It's Sunday again. The day when I should spend the rest of the day sleeping.

  But as always, the constellations above like to play around with me.

  Because right now, at 8:27 a.m., Suraya just messaged me

  "Hey Dani, you awake? "

  . . .

  Why is Suraya texting me this early anyway? I thought to myself before deciding not to leave her hanging

  "Yeah, I am. . . why? "

  "You free this evening? "

  "If sleep didn't count as part of a hobby, yes"

  My last message was left unread for exactly 6 seconds before another message from her popped out

  "Want to hang out? Just two of us"

  . . .

  Well, this is surprising. What's this, a date or something? I thought to myself calmly

  Not that I mind, but it's just unusual. So I decided to ask her about them

  "Farah didn't come along? "

  "No, she said she wants to help organize aid for the orphanage"

  "Adam? "

  "Help police by patrolling around for crimes"

  "Syed? "

  "Already at space, you know why"

  . . . So this is either a coincidence or planned by them. . . Damn them I deduced it calmly before I got another message from her

  "So? "

  It looks like a simple question, something that I could just refuse with a single 'no'

  But I knew she wanted me to say yes, I guess she wanted to spend time with me, since we barely got time together after she became famous

  Which I will, I don't want to make her feel sad after all

  "You'd better treat me at dinner for this"

  "Hehe, alright Dani. Does 6 p.m. sound good? "

  "Yeah"

  . . .

  Huff, I should have said right now. . . Maybe I can go to sleep quickly

  It's 5:59 p.m., or to be more precise, it's 30 seconds before 6 p.m. when I checked the time on my watch

  Huh, is she going to lat-

  Just before I could finish my thought, a blue magic circle appeared a few meters away in front of me, and a large amount of mana flowed out slowly in blue light particles.

  That's when I saw her with her blue dress before she saw me and gave me her usual sakura smile to me.

  Honestly, it would have been beautiful if it hadn't happened in public. And a perfect romance scene if I didn't just wear a simple white T-shirt and black jeans

  "Well, I at least expect you to wear something nice Dani" She teased me while smiling softly

  "And I expect you to show up to me by walking, not by using a teleportation spell in public "

  "Hey, it's much faster that way, ok! " She mock pouted at me

  "Yeah? You're almost 30 seconds late for a fact"

  "Dani, I don't need you to be like Farah right now" She gazed at me while narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms

  "Can't be helped, that specific habit of hers sticks to me. . . "

  She stared with her soft eyes and a slight disappointed look at me before she sighed and walked slowly to me, straightened my T-shirt collar

  "You need to look good, Dani. Did you at least iron this T-shirt before wearing it? " She scolded me with her gentle tone

  "No. . . My bad"

  "I'm not mad, Dani, but come on, you're hanging out with the prodigy mage herself, so help me by looking good next time, ok? " She teases me while smiling softly

  I let the moment hang for a while before I decided to pinch her cheek which made her gasp softly

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  "O-Ouch! What was that for Dani?! "

  "Be smug again and I won't hang out with you next time " I said calmly before pinching her other cheek

  "Ouch ouch! Alright alright! I won't again! Geez Dani. . . "

  I looked at her calmly before releasing my pinch on her cheek

  Honestly, she looked cute like that. Not that I won't admit it in this situation, it will just boost her ego

  She then grabbed my hand and pulled me to wherever she wanted to drag me

  "Come on, let's go get dinner for your grumpy stomach "

  ". . . Hmm, sure "

  "Hey, Suraya? "

  "Hmm, yes Dani? "

  "You already bought 20 magic books, 20 different scrolls, and 20 potions "

  "Yes"

  "And you want to buy more? "

  "Yes"

  ". . . Is that not enoug-"

  "No, it's not Dani"

  ". . . You're greedy"

  "It's not greedy Dani, I just craved more for knowledge "

  ". . . It's the same thing"

  She smiled smugly while raising her index finger like she was a damn professor

  "Hehe, well, have you never heard the phrase 'Good magician craves knowledge', Dani? "

  ". . . Yes, I do "

  "Hmm, plus I need more knowledge so I can create an artificial gate for your gateless condition "

  ". . . Thought we already moved on from my condition"

  "Dani, we never did, it's just that we do the research in silence now"

  ". . . Just don't burn yourself out, I hate to see the prodigy mage in the hospital"

  "Hehe, you have my promise"

  Just when we're about to enter another shop, a man just a few inches from me starts acting weird.

