The Stars Above

Chapter 15

Written in 2021, uploaded to Wattpad on 12/24/2022

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"What's the matter, worm boy? Something on your mind?" Matilda said as she pulled up a chair and a notebook up to the couch in Kuraima's living room, with full intent on going into therapist mode.

Said Astral Champion was laying on the couch, with a nice comfy lap pillow courtesy of Helenski, while Mochi, in the form of a wyrm, had curled up on Kuraima's chest and fallen asleep like a little puppy.

"Well, y'see...Rias...apparently she had an arranged marriage with some other devil family. And since I'm a human, I can't do anything about it."

"...Ah. I see." The Desert Scourge said, scribbling random doodles across the notebook's pages that had nothing to do with the conversation.

"Although from what I can tell, Rias did try to...go pretty absurd lengths to try and break it off."

[Flashback]

"I can't believe I got cockblocked!"

"Good god, Issei-"

"Ow! Kuraima-san!"

"-Get some sleep, will ya? Sounds like you're startin' to see things."

"But I'm serious...."

[Present day]

"....I think it's best we don't talk about it in front of the kid, though."

"Mmn, fair. Probably best not to talk about it in front of our fourth in command over here." Matilda replied, nodding her head in Champ's direction where she sat on a nearby recliner. "She's givin' me the stink eye. Again."

"I have a name, you know." The Slime God's wielder responded with a scowl on her face. "And I would much appreciate that you at least address me in a way that allows me to retain my dignity, thank you very much."

"Pretty sure you lost it the moment you underestimated a woman." Kuraima remarked. "And no, you're not exempt from that just because you're a woman too."

Champ narrowed her eyes at him.

"I gotta ask, though. Where the hell did you get all that money?"

In that suitcase Champ had left on that table, was exactly JP¥1,000,000, which translated to roughly $9,262.95 USD.

Champ sighed. "I was...in a situation not unlike your devil friend's."

Wait.

She'd been caught up in an arranged marriage too?

"This pompous...mage discovered that my rich family's homestead rested upon a fairly powerful leyline. So, he hypnotized my parents into letting him marry me."

Kuraima abruptly shot up, startling both Helenski and Mochi, the former yelping and the latter squealing as she rolled off of him, only to be caught by Champ's red slime maid who...

...there are more important things to discuss right now than the reasons why a slime-girl was under the couch.

"He WHAT??"

"Exactly. So I ran away. Eventually, I picked up...my associates, most of which you..."

"They started it."

"...I can see that. Anyways, the money...I have...a few investments. They're legitimate, I swear."

"...Yeah...nothing says 'legitimate' quite like making a hard living doing crime. Okay, look. Forget about the money for now, you paid up, so that's that." Kuraima said, standing up. "Honestly? Yeah, uh, pretty impressive that you made it this far only to get your..." He glanced over at Mochi, who was trying to devour the [Rubrum Slime] maid. "...rear end handed to you by me and Sola-san. It's surprising you didn't get dunked on any sooner."

"He's right, ya'know." Matilda quipped. "You've got an entire group of people who wield never-before-seen Sacred Gears. No less than ten. Ten! Twelve if we count all three of yours, triple-wielder. Yer the luckiest, considering that your little gang of troublemakers haven't caused enough of a fuss to get on the radar of some unsavory Devil."