Chapter 27 - Layla Eryrth

The Devilian pantheon was made up of hundreds of Greater and Arch devils, however the main devils who ruled in the pantheon alongside the Devil king were just twelve.

The Four Grand Dukes and the Six Dukes, alongside the Crown Prince and the Princess of the Devildom. They were equivalent to the likes of Olympus' twelve Olympians or Oblivion's Divines. They were the most powerful Arch Devils that existed within the pantheon.

They were all from families that have existed as far as the earliest known records, families that were believed to have supported the first devil King. The positions of the Main entities of the pantheon have been passed down within most of these families for an unbelievably long time.

Some of them even possessed special unique authorities, they were the authorities of the seven deadly sins, of the twelve main entities of the pantheon, seven were the holders of these authorities that made them a step above the rest.

The identities of these twelve were as follows;

Grand Duke Eryrth, holder of Pride of the Seven Deadly Sins,

Grand Duchess Inglis, holder of Envy,

Grand Duke Belphegor, holder of Sloth,

Grand Duke Mammon, holder of Greed,

Duchess Asmodeus, holder of Lust,

Duke Araman, holder of Fury,

Duke Tikan, holder of Gluttony,

Duchess Jostron,

Duke Hollis,

Duchess Celosia,

Crown Prince Creuserey,

Princess Cattleya.

All twelve of them were in the high tier deity realm and all possessed great power and authority in the Devildom of Hell. There are various reasons why they all do not posess the same noble rank, however that's a story for another time.

A few days after Arthur was born, the wife of Grand Duke Eryrth, Iberis, the sister of Duchess Celosia, also gave birth to her child. A girl she named Layla, who was also born with a high existence level. She was born in the inferior-stage of the Master realm and over the years, she had shown great talent and ingenuity.

As the daughter of one of the Devildom's grand dukes, she was brought up strictly from a young age and was given all the necessary education to act in a way befitting of her status as a grand dukes daughter.

From etiquette training, to swordsmanship, to magic lessons, horsemanship, archery and many other lessons. She had been taking all these since her early years, as strength is a necessary factor for the daughter of a grand duke, she had been trained in all sorts of weapons.

However, despite countless attempts by her mother to make her favor the sword like her father, she never ended up doing so, instead she preferred using magic guns. Magic guns were a result of alchemy and magi-technology, created with the aim of making those unable to manage their magic power properly with an alternative way to protect themselves.

Unfortunately, this is looked down upon by various nobles ad the devil race is one which prides itself on their enormous magic power reserves and skilled magic power manipulation. As a weapon made for those who are not skilled enough to do so, the magi-tech guns are naturally something the elite dislike.

Various types were created, some are like artifacts that absorb the wielders magic power to create bullets, this means the strength of the shots depends on the wielders magic power quality and quantity.

Others can have bullets loaded with magic power that can be bought. As there are various qualities of magic power, the strength of the guns depends on the quality of the magic power in the bullet loaded into it.

As for Layla, she likes them all, it matters not the type, as she simply likes all sorts of guns. Despite various lectures from her mother to not associate herself with them, she still secretly goes out to hidden training centers and various magi-tech gun shops.

She is has a serious case of what one would call gun fanaticism, seeing as she dislikes using other weapons, the only reason she still trains with them is simply because she is required to.

It was a fine afternoon and as usual, she was touring the weapon markets in one of the towns in the capital of the Devildom. Upon arriving at her favorite shop she excitedly ran inside, ignoring the cries of her guards as they tried to prevent her from leaving their sights.

Normally she is always excited to see the new guns in the shop, however today she was even more so because of the sale of a limited edition set of pistols created by one of the Devildom's best alchemists.

Werinbert Boffin is considered the best alchemist and magi-tech engineer of his generation and is one of the brains behind the magi-tech gun project. He is also the second son of Margrave Boffin, one of the Devildom's military leaders. Due to his father's influence, Werinbert has taken a liking to creating magic-tech weapons and the guns are one of his best creations.

Although most nobles look down on the guns, they dare not speak ill of it, as they fear the influence of the Margrave. Some of them acquire these guns in secret.

That day was the release date of his new masterpieces, ones Layla had wanted to acquire immediately. Upon arriving at the shop, Layla immediately made her way to the stand they were displayed on. Many made way for her as the face of the grand duke's daughter was well known in these parts and no one wanted to offend her by arguing about these guns with her.

