Chapter 70: A Governor’s Lament

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"Talk about luxury," Takauji blew an impressed whistle as he boarded a private jet alongside Serafall to head to Romania. 

"It's a rather urgent matter, so measures like these are only natural." Serafall pretended like it wasn't a natural accommodation for a Satan. "Still, I knew you were in possession of Samael, but Azazel never told me he turned it into an Artificial Sacred Gear, let alone the fact that you've become its possessor." She said in a somewhat suspicious tone of voice.

"It wasn't something I ever planned to reveal, or use for quite some time. Issei having Ascalon was just an unfortunate coincidence I suppose. And to be fair, being Samael's host is a huge pain in the ass." 

"How so?" She was intrigued. 

"I had to first bind Samael directly to my soul just to make the possibility of him being usable a thing, which has already made it impossible for this Sacred Gear to be transferred to another host without killing me unlike [Downfall Dragon Spear], and I needed to put around thirty personal seals on him to make sure he doesn't try to rebel against me. I'd be in serious trouble if his position were to be injected into my soul." 

"Seals? Like brainwashing?" Samael was biologically engineered to loathe all Dragons, it was highly unlikely that he would happily cooperate with Takauji of all people. 

Through using his [Sense Manipulation] and [Delusion] together, he had been able to make Samael believe Takauji wasn't a Dragon. Ideally he wanted to make Samael think he was some righteous warrior for the Dragon Eater who would enact vengeance on his behalf, but he couldn't overpower the Fallen Angel-Dragon to that extent. 

Once he was a Heavenly Dragon, he would probably give it another shot, recklessly tampering with Samael was a recipe for disaster.

"Pretty much, it was supposed to be easy since his mental state is that of a toddler, all he really does is scream and howl whenever I try to communicate with him. However, the hate this guy bears can't even be put into words, suppressing that even in his shattered state was immensely difficult. I'm barely able to control 8% of his strength." 

"That doesn't sound very pleasant," he nodded. "But I don't understand, if you weren't planning to use it then why bother going through all that trouble to acquire, [Origin Serpent] I believe you called it?"

"I didn't use it to be fair, it just activated its passive effect. I will have a need for it in the future, but just not right now." By binding [Origin Serpent] to himself early on, he could begin mastering it sooner rather than later. 

For it to actually serve its intended purpose of enabling him to converse with Ophis without being one-tapped into oblivion, he would need to be able to control 100% of its strength. 

To say he had a long way to go, would be an understatement. 

"It's probably redundant of me to ask, but should the Underworld or Heaven be worried about how you plan on using it?" Obviously if he had malintent, he probably wouldn't disclose it to her, but it was worth a shot. 

"That all depends on how you choose to react when I do unsheath it properly." He replied somewhat cryptically, the two ambassadors taking a seat as the flight attendants offered them a few refreshments. 

"By the looks of things, you don't plan on giving us a heads-up before you use it do you?" 

"No." It was a matter between Dragon Gods, they wouldn't be capable of comprehending it even if he did. 

He started munching on a complimentary bag of peanuts, despite there being significantly classier options to choose from. Serafall made a mental note to keep Takauji under heavy observation, even if he was just a human with nothing but [Origin Serpent] he would be a potential Satan-Class threat. The fact that he was a Dragon King on top of that made him a monster among monsters. 

"So, tell me more about the bats." He said absentmindedly to break the awkward silence. 

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't call them that when we actually meet," she sighed. "The first thing you ought to know is that they're divided between two factions, the Carmilla Faction which is female-dominated, and the Tepes Faction which is male-dominated. Right now they're still at conflict with the Exorcists from the Church, and the Fallen Angels from Grigori which is why we're being sent to go negotiate with them to see if we can draw a ceasefire." 

"If they're at odds with the Church and Grigori, why send a Devil and a Dragon instead of an Exorcist and Fallen Angel?" 

"If we do that they'll just react violently and lash out at them, it's already hard enough to get them to talk with us as is. Vampires aren't exactly the most agreeable species if I'm being frank." Their pettiness rivaled even that of the Old Satan Faction. "But it's still important that the people being sent have both the physical power and influence to not be tossed around like a ping pong ball, hence why the two of us are going. Though we won't be going to the same faction." 

"Oh?" 

"Since the Carmilla Faction is female-dominated, I'll be the one handling them, and you'll be in charge of handling the Tepes Faction. We'll make sure you're properly briefed and prepared beforehand of course." 

"I see, so all you need me to do is get them to agree to a ceasefire? Sounds easy enough." 

"There's that, and there's also a sub-objective we might need you to handle." 

"A sub-objective?" 

"Grigori's Longinus Institute has reason to believe that there might be a Sacred Gear within one of the factions, but its presence isn't nearly strong enough to pinpoint who the possessor is." 

"Are there humans among the Vampires?" He asked with a raised brow. 

"No, but there are Dhampirs, which are half-humans, and normally looked down upon by the pure-bloods who have all of the power among Vampires. We're not sure if the Dhampir we're looking for is in the Carmilla or Tepes Faction, but we'll need to keep a lookout if we do find them. If one side were to get a sudden power increase, then forming a ceasefire would become impossible."

