Chapter 14: Territory
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Naruto managed to keep his cool. The only sign of his surprise was a brief widening of his eyes and a tensing of his muscles.
That was all that Rias needed to conclude, "You already know about the supernatural world. We suspected as much. How much do you know?"
"Let's just assume that I only know that the supernatural exists. What is the point in you admitting all this to me?" Naruto replied carefully, ready to act if they attack.
He still can't detect any malicious intent, but he doesn't see why they are telling him this. There must be a motive.
"I…see. I expected more, but this changes nothing. As for my motive, you must first understand what are referred to as the Three Factions," Rias stated with a small frown on her face at his apparent ignorance.
It was quickly removed before she clarified for him, "The Three Factions are the Devils, Fallen Angels, and Angels. They are also sometimes referred to as the Bible Factions.
Long ago there was the Great War. Devils reside in the Underworld, referred to by humans as 'hell.' Fallen Angels are angels that have been cast down to the Underworld due to their wicked nature, with their wings turning black as a sign and punishment.
There they did their best to destroy us devils to gain dominance of the Underworld, a battle that has been raging since medieval times. Then there are normal angels, the servants of the Biblical God.
On the Biblical God's orders, they do their best to eliminate both devils and fallen angels. This has created a three way standoff. The Great War consists of the time period of the heaviest fighting. It ended in a stalemate.
Although still in conflict, all three sides had suffered such heavy casualties that none of the three sides could continue the fight or they would be destroyed.
This has resulted in a temporary state of…peace. While there is no true peace between the Three Factions, there has been no outright battles so I guess it counts."
Rias then pulled out a chess set, to Naruto's confusion. He quickly noted that there was only one side, with the pieces glowing red. The set was also missing a bishop, knight, rook, queen, and king.
Rias quickly continued, "The massive losses we devils suffered meant that we could not repopulate our numbers without mass breeding. Thus, the Evil Piece System was created.
This system allows a high-class devils to reincarnate members of other species as devils. That reincarnated devil is then considered part of that devil's 'peerage.' The Evil Pieces are based on chess.
The high-class devil, myself in this case, represents the king. Everyone I choose to resurrect as a devil is represented by the piece used to resurrect them.
The entire set consists of eight pawns, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, and one queen. As you can see, I am missing a queen, knight, rook, and bishop. Akeno is my queen. Koneko is my rook. Yuuto is my knight. My bishop is currently incapacitated."
"So am I right to guess you wish to have me join your peerage?" Naruto questioned blankly, hiding his emotions.
Rias nodded before clarifying for him, "Yes, that is why I called you here. We have ascertained that you are a good candidate. You have above average magic reserves for a human, and your physical specs are high."
Naruto just stared at her blankly for a few seconds, before he shrugged and announced with a wide smile on his face, "Sure. I don't see why not."
Now it was Rias' turn to stare. She finally managed to stop gaping to demand in disbelief, "That's it?"
"Yep. That's it," Naruto claimed with a nonchalant shrug. Seeing everyone staring at him, he added, "Well truthfully I was just waiting for something like this to happen.
The person who sent me to Kuoh said it was so that I could aid someone that is of paramount importance. She also said it would be clear who when the time comes. This seems pretty darn clear."
"You were went here? By who?" Rias questioned in interest, a bit befuddled by this new piece of information.
Naruto hesitated at that. Raising a hand to rub the back of his head in embarrassment, Naruto told her awkwardly, "Sorry, but I can't tell you that.
She said to not reveal my connection to her until 'the link is formed.'" Seeing Rias did not look happy about that, Naruto waved his hands as he added, "Don't worry.
It isn't anything that would be harmful to you. She just seems to value her privacy, and didn't want me to blab about it to just anyone."
Rias clearly still wasn't pleased as she asked, "But you will tell me after I reincarnate you?"
Thinking for a moment, Naruto nodded while saying, "Yes. I'm pretty sure that is what she meant by the link."
Apparently deciding that was the best she was getting, Rias decided to be content with that. She quickly grabbed three pieces from the chess board before explaining, "Alright, then the final step is to decide what piece you want to be.
Usually it would be my decision as king, but I'll let you decide. I still don't really know anything about your abilities, so you'll probably be able to choose what suits your fighting style and abilities best. Your three options are to be a rook, knight, or bishop."
Tilting his head, Naruto quickly asked, "And what are the differences?"
"We'll go over all of them for the sake of simplicity. A pawn is the most basic unit. A pawn piece receives no special benefits besides the normal advantages of a devil.
What a pawn does have is the special ability of 'promotion.' Like in real chess, if a pawn enters deep into enemy territory it can be promoted to any other piece besides the king.
Next is the bishop. A bishop is worth three pawns. Bishops gain enhanced magic reserves, thus are typically meant to be magical specialists.
Their main weakness is that usually a bishop doesn't have much close combat skill, and thus must stay at a range to be effective.
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