Chapter 435: The Duty 1

"Listen to me very carefully, Kaelen," Grayson rasped, his voice like rolling thunder. "You have ruined my morning. You have forced me to do field work. You have delayed my return to my wife. If you and your men do not extinguish this fire, surrender your cursed items to Ravenson, and fall back deep into the sanctuary within five minutes... I will personally banish every single one of you to the dark abyssal plains."

Kaelen’s face went pale with absolute terror. "W-We surrender! We yield, Lord Grayson! We will drop everything!"

"Good," Grayson snapped, dropping the rogue leader to the dirt with a heavy thud. He dusted off his sleeves and turned back toward the black SUV, pulling out his car keys. "Carson, pack them into the transport vans. Ravenson, sign whatever trash papers need signing. I am going home."

"Not so fast, Grayson," Ravenson called out from the edge of the smoking warehouse. He pointed toward the winding mountain road below.

Bright red and blue lights were flashing through the dark pine trees. The loud, rhythmic wail of human police sirens echoed up the valley, growing closer by the second.

Grayson froze, his hand hovering over his car door handle. "What is that?"

"That would be five human police cruisers," Ravenson said calmly, crossing his arms. "And according to human border laws, when local authorities investigate an arson site, the Human-Exile Liaison Office must perform a full joint inspection before any suspects are moved."

Grayson stared at his brother in utter disbelief. "Are you insane? I just solved the rebellion in two minutes! Tell the police there was no fire! Tell them it was a swamp gas leak! Tell them a giant squirrel knocked over a candle!"

"A giant squirrel?" Carson snorted, leaning against a tree trunk. "Brother, even a human child wouldn’t believe that."

"I do not care what they believe!" Grayson shouted grandly, throwing his arms up toward the smoky sky. "It is almost four o’clock! Mailah’s physical therapy is over! She is probably sitting on the porch waiting for me! I need to go home and make her afternoon tea!"

A sleek silver sedan pulled up next to their SUV, and Lucson stepped out. The eldest brother looked entirely unbothered by Grayson’s dramatic breakdown. He carried a massive leather briefcase stuffed with thick white binders.

"You are not going anywhere, Grayson," Lucson said in a firm, authoritative tone that left no room for debate. "The Human-Exile Liaison team is right behind those police cars. Because Kaelen’s men sold cursed artifacts to human citizens, every single item recovered from this warehouse must be logged, tested, and cataloged in triplicate before we can legally transfer the prisoners."

Grayson felt his soul leave his body. "In triplicate?"

"Yes," Lucson replied, handing a tall stack of blank yellow forms directly into Grayson’s chest. "And since you’re also the chief commander of the border district, your personal seal is required on every single clearance sheet."

"I refuse!" Grayson barked, his blue eyes flashing with dangerous heat. "I am a powerful demon! I do not do paperwork!"

"You will do the paperwork," Lucson commanded coldly, "or the Human Liaison Committee will freeze our sanctuary’s regional banking accounts for a full security audit."

Grayson gasped, pressing a hand to his heart as if he had been struck by a poisoned dagger.

"Just sit down and sign the papers, Grayson," Lucson said, pulling out a folding table from the back of the SUV.

Grayson let out a long, tragic groan that sounded like a dying beast. He slammed himself down onto a wooden crate next to the folding table, snatched a black pen from Lucson’s hands, and began furiously scribbling on the forms.

"Fine! I will sign them all right now!" Grayson growled, his pen moving so fast it nearly set the paper on fire. "Name: Grayson. Rank: Lord. Incident: Stupid fire caused by stupid rogues. Resolution: Everyone is going to jail. Done! Next!"

He slapped the first paper onto Ravenson’s chest, grabbed the second, and scribbled blindly across the page without reading a single word.

"Sign, sign, stamp, done! Give me the next one!" Grayson snapped, his voice rising in panic. "If I finish these two hundred sheets in twenty minutes, I can still make it home by six!"

"Grayson, stop," a sharp voice interrupted.

Mason stepped over, snatching the pen right out of Grayson’s hand.

Grayson glared up at his second brother with enough dark hatred to melt steel. "Give me back the pen, Mason, or I will feed your silk tie to the forest bears."

