Sunday arrived and Ravel was a pile of nerves. This was the first time she had invited friends to her house, and it was nerve-wracking for her.

Back in the Underworld, in devil society everything was politics and posturing, there were those she was expected to be friends with and those she was not to be friendly with regardless of her own opinion. Even those who she could consider friends would not necessarily come to her house, too many things to think about before such a thing could realistically happen. A fact that wasn’t helped by her family that was a bit too ostentatious, more than enough to make most other kids not liking to come over and feel inferior or inadequate in some way. ​​

It is not like it was Ravel’s fault that her family’s mansion included 184 giant golden statues with about 30 being of herself in several poses, one of which is a 35 meters tall and made of pure gold with huge sapphires for eyes and plenty of rubies all over it as if a dress.

The Phenex Family was the richest family of the Underworld, possibly amongst the richest of the entire world even if you counted entire Pantheons, and they made sure to show that fact to anyone and everyone around them.

So, for Ravel to have people come over was actually a bit exciting, she was a full-fledged sheltered little princess who was just glad to have her first few normal friends.

… Well, normal is a strong word considering two of them have Sacred Gears and the other one was Soma… which alone says more than enough. Even still, she wanted this to go perfectly and to not scare her friends away, and for that-

“Brother, you do remember what you should do, right?” Ravel questioned for what must have been the tenth time on this day alone.

“Yeah, yeah, I should do nothing.” Riser said tiredly, having heard this many times by now.

“And?”

“And make sure to not be caught balls deep with any member of my peerage or let them fuck one another around the guests.”

“And?”

“And make sure to wear clothes when around our guests, even if they are just humans and we can use hypnosis on them to make them forget it if they see my third arm hanging around.”

“Third arm? Really?” Ravel questioned, sarcasm and derision dripping from her tongue as she said so

Riser just shrugged at his sister’s words.

“I was born blessed, simple as that.”

Releasing a sigh Ravel said.

“Brother, not sure how to say this but yours isn’t really all that huge. It is big, sure, but not ‘huge’ enough to be called ‘third arm’ if compared to other people.”

“And how would YOU know that?” Riser asked.

“Internet.”

Riser wanted to retort, but just grumbled about her being too young to be looking at these sorts of things and that she should only look into it when she is of an appropriate age, like when she reaches triple digits in age or possibly older.

Ravel ignored her brother’s grumbling.

“And? What else did we agree on?”

“I am not to reveal to your guests our noble heritage.”

Ravel nodded her head, she did not yet want to reveal herself as a devil due to only knowing Kiyoharu and Soma for about a week and she would rather be closer to them before revealing her true nature since she didn’t know how they would react and could only hope to create close enough bonds with them so they wouldn’t run away from her when they are to find out about her race and her identity more properly.

As for Mami, Ravel would want to know her better due to also being a Sacred Gear user, but she wasn’t as relevant since they were not friends yet.

DING DONG

“They, they are here! How do I look?” Ravel said and stood before her brother, he opened his mouth but she waved it off. “Forget it, you don’t know anything anyway.”

“HEY!”

Ravel ignored him, taking off a hand mirror, looking over herself in it to make sure everything was in order. Taking a deep breath she went to the door, opening it.

“Hello, please come in.”

“Thanks?” Xuelan said with a raised brow from the other side of the door.

“Xu? Damn, I was hoping it was my friends.” Ravel said in slight irritation. “What were you even doing?”

“… Buying some snacks? I heard you were having guests so I thought it would be nice.”

“Oh, thanks.” Ravel said sheepishly, feeling slightly embarrassed over yelling out at her brother’s Rook.

“Anyway, good luck with your meeting. The girls and I will be in the master bedroom eating the snacks.” Xuelan said, making Ravel freeze as she realized that the ‘snacks’ were not for her and her guests, but for her brother’s Peerage.

Feeling irritation she turned to her brother.

“Brother, did you tell them to buy some snacks to pass the day?”

“Not at all, I didn’t tell them to do anything. But hey, if you want to have snacks when your friends come you can always just ask for delivery.” At Riser’s suggestion, Ravel looked a bit torn.

“I guess, but I would rather have it here for when they arrive.” Ravel said, wanting to be the best host possible.

“Look, if you really want some I can just send someone to go fetch some for you. Anyway, when did you say they were coming?”

“Oh, that would be at 11 AM.”

Riser just looked at his sister with a deadpan expression.

“… Little sis, it is 9:30 AM.”

“I know.”

“… I am too young for this shit.” Riser shook his head and walked away from this madness. His time would be better spent sleeping, eating, or fucking, any of them would do really.

