Returning home it was not his father who went to speak with Kou, it was much worse.

His grandmother.

It must be understood, while the males of the Balam family were respectable generals and fighters, they were also normally utterly stupid when it came to matters of state, plotting, or anything that is not pure combat. Thus, whenever something happens that affects the family standing that is not purely combat-related, it was not Kou's father or grandfather who would deal with it but Kou's grandmother.

When she was informed of what happened at that gathering the old madam of the Balam family was scandalized for a moment before exploding in rage. Rage not directed exclusively at Kou, but also to his parents.

"You two idiots! Can you see what you two have done?!" The old madam said and Kou's father and mother both looked confused.

"Sorry, mother-in-law, but what exactly have I done?" the mother of Kou, Giana, asked in confusion. She always tried her best in teaching her son but nothing ever seemed to work.

"What have you done? You even have the gall to ask that?!" The old madam, Marci Balam, asked in fury. "You two were so 'overly enthusiasmatic' after the birth of little Kou that the entire house could hear you two going at it! And you two were in the same room as him, where else could he have learned to act in such a way than by imitating you two!?" Marci said and while Giana's face became red in embarrassment her husband looked actually proud of himself for his actions.

Seeing his proud face made Marci angry so he punched him, as she also had the Balam bloodline she fist was especially tough and sent her son, the current head of the Balam family and a Ultimate Class devil, flying into the sky and far away.

As Giana saw this she became a bit terrified again because of this family of hers, they migh be quite unassuming but they certainly were not to be triffled with.

Being the owners of the three biggest mines in the Underworld and having generals and high command officers throughout the Devil Race main army the Balam family was not to be underestimated, but it was. Constantly so no less.

The Rook Piece of the Evil Piece system grants something similar to their house trait, making many people consider them a knock-off from Rooks everywhere. The fact that most of their males are, for a lack of better words, simpletons also does not help their situation. That they are not the richest house, only the second richest due to the Phenex who enjoys showing off their wealth only makes this worse.

Many even forget they exist, such is how they are currently. Heck, the fact that Giana was a branch family member of the Agares clan instead of a direct descendant was proof of how low other clans see them.

"Sorry, mother-in-law, I promise me and my doofus will not act in such a shameful way again." Giana said only for Marci to rage again.

"You idiot! If you and my doofus of a son don't fool around how am I supposed to get surrounded by grandkids? Just don't do it in front of the kids, it is not so hard!"

Needless to say, while the women of the Balam clan were much more politically savvy than the males they still could be loud, boisterous, and extreme.

After this was done Marci went to see her grandson.

When she entered the room she was ready to begin her tirade when she froze. Her grandson still looked the same for her but there was a clear difference in him now.

"Grandmother, tell me something." Kou started, his eyes distant as he spoke looking outside and Marci decided to listen to him. "On our world, how long has it been since the Great War and the Civil War ended?"

At this question Marci answered quite easily.

"About eight hundred years now."

"So why is it that we still suffer from the wounds of that time?" As he asked that Kou's fist clenched. "I have looked over the documents, our losses at that time were severe and we lost most of our fighting force. However, despite that things should not have progressed as they did. Not at all.

"Our population has grown back 30% from that time to now, but this number is pathetic. Repopulation should have been the first priority of our race after all those disasters, but instead we focused on silly games. Our leaders are ridiculous shadows of what they should be and the fact that we zealously kept some of the old rules that led us to disaster while completely ignoring others is just ridiculous.

"Now there is now hope for Low-Class Devils to grow in class, true enough, but the difficulty of one doing that may as well mean it is better to give up. Even if one manages to grow they must associate themselves with those of the current government so no change is possible. That even after the civil war we still are divided into two 'factions' is the apex of the absurd.

"Why did so many devils died during those fights if not to decide our future? And now we are again on the point where things will escalate, and fast, to war."

As the word 'war' was spoken old madam Marci shivered a bit. She then took a new look at her grandson, and now he did not show any of the signs of the 'little shit' he always acted like. No, he now acted in a way that no one would be able to doubt him.

"You, what do you intend to do exactly?" She asked a bit fearful of this grandson that even she had looked down upon until now.

"What I intend to do? Simple, I will do what our leaders were too incompetent to do. I intend to make our clan strong enough to survive what is to come soon, I intend to eliminate the elements that are stiffling our society from proper growth, and I intend to break the current way which we grow in ranks. We need to change, otherwise we will forever be in a dangerous position."

As Kou spoke and explained his plans in more details Old Madam Marci could almost see it, rivers of blood and the deaths of possibly tens of thousands, the destruction unlike anything else and the future beyond that.

After she left Kou's rooms she stood in her quarters for two days and three nights silently, not speaking a single word throughout, and by the time she left her room she had come to a decision.

She could see clearly how Kou intends to do what he wants, she knows she is likely the only one who can stop him, but she won't do that.

For a long time now she felt dissatisfied. Her clan has suffered like any other clan during both the Great War and the Civil War, in both cases, the Balam clan supported what would come to be the New Satan Faction.

