A Fake Familiar Reborn

Chapter 11: Deal With The Devil?

Beta read by Shigiya and Paragon of Awesomeness

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To walk into the lion’s den. That’s what it had felt like for Diodora when he had first entered the halls of this palace. Grandiose in the eyes of many Devils, decorated with pillars of marble, and lavish paintings from bygone eras of the former Satans.

But he had long since learned the truth.

“Nothing more than a dilapidated hideout of a few descendants of failed Satans.” No matter what Shalba Beelzebub liked to claim, the man was but a figure — a loser at that — appearing in history books, one that most people had either stopped fearing or had completely forgotten. It didn’t help that the organization he and his fellows belonged to preferred to stay in the shadows for the time being. “Tch, but they are my only hope right now.”

The incident with his recent attempt to summon a Heroic Spirit of his own had raised unwanted attention. Despite having chosen a manor far away from any crowded areas, the explosion that engulfed said manor could not be hidden for long, and soon his brother found out about the destruction. Thankfully, the fool believed his words, and Diodora managed to pin all the blame on the Old Satan Faction as nothing more than a failed assassination attempt.

The summoning circle had been buried beneath the rubble and incinerated. He made sure that no trace of the array would remain for anyone to accidentally discover it.

Thinking about the whole incident, the heir to the Astaroth clan couldn’t help but clench his jaws with fury. “Fucking five of my maidens died! I spent so much time collecting them, poured so much resources and effort into gathering them, yet five of them vanished before my eyes! Fuck! This is not fair!”

He escaped, no, survived that day with a few wounds and burns to his arms. Hands shaking with terror as they held the charred corpse of his once-peerage maiden he’d used to shield himself. Diodora nearly fainted at that moment, but his anger and fear kept his mind running at a thousand miles a second.

What went wrong?

The preparations should have been perfect!

Despite all of his efforts, the summoning failed, and he lost far too much, gaining nothing in return for his troubles — let alone a pure maiden Heroic Spirit as his Servant. Maybe there was an error in the notes or something he had missed. He did not think for a second that this ritual might be a hoax, as his brother — the genius that he was — would have realized it in an instant. Too focused on his inner thoughts, Diodora failed to notice a shadow emerging from the darkness that quickly solidified into the form of a curvaceous woman standing right in front of him.

“Ah!” A wall of demonic power hit him face first, making the Astaroth heir stumble back to the floor and fall on his behind. The sudden impact forced a sharp cry from his mouth while the person before him smirked at his lack of grace.

“Ara, if it isn’t the heir to the esteemed House of Astaroth. How wonderful for you to finally visit.” The woman spoke haughtily, exuding an air of arrogance that drowned anything Diodora was capable of. He looked at her with barely suppressed anger, clenching his hands and gritting his teeth at her audacity.

The woman suddenly lost much of her haughty playfulness and narrowed her eyes. “Humph, how rude of you to not pay respect to me or to even announce your arrival. And even now, when standing before one such as me, you fail to so much as to bow to your superiors. You have stepped inside the halls of the true Satans, and yet you, being nothing but a mere High-class Devil, have the gall to waltz inside as if you owned the place.”