Rias moves in with Issei, and another small talk with Ddraig!

Shortly after the not date with Raynare Rias and Issei decided to take another big step: Rias moving into Issei's place along with Asia. That of course, worried Issei a bit, given his parents, but once again, they were surprisingly cool with it. He didn't even need a wish to smooth things over. Though he could have done without their surprise that he had TWO girls interested in sharing a roof with him.

That all went smoothly enough, and the end result? Issei now got to fall asleep with two sexy girls, nude in bed with him, and wake up with them every morning. Akeno was holding off on it for the moment though. Made sense, no need to rush things. "...this is the life," Issei murmured to himself, his arms each around the girls.

...

"You did quite well against the Phoenix," Ddraig spoke to Issei shortly after Issei had fallen asleep.

Issei looked up towards the Dragon, and said, "Huh, you haven't spoken with me since the Rating Game. I was starting to worry that maybe you were giving me the silent treatment over the fact that we altered this arm you gave me. Pride and all that."

"Hardly," Ddraig snorted, smoke billowing from his nostrils as he did. "It's no concern of mine how you disguise the arm so the small minded fools of humanity don't come after you with pitchforks later."

"...I think humanity has grown a bit past the point of coming after people with pitchforks," Issei chuckled nervously. "Though the arm would still raise a lot of awkward questions..."

"Have you?" Ddraig asked in amusement. "Regardless, I remained silent the past couple of days to observe how you handled the aftermath, as well as give you a bit to settle back into your new normal."

"Thanks for that, I guess," Issei replied, scratching the back of his head.

"Tell me, do you regret making that trade, given what you now know?" Ddraig inquired.

Issei blinked. "What do you mean?" he asked right back.

"The fact that, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't necessary. Had you ultimately lost to Riser, that Satan among the Devils would still have been able to justify you keeping the Lamp by that point. In short, you learned after the fact that you didn't need to go as far as you did, because winning was never the point," Ddraig noted.

Issei thought about it. "No, not really. I'm learning to live with my new arm well enough," he stated slowly. "Other than the mishaps, which we already fixed, need to thank Kiba for that later, and the annoying way it feels when disguised, there isn't much to regret. And again, having a Dragon arm is just plain awesome," Issei laughed. "Besides, even if I knew, I still would have done it just to kick Riser's ass. I wouldn't have been satisfied with winning the war, but losing the battle."

"Oh? A bit greedy and prideful, are we?" Ddraig questioned in amusement.

"Of course!" Issei snorted. "You said it yourself, due to our connection, my soul is more akin to a Dragon's than most normal humans. Of course I'm going to have those traits, Dragons are known for them after all... Maybe I should temper them a bit, but they are there. Plus... Riser just needed to be taken down several pegs."

"True. But remember this. There is no shame in losing to a stronger opponent. So long as you are able to get up, and use the experience as fuel to make yourself stronger, then there is a valuable benefit to taking a loss," Ddraig lectured.

"...I'll keep that in mind," Issei nodded. "Though, I get the feeling to had another reason for initiating this conversation?"