The Game Must Go On

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 65: Honeymoon

- Shin -

I woke up the next morning with a familiar sight of crimson hair on my chest.

But there was something different about today.

Unlike the previous times, today the girl in my arms was my wife.

Wife….the word sounds so weird even now.

I was caressing her shoulder unconsciously and that seemed to have awakened her.

She looked up at me groggily.

"Good Morning." I greeted her.

"Mmmhh morning." She replied and hugged me tighter, getting into a more comfortable position before closing her eyes.

I smiled and caressed her head.

After a while she spoke first, "When did you wake up?"

"Just a minute or two before you."

"Mmh."

"So….what's your plan from now on?" I asked.

"Plan?"

"Hmm."

"We have a meeting with the Sitri today."

"Yes… Lord Sitri invited us for dinner to inform me about the deal with other houses. Anything else you want to do after that?"

"I was…." She began to say and then stopped.

"Hmm?"

"I was planning to go and meet Sairaorg in a few days." She finally said.

"I see."

"I know the Bael House had a hand in those events but Sairaorg and aunt Misla were not involved."

"Knowing Sairaorg, he would rather denounce the name of Bael than do such a thing. Lady Misla didn't seem the kind of person to do so either. But then again, neither of them were affected by the punishment."

After all, for Sairaorg, that punishment never applied and Misla didn't have the Power of Destruction so that wasn't a problem either.

She nodded at my reasoning.

"Do you want me to join you?" I asked. "Because I don't think I would be welcome anywhere near the place." If anything, they would take my presence as a provocation. It's not like I didn't want to go there but I would do so at a private time.

For once, I wanted to ask Zekram just what kind of weed he was smoking that made him act like that.

Even now, I didn't know the exact reason for his actions during the engagement.

"I don't think Sai would blame you."

"No. No, he wouldn't." I sighed.

Did I feel bad for the Bael?

No.

Not one bit.

They tried to plot against me and they got whatever came for them.

To be honest, they did fuck up the deal with Death of all beings and paid the price for it. If anything, I used a technicality but even then my reason was not wrong.

I had to become a devil and then make a strong peerage on short notice putting in all that work for Rias' hand. If it was all me doing the hard work, then how was it a payment?

I will see if I can do something for Sai and his mother.

"I was invited by Rossweisse's grandmother and Odin to visit his territory. I think they might want to talk about the Soul Soul Fruit which Rossweisse has."

"Hehehehe, I think she noticed you flirting with her granddaughter."

"Her reactions are adorable. She gets flustered so easily that it's really fun to tease her." I chuckled. "Apart from that, there is the invitation from Heaven and the Shinto Pantheon. Moreover, the two of us were invited to Kailash Mountain by Shiva himself. That's a meeting we have to attend. I think he will tell us the specific date after our auctions." I said, remembering the talks I had with the Hindu God of Destruction.

"Really?!"

"Hmm. He was impressed by the Traits of our Power of Destruction and wanted to discuss more about it."

"I don't think I have heard any devil being invited to any of the Trimurti's abodes, let alone Kailash by Shiva."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"They never interfere in the affairs of even their own pantheon let alone others." She explained.

Yeah….that part I knew.

"Shin."

"Hmm?"

"I was thinking of returning back to school when the holidays are over. We still have to complete our year and we haven't been to our classes in a long time."

"True."

Some of the girls like Asia genuinely liked going to school. Sure she could get private tutoring and any certificates through my connections but she enjoyed the process.

A surprising fact was that even Nami liked the idea of a school. When she was younger, she couldn't even afford books and had once stolen a book and gotten caught. The whole process still showed her willingness to learn.

The same was true for Morgiana, Koneko, Meridith and surprisingly even Sakuya who could enjoy this in her life.

We only realise the importance of things when they are lost.

Because of this, I hadn't argued with them when they said that they wanted to go back to school to complete their education.

Shuri wanted Akeno to enjoy her childhood as well.

Rias in particular wanted to get a degree in management to help me out with my business and I supported her.

On the other hand, the ones who didn't want to go to School stayed back and worked here to do what they liked.

Law for example decided to stay back and study the medical books of this world.

His Devil Fruit made him an exceptional surgeon but that didn't mean he couldn't improve.

Jibril….well she wanted to work in the Magical Girl Movies with Serafall.

….yeah, I was not going to poke that hornet's nest.

Merlin was researching whatever caught her eyes. With our new alliances, she was getting access to a lot of materials and that meant she could do a lot of things.

I doubted she would leave her lab for anything less than a war.

Fleur was working on managing our properties in the Wizarding World and with the power she possessed now, I wasn't worried about her either.

