RISE (A Highschool DxD Fanfic)

Chapter 36 - Old Man, Young Men

A few moments before. . .

3rd Person POV

An old man, donning rich blue robes, with long white hair and a long white beard, and sporting a gold monocle, thoughtfully stroked his beard. "I say! Young Devils these days are nothing to scoff at!"

Beside him, a man with long crimson-red red nodded. "We are thankful for the Allfather's kind words."

The old man chuckled. "Oh you Devils and your silver tongues. Never mind, I do enjoy the lip service. So! Tell me how wonderful I am! Ahahaha!"

He and the Devil leaders had themselves a good laugh. Behind them, a gruff muscular man and a beautiful woman stood by silently. They were the old man's bodyguards; although given the old man's identity, one might think he would not need any, even with his current appearance.

"Baraqiel! Rossweisse! Come join us jolly fellows," Odin called to his two guards. "I know it's your job to protect me, but even I need to let loose sometimes, much less you two. Especially you Rossweisse, if you're so uptight all the time, you'll never find a good husband to take care of you. Hahaha!"

The woman's face turned bright red before she berated Odin. "Since when did this turn into flaming my romantic failures?!"

But Odin acted like he didn't hear anything. "Like those two that just fought, they're quite strong, the pillars of the future, dare I say. Who knows, maybe one of them is into older women. Hehe, and that human is quite interesting too. Anybody would be lucky to have him."

Suddenly, the ears of every adult within earshot perked up.

"Human? Old geezer, are you sure your eye is working well?" one of the Devil leaders said skeptically.

Odin nodded. "I didn't give up my other eye for nothing, Beelzebub. That sacrifice granted me infinite wisdom from Mimir's well. With it, how could I not tell that there was a human here?"

"Then I guess Mimir has finally failed you. You see, there were no humans invited to this gathering. No human should even be capable of entering this plane under our watch. We four leaders personally made sure that no one that wasn't invited made it in. Tonight is a night only for Devils and special guests like you. Ah, don't beat yourself too much Odin, you know the saying: there's a first time for everything. I guess it was just your time tonight. But I reiterate, everyone has made sure that there are no uninvited guests, especially human ones. Isn't that right everyone?"

All the other adult Devils nodded and murmured in agreement.

Except one.

Sirzechs Lucifer avoided eye contact with everyone around him. He showed no reaction to Beelzebub's words, aside from his constantly shifting gaze.

On Odin's side, Baraqiel's eyes scanned the room, trying to find this human the Allfather spoke of.

Odin took no offense to Beelzebub's words and smiled in return. "Perhaps, perhaps. But I am so sure of myself, that it makes me think one of us might not be telling the truth."

At that moment, Odin met Sirzechs' gaze. The old man's one good eye blinked, but Sirzechs caught the slight changes in the wrinkles around his eyes, which told him that it was not just a simple blink, but rather a knowing wink.

Still, Sirzechs refused to show any reaction to this geezer's provocations.

"Old geezer, are you calling us Devils liars?" Beelzebub said sternly.

"Ohohoho, no, not at all," Odin chuckled. "But if you would just do me one small favor."

"Wha---" Beelzebub was cut off by another Devil leader, a bald man with a goatee. "Name your price. If it is within reason, we might be able to do something about it."