Chapter 3:
Sirzechs was an excellent older brother. He always supported his younger siblings, except for Naruto's constant pleas to let him explore the world. With the number of enemies he had, it was simply impossible for such outings not to end in his death or, at the very least, serious injuries. Therefore, Sirzechs was unwilling to let him leave the house until he was at least 20 years old and only after having drilled into his rock-hard head the thousand and one, perhaps a thousand two, ways to escape a possible kidnapping.
Putting aside Naruto's constant craving for premature independence, he loved his siblings with all his heart. Therefore, it was natural that his dreams often included them, showing them triumphing in various situations. That day was no exception, as he was experiencing one of the best dreams: Rias-tan had recently graduated from university. Although he didn't know precisely what she had majored in, the mere fact that she had fulfilled her dream of living a complete university experience was enough for him. For his part, Naruto had managed to become the youngest demon king in history.
This wonderful dream, of course, drew a smile on his face; it was so beautiful that he would kill anyone who dared to wake him from it. Feeling right now like a hot cinnamon roll wrapped in his blankets only solidified that thought.
"Sirzechs!" Oh! The dream Naruto was speaking. That was new; usually his dreams were silent.
"I'm not a dream... I'm in your room, I need to talk to you."
"Oh... what time is it?" the sleepy demon king asked.
Fortunately, he was a lucid dreamer, so he could re-immerse himself in his dream as soon as his brother told him what he wanted. Most likely, he just needed to inform him that someone had made his sheets badly. Of course, he would kill the servant who had committed such a sacrilege.
He didn't bother to open his eyes, of course, because he knew Naruto would keep talking to him, and it wasn't necessary. It was a very pleasant feeling to have the absolute trust of his siblings in that aspect.
"Close to three in the morning," Naruto replied, with evident nervousness. Hearing the time, he decided he would deal with whatever might be bothering his younger brother first thing in the morning.
"Then we'll talk in the morning, little brother," the demon king said before falling back asleep.
"This can't wait until morning," Naruto replied with a slightly more exasperated tone. However, for Sirzechs, his dream was more important than anything Naruto could argue to justify his... actually.
"Is it really important?" Sirzechs asked.
"Define 'important'," Naruto replied, causing a sleepy sigh from the demon king.
"Go to sleep, little brother. Whatever is worrying you can wait until the early morning," Sirzechs said as he turned over in bed.
"Naruto-sama said your brother was a big know-it-all," a voice Sirzechs didn't recognize interrupted the conversation. It was a young voice, probably the same age as Naruto, and clearly that of a girl, which led Sirzechs to think that perhaps it was a little friend from school who had run away from home to hide there. Once again, it was nothing that couldn't wait until morning.
The "Naruto-sama" address and the fact that Naruto didn't have any friends he didn't know about at the moment didn't register in his mind.
"He is... but he's also an idiot," Naruto's response, of course, made Sirzechs frown, as he was not an idiot... or at least not most of the time.
"Naruto... your friends can stay if that's what you want. Now, I can go back to my dream," the exasperated groan that followed Sirzechs' response clearly indicated that something was frustrating Naruto. Well, he would find out what was bothering him in the early morning.
"Fine, we'll use the heavy artillery," and with that, Naruto began to move away. Sirzechs assumed he was returning to his room for a sleepover. Once again, the fact that they were not in the main Gremory residence, where Naruto lived with his parents and Rias-tan, but in his personal residence, didn't even cross his mind.
However, he did wonder what he meant by "we'll use the heavy artillery."
"Grayfia!" Apparently he had only opted to bother his wife instead of him. Well, let Grayfia deal with a surprise sleepover. He was sure she wouldn't get too angry with his little brother for bringing guests at this hour.
"Naruto-sama, there are more maids who can attend to your frie..." Grafia, of course, was a rather light sleeper. Unlike her husband, she did remember that they knew all of Naruto's friends and that the rule was that he shouldn't bring his friends home.
As soon as she realized that her husband's younger brother had an urgent need to talk to him—something that couldn't wait until morning—and ironically praying to the original devils that it wasn't what she feared, she shot up. This startled Sirzechs a little, who moaned annoyed by the cold air that hit him as she got up.
When the last of the Lucifuge saw what her brother-in-law had brought with him, she couldn't help but pale. This definitely couldn't wait until the early morning, as Sirzechs wanted.
"They swore loyalty to me," he said with a nervous smile. Maybe he should have waited until morning.
Nodding, as it was the only thing she could really do, Grayfia asked no more questions. She simply created a magic circle in her hand and aimed it at her husband's rear. With a slight pulse of her magic, she launched a blast of cold air that hit him.
The girlish scream and the subsequent sound of a body hitting the floor were enough for her to know that Sirzechs would definitely wake up.
"Why did you do that?" Sirzechs complained, cursing under his breath, now he wouldn't see if his younger siblings would get married.
Grafyia, instead of answering, simply pointed to where her younger brother was, who was visibly nervous. This did not surprise him, as he knew the boy was in his room; however, what did surprise him and make him pale was that behind his brother were five girls he definitely didn't know, and for good reason, as they were elf girls.
