Chapter 36
|3rd POV|
Serafall looks at the building in front of her and takes a deep breath. She is currently on a mission. After the last clusterfuck, she needs to make sure the Youkai faction is still willing to have a trade agreement with them. The Devil Race does not need them to make an alliance between the two factions. No. Serafall only needs the Youkai Faction to agree to restore the previous trade agreement.
After she brings the news to the council about Yasaka's demand to execute Lord Naberius, they declare that the Youkai is out of line and leave the trade agreement void.
However, the effect of this action appears a month later. Plague that has not appeared for ten thousand years appears once again. Devil Cold appears and sweeps the entire underworld like a vengeful death. More than ten thousand devils die in a matter of two months, and Sirzech Lucifer declares the underworld as a whole in a state of emergency.
Without the main ingredient to make the medicine for the Devil Cold, people start to die. They can buy the ingredients from India and China, but they charge them thirty times the price if they buy them from Japan. India and China do not have a good relationship with the Devil race as a whole. They can be considered hostile to each other.
Because of this, only the rich can buy medicine to cure the cold, and the ones who are not infected migrate to the human world. Most of them migrate to the city that lets devils stay. Among those cities is Kuoh City, but even then, the Youkai already restrict only one hundred devils who can stay in Kuoh.
Usually, they will disregard Youkai's words, but with the Shinto Faction more active in the human world, they cannot do anything but obey.
That is another thing that makes her nervous. With the Shinto faction active in the human world, Serafall knows that she is on the loser's side. Without the backing of the Shinto faction, she can make a threat or two to create an opening, but with the Shinto faction getting involved, she cannot do that, leaving her with fewer things to use.
She looks at the box in her hand and sighs. She hopes that this will be enough to appease Yasaka.
"Come. Lady Yasaka and Lord Susanoo are already waiting for you."
Serafall curses inside her head. She knew that there was a chance that Shinto God would join the meeting, but she thought that it would be low enough that she did not need to worry about it. However, it looks like luck is not on her side.
She takes a deep breath and gets inside the room. She can see Yasaka sitting in the middle of the room with a man sitting on the side. She knows who that man is. If the servant didn't tell her anything, she would know that he is a god from the power he is radiating.
The man in front of her feels like Sirzech, calm but dangerous when provoked and deadly when you anger him.
"Lady Leviathan, what can I do for you?"
Serafall walks forward and places the box on the ground.
"I come bearing a gift."
She opens the box, and inside of the box is the head of Lord Naberius.
"This is the head of Verlion Naberius."
Yasaka looks at the head in satisfaction and looks at Serafall.
"I'm sorry, but did you just say that this is a gift? That is your duty as leader of your people. It is not a gift but a duty that you should have done a long time ago."
It is what Serafall has feared. Yasaka will not accept this as a gift and instead sees it as her duty to fulfill. It is her duty, but she needs to use anything she can use in this meeting.
"Of course, Lady Yasaka. You are correct. This is my duty as one of the Satans. Because of this, I bring another thing. May I cast a spell in your home?"
"You may."
Serafall snaps her finger, and a second later, three boxes appear in front of her. She opens them one by one, and Yasaka cannot help but widen her eyes when she sees what is inside the boxes.
"Inside the boxes are thirty vials of Phoenix Tears. As a gift and token of our regret. Please accept them, Lady Yasaka."
Yasaka looks at Serafall for a few seconds and snaps her finger. A second later, Haruka falls from the ceiling and takes the three boxes away. With that done, Yasaka looks at Serafall and says,
"So, Can I ask the reason why you come here, Lady Leviathan?"
"I came here to negotiate our previous trade agreement."
"Oh? India and China did not want to trade with you, huh? No. They are willing to do that but ten times our price."
Serafall did not take that bait and continued.
"Tell us your requirement for the continuity of our previous trade agreement."
Yasaka decides to give her some slack and bluntly says,
"The first thing we want is that Kuoh City will no longer be a Free-Tax city for Devil Race. Not only that, we will also cut the maximum number of devils that can be resident in Kuoh to fifty. Not only that, but we will also put Youkai in Kuoh to monitor how the Co-Owner of Kuoh is doing starting next month."
"I shall tell the others about this."
"I'm not done. For each Stray Devil we slay, your race will pay us as compensation. For a long time, we have taken care of the problem your kind causes us. We want compensation for this. Depending on how powerful the devil is, the bigger the compensation. Lastly, no devil shall step foot in Kyoto and Kanto. If they get inside our territory, we have the right to execute them. That includes the noble devil."
Serafall looks at Yasaka for a few seconds before sighing. She can see that Yasaka is serious and will not budge from her decision. It might not look like much, but that decision let the Youkai Faction have power over them when they were in Japan.
"I shall tell the other Satans about this decision."
"If there is nothing else…"
Serafall nods her head and gets up. As she is about to leave, Susanoo suddenly says.
"Wait a second, young devil."
She turns around and says.
"What is it, Lord Susanoo?"
"I want you to deliver my word to your council. This decision is backed by the Shinto Faction as a whole and carefully monitored by Susanoo no Mikoto, God of Thunder and Ocean."
Serafall wonders if her day can get any worse.
"Of course, Lord Susanoo."
After Serafall leaves the room, Yasaka releases a sigh and looks at Susanoo.
"Thank you for your hard work, Lord Susanoo."
"Hmmm? What are you saying? You are the one working hard."
"Even then, thank you for your words. With this, they will be more likely to accept my term."
"Don't worry about it. Even though we rarely get involved with mortals, we are still the Gods of Japan. It is our duty."
"Of course, Lord Susanoo."
Yasaka restrains herself from asking him about the years he and the other gods are ignoring them.
"Oh, yeah. Can I ask the reason why you come here, my lord? You said that you want to ask something, right?"
"Oh, right! I want to ask where Ryan is. Unlike my sister, I cannot track him without attracting unwanted attention."
"Ah, Ryan is currently training with his college's instructor in preparation for a tournament."
"Tournament? What kind of tournament?"
"It is an annual tournament sponsored by Lord Hachiman."
"Hachiman? That archer bastard. He made a tournament without inviting me."
Susanoo gets up and gives a big grin to Yasaka.
"I've decided that I will be a co-sponsor for this year's tournament! Tell the people taking care of this tournament that I will reward the winner of this tournament! However, I did not want some complicated shit. I want a straightforward fight between contestants!"
"Of course, Lord Susanoo."
Yasaka can only sigh internally because she knows that his action will cause chaos among the Youkai. Getting the attention of Susanoo, one of the Strongest Gods in the Shinto Faction, is an honor and something they want.
She hopes that Ryan will be okay.