Asmodeus System: Stealing My Bully's Mother

​A suffocating panic instantly swept through the Vice Principal’s office.

​"P-Prince Edward..." Kaelia von Ashford echoed, her lips trembling violently.

​The girl instinctively pressed a hand against her lower abdomen, right over the spot where the black fire-rose Lust Brand resided.

​"What if he touches me?! This seal... every time I feel pressured or think of you, it burns! Prince Edward possesses a Light Element affinity; he will absolutely sense the anomaly in my mana circuit!"

​Beside her, Isolde von Rosenberg had also lost her mask of icy composure. The Archmage wrung her silk gown until it wrinkled.

​"It is not just the Prince, My Master. Cornelius... the Headmaster has returned! He is a Sage (Rank S). His comprehension of spatial and mana manipulation exists in a completely different dimension than my husband’s. If he so much as looks directly at us—"

​"Calm down."

​A single word from Ethan. Spoken in a heavy, flat, and glacier-cold baritone, it silenced the two women’s panic in an instant.

​Ethan stepped forward, closing the distance to Kaelia. He grabbed the Fire Queen’s jaw with one hand, forcefully tilting her face up. Kaelia’s golden eyes had no choice but to lock straight into Ethan’s swirling crimson gaze.

​"You are the Student Council President of Zenithar Academy. You are an Ashford," Ethan whispered. His voice flowed like a spell—soothing, yet simultaneously imprisoning.

​"Do not let that man see your weakness. Smile at him. Greet your prince with absolute grace."

​Ethan leaned his face in, his thumb brushing against Kaelia’s lips. Meanwhile, his left hand slid down, gently caressing Kaelia’s lower stomach right through her uniform.

​The touch made Kaelia gasp. A stifled moan escaped her as the Lust Brand beneath her skin pulsed with a searing heat, eagerly responding to her Master’s caress.

​"But when he looks at you later," Ethan continued, a dark smirk blossoming on his lips, "Look him in the eye and remember perfectly... that your womb, your fire element, and your very soul... are already absolutely bound to me. Do you understand?"

​Kaelia swallowed hard. Her panic evaporated, instantly replaced by an intoxicating obedience and an addictive thrill that shocked her nerves. She nodded slowly.

​"I-I understand, My Master... I am purely yours."

​Ethan released Kaelia, then turned to Isolde. "Put on your grand robes, Madam Vice Principal. Let us welcome the rulers of this kingdom."

​Down in Zenithar Academy’s main courtyard, the winter wind howled, carrying shards of snow. Yet, the freezing temperature was nothing compared to the suffocating tension blanketing the vast grounds.

​A massive royal carriage—drawn by six horses with coats as white as clouds—landed gracefully onto the paving stones. The carriage was plated in pure gold, adorned with the grand emblem of Crossed Swords and a Sun Crown. The absolute crest of the Valois Royal Family.

​In the courtyard, Duke Alaric von Rosenberg stood waiting, surrounded by a dozen of his shadow knights.

​Alaric did not bow his head. As a Master Knight (Rank S) and the absolute leader of the Northern Faction, he merely offered a standard military salute, crossing his arm over his chest.

​The golden carriage doors creaked open.

​The first person to step down was not the Prince. It was an old man in a dull gray robe.

​The man was incredibly frail, leaning on a seemingly fragile oak staff. His face was weathered with deep wrinkles. His left eye was covered in a milky white film—completely blind.

​However, the exact moment the old man’s shoe touched the academy grounds... the air across the entire courtyard suddenly felt hollow.

​There was no explosive, bone-crushing aura pressure like Alaric’s. Instead, it was an absolute vacuum.

​Every single mage and knight present reflexively grabbed their throats, feeling as though the oxygen had been forcibly yanked from their lungs. Nature itself bowed completely to the old man, not daring to let a single drop of mana flow without his permission.

​That was Cornelius. A Sage (Rank S). The absolute apex of the magical food chain in the kingdom.

​"Alaric," Cornelius greeted him.

​His voice was hoarse and incredibly soft. Yet strangely, it echoed with perfect clarity in everyone’s ears, as if the old man were speaking directly inside their skulls. "I heard your eldest son suffered a terrible misfortune. You have my condolences."

​"Tch. Save your pity, Cornelius," Alaric scoffed roughly. "I came to demand the justice you failed to uphold in this place."

​Cornelius merely offered a faint smile, entirely immune to the provocation. The old man stepped aside, making way for the second figure descending from the carriage.

​The First Prince, Edward von Valois.

​The young man had slicked-back, golden-blonde hair. His sky-blue eyes radiated the absolute arrogance of royal blood. He wore the white-and-gold military uniform of the royal militia, complete with a majestic heirloom sword hanging arrogantly at his hip.

​Edward couldn’t care less about the tension between Alaric and Cornelius. His eyes immediately swept across the lines of instructors and students waiting to welcome him in front of the main doors.

​"Where is she?" Edward demanded. "Where is Kaelia von Ashford? Don’t tell me my future wife isn’t here to welcome my arrival."

​Just as the arrogant words left Edward’s lips, the main doors of the Tower slid open.

​Isolde von Rosenberg stepped out, wearing her majestic Vice Principal gown.

​Right behind her, Kaelia von Ashford walked with a straight back and her chin held high. The Fire Queen looked breathtakingly beautiful in her Student Council uniform. Her crimson hair fluttered elegantly in the snowy wind.

​Prince Edward’s eyes immediately sparkled with intense, possessive lust at the sight of Kaelia. He completely ignored Isolde’s existence, taking long strides toward the girl.

