Chapter 551: Defending Clara

Damian strode through a corridor he had never had much reason to visit, mostly because this section of the palace housed the private quarters of the current head of his Royal Guard. The guards stationed outside immediately recognized his presence and straightened in surprise.

"Sire..." they called together, but Damian casually waved them off as he approached.

"Leave... You will be recalled to your post soon enough."

The guards bowed quickly and withdrew without asking questions, disappearing down the corridor until Damian was left alone before the door.

He reached for the handle and gently pushed it open. The curtains inside were completely closed, leaving the room unnaturally dark, but Damian’s eyes adjusted instantly. Lucy was sitting comfortably on a sofa with a sheer robe loosely covering her body, her legs crossed as she sipped wine. She had clearly been waiting for him, though the surprise on her face suggested she had not expected him to actually come.

Her gaze immediately shifted toward his towering frame, and she sucked in a quiet breath.

"You actually came..." she muttered.

Damian closed the door behind himself and approached the seating area.

"You thought I wouldn’t?" he asked before sitting on the sofa opposite hers.

The wine jar resting on the table suddenly lifted into the air under an invisible force, tilted itself, and poured its contents into another golden goblet positioned across the table.

Lucy watched the display before looking back at him.

"I expected you wouldn’t do it here with all your other women around," she admitted.

"I’m the Sin of Lust. It would be a sin if I don’t live up to my title." Damian shrugged indifferently before picking up the goblet and taking a graceful sip.

Lucy’s attention briefly shifted toward his right hand. Seeing him casually use it again still surprised her after everything she seeing the damage he suffered during his battle with Dantalion.

She studied him for another moment before asking,

"So now you have found interest in someone like me, does that mean I’m going to be made a concubine too?"

Damian looked at her without changing his expression. "Don’t get cocky... We both know that is never happening."

Lucy actually jerked back slightly at the blunt response. She had expected him to tease her or give her some ambiguous answer, but instead he had dismissed the possibility without even pretending otherwise.

"All my women were chosen for political reasons. I already have the support of the Amon Clan. I have no reason to add you to an already long list of concubines," Damian continued bluntly.

Lucy’s lips curled into a bitter smile as she lowered her goblet. "You don’t have to be so blunt about it. I thought the Sin of Lust should at least know how to make a woman feel loved."

Damian shrugged indifferently. "It just makes my body unusually sweet. The women who have sex with me become addicted and always beg for more, especially since it makes them stronger as well."

Lucy sighed quietly. She already knew that much about the Sin of Lust, but hearing Damian reduce something so intimate to the effects of his inheritance was still strangely cold. Then another thought crossed her mind, and curiosity replaced the faint bitterness in her expression.

"So you have never fallen in love?" Lucy asked.

Damian’s expression immediately tightened. For the briefest moment, Clara’s face flashed through his mind, and his fingers tightened around the goblet. The image of her white hair, gentle eyes, and familiar smile surfaced with painful clarity before he forced it away.

"That’s not why we’re here," Damian said, his voice noticeably colder before he raised the goblet and chugged the entire glass of wine in one go.

Lucy watched him carefully before a mischievous giggle escaped her. The question had clearly hit a nerve, and Damian’s reaction had answered more than his words ever could.

"Come on, since you’re not going to make me your concubine, you might as well tell me about your past. I want to know what made you stone hearted." Lucy leaned back against the sofa, watching him with open curiosity.

Damian stared at the empty goblet in his hand for a moment before releasing a tired sigh.

"I might as well get it out." He leaned back into his chair and met Lucy’s eyes while the wine jar once again floated from the table and refilled his cup.

"I fell in love with a woman named Clara, a quiet, shy, and really beautiful girl..." A faint smile appeared on Damian’s face as he remembered her.

Her white hair, pale eyelashes, and unusual eyes had always made her striking to him, but it was her gentle personality that had truly captured his attention.

"You were her first?" Lucy asked, and Damian nodded firmly.

"I was all she knew, and she worked as my paralegal, accompanying me through my cases. Always supportive and always jovial and happy... She was a pure soul." Damian looked down at his wine, his smile lingering as though he could somehow see Clara’s reflection within it.

Lucy studied that expression carefully. For the first time since she had known him, Damian looked less like the terrifying Prince of Lust and more like an ordinary man remembering someone he had genuinely loved.

