Jacob opened his eyes to two beautiful women looking at him.

“I told you he was going to wake up now,” Juliet said proudly. She had felt a stir from the Ancestral Bond and immediately alerted Epagogia.

“Jaji, how are you feeling?” the Devil Queen asked.

Jacob closed his eyes again and looked inside his Meridians with his mind. His body had clearly evolved. He could feel that his bones and muscles had become stronger and that his talent had skipped from the 1st level to the 2nd one. His cultivation had suddenly increased to the 6th stage of the Cockroach realm in both Qi and Mana.

“Gained one level in both Qi and Mana. My talent has risen to the 2nd level,” Jacob stood up unsteadily on his feet. He was still disoriented from the change.

“Oh, you are a bit taller,” Juliet said. She had been almost twenty centimeters taller than Jacob, but his head was now a bit closer to hers.

“The Crohn’s is also basically gone,” Jacob observed.

It was so fast and swift I barely noticed. Another huge change came into my life just like that.

“Are you now stronger?” Juliet asked. She didn’t really know how Jacob's cultivation worked. Even though he wasn’t at the Mantis realm, he could take out Geneva in one move. Therefore, it was really hard to gauge his real strength. He was the person with always one hidden card in his sleeve.

“Not really. My main source of strength is my sword. Right now, I could probably use a bit more of Sword Aura without getting injured, but nothing substantial. It takes time to get accustomed to the Sword Aura without wrecking my body. Sorry to disappoint, still a bit weak.”

“Oh, Jaji-boy, we have to spar later!” Epagogia said, brightening up.

“I don’t think so,” Jacob frowned.

The Queen of Devils was not only much higher in cultivation, but she was almost as experienced as he was in combat. And the difference was close. If they had been at the same level, it would have still been a close fight. But right now, Jacob was so far from the woman that he would take a massive thrashing.

“Come on. We can even bet on it. I’m sure you can hit harder than what you are telling us,” the woman said, already preparing her next innuendo.

“Oh, please. We have now to make adjustments. I was going to sneak into Blacksoil and flush out the criminals,” Jacob looked over to Epagogia, “but now we might have another option too.”

“Ah, Jaji-boy, you want me to help you?” the devil woman beamed.

“Well, it would indeed save us many, many days. We can just go straight up to them and see who’s a criminal and who’s not. Even though I doubt that people would accept being brought to justice like that from a Devil.”

“Well, but you know very well that I can change my appearance,” Epagogia smiled, and her body suddenly morphed, turning into a bigger-chested version of Juliet. “Look! Now I’m a female version of your little boyfriend!”

Juliet slowly accepted the teasing as a part of Epagogia’s way of interacting with people and ignored it. Instead, she focused on the magic the Devil had just performed.

“Can all Devils do that?” Juliet asked.

“Not really. We can take human forms, but it takes practice. Very few among my kins would be able to do something like this at the moment. And the only reason I can is that I still retain the memories of my previous life. Then, I was a master in deception and illusions.”

“So,” Epagogia turned into a beautiful woman with too few clothes for the cold spring that they were experiencing in St. Peter, “I will go with my little honey pot and punish some bad boys.”

The Devil woman was an expert in many things, having lived as long as Jacob did, not counting his experience in the Plate. And she was exceptionally skilled at navigating social environments among Devils. And humans, compared to the former, were a bunch of amateurs.

“So, we go in while Juliet and a few others act as an official diplomatic contingent. If someone starts problems, we’ll take care of it,” Jacob said.

“What about Francis?” Juliet asked.

“Take them under your team. If his mother misbehaves, slap her.”

“Jaji-boy, a word?” Epagogia said.

“Sure.”

“In private,” the Devil woman said.

“There’s not much privacy when you share an Ancestral Bond with the person you are trying to hide something from, Epagogia,” Jacob said with a deadpanned expression. He knew the Queen of Devils just wanted to irritate Juliet; in turn, Juliet knew what Jacob had just thought and frowned.

On a level, it made it much easier for Juliet to deal with Epagogia. On another level, however, it also gave another way to Epagogia to get under her skin. From what she had gathered, she would not be able to punch the woman’s teeth out of her mouth without paying dearly for it.

Feeling the violence brewing inside Juliet’s heart, Jacob urged the Devil to speak.

“Well, Maria is a bit feisty, but she just wants to protect her son. I don’t think you should treat her so unfairly.”

“She tried to kill, Jacob,” Juliet spat out her words with hate.

“I did too, and multiple times at that,” Epagogia said without skipping a beat.

Juliet felt Jacob’s reaction to those words through the Ancestral Bonds and knew that Epagogia didn’t lie.

“Anyway, sugar, just give her a rest. The poor woman behaved properly with me. I found them a sweet couple of tailless humans,” Epagogia said, “as good as they make you pink creatures. So why don’t you just let me take care of her? It should relieve some of your worries since you know I can handle these matters smoothly.”

Jacob was forced to nod and go along with Epagogia. He knew she was right and she was infinitely better compared to him when it came to handling people. A Devil could be more compassionate than him; that said a lot.