"Will you be coming with us?" She asked.

"Me? I will be busy." I said and saw a slight trace of disappointment on her face which she quickly pushed away and nodded at me with a smile. I smiled back and continued. "But I guess I can make some time till the end of the year. It's nice to have a normal school year for a change. Although, I might not be able to attend regularly." I added at the end.

I saw her face brighten up but she still asked. "Are you sure? You don't have to overwork yourself. After all, your business has just started."

"Few days would be nothing." I reassured. "But before that…." A smirk appeared on my face. "Where should we go on our honeymoon?"

She smiled as well as blushed. "I….your business has just opened. Should we…."

"I am sure I can manage. You didn't think I would give up on my honeymoon for the sake of business, did you?"

"I….let's go somewhere in the One Piece world. That way, the time in this world will be stopped here and no one will disturb us either."

"Sure." I agreed. "But before that…." I turned and got on top of her. "Shall we practise for our honeymoon?" I smirked.

A smile bloomed on her face as her arms snaked around me and pulled me in for a deep kiss which I wholeheartedly reciprocated.

I guess being married is not that bad after all.

x_

We were staying in the Gremory Estate due to Venelana's request who was probably requested by Chysis Gremory or Runeas Gremory.

Anyways, I wasn't bothered by the whole thing because Zeoticus was sent to another property under the Gremorys and the only reason Rias was staying here was due to her title as Lady Gremory.

She had however made it abundantly clear that she was only temporarily taking the position of the family head and would leave when Milicas is old enough to take the position.

They had a discussion with both Grayfia and Sirzechs on this matter and only after they had agreed did Rias agree to keep her Lady Gremory title.

Chysis was making sure to look over Milicas' training herself. Not that Grayfia was doing a bad job but apparently, Zeoticus' fuck up had gotten Runeas involved and she gave everyone a good verbal beatdown.

As for the boy himself, he was having a fun time with his Growlithe and two flying nimbus type clouds which Nami had gifted him before leaving.

Our peerages were staying nearby and working on their own stuff.

Today however, we were visiting other houses.

Lord Sitri had been working as my ally and bringing as many houses in the Underworld as he could to my side.

Yesterday's Press Conference was a massive boost to his efforts and today I was invited for dinner at the Sitri House.

It had been months since I was last here. The last visit was memorable. I even had a video of that visit….and so did Serafall and Rias much to Sona's chagrin.

We were met by Tsubaki at the gates of the estate.

"Welcome Lady and Lord Gremory." She bowed professionally.

This meeting was my first as Lord Gremory and by receiving us, the Sitri were showing that they had no problem with me ascending to the position.

I felt Rias grip my arm lightly as a smile came to her face.

She really loved all this.

"My my, why so formal, Tsubaki-chan? We are friends. Chill out." I smiled, making the girl smile as well.

"Oh please, with all the flirting between you two, I would expect us to be more than friends soon enough." Rias rolled her eyes jokingly, making the girl blush.

She was always fine with me getting other girls in my life. In fact, she enjoyed other company too although till now, it had only been with Sakuya.

We had a mutual understanding between us regarding who we bring into our relationship though and this was a part I respected.

If she was sacrificing so much for me, this was the least I could do.

"Congratulations, both of you." Tsubaki greeted us. "I couldn't do this that day….well you know…."

"...yeah….well, let's not talk about that and thank you, Tsubaki-chan. So, tell me how have things been since then? I have heard that there was too much chaos and all. All of you were interviewed too." I made some small talk while we walked towards the mansion.

"Things were pretty wild after the Press Conference. After you left the Satans were questioned about the veracity of the products and when they affirmed, they gave our examples to show the increase in strength."

"So basically advertisement."

"It….can be stated that way." She hesitated before nodding.

"And how did Sona take it?"

"Sona is quite happy and she got to show people a glimpse of her new strength. With this, and the majority of the more….conservation faction in the council….gone….she can push her plans for the Rating Games School. Everyone in the peerage is looking forward to it."

"Well, I guess some good things came out of it."

"Any idea about what the ones who were banned from our business did after we left?"

Tsubaki winced at the question.

Rias noticed this. "That bad, eh?"

"It's probably worse. They demanded that the ban be removed and their territories be allowed to buy selected products too. Obviously the Satans denied it on the argument that all of this business belongs to Shin only and he is someone not solely related to the Devil faction. They were in an alliance with him but have no control over his businesses. They still made noise and had to be escorted out by the peerage members of the Satans. Lady Serafall hasn't stopped getting calls since last night. I expect you will be getting a lot of visits these few days for the reestablishment of trade with those territories."

