MTLNOVEL Chapter 244: Scandalous
Sira tilted her head, still smirking. "Why?"
"Because…" he pulled in a breath, already moving toward the pile of discarded clothes, "my dad will ruin my vacation. C'mon."
That caught her. "To the mortal realm?"
"Yes," he said, yanking on his trousers with the speed of someone dressing in a burning house. "We're going to have our fun there. No fathers. No Thrones. No political babysitters."
She made a low, amused sound as she slid into her gown, the silk clinging like it knew exactly whose hands would ruin it later. "Running away with me. Scandalous."
"I call it strategic relocation." He grabbed her wrist the moment she was dressed enough to pass for decent and started pulling her toward the nearest door.
The system's voice slid into his head like the whisper of a smug butler.
[Warning: High-level Infernal Signature Approaching]
[Classification: Devil]
[Bloodline Match: GREED]
[Identification: Zavros Vaelthorn – Lord of Greed]
Lux muttered under his breath, "Yep. That means my dad."
The door they reached was tall, unmarked, and looked like every other gilded panel in the Pride Lord's estate. Lux touched the handle and it shifted, the inlaid gold stretching like liquid until it framed an opening that definitely hadn't been there a second ago.
An elevator. Sleek black steel, etched with runes that glowed faintly green—Greed's magic, his own signature coiled through it like veins in marble.
"In," he ordered, ushering Sira inside.
She stepped in as the doors began to close. Lux didn't release her hand until the gap was almost shut…
And that's when Zavros appeared.
Lord of Greed, towering, broad-shouldered, dressed like he'd just stepped off the floor of some high-roller gambling den that also happened to be a battlefield. His eyes scanned the hallway, then locked onto the elevator.
Locked onto them.
Lux inside, Sira pressed to his side, her arm hooked around his waist like she had every right to be there.
Zavros took one step forward, clearly about to intercept. "Lux—"
The elevator doors slid shut.
The floor gave a faint, weightless drop before they started to ascend.
Sira exhaled a small laugh, leaning back against the wall. "That… was an interesting relationship between father and son."
"Not surprised," Lux replied, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt like they weren't fleeing one of the most dangerous beings in Hell. "He left me to have sex with my mom."
Sira smirked, tilting her head toward him. "Do you hate him?"
Lux's eyes flicked to her, then away, his jaw working once. "No. I just want him to take responsibility for his duty."
"I mean running it properly." Lux's tone sharpened just a fraction. "Not just gambling away resources on risky pleasure-driven investments because he's bored. Not signing pacts just because a succubus made her voice go low and breathy. Not ignoring succession planning because he thinks he's immortal."
Sira's lips curved slowly, like she'd just found something interesting under his skin. "Sounds like you want his job."
Lux's smirk was thin.
"I already did his job, remember? Even before I was ready," he said, voice low and measured. "Now I've been doing it for almost two centuries. I know exactly how he's been running things—and it wasn't well."
Sira leaned in, the heat of her body brushing against his arm, her eyes glimmering with curiosity and just a hint of mischief. "Aren't you afraid he'll mess up Hell's financial department while you're away?"
Lux's mouth curved into something sharper, the kind of smirk that didn't just answer the question—it made the question irrelevant. "I have a way to keep it under control."
She tilted her head, clearly about to press for more, but he cut her off with a flick of his wrist. "But… let's drop the talk here. I need to transfer you for the furniture."
"Transfer me?" she echoed, her voice dipping into that faux-innocent tone Pride demons liked to use when they wanted to sound harmless.
He didn't bite.
Lux swung his hand to the side, and the air shimmered—thin gold lines forming into a glowing holographic panel that hovered between them. Numbers, currency sigils, and item categories began streaming across the transparent display in neat columns.
"How much do you need?" he asked, eyes still on the panel.
Sira smirked faintly. "I haven't counted it yet."
He didn't even look at her. "I'll count it for you. I hate being in debt."
She laughed softly, leaning her chin into her palm like she was settling in to watch a show. "Of course you do."
Lux's fingers moved in clean, practiced gestures, pulling up a list of broken and damaged furniture from the Pride Lord's estate. He didn't just glance—he inspected, cross-referenced with standard Hell furniture registry prices, adjusted for region, rarity, and Pride-market inflation. The panel shifted with every motion of his hand, projecting ghostly outlines of couches, tables, shattered chairs, each tagged with a neat price in glowing gold script.
"Your chaise lounge…" he muttered, tapping it. "Five hundred thousand Hell Coins. That's a little overpriced for what it is, but I'm feeling generous."
Her brows arched. "Generous, huh?"
"Your side table—wood veneer, not solid. Fifty thousand."
"That was imported—"
"—from a Pride-run factory in the Ash Quarter," he cut in smoothly. "I know their ledger. It's worth fifty. I'm rounding up."
Sira's lips curved. "You're terrifying when you talk like that."
"I'm always terrifying," Lux replied mildly, not looking up. "You just forget when you're distracted by other things."
She hummed in mock agreement, though the smirk on her mouth was real enough.
He kept going, calling out pieces and their values like a merchant appraising loot.
"Velvet loveseat, one hundred eighty thousand. Tall cabinet, two hundred forty. Rug… three hundred."
"Three hundred thousand?"
"No. Three hundred coins. It was falling apart before you dragged it halfway across the room last night. Yeah, you got scammed."
Her laugh was rich and unapologetic. "I liked the pattern."
Lux ignored the bait, fingers dancing through the holographic list. Finally, the panel flashed a total, glowing in the bottom corner.
"Total price…" He glanced at her for the first time in several minutes, his expression maddeningly calm. "Nine million, eight hundred thousand Hell Coins."