I froze in the doorway where my chaperone came in, not noticing my condition at first, and I began to simply sincerely salivate about the contents of this room.
"Is this all yours, Agrippa-sensei?" I said dreamily.
"Rias-san," he frowned for some reason. "This library is mostly above your level of knowledge. Lord Lucifer warned me in advance about the purpose of your visit, so I have prepared safe and useful educational literature for you."
And he pointed me to a bookcase near a wooden round table with a green lamp and near the window, yes, but there were only two full shelves at my eye level, and the lower ones were filled with some kind of puzzles and jigsaws, some of them were quite ordinary, while others clearly worked on some sort of magical component.
I stopped, confused, and frowned. It seemed to me that since I had such a magic, the Destruction power is nothing to scoff at, and not the magic of the rainbow cotton candy, then I should be taught well.
"I would also like to ask," he emphasized it and narrowed his eyes, "that you avoid using the power of Destruction in the library. To begin with, you are not here to study the power of your maternal bloodline, but to evaluate your abilities in other areas of demonic magic. That's why..."
"Could I just read everything from beginning to end from these shelves, and ask questions if I don't understand something?" I drawled doubtfully and tilted my head to make it easier to read the spines of the provided literature. "Although... For some reason, I'm sure I've already read more than half of it. Surely, something from the main library is possible?"
"I wasn't informed that you were interested in anything other than anime and the Bael's Power of Destruction," a child would hardly have noticed the mockery in his words, but I could barely resist snapping back. "Let me interview you then. You don't mind, do you, Lady Gremory?"
"Uh-hmm," I shot my eyes at the meager bookcase, and then looked around the huge room of concentrated knowledge, in which I was allowed nothing but this little thing. Well, obviously I decided not to take any chances. "Let me refresh myself on what exactly I know, and I'll be ready?"
"No, that won't do," he watched my face and probably saw me panting at his books. "If you are not ready to use the knowledge right away, then you actually don't have it."
And he fell silent, with a kind of anticipatory feeling in the air. He was clearly expecting my explosive reaction to the rejection.
Does he dislike serving Lucifer so much that he's ready to put a stick in the wheels of his only sister? Or is it on purpose? Educational one? Or does he want to see how shameful a jerk I am towards the servants? After all, none of my direct relatives are here, and he is clearly an old reincarnated devil who has eaten all the possible shit from pure-blooded devils.
I was able to learn more about my situation, and Agrippa's also, in the timespan between my arrival at the mansion of this Gena-dude and the call to the dining hall. By lunchtime, I had Googled everything and one third of me was mentally ready to pretend to be Gabrias Gremory.
As soon as we got into the house, I was escorted to a fairly spacious room, which was different from Rias' room in the Underworld towards simplicity.
To be honest, I liked this room even more, if only because it did not raise questions from this thrice-cursed diagnosis of my sins tool.
The thing was, before I moved in, the girl really loved collecting figurines and all kinds of plushies. My eyes blurred when I saw it for the first time, but strangely enough, I didn't feel like throwing up, and I was even somehow pleased - until the bracelet informed me about the preparation of the Avaritia calibration. I panicked at that, closed my eyes, exhaled, and started making self-deprecations like, "this shouldn't make me happy at all, because it doesn't make sense." Moreover, after that, I looked into the dressing room, and the thing that was waiting for me, would've made the past me throw up, with one hundred percent probability, unlike the harmless cute figurines.
After the dressing room, I really wanted to return to my usual routine for my previous life, where there were three clothing options, one of which was pajamas, and a couple of chests with armor and equipment for the Hunt. The clothes for all kinds of events were, of course, disposable and were sewn specifically for this event. The only good quality that Daddy Jacques passed on to me in the past was that he dressed to the nines, but he always looked the same, adjusted for the weather conditions, which he taught all his children to do. One even can't get out of a military uniform at all, she's all but fused to it.
Here, however, excesses were clearly normal, at least for the Gremory family.
Before I started exploring the new territory, I noticed the servants running around - something happened while this Uncle Gena was not at home, and this caused him to frown. My temporary teacher immediately got hold of brief reports from subordinates - apparently, he's one of those who does not like verbal attempts to explain something. He immediately immersed himself in reading, calling over some serious looking man, and he pushed me towards the maid who accompanied us with her magical teapot, damn that thing to all hells.
