High School DxD: The Game Master

Rias was willing to admit, if forced to, that Sona was more intelligent than her and definitely more studious, but even she had read about pocket dimensions.

That being the case she didn't feel foolish saying, "I thought something like a pocket dimension, even a small one, would require significantly more power than this portal is putting out."

Sona nodded in agreement, "You're right. The only thing I can think of is a Sacred Gear. Perhaps one we're unaware of or even a subspecies."

Rias couldn't help but become a little excited about that thought. Her father had been pushing a lot harder lately for her to just give up and marry Riser Phenex.

That was just something she would never willingly do. She would rather kill herself than spread her legs and be bred like a cow, something Riser had threatened to do to her. So the prospect of a potentially powerful Sacred Gear appearing was like a balm to her soul.

His lips curled into a smile as she proposed, "Let's go inside!"

Sona turned to give Rias a flat look of disappointment, "You want to just walk into an unknown possible pocket dimension without any knowledge of what could be inside?"

Rias, looking slightly sheepish, still waved off Sona's concern, "It's not putting out that much magical power, I'm sure that we can easily break out of it. If we even need to."

She walked closer to the entrance, poking it with her finger as Sona protested, "For all you know it could be a trap! Or the space on the other side might be so small it crushes you!"

Rias waved away Sona's comment, and with a giggle, jumped into the portal. Sona groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew Rias was smart, if she wasn't then Sona wouldn't be willing to run a territory on Earth with her.

The problem was, Rias was also extremely excitable and prone to snap decisions. This wouldn't be the first, and hopefully not the last, time that Rias jumped into something without thinking it through properly.

Sona's woes were only magnified when Akeno gave her an apologetic look and followed Rias into the portal.

She didn't hold it against her, but Sona was still annoyed by the action. She turned to look at her own Queen and let out a sigh, "Come on Tsubaki, let's go rescue my idiot friend."

Tsubaki's comforting smile helped a little, but she still planned to slap Rias upside the head after this was all over.

Together the pair entered the portal and immediately came to a stop. They had gone from a backyard in Japan to the interior of a pub that wouldn't be out of place in medieval Europe.

As they stepped into the building, the blond-haired, blue-eyed, buxom, woman with a ton of cleavage on display, behind the counter turned from Rias and Akeno to them and smiled, "Oh! Would you look at that, more people coming to visit little 'ole me?"

Sona made her way toward Rias while taking in the period correct looking décor of the room. If she didn't know better, she would think they'd traveled back in time.

When she got to Rias, her red-headed friend gave her a look filled with enthusiastic excitement, "Sona! You're not going to believe it! But, this is a tavern and the proprietress here is willing to give us a reward if we exterminate some rats for her!"

Sona froze. That sounded awfully familiar and extremely cliché. Like the start of every bad RPG game that Rias had forced her to play. A cellar, rats, and a reward.

The single most cliché of cliches! Judging by how excited Rias looked, practically vibrating in place, she knew exactly what Rias wanted so she very firmly looked Rias right in the eyes and in her most stern voice said, "No."

The pout and puppy dog eye counterattack came instantly that Sona would never, ever, even under torture and threat of death, ever, admit was damned adorable. She held firm, at least on the outside, "No."

"Oh come on! It's just some rats! A baby could beat them!"

The woman behind the counter spoke up, "Well, I don't know about that. A handsome young man came in not too long ago and went to deal with them.

The thing is, I heard some screaming and he hasn't come back yet. I even lent the deary my sword."

That caught everyone by surprise and even put a damper on Rias's excitement. She was the one to address the barmaid, "Someone else came here before us?"

the barmaid nodded, "A cute little guy, like I said. I promised him a nice reward if he cleared out the rats and he seemed so confident. I hope they didn't do anything to him."

Now that was a problem. Sona might have wanted nothing to do with this, but she couldn't risk leaving a normal human in a place like this.

The supernatural world was a secret that all members of every faction worked toward. This was no longer a game. She locked eyes with Rias and they both nodded in understanding.

Rias turned back to the woman, "We'll take care of them and rescue the cutie!"

Sona, meanwhile, continued to observe everything about this place. She'd just been following along with Rias but now things were getting dangerous.

She got Rias's attention, "You and Akeno go rescue him, I want to talk to the proprietress a bit more."

That got a nod from the pair. No time was wasted as they descended the stairs. Sona stepped in front of the woman and immediately cast her hypnotism magic on her. The woman's eyes unfocused as her whole body relaxed.

Once she was sure it was in effect, Sona began her interrogation, "What's your name."

" Proprietress."

"Do you have any other names?"

"No."

"What is this place?"

"This is my tavern."

"How long have you been here?"