"Hah….well too bad for them. We are already sold out for the next five years. Any orders they make will have to be custom and custom orders cost several times more than normal ones." I smiled at the girl.

"You….sigh, I would rather not think about those things. Your thoughts are beyond my comprehension." Tsubaki shook her head with a smile.

As we finished our talks, we reached the mansion.

Inside the mansion, the Sitri family was waiting for us.

To my surprise, even Serafall was there, although she looked exhausted.

"Welcome, Lady and Lord Gremory." Lord Sitri greeted us and I wouldn't lie, it felt a bit weird being called that, especially when I had completely decimated that guy just a day or two ago.

At least Rias looked happy so I smiled and went along with it too.

"Please, just call me Shin. We are friends after all." I shook hands with the guy.

He was after all one of my first official allies in this world.

As expected, the man smiled and offered me the seat. "Please, have a seat."

We took the seat and I looked at Serafall and smiled. "You look tired."

She rolled her eyes. "And whose fault do you think that is?"

"The 'idiots' who tried to target me. What can you do? Not everyone has a sense of self-preservation." I replied.

"That just makes them more annoying. You have no idea how many times I had to stop myself from just freezing all of them into a popsicle. Their demands are getting more and more outrageous. I initially thought Ajuka's methods were a bit excessive but now I think that he might have been a bit too soft on them. And these are the people who took over leadership after their original house heads were arrested in the scandals. I seriously want to have them all take an IQ test just once to check if their heads are straight." She complained.

Wow….she must be pissed beyond words for her to behave like this.

She almost never broke her facade, especially in front of younger generations.

"Oh, did someone propose something ridiculous? Like putting a noose around my neck or something like that?" I asked her. It was amusing to see this version of Serafall too.

She rolled her eyes. "No. They have that much sense. Your show against Riser scared them out of their wits. And since you did everything according to the rules, no one can even ask us to force you to do anything." She looked pleased at that part.

"Someone did however propose to make new laws to force you to trade in all parts of the Underworld but that wouldn't work as they themselves had cut off that route with a formal magical contract. That contract cannot be broken as long as you don't agree." Lord Sitri said with a sigh. "I think you will be getting visits from them everyday till you decide to break that contract."

"Yes, too bad I will be travelling for a while and then be busy with my current projects. Not to mention, I already have all my stocks sold for the next five years or so. I can only apologise for any new business requests." I gave him my best smile.

"You are really going to hang them for five years?" Serafall asked.

"If my anger calms down by then….something I highly doubt. If the people in those territories want the products, they could always change their residence, shift to other territories." I offered.

"That would ruin them completely."

"And? I don't see how any of that is my problem."

"Shin."

"No Sera. I don't want to talk about this topic anymore." I replied with a stern look on my face. "I couldn't care less about any of their political games. To be honest, I wouldn't have even bothered if they did this to someone else as long as they are not related to me. Hell, the worst I would have done to someone attacking me directly would have been breaking their limbs publicly. But these fools, although not directly….they went after my wife….that's a line I am not going to so easily forgive people for crossing."

She to her credit didn't say anything more and just let out a sigh and finished leaving the topic.

I however continued. "If I show them any softness this time, it would just be an open signal for the rest of the world to try and go after my loved ones."

Lord Sitri spoke to calm down the tension. "Please don't take it the wrong way. She is just worried that if things went too far, some houses might lose too much of their people and businesses and if this goes on for a long time, they might lose their Pillar status due to going bankrupt. There are less than half the Pillar Houses left right now and no one wants to lose more houses. All the Satans have been running damage control since the incident non stop."

"You know….that's easily solvable by changing the laws. Being bankrupt doesn't mean going extinct. I am pretty sure there are many houses which are still alive, even Pure Blooded members and yet they are extinct due to bankruptcy. How many of these houses were helped? I have seen the information and these same people were behind the bankruptcy of some of those houses. If you change the law, not only can they survive going extinct, some of the extinct houses can come back, increasing the number of Pillars."

"And it's not like they cannot do anything else to earn money. Several of them have businesses in the human world as well. They will be able to do just fine. If anything, the lack of funds will keep their heads straight." Rias added from my side, making me nod my head.

"Okay okay, we are drifting off to a completely different direction. Let's not ruin the day with discussions about idiots. How were the talks with other Houses?" I asked Lord Sitri.

I had asked him to talk with other houses who had decided to stand back in the whole debacle and ask them for an alliance.

