Chapter 5 - 5

"... I see, this complicates things quite a bit." Soma spoke as Mittlelt finished her explanation regarding the supernatural and especially the three factions.

The world he lives in is truly vastly different to others, especially if the stories of his teachers were to be believed regarding their worlds. ​​

Soma could already feel in his skin the political mess this world was, so many factions and groups were in a constant struggle for supremacy, and just imagining it was enough to make Soma feel a gigantic headache. But, currently, he only had to care for four groups.

The first would be the Heavens/church. In this world they worked in a somewhat similar vein to that Soma was used to from the stories and what he was taught, even if they seemed to be trying to keep the appearance of 'good guy' a bit too much and it cost them a lot in efficiency. Their threat level is quite low for Soma, just not step on their toes directly and if possible find a backer that they are not in any specific relationship with and would thus not want to provoke into becoming enemies. They were honestly kinda weak and could only truly defend, as long as Soma did not actively go against them (or be found doing so at any rate) he would be safe.

The second is the fallen angels in the Grigory. They were angels who committed a sin, which really didn't mean much for Soma since he knew that sins were just a part of human nature so the fallen who committed sins felt like they would be easier to approach or at least reach an understanding. Soma wouldn't blindly trust them, but they did have that school designated to Sacred Gear users to learn about said items and they did not force said users to work for them later or become the fallen's servants. Sure, indoctrination wouldn't be strange in such a place to foster a desire to work for the fallen's interests is to be expected (even if Mittlelt did not say any such thing happened), but that is common sense to be done and Soma wouldn't really complain about it.

You are getting an education, what you take from it and what you do with it afterward is up to you. If you choose to become sheep that follows someone else then that is up to you, it isn't Soma's responsibility to save someone from their own stupidity.

The third group that Soma worried more about was the Shinto Pantheon. They were the actual owners of the land but they did not put much pressure on humans and even created several human powers like the Four Great Families to look after humans. They were honestly the ones more to Soma's tastes, Gods and other such beings that did not screw up humanity and just took care of their own business without messing with humans as much. It also helped that Soma was quite close to Tamamo when he was in the Throne of Heroes and she was an incarnation of Amaterasu. If the Goddess was like Tamamo then Soma was confident he could get along well enough with her, as long as she didn't try to make him her 'hubby' like Tamamo did in the past. She is hot, but he did not want to get into these talks of marriage since in the throne talking of such a thing looked like a surefire way of causing a disaster one way or another.

And then there is the fourth group, and decidedly the most troublesome of the bunch, The devils. Just hearing about them was enough for Soma to classify that faction as easily the most troublesome and the one he wanted the least to be close to.

No, not because of their nature or anything like that. If what Mittlelt said is to be believed (which Soma will need to see with his own eyes while also searching for other sources of intel to counter check) then the Devils of this world are rather unlike the ones he heard about or interacted with in the Throne of Heroes.

They were intelligent and not overly brutal or prone to bursts of fancy that would lead to the deaths of many for no other reason than for the laughs and sadistic pleasure. They did not feast on human's soul or created wanton destruction while demanding human sacrifice to satiate their most depraved desires.

In general, they would be a group he could ignore quite easily since he did not care for a group that he could very easily just not interact with if he wanted to, if not for one of the most disturbing and disgusting things he ever heard.

The Evil Piece System. A system created to make other people join the devil race, something Soma could understand being done if you consider that they were close to complete collapse after their wars and they needed to reinforce their numbers but doing it naturally wouldn't work with their low fertility. The system makes sense for that angle and Soma could understand it well enough.

However, the fact that these pieces can be used in those unwilling to go through the transformation or those already dead meant that any devil king could find a way to kill someone and then that person would forever be that devil's slave.

Slavery was nothing new to Soma, many of the heroes in the Throne had those in the past or interacted with people that had slaves. Slavery isn't that big a deal, as long as it is during only the life span of a normal person. Being a slave for 50 or so years until you die, or be a slave for 5000 years with no options but listen to the one that killed you before or anything of the sort. Even with the extra benefits of being a devil, like their neigh-unlimited life span and increased magic powers, it still was not enough a trade-off to being the bitch of whoever turned you into this. Just the thought of it made Soma remember the stories of Spartacus and wonder if the devils, while behind closed doors, were like the slave masters of the hero's time.

