Rowan Kai took a step back, admiring his masterpiece with satisfaction. He winked at Vera. “See? Not painful, right? And it looks quite good.”

Vera inhaled deeply, gritting her teeth as she glared at him, her tone tinged with both anger and embarrassment. “Next time, if you dare make a joke at my expense… just try me!”

Rowan burst out laughing, ruffling her hair with a playful yet intimate gesture. “You’re cute, even when you’re mad.”

Vera opened her mouth, ready to retort, but found herself at a loss for words.

“…You know,” she started hesitantly, “you’re actually quite handsome. But I rarely see people with black hair and black eyes.”

“‘The dark night gave me black eyes, but I use them to seek the light,’” Rowan recited with a sly smile.

“Wow, you can say some pretty impressive things sometimes!”

From Rowan’s shoulder, Lilith let out a derisive snort. “Oh, please. I recall someone skulking around the largest nun bathhouse in the Holy City a few years back. So, Rowan, was it the steam where you sought your ‘light’?”

Rowan was unfazed. “That bathhouse is my property! Can’t I inspect my own assets?”

“And the Holy Knights’ grand bathhouse is also yours, but you’ve never visited it since it was built!” Lilith shot back.

Without missing a beat, Rowan grabbed Lilith and flung her into the air. She performed a mid-air spin and promptly landed back on his shoulder, smirking triumphantly.

Vera chuckled awkwardly, attempting to steer the conversation to safer waters. Suddenly, a thought came to her—something she had discussed with Lilith earlier.

“By the way, Mr. Rowan Kai, Lilith mentioned something… She said you seem to have a rather, uh, complicated relationship with the demon lords of the Abyss?”

“There’s nothing complicated about it,” Rowan replied smoothly. “Our partnership is clear and well-defined—strictly transactional.”

Lilith yanked at Rowan’s hair, laughing. “Oh, tell her about your most shameless escapade!”

“Shameless? I’d call it ingenious,” Rowan corrected with mock indignation.

Seeing Vera’s growing curiosity, Rowan sighed.

“Well, it’s not exactly a secret, so I don’t mind telling you,” he began, clearing his throat. “This was back in my second year of study in the Holy City. By then, I had already amassed a considerable number of demon contracts and had plenty of successful dealings with the Abyss.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

But as my soul became a coveted prize, tensions flared between Hell, Purgatory, the Abyss, and other infernal factions. They even clashed violently over it on several occasions.

Being the kind-hearted man I am, I couldn’t bear to see such discord.”

Lilith interjected with a grin, “And thus began what is now known as the Victims’ Summit.”

Ignoring her, Rowan continued, “I summoned the heads of all factions for a meeting, hoping to settle things civilly. That’s when I proposed the Hunting System!”

“What’s that?” Vera asked, startled.

“Simple. Whoever kills me first gets my soul, and their faction wins the prize,” Rowan said casually.

Vera gasped. “Isn’t that incredibly dangerous? You’re putting your life at risk!”

“Of course, there were conditions,” Rowan replied smoothly. “The demon lords couldn’t act directly—they had to send their best champions to hunt me in the human realm.

Demons are naturally weakened in the human world, and each faction could send only one representative. If they failed within three days, they forfeited the round.

Oh, and while the first attempt was free, subsequent tries required payment.”

“That still sounds risky!” Vera protested, her concern evident.

Rowan chuckled, scratching his head. “At the time, I was already quite strong. But constant assassination attempts were a bit of a nuisance.

Coincidentally, the Inquisition kept pestering me back then, and I had a little spat with the Black Robed Archbishop.

So, during a morning assembly, I punched the Archbishop and spent half an hour berating the goddess statue in the Grand Cathedral.

Naturally, I was sentenced to the deepest level of the Black Iron Prison for multiple offenses.”

Vera’s jaw dropped. “Then the demons…?”

“They had no choice but to storm the Black Iron Prison,” Rowan said with a shrug. “Meanwhile, I had the time of my life—eating, sleeping, and tinkering with magical techniques.

The Inquisition, however, was swamped. I heard their demon-hunting record during those two weeks surpassed their achievements from the past decade combined.”

“You helped them so much, and they didn’t even thank you?” Vera asked incredulously.

“Exactly!” Rowan feigned a wounded expression. “Truly heartbreaking…”

“And then what happened?” Vera finally managed to ask.

“Well, the Inquisition couldn’t handle it anymore and came begging me for help,” Rowan said, tracing glowing runes with one hand while stroking his chin with the other.

“The Black Robed Archbishop even promised they’d never bother me again and offered me a host of privileges. Out of pity, I agreed.

Even now, though, I remain on their blacklist.”

“The Inquisition has a blacklist?” Vera asked, astonished.

Lilith snickered. “Yes, but he’s the only one on it. Anything related to him is strictly ignored by the Inquisition.”

Suddenly, it all clicked for Vera. No wonder the Black Knights turned a blind eye to Lilith, a literal demon.

“What about the demons?” Vera ventured.

Lilith quickly jumped in. “They fared even worse. In less than two weeks, the demon lords lost nearly an entire generation of elite warriors.

But since they had already offered exorbitant rewards, the remaining demons were desperate for a chance to rise to the top.

In the end, the demon lords had no choice but to swallow their pride and convene a second Victims’ Summit, hoping to find a solution.”

“And they got duped again, didn’t they?” Vera deadpanned.

Rowan clapped his thigh indignantly. “Duped? I call it leveraging innovative strategies and optimizing resource allocation!

I simply applied internet-age thinking to restructure their operational framework, identifying pain points and addressing them through targeted data-driven solutions.

In doing so, I streamlined their public and private sectors into an integrated, flat matrix system!”

Vera blinked, her face a picture of confusion. “Was that… Abyssal profanity?”