The door burst open so violently that the hinges shrieked against the wall.
Lucifer barely had time to turn his head before something struck his face.
The impact came first, sharp and sudden. A loud crack echoed through the room before the sensation of pain caught up with it.
His head snapped sideways.
For a moment the entire world tilted. The room blurred as his vision struggled to stabilize, and a faint metallic taste spread across his tongue where his teeth had cut the inside of his cheek.
The sting burned across his skin.
A slap.
Lucifer slowly turned his head back toward the doorway.
Amelia stood in front of him.
Her breathing was steady, but her eyes were cold enough to make the air in the room feel heavier.
"Don't," she said quietly.
Her voice lacked its usual calm restraint.
"Don't you dare start talking yet."
Lucifer now stood in the middle of his room looking exactly like a child who had just been dragged in front of an angry teacher.
A very angry teacher.
Amelia had almost dragged him back here after discovering where he had spent the night.
Lucifer's eyes wandered across the room as if he were silently calculating which direction offered the fastest escape.
Unfortunately for him, the room was exactly the same as it had always been.
There were no open windows.
No secondary doors.
No convenient hiding places.
The bright red handprint on his cheek made the situation even worse. The mark stood out vividly against his pale skin.
Across from him stood Amelia Valcrest.
Her expression was grim.
Not merely angry.
Controlled anger.
The kind that required conscious effort to contain.
Her shoulders were stiff. Her breathing carried a faint tension, and her fingers remained curled slightly at her sides as though she were constantly reminding herself not to move.
It looked very much like she was using every ounce of discipline she possessed to stop herself from striking him again.
The reason was simple.
One of her most carefully guarded secrets had just been exposed.
And the person responsible for exposing it…
Was the person she despised the most in this house.
For a brief moment, Amelia seriously considered killing him right there just to silence him permanently.
Lucifer, unfortunately, had extremely sharp instincts when it came to recognizing danger.
He slowly raised both hands.
"Hey… come on," he said cautiously.
"You can't be that serious."
Amelia did not answer.
Her expression did not change.
Lucifer swallowed.
"Look… so what if I slept in your bed?" he continued carefully.
"I mean… it's not like we haven't slept together before."
He paused for a moment, thinking.
Then added with genuine curiosity,
"Right?"
Amelia exploded.
"We were children back then!"
Lucifer blinked.
Then shrugged helplessly.
"What's the difference anyway?" he replied.
"You weren't even sleeping there. You really can't blame me."
Amelia stared at him as if she had just discovered a new species of idiot.
"You broke into my room."
"I knocked."
"You opened the door."
"It opened itself."
Her eye twitched.
"You are unbelievable."
Lucifer pointed weakly toward the hallway.
"My room was locked."
"So you decided the best solution was breaking into mine?"
"I didn't break in."
"You entered."
"I entered respectfully."
"You slept in my bed!"
"I was exhausted!"
Amelia closed her eyes and took a long breath.
Lucifer immediately took a careful step backward.
"You know," he said thoughtfully, "if you really think about it… technically this is your fault."
Amelia blinked slowly.
"My fault?"
"Yes."
Lucifer nodded confidently.
"You locked my room."
"I locked it because you ran away from the estate!"
"And look what happened," Lucifer replied helplessly.
"I had nowhere to sleep."
For a moment Amelia simply stared at him.
Then the air inside the room changed.
Mana surged outward from her body.
Her origin card activated instantly.
Lucifer reacted even faster.
"WAIT!"
The word cut through the room.
This time the panic in his voice was real.
"Someone tried to turn me into a demon last night."
The sentence landed heavily in the room.
Amelia froze.
Lucifer slowly lowered his hands.
"For a moment," he said quietly, "I thought I was already dead."
The anger in Amelia's expression shifted slightly.
Suspicion replaced it.
Lucifer spoke quickly before she could interrupt.
"I barely survived. Michael arrived in time. If you don't believe me you can ask him yourself."
Amelia narrowed her eyes.
Lucifer continued.
"My room was locked, so I thought I would wait for you here to get the key."
He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"I didn't expect to fall asleep. I swear I was completely exhausted."
Then he added quickly,
"And I didn't do anything weird in your room."
Amelia's eyebrows slowly drew together in disgust.
"So you do weird things in other girls' rooms?" she asked coldly.