Truthfully speaking, if you accepted it while fully understanding what was being done, then that is your choice, but that the system can ignore completely the consent is what made Soma's skin crawl.

That there were two such kings in this city according to Mittlelt only makes Soma shiver. The thought of eliminating said kings before they tried to turn him through whatever means necessary or, worse still, try to do the same to Momo passed through his mind, but the fact that those two are the little sisters of two of the four satans made Soma give up on that idea.

"Yeah, not gonna get close to those kings at all. I also need to prepare a dead man switch, if I die I won't leave a corpse for them to make into a devil." Soma said to himself and Mittlelt looked at him strangely.

"... You do understand that you are speaking of blowing yourself up and giving up on a second chance at life, right?" She honestly could not understand why he would do that, most humans would fear death so why he would choose to stay dead over a chance of life was not something she could comprehend.

"I know, but I would rather be dead than be a servant to someone against my will. What I want to do I will do it, if I don't want it then even if there are infinite benefits I won't do it. That is just my way of doing things really." Soma explained to the fallen angel whose health was now much better than before.

After recovering enough magic energy Soma had used his healing prowess to help quickly heal the fallen angel considerably. Most bruises and broken bones were dealt with and there was little more danger for her life as things stood.

Heck, the bounded field that Soma put in his house was even helping the fallen angel, a side effect of it that wasn't intentional. Since the field was made under the premise to suppress demonic energy then Mittlelt's light energy got even purer while inside since its 'taint' was suppressed just like the demonic energy. This light energy had natural healing capacity and thus her healing got even faster by working together with the healing magecraft used by Soma.

"Whatever, I can't understand humans anyway, you guys are all weird to me. Having so much pride in being the weakest race, doesn't make any sense."

"Well, even if my race is the weakest I am still stronger than you. So? How does it feel to know that you are weaker than a member of the weakest race?" Soma answered and Mittlelt glared at him as intensely as she could, not liking the reminder of her current state.

"I am not a freak like you, you are the one that is weird for your race!" Mittlelt said and Soma rolled his eyes.

"Trust me, I am just an average one." Soma said with a chuckle inside.

With these talks done and with all the information he could gather from Mittlelt taken Soma left her there to rest. She was still not fully restored anyway so she had to rest, even if her not being fully well was due to Soma not putting his all into helping her after he ensured she would survive. Better her be weakened and incapable of causing any big problem for him instead since it would mean she would be easier to deal with in case she tried anything.

Leaving her there Soma went to the other person he had taken from that church.

This person was, well, rather annoying.

"Tch, again it is not any girl with good tits. Why only you appear in this place? Go and find some nurse with D cup at least, you idiot. I will shoot you."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard your say that since the first time you opened the shithole you call a mouth. Keep sprouting out your crap like that and I can, and will, stitch the shithole you call a mouth shut and let you choke on whatever the fuck you want to speak." Soma said annoyed at this exorcist.

Seriously, Soma doubted he should have saved him at this point, the guy was a complete perverted jerk and Soma did NOT want to imagine someone like that walking the same streets as his cousin or any innocent girl for that matter.

"Humph, as if. You are too much of a nice guy to do something like that." The exorcist snickered down at Soma who just raised an eyebrow.

"You do know I am the one providing you with food and treatment, right? I am under no actual obligation to do any of that and I only saved you because I felt like it. If you provoke me enough I just might feel like putting you back in the state you were when I found you and let you dying in some alleyway or something. You having organs being optional since selling organs is quite lucrative last I've heard and I could use some extra cash." Soma said in slight irritation.

This man was an annoying bastard ALL the time. He was always 'tits' this and 'boobs' that, his head only had violence and sex in it. It was annoying as hell.

"Huh? You saved me so you naturally have to take responsibility and find me some sexy tits to play with! I will shoot you, idiot."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you say that enough times already. Keep talking and I will rip out your tongue to see if you can choke on it. Now come on, I am here to question you about some stuff and then get you out of my house before you make this whole place stink with the shit that comes out of your mouth."

