Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 42

“Who said I was injured?”

Floating above the ground, sitting atop a tombstone, Ashera raised his right hand, resting his pale knuckles under his chin. With a half-smile, he ‘looked’ at her and asked in a gentle tone, “Where did you see that I was hurt?”

At his retort, Beili hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pointed to the slightly sunken spot on the chest of his black robe.

“There. What happened?” she asked.

The last time he appeared in the Dream Corridor, Beili distinctly remembered that Ashera’s chest had not borne such a strange indentation.

“Here…”

His pale hand touched the hollow in his chest. Ashera ‘looked’ at her with meaning for a few seconds, then chuckled softly and said, “Since you asked, I’ll show you.”

His fingertips tilted and slid down his chest.

Like a blade slicing through cloth, he cut open the black robe at his chest. He hooked aside the torn robe and leaned forward to show the young woman.

There, a bloody hole was exposed.

With every breath, the hole seemed to expand and contract ever so slightly, as if it too was breathing.

The heart that should have been beating vividly in his chest was now gone without a trace.

It was as if someone had dug out his heart. At a glance, aside from flesh of varying shades of red, a few fragments of white bone could be vaguely seen.

The sight was shocking and unspeakably cruel.

“Your heart! It was dug out…?”

Seeing that ghastly wound, Beili’s breath caught, and she blurted out in disbelief, “Ashera, are you going to die?”

“Hmm… perhaps.”

Hearing the tension in her voice, Ashera lowered his eyelids slightly, his tone careless.

He brushed the torn spot on his black robe with his pale knuckles, and in the blink of an eye, the rip was restored to its original state.

…

Impossible.

At Ashera’s words, Beili stared at the spot over his chest, her brows tightly furrowed.

Thinking of something, Beili’s heartbeat gradually steadied, and she softly denied it: “No, that can’t be. You won’t die so easily, because you are…”

A Demon.

The last word stopped at her lips.

Demons are not so easy to kill. In the original book, after Susanna discovered Ashera’s true identity, she was terribly afraid, and after witnessing his bloodthirsty, violent side, became even more determined to send him back to Hell.

Unfortunately, in the original story, Susanna tried many methods but never managed to kill Ashera. Instead, after each attempt to harm him, this Demon wandering the world only became more brutal and violent. He even gathered a vast Demon Legion to invade the towns along the Border.

Not only the Santos Kingdom-the entire world was thrown into chaos and terror.

It was only at the end of the story that Susanna and Cyril accidentally fell into a mysterious Illusion Realm, where they obtained the method to expel the Demon and the Sacred Artifact. Only then did they succeed in killing Ashera, burning him to ash.

…

“What am I?”

Ashera suddenly spoke.

At his words, Beili looked up at him.

Lounging lazily atop the highest tombstone, his long silver hair blew in the night wind, the ends drifting down like feathers-soft and light.

Ashera lowered his eyes and ‘looked’ at her, his hollow golden eyes narrowing slightly.

“Tell me, what am I?”

Within those golden eyes, the dark red vertical pupils trembled and contracted, nearly narrowing to a fine needle, radiating a dangerous aura.

In that instant, Beili even had the illusion that he was no longer blind-that he could see her.

“I want to say… you are my friend.”
Beili swallowed, keeping her tone calm as she slowly explained, “Friends should care for each other, and then enjoy the Mana of the dead here together, shouldn’t they?”

Hearing her words, the slit pupils that had contracted paused, relaxed, and once again became empty and lifeless.

Ashera’s lips unconsciously curved into a smile.

“It’s just a small hole, and this kind of injury is nothing to me,” he said.

“Nothing? But that’s your heart, Ashera!”

Following his words, Beili thought of the gruesome wound at his chest, her expression showing shock, concern, and anger as she said, “Even an angel would fall if their heart was gouged out!”

In the end, she couldn’t help but ask, “So… what happened to your wound?”

“You want to know?” Ashera raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“Of course I want to know,” Beili looked at him and said seriously, “After all, you’re my friend.”

He lowered his eyelids, dragging out the last syllable as he thought, then replied slowly, “It’s simple. I fell into a trap set by a bunch of old geezers.”

“Who were they?”

“Just a bunch of hypocritical, cunning old geezers,” Ashera replied lightly.

This left Beili confused.

Who were these sinister old geezers?

She couldn’t recall any scene in the original book where Ashera had his heart gouged out.

Sensing her bewilderment, the smile at Ashera’s lips widened.

“You’re too curious about me. That’s not a good thing.”

Ashera lowered his head to ‘look down’ at the gray-haired, red-eyed Young Woman standing at the center of the cemetery, his tone exceptionally gentle as he softly said:

“You need to control your curiosity, Little Butterfly. Curiosity can get you killed.”

Looking at the gentle smile on his face, Beili’s palms began to sweat, and she suddenly felt uneasy.

“What’s wrong?” She looked at Ashera, keeping her tone steady, and asked, “Are you thinking of killing me again? Like in the Thorn Game.”

“…”

Ashera tilted his head, an ambiguous smile on his lips, but said nothing.

Seeing he didn’t answer, Beili also remained silent. The two of them stood in a standoff for a while.

In the end, Ashera let out a low chuckle.

Parting his thin lips, he said, “No, at least not now.”

With that, he stood up and jumped down from the tombstone.

His pale toes hovered, stopping a short distance above the damp grass.

He reached out his hand. “Alright, we’ve absorbed enough Mana. It’s time to go back.”

……

Beili lowered her eyes to glance at Ashera’s outstretched hand.

That palm was facing upward, the joints well-defined, fingers long and marble-pale, like a flawless work of art.

But this hand had once gripped her throat, carrying a frosty chill, mercilessly snapping her spine.

Beneath her long silver-gray curls, her deep red eyes were as calm as water, simply gazing at him.

“Hm?”

Sensing her silence, he raised an eyebrow in confusion and asked, “What, you don’t want to go back? Or do you prefer staying in a place like this?”

The Young Woman seemed to be sulking with him, standing motionless, her brows slightly furrowed as if lost in thought.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Did you absorb so much that you can’t move and need me to carry you back?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ashera floated to the Young Woman’s side and reached out to pick her up.