Chapter 2: Full of Love

So, we now know that Rias can walk. Not very far, not very fast, but "he" moves forward. Every day, his... nanny... a very gentle man, takes him on a walk around the estate. He goes through the house, interacting with the cleaning staff — all men — here and there. He watches. He listens. He remembers.

He often hears his mother's name: "Her Excellency, the Marquise Fort Diamond II." He catches fragments of things starting with "Circle of Nobles", "Order of Knights" when he spends his days with these very... effeminate men.

They don't even seem ashamed of their situation.

Here, it's normal to be a man and to be dominated. A man doesn't raise his voice. A man follows the directives of his wife — or his mistress, in their case. From Rias's point of view, it's all quite ridiculous… but it's now his reality. That's what he's come to understand.

Just like his twin fathers. As the son of nobility, he'll follow the same education path — all for the sake of a favorable political marriage. And everyone around him thinks that's perfectly reasonable.

But this system frightens Rias once again.

"What if women treat men like men used to treat women in the medieval age?"

Rias would then be nothing more than a tool for carnal pleasure. A decoration. A thing — but not truly human.

And so, despite the grandeur and beauty of their garden — despite his older sisters, Anna and Elisabeth, playing there with the children of the servants — Rias often prefers the library. He learns to read before even turning two. But he never reveals it to his… nanny.

He wants to understand.

He so badly wants to grasp the logic of all this.

And finally, his curiosity is rewarded.

Rias sometimes keep holding certain books he finds interesting, pretending to be a spoiled child — just to bring them to his room and read in secret.

And one of those books is titled "The Tale of the Goddess of Wisdom: Inamia."

This book tells the story of how Inamia, the goddess of wisdom, unable to bear the barbarity of men, decided to overturn the structure of the sexes.

She blessed women with the power of Magna, a form of energy within them that allows them to manipulate nature.

+ A woman can easily summon fireballs in the palm of her hand.

+ A woman can command the earth to ripple like the ocean.

+ She can tell the wind where to go… and much more.

Thanks to Inamia's intervention, the world now knows greater harmony.

The maternal nature of women makes them more passive beings.

Let's start with gender dynamics — although pedophilia is socially accepted, few women like Diamond have two husbands. This kind of mindset just doesn't align with their reign. But since Rias's fathers are identical twins and often mistaken for one another, the Marquise Diamond simply married both of them. The reason for all this could also be political — quite common among nobles to strengthen alliances.

Another reason why women are better might be in war and security. The Excissil Empire has remained unchanged for a millennium, holding the same territory seen on the map. There are occasional tensions here and there, but never anything too bloody. It seems women don't care much for confrontation.

Now, that's not to say there are no wars, conspiracies, or conflicts — they do exist — but compared to our world, this one is far less brutal and far less frequent. That's what Rias gathers from the history book he once again kept for himself.

However, such a system can't truly be favorable.

Because conflict does, in fact, exist — it is omnipresent.

It's a constant psychological war for everyone. Anyone can be an enemy. You can be criticized or sabotaged at any moment. It's extremely difficult to change one's social image. And it's even harder to change the face of the world.

This world has been stuck in a quasi-medieval state for millennia, too focused on appearances to allow for any deep evolution. As long as there's no physical confrontation, they consider it an ideal world. That's Rias's conclusion.

Girls' powers usually awaken around the age of four. And that's exactly the case for Eli. Her powers have awakened — her magical affinity is fire. Since she plays with it all the time, Rias can now see what real magic looks like. Eli is very gifted in magic. Though still young, she already knows two or three incantations. For instance, to impress her little brother:

"Oh Goddess Inamia! Grant me the power to illuminate life with your grace."

And a glowing flame bursts from the palm of her hand. She learned these spells from their mother, herself a master of fire magic. She beams with pride, especially when she sees the wonder in her little brother's eyes.

— "Look, Riri. Soon, I'll be able to do like Mom…" she said, chin raised, cheeks flushed with excitement. "I'll protect our name, our home, our empire! I'll be noble, strong, gentle, and feared. Just like her!"

She didn't know it yet, but her words already had roots. She wasn't playing — she was already practicing her dream.

A few steps away, Anna drifted in another sphere. Her movements were calm, precise, almost silent. She was weaving spirals of wind into the flames Eli had lit in the fireplace. And the air gave shape to the fire. She animated it in a theatrical way that completely shook Rias.

Laughing softly — no grand ambitions, no proclamations — she simply said,

— "I just want… to understand," she murmured, though no one had asked.

And Rias, feigning stillness in the arms of his big sister Eli, watched everything. He understood. He understood the dreams, the masks, the silences. He understood that his older sister was already fighting the shadow of an expectation, and that his younger sister was trying to flee every frame.

Then, the door opened gently, and one of the fathers entered — the one they called Yelo. A graceful man with hair almost white-blond, just like Anna's — he was the biological father of both her and Eli. Always dressed in liaut robes and pearl earrings, he knelt beside the children and asked:

— "What are you talking about, cuties?"

Eli answered:

— "I'm just showing Riri how I'll be as strong and beautiful and charismatic and respected as Mom, so I can protect him from the De Glians."

Yelo chuckled softly at Eli's words, then turned to Rias, speaking to him as if he were a tiny adult:

— "You know, my little heart… for a long time, I was afraid of being controlled and dominated. I believed women inspired invisible terrors — wounds you can't see. But your mother… your mother saw me. Not my bloodline, not my title, not my smiles. She gave me a world where I feel protected. Loved. And I pray that one day, you too will find a woman like her… A woman who can see your soul without breaking it."

…It's a blessing.

And Eli answered once again:

— "I will be that woman."

Then Anna chimed in, replying to Eli:

— "No, I will be that woman."

Their mother and the other father arrived just then to separate them.

— "Girls, you will both protect your brother. But for now, it's bedtime."

Eli still shouted "That's not fair!" on her way to her room, and their childish bickering amused their parents.

As for Rias, still a baby, he was carried by his mother and fathers.

Diamond spoke softly to her wives:

— "I want my children to be free. If they grow up powerful, great, and feared… so be it. But if they're simply happy… truly happy… then I'll have won. A mother should never wish for greatness if it costs the soul's peace."

She gently caressed Rias's forehead with such tenderness, kissed him, and placed him in his crib. Her gaze swept across the room. She looked at her child and whispered good night before leaving.

Lying in his crib, Rias took in the sincerity of the people around him. He, who had always been rejected wherever he went, thought to himself:

Whether under a patriarch or a matriarch… isn't what we all long for simply someone who loves us, someone who stands up for us? A peaceful world… is found in the arms of those we love and who love us back.

And in the Rush family, he had hit the jackpot.

He fell asleep that night with tears suspended — between gratitude and the fear of not deserving any of it.