///—///

It was about two hours later that everyone arrived and they began their work together. Everything went smoothly with the assignment apart from one slight problem.

“Soma, you do know that Joan D’Arc was not killed by ‘a cunt of a priest’, right?” Ravel said tentatively.

“Pretty sure it was some self-righteous priest cunt who ordered her death despite her being a saint.” Soma shrugged. Joan may not have talked much to him about her death, but Gilles and Jalter most certainly did. His use of the word ‘cunt’ was him being nice, conservative really.

Mami just nodded her head agreeing with him, but Kiyoraku was sighing, noting once more how ‘unique’ her friend was.

“No, we can’t use that on the final papers.” Ravel said, refusing to write such crass words in their report.

“Fine, instead of ‘a cunt priest’ we can use ‘a useless bag of trash in priestly clothing masquerading as being more than a pest.’?”

“You, you shut up.” Ravel said, completely giving up on taking advice from Soma about the wording of the homework. “I will do it, can’t trust you with that or you might actually write your foul language in the report.”

“I have to agree with you, Ravel-chan.” Kiyoharu nodded her head as she said so, the two agreeing that Soma wasn’t the best when it came to this sort of thing.

Soma just shrugged, knowing he probably wasn’t the best for this anyway. If it was completely up to him the homework would be several pages long including a precise suggestion of viable torture mechanisms that should have been implemented on the priest who executed Joan and a detailed explanation over the complete stupidity of the entire situation.

When Ravel finished writing everything she smiled to herself, satisfied with the work they did. It was well researched and very detailed work and she was proud of what she managed to do in the end. Looking at the others she saw how Mami was playing with an app on her phone, Kiyoharu was taking selfies to post on social media (she was a big hit there), and Soma…

“Soma, why are you sleeping right now?” Ravel asked as she saw the older male laying on his side and soundly sleeping. To be fair he hasn’t slept the previous night since he immersed himself with carving the bones of his hands while reconstructing them as well as taking notes on the process in case it was needed. His hands required the most extensive work considering he had to add several special magic formulas into them for some of the techniques he learned from the Hassans.

He hasn’t had a decent night of sleep since last… when was it again? Hell, even he couldn’t remember when was the last time he had a proper night’s sleep. He kept pushing forward to make sure he was as prepared as possible for when a problem arises, never satisfied with what he got.

Opening his eyes at Ravel’s shout Soma looked at her for a moment before answering.

“I slept because I felt like it. Besides, waking up to see such a pretty scene is a nice change of pace, much better than I am used to.”

… He used to wake up in the Throne due to Leonidas screaming that soldiers need to wake up early to train, and now he usually wakes up in class to an angry teacher making a scene to wake him up. So, yeah waking up to these three was a much better scene.

Kiyoharu just smiled at hearing his compliment, Mami just pretended to not hear anything too focused on her game, and Ravel’s cheeks flushed a bit.

Stretching a bit, Soma got up from where he was sleeping spoke up.

“So, with everything done I guess I am leaving now.”

“W-Wait, how about if we, hum, oh I know. We have a pool out in the back. The weather is nice today so how about going for a swim?” Ravel said, trying her best to not appear desperate or anything. She wanted to enjoy the Sunday with her friends, not have them just leave as soon as work was finished.

“That sounds nice, Ravel-chan, but we don’t exactly have the clothes for that.” Kiyoharu said hesitantly. In truth she was not comfortable with the idea of going into the pool regardless, being very self-conscious of her body.

Mami nodded her head, and to be honest even if she had the necessary clothing she wasn’t sure she would want to go for a swim anyway, not with a male around.

“Come on, it will be fine. You can use my clothes if it fits, alternatively, my brother and his female friends have, like, 40 or so swimsuits for all sorts of body types so I am sure we can find something that fits. Please, it will be fun.” Ravel said, really hoping the others would agree.

Kiyoharu and Mami did not seem overly enthused with the idea but relented in the end. But Mami made a comment.

“Well, with that many options at least we should be able to find something we are comfortable in.”

At this Ravel thought back to her brother and peerage’s general taste in clothing. Blood drained from her face as she began to pray to Satan that there were at least some options that were not too skimpy, transparent when they contact with water, or just had holes for ‘easy access’.

‘Satans, my brother and his peerage are huge perverts.’ Ravel thought in exasperation.

Looking at the girls she said.

“I will take you girls to the closet where they keep their swimsuits after I go talk with my brother so he can show Soma-kun the options for male swimwear.”

Everyone nodded as Ravel went to her brother’s room.

