Chapter 782 – I Feel Like a Kid

Lux didn’t answer right away.

He just nodded slowly.

Because that word felt strangely heavy.

Weird.

Lux had faced kings without flinching.

Negotiated infernal contracts worth entire kingdoms.

Stared down celestial tribunals.

But sitting here...

Across from Asmo...

Drinking wine like this...

Something about it made him feel... younger.

Smaller.

Like the weight he carried everywhere else wasn’t sitting on his shoulders.

Here he wasn’t the Hell CFO.

Not the strategist.

Not the demon responsible for keeping half the infernal economy from collapsing.

Just...

Lux.

He flexed his hands again unconsciously.

Asmo noticed.

But didn’t comment.

Lux stared at the wine again. "...It’s weird."

Asmo chuckled softly. "You said that already."

Lux exhaled. "I mean..." He hesitated. "...I feel like a kid. You are the only who could make me feel like this."

Asmo snorted. "Well, you are one."

Lux rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.

A quiet moment passed between them.

Then Lux looked up again.

"...I rarely visit."

Asmo waved a hand. "You’re busy."

"And when I do..." Lux grimaced slightly. "...it’s usually for work."

More silence.

Lux rubbed the back of his neck.

Which was a very un-CFO gesture.

"...So." He cleared his throat slightly. "Thank you."

A small pause.

Then he added quietly,

"...Grandpa."

Asmo didn’t laugh this time.

He simply lifted his glass. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

And clinked it lightly against Lux’s.

The sound was small. Soft. Almost insignificant compared to the chaos that had happened in the ancestral chamber not long ago.

Yet somehow it lingered longer than the echoes of primordial power.

Lux drank quietly.

The wine was rich, warm, and smooth, but it wasn’t the drink itself that settled something inside him. It was the quiet. The lack of expectation. The fact that nobody was asking him to calculate anything, negotiate anything, stabilize anything.

Here there were no markets to balance.

No contracts waiting for his approval.

No kings watching him like a chess piece that had grown too powerful.

Just a table.

Two glasses.

And an old demon who looked at him not as Hell’s most valuable executive asset, but as family.

Lux leaned back slightly in the chair, letting the warmth settle into his chest. His fingers still moved sometimes without thinking, tapping the glass lightly or adjusting his sleeve like his body was trying to process the strange calm.

It felt... unfamiliar.

Lux was used to tension. To constant awareness. To the feeling that if he relaxed for even a second something would collapse somewhere in the infernal economy.

But here, in this small terrace above the Lust Palace gardens, the weight was temporarily gone.

And that made the quiet feel almost awkward.

Across the table, Asmo watched him without interrupting.

The Lord of Lust had seen that expression before.

That careful stillness Lux carried whenever he allowed himself to stop moving for a moment.

It wasn’t laziness.

It wasn’t peace.

It was exhaustion disguised as composure.

Asmo knew exactly where it came from.

Zavros.

Lux’s father had never been cruel. Not truly. But he had been something else that could be just as damaging to a child.

Practical.

Cold.

Strategic.

Zavros had looked at his son and seen potential long before he saw a boy.

So he pushed.

Early responsibility. Early expectations. Early lessons about power and survival.

Lux had learned them all perfectly.

Too perfectly.

He matured faster than any demon should have.

He learned how to negotiate before he learned how to rest.

He learned how to manage markets before he learned how to be reckless.

Zavros had succeeded.

Hell’s economy ran because of Lux.

But the cost of that success sat quietly across the table right now, fidgeting slightly with his wine glass like someone who didn’t quite remember how to exist without a task.

Asmo sighed softly and leaned back in his chair.

’Poor kid.’

Lux didn’t notice the thought.

He was watching the lanterns drifting slowly above the gardens, their reflections dancing across the glass in his hand.

The warmth in his chest from the primordial blessing was still there, steady and alive. Not painful anymore. Not overwhelming. Just present.

Like a second heartbeat.

It made everything feel... softer somehow.

Lux took another slow sip.

He hadn’t realized how long it had been since he’d sat somewhere without calculating three different political outcomes in his head.

Eventually the moment faded naturally.

Lux straightened slightly.

The small pause in his life had lasted long enough.

Responsibility was already tapping on the door again.

He placed the empty glass on the table and stood.

The movement was smooth, practiced. The relaxed grandson posture dissolving back into the composed infernal executive the rest of Hell knew.

But the warmth in his chest stayed.

"I need to go now."

His voice was calm again, but not as sharp as usual.

"I have..."

He paused slightly.

"...afternoon tea invitation from Envy House."

Asmo chuckled quietly at that.

Of course he did.

Lux Vaelthorn didn’t get normal invitations.

He got strategic tea meetings with sin houses.

Asmo leaned back and waved a hand lazily.

"Careful, okay?"

Lux looked at him for a moment.

Then nodded once.

"I will."

For a brief second he considered saying something else.

But the words stayed where they were.

Instead, Lux turned and walked toward the terrace exit.

The lantern light followed him down the corridor.

And somewhere behind him, Asmo watched the door close and shook his head slightly with a quiet smile.

For a long moment he didn’t move.

The terrace was quiet again. The floating lanterns above the gardens drifted lazily like they had absolutely no idea a primordial awakening had just happened two rooms away. The wine bottle sat between two glasses, half empty now, catching the warm glow of infernal evening.

Asmo leaned back in the chair.

Then he sighed.

Not a dramatic sigh.

Just the kind someone makes when a thousand thoughts start bumping into each other at the same time.

He lifted the glass and took another slow drink.

Lux.

That boy.

Asmo stared at the doorway where he had disappeared like he expected him to suddenly walk back in and ask for a fourth coffee or accidentally trigger another cosmic awakening.

But no.

Just quiet.

The old Lust lord rolled the glass between his fingers thoughtfully.

That face Lux made earlier...

That little crack in his usual perfectly polished executive mask.

It was rare.

Ridiculously rare.