Although she felt bad about using her family's power to pressure them, her greed for the weapons was greater than her guilt. Right before she picked them up she turned around and looked at the crowd before smiling and saying,

"Thank you."

Although she was just eight years of age, it was already obvious that she was going to be a great beauty in the future, in fact she already was. She is a girl of average height and slim build. She has fair skin, long black hair that spills over her shoulders and down to her waist. Her almond-shaped green eyes and spruce eyebrows seem expressionless like a doll and made one feel the strength of her volition.

After saying her thanks to the other customers, she turned around and was about to pick up the guns only see another pair of hands on them. She looked at the owner of those hands to see a hooded boy who was about the same height as her, she could not see his face as his hood had inhibition magic inscribed on it.

Not wanting to make a scene, she cleared her throat and spoke,

"I was here for these first, please take your hands off."

Her voice was mature for her age, as one would not believe she was a child from just her voice. She was also very polite and this led others to think the hooded boy would let her go with the guns. However, their expectations were not met as he spoke.

"You entered the store first however you did not touch these first, I did, so I should be the one telling you to let go."

The onlookers were shocked at his words, some even began to feel sorry for the boy who dared to offend the grand dukedom's princess. Some even whispered to him trying to persuade him to forgo the weapons, her guards were beginning to frown as they felt anger towards the one who dared to be arrogant in front of their young lady.

"So what if you're the grand duke's daughter, I touched them first so I get the right to pay for them first, you can only have them if I'm unable to pay."

At this point a shop attendant walked up to him and said,

"I'd advise you not to argue about this matter, looking at your appearance there's no way you would be able to afford these, just let it go."

He even attempted to push the boy's hands off, however to his surprise the small boy did not budge. Layla then spoke up trying to end the issue before they garnered more attention,

"Can we negotiate about this, I'm willing to compensate you twice the price of these if you agree to let it go."

At her words, one of her guards couldn't contain it anymore and spoke up,

"Young lady, you don't need to argue with this plebian, let us handle this."

Layla's face twisted in annoyance as she heard her guards words, looking at the boy, she could see he wasn't dressed in expensive or luxurious clothes, just a normal t-shirt and jeans alongside his hooded jacket, however calling him a plebian was a little bit too much.

"Galleu!, there was no need to insult him, apologize to him now."

The onlookers also felt the guard went to far by calling the boy a plebian, however the scene of Layla reprimanding him increased her evaluation in their hearts.

'The young lady is quite magnanimous!' they thought.

"But young lady-"

"Apologize!"

The guard, Galleu attempted to refute but Layla silenced him, commanding him to apologize again. Galleu gritted his teeth and was about to speak when the hooded boy spoke up again.

"So you think everyone is below you just because you managed to land the position of a grand duke's daughter's guard huh?"

His words were extremely mocking towards Galleu, he was a genius who became a transcendent in a short time, his skills were also personally recognized by the grand duke and was put in charge of guarding his daughter.

'Being forced to apologize to a nobody was one thing, but being mocked is another, I can't take this.'

However before Galleu could act, the boy ignored him and spoke again,

"Don't you know the saying, 'There's always a sky above the sky', I suggest you keep it in mind." He then turned to the shop attendant and spoke, "Wrap this up for me, I need to leave here quickly."

Hearing is words Layla felt something was wrong, she was quite smart for her age so she could easily figure it out, and his words seemed to hint that his identity was not one to be trifled with. But as far as she knew, only few people would not fear the grand duke's authority.

'Either he's related to another one of the dukes or grand dukes. Or could he be?'

The moment she had that thought, she looked towards the boy again, this time with the intention of sensing his strength, he appeared to be hiding it with some sort of artifact so not many could tell, they simple mistook him as a normal child.

Not even her group of transcendent body guards could tell, however she felt for him to possess such an artifact, his identity could not be simple. She turned to tell Galleu, who had been restrained by the other guards, to apologize again however she heard the boy's voice again. This time, he sounded impatient.

"Hurry up and pack the damn thing up!"

As she was wondering the reason for the boy's impatience, there was suddenly a commotion at the door, at first she feared they had attracted more attention however, after seeing the reason for the commotion she was lost for words.

"Grand Duke Belphegor."