The Rising of the Hero King

Venelana looked at her daughter lovingly. Rias never tried to dress properly or tried to look good at any parties or occasions, not that she needed that extra touch. Usually, it was her job to make sure her daughter looked proper and beautiful. But right now Rias kept looking at the mirror and was trying to find any imaginary faults. Venelana smiled knowingly, her little girl was in love.

And she couldn't blame her. She and her husband made the marriage arrangement thinking about her daughter's well-being and future. It was unexpected to see Riser turning out like that seeing how proper and well-mannered his other two brothers were. The Phenex family thought that the marriage would do well for Riser. Regardless, Venelana was happy that her little daughter didn't have to go through a loveless marriage. But she didn't expect her to fall for the young Belial King.

Venelana was quite surprised to find out the identity of her daughter's mysterious representative. He was strong and so were his peerage members, there was no denying that. And also it was quite surprising to see Grayfia talking highly about him.

"Mom, do you think I look ok?"

Venelana chuckled hearing her daughter's whining, she replied back with a little scolding tone, "Yes, my dear, you look perfect. Now stop asking that after every few minutes."

Rias smiled sheepishly. Taking one last glance at the mirror, she went out of the room, her mother followed her.

When Venelana entered the ballroom, she looked at the devils gathering there. She didn't believe so many would want to come. At first, when Sirzechs told her about the party, she didn't disagree with it, neither did her husband. They invited the Belial family and the families of their close friends. But they didn't expect so many Lords and Ladies from the other clans expressing their eagerness to attend the party as well. They couldn't turn them down, so for the Gremory household, it was one hectic week.

Seeing the number of people gathering, anyone could easily mistake it for an event of great importance. She knew exactly why all these devils expressed their eagerness to be invited to the party. Most of the devils wanted to meet Haruto personally so they wanted to go to Kuoh town. But Sirzechs strictly forbade them to go and when he told the reason to the other Maou, everyone agreed, especially Serafall. The reason was very simple. If so many high class devils, while quite a lot of them were clan heads, would go to the town, it would definitely attract too many unwanted attentions; attentions which could harm their sisters in the long run.

Venelana also knew why so many people wanted to meet the young Belial King. Anyone who witnessed the fight could clearly see that he had the potential to make his place among the top ten in the rating game ranking. There was also the fact that he was directly related to 'The Emperor' Diehauser Belial, so his value was quite high, especially as a marriage partner. Also, he was young so lots of the devil Clan-heads were thinking that it would be easy to manipulate him. So that was why they wanted to meet him alone before this party.

What truly surprised Venelana was the fact that the Bael clan wanted to come as well. She knew his former family very well, they would not attend these kinds of occasions unless it would hold some significance toward them.

"Speaking of which, I wonder where our guest of honor is." Venelana thought to herself.

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In the back of the Gremory household, sitting on a bench, one lone devil was looking at the sky. His grey hair looked as if it was glowing amidst the starless night. Smiling softly, he looked to his side when he felt another presence.

"You look a lot like Cleria."

"Ero-jiji used to say the same thing."

The older devil blinked. And then he started to laugh out loud, "Wow, that describes him perfectly." He then looked back at the sky and sighed, "I always knew he was a great person. But to think that he would fake his own death in the underworld so that he could save his grandson and find the true killers of his daughter. Really, that person was something."

The young devil's looked at the older one with a piercing gaze, "As much as I would like to go down the memory lane with you, I have to keep this short, seeing that I am late for my own party. Just answer this question of mine, will you severe your connection with that man?"

With eyes full of sadness and regret, the older devil looked back at the younger one, "I loved Cleria as if she was my own elder sister. Just like how you can't forgive those animals, neither can I. And I will do anything to show their true colors to the whole world, even if I had to stoop so low to make a deal with someone like him."

The stare-down continued for some time before the young devil got up, "Honestly speaking, I do not care what happens to you or to the Belial clan. Frankly, it would be easier for me if both of you could wipe each other out. But she loved you. And that alone is more than enough for me for what I will do."

Piercing blue eyes met glowing grey ones, "So rest assured that for my mother I will stop you from the path you have taken, uncle."

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"Haruto Belial has arrived," Grayfia announced.

Immediately the whole ballroom fell silent as they looked intensely at the entrance door.

Haruto entered the ballroom, he was wearing an open black suit with matching pants and vest. And somehow his hair looked less spiky. His partner was Sakura who was looking as dashing as her master. She was wearing a purple sheer strapless maxi dress with thigh cut which was complimenting her figure greatly. And her long flowing purple hair along with her equally beautiful light purple colored eyes made her stand out the most, maybe more than her King.

"Welcome Haruto-kun." Sirzechs greeted Haruto right at the door, who did his best not to groan in front of so many devils.

"Thank you Lord Sirzechs, it seems everyone came early." Haruto looked around and he knew that it would be a long night.

"Yes, everyone was eagerly waiting for you but the most would be your own clan, your family."

Haruto looked dangerously at Sirzechs who just smiled back.

"Don't push it, Sirzechs." Closing his eyes to control his temper, Haruto asked, "I think it is best if I meet them first, don't you think so?"

"Yes, but." Sirzechs looked at Sakura and then around them, "You didn't bring anyone else."

