NOVEL NEXT Chapter 315: You Brought Tea to a Demon Party?
She stepped out wearing a high-collared silk dress that shimmered with silver-threaded scales under the lighting, hugging her waist, loose around her legs. Hair in an intricate knot with jade pins. Thin makeup—just highborn cheekbones and confidence sharp enough to serve as currency.
In her arms, she carried a long lacquered box with a silver handle.
Lux smiled. Not his usual flirt.
A real one.
"Mira."
"Lux," she returned with a small bow of her head.
"You're looking as terrifying as ever," he teased.
"Thank you," she said dryly. "It's good to maintain investor fear."
He stepped forward and gently took the box from her arms.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Tea," Mira said. "Eastern brew. Mostly green. Infused with mana."
Lux's eyebrows lifted. "You brought tea to a demon party?"
"You brought mortals to a demon mansion," she replied.
Touché.
"I figured if I was walking into a house full of half-naked women and underdressed royalty, I should bring something civilized," Mira added.
Lux laughed. "You're not wrong. It's casual chaos in there."
She raised an elegant brow. "I assumed as much."
He grinned and gestured for her to enter. "Come in. You're just in time."
"Am I the last?"
"Only the second," Lux said. "Don't worry. No council members. No demonic warlords. Just people I actually want to talk to."
Mira stepped inside, her heels silent on the marble. "And am I here because of business… or pleasure?"
Lux smiled, carrying the tea box with him. "Why not both?"
Mira snorted softly.
He led her into the hall. Warm lights. Laughter in the distance. The scent of roasted beef and buttered scallops drifting from the kitchen like it was flirting.
As they walked, Lux glanced sideways. "Did you have trouble finding the place?"
"No," she said. "Your wards are obnoxiously efficient. My car tried to slow down a block early."
"Security," Lux said simply. "Never trust rich neighbors."
They passed the hallway where a large, striking painting had just been mounted—an otherworldly skyline bathed in golden firelight. Mira slowed, her eyes narrowing.
"That painting…" she said quietly. "It's not from this realm."
Lux nodded. "It's not. That's from my realm."
She turned to him, brows drawn. "What exactly is in it?"
He looked at the painting, gaze softening just a fraction. "That's the Greed Tower. My office. My home. Back in the infernal realm."
"You live in a tower?" she asked. "Don't you have a palace or something?"
"I do," Lux replied smoothly. "But I work too much and decided to stay there. So I added a bed and my necessities to my office."
Mira stared at him. "That… kind of sounds sad."
He met her eyes with a faint smirk, though it didn't quite reach the usual arrogance. "I don't pity myself."
A pause.
She looked at the painting again, then back at him.
"I wasn't pitying you," she said softly. "I just didn't expect that answer."
He didn't respond right away. Just walked beside her as they reached the living room—where music, light chatter, and three dangerously beautiful women waited across the room like a living painting of temptation.
Lux exhaled. "Ready?"
Mira smiled faintly. "I was born ready."
And when they stepped in—
Rava gasped. "Mira!"
Naomi looked up.
Ely blinked.
And Sira?
Sira sized her up instantly.
Mira met her gaze without blinking.
The room dropped a degree.
Lux grinned.
Now this was getting interesting.
It wasn't a fight. Not yet.
But the air felt sharp—like two high-yield assets circling the same unclaimed market.
Mutual respect, maybe.
Mutual suspicion, absolutely.
And a tension that wasn't exactly hostile—but had enough heat to count as a tax liability.
Lux raised a hand, palm out, smiling like a man trying to mediate a merger between two volatile conglomerates. "Please. Be nice to each other."
Mira didn't break her gaze from Sira. She tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing in that slow, assessing way she usually reserved for deals she hadn't signed yet.
Her voice was flat. "Her. Who is she?"
Sira smirked.
Not politely.
Not sweetly.
No—this was the smirk of a woman who had just been seen and was delighted by it.
"Come here and find out," Sira purred.
Lux huffed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sira—"
He turned to Mira with a half-shrug. "She's… the daughter of the Lord of Pride."
Mira's gaze sharpened.
She looked back at Sira's smirk like it was a mirror. "Oh," she said slowly. "Interesting."
She walked forward. Smooth, poised. Like a diplomat stepping into a battlefield she already knew she could win.
"A fellow prideful woman," Mira said. "I like it."
She extended a hand, calm and poised as ever. "Mira Xianlong. Pleasure."
Sira's eyes gleamed. She rose with elegant lethality and took her hand, grip light but unyielding. "Sira Shadowborn. Nice to meet you too."
The shake was brief.
Controlled.
Neither woman blinked.
Lux watched this like a man watching two alpha hedge fund managers circling the same golden chair. Both beautiful. Both deadly. Both just polite enough not to throw wine at each other.
The room didn't thaw.
But it shimmered.
It wasn't war.
Not quite friendship.
Something in-between. Like… financial rivals who respected each other's portfolio, but absolutely didn't want to share their accountant.
A servant passed through with a tray of finger food and visibly flinched between the two of them.
Lux cleared his throat and stepped in like a human firewall. "Killing each other is not on the schedule, ladies. Please keep things civilized."
He clapped his hands once. "Let's start with tea. Mira brought something special."
He gestured subtly to the side. The lacquered tea case was in the servant's hands—handled like an ancient relic. Lux gave the man a nod.
"Prepare it. Traditional method. Temperature exact. No shortcuts."
"Of course, sir," the servant said, bowing as he moved toward the tea prep station near the lounge.
Mira slid gracefully into a velvet chair, crossing one leg over the other, dragon-scale silk whispering over her skin. "So," she said smoothly, "Do you have more guests?"