Today was a tiresome day. Arsène had skipped school but for good reasons. He had to battle Marbas, a President of Hell. The battle itself was quite tiresome, as Marbas had the ability to weaken Arsène and damage him pretty awfully. Which was quite surprising since not even the bigger demons like Purson or Valefor could hurt Arsène that awfully. Of course, Purson and Valefor was massive and could have had a hard time attacking or hitting him. Or maybe they weren’t focusing on him. Either way, he would have been way too agile for them. Marbas however seemed different..

“I can’t quite name it..”

Arsène says aloud, catching the attention of Ethan, who standing next to him. Ethan looks at Arsène with a slight look of confusion.

“Did you say something?”

Arsène looks back at Ethan, shaking his head and smiling back at him.

“No, its nothing. I was just thinking about something.”

Ethan doesn’t doubt anything and focuses back on cleaning the dishes, a peaceful smile on his face. Arsène smiles and focuses on cleaning the dishes. He carefully held the plates in one hand as he carefully scrubbed it clean with his other hand. After repeating this action with two more dishes, he carefully placed them on a dish rack. He sighed as he dried his hands using a towel.

After cleaning the dishes, Arsène silently made his way out of the kitchen and walked over to the couch. He sat down, resting his head back as he let out a deep breath. He was quite exhausted, both from the fight with Marbas and just washing the dishes. He wondered, was he always this lazy? Or perhaps this is the aftermath of spell Marbas used on Arsène earlier that day?

He just shook his head and looked forward. He quickly glanced over at a notebook on the tablet in front of him. Looking around for a moment, Arsène wondered who the book belonged to, it didn’t seem to a novel Paz occasionally reads on their free time. It rather seemed like a book used for writing your notes in.

Arsène slowly leaned forward, taking the book into his hand. He took quick glances over the cover of the book and turned it around to see its back. The book itself seemed to be quite old, yet seems like it was started to be used recently. Arsène stayed silent as he opened the book, his first instinct was to look at the top of the first page. His eyes slightly widened as he saw the name of the owner of the book.

“Ethan..”

He mumbled under his breath. He quickly looked around to see if Ethan was around, he nodded as he heard rustling in the kitchen. After making sure he was in the clear, Arsène quickly flipped through the pages. His eyes quickly looked over the sketches on the pages, in quite the surprise at the fine art and Ethan’s talent. The sketches varied from scenery, landscapes to anatomy, faces and most important, angels.

Well, Arsène wouldn’t consider all of them as ‘angels’ as some looked like floating eyes with wings, others looked like multiple rings with eyes around them. But besides those weird ones, most were humanoid figures wearing different clothing. Some wore armor with weapons in hand, some had robes with a peaceful smile on their face. Some were almost nude angels with weapons in hand and some angels with robes and crown of sorts on head while having scrolls of sorts in hand.

Needless to say, the sketches were good and well drawn. Well, Arsène wasn’t an artist himself yet he can tell Ethan is quite good at his hobby. Or perhaps its a goal or dream of his to find an occupation in this.

“Umm.. Arsène..?”

Arsène’s eyes widened as he heard the voice call out of him, he turned to his side to find Ethan standing and looking at Arsène. He however did not look mad, he simply smiled as he stood by the couch. Arsène stood up, closing the book and holding in his hand as he rubbed the back of his neck with the other. Arsène slowly handed Ethan’s book back to him. Ethan, a smile still playing on his face, takes the book back.

Ethan then looks at Arsène. He hesitates but opens his lips to ask.

“What do you think?”

Arsène who was looking away from Ethan, turns his head to now look at him. He tilts his head a little like a confused dog.

“Think about what?”

Ethan holds onto his book, keeping it close to his chest as he looks down. He was clearly hesitant and embarrassed to ask further.

“What do you think of the sketches?”

Arsène thinks for moment, a smile on his face as he puts his fingers to his chin. He then nods and looks at Ethan.

“They look good, really good.”

Ethan smiles with joy and happiness, with a hint of excitement in his eyes. He nods back, looking down at his book with pride and contentment.

As Ethan smiled with pride, Arsène thought for a moment. Ethan’s perception of angels were quite unique compared to most people’s perspective. The art was quite intricate and well drawn, well detailed. And the design of the angels were not only creative, but somewhat meaningful.

Arsène takes a seat on the couch, thinking for a moment and looking at Ethan, who also sat down on another couch. Arsène leans back on the couch a little, raising an eyebrow.

“How did you come up with these? Some of these angels don’t look like the usual ones people draw.”

He said, gesturing to the book in Ethan’s hands. Ethan looks at the book and smiles as he looks at Arsène.

“Well, I am not sure… At first I found the humanoid angels with robes look really graceful.”

Ethan then looks down. A look of curiosity on his eyes yet he still had a smile.

