"Why are you here?!"
As Rias grew agitated, Grayfia calmly faced her anger by saying, "This is the property of the Gremory family. If you can be here, why can't I be here, Rias?"
"...." Rias.
In other words, this place wasn't owned by Rias!
Rias wanted to scold Grayfia, telling her that she was the heiress of the Gremory family, which meant she would be the head, but when she thought of Grayfia's status and power, she could only sigh helplessly.
Yet, with Grayfia around, Rias knew that it was impossible for her to do what she planned to do.
Yes, she really wanted to train by bringing Sato and her Peerage members to this training ground, which was located on a mountain near the city.
Within this training ground, there was a villa and many other complete facilities, and she was ready to give her everything in the last moments of spring, as everything would be decided within a week, whether she would continue her engagement with Riser or not.
Still, she knew her limits, and because of that, she knew that she would be relying on Sato a lot. She had confidence in herself, yet even so, she knew that she wasn't as strong as Riser, who wasn't a weak opponent.
Riser might be a scumbag, but it didn't mean that he was useless, as he had many people to watch over him, and just playing with women and being arrogant was nothing, as he had the right to become one.
Yet, Rias hated it as she wanted to choose someone whom she would marry as a husband.
She didn't want to have a loveless marriage.
Yes, she knew that she was naive, but even so, she would try her best to do it, as once again, she wanted to marry someone that she truly loved.
"..." Sato.
Why did Rias keep watching him?
He wasn't sure, but he knew that it was better to keep his mouth shut, especially when he could see that Grayfia was staring at him like a hawk.
"Can you at least trust me? Do you think that I will do something weird when everything is at stake?"
Yet, even so, Rias would be lying if she had never thought of anything spicy happening between her and Sato, but if Grayfia were around, would anything have happened?
"No."
"...." Rias.
"Do you think I don't know you well?" Grayfia let out a helpless sigh and said, "As long as you win this Rating Game, no one will say anything to you, and you can do whatever you want, but... You have to win, since if you don't, then you don't have any choices here."
Once again, Grayfia implied that one needed to be strong to have a choice in the world of the supernatural.
"I am the best example. You know it, right, Rias?"
"..." Rias.
Why did Grayfia say that she was the best example?
It was because of her origin, as she was part of the Lucifage house, which was the devil known as having been loyal to Lucifer forever, yet she betrayed this family and became the wife of Sirzech Lucifer, Rias's older brother.
Yet, was everyone looking at her in a good light?
No.
The Old Satan faction was obvious, thinking of her as nothing but a traitor, and for the current government, it was hard for them to see her in a good light, as many of their families had been killed by her.
Yet, even so, they could do nothing to her, why?
It wasn't because she was the wife of Sirzech Lucifer; instead, it was because she was strong, so strong that she was hailed as the strongest Queen, and also could even match Serafall Leviathan, the current Leviathan, and also the strongest female devil.
If Grayfia were weak, could her life be comfortable?
Or could she even get the attention of Sirzech?
Regardless, no matter what truly happened in her life, no one dared to mess with her due to her strength.
"So, be patient. A week. You need to wait for that time, and if you win, you will get your freedom."
Rias felt an intense emotion within her, yet she could only hold it and was unable to say anything since, as Grayfia had said to her, the truth was the one that was hardest to accept.
At the same time, Sato also felt that Grayfia told her about this problem, too, and frankly, until now, he wasn't sure why she even did that to him at night.
Why did she do so?
Could she explain everything to him?
Yet, it was hard to do that as he wasn't sure, and with his nature, as everything had happened, he just let it flow instead of letting it to bother him since as Grayfia had said before, instead of thinking of those that trouble him as it was useless, considering how weak he was currently, it was better for him to think of how to grow stronger.
"...I know."
"Good." Grayfia sighed in relief that Rias would listen to her, but the real problem was this. "So, what will you do? You only have a week. Do you think that you can win against Riser?"
"Of course!"
Yet, Rias was confident of her victory!
"Why are you so confident?" Grayfia frowned, wondering where this blind confidence came from.
"Because I have him!" Rias clung tightly to Sato's broad, strong body, showing that she had a reliable ally. "As long as I have him, I will be okay!"
"..." Sato.
Grayfia blinked her eyes, then nodded. "That's true."
"Well, yes."
"If he leads us, it will be fine."
"I believe in him."
Similarly, Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko had a similar idea that they could win due to Sato.
Yet, Sato felt their expectations were too high. "It troubles me that you have such high expectations of me, Rias-sama."
"What? Are you not confident?"
"I have a certain confidence in myself, but I want you to win everything on your own, not because of me, but to show that you are worthy of that choice, someone who truly can make her own decision, not because she gains something due to others."
With how he was, Sato believed that he could win against Riser and his entire team, yet that wasn't the victory that he wanted to see.
If it were the original Issei, then being the white knight for the tragic heroine, Rias, would be the best, but Sato wasn't someone who wanted to chase Rias like that, and as he had said before, he truly wanted for Rias to win everything on her own instead of relying on others.
"Then... can you make me win against Riser?" Rias asked after a moment of hesitation.
"I can, but can you and your family accept my training?"
"Yes!"
Rias wasn't the only one who answered him, but everyone gave him a similar and strong answer.
Yet, Sato knew whether they truly thought so or not, since he knew that if he told them to give their all, except for Rias, he was certain they wouldn't be able to do it.
Still—
"Well, let me train you then. Don't complain if it's hard."
Even though they didn't give their all, he somehow had confidence that they could win against Riser and his group since they really had such potential, yet as he said so, he did something that made everyone's eyes go wide open.
Sato suddenly became two, then expanded further to become four.
Yup, he doubled his double, so he could train all of them.
"Let's start the training now."
Instead of waiting for them to power up when the crisis came, it was better for them to grow stronger now.
Yet, without a doubt, as his body became four, whether it was Rias, Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba, they showed a surprised, yet thoughtful expression.
"..." Sato.
"Hmm..." Grayfia narrowed her eyes as she was in deep thought with complicated feelings, as she looked at the four Satos.
"....." Sato.
Regardless of what they thought on their heads, Sato said, "Should we start the training?"
Yup, let's just focus on the training instead of the possibility that came from him, who could create a duplicate of his own body.