* * *
Lucifer let out a dry laugh, just as he did when he first met the sacrifice.
It was not the first time Lucifer had told a sacrifice this story.
He had told it a few times to arrogant sacrifices trying to escape.
It was a kind of mercy, to make them realize the depravity of humans and accept their fate quickly.
But he could state with certainty that this was the first time a sacrifice had this reaction.
A human pitying a demon was an event that absolutely could not happen.
Hadn’t all the previous sacrifices proven that?
They ranted about how demons deserved to be eliminated and never admitted their own baseness.
Perhaps it was a form of resistance against the lords who had enslaved them.
They were humans, raised as royalty their whole lives.
‘Yet, you pity me.’
It was a ridiculous situation.
A human who couldn’t even manage his own predicament felt sorry for the beings he should rightfully despise the most.
He pitied them.
‘How dare the sacrifice.’
‘How dare he pity me.’
That wasn’t what he wanted, but this unprecedented reaction sparked Lucifer’s interest once again.
Staring intently at the eyes that were drooping in confusion and pity, Lucifer blinked softly.
An excellent method had just occurred to him for how to force this particular sacrifice into submission.
“Do you still think humans are noble?”
Their breaths mingled in the air.
“Do you still think humans are noble?”
The ragged breaths hanging in the air trembled.
Hayden, his head held stiffly by Lucifer’s hand as the Demon Lord looked down with his red eyes, gave a subtle shake of his eyes in response to the question.
His gaze, moving in confusion as if his long-held beliefs had been completely overturned, took in Lucifer’s sharply defined features.
The Shin Jian within Hayden didn’t believe in human nobility, but Hayden, having lived as the Fourth Prince of the Triate Empire, had to think so, however weakly.
“I…”
As the soft voice emerged hesitantly, the chilling energy emanating from Lucifer’s hand instantly subsided.
The merciful act of flowing his magic to block the Seal’s punishment had ceased.
A burning sensation started to rise from the back of his neck, and Hayden narrowed his brow, grasping Lucifer’s forearm.
Although this impertinent act of placing his hand on his body without permission should have been punished, a slight ecstasy entered the red eyes that gently followed the white hand.
Perhaps it was because the grip on his forearm, though pathetically weak like a piece of rope, was incredibly earnest.
Lucifer whispered softly.
“You should know the depravity of humans better than anyone.”
He was referring to the circumstances that brought Hayden to this castle.
Hayden didn’t know how much Lucifer knew, but it seemed the Demon Lord was aware that Hayden had been sent here as if abandoned by his own family.
If so, the preparations were half-complete.
Hayden smiled wryly inside and immediately released his grip on Lucifer’s forearm.
He rounded his eyes, his red lips slightly parted as if his greatest secret had been discovered, making him look even more pitiful.
Lucifer subtly raised the arm Hayden had grasped and gently brushed Hayden’s lips with his thumb.
The plump lips, pressed by the thick thumb, shone brightly despite having nothing applied to them.
They looked full and tempting enough to be eaten.
Hayden, whose lips were being crushed, looked meekly with reddened eyes, unlike when he had bared his teeth sharply.
His face intrigued Lucifer further.
Demons generally had high aesthetic standards, and the fact that the Demon Lords could reign at the top of the Demon Realm’s food chain was partly due to their external factors.
Hayden’s appearance fit the aesthetic standards of the demon race perfectly, as if he were sculpted to match them.
His smooth, flowing silver hair held the moonlight, the origin of the demon race’s power, and his round eyes beneath long lashes were like a pale lake reflecting the violet sky of the Demon Realm.
His hairless white body was slender but slightly plump in places, pleasing both the sight and touch, and his fragile spirit, though acting with courage, seemed ready to shatter at any moment—the perfect nourishment for a demon.
“Don’t you hate them?”
“Them,” referring to the Imperial Family members who wore the title of Hayden’s family.
Hayden clenched his hand again and glared fiercely.
“… What do you know, ugh.”
Hayden, who was moving his pressed lips, swayed.
Lucifer was no longer blocking the Seal’s punishment.
As soon as the Demon Lord’s mercy ceased, the Seal reacted immediately, clamping down on the “unclean” mouth.
Hayden refused to retract his words, resisting the punishment.
Since Hayden was not submitting as usual, the Seal erupted with an even brighter red light.
Hayden’s body started to tremble slightly.
Was it because it was the first time he had received the Seal’s punishment since the first day of working at the castle?
The scorching heat pressing down on his neck felt both unfamiliar after a long hiatus and even more terrifying because he already knew the pain.
“Ugh, haa…!”
His trembling body collapsed against Lucifer’s chest.
The towel in his hand fell to the floor, and his hot breath was expelled onto the chest stained with dark red blood.
Lucifer calmly looked down at his Seal, which was glowing at the back of the pale neck, visible between the long strands of hair.
The sweet sound of the sacrifice’s painful moans briefly aroused Lucifer.
“Luci—Lord Lucifer…”
Thinking the Seal had activated because he had called him “you,” Hayden quickly used the honorific.
Hayden’s delicate voice was clear, even though it should have been drowned out by the loud sound of the shower fiercely spewing water from the holder.
As the heat gradually subsided, Hayden managed to steady his weak legs and writhed his body.
The scraps of fabric brushed against Lucifer’s naked body, and his skin, which had started to turn red in places, touched the Demon Lord.
Unlike Lucifer’s hard body, his was soft-skinned.
Lucifer looked down at the crown of Hayden’s head, seemingly displeased, and poured more magical power into the subsiding Seal.
Whoosh!
“Hah!”
The Seal activated again.
The pain at the back of his neck, which had been almost calmed, became even more intense than before.
The Seal’s owner could not only block the Seal’s power but also amplify it, and Lucifer had intentionally maximized the Seal’s power now.
[Magic Injection]
Caster: Lucifer (Lord of Pride).
Seal activated by forced magic injection. Forced corporal punishment confirmed. Neutralization possible.
Although he couldn’t stop the Seal’s power completely, it was easy for Hayden, who possessed magic nullification ability, to track the flow of magical power.
Moreover, perhaps because it was activated by Lucifer’s magic rather than automatic activation, it seemed possible to nullify it.
Noticing this fact immediately, Hayden nullified the heat that was ringing in the back of his neck and head.
The pain subsided instantly.
Hayden, without showing any sign of it, clung to Lucifer as if begging for mercy, still feeling the residual heat in his body.
His moist eyes, as if he hadn’t noticed that Lucifer was intentionally increasing the punishment, desperately looked up at Lucifer for the first time.
“Why…”
“It seems you have lied to me.”
“Save me, ugh!”
Lucifer smiled in amusement at Hayden’s face, which was overcome with despair.
The moans of the sacrifice, struggling in the pain he had inflicted, were like the enchanting song of a Siren.
“Please, help, ugh, me…”
“Admit that you hate humans. Then it will subside.”
“Please, h-uh…”
Hayden did not spit out his whole heart, as if subconsciously suppressing his feelings, or as if something was restraining his reason, he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
He could only cling to Lucifer and sob.
Nevertheless, it was clear that his reason was fading.
* * *
