Chapter 3

Shiro’s POV

It is now the day of our scheduled clash with the Belith House. His highness, Alice and I have already made our way to the Asmodeus Arena and are preparing to venture out into the sold out centre field. There is still no sign of Kuro. Over the last few days, I have attempted to contact him on numerous occasions. His cellphone always responded with an out of service tone and he hasn’t replied to the various mails I’ve sent either. Despite this however, his highness has remained his usual easy going and carefree self, in fact, he hasn't attempted to make contact with Kuro even once.

I was initially against the idea of Kuro venturing out into the unknown alone to find another familiar, yet, when he mentioned that it was a familiar that would provide white mage-esque options for him, I reluctantly agreed. After discovering that he was in need of a familiar like this, I attempted to contact my Grandmother and see if we could get a lesser yokai from the Suzaku Clan, which was known to be descended from the Vermillion Bird. Kuro refused my offer and stated that he wanted to acquire his new familiar with his own power. At first I was disappointed with his decision, I wore my disappointment at the fact that Kuro refused my assistance clearly. Kuro said that he only rejected my proposal because he didn’t want to indirectly use my Mother’s help. I was still unhappy but accepted his reasoning nonetheless.

We made our way into the open topped arena and were met with thunderous applause and cheering. His highness waved at the crowd and I was able to spot numerous sections that seated people with posters and banners. The majority of posters and banners depicted myself in various poses and had various headings above and beneath them. Following my performance during our battle with the Astaroth Household, a huge portion of Hell’s citizens became invested in my origins and backstory. I even came across articles in various media outlets attempting to explain the wonders of yokai and the mystical island nation of Japan and its many ancient yokai clans.

DTV stormed the villa on multiple different occasions and demanded that I give an interview. Sabrina Sitri also appeared on one occasion. Although, I’m uncertain as to whether her business was directly with myself, because she stutteringly conjured up an emergency rendezvous, shortly after his highness opened the door, grinned and said that Kuro was absent.

In spite of being worried about Kuro’s current situation, I put my faith in him and turned my complete attention toward the upcoming skirmish. I’ve seen the fighting style of the current head of the Belith House and it’s not something that can be underestimated. It seems the current head has an almost unlimited resource of demonic energy and the swordplay displayed during previous summit matches was dazzling, despite being destructive and ferocious. The head also has a huge number of vassals, however, none of them have had to take to the stage, due to the sheer dominance of their master.

The territory that the Belith House holds in the human world is the archipelago of Malta. It isn’t a very big one but has held an immeasurable strategic and political advantage for humans throughout history. The territory of Hell that goes with it, has had an equally important geopolitical position for all previous King’s of Hell. This is further exemplified by the fact that the current family of Bael, that holds the seat of King has somehow managed to assimilate the Belith House and make it into a Branch Family. Forever entrapping it, less it manages to break away by winning a King of Hell Summit and switching positions with the Bael House by force.

In spite of the Belith House’s association with the Bael House, I have not sensed an inkling of hostility from his highness toward it. I had thought that his highness would react similarly to how he did, when we were scouting the area on our arrival and were met with flyers portraying King Lucifuge Bael. I was wrong however, because his highness remained his usual self and even rejoiced when the Belith House were announced as our next opponents. Time went on and Sabrina Sitri finally surfaced and began to commence proceedings for this summit clash.

“Ladies, gentlemen and devils of all ages! It’s time for another heated King of Hell exchange! I am your charismatic and all round scorching host for this evening, Sabrina Sitri!”

“Woohooo! We love you Sabrina!”

“Booooooo, put Shiro-tan on camera!”

“Alice! We wanna see Alice! Aliiiiiiiiccccceeee, stare at us with a vacant look of disinterest!”

“I-I can see that we are all impassioned today! However, we must move on to today's fierce fight. Will it be the unorthodox and maverick like methods of the Seir House that prevail? Or will the cascading Belith House continue to carve its way to heights it has long since forgotten? We are in for a thrilling contest folks!”

Sitri-san continued to play the crowd and the Belith House entered the arena to a raucous ovation. They entered the field like an army marching to battle. The head was leading the ranks and they were all wearing gladiator like helmets that made it difficult to view their faces. Sabrina signalled for the two households to partake in the customary pre match negotiation faze and his highness, Alice and I made our way to the centre of the battlefield. Only the head mirrored this from the opposing household though.

“Ahaha, I have longed to…”

“I will make this easy for you Prince Seir, yield and become my ally. If you choose to do so, I will call off this contest and return your territory to you once I...”

“Aha, yaaaahhhh, You had to get straight down to the point didn’t you? As much as it pains my heart to turn down your…”

The head of the Belith House turned away from his highness, without allowing him to finish. However, halted prior to no longer being within speaking distance.

“Where is your one man vanguard?”

“Oh? If you’re referring to my little Kuro-kun, then he said he had to use the restroom prior to coming out. He had a little too much homemade chili last night, went straight through him ahaha.”

“Hm, So he perished in those ruins after all, can’t say that I’m surprised.”

I didn’t quite catch the last thing that the head of the Belith House said, due to the crowd arguing over who to focus the camera on. However, his highness seemed to have caught it because he looked taken aback for a split second and then broke out into a cheshire grin.

We all returned to our respective sides and the battle against the Belith House was only moments away.

Kuro, where are you?