Bel buried his face under my exposed armpit and slowly licked the white fuzz there. When I jerked away from the embarrassing ticklish sensation, he moved on to lick the plump mound of my br*ast, gradually working his way up until he began sucking intensely below my cheek.

“Ah, mmm, ngh, mmm…”

His tongue slipped naturally between my parted lips, swimming wetly inside my mouth. When our tips entwined, he captured my tongue before deeply mingling with it again.

The p*nis violently stirring below made my waist feel like it would snap in half. Standing unsteadily on one leg while receiving him, all while twisting my body for prolonged kissing, was truly terrible for my lower back health.

Only after thoroughly soaking my uterine walls with his fishy s*men did he finally release me.

As I collapsed, panting, something caught the edge of my vision. A tiny creature the size of a thumb crawling toward us with its nose pressed to the ground, sniffing. What was that?

“Woof!”

A pitch-black puppy with… blue eyes?

* * *

A puppy?

Bel turned around suddenly, his expression strangely hardening. Beside him, I groaned while clutching my tingling lower body and gathered my clothes.

“Bel, what’s wrong? I see you have a soft spot for cute creatures too.”

I grabbed Bel’s hand to stand up as he couldn’t tear his gaze from the adorable puppy, but up close, his expression wasn’t one of fascination at all.

The demon, with vision superior to an eagle’s, stared at the black ball of fur with a slight frown before lifting the corner of his mouth with apparent interest.

“All sorts of vermin crawl into the Eodiphia Imperial Palace, it seems.”

“What do you mean?”

By the time I was perfectly dressed, my eyes met those of the puppy carefully sniffing and looking around from a distance.

“Woof!”

Its pinky-sized tail wagged frantically and its blue eyes instantly widened.

The puppy rushed over on short legs and jumped straight onto my lap, nuzzling against the fur of my coat.

“Is it yours?”

“No. Do they keep dogs in the palace? I’m not sure, but seeing how attached it is to people, it must have an owner.”

Wow, so cute! Unlike Bel, whose eyes narrowed coldly, my heart felt ready to burst from the puppy wiggling in my arms.

Its tiny pink tongue licked my chin repeatedly. Giggling from the ticklish sensation, I hugged the fluffy bundle close and felt its heart beating passionately.

“I should find its owner. If someone lost such an adorable puppy, they must be heartbroken.”

“Woof! Woof woof!”

I stood up, patting the head of the frantically barking puppy with frightened eyes.

“Baby, it’s okay. Big sister will definitely find your owner, just trust me. But what if you were actually abandoned? Don’t worry even then. Let’s go to my home. I need to ask my brother if we can keep a puppy.”

After being petted a few times, the puppy calmed down and wriggled happily.

Bel watched the scene in an uncharacteristically awkward posture, muttering incomprehensible words and laughing to himself. Earlier he’d been radiating murderous intent, and now this strange behavior?

It was definitely demon language, but the sentences were too complex to stick in my memory.

At some point, the now-quiet puppy raised its small head, the size of a fist, toward Bel.

What was that? For a moment, a strange current seemed to flow between them—or was it just my imagination?

Just then, the puppy pressing its pink paws against my chest and sniffing with its moist nose bared its teeth with a growl. They were tiny, the size of baby fingernails. I could hear a small growling sound through its sharp teeth.

“Vivian, I understand you’re quite charming, but don’t attract strange creatures. It’ll be troublesome later.”

The casual smile on his lips contrasted starkly with his eerily glowing golden pupils. Bel slowly licked his lips as he bent down. Then he suddenly reached out, grabbed the puppy by the scruff of its neck, and lifted it into the air. The tiny body dangled and shook in his large hand.

“What are you doing!”

“Don’t take it home.”

When I frantically grabbed the puppy struggling in mid-air, his straight brow furrowed with displeasure.

“I was going to find its owner anyway.”

I turned away sharply, making Bel’s eyebrows twitch dramatically. Ignoring him, I left the garden path with the puppy. His naturally strong presence made me gasp just from eye contact! My heart broke for the poor puppy caught by Bel, paddling the air with its front paws.

Ugh, that demon spawn. Both demons and celestials are pretentious, but perhaps those celestials who at least pretend to look down benevolently on all creatures might be better.

“Vivian, Vivi.”

With a languid voice, his long strides quickly caught up, and a lukewarm arm wrapped around my waist.

“Don’t pick up strange things carelessly.”

“I’ll ask the knights to find out who the owner is.”

“It has no owner.”

“How would you know?”

But his words proved true. After spending two full hours inquiring everywhere, this adorable puppy had unfortunately been abandoned early on.

Just like me.

Stroking the dejected puppy’s fur, I shook my head resolutely.

“I’ll take it home.”

“Must you?”

“Animal shelters don’t seem like a good option. If my brother permits, I’ll take care of it.”

“…Fine, if that’s what you want.”

When we reached the tall main gate of the Grand Duke’s mansion, Bel suddenly showered me with kisses. Unlike before, it was a passionate kiss mixing strong desire and sticky lust, with a sense of urgency. My back was pushed against the wall covered in woody vines as he pressed forward with enough force to devour my entire lips.

Though I feared my brother or the butler might see us, I accepted it silently.

The puppy in my arms barked fiercely. Woof! Bark! Yap!

