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Story 9: Chapter 10: Internship
🕑 Added 2024-07-14 17:32:39 +0000 UTCAce in the Hole
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 10: Internship
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- Ace -
I looked at the person in front of me while hiding my surprise in my heart.
They were really serious about this whole internship. To think they would send her to receive me.
In front of me stood a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous body, appearing to be in her early twenties with back-length silver hair that features a long braid on each side with small blue bows at the ends, while the rest is let down which ends in twin braids and red eyes. Wearing a blue and white french maid uniform and looking at me with a stoic look on her face was the strongest Queen, Grayfia Lucifuge, the Queen of Saelena Lucifer herself.
Even as I stood just a few metres away from her, I could feel her power. It wasn’t as if she was exuding her Demonic Power or anything, if anything her power was restrained greatly to an extent where I couldn’t even feel it but my instincts told me that I wouldn’t stand a chance against her in a fight.
My instincts had become even more pronounced since I had used the Demon’s Extract Teigu on myself.
Our stare off was broken by the voice of Mephisto who decided that he had had enough of the uncomfortable silence. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here. I was expecting someone from Ajuka’s place….then again, it’s understandable considering how busy he is.”
She bowed slightly towards the man.
I looked at Mephisto and he answered my unasked question. “Ajuka is very picky when choosing peerage members for his peerage. He generally hires people for himself rather than having his own peerage. For example, if he is working on a certain project, he would hire people suitable for that project under contract and after the deal is completed. If they wish to join under him, he can ask any of his subordinates to reincarnate them but not himself personally. He has very high standards of hiring people.” Then he came near my ears and whispered in a voice which I was sure was easily heard by Grayfia. “He had asked Tiamat to become his queen but she rejected. Poor boy. Got burned the first time he asked a girl out.”
….
….
….
….
“Anyways, I guess you are in a hurry so here, take him away. Just make sure to drop him back on Sunday night. He has classes to teach on Monday morning.”
“I will inform Lord Beelzebub about it.” The woman spoke for the first time.
“Thank you.”
She then looked at me. “We will be leaving now. Do you have anything to do before that?”
“I would like to see my students before leaving.”
“Very well, be quick.”
I had actually come here to talk to Mephisto about when we would be leaving as the guy hadn’t given me any time, just that someone will be coming to pick me up.
I wasn’t expecting to leave right now.
I went back to my room with Grayfia following me.
Lavy and Akeno were playing around with Kuroka and Shirone while Matsu was actually practising magic.
She had really invested all her free time in practising magic since I took her as my apprentice.
‘I cannot let people disrespect you for having a bad apprentice like me.’ were her exact words.
As she started learning, we discovered that she was extremely talented in the Human Magic System which involved large calculations so I had her take classes under other teachers.
I was not going to let her talents go to waste because I myself didn’t know much about the Human Magic System.
I rarely got time from learning the magic from the Wizarding World to bother about other types of magic.
Potions were not my cup of tea and yet necessary for learning Alchemy under Dumbledore.
I was more interested in other types of magic which I had learned from the books given to me by Sirius.
It had been a few days since Lucius had summoned me and I was waiting to swindle him too.
The subjects which had me interested the most were Charms and Enchantments. The former was quite easy for me but the latter required lots of studying.
Arithmancy was easy for me but I still needed to learn and memorise the Ancient Runes to help me progress further.
Funny enough, this world had runes too.
Most factions had a runic language of their own, including the Devils. This was also how Devil Magic Circles were made.
The Wizarding World Runes were very similar to the Norse Runes and I plan to study them when I finish these books in my hand.
The girls all looked at me when I opened the door.
“Ace!”
“Sensei!”
“Nyaa~”
….
“I am going to the Underworld for the next two days. Don’t slack off while I am gone and don’t get in trouble.” I looked at Matsu. “If you need anything, just ask Mephisto while I’m gone.”
She nodded.
“Take care.” Matsu wished. She was worried about me going to the underworld as she understood things better.
“I will.”
They gave me a quick hug and I turned towards the silver haired maid. “I am ready.”
She just nodded and a silver magic circle enveloped us, transporting us from our mansion.
__________________________________x___________________________________
When the light of the Magic Circle subsided I found myself in a hall I was unfamiliar with. Many people were walking around without paying attention to others.
Even Grayfia’s appearance only caused them to turn towards her for a brief moment and give her a slight bow and nothing more than that.
She led the way without a single world and I followed her.
Five minutes later, we were outside the door of an office, the nameplate on the door already making it clear whom that office belonged to.
Satan Ajuka Beelzebub.
Grayfia knocked on the door and a voice came from the other side.
“Come in.”
She opened the door and we entered.
The man behind the desk looked up from his paperwork at us. “Thank you, Grayfia.”
She bowed and left the room, leaving the two of us alone but not before giving me one last look.
