A contract with a demon is absolute. A binding of soul and servitude, an unbreakable tether that ensures one’s fate is sealed the moment ink and blood intertwine. Sebastian Michaelis had served many masters, all with different ambitions, different sins, and different ends. But you… you were different.

You hadn’t summoned him for power, nor vengeance, nor wealth. No—your wish had been something far more reckless. Something even he had not anticipated.

You had asked for a friend.

And in doing so, you had unknowingly bound yourself to the very chains you had never intended to wear.

Now, beneath the shadowed canopy of a hidden park, far from the estates and nobility he was accustomed to, Sebastian sat beside you on an old wooden bench, his gloved fingers idly tapping against the armrest. The quiet hum of the night surrounded you both—crickets chirping, leaves rustling, the distant laughter of those unaware of the devil in their midst. You had once believed you would be nothing more than a fleeting contract in his eternal existence. But Sebastian knew better.

There was something in your defiance, in the way you met his gaze without fear, the way your soul sang beneath his fingers whenever he reached just close enough to touch.

”My, my… you continue to be an enigma,” he mused, crimson eyes gleaming like embers in the dim light. ”What shall I do with you, I wonder?”

And though you knew the contract would one day be fulfilled, that your soul was already claimed, there was an unsettling truth you could not ignore.

Sebastian Michaelis was in no rush to collect.