Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation-Chapter 627: You May Now Go Back to Panicking About Inflation

Chapter 627: You May Now Go Back to Panicking About Inflation

Chapter 627 – You May Now Go Back to Panicking About Inflation

Lux blinked.

He didn’t know if it was the exhaustion in Zavros’ voice or the faint warmth behind the words, but it almost sounded... sincere.

Genuine.

That was new.

And weird.

And a little bit terrifying.

Lux squinted, lips twitching. "You went on honeymoon with Mom for too long. That’s your fault."

Zavros gave a hoarse chuckle, shaking his head. "Yeah. I know. I won’t blame you."

"You better not," Lux muttered, adjusting his open shirt casually, revealing even more proof of his ’honeymoon’.

Zavros looked. Raised a brow. Didn’t comment.

So Lux did.

"I’m holding a press conference after this."

Zavros hummed like he already expected it.

"To announce I’m fine," Lux added. "And that the reason I disappeared was..."

He gestured vaguely down his own body.

"Sex vacation."

Zavros actually froze.

Lux gave him a smug look. "I mean. I do have solid proof." He flicked a finger toward a very visible suck mark near his collarbone. Mira’s work, probably. Or maybe Naomi. Hard to tell. They were competitive lately.

Zavros pinched the bridge of his nose. "You’re going to tell the entire Infernal Market that you vanished because you were getting laid?"

Lux shrugged. "Better than letting them assume I was dead."

Zavros cringed.

Lux leaned his weight on one leg, that lazy predator stance returning. "You of all people should understand. Use what you have. Leverage what you can."

Zavros exhaled slowly. "You surely know how to use everything. Even the sex marks from your girls."

"Thanks," Lux said dryly. "I learned it from experience."

Then he sobered slightly. Eyes narrowing just a fraction.

"But the real problem isn’t the scandal," he said. "It’s the power signature."

Zavros straightened. The shift in his aura was subtle. Focused. Sharpened.

Lux tilted his head. "One of the royal Greed signatures vanished. Publicly. Big enough for the Vault System to log it. Everyone saw the spike, then the drop. If we don’t address it, someone will."

"You want to tell them the truth?" Zavros asked.

Lux snorted. "Oh, sure. I’ll just say, ’Oh, no worries. That was my dad’s mysterious twin brother we never told anyone about. I killed him. Totally handled. You may now go back to panicking about inflation.’"

Zavros looked like he was in actual physical pain. "Don’t say it like that."

"I’m not saying it like that. That’s the point."

Zavros waved his hand. "Just tell them it was a false alarm. An artifact misfire. Maybe something from the Old Vaults. You know the usual excuses."

Lux chewed his inner cheek. "Yeah... fine. We’ll go with that. Keep it vague. No one wants to admit the Vault sensors are fallible, anyway. That’ll hold them off for now."

Zavros nodded.

But Lux was still thinking. Still calculating.

Because it wasn’t just the external pressure that worried him.

It was the hole.

The absence.

Like a missing star in the infernal constellation of Greed’s legacy.

He sighed. "Now... about the old tower."

Zavros glanced at him. "What about it?"

"We need to check it. Confirm everything. Zoltarin’s body. The bindings. Whether his soul is gone or just displaced. If he faked his death, we need to know before he rebounds and tries something stupid. Like maybe reborn."

Zavros shook his head slowly.

"I already checked," he said.

Lux narrowed his eyes. "When?"

"Right after the pulse dropped. When I felt one Greed royal signature dim, I teleported straight there. I needed to make sure the one who wasn’t dead... was you."

Lux looked away.

He didn’t say anything.

Didn’t like the thought that Zavros had rushed to confirm he was the one still alive.

It made something warm and uncomfortable bloom in his chest.

"And?" Lux asked.

Zavros’s voice dropped lower. Quieter. Like it still didn’t sit right with him.

"Zoltarin is dead," he said. "Really dead."

Lux stilled.

Zavros continued. "His corpse is still there. I saw it. Touched it. Checked every sigil. Every inch. It’s... empty. Like a shell. No mana. No rebound signature. No latent consciousness. Just a body. Cold and unbound."

Lux exhaled.

His throat tightened.

"...He’s really dead?"

Zavros nodded. "He’s gone."

The air thickened between them. Not with tension. Not entirely.

More like...

Relief.

And beneath it all, a thread of finality that neither of them quite knew how to handle.

Lux leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, staring at the corner of the desk.

"I thought I’d feel better," he muttered. "Killing him. Winning. Surviving." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"You don’t?"

"I do," Lux said. "I just also feel like I aged twenty years in two weeks. And got fucked by half my girls in the process."

Zavros smirked faintly. "Well. Technically, that’s a success."

Lux gave a dry laugh. "Technically."

He stayed like that a second longer. Then straightened, smoothing his shirt down.

"I’m heading down to the press room," he said. "Time to put this all to bed. Publicly."

Zavros didn’t stop him.

Didn’t try to follow.

But just before Lux reached the door, Zavros said quietly, "Lux."

He paused. Half-turned.

"I’m proud of you," Zavros said.

Lux didn’t answer.

Didn’t nod. Didn’t smile.

But his eyes softened just enough.

And that was enough.

He stepped out.

The door closed behind him.

Lux didn’t stop. Not even for a second. The corridor leading to Conference Room A was bathed in golden infernal light, the kind that pulsed faintly with ambient greed-coded mana, glittering in rhythmic waves across the obsidian floor tiles. Every surface was gleaming, polished, prepared.

So were the people.

The staff outside the room froze when they saw him coming.

A few lowered their eyes out of habit. A few stared.

His shirt was still open, barely buttoned enough to call it clothing. But it wasn’t the clothes or lack thereof that made the room go still.

But his face...

Completely serious.

Calm. Controlled. Professional.

"Sir," one of the aides finally managed. "Uh. We... do you want to change before going live? We’ve prepared several formal options. Silk. Layered velvet. High-collared suit with embossed House Greed crest. There’s also a polished obsidian pinstripe you wore to the last—"

"No," Lux said simply, still walking.

The aide blinked. "No... sir?"

"They need to see the marks."