"Unfortunately, they had other matters to attend to. And I sincerely apologize for that. I didn't think that so many would gather for this small party."

Sirzechs laughed, completely disregarding the little jab Haruto made, "That's too bad. But ..."

Sirzechs was interrupted by Rias, who came to his side and looked at Haruto angrily, "You're late!"

Haruto chuckled, "Got lost in the road of life."

Rias pouted more hearing his answer, "No one is buying that lame excuse of yours. This is supposed to be your party!"

"This is supposed to be the party for both of us." Haruto grinned back.

"You're right." Sirzechs butted in cheerfully, then he turned around and looked at the silent audiences behind him, "So let us enjoy this wonderful party in honor of Gremory Princess and our new Young Belial King."

Immediately the whole ballroom erupted with applause.

"Come on, I will introduce you to everyone." Without waiting for his answer, Rias grabbed Haruto's arm and dragged him toward the heavily crowded places, Sakura following them closely.

Haruto could feel every devil's stare on him and Sakura. Rias looked around for some time before she finally found the person she was looking for. Then she took Haruto to a particular part of the ballroom. There was only one devil standing there, he had a graceful face with grey hair and grey eyes. Rias smiled when she saw him,

"Lord Belial, we were looking for you," Rias said, still holding onto Haruto.

"Sorry, I needed a walk." Then he looked directly at Haruto who smiled politely when their gazes met.

"Diehauser Belial, meet Haruto Belial," Rias said in a cheerful tone.

With a smile, Haruto extended his arm, "Nice to meet you, uncle."

"Nice to meet you too, nephew."

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Just like he thought, it was a long night for him. All the devils present there wanted to get to know him well and asked questions that irritated him. He just smartly avoided the questions or politely declined to answer them. Some even wanted to take Sakura through 'evil piece exchange', he sharply denied their request, no matter who they were.

But unlike the rest of the devils, the head of the Bael didn't talk to him for long, rather for the whole night, he observed him. At that point, Haruto knew what Mephisto meant by hurrying up with finishing the book.

It had already begun.

And that was why he didn't want to come to any kind of party before he was fully ready. But the last night's party at the Gremory acted as a big obstacle to his main plan. Now he had to hasten a lot because of this blunder.

He really hated how Sirzechs was trying to bind him down.

He wanted to come early but Rias kept dragging him and made sure he was able to know as many devils as he could. But to be honest he was thankful for this. Since Rias was the one who was doing the introduction and was tagging along, most of the devils couldn't really express their hidden intentions; the keyword would be most. Because the greedy ones were quite smooth with their words, making sure that their real motive wasn't caught on by Rias but was clear to Haruto. And he had to do the same. He could have acted like he didn't understand or tell them outright but it would have created unnecessary dramas.

So it was very late when he was finally able to come back. Although he informed Asia beforehand to go to bed, she still waited. Or at least tried to wait since Haruto found her sleeping on the couch.

Haruto didn't take his other peerage members because they were reluctant to go to the underworld, so he didn't force them. Also, he really didn't know that the party would turn out that big. And as for Asia, Haruto wanted her to have minimal contacts with the devils.

Hearing the door to his bedroom opening, he groaned into his pillow.

"Time to wake up, Haruto-sama."

"It's still early."

"It's almost noon."

"Still early."

"Haku-san is here. You were supposed to meet with him, remember."

"Where is Asia?"

"I already sent her to school."

Haruto groaned loudly into his pillow again.

"Also, she is going to be here soon."

Haruto sighed after hearing that. He got up and turned around, and his eyes almost bulged out at what he saw. The reason was simple. Sakura was wearing a beautiful maid dress; not the sexy French ones but the proper refined ones.

"What's with the dress?" Haruto asked seriously.

Sakura looked at her dress and smiled, "I thought it would be appropriate?"

"Don't take it off till I tell you to." Seeing the dark mischievous glint in Haruto's eyes made Sakura blush because she knew she had a long night ahead of her.

Getting up, Haruto went to Sakura and gave her a passionate kiss; his tongue invading her mouth and tasting every corner. His hands were as mischievous as his tongue as they groped her butt and squeezed them hard. Sakura couldn't help but to go with the flow. When Haruto had his fill he let go of his lover who was left breathless. Now he really didn't want to leave the bedroom but duty called, "Remember, do not take it off."

With those parting words, Haruto left the room with newfound energy.

He went downstairs and found his bishop sitting comfortably on the chair. He turned around and smiled at his king, "You look awful."

"I know icehead. Now, did you find a way to get us inside there?"

"Yes, I did," Haku sighed as he answered, "But, we will have a really short span of time before the underworld will be hot on our tails after we are done."

"We will be fine." Haruto waved his hands off in a careless manner.

Before Haku could say anything more, they felt another presence coming toward the house. Sighing Haku looked at Haruto, "We will talk about it later."

Haruto just shook his head as he went toward the door. He opened it before the person on the other side could even ring the bell. Her surprised face made Haruto let out a hearty laugh. When his laughter died down, he ushered the person to come inside who looked really nervous. Closing the door, he turned around,

"Now what was the important thing that you want to talk about, Raynare, my cute little pawn."