“Mmph…”

Rael tried to sit up as soon as she regained consciousness, but a sharp pain stabbing through her waist forced her to collapse back onto the white bed with a groan.

“Ha…”

When the pain shifted from her waist to between her legs, she finally remembered what had happened before she lost consciousness.

“I’ve gone mad… completely mad.”

Her face flushed as memories of the previous night returned. The soft fabric brushing against her n*ked body drove her even crazier. Like a panorama, images flashed through her mind—the demon who had pounded her until she lost consciousness and her own form beneath him, craving pleasure.

“Whew.”

Rael decided to stop blaming herself. Though she already knew, demon saliva had aphrodisiac effects. Once their lips met, her body inevitably heated up! She tried to console herself that anyone would have reacted the same way in her position.

‘More… push it in deeper, okay?’

Ah. She shouldn’t have said such things. Rael cursed herself as she recalled how she had guided the demon’s withdrawing member with her hands, positioning it at her entrance.

“Crazy. You crazy fool.”

In truth, she couldn’t deny that even without the effects of demon saliva, her body had become so accustomed to that demon that it responded to his slightest touch.

With slightly recovered senses, Rael surveyed the room. It was too spacious and sparse to be called a room. Beneath an ornate chandelier stood a large white bed, a pot with some unidentifiable black flowers, and a few pictures hanging on the walls—that was all.

“Pretty neat for a demon’s taste.”

Rael thought this was her chance while the demon was nowhere to be seen. Let’s get out of here. She didn’t care if it meant running away. She couldn’t face him again.

When she pressed against the bed to stand up and get dressed, her legs gave way and she staggered. After several attempts, with tears nearly forming in her eyes, Rael finally managed to stand and hurriedly picked up her clothes from the floor to put them on.

“Ugh. This is killing me. Absolutely killing me.”

As her muscles screamed in protest with every movement, Rael vowed never to engage in such mad lovemaking again. She could barely remember how they had ended up entangled like that, but the point stood regardless.

“My clothes are in tatters.”

The garments he had practically torn off her were failing to serve their purpose in several places. But this was no time to be picky. Fully dressed, Rael hurried toward the door to leave the room.

Click, click, creak.

She turned the doorknob, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Huh? Why is this… not working?”

Doesn’t the Demon King’s Castle oil its doorknobs? Rael’s face crumpled in frustration. She turned the knob again, but the door remained stubbornly immovable. After wrestling with the handle for some time, Rael grew angry and pushed against the door with her body, banging on it.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, the door opened and Rael lost her balance, stumbling forward.

“You’re quite energetic.”

Fortunately, her head didn’t meet the floor, but when she realized whose arms had caught her, her face turned deathly pale.

“If I’d known you’d be this energetic, I would have gone another round. I refrained from taking you while unconscious because it pricked my conscience.”

Rael was about to retort about what conscience a demon could possibly have, but she kept her mouth shut. If she raised her voice with all her might here, the crazy demon might pounce on her again.

“I’ll consider it next time.”

His gently folded eyes still held affection. Rubellan softly wrapped his arm around Rael’s waist and entered the room.

Click.

The briefly opened door closed behind them.

“So, why did you get up? I told you to lie down and rest quietly.”

Rubellan had indeed said that—to Rael as she fell asleep after losing consciousness from their intense lovemaking. Rael awkwardly backed away, feeling the air strangely constricting around her throat.

Just then, Rubellan’s hand slightly pulled back the collar of Rael’s robe. When she flinched, Rubellan smiled at her adorable reaction. She truly was cute. After mixing bodies all night, she was now shy about him merely pulling back her collar.

His senior was always like this—a different person in bed and out of it. Why didn’t she understand that this made him want to keep her tied to the bed? Rubellan exhaled a sweet sigh.

“The bruises came out nicely.”

When Rubellan’s finger touched the red marks on her neck and collarbone, Rael’s face turned as red as a radish, and she tightly closed her collar.

“I, I need to go now.”

Rael spoke quickly, wanting to leave before Rubellan’s mood changed again.

“Where to?”

“Back to the Magic Tower. My mission is complete…”

“…Mission.”

Rubellan stroked his chin with his hand. The word “mission” strangely irritated him and didn’t sit well. He also wondered if he should point out that her expression “complete” was incorrect.

“How?”

“What do you mean ‘how’? Obviously…”

A strange sense of dissonance struck her. Had any door in this Demon King’s Castle ever opened for her since she entered? That door, now hidden behind Rubellan’s large frame, wouldn’t open when she tried, and the same had been true yesterday.

Every sense in her body sent danger signals. Rael hurriedly searched inside her clothes, feeling around for her teleport scroll, but found nothing.

“…Where is it…”

“Looking for this?”

The scroll she had been desperately searching for was floating in the air above Rubellan’s hand.

“Ah. Yes, that…”

The moment Rael reached out to grab the scroll, blue flames erupted from it, turning it to ash in one second. Black and white ashes fluttered away.

“Wh-what did you do!”

When the startled Rael shouted, Rubellan took a step closer. Reflexively, Rael backed away.

“It disappeared.”

His tone conveyed regret, but his lips curved upward in a smile that sent chills down her spine.

