Something that must never be allowed to happen.

Therefore, Belle Laure had to stand at Cassian Pendragon’s side. There would be no more sitting quietly and waiting.

Those clear blue eyes darkened and settled.

* * *

Waking in the morning, the sound of birds chirping reached his ears from somewhere distant. He felt the body heat of someone pressed close against his back, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

That warmth was cold. But to Valentine, it was an endlessly familiar temperature.

Coming back to herself, Valentine blinked slowly. Violet eyes fading into the morning light. After blinking several times, reason settled into those hazy eyes.

Her slender fingertips moved. The man’s hand pressed close against her followed her movement. A cold warmth overlapped the back of her right hand.

“……”

Realization washed over her. This demon had never once taken his eyes off Valentine, from the very beginning. He had watched from the closest possible place, and had not tried to move away for even a single moment.

It was a very belated awareness. It seemed what she had thought was correct.

Drawing closer to the end, one step at a time. Before beginning today’s work, there seemed to be something that needed to be made clear.

Valentine’s red lips parted.

“Lu.”

Instead of an answer, even breathing grazed her nape. The man’s nose pressed close against her skin. As though breathing in her scent.

Thinking about it now, this demon had always been this way. He spoke through action rather than words. This clearly.

She felt pathetic for not having thought of it this way until now. Because he was a demon, because he was not human, she had assumed it could not be so.

Valentine gripped the hand of the demon holding hers. Her fingers curled into a fist.

“I have something I want to ask you.”

“What is it.”

“Do you want me too?”

Valentine moved her free left hand behind her back instead of the right hand being held. She felt the demon’s firm shoulder.

“Do you desire me?”

For some reason, the voice that followed came out tight and constricted.

“Do you l*st after me?”

Both hands pressed against Lucifer trembled finely. A strange, bizarre feeling filled her entirely.

“Is that why you disliked me being swayed by Liam, and why you unleashed Astaire and provoked Cassian?”

“If that is so.”

The shadow that reflected Valentine’s depths murmured heavily.

“Will you give your master everything?”

The hand gripping Valentine’s right hand slid away. It traveled up her wrist, past her upper arm, stroking her body softly. As though she were entirely his own.

“Will your master satisfy all of my desires?”

At his fingertips, every endlessly burning craving was plainly present. A feeling far more clinging and viscous than expected.

She had already sold even her soul, so what was difficult about giving something else.

Even so, the fact that her guess had been right was a little startling. Everything that had happened until now had been Lucifer’s jealousy. The way he expressed it had simply been a little different from an ordinary human’s.

To the question that followed,

“Why…… me?”

“Why was it that man for you?”

A proper answer came back.

Valentine’s voice wavered as she continued.

“……Right. There was no point in asking to begin with.”

There was no reason when a human chose another human. Simply, at some moment, naturally. An inexplicable certainty arising that the person you were looking at was yours.

The demon she had thought had no human heart was profoundly human. Just as Valentine had chosen Cassian, Lucifer had simply chosen—Valentine, as his human.

“You’re really no different from a human.”

The realization was vivid. Valentine murmured and found a small smile on her lips without meaning to.

“Desiring, lusting, being jealous, wanting, wishing, throwing fits. Doubting, testing endlessly, and all the while seducing.”

Everything Lucifer had done to Valentine until now. Then the end of all those things.

“Then, can you love too?”

“Love.”

The demon, whom she had expected to ignore it as usual, replied with unexpected composure. The settled voice wound lazily around her ear.

“Countless humans have said so. That that feeling overturned their entire world.”

It was probably the stories of the people Lucifer had granted wishes to over the years.

The demon behind her moved. Their positions reversed in an instant. Lucifer was now above Valentine, looking down at her.

This demon was an endlessly familiar presence, but this weight was unfamiliar. Valentine simply looked up at him.

Those ominously red eyes appeared utterly merciless. Jet black hair swayed. The two hands pressing her wrists firmly down were cold as always.

“Then what is the meaning of that feeling as you know it?”

“As I know it?”

Valentine asked back and recalled the fever that had once ruled her. The thing that had consumed everything she was, burned it away, and left what remained of her now.

“I wanted that person so much that…… I couldn’t do anything with myself.”

Those red lips moved carefully.

“The me who existed in the time when that person wasn’t at my side was no different from being dead. So I wanted to have him.”

There was no more accurate expression than ‘wanted to have him.’ That was how it had been in those days.

“As long as that person was at my side, I could have lost everything else in the world. At the same time, I would not have begrudged giving everything I had for him. As you said……”

And so she had willingly given everything.

“The single word that person finally said to me overturned my world. I was happy. In that moment, I felt I could die and want nothing more.”

That was precisely why, when she was forcibly separated, she had felt an even greater despair.

“What I know, what I experienced, is something like that. It’s similar to what you said.”

“If that is so.”

A composed voice settled over her.

“Then it is the same for me.”

It was a surprisingly ready admission. The demon looked down at her with his usual eyes, as though seeing through everything she was.

“I want you, I desire you, I want to possess everything you are without reservation. I want even the brief time you spend to be mine. Your nights, your days. All of it.”

Above Valentine, the hand stroking her cheek was gentle.

“This is the first time.”

The terribly beautiful demon tilted his head slightly. His lips descended to her ear.

“That I have wanted something this much.”

The feeling that rose from deep within was far more viscous than expected. The demon, who had revealed his inner thoughts without any hesitation, kept speaking.

“If you only wish it, I would willingly bring this world to ruin.”

He had thought, in truth, that she, full of resentment, might wish for something like that. A catastrophic misjudgment.

The demon’s lips touched the top of her foot. He pressed a willing kiss to the back of it and slid softly along the shinbone. The man seduced her, carving traces and unforgettable sensations with his breath.

“If you want to become the master of the world, I will make this barren place kneel at your feet.”

“……”

Valentine, at a loss for words, moved her lips. Lucifer had clearly said he would only watch the path she walked, not help her along it.

She understood the true meaning of those words only now. The small revenge was for Valentine to accomplish with her own hands, and the final wish was to ask for something greater. Because he could truly give her everything in the world.

This was what the demon had wanted. A seduction that was thoroughly, perfectly demonic.

“Not yet…… not yet.”

Valentine drew a deep breath and placed her hand on Lucifer’s cheek.

“I can’t give you an answer to your desire yet.”

In the end, going round and round, she would inevitably become this demon’s, but that was not now.

The first owner of this body that had returned to the past had to be the same person as before. No matter how revolting that was. She had a purpose, so she was in no position to be particular about the means.

* * *

In a summer of exceptional heat, the imperial horse racing tournament was held. It was the first official event hosted by Imperial Princess Lumière.

It was also the first gambling occasion officially sanctioned by the imperial house in a long time. The nobles were uniformly fired up, and an astronomical sum was placed in wagers. Lumière, having obtained a considerable cut of the proceeds, was simply grinning.

The nobles who had flooded the racecourse gripped their betting tickets with eyes full of excitement.

The jockeys, thoroughly tense, took their places at the starting line.

The winner of the day was effectively decided in advance. With the Emperor himself riding as a jockey for the occasion’s sake, no one could race ahead and take the lead from him.

The problem was everything from second place onward. Third place and above still received some payout, so finishing in the top three was the only way the nobles who had staked something close to their lives today would keep their heads.