Luc and Theo’s First Meeting brings the Hero and the village healer together in Leafel and starts a relationship that will ultimately contest the duties imposed on Luc. Its significance lies not only in their immediate attraction, but in what grows from it: Luc’s attachment to Theo becomes a reason to refuse a future organized around the Hero’s role and bloodline, while Theo’s willingness to risk himself for Luc turns an unexpected connection into a lasting commitment.

The Encounter and Its Immediate Aftermath

The meeting is first marked by a change in Luc that he cannot explain away as ordinary attraction. After waking beside Theo, he finds himself unusually relaxed and safe, a feeling he associates with no time since his mother died. Theo comes to mind with striking clarity: auburn hair, green-crystal eyes, and a stubborn mouth. Luc reflects that he has had several romantic connections, including a long relationship with Julius, but none has made him feel so at ease. His regret about having made a poor first impression is already joined to a hope that Theo might see him differently.

That attraction becomes concrete when Luc hurries downstairs, concerned that Theo has left the bed in haste. He finds the healer at the cottage door, wearing Luc’s shirt, and experiences a sudden, possessive satisfaction. When a blond man grabs Theo’s arm, Luc acts before thinking, forces the man’s wrist away, and orders him to let Theo go because Theo dislikes being touched. The speed of the intervention gives the encounter an immediate physical consequence: Luc’s impulse to protect Theo precedes any settled account of what their relationship is.

The interruption also makes Luc’s identity part of the scene. Asked who he is and what he is doing there, Luc identifies himself as the Hero and Demon Slayer, explains that Theo has kindly given him shelter while he watches over an injured friend, and says the rest of his party is staying at the town tavern. The blond man reacts to the fact that Luc and Theo shared a bed, but Theo objects to being treated as though he were not present. The exchange establishes both Luc’s public status and Theo’s insistence on speaking for himself.

Attraction Against the Hero’s Life

Luc’s own account of his past helps explain why the new connection feels precarious. His first two relationships lasted longest because those partners lived in the capital where he grew up. One was a maid in training, in a romance he regarded as only partly counting because they were both so young; the next was a squire who trained with him. That relationship ended when Luc was announced as leaving, although he had asked the squire to come with him. Later connections formed during stays in towns, but could not last. Luc presents this pattern as the fate of the Hero: departure and obligation repeatedly cut short the possibility of a shared life.

Theo does not simply accept that history as proof that their relationship will be different. He asks what makes Luc think what he is trying to begin will turn out otherwise. The question gives the attraction its first test: Luc’s feelings may be intense, but they do not erase the practical pattern that has ended his previous relationships. His later offer to help Theo while Khal recovers is both an acknowledgment of debt for Theo’s care and, as Luc recognizes, an excuse to spend more time with him. Affection begins to take shape through ordinary assistance as well as moments of protective urgency.

Secrecy, Danger, and Mutual Commitment

Theo’s attachment develops under a different pressure. He knows that friendship will not necessarily save him if anyone discovers what he is: the Demon King’s host. Malthios can perceive Theo’s thoughts and feelings, while Theo’s disobedience has provoked fits and incapacitating headaches. Their shared existence is a bond neither can simply leave; Malthios explains that transferring himself to another host would take years, and that Theo’s death would also mean his own. This concealed danger shadows Theo’s relationships, making trust and disclosure matters of survival as well as intimacy.

Luc’s presence does not remove that danger, but Theo repeatedly chooses him despite it. When Luc is in mortal danger, Theo breaks the barrier imprisoning him by drawing on Malthios’s power while retaining control, then throws himself between Luc and Tyraz’s raised sword. Theo’s action gives physical form to the commitment first suggested by the attraction: he risks his life to save the man he loves. Malthios answers Theo’s call, and the two act together in the crisis, even though their relationship remains strained by the host bond and its history of coercion.

The objects exchanged between Luc and Theo later make their promises tangible. Theo touches his pendant and tells Luc he had marked him first, promising to wait however long it takes. Luc offers a silver ring that belonged to his father, the only thing he has of him. His father died after saving his adventuring party from a demon attack. Luc places the ring on Theo’s marriage finger; the band fits snugly despite Theo’s expectation that it would not. The ring carries both personal inheritance and a future promise, linking Luc’s family history to the life he wants to build with Theo.

Refusal of Inherited Duty

That future conflicts with the demands placed on Luc by Hero Eliza. Julius tells Theo that he had wanted to join Luc’s party, but Eliza threatened to take everything from him if he did not refuse. He believes she wants Luc to continue their bloodline and sire the next Hero, something neither Julius nor Theo could do. The disclosure clarifies that Luc’s romantic life is not constrained only by travel or circumstance: his aunt’s expectations make his intimate choices part of a political and hereditary project.

Luc eventually names his decision as the only choice he has ever made for himself. He chooses a quiet, peaceful life with the man he loves instead of the bloodline and training Eliza expects him to preserve. He also expresses a broader hope that people born with the Hero’s gift should be able to choose their fate rather than remain bound to duty. Theo’s relationship with Luc thus becomes the setting for a direct rejection of the idea that inherited power determines a person’s whole future. The first meeting matters because the connection it begins does not merely survive the Hero’s obligations: it helps Luc imagine and claim a life beyond them.