"You ask that as if they have any chance of saying no. Lord Agares has agreed to join with all his supporters. The Barbatos and Belial were already your supporters. You already have our support and now even the Gremory. I talked and the Glasya-Labolas have agreed to join the alliance. The Astaroth are going through some trouble due to the sudden disappearance of their heir so they didn't answer. We might get an answer soon and I think it will be a positive one. We will see more names in the next month or so." He then looked at Rias. "You should probably contact the Vapula and see if they want to cooperate with us."

"Hmm." She nodded.

Serafall looked like she was about to say something but hesitated.

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"I think you should talk to Ruval Phenex. He's the current acting Lord of the Phenex House and their house is in a very bad condition. We checked and neither he nor his brother, little sister or mother knew about anything. It was all between Riser and his father." She said after some hesitation.

This was something I already knew. I was after all the one who gave Riser his power.

I looked at Rias and she shrugged. "Ruval did try to talk to his father and stop the whole thing. Too bad Lord Phenex was lost in his own ambitions."

"I see. Very well, I will talk to him." I said.

At this moment, Sona also came down.

"Welcome Rias, Shin, or will you have me call you Lady and Lord Gremory?" She asked with a smirk.

"Only if you let me call you Magical Girl So-tan." I replied with a smirk of my own, making the girl's smugness fade.

My eyes then went to the thing she was carrying.

The Pokemon Egg I had given her.

Realising my gaze, she answered my unasked question. "It's starting to move more and more nowadays. I think it's going to hatch soon."

"Oh. That's great! Mine hasn't shown any signs yet." Rias pouted looking at me.

"That's not on me, you know. Different species take different time to hatch. There is nothing I can do about it."

"But can you at least tell me what type of pokemon is going to hatch?" She asked.

"Nope….that wouldn't be a surprise now, would it?"

"Even Onee-sama's pokemon egg moves once in a while." Sona added.

"Eh, really?" Serafall asked, surprised.

"You were just too busy running around to notice it. Mother has been taking care of them." Sona said.

"I think you should spend more time with the egg and try to be the first person the pokemon sees when they hatch. It helps establish a good relationship with them. Most of the time they imprint on you and consider you their parent." I added.

Just as I completed, the egg in Sona's hand shook again.

"Oh, you are right. It's almost there."

"Now, keep that aside Sona. It's dinner time already." Lady Sitri said and Sona followed.

The dinner with the Sitri family was nice.

It was when we were about to leave, a cracking sound sounded.

Seriously, what timing.

We turned towards the source of sound and saw not one but both the eggs cracking at the same time.

"Quickly, go and stand in front of them." I asked and both the sisters did.

Both of them waited patiently and sure enough the two eggs broke and out came the pokemon.

I smiled as I already knew what they were going to get.

Sona's pokemon was Psyduck.

She could probably give it a headache with her lectures and make it use its powers.

Other than the fun part, I personally think it suits her well. The Psychic attacks could allow her to use several of her strategies in the Rating Games and she can even use Water attacks along with it.

As for Serafall, she got an Igglybuff.

I had chosen this for her as it matched her personality quite well….and I thought it would be hilarious to see Jigglypuff singing in her concerts.

Then again, knowing Serafall, she would probably record lullabies for the kids of the Underworld with Jigglypuff's voice as the background.

Both sisters looked happy with their gifts and we left them to spend some time with their newly hatched pokemons. Honestly, I had thought Sona would be annoyed with Psyduck but she looked quite happy instead. I mean newborn pokemons were cute so it was understandable to some extent.

"I wonder when my pokemon egg will hatch. Can't you even give me a hint about which pokemon it is?" Rias pleaded.

"Hmm, it's cute." I smiled.

"That's not a good enough clue."

"But it's a clue, right." I laughed as we entered the place where our peerage members were staying.

Even Lily was staying with Venelana and Shuri as we were worried about their safety back in the human world while everything went on here.

Luna, Hermione, Ingvild and Fleur were sitting in the living room, each working on something of their own.

Hermione had a book with her, lost in her own world.

Fleur was doing Luna's hair and discussing songs with Ingvild. Both of them were talented singers and had found common ground in music.

We joined them and chatted for a while.

Just then a magic circle lit up in the room. Out of it came Rosewiesse.

She looked… tired.

"Rose… everything alright?"

"Shin? Oh… it's nothing… it's just…"

"What is it? Weren't you supposed to be visiting the stores today?"

"Hmm, I was there."

"So… how are the sales going?"

"We are out of stock."

"Huh?!"

"We ran out of stock just an hour after opening up."

…

…

…

…

"I am pretty sure I had provided five thousand of the common potions to each shop and five hundred each of the rare ones."

