Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 159

Chapter 159

The rising jets of the fountain shimmered with silver droplets.

The soft glow from the pink streetlights blended with the cool moonlight.

The young girl blinked gently.

Her jewel-like, deep red eyes rippled like the waters of a lake on a midsummer night.

“So you can’t buy candy for anyone else anymore. You can only buy it for him, understood?”

Ashera let out a sigh, speaking his overbearing words as if they were the most natural thing in the world.

“Wait a minute.”

Beili pressed her lips together to hide a smile, asking despite already knowing the answer. “Why is it you speaking for him both times? Can’t he come out and say it himself?”

“He has fallen into a deep sleep.”

Ashera lowered his head and explained softly, “Until I awaken him, he has no way of coming out on his own.”

Beili listened to this explanation calmly, though she didn’t believe a word of it.

“And what about you?”

She looked up at his face with a faint smile, once again asking a question she already knew the answer to: “Do you care, too?”

The corners of the man’s lips curled up as he tilted his head slightly.

He seemed to be considering whether or not to answer her question.

Beili didn’t give him any more time to think, immediately looking up and pressing him. “Answer me. Yes or no?”

Ashera looked down and chuckled, the corners of his eyes lifting beneath lashes as dark as black feathers.

“Yes, I care too.”

When those words were softly exhaled from his cold, thin lips, Beili realized that hearing him say he cared about her made her feel like she was sitting on pins and needles, wanting nothing more than to vanish into the ground.

However, neither the black mist covering her nor the cold hands gripping her waist had any intention of letting go.

Beili lowered her gaze, turning to look at the passersby in Fountain Square, trying to appear composed.

On the other side…

Seeing that the girl remained silent, Ashera tilted his head slightly, as if carefully sensing her emotions.

Beili felt the black mist covering her dissipate.

Then, she heard Ashera speak softly-

“You are happy.”

Beili suddenly felt that when those hollow golden eyes looked down at her, the stars hidden within them were ignited.

Gently pursing her lips, she suddenly reached up and turned that pale, gloomy, sculpture-like face to the side.

Pressed by the girl’s warm fingers, Ashera’s face was forced away.

Silence reigned for two seconds.

The smile at the corner of his lips deepened.

“You are indeed happy,” he confirmed.

Happy… my foot.

Beili’s ears turned slightly red as she struggled to keep her voice calm.

“I think, as my Magic Mentor, you have an obligation to teach me some kind of magic that prevents my emotions from being pried into.”

She spoke with an air of righteous indignation.

“Alright,”

Ashera replied, his eyes full of smiles.

“Really?”

Beili asked uncertainly.

After all, this kind of magic was meant to block his sensory abilities. Once used, Ashera would no longer be able to feel her current emotions.

“Of course, if that is what you wish.”

Ashera gave a soft laugh and raised his hand, his cold fingers gently brushing against the Scythe Pendant hanging at the girl’s collarbone.

“Channel Mana into this and command it to create a protective layer.”

His voice was low and gentle.

Hearing his words, Beili intended to follow his instructions and channel her Mana into it.

Since she had already finished absorbing the Mana the Black Bone Scythe had collected in Blood Curse Town while she was resting and sleeping.

But a second before she funneled the Mana in, she suddenly recalled what had happened the first time she got the scythe necklace-she had exhausted all her Mana and eventually had to borrow Mana from Ashera just to activate it.

Thus, Beili became cautious and asked curiously, “How much Mana do I need to input to create a protective layer that can block your perception?”

He tilted his head slightly, drawing out his thoughts for a few seconds before saying slowly, “All of your current Mana might just be enough.”

Upon hearing this, she immediately abandoned the idea of channeling Mana into the Black Bone Scythe. Shaking her head, she said, “Then forget it.”

“Why forget it?”

Ashera asked.

His cold fingertips moved from the scythe to her face.

“Don’t you want to try?”

The corners of his mouth were hooked in an arc, and his tone was laced with a smile as he spoke.

“If it’s not enough, I can give some to you. Think of it as the mutual reward we spoke of in the Dream Domain. After all, you just said you haven’t received any Mana yet.”

“No rush, I’ll try it next time. I’m saving my Mana for something useful.”

Beili pretended not to understand the underlying meaning of Ashera’s words. Setting aside her fluctuating emotions for the moment, she spoke to him about something else.

“Quick, ask me what I’m saving my Mana for.”

As if a flash of inspiration had struck and a new idea had popped into her head, the girl’s red eyes shone brightly as she repeatedly nudged his chest with her elbow.

