“Lingering love and romance, buried deep at the bottom of the river of time.”
Before even opening his eyes, Huey heard an ethereal voice echoing in his ears. According to his older sisters’ explanations, this sentence served as the riddle clue pointing toward the location of the treasure.
“The river of time…”
The rest of his thoughts were choked back, abruptly halted mid-sentence.
Help! Opening his eyes to a point-blank visual bombardment was this method of waking up a bit too much for a succubus to handle?
The two demons were lying face-to-face on the bed. The moment Huey blinked open his eyes, he was met directly with Xavier’s handsome face inches from his own. With the man’s eyes closed tight, a stray lock of hair had playfully slipped out from behind his ear to brush across the bridge of his high nose, resting delicately against his pale lips.
Huey… was itching to make a move!
His rebellious left hand was restrained and pinned down by his right hand with desperate force. However, while he could control his hands, he couldn’t control his tail; the platinum-gold little heart-shaped tip sprang forward with blazing radiance straight toward Xavier’s face.
At the exact moment before impact, Xavier snapped his eyes open, and the tail froze rigid in mid-air.
A flicker of mysterious dark light swept across those dark-golden pupils. Xavier first cast a puzzled glance at the tail hovering right in front of him, then shifted his gaze slowly up to Huey.
His pupils dilated fractionally as his gaze darkened in an instant, resembling a bottomless vortex that left Huey’s scalp tingling and sapped every ounce of strength from his limbs.
“S—I’m sorry!” Seized by a mix of grievance and panic, Huey yanked his tail back. Apologizing eight hundred times a day like this how on earth are we ever supposed to grow closer?!
Withdrawing his gaze, Xavier pushed himself up into a sitting position and chuckled softly, extending a hand toward Huey. “It’s quite alright. Come up.”
He’s taking the initiative to pull me up! Seizing the opportunity without a moment’s hesitation, Huey placed his own soft, delicate hand into Xavier’s palm, leveraging the man’s strength to pull himself up into a sitting posture.
“You…” Pausing briefly, Xavier offered a gentle reminder: “In my presence, you needn’t feel so restricted. You don’t have to apologize to me over every little thing.”
What a gentle, wonderful lord! Huey nodded silently to himself, feeling his heart flutter even faster.
Only then did Huey finally have the opportunity to properly examine Xavier.
The black robe the man had previously worn was completely gone, replaced entirely by human-style attire. A white silk shirt offered a subtle glimpse of smooth, well-defined muscular contours beneath the fabric, while an elaborate red cravat was secured with a massive yellow gemstone. As the man’s Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow, the gemstone shifted and sparkled in tandem. Below that, high-waisted trousers accentuated the clean lines of his long legs, and a pair of polished riding boots completed the ensemble. Even before standing, Huey could already tell how devastatingly mesmerizing those long legs were.
“This outfit looks incredible on you!” Huey beamed, his eyes curving into crescents as he offered a warm, enthusiastic compliment.
Though their time together hadn’t been long, Xavier had already grown accustomed to the little succubus’s boundless enthusiasm and had learned to calmly return the compliments. “Thank you. This dress suits you beautifully as well.”
For a succubus, nothing brought greater joy than receiving praise regarding their beauty from the object of their affection. Consequently, Huey’s tail wagged with renewed vigor, radiating an even sweeter, more intoxicating honeyed aura from his entire being.
Xavier’s gaze was inevitably drawn toward that hyperactive platinum-gold heart-shaped tail before dropping back down to the little succubus himself.
The young succubus was clad in an elaborate, pale-pink court dress whose voluminous skirt made his frame appear even more petite and slender. Pink was notoriously difficult to pull off without washing out one’s skin tone, yet draped over the little succubus, it instead rendered his complexion as fair and luminous as drifting clouds in heaven.
And the texture, Xavier’s thoughts drifted abstractly as he recalled, is every bit as soft as a cloud.
