Non Serviam Chapter 4

A/N: I told you guys I'd been working. The first of 4 commission chapters, new chapter to come this Friday! Here's a link to the story thus far for a refresher!

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Chapter 4: Friendship is Magic

“Like this?”

I waved a hand through the air, furrowing my brow. A magic circle flickered into existence above my palm. For a moment, a small mote of light, a dancing will-o’-the-wisp hovered in the air. Then with a pop, the entire spell destabilized.

I hissed, rubbing my forehead. The feedback still threw me for a loop, like a thinker headache.

“Nuh uh.” Gasper flicked a glance up at my hand, before snuggling deeper into my lap. I was reclined on his couch, and Gasper had pillowed his head on my thighs. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d gotten into this situation, but at least I was learning a thing or two about magic.

Yes, it still could have been an odd combination of powers that was responsible for my new abilities, but really, at this point Occam’s Razor just cut that to shreds.

“What am I doing wrong?” I asked. Unconsciously, my hand came up to stroke his hair, like how I remembered Mom doing as she read to me at night. “I thought that Devil magic was based on visualization.”

“Mmfphm.”

I paused. “Gasper.”

He turned, one maroon eye peeking up at me from beneath blonde bangs. “Why’d you stooop...?”

With a huff, I started stroking his hair again, rolling my eyes as the boy snuggled back into my stomach. He’d taken a moment to switch into a conservative nightgown. It was airy and made of white gossamer, making him look more like a fairy or a princess than a dhampir.

“You said you’d help me with magic,” I tried.

He shrugged languidly. “It’s more… imagination. Knowing how things work is hard, but if you can… immm…” He yawned cutely, rubbing at an eye. “Imagine it… your magic’ll fill in the gaps.”

I blinked, turning that thought over in my head. “Just imagination, huh?” I tilted my head back, left hand still idly parting Gasper’s ash blond hair. “Have I been overthinking it the whole time?”

Maybe Devil Magic had more in common with powers than I first thought.

With a hum, I held out my hand again. This time, I focused less on the mechanicsof the light, and more on the idea. I’d felt a thousand sources of light, from the dimly flickering candle in a powerless city to the burning golden light of Scion the moment your body was scoured from existence.

I’d even created most of those lights, feeling the odd not-feedback passengers gave when directing us to use their abilities.

Albeit secondhand.

The circle sprang into existence over my hand, and I pushed that image into the real world, letting go of my understanding of photons and combustion. Oh I used some of it, just enough to shape the final product, but the rest?

Pure fancy.

A soft golden light blossomed into existence over my palm.

I frowned. “You know, I feel kinda dumb now.”

“Hmmmm?” Gasper turned his head lazily. “Oh, you did it. Yaaaay…” His cheer morphed into a yawn halfway through. “Good… work?”

I snorted. “You could sound a bit more enthusiastic.”

“MmMm.” He shook his head. I wiggled as his nose brushed against my stomach, then sighed. Somehow, I felt that this should feel way more scandalous than it actually did. Maybe it was just because Gasper was so harmless. He triggered all those protective instincts I thought I didn’t have.

With a flick of my wrist, I cut off the light, rolling my hand in the air. “It took more energy though.” Even compared to my insect construct before, the light was an energy hog, quickly eating through what remained of my internal reservoir.

“Yeah.” Gasper turned slightly, violet eye peeking up from beneath his fringe. “The more you understand your magic, the less power it takes. That’s kinda… the same?” He gave a little shrug, fluffy nightgown floofing around his shoulders. “I dunno.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know?”

“Magic’s too easy…”

I huffed. Of course my first tutor would turn out to be a savant. I guess that was it for my instruction, huh? I’d be left to figure out the rest on my own, not that it was anything new.

I shifted into a more comfortable position, forming light over my hands a few more times. Now that I’d gotten the trick down, it was a lot easier. Honestly, I could probably make a dozen of the little tracker bugs I’d used to eavesdrop on Rias and Akeno yesterday with half of the effort the first one took me. The only reason I’d even managed that was because I knew bugs.

Probably better than anyone else alive.

“Still,” I mused, “it’s hardly free.” The less I understood, the more energy it would take? I was just now getting a sense of how much ‘magic’ I had access to. It was hardly an ocean. “Guess you spoiled me, huh, passenger.”

No response.

“Whazzat?”

