After Seekvaira left, Adrien picked Mahiru up in a princess carry and took her to his room. He laid her gently on his bed and covered her with a blanket. Then he looked at the sleeping face of the angel next door.
Tomorrow, he was going to tell her everything. He was going to introduce her to a world she could no longer avoid.
Wasn't that cruel?
Adrien was basically pulling Mahiru into a dangerous new world. From what he could sense, her Sacred Gear was not a weak one. That meant many people would start paying attention to her. Was she ready? Could she really face the future waiting for her?
And what if her Sacred Gear never awakened? Some dormant Sacred Gears never awaken at all. Did he really have the right to decide her future? Could he not just erase her memories of last night and protect her by himself?
He could, but how long would that last? Sooner or later, Adrien would have to leave the human world and go back to the Underworld. And even if he stayed for now, he would still have to join tournaments and Rating Games there, which meant he could be gone for a long time.
There were also rituals that could steal a Sacred Gear and kill its bearer, so Adrien could not just leave her alone. Even if bringing her into his world meant she would face many dangers, she would still be safer there because he would be with her.
So Adrien decided to tell her everything. No matter what choice she made after that, he would respect it.
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The next morning, Mahiru woke up very late. She looked around and quickly realized this was not her bedroom. It was Adrien's room. She knew that right away, because this was not the first time she had woken up there.
Then the memories of last night came back to her. The bespectacled woman had appeared out of nowhere from a glowing magic circle in the living room, then turned on the lights with just a flick of her fingers.
Could she have been dreaming? It was a possibility, but she knew it wasn't the truth. After all, there was no reason to wake up in Adrien's room instead of own, and that meant that she did go to Adrien's room last. So everything that she saw last night was real.
Then the smell of fried eggs drifted into the room. Mahiru got out of bed and peeked through an opening from the door. Adrien was standing in the kitchen, frying eggs. He was wearing black sweatpants and nothing on top.
It was not the first time she had seen him like that. Last time, she made a big fuss because he was half-naked, but Adrien had just ignored her and kept doing what he was doing. It was his house, after all, and she was the one intruding.
Mahiru's eyes stayed on his body. She knew she should not be staring at him like that, but how was she supposed to look away? She told herself that any girl would stare. Adrien was toned, but not skinny. On the contrary, he was muscular. His arms and back were well developed, especially his shoulders and biceps. Without noticing, her gaze lingered on his biceps.
"How long are you going keep staring like that", came Adrien's voice from the kitchen, he wasn't even looking at her.
Boom!
Mahiru's head bumped against the door, and she quickly pulled back a little. She had not expected Adrien to notice her. Slowly, she walked into the living room and made her way to the American-style kitchen. Adrien glanced at her and gave her a smile. Her heart started beating faster, and her stomach felt like it was break-dancing.
Adrien took two plates and put them on the kitchen table. He served the eggs he had cooked with a side of tomatoes and slices of turkey.
"Sit, let's have breakfast," he said
Mahiru pulled the chair back a little and sat down.
"Thank you for the meal," she said, then started eating. The two of them ate in silence. Mahiru could not bring herself to ask about yesterday. She did not want to make the mood awkward. So it was Adrien who brought it up.
"The girl that you met yesterday was my sister, quite the character isn't she," he said. Mahiru stopped eating, she looked at Adrien.
"So it really was real..."
"Yeah, it was". He said as he gobbled an egg in one bite which made Mahiru chuckle slightly. "The world is really different from what people imagine. You see people go to shrines, churches, mosques and they talk about faith, Faith is the act of believing in or trusting something without complete factual proof. But I think it's useless, because proof is all around them."
Mahiru listened to what Adrien was saying without interrupting him.
"Great powers are at work in everyone's life, Gods are very much alive, Greek Gods, Norse Gods, the Biblical God, the Hindu, the Shinto, the Buddhist, the Chinese, the Egyptian. All of these gods are alive and they are age-less."
"But aren't they just stories... the kind people created a long time ago to make sense of things they couldn't explain?"
"No they aren't just stories."
"...", Mahiru remained silent.
"Can you imagine for a moment, Never dying. Never growing old. Staying exactly as you are forever? If you were a god how would you like to be labeled as a myth, an explanation for the presence of the ocean or of Lightning?"
"I wouldn't like it."
"Of course you wouldn't, and that's why they left their mark on their people. They told people all around the world about themselves so they could be worshiped."
"They did?", Mahiru asked, she was now very curious.
