~ Time Skip: 6 Months ~
It's been half a year since Lily officially became my queen, and several events have unfolded, most importantly, the attempted assassination of Cleria.
Thanks to the monitoring efforts of the Four Satans, it ended as only an attempt, unlike what happened in High School DxD.
According to Serafall, Ajuka had placed surveillance throughout Kuoh and was alerted when an unfamiliar group of devils appeared. Apparently, he responded in person and used his Kankara Formula to control the battlefield, allowing him to teleport Cleria's peerage away before they were fatally injured.
To deceive the Great King faction, he created substitute bodies, swapping them in as he teleported Cleria's group out. His formula subtly manipulated the assassins' senses so they couldn't notice the discrepancies.
When I asked Serafall why Ajuka took the risk of acting personally, she told me that the missing King Pieces were one of his regrets, allowing such a powerful artifact of his own creation to fall into the hands of political enemies.
Even though the Satans knew the pieces were in the possession of the Great King faction, they didn't know who wielded them, and even with the intel I provided, they lacked sufficient evidence to justify a formal move.
Now, Cleria and her peerage were lying low in one of Ajuka's hidden facilities, occasionally visited by Diehauser.
Another recent development was Ajuka helping to expand my information network.
I had planned to build it myself, with Raphael's assistance, but Ajuka accelerated its deployment due to how useful it would be, especially since the Satans could use it. He created several nodes from a magic metal alloy of his own design, which can passively absorb magic from the atmosphere under Raphael's guidance.
Additionally, each Satan, and Grayfia, now possesses a small piece of Argares Crystal, from the same lump as my King Piece, fashioned into accessories. This was Serafall's idea: by using Raphael's ability to connect anywhere my power reached, she proposed turning it into a secure communications channel and interface for the network.
I pointed out that I'd inevitably gain access to any knowledge shared across it, but she just said they'd hold in-person meetings for the important stuff.
The benefits of having a magical, super-intelligent assistant were too good for them to pass up.
So now I basically have the Four Satans, and Grayfia, on speed dial.
-----
Thunk.
I blocked the wooden sword aimed at my shoulder with my own, taking a half step back and bending my knees to absorb the impact. Letting my opponent's blade slide past, I brought mine back up into a ready stance.
My opponent was a middle-aged man with sandy blond hair and brown eyes, dressed in a simple white shirt and trousers. My own outfit matched his, plain shirt, trousers, and sturdy boots supporting my ankles.
His name was Evan, a vassal of the Sitri House, a Captain during wartime, and a swordsmanship instructor during peace. I'd asked Lord Sitri to arrange for a trainer shortly after returning from my meeting with the Satans.
We stood facing each other, my sword pointed at his chest. My breathing was heavy. Today, Evan was pushing harder than usual, forcing me into a mostly defensive position and testing my reflexes to the limit.
Evan stepped in again, faster than before.
He lunged, the tip of his blade targeting my shoulder. I side-stepped just in time, narrowly avoiding what would've been a nasty bruise.
The lunge flowed into a slash. I raised my sword and blocked it, thunk, then watched as he redirected into a downward arc toward my leg.
Rather than blocking from a poor angle, I stepped back, letting the attack pass. I lunged forward, countering as he overextended. But he was already adapting, his posture shifted, and he brought his sword up, knocking my thrust aside.
In the same fluid motion, he launched another thrust. I twisted, awkwardly bringing my sword up to intercept it. Our blades collided. I dropped my center of gravity and pushed upward, redirecting his attack into a wide, sweeping slash.
I lunged forward on my right foot, transferring all my momentum into a rising strike, aimed straight at Evan's chest.
But he twisted to the side, evading the blow by inches. His sword whipped around and struck my side with a solid thwack. I winced, already feeling the bruise forming over my ribs.
"Too slow," he said simply.
Gritting my teeth, I didn't respond.
He pressed forward immediately, giving me next to no time to recover. I brought my sword up, barely catching his diagonal blow. Wincing as I stretched the just bruised muscles.
I tried to pivot and sweep his legs, but he stepped back before swiftly stepping in with a thrust.
I deflected the thrust but he continued to advance relentlessly with swift yet precise attacks.
I had to continuously move back focusing entirely on defense to block the swift stream of blows he unleashed.
Eventually, I was unable to keep up and an attack got inside my guard ultimately coming to a stop on my collarbone.
We paused. I stood there, panting, clutching my ribs where they had been hit, my sword having been discarded.
He studied my doubled over form before leaning down to pick up my sword.
"Better. You're still telegraphing your attacks too much, and reacting to my attacks rather than predicting them. Overall though it was good, you've made great progress."
I stood up straighter, still clutching my ribs, at his assessment.
