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Chapter 268: Chapter 251

My secrets were known to my girls, but that didn\'t mean I wasn\'t embarrassed by certain things. I didn\'t know how I was going to react to the information I received, and I didn\'t like showing that side of me.

I took a deep breath as I felt the spatial fluctuations, similar ones to how Devils used their Teleportation Circles. I could tell that only one person was coming, so I wasn\'t on high alert.

She appeared at the side, and I spared her a glance before gesturing to a seat across from mine. She didn\'t speak as she took her seat, sitting rather properly, looking at me for how to proceed.

"Would you like a drink?" I offered in the spirit of hospitality.

"No thank you." Venelana shook her head as we fell into silence again.

That awkward silence continued as neither of us knew where/how to start. I had things I wanted to ask, and I\'m pretty sure she had things she wanted to ask, but forming the words was just...excruciatingly difficult.

"I see I\'m not the only one who got a change of clothes." She mused, flashing a little smile.

I glanced down at myself, clad once more in my normal attire, tie and all. Then I looked back at her, she was something similar to what she wore before but without all the.....tears.

"How is Millicas?" I asked.

"It\'s as you said. And he\'s in good hands, at this point, we\'re just letting him sleep everything off." She replied with a warm look.

"Any other issues that arose?"

"Nothing of importance. However, please don\'t reveal that we were....rescued so soon."

I quirked an eyebrow at that. "Ah, I get it." I nodded after a second of thought. "Rooting out all the undesirables, hmm?"

The corners of her lips curled up. "You catch on quickly."

Well, I didn\'t know the specifics, but they\'re using this as an excuse to purge some of their opposition. I\'m not part of their faction, so I didn\'t really care.

"And how have you been?" She asked, in an effort to continue the small talk.

"As well as I can be." I didn\'t really know how to elaborate.

"I heard that you and Yasaka, the leader of the Youkai here, are in a relationship?"

"I suppose that\'s not really a secret." I crossed my legs, propping my chin up with one arm. "She\'s my woman, yes."

"And she has a daughter?"

"Kunou." I nodded. "My little girl as well." I couldn\'t help but smile.

"So young and you already have a daughter of your own." She giggled. "How old are you now, just over 18?"

"Closer to 21, actually." I shrugged. I didn\'t actually know my exact age anymore....

"Pardon?"

"Time is relative." I smirked.

She blinked, looking surprised by my admission. It\'s not like it\'s actually a big secret or anything. And For some reason, I would prefer if people knew I was older when it came to being a parent for Kunou.

"Before anything else, do you mind if I ask you some questions about the people that kidnapped me?"

"Unless that idiot was incinerated immediately, he should be able to tell you everything you want to know." That Euclid idiot really pissed me off. And It only made matters worse than I felt like he would follow through on his threat, he was clearly not right in the head. I didn\'t believe any amount of deterrent would have stopped him.

One of the reasons we\'re being somewhat quiet with Yasaka\'s faction. Idiots like that, who wouldn\'t be dissuaded by any show of power, even on Meridia\'s level.

"I\'m certain he\'ll talk." She smiled brightly, almost in anticipation. "But I would like to hear it from you so we can verify. If you don\'t mind, that is."

I let out a sigh, running a hand through my air. "There\'s not much to tell. You heard about the attack on Kyoto, I assume?"

"Yes, the news reached me and I have kept abreast of everything here once I found out you were involved." Her words sounded....genuine.

"They were a bunch of kids who called themselves – " I waved my hand flippantly. "—The Hero Faction. Descendants of heroes, spirit inheritors, or just Sacred Gear users. They had some stupid plan about killing Great Red or something, to prove that humans were superior."

"I.....I have many questions regarding them specifically. But for now, how do they relate to Euclid and his lot?"

"They were in another \'faction\' within the same hierarchy as Euclid\'s people. They call themselves the Khaos Brigade. That\'s with a \'K\' mind you, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the Greeks."

"Oh Satans." She sighed. "I got captured by people going around and calling themselves that?"

"Really?" I looked at her incredulously. "You – a Devil is going to criticize another\'s naming conventions?"

"We\'re not that bad."

"Crimson Haired Ruin Princess." I said dryly.

She twitched slightly. "Kids these days." She shook her head. "It\'s a variation on my epithet back in the day. They called me the Ruin Princess."

Huh, that didn\'t sound nearly as bad. Even a bit cool if I were to be honest.

"Yeah, so Hero Faction worked as another \'branch\' so to speak of the Brigade. They\'re basically all Autonomous and do their own things." I shrugged. "I\'m pretty sure they have members from every corner of the world. Ran into a decently strong Youkai when I was up and about."

"When you were in the neighborhood?" She quirked a smile, letting out a small giggle. "To go through so much effort to save us, I\'m surprised. I could have sworn you wouldn\'t even respond to my letter, much less come to my rescue."

Ah, I guess we\'re moving onto the heavy stuff now.

"I wasn\'t originally." I confessed. "Yasaka talked me into not throwing it away right away. Another friend talked me into reading it at least. I decided to settle things once and for all. If it were anyone else, I may have not even given it a second thought as I burned it up."