The guy pointed me towards a chair and got back to his work again and another uncomfortable silence prevailed over the room.
I didn’t say anything and took this time to look around and check out things in the room.
The room had several book cases. In fact, all the walls of the room were covered with books.
It looked more like a library than anything else.
A quick look at the books revealed that there were books on many topics and not just magic. From science to politics, history and geography, there were books on all subjects from what I could see.
He finished his work after a few more minutes and kept his pen aside and looked at me.
“Before we start anything, you need to sign this.” He brought out a piece of paper from his drawer and put it in front of me.
I picked up the paper and read while he spoke again.
“It’s a non-disclosure agreement stating that you will not reveal anything you see or hear while working in my facility. Apart from this, you will not carry anything out of here without permission from any authorised officials. The rest is basically the terms of the internship.” He said and gave me the time to read through everything.
I took my time and read through the entire twenty eight page contract.
“It says that I have to reveal my true identity.” I said looking at him. I had already expected this much. Apparently Mephisto hadn’t revealed anything to him about my true identity, keeping his side of the deal.
“Yes. Despite however this whole thing is termed, it is a sentence for your crime. You have to reveal your identity.”
“I wanted to leave that day if your subordinate hadn’t forced me.” I argued.
“And you could have. My subordinates watch over the safety of this city. If they find anything or anyone suspicious, they have full right to investigate. He only asked you to come in for questioning, didn’t attack you, didn’t use force. You were the one who went out of line first, caused destruction of property, caused public disturbance and chaos. Those are all charges of crime against you. The only reason I am doing this is because Mephisto paid the fine and even compensated the owner of the inn for the loss. That only leaves the charge of public disturbance against you, which comes to three months of public service of which you are getting two months. Page number 32 of the fifth book on the third shelf on the wall to your left.” He replied in a bored tone and pointed towards the wall of books.
The worst part was that the thing about the right to investigate was not something he made up just for me.
It was actually a thing.
One of the main reasons for that being this town itself was something he watched over directly. It was actually a personal property of the Beelzebub and he could decide however he wanted to protect it.
It was necessary too as in just one year, they get several cases of attempted attacks as well as thefts but none of them are successful due to their measures.
I had actually read about everything to prepare for myself if this thing ever went to the legal system despite Mephisto’s assurances.
But still, just to piss the guy off, I still walked up to the wall and pulled over to the page he had mentioned and took five minutes to read everything.
After it was done, I kept the book back on the wall and turned towards me.
“Will I have to reveal my identity to everyone in this place?”
“No. Just me and a few others.”
I let out a sigh. It was going to happen one day or the other.
I moved my fingers slightly and let my Transfiguration fall off as I saw him looking at me curiously.
“My name is Acelin Abaddon.” I spoke and saw a look of realisation flash in his eyes.
“I see. Alright, you can go back to your disguise. It was not an illusion. Was it another application of your Transfiguration Magic?” He asked. “There were no visible signs of the transformation, even the magic around you didn’t give any indications.”
“Yes. It is an advanced application of Transfiguration called Self-Transfiguration. Learning this part requires a high mastery of the subject so I haven’t been able to teach this to anyone.”
“Hmm, troubling. It would be troublesome to guard against someone who can change how they look on a whim. I will have to think about something as a countermeasure.” He started to speak to himself.
I just waited for him to get back and he did….fifteen minutes later and looked at me again.
“What will be my job here?” I asked.
“Ah yes. I completely forgot about that….”
….
This guy has a natural talent of getting on people’s nerves.
“First sign the documents.”
I nodded and did.
“I have seen your book on Transfiguration and while only the basics, it gave me some ideas about some of my own projects. Your job will be to assist me in those projects.”
I nodded. “May I ask what these projects entail?”
“I am planning to upgrade the workings of the Evil Pieces.” He then summoned some papers for me to read. “These contain a simple summary of how the Evil Pieces work. Roughly explained, they have two functions, first is the conversion of the target’s race to a devil. It is a sort of transmutation ritual which changes the target’s body and soul to that of a devil, either fully or partly depending on the race of the user. This is why if the user has some form of divinity in their souls like Gods and Buddhas, they are not affected by it as Divinity is simply above that kind of ritual. Are we clear to this point?”
“Yes.”
“The second part is using the energy of the Agerasite Crystal, out of which the Evil Pieces are made up of, to boost certain aspects of the target’s power depending on the piece used. Speed for Knights, Defense for the Rooks, Magic for the Bishop and everything for the Queens and Pawns.”
“Pawns give boosts too?” I asked. “I thought they only converted others into devils and the boost was due to the racial conversion.”
“They do. The boost is however small for a single piece. It however becomes noticeable if multiple pieces are used.”
“I see.”
“Anyways, my plan is to improve the Transmutation Ritual using Transfiguration to stabilise the transformation so that more energy can be allocated towards empowering the target. Or well, this is at least one of the things I have in mind.”