It would be extremely difficult to keep any decent-sized territory anywhere without servants and peerage. From the looks of it, their master hadn't been on the surface for a decent amount of time, otherwise why would they be jumping around like they were stung up the arse? Something must have happened. Well, first I had to see where and what the maids had put in the room assigned to me, and in general, where the toilet and bathroom were. Demonic essence is demonic essence, but this is not a world where it somehow changes my desire to relieve my bladder after a couple liters of tea.
Later, in the room, I learned from my antediluvian PDA that Heinrich von Nettesheim was a devil of the high class, the Lucifer's piece " Elephant " or " Bishop " or, judging by my bracelet, someone called Cursor Daemoniorum , and he also had his own peerage. I realized that the word "Daemoniorum" somehow referred to a set of chess pieces from scanning the complete set that belonged to Gabrias Gremory. This set was left on top of all sorts of cosmetic items in the only unopened bag delivered to my temporary home. Unlike the other items, the closed chess box had a name - Latrunculi Daemoniorum . The description of this set made me nervous at least as much as that dressing room from the mansion in the Underworld.
"In exchange for demonic power, the soul and body serve the devil who is providing power. When the connection of souls is interrupted, it is recommended to perform an exorcism. For other approaches to solving the problem of destabilizing systems, it is necessary to know the exact parameters of demonic power and the rest of the parameters of the figure vector."
What was most annoying was the mentioned soul connection. I don't want to reincarnate someone here and drag them with me after death. Or, on the contrary, to hang around as a mere soul, because these figures may act as anchors.
If I see Austin, I'll kick the fucker in the balls for that. He didn't ask anything, but left me fuck knows where, and now I don't even know if I can afford to do what all the local devils do. Although on the other hand, I'm here on vacation for the sake of personal growth and studying magic in close to perfect conditions, not for the Rating Games. And who knows what kinds of devils they will turn into, with my background and, literally, another spiritual component.
Of course, the knock on the door and the call to chat with the owner of the house in the dining room did not allow me to study the entire chess box completely. That's how I ended up in the library.
I opened my mouth to respond positively to the offer to be interviewed by this hoarder for anything magic - like, situation "You'll be mine, or nobody's!", by God!
The maid I already knew came bowing through the half-open door, no longer carrying a kettle, but with a worried expression on her face.
"Lord Agrippa, we've detected another violation of our territory," she said quickly. "The point of movement is Northwest-2."
"I'm with you," I blurted out and looked away, thinking at first that it was a mistake.
But Agrippa shrugged his shoulders, took my hand and stood in a circle of teleportation. After a brief flash before my eyes, we found ourselves on some street. There was a park nearby, and beyond a few old-fashioned roofs, the taller roof of a Shinto shrine could be seen.
"This time, it's not just the local Shintoists, they're chasing the Fallen, whose power registers as two pairs of wings," the maid said, and opened her leathery demonic wings. "For some reason, the Fallen One does not fly away and does not summon the others."
"Perhaps the Fallen One knows whose territory this is," Agrippa also opened one pair of wings and rose from the ground, still holding my hand. "We are not in the stage of active conflict, therefore it can be a provocation. If we help the Fallen, we will be pitting ourselves against the human Shinto faction. Princess, you're either flying with us or waiting here."
"Yeah, yeah, now..." I strained and found this anchor, which also allowed me to flap my wings.
The mistress of the body clearly loved to fly, and for pure-blooded devils, it should have been almost innate. That's why it felt like I hadn't ridden a bike in a couple of years, and now decided to start again.
I was very surprised by the informal tone of this guy, because before that Gosha had only hinted at my stupidity. But then I realized that it was the built-in translator playing with me again. There is clearly no you or you-plural in his language as the show of respect, but he hardly has that respect for me, which is why it slipped through in such a situation.
Agrippa pulled me along, and the maid stayed a little behind, guarding the rear or something like that.
