At the same time, in another luxurious room—
This was the room of the star of today's event.
"Rias, you've finally reached this stage."
A girl with shoulder-length black hair, glasses on her delicate and intellectual face, sat with her legs together in a perfectly ladylike posture, exuding a cold and composed aura.
The black-haired girl's gaze was fixed on Rias, who sat before the dressing table, grooming her vibrant red hair.
It was a vivid red, like a precious gemstone.
Her figure was voluptuous and firm, her skin porcelain-white and radiant.
Her blood-red hair flowed down to her waist, and her princess-like beauty was complemented by bright crimson eyes.
"Is that so? I kind of wish this moment had come a bit later."
Usually full of confidence, today there was an unmistakable trace of worry in her expression.
Sona frowned slightly, walked up to Rias' side, and patted her lifelong friend gently.
"What's wrong? This isn't like you, Rias."
Still combing her hair, Rias responded without turning, but the mirror clearly reflected her rolling her eyes.
"Sona, you know this already. After my debut ceremony, my engagement matters will be brought up again."
Sona fell silent immediately.
Because when it came to this topic, she really had no right to tell her friend to cheer up.
As heirs of pure-blood devil families among the 72 pillars, the two of them enjoyed the privileges of their heritage—but they also bore the heavy responsibility of producing heirs.
Especially after their older siblings abandoned their family positions to become Maou, the duty of continuing the bloodline now fell squarely on their shoulders.
And so, even when they were still in their teens, the family and the elders had already arranged marriages for men who would marry into their line.
Since they were the final successors of their families, marrying out was simply not an option.
The two girls, both strongly opposed to such arrangements, naturally could not accept it.
For Sona, her engagement was also officially put on the agenda right after her debut ceremony.
However, she still managed to take advantage of the fact that her fiancé was an incompetent and arrogant fool.
Through a bit of verbal provocation, and under the witness of the Devil King Serafall, she used a game of chess to dissolve the engagement that she was extremely dissatisfied with.
And what did this amount to?
It amounted to—!
The two girls, who were originally sisters in misfortune, had gone their separate ways. She herself had slipped away like greased lightning, leaving her dear sister still suffering in the sea of misery.
"If only your family hadn't arranged that engagement with the Phenex House..."
Sighing helplessly, Sona could only utter those words as if venting her frustration, trying to comfort her dear friend.
"There's nothing we can do about it. It's just the way things are. The current generation of the Phenex family is just... too fertile."
At the mention of her fiancé, Rias's expression immediately turned ugly.
Greedy, lecherous, disgusting in appearance, and pathetically weak!
As soon as the engagement had been arranged, Rias investigated her fiancé right away—and what followed was sheer and utter disappointment.
First of all, he was incredibly lecherous.
It wasn't just what he did in public—even the way he chose his peerage members had nothing to do with their strength or potential. He only cared about their appearance and body shape.
Sharing a bed with multiple women every night, throwing wild debauched parties—it was all a regular occurrence.
Devils being open about their desires wasn't something Rias minded in and of itself.
She wasn't the kind of woman who insisted on monogamy. If her husband had lovers or relationships with other women, she wouldn't oppose it.
But what was the prerequisite for that?
That her man had to be strong enough—only with real strength could one afford the luxury of playing around with women.
Yet her useless fiancé—he was already over a hundred years old!
And his power level was still only that of a High-class Devil. Even then, he didn't focus on getting stronger.
He spent every day thinking only about how to indulge himself with women!
Such a useless and pathetic fiancé was exactly the kind of man Rias could never accept.
And it was precisely because he was such a good-for-nothing that the Phenex family didn't mind offering him as a son-in-law to marry into the Gremory house.
"Forget it. No use thinking about it too much! There's still time, anyway. Maybe I'll come up with a way to fix this."
After a moment of silence, Rias reached out and patted her own cheeks.
"You're right!"
Seeing her dear friend regain her confident and high-spirited demeanor, a faint smile appeared on Sona's face as well.
After helping Rias tidy the hem of her dress, Sona pushed up her glasses with her palm.
"Then let's head out. We can't keep the guests waiting too long."
…
With that, the doors to the banquet hall were slowly pushed open, and Vitan walked in.
Rustle, rustle—
Almost everyone in the hall turned to look, their eyes filled with curiosity, wariness, surprise, and even affection.
Every gaze was locked onto Vitan, scanning him from head to toe.
No wonder—Vitan had always been reclusive, rarely appearing in public. In fact, very few devils in the entire Underworld had seen his true appearance.
And since the Asmodeus family held such a prestigious status in the Underworld, it was only natural that these young devils were intensely curious about someone their own age from such a noble house.
"So that's him…"
"He really is handsome!"
"Mmh, totally my type."
"Plus, he's from that famous noble family…"
Whispers filled the room.
Most of the chatter came from the female devils.
And purely from a looks perspective, their comments weren't wrong.
The bloodline of the former Devil King Asmodeus was widely known to be the most striking in terms of appearance among all devil lineages.
After all, Asmodeus embodied the sin of Lust among the Seven Deadly Sins. Handsome looks were practically a given for any devil who inherited his blood.
However, the murmurs from the male devils were quite different.
"Hmph, sure he looks good, but who knows if he's just another pretty-faced fool!"
This came from the mind of a male devil who was secretly jealous when his female companions were drawn to another.
Of course, if you asked him to loudly proclaim that the head of the Asmodeus family was a good-for-nothing, he absolutely, absolutely wouldn't dare say such a thing.
No one at the scene wanted to bear the wrath of the current Devil King, Grayfia Asmodeus, or the Asmodeus family, who controlled the military of the Underworld.
The only exception was a man standing in the center of the banquet hall — dressed plainly, his face covered with a thick beard, his body exuding explosive muscles and an intense presence.
His eyes flickered with an unreadable gleam.
"Maybe I should challenge him to a sparring match after the banquet…"
"My hands are getting itchy."
(T/N: Be my guest man, I wanna see some ass clapping.)