1.25.

"..."

"..."

"Ahem," the maid coughed, unable to hide the blush on her face.

"What do we have here?" Anna grinned.

Sequencee and Schwii had their heads lowered like kids guilty of spilling milk. Of course, their charges were much more severe than that.

The door to the study they were in opened just as they were having their 'meal'. A maid came into their room thinking to clean the place when she heard noises behind the table. There she found the young lord and young miss kissing one another, an innocent yet obscene sight indeed.

While they remained unaware of her presence, she carefully went out and called the head of the house.

The aftermath being two kids with disheveled clothes, Sequencee with plenty of saliva kiss marks on his cheeks and a blushing Schwii. Both were standing before Anna.

"I-I've overstepped my boundaries please forgive me," Schwii said.

"Me too.." Sequencee who had nothing more to say could only ride on the excuse she made.

"Tsk. Tsk. To think that my boy would grow up to be such a lass. Fufu, take responsibility alright?"

"Ah? Does this mean?" Schwii shot up and looked at Anna.

'Means?'

Sequencee whose mind was still stuck on the sensation of their kiss could hardly understand the context.

All of a sudden his hands were clasped between her's and heat rushed up to his face. After experiencing what he had, Schwii no longer looked like that innocent girl he knew. There was some sort of need between them he couldn't quite explain; this feeling of wanting her for himself.

'W-What is this?!'

"I'll ask my mother about our engagement.. will that be alright?"

"Engagement?"

"Oh dear, I hadn't drilled in marital studies into my son. My apologies Schwii," Anna went 'oh no'.

'Marital studies? Something like that exists?!'

"Sequencee, promise me one thing," she looked up at him with her big ruby eyes. His thoughts quieted, sounds faded. She was the only one left in his world.

'Promise?'

"Don't you go off marrying someone else. I won't forgive you if you do that okay?!"

Schwii looked away.

An unusual feeling spread in his stuffy chest. Different from the fiery passion he felt during their kiss, it was a gentle warm, this fuzzy feeling of wanting to see and be seen by her. The world seemed to brighten up.

'Is this.. why people get married..?'

Sequencee was confused.

===

It was a long dream, Sequencee opened his eyes.

His lungs felt like they were stabbed with knives but the pain in his abdomen had disappeared. As his muddled consciousness grew increasingly clearer, he realized that he was on a bed. The room looked just like the one he and Ro stayed, except that the curtains were pulled over the windows and– Ro wasn't here.

But someone else was.

He turned his head.

And there with her head laid on the side of the bed was an auburn haired girl with a doe-like expression– the succubus who came to seduce him at the previous inn. A darling scene where her short brown hair twirled around her wet cheeks and arms that cushioning her face.

'I'm so pathetic.'

Sequencee thought to himself as he recalled everything that happened before he passed out.

The stinging pain of his chest began to subside, he turned towards the window. Judging from the absence of light, it should be night.

'So in exchange for my horns I got nothing huh? To think someone like that exists in the academy..'

Sequencee gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"Nmn.."

Her cute moans intruded on his dark thoughts.

He turned towards the succubus and found her crimson eyes staring right back at him. Her lips parted.

"My apologies for showing something so unsightly."

She quickly got up and dusted herself. Shifting her hair slightly, she faced Sequencee once more.

"It's been a while. It doesn't seem like you remember me, judging from your reaction from our first meeting?"

"..."

"Schwii Arch, Sequencee."

"I'm sorry."

"Haah– for a moment there I thought I tailed the wrong person."

Schwii Arc. It had been almost six years since the last time they met. Was it because her mom didn't agree with their engagement? Because she was too embarrassed to like him? Or maybe she found someone better?

After that promise they made, he never got to see her again. It was a piece of his dark history, not knowing why she didn't come visit him, it took him three years to bury the feelings he had for her.

'Yet she's here now.'

"We're at Ninety-nine inn, the same one your party is. I've paid for their extension and this room also."

"Huh?"

'That's right. I forgot today is supposed to be the day the lodging fees are due.. how long have I slept?'

Schwii sat on the bedside and faced him.

"You looked confused."

"I am confused."

"I'm glad you didn't notice how I changed your clothes for you?"

"Huh?"

'You..'

"Hehe. You don't need to make such a surprised expression, you know? After all, didn't you remember the promise we made back then?"

Schwii leaned in, no– she crawled towards him.

Sequencee reacted by moving backwards, his back hit the board of the bed.

Many things were swirling in his mind. He remembered how his mother would bring her over to their mansion as a paymate for two weeks, that Schwii's mother and Anna were good friends, that she wanted to marry him, the pain he felt from yearning–

Schwii wasn't an elf or human, she was a demon like himself, someone he could and should confide in. But that was all in the past, before the disaster that struck his homeland. In the present, she should be nothing more than his enemy.

Their faces were inches apart. Sequencee could feel her hot breath teasing his lips.

Ever since the day his mother died, Sequencee made up his mind to regard every single demon as an enemy. Killing The Sovereign was only the beginning. When one falls, another can simply rise to take its place. To secure absolute peace, all high demons must be culled, not a single one to be left alive, that including himself.

But did this criteria include Schwii? Should she be included?

Sequencee was preparing a spell to strike her heart when she spoke.

"Our marriage has been approved."

In the past, Sequencee came up with a theory to justify her absence. How she, the daughter of a high demon, would need a lot of effort to really persuade her mother to become a fiancee of a lowly demon like himself. The young Sequencee had expectations, those expectations crushed over the years of waiting. But three years after the calamity and six years since their last meeting, now that he knew who his father was–

"I'll be in your care, Sequencee."

Schwii Arch had the audacity to come and announce that she was engaged to him? The half demon lord, Sequencee Arch?

Before he could come to consensus on the matter, her lips touched his.

Only for a short moment, but a clear intent could be felt from it. The chains that shackled his heart began to break, creating a deep dilemma. She pulled away.

There was neither the joy of someone who reunited with her life partner, nor the elation one would feel from their kiss together. Instead, a forced smile hung on her face, bitter tears well up in her dull eyes.

"Ah, sorry. Was I being a little too pushy there?" Despite it all, she still mustered the courage to hide the pain in her heart.

'Just what did she go through.. the past six years?'

"Schwii. Tell me."

She looked down. A shadow casted upon her face as a deep remorse swelled up inside her.

"Schwii."

"Sequencee. I need you to.. save my mother."