"That depends on how strong the Sacred Gear actually is, but I see your point. What do you want me to do if I find them?" With Takauji's eyes, his ability to sense a dormant Sacred Gear was far superior to that of Serafall. Especially now that he had a Sacred Gear bound to himself.

"Don't act, just report it. Once we have confirmation we'll coordinate with Grigori on how to proceed from there." 

"Aye aye captain," he leaned back into his seat. Getting some rest before they landed in Romania. 

Serafall shot a scrutinous glance his way while he slept, remembering Azazel's awfully blunt description of the Dragon she would now be working with.

Dangerously bipolar, was how he put it. 

His attitude could go from Ajuka, to Sairaorg, to Kokabiel all in a matter of moments, with absolutely no warning to indicate when the switch would be flipped. 

Right now he seemed relatively tame which was reassuring, but there was no guarantee whether that would remain a constant in the long run. 

Whether the Underworld had made the right choice in ally still remained to be seen. 

Some parts of Takauji worked well with them, and others not so much. 

━━Flashback━━

Serafall and Azazel were both sitting opposite to one another at a table, each sipping on a beverage of their choosing. 

"It's a shame Serafall," Azazel said in a solemn tone. 

"What is?" 

"Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't have allowed him to become a Dragon. I know that would have been meaningless to have tried to convince him to work under Rias Gremory or your sister, but maybe I should've encouraged him to reincarnate under one of you Satans instead. He would've made a pretty good successor if I'm being blunt." 

He took a sip of his drink, Serafall shocked to hear such a thing from the Governor. 

"You think that highly of him?" 

"I suppose I do," he chuckled dryly. "You know, after he became a Dragon I was shocked when he revealed the truth of what he had become, but it wasn't because of what he said, but rather his willingness to tell me." He exhaled. "But then I understood, it didn't matter that he told me, because I didn't understand what it meant anyways. It was knowledge without application." 

"Even you?" 

"Even me, tell me Serafall, what is Great Red exactly? Other than a being of unfathomable strength, what is it really? It's been here longer than any of us, maybe even longer than my creator, yet we still don't know a thing about it. We don't have the faintest clue as to what that existence wandering the Gap is actually supposed to be." 

"Except Pandora." 

"Indeed, the only person who can comprehend it is a high school boy turned Dragon." The Governor's voice seemed a little pained. "I think I failed him, Serafall." 

"How so?" 

"I was so blinded by the fact that I saw myself in him, by the fact that he shared the same curiosity that I did, that I didn't bother to think about the repercussions, the same ones that led to the mistakes I've made throughout my life. I'm the one who both brought up the possibility of becoming a Dragon, and encouraging the procedure to him. All because I convinced myself it was what he wanted." 

"You believe he would've been happier if you hadn't done that?" She inquired. 

"I do, Pandora is supposed to be the despair of all living things. I don't really know what that means in practice, but it doesn't sound like an especially pleasant existence does it?"

Serafall nodded. 

"No, it doesn't. But if you believe him to be pained, why did you suggest him for the role?" 

"Because it's important to keep him as occupied as possible, when Pandora has nothing to do he starts to get unstable. Until he is a complete being, we cannot allow that to happen. His intelligence has grown significantly from when he was human, which normally would be a good thing, but what he has chosen to direct that intelligence towards has changed. Which is why it's up to us to do what we can to direct it towards things that won't cause harm." 

"Harm? You mean to us?" 

"No, to him." 

She sighed. 

"Hearing the way you speak of him makes me think I'm not necessarily the greatest fit to be his partner, are you sure you don't want someone else to take the job?" 

"It has to be you, if I were to ask Sirzechs or Ajuka to do it he'd just keep poking at them until he finally gets the reaction he wants. I'm not sure whether he'd actually succeed at getting anything out of those two, but at this point it's better to be safe than sorry." 

"What makes you think he won't try to do the same with me?" She raised a brow. 

"Because you're not as tempting to him as those two are, at least not in the way I'm talking about." He cleared his throat, remembering full well what Takauji's taste in women is. "His self-preservation skills are practically non-existent, even from back when he was human, so he'd poke at them even if it resulted in his own death." 

"Azazel-chan." 

"Yes?" 

"Are you calling me weak?" The corner of her lip twitched, the atmosphere around them suddenly plummeting in temperature. 

"Of course not," he chuckled nervously. "Everyone knows that the beautiful Levi-tan is undefeatable." 

"That's what I thought," she huffed proudly. 

Azazel's thoughts began to wander as they continued their conversation. 

What if he hadn't set Takauji down the path of a Dragon back then? 

What if Takauji had become a Devil? A Fallen Angel? Or maybe even remained human? He couldn't help but wonder what kind of Ashikaga Takauji would stand before him today if he hadn't done what he did. 

Or maybe it didn't matter, maybe Pandora was an absolute fate Takauji wouldn't have been able to avoid, Dragon or not. 

No, he couldn't afford to think like that, that would just be absolving himself of blame.

There were so many hypotheticals going through his mind, but right now he needed to focus on what was, not what could've been. 

Even if he believed himself to have failed Takauji once, he wouldn't allow him to do so twice. 

As for what Takauji himself felt? Who could really say? Maybe he was happy, maybe he wasn't.