Prologue
Looking back, everything began on that day.
The memory of the most beautiful first experience of my life.
“Please don’t come any closer.”
His low voice and rough breathing sounded strained.
“Stop, Eloise. If it’s now… you can still run away.”
With a hand stained black, he pointed toward the door, telling her to open it and escape.
Even in that brief moment, black stains were spreading from beneath his neck as he knelt there, his black hair in disarray.
Something long and sharp, like a demon’s claw, crept toward his overheated eyes as if it would pierce them.
Like a solar eclipse, a dark shadow slowly, little by little, swallowed the golden color of his eyes.
The black, twisted force spreading across his healthy skin was demonic energy.
Eloise squeezed her eyes shut.
It was too painful to watch him suffer.
God had given humans magic so they could overcome trials.
At the same time, fearing they would become arrogant and reckless, God placed a restriction on it: demonic energy addiction.
When demonic energy invades the body, it feels like burning alive. If it continues, the person loses control.
They might crush their own head, or destroy the bodies of those around them.
To prevent such a tragic end, his demonic energy had to be diluted.
“Hot…”
Eloise looked at him after biting her lip in thought.
The demonic energy spread like a web across his handsome face.
As it spread faster, his body grew hotter.
At some point, he had begun unbuttoning his shirt.
But in his dazed state, he couldn’t even move his fingers properly and kept missing the buttons.
“I’ll help you.”
Eloise stepped forward without hesitation.
“With what?”
His eyes trembled. Eloise swallowed.
“With everything. I’ll dilute your demonic energy so it won’t hurt. I’m a healer.”
There was no safe or certain cure for demonic energy addiction.
However, healers could suppress demonic energy.
Healers and mages did this through physical contact.
At the mildest level, it meant holding hands or kissing.
When the addiction was severe, the contact became far more intimate.
Because demonic energy addiction caused extreme pain, mages strongly desired contact with healers.
Studies showed that demonic energy stimulated mages.
It made them crave healers, desire them intensely, and follow their most primal instincts.
Demonic energy brought both pain and desire.
Mages would rush at healers like beasts.
That was why it was rare for someone like this man to endure it, even with a healer right in front of him.
Especially since Eloise was an unofficial S-rank healer.
“Do you not trust that I’m a healer? Then touch me.”
As if greeting a wild beast for the first time, Eloise lowered herself and approached him.
When she knelt down, met his eyes, and reached out her hand, he flinched and turned his head away.
A blue vein throbbed along his strong neck.
The veins at his temples bulged as if they might burst at any moment.
He was using inhuman levels of restraint to avoid reaching for her.
“Take my hand.”
She wished he would just ask for help.
She wished he would desire her openly, like other mages consumed by demonic energy.
Eloise wanted to help him.
Because he had saved her.
On the day something terrifying appeared above her small refuge, Gerard had saved her.
He saved Eloise, and the tiny home she had struggled so hard to build.
An orphan raised in care, the single room she had managed to afford after entering society was everything to her.
If she had lost it, she might never have recovered.
Gerard had saved not only her life, but her entire existence.
That was why she decided to become a civil servant in the Demonic Energy Control Bureau.
And she succeeded.
So she would help him willingly.
Eloise boldly reached out.
The moment her hand touched his body, a bright, glowing energy flowed from her into him.
“Hah—”
Eloise exhaled shakily.
It felt like crossing a forbidden line.
A dizzying mix of taboo pleasure and unfamiliar heat clouded her senses.
At the same time, a strange thrill shot through her body.
Instinctively, he reached out and pulled her toward him.
A thin breath slipped from between Eloise’s lips.
“A-are you okay? Eloise, open your eyes.”
She heard his flustered voice, and warm breath brushed across her face.
Eloise slowly opened her eyes.
Right in front of her were his eyes, shining like the sun.
With just a brief healing, they had already returned to their original color.
Eloise stared at those golden eyes, spellbound.
Just as people said, they burned brightly like the sun itself.
That intense gaze met Eloise’s sea-blue eyes.
Reflected in her blue eyes, his golden gaze looked like a sunset warming a cold sea.
As she relaxed and admired his beauty, his full figure came into view.
Eloise let out a quiet gasp.
Words like “handsome,” “elegant,” and “magnificent” always followed him.
Before meeting him, Eloise had thought people exaggerated.
But it wasn’t exaggeration. It was a lack of words.
A perfect creation shaped with care by God.
And it wasn’t just his face.
Even in wrinkled clothes, his straight frame and powerful build couldn’t be hidden.
People often imagined mages as physically frail, but that had nothing to do with him.
Just the glimpse of chest muscles through his open collar showed how healthy and masculine he was.
Eloise couldn’t look away.
Her gaze traced his straight nose and fell to his lips.
Feeling her stare, he bit the inside of his cheek.
Her eyes lifted.
He clenched his jaw tightly.
Eloise felt genuinely curious.
“Why? Why are you holding back? I’m okay.”
“What if I ruin you?”
Eloise let out a small laugh.
It was light, like a dandelion seed, completely out of place in the tense atmosphere, yet it gently tickled the heart.
Is this man inexperienced?
Eloise was the same.
But she had never heard of anyone being seriously hurt during healing.
She cupped his cheek.
Like a trained beast, he rubbed his face against her palm.
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen. Please let me help you.”
His eyes shook violently.
When the trembling subsided, his gaze grew darker, and the flames within burned even more fiercely.
“I definitely gave you a chance.”
He tilted his head and leaned closer.
At a distance where their lips almost touched, he whispered,
“You were the one who took my hand.”
He suddenly turned his head, brushing her pink hair behind her ear, instead of kissing her.
Then he breathed hot air into her exposed ear.
Eloise moaned softly.
His breath, thick with demonic energy and arousal, stirred her deeply.
He pulled her trembling body tightly against his.
He lifted Eloise effortlessly.
Before she could adjust to the sudden height, her back sank into soft bedding.
“Eloise, to be honest, I’ve been waiting for you. I can’t stop now.”
His shadow covered her body like a curtain.
He grasped her hair and slowly inhaled her scent.
A large hand slid between her tightly closed knees.
When his big, hot, rough hand touched her, her knees slowly parted.
He lifted the corner of his lips in a faint smile.
Yet his face twisted with both anticipation and pain, making Eloise dizzy.
“Tell me if it’s too much.”
He unbuttoned his shirt, one by one.
Eloise watched him breathlessly.
When he threw the shirt aside, his dense chest muscles, sculpted abs, and long navel line were revealed.
Then his fingers hooked into the waistband of his pants.
In one swift motion, he pulled down both pants and underwear.
Something heavy bounced against Eloise’s thigh.
“Ah…”
A soft sound escaped her without her realizing it.
Veins bulged along him, so large and thick it was hard to believe he was human.
When did this happen?
Sensing her confusion, he lifted her chin.
His eyes were filled with raw desire.
“I’ll go slowly, Eloise.”
If I can endure it, that is.
“And if I treat you too roughly…”
He brought his neck close to her mouth.
“Bite me.”
Eloise swallowed hard.
Seeing his skin darkened by demonic energy, she didn’t want to bite him.
She wanted to lick him.
“Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
“I’ll make it not hurt.”
Eloise wrapped her arms around his neck.
With a groan, he held her tightly.
A burning night began.
At times, he drove her like a beast.
At other times, he held her with tender care.
Sometimes he looked blissful, sometimes sorrowful.
She couldn’t keep up with the many emotions he showed.
Lost in pleasure, Eloise drifted in and out of consciousness, until she finally fell into a deep sleep.