And what did they get?

Nothing.

Literally nothing.

Their territories continued the same, the spoils of both wars were distributed for those who 'needed them more', meaning those who blindly obeyed, and even when they wanted something they could not get it. Heck, of the current government they had little influence and their work was considered inferior. To make matters worse the current government decided to 'help' some of the fallen clans by setting up places where they can locate themselves and the location just so happened to be on the border with the Balam territory.

The devils there would constantly invade and they were supposed to stay quiet about it.

She hated this, but had little way of changing with the way things are currently. Her clan was barely being kept afloat thanks to her deals and their money but the Baels clearly wanted to expand over their lands and the Four Satans, those who should stop such actions, were completely untrustworthy in her eyes. The Lucifer spends all his times gushing over his sister, Leviathan does much the same as well as a television show for kids, Beelzebub locks himself in his lab and only cares if it is a complete emergency, and Asmodeus only wants to sleep.

However, now her grandson may have found them a way of surviving this. She may not enjoy what he intends to do, but she will allow it nonetheless.

Kou's P.O.V.

After convincing grandmother about my plans she told me just some instructions.

First, I am not allowed to allow others to find out my plans;

Second, she will support me creating my army, but it must be in one of the mines of my family and not on places too close to the mansion;

Third, before I begin to act she must be informed;

And finally, the clan will cover the expanses the best she can, but I must find a way to fund our operations regardless.

None are impossible by any means, some are honestly even quite easy to follow, so I feel satisfied.

Today I decided to go and take a look around the town near the mansion of the Balam clan.

The Balam clan is one of the original 9 devil King clans, and even if we are falling behind of others in some aspects the city near out castle is nothing to scoff at.

It spams for kilometers on end and there are plenty of smiths all around as we have the biggest and main source of iron in the entire Underworld. Unfortunately, we are not really good for much else except for metal production.

Walking around I can see many blacksmiths going at it with gusto, the sound of metal clangs as they hit their hammers and the sound of metal being sharpened is definitely interesting. But, for today, I have a certain wish.

I intend to search for talents.

I already talked with grandmother, she will force father into sending the family some of the soldiers from the military under his direct control. She will give some random excuse but her actual desire would be to send them to work for me directly, she intends to send someone to help in their and my own training and these guards will have to sign a geass that forbids them from ever sharing anything that we do, but it should be quite good.

But, even with that, I cannot confirm if these people will be any good for what I intend. I want absolute loyalty, those who would be loyal to their very bone. And I especially need those who I can trust to follow my orders regardless of what they may be.

Thus, I need to foment them from young and what better place than in the slums? There is a big one in this city and there is also a refugee camp near the borders of our territory where devils from extinct clans are located, those who no longer have any of their riches, their bloodlines became too thin, and are close to true extinction.

There are also many places all around that are interesting for recruitment. The Balam territory is close to the lands of the Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan clan, all clans that treat their Low-Class like utter trash. We are on truly fertile ground for what I intend.

As I was thinking thus I reached the slums and noticed that there is a commotion. While it is snowing (it is winter right now) there is shouting and I can see a mob being formed. Moving quickly I see a little girl of about 7 or perhaps 8 years old being surrounded by many devils, they all are angry at the girl.

Moving towards the scene I can see that she is holding a simple bread, it isn't even that good for one as it clearly has signs of mold being formed in people around her were clearly all beggars and were trying to take it from the girl.

I might not be a hero, despite having once been called such as a young hero of the Underworld, but I can't just ignore something when I can see it so clearly in front of me. Moving to the direction of the commotion I can see the hate and desire to lash out, these people are not really mad at this girl but only wish to lash out at whatever is in front of them without regard.

Feeling highly annoyed at this fact I move as the first rock is being thrown. I was about to intervene when the rock 'missed'. Well, not really missed as there was a portal that opened in front of it and another that appeared behind her to avoid the attack.

... Why is a devil of the Abbadom clan here?

No, wait, that is not quite right. That was not the power of Hole, not quite anyway.

Oh, ohhh now that is interesting. Her abilities may seem similar to that of the Abadom clan, but the Abadom were simply an offshot of the clan which her skills came from.

The Amy clan and their ability, Replacement. They can exchange things from place to place, simple as that.

I had to hide an excited desire to jump in glee at seeing a chance like this, but for that I first stopped what was going on.

"You all, stop this at once." I said as I got closer. The beggars turned to look at me and disdain was clear on their faces.

Not wanting to even care about this I just moved forward, ignoring them as I did so until I got between them and the girl.

"You all, why are you all so angry?" I asked and before any of them could speak I could hear their stomachs grumble. Hearing this I nodded to myself and took out a few silver coins. "Here, use these to get some food in you. Also, spread the news, we will beging recruitment for a guard soon and if anyone is interested and is willing to put in effort they are to come to the base of the Janfer Mountain. It is honest job and will give everyone a place to sleep and good meals."