"Fine, fine, I will tell you whatever the fuck I know. Then you can let me out of this damn room so I can go and find some hot big tits to play with." The exorcist said and, once again, Soma had to wonder if he should castrate this guy before letting him get out.

In the end, this guy knew little about anything except for two interesting detail.

The first was contacts with the black market of the supernatural where one could exchange items and resources regardless of origins, it would be a path for Soma to obtain more intel and especially materials for his mystic code creation, golems, and blacksmithing. He had to get plenty of materials for those, especially for blacksmithing and golem development seeing as his teachers in both arts only agreed to teach him after he agreed to help fulfill their dreams and Soma was a person of his word, if he agreed to do those tasks then he would do them. Apparently, Mittlelt did not know of these sorts of connections since she always got whatever she needed from the Grigory's own resources and didn't have to depend on the black market, but stray exorcists and the like depended on those sort of things.

And the second information that caught Soma's attention was in regards to a project of the Church, the Holy Sword Project. A project designed to make people able to wield holy swords including the Excalibur fragments and the like.

Soma chooses to forget the fact that the 'excalibur' of this world was broken, it was better for his sanity since he knew for a fact that the Excalibur was a completely indestructible item and either the one in this world was a fake or there was something out there that could destroy THE Excalibur and this thought alone terrified Soma.

But that wasn't what made Soma pay attention, no what made him pay attention was the project itself, the ability to extract a person's natural talent and affinity in Holy energy and transfer it to someone else. This was a concept that makes Soma shudder almost as much as he did at the thought of being turned into a slave for the rest of eternity against his will. But his shudders this time were more because of how this and the Evil Piece System, by focusing so much on the soul and messing with it.

The study of the soul was a complicated thing and that the supernatural had ways to tamper with it and modify it made him shiver since it was uncomfortably close to one of the things he partially learned in the Throne of Heroes.

"I guess I will have to see if I can achieve that here. I got very close to achieving it while in the Throne after spending so long practicing it there that is so close to Akasha, so it shouldn't be impossible, but mastering that in the Throne seems to be impossible. Well, I at least know more about the soul than most anyone else at this point so there is that." Soma chuckled at the thought of that.

If he could achieve it here then forget about anything else he wouldn't fear even facing the strongest of Gods or any enemy that came his way. He would not need to worry about anything and even the limited time span of humans would mean nothing to him.

But, even if he was close to achieving it, taking that last step would not be easy. After all, achieving the Third Magic, Heaven's Feel, would not be so simple.

"So, can I leave now or not?" The stray said and Soma thought for a while before smiling kindly.

"Sure, I don't mind. You can leave right away, but I am keeping all your weapons with me as payment for treating you. I am sure a stray exorcist without any weapons in a city filled with devils who must be searching for him or any other exorcists would do very well."

"... Shit." The stray said and Soma chuckled at seeing the realization on his face. The guy could be annoying, but seeing him realizing how fucked he was certainly made Soma feel better inside.

Not bothering with the stray anymore Soma left the room. He released the bounded fields he put around the place so if he wanted to leave the stray could leave at will. Of course, while the stray was still asleep after the treatment Soma used hypnotism to make the stray unable to say who had healed him or direct in any way to others where Soma lived.

He would instead say that he was the one who was responsible for whatever the devil searching the town was looking for.

If the stray leaves, he will work as a bait to make others less wary of what was going on, if he stays Soma would make him his subordinate and put him to work. Either way, Soma would get something out of this situation.

Feeling satisfied with this Soma left the room and went to his room. He had to get changed as he had to go to school today.

This world might have magic in it, but according to Mittlelt the two devil kings of the city were in the Kuoh High School and if Soma did not go there then he could attract some attention. He had to act and be a completely normal person that had no connections to the supernatural.

The more unnoticed he was, the more average, the better. It honestly shouldn't even be that hard for him to pass as an average person, his talents and potential were completely average and even his elemental affinity and Origin were both just that, average.

///---///

"Momo, are you sure you can't pull some strings or something? I am already 16, going to middle school when I should be in highschool is just weird." Soma complained to his cousin on the phone.

