“So that’s how it is, then. Indeed, to you, Jeha, I am but one among a multitude of mortals. It appears I was mistaken. As the first human to successfully summon you, and your first contractor, I believed I might hold a somewhat special place in your regard. Especially since you personally shed your own blood to save me, I thought… but it seems that was merely shameful arrogance on my part.”
‘Ah… I truly am a sucker for good looks.’
Jeha muttered, seemingly chastising himself inwardly, and gently brushed a strand of Hereis’s silver hair, which had fallen beside his pale cheek, behind his ear. At that tender touch, Hereis’s eyes widened ever so slightly. Jeha also noticed a faint tremor in his shoulders.
Seeing Hereis react so keenly to his actions, Jeha inexplicably felt a surge of satisfaction. Perhaps he even felt a faint sense of conquest.
“Jeha…”
Hereis’s azure eyes, calling out to Jeha in a low voice, sparkled and wavered with an inscrutable light. They were so clear and profoundly blue that Jeha felt he could drown in them without realizing it.
“You have no fear, asking the Demon King himself to defile you. Do you even know what I might do to you?” Jeha said, deliberately resisting the sensation of being drawn into Hereis’s eyes.
“If I were afraid of something so trivial, I would never have dared to imagine summoning you and forming a contract.” Hereis replied with a faint smile.
“Trivial?” Jeha muttered under his breath. To call the humiliating and horrific act of being defiled by the Demon King ‘trivial’…
Seeing his reaction, Hereis added, a faint smile still gracing his lips.
“How could I have summoned you and entered into this contract without being prepared to have my body torn to shreds, my very soul become the Demon King’s, and to endure eternal agony?”
On Hereis’s calm face, a profound sincerity was evident. Indeed, he had a history of pushing himself to the brink of death just to meet Jeha once.
For Jeha, the contract with Hereis had been an unexpected accident, or perhaps a minor, sudden event. He had intended to finish it quickly and move on. However, after reaffirming Hereis’s resolve, a mix of apology, guilt, and burden began to weigh on him.
“…”
Jeha pressed his lips together, and for the first time, gazed deeply at Hereis with serious and deliberate eyes. He wasn’t merely looking at his appearance, but at Hereis himself.
Jeha, or at least the Jeha he had been as a human, was a conscientious person. He always knew how to respond with sincerity to those who approached him with genuine earnestness.
“You… are serious?” Jeha asked, his expression one of renewed realization. Hereis nodded with a calm face.
“Didn’t you send a succubus to test me and gauge the depth of my sincerity in the first place? What did you think? Have you confirmed my earnestness in entering this contract? If you’re still not convinced, you may test me as much as you like.”
Hereis’s expression conveyed his readiness to accept not just physical temptation, but any harsh trial or ordeal. His unwavering resolve was palpable, even without words.
From the moment he accepted that he would live out his existence as Bellarossa until his eventual demise, Jeha had tried to avoid entanglement with humans. He hadn’t wanted to become deeply involved with Hereis either. Even when Hereis had thrown himself to the brink of death to summon Jeha, Jeha had still wished to keep his distance from him. But…
Jeha had no choice but to admit it.
He decided to admit that he was, to some extent, being drawn to this beautiful man, glowing with pristine purity, whose soul burned hotter and fiercer than anyone else’s.
“…How bothersome.” Jeha pouted and blurted out. Hereis’s resolute expression faltered slightly. He seemed taken aback by the sudden change.
Jeha stared intently at Hereis for a moment, as if glaring, then reached out and seized him by the nape of the neck. Before Hereis could utter a word, their lips met.
Their lips touched. Even Hereis, who appeared as pure as an angel, was undeniably human. His lips were soft and warm.
For Jeha, this was also a first kiss. He wasn’t sure how to proceed. So, he simply gave the soft lips a gentle bite and licked them with his tongue. He felt the nape of Hereis’s neck, still in his grasp, stiffen like a stone. Somehow, he felt a sense of triumph, as if he had conquered this man.
Jeha pulled away from the kiss, released Hereis’s neck, and took a step back. Then, with a rather villainous expression, he declared,
“You can’t even kiss properly, yet you dare wish to be personally defiled by this magnificent being? You’re a hundred years too early!”
Jeha, who had carelessly spouted a line he’d overheard from some anime he couldn’t even remember the name of, soon felt a flush of embarrassment at his own words and abruptly turned, vanishing as if melting into thin air. In the brief moment he turned, he caught a glimpse of Hereis, frozen like a statue, his hand pressed to his lips.
“Hmph.”