He summoned a magic circle in his hand and in front of my eyes, one of his paper weights transformed into a little mouse.
The mouse moved around and was about to bite a paper when the transformation fell and it turned back into a paper weight.
“I have noticed some things about Transfiguration Magic and wanted your views on it.”
I nodded.
“Some things were not covered in your books or in your classes either so I couldn’t find any answers to those. The creatures you create, are they alive?”
“Yes and no. I haven’t taught this to any of my students because no one has reached this level. They are something in between. They are alive in every biological sense however, they are not alive because they don’t have any soul or spirits inside. They are created by my power and my thoughts when creating them moulds their will. For example….”
I snapped a finger and the same paper weight transformed into a mouse exactly similar to the one he had created and this time, it simply went to the pen stand and grabbed a pen and dragged it out.
The transfiguration faded after that.
“This however requires a great expertise on the subject.”
“Can you create intelligent creatures with this?” He asked.
“Hmm, no…..not yet.”
He raised an eye at the answer and I explained more.
“Creating small creatures is easy as they basically work on instincts. The more intelligent the creature, the more complex their brains. To create them, I would need to understand everything about the functioning and structure of their brain….and even then it’s difficult to say if they will have true intelligence or just be like newborn children.”
“Hmm, that sounds reasonable.”
It’s not like I haven’t thought about this problem but creating a true and intelligent life is anything but easy.
I had some ideas but I didn’t have enough expertise in transfiguration magic to create a fully functional human, let alone do something beyond that.
“You look like you have some ideas.” He asked.
….was my face that easy to read?
“I am working on something but it’s not complete yet.”
“Something to create intelligent life?”
“No. I still have no clue about that. This is a completely different topic but might be helpful later on.” I wasn’t going to give him the details….at least not free of cost.
This was my private magic and I had full right to distribute it to those I wanted to.
Not even the Satans could force me to do so.
This was something I researched and Mephisto explained to me.
Sure enough, the guy didn’t force me but thought for a moment and spoke again. “May I ask for a demonstration of your magic?”
I thought about it too and nodded. If I could attract him with this magic, I might just get something I have wanted for several years now. “I would need a test subject, preferably a criminal who is being interrogated.”
He raised an eyebrow at my demand but nodded.
Fifteen minutes later, we were in one of the cells where a devil was being held in chains.
There were injuries on his body and I could sense no magic from him but that was due to the handcuffs he was wearing. Those things were used to bind someone’s magic.
The guards bowed to Ajuka and he picked up the file from the table and read it out aloud.
“Abigory Tishmah, High Class Devil, was reincarnated by Gareth Nebiros and later traded to Maelkin Amy, found trying to steal data from the Research and Development Department and selling to someone outside. He was captured for two days and hasn’t opened his mouth yet. Will he be good enough?”
I looked at the guy and nodded.
“Yes. He would be perfect.”
“What else would you need?”
“A canvas, paint brushes and colours.” I smiled.
“Huh?”
_________________________________x____________________________________
I have been studying anything I could from the Wizarding World magic and one of the most interesting things were the spells used to make portraits.
There was nothing like that in this world and I really wanted to learn about it.
The spell basically required the magic from the target to be inserted into the painting and this magic copied their memories and personality to the painting, creating a clone of sorts in the painting.
It reminded me of the Shadow Clones from Naruto and how they had all the memories of the original despite only being made up of the user’s chakra.
My theory was similar.
Chakra was made up of both Physical and Spiritual energies of the user. The Physical energy was used to create the boy while the Spiritual Energy was used to create the memories and personality.
In the case of the paintings, only the Spiritual energy or magic was used as a soul of sorts while the Painting itself acted as a body.
The spell was used to push the user’s magic in the painting in a specific manner and the enchantments were used to lock the said magic inside, finally creating the whole painting.
The process however required the user to voluntarily push his magic inside. If they resisted, the consciousness inside the painting would be muddled.
On further reading, especially from the Black Library, I found out that there were ways to forcibly create the painting too by using the blood of the victim as the ritual medium.
This was also my own plan for creating an intelligent life. I planned on using this technique on transfigured humans instead and see if they would be like a clone of the target.
Currently, the paint brush charmed by me was continuously drawing a portrait of the guy for me.
There was no way I was going to learn how to paint just to learn this spell. While I was interested, I didn’t have that much time.
On the side, Ajuka was sitting and watching what I did.
The portrait would be completed in another hour.
In the meanwhile, I was preparing the frame for the portrait and using some enchantments on it.
The enchantments on the frame were the ones which allowed the portraits to travel from one to another as well as the part which allowed for the painting to act like a world of their own.
I wanted to do more experiments with these but those will have to be reserved for later when I am on my own.
Finally, I was done with the enchantments and at the same time, the portrait was completed.
I stood up and walked towards the prisoner with a knife of my own.
The Goblin Silver knife was something I had received from Sirius from the Black Family Vaults.
