CHAPTER 440: I’M A WALK-IN

Chapter 440 – I’m a Walk-in

The air in the elevator shaft was cool and sterile, glowing faintly with filtered light.

The sound of gears turning wasn’t mechanical—more like reality itself adjusting, humming, recalibrating his presence across the planes.

Lux reached into his dimensional space and pulled out a folded robe—smooth, silky, lined with celestial runes. The moment he slipped it over his shoulders, the transformation began.

The black suit shifted in shimmer-light.

Fabric changed. Stitching glowed. The gold of his Greed-born power dulled to elegant silver-white. His tie morphed into a silk ribbon. His sharp-edged shoes dulled to polished soft soles. Even his hair seemed—less devil, more diplomat.

The robe adjusted the rest.

[Hell Signature Suppressed. Angelic Filter Active]

[Alignment Spoof: 52% Neutral Good. 48% Chaotic Contractual]

The mirror in the side of the elevator shimmered just long enough for Lux to see his reflection.

And yeah.

He didn’t look like a demon anymore.

He looked like a very tired, very beautiful, completely done celestial negotiator who charged by the hour and billed by the trauma.

He adjusted the collar.

Exhaled.

Smirked at himself.

"Time to play nice."

The elevator dinged softly as it reached the top.

As the doors opened, a wave of floral incense swept in—light, overwhelming, angel-coded.

And somewhere past those overly polite arches, Celestaria waited with a clipboard, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, and probably a questionnaire about his emotional vulnerability.

Lux stepped forward, his pace steady.

Behind him, the scent of Sira still clung to his skin—barely hidden under celestial robe fabric.

He smiled.

Not the fake smile he usually wore for court meetings or when he was about to bankrupt someone with a contract clause. Not the seductive one, either—the one Sira always called his "CFO doing foreplay" face.

This one was quieter.

Softer.

Real.

He adjusted his white robe, stepped through the polished arches of the upper reception hall, and approached the front desk where an angelic staff member was very pointedly pretending not to look at him.

She was stunning, in that classic Upper Realm way. Blonde braid. Crisp robes. Pale gold badge pinned to her chest. Wings tucked back perfectly like they’d been ironed this morning.

But the moment she noticed him?

She huffed.

Lux raised a brow.

"Evening," he said casually, holding up a sleek silver voucher. "I need to meet with Celestaria. I brought my little therapy coupon."

The angel didn’t even blink. She looked him up and down like he’d just tracked infernal mud across heaven’s silk carpet. But the blush blooming on her cheeks gave her away. Just a little.

"Let me guess," she said flatly, voice sharp as a polished blade. "You don’t have an appointment."

"Nope," Lux said with zero shame. "I’m a walk-in. Emotional emergency. Lots of trauma. Very urgent."

She exhaled like she’d been personally victimized.

"Dear goddess..."

She muttered it under her breath, but Lux heard every syllable.

Then she flicked a few glowing runes on her interface crystal and sighed again.

"Fine. Wait here," she grumbled. "I’ll report it to Lady Celestaria."

"Thanks, sunshine."

She vanished in a blink of light, wings flaring once before folding into her teleport rune.

Lux stood in the silence that followed, rolling his neck and stretching like a cat in a glass house.

The place was too clean. Too bright. Too symmetrical. The marble didn’t creak. The light didn’t shift. Even the air smelled like virtue and lavender. He hated how it made his skin itch.

So he whistled.

Loud. Off-key. A little bit rude.

And yeah, some nearby angels flinched.

He grinned wider.

But then—he noticed it.

Not far from the hall’s central pillar, there was a long, quiet queue. One he hadn’t bothered to look at before.

It was the heaven processing line.

Where newly passed mortal souls were greeted and guided to whatever afterlife destination they qualified for—usually the upper rings. The good ones. The pure.

Nothing unusual.

But this time?

It was the kids.

More than a dozen of them.

Lined up quietly. Holding hands. Dressed in soft, illusion-light clothing provided by the realm itself. No wounds. No blood. No trauma shown on their faces. The Upper Realm sanitized everything. Even death.

Lux’s smile faded.

He tilted his head.

No.

No way.

He stepped closer without thinking—teleporting a few feet at a time until he was on the far edge of the queue, cloaked just enough not to spook anyone. His white robe made him look like one of the higher-ranked envoys, anyway.

And that’s when he saw her.

And him.

And the rest.

Lux’s chest tightened.

[System Notice: Emotional Spike Detected. Heart Rate Elevated.]

[Breath Pattern: Disrupted]

He knew those faces.

They were from the orphanage.

A month ago, maybe a little more, he’d spotted their fundraiser in the mortal network. The building they lived in was being threatened—some rich shark wanted to flip it into a parking lot. The landlord gave them seven days to move out. They had nowhere to go. They were begging for donations online. Most ignored it.

But Lux saw it.

From his infernal office.

Between meetings.

He tapped his pen twice, opened the link, skimmed the desperate captions, and made a decision in sixty seconds.

He bought the damn building.

Dropped enough credits into their account to fund them for a full year. No name attached. No contract.

Just a ten-minute break during a soul merger negotiation where he took a call in his human disguise and talked a bit.

He didn’t think about it after that.

He’d done it, moved on.

Because that was his rule.

Do good, then forget it.

So why the hell were these kids here?

Lux stepped forward, pulse hammering.

One of the boys—the one who’d talked the most on the call—stood near the middle of the line, holding a smaller girl’s hand.

Lux crouched, slowly, one knee touching the cold marble floor.

The white robe settled around him like angelic silk.

"Hey," he said softly. "Do you remember me?"

The boy blinked up at him. Eyes wide. A little confused.

Then they lit up.

"I do!" the boy beamed. "I know you!"