I jolted slightly, before I realized it was only Gasper’s voice. I laughed. “Nothing, just… thinking out loud.”

A single purple eye peeked up at me for a long moment before drifting shut.

“M’kay.”

I huffed out another laugh as he butted his head against my hand aggressively—or at least, as aggressively as I’d seen Gasper do anything, until I continued petting him.

No but really, how did I end up in this situation?

“So…” I paused for a second. “You said Magic is too easy. Is that why you’re staying here?”

Gasper stilled. I just continued passing my hand through his hair. It was as light and fine as spider silk. And like I just said, I would know.

“Kinda,” he said at last. “I can’t really control my power. It just goes off, if I feel scared.” His voice went soft at that, like a kitten.

I hummed. That would probably be bad. “Do you mind if I ask what it does?”

He didn’t say anything for a long minute. That was fine, I was used to waiting.

Oh, I hated it, but I was used to it by now.

“My Sacred Gear, Hidden Balor View, can stop time for whatever I’m looking at.”

I blinked, something clicking into place. “Is that what happened to the door earlier?”

“Meep.” He ducked head even deeper, somehow, into my stomach. “U-uh, maybeeee?”

“Huh.” I shrugged. “That does seem pretty strong.” And also, rather dangerous if he couldn’t control it. Forget just stopping people in their tracks, what if it went off in a busy intersection? Depending on the exact mechanics, it could hurt a lot of people even by accident.

“I-it doesn’t hurt to get stopped in time!” he said.

I looked back down. “Hmm?”

“I just… pause them. Then when I stop using my sacred gear, they go back to normal.” The violet eye peeked up at me. “You’re not… mad, right?”

I paused for a second, before an amused smile broke out over my face. “Why would I be mad?” I knew a thing or two about being stuck with a power before. Even if I’d grown to love my passenger in time.

I’m sure Gasper would get there eventually. Though hopefully his ‘sacred gear’ didn’t have some weird alien intelligence tacked onto it like my power did.

“Have you practiced it?” I asked. “I mean, something like that, surely there’s got to be ways to block it, or else people would just run around throwing time magic everywhere.”

Powers were one thing, since they were all unique. But magic…

Well, I guess I still didn’t know enough about how magic worked to make any blanket assumptions. Some days, I really missed having Lisa around.

“Not really.” He shrugged again. “It’s scary.”

I gave a light huff. “Just like the outside huh?”

Gasper nodded.

I laughed again.

Still the thought tickled something in the back of my head. Grey Boy had been insanely powerful, and even if Gasper’s power didn’t come with the inherent invulnerabilitythat Grey Boy had possessed, even just the offensive aspect of time manipulation sent my mind racing.

Fighting capes had kinda been my job for the last two and a half years of my life, after all.

“Wanna try using it on me?”

He stiffened.

“What?” I continued stroking his hair casually. “You just said it didn’t hurt, right? I want to see more magic, and you have to practice with your sacred gear, or else you’ll never get out of this room. Seems like a win-win to me.”

“What if I don’t want to leave my room?” he muttered mulishly.

“Well,” I said. “Eventually I’m going to have to leave. I mean, I doubt Rias will let me stay here forever. She doesn’t like me as much as you.”

Or rather, I hadn’t given her any reason to like me. I could own up to that at least.

“I’ll ask to let you stay.”

I stopped, glancing down at Gasper. “This isn’t going to turn into one of those ‘you’re not allowed to leave’ things, is it?”

He turned, eyes blinking up at me in confusion. “What do you mean?”

I smiled. “Never you mind.” I brushed his bangs away from his picture-perfect face. He was just so aesthetically pleasing. How unfair. “Still, don’t you think it’s a good idea to practice?” When he looked like he was wavering, I added, “I’m sure Rias won’t make you leave your room until you want to, but wouldn’t it be nice to have an option?”

He bit his lip, before nodding. “Okay.”

“Great, so—”

“OkayI’mgonnausemysacredgearBalorView!”

I had just enough time to blink before his eyes flashed a burning crimson and—

—then they went back to normal.

“Guh.” I half-tilted to the side, hand pressing against my head. “I… almost felt that.” There was a jarring sense of dysphoria, like everything but me had shifted and I was playing catch-up. The way Gasper had shifted position in front of me was jarring enough, I didn’t need to feel it in my bones as well.

