#7. Relationships
After Luna's bombshell declaration, I found myself in very, very deep trouble.
And for good reason — Yuwol's plan to rescue the Hero Seria had been built entirely on the assumption that I would be a very, very powerful *human*.
Step one: cling desperately to Master's every lesson and become overwhelmingly strong.
Step two: return to the human realm.
Step three: obliterate every human who stands in my way and rescue Seria.
Honestly, if I stopped at step three, the Demon King probably wouldn't have any reason to kill me — which meant I'd have repaid every debt I owed him.
Step four: return to a sweet, blissful everyday life with Seria.
How perfect a plan it had been... I couldn't help but lament.
Not that becoming a demon was a one-sided loss, of course.
There was maryeok — an overwhelming fullness utterly unlike mana.
After training with it, I came to understand just how miserably limited humans really were. Demons, I realized, were practically a species born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
Where humans had to labor over each and every construct, carefully and painstakingly, before their desired result finally came — for demons, magic wasn't study at all. It was an act as natural as breathing: a flick here, a sweep there, and the spell flowed like water.
Three years of straining and groaning through my training left me feeling hollowed out.
And one more thing had changed as well.
Her — Luna — the one who had wrecked my flawless rescue plan.
True, it was the effect of my unique magic, but she had confessed her love to me and, at the same time, fastened a collar around my neck.
Yet this relationship had an unexpectedly peculiar side to it.
"Sirius. Look at me."
Luna had lately taken to making overt, suggestive advances at me.
Even before this, her sudden growth had kept me on edge, but ever since the unique magic ritual, her sheer audacity had been walking a tightrope with my patience.
Luna, who always wore nothing but black, was today — God knows where she'd dug it up — wearing a red skirt.
Simply wearing a color she never wore was stimulating enough on its own, but what hit far harder was the hemline.
Far above her porcelain-white calves, her slender thighs were on full display to the world.
And above them, a hem that teased and taunted, showing just a sliver more — for a virgin like me, the stimulation was brutal.
"What are you even making me look at, over and over?"
Struggling to manage where my eyes went, I muttered while staring hard at a distant mountain.
Please... *please* look at me...
But if I actually looked just because she told me to, the Demon King would murder me.
No — maybe I'd find myself in a situation where dying would honestly be the better option.
I was at that age when the blood ran hot, and it was agony to hold back, but premature death was one thing I wanted no part of.
Displeased by my lukewarm reaction, Luna pushed out her lower lip.
"...Sirius..."
Ah... please, no...
Every time she called my name in *that* tone, I felt it coming.
That tingling, crawling feeling spreading through my body.
"Look at me properly."
I stopped feigning distraction, and with my neck held rigid and unbending, I swept my gaze over her from head to toe.
Not by my own will, of course.
But her will evidently couldn't regulate my physiological responses, so my face flooded red as a boiled beet.
Having released my restraint, she seemed pleased enough with my reaction, giggling as she laughed.
"You should've looked when I told you to. Why do you make everything so hard~"
*Might as well do it the easy way when I'm asking nicely.* That tone was practically highway robbery.
Every time Luna pulled this, I was doomed to a vicious internal struggle.
Because Seria had always been a breakwater standing between me and the flood.
Truthfully, temptation like this would have been enough to make anyone cross the line — but Seria's final words to me, her plea to wait, always surfaced in my mind.
The memory of that day, when she'd kissed me with tears choking her voice — unfair as it was to Luna — was the decisive reason I could never take her into my arms.
I sighed and spoke to her in a serious tone.
"Luna... I want you to stop acting like this."
Luna caught the change in my voice and immediately dropped her tail.
"I'm sorry... Do you hate it when I do this? I thought you'd like it... I'm sorry... Please don't hate me..."
And just like that, she crumpled.
This was exactly that peculiar side of her.
Despite the fact that I was, unmistakably, her thrall, the moment I showed even the slightest genuine discomfort or irritation, she was the one who grew frightened.
She desperately, terribly hated any emotional distance growing between us.
And so, peculiar case though it was, the absolute master of the relationship was obsessively reading *my* moods.
It was yet another reminder of just how potent my unique magic really was.
She was a demon with more pride than anyone.
Naturally, as the Demon King's daughter — and as a demon in her own right, boasting strength no one could afford to dismiss.
That such a woman could be seen stammering *I'm sorry*, begging *don't throw me away* — I could count on one hand the men in this world who'd ever witness it.
But watching her quiver with anxiety pained me too, so I always made sure to offer her a kind word in the end.
"Luna... The reason I tell you to stop isn't the outfit itself. Obviously I don't hate it, as a man. It's that other people can see you, and I hate that."
