[Third Person POV]
A week had gone by since Riser had summoned Erza and revealed the truth to his mother.
During this time, not much had changed. Riser's total tear points had risen from 21 to 87, still not enough for his next summon, who he had already decided on.
Rae Phenex was creating more tears than she had in years to help her son. She never drained her reserves, always leaving some for emergencies, but aside from the few daily tears she'd put in the vault, she'd give the rest to Riser.
The exertion even helped grow her reserves, which had stagnated in the last decades, not due to lack of training. Once a week, she and her husband Ramon Phenex would lightly spar to keep themselves sharp. Their spars hadn't forced her to strain herself; they merely helped retain her magic repertoire.
Riser was just as busy training and studying before Erza's summoning.
Now that he knew how valuable Phenex tears were to him, he needed to grow quickly so he could start his own production.
Becoming mid-class was a start, but it wasn't the end-all be-all. After all, a Phenex who just became mid-class would barely be able to make a tear.
Rather, Riser was focused on reaching beyond mid-class, beyond high-class, even beyond ultimate-class, like his oldest brother, Ruval. He knew his Tear System would make such a thing trivial as long as he put in the effort, and that was exactly what he was going to do.
Erza was just as busy as Riser, though her focus was completely different.
Since she knew almost nothing about their world, Erza was being tutored in every subject required for education. So far, most of her lessons have focused on the rules for interacting with regular humans.
Earth Land was a naturally magical place, where magic was considered superstition in small towns far removed from major population centers. For Erza, using magic in public was common sense, such as with the Grand Magic Games.
Riser needed her to understand that, unlike in Earth Land, using magic on the similarly named Earth was prohibited with an asterisk.
He wasn't too worried. Erza, unlike most of her guildmates, was much less chaotic when it came to following instructions.
And Riser needed her to follow those instructions because he planned to move to Kuoh eventually.
Ignoring his potential future relationship with Rias, which was at best a future drinking topic of his father with his noble friends, like Lord Gremory, Kuoh was the center of everything.
As much as Riser wanted to sit in the underworld and pretend everything was fine, he knew that it was pointless. Later on, the Hero Faction would summon 12 bandersnatch and one jabberwocky, which, if not for Diehauser Belial and his and Sirzechs' peerages, would have destroyed a large part of the underworld.
Going to Kuoh and getting involved would expose him to more danger, but it would also let him fight the series' antagonists. If Issei and the others could survive in canon, including Issei's uninformed parents, then, logically, his survival there would be almost guaranteed.
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On Tuesday, after finishing their training, Erza asked Riser if they could go out for a bit.
Given that she was used to living in Magnolia, where she could go wherever, whenever, living in the Phenex mansion was likely stifling for her.
Since he had nothing else to do, Riser decided to accompany her to the city, not having been there since his changes.
The two of them hopped in the gold-plated flying carriage, which quickly brought them towards the city in the distance.
While sitting in the red velvet interior, Erza asked where they were going.
"The capital of Phenex territory, Ashkarion. It's one of the larger administrative capitals, due to the overwhelming demand for Phenex tears. I haven't been there in years, though."
"Why not?"
"Mostly convenience. At home, I can order one of the servants to get me whatever I want. Also, given my status as the third heir, everyone in Phenex territory is willing to suck up to me to try and improve their lives, even if I was only a toddler at the time."
"You're exaggerating."
"I'm not," Riser stated. "The last time I was here was 3 years ago. My mother took me shopping at a high-end clothing store. She went into the changing room for a few minutes, and in that time, I was surrounded by several young teen nobles who were shopping there, hoping to secure a future spot in my peerage."
"Is it really that big of a deal, Riser? The peerages, I mean."
"Right, your lessons haven't gotten there yet. Guess you get a brief history lesson then.
The devil faction had experienced a war, followed by a civil war. After winning the Civil War, Ajuka Beelzebub had noticed that over half of the pillar clans were all but gone, and the devil population was much smaller than before.
Ajuka created the peerage system to reincarnate talented individuals and turn them into devils. It also created a way for those people to rise in the rankings by proving themselves either through combat or work.
It sounds good, but there are limits. The most important limit is numbers. To prevent greedier devils from reincarnating as many people as they wished into a private army, even against their will, a limit on the number of peerage members was set. Ajuka modeled peerage pieces after those in chess to symbolize the changes each piece would give, so they set the limit to fifteen, leaving them a full chess set, minus the king.
Talented individuals can take promotion tests to rise from low to mid-class, and then from mid to high-class. Those who reach high-class have the option to form their own peerage, giving them a degree of autonomy from their masters.
You might not realize it, Erza, but just by being a future member of my peerage, you're already guaranteed to live a life better than most human royalty. I could literally buy a factory that only has the job of making strawberry cake at all hours of the day," Riser finished, explaining. Even back then, he knew he wasn't going to waste his pieces on girls like them.
Nobles like them were usually ambitious and would likely try to keep some freedom. Though it wasn't known where Riser's original peerage was, Riser suspected that most, if not all, of them were commoners, minus Ravel, especially given their attitudes towards Rias' peerage.
The cake caught Erza's attention immediately. When it came to dressing up and strawberry cake, Erza was practically obsessed with it, even willing to trade blows should someone ruin it.
"If you put in the effort to become high-class, you could probably recruit chefs who would dedicate themselves to making the best possible cake," Riser added, practically setting off a series of fireworks in Erza's brain.
Like that, Riser continued his politics lesson, unaware that Erza was completely distracted by the thought of her own personal cake-making army.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!