It was very good for preparing materials used in rituals.
The devil in front of me was already unconscious so it didn’t take much effort to cut and extract some blood from him.
Before leaving, I cast another spell on him to keep him asleep.
Finally, the last step was using that blood in the colours to give some final touches in the painting and one extra step, one last magic.
With a wave of my wand, the picture came alive.
The guy in the picture looked around in panic, not understanding what was happening. It was understandable too as in the Wizarding world knew about how portraits worked and the target also injected their power voluntarily so the portraits knew that they were portraits which was not the case here. For this guy, he was just being interrogated and suddenly he is trapped in this painting. This gives me a lot of room to manoeuvre.
I just looked at the guy with a smile. “Hello Mr. Abigory. My name is Ace, the one who has your soul in my grasp”
“W-what!”
I turned the portrait and showed him the unconscious body of Abigory before going there and slapping the unconscious devil in the face.
“See, just a soulless body in a comatose state.” I smiled again. “I have a lot of work to do so let’s keep things to the point shall we? The sooner you finish answering my questions, the faster we will be done and the better it is for you.”
“Let me out. No, you cannot do this. Let me out! Stealing souls is forbidden. You cannot do this”
“Oh but I can and I am. Don’t you see me doing this. You forget who the ones forbidding Soul Magic are. You tried to steal from the very same people and now you talk about laws? If you don’t answer, your body will be thrown outside, claimed to be suffering from some disease, perhaps the Sleeping Illness while we can torture your soul for the next few centuries until you break. As devils, you already know how much time we have on our hands and trust me, I can be very creative with my tortures.” I waved my hand again.
The paint brush flew to the portrait and started drawing a huge flame beside it.
“No! Stop this, please. Stop this!”
“And do you know the best part about all this? We can torture you as much as we want and you will not die. Pretty fun, right?”
“Stop this. I will answer everything. Stop this please.”
“Hahahaha great. You should have done that sooner and we could have avoided all this unnecessary work. Oh my, I forgot to stop the paint brush. My apologies.” I said while waving my wand again and stopping the paint brush.
I turned towards Ajuka. “Have someone take him outside and get your answers.”
He nodded and had one of his subordinates take the portrait outside.
Finally with just us in the room, he spoke, his voice still calm. “While I appreciate the answer, stealing souls is indeed forbidden.”
I shrugged and sent a stinging hex towards the unconscious devil and he woke up with a start.
“Good thing I didn’t do that now, did I?”
For the first time since coming here, I saw the guy being surprised and went on to check the now conscious devil.
“Then that was?”
“Just a spiritual imprint, a copy of him, a clone of his mind up to this point in time, whatever you want to call it. I just lied to get what I wanted.”
“What else can it do?” He asked, understanding that at this point I was selling him the technique too.
“The people in the portraits can travel between one frame to another. They don’t have to be spiritual imprints and even new consciousness can be created using one’s own magic. They can spy for the one designated as the owner as well as act as an overseer for locations. For all matters and purposes, they will be the clone of the person at the time of the creation of the portrait. You can imagine all kinds of usage for such things.”
“Was this also your plan to create intelligent life?”
“A part of it, yes. It’s still quite a long way from completion.”
“I see. Very well, I will have to do some tests on the portrait and I will get back to you. Till then you should go to Lab 8. I will inform the one incharge there to instruct you about your work here.” He then gave me an ID Card. “Don’t lose this.”
I nodded and he teleported out of the room, leaving me to find Lab 8 alone.
________________________________x_____________________________________
I returned back to my room by 9 at night, several books with me courtesy of Reed, the one incharge of Lab 8.
He was a human who had approached Ajuka to progress his research and was recruited by him.
Over the years, he rose up the ranks and became the incharge of one his the labs of the Research and Development Department and was personally reincarnated by Ajuka as a pawn piece.
That said, he was incharge of one of the most important projects right now.
The books were basically about devil biology and magic in detail.
After I showed him my magic for creating portraits, he removed me from the Evil Piece project and sent me to Lab 8 which was researching a completely different thing entirely.
They were researching how to create new Devils.
Yes, creating new life and not just reincarnating Devils from other races.
Reed was a surprisingly easy going guy and helped me out by answering my questions.
I got to learn more about the situation of the Devil Race, the Evil Pieces and the three factions as well as the other factions in a lot more detail than most common people did.
For example the need of Evil Pieces despite it arousing irritation among other factions.
Initially when Lucifer created the Devil Race, there were seventy two Pillar Houses and several Extra Devil houses….at least that’s what common people nowadays know and talk about.
What they don’t talk about is the legions of Devils he had created to populate the lands.
There were a total of six million six hundred and sixty six thousand six hundred and sixty six devils and even more demonic beasts under his rule. With over five hundred Ultimate Class beings and nine thousand High Class beings. Right now the population of the entire underworld, even with the reincarnated Devils, was just one and half million devils including reincarnated devils.
