted up to me, practically jumping on clouds, and extended her hand.
This time, I properly bowed and kissed it as she giggled happily.
"Rias." I looked up and smiled, "Allow me to wish you a very happy bir-"
"Did you get me a present?!" She asked shamelessly, interrupting me in the middle of my greeting.
"Rias, let him at least finish greeting you." Lord Zeoticus scolded, dying from embarrassment and that brought me great joy.
Rias looked at her father for a moment, considering if she wanted to follow his advice and wait for me to speak or just go with her little monkey brain instincts. I could see the gears turning in her little peanut sized brain as she turned to me.
"Present!"
The monkey brain won.
Lord Zeoticus muffled a frustrated groan and I stifled a chuckle as I pulled out my present for her.
Oh, you chaotic, ill-mannered, adorable little gremlin~
I have missed how refreshing you are to be around. Especially when it's not in the way of my plans.
"Alright, alright, here." I handed her the small, shoebox sized package.
She snatched it from my hands and tore through the package like a ravenous hyena, unboxing my present.
A cherry red wand made of Agreas Crystals, with a ruby red, gold trimmed crystal heart atop it, with a sapphire ribbon banding in a flowing bow connecting the heart to the wand, in an optical illusion that made it look the same from all angles, the same way Mickey Mouse's ears appear round no matter where you look at them from.
"A magical girl wand!" Rias' jumped for joy as she read the title of the instruction manual included with it, hopping around happily, squealing-chirping like a demented songbird, before she actually did cannonball into me, wrapping me up in a bear hug.
"Thank youthankyouthankyouuuu!" She rubbed her face into my chest and I supported her weight as she wrapped herself around me like a little red leach, patting her head softly.
"Only the best for my future wife." I said, with a smile, "Now why don't you try it out?"
"Oh, yes!" Rias jumped off of me and ran a few steps away as she posed with it, before it clicked.
"I don't know how to turn it on!"
Good job figuring that out.
"It's in the instruction manual." I pointed at the box she had thrown away, and the included manual which was now in Serafall's hands.
"Wait, it's a real magical girl wand?" Serafall asked, after having silently spied from the sideline this whole time, as she read from the manual.
"Yes." I nodded, a little smug in my creation, "As I said. Only the best for my wifey."
"Yes, yes, yesyeysyesyes!" Rias hopped in place adorably, her eyes twinkling with excitement, as she asked me, "How do I turn it on?"
"Let me show you." I cast puppeteering magic on her as strings extended from my hands, stitching into her body. I jerked my hand and began to pose her in the right way for the magic to work, all the while she just giggled.
"It tickles~ Stoohp!"
"Just a minute… and done." I finished under the careful and alert gazes of everyone, including the distant, but ever watchful Sirzechs Lucifer sitting at the edge of the garden with Ajuka and his wife.
But seeing as Ajuka hadn't moved, neither did he. Which also seemed to reassure the rest of the adults around us.
She was posed right and I bid her to move as I spoke.
"Repeat after me. Cute, cute, pretty cute! Magical Girl Transformation!"
I raised her arm above her head, as the incantation finished, and the wand began to glow a bright, hot pink. With a flourish of my wrist, she circled her arm above her head as the magic marked a circle of the same hot pink in the air, before I slammed her hand down till it pointed to the ground.
The circle above her head began to spin as it shot to ground and then-
"Wait, everyone close your-"
Serafall, having read the manual, finally decided to warn everyone, but she was a step too late.
A blinding lightshow shot out from the wand, essentially flashbanging everyone present as the magical girl transformation began and Rias floated up into the air, an illusion of psychedelic rainbows colouring her form.
A feature, not a bug, designed to keep her safe while the many transformation, protection and enhancement magics took shape around her.
After all, in real life, the villains don't wait for you to finish your transformation.
But this way, with the transformation spell first blinding everyone around you, it stunned and staggered the enemy for a moment, giving the transformation time to take place.
The party, however, devolved into screams and shouts of pain as everyone clutched their faces, and hissed in pain.
I didn't though. I didn't even close my eyes. I regenerate faster than I can be blinded. That lightshow, which to others was an eye-stinging flashbang, was to me, barely more than TV static. The same was true for everyone Ultimate Class and above.
"Sorry everyone. I should have warned you first. My sincerest apologies." I smiled apologetically and we all took a recess to recover.
.....................
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