On the other side…

The smile at the corner of his lips faded slightly upon hearing her previous sentence.
Ashera let out a soft sigh before slowly asking, “What do you plan to do with the Mana you’ve saved?”

“Because I want to open the first Dream Domain again, Ashera. I’ll need your help this time as well.”

After hearing her words, a trace of a smile played across Ashera’s lips as he quickly spotted the hole in her logic.

“So that’s how it is. It turns out you gained nothing from the last dream.”

He exposed the truth in a slow, deliberate manner.

“I gained something,” Beili muttered with a dry, awkward laugh.

Her gain was the knowledge that the King of Sainthos had once tried to kill her. She also learned a few fragmented clues that she hadn’t been able to piece together yet.

“It’s just that the most direct part was missing from the King’s dream.”

Speaking of this, Beili’s curiosity was piqued once more.

She told Ashera about how, in the first dream, Bertie Swan’s mouth had already opened and the words were about to spill out when the dream suddenly cut off.

Ashera wasn’t particularly surprised. He simply chuckled and said, “Keen people are often very cautious.”

“What do you mean?”

The young girl was puzzled, her brows knitting slightly. “Could he have guessed that someone would try to view his memories through dreams and scene reconstructions?”

Oh… was that even possible?

“My dear Little Butterfly, no one but us can do such a thing.”

He gave a low laugh and shook his head gently. After a moment, he said slowly, “They have a more direct magic called ‘Memory Insight.'”

“To prevent someone from using Memory Insight on him, he extracted that memory and hid it somewhere else. That does sound like something that man would do.”

“Memory Insight? Can we use that?” the girl asked immediately.

“You cannot use it, my dear Little Butterfly. If it isn’t handled properly, it’s very easy to suffer a magical backlash.”

Ashera shook his head gently.

“Fine, but it doesn’t matter. We have someone else we can target.”

With that, the girl confidently pulled her notebook from her Spatial Bracelet and quickly flipped to the page recording the first scene she had witnessed upon entering the King’s dream.

Her slender, fair finger pressed down on Cyril’s name.

“There were six people who experienced that prophecy. The Former King and Queen have passed away, and the father and daughter of the Swan Family have disappeared. Aside from the King, whose dream is incomplete, the only one left is Cyril.”

In the dream she saw, Cyril hadn’t even learned to walk yet and still needed to be held in the Queen’s arms.

But as long as she and Ashera worked together to open Cyril’s Dream Domain in the same way, and then had Ashera push the time of the dream backward…

They could still reconstruct Bertie Swan’s prophecy.

The night deepened.

The bustling crowds that had filled Fountain Square gradually dispersed.

Slowly, only the occasional sound of footsteps echoed across the empty square.

At a certain moment, the silver-edged jets of water also ceased their play.

Under the quiet moonlight, only a single sculpture remained.

The surrounding shops were closing one after another. The signs grew dim, lights were extinguished, and the streets were left increasingly deserted.

The night wind carried a hint of a chill.

A couple walked up to a bakery and asked in confusion, “Why is everything closing? We were planning to look around over there and then come back to buy some snacks.”

“Is this your first day here?” the bakery owner explained while wiping dust from the display case. “The Climate Magic Formation controlling Rose Town is set for rain once every three days. It’s always scheduled for midnight sharp and lasts for an hour.”

The owner looked back at the wall clock and warned, “If you two live far away, you’d better head back quickly. It’s going to rain in five minutes.”

Upon hearing the final sentence, the couple thanked him and ran off in a certain direction, hand in hand.

The bench where Beili and Ashera sat was not far from the bakery.

She assumed Ashera had also heard the owner’s words and waited for him to let go and stand up.

As it turned out, the guy didn’t budge.

She had caught up on her sleep all day and was well-rested. She had originally planned to wander around the town until she felt tired before returning to the inn to rest.

However, after sitting down on the bench with Ashera, he had been holding her the entire time, with no intention of going anywhere else.

As if a hug were the most fascinating thing in the world, this Demon had held her until late into the night.

She looked up at him, seeing the slight curve of his lips beneath his curved black ram horns and cascading silver hair.

“It’s about to rain, Ashera. We should go too,” she reminded him softly.

Ashera gave a low “Mm,” but still didn’t move.

Beili’s brows knitted slightly as she warned him in advance, “If you want to get soaked in the rain, I’m not staying with you.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as Ashera gave another low “Mm.”
His fingers twitched slightly, and just a second before she could stand up, he pulled her even tighter into his embrace.

She was pressed so firmly against his chest that she could barely move.