"Yes. And they all ran out of stock."

"Among the twelve stores the one which took the most time to run out of stock was the one in the Barbatos Territory and even they took just half an hour more than the rest, probably because they were on the border territory. Now everyone is asking for new stock. I am here to send the next batch of stock to them."

"That… are people buying in bulk? I think I told the storekeepers to keep the number of items sold to each person limited." I asked.

"We did that… it's just that we didn't expect there to be so many people on the first day alone." Rose answered, looking between a mix of happy, surprised and tired. Her face then grew serious. "I noticed some strange patterns in the sales though."

"Strange patterns?"

"Hmm. Each person bought everything they could buy at the start, till they couldn't buy anything more. I… I think there might be groups of people from the same organisation or servants of some High Class Devils each buying as many as they could to stock up on them."

"Mhh, I can see how that could be problematic. We did open up in a hurry so I couldn't devise a good measure against it. We will have to make a plan soon."

"Really? Is it bad? I mean we did make full sales, right? Then what's the problem? Isn't that a good thing?" Hermione asked, looking up from her book.

"I wish it were that simple." I shook my head at her question. "Those people… they were probably buying things to sell them off in the black market. And while that alone is not my problem, they will most likely sell the items to the ones who were forbidden from buying them at a higher price and while I don't care about that, disturbing my sales to my intended customers is not something I can permit."

"Not to mention they could make fakes and sell them with the original, tamper with the products which could lead to unnecessary rumours. Lastly, this would also prevent the spread of our products to the normal people as we had intended for it to. Worst thing is that we can't do anything about it either as they did stay within the laws to do all this."

I thought for a minute and decided on the next plan of action.

"We will start a card system for sales of our product. This will help control the sales of products. I will ask some people to track down the ones involved. We do have permission from the Satans to make our products illegal in certain territories. So if anyone is tracked down to those territories, we sue them. They want to be petty, then I will show them how petty I can be."

I just need some more time before Diablo's plans come to fruition. After he is free, I will point him towards these people.

Let them face the wrath of a Primordial.

"For now, I will talk to the Lords of the territories and ask them to regulate this matter." Rias added.

Rose nodded.

"Anything else?"

"That… I…" She hesitated.

"What? You don't need to hesitate, you know."

"I… my grandma asked me to bring you over when you were free."

"...hahahaha… is that why you were so shy?" I laughed. She was adorable. "Tell her that I will come and visit her soon. We just need to stabilise the business a bit first. Odin awarded me with a territory in Asgard too. I need to check it out too. We can go and visit her then."

She nodded, her ears still red from embarrassment.

"Now, what was the net income from today's sales?"

We got into some more discussions about our business.

x_

"That's it. I am fed up." I stood up, annoyed. "These people are annoyingly persistent. Doesn't the Underworld have a restraining order of some kind for people like this?" I asked.

"Unfortunately no. We haven't exactly caught up to the modern laws yet. In case you forgot, I am from the youngest generation here. The previous generation, the generation of our parents, were born even before the formation of any modern nations. Most devils alive are of similar ages and they have always lived with these laws their whole life. Sure my brother and the current Satans have added some new laws but even they couldn't push them too far. Things will change but it will take some time."

"Will killing some people make the process faster because they are really annoying me to death. It's the nineteenth attempt to contact me in the last hour. How did they even get my new number?"

I had really underestimated the shamelessness of these people.

Now I understand why Serafall and Lord Sitri were asking me if I was sure I was going to go forward with this.

They knew these bastards would try to annoy me like this.

"Hah… trust me, I am just as annoyed. You have no idea how many marriage offers they have sent since the end of the Press Conference. They didn't have your address so they are sending it to the Gremory House. Seriously, did I not show off well enough? Are these people really so unafraid when it comes to profit?"

"Technically they aren't doing anything illegal, dear. Just ignore them. The servants have all been instructed to deny any of them entry inside the mansion." Venelana said.

I had been extremely busy churning out potions all day. Maybe the workload was making me irritable.

"It was supposed to be my honeymoon dammit. You know what?…" I stood up and looked at Rias. "Let's go to the other world. I am not going to let these people destroy our honeymoon." I will also get the chance to work in peace there.

"Are you sure? We were going to wait until everything settled here." She asked.

"Yes, but I didn't expect them to be so annoying. It's been just a week since the conference and they have already annoyed me this much. If I stay here any longer, I think I might accidentally kill someone." The Satans are also busy with the peace agreements with several factions and dealing with the aftermath of the Marriage and Press Conference so couldn't offer much help. Not to mention, it didn't feel right to bother them for every little thing.

