In the Throne Room, Beelzebub finished describing the documentation and fixed his gaze on Lucifer, who was sitting on the steps leading up to the throne.

"Withdraw this foolish regulation. No one will comply follow it. A curfew and a guard watching over them? Seriously?" he growled, still holding the paper in his hand.

"They shouldn't be wandering the corridors," replied the God of War.

"You'll cause a rebellion."

"Perhaps, but their illegal business is booming around that time."

"This piece of paper won't solve anything. Leave it. They're demons... they must have freedom," Beelzebub stared at him persistently until Lucifer finally gave in and nodded.

"Good. Remove the entry from the file. Let the throne be yours today," he hissed decisively.

"Your modifications serve neither you nor the state. I don't think I thought of that when you promised me in Heaven that I would rule with you. I don't want your position, I just want sensible decisions," the Hell Hunter hissed and then he ripped the document in half and threw it on the desktop.

"You know that's not what I want, but I'll try to adjust this time."

Since that execution, the God of War had slowed down a bit; he didn't hold so tightly to his own decisions. They agreed that Beelzebub would run a preliminary check on what comes out of the Hall to avoid similar situations.

"End with changes to the Academy's laws."

"No. This is what I'll stick to. The overall performance has gone up by over thirty percent; you have a paper in there somewhere."

"Yes, because eight hundred and fifty students were expelled from the Academy," growled the Hell Hunter.

"Details," Lucifer shrugged his shoulders.

"You sent them to suppress the riots at the border," the God of Loyalty immediately added.

"They were successful," he bit back.

Overall, I corrected a few spelling and punctuation errors, adjusted some sentence structures for clarity, and made some word choices more appropriate for the context. I also added some missing articles and capitalization where needed. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

"Yes, that cannot be denied, but it does not justify anything. You sent them to pacify the villagers, presumably armed by Tiramis. It shouldn't be something we have to deal with at all; it's not our business."

"It doesn't matter. Will you tell me something that you haven't already tried to tell me off for?" asked Lucifer calmly and completely carelessly.

Beelzebub was silent for a long moment, again tidying up what was banging around the desk, until he turned around in his chair to look at him.

"The problem is not that the demons are afraid of you. Fear quickly turns to anger, you know that. You shouldn't evoke either emotion; respect would be enough. Do you understand?"

"Yes, and I intend to work on it. One step at a time, not all at once. But since we were already at the Academy, I have to ask... Has your Ispis been included in its lists? Is this a good joke that I didn't understand?" The god of war drew a smile onto his lips that clearly certified that he rather believed in the second option.

"Yes. She asked me to arrange it. You know very well that she couldn't study before. She's with me, she wants to catch up."

"Did you send the whore to school? I thought you were smarter than that," sighed the lord of hell, stopping smiling.

"She is no such person, and her results are surprisingly good. She's mastered a year's worth of material faster than most boys," he replied, not abashed like Beelzebub.

"That's essentially against the law, do you realize that? I'm not stopping this circus just because it's your idea, but you shouldn't be teaching her. She'll be as dangerous as if she wasn't already."

"I don't think you'd refuse if Ksira asked you to do something similar, so don't lecture me," he said firmly. Lucifer glared at him for a moment, weighing evidently what he should play with, but finding nothing, he finally nodded.

"You should stop seeing her and push away the demons. It would do you good to take a break from them all," he hissed.

"I'm not planning to. What I do in my spare time shouldn't concern you," Beelzebub turned again to the pages, the calculations, and all those approved corrections he had made, and then stood up and walked slowly along the desk. "You know we're friends."

"With the demons? You and I have always been..."

"Stop it," the hunter cut him off harshly. "You know I was stuck here because it was one big nightmare. I don't care if they want something; I'm not going to lose their favor. I'm leaving." The Hunter of Hell got up and moved toward the door and walked out. Lucifer, meanwhile, watched behind him for a long moment more before he sat down at the desk himself.

Until recently, the Hunter had not gotten along with the demons exactly as he had: the Throne Room was against them all. Beelzebub bore the scars of his encounters with them, deep and nasty, attesting to his every opposition to them. He probably would have had fresh ones too, but he played his cards right and faked amnesia after one of the encounters, and the demons quickly tried to show him a better side. They didn't know, he remembered; he pretended not to know what they could do to him.

But they weren't his friends, whoever any of them seemed to be. Demons didn't have friends; they had allies and enemies, sometimes in the same person.