"Go and get your Queen to heal that, the bruise will be nasty otherwise."
I watched as he turned and walked back towards the main house with both wooden swords, before moving off towards the magic training ground where Lily and Sona should be at the moment.
-----
"Cain, you've got to stop getting hurt like this!" Lily huffed, puffing out her cheeks as she held glowing hands to my ribs. "It's good practice for me, sure, but still! You could at least try not to get injured so often!"
I tried to chuckle, but it turned into a wince. "Evan doesn't really hold back..."
Her magic pulsed warmly, a soft green light blooming beneath her fingertips. Not as powerful as Asia Argento's Twilight Healing was depicted, but it was quite potent considering Lily's young age and that she didn't have a Sacred Gear to act as a crutch.
We figured out early on that her healing came from the Zagan life magic affinity she inherited through my Queen piece. Raphael helped us confirm it: a rare gift, especially in this world where healing spells were limited by affinity.
Lily's mana had a light component, which usually would make healing devils impossible, given the light energy in her spells would harm them. But thanks to Zagan's trait, her healing magic didn't harm dark beings unless she wanted it to.
Life Manipulation is fundamentally neutral, it does not care for the alignment of a being, only that the being is alive.
Raphael once explained that, by using her inherited life manipulation when healing, the light power in her spells is altered such that it only carries properties of purity and growth and excludes the anti-darkness trait that harms devils.
This is facilitated by the versatility her mana gained from demonic power, allowing the creation of any phenomenon so long as the caster has the power reserve to materialize it.
Her desire to heal is the final piece of the puzzle that allows a light-aligned power to heal a dark-aligned being.
"There, all better!" she declared proudly.
"Thanks. So, how's your own training going?" I asked, gently sitting up, relieved when I no longer felt the stabbing pain in my muscles.
"It's awesome! Magic is so cool, especially when I combining it with my archery. I managed to completely destroy a practice dummy today!" she said, throwing up a peace sign. Then her expression wilted. "But the knife stuff still sucks. I still can't land a hit on the teacher."
That part had been my idea. While I allowed Lily to focus on magic, I also knew she needed to handle herself in close-range combat, especially if she was going to use the Queen piece boost to its full potential.
So when I asked Lord Sitri for a sword instructor, I also requested someone to teach her knives.
Lord Sitri had approved. In fact, he insisted Sona join her, much to her irritation. So now, both girls trained together, knife work and unarmed combat. Lily had even requested to learn archery after developing a liking for it at Cleria's mansion.
"Wait, what? You say you're bad, but you keep beating me!" came Sona's voice, carrying over the grass as she jogged toward us.
"But I haven't even scratched the instructor!" Lily whined. "And my grip still feels awkward, like it will slip out of my hand ay any moment."
"You're not supposed to beat the instructor! They're supposed to be better than us so they can teach us." Sona crossed her arms and gave Lily a dramatic eye-roll. "Besides, you totally cheat when we spar!"
"Do not! You just suck at dodging!"
Their bickering had become something of a routine lately. Ever since Lily became my Queen, she'd started coming out of her shell. The shy, quiet girl who used to follow me around in silence and only speak when spoken to? Gone. Now she would initiate conversations on her own, ask things of others, and bicker with Sona.
It started during their lessons. In magic, Sona had the edge, greater efficiency, more power, and control. But when it came to knife combat, Lily was far better. Even though neither particularly liked it, Lily at least had some talent in it. Whereas Sona, unfortunately, didn't seem to have any.
Thus Sona always won their magic competitions and Lily their knife spars.
Thus, their rivalry began.
Serafall and I both noticed their rivalry early, but we weren't complaining. A healthy rivalry like theirs was the best kind of motivation. Serafall was also pleased that Sona was covering a weakness she had in the DxD novel.
Whilst DxD Sona probably had some basic combat training when she was younger, she probably dropped it pretty quickly after realizing her lack of talent. She was skewed towards magic and strategy.
Now, with their rivalry, despite not having seemingly any talent in melee combat, Sona continued joining the knife training.
One was dominant in magic and the other in close-quarters combat. They were competing to see who would be first to win in both categories, obtaining a decisive victory.
"The Gremory family are coming tomorrow right?" Lily's question broke me from my musings.
"Yeh, apparently Mom and Dad are old friends with Lord and Lady Gremory."
"Don't forget they'll be bringing their daughter as well." I reminded the two girls.
"That's right, I wonder what she's like?" Sona questioned.
"She's constantly surrounded by adults, she must be bored all the time." Lily theorized.
"You'll find out tomorrow." I said laying back down on the training room floor with my arms behind my head.
"Hey Cain, don't sleep here."
I ignored Sona's reprimand and just closed my eyes, looking foreword to meeting the main heroine tomorrow.