He was expecting to go to the Highschool, mix with the crowd and vanish from the view of Sona Sitri and Rias Gremory, the two kings in town. He didn't even know what those two look like besides them having black and red hair respectively thanks to Mittlelt being a lazy girl who didn't even bother with the most basic information gathering so Soma was blindsided when in regards to those two. But, it was safe to assume that if they were in town to search for potential slaves/servants then standing out was a terrible idea. As such being older than everyone else could bring attention to him, small as it might be.

Soma didn't know if the two kings had spies in middle school or not, he did not want to stand out for fucks sake! He was already having to try his best to not let out the charisma he fostered during the hundreds of years he learned about leadership with the likes of Gilgamesh, Iskandlar, Arthuria, Napoleon, Ozymandias, and the other Kings from the Throne. Having to make sure to not display something ingrained in his very bones was hard, and bringing attention to him due to this sort of shitty situation wouldn't be helping any.

"And I told you already, Soma, that this is beyond me and Kaichou. You will have to be in the Middle School section of Kuoh Academy for the next month or so as you take supplementary classes to make you catch up with the first years in Highschool, this was the best deal I got for you. Be thankful you won't have to be in Middle School from the start and instead be in the last year of it, it could be worse than having classes with people three years younger than you." Momo said exasperated. She could kind of understand where Soma was coming from but complaining to her wasn't gonna fix anything.

"... Fine, whatever. I just have to play nice with them and do my time then." Soma said in annoyance.

"Yeah, nothing anyone can do. So just stop complaining so much and do what you have to do." Momo said and ended the call.

She had forgotten after years of not interacting with Soma, he was a truly annoying pest when he wanted to be. It almost made her want to smack her past self who wanted him back so much, but between having him and not she would rather him being back.

... Even if moments like this make her question her thoughts regarding him a bit.

As for Soma, he sighed and continued in his way. It has been around five days since he left the hospital and could use reopened his magic circuits. During these days he concentrated on recuperating his physical capacity via eating, making several simple potions for physical recovery using ingredients from the market and other shops that sold stranger products, and continued in his physique's transformation using alchemy.

Adding that to having to take care of his 'guests' make it where he didn't have all that much time left, but now that the guests were awake and perfectly stable he had much more free time.

As he was walking to school he noticed something weird. Just as he was passing an intersection he noticed a girl, and she was leaning her body as if to throw herself in the middle of the traffic.

Moving before he could think about it Soma put a hand on the backpack she had in her back and pulled her back just as she was about to fall.

"Hey there, be careful. If you are having low blood sugar or something you should recline against a wall instead of standing where you were, you could have died there."

The girl didn't answer, she just looked up and soma was surprised at how bad a state she was at.

Without thinking about it he used a quick structural grasp in her and was shocked at the sheer number of physical troubles she had. Malnutrition, dehydration, several hematomas from beatings dating at least since she was 6 or 7 years old, bones that were broken and healed in the wrong way, lack of sleep, and several other problems throughout. Someone in this state shouldn't be walking around like this, she should be in a hospital bed instead.

"... I blame that damn Emiya for this. He infected me with his stupid disease, that is the only explanation for that." Soma muttered to himself and the girl blinked as if coming out of a trance before speaking.

"Ehm, sorry. I will be careful. Excuse me." She said as she tried to leave, only for Soma to hold her in place.

"No. I am taking you to eat something before you pass out from hunger or something like that. School or whatever can wait." Soma said and the girl looked shocked as she tried weakly to get away, but considering how weak her muscles were she may as well have been trying with all her strength and Soma wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"Please let me go. I have classes and-"

"And nothing, you are going to come and eat something as to not pass out and die for no good reason. If you go to class as you are you won't be eating anything until lunch, if you are already closing to pass out now then if you wait your body will suffer." Soma said seriously.

The girl just closed her mouth tightly before nodding her head.

"Good, there should be somewhere good to eat around here. Now come on, I am paying." Soma said as he drags her along.

He knew he shouldn't bring any attention to him, but being late on the first day would hardly make much of a difference anyway and he felt that this girl needed help. He did promise several of his teachers he would help others when he could as long as it didn't complicate things for him, it was the condition especially from Karna when he asked to be taught about using fire to proper his movements further.

It was worth it, and it makes Soma feel good to do a good thing once in a while. Especially seeing as he knew he would be doing some fucked up shit soon enough so doing some good now would relieve his conscience.