For every step Rubellan took forward, Rael retreated one step. After several such exchanges, the back of Rael’s calves hit the bed she had just managed to rise from, and she plopped down onto it.

“How will you return now?”

“…Open. Open the door.”

“It pains my heart when you make requests I can’t fulfill.”

Rubellan reached out and tucked Rael’s hair behind her ear.

“I need to go back. If I don’t return, the Magic Tower won’t just sit quietly.”

At Rael’s threatening words, Rubellan couldn’t suppress a chuckle.

“And if they don’t sit quietly?”

“…Do you want bad relations with humans?”

“This is why I say you’re naive, Senior. How do you survive in this harsh world with such poor intuition?”

“What?”

Rubellan looked at Rael with sympathetic eyes full of concern.

“Do you really think it was mere coincidence that, among all the mages, you were the one sent here?”

“What are you saying? If not coincidence, then…”

What could it be if not coincidence? Rael was confused by Rubellan’s question.

“The Magic Tower offered you to me.”

“What? Why would the Magic Tower…”

Rubellan’s long fingers brushed against Rael’s cheek. His gaze slowly followed his own fingers as they caressed her skin.

The Magic Tower deliberately sent her here? Why?

Her first emotion was bewilderment. Rael pushed away Rubellan’s hand from her cheek with her arm.

“Because I wanted you, Senior.”

“Why would the Magic Tower fulfill your request…”

“…Well, it seems those greedy mages wanted my seed.”

Rael’s eyes widened to the point of nearly popping out. Seed? What would they do with the Demon King’s seed? Her bewilderment turned to incredulity.

“So they sent you. To fill your womb with my s*men.”

“Th-that’s absurd! Why would humans want the Demon King’s seed?”

“To transcend human limitations, I suppose. The bloodline of the Demon King. A being that is human but possesses demonic power. Well, the idea is pathetic, but not too bad.”

Rubellan smiled slightly, finding Rael’s shock adorable.

“That can’t be true. You’re lying.”

Rael thought for a moment. Had the Magic Tower really deceived her? Or was this demon lying?

It didn’t take long for her thoughts to progress from “surely not” to “perhaps” and finally to “it could be possible.” Her hands began to tremble. For the Magic Tower to use her in such a scheme! Is this something humans are capable of?

“Believe it or not, that’s up to you, Senior.”

Of course, such matters weren’t particularly important to Rubellan.

“The Magic Tower wouldn’t do that to me. If they were human… how could humans…”

“Humans are quite terrible, aren’t they? See? You should have trusted a demon like me instead of humans.”

Rubellan gazed at his own reflection in Rael’s eyes, which were filled with shock. He was thoroughly satisfied. Those blue, clear eyes were full of terror, and he was at the center of it.

“This is madness.”

Rael could only think that both the Magic Tower and this demon were insane.

“That’s right.”

Rubellan admitted it all too readily.

“As you know, I’m a madman. What’s the big deal about a madman doing mad things?”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“The fact that you’re curious about possibility even in this situation shows you’re a mage to the bone, Senior. How cute. Actually, I don’t know either. I’m not even curious about the result. I’m only interested in the process. I plan to try my best.”

This was outrageous.

“We have quite a connection, don’t we?”

A connection?

Rael clenched her trembling hands tightly.

Rubellan’s soft fingers cupped Rael’s angry face, turning it to face him. With a smile as beautiful as a newly bloomed flower bud, he said:

“Senior, just take the seed I give you well. Having one demon child in that pretty belly of yours wouldn’t be so bad, right?”

“Ugh.”

Rael groaned in pain as his grip tightened.

This wasn’t amusing at all. This was a curse. A terrible curse.

* * *

Tensibla Magic Academy was a school for training mages, established by Tensibla Herman, a great mage and sage. At this academy, steeped in long tradition and mystery, Rael was having another busy day.

More precisely, she was standing by the window, spying on a black-haired man.

Smooth black hair, moist eyes, a chiseled jawline—that man who exuded atmosphere with every breath was too conspicuous.

Everyone at the academy knew him. And that was why Rael was observing him.

‘Rubellan.’

He definitely hadn’t been at this academy until a few days ago. Yet every student knew him. Everyone except her.

How could this be? Why did everyone have memories of this junior who had dropped from the sky? If she wasn’t going crazy, this was truly a strange situation.

Rael wasn’t particularly unobservant, and the academy didn’t allow mid-term admissions or transfers. Considering the small number of students, there was no way she wouldn’t recognize such a striking junior.

So lately, Rael’s gaze had been fixed on Rubellan. She was suspicious.

As she stared at Rubellan through the window, she was suddenly startled. Feeling her gaze, Rubellan had looked up at her.

The surprised Rael ducked down below the window. Her heart was racing. Every time those emotionless red eyes met hers, an unpleasant palpitation arose.

‘There’s definitely something strange about him.’

* * *

“So that class… Rubellan?”

At the same moment Rael was hiding, Rubellan was staring at the second-floor window of the academy.

His cold eyes fixed on the white, fluffy hair peeking out from the bottom of the window.

“Rubellan? What’s wrong? Do you see something?”

As the voice called him again, Rubellan’s red eyes slowly moved along the corridor.

“No. Nothing.”