High School DxD-Volume 21 Chapter 3-1

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Determination

Going back in time, approximately two weeks before the revival of Trihexa—.

Vali Lucifer travelled alone to a certain European country. He arrived at a small town at the foot of a mountain which was far from the city. Vali went up to a mountain some distance away from the small town, and used high-precision binoculars to look at a certain place. The target that he was looking at — was just an ordinary person. What he saw through the binoculars was a middle-aged woman farming in the garden. At around forty years of age, it was a beautiful woman with black hair. After Vali was taken in by Azazel, he sought to raise his own strength whilst looking for the two people who were related to him by blood. One of them was the sofu ^[1] that he abhorred, and the other one was—. Vali intently watched every action that the woman made. What he was looking at was — his own haha ^[2]. Not long ago, the Grigori had obtained some information through their connections with the Norse faction.

—Your haha has been found.

After Vali was sheltered by the Grigori, Vali's chichi ^[3] had immediately erased his haha's memories and discarded her. Only now, after many twists and turns, she had begun her second life in a small rural town, far from the city. …Vali recalled the times when he lived together with his haha. That was when he was subjected to the abuse of his own sofu and chichi. Haha had always come forth to protect him. However, haha only had the body of a human; she had given birth to him due to his chichi's frivolity, his sofu was also the son of the Maou, hence various elements overlapped, and his haha was always powerless.

One time, after being abused, haha had wrapped bandages over his own wounds…it was discovered in the end, and it became haha's turn to be violently abused. The look of haha's crying face was deeply rooted in his memory. His young mind never went to seek his haha's help again. If he did, haha would be beaten again. If he was going to allow haha to cry, he would bear it himself instead. Fortunately, he was born with the power of Lucifer and the Hakuryuukou, so he was sturdier than ordinary children. Haha's happiness would come about from breaking off the relationship to himself, that was one thing that Vali understood since he was very young. But, he could clearly remember the gentleness that haha had shown him. Behind the backs of chichi and Rizevim, she cooked pasta for him. In order to prevent them from finding out, she put in very little salt and pepper, so the flavour was quite bland. Even so, Vali thought that eating haha's homemade pasta was more delicious than anything else. He felt deep in his heart that this simple food was incredibly delicious. He didn't speak much with haha, very little actually. But, if they were ever able to meet each other again, there was one thing that he had to tell her at the very least. It definitely wasn't something like loving her, familial love, or wanting to live together. All that he wanted to tell her was that he had grown up splendidly into an adult.

In fact, he clearly understood one thing while he was strengthening himself. At the same time that he became stronger, to an ordinary person like haha, Vali Lucifer was an extremely abnormal existence. If he made contact with haha — aside from Rizevim, there would be many people who would target haha. Rather, it was really surprising that she had not been found by Rizevim so far. …Perhaps Rizevim was too immersed in the dream of another world, and the existence of an ordinary human woman was negligible in his eyes.

Suddenly, Vali saw something that he couldn't believe.

—A young boy and girl ran towards haha.

…It was a boy and girl that looked very similar to himself. He immediately understood.

—They were his own otouto ^[4] and imouto ^[5].

Haha had probably gotten married to a human male. And she had established a family. She had finally obtained an ordinary family.

—Sorry, this is all I can do for you.

The memory resurfaced again. With the bland pasta that he obsessed about, haha apologised to him. …At that time, mother was extremely sad. But, looking at her through the binoculars today…she was very, very happy. Very joyful. Just seeing that, Vali felt warmth in his heart. For a moment, he and the boy overlapped with each other. He imagined the scene of himself laughing while talking to haha—. …If he was born into an ordinary family, would he laugh like that while living together with haha…? …Vali quietly put down the binoculars which were in his hand.

—Return.

Vali didn't meet haha face to face. He decided to leave that place. He couldn't meet with haha. He couldn't meet with his otouto and imouto. He was an abnormal existence. If he met them, he would simply ruin their current happy lives. Step by step, without any indecisiveness or hesitation, Vali left the small town. Vali had a grand aim, he wanted to become stronger than anyone else, he wanted to become the [True White Dragon God Emperor ^[6]]. Stronger than the sofu who abused him, his chichi, and anyone else. He would develop the ability that he was born with to the utmost limits. But, he now had another new goal.

—Protect the safety of that haha and her children. Allow them to live safe and sound until their peaceful eternal slumber. No, not only them, there were also their children, and their grandchildren that he needed to protect with his all. Compared to Hyoudou Issei who sought to rescue many people, he would not say such grand words. He wasn't that type of person. But, just one small family was fine; Vali vowed in his heart that he would definitely protect them—.

[1] Sofu: Grandfather.

[2] Haha: Mother.

[3] Chichi: Father.

[4] Otouto: Younger brother.

[5] Imouto: Younger sister.

[6] Pronounced as: shin naru hakuryuushin ou.

(Part 1 of 1) (26/5)

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