who told you what was down here

// with our one foot in the grave //

“Mm.” Asta starts to say, neither confirming or denying her suspicions. “I suppose it would not be too out of the realm of arrival before the ball to get prepared and spot the leaders heading toward the Atheneum, no?” Perhaps it had been happenstance. Coincidence. “Perhaps she can read minds.” He titters off after, lifting a hand and waving it off. Nobody knew what this Dahlia was capable of, and that was part of the fear that everyone harbored. But one thing was for certain, everyone knew that they couldn’t hold a candle to her.

So instead, he focuses on the other conversation she harbors, over bullies and standing up, and Astaroth – typically quite well mannered and put together, scoffs a fraction at the audacity of it. “If you had said nothing, no one would have been subjected to danger.” He shrugs casually, cane clicking as they delve further into the dark tunnels, coming across another cavern – jeweled and glimmering in the veins of the magma through the tunnels here. “It is not weak to be silent in the face of a larger threat. Regardless of invitation or not, she was there. Perchance you may consider swallowing down your stubbornness for the safety of those around you?” It’s put bluntly, casting his gaze back over toward her as he pauses in the cavern to pluck a particularly glimmering diamond from the wall, slipping it into a pocket.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //