I had just finished explaining the plot of Highschool DxD to the Four Great Satans and the Maid Queen. I went from the events mentioned before the plot to the latest volume from my world, where the most powerful beings lock themselves in with Trihexa to prevent it from destroying the world.
The five powerful devils in the room all displayed many expressions as I told the story but now everything had fallen still as silence settled over the room again.
Serafall was lying on the table next to me with her arms stretched out as if she'd fallen flat on her face.
Falbium still looked like he was asleep but his face was scrunched up in discomfort as if he was having a nightmare.
Ajuka was doing an impression of the thinker but his hair was covering his eyes making him look like a brooding villain.
Greyfia had completely collapsed back into her seat, entirely letting go of the rigid posture of a 'good maid' she'd had. Her hand was absentmindedly stroking the head of her husband, who rested in her lap and was staring at the ceiling as if he had lost the will to live.
I didn't say anything and just let the astonished silence permeate the room waiting to see who would speak up first.
"That's crazy." Mumbled Serafall breaking the silence. "How did he get so strong so fast."
She was talking about Issei.
From a story perspective, it's natural for a protagonist to get better faster than anyone around him and gain power-ups when in a desperate situation. But that sort of strength growth has a different impact when you're a character of the world itself.
"His circumstances are unique. Even though he is a pervert his desire is pure in a way, combine that with being a devil and Red Dragon Emperor it might be possible. As a devil, he entirely embodies the sin of Lust, as a dragon he has a single-minded desire, and as a sacred gear wielder, he is emotional and determined. His nature perfectly aligns with his powers." Ajuka analysed.
"Urgh, it's still crazy he grew so fast though," Serafall grumbled in response.
"Why does my Ria-tan have to go through such hardships?" Sirzechs lamented entirely focused on his sister.
"Sit up," Grayfia commanded him, "we must discuss what to do given this information."
"Are you going to assume that it's all true? Even though this story doesn't accurately reflect this world?" I asked
"We should. I've thought over your reincarnation and, besides cosmic coincidence, cant come up with any reason other than some being wanting you to accomplish something in this world. Given this world was represented by multiple different stories in yours when it could be represented by a single one, its safe to assume the stories wont mix much if at all. Although we will still need to make sure closer to the time the plot of these stories occures." Ajuka explained.
"Overall we shouldn't actively do much in response to this knowledge, at least up until a peace treaty can be formed. Ultimately we want to change the outcome of Rizevim unleashing Trihexa but we would still want to form an inter-pantheon alliance." Falbium began giving his opinion.
"Having the Khaos Brigade as a common enemy is a good way to bring about alliances and lead to a properly established peace. They do a good job of collecting together all the dissenting groups from various factions so we can eliminate them." He finished.
"What you wanna leave my Ria-tan to fight the Khaos Brigade?!" Sirzechs, having sat up, seemed scandalized at the thought of putting his sister in harm's way.
"So-tan too?!" Serafall as well.
"Thats right, they were ultimately fine and the only real threat they'll face is Kokabiel and the attack on the Peace Treaty if we keep to the story. We can intervene more heavily once a treaty is established or we may let them handle it to serve as growth, we'll have to reassess the circumstances at the treaty." Falbium explained his plan.
"Additionally, send Cain to school with Sona and Rias," Ajuka added causing me to look at him in surprise.
"Considering he is a member of the younger generation he can intervene more easily than us, and since he knows the story he'll know when and how to intervene. We won't be able to make any big moves even if we have this knowledge so he will essentially be our agent to change the story subtly."
"Will Kay-chan be ok though, ultimately it was the White Dragon Emperor who stopped Kokabiel?"
"He should be fine, if Sairaorg Bael was able to become Ultimate-class, then he should have no problem reaching that strength given he can start training early and has Raphael to help him."
"Aww but why do we have to put him in harm's way just because he knows the story?" Serafall still seemed reluctant even after Ajuka assessed my potential.
"Sigh, Serafall, if we intervene directly it will be like using a hammer, it will mess up the future and the knowledge becomes useless. Since Cain never existed in the story and isn't well known, we can use him like a scalpel to influence things with precision without causing huge waves."
Ajuka didnt use a very good metaphor but Serafall seemed to get it as she finally lifted her head and turned to me.
"You ok with that Kay-chan?"
"I was going to intervene in things anyway like Kuroka's case anyway so it's not a problem. In fact I agree with Ajuka and Falbium, its best to only make minor precise changes untill the peace treaty and I would be the only one here that could make fully informed moves in secret. Unless were going to tell your subordinates too?" I asked, genuinely curious if the Satans thaught it best to share things with their peerages.
"No, let's keep it between us." Sirzechs firmly replied. He then looked around at everyone before clarifying what had been said. "So, we're going to try and keep it mostly the same until the peace treaty?"
He received a round of nods and an interesting thought crossed my head.
"It'll be like a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"What will?" Grayfia questioned my murmur.
"Well, in the story, Rias explains that her brother can't really help her with her engagement to Riser without causing problems in the underworld. In reality, with your strength and influence, you could probably get away with it, right? But in this case, you won't get involved with it because it will deviate from the plot thus causing problems though of a different manner than Rias thinks in the story."
"I suppose so, though I really don't want to put Ria-tan through that stress." Sirzechs started frowning now. We had directly skipped to Kokabiel's attack and the peace treaty since they're more important but the Riser arc comes first.
"It'll be fine though, Issei eventually managed to win her freedom." Ajuka shrugged in response to Sirzechs worry.
"It was too close though, a minor change and he may not be able to save her."
"If he fails then I can just challenge Riser for her freedom right? Since I'm going to be living at the Sitri estate, and Rias and Sona become childhood friends, I'll inevitably become one as well, so I can use that as justification." I said.
