Chapter 163 – I Ca to Redeem Myself [Part 2]
"I’m not good at waiting," Lux said calmly.
She tilted her head. "I noticed."
He stood up slowly. Not pacing. Just enough movent to unnerve sothing holy.
"I didn’t co here because I’m impatient. I ca because I found sothing else."
Celestaria frowned faintly. "Sothing else?"
He nodded once. Walked toward the shelves on the side of the office, but didn’t touch anything.
"Infernal demons are also targeting ."
Celestaria raised a brow. "That’s not news."
"No," he said, turning slightly, voice now low. "They’re targeting because soone from your realm put a bounty on my head."
That made her freeze.
Her wings fluttered once. Lux noticed. She was good at hiding emotion.
But not from him.
"That’s—" she started.
He raised a hand.
"Don’t say it’s absurd."
She didn’t.
Because what he said next wiped the rest of her sentence clean.
"It’s eighty-eight point eight billion Soul Credits."
Silence.
No thunder. No music cue. Just that number sitting in the air like it had weight. Like it could crush kingdoms.
Celestaria blinked once. Slowly. Then sat back straighter in her glowing chair.
"...That’s ridiculous."
Lux smiled bitterly. "I know."
"No one in Heaven or Hell should even be able to authorize a sum like that—"
"They didn’t," he said, cutting her off. "It grew. Started as a quiet bounty. Then soone from Hell added more. They boosted it again six hours ago. Spliced it through soul markets. Used celestial routing to mask the origin chain."
"I didn’t authorize it."
"I never said you did."
She folded her hands. "You tracked it?"
He nodded. "Through Corvus. We traced the initial shard to the Celestial treasury’s back-end mirror. Not the mainfra, but soone with access. A senior-level mover."
Celestaria’s jaw tightened.
"Soone is funding a soul-only bounty on ," Lux said, "and now both sides are sending things that kill first and don’t ask at all."
Her gaze darkened. "That kind of money doesn’t just move. It echoes."
Lux crossed his arms. "That’s why I ca here first."
Celestaria didn’t speak for a mont. She just stared at her glowing screen as if the answers might appear by sheer holy pressure.
"Eighty-eight billion is... a declaration of war," she murmured.
"Exactly."
"It could destabilize balance across three planes. It would bankrupt entire circles. Invite rcenaries from Limbo. Wake up things that shouldn’t know your na."
"Too late for that," Lux said dryly.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Why?"
"You really asking that?"
She sighed. "No. I’m just trying to decide if this is political... or personal."
"Both," Lux said, walking slowly back to the center of the room. "You know... So angel upstairs thinks I’m a threat to balance. So demon below thinks I’m too effective. I turned order into profit and made peace look suspicious."
He paused.
"Also," he added, "there’s probably a list of rival collectors who just want to see if I bleed."
Celestaria’s voice dropped.
"I’m going to find who did this."
"I know."
"Because if you do first—"
Lux tilted his head. "I’ll invoice them."
She let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a laugh. Just a breath. But it broke the tension.
Barely.
"You could’ve gone public with this," she said. "Announced it to the Consortium. Made a scene."
Lux gave her a sideways look. "And miss the chance to let you clean up your own house?"
Celestaria’s mouth twitched. Almost a smirk. Almost.
"I need access," Lux said. "To the bounty log. The financial thread that funded it. I want nas. Not just a faction tag or a cryptic seal. If the Radiant Vow is involved—and let’s be honest, they probably are—I want more than a haloed group na. I want locations. I want routes. I want sothing I can break, buy, or blackmail."
Celestaria’s eyes narrowed. "That’ll take ti."
Lux smiled thinly, the kind of smile that had made accountants cry and archangels double-check their pensions.
"Good thing I’m on vacation."
Her eyes flicked to the therapy voucher still tucked in his robe pocket. "I thought you ca for peace."
"I ca for justice. The coffee was a bonus."
"Still dramatic."
"Still pretty."
Celestaria rolled her eyes. "You need to stop flirting while discussing bounty-level assassination attempts."
Lux shrugged. "Multitasking."
She stood. Her wings stretched slightly behind her, catching golden light like woven scripture. She moved to a side console—a divine one, wired directly into the Celestial information stream. Only twelve beings had access.
She was one of them.
"I’ll pull what I can," she said. "You’ll need to be discreet. If soone up here is trying to unmake you, I doubt they’re low-tier."
Lux nodded. "Just give a door. I’ll open the rest."
She turned slightly, eyes back on him.
"You realize this puts in direct violation of two celestial neutrality clauses."
He t her gaze without blinking. "I realize."
"And if it’s soone in my rank..."
"I’ll kill them," Lux said, voice calm. Absolute. "But not here. Not under your jurisdiction. I know the rules."
She raised a brow, not in shock—but in silent calculation.
He continued, slower now, darker. "I won’t violate the clauses. I won’t stain the agreents. But I will find a loophole. I always do."
Celestaria stared at him.
Not with fear.
With understanding.
And just a trace of sothing else.
Respect.
Then finally—finally—she let out a breath and whispered.
"Bless this ss."
Lux’s grin grew. "That’s what the robe says."
She stared at him for one long second, then...
"Don’t make regret this."
He bowed slightly, all polished elegance and mischief.
"Too late."
She huffed and turned away, her wings folding tighter behind her as she stepped toward the console again. Her fingers danced through hovering glyphs and authorization seals, rerouting access logs with the ease of soone who hadn’t slept through bureaucracy—but had learned to make it bleed.
"I’ll send the data to your inbox," she said, eyes not leaving the interface. "Once I’ve got it pulled and decrypted."
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