Indeed, what Huey was wearing was a human female court gown, heavily embellished with cascading rows of gems and pearls. Once donned, Huey practically monopolized a massive portion of the three-meter-wide bed all by himself though fortunately, a small opening seemed to have been thoughtfully tailored into the back of the skirt to allow his restless tail to poke out freely without feeling restricted.
Huey accepted his female attire with remarkable grace; after all, nearly every male succubus had plenty of experience wearing women’s clothing. With male succubi making up a tiny minority, newly released apparel frequently lacked male variants, leaving them with no alternative but to slip into women’s wear whenever they wanted something fresh to put on.
“The clue for this event is ‘Lingering love and romance, buried deep at the bottom of the river of time.’ My lord, do you have any thoughts on what that could mean?”
As he spoke, Huey looked around the room. The chamber was expansive and luxuriously appointed, resembling the quarters of a high-ranking human noble. Hanging on the wall directly across from the bed was a massive portrait depicting two figures one seated, one standing who bore an uncanny, identical resemblance to Huey and Xavier’s current appearance.
Xavier had indeed heard the ethereal voice as well, but he hadn’t given it much thought. His focus remained heavily anchored on tracking the evil spirits; yet strangely, the moment they crossed the castle threshold, the aura of the evil spirits vanished entirely, leaving behind zero trace for him to perceive.
“Perhaps we should step outside and take a look around to see if we can find any alternative clues.” Lowering his gaze, Xavier noted that with their magic temporarily sealed and his divine sense currently restricted from projecting outward, he had to rely entirely on his physical vision to hunt down the evil spirits meaning they would simply have to wander through this bizarre castle to investigate.
Stepping out of the room revealed a long, dimly lit corridor. The flickering candlelight cast sparse, gloomy shadows across the walls, while the blood-red carpeting beneath their feet felt worn and aged, creating a surreal contrast against the brand-new, luxurious bedchamber they had just left.
Almost simultaneously, the adjoining door clicked open, and a female succubus with sweet, delicate features poked her head out, instantly spotting Huey standing in the hallway.
“Oh! Are you little Huey cutie from the Christie family?”
Gathering up her skirts, the female succubus bounced excitedly over to Huey. “I’m Helen! You look absolutely adorable in that dress.”
Even if individual succubi had never crossed paths with Huey personally, the moment they spotted his distinctive tail, his identity was instantly given away.
Huey flashed her a sweet, sunny smile in return. “Thank you.”
Noticing Xavier standing quietly behind Huey, Helen shot the younger succubus an ambiguous wink. “It looks like you’ve managed to snag yourself a remarkably charming arch-demon.”
Just as expected everyone assumes Xavier is my companion! Stealing a shy glance at Xavier to ensure he hadn’t noticed the succubus chatter, Huey offered a cautious nod and confirmed softly, “That’s right. And he’s a very gentle demon, too.”
After exchanging whatever meager intel they had managed to gather, Huey and Helen quickly realized neither of them had uncovered anything groundbreaking.
“Alright then, we’re heading upstairs to take a look around. See you later, Huey!” Linking arms with her companion, Helen gestured toward the staircase at the far end of the corridor.
watching them depart, Huey turned to Xavier and asked, “My lord, where should we go?”
“Just call me Xavier.” Realizing that the little succubus needed his own social space, Xavier had maintained a considerate silence off to the side during their exchange, stepping back to Huey’s side only after Helen had walked away. “Since they’ve gone upstairs, let’s head down to check the lower levels.”
Xavier hadn’t sensed any evil spirit signatures on this floor; conversely, a number of unfamiliar auras seemed clustered downstairs.
This castle was far from safe.
So naturally, Xavier reached out to take Huey’s hand. With their magic temporarily suppressed, even someone as formidable as Xavier couldn’t guarantee he could shield Huey from a sudden ambush by the evil spirits without keeping the young succubus tethered close to his side.
