The Tyrant

IV: Home

I wouldn't say I'm a patient man.

When I see something I want, I have to resist my urge to spend. Often, I don't succeed. But it's always satisfying when I do.

The situation I found myself in was similar to that.

I wanted to leave my home.

I had a new one waiting for me.

A home with Caenis and Circe.

A home where I didn't have to deal with bitchy sisters, or parents who never believed a word I said.

A home where I could be free to just be Issei, the pervert.

A home where I could speak my mind and not be chastised, or treated like shit for it.

But I couldn't stay there.

Not yet.

I had to wait.

Wait for Rei to leave. Wait for an opportunity to arise, where I could talk to my parents without her interfering. It was all I needed.

And, for once, it was like the gods heard my plea.

One evening, a few days after the full moon, I heard talking downstairs. One voice belonged to none other than Rias Gremory.

I opened my door quietly, sneaking over to the stairs and leaning against the wall so they wouldn't hear me, and I eavesdropped.

"You want to take Rei on a ten-day camping trip as part of club activities?" My mother's voice spoke.

"Yes," Rias confirmed. "It's to build bonds between the club as we enjoy the outdoors. It won't be camping per say, we'll be staying at my family's villa in the mountains."

"What about lessons and such?" My father asked.

"Already taken care of," Rias promised. "Everyone in the club has rather good grades, and we've been given special permission for this."

"Well, in that case, I don't see why not!" My mother said to them. "Rei I am sure I don't need to tell you to be on your best behaviour!"

"Of course not!" She laughed. "I'm not Issei, after all!"

The three members of my family laughed.

"If you don't mid me asking," Rias spoke up. "I'm a bit curious about something. How did Issei end up the way he is?"

I froze. What?

"It must have been the incident, I'm sure," my father sighed.

"What incident?"

"It happened when he and Rei were still young," he said. "There was an incident. The incident led to Issei having lost six months of his life to Amnesia, and then we began to see the changes. He had such a promising future before then."

"What changes?"

"President, I don't think-!" Rei tried to speak, but my mother cut her off.

"Oh, Rei told us all about it," my mother said. "He was beginning to get more perverse in school! Perving on girls even at a young age, screaming to the heavens about breasts."

"Rei told you, you say?" Rias pressed. "Not the teachers?"

"No, though I've no idea why," my mother huffed. "I suppose they liked to play it off as children learning things or hitting puberty early. Rei spared no details about the horrible deviant our son was becoming."

"Yes... Yes, I suppose you're right..."

Something in Rias's tone when she said that made me pause.