Finn Balam.

Yes, his name wasn’t Suzuki anymore. It was simply Finn. It was a rather plain name, especially when compared to the flashy, imposing names of the other heirs and heiresses in the world of High School DxD—names like Rias Gremory, Sona Sitri, or Sairaorg Bael. Their names matched their overwhelming status, yet his?

Finn was simple and common. Yet, he didn’t mind. In his family, it meant a blessing.

He was the absolute blessing of his parents, who had struggled for centuries to conceive. Due to their complex, long-lived biology, high-class devils had an incredibly difficult time getting pregnant. When he was finally born against all odds, they gave him a name representing pure joy.

I just wish they took better care of their own domain...

He sighed, leaning back against Akeno’s incredibly soft, skilled hands. It was exhausting living as the heir to a noble family, especially considering the absolute geopolitical mess the Devil society was currently in.

The catastrophic Civil War of the past had ruined their infrastructure, and the great Faction Wars between the Devils, Fallen Angels, and Angels had nearly driven all three races to extinction. To make matters worse, a mysterious, incurable ’Sleeping Disease’ had recently struck the Underworld, threatening to completely wipe out the few remaining pure-blooded Devils.

Fortunately, in the 16th century, the greatest mind in the Underworld, Ajuka Beelzebub, had invented the Evil Pieces system. This revolutionary magic allowed Devils to reincarnate other races—humans, dragons, and youkai—into their peerages, slowly rebuilding their numbers.

Naturally, this was exactly what had happened to Akeno Himejima, who now proudly served as his Queen piece. A rather unique twist to the canon story, wasn’t it?

So, how exactly did Finn manage to secure Akeno, a girl practically destined by fate to be Rias Gremory’s Queen?

The answer was simple: he frequently visited the human world for business. Because he possessed the memories of a reincarnator from a modern, capitalist Earth, he knew exactly what industries would boom and bust. Utilizing his family’s massive, stagnant wealth, he aggressively invested in the human world to secure vast returns and immense political influence.

Specifically, he traveled to Japan right before the infamous asset price bubble. During the height of the bubble era, it was famously said that the real estate value of Tokyo alone could buy the entire United States. When the bubble inevitably burst, Finn was the only Devil who had perfectly shorted the market, tasting the absolute sweetness of the crash and walking away with astronomical, liquid wealth.

While his massive teams of accountants and loyal familiars managed the liquidation, he decided to take a quiet walk through Tokyo. There, wandering near an antique district, he found a young, starving Akeno Himejima. He casually paid her a few yen to act as his tour guide, silently marveling at the strange, inevitable pull of fate.

Initially, he hadn’t realized exactly who she was. But as they spent the day together, a squad of heavily armed assassins suddenly surrounded them. They were killers dispatched by her own family, the Himejima Clan, tasked with executing her simply because she carried the ’tainted’ blood of a Fallen Angel.

Seeing grown men gang up to slaughter a starving little girl infuriated him.

Unlike Rias Gremory in the original timeline—who waited until Akeno was cornered, bloody, and entirely desperate before swooping in to offer a demonic contract—Finn didn’t hesitate. He didn’t force a desperate bargain on her. He simply stepped in front of her and slaughtered every single assassin without a shred of mercy.

Yes, he killed them all in cold blood.

When it was over, Akeno stared at his blood-soaked figure in a daze. Instead of running away in terror, she quietly grabbed his hand and begged him to take her away. Knowing the brutal, relentless retaliation the Himejima Clan would undoubtedly unleash on her, Finn decided to accept. He brought her back to his safehouse and reincarnated her as a Devil, making her his Queen.

However, because of that massacre, Finn couldn’t remain in Japan. He was instantly marked as a high-priority target by the Himejima Clan.

Frankly, Finn wasn’t afraid of the Himejima themselves. His magical talent might have only been slightly above average for a pure-blood, but he was still a High-Class Devil, the sole heir of the Balam Clan—one of the 72 Pillars of the Underworld. What could a bunch of mortal mystics truly do against him?

The problem wasn’t the humans; it was their divine backing. The Himejima Clan was one of the Five Principal Clans of Japan. They were deeply, fundamentally linked to the native Shinto Gods, having served them for generations.

Finn could easily crush the Himejima, but picking a fight with the entire Shinto Pantheon? That was a seriously bad idea.

Fortunately, the human world was vast. The Shinto Gods held absolute authority in Japan, but their jurisdiction ended at the border. So, Finn simply packed his bags and moved his operations to China.

What could the Himejima Clan do then? Absolutely nothing.

They became an international laughingstock in the supernatural community, entirely powerless against a Devil heir who simply stepped across a border. If the Shinto faction tried to pursue him into foreign territory, it would trigger a massive diplomatic incident or a full-scale pantheon war—something they couldn’t risk.

Immune to their wrath, Finn spent the next eight years quietly building his corporate empire alongside Akeno, operating out of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

Why stay in Asia? Because expanding into Europe—the absolute stronghold of the Christian Church and their legions of Exorcists—would have been infinitely more troublesome. He just wanted to do business quietly.

Eight years had passed since that bloody incident in Tokyo. At one point, the political friction had even forced the leaders of the Underworld to sit down and discuss the matter with the Balam Clan. Ultimately, it blew over. The Himejima Clan remained a bitter joke, unable to avenge their pride against a ’kid’ who was building monopolies right next door to them.

However, Finn’s life changed forever the moment he unexpectedly synced with the multiverse and gained access to the Manager.

"Fascinating."

The moment he acquired the hyper-advanced AI, he didn’t hesitate. He ruthlessly automated his massive corporate workloads, perfectly optimized his global investments, and rapidly designed flawless, high-efficiency infrastructure blueprints for his Underworld territory.

With the Manager running predictive market algorithms, his wealth exploded. Instead of investing in flashy, volatile tech startups, he aggressively monopolized stable, ’boring’ industries: energy grids, water purification, commercial agriculture, logistics, banking, and waste management. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was absolutely impossible for him to go bankrupt.

Yet, while securing infinite wealth was wonderful, living in a world constantly on the absolute verge of an apocalyptic crisis required something far more important: pure, raw combat power.

The greatest gift the Manager and his alternate selves provided wasn’t economic data—it was the chance to grow overwhelmingly strong.

"Oh..."

Finn closed his eyes, letting the Manager rapidly compile and synthesize the magical theories and chakra algorithms shared by the other Suzukis across the multiverse.

[Notice. The requested cross-universal abilities have been successfully adapted to the demonic energy spectrum.]

[Do you wish to initiate the download and integration process?]

Before he could mentally confirm, Akeno’s incredibly soft, dangerously skilled fingers slid down from his shoulders, tracing teasingly over his collarbone and slowly drifting down toward his chest. The highly suggestive touch sent an instant jolt of heat straight to his lower half.

He moved to gently catch her hands, knowing perfectly well that if he didn’t stop her now, the genre of his life was about to violently shift into highly explicit territory.

"We’re old enough now, Finn-sama," Akeno whispered, leaning over the back of the chair so her bombastic, soft breasts pressed heavily against his neck. "We are both of legal age. It really doesn’t matter if we go further. You know? I am more than ready to welcome your thick, burly—"

"Cough!"

Finn coughed loudly, his face flushing crimson as he aggressively halted her deeply lewd monologue. "Let’s... wait just a moment."

"For how much longer?" Akeno whined softly, nibbling playfully on his earlobe. She had been waiting for this exact moment for years!

"Just until I get back."

Truthfully, Finn was struggling to maintain his composure. He wanted her just as badly. But there was one absolutely critical, time-sensitive mission he had to complete first.

He needed to acquire the Sacred Gear.