[EXTRA CHAPTERS 400PS = 1 Extra Chapter | 600PS = 2 | 8000PS = 4!]
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I spent the last day of my weekend at the Gremory Manor and used this free time to practice my use of Alchemical Transfiguration a little in a secluded part of the vast wilderness surrounding the manor.
Asia and Makima were busy with Grayfia for most of the day, learning etiquette, the rules of the devil world, a bit about history, and much more.
By late afternoon, we were ready to leave. I hugged my mother and wished I could have hugged my father, Sirzechs Lucifer, as a way of affirming that we had reconciled after that argument about me leaving home.
Unfortunately, he wasn't at the mansion and would be coming home late. Of course, I understood that my father thought our conversation earlier had already decreed our reconciliation.
As far as I was concerned, as long as he didn't question my ability to defend myself again, I had no problem leaving things as they were.
Thus, Asia, Makima, and I returned to the human world through a magic circle that transported us in the blink of an eye.
As I had already been informed, while we were away, a major renovation had been carried out on my apartment to make it more comfortable. I suggested that the changes weren't as drastic as when Rias transformed Issei's home in the anime. Still, it was a change that would make anyone sigh.
"Oh... What happened?" Makima asked, already moving toward the staircase with the glass railing.
Asia hid behind me. "Milicas-kun, did the portal teleport us to someone else's house?"
I scratched the back of my head, a little awkward. "Hehe! I forgot to tell you, didn't I? This is our new apartment. It's in the same place as the old one, but my grandfather and Rias-neesan made some changes."
"This is the same apartment?" Asia asked and stepped out from behind me.
Her question was perfectly understandable. The apartment had changed so much that it looked like a completely different place.
Before, my apartment had a small entrance hall, where there was a closet for shoes and a coat rack. After that came a large room which was home to an open-concept kitchen, a small table with four chairs, and then a pair of sofas with a coffee table. To the right of the sofas was a small balcony.
Parallel to the wooden table and to the left of the sofas was a small corridor with three doors. The first was for the bathroom, and the other two led to small bedrooms.
Now, the main room with the kitchen and living room was not only larger, with a wider kitchen and more counter space, but also had bigger sofas, armchairs, an enormous bookcase, and a very large balcony. A glass wall divided the living room from the balcony. In addition, the glass staircase that Makima was interested in led to five doors on an upper floor with high ceilings.
In short, my apartment had been renovated into a duplex in just one night.
The girls explored the house faster than I did and discovered that all the bedrooms were upstairs, but there was only one bathroom in the whole apartment, which was downstairs.
Just one bathroom for five bedrooms wasn't practical, but knowing my grandfather, I could guess what he was thinking:
"My grandson Milicas will sleepily go into the bathroom one morning and find one of his servants naked... After that, they'll..."
I pushed this image cloud away with a few slaps in the air. 'These clichéd things won't happen to me.'
The furniture in my room hadn't changed, but Makima and Asia had received furniture for their rooms that matched their personalities. In other words, Asia got lots of cuddly teddy bears, and Makima got a guitar.
The other two rooms were decorated with more neutral furniture.
-:-
The next morning, we were all getting ready for our new routines. Or at least, for Asia and Makima's new routines.
Besides being the Duke of Gremory and CEO of Gremory Enterprises, Zeoticus was also the Director of Kuoh Academy. So it was easier than I thought to enroll Asia Argento as a first-year student and Makima as a PE teacher.
This was the first time we were all walking to Kuoh Academy together.
"Why do I have to wear this uniform? And why can't we just fly there?" Makima asked, tugging at the black and red sports uniform that was characteristic of Kuoh Academy.
I sighed. "We can't fly during the day. We'd be easily spotted. Besides, Asia's wings haven't grown yet."
Asia was holding a bag at her side and looked sideways at Makima. "Sorry about that, Makima-san."
Makima nodded. "It's not your fault, Asia-chan. Your wings will grow soon..."
I looked at them both and smiled. It was nice to see how much Makima and Asia respected each other, and watching them interact was a treat for my eyes.
When we arrived at Kuoh Academy, they both drew even more attention than I had when I first showed up. Heads were poked out of the windows on the second floor to spy on them just walking down the corridor.
Since they still had to stop by the teachers' room, we split up there.
A real shame, because I wanted to see what the reception would be like in the rooms where they would be.
However, I wasn't worried about any negative reactions. Asia was naturally docile, and Makima was well... if something went wrong, I'd find out soon enough — most likely from the sound of an explosion. I just tried not to think about them too much, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to live my own life.
