If I can live to that age, please allow me to bless to your future children.”
“There’ll be a lot of trouble if Your Eminence blesses them. After all, we’re Devils.”
“That’s true.”
Just as the two of them were chatting like that—. Rias’ mobile phone received a message. As she took it out to check, what appeared was — a shocking piece of news that Akeno had sent over. “…This is!”
“What’s wrong?”
In response to Strada’s question, Rias smiled wryly. “……Fufufu, from the looks of things, it won’t be that easy for me to get into the finals of the Tournament. Your Eminence, I have received some news.”
Rias told Vasco Strada directly without any intentions of hiding anything. “—The Champion may return.”
The message that Rias had received was that ‘The Champion Diehauser Belial has been temporarily released’. “—Hmm. …This is truly, quite excellent.”
Her new team member simply revealed a bold smile to indicate his welcoming of it. The Tournament was still full of chaos and enthusiasm—. Diehauser Belial awoke quietly in a room made for one person. The place where he was currently staying was a prison of the Underworld that detained political prisoners. After he awoke in the single room, he sighed deeply. —He had a dream in which he recalled memories from his childhood. The Belial House could be considered to be among the poor aristocracy. He grew up in a house that was located in depths of a small mountain. Although his father was a high-class Devil with average ability, his ancestors from the previous few generations were unknown people, and in the previous War of the Three Factions as well as the Civil War of the old government, they had constantly made various errors, so the strength of the Belial House continued to decline, and the family’s authority also fell significantly. During the two generations spanning his grandfather’s and his father’s time, when Diehauser was young, the Belial family faced financial difficulties, but they managed to just scrape by. Under circumstances where it wouldn’t have been surprising for his entire family to break apart, the two heads of the Belial House still continued to maintain their ideals. “Take good care of your family and the citizens. As long as you strengthen the bonds between your relatives and protect the citizens’ lives, the House of Belial and the Belial territory will continue to exist.”
That was the ideal that his grandfather and father had always practiced. Hence, the family did not scatter from their small territory, they gathered together to prosper in a small community. Although their lives were more difficult than other aristocrats, if their entire family was gathered together, they were able to protect their territory and their citizens. Regardless of whether it was his grandfather, father or uncle, his relatives swore together that they would protect the Belial family and territory. Because of all that, the territory was not particularly prosperous, but there were almost no citizens who had difficult lives, and the tax system of the Belial territory was also praised. The amount of tax received from the citizens meant that their rank was considerably lower than that of other nobles, and that was also why the House of Belial was made fun of by some of the elite…. Although their own standards of living declined, the citizens were able to lead good lives—. Diehauser — was proud of his grandfather and father who acted in this manner. As Devils, his grandfather and father didn’t have particularly high levels of demonic energy, and weren’t particularly good in battle, but even so, they were deeply appreciated by their own people, and they cherished their own people. Diehauser loved the Belial family and the Belial territory. Ever since Diehauser was young, he often saw his cousin and his family treated him and Cleria as true brothers and sisters in their upbringing. The other Seventy Two Pillars of the same generation — the extravagant lives of the children of other high-class Devils were no match for Diehauser, but Diehauser didn’t seem to mind. It was during this time that Diehauser realised the extraordinary power within his body, and everyone else also recognised his incredible power. —Diehauser was a rare once-in-a-millennium talent and a Maou-class Devil. Afterwards, Diehauser participated in the Rating Games and obtained good results, and that instantly solved the Belial family’s financial problems. Diehauser also began to spread self-promotions of his own, so that the specialties of his territory could be sold throughout the Underworld. Thanks to the outstanding achievements of Diehauser, his cousin Cleria was also able to become independent from the family as she obtained her own peerage and set out into the human realm to develop herself. Diehauser was incredibly proud of his own succuss which allowed his family to have a future, and he became their pillar of support. He truly valued his family. This was something that was always rooted deep within Diehauser’s heart. The fact that Cleria was able to go to the human realm was something that made him just as happy as his own circumstances. But a turning point came not long afterwards. News of Cleria’s death arrived—. Diehauser investigated the cause to find out who to direct his hatred at and to determine who to target; since someone had robbed the life of his most important family member, that was the person he would eliminate. It was because Diehauser was convinced that it was impossible for Cleria to have made any blunders. And then, his obsession eventually led him to find an answer. Cleria was eliminated because she found out about the existence of the [King] piece—. …But at the same time, he also understood. —The opportunity for Cleria to investigate the [King] piece was always something that had raised his doubts. …He had always used his innate ability to help his family. It was in order to prevent them from being ridiculed by other nobles, and to allow his family to lead happier lives. …His actions were all for the sake of the Belial family, but as a result, this led to her death, and Diehauser constantly blamed himself for that—. During the battle in Agreas, he heard from the Sekiryuutei — Hyoudou Issei, of the final expression that was left behind by Cleria’s soul, and he felt as though some part of him was saved. But the crime that he had committed could not be erased. …He originally wanted to use his power to make his most valued family member happy. He once believed that this power was something that fate had gifted unto him. —But in the end, he brought trouble to his family and to other factions, and sacrifices were even made. …Diehauser intended to spend the rest of his life here quietly, and to slowly repent for his own sins. He would definitely cause trouble for someone if he went out again. If someone with immense strength misused their power, then that would only cause an unfortunate chain reaction.