That afternoon, Sarna’s car slowly stopped in front of a building over thirty floors tall near the central commercial district.
Nearly half the building’s exterior was covered by an enormous magical screen, continuously playing film trailers, entertainment programs, fashion advertisements, and images of famous actresses. This was one of the media companies belonging to Laviana.
After a secretary led them up to the top floor, Erik and Elowen were shown into a private reception room. Laviana still had a short meeting, so they were asked to wait about ten minutes. Erik wasn’t in any rush. He sat down on the sofa beside the glass wall, and Elowen claimed the spot immediately to his right almost instantly.
Since leaving the Council’s building, she hadn’t truly relaxed. Her fair arm was wrapped around his, her soft body leaning right against him. Every time Elowen shifted position, the full chest beneath her white dress pressed lightly against his upper arm, but she showed no intention of keeping any distance.
Erik looked down at the hand still gripping his sleeve. "I’m still here."
Elowen blinked, then immediately put on a casual face. "I didn’t say anything."
"Your hand did."
She looked down at her own hand, her cheeks reddening at once. But instead of letting go, Elowen shifted closer, her soft thigh pressing against his leg, her head naturally resting on his shoulder.
"Then let it keep talking."
Erik laughed and didn’t bring it up again.
Just then, the reception room door opened. The sound of high heels came slowly across the polished stone floor, accompanied by a light sweet perfume drifting in on the air.
The one who entered was Vylana.
One look was enough for Erik to tell this woman had clearly prepared for today. She wasn’t wearing the familiar black dress from the bar, but a wine-red dress that hugged her body. The fabric drew in at the waist, accentuating her slender midsection before flaring along the full curve of her hips. The dress stopped above the knee, showing off long legs in thin black stockings.
Her long red hair was lightly curled at the ends and draped over one shoulder. Her lips were coated in a soft red, and two small earrings caught the light every time she tilted her head.
Vylana had always been beautiful. Today, she carried an added sense of maturity along with a very deliberate seductive confidence.
The moment she stepped in, she saw Elowen pressed against Erik.
The two women’s eyes met.
Elowen immediately sat up straight, the arm holding Erik tightening further. Her face remained gentle, her lips even holding a small smile, but her emerald eyes had cooled by several degrees.
If Elowen was normally like a well-behaved cat curled up beside its owner, right now she was clearly a cat that had just spotted another one approaching its food bowl.
Vylana looked at her for less than a second before her gaze shifted quickly to Erik. The confidence she’d walked in with dropped a little at once. She had thought a great deal about what to say if she met him today, but actually seeing Erik in front of her, remembering the sight of him kneeling to propose to Elowen before the entire city, still made Vylana’s palms go warm.
"Erik." She smiled. "We meet again."
Erik naturally remembered her. Vylana used to drink with Saraya. Every time he came to the bar to pick Saraya up, she was always the most polite one, sometimes even telling the staff to bring him water or help call a car.
"It’s been a while."
That one ordinary sentence made the corners of Vylana’s lips curve more visibly. She walked toward the sofa, but instead of sitting down directly, Vylana stopped and asked softly:
"May I sit next to you?"
Erik raised an eyebrow slightly and instinctively turned to Elowen.
Elowen was staring at Vylana. Her small lips were slightly pouted, her arm still holding him, her entire body expressing one extremely simple message.
’I don’t like it.’
But she didn’t say a word.
Erik looked at that expression, wanting to object yet forcing herself to hold back, and found it rather funny. He turned to Vylana.
"It seems my wife isn’t too fond of the idea." Erik smiled. "So, sorry."
Vylana froze.
She didn’t particularly mind being refused. What surprised her was that last word. Erik had just apologized to a Succubus, simply for turning down her request to sit closer to him.
To him, it was nothing more than basic courtesy. But Vylana had watched countless men since childhood. If they wanted a woman to stand, she stood; if they wanted her to kneel, she knelt. If they didn’t want to see someone, one sentence was enough to make that person vanish from sight.
Who ever needed to apologize?
Vylana looked at Erik for a few seconds. Her smile not only didn’t fade but grew more pronounced. "It’s fine."
She circled around to the sofa opposite and sat down. Elowen immediately relaxed, then very discreetly shifted her body a little closer to Erik. Vylana noticed, the corner of her mouth twitching, but she said nothing.