"Look at this form," Mason said, holding up the sheet Grayson had just signed. His sharp smirk was completely gone, replaced by a cold, scolding frown. "You left the inventory code blank. You wrote your name in the section meant for the human officer’s statement. And you completely skipped the boundary magic check."

"Who cares?!" Grayson snapped, jumping up from the wooden crate. "The rogues are caught! The fire is out! Why must we waste hours staring at useless paper?!"

"That is enough!" Mason barked, slapping the paper down on the folding table with a loud crack.

The sudden sharpness in Mason’s voice made even Carson stop chuckling. The forest around them grew completely quiet.

Mason stepped directly into Grayson’s space, his dark eyes fixing onto his brother with strict severity.

"Listen to yourself, Grayson," Mason said coldly. "You are acting like a foolish child. You are rushing through crucial security protocols that protect our entire domain. Why? Because you are so obsessed with getting back to your human wife that you cannot spend five minutes doing your duty properly."

Grayson clenched his fists, his jaw tightening until his muscles locked. "Do not bring Mailah into this."

"I will bring her into this," Mason countered sharply, refusing to back down. "You are mixing your personal affairs with our sacred duties. You are slipping, Grayson. A true demon prince does not lose his mind and make sloppy mistakes just because he misses his woman. If you rush this investigation and miss a single shadow artifact, a human police officer could take it back to the city. Then human investigators will come to your estate. They will question your household. You will put Mailah in direct danger because you were too impatient to do your job!"

The heavy words hung in the chilly forest air.

Grayson froze.

It was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped directly over his head. The wild, angry heat in his chest instantly died down, replaced by a cold, heavy silence.

He stared at the blank fields on the paper.

Mason was right.

If he rushed, if he made a mistake, if a single cursed object slipped past his quick checks and caused harm in the human town, the consequences would not just fall on the council. They would fall on his home. On his estate. On Mailah.

The human authorities would launch a massive investigation. The peaceful, quiet sanctuary he had built for her recovery would be destroyed. She would be surrounded by danger, chaos, and fear.

Grayson let out a slow, heavy breath. He closed his eyes for a long moment, forcing his racing heart to slow down. The dramatic, petty lord vanished. In his place stood an ancient warrior who had protected his territory for thousands of years.

"Give me the pen back, Mason," Grayson said softly, his voice dead calm.

Mason studied his brother’s face for a second, seeing the sudden shift in his eyes, before handing the pen back.

Grayson sat back down on the wooden crate. He pulled the leather folder toward himself, opened the first page, and began reading every single line with sharp, terrifying focus.

"Carson," Grayson commanded flatly without looking up. "Go down to the road and intercept the human police. Use the formal Liaison cover story. Tell them it was an industrial chemical spill from an abandoned human factory. Keep them outside the forest line."

Carson nodded, his playful smile fading into a look of genuine respect. "On it, Brother."

"Ravenson," Grayson continued, his eyes darting across the inventory sheets. "Line up all twenty rogues. I want every single one of their pockets searched. If I find a single cursed coin left on their bodies after we complete the report, I will make you re-write these forms yourself."

"Understood," Ravenson murmured, turning toward the prisoner transport.

Lucson stood back, watching Grayson work with a quiet, approving nod. "Now you are acting like a leader of the Ashford family."

Grayson didn’t answer. He just kept reading, checking, and signing.

Every word he read was a shield he was building around Mailah. Every form he filled out correctly was a guarantee that no human officer would ever show up at her front door. He would do it perfectly. He would do it completely. Even if it took all night.

By seven o’clock in the evening, the sun had fully set behind the mountains, plunging the forest into deep, dark shadows.

Grayson sat inside the temporary Liaison tent that had been set up near the burned warehouse. A small oil lamp flickered on the table, casting long shadows across his tired face.

His coat was tossed over the back of his chair, his tie was loosened, and his top shirt button was undone. His hair was a messy pile on his forehead.

His phone chimed softly from the desk.

Grayson’s hand shot out, snatching the phone up instantly. A soft text message from Mailah glowed on the screen.