“But I felt like that is not what angels are like. I feel like, as superior beings and servants of God, they would be more judgmental and have the ability to see what humans for what they are truly like.”

Arsène’s eyes slightly widen, yet he smiled brightly as he nodded as he looked at the notebook.

“Angels, beings that act as God’s servants, judging and seeing humans for what they truly are...”

He looks at Ethan.

“That’s quite the interesting perspective.”

Ethan nods, happy and feeling slightly embarrassed by the shower of compliments. There is a brief moment of silence as Arsène looks at the floor, wondering something. He then puts on a smile and looks at Ethan.

“Say Ethan, do you believe in God or angels?”

Ethan’s eyes slightly widen as he quickly looked at Arsène. He seemed like he wasn’t quite expecting that question. For a moment he holds onto his sketchbook a little tighter. He looks nervous as he looked down. He finally let out a sigh as he kept looking down.

“I… I am not sure. I don’t really believe in angels but honestly, I sometimes wish there is something beyond us, something superior, something stronger and something to look over us.”

Arsène goes silent for a moment, not expecting that answer. He was expecting a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, not something this complicated. Arsène leans back in the couch, smiling nervously as he replies.

“I-I see.”

He says as both of them go silent. At the same time, Ethan gets up and walks away with his sketchbook, not looking at Arsène. Arsène felt a bit guilty, as if he did something wrong. He knew he didn’t but a part of him felt like he shouldn’t have asked this question or at least should have continued the conversation.

*

A few hours pass as Arsène laid on his bed, his eyes stayed open as he looked at the lights on the ceiling. Arsène felt tired but he couldn’t fall asleep. Its as if his body was begging for rest but his eyes or mind refused to. Arsène then slowly turned to look at digital clock on his table. It was around 7 in the evening. Had he spent the entire evening just laying on the bed? Not even bothered to fall asleep? Well, he has been trying to sleep but to no avail. His eye lids felt heavy and he felt tired and exhausted.

However, he turns to look at the phone on the bed, next to his pillow. The phone rings with a notification, vibrating. Arsène for a moment felt extremely tired and didn’t feel like checking the message. He turned his side and then landed on his stomach. He tried falling asleep on the bed, but even after what felt like 10 minutes, he couldn’t fall asleep.

He got up, sitting up on his bed as he thought of what to do. He didn’t know, he had no idea what to do. A part of him wanted to lay on the bed and sleep for two days straight. But he knew he should stay awake and do something worthwhile instead of rotting away on the bed. He silently takes his phone and sits on the side of the bed. He quickly rubs his eyes as he yawns and stretches his hands. Without wasting a minute, the instant he finishes stretching, he gets off the bed and turns to walk towards the door.

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He then swipes the card over the reader, the door opens to the side as Arsène steps out. He stretches once more as he lets out a sigh. He opens his eyes as he looks at the common area. It seemed almost everyone was back or in the dorm. Alya seemed to be resting on the couch, hitting his legs back and forward as she laid on the couch on her stomach. She was tapping away or swiping away on her phone, ignorant to her surroundings. While Paz was once again busy reading the novel they seemed to have, they were quite into the book, seemed like their interest was quite piqued and they were concentrating on the book a lot.

Despite those two being the only two people in the common area, however Arsène knew there was one or more person that was not in the common area. That was because the door to the kitchen was open and the lights were turned on. Arsène didn’t smell any aroma or scent from the kitchen, perhaps it was still too early for dinner.

Arsène starts slowly walking to the kitchen, he would occasionally turn to look at Alya and Paz, wondering if they took a moment to look away from their phone or novel respectively to glance at Arsène. But no, it seemed the two were quite glued to their interests, not bothering to even notice Arsène. He then enters the kitchen, he takes a look around and saw Kami, who was preparing something. Arsène smiles and walks over to Kami, who immediately notices him and smiles.

“Oh hey Arsène, how are ya?”

Kami asked. Arsène noticed that Kami wasn’t wearing his sunglasses and tied his hair back into a bun. But still, didn’t bother to shave or properly trim that beard and mustache that was kicking in. Kami stopped what he was doing for a moment, turning and grabbing an apron. He quickly tosses the folded apron to Arsène, who catches it in time and looks at it. Then looks at Kami, who smiles and points to the apron.

“Now, wear it and lets get to work.”

“Get to work?”

Arsène asked, seemingly confused. He looked down at the apron again and sighs, before putting it on. Kami smirks, glad that Arsène chose to join in. He then started stirring a pot as he started with his questions.

“So which demon did you face in that cave?”

Kami asked, wanting to genuinely know. Arsène’s face immediately grimaced, looking quite pained and irritated by the topic. But nonetheless, he shook his head and started explaining.

“It was a demon that looked like a beast, like a lion.”

Arsène started, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

“But it had this rune or symbol edged on top of it’s forehead.”