Entering she saw her brother laying on the ground with Yubelluna saddling him and giving him a back massage. The other members of his peerage were lazing about all over the place with some playing video games, surfing youtube, or watching movies. Basically, they were just chilling like usual.

“Brother, I have a favor to ask.” Ravel said and Riser turned his head to her, his expression was a mix of extreme pleasure from the massage and annoyance from having his day off interrupted like that.

“What do you want? Didn’t you tell me to basically hide in a corner far away to not embarrass you in front of your friends?” he asked, to which Ravel just rolled her eyes at him.

“Yeah, but now I need your help with something. It’s really quick, I promise.” Ravel said in a bratty way that only little sisters can ever truly manage.

“Well, too bad. I’m kinda busy so you can just ask your ‘friends’ to take care of it, better than having me show up and embarrass you.” Riser replied with a wave gesture for her to leave. Ravel huffed before turning and leaving the room, she could always just ask Soma to keep his shorts and use them as swimwear, if her brother was going to be making an ass out of himself.

After she left, Yubelluna turned to Riser.

“Darling, are you sure about that? She might have had something important she needed help with.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Considering it is just a bunch of young girls she probably just wanted me to take care of some inconsequential stuff or something anyway.” Riser said dismissively, he had not heard about who exactly was coming and just assumed it was just other girls from her class. Why would he bother watching over a bunch of little girls if he couldn’t even try to seduce them? It was better to stay here getting a massage and enjoying a slow day.

Back in the living room, Ravel looked embarrassed as she explained to Soma that her brother didn’t want to even let her ask him anything.

“Can’t you just use your shorts or something?” Ravel asked. Soma thought for a while. He didn’t want to use his current clothing for swimming, but there was a viable option.

“How about this, can you get me some cloth and sewing material? I can make something temporary as a substitute, if it fails, then I can swim in my shorts.” Soma proposed, to which Ravel just raised a brow.

“You know how to sew?”

“Yeah, it is no big deal really.” Soma admitted with a shrug, sewing was one of the things he learned while studying how to make mystic codes. It was essential in the production of some enchanted items.

Ravel just looked at Soma and imagined him doing embroidery and she snorted at the image, the other girls doing much the same at the ridiculousness of the very idea. He, who acted more like a brute most of the time, doing something like that was funny even as a concept.

“Fine, I’ll see what I can manage. We have some of those things laying around so you can just use them.” Ravel said as she went up to gather the materials.

It wasn’t long until Ravel brought Soma some white cloth and sewing materials for him to work with. After that, she went with Kiyoharu and Mami to find suitable swimsuits for them. Due to the difference in size, they had to search and hope that Riser’s peerage had something that fit Kiyoharu and Mami.

They found a good selection of options after search, even if about 30% of all swimsuits had holes on them or were so small that they wouldn’t actually hide anything. Under the recommendation of Ravel, of the options they got they also poured some water on the swimsuits to make sure they wouldn’t turn transparent on contact with water or were able to actually stay in place instead of ‘slip’ far too easily, nor just come off under the slightest sign of pull.

… That actually cut off a lot of possible swimsuits, about 40% of those which they had thought were viable, but they managed to find something suitable for Mami and Kiyoharu in the end.

Ravel chose a cute pink two-piece swimsuit that hugged her body closely but gave off an innocent feel, being very tasteful while also showing off her curves. Mami chose a white one-piece that had her back open but was still somewhat modest that she found comfortable to wear with some flower designs on it. Kiyoharu chose a two-piece blue swimsuit that made her look very feminine, a tube top and frilly panties.

The three hopped in the water and started playing around, happily enjoying the afternoon sun, and relaxing after finishing their work.

It was about fifteen minutes after they got into the pool that Soma joined them.

The three stopped in their tracks in shock at what Soma was wearing. And the results of his physical training.

Extreme intensity training expertly designed by the greatest warriors of humanity, all while being supplemented with healing magecraft and potions to accelerate the process and effectiveness, ann that together ensured that Soma’s body was, for the lack of better words, ripped as all hell. His muscles were extremely defined and tightly wound in a way that made them look as solid as a rock while at the same time being lean, unlike most bodybuilders.

And to make sure he was showing it all very, VERY well he was wearing a fundoshi that left very little to the imagination.

Most guys his age would be embarrassed to wear a fundoshi, but after thousands of years surrounded by heroes who considered what some would call sexy lingerie as normal wear, and the idea of shame regarding his body being beaten out of him by many teachers who taught him how irrelevant such a thing was, his perspective on what was socially acceptable in terms of clothing and his sense of shame were extensively unlike those of ‘normal’ people. Even when he was trying to pretend to be normal he instinctively couldn’t give a crap about such small issues as modesty.

