31 Change Places with Me

"An enemy, huh." June chuckled darkly. His angry eyes only descended on the lobster again, his pulls and chews becoming more and more forceful as if he was imagining crushing Jonathan's bones with his very teeth. "Granduncle, do you have an idea why he is so angry at me? I'm not that big of a name. I don't even rock the industry. Why is he trying to waste resources on me?"

With a strange smile, Massimo looked at him. The seriousness in his eyes remained, but he was weighing the consequences of telling June. It's just that… he knew of things more powerful than him. Massimo reclined to his side on the chair. "June, how do you see a devil's deal? Do you think that everyone's dreams are granted out of thin air?"

June lifted his face to not appear disrespectful. "That's… the idea, right? If I want to be a millionaire, I only need to sell my soul. Is that wrong?"

"Deals like those exist, but that money doesn't come out of our asses. We needed to arrange things to make it seem that someone's fortune was being elevated." Massimo chuckled as he moved his fingers to weave a pipe from thin air. "Else, the human system will find trouble with that person we traded with. That's why we started attaching clauses to the more definite dreams.

"Drawn Wings, like Perseus, is built on the dream solidified by a deal with the devil. Jonathan Stallis is nothing better than you, June." Massimo breathed out smoke, but the smoke didn't only loiter in the air. It turned into a silhouette of a man and drew a picture he described. "Jonathan Stallis was promised to have a shining monument built for his name, but it must be powered by the most talented.

"Everyone working in Wings served as a battery. However, they weren't allowed to shine on their own. Else, the monument would shatter."

June frowned at the matter. He remembered how many of his colleagues only had loose contracts with the agency. However, when Jonathan came to him to offer work, he was given a ten-year contract. For ten years, he would have to render his service in exchange for corresponding job offers. The first three years were just amazing. He just didn't know when Jonathan stopped supporting him.

To think that he was a battery that would burn out faster the brighter he shone, he suddenly understood. Jonathan had to clip his wings in case he endangered the monument that Jonathan had dreamed of. Moreover, Jonathan must have been instrumental to his own demon… enough for him to incur favors.

A favor that could even place a death sentence on June's head.

"Heh, I see." June only smiled. He put his head on the back of his hand as if reconsidering a lot of things, but all he could make were delusional chuckling.

June then pulled his body up to sit straight. He took a hold of the lobster body and broke the shell with just a crushing motion from his hands. When he dug the lobster's body meat from the shell, he didn't realize that Reese and the two big imps were watching in horror.

Still, Massimo only had a smile on his lips. This demon feasted on the sight of June channeling his rage into his very body, hands clawing at the carcass that he chose to devour.

"Granduncle, if I chose to fight back, will you help me?"

June's voice came again after he had taken out the body without breaking the tail off. His eyes looked up at the reddish eyes of the demon. "I know Lucirien will come to my aid, but I don't want to overwork him now that he was still recuperating. Will I be able to ask you guys for help as well?"

At those words, Massimo shook his head, but this didn't seem to be for him. "When I first saw you on your way back to this city after breaking Master's seal, never had I thought that this will become a reality. Neptune Verrier, my master had been locked for a thousand years. If I have to render service to his benefactor for a thousand years to repay the favor, I will.

"Though… we both know that Master will be the one calling the shots. Let us wait for him to issue orders to us instead. After all, it doesn't seem like you are aware of our capabilities to the maximum." Massimo grinned at the actor, letting some of his demon features escape. It had painted a nightmarish picture of his face, as well as the ones the big imps had worn.

"Thank you." June only smiled and went back to eating the lobster. It was even like he didn't share the table with demons that devoured human souls for their own nutrition.

Reese was left to let his eyes flicker in the strangeness of the scene. He didn't know how the higher-ups came up with the forty-eight candidates for Perseus, but he could see how much entertainment June was going to give them… as well as the bloodshed that would come with his venture.

…

The episode's taping would continue in the night past dinner, and that was why June was eating in his dining room with Freya. Eurkodach had understood June's concerns, so he didn't mind having the mother come to feast with him. After all, Freya was raining compliments to the chef too much that even the demon would hide in the kitchen and be all bashful.

After hosting the dinner, he saw his mother off as she rode a cab June had paid for. The actor remained outside and watched the sun dip into the horizon. The sky was still marbling yellow and purple, even if it was almost eight in the evening. A little later, he would have to head to the shoot.

"Fancy running into you outside." Lantis had walked into the material as he spotted the cab far enough. He then watched June turn to him. "Darling, would you like to decide on our steps for the night? Would you rather take matters slowly?"

"I heard that it could be Jonathan Stallis's doing." June walked with Lantis back inside the condominium. "Did you find out who issued the orders?"

"Hearing that name does not surprise me, but connecting him to this will be quite a pain." Lantis stood next to June in the elevator. "However, I have found the people behind the driving incident. There was also another plan tonight—which I, of course, dared to foil. They remain free to not alarm their master. As for the human collaborators, must I mark them for misfortune?"

June hummed as he thought about the consequences. He then turned to Lantis. "Is it okay if I see them first? I want to know if they deserve a death sentence from you."

Lantis lifted his brows. "How strange. Why do you choose to be so involved, June? Are you hoping to… play judge for the living?"

At those words, June only scrunched his face before his expression gradually grew serious. "Whether I know of them or not, it wouldn't change the fact that their deaths would be on me. It's better for me to meet them. After all, whatever I say, they would still have to vanish for attempting on my life… or other's lives just to bring pain to me.

"I will die if I am at the other end of the spectrum. I doubt they're not ready to change places with me."