  It's just a small finger twitch at first, then his eyes start to look crazed before he claws his face with his fingers, making everyone nearby him feel uncomfortable

  "E-Eek! What the hell?! "

  "Someone stop him! "

  A poor nearby guard approaches him, tries to stop whatever that man is doing

  "Sir, stop this! " he said while holding both of that man's arms

  That's when his mouth opened wide and his eyes started to roll back before two arms bathed in blood came out slowly which shocked everyone there

  "W-. . . Wha-"

  The hands grabbed the guard's face before ripping it off quickly, making the guard fall and convulse on the floor before dying

  The moment before chaos.

  "Ahhhh!!!!!! "

  "Run!! Run!!!!! "

  Suraya suddenly carried me in her arms in bridal style before she used her flying spell and flew both of us to the second floor and landed gracefully

  The entity crawled its way out before revealing an entity that was similar to a human but without skin, before it turned both of its eyes towards us

  Or towards me, to be precise.

  "Damn it. . . Just when Dani's here. . ." Suraya murmured softly to herself

  ". . . Suraya? "

  "Yes? "

  ". . . Could you please put me down? "

  "Of course not, this way I could protect you better "

  ". . . Huff, did you really have to carry me in bridal style anyway? "

  "Hehe"

  Both of us then stared at the creature which started running to the second floor at high speed

  That's when I noticed that she summoned her own wood staff before she cast fire beam to burn and disintegrate that thing away

  "Alright, Dani, just stay still and don't move too much, ok? " She said while smiling softly at me

  ". . . Hey, did you know what that thing is? "

  "Oh. . . I think it's a magic zombie or something"

  "Magic what? "

  "It's a creature that was created inside someone's body using their soul, so I guess that man's soul earlier was gone now"

  ". . . I see. . . Are these natural cases? "

  ". . . No, I think someone is summoning them. This thing happened too suddenly for it to be natural"

  She then quickly uses detection magic and immediately senses there are at least 100 of those zombies around the building before finding the summoner's mana on the rooftop

  "Well? " I asked her calmly

  "Hmm. . . I didn't sense the summoner's body, but their source mana is on the rooftop"

  ". . . Well, that means you just need to teleport there and kill the summoner"

  ". . . Dani, I actually want to help them first"

  "Them? "

  "The people here Dani"

  ". . . "

  "I will cast my spell automatically and kill those zombies first, make sure they don't harm anyone else"

  ". . . Suraya, we didn't even know the-"

  That's when my speech was interrupted by the scream of a woman in fear

  "Help! Help!! "

  She ran towards us while carrying her baby from 2 of those zombies before Suraya immediately swung her wooden staff to cut both of them in half using an air cutting spell

  "Get out of here immediately, miss. Oh yeah, don't go to the entrance, use the emergency exit. There should be guards there" She said softly to the woman

  "Ha. . . Ha. . . Thank you! Thank you very much! " The woman thanked her while bowing before running to the emergency exit with her baby

  Right after she makes sure both of them are safe, she immediately casts boost and auto beam spell before holding me closer to her

  "Hold on tight, Dani" she said softly before running to the rooftop while her spell automatically killed those zombies on sight

  And for the next 2 minutes, it was just silent between us, the only sound surrounding us was the zombies' groaning in pain, and her magic beam spell

  I could have let this silence linger longer

  But I just couldn't

  I don't know why, but deep inside my heart, her action earlier still bothered me

  "You're too kind, Suraya" I said softly

  "Hmm? "

  ". . . If I were you, I would have just teleported right away to the summoner and finished the job"

  ". . . "

  ". . . I wouldn't waste my mana saving these people"

  She then looked at me, although she didn't say it, her eyebrows were lower than usual.

