Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation-Chapter 429: Self Aware

Chapter 429 – Self Aware

The air rippled with heat and sulfur. A burst of black flame erupted, curling upward in elegant tendrils. The bones of the old vehicle cracked, groaned, and reformed. Metal screamed as it was reshaped—sleeker, darker, lower to the ground.

The new form gleamed like obsidian polished with vice. Gold-rimmed wheels spun once, the engine growled like a chained beast, and crimson lights pulsed under the hood like a heartbeat ready for revenge.

[Result: Infernal-Class Transport – "Beast Mark II"]

[Features: Hover-Wheels, Abyss GPS, Auto-Evasion, Scent-Sensitive Climate Control.]

Lux crossed his arms, stared, and huffed. "Look at that. Even my car get upgraded to sin class. I can’t have one normal thing."

Sira leaned into him. "I prefer infernal."

"Of course you do," Lux muttered.

Malris crossed her arms. "I’ll handle the rest."

He nodded slightly, but then paused.

Her brows arched. "What?"

He hesitated—for the first time since the fight.

Then. "Nothing. I think I also need to sue the Upper Realm."

The words hit the air like dropped gold—heavy, final.

Malris stiffened. "Why?"

He didn’t answer right away. Just tapped the center of his chest.

"My bounty’s rising again," Lux said softly. "It might come from up there. Well, I will talk about it with Celestaria."

Malris took a slow step forward, her hand brushing against a ruined lamp post, fingers tapping with restrained tension. "You think it’s political?"

"I think," Lux said slowly.

He turned, lifted his hand, and cast Dark Healing across himself and Sira in a wide wave. The magic crawled over their skin—inky, warm, and deeply violating in the most efficient way possible. Cuts closed. Bones realigned. Muscles knit. Blood evaporated in plumes of soft violet steam.

[Dark Healing: Complete.]

[Stamina Regeneration Boosted.]

[System suggests: Please don’t do this again today.]

Their demon forms melted back—horns fading, wings retracting, clothes re-weaving from scattered mana threads. Sira looked like a very smug CEO’s mistress now. Barefoot, tousled, and somehow still predatory. Lux reappeared in black slacks and an open-collared obsidian shirt, sleeves rolled, body language relaxed but alert.

He walked toward the car, opened the passenger door for Sira, who slid in with a playful grin and a foot rub against his thigh. Lux didn’t even flinch. Just winked.

"See you later," he called over his shoulder.

Malris exhaled. "You’re impossible."

"Genius is often mistaken for audacity," he replied, stepping into the driver’s seat.

The engine purred like a seductress made of sin and horsepower.

Malris raised her hand. Snapped her fingers.

The hell-formed dome overhead cracked. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Then shattered.

Soundlessly.

Light from the mortal world poured in—soft, familiar. A sky not made of judgment or brimstone. Just evening hues. Cars in the distance. Horns. Life.

The portal anchored on the street outside Lux’s actual home—because of course it did. Convenience, meet extravagance.

With one last glance toward Malris—who still looked like she needed a cocktail, a lawsuit, and possibly a nap—Lux drove through.

Sira’s hand was already on his thigh again.

"You know," she whispered, "that tongue thing you did before..."

"Strategic seduction," Lux muttered.

Her hand slid higher. "Do it again later."

The car glided smoothly through the veil, and the infernal portal closed behind them like an elevator door to hell’s weirdest penthouse.

Silence stretched inside the cabin for a few long seconds. Just the hum of the engine. The low purr of infernal mana thrumming beneath the leather seats. The faint scent of ozone, blood, and whatever demonic cologne Lux had dabbed on this morning to smell expensive and dangerous.

Sira leaned against the window, one leg casually draped over the console, fingers tapping her thigh.

Then she said it. Quiet. Curious.

"So... you’ll go up again?"

Lux didn’t answer right away. His hands tightened on the wheel, just a fraction. His eyes stayed forward, red-ringed pupils reflecting the moonlight above their mortal neighborhood skyline.

"Maybe," he said finally. The word felt too soft, too vague for him. A rare hesitation.

Sira turned her head, watching him now. Really watching him.

"You look quieter than before," she said.

"I am," Lux replied, voice lower now. Less polished. Less like a demon prince who’d just turned three monsters into artifacts. "It’s not your imagination."

"...Why?"

He exhaled, slow and sharp. Like letting air out of something that shouldn’t have been inflated in the first place.

"I started questioning myself," he said.

Sira blinked. She sat up slightly. "About what?"

"...About this."

He didn’t gesture, but he didn’t have to. It was in the silence. The weight of the car ride. The echo of Dravik’s final scream still lingering behind his teeth. The glimmer of gold dust still clinging to his cuff.

"Maybe," Lux said, eyes still on the road, "I’m not supposed to be on vacation at all."

Sira stilled.

"I mean—look at me," he continued, dry now. Bitter, almost. "I burn brighter when I’m working. When I’m bleeding someone dry. When I’m hunting contracts or suing kings or making someone cry during a hostile acquisition."

His fingers tapped the wheel once. Twice.

"Maybe that’s all I’m for. Work. Projects. Goals. Fix the vault. Repeat. Just work until I die."

Sira was quiet.

Then she said, "But that..."

"I know," he cut in, smiling bitterly. "I know. That’s not healthy. That’s not meant to be a life. I’m self-aware enough to see it’s wrong."

He laughed. Soft and hollow. "It’s not even a noble kind of wrong. It’s just... burnout wrapped in ambition. But even now, with you here, with the girls, with this house—sometimes I look around and I feel like I’m cheating time. Like I’m skipping steps. Like someone’s going to revoke this vacation any moment and throw me back into the pit."

Sira reached over slowly, touching his wrist. Her hand was cool, her skin pale against his.

"You’re not cheating time," she said. "You paid for it. In blood. In soul. In suffering. You bled for your right to rest."

Lux didn’t look at her. But his jaw clenched just slightly.