The Incubus System Chapter 1488. Two Sides of Him III

The Incubus System Chapter 1488. Two Sides of Him III

Astra’s PoV

Astra knew that. Somewhere in the cold, reasonable part of her mind, she knew dragging someone into the street without direction was not exactly strategic behavior.

But she was new to this realm.

She did not know where to go.

She did not know the proper route for ‘escaping embarrassment after accidentally witnessing a nephilim prince and two demon queens in an intimate warded room’.

The Light Dimension had no protocol for this.

A serious institutional flaw.

So Astra dragged Puriel past the side of the house. She only stopped when they were several steps away from Ethan’s window and the evening air felt less like it was conspiring against her.

Puriel pulled her wrist free gently. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing.”

Puriel stared at her.

Astra stared back.

Puriel’s gaze lowered to Astra’s flushed face.

Then toward Ethan’s house.

Then back to Astra.

Understanding dawned.

Slowly.

Horribly.

“Astra… Did you eavesdrop on Ethan and the queens?”

Astra’s hand flew up. “Stt…!”

Puriel blinked.

Astra leaned closer, eyes wide with panic. “You don’t need to say it out loud, you know!”

Puriel’s eyes widened too. “Oh.”

“It is embarrassing.”

“So you did eavesdrop?”

“Puriel.”

“I thought that room had a soundproof ward and privacy barrier.”

“Stt!”

Puriel pressed her lips together, clearly trying not to smile.

That made it worse.

Much worse.

She knew Astra lowered the wards to peek on them.

Astra pointed at her with the severity of a commander on a battlefield. “Please do not say it out loud.”

Puriel nodded, but her eyes were sparkling.

Traitor.

Sweet traitor.

“And yes,” Astra admitted through gritted teeth. “I saw it.”

Puriel’s brows lifted.

“You saw—”

“Him. And… them.”

The image flashed in Astra’s mind again.

Ethan’s face no longer soft.

His posture changed.

His voice low.

The way the demon queens, those dangerous, shameless, impossible creatures, had responded to him with such willing heat and trust. The way Ethan’s gentleness and dominance existed in the same breath.

Astra’s mind short-circuited.

Her face burned all over again.

She turned sharply away from Puriel and looked toward a very innocent streetlamp as if it had suddenly become her highest moral priority.

Puriel’s voice softened, amusement still there but gentler now. “Oh, Astra.”

“Do not ‘oh, Astra’ me.”

“I am not judging you.”

“You are smiling.”

“I am trying not to.”

“That is worse.”

Puriel finally did laugh.

Softly.

Not cruel.

But Astra still wished to disappear into a holy portal and file a formal complaint against herself. “I did not intend to spy,” Astra said stiffly. “It was an accident.”

“That is the lamest excuse I ever heard.”

Astra froze.

Too late.

Puriel’s lips curved faintly.

Astra turned red again.

The human street was quiet around them. Houses lined both sides, small and ordinary compared to anything in the Light Dimension. The air smelled faintly of cooking oil, rain-damp pavement, and flowering plants from someone’s front yard. A motorcycle passed slowly at the far end, its engine humming before disappearing around the corner.

Human realm.

So fragile.

And somehow, Astra found herself exposed here in ways she never had been beneath Heaven’s perfect light.

Puriel stepped closer. “Astra.”

“What?”

“You are not corrupted because you saw something intimate.”

Astra’s eyes snapped to her. “I did not think I was corrupted.”

Puriel tilted her head.

Astra looked away. “…Not seriously.”

Puriel’s expression softened. “Desire is not evil.”

“That is a very fallen angel thing to say.”

“Yes,” Puriel said calmly. “And I am still right.”

Astra pressed her lips together.

Annoying.

Puriel was becoming very good at being gently impossible.

“It was not only desire,” Astra said after a long pause.

Puriel waited.

Astra’s gaze drifted back toward Ethan’s house. “I saw another side of him.”

Puriel’s smile changed.

Less teasing now.

More understanding.

Astra continued slowly, choosing her words with care. “He looks… harmless sometimes.”

Puriel nodded. “In his human form.”

“Yes. His face lacks the usual aggression of demonic males. It lacks the heroic sharpness humans seem to admire. He looks ordinary. Gentle. Weak, perhaps, to those who cannot sense power.”

Astra’s fingers curled slightly. “But inside that room, he was not weak.”

Puriel said nothing.

“He was commanding,” Astra said. “Confident. Dangerous. Yet not cruel.”

The last part came out quieter than expected.

Puriel’s eyes softened further. “That is Ethan.”

Astra looked at her.

“He is always both.”

Both.

Yes.

That was the word.

Human and demon.

Angel and monster.

Student and prince.

Gentle and predatory.

A contradiction that did not collapse.

Astra inhaled slowly. “If he had been born in the Light Dimension…”

She stopped.

Puriel’s gaze sharpened slightly.

Astra regretted speaking immediately.

But the thought had already escaped.

Puriel’s voice was gentle. “What?”

Astra looked down.

“If he had been born there, if he had been guided properly…”

Her throat tightened for reasons she did not want to examine.

“Perhaps he would not have become something The Light feared.”

Puriel was silent for a long moment.

Then she said, “Perhaps The Light would have tried to make him less than he is.”

Astra looked at her sharply.

Puriel did not flinch.

“The Light loves purity,” Puriel said softly. “Ethan is not pure. That is why he can love things The light Dimension would discard.”

Astra had no answer.

Because the words hurt.

Because they sounded too true.

Before Astra could respond, another voice interrupted them.

“Excuse me?”

Both angels turned.

A woman stood near the gate of the neighboring house.

Human.

Her hair was tied back, her eyes sharp but not unkind. She looked from Astra to Puriel with the expression of someone who had just discovered two unbelievably beautiful women standing suspiciously outside her neighbor’s house.

Astra immediately straightened.

Puriel smiled politely. “Good evening, Mrs. Clea.”

Astra immediately straightened beside her, trying very hard to look like someone who had not been dragged into a street-side crisis involving demonic queens and her own malfunctioning dignity.

Mrs. Clea’s gaze moved between them.

Then toward Ethan’s house.

Then back again.

Her expression softened, but her eyes stayed sharp.

“Good evening,” she said. “I don’t think this is the perfect place to chat.”

Astra’s lips parted, but no proper excuse came out.

Mrs. Clea opened her gate wider.

“Wanna come to my house?”

Puriel glanced at Astra.

Astra nodded stiffly.

Tea suddenly sounded like salvation.