  I figured she must be sad about how I expressed those people before

  She then turned her focus back to those zombies and talked to me softly

  "Dani, out of all people, I didn't expect you to say that"

  Her solemn tone struck my heart hard for some reason

  I didn't mean to make her sad. I don't want to

  ". . . Sorry Suraya, I shouldn't have mentioned it"

  "N-No Dani! Don't apologize, if anything I just want to understand you better"

  "No, it's my fault. It sounds like I try to influence you into being cold-hearted like me, forget I ever said that"

  ". . .! Dani, you're not-"

  "Suraya, you are almost at the rooftop, focus on your main objective first"

  ". . . Alright"

  When she arrived at the door of the rooftop, she immediately burst through the rooftop door with her magic beam

  ". . .! Suraya, shield! "

  She immediately cast shield right after my warning before a blood spear flew in her direction and struck her shield

  ". . . You had a very nice instinct, prodigy "

  That's what we heard before we saw a humanoid demon with wings formed by blood slowly land on the rooftop

  ". . . I'm the one who warned you, yet you get the praise? " I state the fact calmly

  "Dani, not the time! "

  Right after the demon landed, the first thing that he did was look straight into my eyes

  ". . . How generous of you to bring the boy I want"

  ". . . What did you just said. . .? " Suraya ask coldly

  "Ah, forgive me. It's rude not to introduce myself first, my name is Alukah. A demo-"

  Just before the demon could introduce himself, he suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence

  The birds around us stopped flying mid-way

  The sound of police sirens had also stopped all of a sudden

  Everything stopped in place. Or to be precise, time had stopped under Suraya's time magic

  Except for me and her

  She then cast hundreds of magic beams around the demon in seconds before I realized the situation

  ". . . Wait, is the time stop?? " I asked, flabbergasted

  "Yep, except for you and me, time has stopped for the whole world "

  "Huh. . . No wonder that demon suddenly stopped talking, but why am I excluded? "

  "Hehe, that's why I carry you close to me Dani, I cast an anti-time stop spell on you"

  ". . . I see. . . "

  She then raised her staff, aiming it at the demon before casting a whole sunbeam

  "I want your ashes to exist no longer, demon" she murmured to herself coldly before casting the sunbeam spell above the demon

  Everything starts moving slowly as if time tries to adjust itself back before moving normally

  And in the second, every single one of the beams attacked that demon before it got hit by the sunbeam and was vaporized

  That demon didn't even have the chance to scream. Hell, not even his ashes remained in sight

  After she made sure that the demon was gone entirely, she landed gracefully before gently putting me down

  "Urgh. . . My back hurt, you carried me for too long, Suraya"

  "Don't complain too much Dani, my arm is also sore from carrying you" she teased me

  "Carrying me is completely optional, just to remind you "

  I looked at the place where the demon had once stood, before a thought crossed my mind

  I really can't have a normal life anymore, can I?

  ". . . Dani? "

  The way she asked me softly made me snap out of my thought before l looked at her eyes calmly

  "Hmm? "

  ". . . You ok? You look. . . Conflicted"

  ". . . Yeah, you bet I'm conflicted, should I go home now or ask you for another dinner treat because of this shit? "

  "Hehe, alright Dani. I'll treat you to another dinner, deal? "

  ". . . Sounds good"

  "Oh! I know a restaurant nearby that has delicious ramen broth. I'm sure you're gonna like it! "

  "Oh. . . Can you just teleport us there right away? "

  "Erm. . . I actually almost ran out of mana, plus I want to enjoy my time walking with you, hehe"

  ". . . Huff, alright"

  She then took my hand softly before pulling me with her

  "Come on, let's go there right away! "

  "You sure you don't want to wait for the authority to arrive here first? "

  "Don't worry Dani, they can handle this without me" she gives me her usual Sakura smile

  The moment between us is. . . Warm. . . To say the least

  But inside my head, her question earlier still lingered in my mind

  ". . . You ok? You look. . . Conflicted"

  Yeah, I actually am.

  I wonder if it's better to let the next demon . . . Or 'him' to just take me away

  It sounds crazy but, I don't want anything bad to happen to them because of me

  . . .

  I will never admit this to them. . .

  But I like playing games with Adam

  The way Farah scolded me for such a simple thing

  Suraya and I teased each other whenever we could

  And Syed just randomly spawned in my house and blinded me with his holy light

  I. . . Like those moments

  And they're. . . My sole reason I'm still alive

  . . .

  Hey, constellations

  For once. . . Let me be a selfish, greedy bastard

  I have a wish

  A wish that I desperately want

  And that is. . . I want them to have their own happy ending in any way possible

  . . . Even if their happy ending didn't have me in it