Thankfully, Chysis and Runeas were helpful in keeping them at bay as much as possible but even they could only do so much.

She didn't hesitate either. If I was annoyed while being in my lab all the time, then she was the one who had been out and attending meetings all the time.

I looked around and the ones in the room looked like they needed a break from these too and directly left for the One Piece World, summoning them with us.

We could all use a break.

x_

"Ahhhh, this is life." I lay on the beach of Wano watching the girls play in the ocean.

Taking a break was the correct decision.

The workload was stressing me out even with the use of Shadow Clones.

We had another ceremony here too, to make up for the debacle caused in the Underworld. I didn't want Rias to have that kind of memory when she remembered our marriage. She appreciated it too.

The people of Wano and all our allies were hyped up for it and partied for three days straight. Say whatever one might about pirates but these people knew how to party.

After the party ended, I took Rias around the world to several islands to have some alone time.

The One Piece world was beautiful and while it was still recovering after the destruction of the World Government, there was no denying the fact that it would only become more beautiful over time.

We stayed on an uninhabited island for two weeks all by ourselves fully enjoying our honeymoon before returning back here.

The rest of the girls were feeling left out so we decided to go to the beach today and thus we're here.

I had even invited Kiba and Law but both of them denied. Kiba wanted to train with the swordsmen at Wano while Law wanted to study the books on medicine he had gathered from the Underworld.

Rias was dragged away by Akeno to play in the ocean while I decided to sunbathe on the sand.

There was only one word which could describe the scene in front of me.

…bouncy.

Suddenly, I felt someone approaching me and looked up to see Hancock in a swimming costume walking towards me, carrying a huge tray of food and drinks.

Hancock… she has been… oddly well behaved. In fact, even during our marriage, she participated as a member of Rias' peerage and had even joined the Rating Game, although Rias fought alone there.

Although I hadn't paid much attention back then it was seriously odd.

Now that I think about it, not just her.

Even Shion and Jibril were very oddly well behaved.

As I was thinking of this she reached near me and sat down.

"Shin-sama, I brought something for you to eat."

I looked at her again.

She was wearing a black swimsuit. Her long hair was flowing down the back and sitting on the sand while there was a healthy blush on her cheeks as she sneaked peeks at me while trying to prepare drinks.

This woman was so obvious.

My eyes went down to her legs…

Hancock had legs for days.

She noticed my stare and blushed harder. "W-what is it, Shin-sama?"

"You look nice in that swimsuit." I smiled.

"Ah… Shin-sama called it nice, does it mean…"

…and there she went again.

Well… since she was offering, who was I to deny.

I got up slightly and moved beside her, laying my head on her lap.

She froze at the sudden gesture but then her face became as red as Rias' hair. She didn't move from there but knowing her as I did. I knew she had gone into full dream mode.

I however ignored that and lay comfortably on her lap.

Beautiful girls in swimsuits playing in the ocean in front of me while I lay in the lap of another drinking juice.

Yeah, this is life.

x_

"Invite me to Heaven?" I asked as I looked up from my work.

"Yes Master. Lord Michael himself sent the invitation through Lady Serafall." Sakuya replied dutifully.

"Did he specify any reason?" I asked, confused. "Is it perhaps something related to the Shop opened in Heaven?"

"He didn't specify anything and said that he would discuss it with you personally."

"Oh… alright. Tell them I will come. Actually, go and ask Luna, Asia and Jibril if they want to visit Heaven with me?" I added remembering the three girls.

"Yes Master."

"Where is Rias?"

"Lady Rias has gone to visit Lord Sairaorg at the House of Bael."

"Oh… so she went there today. Hmm, I see. Thank you Sakuya." I thanked her and returned back to my work.

Working in the One Piece world did help me catch up with a lot of work but I had to prepare for the auctions next.

It was the first auction and I wanted to make it huge, something that will make my name a brand among Supernatural Factions.

For that I needed products which could truly entice them to make high bids.

- Rias Gremory -

"They are taking it hard." Sairaorg sighed.

He looked tired, something which just seemed off for his character.

"Father hasn't left his room since that day. Only mother can enter the room and bring him food and necessities sometimes. He wasn't even taking those at first but he has at least started eating a few days ago."

It had been two weeks since her marriage and the whole debacle that day.

After their visits to various houses, Shin became busy with work. The constant orders from the potion shops and the upcoming auction in two weeks didn't leave him any free time except at nights, something that both of them had refused to sacrifice for anything.

The final straw on the camel's back was the repeated visits from the Houses who had banned Shin, wanting to establish trade with him again. They had really underestimated the persistence of these people.