Gasper continued biting his lip, looking up at me with worried eyes.

I sighed, reaching out to stroke his hair again. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad.” I asked for it after all. I just hadn’t expected it to be so immediate.

Still, there were a few things I wanted to… try.

“Wanna take another shot?”

He tilted his head. “Uh…”

I shrugged. “You don’t have to, but it’s an interesting ability. I want to see if I can block it.”

“Um, Taylor, you’re kinda a new devil, aren’t you?” He shifted, half rolling over just so he could poke his fingers together. “Sacred Gears are kinda really strong, too. I don’t think most people can just stop a Sacred Gear.”

I shrugged. “Then I’ll know what not to do in the future. Now come on, if you don’t, I won’t give you any more head pats.”

Gasper quailed, eyes growing misty.

My resolve crumpled. “For the next five minutes.”

He held my gaze for a moment longer, before giving up. “Fine, but!” He rolled up to his knees, pointing a finger at me imperiously. “I-I want double head pats. For the next five, no t-ten minutes afterwards.”

I blinked. “I… didn’t know you liked them so much.”

He paused, shrinking into himself a bit. “You give really good scritches.”

“Are you a dhampir or a cat?”

“Uhuh.” He shook his head. “Koneko is the cat.”

“Ko—neko.” I tilted my head. The real trip was my new metal translation software (that came part of being a Devil of course!) translating that name to kitten, but, well… it was hardly the weirdest thing I’d heard all day. “Okay, you’ve got a deal.”

Gasper smiled. “Let’s go!”

I nodded, turning my focus inward. During Gold Morning, I’d… experiencedmy fair share of invulnerability powers. Gavel, Mord Naag, even Alexandria.

Or well, what was left of her, anyway.

Now, those memories were opaque, clouded behind the veil of my own mind breaking as I became my passenger became me like an ouroboros devouring its own tail. But there was still enough left for me to parse.

It felt like I had about half of my magical ‘tank’ left; hopefully that would be enough to do what I wanted.

I took a deep breath, focusing on making myself immutable. Sure, maybe the original powers I was drawing from wouldn’t have stopped Grey Boy, but from the inside, they certainly didn’t feel that way. They felt indomitable, invulnerable. A great proclamation of ‘I Am Here’ and daring the world to make you move.

And since devil magic was all about imagination…

I felt my magic flowing out of me at a precipitous rate, and my skin began to glow from the potency of my defenses. I gave Gasper a nod and—

I came to on my back, staring up at the ceiling from where I’d collapsed on the couch. “Ugh.” I rubbed my head. “What happened?”

“Um.” I lifted my head at Gasper’s words. “The spell you had kinda shattered instantly?”

I let out a huff. “So much for that.” Guess these Sacred Gears really were something special. Still. I’d taken out Lung with bugs. I could handle some weird time power, now that I had access to potentially every power I’d ever seen.

It was all down to imagination, after all.

But one thing at a time, Taylor. You’ll be back to dropping biblical plagues on unsuspecting cities in no time.

I pushed myself upward, scratching the back of my head. “It looks like the direct approach is out.”

Gasper nodded. “My Balor View stopped time for everything I can. Even Rias can’t stop it.”

“Well at least I’m not alone in…” I trailed off, something about his words tickling something in the back of my head. “It stops time for everything you can see?”

“Yep.” He nodded, bob bouncing around his cheeks.

I frowned.

I’d already been comparing Gasper to Grey Boy in my own head. Now that I’d been hit with his power twice, I could say that they really weren’t all that similar from the point of view of the target. But for Gasper and Grey Boy…

My eyes widened as I remembered what was bugging me.

Flechette—Foil, by then—dodging Grey Boy’s power. She’d been a step back, an inch shy of eternal oblivion. But from the perspective of Grey Boy and Jack Slash…

I tilted my head, imagining myself standing on the other end of that alley, during that final battle with Jack, the one that had set off the Final Battle of All.

From Grey Boy’s point of view, he hit. All he could see was Flechette, screaming inside of a grey cloud, just like so many victims before him.

I held that double image in my head, imagining that separation. Everything within his sight. But just take a step back, leaving just the image of yourself behind—no, that was getting too specific, it would fall apart.

The paradox was the key to it. The moment you could explain it away, it would pop like a bubble of soap.