As I said so they all got a bit excited and with a few 'thank you, my lord' and 'Satans's bless you, our prince' they all turned and left.

I then turned to the girl in question that I protected and saw that she began eating that bad bread with pure hunger in her eyes. Seeing this I quickly took the bread out of her hands and spoke. Moving fast I took out the bread from her hands as that thing can only get her sick. When I did so she directly punched me in the face, but she was so light that I didn't feel anything from it. Seeing my lack of reaction she continued doing it, again and again.

I could see in her eyes, I have seen those eyes more times than I care to count. The eyes of someone who just wants to blame someone, that lost everything, and wants to vent their problems, frustrations, and fears in any way they can. The eyes of someone lost.

I let her vent all she wanted, and after she had done too much and was unable to do anything she passed out in front of me. Her clothes are in tatters and her blond hair was utterly dirty, her entire appearance was of a beggar without a question.

Oh well, I guess my plans to scout this place will be a bit of a bust for now. Well, I can get things back together soon enough anyway and this girl here might be just what I was searching for.

Later, when she awoken again, I gave her some proper food and watched as she ate with gusto.

I could now take a better look at the girl in front of me; she was dressed in a set of long robes which looked as though they belonged to an adult. The robe was full of colorful patches, showing the signs of being mended many times. There were some parts of the robes which were split apart, revealing her skin which had turned purple from the cold. At the same time, her face was very pale and she was skinny to the point a light gust of wind can topple her. Her hair was a pale blond and disheveled displaying the signs of malnutrition for a long period of time, while her face was full of dirt and her original appearance could no longer be seen. Her large blue eyes stared at me in fear while I was examining her and her body began to tremble.

Seeing her reaction I put on a friendly smile and then squatted down and asked the girl tenderly, "What is your name? Where are your parents?"

Seeing that she was still trembling I frowned, took out my jacket, and told her.

"Here, this jacket is quite warm. It should help. Now, can you answer me?"

The girl was wrapped up in my jacket which still had my body temperature, seemed to be feeling a sense of inexpiable warmth. As she heard what I asked her, her eyes began to turn red as she whimpered,

"Daddy, mummy...they...*sniff* *sniff*… they died already. They died from the cold, died from hunger… *sniff* *sniff*…"

Her actions reminded me of the many war orphans from back them, of how I could never really help them as much as I wanted and how I died trying to change things in a way to improve things for them and so many others, only to fail.

Feeling a pang at my heart I then said gently,

"Mmm, don't cry. When did all these happen?" As I said that, I wiped the tears off the face, not bothered about the filth on her face at all. It was just dirt, nothing to worry about.

I lifted up the little girl's face with my hands carefully and gently, as I did so it seemed like she finally started to see that I was not one of the 'bad guys'. She then began to calm down and said,

"It was a week ago. I was freezing when daddy and mummy gave me all their clothes. *sniff* *sniff*… they gave me all they had to eat… *sniff* *sniff*… they were originally sick already, but they wouldn't listen to me telling them no, they only smiled even as they gave me what little food we had left…"

I felt my heart clench hearing this and a burning anger at the situation we as devils arrived where even at a major city things like that happen. And I know for a fact that my family is amongst those who treat the Low-Class the best, we do what we can to improve things for everyone, and this still happens. I can't help but wonder just how bad things are for those in the territories of those who treat their Low Class citizens as trash.

Calming down I continued.

"What is your name?"

The little girl said with a sob, "I'm… I'm called Angelica Amy."

I then replied with a 'humm' before continuing, "Angelica Amy, right? Angelica Amy, why not you follow me in future? I will make sure you can eat your fill everyday and that you will always have a place to call home and a ceeling over your head."

The little girl's face became filled with tears and she knelt down, "I thank the young master for his kindness. Angelica Amy is willing to be young master's slave, serving young master for the rest of my life."

"Now, now, none of that. My name is Kou, and never call yourself as my slave or anything of the sort. How about my personal maid instead? I am led to believe many nobles have at least one of those, so how about it?" I proposed. My real objective was threefold, first to get myself someone I could trust and that was strong (which I am pretty sure I can, I bet I can make her an Ultimate Class by age 14 at most), second being to complement the idea of me being a useless noble who now needs a maid following him around everywhere, and third simply because I want to help her and being my maid will certainly be better than being a beggar fighting over a piece of spoiled breed.

"Y-Yes, this maid may not know much but I am willing to learn. Thank you, young master." Angelica said and I nodded at her with a light smile.

"Great, but we have a bit of a problem here. You see, the name Amy would attract attention, attention I really don't want right now." I told her.

"I see, what would you suggest then?" She asked.

"What if we change your name, at least until we can announce your real name with confidence?" I proposed. "And as for names, how about we mix Amy with something else... oh, I know Ainsworth, it would mean the 'one worthy', and it still starts with a as in Amy. How about it?" I proposed.

She mouthed it a few times and nodded.

"Very well, then I will be known from now on as Angelica Ainsworth."