From a higher point, as we flew closer to this chase, which was reported by the maid, it became noticeable that the fallen one, or rather the fallen girl, was a small kid, about the same age as this body. I started forward, forgetting who and where I was for a bit. The men surrounding the girl with extremely dubious intentions had expressions ranging from "I'm a brick" to "I'm enjoying your suffering, bitch." We flew close enough that I could make out the faces of each of these assholes. And my blood was just boiling because they dared to attack a child!
Agrippa grabbed my shoulder without even looking in my direction. Therefore, he hardly noticed that my fingers had turned into claws again, looking as if charred. I almost bit into the palm that was holding me, to be honest. But I could see something strange in his face, even through all the righteous anger that was bubbling in my mind - which made the bracelet notify me of the possibility of calibrating the Ira sin. Well, it's good that I turned on notifications, otherwise there would be some more active sins.
There was a strange, sick spark in Agrippa's eyes as he looked at the girl a few meters away from us.
"Stop right there! You are in the territory of Satan Lucifer! You know perfectly well that we have agreements that you are obligated to comply with!" Agrippa snapped.
"This filthy half-breed must die!" Obviously, the main asshole of this group replied in the same tone. "I am Himejima Suou, and this is the business of the Himejima clan!"
"Leave the Fallen One and go away," he looked at this girl again with a look that I really didn't like. "We'll deal with her."
"I've heard that devils make deals and make slaves out of other races," this asshole drawled and kicked the girl lying on the ground in the ribs. "My deal is, you make her your slave and show her all the horrors of the Underworld, devil. Then, we will leave."
Agrippa opened his mouth, and even began to say something affirmative - this in itself caused the volcano named after me to prepare an eruption. But my prickly bracelet came to life - it came to life at a very bad time.
"A new template of sin Avaritia recorded. Calibration relative to the subject Agrippa... The current level of sin Avaritia XXS ."
I stared at Agrippa and finally put two and two together in my mind, realizing exactly what was bothering me about his reaction.
He's a pedophile! Or from a time when it was normal to fuck girls of that age! Otherwise, why the fuck would he want her, like she was some kind of collection item ?! Brother Lucifer, who did you send me to, you daft piece of raspberry jam?
"I have another deal for you, you shitstained assholes," the anger in my soul was so righteous that even the bracelet with its diagnosis did not peep a word. "You're getting the fuck out of here, and I'm not destroying your shameful faces with my Power of Destruction."
"Lady Rias, you..." Agrippa started, but I shut him up with one look, I don't know what he saw there, but he didn't take his eyes off me anymore, correctly realizing that if anything, I would try to kick at him as well, although it was unlikely that it would work.
"You stupid pieces of meat, my name is Gabrias Gremory, remember it well, because everyone should know what I do to those who touch children."
"You yourself is..." He suddenly shut up, but my field of vision turned crimson.
The familiar berserk-like state from the past has now been complemented by these black and scarlet lightning bolts, evaporating into this strange haze. Well, fuck it sideways.
The girl on the ground gave a small sob and tried to crawl away from the man who had been kicking her. She wasn't even paying attention to the fact that she kept crawling in my direction. Or did this... this horror that I'm giving off now seem safer to her?
In an instant, I hovered over her with a clap of wings, and my palms, with dark claws and dark bolts of Destruction, headed towards these... non-humans.
"Or don't you want a deal?" I growled, as much as it was possible with such a voice and such a body. "That will suit me too!"
"Lady Rias!" The maid's voice came from somewhere behind.
But I didn't dare to get distracted, so I kept watching the opponents' movements. I didn't like killing people - I had an extremely small number of kills, just some real monsters, whose death was a gift to everyone around.
And yes, I didn't really want to start an inter-factional war on the very first day of my stay in this new world, so I held back, although my condition was clearly something out of the ordinary.
In this state, I could feel the inside of this girl - it gave off something vaguely dangerous, but at the same time it caressed, electrified, and caught my breath with the harbinger of a thunderstorm.
Was she a Fallen or their half-breed?
Could it have been a provocation, and in fact - could she have been not a child, but a Fallen adult who pretends to be a little girl?
I honestly didn't give a damn about such details.
I didn't like Agrippa's look. And I didn't like these assholes.
Therefore, this girl will be under my protection, if she's ten years old, or if she's ten centuries old.