Have you lost your mind?
Demon queen furrowed her brows, glaring at Himanshu like he was the biggest idiot in the world.
"Doing that will only make him more suspicious," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "And your mother will have to face the embarrassment too. So, we are not doing that."
Himanshu just stood there, staring at her. He literally stopped blinking.
Wait... what did she just say? His brain started racing. Is she actually starting to care about Mom? What exactly is going on between these two? How did they get so close in such a short amount of time?
Himanshu took a deep breath. Well, I get why Mom is acting like that—she’s looking at her as a future daughter-in-law... but her?
Clearing his throat, Himanshu narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "Why do you suddenly care so much?"
Demon lifted her chin slightly and, with her full royal attitude, declared, "Because I am a Queen, not some Khechad. Running away like this is beneath my dignity. Understood?"
Himanshu facepalmed in pure frustration. Oh! And here I was thinking something else. He cursed himself internally. Whatever, it’s not like a demon is actually going to care about anyone.
Swallowing his anger, Himanshu forced a polite tone and said with completely fake respect, "Then, Your Highness, why don’t you tell me how we’re supposed to get out of this mess?"
Demon closed her eyes, acting like she was forming some grand strategy. "Let me think for a bit."
What? Think for a bit? Himanshu internally screamed, pulling his own hair. Where did your 8,000 years of experience go?!
He was still losing his mind over this when the Demon queen voice echoed in the room, sounding like she had just cracked the ultimate masterplan.
"We’ll stop him before he even gets here," she said, flashing a confident smile. "By offering him a chance at his favorite thing."
Himanshu just looked at her with a completely deadpan expression.
"He is not a kid," Himanshu sighed. "You can’t just distract him with a lollipop."
Demon smile vanished instantly. Glaring at him, she snapped back, "Anyone your age is nothing but a kid to me."
"You really don’t miss a single chance to insult me, do you?" Himanshu threw his hands in the air out of frustration. "Anyway, I already told you, his favorite hobby is exposing fake relationships. He’s not going to get a better chance than this to humiliate me again."
The Demon queen thought about it for a second. Then, looking at her nails in the most casual way possible, she said, "Alright then, we’ll just kill him right there."
Himanshu felt the ground slip from under his feet. He jerked back in horror.
"What... kill him?!" Himanshu almost screamed in panic. "Are you planning to send me to jail for the rest of my life? And besides, he’s my cousin! In our world, killing someone is a massive crime, you can’t just kill people!"
Annoyed, the Demon queen yanked off the towel wrapped around her head. Her horns popped out. Giving Himanshu a terrifying, bloodthirsty glare, she said, "Listen here, I am not from your world. So your rules do not apply to me."
"Even then, killing someone is wrong!" Himanshu desperately tried to knock some sense into her. "And this isn’t a comic book world either. This is the real world!"
With a creepy smirk, the Demon queen replied, "Well, what difference does it make? Once you’re dead, this ’real world’ won’t matter to you anyway."
Himanshu literally couldn’t process what she meant by that. He just stared at her with a blank face.
Demon scoffed and flicked her wrist. "If I had my powers, it wouldn’t even take me half an hour to crush all you insects!"
If she stays with me for a few more days, I’m actually going to lose my mind... Himanshu thought to himself.
"Alright, just drop this topic," Himanshu said, pacing around the room in full tension. "We need to figure out what to do next."
Both of them fell silent, trying to think, but Himanshu’s brain was completely jammed by this nightmare situation. Only his detective cousin’s face was looping in his head.
"I’ve got zero ideas left," Himanshu finally admitted defeat. "Maybe not staying at home is the only way out."
Demon rejected it instantly. "I am not going anywhere. I told you, it’s beneath my dignity."
Himanshu’s own anger was starting to spill over now. He shot back with a taunt, "Oh really? But being the girlfriend of a ’Khechad’ isn’t beneath your dignity?"
Fire instantly flared up in Demon eyes. She closed the distance between them with terrifying speed.
"Listen here, do not remind me," she gritted her teeth. "I have no idea how I even agreed to this. But I said it once and I’ll say it again—I am not leaving. Ask me one more time, and you won’t be in a condition to ask anything ever again. We’ll deal with whatever happens. Understood?"
Then, her expression turned completely serious. Staring him down, she said in a cold, strict tone, "And besides... a man who doesn’t even care about his own mother’s honor is truly a useless, pathetic person. Someone who doesn’t deserve love at all."
Hearing those words come out of Demon mouth shook Himanshu to his core.
Getting emotional, Himanshu replied, "If she finds out from someone else that you’re not my real girlfriend, it’s going to break her heart even more. And I really don’t want that to happen so soon! After some time, I’ll use a breakup as an excuse and tell her the truth myself. That’s why... we have to do this. Please, just say yes."
The genuine care and worry for his mother were crystal clear in his eyes. He was practically begging Demon to just agree to step out of the house for today.
He was still trying to convince her when suddenly—
Ding-Dong!
The doorbell rang.
Both of their heads snapped toward the door. The heavy emotional vibe in the room shattered in a single second.
The Demon queen body instantly went on high alert like a wild predator. She immediately started walking toward the main door.
"What was that noise? There’s someone out there," Demon said, clenching her fists as if she was getting ready to attack. "We need to catch them red-handed. They’ve been listening to our conversation!"
"Hey, wait, there’s no one spying!" Himanshu panicked and quickly jumped in front of her to block her way. "That’s just a sound telling us someone is at the door. We call it a doorbell. Whenever someone visits, they press it so we know they’re here."
The moment those words left his mouth, reality hit him like a truck—whoever was at the door was going to see them together!
Like an absolute madman, Himanshu frantically started gesturing for Demon to put the towel back on her head, begging her in a panic to run and hide in his room.
And right then...
Ding-Dong!
The loud ring of the doorbell echoed through the living room again. But this time, it sounded hurried and impatient.
Himanshu’s heart started pounding against his ribs. He rushed toward the main door while the Demon quickly ducked into his room.
Himanshu leaned in and looked through the peephole.
And the second he saw who it was... the ground slipped from under his feet.
His eyes went wide with sheer horror and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Standing right outside the door... was his cousin, Shyam!
Those oversized glasses on his face, his messy wet hair, a dirty t-shirt, and sweatpants—it was stupidly obvious that the moment he heard about Himanshu’s ’girlfriend’, he had dropped whatever he was doing, maybe even jumped straight out of the shower, and sprinted all the way here!
Panic completely froze Himanshu’s brain. Sticking to the door, all he could think was, ’What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?!’
And then, his cousin started banging on the door like a maniac, aggressively pressing the bell over and over again.
Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong!
Himanshu tightly shut his eyes, forcing himself to steady his heavy breathing. He wiped the cold sweat off his forehead... and with shaking hands, he slowly opened the door.