Kami nodded, listening to Arsène while focusing on the food on the stove at the same time. Before Arsène could continue however, Kami passes over a chopping board and a few tomatoes. He then smiles as he hands me a knife.

“Chop these for me, I need them to make tonight’s dinner.”

Arsène looks at Kami, he hesitates for a bit. Arsène hasn’t helped in cooking before and this was his first time. First time in his new life. But he didn’t just throw the challenge or experience away with fright. Arsène smiles with confidence as he takes the knife into his hand. He then positions the knife and tomato.

“That’s it, just like that!”

Kami says as he continues doing something else. He occasionally would look at Arsène, keeping an eye on him. Then he would continue asking his questions.

“So what was this demon’s name? And what was it’s abilities?”

Arsène goes silent for a moment, focusing on cutting the tomatoes. He wasn’t used to this but remembers Alya cutting them the other day and him watching all the while. Arsène then replies to Kami, still focusing on cutting the vegetables.

“Well, the demon called itself ‘Marbas’. And it seemed special.”

Arsène replied. Kami would take a glance at Arsène before returning to his work, but his questioning wasn’t over yet.

“Marbas, huh? What exactly was it’s fighting style like?”

Arsène takes a look at Kami, smiling as he replied.

“Well, it didn’t seem volatile or didn’t seem impulsive. It talked about making deals with other humans.”

“Making deals with other humans?”

Kami asked. To which Arsène nodded.

“It would not attack that much. But however it would have really fast regeneration speed. Having the ability to- Argh!”

Arsène would let out a groan as he pulled his hand away from the chopping pad, setting the knife aside. Arsène would then take a look at his finger, he had accidentally cut himself in the process of talking to Kami. It was an honest and innocent mistake, he should have paid more attention to the task at hand and been focusing on it. Yet he let his guard down and lost focus, resulting in this.

Kami would turn to look at Arsène, then look at him with concern. He would clean his hands and walk over to Arsène. He would take Arsène’s hand in his as he examined the wound. But he would then smile and pat Arsène on the back.

“Hey! It’s okay! It’s just a small wound. It will heal soon.”

Arsène seemed surprised by the sudden change in mood, his eye’s slightly widened. But shrugs it off, as it was Kami after all. But almost as if on cue, Arsène felt a feeling on his finger. He turned to look at his finger, his eyes widening more now.

His wound, the cut, was slowly healing as the skin was slowly attaching or sewing back together. It was, quite the spectacal, something he hasn’t seen before. But something flashed in his mind, Marbas.

Arsène then look to over at Kami, who was also slightly amazed by this.

“Kami, this must be..”

“Marbas’s ability you gained from absorbing his core..”

Kami continued Arsène’s sentence, almost as if he read the room or Arsène’s mind to some extent. Arsène nodded, looking at his finger, which was completely healed now. No scar, no trace of the cut, nothing. It was completely healed and was the same finger again.

Kami nodded, quite proud probably since his theory was correct. He then turned to look at Arsène.

“So now we need to test how fast this regeneration works..”

Arsène turns to look at Kami, quite surprised or shocked. Was Kami planning to stab Arsène and see if the same healing factors work but in a different speeds?

“We are gonna see it in the next battle.”

Kami concluded, turning to continue the cooking. Arsène sighs in relief, almost glad he wasn’t going to be experimented on. Arsène then turns to continue cooking the tomatoes for the cooking. He wasn’t sure if the healing factor was autonomous or it was dependent on the user. But it didn’t matter much now. What mattered now is eating dinner and going to sleep, he had school tomorrow after all.

An hour or two pass as everyone gets seated at the dinning table, eating the food Kami had prepared. According to Paz, the food would sometimes be only per night. While sometimes the dinner would be stored and heated up again for the next day or so. This meal in particular was going to last another day or night.

Arsène silently ate the food, it tasted good. He was seated beside Kamui, who was eating with great etiquette and manners. Alya on the other hand was a messy eater. And Paz and Kami ate normally. Ethan was similar to Kamui but would eat at a slower pace.

Kami would then turn to Arsène, chewing on his food.

“By the way, from this day forth, you and Ethan will be using the same room.”

Just as Kami said that, Arsène choked on his food, almost spitting it out but managing to somehow keep it in his mouth and swallowing it. He coughs for a bit before looking at Kami with wide eyes.

“W-We are sharing the same room?”

Kami nods, continueing to eat his food on the plate.

“Me and Kamui don’t like having another person in our rooms. While Alya is a mess and Paz…”

Kami thought for a moment but shrugged it off.

“It’s a complicated matter.”

Arsène looked at Kami.

“And you picked me, knowing I won’t refuse..”

“Bingo!”

Kami nodded as he continued eating his dinner and was enjoying it. While Arsène didn’t.

*