At the end of the Civil War, with only thirty four houses surviving and less than ten members in almost each house the number of devils ranked High Class and above alone was less than five hundred.
Right now that number has increased to nineteen hundred, an increase of fourteen hundred hundred in four hundred years.
Even if all of these people had Evil Pieces, and used all fifteen pieces to reincarnate fifteen separate individuals, it would only be around twenty one thousand new devils, a far cry from the original numbers. But the actual numbers were far lesser than that as many people reincarnated people with multiple pieces and those who reincarnate other devils as peerage members.
As easy as it seemed in the Novels, finding Devils and getting reincarnated was not at all that common.
First of all, even in a country like Japan, I only knew about two High Class devils in one town from the story. The actual number is a bit higher and about five.
There were only about five High Class Devils in the entire country, actually four since the death of Cleria Belial. The main reason they spend time in the Human World apart from the hobbies of some people was to find good and talented subordinates.
People converted to Devils for several reasons, the prime reason being to gain longer life spans and better magic.
Before the Evil Pieces were invented, there were numerous cases of people doing unthinkable things to gain longer life spans and youth or greater power. Rituals of sacrificing hundreds were not uncommon even among humans.
These rituals were dangerous and the participants, if found out, would be hunted vigorously by other supernatural factions.
Nowadays however, these cases have gone down and most of these people choose to become devils instead.
Many able magicians come to devils to get reincarnated so as to gain the buffs from the Evil Pieces to reach a higher level of power.
Sometimes however, the gain in power is not enough for them and they go towards the one restriction which the new Satans have followed with an iron fist….eating souls.
As Devils, we gain power the fastest when devouring souls. It is in the basic biology of the Devil Race.
They used to make deals in return for the souls of the owners, the case of Faust and Mephisto is one prime example.
The main reason behind this was Lucifer himself.
He had rebelled against his Father on the topic of the Free Will of humans so he wanted to seduce and make those same humans sell away their most important thing, their souls. It was his way of rubbing it in his Father’s face.
That said, there are ways to directly devour humans and eat their souls.
It is mainly done by Youkai but Devils can do it too.
The downside is that their power becomes corrupted and twists their bodies, turning them into hideous monsters or as they call it, Stray Devils.
To bypass this and give the people another way of gaining power, Ajuka Beelzebub made the system to gain power from Deals although this method was approximately one thousand times slower than eating souls.
After this, to force the people to actually put effort into training instead of consuming souls, the entire Rating Game thing was invented.
The purpose of the Rating Games was far more than just a means of gaining fame and money as well as promotion to higher ranks.
The main reason was to cover for the reduced numbers by increased strength of each individual as well as encourage the High Class Devils to make stronger peerages instead of just using the pieces as a means to gather harem members.
But even after all this, the rate at which the Devil race was recovering was not good enough. For this reason Ajuka was focusing on creating devils like Lucifer did. This plan was however unknown to other factions as well as other houses of the Underworld’s devil race or they might restart the Great War before he has a chance to succeed.
That’s why he put me in Lab 8 to work on the project with his end goal being using the Ageresite Crystals and Evil Pieces to actually strengthen Devils by making Sacred Gear type of artifacts from them.
Man….I wonder what would happen if the guy found out about Malebranche existing already?
I guess the Transfiguration and Portrait Spells did impress him.
Actually, I am surprised that he hasn’t asked me for these two. I showed him the techniques because I had something I wanted to trade with him.
I guess I just have to wait for a while till he asks me for the spells.
When inside my room, I checked the entire room for any spells or devices which could be used to spy on me but didn’t find anything.
Regardless, not willing to take any risks and reveal my greatest secret, I removed the trunk from my locket and enlarged it, entering the room inside.
There was no way I was going to do any deals in that room.
The inside of the trunk had several rooms which I had furnished over the period of the last year. Sirius had really outdone himself with this one. There were a total of fifty one rooms inside and would be no less than a small castle.
There was even a decent library which contained books I had traded or had copied from the libraries of Grauzaberer Magician Organisation and now I was planning to do the same to the books from Ajuka’s labs.
As I sat down and put the quills to work, I felt a summoning and got ready for the usual.
Opening the portal, I saw an unknown face on the other side.
The guy had blonde hair and looked almost nordic.
“My word, the thing actually worked. What manner of sorcery is this?” The man spoke in an old english accent or at least that’s how I heard it.
“This is my personal spell. It allows me to speak with people far away from me and trade with them for I am a trader who wishes to be the best in the world. May I know what place you are in and your name?”
“Place? I am a little distance from Windhelm and this is Skyrim in the lands of Tamriel.”
….
“Oh and may I know who I am having the pleasure to speak to?”
“I am called Kilth Copper-Bearer.”
I looked at the guy and felt his power, searched through his surface thoughts and couldn’t help but think….I couldn’t be this lucky, could I?
