"Of course I am," Luther muttered tiredly, massaging at the back of his neck. "So, until then, you will have to attend school. Now, as a student, how would you like to be? Do you want to be lazy, hardly know anything, average, quite good, or genius-level?"
Glancing between the four other people in the room, Lucia cleared her throat awkwardly after a moment.
As a noblewoman, it was expected of her to be better than average. But, if a wife was too brilliant she would outshine her husband, which men absolutely hated. Therefore, it would have to be..."quite good," she quietly replied.
Turning his attention to Pahaliah after smiling sweetly down at his Lucia, Luther's gaze narrowed. "You heard her. Give her only academic knowledge. I don't want anything else to clutter her pure, beautiful heart and soul."
A trail of sweat slid down the side of Pahaliah's face, slipping under the frames of his glasses as he nodded. Rushing across the room, he took a seat in one of the chairs. Placing the laptop under his arm on the table, he turned it on and quickly got to work.
Gasping in surprise, Lucia's pretty blue eyes widened at the sight of the thin object opening up. She watched Pahaliah's fingers dance over the bottom part of the object in an elegant manner, absolutely mystified.
Heart growing warm at the delightful sight of Lucia, Luther had to drag his gaze away and continue with his plans. "Jegudiel. I want a private, all girl's school that has a good background and history close enough to the house that a dorm won't be required. It better be a place where no male faculty have tried anything, you understand?"
Teeth glistening with the feral smile on his lips, Luther waited for the only response allowed to be given.
"Yes, sir!" Jegudiel replied, bowing deeply at receiving his orders.
"For now, you are dismissed," Luther waved his hand in a lazy manner. Turning his head to Lilith, who looked like a cat licking up cream, he sighed. "Can you have the cook make something up? Make it something light, since I'll be having Lucia take a nap soon."
At the sound of her name, Lucia was pulled out of her engrossed observation of Pahaliah and the bizarre object. "Hmm?" she asked instinctively.
Leaning down, Luther pulled her into a warm hug, rubbing his nose against hers as if it was the most natural thing to do. "Once he finishes his work and you get some grub in you, go lie down on the bed for a bit. It's noon here, but it was the middle of the night in your world. We won't reach our destination until night anyway. Just a couple of hours, okay?"
His deep voice was soft and almost pleading, unlike when he'd been ordering his subordinates around.
Across the room, Pahaliah flinched, his fingers above the keyboard freezing momentarily. His breathing hitched as he gulped in fear.
'Is...is that really the same guy?'
Glancing over out of the corner of his eye, Pahaliah felt the blood drain from his face in a mixture of disbelief, disgust, and horror.
Lucifer Satanael, aka 'Luther'—the Dual Demonic Devil-God—was acting like a lovesick puppy!
Leaning over the delicate woman on the maroon loveseat, Lucifer's black, handsome features were twisted in a begging manner. His gold eyes were soft, as if the color had been boiled and lightened, while his lips were lifted in a smile of joy.
The young woman, Pahaliah's new-found Mistress—Queen, Goddess, Empress, Saintess, Priestess, Lady—looked a little uncertain, but the embarrassed blush on her pale cheeks only increased her doll-like charm.
No matter what title would end up granted to her, the whole world other than Lucifer would kneel before her.
But...by the look of things, perhaps even that twisted god would fall to his knees before her as well.
Letting out a shaky breath, thankful that his lord was too occupied with teasing the woman to notice that his hands had stopped moving, Pahaliah forced himself to get back to work.
'Ignore the lovey-dovey couple!'
Even as he thought it, he couldn't help but feel a little bitter. Unlike Jegudiel, who seemed to hate the idea of debasing himself with the implications of a relationship, Pahaliah was lonely!
So lonely!
He had been trying to flirt with a human girl when Lilith had shown up and dragged him away.
His heart squeezed painfully in his chest at the thought.
'So close! I almost had her! She wasn't even drunk, too!'
Sobbing silently in his heart, he stared down at his computer screen as his body kept moving automatically out of sheer self-preservation.
'With the way Lilith looks and acts...I bet she'll think I already have a girlfriend! Dang it, why didn't I get her number when I had the chance?!'
Slamming his head against the headrest of the seat, tears streaked down his face silently as he wept in regret.
At one time coupling with a human would have never crossed Pahaliah's mind. But in the last twenty years, things had changed drastically.
Sighing, he gave a silent prayer to the Lord that had left him, along with everyone else, two decades before.
'I pray that you found the happiness you were searching for, O'Gracious and Mighty Lord.'
A chill suddenly shot down his spine as an invisible aura of bloodlust in the shape of a hand grabbed hold of his heart and squeezed.
Gasping, Pahaliah realized he'd been idling for much too long! Whimpering in pain, he fought through the anguish of the silent warning Lucifer was giving him to focus back on his work.
For now, he'd have to push aside thoughts of that pretty Spanish woman he'd nearly asked out.