Asta was unfazed, causing Laplace to frown and scratch his chin.
"You don't seem very surprised. Expected me, did you?"
Asta smirked, but answered in a neutral tone.
"Kinda."
Laplace laughed heartily at Asta's nonchalant response.
"You are about to break the rules again, after all. They apply to everybody, you know- especially to Council members since we have the ability to break them."
Laplace pointed to the small silver insignia sewn on the lapel of his suit jacket as if to make a point. The same insignia was sewn onto Asta's cloak; a five-pointed star inscribed in a circle.
"Again…? What do you mean, again?"
Asta's face twisted into an expression of dread as if he already knew the answer to his own question.
Laplace paused for a second, seemingly trying to reset his own train of thought, and then muttered, albeit audibly through an almost pained grimace,
"Ah, it would be the first time for you, wouldn't it…" Laplace bit his lip, "I keep forgetting things, I must be getting old…"
"Have I done this before?" Asta asked, maintaining his expression of dread, along with a new feeling of deja vu.
This time, the response came quickly.
"Before? I don't know," Laplace shrugged playfully, "it could be after, could even be at the exact same moment."
Asta responded immediately, almost in a panic.
"Could you give me a better response than that? That doesn't sa-"
Laplace teleported in front of Asta, interrupting his sentence without making a single sound, erasing both his magic signature and his Ki.
He wasn't hiding before- he was holding back. He wanted to be found behind that tree.
Not now.
This was Laplace at his most serious, and frankly, it terrified Asta. Not that he showed it, anyway.
Laplace bent forward, his face now inches from Asta's.
"Who said you needed to know anything?"
Laplace's red eyes glowed with a mysterious intensity that contrasted his otherwise lack of presence. The air around them crackled with unspoken tension as Laplace continued, his voice now a low, menacing whisper.
"You're such a fucking troublemaker, you know that? I should've killed you when I still had the chance. Thanks to you, I have so much DAMN work to do nowadays that I feel like it's NEVER going to end. Actually, knowing you and your 'friendship' or 'love' or whatever naive reason you're doing all this shit for, it really might never end."
Laplace backed up a step, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm himself down. He continued with a neutral conversational tone.
"You know that these rules are in place for a reason, right? Breaking these rules might not affect us since we Council members are separate from the flow of normal time, but it sure as hell affects others. You're playing with lives here, Astaroth- or should I call you Asta now, since we're alone- whatever you might think, you're not saving anyone by doing what you're about to do... especially not yourself."
Asta just stood there, as if shell-shocked. In response, Laplace could only put his palm to his face and sigh.
"What am I even prattling on about…? You're not gonna remember any of this shit anyway. Let's see if this one works. If not? Well, see you later, I guess."
Laplace made a gesture with his left hand, his right still resting on his face,
"Continuity Magic: Break"
Alternate Timeline, 177 years later
Caput Mundi, High Devil Realm (Formerly Spade Kingdom):
"...sta, wake up! Asta! You're gonna be late!"
It was a girl's voice.
"ASTA!"
He was slapped wide awake in his bed and sat up. He knew the girl standing by his bed, of course. With her beautiful silver hair and violet eyes, she was unmistakably of high nobility. If only she didn't have such a nasty personality…
"...Noelle, what the hell, it's not even 7:00 in the morning yet. Leave me alone,"
Asta responded almost automatically.
"Noelle? What? Who the fuck is Noelle? A-are you seeing someone?"
The girl glared at Asta with a mixture of genuine panic and anger.
Asta put his hands up as if surrendering.
"No no no, it's not like that, Noelle is…"
Asta paused, a genuine look of concern overtaking his face.
"Noelle is…"
"See? I KNEW-"
"Nonononono," Asta interrupted, in a panic of his own, "Uhm… it must've been a bad dream. Sorry about that, Lilith."
The silver-haired girl- Lilith, pouted in response.
"Hmph. Whatever."
Asta swung his feet out from under his blankets to the floor, standing up.
"Are my parents awake?"
"Yeah, they're downstairs cooking breakfast. They're the ones that asked me to wake you up."
"Heh, figures." Asta chuckled, "This fancy academy starts real early- I gotta used to that, I guess… and a lot of other things. Thanks, Lilith."
"Don't thank me," Lilith blushed subtly, "thank your parents downstairs," she made a gesture for Asta to follow her as she walked towards the door.
As Asta followed Lilith downstairs, his mind raced with fragments of memories that felt both familiar and foreign. There was a lingering sense of déjà vu as if he had experienced these moments before, yet they slipped away like sand through his fingers whenever he tried to grasp them.
As they entered the kitchen, Asta's parents turned to greet them, their warm smiles contrasting the chill in Asta's heart. His father, a tall man with gray hair and sharp, intelligent eyes, greeted him first.
"Asta, good morning! Did Lilith wake you up alright?" His voice carried a hint of amusement as he exchanged a knowing glance with his wife.
Asta nodded, offering a weak smile. "Yeah, she did." His words felt hollow.
His mother, a graceful but small woman with gentle features and bright green eyes much like Asta's own, approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Good morning, dear. Did you sleep well?"
Asta hesitated for a moment, the weight of uncertainty pressing down on him. "I... think so," he replied, his voice betraying his uncertainty.
Lilith shot him a curious glance but said nothing as she took a seat at the table. Asta joined her, his mind still swirling with unanswered questions and fragmented memories.
As they ate breakfast, Asta's thoughts drifted back to his dream, at least fragments of it that he seemed to remember. Words echoed in Asta's mind, each syllable carrying a weight that he couldn't shake off.
"You're playing with lives here, Astaroth... you're not saving anyone."
Asta knew there was more to those words. But try as he might, the memories remained just out of reach, taunting him with glimpses of a past that felt like a distant dream.
After a long break, I'm back. From here, this story will diverge GREATLY from the original.
Non-Canon Spells List:
Continuity Magic: Break
Laplace's only spell. Allows the caster to break continuity in any way, no restrictions applied except for mana capacity. Can be used to manipulate time-space to the caster's will, or peer into the future. Also allows for the creation of time paradoxes and alternate universes.