Finally, they decided to take some time off in the One Piece world. They had planned for another marriage there too and it gave them a chance to take it easy and work at their own pace.

It gave them the much needed alone time for their honeymoon as well as time to complete the batches of potions for Shin's business too.

She finally took some time off to visit the Bael's to meet Sairaorg. Akeno had followed her too.

"I am sorry. Shin… he… sigh. We… we didn't intend to hurt the ones who were not involved."

"You don't have to apologise. I was there with you too. I saw what they had done. Shin… I know him. He is not the type to just take such a thing lying down. Shin saved mother from her illness and they tried something like that even after all that… It might be a bit cruel but they got what was coming to them."

"But Magdaran and the rest?" She asked.

Sairaorg actually smiled at this. "Actually, believe it or not… Magdaran is the one who took all this the best."

"Eh?!"

"Magdaran… he was always pressured by father to be an ideal Bael heir, while he himself wanted to pursue a career in Botany. He has done very good work in the field of Botany too, reviving several lost flora in the Bael territories. All of this however wasn't appreciated by father and even mocked sometimes. He has been… quite peaceful since losing his Demonic Power. I think the whole thing had been weighing more on him than I had thought at first. While he was a bit shaken at first, he is adjusting much better than anyone else and is even flourishing now."

"This… I am glad."

"How is he?" Sairaorg asked.

"Shin, he has been very busy. He wanted to come but didn't think the rest of the Bael house would welcome his presence."

"That… I appreciate his concern. Also, sorry for not visiting the Gremory house sooner. Things have been a bit hectic lately."

She nodded and suddenly remembered something, she summoned her magic circle and brought out a few things. "Shin wanted to give this to you as an apology for the ones who got caught in the whole mess as a collateral."

He raised an eyebrow at the glass orbs and a ticket she had given him and picked one up.

"Are these?"

"Artifacts made by Shin. One of them has the same power as Whitebeard's Tremor Tremor Fruit while the other has a Logia Type Forest Forest Fruit. I didn't know why Shin would send that one but now I think I know."

Sairaorg looked at the glass orbs and smiled slightly. "Hmm. I remember telling him about Magdaran and his hobbies. He remembered maybe. Thank you. I am sure Magdaran will appreciate it."

"The last one is a ticket for the Auctions. We hope you will join us too."

He nodded. "I will."

She talked about some more things with him and met Misla. It was when she was leaving that a servant came to her and invited her to Zekram Bael's mansion.

"Rias… you don't have to go there if you don't want to." Sairaorg intervened, looking at the servant with suspicion.

"No… it's fine. I want to meet him too. I want to know why he tried such a thing even after Shin had always tried to help him.

"Then I will come with you too." He insisted, not leaving any room for arguments.

She, Akeno and Sairaorg followed the servant and teleported to a different part of the Bael territory which houses Zekram's mansion.

Zekram Bael had publicly left all involvement with the affairs of the Underworld.

This obviously was just for show. If he had actually stepped away from the affairs of the Underworld, none of this would have happened in the first place.

A casual look around showed that there were far more guards around the mansion than what she had seen the last time.

It made sense too.

After all, they had made many enemies in all these millenia. Before this wasn't an issue due to their power, both personal and political. Now however… neither Zekram nor most of the Bael House members had any ability to protect themselves after having lost their ability to use Demonic Power as well as bearing the brunt of the whole incident.

They might have some pull among the houses who had banned Shin but she doubted they would be of any help to the Bael. After all, they were desperately trying to get Shin's help right now.

Shin's presentation in the Press Conference had changed everything.

They might not have been deterred so much if it had been just the artefacts and basic potions like Health, Magic and Stamina. After all, those might not have caused much waves among the common people as the common people hardly needed or could afford those things.

Both sides knew this and that's why, even when against the Satans at such a difficult time, they went ahead to ban him.

That said, no one could have predicted Shin's next move.

Everything had changed after the announcement of the Fertility Potion.

That one thing made it a thing which involved the common public of the underworld, suddenly shaking the very foundation of these houses.

After all, a ruler is only a ruler when he has people to rule over.

A True Checkmate.

That's why now they were jumping around like headless chicken, lining up outside the Gremory House at all times to meet him.

Rose was spending half of her time everyday to keep them at bay.

As they reached the door to Zekram's room, the servant stopped. "Lord Zekram is waiting for you."

They nodded and opened the door and entered.

She kept her guard up but there was no one else in the room except Zekram. Her Observation Haki didn't sense anyone else around them either.