Ravel closed her eyes, taking a deep calming breath, while a single thought crossed her mind.

‘… I am so glad my brother isn’t here to be a buzzkill.’

As Soma approached the water and was about to enter Kiyoharu spoke up.

“Soma-kun, shouldn’t you do some stretches before entering the water?” She said and Soma seemed to think of something, to be more precise of the times Leonidas made him do just that when it was time to train underwater combat, so he nodded.

“Yeah, I kinda forgot about that.” Soma admitted before he began to stretch. Ravel followed every moving muscle with her face so red one would think her face was trying to compete with Rias’ hair.

Soma noticed this and internally smirked, he was not dense or anything and while he wouldn’t actively approach anyone right now, some light teasing was fine just as well. As he moved about to do the stretching in just the right way to show off, Ravel shook her head after a bit and turned her face away, trying to act nonchalant, only to turn to Kiyoharu who was giving her a teasing smirk that made the blond realize that her friend had noticed Ravel looking at Soma and was using this chance to tease her.

“… That should be enough stretching, come on and enter the water. It is very nice.” Mami said, slightly irritated about the situation.

Soma stopped just as he was about to pretend to stretch while doing a side chest pose. Realizing what he was doing he chuckled a bit, feeling a bit ridiculous before entering the water.

“So, what you guys propose we do?” Soma asked, moving close to the others in the pool with Mami raising her hand.

“How about if we play some volley? It could be fun to do so and we have a ball we can use.” Mami said as she pointed to one such ball that was in the pool. This pool really had a bit of everything and was extremely well equipped which made it feel like something one would see in a water club.

“Oh, that sounds fun. I will team up with Mami-chan.” Kiyoharu said as she sent Ravel a meaningful gaze that made the young devil look down and answer.

“Well, if there is NO other option, then I guess I could go with Soma-kun.”

“Oh, you sure you can handle me, Ravel-chan? I would like to see that.” Soma said, a smirk on his face as the girl spluttered and grew red explosively making Kiyoharu laugh and Mami give a placid smile while trying not to show her emotions outwards.

With the teams divided it was time to play, and Ravel was glad for it.

///—///

Back in the room where Riser and his peerage were, Riser was feeling progressively more annoyed.

“What is wrong, darling?” Yubelluna asked.

“… It is nothing. Just, I am slightly bothered that Ravel never really told me what she wanted help with.” Riser replied. Yubelluna just smiled softly at his antics.

“How about if one of us goes to check on them and see if Ravel-sama needs help with anything?”

“No need, it shouldn’t be anything important.” Riser replied. After a short pause, he said. “But, I AM feeling a bit thirsty. So if one of you went to the kitchen to get me some water that would be nice.”

Most of the peerage felt like laughing at the hidden request of their king, he was such a tsundere sometimes, and most of them thought it was downright cute.

“I will go, master. And if I happen to pass by Ravel-sama I will ask what she wanted to ask you.” Siris said, getting up from in front of her PC. She had just finished a game of LoL, so it would be nice to stretch her legs a bit before going back to decimate some noobs and make pubescent boys cry.

Riser just nodded, pretending not to notice the mention regarding Ravel. Siris left the room while the others waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And after a few minutes of waiting Siris returned with an odd expression on her face and no cup of water in hand.

“Where’s the water you said you were going to get, Siris?” Riser questioned with a raised brow.

Siris just shook her head before turning to her king and asking.

“Master, do you know who your sister invited over?” She asked cautiously, to which Riser just shrugged.

“Just some friends from school. Why?”

Siris looked a bit tongue-tied before answering.

“I believe it would be best if you went yourself to take a look, it would be easier than explaining.” Siris said, and Riser started to get worried. Getting out of bed to go take a look, he was accompanied by Yubelluna and Karlamine (who took her knight cosplay way too seriously).

Getting to the pool Riser stood frozen at the scene he walked into. His little sister wearing a skimpy (in his ‘older brother’s perspective’ eyes) bikini while being far too close to some old pervert (again, in his ‘older brother’s perspective’ eyes) that was wearing far too little while (… that one was fair) by her side while playing what he assumes was volleyball.

Not that Riser’s mind could comprehend it properly when Ravel tried to catch the ball being sent her way and ended up tripping onto the chest of the male by her side, she looked up when she did so and Riser could see her sending eyes like those some of his girls used to send him when they had just met.

Riser could only just stay there as he stared at this for a moment before his temper rose exponentially and he yelled.

“What the hell is going on here!?”