"That's low."
She paused for emphasis.
"Even for you."
Lucifer opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
For some reason, whenever he spoke to Amelia, his mouth seemed to disconnect from the rest of his brain.
Still…
At least she wasn't talking about the earlier matter anymore.
Lucifer quietly sighed in relief.
The room fell silent.
Then Amelia spoke again.
"What happened to you?"
Lucifer blinked.
"You look ugly."
Lucifer jumped like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.
"Who the hell are you calling ugly?" he snapped instinctively.
"Look at me! You—"
He stopped immediately when he saw Amelia's expression change.
His survival instincts activated instantly.
"—beauty," he corrected smoothly.
"Look how handsome I am."
Before Amelia could respond, Lucifer activated his origin card.
Mana spread outward.
Amelia's eyes widened.
"You awakened?"
It was rare for someone to awaken at Lucifer's age.
Most people awakened much earlier when mana first appeared.
The second generation of awakened individuals rarely experienced such a late awakening.
Lucifer shrugged casually.
"Well… yeah."
"What can I say? I accidentally awakened recently."
He paused briefly.
"Oh, and by the way… my bloodline activated too."
"Just recently."
He spoke in a tone that attempted humility.
The bragging was painfully obvious.
Anyone could see it.
Anyone except Amelia.
Because Amelia's mind had already moved somewhere else.
"So it was you…" she murmured quietly.
Lucifer frowned.
"What?"
Amelia's expression darkened.
"So it was you who awakened."
"That's why I suffered a backlash yesterday."
Lucifer froze.
Then his eyes sharpened.
"You suffered a backlash?"
He stared at her carefully.
"Then why didn't Michael mention anything about that yesterday?"
Amelia didn't answer.
Lucifer tilted his head slowly.
"You didn't tell the family?"
"But why?"
Silence filled the room.
Then something inside Lucifer's mind clicked into place.
Why had no one blamed Amelia after his death in the original timeline?
Why had the family never investigated her?
She had been the last person to see him alive.
She had attacked him.
Yet no one had ever accused her.
The answer slowly assembled itself.
Amelia never reported the backlash.
In the original timeline, when Dragoth finally took over Lucifer's body completely, Amelia suffered a backlash from interfering with a demonic possession far beyond her level.
She knew something terrible had happened.
But she did not know exactly what.
From her perspective, Lucifer had simply disappeared.
If she reported the backlash, she would have to explain everything.
Why she attacked the Duke's son.
Why a demonic ritual had taken place inside the Valcrest estate.
Why a Demon Duke had been involved.
That alone would trigger investigations from the Church.
From rival Monarch houses.
From the Primordium infiltrators hidden across the world.
And if Lucifer later appeared alive…
She would become the criminal.
So she stayed silent.
Lucifer disappeared.
The family believed he was still alive somewhere.
They searched.
Until the very end.
Lucifer's eyes slowly hollowed.
Amelia hated him.
She hated him enough to wish for his death.
Yet even then…
She did not expose the truth.
Even after returning the contract.
Even after everything that had happened between them.
She stayed silent.
If Lucifer had truly been trapped somewhere…
If help had never arrived…
Then the outcome would have been inevitable.
His death.
Lucifer's expression changed.
The humor vanished completely from his eyes.
Amelia noticed the shift instantly.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
"Lucifer, I—"
"You didn't tell the family because you thought I might still be alive somewhere."
Lucifer interrupted her.
His voice was colder than she had ever heard before.
"And if they found me in time…"
"I might survive."
He looked directly at her.
"So tell me something."
"Amelia Valcrest."
"Why did you do that?"
Amelia's eyes widened.
She opened her mouth to answer.
Lucifer cut her off.
"Get out."
The words came out colder than he intended.
Amelia froze.
For a moment she looked like she wanted to argue.
But something in Lucifer's expression stopped her.
She slowly turned toward the door.
Just before she stepped out—
Lucifer spoke again.
"Amy."
Amelia stopped.
"What rank are you now?" he asked quietly.
The question was so sudden she looked confused.
"Around mid D-rank," she answered after a moment.
"Why?"
Lucifer looked away.
"Nothing."
"You can go now."
Amelia hesitated briefly.
Then she left the room.
The door closed quietly behind her.
Lucifer remained standing there alone with his thoughts.