"If she was so perfect, what happened? And don’t tell me she died. That would be so heartbreaking," Lucy asked.

Damian slowly shook his head. His smile disappeared, and the warmth in his eyes vanished so quickly that Lucy immediately noticed the change. "She found out what I was. She realized I used my powers to do bad things, and she couldn’t stand it."

Lucy’s eyebrows rose. "Wait... Hold on. Bad things like what?"

Damian remained silent for several seconds, apparently deciding how much of the truth to reveal. "The first case we worked on together, I used my power to manipulate a mother into testifying against her son to free a murderer from prison while putting her son in jail for the murderer’s crime."

Lucy covered her lips, genuine shock spreading across her face. She stared at Damian for several seconds before slowly lowering her hand. "You said she’s a pure soul, didn’t you?"

Damian nodded.

Lucy tilted her head slightly. "Then don’t you think it makes sense she left you? I mean, she is a pure soul. She was being true to her character."

Buzz!

For a moment, Damian’s expression twisted with rage. The pressure around him rose sharply, making the room tremble, but the anger slowly faded as he considered her words. He had spent years looking at the situation through his own pain, but Lucy’s words forced him to examine it from Clara’s perspective. Lucy noticed the shift and continued before he could dismiss the thought.

"If she stayed with you, don’t you think that would have made her a hypocrite? I personally think you should have respected her more for sticking to her values."

Damian remained silent, his eyes becoming increasingly reflective. For several seconds, it seemed as though he might actually accept the argument. Then his expression twisted again, and he reached toward his robes and pulled them open slightly, revealing the scar across his chest where his human heart had once been.

"It doesn’t matter because we briefly reunited, and I made her see the evil of the heavens she clung to... Even then, she refused to leave with me during my fight with Wrath. She betrayed me at the moment I needed her the most." Damian’s voice hardened, and his eyes began glowing with a violent purple light.

Lucy, however, did not look convinced. She raised both hands calmly. "Okay... I know this is the part where you probably expect me to side with you, but hear me out first." Damian stared at her for several seconds before reluctantly nodding.

"I’m guessing in your home planet, the Heavens are considered good and the Underworld evil. Correct?" Lucy asked.

Damian nodded.

"So, she dated you for a while only to realize you were a Prince of the Underworld who had used your powers to do evil, correct?"

She waited until Damian gave another reluctant nod before continuing.

"Then you reunited with her and showed her the evil the Heavens were capable of, and in an unexpected dire moment where she needed to make a quick decision, you expected her to run to the darkness which she had seen corrupt you and not the light she had lived in all her life?"

Buzz!

Damian’s face became ugly, and this time he did not nod. Lucy continued anyway, her voice remaining surprisingly calm despite the pressure building around them.

"Let’s be real. She lived all her life believing light was good and darkness was evil, which you reinforced with your actions when she found out the truth about you and her beliefs were reinforced by your actions. Then you exposed to her a flaw in the light she was accustomed to. But did you show her the good in the darkness you wanted her to run to, or did you expect her to be a mindless woman with no morals who would just nod at everything you say?"

Bang!

The goblet in Damian’s hand shattered under the force of his clenched fingers. Wine and fragments of golden metal spilled across his palm, but Damian did not even look down.

His eyes revealed nothing except a murderous gleam as Lucy continued.

"I will take that as a no... You didn’t give her a reasonable alternative and expected she would choose you just because of you. But if she was a mindless person without morals, would she have been the innocent, pure soul you were attracted to?"

"ENOUGH!" Damian roared, and the entire room trembled violently beneath the force of his voice.

He rose from the sofa and turned away, leaving Lucy stunned as he began walking toward the door. His expression had become completely unreadable again, but the tension in his movements made it obvious that her words had struck somewhere deeper than she intended.

"Wait... Where are you going?" Lucy called after him as she stood from the sofa.

Damian reached the door without looking back.

"Don’t worry, woman... I changed my mind about having a taste of you." He opened the door, stepped into the corridor, and slammed it shut behind himself.

Lucy stood there for several seconds, staring at the closed door before slowly falling back onto the sofa. She pressed a hand against her forehead and released a long, tired sigh.

"Men and their egos..." she muttered, staring at the wine still spilled across the table.