"Seriously? You have no idea what I'm talking about?"

'I do not. I have never heard of anyone named Issei Hyoudou. A shame, considering it sounds like he was an interesting person.'

I briefly considered one of the few shonen protagonists that decided not only was he going to shoot for the harem ending…he kinda actually went through with it too. On top of that he determinatored his way into the top levels of power even if the reputation he got along the way was…rather unique…

'Wait, wait, wait! Go back! What was that about an oppai dragon?!' Ddraig roared in my mind.

"Oh, you saw that?"

'I am literally part of your soul, YES I saw that! Explain!'

"Ah well, you see…" I went on to explain how in one world Ddraig ended up paired with Issei Hyoudou, a human eventually reincarnated as a devil with a sense of perversion so strong it actually became his most well known attribute. It even had a show made in the Netherworld targeted at children (and I had thoughts about that, but A. that universe clearly had different ideas about sex and B. what did I know about raising literal devil children.) that actually became rather popular across multiple factions. One the positive side, it made Issei instantly recognizable and well liked. On the negative, it rather…well, took the dignity of Ddraig, dragged it through a woodchipper, and then systematically pounded it until nothing remained…

It actually got so bad that Albion got pulled in by association.

'You must be joking…'

I chuckled awkwardly and scratched at my cheek, but there was really nothing I could say since Ddraig was probably seeing the memories directly.

"Sorry?" I offered half-heartedly. "If it makes you feel better I'm not really like that at all. And going by what that guy from earlier said, Albion is going to be the one dealing with the pervert."

'It really doesn't. Not only will the white one learn of my shame, I have a feeling the same thing that happened in that world will occur here even if the positions are reversed.' It was weird hearing a dragon mentally sigh. 'If anything it just makes me sympathize with my rival.'

Yeah, that seemed likely. Good thing I didn't particularly care what people thought about me…although the thought of being associated with Paladin…

I shivered and shoved that thought into a distant corner of my mind and locked it away.

"Well…anyway, topic change." I decided. "We need to plan our next move. Any suggestions?"

'That's mostly up to you, partner.' Ddraig rumbled, sounding depressed. I guess he wasn't quite over the shock of my reveal. 'If you can't come up with anything, I'd say focus on finding a place to sleep. I doubt the weather would bother you much even without me, but it's useful to have a place to store your things.'

"So the dragon's first instinct is to find and build a lair? How stereotypical." I teased.

'Grrr…'

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"But you aren't wrong. To be honest, I've been thinking about places I could use as a base of operations for a while. And I think I've got just the place in mind."

-o-

Brockton Bay was rather infamous for a mid-sized city.

It was the capital of a white-supremist movement. It had one of the most powerful superhuman, sorry, Parahuman, sex slavers around. It had successfully driven off both the Teeth, a band of Mad Max bandit assholes led by a mind-jacker and the Slaughterhouse 9, a roving group of murderhobos. And somehow it was still standing.

As interesting as those details were, though. I had a particular incident in mind.

Years ago, much of the city was ruled by a singular villain. He committed terrible crimes yet held to a strict code. That was until he was attacked in his home by a team of superheroes and finally defeated. There was more to that event, but the part I was interested in wasn't how the Marquis was defeated. It was what happened to his house afterward.

Considering the man was now serving a life sentence in an inescapable prison, the smart thing to do would be to assume it was reclaimed by the government or something and sold off. Either that or abandoned. It took me a full day of investigating (browsing arrest records until I happened across one for a Charles Lavere followed by a quick stop to a Real Estate agent along with a simple hypnosis spell) to find out the entire property was being held in trust until his daughter came of age.

Of course since his daughter was currently completely unaware of who her father was and thus ignorant of the house, I was sure she wouldn't mind if I…moved in for the time being.

'So your plan was just to squat in some girl's house she doesn't know about?' Ddraig asked smugly. 'Yes, I can see how this is a brilliant plan. Much better than building a lair of your own.'

"Okay one," I said to the arrogant lizard. "This is a perfect place to build a 'lair'. It's remote, isolated, and it should be easy enough to ward it without worrying about making exceptions for unexpected visitors. And two, it's going to be mine in a few days anyway. Kinda."

I had actually hypnotized the Real Estate agent to tell me what needed to happen to have the property signed over to my name. It wouldn't hold up to scrutiny, but the signatures were there…

'I didn't say I disapproved. Taking what you want is very dragon-like.'

"Hn.."

Truthfully I was a little conflicted on taking Panacea's house. Well not really the taking part, even at this point in time the girl was rather bitchy. Understandably so in most cases. But understandably bitchy was still bitchy in the end. But because of how I took it.

Hypnosis was…a touchy subject.

I didn't really like how easily I puppeted those people around even if it was too useful to completely ignore. Most likely I would restrict that power to urgent needs only from now on.

I sighed and pushed my thoughts aside for the moment. "Well, we might as well go take a look at our new home."

'Over a decade with no one living in it. It's probably going to be dusty.'

It was.

-o-

Thank goodness for magic.

That was probably the only thing that kept me from burning my new house down with how long it took me to clean the whole thing top to bottom. But while the house wasn't exactly spotless, it was at least comfortable and I was no longer sneezing every time I moved something.

That said, I really wanted to do anything other than cleaning at the moment. I didn't even want to be in the house right now.

'Why don't you find one of those Parahumans to play with then? They should be a good distraction.' Ddraig suggested.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" I snorted. "Most of them don't exactly have a public address I can go knock on."

'Then go visit one of the ones that do.' I could feel the eyeroll.

"Fine, let me just finish the teleportation circle then."

That was something I needed to do sooner than later if I wanted to teleport in any meaningful way.

So far, I had found Devil magic was fully capable of anything I imagined, but the tradeoff was efficiency.

If I needed to make a comparison, it was like trying to fill a container with water. A sensible spell caster would use a cup with just enough water to fill the container, possibly spilling a bit over the edges if they had poor control. Devils threw entire buckets at the container and only stopped when they either successfully cast the spell or ran out of power. That was why Runes and spell circles were so important in spellcasting. They acted as funnels to make sure the inputted 'water' actually made it into the spell.

And that was precisely why I needed a permanent circle if I wanted to teleport in and out of my house with any accuracy.

It was one thing to eyeball a space, think 'I want to be there' and teleport. It was another one entirely if you wanted to teleport across a city when a single mistake could be the difference between appearing in the next room over…or winding up in a completely different city. So hard coding the runes in advance not only made the spells 'cheaper' it made them functional as well.

"Alright, I think that should do it." I leaned back in satisfaction once the final line was carved. "One fully functional teleportation circle."

'Seems a bit basic from the ones I've seen in the past.' Ddraig commented.

"Well unless the 'Gods' responsible for the Game changed a lot of things this world doesn't have any magic users besides the ones they've sponsored. A basic password should be fine for now, until I actually figure out how to set up security wards anyway."

'Hmm'

"Enough of that though, let's go have some fun in the city!" I cast the clothing swap spell and changed into a bodysuit and domino mask. Then I unfurled my wings and stepped into the middle of the circle.

If I was going to go try playing with a Cape, I should at least have some fun with it! A bright flash of light later and I reappeared on the other side of the city.

Now then, which way from here?