He was apparently quite excited at the magic I was showing and asked me while I was still in thought. “What wares do you sell, trader?”
That broke me from my thoughts and made me concentrate on the person in front of me. “My wares are according to the needs of the buyer. You seem like a warrior, exceptionally powerful at that. Is that a Dragon’s power I sense from you?”
“Obviously, I am Kilth Copper-Bearer, the Dovahkiin.” He answered proudly and a smile automatically found its place on my face.
“In that case, I have just the things you need.” I quickly summoned the items which I had bought from Wiz and lined the armour and weapons in front of the man. “These are the finest sets of armour and weapons created by the masters of blacksmithing renowned throughout the world. Each one of them is enchanted to have special effects. As someone who is on a quest to fight dragons, may I suggest these weapons and armour. They have the property to do extra damage against Dragons and resist their magic too. With these, your quest will have a higher chance of succeeding.”
I started displaying the products one after the other and explaining the effects to him.
The guy didn’t seem to be interested in magic stuff which was not bad for me but he had a glint in his eyes when looking at the weapons and armour, clearly interested in them.
“Is there something which interests you, warrior?” I asked.
“The swords, Dragon Slayer ones. What do you want for those?” He asked.
“Very good choice for one like yourself. These beauties will greatly assist you in your quest. I generally trade my wares not for money but for other things that might interest me, weapons, books and tomes on magic, blacksmithing, alchemy, rare potions or recipes, artifacts….or if you would be willing to run an errand or two for me, I wouldn’t mind that either.” I said as my mind worked in overdrive, trying to think of things I could ask him for.
Few things came to mind but it would depend on the guy himself.
“Sounds fine. Let me show you what I possess. We can discuss further after that.” He nodded and unloaded everything in his possessions.
I saw a variety of things, including some potions, spell tomes, etc.
I checked the spell tomes and found them to be spells on Transmute Mineral Ore, Telekinesis and last but not the least Heal Other.
The deal was struck quickly and I exchanged two weapons for the three Spell Tomes.
“You don’t seem to be interested in the Spell Tomes, warrior?” I asked.
“Aye, I am not much of a mage myself. The subject just eludes me no matter how much I try so I gave up on it. I was just planning to sell these when I reached the next town.”
….damn.
“In that case you are welcome to summon me whenever you plan to sell things like these. I can provide you with other items or even gold and you won’t have to carry these on you till you reach the next time. Always remember me. Actually know what, hold on a moment.” I quickly summoned a bottle of alcohol, something I had started keeping with myself. “Here, take this as a sign of friendship from me.”
“I couldn’t….”
“Hahahaha don’t worry. Just keep this friend of yours in mind when you get something interesting. I need to become the greatest merchant in the world after all. Can’t do that if I don’t have good products.”
The guy checked the alcohol, opened the bottle and took a sip of it and laughed at me.
“Obviously. Then call me Kilth, friend.”
As I was asking him about other stuff and his journey, to find out what quests he had done, I recalled the location he said he was at and it struck me.
Windhelm….wasn’t that where that White Phial quest was?
I looked at the guy. “Say friend, you said you were in Windhelm, correct?”
“Yes. I am near the place.”
“Great. I just happen to require something which is near that place. If you don’t mind, I could reward you if you do me the favour?” I asked.
There was no way I was going to send him for the White Phial. The artifact was just too precious to entrust it to anyone else. I needed to do it myself.
But that would involve me going to Skyrim and I would need Matsu to summon me back so it can only be done when I get back to Grauzaberer.
“Obviously. Say what you need. I will do my best to get it done for you, friend.”
“It’s simple. I want you to summon me using one of my summoning contracts two days later. In the meantime, I want you to find the location of the Alchemists living in Windhelm. Just this. Will it be a problem?”
“Simple enough. I don’t see why not?”
“Thank you. In that case, see you in two days, friend. I am afraid I am getting called for another deal.” I was indeed getting another summoning request.
“Good luck, friend.” He waved and I smiled and then closed the hole.
Putting the Spell Tomes aside, I opened the portal again. This time a familiar face greeted me on the other side.
“Hello Lucius. The week was almost up and I was wondering if I had to pay you a visit myself. I hate exerting myself. As you already know from my reputation, Belphegor, the Lord of Sloth. Exerting myself annoys me and annoyed me can be very….dangerous.”
I saw him turn paler. It was surprising considering how pale he already was.”
He quickly threw a pouch towards me.
I checked the pouch for any spells and found nothing. On checking further, I saw that it was filled with coins, around twenty thousand galleons.
“Good. Our deal is completed. I always like people who complete their sides of the deal. Now, going by the look on your face, I can deduce that you want another deal. So….what is it that you desire?”
“I….I want to know the location of the Dark Lord’s Horcruxes.”
