Chapter 88: Being Filled In (1)

Chapter 88

Walking into the house, Mia quickly pulled out a vial from a ring on her finger.

The vial contained a swirling red liquid, which she immediately fed to the boy.

The taste of the liquid was exactly like the one he had drunk from the mysterious saviour that very night, further solidifying his belief that Mia was the same person.

After feeding him the drink and watching his injuries begin to heal, Mia sifted through the laundry scattered across the couch before picking out a few random clothes and undies and walking upstairs.

"Wait here. I will be back."

And then, she vanished, leaving Asher seated on the couch with his gaze fixated on the ceiling overhead.

"Man.... Today was tough," he muttered as he glanced back at the black knife in his hand. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Even after the battle was over, it hadn’t transformed back into the black glove from earlier.

Which begged the question...

What even was this black knife?

His mind naturally drifted back to the battle he had just endured, and boy, was it difficult.

Although his body felt noticeably lighter than before, he had no illusions that he had suddenly become capable of shattering a mountain with one punch.

Or jumping incredibly high into the air like those anime characters.

Even with the increased lightness and slight boost in strength, he had still been tossed around by the Shade.

Which proved one thing to the boy today.

Even though Shades were the weakest in the hierarchy, that didn’t mean they couldn’t pose a significant threat to humans.

They were only considered weak when compared to the other Shadow creatures within their hierarchy.

’Uh... let’s see if this works like in anime....’

"Veil Interface."

*Tring!*

Immediately, a black, floating, translucent screen appeared in front of his face.

[THE VEIL INTERFACE]

[Name: Asher Reid]

[Status: Alive]

[Synchronization: 5%]

[Eidolon: The Hollow Watcher]

[Mental Stability: 96%]

[Corruption: 0%]

[Shadow Essence: 13 >>> 15 Units]

==========

His injuries were beginning to patch themselves up at an impressive rate as he stared at the screen in front of him.

’Hm. So I got two Essence from defeating the Shade, huh? What even is the use of this Essence, though?’

He rubbed his chin in deep thought, piercing the screen with a deep glare as if the answer were hidden within the block of text displayed before his eyes.

Alas!

There was no such answer.

And with that, Mia could be heard descending the stairs.

The sound of a lighter being flicked on echoed through the room.

Soon, she drew in a deep breath before blowing out smoke from the corner of her lips.

Grabbing a wooden chair, she dragged it from where it had been before setting it down a few steps in front of Asher.

She then sat down calmly.

Asher’s brow twitched in irritation.

"Each house and room has a wardrobe built into them, but you chose to make your couch your wardrobe? I’m so uncomfortable seeing your undies all around here."

Blowing out another puff of smoke, Mia lifted a brow.

"You are uncomfortable? Really?" she asked as a small smirk played on her lips.

She leaned forward with a devilish grin.

"Or are you pretending to be uncomfortable?"

Asher frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on. Don’t play dumb. Do you want to say that you didn’t sniff them?"

"....?!"

"The fuck?! What do you think of me? A pervert?!" Asher exploded, his cheeks turning red.

Mia leaned backward with a nod of her head.

"Of course. I still think of you as a pervert. Because it’s only a pervert who would see a beautiful neighbour for the first time and the first thing they do is pretend to faint on her boobs, no less. That’s brave of you, kid."

"...."

Asher blinked once.

Then twice.

Then again.

Before turning his head to the side, a drop of sweat rolling down his chin as he scratched his beard in embarrassment.

"Haven’t I apologized for that? I thought you might have been a Shadow creature. Come on, you can’t blame me, though. You stalker."

Mia dragged on her cigarette before letting out a huff of smoke through her nose and shrugging.

"I guess I can forgive that."

"Hmph. So tell me everything I wanted to know. What changed in this world?"

Mia froze mid-drag.

A second later, she slowly lowered the cigarette and placed it aside before letting out a tired sigh.

"A lot happened during your Nightmare trial. First, tell me; where did you get that knife from?"

Asher frowned at the strange question.

’How does that correlate with what I asked?’

Regardless, he decided to give her an answer.

"I woke up with this strange black fog that took the shape of a glove on my left hand, but it wasn’t quite a glove, though. So during my fight with the Shade, it transformed into this knife. I still don’t know what it is or why my Eidolon hadn’t appeared, though."

"...."

Mia stared at him in shock for a moment before suddenly letting out an exhilarated chuckle.

She pointed at him as if he were some complete fool.

"Moron, that knife is your Eidolon."

Asher’s eyelids fluttered for a moment.

He lowered his gaze toward the knife in his hand and stared at it for several seconds before lifting his head again to look at the woman.

"Huh?!"

Mia nodded, still chuckling.

"How haven’t you figured that out yet?"

Asher stared at the knife once more before frowning.

"Wait a moment. Why do I feel like you are deflecting my question? Forget the Eidolon for a moment because I don’t want to talk about the bastard yet. You tell me."

Asher’s tone began to rise.

"I fell asleep and entered the Nightmare as a sixteen-year-old boy with a fresh face without an ounce of facial hair. And I wake up with a moustache and a few prominent strands of beard? And my hair’s fuller. What’s going on? How long was I asleep for?"

"...."

Silence instantly descended upon the house.

Mia’s expression fell.

"I honestly didn’t want to tell you so you wouldn’t have a heart attack, but since you insist..."

’Huh?’

Mia exhaled a tired sigh.

".... Five...."

"Five what?"

"Five years have passed since you went into your Nightmare, Asher."

She paused.

Then looked directly into his eyes.

"So congratulations."

A faint, almost sympathetic smile appeared on her lips.

"You are now twenty-one years old."

".....?!"