Returning to his castle in the Demon Realm, dissolving into it like smoke, Jeha let out a snort whose meaning even he couldn’t fathom. He then promptly flopped onto his bed, thrashing his limbs and screaming a silent scream.
‘You can’t even kiss properly, yet you dare wish to be personally defiled by this magnificent being? You’re a hundred years too early!’ What an cringeworthy and childish line to have picked up from who knows where! It was a million-dollar stroke of luck that Hereis hadn’t seen anime from the human world.
“I’m insane! Insane! Insane! Insane! Why did I suddenly act like that?!”
After thrashing and screaming for a long while, Jeha lay sideways on the bed, sighing heavily. Then he raised a hand and cautiously traced his lips. The soft, warm sensation still lingered faintly on his mouth. And so did the refreshing scent that had brushed his nose when their lips had met.
“Well… I suppose I did personally defile him a little with that, didn’t I?” Jeha muttered, trying to convince himself, as if self-soothing. But soon, unable to bear the renewed surge of embarrassment and cringeworthiness, he began to pound the bed and writhe.
****
“…Your Grace. Archbishop Hereis?” The repeated calls echoed in his ears. Snapping out of his daze, Hereis raised his head and saw the attendant priest standing across from his desk. The young attendant priest was gazing at Hereis with a puzzled expression. Blaming himself for being so lost in thought that he hadn’t even noticed someone entering his office, Hereis offered a gentle smile.
“What is it?”
Seeing Hereis appear as composed as ever, the attendant priest finally dropped his puzzled expression. He then placed a bundle of papers he was holding onto the desk and spoke.
“The newly appointed Holy Knight Commander has requested an audience.”
“The Holy Knight Commander?”
“Yes. He asked to be informed of a suitable time to visit.”
“Tell him I will be in my office all day, so he may come at his convenience.”
“Yes, Your Grace. Is there anything else you require?”
Hereis shook his head in response to the attendant priest’s question. The attendant priest bowed slightly and then exited the office.
Once the office door closed and Hereis confirmed he was alone, he exhaled a long sigh and leaned back deeply into his chair. He then gripped the armrests, trying to control his fingers. But unlike his usual self, it wasn’t easy to suppress the urge. Hereis eventually raised a hand and cautiously traced his lips.
It had been a brief contact, if brief at all. Yet that contact utterly refused to leave his mind.
Bellarossa, the Demon of Sloth and Corruption.
He had implicitly believed that the Demon King’s flesh, a fragment of a god, would be cold and chilling like a corpse. But it wasn’t so. His lips, which had suddenly met Hereis’s, were warm, soft, and yielding, just like those of an ordinary human.
The light bite to his lips was playful, yet infinitely stimulating. For a moment, his entire body tingled. The tongue that licked his lips was soft, moist, and utterly seductive.
It was his first kiss with another person.
Having been raised in the temple under strict doctrines since childhood, Hereis possessed a fastidious nature. The mere thought of worldly and sexual unions made him frown. The act of mingling mouths and bodies with someone was unimaginable. He simply couldn’t understand why humans were so obsessed with and clung to it.
However, that brief yet stimulating kiss with Bellarossa had completely changed his mind. A mere short kiss had sent intense stimulation, exhilaration, and a sense of depravity tingling through his entire body. He didn’t even feel the humiliation or disgrace that he ought to have felt. If, last night, Bellarossa had gone beyond a kiss and simply thrown Hereis onto the bed… he probably wouldn’t have been able to resist. He likely wouldn’t have wanted to resist.
Was this the power of Bellarossa’s attributes of sloth and corruption? Or had the desires and urges secretly slumbering deep within his own flesh finally awakened?
‘You can’t even kiss properly, yet you dare wish to be personally defiled by this magnificent being? You’re a hundred years too early!’ Bellarossa’s words after the short kiss echoed loudly in his ears. Recalling them again, Hereis let out a soft chuckle. Though he was undeniably a Demon King, a fragment of a god, his words and expression sounded strangely childish and even adorable. Even the snort he’d let out as he abruptly turned and vanished was the same.
What could it be that made his words and actions possess such a peculiar human touch, unlike the colossal being he was as a Demon King? Was he deliberately feigning such an appearance, or was it Bellarossa’s unique personality?
The more he thought about it, the more his curiosity grew. He couldn’t shake thoughts of him all day. His obsession with him only intensified and became more tenacious.
Were these his own pure emotions, or the influence of the covenant seal carved into his heart?
Knock-knock-.
The sound of knocking echoed. Hereis stifled the faint smile he wore and turned his gaze to the door. It opened carefully, and the attendant priest entered, accompanied by another person. A short-haired blonde man, clad in shining silver armor and a Holy Knight cape, strode in with an unhesitant demeanor.