"Do you really hate us that much?" She looked a bit melancholic at the question.

"Hate?\' I let the word roll of my tongue, feeling my temper begin to flare. Years of suppressed anger making their way to the surface. "I lost my childhood because your son couldn\'t be arsed to be halfway competent in how he handled me. I was eight fucking years old, I had just lost the only family I had ever known." I could feel myself shift into a sneer. "What does the moron do!? He shoves me into an empty house to cope by myself!" I threw my hands up. "Oh wait, that might have been better. No, instead he sends his maid fetish wife to check up on me, a grieving eight-year-old. This scary woman who just scowls and shows obvious disgust towards me. So I basically learn how to take care of myself, and thankfully her visits became much more infrequent when I showed I wasn\'t going to starve to death."

"I have no excuses for how you were treated." She said quietly. "I would apologize, but I don\'t believe you want that right now."

She wasn\'t wrong.

"To answer your question, I don\'t hate you. Nor do I hate anyone in your family." I let out a long sigh. I never actually let it all out before, it felt oddly refreshing. I refocused and saw her looking at me with a questioning gaze. "When I first left, I convinced myself that I simply was above it. It didn\'t matter to me, and it held no sway over me." I was pretty messed up for those first couple weeks. I can\'t even fault my younger self for how I acted, I coped the best way I could.

"I feel like I\'ve been through a lot recently, and my perspective has broadened and changed many times. I believe I\'m allowed to be upset at my treatment, but I\'m no longer holding it so tightly inside of me. So, no. I don\'t hate you all anymore, I can\'t bring myself to care that much unless forced to."

Come mess with me though and those feelings can easily reemerge. As it stood, I didn\'t want to waste the effort anymore thinking about them.

It was my first time really voicing it all. I probably didn\'t do a good job of articulating my thoughts as I hadn\'t mentally planned this, but it still expressed my sentiments.

There was another moment of silence, as if she processed my words.

"I see." She finally muttered. "I guess that\'s the best I can hope for considering everything." She let out a sigh herself. "Thank you for agreeing to see me atleast. I can understand better how much it must have weighed on you after receiving my letter. And I suppose that me saying that I had nothing to do with your predicament would alleviate your feelings."

"I\'m not a child." I said dryly. "I can understand blame and fault for where it lies. You had no obligation to do anything."

Venelana shook her head. "No, I had no hand in it, but I was still aware on some level."

I closed my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "How exactly did it happen." I might as well rip this band aid off. As much as I told myself I didn\'t care, there was still a part of me that wanted answers.

"Very well, I knew this would be a topic we discuss." She straightened herself. "We only found out about you once your mother passed away." She looked at me as if expecting an outburst. I felt like I could read her thoughts here.

"I don\'t blame any of you for her death, if that\'s what you\'re wondering." I breathed out once more. "It\'s not like I expected him to become some kind of figure in her and my life in hindsight. I already guessed that he wasn\'t aware of us at that point. Nor that I thought he had some kind of obligation to either of us."

"Can you tell me about your mother?" She suddenly asked. "I only know, well...."

"That she was a prostitute?" I offered with a snort.

"I wasn\'t going to say it like that."

"I\'m not ashamed of it." I crossed my arms with an eyeroll. "My mom sold her body everyday and worked any job she could to provide for me. She literally sacrificed her life, worked herself to the bone to the point where she got weak and sick. My mom was a prostitute, and I am damn proud of her."

"She sounds like a wonderful woman." Venelana smiled towards me.

I could tell what she was doing, trying to lighten the atmosphere, and I couldn\'t find it in me to reject it. I always felt a little bit happier when I thought of my mom. "She\'s the reason I was in the Theatre club at school. We didn\'t have money for anything so she\'d take me to those free productions that popped up every now and then."

"That sound so cute." She cooed. "Aww, I wish I could have seen you performing."

"Unfortunately, that life is far gone." My lips thinned thinking about those days. "I doubt I\'d be welcome back at Kuoh anyways."

"I think Sona is still a bit....upset." Venelana looked amused.

"I think I\'m the one who should be upset." I snorted again. "You know, I understand the use of things like hypnosis when it comes to memory alteration. I can understand the need for it in a such such a world as this. Hell, I\'ve admittedly used it for my own selfish ends before. But I think that straddles a very thin line. What I don\'t accept is someone trying to use those same concepts to alter someone\'s thinking ability. She should count herself lucky, if I had been as I am now if she tried, I would have lopped her head off."

I did feel kind of bad for stealing the Boosted Gear from Issei. I should see about making it up to him if that ever became relevant. Maybe put him through college or something? Help him succeed in life. At least if he stopped being such an annoying pervert.

Venelana shifted awkwardly at my declaration. I don\'t think she knew what happened, perhaps only the barest of details. "I will....have a talk with some people when I get back." She frowned.

Whatever, it was a lifetime ago.

"Can you continue where you left off?" I didn\'t want continue down this little path of conversation.

"Yes. As I was saying we didn\'t know about you until your mother passed away. My son goes out into the human world under one of several identities, the only reason we found out was that a certain one got flagged and the message eventually reached him. It was at this point that we become aware of everything."