My smile widened. “Oh my. Lucius, you sly dog. Wanna get one over your Master. Didn’t think you had it in you. Good, no great. I appreciate it. But are you sure you want to know the location of the Horcruxes? It wouldn’t solve anything, ya know. You are just too weak to do anything about them. After all, even Dumbledore would have a high chance of dying if he went after them. You….just can’t get to them no matter what. The information would be wasted on you and I would lose my payment if you died somewhere near. Sure I could take your soul then but, I don’t like payments in souls. Too bad of a currency. Your soul for six fragments of his….is just not worth it. Obviously if you want to know, I can for the small price of one and a half million galleons only.”
He gritted his teeth and I saw his hand clench on his cane.
“I could instead make sure that every last one of those horcruxes is gone….a price of course.”
He thought for a moment and asked. “What do you want?”
“Two million galleons, five hundred books on Mastery Level or above Enchantments and Potions and twenty House Elves to serve me. A fair deal, right? Just half of your property and your entire family lives. You more than doubled your assets in the last war so you would still be in profit if you ask me. What do you think?”
I let him seethe for a while but the guy nodded after a while. “I agree.”
“Great. Then we have a deal. I want the payment in a week. Voldemort will not come after you after that, I give you my word.”
He nodded.
“Goodbye then, Lucius.” I waved at him before closing the portal.
Huh….I didn’t think it would work so well.
Recently, I had picked up a very nifty skill of Devils and Fallen Angels….Charm.
It was quite subtle unlike the mind manipulation spells as it worked on amplifying the innate abilities of the user’s charm and thus acts like a subtler version of Veela’s Charm, making people more agreeable to my advice.
I hadn’t expected it to work so well.
Lucius was an occlumens but I guess he was more worried about the Voldemort thing than I was thinking to leave his mind so undefended, especially against someone like me. I think I need to look into more abilities natural to Devils.
At least I am getting rich again.
Dumbledore was not going to summon me today so that only left me with the books I needed to study for work.
- Saelena Lucifer -
“Acelin Abaddon? The son of Bedeze Abaddon and Mariane Belphagor, that kid?” She asked, stunned at the reveal.
“Yes.” Ajuka just nodded.
He wasn’t surprised at the reaction as he had a similar reaction too.
“But that boy, he….didn’t he have very low Demonic Power reserves? Then how did he….?”
“As per the rumours, yes. That’s what I heard too. Not that you need Demonic Power to learn Human Magic or his own Transfiguration Magic or anything else that he uses. I haven’t seen or heard him using any Devil Magic yet. That said….the power I sensed from him….it’s definitely Ultimate Class.”
“Then do you know how he did that?” She asked urgently.
He shook his head. “No. No idea.”
“You should calm down, Saelena. The kid was just six years old when he was diagnosed with his condition. Bedeze jumped the gun and threw him out with Mariane. What worked for him might not work for others.” Serafall said.
“I know but….” She let out a sigh.
“They are really making a big deal about Ria-chan’s condition, are they?”
“More than you would expect. And it’s not just some people talking but other people are actively pushing the issue to make it into a big deal.” She clenched her fists as she remembered Grayfia’s reports.
“Is it because of the new legislation we passed?” Serafall asked and she nodded.
“A part of it, yes. They discovered that they had no way out of the situation and gave up on it but now they are using Rias’ condition to target me. On one hand they say that Satans cannot be involved with their families and make a big deal out of every thing we do and on the other, they target our families and use them to undermine our positions. Sometimes I wish I could just….” She gritted her teeth as her power seeped out of her body when she recalled what they were doing to harass Rias.
“Okay okay, calm down.” Serafall quickly raised her hand and she again took a deep breath.
“These people never learn. They did the same to Sairaorg until he was unofficially exiled with Lady Misla, they did the same to Acelin Abaddon and now this….sigh.”
“It’s not just them.”
“What?”
“It’s not just them. The biggest instigator is actually Lord Bael.” She said, narrowing her eyes.
“Him?”
“Yes. On one hand, he is still pissed off about us passing the new amendment. It’s also about Sairaorg not inheriting the Power of Destruction, something which I thought had gone away when he exiled Sairaorg and his younger son awakened the Power of Destruction, but instead now he is pushing all that onto Rias so that people focus more on us than the Bael House.”
“And his jealousy.” Falbium added.
“That too. He never lets go of any chance to rub it in my mother’s face. That bastard had the gall to come to our home and call Rias a failure, that she was affecting the Bael name by association and that we should change the heir to my younger brother Milicas. I was so tempted to show him who the best user of the Power of Destruction in the Devil Race was and erase him right that instant….” Grayfia put a hand on her shoulder, calming her again.
All this extra work and the things at home had left her irritable and exhausted.
“How is your family taking the whole thing?” Serafall asked.
