"Anyway, that's the situation. Everyone, tell me what you think about Cid joining us."
In the corner, Cid watched coldly as Rias spoke with her Peerage, already thinking about how he could slip away.
He had originally assumed that when Rias said she would consider everyone's opinions before making a decision, it was just a polite way of refusing. But judging from the current situation, she actually intended to settle whether to accept his sister's "bundle deal" through a vote.
Under normal circumstances, a vote wouldn't worry him. He was quite confident in his disguise. He was confident that no one would vote for him.
A young lady from a top-tier noble family like Rias would never accept an ordinary person like him. His talent was poor, his strength was weak, and he had absolutely nothing noteworthy about him.
Anyone with half a brain wouldn't agree to let him join. But now Claire had pulled the "bundle deal" trick. If they wanted Claire to join, they had to take him along as well. That created a small possibility.
Still, it wasn't a big problem.
If the deal only involved him and Claire, the benefits clearly outweighed the drawbacks. That made the agreement possible. But what if reputation was added into the equation?
"A young lady of the prestigious Gremory family actually chose such an ordinary person as her Peerage. Miss Rias's judgment is really getting worse."
"With strength that weak, won't he become an obvious weak point in the Rating Game?"
With rumors like these spreading around, could the deal still go through?
Yes.
As ridiculous as it sounded, if what Akeno Himejima and the others had said about Rias was true, then there was a real chance she would still accept him.
He had once heard Akeno Himejima and the others talk about Rias. According to them, Rias was someone who didn't care about what others thought of her.
If she herself didn't care, then her Peerage certainly wouldn't care either. And from the time he had spent interacting with them, he could tell that each of them seemed to carry some kind of hidden past. Rejecting him because of reputation would essentially be denying themselves.
She didn't care about others' opinions, the benefits outweighed the losses, and he had spent the past year steadily building goodwill.
He genuinely couldn't think of a reason why Akeno Himejima and the others would oppose it.
"I agree. Cid looks like a pretty interesting little junior."
"I have no objections. Cid is excellent. I believe he will make a good companion."
"Mm."
See? More than a year had passed. Even if he had been bored most of the time, the goodwill he built had already reached the level of friendly or higher.
Faced with a scene that would make any ordinary background character ecstatic, Cid only felt regret. He let out a quiet sigh.
If he truly were just an ordinary background character, he would absolutely be happy about this. Becoming one of Rias's Peerage meant gaining status, bloodline, and power all at once. It would be a complete turnaround from being a background extra. No matter how you looked at it, he would not be a background character anymore.
But that was exactly the problem.
Cid had to remain a background character in order to maintain the identity of Shadow, the Eminence in Shadow. If something went wrong with background character Cid, then the identity of Shadow would inevitably be affected as well.
He needed to find a way to ruin this deal and run.
With that thought in mind, Cid watched as Rias finished discussing with Claire and turned her attention to him. Immediately, he changed his demeanor.
His body trembled slightly. He swallowed repeatedly, his eyes wandering uncertainly.
"Cid, welcome to my Peerage. From now on, you are a soldier of mine, Rias Gremory. I look forward to working with you."
You are celebrating too early. I have no interest in strapping a tracking device onto myself.
Looking at Rias, Cid thought silently to himself.
"Thank you, thank you. I'll do my best to fight for you, Rias-senpai. It's just… it's just…"
He put on a look of excitement and gratitude at being acknowledged, but used those words as a turning point. As he spoke, he lowered his head so no one could see his face.
"Can someone like me really be a good soldier for you, Rias-senpai? Maybe… maybe you shouldn't accept me as your Peerage after all. Someone like me…"
His voice stopped abruptly.
It was not that Cid did not want to continue. Claire had just shot him a threatening look. Just meeting her gaze was enough to tell how furious she was, so he had no choice but to shut up.
But it did not matter.
He had already said enough. Rias should be able to tell what kind of person he was pretending to be.
That's right. From the moment he walked in, he had been acting the whole time. He was pretending to be someone insecure, timid, socially anxious, and lacking the heart of a strong person.
You may not care about talent. You may not care about what others say.
But you should care about someone who will hold you back.
Poor talent can be compensated with effort or even physical modification. But someone with problems in their personality or mentality can become the flaw that drags everyone down at a critical moment.
After seeing me act like this, you'll definitely hesitate about accepting me into your Peerage, right, Rias Gremory?
Hahaha... haha...
At that moment, his body was radiating nervousness, unease, and confusion. Yet beneath his lowered head, a faint cold smile formed on Cid's lips.
"Hehehe, Cid, just like Akeno said, you really are an interesting little brother.
I'll introduce you to my Bishop Gasper sometime. I'm sure the two of you will get along quite well."
A soft laugh cut through the wild laughter in Cid's mind.
He hurriedly raised his head, only to see Rias covering her mouth as she chuckled, clearly amused by his earlier performance.
Cid wanted to continue speaking, but when he noticed the look Claire was giving him from the side, his body stiffened. Reluctantly, he could only keep up the act.
Plan A failed.
"R... really?
Thank you, Rias-senpai!
From now on, I'll do my best as one of Rias-senpai's Peerage."
"Alright, Cid. Here you go. These are Pawn Pieces. Let's see how many you can absorb."