He looked up from his seat and nodded towards the seat in front of him.

She took a seat and Akeno stood behind her.

It was time to have a talk.

- Euclid -

"The dragons have started to awaken from their hibernation. They will be completely awake in around a week at best." One of the researchers said as he looked at the vital signatures of the thousands of Evil Dragons in front of them.

All the suggestions made by Noir were useful, elevating the power of these Evil Dragons by an extra level.

Each of them was exuding power comparable to a High Class Devil, a huge improvement to the Middle Class level they were expecting before.

Twenty thousand High Class Evil Dragons… that was a force strong enough to deter most factions… and yet, when he thought of the enemies they were going to face, he wasn't sure of what to expect.

He had been confident of completely razing the Devil Faction with this army, the Rating Game at the crimson haired bastard's sister's marriage had shattered all delusions of his. That kind of power… that was not something numbers could make up for.

Not to mention the fact that was revealed in the Press Conference later on.

Potions which could increase the power of someone permanently… and those pretenders had used it too.

He had seen the full power of those two abominations and he knew that they didn't stand a chance against them if their powers were increased.

Maybe Noir could… with his anti-magic field but the rest would be hard pressed in a fight. The appearance of that damned Champion of Death had completely destabilised their plans.

Even now, several other pantheons were joining those fakes to establish a peace treaty, making their work harder with each passing moment.

How could they win like this?

"Uyahahahaha why are you looking so glum, Euclid?" He was shaken off from his thoughts by the arrival of Lord Rizevim.

He quickly bowed while the man continued.

"Is there some problem with the experiment?"

"No, my Lord. They have all stabilised at High Class level of power, some of them even reaching the cusp of reaching the Ultimate Class… but… will this be enough?"

"Obviously not. Just this would be far from enough. But why do you assume we cannot push them any higher?" He brought out a cup from his cloak.

A closer look made Euclid realise what exactly that thing was.

"The Sephiroth Graal!"

"Exactly. The prized cup of dear Grandpa. Use this. Modify them all. Add the DNA of the dragons from legends into them. Push their powers higher. Don't worry. We will get more backup. It's about time, dear Mother, to lend us a hand to spread evil to the world once more." He brought out a vial of blood and presented it to Euclid.

Euclid opened the vial and the smell and power from the blood made him dizzy for a moment. He quickly collected himself and looked at Lord Rizevim in awe.

"This is?"

"Shocking, isn't it? This is my good friend Noir's blood. The blood of a Primordial Daemon. We are going to use this and my mother's body to create a new race of Devils. If the current Devil race has forgotten their original cause, to spread evil and are moving towards something as ridiculous as peace… then it's our duty… my duty as the son of Lucifer, to remove and then replace them with a new and better Devil Race."

Euclid's eyes widened as he understood the implications of these words.

"Moreover, Hades has contacted us with a group of like minded Gods hoping to lend us a helping hand. It seems that the rapidly aligning Pantheons and the peace is not being appreciated by everyone. Many of the Gods from the allied Pantheons are pissed and want to remove the core reason for all this, the Champion of Death, Shin… The boy is not only collecting allies but also making enemies at the same time. After all, not everyone wants peace. And rightfully so. Why would someone want something so disgusting and overrated?"

That… made sense. Every pantheon had warhawks who detested peace.

WIth the condition of being allied to the Three Factions to participate in the auctions, many Pantheons had joined it.

It was only reasonable that it would ruffle the feathers of these warhawks.

"Now… will this be enough for us to go through with our plan?"

"Yes… yes, it will, my Lord."

"Great. Then we attack the core of it all… the Auctions of the Miracle Maker, Shin."

x_x_

Support Me on: pat reon * /crossedge

Subscribestar *.adult* /crossedge

Join me on my Discord server discord *.gg* /RNNZyyert4

Beta Note: The advance chapters are in order of what is updated, a first Tier will not get 2 advanced chapters for every story, only the next two to be released.

Beta Reader: LuluViBritania (FF.N, SB, WN and QQ)/-LuluViB99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author's Note:

Look whose back once more.

'The Game Must Go On' finally won in a poll and is back from an over two years hiatus.

Many things happened in the chapter.

Rias and Shin are enjoying their newly married life.

Their peerage members are settling in while Shin's business expands.

Obviously, there will be some hiccups here and there but nothing a small vacation didn't solve quickly.

We also got to see how Sairaorg and his family were doing.

In the next chapter, we will see the talk between Zekram and Rias and know why he did what he did.

There was also the grand evul scheme of Rizevim and Euclid… and what exactly is Diablo planning in all this?

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.