Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 491 – Fate is Laughing

Both of them went quiet after that.

The wine in Sira’s glass swirled gently as she rolled it between her fingers. And Lux just... sat there.

Thinking.

No. Calculating.

There was a difference.

A thousand questions pressed behind his eyes. Each one heavier than the last.

He hated this. Hated not knowing. Not being prepared. Not having the edge in the room. It wasn’t even about pride, it was about control. About safety. About always staying one step ahead because if he didn’t...

Well.

He’d learned what happened when he didn’t. ℴℴ𝘮

After a long, tense pause, Lux blinked. Then reached up and dismissed the floating system interface with a wave.

It fizzled out like smoke.

He stood, brushing off invisible dust from his slacks, and turned toward the hallway.

Sira looked up. ”Where are you going?”

”I need to go back.”

”Back where?”

”To the Infernal Realm.”

She sat up straighter. ”Seriously?”

”I want to ask my father. About the ruby.”

Sira frowned, swirling the wine. ”What if your father decides to keep you there? Throw the whole sector back on your plate again? Make you CFO until your horns gray?”

Lux didn’t even blink. ”He better not.”

The way he said it... cold. Firm. Like a line drawn with a blade.

He took a few steps toward the side hallway, not looking back. ”Can you handle the housewarming prep?”

She smirked faintly, standing as well. ”What do you think?”

”I think you’ll overdo it.”

”I think you like that.”

He didn’t answer. Just gave her a glance over his shoulder.

A flicker of warmth. That was it.

”If Corvus comes back, tell him to wait. Don’t let him fly off alone. And no one follows me, Sira.”

”I won’t.”

He kept walking and reached a modest-looking door.

But the moment he touched the handle—

Reality shifted.

The air buzzed.

The wood twisted into polished obsidian.

And when he opened it, the room behind was no longer a room.

It was an elevator.

The kind that didn’t go up.

He stepped inside. The air in the shaft was cold, sharp, and it smelled like molten gold and old contracts. The walls shimmered with dark red veins of embedded sigils, and a faint tune played in the background—a chime sequence only Greed’s bloodline would recognize. Slow. Powerful. Judicial.

The doors slid shut behind him with a clack that echoed too long.

His system’s voice, deadpan as ever, spoke in his ear like a polite ghost.

[Destination confirmed: Nexus Prime, Infernal Realm. Estimated descent time: 83 seconds. Reminder: you previously stated something similar with ”I am never setting foot in that place again.”]

”I changed my mind,” Lux muttered. ”Just take me.”

[Proceeding. But noted for future sarcasm reports.]

The elevator began its descent.

Fast.

Weightless.

Silent.

Lux stood with his hands in his pockets, eyes fixed on the glowing runes pulsing gently above. But his mind? Spinning.

He didn’t like this.

Didn’t like being in the dark.

Didn’t like returning to this place without leverage.

This wasn’t just home.

It was the place where he’d wasted seventy percent of his life.

Not metaphorically.

Literally.

Years locked in the finance halls. Chained—sometimes physically—to scrolls, numbers, contracts, and reports. Lux did the work. Slept in that office. Ate infernal takeout on his throne. Missed centuries of court drama because he was fixing another economic collapse.

He told himself he wouldn’t come back. Not for a hundred years, minimum.

It hadn’t even been a week.

[Fate is laughing]

”I know.”

[Ding.]

The doors opened.

And the air hit like sin.

Not mortal sin.

True sin.

Greed-layer oxygen was laced with desire. With temptation. It tasted like ambition and smelled like old coin mixed with incense and cold metal. A thick, almost sexual heaviness sat in the air here—too much power, too much history, too much everything.

He stepped into the Vault Hall.

Everything looked the same.

Black marble. Obsidian columns. Firelight from floating sconces that never flickered. Massive, circular floor engraved with the sigil of House Vaelthorn. Red and gold and etched with soul-tithes.

And in the middle—on that wide platform where judgment was usually passed and hell’s balance sheets were corrected—stood him.

Lord Zavros.

Lux’s father.

Tall. Regal. Ridiculously good-looking for someone older than most nations. His hair slicked back in perfect infernal shine, his black velvet suit trimmed in gold.

And when he saw Lux?

He lit up.

”Lux!” he boomed. ”You came back!”

Lux didn’t speak.

Didn’t move.

Just raised one hand. ”No. Stay where you are, Dad.”

That halted Zavros mid-step.

Lux knew his father’s range. Magic. Words. Influence. All of it. One wrong step into his aura and he might end up bound again to some infernal clause disguised as ”spend time with family.”

No thanks.

Zavros raised an eyebrow. ”What, you think I’d trap you?”

”Yes.”

”Come now.”

”I’m not joking.”

Zavros grinned anyway. ”Still dramatic. But fine. You’ve got my attention.”

Lux took a breath. ”I came to ask about Mom’s ruby necklace.”

Zavros blinked. ”The dark one?”

”Yes.”

”The family heirloom?”

Lux narrowed his eyes. ”That’s what it is?”

Zavros nodded, folding his arms. ”Passed down for generations. Made from the first sin of greed. I gave it to your mother when we got married.”

Lux’s stomach turned.

That stone.

The same stone.

”It’s not in the vault.”

”No,” Zavros said. ”She keeps it.”

”Where is it now?”

”She wore it last night.”

That made Lux stop.

”You’re sure?”

”Of course. Why?”

”Because I just saw a mortal woman wearing something exactly like it.”

Zavros laughed. ”Impossible.”

”It happened.”

”No mortal could wear that and not burn from the inside out.”

”I’m telling you, she did.”

Zavros leaned on his cane, smirking. ”You want proof? I’ll call your mother. She misses you.”

He took a step forward.

Lux instantly stepped back.

Zavros paused.

Ah.

So the game was on.

”Paranoid much?”

”I know your magic range.”

”That hurts me, son.”

”No it doesn’t.”

”...True.”

”I don’t trust you. You made me beg and never answer my pleas.”

They stared at each other.