It wasn't exactly a lie.
I doubted anyone in the Demon Realm would dare commit the sacrilege of sneaking glances at the Demon King's daughter — but even knowing that, the way other eyes drifted over her, knowingly or not, didn't sit well with me either.
Cowering like a wounded puppy, she brightened again at my single sentence and came to sit beside me.
"Then as long as I only change into it in front of you, it's fine, right?"
She leaned her head against my shoulder and took hold of my hand.
She was so openly happy about it that scolding her felt pointless, and besides, I figured this much skinship was harmless.
"Fine. Save that side of yourself for me alone."
I answered with a smile, stroking her hair.
Her silver hair carried the scent of oranges.
Wasn't that far too fresh and bright for a demon?
I felt like I could get drunk on her scent.
Sensing that I'd relaxed enough, she slipped back into her teasing tone.
"I mean~ if I'm dressed like this and that's *all* the skinship I get, it's way too much for our virgin Sirius, isn't it? Sorry~"
Ha... She could shatter into a look of world-ending despair over one serious remark, and yet she teased *this* well.
And "virgin" wasn't wrong, so it was hard to deny — but sitting there silently taking it was mortifying all the same.
"What are you talking about~ When I was in the human realm, skinship like this was basically just a greeting~"
Luna chuckled at that, then jabbed me square in the side.
"Look at you puffing up over never having kissed anyone."
"Hey, I *have* kissed someone, okay? Huh?"
I answered with a chuckle of my own — and then her reply never came.
A chill swept through my entire body.
And instinctively, I realized that my answer just now was a matter of *tremendous* controversy.
I couldn't summon the courage to look at her face.
Awkward and flustered, I tried calling her name in a low voice.
"Lu... Luna...? Ha... Haha..."
"Sirius."
Her voice was razor-edged. From here on, every answer had to be perfect.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Was that true, what you just said?"
Whoa... hold on... I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to answer.
If option one was telling the truth, I couldn't imagine what would become of me.
Option two was lying — which carried considerable risk of its own.
For good reason: the moment she activated her unique magic, I would confess my sin on the spot.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, I finally steeled myself to confess.
"Yeah... it's true. I've kissed someone before."
Trying to steer things toward the gentlest possible atmosphere, I said it with what I hoped was a casual, easy smile.
When I turned my head, the eyes I met were the most demonic eyes I had ever seen on her.
It was the kind of stare that made me grateful her crimson eyes weren't literally spitting flames.
And then came her next words.
"With *who*?"
Ah... if I say this, I'm falling straight into the abyss...
Honestly, this whole conversation had already gone off the rails — but Luna's single question just now was a devastating, bone-deep critical hit.
And I could feel cold sweat soaking into my back, because I was bound to speak nothing but the truth.
"With... with Seria..."
The price of letting my mouth run loose was about to become very steep indeed.
A silence settled over the two of us.
It was the first time in my life I'd felt time refuse to move.
Please... say *something*... anything...
It was when her silence gnawed at me and I finally worked up the courage to look at her face —
Fists clenched tight, trembling all over, she was on the verge of tears.
A reaction completely unlike what I'd expected — punishment, or rage.
With my prediction proven wrong, the cold sweat already pouring off me doubled its pace.
And then, in a shaking voice, Luna spoke.
"Did it feel good...?"
"What?"
"Kissing that Hero girl. Did it *feel good*..."
Was today some kind of critical-hit party? Every single word landed like a crushing blow.
I couldn't bring myself to say *yes*, so I silently listened.
"Ha... Sirius... why on *earth* did you cast this kind of magic on me...?"
She struck me once in the chest.
"You won't cut me slack no matter what I do anyway...!"
Twice.
"You don't know... how miserable I am right now..."
Three times.
"I finally have you... the person beside you right now is *me*... and I can't do anything..."
Her tears fell, one by one, to the ground.
"I wanted every first... every single one, to be with you... Do you know how much I looked forward to it...? You bastard..."
Her face came apart, undone by tears.
Guilt surged over me like a rising tide.
I had always thought of myself as the only victim. I'd barely ever considered that she might be suffering too.
I was, truly... a selfish person.
I pulled the weeping girl into my arms.
"I'm sorry... Luna... I'm so sorry..."
And with that, Luna became the second girl I'd ever made cry.
We held each other like that for a long while, and when she seemed to have calmed somewhat, I released her and we faced each other.
"Sirius. I... I have a favor to ask."
Looking into her bloodshot eyes, I genuinely felt I'd grant whatever she asked.
"Can you give me all the other firsts...?"
*...That's how you arrive at this conclusion...?*