Lust Devil's Rise

"I must say you’ve truly become quite the mysterious gentleman, my dear Luka. Perhaps that fierce, unrelenting desire to possess might also be aimed toward me in the near future?"

The soft tip of her tongue flicked along his cheek, leaving a moist heat after Vivienne’s soft voice lingered in the air before she slowly withdrew her tongue. and tightened her around his neck, almost forcing Galatea to avert her eyes.

’This fiancée of mine is quite different from what I imagined.’

Luka glanced down at the woman clinging to his chest. Vivienne’s arms remained wrapped around him as if she had no intention of releasing him, her cheek almost brushing against his cloak.

"Lady Vivienne."

"Vi-Vi."

"Is this the place to bother with that, Vivienne?"

"Oh my?"

She tilted her face upward, then leaned to the side, watching him with dark, glittering eyes.

"Then, where is the place I can bother you with these things?"

Her lips curved into a deeply childish grin.

"How about my bedroom?" Luka joked, trying to get her to back off.

However, it might’ve been the most retarded mistake he made, as even Luvia gasped from the back of Furia. Let alone Galatea, whose eyes almost looked like they might burst into flames at any moment.

For a brief moment, Vivienne stopped moving.

Her smile and breathing remained soft, yet something deep inside her dark eyes cracked open, revealing a frighteningly bright delight that made the air around Luka feel colder.

"Y...Your room...?"

The words left her lips with a hot, almost exaggerated sigh.

’Hm?’

Something was strange; he was looking at the same woman, but Luka just felt as if Vivienne had become a little different after he spoke.

She no longer bothered with Galatea’s movements or Furia’s strange movements because Luvia sat on her back. What became clear was that at this moment, only Luka existed in her eyes.

Or rather, she noticed everything and purposely ignored it.

Her gloved fingers slid from Luka’s neck to his collar, lightly pinching the fabric as if afraid he might vanish if she loosened her grip.

"Oh my, Dear Husband..."

Her voice trembled with sweetness.

"Isn’t that rather untoward for a gentleman of your stature?"

She leaned closer, her lips brushing the edge of his ear.

"But if you invite me, I will come."

A cold chill shot down his spine from the place where her warm breath should’ve kept him warm.

Her eyes narrowed into curved crescent-shaped moons as a soft giggle followed.

A deep red light shimmered in the depths of her pupils as she suddenly yanked him closer by the collar. The thick scent of summer berries overwhelmed him as her hair blew in the wind, covering their faces from outsiders.

She appeared elegant, delicate and intensely horrifying.

"If you didn’t invite me... Maybe I would have come without warning, closed the door, then sat beside your bed and watched your face until you woke. But if you’re offering... perhaps I can stop myself, fufufu~ but what if there’s another woman... ah~ oh my what should I do?!" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Her smile became wider and wider as she spoke.

The hands grasping his body trembled as her eyes remained unblinking.

"I will be very, very sad if that happens."

Vivienne pulled back just enough to look into his eyes.

"So please don’t tease me too carelessly, okay? Because when I am sad, we both know I sometimes do unreasonable things, right, Luka?"

Then, as if nothing had happened, her expression returned to that flawless, noble sweetness.

Her fingers stroked his chest one last time before she pulled away.

"Because if you call me to your room, I may misunderstand that you’re finally going to accept my proposal from last time."

’Her proposal?’

Luka’s chest tightened with a tight ache.

He struggled to breathe properly, reaching out as Vivienne skipped toward a beautiful middle-aged maid with silver hair and pale eyes.

’What is she talking about?!’

Luka’s fingers clawed at his chest as he struggled to remain focused.

The fragments left behind in this body trembled, but the moment he tried to grasp them, pain stabbed behind his eyes.

A room filled with pale curtains, sheets and the scent of medicine and bitter herbs.

A younger Vivienne knelt beside his bed, her small, cold hands wrapped around his. There were faint scars along her fingers, almost hidden beneath lace cuffs too expensive for a child to wear so carelessly.

Her lips came close to his ear.

"Promise me that you’ll get better, marry me and then take me away... saving me from my wretched destiny."

The brief memory cracked into a thousand shards as Luka inhaled sharply, the breath slightly cooling and painful.

’I see... So that was her proposal.’

It wasn’t a simple, sweet childhood promise, though he didn’t know the details. Those scars on Vivienne’s young hands weren’t unfamiliar to him. He then remembered the gloves she wore, which she had only removed for a brief moment...

Their engagement wasn’t a simple engagement between noble houses, and her family likely resented it.

Vivienne had known something even then.

She had looked at the weak, dying Luka de Babylon and chosen him not because he was strong, but because he could become hers, something that belonged to her completely. Someone harmless, someone cute and close enough to grab before the adults around her decided what kind of life she would live.

’Within her strike zone, huh?’

He stifled the bitter laugh within his throat.

His eyes were locked on Vivienne, who was slowly touring the manor with her maid.

...

Meanwhile, Galatea remained stiff beside Furia and Reina.

Her eyes followed Vivienne as the noble lady reached the silver-haired maid and spoke with flawless composure. It was like she had never flirted, and she whispered maddening things into Luka’s ears, creating a tight knot in her guts.

’Who the hell are you to lick him!?’

Over the past few days, the strange thoughts and dreams about another lifetime became clearer and clearer.

Galatea no longer felt that the other thoughts she had from time to time were foreign, accepting them completely as she followed Luka with ever greater devotion.

This made it worse.

Vivienne could be childish one moment, elegant the next, before transforming into a horrifying monster at the blink of an eye.

Galatea’s fingers tightened around her sword with the squeak of leather.

’What did she say to him?’

She had seen Luka’s face change; that wasn’t because he loved her. The previous Luka was gone; Galatea knew that all too well. It was her Luka that reacted to her actions... even though he did such things to her.

He still looked at Vivienne with a yearning gaze.

A pain different from being impaled, burned or stabbed swelled in her stomach as she sank her teeth deeper into her fleshy inner lip.

Luvia leaned against Furia’s side, watching everything with her golden eyes half closed, a mocking smirk on her lips.

"Blondie, your face looks awfully scary right now."

"Shut up."

"Oh gosh~ what happened to our ceasefire? Aren’t we best of friends now... we’ve seen each other’s bare breasts and kissed the same man’s—!"

Before she could finish, Galatea half-drew her sword with a hiss.

Luka finally snapped out of his daze before the two could continue their little spat.

"Vaun, count the supplies. Galatea, escort Lady Vivienne’s maid to the guest wing and make sure no one from Ironhold wanders freely."

’Why?’

’Why must I guide that woman!?’

’Why can’t you understand that it will hurt me?!’

She wanted to scream these words, but slowly swallowed the bladed vowels and spiked consonants as she gritted her teeth.

And with a nod. "As you command. Lord Luka."

She passed him without another word, or even looking at his face, her steps controlled and measured yet... the heat within her stomach raged like a berserk fireball.

"Galatea."

All of a sudden, the moment he called her name, everything loosened.

The fire died down, her heart fluttered, beating faster, and she slowly turned to see his handsome face staring her way.

’Ah... why can’t I just hate you?’