“They are being supportive. To be honest, they don’t care about her condition. They were the same with Sairaorg too so obviously they wouldn’t be different to her. It’s her that I am worried about. She has just closed herself from everyone. She is not even eleven right now. How could people….sigh.” She closed her eyes and massaged her head.
“It could go away if the boy is revealed, you know. His existence would just prove that having low Demonic Power or inability to use Demonic Magic means nothing in childhood. Things could change.” Falbium suggested but she shook her head.
“No. That boy….he’s gotten to this level all on his own, at such a young age, something which most people cannot do even with all the support. I cannot even imagine the amount of hard work and suffering he must have gone through. And he is still keeping his identity hidden to keep himself away from trouble. If I revealed his identity, sure things on Rias would cool down for a bit but he would be thrown under the dragon instead. How is that any different from what Lord Bael is doing right now? Just thinking about it makes me feel disgusted.”
“In that case you could always ask him for a trade.” Ajuka spoke up after a long time. “The boy seemed to be odl\dly willing to do so. He was even baiting me to propose an offer to him today.”
“Eh?”
“He has apparently invented another unseen magic, something very interesting too.”
“Oh? What kind of magic?” Serafall asked.
“It’s the reason I have called you all today.” He said as he summoned something.
Was that a portrait?
A snap of his fingers and the portrait was hung on the wall in front of them and they could see the man in it looking around in terror.
“Now Abigor, would you be kind enough to repeat what you confessed to us today?” Ajuka questioned the portrait.
….and then the portrait….spoke.
__________________________________x_____________________________________________________________________x___________________________________
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Author’s Note:
I am back with another chapter of ‘Ace in the Hole’.
We got to see more about Ace’s visit to Ajuka’s lab and some of his plans.
On the other hand, we saw a new face among the customers while Lucius just got scammed hard.
We even found out about some more AU elements in this world.
I had an idea and wanted to try something new.
To be honest, I am tempted to write more of this and would have done so if I hadn’t had two other stories lined up. (Maybe I will do that, who knows?)
We will see what is going on in the Empire as well as what Ace does there soon in the next chapters.
There will also be Ace’s visit to other worlds even if for a short while although I plan not to involve Skyrim too much considering the number of insanely strong people there.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.
Comments
Meh123
Interesting story! I'm really enjoying it so far as I'm curious what Ace will do next xD Also, I can't stop picturing Ace as Astolfo do to the pink hair and legit everyone calling him pretty when they see his true form. xD
Lotarc
TFTC
SHTC
Great Chapter!! Always a pleasure to get updates from Crossedge
savitar
You know, a worthy and exemplary punishment is being raffled off and I don't know who will take it. Will it be Bedeze or will it be Lord Bael? I have a question out of more curiosity than anything: if she somehow connected with the world of Fairy Tail and contacted Zeref, could she get a demon seed? just curiosity more than anything The world of Skrym offers a lot and not just artifacts. It also offers unique potions and minerals. Only with that could he deal a severe blow to the demon race. The next chapter will be very interesting. Write what you feel is best for the moment, do not force yourself to do something just because you feel it is what others ask of you.
DerkKill
So Rias Gremory does not present the "Power of Destruction" of the Bael family and neither does the trait of the Gremory Family that according to theories should be a precondition for discovering "treasures"; It would be interesting if you could make a classified contract with her and ask for the favor of being a mediator in case her older sister becomes his enemy.
MerlinO
Me encantó el capítulo, gracias
DerkKill
There is a world that would be interesting since you could use the theme of "Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stone" I mean the "Keshin & Miximax" to give a shape to your battle spirit and seeing that it also aligns with the "Touki" it would be very great plus you can recycle all the techniques for your attacks
DerkKill
Here is an image so you can see the female version of Sirzerch Luficer https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/110480565
DerkKill
There are some very interesting materials in Skyrim but trying to obtain certain Items I find inconvenient since they are linked to certain gods and it is not profitable
crashdash
Interesting to learn that Rias was born with Low demonic power.
Son-Of-Scorn
I like it, love this story, interesting how Milicas is still around even if his background has changed, also curious about what Rias’ problem is. If she didn’t get the PoD it shouldn’t really matter as she’s a Gremory so I’m curious to know what the problem is, love the Skyrim connection, lots of very useful items there, not to mention the magic and potentially he could learn to Shout, depending on how long he’s willing to practice
Osiris Sundavr
Write whatever you wish to write.
Orchamus
Nice, Skyrim has all sorts of excellent ways to increase one's power, and lots of Daedric artifacts he could possibly purofy and nom.
Talsen
Glad to see this one back, it's really picking up steam as he opens up more worlds for deals.
Vninga
Thanks for the chapter Cross! I would love if you posted more Ace in the Hole. If you feel like it go for it! Definitely been enjoying this story quite a bit.
Buck Futter
Do it anyway boss! Great chapter!
Ototsu_Yume
Thanks for the chapter, I love this one. :)
Jackle The First
Thanks for the chapter!
