Such actions were not befitting of a 'King', never mind the respective heiresses to House Gremory and House Sitri. As the joint overseers of Kuoh City, both Sona and Rias had a duty to uphold the laws as laid down by the Four Satans, which included placing the overall safety of the human population above all else. If their failure to do so was a result of their inability to set aside their childish pride, then Sirzechs would have no choice but to strip them of their authority and call them both home.
Such harsh words from her normally supportive older brother had shaken Rias to her core, and from what little Issei had managed to get out of Saji, it was clear that while Sona hadn't been as personally hurt, the Lucifer's words had impacted her just as harshly, which only served to show how respected Sirzechs Lucifer was by the underworld community.
As bad as that all sounded, however, it wasn't all doom and gloom on the Kuoh front. For one thing, Kiba had been livelier than Issei had ever been before, the Damned Handsome actually smiling authentically instead of simply plastering on a fake smile for his fan-girls. He'd also begun to hang out with Issei and Saji more often, the three of them united by the common trend of being the only members of their respective Peerages to possess a Y-chromosome, and he even turned out to be pretty decent at karaoke so that was definitely a plus.
Another surprising upside was that, despite everything that had gone down since Spring-Term, the only faction that wasn't currently giving them a hard time were the Grigori. Setting aside Raynare's cell, who had apparently been acting on their own, even going so far as to disobey direct orders from Azazel and Shemhazai, you'd think the Fallen would be up in arms following the death of Kokabiel, but so far they hadn't sent so much as an angry postcard.
Actually, no, that wasn't strictly true, as Rias had apparently received a vintage anime-postcard, autographed by Go-Nagai himself, shortly after the battle from the Governor-General himself. From what little Issei had been able to make out, Azazel had apparently apologized for the whole affair and essentially reassured them that no attempts to avenge the Fallen Star of God would be authorized by him or Shemhazai.
As reassuring as the missive had been, the fact it had apparently been sent from within Kuoh City, and the fact he'd also assured them that Shirou was doing better, and would likely return to classes the following week, only served to solidify the fact that not only had the Governor-General of the Grigori been living right under their noses for a considerable amount of time, but that he apparently considered Shirou to be under his protection.
This, as you might imagine, presented a considerable problem. While Shirou had made it abundantly clear that he didn't view Rias & Sona's Peerages as enemies, the fact remained he was the first mortal in recorded history to actually slay a Fallen. While far from immortal, Fallen-Angels were still Divine Beings created by the Biblical God, so the odds of a mortal, Mage, Hero or what have you, actually managing to kill one was nigh impossible.
Add to the fact that Kokabiel was not only a veteran of the Great War, but one of the few beings capable of going toe-to-toe against the Super Devil Sirzechs Lucifer, and you could probably understand why Shirou's alignment with the Grigori was so worrisome. Things had been bad enough when the rumors of Divine Dividing's wielder allying with the Grigori were confirmed, that the Fallen had a Mage capable of slaying a Super Devil among them led to many a sleepless night for both heiresses.
Thankfully, as much as he'd like to alleviate his King's stress, preferably with a hot bath followed by a massage session, as a 'mere Pawn' Issei didn't have to worry about all that political stuff, or so Rias kept assuring him. And so, in order to keep from worrying her, he had thrown himself back into his old routine of accepting whatever requests he could in order to earn enough points to improve his ranking as a Devil.
It was slow going, primarily because he still couldn't use the damned teleportation circle without tagging along with someone else, but it certainly helped to take his mind off all that stressful shit…normally anyway.
"I see…that does sound worrisome." His client agreed, his eyes never leaving the screen before them, his posture decidedly calm even as he guided his digital racer around the track with practiced ease "And he hasn't contacted you?"
"Not so much as a text!" Issei seethed, cheering internally as he hit a new speed record for finishing the current lap "I mean, sure it's great he's alive and all but would it kill him to pick up the damned phone?"
His client merely chuckled, his eyes glinting with mirth as he casually directed his own racer to overtake the irate Pawn's, earning a squawk from Issei as he struggled to close the gap between them.
If Issei were forced to describe his most frequent customer in words, the first that would probably pop into his head was eccentric. Or at least that would be the case if he bothered to actually develop his vocabulary. As it were, the actual word he'd use to describe the man, if pressed to do so, would be 'weird'.
Oh, don't get him wrong, he was more than happy to accept the man's repeat patronage, every complete request counted towards his eventual dream of forming his own harem of beauties after all, but who in their right mind summons a devil simply because they wanted a drinking partner? Or to go fishing? Or to play outdated Famicom games for that matter?
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