“…”

He had agreed to let her go, but he wasn’t loosening his grip at all.

Beili took a shallow, difficult breath while nestled in that icy embrace, then heard Ashera let out a soft sigh.

His low, gentle voice, tinged with a hint of amusement, suddenly said something quite disconcerting-

“I want to keep holding you like this. What should I do?”

…What should he do?

Beili choked on her words for a moment before saying, syllable by syllable, “I estimate there’s about one minute left before it starts raining.”

“I know,” he whispered.

He sighed again and added a follow-up question: “One minute… is that enough time to go and destroy that Magic Formation?”

“…”

Beili couldn’t be bothered to waste words on this man’s bizarre train of thought. The moment his voice trailed off, she triggered her Beast Transformation.

Her shimmering blue-green wings flapped, trailing a wisp of black mist as she flew across the Fountain Square where the water columns had ceased. In less than ten seconds, she had returned to the Golden Rose Inn across the way.

The Golden Rose Inn kept its doors open twenty-four hours a day.

She shifted back into her human form in front of the inn and looked back.

Under the pinkish-white glow of the fluorite streetlamps, the long bench was empty.

Beili stood under the eaves of the inn and waited for a few minutes.

Sure enough, a low rumble of thunder began to echo through the sky.

Soon after, a fine drizzle arrived as promised, washing the dust from the rose petals and leaves.

Beili waited a little longer, but Ashera was nowhere to be seen.

…It’s better if he’s gone.

Otherwise, returning to the inn together would only make things more complicated, she thought to herself.

Blinking softly, she turned and walked into the lobby of the Golden Rose Inn. she headed up the stairs, found her booked room, opened the door with her key, and closed it behind her.

When she turned around again…

That figure in the Black Robe with silver hair suddenly appeared before her.

“You didn’t leave?”

Surprise flashed through her red eyes.

Beili then raised her hand and pointed toward the adjacent wall, reminding him nonchalantly, “Your room is next door.”

The man lowered his hollow golden eyes, looking at her with a faint, enigmatic smile.

Beili could tell his mood was somewhat volatile, perhaps because she had used her Beast Transformation to fly away from him earlier.

But she wasn’t going to indulge his whims, because this guy was very likely to follow through on his threats. If she had hesitated for even a few more seconds back there, the Magic Formation of Rose Town might have actually been destroyed by him.

“Should I lead the way for you?” She reopened the door for him. “He went in there to bathe this morning…”

A pale, slightly greyish hand pressed against the door.

With a click, the door shut.

He moved closer.

His pale toes hovered off the ground, and his already tall frame loomed over her like a heavy, dark cloud.

“…”

Beili silently took a step back until her spine pressed against the door.

Scenes flashed through her mind-the tent in the Hunting Forest and the dim wall at the Flea Nest-where she had been held and kissed by him, as motionless as a puppet.

And he… he particularly loved leaving hickeys!

While Beili was lost in her wandering thoughts, the man brought the back of his pale hand up to her nose.

She looked up at him, bewildered.

Then she heard him say in a low, suggestive voice, “I’ve bathed, too.”

…

Beili took a sharp breath, her red eyes widening. It took a long moment before she managed a dazed, “Ah.”

The corners of Ashera’s lips curled into a smile as he tapped the tip of her nose with his finger.

“So, I’m sleeping in the same bed as you.”

He finished speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world, then turned and naturally slid under the covers to wait for her.

“No-”

Beili almost lost her composure, but she managed to come up with an excuse on the fly: “You’re too cold.”

It was true; Ashera’s body temperature was incredibly low.

“If I lie in the same bed as you for a whole night, I’ll definitely get sick.”

In this moment, the girl tactfully chose to forget the powerful self-healing abilities of her Butterfly Bloodline.

However, the man clearly wasn’t buying it.

Seeing the corners of Ashera’s mouth flatten instantly, his face clouding over, and that ‘why can he but I can’t’ expression appearing as he tilted his head slightly, she thought fast.

After a moment, she offered a compromise: “…How about you turn into a sheep? If you turn into a sheep, I’ll agree.”

The corners of his thin, cold lips finally curved into an elegant arc again.

Ashera said slowly, “A fine suggestion, but I want to hold you, my dear Little Butterfly.”

His way of expressing himself had become quite direct.

“You turn into a sheep, and I’ll hold you,”

Her mind whirred quickly.

Ashera lowered his hollow golden eyes and thought about it seriously.

“Fine.”

As the word left his lips, he dissolved into a cloud of black mist. The mist then coalesced into a fluffy Black Lamb.