—How did she manage to see me, though?
Asta thought while looking at Haru, who was confused because of the sudden intrusion.
"Well, let's hide you before someone else sees you," Haru said.
"You know what, I don't like how you talk to me. I am a high-ranking devil and you should talk to me, keeping that in mind." Asta said while pointing at him with his little fingers, from the table.
"And I am your master, right? So don't talk back to me like that!" Haru said.
—Huh? Did this kid try to threaten me? Me?
"Well, keeping that aside, let's find a suitable place for you to hide."
—Tsk.
"You don't need to worry about that. No one can see me except you." Asta said.
"But, I think you were seen by this person that intruded our house."
"She's an exception. I don't know how but it looks like that she can see me."
"Wait, wait. How do you know that the person is a female? And why would she run away after seeing a small child and me?"
"I sensed the girl. She ran outside with a pale face and entered the house adjacent to this one. No idea, why she ran away though."
"Don't tell me…Hina-nee! Ah right. Since Mom's not here, she would have told her to check out on me from time to time."
Haru said and left his room. He jumped down the stairs while holding some support, unusually habitual, only to slip over the soiled casserole with everything all over the place.
"Pfft." Asta giggled as he saw Haru in that condition.
"Ow, ow, ow," Haru shouted in pain and slowly stood up.
"It's not a good day for me. Anyway, I think you are right. It was Hina-nee."
He said as he picked up the casserole and looked at it.
"It's bitter." He said as he got a taste of the dish with his fingers.
"I need to go and clear up all the misunderstandings."
"I wouldn't suggest that. What kind of misunderstanding? Everything that she witnessed was true, wasn't it?" Asta said while sitting on Haru's shoulders, with his legs on each side of Haru's neck.
"Mm-hmm, there's that too. I guess we should her alone for a bit then. Maybe she will think of it as some dream and then forget it."
"It's nice to be optimistic."
EVENING
"I am home!"
Asami said as she unlocked the door and entered the house.
"Welcome back home, Mom!" Haru shouted from the living room while switching TV channels with his remote.
She took off her shoes and walked inside the living room with two giant bags in her hands.
"Haru. Sorry for leaving you alone like this without prior notice. I told Hina to check out on you, so how was the lunch? She was quite excited when I asked her to check out on you."
She asked while putting down the heavy bags.
"A-Ah, yes, it was really delicious. I didn't know that she was such a good cook, haha…ha" Haru answered while switching the channels.
"What are you doing? You should look at me when I am talking to you." Asami said and reached out to Haru who was sitting on the couch facing the television side.
"H-Haru? What happened to your face?!" Asami shouted in surprise as she looked at the pale and dry Haru, almost melting on the sofa.
"H-Hey, mom! How was the shopping?" Haru said and fell asleep on the couch while growling with his stomach.
"What happened to him now?"
-
"Hey, how long are you going to sleep?"
"(yawn)I am hungry. Give me something to eat."
Haru said while readjusting his body parts after yawning.
"Wake up and get it yourself. Why am I even stuck with you?"
Haru opened his eyes just to see the face of a girl looking at him from above. His head was lying on her lap although she wasn't fine with it.
"Geez, get off my lap."
She pushed him away from her legs and stood up.
"Seriously, you worried everyone, for sure." She said while looking at him.
"Ow, what are you doing, Yui-nee?"
Yui had golden hair braided in the back while she wore a yellow hair clip with bangs hanging on either side; one can see a single hair strand sticking out while she had blue eyes and large breasts.
"Wash your face and come down. Mom has prepared something to eat." She said and started moving out of the room.
"For how long was I out?" Haru asked.
"Probably fifteen minutes. You can't sleep peacefully if you are hungry after all."
—Eh? Just fifteen minutes. It feels like forever.
"Why didn't you get anything from the convenience store if you were this hungry?" She asked.
"Well, I didn't have enough money left." He said.
"Huh? It's the start of the month and you already spent everything. What treasure did you buy with that?"
"cough…cough." Haru started coughing.
—Damn, I spent everything on the chicken's blood and the tube.
"I-I needed some materials for my school project. Mom was not here so I got them myself. Also, I barely get enough money to buy a white chocolate mocha, where do you think all the coins will go?"
"You have such expensive tastes that's why it's not enough for you. Well, whatever. Come down. Mom and Dad are also waiting." She said and left the room.
—Humph, she gets to spend a lot more than me and still, she doesn't stop with her lessons.
"Where did Asta go, anyway? Asta!" Haru looked around but couldn't find him anywhere close.
"Did he went away somewhere? Well, I will call him again after eating dinner." He said and left the room.
-
It was completely dark with nothing around. Even if there was something, it had mingled with the darkness and every direction and place looked the same nonetheless.
Asta stood in the middle of the darkness in a different form, completely opposite to the child that he was before.
Identifiable creepy were his large red eyes with spiral rings that divided the color variations and an irregular smile studded with spikes.
Astaroth looked at the bloodthirsty eyes in front of him.
Nothing else, but the intimidating eyes and the eerie sound of the saliva dripping from their mouth was visible and audible in this darkness.
"Good grief, now I have to take care of both the sides!" Asta said.