​"Kaelia," Edward called out, flashing his most handsome, practiced smile. "Hah... I heard you were the runner-up in this year’s tournament. It is a pity I wasn’t there to enjoy your charm in the arena."

​Edward shrugged dismissively. "But no matter. Your position by my side in the future will be far, far higher than a mere champion’s title at this border academy."

​Kaelia stopped her steps, maintaining an incredibly stiff, polite smile on her face. "Welcome to Zenithar, Your Highness. Your presence is an honor."

​Simultaneously, dozens of meters above them...

​On an open fourth-floor balcony veiled by the tower’s shadows, Ethan Valen stood casually leaning against the stone balustrade.

​[Sin Concealment: Activated]

​Ethan’s body, his heartbeat, and his mana signature were entirely erased from the laws of reality by the Asmodeus System. He blended into the empty void, observing the meeting below like a god of death monitoring his puppet stage.

​Seeing Edward standing entirely too close to Kaelia, Ethan smirked.

​Let’s test just how resilient your mental fortitude is, Fire Queen, Ethan thought.

​He raised his index finger. He focused the flow of his Rank B Sin Mana. Not as a wide area-of-effect blast, but compressed into a single, unbelievably thin thread of the Lust Domain.

​The invisible thread shot downward like an assassin’s needle. It pierced through the frigid air, plunging directly into Kaelia’s stomach chakra.

​Down in the courtyard, Prince Edward reached his hand out. He intended to caress Kaelia’s cheek in public to assert his absolute ownership over the girl.

​Exactly... at the precise second Edward’s fingertips grazed Kaelia’s skin...

​The Lust Brand in the girl’s womb detonated in a wave of maddening stimulation!

​"Ah...!"

​Kaelia gasped in shock. A stifled moan nearly slipped past her lips. Both of the girl’s knees trembled violently.

​An incredibly dense, searing heat scorched her stomach, spreading wildly to her inner thighs and throwing her mana circuit into absolute chaos.

​However, this wasn’t a reaction to Edward’s touch.

​In Kaelia’s eyes, the Prince’s touch felt unbelievably bland, cheap, and even repulsive. The heat and lust currently torturing her sanity came purely from Ethan’s "reprimand" from the balcony above. Ethan was playing with her body from afar, forcibly reminding her exactly who her true owner was.

​Kaelia fought tooth and nail to keep herself from collapsing and kissing the dirt. She bowed her head, clutching the hem of her uniform skirt with white knuckles. Her breathing came in short, ragged gasps. Cold sweat drenched her back, and her face was now flushed as red as a tomato.

​Seeing Kaelia panting and blushing furiously, Prince Edward pulled his hand back. He smiled triumphantly. His ego soared straight through the clouds.

​The Prince genuinely believed Kaelia was blushing, trembling, and flushing so intensely strictly because of his touch!

​"Hahaha, you don’t need to be so nervous around me, Kaelia," Edward chuckled with overbearing arrogance. He patted the girl’s shoulder in a protective manner. "After your studies conclude, you’ll grow accustomed to my touch at the palace."

​Kaelia could only manage a stiff nod, still desperately enduring the torturous waves of pleasure Ethan was constantly funneling into her.

​Please... stop it, My Master... I beg you... Kaelia’s mind shrieked in absolute despair. She felt incredibly humiliated being praised by Edward, while her body and womb were craving the touch of the F-Caste boy looming above them.

​From the balcony, Ethan covered his mouth, fighting back a laugh at the sheer, unadulterated stupidity of the Crown Prince.

​What a spectacularly entertaining show. Controlling the Prince’s bride-to-be right under his own nose... without him having a single clue.

​This was the absolute victory of the Dark Faction.

​However, the patronizing smile on Ethan’s face suddenly froze.

​A bizarrely terrifying chill crept up the back of his neck. Ethan’s survival instincts, which had always remained perfectly calm, suddenly shrieked with maximum-level danger alerts.

​Down in the courtyard, Cornelius—who had been silently observing Duke Alaric and Isolde the entire time—abruptly turned his neck.

​The old man in the gray robe didn’t look at Kaelia. Nor did he look at the Prince.

​Cornelius tilted his head up slowly. His blind, milky-white left eye stared straight upward.

​Piercing through dozens of meters of distance. Piercing through the illusion of the tower’s shadows. Staring exactly at the spot where Ethan was standing.

​BZZZZT!

​[CRITICAL ALERT! ANOMALY DETECTED!]

[Sage (Rank S) has detected a spatial distortion in the pheromone flow!]

[Sin Concealment defense is vibrating! Risk of Exposure: 85%!]

​Ethan’s breath caught in his throat. His heart pounded once, violently hard.

​To ordinary mages or knights, the Lust Domain thread Ethan sent out held absolutely no trace of a mana signature.

​But to a Sage—a calamitous entity capable of perceiving the threads of space and the laws of nature—that pheromone was perceived as a ’void’ moving unnaturally through the air. Cornelius did not see Ethan’s physical form. But the old man saw an "emptiness" lurking on that balcony.

​The oak staff in Cornelius’s hand tapped the ground exactly once.

​Tap.

​A colorless, soundless, transparent ripple shot into the air. It rocketed upward at the speed of light, locking onto the balcony where Ethan stood.

​It was a high-tier tracking spell. If that ripple touched Ethan’s body, his Sin Concealment would shatter into a million pieces. And his identity as the manipulator behind the Fire Queen would be exposed today, right in front of Duke Alaric and the Prince!

​The time for playing games had run out. The Devil... had just awakened a sleeping ancient dragon.