Another man with an important title, another unimportant handshake. However, the conversation that followed made Jun feel uneasy. The snobby man asked him about his future, to which the young heir replied as always, word for word what his father expected to hear - graduate, marry, start a family, take over father's company, continue the family business and so on. 

Jun didn't care about the rest of the conversation, as his mind got stuck on the question and how he really felt about it. Or more like, what would he do now that Juto appeared in his life.

He excused himself and decided to catch a breath of fresh air at the terrace. He still felt a little dizzy from the enchanted brooch, and he needed a moment to think. He contacted his demon servant through telepathy while on his way.

        "Say... can you humor Amy for a bit longer? Or you know what, just keep people away from me for the rest of the party." 

        "What? But... the food!" 

Juto replied with a hint of desperation, which was kind of amusing. He didn't like the idea of juggling responsibilities that would distract him from indulging in the delicious human cuisine. If he wanted to stuff himself, he preferred to do that uninterrupted. There was no joy in it otherwise. But his master had other plans.

        "It's an order." 

The young man cut off all further arguments, and it was the first time he actually said it. The demanding tone caught his servant off guard. 

        "Fine." 

The demon confirmed after a short pause and their mental exchange was over.

Jun slipped past the group of snobs that took a smoke outside, past the chattering ladies fanning themselves as if the breeze was not enough, and went to the secluded gazebo. He sighed and leaned with his arms crossed on the wooden fence, ignoring the muffled party noises. The air was nicely chilly compared to the stuffy atmosphere inside the ball room. It helped with clearing his senses, but his mind was still clouded with the thoughts about the future. Not the future his father desired, but his own plans and dreams. 

And he came to the conclusion that he had none. 

Yes, back when he was a juvenile he had a lot of childish dreams of adventures, going places, creating bizarre inventions, everything an ambitious young mind could come up with. But all of it was cut short when his father decided to do "what's best for him", which involved money, power, economy, proper manners, connections and constant care of one's leading position in the world. All the boring things that interested Jun the least. It wasn't his world, despite being born into it. He secretly envied his late grandfather. That man was living the dream of being an inventor without care what people thought of him. Just kept on doing what he loved, unashamed and proud.

Jun argued a lot with father about his future, but in the end he gave up, his old man was more persistent than Jun himself. Of course, he still decided to make father regret controlling nature by acting passive-aggressive where he could, but it was just petty child's play. It backfired eventually as the young man was cut off from everyone that mattered to him, trapped in this mansion like a prisoner - home schooled, attending social gatherings only under strict supervision. At least he wasn't kept locked in his room, he was free to move all around the mansion. And then he found that secret room...

A strange room full of books filled with knowledge that he recalled only from fairy tales. Half of them unreadable due to the language, but some still to his comprehension with the right dictionary at hand. And so he tapped into magic, able to summon small, otherworldly creatures to brighten up his day. His only friends, as sad as it sounded. Pranking his mentors with their help was the only exciting thing to do since a long time. And then he decided to kick it up a notch and dare to summon a stronger being. He knew he wasn't cut out for it, but he decided to try anyway. 

And then things got really bizarre - he accidentally summoned some weird creature that he could only describe as a hunched, fully robed man with a beak sticking out of his hood. Could pass as a version of a plague doctor, except the beak was real. He seemed... amused by the weird circumstances. He introduced himself as Heron, The Guardian of Limbo and invited Jun for a tour through his domain. The place gave Jun the chills - a gloomy endless sea surrounded by a fog, with corpses beneath the surface, and crosses sticking out here and there with lifeless crucified people on them. Some didn't even look human at all.

And that's where he found Juto, tied to a cross like the rest of exiled souls. They're now bound together by a contract, void only when one of them dies.

"Until death do us part." He mumbled, putting a hand to where his pendant was and snickered. "We're basically married..."