To my surprise, when I got to my classroom, Akeno wasn't in her seat or anywhere else.
'Could she be late?'
I walked over to my seat by the window and sat down. Already accustomed to the whispers and glances, I simply waited for Akeno to arrive so I could talk to her and begin the first step of my plan to get Gasper out.
Soon, a teacher arrived, closed the doors, took roll call and the end-of-class bell rang fifty minutes later.
The next teacher arrived, the second lesson passed, and still, no sign of Akeno.
Not only did I notice her absence, but so did the other boys and girls in the class.
"Himejima-san was absent today... How rare."
"True. I can't remember the last time I walked into the class and she wasn't there."
"Did she get sick?"
Akeno Himejima was a role model not only for our classmates but for all the students on campus. This meant that she was highly respected and admired for her near-perfect attendance record.
'I need to buy a cell phone. In situations like this, I could just send her a message.'
Since I, Milicas, had lived my entire life in the Underworld, I had never developed the habit of using human technology. However, the human part of me was used to these conveniences, and the only reason I hadn't bought a cell phone yet was that I barely had money in my wallet.
So, I had to think about adapting my plans. I wanted to use Akeno to open the seal on Gasper's room so I could talk to him, but Rias was now my only option.
*Ding-dong! Dang-dong!*
The sound of recess rang, and the teacher at the front took a deep breath.
"Okay, class. You're dismissed. We'll see you tomorrow to start the exercises on page twenty and..."
The teacher's final words were drowned out by the sound of chairs dragging against the floor and students chatting.
"Milicas-kun, we can..." A girl stood up quickly, turning towards my desk with an obento box in her hand. However, I was already opening the back door of the room and leaving.
I would have loved to try a random girl's obento, but I had plans to meet Asia and Makima for lunch.
Since this was Asia's first day at school, I promised to pick her up from her classroom so we could meet Makima near the teachers' lounge and go up to the terrace.
The corridors were busy, as always during break time, but as soon as I appeared in front of the first-year class, the chatter increased. I could hear whispers coming from everywhere.
When I arrived at Asia's classroom, I saw that the place was in complete chaos as you'd expect from a first-year classroom.
Break had just started, so many students were still eating and talking to each other.
I raised my hand and knocked lightly on the doorframe to attract attention, causing several heads to turn to look at me and the hubbub to gradually subside.
"Look, it's Milicas-senpai!"
"Kyahh! Milicas-senpai, the only boy who rivals Kiba-senpai in looks!"
"He came all the way to the first-years' classrooms? How rare!"
I cared little for all this attention, but I couldn't deny that it made things easier at times like this.
"Is Asia here? I came to pick her up so we could have lunch together."
"Yes, she's over there." The girl pointed to a desk that was surrounded by people.
The people around Asia made room because they turned to look at me, and I could see Asia looking all flustered, unable to refuse the food being offered to her. As soon as she noticed me, her green eyes lit up.
However, all my attention was captured by a shout from the far end of the room.
"Hey! What are you doing here?!"
When I looked toward the shout's direction, I saw a boy with very messy brown hair. Issei Hyoudou.
I scratched the back of my head and let out a small laugh, pretending to be embarrassed.
"I've come to pick up Asia so we can have lunch together. How are you, Issei?"
Issei ran to the front of the room and stopped in front of me, pointing his index finger at my face.
"Asia-chan is too cute to walk next to someone like you! The attention of someone handsome like you will make girls want to bully her, and that I can't allow!"
"Bullying? Oh, I don't think so. You wouldn't let that happen, would you?" I retorted, and that took the angry look off Issei's face for a second.
"Of course, I wouldn't!"
"That's great. I'm counting on you then," I said with a polite smile.
"You... you..." Issei was left without a counter-argument.
"I still don't trust you!" he said and was about to turn back to his friends.
"Ah, Issei, I have a request for you. Come here."
He looked at me and hesitantly approached.
"What is it? What's this request?"
I put my right hand on his left shoulder and whispered in his ear:
"Come to the club building today and train with me. I need someone strong like you to test out some skills, and I got curious about what the Welsh Dragon can do after Rias told me so many good things about you."
"Curious?!" Issei took two steps back, removing my hand from his shoulder.
"Yes, can you help me with that? I bet Rias-neesan would be happy to see that we can get along."
The last part of what I said seemed to be what got to him, so he brushed off his shoulder and said:
"Fine! I'll be there."
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