The day after Rossweisse’s grandmother visited the Hyoudou residence, I found myself in an empty room on the upper floor wrapping up the details of my mage pact with Le Fay.
My manager, Ravel, stood between us, diligently overseeing all the paperwork with a special magic square at the ready. I felt nothing but gratitude for her efficiency handling all the technical aspects.
“Thanks, Ravel. Seriously. This has gone so smoothly with you at the helm,” I said while she prepared the candles and animal blood we needed for the ritual (apparently from a soft-shell turtle she had ordered from a restaurant).
“Not at all,” she answered. “You’ve found a good contract partner—that’s why it’s been so easy.”
Le Fay fidgeted in embarrassment at this praise.
A written document in the demon script would serve as the physical pact. Basically, it said such-and-such a demon was making a deal with such-and-such a mage, and once entered into, the parties could do this or that sort of thing but not these other sorts of things. It was a lot like a contract in the human world.
With a knife, I made a shallow cut on the palm of my hand, letting the blood seep out and using it to write my name in the demon script. Le Fay did the same, writing her name in magical letters in her own blood.
With that, the paperwork was complete. All that remained was to conduct the formal ceremony. Le Fay and I would step into the magic square drawn in animal blood and recite the pact spell to each other.
It wasn’t long before the square started emitting a strange glow.
“I, Le Fay Pendragon, hereby request a pact with the Pawn Issei Hyoudou of the Gremory Familia. Join with me and become my ally.”
Apparently, this spell was on the simple side. Depending on the type of pact, it seemed you might need to add extra elements touching on your background and the details leading up to the pact—but since Le Fay and I already had a bond of trust, we could skip all those unnecessary parts.
Next, it was my turn to recite the spell I had memorized.
“I, the Pawn Issei Hyoudou, belonging to the Familia of the demon Rias Gremory, hereby vow to enter into a pact with you, Le Fay Pendragon… Um, here’s to working together.” I added a short Japanese-style bow of my head at the end.
Le Fay let out a soft chuckle. “Yes. Thank you.”
The Gremory crest floated above our heads, fading away along with the magic square now that the pact was complete.
…It was so simple. Was that really all there was to it?
I glanced over at Ravel, who nodded in confirmation. It looked like it had worked. The words on the document I had just signed were glowing red, as if they had been imbued with new strength.
“…Is that really it?” I asked, just to be sure.
“Yes.” Ravel nodded. “Issei—you and Le Fay are now business partners.”
Was this really how it was done? After all that paperwork, all those interviews and screening tests, we had wrapped up the actual pact remarkably quickly.
Well, I was happy to enter into it…
“So what are Le Fay and I meant to do now?” I asked.
Were we supposed to partner up and get involved in magic research or something?
“Ahem.” Ravel cleared her throat. “That’s up to Le Fay. If she wants to conduct a magic experiment now, she can call you on to do so. Or if she wants to do one tomorrow, she can call on you then.”
So it was all in Le Fay’s court?
“This is a five-year pact,” Ravel added. “If you can achieve strong results in that time, it will be a win-win for both sides.”
“So it’s not like we need to do anything right away?” I blurted.
Ravel nodded.
In any event, the pact was official. Hopefully Le Fay and I would be able to accomplish something significant during the next five years… For now, I would just take it easy and see how it went.
Having seen the pact procedures through to their conclusion, Ravel began preparing refreshments. She set up a folding table, placed some cups on it, and started pouring tea.
“Let’s have a cup to celebrate our success.”
A post-ceremony tea party? People often thought making a deal with a demon was a dark and creepy process, but it was surprisingly peaceful. Maybe that was because Gremory demons were unusually laid back… I, for one, had never tried to come off as scary just to secure a deal. Old demon lineages were said to have their own unique flairs when called on, but the Gremorys were nothing if not relaxed.
And so our pact-signing ritual had turned into a casual chat over tea.
“I had no idea Rossweisse’s grandmother was Gondul,” Ravel exclaimed. “She’s so famous!”
“She is?” I asked.
Le Fay nodded. “She’s a renowned master of Norse magic—rune magic, spirit magic from the gandur school, and summoning magic in the seidhr style.”
“Rossweisse uses runic formulas that incorporate unique Valkyrie techniques,” Ravel continued. “She says she devised new simplified spells all by herself.”
Le Fay pulled a notebook from her pocket and flicked through the pages. It was filled with all sorts of magic squares—designs that struck a chord in my memory. Right, they were spells Rossweisse often made use of.
