Chapter 70: You shouldn’t have fought them."

​"If I hadn’t done that, they would have gotten suspicious."

​The demon’s voice was calm and steady, as always. Like her answer was pre-planned. It was just a cold admission, as if it didn’t even belong to her.

​Hearing this, the faint, relieved smile on Himanshu’s lips faded in an instant. The muscles in his face tensed up slightly. He knew that what she did was right, and this was exactly the answer he was expecting.

But maybe he had hoped for a bit too much from this moment. He thought that, at the very least, the demon would show some kind of reaction now. But no, for a Demon Queen who had accepted her entire existence as just a comic book character, this was enough. She was living her fate like a pre-written script.

​For a few moments, the demon just stood there. Her deep, bottomless eyes were locked onto the glass, as if she was waiting for his answer or some sort of reaction. There was a weird heaviness in the air.

​Himanshu took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and slightly averting his gaze, said softly, "I understand."

​Hearing this, without showing any other emotion, the demon pulled the taxi door open with a jerk and slid inside.

​Himanshu got in from the other side. He pulled the door shut with his good hand—the one that wasn’t hurt. The moment the door clicked shut, it felt like they were cut off from the rest of the world. The noise of the cars speeding on the road, the shouting of people, the honking—everything went dead silent in an instant.

Now, in that small enclosed space, only three things were left: the soft rustle of the cold air coming from the taxi’s AC, the slow and rhythmic breathing of the demon, and that weirdly comforting scent coming from her, which smelled exactly like the clouds right after it rains.

​This was the first time the demon was sitting in a taxi. Because of that, there was a slight confusion in her eyes at first. She kept turning her head, looking at the taxi’s roof, the seats, and the door handles. Her fingertips lightly traced the fabric of the seat.

But the second Himanshu turned his neck to look at her, she instantly pulled back that curious gaze. After casually looking around for a few more seconds, she put that emotionless mask back on her face and quietly started staring out the window, watching the city blur past in the dark night.

​He didn’t know why, but sitting alone with her in this kind of silence was making Himanshu feel extremely uncomfortable today. Despite the cold AC air, he could feel a slight sweat forming at the back of his neck.

His heart was beating a bit faster than normal—every single beat echoing in his ears. Just to distract himself from this weird, suffocating situation, he started bouncing his right leg rapidly. The shaking of his thigh was sending a wave of restlessness through his entire body.

​It was a very strange thing. He had been living with the demon for so many days now, he had faced all sorts of crazy situations, but he had never felt this kind of nervousness, this kind of suffocating feeling before.

He didn’t want to give a name to this feeling, nor did he want to express it, but right now, it felt like every single second, every single moment passing in this taxi was incredibly precious. Like something slipping through his fingers like sand.

​For five to ten minutes, a suffocating silence lingered in the entire taxi. The yellow and white lights of the city filtered through the glass, falling on the demon’s face before vanishing back into the dark.

​The demon hadn’t taken her eyes off the window glass even once. Himanshu was watching her from the corner of his eye. He knew that this calm face of hers was just an act; deep down, she was lost in some heavy thoughts.

In her reflection on the glass, Himanshu noticed a tiny movement. The demon wasn’t completely calm—her wax-like, pale, long fingers were intertwined in her lap, and her thumbs were repeatedly scraping against each other’s nails. It was a very subtle, almost invisible restlessness.

​Just then, without even looking at him, the demon’s voice cut through the silence of the taxi.

​"You shouldn’t have fought them."

​Himanshu’s rapidly bouncing right leg stopped mid-air. His whole body froze for a second. He slowly turned his neck to look at the demon.

​He knew it. He knew deep down that he would have to face this question. But the problem was, he hadn’t even thought about what his answer would be. His brain started searching for excuses at lightning speed, but his tongue felt glued to the roof of his mouth.

​For a few moments, only the rustling of the AC echoed. Then he lowered his gaze and stuttered,

"I... I just couldn’t control myself."

​The demon didn’t reply. She didn’t even turn her face toward him. She just kept looking at the racing lights outside with that same flat expression, in that same calm posture.

​Himanshu just kept looking at her like that for a few moments. The glare of the streetlights outside was reflecting in the demon’s eyes.

Slowly, Himanshu was starting to feel disgusted by his own answer, and by the demon’s question. A weird fire started burning inside him.

He had zero regrets about smashing that bastard’s face. If he saw him again, Himanshu was damn sure he would beat him even worse this time. His fists clenched on their own, sending a sweet sting of pain through his injured hand.

​But for some reason, Himanshu didn’t want to show this angry feeling in front of the demon. That guy did such a cheap thing, insulted her so badly, and yet the demon hadn’t said a single word back to him! This very thing, this silence, was burning Himanshu from the inside like poison.

Z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*z*

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