Her eyes were a bit narrower, however…
Could she be Rias’s older sister? But the people of Rias’s family basically only had red hair…Uwah, Buchou’s sister was incredibly beautiful. I felt like I was in love…
As soon as she saw that person, Buchou smiled. “Mother. I’ve returned home.”
……Eh? M-M-M-Mother…? That beautiful young woman is? Buchou’s? “M-M-Motheeeeeeeeeeeer!? But, no matter how you look at her, this young woman is not that much older than Buchou!”
I was shocked to the point that my eyes bulged and I shouted out unintentionally. No, no, no matter how you look her, she’s an older sister! She doesn’t feel like a mother! She was more like Buchou’s older sister! “Ara, to say such a happy thing, that I’m a young woman.”
Buchou’s…mother touched her cheek with her hand and smiled. Uah, her smiling face is also pretty! “As years go by, devils can freely change their appearances with magic. My mother always has the appearance of the same age as the current me.”
I see, I see. Wait, she may be her mother, but…no matter how you look at her, she looks like an onee-sama whose age doesn’t change that much from Buchou’s. This is bad! Though my favourite woman is normally Buchou, I like onee-samas even more! My heart throbbed! Buchou’s breasts were inherited from her mother! I cried at this wonderful thing! Hurray for genetics! Buchou pinched my cheek. “…You know nothing will come out of it even if you make hot eyes at my mother, right?”
Auu, it seems my onee-sama read my mind…Because, with such a beautiful lady, I couldn’t help but look! “Ara, Rias. This boy is Hyoudou Issei, right?”
“You know about m-me — me?”
Buchou’s mother nodded at my question. “Yes, I snuck a look at your face at my daughter’s engagement party, since I’m her mother.”
Ah…This is bad. So she was at that party. I was too absorbed in rescuing Buchou, so I didn’t notice…
I had marched into her daughter’s important engagement party, destroyed everything, and took Buchou away! Was I going to be scolded!? Or punished!? I was terrified, but Buchou’s mother just gave a small smile. “Nice to meet you, I’m Rias’s mother, Venerana Gremory. Please treat me well from now on, Hyoudou Issei-kun.”
Several hours after that meeting in the entrance hall, we were in the dining room. An extravagant meal so large that I could never eat it all was piled on top of expensive-looking plates, and I didn’t know where to start. It all seemed so incredibly delicious! We servant devils and our master Buchou took a seat at the table. And then, we were followed by Buchou’s father, mother, and then Millicas-sama. Dinner time—I suppose it could be called that. Apparently, there seemed to be “night” in the originally sunless and moonless Underworld as well. The sky was also dark. When I looked up at the sky, there was a false moon floating up there. They said that it wasn’t the real one, but it had been reproduced using magic. The night’s darkness in the Underworld was made the same as back home. Apparently it was originally purple in this world. Then, when I entered this place before, it was daytime in this world, huh. The flow of time here seemed to match the human world. It seemed that the underworld had its own flow of time here, but it seemed that, for the sake of reincarnated devils and those that lived in the human world, the Maous had adjusted it to match using a special method. So that it wouldn’t be an “Urashima Taro situation”for them. The reverse of that as well. The Fallen Angel region of this world also seems to be the same. I was relieved that I wasn’t in a situation where “hundreds of years have passed when I return” or “though I was in the Underworld for hundreds of years, only a few days have passed in the human world”. “Please enjoy yourselves without holding back.”
That is how dinner began with a word from Buchou’s father. A huge oblong table, an extravagant chandelier on the ceiling, even the chairs we sat on were covered in expensive-looking ornaments…Right now I just looked at the chandelier. Were there chandeliers on the ceilings of guest rooms that had been prepared for us as well? No, ordinary lamps seemed nostalgic now. The canopy bed was also huge. It was too big for just me to sleep in! The insides of the rooms were many tatami-mats wide…Each of the rooms also seemed to have all the necessities needed to live in a bath, toilet, refrigerator, television, and kitchen. I think there were also a bedroom, living room, and other rooms in them…Asia and Xenovia were also impressed when they came to my place at almost the same time immediately after we had been shown to our rooms. “Hauuu, t-this room is way too big for just one person!”
“…I can’t settle down. Sorry, but can I stay in Ise’s room? Asia can come too.”
For these two who had lived simple lives at the church, the size of the rooms seemed to have been a serious shock, and because they couldn’t calm down about it they had taken their entire luggage to my room and asked to move in. After that, it was organised so that Asia and Xenovia would stay in my room through Grayfia-san’s arrangements, but…well, it still felt like there was extra space in the room even then, so it was fine. Since I had no confidence that I could use up all that room by myself, having more people with me calmed me down. I turned my thoughts back to my seat at dinner, but…no, but how I am supposed to eat all this cuisine before me? I could ask all the butlers and maids that were constantly standing behind us, but the other club members hadn’t asked about anything in particular…
I held my fork and knife without putting them to the extravagant cooking that I beheld for the first time. I was hungry. But if I ate crudely here, Buchou would completely lose face. Ah, Kiba and Akeno-san were eating gracefully. As expected of the [Queen] and [Knight]. Asia and Xenovia were also having a hard time, though they still looked good. These two had, like me, introduced themselves in this place not that long ago, because we were newcomers. The little Millicas-sama was eating skilfully. As I thought, he’d been trained in this. As someone from an ordinary household, I couldn’t follow the life style of the aristocracy at all! When I casually turned my gaze to Gasper in front of me, he was eating with watery eyes that were squeezed shut. Today may have been a tough day for the hikikomori, after coming to a place with lots of people here in the Underworld. Koneko-chan—hadn’t starting eating at all. Even though, usually, she would have been the first to heartily dig into the meal…Koneko-chan had been acting strange somehow since the other day. Our eyes met, and I waved my hand, but she averted her eyes while remaining expressionless. She always showed little emotion on her face, but there was even less reaction than usual. Muu, what’s wrong, Koneko-chan…? Azazel-sensei hadn’t made it for the meal. It seems that the meeting couldn’t help lasting a long time. “*Clear throat*.