|3rd POV|
When Yasaka arrives in Romania alongside her guardians, she and the others immediately get bombarded with a spiritual weight. Her guardians immediately take a battle stance, but before they can do anything stupid, she raises her hand and says.
"Wait."
She says that just in time, as they see a man land not too far away from them. As the dust disappears, they see Luca laughing, and his entire body is now metallic black.
"Dammit, boss! That hurts!"
Yasaka looks to the side and sees Vale land in front of them while laughing.
"But it is working, no? Now, you can imbue your Haki into your clothes!"
She looks at him in shock, not because of the red lightning surrounding him, but because he is no longer human. He is now using the Human-Beast form from the Yamato template.
"V-Vale… Y-You are an Ōkuchi no Makami!"
She shouts while the other youkai coming with her look at him in reverence and shock. Vale looks at them in confusion and says.
"Yeah? This is my Human-Beast form. What about it? Is there something wrong?"
"Wrong?! No! Nothing is wrong! It is a good fortune for all of us! A Sacred Beast born and walking on the planet once again!"
"Wait! Wait! Before you go around and do anything, can you tell me the reason for that? Will my form cause a problem? Because I am still human, but with a small addition that makes me like this. Also, what do you mean by Sacred Beast? I thought only five of them exist, and none of them take the form of a wolf."
Yasaka nods her head and says.
"Ōkuchi no Makami is a Sacred Beast that directly comes from the Three Rulers of Takemagahara. Do you know the story of Lady Amaterasu arriving on Earth in the form of a white wolf?"
Vale blinks for a second and nods his head. Not because he had heard about this story, but rather because he had played the game with this concept before. It is called Okami, and it is about Amaterasu going to Earth in the form of a wolf to help the people of Japan.
"That is not only a story, you know? Lady Amaterasu takes away a portion of her power to create a wolf and sends her to Earth to help the people of Japan in the past. It is when the Gods fight each other and make the mortals suffer from it. However, she is not the only one doing that. Lord Susanoo and Lord Tsukuyomi also do the same. That form is Ōkuchi no Makami and the Great Wolf that symbolizes his authority."
"But it is not power related to him."
Before he can explain more, his body is engulfed with silver light, and he can feel power coursing through his body. Yasaka's grin gets bigger, and she says,
"Now, it is not! Lord Tsukuyomi gave you his blessing, and now you have officially become his champion!"
"Why do you look so happy about it, Yasaka? I know that getting blessings is something you celebrate, but you look as if you found gold."
"And I am! With this, we can officially get married, Vale! With Lord Tsukuyomi's blessing, those old bastards will not complain or reject our marriage!"
Vale blinks for a second and starts to smile, then turns into a massive grin. He releases a laugh and picks Yasaka up. He spins her around and hears her laugh with him.
"This is indeed good news!"
Vale has been thinking of a way to prove his worth to the Elder of the Youkai in her court. He plans to become the wealthiest and most powerful human in Europe to prove he is worthy of their queen.
Truthfully, they already have a hard time thinking of an excuse to let her marry a human. The reason? Vale and his faction become something bigger than the West Youkai Faction.
The Millefiore Family might still be weaker than the entire Japan Youkai Faction, but the Japan Youkai Faction is divided into two. The West Youkai Faction might be the more powerful faction than their eastern counterpart, but the Millefiore Family beats them in overall power.
The Elders have a hard time making excuses to prevent Yasaka from marrying the leader of this more powerful faction, especially when the candidate they choose as her husband is someone weaker than even Yasaka's weakest guardian.
Now, with God Tsukuyomi's blessing, they can only swallow their excuse and let the two of them marry, or they will face the wrath of the Gods. You don't want to anger one of the strongest divine beings in your Pantheon, after all.
"So! Do you want to get married now?"
Vale gives her a grin, and Yasaka smiles at his words.
"Shouldn't you make it romantic?"
"Oh, I will. However, I know you, Yasaka. You do not want that stuffy marriage proposal. I will prepare a surprise, but it will not be the proposal itself."
"Fufufufu~ Now you are just teasing me with that promise. However, there are still a lot of things I need to do, and marriage is not one of them."