After finishing her laugh, Rias took several red chess pieces of different shapes out of her pocket. She handed one to Claire, then placed the rest in front of Cid.
"Um… Rias, could you give me the Pawn Piece instead? I know that stronger Peerage members require more pieces for the conversion."
Looking at the Rook piece in her hand, Claire hesitated for a moment before speaking.
Although she never said it out loud, after all this time and effort, and still seeing nothing exceptional from Cid, she had almost given up on the idea that her younger brother was secretly outstanding.
Now she only wanted to secure a decent future for him.
As long as he could live the rest of his life without worrying about food or money and would not die because of some unexpected accident, that would be enough.
To achieve that, she had even sold herself. Through a bundled deal, she secured a noble title and Devil bloodline in the Underworld for her brother. Later, as a bridge between the Kingdom and the Devils, he would also receive a noble title from the Kingdom.
The pieces would change one's race and grant power. Different pieces also provided different enhancements.
Among them, the Rook gave the greatest boost to a magic swordsman.
Of course, she could gamble on whether her brother could absorb all eight pieces. If he managed to absorb all eight Pawn Pieces, the boost would easily be the most outrageous among all the pieces.
But as mentioned earlier, she had already given up on that idea.
So her plan was to absorb the Pawn Pieces herself and give the Rook, the piece with the greatest enhancement, to her brother. It felt a little unfair to Rias. After meeting her several times, Claire could tell Rias was a good person.
"Claire, don't worry. This Rook piece was specially commissioned by my brother from Beelzebub-sama. It's a Mutated Evil Piece."
Rias did not notice Claire's true intentions and explained with a smile. After hearing that, Claire had nothing more to say and could only accept it.
"Both of you, remember this. Once you absorb the pieces, you will become members of my Peerage under Rias Gremory. I will not treat my Peerage as servants. I will treat you as family. Devils who treat their Peerage like servants will sooner or later get stabbed by their own subordinates. Hahaha... Just kidding, just kidding. Don't repeat that outside."
"...Hahaha, right, right!"
Rias once again emphasized what absorbing the Evil Pieces meant. At the end, she made a joke to ease the tense atmosphere in the room and to show friendliness toward Claire.
Claire's body froze for a moment, and a trace of panic flashed through her eyes. However, she quickly concealed it and laughed along.
No one noticed Claire's brief reaction.
Except Cid, who had been watching everything from the side.
After carefully observing and thinking it through, he suddenly understood.
Based on what he knew about his sister, that tiny reaction alone was enough for him to be certain of one thing. Claire had definitely considered the possibility that if Rias ever made her dissatisfied, she would find an opportunity after becoming her Peerage to secretly kill Rias and take advantage of everything.
After realizing this, even more questions appeared in Cid's mind.
When had his sister become this ruthless?
Why had her strength grown so much after returning from the World Battlefield?
And why had she told him that on the World Battlefield, you should trust no one?
While he was thinking about all this, a red flash passed over Claire's body. Devil wings grew from her back.
Everyone's attention immediately shifted to Cid.
Feeling everyone's gaze on him, Cid silently picked up one of the pieces.
A red flash appeared.
Behind Cid...
Nothing appeared.
"Huh!?"
Rias immediately let out a confused sound, drawing everyone's attention to her.
"Why... why can't I sense the piece inside your body?"
Ignoring everyone's gaze, Rias closed her eyes for a moment before asking the question.
"I... I don't know either, Rias-senpai. Did something go wrong?"
Cid answered with a look of confusion and unease.
Seeing his reaction, Rias gave up expecting an answer from him. Instead, she opened a drawer behind her and took out a book to check.
After flipping through it for a while, she seemed to find something. She let out a sigh of relief and showed the page to everyone.
"I know the reason now. Look here. It says that for some people in this world, turning into a Devil can take several days, or even more than ten days, before it fully succeeds. Aside from that, there are no major problems. It simply means the body isn't very compatible, so it just takes more time."
"That's good, that's good."
Hearing this explanation, Claire finally relaxed.
She had already sold herself to make this deal happen. If someone had told her at this point that Cid could not become a Devil, she might really have felt like killing someone.
"That's great. I thought I was going to disappoint my sister again. So it just takes a little time."
No. That answer is wrong.
Watching everyone celebrate, Cid showed a relieved expression on the surface, but inside he immediately rejected the explanation Rias had found.
The truth was that he had never absorbed the piece at all.
He had simply placed the Evil Piece inside his body and isolated it.
Leaving aside the tracking function built into the piece, there was another reason he would never absorb it. If Rias actually made him part of her Peerage, the backlash alone might cause her to burst apart.
Who did they think he was?
Forget Rias. Even if her brother, one of the Four Great Satans, tried to make him part of his Peerage, he would still be blown apart in minutes.
The person who made this piece clearly had some skill. Since there was no simple universal explanation for why he could not use the Evil Pieces, Cid decided to delay things for now.
He was not in a hurry.
Ten days or so was more than enough time for him to think of a way to sabotage this arrangement.
"Alright. Since there's no problem on Cid's side, Claire, let me tell you about the Rating Game we'll be starting soon."
After confirming there was no issue with Cid, Rias began discussing another matter with Claire.