My teenage high school romance comedy can't be this perverted!

Chapter 77: Past memories

Beta read by Shigiya

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-Gremory Manor-

I wondered if Rias' mother was going to dislike me after this. After all, I basically insulted her in front of everyone about how she should pay more attention to her daughter. Her blank stare showed very little emotion, stopping me from guessing whether she was angry at me or something else.

Everyone looked at us worriedly, hoping that another argument wouldn't erupt between us. But for now, I had other things to take care of.

Rias, on the other hand, had left, not saying a word as she ran out of the dining room.

I got up from my seat, "I'm sorry this dinner had to come at such an awkward moment, I'll be going to check over Rias. Please excuse me."

As I left, I did hear Shuri's voice talking to Venelana.

"I told you they would react like that if you brought up this topic. You need to learn to be more understanding, Vena."

"Haa… You're right, Shuri. The fault lies with me here for this blunder."

Feeling thankful for Akeno's mother's intervention, I left the room and went to look for my red head. It wasn't that hard to figure out where she went, having an idea of her pattern and after asking the maids where her room was. After a few times of getting lost in the enormous manor and back tracking, I finally found a door left open and the sound of sobs. This was going to be difficult, I could tell already.

"Rias?" I peeked inside, finding a room which was easily ten times the size of my room in Kuoh. Outside on the balcony, I saw Rias on the ground, rubbing her eyes, obviously holding back her tears. I approached her, not saying a word and sat next to her. "I guess things could have been better tonight."

"They… they don't understand me." She said, referencing her parents. "It was always like this, ever since I was a child, they never changed. Especially my engagement with Rizer, they barely cared about me and almost forced a wedding before I could even become a student in Kuoh."

"I won't say you're in the wrong, obviously they should have given this part of your life more thought instead of focusing on their image. But let me play the devil's advocate here for a bit, pun intended, your parents most definitely love you from what I've seen so far. They probably believed that it was what was best for you… which in turn didn't really turn out well I admit."

"You think?" Rias said sarcastically. "It's just… they always cared about the image and status of our family more than me. I know I have responsibilities as the heir of Gremory, but I also don't want to be sold off to the richest family like some trophy."

"At least now you're free, and all of it happened through your own efforts. And let me tell you, hard work betrays none, even though it doesn't assure you absolute victory — it at least gives you the consolation that you did your best. The Rias I knew from the past was a dreamer, a young girl who wanted her problems to disappear just like that." She stopped crying at least, which was good on my part. After all these years, I still didn't know how to handle crying girls. Maybe I should ask Shuri for some advice. "I'd advise you to get yourself together and go back down to face your mother. Running away and crying will achieve nothing but waste time and prove their point."

Rias rested her head on my shoulders, taking my hand into hers. I stopped talking, allowing the silence to continue as we gazed at the "night" sky for the next few minutes. It was weird, but I felt like we were being watched. glanced around a bit and noticed nothing unusual or found the shadow of anyone in particular. But even as I tried to ignore it, that feeling persisted, I even went so far as to ask Vritra if he noticed something.