Instead, I just held that moment inside myself, the idea of being seen but not seen, of being hit but not hit.

A spiraling circle of deep purple blossomed out from beneath my feet, spinning like a pinwheel. “Okay.” I nodded. “Hit me.”

Gasper looked at me for a moment, but luckily, he didn’t wait until I ran out of juice. “Here I go!”

His eyes flashed red, like a burning star was forming inside of his pupils. The only difference, this time, was that I actually saw the fire consume his irises, burning like an inferno. I felt the power wash over me, catching me in its grasp.

But then I moved.

Gasper’s eyes widened, mouth popping open.

I was caught but not caught, seen but not seen.

No, don’t ask me how it worked. I was just imagining it, after all.

I grinned.

All it took was looking left and right at the same time.

Then Gasper glared, eyes blazing brighter and—

I blinked, catching myself before I could fall. “Ugh.” I cracked my neck. “At least I felt my spell popping that time.”

And I did, in a sort of déjà vu kind of way. I also felt sore, like I’d just finished a hard workout. “Hmm.” I was out of magic, like my protection had tried to draw more to compensate, before being utterly overwhelmed anyway. I had about a drop left.

With a flex of will, I spun that little drop into an inky-black butterfly. It formed perched on my finger, wings flapping softly. I could feel it, much the same as I could feel my old power, back when I was just another parahuman on the streets of Brockton Bay.

“It’s a star—”

“Taylor!” Gasper slammed like a missile into my stomach. “How’d you do that?!”

I took a step back, bringing my hands to his shoulders as my little butterfly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. “Uh, do what?”

“Stop my sacred gear!” He looked up at me, eyes wide and hopeful. “Do you, do you think I could do that?”

I blinked, before chuckling. Of course he wanted to learn how to better control his sacred gear. Shut-in or not, being stuck here even if I didn’t want to go outside would have to get old eventually. “I’m not sure.” I shrugged. “What I did was kind of defend myself from your sacred gear, make it so you… missed, I guess? But then you went and broke through anyway.”

“Oh.” He looked down, dejected. “So, you’re saying it won’t work for me?”

“Hey now, I never said that.” I guided him back towards the couch. “I’m sure we can figure out a way to make it work for you. And if nothing else, now you have someone to practice your control with who won’t be affected by your power.”

He nodded, giving me a tight hug. “Thanks, Taylor.”

I smiled. “No problem.”

Then, with strength that belied his size, he yanked me onto the fluffy duvet of his queen-sized bed. “Now.” He looked up at me, violet eyes flashing seriously. “Headpats.”

“Um.” I glanced over towards the couch, only a few steps away. “How about we—”

He growled. It was a cute growl, like a baby lion trying to intimidate someone. “Now.” He pulled at my hand, ducking his head into my collar bone. “You promised.”

I sighed. “I did promise.” I started patting his head, wondering if this was just a Dhampir thing or if—

“Both hands.”

I chuckled, shifting us to a more comfortable position as my other hand came up to join the first. “You’re a greedy little thing, aren’t you?”

“Don’t care, more pats.”

I sighed fondly, letting my head fall back on the covers. I’d promised ten minutes of continuous head pats, but Gasper was such a good boy, he probably deserved more like… twenty…?

*~*~*

The sound of giggling woke me.

I opened my eyes groggily, looking up at the hanging canopy of… was it Gasper’s bed?

“I wondered where you’d gotten to.”

My head snapped up, and I almost jumped out of the bed. But the moment I moved, Gasper’s hands tightened around my midsection and he murbled sleepily, holding me down with surprising strength.

Right, Dhampir, or whatever.

I cast my eyes around the room, catching sight of Rias leaning against the door to Gasper’s room. She was in the same school uniform that she’d been wearing on our first meeting, complete with the oddly-shaped vest that only served to emphasize her bust.

Honestly, even if joining her peerage had been contingent on me wearing something like that alone, I would have turned her down.

“My, my.” She hid a smile behind a politely raised hand. “I didn’t expect you to go and sleep with my shiest subordinate the moment I turned my back. You move quickly, Taylor.”

I rolled my eyes. “Please, we both know the clothes stayed on.”

“Do we?”

I sighed, shifting. When I started to move, Gasper’s face scrunched up, so after a moment I settled back to the bed and let him curl up around me again.

I sighed again. “If you’re going to play word games I can just go back to sleep, you know.”

