Chapter 1059: Bad Omen?

Chapter 1059 – Bad Omen?

Naomi looked down.

She understood immediately.

High society did not need the truth to become cruel. It only needed an opening.

The tower fell.

Delacour cannot maintain its own heritage.

Financial pressure?

Family curse?

Bad omen?

Naomi ran away to a mysterious billionaire, and suddenly Delacour’s old symbol collapsed.

Adrian’s fingers tightened on his knee.

He could already hear the polite voices.

The smiles over champagne.

The fake concern.

"What a shame."

"Such history."

"Perhaps the family is not what it used to be."

Lux’s eyes sharpened. "Then don’t let them mock you."

Adrian looked at him.

Lux’s expression was calm. "Use it."

Naomi blinked. "Use the tower collapsing?"

"Yes."

Adrian frowned. "How?"

Lux glanced down at the cat, then back to Adrian. "Controlled narrative. Structural instability discovered during private inspection. Emergency preservation failed due to hidden internal damage. Rather than endanger staff or guests, you ordered controlled removal."

Adrian stared.

Lux continued smoothly, "Then connect it to the project relaunch."

Naomi’s lips parted.

Lux smiled faintly. "Delacour is not collapsing. Delacour is clearing old structures to build something new."

Adrian went still.

That... That was annoyingly good.

Lux leaned back slightly. "People mock weakness. They respect timing. If the tower falls randomly, you are cursed. If the tower falls before a major redevelopment announcement, you are decisive."

Adrian’s eyes narrowed. "That sounds like manipulation."

Lux looked genuinely amused. "Mr. Delacour, you raised Naomi to believe everything is business. Do not become shy now."

Naomi gave Lux a sideways look.

He ignored it with great dignity.

Adrian looked toward the mansion again.

His mind had already started working despite himself.

A statement.

Historical assessment.

Legacy moving forward.

The loss of the tower became the birth of the next era.

Damn him.

Damn Lux Vaelthorn for being right again.

Naomi looked at her father quietly. "So they won’t laugh?"

Adrian’s face softened only for her. "They will try."

Lux’s smile sharpened. "Then we make them look outdated for doing it."

Adrian looked at him. For the first time, the dislike in his eyes did not vanish, but it shared space with something else.

Reluctant alliance.

The orange cat shifted weakly in Lux’s arms. A tiny sound escaped her. "Meow..."

Lux looked down.

Naomi leaned closer. "She’s waking?"

"No," Lux said. "Complaining unconsciously."

Adrian stared.

Naomi smiled despite everything.

And somehow, with the tower gone behind them and disaster waiting ahead, Adrian found himself thinking the most absurd thing yet.

Delacour’s next era had not begun with a collapse.

Maybe it had begun with a cat... and a greed prince.

The buggy reached the rear entrance of the mansion faster than dignity usually allowed.

The moment it stopped, servants rushed out.

Not one.

Several.

The calm, invisible machinery of the Delacour estate had finally broken into open panic. Footmen, maids, grounds staff, even one older gardener with dirt still on his gloves came toward them with wide eyes and poorly hidden terror.

Because, well.

The tower had vanished.

Ancient family landmarks usually did not disappear quietly in the middle of the day.

"Sir!"

"Miss Naomi!"

"Madam is waiting—"

"Is anyone hurt?"

"What happened to the tower?"

Adrian stepped down first, face already returning to strict control despite the fact his soul had been dragged through several supernatural and financial renovations within the last hour.

"We are fine," he said.

The servants stopped at once.

Not because they believed him.

Because Adrian Delacour had spoken in the tone that made people accept reality on loan.

Naomi stepped down next, and Lux followed, still holding the unconscious orange cat against his chest.

The servants stared.

First at Lux.

Then at the cat.

Then at Lux again.

One maid looked like she wanted to ask why the mysterious guest who left toward the ancestral tower had returned with a cat and no tower.

Wisely, she did not.

Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose. Before anyone could ask more, Celeste came through the open rear hall doors.

She did not rush.

Celeste Delacour did not rush even when ancestral structures collapsed and her husband returned with a demon prince holding a cat. But her steps were faster than before, and the worry in her eyes betrayed what her posture refused to admit.

Maribelle followed behind her.

The infernal secretary looked perfectly calm.

She held a tablet against her chest, hair still pinned neatly, uniform immaculate, expression professionally serene. The servants gave her a cautious distance without understanding why. Something in their instincts recognized that this "assistant" was not someone who should be bumped into accidentally.

Celeste’s eyes went first to Naomi. Then to the cat.

She paused.

Only briefly.

"What happened?" she asked.

Naomi looked at Lux.

The servants looked at everyone.

Lux looked down at the cat. "The tower was not a tower."

Celeste closed her eyes for one second.

Maribelle nodded once as if that was a normal report. "I see."

Adrian looked at her. "You see?"

Maribelle turned to him. "Boss often discovers that objects are not objects."

Lux’s mouth twitched. "Accurate."

Celeste moved closer, her gaze settling on the cat. "And this?"

Lux adjusted his hold carefully. "Also not just a cat."

Celeste looked at the orange body in Lux’s arms. The cat seemed fragile and exhausted, dusty fur pressed against Lux’s black jacket, one small paw hanging limply over his wrist. The sight was strangely disarming.

A demon prince holding an unconscious cat with more tenderness than most men held family heirlooms.

Celeste’s thoughts paused there.

Family heirlooms.

The tower had been treated like one.

Now it was gone.

And this cat remained.

She looked toward the estate grounds beyond the rear doors, where the absence of the tower had already changed the shape of the horizon.

Something inside her hurt.

Not grief exactly.

Shame, perhaps.

Or the pain of realizing a family symbol had been a prison, and somehow a stranger from Hell had been the one to notice.

"Is anyone injured?" she asked.

"We’re fine," Naomi said.

Lux lifted the cat slightly. "She isn’t."

Celeste nodded. "Then bring her inside. I’ll have—"

Her sentence was cut by hurried footsteps from the main corridor.

The butler appeared.

For a Delacour butler, "appeared in a hurry" meant his pace was only slightly faster than a dignified funeral procession, but his face was tense enough to be alarming.

"Sir."

Adrian turned. "What is it?"

The butler glanced at Lux, then at Naomi, then quickly decided his salary did not cover supernatural interpretation.

"Unexpected guests have arrived."