///---///

"So? How confident are you that they are Sacred Gear users?" Jeanne questioned as she reclined in a chair in the apartment she rented in Kuoh.

"Quite sure, we might not have been able to find the one that attacked the devils but I am quite confident that those girls have Sacred Gears. They are still dormant but with my own Gear, Divine Scouting, finding out other's secrets is a piece of cake." One of the three members of Jeanne's squad said.

"I see, it means that even if we don't find the person we were sent to find we will not get out empty-handed. It is good that your peeping tom gear is so useful, huh, Deux." Jeanne said while patting the head of the girl who rubbed her head against said hand. Her face becoming sloven as she did so as the pleasure of being complimented by her Hero was orgasmic for the girl.

On the side, another girl pouted and Jeanne, seeing this, gave a chuckle before patting the other's hair as well.

"Now now, don't go being jealous, Un. You are also an important member of my squad, after all." Jeanne said to the girl who smiled proudly, her golden blond hair shining as she looked up at her leader.

"Yes, Praetor. I will do my best for you." She said and Jeanne smiled.

"Good, keep up like that." Jeanne said before continuing. "Then? What of the girls you found? Do they seem suitable for joining?"

Deux, wanting more affection, spoke up.

"Yes, both seem like they would be relatively quite easy to convince. Only, they are not on the best of terms."

"Hoh, and by that you mean?"

"Yes, a bully and her victim." Un said and Jeanne stopped to think.

A Sacred Gear needed strong emotions to achieve Balance Breaker, if a bully victim was suffering it wouldn't be weird for the said victim to at least unlock her gear. If she didn't even achieve that then the chances of her achieving Balance Breaker would be really low and the Hero Faction didn't need useless weaklings who get pushed around and can't fight.

"Very well, keep searching for the target. And let me guess, Trois is looking into those girls, for now, right?"

"Yes, Trois is looking into them as she is going to the same class in middle school."

"Good, keep me informed and tell Trois that she should be careful. She is somewhat messy when not looked after and I would rather not see a repeat of last time when I let her out to play." Jeanne said to the other two as she stood up.

Her squad was only the four of them, with only Un being a magician and the others being Sacred Gear users. Cao Cao has told her to find more people she could add to her squad if possible, but she was reticent about doing that.

However, if the ones to be added would be girls, then maybe she could make an exception and add another one. She just had to find the right situation for making the invitation, and she would have a new addition to her little squad. She was a Hero, after all, saving people is what she should do, and if she had to find a way to manufacture such a situation that wouldn't be any actual issue.

There were plenty of captured Stray Devils she could use for that anyway, and, after a saving, it would be business as usual. Making the person comfortable with an invitation for a get-together, to make her and the Hero Faction look cozy. Give her plenty of attention. Making her believe she could become strong as well to be able to do everything she would want. Make her join the faction with the promises. Then eliminate whatever connections she had with her previous life by giving them new names while simultaneously using other races, either strays or disposable members of the Old Satan Faction, to kill any family or attachments for their lives of before the Faction.

It makes Jeanne smile, it was the best method for the creation of absolutely loyal followers according to Cao Cao and, while the other Lieutenants aren't patient enough for this and would rather just use violence or hypnosis to subjugate more members, she preferred this method. There was less chance of rebellion, after all, and created very loyal little workers willing to do anything for the cul... Hero Faction.

It was all for the sake of humanity, after all.

///---///

///---///

AN:

I hope you guys are enjoying this. I hope the reaction of the MC makes sense and yes, I see the Hero Faction as a cult with Cao Cao being the charismatic leader of it. This Jeanne knows this to a degree, but she ignores the negative aspects of it for the most part due to blind loyalty to Cao Cao.

For the stray exorcist and the girl the MC just 'saved' from being hit by a car, I am using characters from a very special work. Not sure how many people will identify the work, all I am willing to say is that the two come from two different works from the same mangaka with both works being interconnected and one of my personal favorite stories out there.

To the first one who can guess I will let you decide one pairing for the fic and I will try my hardest to follow through it. Consider this a challenge if you wish, the challenge will be valid for both AllNovelFull and Fanfiction net.

The challenge will be valid until the next chapter posted.