Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 177 – What’s The Reward?

Naomi exhaled, slow. ”Do you think they’ll come after you?”

”Already.” His eyes gleamed. ”And they failed.”

Another silence.

Then Naomi said quietly, ”If I had eighty-eight billion soul credits, I’d still keep you.”

Lux smiled. ”If you had eighty-eight billion, I’d make you CFO of your own sin division.”

She snorted. ”What’s left? Envy? Sloth?”

”Sloth’s full. You’d be something new. Like Chaos. Or Softness. Or... Naomi.”

She leaned in and kissed him again. ”I like the sound of that.”

They chuckled. Lux even smiled into her lips, like the weight of the realms didn’t exist for just that second. It felt light—silly and human and unfairly warm.

Naomi settled into the crook of his arm again, heart easing, cheek against his chest where she could hear the steady, quiet rhythm of him.

But then... silence.

It wasn’t the soft, shared kind they’d gotten used to. It was sharper. Tighter. She felt it in the way his body tensed under her. The way his hand stilled mid-stroke through her hair. The way his chest didn’t rise quite as easily as it had a minute ago.

She looked up at him, brows knitting gently. ”Lux?”

He didn’t answer right away. His jaw was clenched, gaze fixed on the ceiling. His mouth was drawn in that exact way she’d seen in high-stakes business photos of him—tight-lipped, unreadable, calculating. Except this wasn’t boardroom rage. It was something deeper. Rawer.

”You okay?” she asked, voice quieter now.

He didn’t look at her. But he finally spoke.

”If you’re asking if I’m worried,” he said, like repeating the question out loud gave it weight. ”And... no. Not exactly.”

His tone was off. Not the usual sarcastic coil. Not smooth. More... clipped.

”I’m not worried,” Lux said again. ”I’m pissed.”

Naomi blinked. ”Pissed?”

He laughed. A low, bitter sound. ”Can you believe that? I finally took a vacation—a real one. And what do I get?”

He turned to her now, golden eyes hard, burning.

”I get hunted. I get a bounty on my soul. Not because I started a war. Not because I triggered a realm collapse. Just because—just because I did my job too damn well.”

His voice cracked near the end, fury leaking through the edge.

”Who does that?” he snapped. ”What realm logic is that? You work. You build. You sacrifice sleep and comfort and centuries of your life just to balance infernal-economy chains—and what’s the reward?”

Again, he shot upright suddenly, sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to her, one hand raking through his hair.

”A cosmic f*cking price tag.”

Naomi sat up slower, pulling the blanket to her chest.

Lux was breathing harder now. Not yelling. But close. She could see it—the tightness in his shoulders, the flex of his fists, the dangerous stillness that usually came right before he destroyed a rival’s life in court or burned through a vault just to prove a point.

”I just wanted to disappear for a while,” he said, voice hoarse. ”Clear my head. Figure out what I am when I’m not making people kneel.”

He exhaled sharply.

”But instead—now I’ve got angels watching me through glass towers and demons trying to decipher my bloodline like I’m some kind of goddamn artifact. It’s annoying. It’s insulting. I feel like—I feel like I want to destroy something. Anything. Like—”

He cut himself off, chest rising and falling.

”...like I need to get this anger out of me.”

Naomi was quiet for a second.

”Is that what Wrath feels like, huh?” Lux glanced back at her. His eyes were tired. ”Maybe. Maybe that’s why the Lord of Wrath always looks like someone owes him eternal interest and skipped the loan meeting.”

She crawled toward him slowly and wrapped her arms around his back from behind, pressing her cheek between his shoulder blades.

And for a second, he didn’t move.

Just let her be there. Soft. Present.

Then he let out a shaky sigh.

”You want to break something?” she asked softly, hands rubbing his arms. ”We can do that. I’ve got a spare lamp. Maybe one of my dad’s old paintings.”

He snorted once.

She pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades.

”Or,” she added, voice quieter, ”you could just... be angry here. With me. You don’t have to hide it. You don’t have to fix it. You don’t even have to say it right.”

Lux leaned back into her just slightly, the tension in his spine easing a little.

She slid her hands down to his fingers—still curled into tight fists—and laced them through his.

”You’re allowed to feel it,” she whispered. ”You don’t need to hold it all the time.”

”I do,” he said hoarsely. ”That’s the job.”

”Not tonight,” she said. ”Tonight you’re not a CFO. You’re mine.”

He didn’t reply, but he let her guide him back into the bed, her hands slow and steady as she pulled him under the covers. She settled beside him and gently brushed his damp hair away from his face.

His expression was unreadable. Still fierce, but quieter now. Breathing a little easier.

”You’re not alone, Lux,” she murmured. ”Even if the realms forget that you bleed. Even if they want your soul like it’s a prize. You’re still you. And you’re not alone.”

He closed his eyes.

And for the first time in that entire night, he looked... tired.

Not drained. Not defeated. Just honestly, quietly tired.

”Naomi,” he said softly.

”Yeah?”

His hand found hers under the blankets.

”...Thank you.”

She kissed his shoulder. ”You don’t need to thank me for loving you.”

They stayed like that for a while.

No contracts.

No chaos.

No power plays.

Just skin. Warmth. Breaths syncing.

Eventually, his grip on her hand loosened. His chest rose slower. His mouth slackened.

He fell asleep like a storm finally calmed.

And she stayed awake just a little longer, watching him, guarding the man who guarded everyone else.

Then she kissed his cheek.

And followed him into sleep.