The vines slowly receded.
They revealed a glass cover.
A blue butterfly rested on a blue flower.
Beneath the moonlight... it was as beautiful as a painting.
A look of realization appeared on the boy's face.
But he looked at the unfamiliar man before him in confusion, the wariness in his eyes not diminishing in the slightest.
"How do you know they're friends?"
"Can you understand what butterflies say?"
"...Do butterflies talk?"
the boy muttered.
Had this guy been caught trespassing and just made up an excuse to fool him?
He was sixteen, not six.
He was long past the age of reading fairy tales.
"I don't know whether butterflies can talk."
Xiao Xiao smiled. "But Little Blue isn't a butterfly."
"Not a butterfly?"
The boy's eyes widened.
He instinctively looked at the butterfly inside the glass cover.
Apart from the difference in size, didn't they look exactly the same?
"It's like Little One."
"How—"
the boy blurted.
"They're both demons."
The boy's pupils contracted sharply.
"You..."
Then he found his own surprise amusing.
He took a deep breath.
Of course the other man knew Little One was a demon... wasn't that only natural?
Didn't what he'd seen when he woke up explain everything?
He slowly closed his mouth.
He just wasn't used to it.
He'd never met anyone... like him, someone who could see demons.
The boy regained his composure.
His gaze fell on the man's fingertips.
A peacock-blue butterfly... no, a demon that looked like a butterfly.
"Then..."
The boy suddenly realized something.
He turned to look at the butterfly that had been on his desk for many days.
Was it a demon too?
"No."
The boy was startled.
Had he just said his thoughts out loud?
But he didn't dwell on it.
"It's not