"Don't worry, little brother. We'll give you a new identity. Grayfia, give me a list of all the countries where he could escape the wrath of those conceited idiots. What's more, do you think Azazel would accept him?" As always, Sirzechs couldn't help but jump to the most exaggerated conclusion possible and make plans to ensure his younger brother's survival, even if his life was at stake.
"Wouldn't it be better to go with Beelzebub?" asked the blonde-haired elf. Honestly, one would think that the most famous and powerful demon king of the three would at least act with a little more basic decency.
"I don't want to die," Naruto said.
Entering Sirzechs' room was easy; in fact, he left the key under the doormat with a note that said, "So my little siblings can visit me." However, showing up at Ajuka's house unannounced was comparable to assaulting heaven itself, armed only with a broken slingshot... and there were higher odds of achieving success in the second option.
Hours later, and only after Grayfia managed to calm Sirzechs down with physical blows – a scene Naruto honestly would have preferred not to witness – the Demon King, his younger brother, and the now apparently "maids for life" gathered in Sirzechs' living room. There, Naruto recounted the full story of what had happened that night. The blonde and black-haired elves complemented the story with additional details, while the white-haired elf and the other two remained silent, slightly intimidated by the presence of the Demon King... or, to be more precise, the silver-haired woman who hit him to make him behave.
In short, Naruto had starred in the biggest act of simultaneous bravery and stupidity. In some way he himself didn't understand, he had heard two of his guards talking about a slave trader. Those men would be dead men as soon as Naruto could identify them. Instead of bothering to wake him up and try to convince him of what he had heard, something he regretted admitting would probably have taken hours.
He had made the stupid decision to personally infiltrate that place to carry out a rescue operation. The success was partial: he was only able to save five elf girls. To his regret, the rest had already been sold. By all devils, this was worse than the Nekoshou incident, and when Heaven found out, the Underworld would be at war again.
He was definitely annihilating the capital guards. They were so stupid they didn't understand that the Underworld wasn't at its best and didn't care about actively provoking the strongest faction of the three. Damn it! It would be enough for them to bring back the original Archangels and the Underworld wouldn't last two hours.
It also didn't help that the blonde elf told him that several slave traders had violated her companions in front of her eyes. If hell had already broken out completely, he would have to find a way to fix this before everything went to the devil... even more than it already had.
"And that's why I stole the sales records... Can you believe they had them right next to the cages?" Naruto said at the end of his story, leaving Sirzechs completely still.
"I think they just wanted to show off that it was impossible to escape from there, Naruto-sama," the blonde-haired elf pointed out. Naruto looked at her for a few seconds and then shrugged. In any case, this would help him track down all the slave buyers and... he hoped it would be enough to calm Heaven. If not, the white-haired elf, Natsume (if he remembered correctly), had assured him that he and his family would be welcome in Alfheim, since, as the savior of five of their own, the elves were in a life debt to him.
"Could you repeat that last part?" Sirzechs asked, returning to reality. If Naruto had really stolen the records, they could still save the situation, although it would involve a massive troop movement and Falbium would be furious for having overlooked a slave ring for so long. But the alternative was worse.
"I stole the sales records," Naruto replied, pulling a black leather-bound book out of his personal pocket dimension.
Without a word, Sirzechs simply snatched the damn book from his brother's hands before turning to his wife.
"Take him home and tell my parents what's going on."
Having said that, he vanished into a magic circle. He had work to do, and by all devils, for once he wasn't going to try to find ways to avoid it.
After his departure, Grayfia stared at her younger brother-in-law for a couple of minutes, wondering internally, and it wasn't the first time, if absolutely every man born into the Gremory clan was an idiot with some kind of white knight complex and an obsession with saving women.
"So..." Naruto's voice soon interrupted her thoughts, making Grayfia return to reality. "Can I keep them?" he asked with a nervous smile.
"We won't go anywhere without you, Naruto-sama. We literally owe you our lives; they are yours to do with as you wish," replied the blonde-haired elf, apparently the leader of the small group.
"That should answer you," Grayfia replied.
Elven culture was peculiar, marked by one of its most important laws: life debts. Essentially, if an elf's life was saved, that elf's life belonged to the savior for life. This debt was irredeemable, even if the saved elf managed to save the life of their creditor. For elves, their life was more valuable than that of any other being, and therefore, the life debt could never be settled.
It was ironic that this self-centeredness was, in essence, what made them vulnerable to being enslaved from a certain perspective.
"What if I told you that..." Naruto began, but was unable to finish the question.
Before he could continue, Grafia hit him on the head. She knew her younger brother-in-law's curiosity was dangerous, and she had no doubt that those girls, who saw him as their savior, would literally take anything he ordered them to do. A long time awaited her to teach Naruto how to treat his new maids.
"Why don't you ask them what kind of magic they are good at?" that should be enough to entertain her brother-in-law, the magic geek. He would undoubtedly want to know everything about elven magic, and that would keep him completely out of trouble... or at least, out of more trouble than he was already in.
End of chapter.