“No, no!” She waved her hands, still giggling quietly. “I wouldn’t have interrupted you, but I make it a habit to spend some time with Gasper every day.” She gave him a… complicated look as she came to sit on the opposite side of the bed. “I wish I could do better for him.”

“He seems happy enough with his boxes.” That much I’d give her. Gasper seemed perfectly content sitting in his room far away from anything and everything else in the entire world. Either that, or he was the best actor I’d ever met. You know, along with everyone else I’d met in this life.

I should probably stop making that comparison before it lost all meaning.

“No Akeno today?” I made a show of glancing towards the door. “Or did she go to spend some time with me in my room?”

“I left her back on Earth.” Rias stretched, settling back against one of the columns of the bed. “I mean, it’s pretty obvious that you don’t get along. I wanted a chance to talk with you again, one on one.”

I glanced down at Gasper, still attached to my middle like a limpet.

Rias smiled. “He’s a very deep sleeper.”

“I’m sure I can wake him up.” And be on my way.

She pressed a hand to her cheek. “You’d do that to him? He looks so happy right now though.”

I held back a frown, looking away.

Rias giggled. “I knew he’d be able to get through that prickly exterior of yours.”

“So you did put him here just to fuck with me?” I asked.

“Hmm? And here I thought you didn’t do anything in bed.”

“Rias.” I turned my eyes back towards her. “If you want to have a frank conversation, I suggest you start now.”

She met my gaze for a moment, blue eyes blinking rapidly, before turning away.

“Mou, you’re so intense, Taylor.” She let out a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “But I understand. I’ll be serious now.”

I nodded, looking away again. The girl peeked at me from the corner of her eyes. Part of me wanted to sit there and let her stew, leave her trying to find a way to restart the conversation.

But that hardly seemed fair. And I didn’t want to wake Gasper up.

“Get on with it, then.”

“Right.” Rias nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about joining my peerage.”

“I thought I was already a member of your peerage.” I raised an eyebrow. “If I didn’t sign the right paperwork, we could just call the whole thing off right now, you know.”

She huffed, crossing her arms. “Now who’s not being serious.”

I waved a hand—the one that wasn’t pinned beneath Gasper. “Alright then, clarify.”

“You’re a part of my peerage, but, I mean…” She shrugged. “There’s a difference between being a part of my peerage and being a part of what my peerage means to me. I know you don’t believe me, but I honestly do view each of you as my family.” Rias pressed a hand to her chest. “It’s clear that I haven’t done everything I can to make your transition as easy as possible. I wanted to try and make that up to you.”

“Make that… up to me?” I tilted my head.

“Yes.” She nodded. “I mean, I know that I’m acting in your best interest, but I still need to prove that to you. I’m sorry for not taking your concerns more seriously from the start.”

I blinked slowly. “So you’re asking what you can do, to make me trust you more.”

“Exactly.” Rias smiled.

“Well, you can let me go, for starters.”

A pained look flickered across her face. “Honestly, I would love to do that, but I think for the sake of honesty, I should tell you that I can’t.”

“Because I’ll go crazy and turn into a monster.” My voice was as dry as the desert.

“Yes.” Rias nodded. “But also, because you’ve been revived using one of my Evil Pieces.” She reached into a pocket, pulling out a small pawn made of crimson glass. “You’re a demon now, and you’re linked to me by the magic that brought you back to live. I can’t undo that, I can’t take back the Evil Piece without killing you myself, and that I would refuse to do with every fiber of my being!”

Her eyes flashed up at that last part, as if daring me to gainsay her.

I just sighed. “I would never ask you to kill me.” I tilted my head back to look up at the canopy of the bed. “Just that I wouldn’t have minded it if you let me die.”

“There’s a difference?”

I snorted. “Maybe. Maybe not.” I shrugged. “I don’t think I ever found the answer to that question.” Before she could ask what I meant, I added, “and I guess you can’t just give away the… piece that brought me back to life?”

“I can trade it.” She shrugged. “But even then, you’d just be someone else’s property. And, and I’m not the type to trade away my friends like they were just something I owned.”

I hummed. “But you do own me, then?”

Rias gave me a conflicted look. “I don’t consider myself your owner. But, as far as Devil law is concerned. Yes. I am your master. I am responsible for all of your needs, and actions, and thereby as well the ultimate arbiter of your fate.”