The sudden, unexpected hand-holding sent a flurry of excited little heartbeats racing through Huey’s chest. He reflexively tightened his grip, pressing his entire body closer to the man’s side while his tail instinctively coiled itself around the other’s waist once more.
Glancing down, Xavier paused for a fraction of a second, temporarily at a loss for words. As if sensing his gaze, the little heart-shaped tip perked up enthusiastically and gave him a cheerful wiggle, glowing with a soft, milky-white luminescence that was disarmingly adorable.
Oh well, Xavier thought, lifting his head and striding forward without breaking stride while keeping his hand firmly linked with the young succubus.
With the castle behaving this abnormally, having that tail wrapped securely around his waist might actually offer an extra layer of reassurance.
Completely oblivious to the fact that his tail was once again “taking liberties” with the man, Huey remained lost in the bliss of holding hands, entirely unaware of when they had descended all the way to the castle’s ground floor.
The spacious main lobby was already dotted with several groups of demons. Counting Helen’s group upstairs, virtually all the remaining participants were gathered right here.
Lacking their magic, everyone was reduced to turning the room upside down, rummaging through every nook and cranny in a desperate bid to unearth the hidden treasure.
Bong
A grand clock tolled, striking twelve heavy chimes in succession.
“It feels like there are clocks everywhere in this castle.”
One could practically say there was a different style of clock every two steps they took; even someone as easily distracted as Huey couldn’t help but notice the mounting oddity.
“The river of time,” Xavier repeated thoughtfully. “Clocks represent time.”
True to that reasoning, several competing groups had already resorted to dismantling the grandfather clocks scattered about. However, the sheer volume of timepieces scattered throughout the castle was staggering even with five groups tearing them apart simultaneously, there was no way they could finish before the time limit expired.
“The bottom of the river of time… does that mean right underneath the grandfather clocks?” Huey muttered aloud. Strolling up to an intricately crafted grandfather clock that had just chimed beside them, he decided to crouch down for a closer inspection.
As a result…
Because his crinoline skirt was far too massive and threw off his balance, Huey tumbled straight onto the floor with a comical look of blank astonishment, raising his linked hand with Xavier in utter bewilderment. Meanwhile, his tail hampered by its limited length failed to complete its loop around the man’s waist, and instead clung on for dear life with pitiful stubbornness, refusing to fall away.
“Hah.” Xavier couldn’t help it, a low chuckle escaping his lips.
Spread out across the floor like a blooming pink rose, the little succubus looked impossibly small sitting right in the middle, delicate and dainty as a flower stamen. Still blinking in dazed confusion, his expression was overwhelmingly adorable.
“This dress is just too big,” Huey grumbled in mild distress. “I’ve never worn anything with a skirt this huge before do human girls really not trip over themselves walking in these?”
Just as Huey prepared to leverage some leverage to push himself back up, a pair of strong arms slid beneath his armpits, scooping him up effortlessly like a child, before settling the young succubus securely atop a sturdy, muscular forearm.
Not this posture again!
Perched upon Xavier’s forearm, Huey instinctively wrapped his arms around the man’s neck; the voluminous skirt occupied so much space that he genuinely feared he might slide right off.
“Perhaps we should find a place to swap this outfit for something else first,” the little succubus blinked up at the man, his delicate facial features shining far more radiantly than any pink gown ever could.
“Before we go hunting for a wardrobe change, I think we’ve already found the treasure,” Xavier raised a brow, gesturing toward the patch of floor Huey had just tumbled across.
Following his gaze, Huey turned his head. Because of his awkward spill, the long-pile rug covering the floor had been shoved aside and bunched up into a fold, revealing a patch of dark wooden floorboards underneath.
And to top it all off, exposed right alongside the wood was a gleaming silver ring-handle the telltale pull for a hidden basement cellar door.
“What a truly lucky little succubus,” Xavier murmured, reaching out to gently tousle Huey’s raven-black hair with a soft, affectionate note of praise.