She poured a glass of red wine and gently slid it toward Erik. "This is one of the finest bottles from my mother’s company. They only produce a few hundred a year."
Erik looked at the dark red liquid. "I don’t drink."
"You don’t like it?"
"I’m just not in the habit."
In truth, Erik had tried wine in this world a few times. Put politely, the flavor didn’t suit him. Put more honestly, it was fairly hard to swallow.
Vylana immediately withdrew the glass. "Then I’ll prepare something else next time."
She leaned back into the sofa and slowly crossed her legs. The posture made the dress cling a little tighter to her hips, her narrow waist and full curves forming a distinct line. She knew exactly how attractive she was, and knew exactly how to sit so her body’s best features were displayed as naturally as possible.
Erik only glanced over once before picking up his teacup.
Vylana was mildly disappointed, but very quickly found it interesting instead. If a pretty dress alone were enough to shake Erik’s composure, he wouldn’t be the man she wanted more and more with each passing day.
Just then, the door opened again.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Laviana walked in.
Compared to Vylana, her beauty carried an entirely different feeling. A black women’s suit, tailored to fit perfectly, hugged her mature waist and full hips. Beneath it was a dark red shirt with the top two buttons open, revealing a stretch of pale skin and just enough of the deep curve between her breasts. Her long red hair was tied back low, and her long legs in thin stockings and heels made every step all the more pronounced.
If Vylana was like a fruit that had just ripened, brimming with vitality and actively drawing the eye, Laviana was like a wine that had been aged long enough. Without any need to put herself on display, the mature presence and confidence of a woman accustomed to holding power were enough to make people look twice without meaning to.
Laviana approached Erik. "I’m glad you agreed to come."
Erik stood as well. "I’m the one who needs your help."
Their hands met. It was only an ordinary handshake, but Laviana’s fingertips immediately tightened slightly. The warmth from Erik’s palm made her steady heartbeat suddenly quicken.
Laviana let go first. If she’d held on a few seconds longer, she wasn’t sure she could have maintained her composure.
"Let’s sit and talk."
She moved to the seat across from him, her expression perfectly natural. Only Vylana saw her mother place the hand that had shaken Erik’s onto her lap, her fingertips curling slightly.
Erik noticed too. He grew even more certain that going forward, it would be best not to maintain physical contact too long with Succubi who had feelings for him.
Laviana picked up a teacup. "You said over the phone that you wanted to discuss a new media project."
"That’s right." Erik set his cup down. "I want to try making a film."
Laviana was mildly surprised. "Do you have a script?"
"No."
"A proposal?"
"Not that either."
Vylana blinked. Laviana studied him for a few seconds.
"So what did you bring?"
Erik pointed at his own head. "An idea."
If it had been anyone else, Laviana would probably have had her secretary show them out. But the person sitting across from her was Erik, so she still asked:
"What idea?"
Erik leaned back lightly into the sofa. He had no intention of transplanting any film from his previous life wholesale into this world. His memories of movies, comics, novels, and NovelPhoenixs from Earth were, to him, only an enormous stockpile of raw material. To actually use it, he still had to reshape it into something of his own.
"I want to build a world with no men in it at all." Erik said. "Only Succubi. The cities, the nations, the armies, and all of society made up of Succubi."
Laviana didn’t speak. Her gaze had already turned serious.
"That world is full of monsters and all sorts of other dangers. Then a special group of Succubi appears. Each one has different abilities, personalities, and fighting styles. They protect the world."
Vylana asked: "A team of heroes?"
"Close enough."
Erik nodded. Images of superhero teams, magical girls, Western comics, anime, and countless works he’d once watched layered over one another in his head. But he had no intention of copying any of them, only taking what he remembered, breaking it apart piece by piece, and reassembling it into a new world.
A team of women.
Each with her own style, her own ability, her own past. Major battles, internal conflict, friendship, betrayal, sacrifice, and growth. Enough to make films, comics, animation, even develop into a content ecosystem running for years.
Erik thought for a moment longer, then said:
"We could call the team... The Angel Succubus."
The reception room went quiet.
Vylana repeated it softly: "The Angel Succubus..."
Elowen tilted her head slightly. "That sounds pretty good."
Laviana didn’t answer right away. She had been in media long enough to see more than the other two women. A world with no need for men, a group of female heroes each with distinct designs, abilities, and personalities. Every character could have her own fanbase, could support a series, sell merchandise, spawn spinoff products, and continuously add new members.