I huffed. “Well, you’re definitely being honest.”

“It seemed like you’d respect a hard truth more than a convenient lie.” Rias shrugged. “It’s the least I could do.”

Was it? I’d done worse for less reason. I could admit that to myself at least.

“So.” Rias’s head perked up as I spoke. “Let’s say my ultimate goal was to be free. And for the sake of the argument, let’s assume that I will go crazy if I run away, and you can’t let me go without someone picking me up like a discarded toy and doing whatever they wanted with me.” I turned to look at Rias. “What would I have to do?”

Rias glanced down, cradling her elbow. “Well… if you were to become a High-Class devil, you’d be granted your own peerage. But even then, you’d still be a part of mine.”

I raised an eyebrow. Was the whole thing a pyramid scheme?

“That said, you’d have a lot more autonomy as your own King, even if I could call you back if I needed you for something. I’d tell you that I wouldn’t, if you didn’t want me to, but well…” She gave me a weak smile. “I guess we’re still stuck at the trust part.”

I shrugged. “From where I’m standing, anyway.”

“Right.” Rias sighed. “I suppose, if you became a High-Class Devil, you’d have your own protections as well. The Four Satans prize reincarnated devils that rise above their starting abilities. It’s pretty much what the whole Evil Piece system is based on, you know.” She shrugged. “After that, if you really wanted to be free of me, you’d have to become even stronger than I was—Ultimate-Class or higher—to the point where your power did more than just reflect well on me. If your power overshadowed my own abilities, then at that point, evil piece or no evil piece, you could do pretty much whatever you wanted.”

“And I guess you wouldn’t be so happy if I tried to do that, huh?”

“Oh no.” Rias shook her head. “I’d support you wholeheartedly if that was your goal. It’s just, I’m pretty strong you know? I’m already a High-Class Devil myself, the heiress of the Gremory Family, and I have a really powerful peerage that, you excluded, loves me as much as I love them.” She spread her arms. “Asking you to ‘beat me’? It doesn’t really seem fair, right? Like I’m just arguing in bad faith.”

I stared at her for a long moment. “So, you’re saying you’ll help me get stronger, even if it means I might one day hold you in the same position you’re holding me right now?”

“Well, if that position is ‘with great care and respect, despite how it seems’? Then yep!” Rias smiled, a bit of her earlier cheer returning. “And hopefully, if you do get that strong, you’ll remember me fondly as someone who helped you out, even though it wasn’t in my best interest.”

I gave a wry chuckle. “Meanwhile, it is in your best interest to have all of your servants be as strong as possible, under the assumption that none of them will turn out to be stronger than you.”

“I mean, if that’s what I believed, I wouldn’t treat Gasper like this.” She smiled down at his sleeping form. “He’s as powerful as he is precious…”

I raised an eyebrow. “He told me you couldn’t control his power.”

“That’s true.” Rias nodded. “But that just means it’s not safe for him to be around other people. My own innate defenses are strong enough to overcome Baelor View, and even if they weren’t, he can only really use it on one or two people at a time.”

“Meaning the rest of your peerage would handle him for you,” I said.

“Yeah.” Then Rias frowned. “But only if by ‘handle’ you mean help him calm down and get him somewhere that he feels comfortable!”

I stared at her for a second, trying to parse the disconnect between the highborn demon talking realpolitik and the sheltered girl who insisted she’d swaddle Gasper up in a fluffy blanket if he for whatever reason tried to kill her.

“Who even are you?”

“I’m Rias Gremory.” She held out a hand playfully. “I know our first meeting didn’t go so well, but still; I’ll be in your care!”

I looked at her hand for a long moment before letting out one last sigh. I said I’d stop calling people the best actors I’d ever met. At a certain point, it was much more believable that Rias was just genuine.

And if she wasn’t, if she acted this way all the time, was there really a difference? Oh sure, my concerns weren’t magically assuaged, but anythingwould be an improvement over house arrest at this point. And if she was lying, I’d be in a better position to act if it at least looked like I was playing along.

“Alright.” I reached out, taking her hand. “I’ll take your bet, Rias.”

She blinked. “My bet?”

I nodded. “I’m going to become so powerful that I completely overshadow you and your entire peerage.”

I smiled as she tilted her head at me in surprise.

“And then we’ll see who the two of us really are.”