"Oh? Is there something that I need to know?"
"One of the Satan came to me, asking me to let them rent a territory."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Lady Leviathan comes to me, asking me if they can 'govern' Kuoh Town."
Vale widens his eyes at that name. Kuoh is the alternate version of Ninomiya Town in the Kanagawa Prefecture. Vale shakes his head and says.
"Let's talk in my office." He turns to Luca and says. "Tell the others to continue to train."
Luca nods, and Vale takes Yasaka and the others to his mansion. When they arrive, Yasaka tells her guardians to join the training with Luca and the rest of Vale's guardians while she and Vale talk.
Yasaka takes a seat, and Vale decides to prepare some tea. He looks at Yasaka and says.
"Where were we? Ah, right. Tell me more about this meeting with Satan Leviathan."
"Well, she wants to rent the entire town. She offers us five Phoenix Tears every week to rent the entire town. She wants to create a station that connects the Underworld and Japan."
"Right. They use trains to go between Mortal World and the Underworld, huh?"
"That's right, and she chose Japan as the country that will connect the Underworld and East Asia."
"Why not other countries? Why not China? That place is bigger, and they can choose a place where not many humans can see them."
"Ah, that will be bad. In East Asia, only Japan tolerates the entire Devil Race. I don't think the Heavenly Court and the Yaoguai Faction willingly give their territories to the devil, and the Dokkaebi of Korea declare a blood feud against the entire Devil Race and will kill anyone who tries to enter Korea. The shaman in Mongolia is also the same as the Dokkaebi."
"Huh."
That is something that he doesn't know. He really needs to know about these things. He will ask Luca to gather information about relationships between factions around the world, not only in Europe.
"Yeah. That's why they picked Japan as their first and maybe only choice if they wanted to establish a connection between the underworld and the East Asia region."
"So, by the sound of it, you reject her offer."
"I am not rejecting her offer, but rather negotiating a better offer. Five Phoenix Tears every week is not enough, especially after the Sun Flame pods and potions your family produces; the worth of Phoenix Tears takes a nose dive."
Vale nods his head because he knows about that. There is a reason why the Devil Race wants to create a good relationship with his family. It is a shame that Serafall cannot make a better deal because the Phenex Clan wants her to stop his family from producing more Sun Flame pods and potions, or only sell them to specific individuals to raise the price of the phoenix tears back to its original price.
Previously, you were lucky to get one for two hundred million US dollars. Now? It is priced at two million, and that is because the Millefiore Family has yet to increase their production. When they increase production, the price will be reduced even further.
"Have you told her about the price?"
"Oh, yes. It turns out, Satan Leviathan is not up to date with the current market price and thinks that Phoenix Tear is still the only healing item that works for all races."
There is a reason why Vale increased the patrols in his territory. Many people want to cultivate their own flame after seeing Yasaka awaken her Sky Flame and spread it to her people.
They think they can awaken their flame just because a flame user stays close to them. They do not know that the Dying Will Flame can awaken only because of Vale.
"After knowing the real price of the Phoenix Tears, she immediately left my palace. It has been two days since our meeting, and she has never once called me back."
"She must be trying to search for bargaining chips. I guess that is why she has never sent a letter to me or visited Vindice lately."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Usually, she visits Vindice once every two days. Now? Nothing."
"I see. Do you think I should accept her offer when she offers something good?"
"Depend on the chips she offers and your feelings about them. I cannot give you an opinion without seeing the bargaining chips first. Speaking of territory, is it your territory? Kuoh Town is not too far away from Tokyo, right?"
"Ah, don't worry about it. Kanagawa Prefecture is within my jurisdiction. Further east, it will fall under Nurarihyon. And I don't think he will agree to accept them into his territory."
"And why's that?"
"He is among the youkai who fought against the Old Satan Faction in the past and lost a lot of his people to them."
"I see."
They drink their tea and decide to talk about other things as well. Sadly, their conversation gets interrupted when something hits the barrier around the mansion. They look out the window and see one of Yasaka's guardians get slammed into the barrier and fall to the ground.
"Do you want to see them spar?"
"Of course! I want to see what new power you get, Vale."