The prolonged act was finally interrupted by the puppy, which raised its claws with all its might and scratched at Bel’s clothes.

Bel pulled away from me, wiping his lips with the back of his hand while laughing strangely with his head down. He seemed to be sobbing, or perhaps so delighted he could barely control himself. It was strange either way… but then again, this wasn’t the first time I’d seen Bel behave oddly.

“Fortunately, it’s still within my control range. Though I’m not sure how long the effective period will last.”

He muttered quietly as his laughter subsided. Finally, he brushed back my disheveled bangs, kissed my round forehead, and disappeared after saying he would return later.

* * *

“Shasha’s joy is my pleasure.”

My brother gladly gave permission, and from that day forward, I began living with this tiny pitch-black puppy.

Since this little one refused to be separated from me even for a moment, we prepared its home in my room.

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, but the puppy seemed extremely sensitive after my kiss with Bel. It constantly circled around me, wary of strangers, and even bared its teeth not only at the butler but also at Brother Rictusa.

“I should give you a name.”

This would be my second naming after Lucifer. Fortunately, choosing a dog’s name didn’t require as much careful consideration as naming a person, making it relatively easier.

“You’re soft, so I’ll call you Buddle. How about that? You like it too, right?”

When I lifted Buddle, who was jumping up and down under the bed wanting to lie beside me, he immediately burrowed against my chest.

The fluffy ball of fur gently tickled the edge of my chin.

Tired from wandering around since Sunday morning, I yawned slightly while fighting my drooping eyelids.

* * *

Lucifer watched Lala sleeping before him with bated breath, feeling dizzy. Her exhaled breath was so sweet that he wanted to press his lips against hers and suck hard. Then, realizing his predicament as a dog, he licked his front paw with a blank feeling.

He longed to caress Lala’s body with his moist paws and lips. Lucifer felt his insides boiling as he thought about the man who had taken her at will.

From the moment he nestled in Lala’s arms in the garden, he knew the man was extraordinary. He couldn’t fail to recognize demonic energy of the same quality as his own.

If the man were a demon beast, he would tear him to shreds without mercy—but not in front of Lala. Showing his wife a crazed, irrational side would only disappoint her.

All demon beasts on earth exist beneath the Taracans. Based on the amount of demonic energy far exceeding normal levels, Lucifer judged the man was likely a Taracan like himself, not an ordinary high-ranking demon beast.

Still, this posed no real threat to Lucifer, as he belonged to the highest class among Taracans—the heir to the Taracan throne, in simple terms.

His habitual slaughter came from this status. Most demon beasts were weaker than Lucifer, so it was natural. When he was caught in Kesera’s trap and dragged to the underground prison, he had resolved to reduce the entire capital to ashes, but well, ultimately he met his beloved wife, making it perhaps the greatest fortune of his life.

In any case, Lucifer sensed it the moment he heard the unidentifiable demon language from the man with Lala. The fact that he was not a simple demon beast but a more spiritually elevated, transcendent being. Once, demon beasts existed under the command of demons, so he should normally emit an overwhelmingly greater amount of demonic energy than Lucifer, but the man did not.

Lucifer knew the history of the Hundred-Year War, when most demons reportedly perished. Had his power diminished greatly because of that? Whatever. The mere fact that he was hovering around Lala had already soured Lucifer’s mood sufficiently.

He had taken the form of a puppy because appearing in his true form might earn him a scolding from Lala for being impatient and rushing over. He planned to transform back the moment Lala held him, or if that seemed too soon, to quietly observe the situation before revealing himself, like a cute version of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. However, the situation flowed in an entirely unexpected direction.

When he tried to return to his original form to attack the demon, he found himself unable to transform, seemingly under a seal.

His mind went blank. Curses he normally suppressed in front of Lala nearly burst forth.

‘This son of a b*tch.’

‘Hmm? Who’s calling whom a son of a b*tch?’

Though he had largely assimilated to Lala’s personality, he couldn’t abandon his true nature. He wanted to tear the face of that demon bastard who leisurely narrowed his eyes and spouted demon language Lala couldn’t understand. Unfortunately, with this pathetic body, he couldn’t even handle a child, let alone a demon.

Whew, Lucifer-turned-puppy exhaled his pent-up anger.

‘Lala, I love you. Darling, I love you.’

Muttering habitually, he pressed his small, fluffy body tightly against Lala’s side. He flipped over, exposing his soft belly, and gently scratched Lala’s arm, but she showed no signs of waking. 

Whatever dream she was having made the corners of her small pink lips twitch, and finding it unbearably adorable, Lucifer felt like crying.

He wanted to kiss her—not by licking with a dog’s tongue like he was lapping at a food bowl, but deeply, like that demon bastard had done. No, he was confident he could do better. His blood boiled again at the thought of that man leaving his filthy bodily fluids all over Lala’s lips.

‘What exactly is their relationship? Why didn’t Lala refuse him? She told me not to worry, that no other male would touch her, so why?’

The sorrowful puppy curled up and whimpered. He was going crazy, unable to embrace Lala despite being right in front of her, unable to tell her how much he missed her. All he could do was raise his tail and bark.

‘I want to return to normal soon. How long must I stay in this state? Surely not until that arrogant bastard voluntarily releases me?’

At the young age of 341—just nineteen in human years—the young demon beast found everything utterly hopeless.