A few moments after the event of Asta getting hit with a knockout uppercut, Asta opens his eyes and wakes up to the find himself starring at the glittering night sky.
He groans for a second, the injury from the punch already most healed thanks to his regeneration trait.
Then out of nowhere, Asta found the culprit, Sol, looking away from him from the side, whistling as she nervously refused to match his gaze out of embarrassment.
However above everything else, Asta found Sol's behavior more suspicious since he mostly knew what type of men-hating misandrist she is in reality.
Seconds passed by as Asta kept his guard up and slowly backed away from like a beast, his gaze still stuck on Sol as he stood up to his ground a d nade a few meters of distance between them.
"What were you doing under the castle? I reckon everybody not injured was supposed to be hunting spies." He asked her.
But Sol didn't say a word. She only pointed her finger at the incapacitated spy that now lay captured within a small cubic hut of hardened mud and rock.
However while he wasn't a petty person or wanna be tyrant, the constant whistling and the nervous gaze that didn't even look at him, kept pushing Asta's rage further, especially after the knockout punch that forced him to bite his tongue. (Note:- Ouch!)
Waiting for a second, Asta once more turns at Sol, hoping to at least get a reaction out of her for assaulting him for no reason.
Yet when he turned, he found her neither prideful nor cautious. Instead she was on bowing down in front with her forehead touching the ground.
"PLEASE TEACH ME SWORDSMANSHIP! "
The loud requestful words destroyed both of Asta's eardrums. He didn't hear a single word, his word instantly blanked out for a second as he wondered if he had just heard a Demon's dying screech.
The yell was so loud even the sleeping Liebe who was still recovering after enduring the Angelic trait's rampage was woken up and appeared in his chibi form while postured like a hissing cat.
"Bo is It!? Who airs attccke e! (Who is it!? Who dares attack me!) " roars the flabbergasted small devil in a half sleepy tone, his mind still not fully awake as he cutely tumbles forward down Asta's shoulder and lands in a patch of grass.
Only after landing did Liebe finally wakes up , his head now filled with dozen of question marks which appeared comically above his head.
BASH!!
At the same time something flies out from behind Asta and hits him in the back, sending him crashing into Sol. The next second they both bounce like bowling pins, going into two different directions.
Among the two, Asta crashes into the rack of wooden weapons. On the other hand, Sol gets plastered on a wall as a upside painting.
...
Then with the sound of harsh footsteps, two girls walk into Asta's view, one a white haired one with two twin ponytails and the other having the most nervous smile alongside her Vermillion coloured hair.
It was Noelle and Mimosa, their eyes looking around as a water bubble spun at the edge of Noelle's wand.
"Noelle, aren't you being a little too harsh?" Mimosa spoke nervously but—
"Harsh!? Didn't you hear that voice just now!?"
Noelle stomps the ground in anger and continues, "-That idiot had the audacity to play around with a girl while we had to wait for him the darned ballroom! He has been king for 2 days and he is already lusting after girls. "
The anger and jealousy that was ablaze inside Noelle was enough to smelt iron at this point. After Asta was killed in Parliament and it was her that went into a partly-depressive state from his death.
But that wasn't the end of her anger as it turns out her most beloved cousin hid the news of his return from her and the first meeting she had with him after his return ended with her being literally slammed unconscious on a metal floor.
Combining that anger with all the frustration from waiting and then hearing a girl's voice from the place Asta was supposed to be training. Noelle erupted in a frenzy of pure rage.
But out of nowhere, A loud thud gathered Noelle's attention as Sol slowly groans in the corner of the training ground with a sword hung at her waist.
'Wait–,' Noelle squints her eyes and focuses, ' Isn't that the misandrist from blue rose? Why is she here? And why is she carrying a sword?'
The possibility of a Asta dating someone instantly faded from Noelle's head. She would be mad to think a professional man hater like Sol would ever try to get close to Asta.
That's when, within the storm of her thoughts, Noelle felt a small tug at her shoulder and turned to hear to Mimosa's voice.
"Look over there."
Mimosa was pointing somewhere to the side, to be more precise she was pointing at the hut of mud with a cultist looking face was sticking out of the tiny entrance.
It was at that moment Noelle finally realised that she was mistaken and felt a little relief.
However then realisation struck as she remembered she had just assaulted a king in his own castle just because she thought he was dating someone despite her not having an relationship with him.
Terror quickly struck Noelle, her mind racing with panic as she began imagining her head placed at the basket of a choping board with two black crosses replacing her eyes(no gore).
But just as she was panicking, A bulky arm reached out and grabs her and Mimosa's shoulders from behind as a eerie voice whispered some random noise into their ears.
"KYAAHK!! " x 2
Both Mimosa and Noelle scream in fear as they both jumped forward without thinking.
The moment they landed, they slipped, reflexes peaking as they both tried to use magic but the time was too little.
