Chapter 114: Loyalty.

“You need to relax.”

“I am relaxed, my Lord.”

“You nearly broke a shopkeeper’s wrist.”

“I assessed the situation and determined that physical contact with you was unwarranted. A human has no right to lay thier filthy hands on you.”

“How else was she supposed to measure me, if not by making contact with my body?”

Lyra looked away, her cheeks flushing slightly.

“I am… still adjusting to human customs.”

’She is not adjusting to anything. She knows exactly what glove-measuring means. She just cannot stand the idea of anyone touching me, regardless of the context. I hate to admit it, bu…’

Kai shook his head, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

’There is no need to further that thought.’

…

They found a tavern near the harbor.

It was nothing like the elegant restaurant in Gatevally. The tables were rough wood, the chairs creaked, and the menu was limited to three types of stew and whatever fish the boats brought in that morning.

Kai liked it.

Lyra did not care about the tavern. She cared about the fact that she was sitting across from Kai, alone, in a public establishment, and that from the angle of the sunlight hitting his face through the window, he looked particularly devastating today.

She had not touched her stew.

“You are not eating, do you not like it?” Kai observed.

“I do; I am only savoring the moment, my Lord.”

“Savor the moment while eating. The stew will get cold.”

Lyra picked up her spoon obediently, took one small bite, and then returned to staring at him.

Kai ate in silence for a while, watching the harbor through the window. Ships docked and departed. Sailors unloaded crates. The rhythm of a working port had a calming effect that he had not expected.

’This is surprisingly peaceful. Despite Lyra’s best efforts to terrorize every woman in a three-block radius, I am actually enjoying myself. When was the last time I just sat somewhere and ate a meal without thinking about the Nexus Empire, or Drask, or Prince Aldren?’

He set down his spoon.

“Lyra.”

“Yes, my Lord?”

“I have a question for you.”

Her back straightened like someone had shoved an iron rod down her spine. Her eyes locked onto his with the focus of a hawk spotting prey.

“Anything, my Lord.”

“Why did you really ask me for this outing? And I do not want the rehearsed answer about fairness and equity among the Pillars.”

The question landed between them like a boulder dropped into still water.

Lyra’s hands tightened around her spoon. Her jaw clenched. For a long moment, she said nothing, her gaze dropping to the surface of her untouched stew.

Then, slowly, the mask cracked.

“Because I was afraid.”

Kai blinked.

That was not the answer he expected.

“Afraid of what?”

Lyra still did not look up. When she spoke, her voice was quieter than he had ever heard it.

“When Carlotta came back from Gatevally, she was smiling. Not her usual smile, the one she wears when she is scheming or teasing the others. It was different. Softer. Like she had seen something the rest of us had not.”

She swallowed.

“And when she looked at me, she did not say a word about the date. She did not brag. She did not boast. She simply smiled and walked past me, and that silence told me more than any words could have.”

Her grip on the spoon tightened further. The metal started to bend.

“She shared something with you that I have not. A moment outside of the dungeon, outside of duty, outside of being the Abyssal Empress. And it terrified me, my Lord. Because for the first time since I was summoned, I realized that loyalty alone might not be enough.”

The spoon snapped in half.

Lyra stared at the broken utensil in her hand, then set both pieces down on the table with the careful precision of someone trying very hard not to break anything else.

“Forgive me. I did not mean to damage the silverware.”

Kai looked at the broken spoon, then at Lyra.

’She is genuinely scared. That’s a first.’

Something shifted in his chest. It was not the same flutter he had felt with Carlotta. It was deeper, heavier, like a wall he had built a long time ago developing its first crack.

He reached across the table and placed his hand over hers.

Lyra froze.

Every muscle in her body went rigid. Her eyes snapped to his hand, then to his face, then back to his hand, as if she could not decide which sight was more impossible.

“You are not being left behind,” Kai said. “Not by me. Not ever.”

His voice was calm. Steady. But for the first time, it carried something that was not authority or command. It carried honesty.

Lyra’s lips parted, but no sound came out. Her cheeks burned crimson, and her eyes glistened with a wetness she would rather die than acknowledge.

She tried to speak three separate times before finally managing a single word.

“…truly?”

“Have I ever lied to you?”

Lyra shook her head slowly, not trusting her voice.

Kai held her gaze for a moment longer, then withdrew his hand and leaned back.

“Good. Now order another spoon and finish your stew. We are not leaving until you eat.”

Lyra nodded rapidly, blinking away the moisture in her eyes. She raised her hand to signal the tavern keeper, and when the new spoon arrived, she ate every last drop of stew with the kind of determined focus usually reserved for life-or-death combat.

…

After the meal, they walked along the harbor.

The afternoon sun was dipping lower, casting long orange streaks across the water. The docks were quieter now, most of the day’s work done, with only a few sailors mending nets and a handful of merchants closing their stalls.

Lyra walked beside Kai this time without hesitation. Her shoulder brushed against his arm with every other step, and she made absolutely no effort to create distance.

They stopped at the edge of a stone pier that jutted out into the bay. The water below was calm, reflecting the colors of the sky like a sheet of molten copper.

“My Lord.”

“What is it?”

“Thank you.”

Kai glanced at her. “For what?”

Lyra looked out at the water, her silver hair catching the light of the setting sun. The ribbons on her horns had come loose during the walk, revealing the dark curves beneath, but she did not seem to care anymore.

“For seeing me as more than a weapon. You are quite away of what my old life use to be like.”

The words were simple, but the weight behind them was immense.

Kai did not respond immediately. He looked at the harbor, at the ships rocking gently in the bay, at the sun sinking below the horizon line.

’She is not wrong. I have been seeing them as weapons. As pieces on a chessboard. But somewhere along the way, the pieces started talking back. They started laughing and crying and getting jealous over dates and breaking spoons in taverns. And now I am standing on a pier at sunset with a demon who could destroy this entire city, and all she wants is to be told she matters.’

’When did things get this complicated?’

He turned to face her.

“Lyra.”

“Yes, my Lord?”

“You were the first. The very first being I summoned. Before Carlotta, before Sanovere, before any of them. You stood by me when I was nothing but a confused mess of dark mist sitting on a crappy throne in a D-ranked dungeon. You never questioned me. You never abandoned me. Even when I tested you in ways that were…” he paused, thinking about the day he had ordered her to kill herself just to test his Authority, “…unfair.”

Lyra’s breath caught.

“Do you think I would ever forget that?”

Lyra turned to look at him. The mask was gone now. The empress, the enforcer, the terrifying Level 999 True Demon who made armies tremble with a single step, all of it had been stripped away.

What remained was a woman looking at the man she had devoted her entire existence to, hearing him say the words she had waited for since the day she was summoned.

“I do not see you as a weapon, Lyra. I never did. And I certainly do not now.”

The sun dipped below the horizon.

The pier fell into the warm amber of twilight.

And Lyra, the Abyssal Empress, did something she had never done in front of anyone, ever.

She cried.

It was silent. Just two thin streams of tears rolling down her cheeks while she stood perfectly still, her hands at her sides, her chin raised, refusing to look away from him even as the tears fell.

“I will serve you until the end of time, my Lord. Not because you command it. But because there is nothing else in this world or any other that I would rather do.”

Kai looked at her for a long time.

Then, slowly, he raised his hand and wiped the tear from her left cheek with his thumb.

Lyra stopped breathing.

“Then stop crying and walk with me. We still have the rest of the evening.”

Lyra nodded, pressing her lips together hard to keep herself from making a sound. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, took a shaky breath, and then fell into step beside him.

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