----- (Amir POV) -----
Fuck...
Life just loves to screw me over, doesn't it?
Time seemed to stand still as my attacker's comrades floated in the air, eyes wide and locked onto his motionless form that lay at my feet, a wound on his chest and his blood painting the sand crimson.
I didn't move either, observing them closely for any sign of aggression.
The one I focused the most attention on was another four-winged angel that, despite being shaken, still maintained a sliver of composure compared to the other members of her group. All of them had only a single pair of jet-black wings, so it was safe to assume that they were a squad that was either patrolling nearby or sent here due to the spatial fluctuations.
The leader looked at the one at my feet once again before lowering herself into the sand and dismissing her wings. She still kept a fair distance from me, but the action alone was enough to show that the next step would lean more towards peaceful resolution.
I opened my palm, allowing my Keyblade to disappear in a flash of light, and took a couple of steps back.
That should be enough to show my stance. You be nice and I'll be nice. Everyone's happy. Please don't do anything stupid. Don't be some idiotic warmonger under Kokabiel.
I kept my gaze on her, and the moment her shoulders relaxed, I let out a sigh internally.
I'm in the clear.
She gestured with her head towards one of the Fallen, all of whom had landed during the exchange, making him rush towards what I would assume was the vice squad leader and carry him to the others.
It was easy to see that they were trained and efficient, as some of them still kept their guards up and observed me closely, while the others divided themselves between healing and guarding the wounded, all without a word from their leader.
Azazel's training his people well. How the hell did the whole main story happen with this kind of discipline? Are Raynare and the others dropouts or something?
I immediately cut my train of thought as the woman approached me and finally spoke for the first time since the beginning of this unfortunate encounter.
"Hello, young master. My name is Kalyra, Squad Leader of the Middle Eastern branch of the Grigori. I would first like to apologize for my subordinate's attack. Zadren is rather aggressive."
My brain had frozen long before she had finished speaking.
Young master?
I looked at her and the respectful expression on her face and finally understood.
Oh... OHHHH!
She thinks I'm a noble. I can see where the confusion came from, though. A child taking down a trained four-winged Fallen is not normal, so she probably thinks that I'm some devil noble's scion that ran from home or something.
Well, isn't that convenient?
Despite my inner thoughts, I kept my expression neutral and responded in a calm voice.
"It's fine, Squad Leader Kalyra. I apologize as well for injuring your subordinate."
She looked surprised for a moment before letting out a small smile that completely removed the previous tension.
"Thank you for your understanding. I'll make sure Zadren is harshly disciplined when we get back to headquarters."
"No need, but I'll thank you nonetheless."
"On that note, may I ask you some questions, young master? I'm afraid that something happened recently which has put our branch on high alert. It's under protocol for me to at least ask some superficial questions so I can file a report," she finished with a small shrug.
Her words made me raise my guard back up.
She's making the whole thing casual so I slip up. They're obviously here because of the spatial fluctuations that happened due to me leaving Scala Ad Caeulum, but she's making it seem like the whole thing was a coincidence while also trying to get some kind of information from me. I was expecting her to ask questions, but the way she's going about it...
Either she's good at what she does or I'm being a very edgy and paranoid moron.
.
.
.
I'll go with the first one.
I smiled lightly before answering in a similar tone.
"I don't mind at all. Go ahead, Miss Kalyra."
"Thank you, young master. First, what's your name?"
"Alexander Belphagor."
Her entire body tensed up for a moment before continuing as if nothing had happened.
"You are required to have a pass to enter Fallen territory. Do you have such a pass, young Lord Belphagor?"
"I do not."
"May I ask for the reason you came here?"
"Sightseeing. I was hoping to explore the human world and heard that the beaches in Lebanon were phenomenal. I was hoping to explore some of the Mediterranean countries."
"Hmm. Is this your first time in the human world?"
"Yes."
"Any companions or peerage members?"
"None."
She nodded her head before finally letting go of her serious expression and smiling that same soft and light smile.
"Everything has been settled, young Lord Belphagor. I will have to inform Lord Azazel of your presence so he can discuss the matter with Satan Leviathan."
"I understand. I don't mind at all. Now, if that was everything, I'll be leaving. And don't worry, I'm not planning to stay in Fallen territory."
"Would you like us to accompany you?"
"No, that's unnecessary. Thank you, Miss Kalyra, and goodbye."
Before she could respond, I deployed my wings and flew at my fastest speed towards Norway.
That went well.
I wasn't planning on revealing myself this early to the devils and was hoping I could delay it, but this has the opportunity to be a very good advantage. Now that I've announced myself as a Belphagor, Roygun will probably receive the information courtesy of a reprimand from Serafall for not controlling her own people.
By doing this, I'll be able to contact Roygun when I need to without surprising her. She'll be my ticket into the Underworld in the future and a very valuable ally.
Establishing an identity now will also be useful later on when I need to talk to people of authority. A Belphagor is a lot more important than some random hybrid.
Since most devils usually sneak around and create some incident before being found out, the fact that I did nothing major will make it so that not much importance is placed on my appearance.
The main reason I responded to everything, though, was to hide the tear.
I discovered during my studying the effects of traversing dimensions forcefully. It was obvious that the moment I would leave, something similar to when I first entered Scala Ad Caeulum would happen, and that would put a massive target on my back.
By revealing that I'm a Belphagor and using Xigbar the moment I exited the dimension to diminish the spatial fluctuations, I can pretend that they were due to me using Crack, and that should be enough for most people. Even if someone doubts me and tries to link me to another dimension, I'll just deny it since there's no proof.
That's the reason she knew I was a devil in the first place. She sensed the demonic mana I used to activate Xigbar.
All of it wasn't planned perfectly, but I took precautions, and they worked.
Didn't think she would call me a noble though. I thought I would have to establish that fact but she did half of the work for me.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.
Things should be just fine now.
Time to move forward.
Next destination, Asgard.
---------------------------
{A/N: Yo. So, I'm finally back. This is going to be a pretty big note, so for those who don't care much, skip to the end for the things that are related to the story.
I'll start this by saying that I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting such a big delay to happen, but a lot of things came up at once, and I just didn't have the ability to release chapters consistently again.
For those who were wondering why and aren't in the Discord, I was on vacation for the beginning of January, which is when I released the last chapter, and was busy with family and friends. When I came back, I had some issues in scheduling in Uni, which was just annoying and tedious. Add to all that, I had to have eye surgery and have only fully recovered recently.
I'll thank you guys for your support in advance and promise that this isn't going to be a regular thing.
Now back to the story.
First, I'm going to leave the recent voting open for a bit more time since new people are going to read this after I start releasing chapters again, so for those who want to participate, go vote.
Second, I was wondering if you guys would like for the MC to be able to expand Scala Ad Caeulum or not. I don't know if I'll make this a vote, so I'll leave it here for now, and if a lot of people comment, I'll put it as a vote.
Finally, release schedule. From now on, I'll be releasing at night (between 8 AM and 12 AM GMT) on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. So the next chapter will be released on Friday.
If I don't release at those times due to an exam or something, I'll say so during the latest chapter's author's note.
That's everything. Hope you guys enjoyed this small chapter, and see you guys Friday.}