“I thought they looked unique, so I copied them down,” Le Fay said. “So Rossweisse is self-taught? She must have incorporated other magic into her own designs.”
“Is that unusual?” I asked.
Le Fay shook her head. “No, it isn’t uncommon for mages to invent their own formulas. Every mage has a style that suits their own talents. But the runes Rossweisse incorporates into her magic squares are highly advanced. They might call to mind conventional Norse magic at first glance, but when you look closely, you can see they’re very meticulously crafted,” Le Fay said while pointing to a diagram in her notebook…
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. After all, I was no magic expert. I knew the basic symbols that governed different elemental attributes thanks to Ravel’s and Le Fay’s instruction, but the technical details flew right over my head.
“Kuroka mentioned something like that, too,” Ravel added. “She said Rossweisse’s techniques seemed designed to minimize energy consumption while still providing efficient defenses and attacks. If you want to compare it to a video game, you could say she’s figured out how to cast spells that would normally cost 50MP at just 5MP while maintaining the same power level. Impressive, don’t you think? It sounds simple when you put it that way, but only an expert could pull it off.”
Le Fay nodded along in agreement.
That was an easy-to-understand analogy. So she could keep the same power while reducing fuel consumption…? Rossweisse liked to fire off with all kinds of magic attacks, and every last one of them was made with efficiency in mind…?
I couldn’t believe Kuroka compared her spells to RPG mechanics… Then again, she did like to sneak into my room and play my video games all the time. I just had to take my eyes off her for a second and she would be playing this or that.
In addition, Koneko and Ravel were hanging out with each other a lot now, so it wasn’t unusual for everyone at the Hyoudou residence to hold video game tournaments. But we can put that aside for now.
…All this did leave me with one unanswered question, though.
“…We belong to the same Familia, so I know Rossweisse is a powerhouse. But why didn’t she learn the same sort of magic as her grandmother? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her use seidhr magic, let alone rune or gandur styles…”
I had learned a little about runes and spirits from Rossweisse, and I knew she incorporated aspects of them in her magic squares, but I had never seen her use full summoning or spirit magic… What she did was different. I couldn’t remember her ever claim to be good at them, either.
If her grandmother was as good everyone said, it wouldn’t have come as a surprise to hear Rossweisse could handle them as well.
Ravel and Le Fay exchanged glances, neither of them responding. Maybe they also found it strange?
Hmm. I craned my neck. She was puzzling me a lot lately… I mean, it was hard not to think about someone when they asked you to be their boyfriend all of a sudden.
“Ahem.” Ravel cleared her throat. “By the way, Issei. I heard you’re going out with her after this?”
…!
…Yeah. I was supposed to go out with Rossweisse once we were finished here. She couldn’t back down after that conversation with her grandmother yesterday. It had all happened so fast.
Rossweisse wanted to show her grandmother the fruits of our relationship while she was in town, so she came to me desperate for a favor.
…I couldn’t say no. Besides, I didn’t have anything else going on until tonight’s training session. And so, I decided to join her.
Ravel knew all this, too, but that didn’t stop her from fuming. “Going out with Rossweisse might be necessary to strengthen your bonds with the Gremory Familia, but you can’t forget about Rias and Akeno!” She leaned in close. “I think you should take them both out on a date when you get the chance…”
Th-that wasn’t a bad idea… Ravel was the one who helped Akeno calm down after she stormed out the VIP room last night.
At that moment, her cheeks turned bright red. “I—I’d like to go shopping with you, too, Issei…”
My heart almost skipped a beat when she said that!
“I’ll take you next time, Ravel. And Rias and Akeno—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Le Fay raised a hand into the air.
“You, too, Le Fay? Well, I was planning on going with everyone staying here. Either way, we need to do some end-of-year shopping, and it would be nice to go out in the New Year, too.”
The girls would probably want to stock up for the New Year holiday, especially now that the Hyoudou residence had more occupants than ever before.
““Yay!”” Ravel and Le Fay exclaimed in perfect unison.
“I will go, too,” Ophis said, popping out from the closet.
Huh?! When did she sneak in here?!
Ah… It looked like I wouldn’t have a lot of time for Matsuda and Motohama… I would love to hang out with them for a day, but no doubt Kiba and Gasper would want to tag along as well.
…
I pondered my next words for a long moment.
“…Sorry, Ravel, but could you set up an hourly schedule for the New Year for me, including training time? I don’t think I’m going to be able to fit it all in if we don’t plan it out in detail…”
Honestly, this Red Dragon Emperor sure had a packed schedule. I was beginning to think I was the most overworked incarnation of all time!