"And how did that transition to me living in that house?"

"We tested you for obvious reasons. Your Demonic Energy was...miniscule." She added the last part with a hushed tone.

"I\'m aware of that." I waved it off. "What else?"

"You had no Sacred Gear, something we checked since you were half human. And, well, you didn\'t show any signs of being a Devil on the surface. It would have taken years of training to even be able to bring out your wings, which isn\'t that uncommon. There are many Half-human Half-devils that never find out their Devil Heritage due to similar circumstances.....at least until they start aging significantly." She explained with a rather even expression, though it was sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than us.

"So I was tossed aside because it was inconvenient. What a surprise." I drawled with a bored tone.

"That wasn\'t the intent." She frowned slightly. "Sirzechs argued that it wouldn\'t be productive to bring you into our world, in our society as you were. He said that the best thing to do would be to make sure you lived safely in the human world away from our politics and everything that came with that."

"And you agreed?" I could understand the sentiment, I suppose. If all things went well, I would have lived my life in ignorance and been rather successful with a secret backing. Devil politics are cut throat, I could only imagine the kind of scrutiny I would bring to the leader of the Devils – the strongest Devil in existence, if I were some weakling and barely better than a normal human.

Not that I\'m at all sympathizing with his -plight, but understanding was a means for me to finally get over it for good.

"I offered to take you in, for me and Zeo to raise you." She looked right into my eyes. "However, he made a convincing argument and I decided to go along with his plan. We – I thought you would live out your life happily and without worry. Us interfering would have only brought problems if others found out."

"Well, it sounds like things didn\'t go as planned." I snapped, perhaps a tiny bit too harshly. I could feel my own sarcasm being more prevalent in my tone than I meant it to be. "I hope he isn\'t as shit a ruler and father as he was at providing for me."

"He\'s not." She didn\'t even deny it. "Surprisingly, he is very intelligent and resourceful in handling his positions. I still don\'t fully understand why he treated you the way he did. My Son has...controlling issues."

"Controlling issues?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"We\'re Devils, we all have our sins that we align with. Even you must be aware that you lean on certain ones a bit more, yes?"

"I\'m Greedy and to a lesser extent, Prideful. Perhaps Lustful considering I have a harem, but that might go back to Greed." I idly spoke my thoughts.

Though the Greed portion could have been amplified due to Ddraig in my soul.

[Sup.]

And speak of the dragon.

Well, he liked to be a silent watcher most of the time.

"You have a harem?\' She asked in surprise.

"Is that strange? Don\'t a lot of High-Class Devils have harems?" I gave her an inquisitve look.

"Well, yes. I\'m just surprised you managed it at your.....age" She trailed off at the end, pursing her lips as she most likely recalled my previous statement. "How many, if you don\'t mind me asking?"

"Six.....maybe seven in the future." Depends on how my relationship with Salem went.

"And you have no trouble managing them?"

I blinked at her question. "....no? I mean, they\'re all adults, and the most important thing in a relationship is communication. If they\'re upset, I trust them to come and talk to me about it, likewise, I try to talk to all of them to make sure they\'re all happy."

She blinked this time, adopting a stunned look. "That\'s impressive."

"It\'s common sense." I deadpanned.

"Not so common down below." She said dryly. "But I digress. You\'re familiar with our sinful nature, it manifests in different ways. My son has a need to be in control. When he was younger, he joined a music group. They were very prestigious and often played at some high-end parties. In four months, he worked his way up to be in charge because he didn\'t like some of the music pieces they played. That\'s how most of his life had played out. Joining the war with the Old Satan Faction? He became one of the leaders extremely quickly. Once the war was settled, he assumed the top spot, becoming the next Lucifer. There are many – many more examples of this throughout his life."

"And how does this relate back to me?"

"If I had to guess, my son felt out of control, and it wasn\'t a problem he could simply make disappear through more dubious means. I believe he reacted negatively because he didn\'t know how to react to your sudden appearance. He reaffirmed his \'control\' by – "

"Locking me away in the little box he made for me, yeah I get it now." I finished for her with a scowl. "I hope you don\'t expect me to forgive him even knowing the reason my childhood was filled depression and loneliness."

"I wouldn\'t expect you to. I just think you deserved to understand the reason." She replied calmly.

I let out a sigh, releasing all the tension I built up. "Thank you for telling me."

"Thank you for meeting with me." Her eyes softened. "I hope this has been helpful to you."

"Yeah....I suppose I do feel good after getting some things off my chest." I leaned back, allowing myself to relax.

It had been surprisingly welcome to talk with her. I thought there were going to be more \'games\' that she played, maybe try to dig certain things out of me. No, she genuinely just wanted to talk about everything and learn some other things about me.

"I\'m glad." She replied with a smile. "Now, I want to reward you for rescuing Millicas and I....so how about I make you feel even better~" She bounced her chest in the most obvious way that I couldn\'t pretend to not know what she was insinuating.

And suddenly I\'m speechless.

***

Just a heads up, no chapter tomorrow (Sunday) Worked super late tonight and going to do so tomorrow as well to make up for all the chaos that this Hurricane caused.\'

If you want to read 7 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m. / astoryforone