She looked at Erik, and for the first time in this meeting, she wasn’t only looking at him as a man who made her heart race.
She was genuinely seeing an opportunity.
"You want to make a film?" Laviana asked.
"To start." Erik nodded. "If the response is good, we develop it further."
"The specific story?"
"Haven’t finished thinking it through."
"Characters?"
"None yet."
"Antagonist?"
"Not that either."
Laviana looked at him. Erik was perfectly composed.
"I did say I only had an idea."
Vylana immediately burst out laughing. Laviana couldn’t help but curve her lips either, then set her teacup down.
"All right. Then we start from the idea."
That was when the real conversation began.
Erik couldn’t recall exactly how many ideas they traded over the next few hours. Some were shot down by Laviana the moment they left his mouth for being too vague, and some of Vylana’s suggestions caught him off guard. Elowen occasionally chimed in, especially on the parts involving combat and how a Succubus would view someone called a hero.
From one simple sentence, a world with only Succubi, The Angel Succubus gradually began to take shape.
But all of it remained at the discussion stage. No complete script, no cast, no shooting schedule. Not even the official number of members on the team had been settled.
The only thing Laviana was certain of was that this project was worth doing.
And the more they talked, the more her gaze toward Erik changed. At first, Laviana had only wanted an excuse to spend more time with him. But now, at least in this matter, she genuinely saw a major opportunity.
At one point, Vylana spoke up on her own.
"I want to be part of this."
Laviana turned to her daughter. "You?"
"Mm." Vylana sat up straighter. "I don’t know much about film yet, but I can learn."
"Your reason?"
Vylana was silent for a second, then answered very plainly: "I want to become someone useful to him."
Elowen’s head turned at once. Vylana looked back at her, but this time the two women didn’t argue.
Erik was a little surprised by that frankness. Vylana turned to him, her gaze not shying away.
"Give me a chance."
Erik thought for a few seconds. "I have no objection."
The corners of Vylana’s lips curved up immediately. Elowen pouted slightly beside him, but in the end said nothing.
By the time the light beyond the glass had turned deep orange, a secretary came in to note that it was nearly seven o’clock. Laviana checked the time and said:
"Stay for dinner."
"No need." Erik stood. "I’m more used to eating at home."
"I’ve already had it prepared."
"Next time, then?"
Erik nodded. "Possibly."
He turned to Elowen and naturally took her hand, their fingers lacing together. Elowen blinked, then immediately smiled.
"Besides, I promised to cook tonight."
Laviana and Vylana both looked over at once.
Erik gently squeezed Elowen’s hand, the tenderness in his eyes entirely different from the seriousness he’d shown while discussing business. "I want to go home and cook for my wife."
Elowen’s face flushed instantly. Her emerald eyes curved, her happiness practically written across her entire face. If there hadn’t been two other women in the room, she felt she would have thrown herself straight into Erik’s arms.
Across from them, the red-haired mother and daughter both looked at those laced fingers. Vylana felt sourness rising all the way up her throat, while Laviana had to draw a slow, deep breath to hold onto her smile.
"Go on." she said. "If you stay any longer, someone here is going to get jealous enough to cry."
Vylana’s head snapped around. "Are you talking about yourself?"
Laviana answered calmly: "I’m talking about both of us."
Erik laughed and led Elowen out of the room.
The door closed. The room stayed quiet for three seconds, then Laviana suddenly sank back into the sofa and covered her eyes with a hand.
"Haa... I’m dying."
Vylana also dropped the alluring posture she’d been maintaining all afternoon, her whole body going limp against the chair. "Same here."
Laviana opened a desk drawer and took out two small glass vials filled with refined dark red blood. She drank one entirely, then handed the other to her daughter. It took a while before the heat in both their bodies was gradually forced back down.
Vylana looked at the door Erik had just left through. "Mother, how do we get close to him?"
Laviana set the empty vial on the table, the corner of her mouth slowly curving. "There are plenty of ways."
"Elowen guards him like a treasure."
"Then don’t compete in stupid ways." Laviana propped her chin on her hand, her gaze shifting toward the large darkened screen at the end of the room. The three words Erik had said surfaced in her mind again. "If Erik has stepped into our field of his own accord, then make this place somewhere he can’t do without."
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