Seven Sins System Chapter 657. I’m More Than a Monster

Seven Sins System Chapter 657. I’m More Than a Monster

She met my gaze again. “Don’t blame yourself for loving someone who tames the monster.”

I stared at her. “I’m more than a monster. I’m a devil.”

Julia didn’t flinch. Didn’t soften, either. She just nodded once like she already knew. Like it wasn’t news.

And maybe it wasn’t.

I looked down.

Part of me wanted to lean into her. Into warmth. Into comfort. Into someone who wouldn’t ask for tears.

But another part?

Another part was already waiting.

Waiting to see if she—

Puriel—

Would still come.

And what she’d say when she did.

If she said anything at all.

“I mean it,” Julia said quietly. “You’ve changed.”

I tilted my head, not sure if I liked where that was going. “Changed how?”

“You feel more… human,” she said, watching my reaction closely. “More humane, I guess. Than the first time you came to this academy.”

That one hit.

Right in the ribcage.

Not a jab. Not a slap. Just a quiet truth that pierced deeper than it had any right to.

“I can’t argue with that,” I murmured. “Like it or not, this realm’s changed me.”

I looked around the infirmary. The books. The sandwich I didn’t finish. The clean white coat on my shoulders.

Yeah.

Mortals had rubbed off on me.

I used to laugh at them. Used to think they were fragile things barely worth noticing. But now?

Now I understood why they fought so hard.

Why they loved so stupidly.

Why they tried, even when everything was stacked against them.

Maybe I’d caught a little of that.

Or maybe I’d always had it buried under centuries of blood and responsibility.

I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I felt tired.

And not from the killing.

From caring.

I reached out and pulled Julia closer.

Held her.

Not like a king staking his claim.

Not like a devil taking what was his.

But like a man trying not to sink.

She let me.

Didn’t say anything when I tucked my face into the side of her neck.

“You know…” I murmured, voice low. “Once… I had a succubus.”

Her arms wrapped around me tighter. “Yeah?”

“My first contract. My first… choice.”

“What happened to her?” she asked, already sounding like she knew the answer.

“She died,” I said. “In the calamity. Same time as my mother.”

Julia didn’t ask for details.

She just slid her fingers into my hair, slow and soothing, and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

I closed my eyes.

“She looked like you,” I said quietly.

That made her go still.

“…Is that why you brought me into your harem?” she asked after a beat. “Why you turned me into a succubus? To save me?”

I chuckled.

Low and dry.

“No. I know you’re you.”

Her breath loosened again.

“Besides,” I added, “I had amnesia. Back then.”

“From the shock?”

“No. My dad wiped it.”

Julia pulled back just enough to look at me properly. Her brow furrowed. “He what?”

“He wiped it. My memories. After the calamity. Said he would’ve lost me otherwise. To insanity.”

I didn’t need to describe what I’d been like after it happened. What I’d done. What I almost became.

The madness wasn’t a myth. It was a sea, and I’d stood in the middle of it, screaming with no voice. Eating a god-core. Wearing grief like skin.

So yeah. Maybe the memory wipe had saved me.

Or maybe it just paused the fall.

“Anyway,” I said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “What I’m trying to say is… thank you.”

Julia blinked. “For?”

“For staying,” I said. “For being here. For making me feel… a little less like the world’s closing in.”

Her lips twitched. “A devil saying thank you? I should record this.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “Don’t. I don’t want to be a meme in my own realm.”

“Too late,” she grinned. “You’re already meme material.”

I gave her a mock glare, then leaned back slightly. “I have one more request.”

Her brows lifted. “Yeah?”

I exhaled through my nose. “Pamper me.”

That made her blink.

“Pamper you?” she echoed, blinking again like the concept didn’t compute. “I mean, I can… but I never thought you’d say that. You?”

I shrugged, trying not to smile. “Let’s say my brain got… error-coded. Needs soft reset.”

Julia stared at me for a moment.

Then laughed.

It wasn’t mocking. It wasn’t flirtatious.

It was soft. Warm.

Real.

“I should’ve brought my scented candles,” she said. “Do you want a face mask too? Maybe a bubble bath?”

“You joke, but that’s actually starting to sound good,” I mumbled into her shoulder.

“You’ve really gone full mortal.”

“Shut up and start pampering.”

“Yes, yes, my broody king,” she said, rising from my lap like a queen of luxury services. “But first… do I get to choose the lotion scent?” she joked.

“As long as it’s not cucumber melon,” I added.

“…Lavender and blood?”

“Now that’s a vibe.”

We both laughed that time. For real.

The kind of laugh that didn’t feel forced or stolen. The kind that didn’t erase pain—but helped soften its edges.

But she knew.

I hadn’t really asked for a massage or pampering or candles or any of that fluff. I asked her to touch me.

To seduce me, honestly.

To take the heaviness pressing on my ribs and twist it into something else. Something primal. Something mine.

And maybe—maybe—it was escapism.

Maybe it was a kind of retreat, somewhere safe I could pretend that things were still simple. Where if I wanted a woman, I could just take her. No politics. No threads of fate. No angelic mothers with blood on their hands. No divine trauma.

Just lust.

Just hunger.

Just control—except, I didn’t want to use it.

I wanted to lose it.

Just for a moment.

And she saw that.

Didn’t speak. Didn’t tease.

Julia just walked back to me, her hips slow and heavy with intention, her eyes half-lidded with something deeper than heat. Her coat had slipped off somewhere between the door and here, and her blouse clung to her. Her chest moved with each breath, those curves I’d teased her about a dozen times suddenly feeling like gravity itself.