"The bible is an example of that, do you know how many cross references there are in the bible and across how many years it was written? No human could do that. The Greek texts, like Hesiod's Theogony, explaining the birth of the Greek gods. The Norse's Eddas. The Kojiki and Nihon shoki. All of these stories are their origin, and they are one of the proofs that they gave humans"
He paused for a second then continued. "Each god has their worshippers, and you see their mark wherever you go. Nashville literally has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon, and there is the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center. Not to mention the eagle of Zeus on the flag. These days, you could even say the Greek gods moved to the United States, since that is where their presence is focused the most. The Norse gods stayed in the North. In Iceland, the National Museum still displays artifacts tied to the old Norse religion, like a famous figure of Thor. They did a pretty good job, by the way. As for the Biblical God and His angels, they are still in the Vatican. The number of churches in that region is incredible, even though there are several factions like the Catholics, the Orthodox, and the Protestants. They are still united under the Archangel Michael and the Biblical God... I guess. Other Gods from other human mythologies also have their own location where they rule. And their presence there is another proof of their existence, because then how could have weak and dumb humans come up will all that."
Mahiru stayed silent, she was thinking, everything Adrien said sort of made sense, everybody instinctively understood that, but it was still kind of hard to really makes sense of it all.
So what about Adrien, what was he? Mahiru thought to herself.
"It's pretty ironic, to say the least. The more marks the gods leave on Earth, the more humans believe they are just myths". Adrien chuckled in amusement.
"So... Adrien, you and your sister... what are you two?", Mahiru asked reluctantly, she was afraid of the answer.
"The Chinese speak of Yin and Yang, the balance of opposites. There is no white without black, and in the same way, where there are gods, there are also devils." Adrien paused as he watched Mahiru's expression, she gulped. "I am a devil Mahiru, I am Adrien Agares, son of Valerius Agares, archduke of the underworld, or as you humans call it, Hell".
Mahiru's eyes widened slightly, when Adrien talked about Ying and Yang, she predicted what he was going to say. She had spent so much times in the past few weeks with a devil. Ironic, she who is called an angel by everyone, is freinds with a devil. She smiled.
"You don't look like a devil to me, you're kind and considerate sometimes, not what I expected from a devil".
"I don't blame you, some of my race are evil incarnate after all."
"So I am friends with a devil... that doesn't make me very angelic, doesn't it?"
"I told you from that start, you're better than those angels, they are annoying is shit".
Mahiru chuckled, "last time I didn't understand what you meant but now I got it".
"You're taking it very well, I didn't expect that. Most people would be screaming, and throwing bibles at me, then they would call a priest to exorcise me".
Mahiru looked at me dead panned, "wait... it happened before?"
"Yeah, when I was in Germany a few years back, I told someone that I was a devil. The Vatican ended up sending three exorcists the next day, one even wielded Durendal, she was kind of beautiful to be honest."
Mahiru started laughing, "Wait as a devil you should have lots of stories, tell me, tell me", Mahiru was very enthusiastic for some reason.
"Before that, we need to talk about you." Adrien said and his expression became serious again.
"Me?"
"Yeah, you, there's a Sacred Gear dormant inside you".
"A Sacred Gear? What's that?"
"Sacred Gears are special items with powerful abilities given to humans by the Biblical God. He created them to give humans strength and new possibilities, especially when dealing with supernatural beings, and to make miracles happen on Earth through his system. There are normal Sacred Gears too. Many famous people in history became well known because of them. They are not usually flashy or very dangerous, but they give their users an advantage over ordinary humans. Then there are the stronger ones, made to fight and protect their users from the dangers of the supernatural world. And you, Mahiru, have one of the stronger ones."
Mahiru stayed silent for a while, then finally said, "I have a power like that...? Even I can't feel it, so how do you know about it?"
"That night, when you cried on my shoulder, the emotions welled up inside you overflowed and your Sacred Gear reacted to it and leaked it's energy".
Mahiru remembered that as she cried on Adrien's shoulder she suddenly felt incredibly tired and fell asleep.
Then she thought of what Adrien had said.
"You said that it is dormant for now, does that mean that it's going awaken someday?"
"Probably. A lot of Sacred Gears stay dormant inside their hosts, but since yours reacted once already, chances are it will awaken in the future."
"What will happen when it awakens?", she asked slightly concerned, Adrien said she had one of the stronger ones, he didn't say it directly but she knew that meant it was dangerous too.
"You either control it on your own, or you don't and it's energy kills you. Another thing that could happen is that some races might try to recruit you and some might just outright try to steal it from you, also killing in the process."
Mahiru's face became a shade paler. The dangers kept stacking as Adrien listed possibilities that could happen in the future.
"There is another option too, and the choice is yours. I won't force you, but I do recommend it. Become my servant and join my peerage as a devil. I'll help you control and master your power, and no one will dare mess with you".