"Good, you'd better save Ria-tan if the Red Dragon Emperor fails." Sirzechs gave me a half-threatening stare only to be slapped on the back of the head by his maid-wife.
"Even if we aren't going to make any major moves we still need to do some things like save Cleria-chan"
Now that the overall plan of non-interference had been decided, Serafall focused on the things that would need to be changed.
"We can just have a member of one of our peerages there, but are we going to save her openly or hide her and fake her death?" Sirzechs asked.
"We should save her secretly, to stick to the plot, Sona and Rias need to be in charge of Kuoh. We would need to inform Diehauser though so he doesn't end up joining the Khaos Brigade." Ajuka explained.
"What about Kuroka and house Naberius?" I asked, she was the one who had perhaps the most unfortunate circumstances in her childhood.
"That's a little tricky, we still want Koneko to join Ria-tan but Kuroka truly doesn't deserve to be labeled a criminal. We also should stop their Super-devil research but can't until Kuroka escapes if we follow the plot." Sirzechs frowned slightly at the problem.
"We have to stop the Nekomata massacre. I'm already getting shivers from the diplomatic incident that'll be and it hasn't happened yet." Serafall crossed her arms in a huff at the thought of so much work.
"Since Koneko's hairpin has all the evidence of the Super-devil experiments can't we get her acquitted immediately? If I join the hunt for Kuroka stealthily but capture rather than kill her, we can then use that as an excuse for me to spend a couple of days trying to get information out of her, then after Koneko has already joined Rias' peerage, suggest the evidence hidden in the hairpin."
I suggested a plan that would allow us to acquit Kuroka and also get Koneko into Rias' peerage.
The only problem was that Kuroka would still have to undergo the experiments, which would weigh on my conscience a bit.
"What if Kuroka wants to join Ria-tan's peerage once she's acquitted though, and Koneko won't have the same personality if she learns the truth so early?" Sirzechs brought up the problems with my plan.
"It would be cruel but we could always keep Kuroka away from the knowledge of what happened to Koneko and Koneko away from the truth," Ajuka suggested.
"Does it matter though?" Serafall asked, "We're not planning on relying on Rias-chan's peerage to solve all the problems. We only need her and So-tan to act as bait for Kokabiel to expose the Khaos Brigade and create a peace treaty. So long as they both end up in Kuoh the specifics don't matter that much right?"
I turned to look at her with shock written across my face. She had just agreed to use her precious 'So-tan' as bait.
"Kay-chan, I super duper love So-tan but I am also a Satan you know. I can recognize the importance of using So-tan as bait even if I don't want to." She pouted at me before extending her arm and pointing right at my face.
"Besides you'll be there to protect So-tan so you better not fail."
She balled her hand into a fist and shook it at me in a gesture that was supposed to be threatening but with her short stature and Magical Girl outfit, just looked cute.
"Serafall is right, so long as sisters to two Satans are there Kokabiel should still launch an attack. It doesn't matter what happens with Rias' peerage besides her engagement Rating Game, so it should be fine for the two sisters to know the truth about each other." Ajuka gave his take on the outcome.
"So we'll do what Kay-chan suggests then and let him keep Kuroka for a few days?" Serafall asked and received nods of agreement.
"I don't know when exactly it happens though, the same with Cleria's assassination." I reminded them since the stories weren't too specific with dates.
"Thats fine, we can set up that information network you suggested Cain, starting in the Naberious territory," Ajuka said.
"What's that?" Falbium asked sleepily.
"Cain had a plan to use Raphael's ability to set up a spy network by leaving objects filled with his demonic power in various territories for it to control and gather information secretly. I looked into the feasibility of this whilst calibrating his Queen peace for Lillian and have already produced a couple of demonic power batteries he can charge."
"Oh, that would be really helpful." Sirzechs' eyes twinkled at the usefulness an information-gathering network would be for his job as Satan of internal affairs.
"Don't worry, part of a deal I made with Ajuka was for the four Satans to have access to information Raphael gathers in the Underworld," I explained.
"Excellent, make sure you get some dirt on the Great King faction." The successor to Lucifer gave an evil smile befitting his name.
"We can also use that to find any devils who are traitors and help the Khaos Brigade even if we are going to feign ignorance for now." Grayfia had a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"Oh that reminds me, Euclid's still alive!" Serafall exclaimed, having been reminded when Grayfia spoke up. "What do we do with him?"
Greyfia's small smile faded and her expression became impressively blank and her aura rapidly cooled the room.
"That degenerate must be killed on sight."
She had been angry to learn that her brother was still alive and serving Rizevim but was even more disgusted to learn that he was lusting for her.
"Are you going to share information with Azazel and Michael?" I asked breaking the cold silence that had halted the conversation.
"Not yet, wait until the peace treaty," Sirzechs replied.
"So that's it? Just go along as normal until the peace treaty but save Cleria and Kuroka?" I asked surprised but ultimately understanding the final decision for this discussion.
"Yeah, the Khaos brigade should still be forming right now, as Falbium said, having a common enemy is a great way to form alliances. With the information you shared, we're in the strongest position we could be." Sirzechs replied.
"That's right Kay-chan, you just need to focus on learning about the Underworld, getting strong, and spreading Raphael's information network." Serafall tried to pat me on the head, which I dodged.
"You will need to meet with Latia once she matures a bit, it's best to get to know each other early."
That's right I would need to meet her once she's a bit older.
All I needed to do now was fix Lillian's problem, which Ajuka already said he was ready for a first attempt, and I could focus all my attention on learning about the Underworld and magic.
The Satans would wait until the piece agreement before making any big moves so I wouldn't need to worry about changing anything until Kuroka's escape.