CHAPTER 10: Chat With Mio And Maria (I)

School was over and all the students were packing their bags and getting ready to go home. I wasn't picking up fast on purpose because I had to go with Mio and meet Maria. Finally, Mio packed her things and started walking towards the school exit door. I was walking too, but I was almost next to Mio. Every now and then he was looking at me.

We were leaving the school and we were going down the school slope when I heard someone's voice.

"Mio-sama! Mio-sama!" When I looked in the direction of the voice, I saw Maria waving both hands in the air and calling out to Mio.

I immediately looked at Mio and noticed that her face was a little red with embarrassment.

"You must be Mio right?" I said to Mio.

"Yes. My name is Naruse Mio." Mio said with shy voice.

"Oh. Sorry Naruse-san." I said because it wasn't very pleasant to call someone by name right from the start when meeting someone.

"My name is Asmodeus Ren. You can call me Ren. We're in the same class, we haven't met." I said with smile.

"I know, Ren-san." Mio said.

"You don't need to add -san, you can just call me Ren." I said with smile.

We were approaching Maria as we spoke. Maria must have noticed my aura as we approached, that her smile at first when calling Mio disappeared and she was looking at me with a cautious face, and then she stepped in front of Mio and put a distance between me and Mio.

"Who are you?" Maria said careful and cautious voice.

"His name is Asmodeus Ren." Mio said to Maria.

"Mio-sama this man is a demon." Maria said.

"Huh?!" Mio's voice was a little bit loud.

"Are we really going to talk about this in the middle of the street? I think it would not be appropriate to talk about secrets in front of so many people." I said.

"So what is you suggestion?" Maria said with cautious voice.

"If you want, let's talk in a cafe or you can come to my house." I said with smile.

"So our options are either a crowded place with a lot of people or your area." Maria said while thinking.

"You can call it that if you want, but I swear I wouldn't do anything to hurt you even if you came in my place. I wouldn't hurt pretty girls like you." I said with serious face.

"Hmm." Maria was still thinking.

"Sigh... You must have noticed from my aura that I'm stronger than both of you so I could force you away if I wanted to. But like I said, I want to help you." I said with sigh.

'Did he say he wanted to help us? And what he's saying is really true, he's very strong compared to us. If we choose to go to the cafe, he may think that we do not trust him and may not want to help us. But if we choose to go to his house, we will be in a completely defenseless room.' Maria thought.

"Okay, I accept." Suddenly Mio answered.

"Huh? Mio-sama what are you saying?" Maria said with surprised voice.

"Even if we choose to go to a cafe, it is very easy for him to kidnap us on the way, at least we will be prepared if we go on purpose." Mio said.

'Mio is brave as always.' I thought.

"Well you are right Mio-sama but-" Maria couldn't find a word for finish the sentence.

"Tell me, Ren, how can you help us?" Mio asked to me.

"I'm stronger than both of you, of course, by protecting you, there are also some things I know." I said.

"Will you protect us? What do you want in return?" Maria asked.

"Sigh... Are we going to keep having this conversation in the middle of the street?" I said with sigh.

"Okay, we will come." Maria said and they started following me to come to my house with Mio.

After walking for a while, we arrived in front of my house. We started walking towards the house, I opened the garden door and headed towards the door of the house. When I looked back, they both looked quite cautious.

"You are acting very strange. I'm not going to eat you." I said with smile.

"How can we be sure?" Maria said.

"Huh? Why would I want to eat you? What do you think I am, a cannibal?" I asked with upset face.

"Then tell me what is your race?" Maria asked.

"Came in. It's not good to be outside." I said and they came in my house.

They came in, I said let's sit on the sofa, but they preferred the table. Now the 3 of us are sitting at the table.

"Ahem. Do you have any questions?" I asked.

"Where are your parents?" Mio asked first.

"They died last summer in a traffic accident." I said with upset voice and face.

"Ah. Sorry for reminding to you. And sorry for your loss." Mio said with upset face because she loss her parents just 6 month ago.

" I'm sorry for your loss too." I said to Mio.

At first she had an expression as if questioning how I knew such a thing.

"How did you knew." Mio asked.

"Like I told you I know somethings." I answered.

"First, let me state that I am not your enemy. Also, you might think it's ridiculous that I want to protect someone I've just met, but I really do want to. Second, my race is a bit special, I'm half incubus and half vampire. But don't get confused, I have a full lineage in both. So I'm not a low-level vampire or incubus. Let me also mention that I am an original vampire. And I have a proposition for you. Would you like to live here with me?" I said.

"Huh?! You are a full of vampire not a human/vampire hybrid?" Maria asked suddenly.

"Yes like I told you I am a full vampire. Of course an incubus too." I said.

"And you want us to live with you." Maria asked.

Mio was quiet because she didn't quite know things like the importance of my race. And since Maria was more experienced, she had decided to leave the conversation to Maria.

"How will I know when you're in danger if I'm not in the same place as the people I want to protect?" I said.

"How do we know you didn't do it to deceive us and then take advantage of us?" Maria asked.

"Sigh... If I wanted to do something like this, what is stopping me right now?" I said to Maria with sigh.

"Ugh... You are right but-" Maria couldn't find a word.

"Maria, Mio I really want to protect you because the man who will come after Mio is stronger than you can deal with and also the hero clan is after Mio, you can't deal with them all. If you have enemies, the first thing you should do is make allies. And for allies it is quality, not number, that counts. I didn't have to protect you if I didn't want to, but I want to." I said to them.