The ground began enlarging with their visions, their eyes involuntarily closing in anticipation of pain.
....
.....
However there was no impact, crash or pain, only a awkward silence that spoke for itself accompanied by a whizzing laughter.
The two of them slowly opened their eyes, their confused minds failing to comprehend as they found themselves just calmly floating a inch away from the ground without anything grabbing or stopping them.
They both then finally heard the laughter coming from behind them, their faces flustered with embarrassment as they both turn around to find Asta just laughing, one of his hands clutching his stomach while he holds them up with gravity magic using the other.
" Hahahaha~ *tries imitating Noelle's scream* What sort of scream was that?? A squirrel's squeak? " He mocked then joyfully, his laughter echoing through training ground.
–Spash!
However that laughter didn't last long as another water missile hits him in the face, breaking his focus and dispelling his control over gravity.
What followed was a stream of constant giggling from Asta's mouth as he was showered by a barrage of doll-like punches from Noelle who was flustered red like a tomato.
That moment of tomfoolery made Asta feel at home for once. Eventually, leaving him wondering if he could even bring himself to tell everyone about the truth.
Slowly but surely, his laughter died down within seconds. He stood up, the earlier smile replaced by soulless and forced fake smile that hid his stern and stressful internal thoughts.
And as expected, Noelle and Mimosa didn't get deceived by the fake smile. However they also couldn't call it out due to their lacking knowledge and let it stay.
Hufff... Phew
Soon enough, Asta had gathered a little courage to his anxiety. He looks at the two girls standing in front of him, his imagination filled with disapproving gazes and animosity he would recieve but he didn't relent.
"Mimosa, Noelle. I have something to say. "
The cold expression as Asta said those words silenced the two of them down, and just as the tension was at its peak.
"I am n—"
Snap! ~Fwoosh!!
"–ot your *noticies the change* aaastta—... Huh?"
The moment Asta began to reveal the truth. The world vanishes from his eyes, replaced by blank world and his words fell on empty ears.
It felt like a out of place experience and for some reason Asta knew he was not in this darkness alone.
[I can't also you that... Host. Or maybe I should call you by our name, Asta. ]
There was the familiar ping noise by the system, but not a panel. Actual words now accompanied the message, a exhausted voice that seemed a little annoyed.
Asta turned back, his eyes falling as he found the System in a new avatar compared to before. It was looking at an mirror just one from his memories as Asta found himself looking at an version of himself that was two years younger.
"Y-Y-You are! Me...?"
[No... I am the real owner of that body you are in, the "original" Of the world... Or atleast I used to be.]
Asta was confused, baffled and quite literally blanked out of his mind.
And why would he be? First he heard that the original died due to eyeball in the void's interference, then that news was confirmed by Osersia who confirmed that the original Asta's soul was long gone from the world.
But now, the system he had for a weeks just comes out and says it is the soul of the original Asta. Just who the hell would believe that!!?
...
"Um...? Are you not gonna say anything else?" Asta asks nervously while rolling back his eyes.
[Like what?]
"Hmmm... Kinda like get out of my body or something like that? "
[And why the hell would I do that? I am dead. Like completely dead. I didn't even know I was the original until the system grew to stage 3 and I am sure I don't have any memories after the knight exam.]
Asta gulps, "So, *hands joined beneath the chin* I am not gonna die or anything?"
[No. Instead you are gonna keep living your life... as me... You promised me that, didnt you?]
The blank world begans shaking and cracking.
[Also... don't make a lot of promises. A devil's promise equal its soul, so if you reveal the truth about your identity, you will be treating others different then I did and... A death penalty isn't quite off limits for that ]
Before Asta could even process the situation, his mind returned back to his body in the same position he was before.
He was stll standing in front of Noelle and Mimosa and Sol as well who have just been starring at his frozen self for over 2 minutes.
The sudden movements he did startled everyone but the moment he noticed he was back to reality, Asta frowns as he felt like his morality to tell the truth was being oppressed by his instincts to live.
And in all honesty, even if he was a upright punk, Asta knew that his heart didn't want to reveal the truth and wanted to fill the gaps of trauma he had about his previous world with the help of everyone he knew back with him.
For a moment Asta forgot every tension he owned, his eyes wandering to skies as he looked at the stars that appeared as random as his own life.
And now that the randomness had shifted in his favor for once.
"I am gonna be little selfish. " Asta muttered these words to him and left silently towards the ball room, taking his cloak and purely forced formal clothes from the side while he gestured for Noelle and the other two to the follow.
...
....
Meanwhile after everyone leaves.
"What about me?" A lone cultist asks the narrator while the moons slowly behind the clouds as another side character was sent to the trash can of nothingness, never to be seen again.
_________
The last lines are just for comedy, nothing else. *zips mouth agressively*
:r