Lilith's yell made everyone stand up in a daze, looking around worriedly, especially Khish, who was used to being in extreme environments.
"Lilith?! Did something happen?" she asked, aggravated by the scream that woke her up.
"... Y—no. Not really... I was just surprised at something Noah told me," The snake said, coiling herself back while feeling embarrassed.
"Noah?! What did my brother say?!" Maggie, who was drowsily rubbing her eyes, sprung up fully awake, having heard of him.
"Wait, Noah was here?!" Al asked, her eyes wide, as she looked down at herself on the cute pinky pajamas Maggie had gotten them and blushed.
"Yeah, but I was sleeping when he did," she said, looking at the maid who had an ashen look on her face.
"I...I can explain!" she exclaimed, covering her face with both hands, not moving. Sha was still laying on her lap, now awoken, looking up with a faint smile on her lips. Seeing the maid flustered, everyone else guessed she was the only one awake when it happened, and all eyes now pointed towards her, not just Lilith's.
"... He was in here, and saw us sleeping in this embarrassing costume and all over the place..." Allie bemoaned, putting both hands closed in front of her mouth, her ears turning red and her cheeks pink.
"Hey! What's wrong with the sleepwear I chose? It's cute!" Maggie protested, furrowing her brows.
"Mag, it's not about the clothes themselves, but him seeing us wearing them," Sha cared to explain, making the maid timidly lift her hands for her eyes a tiny bit and look down, only to be met by Sha's gaze and warm smile. And she shied once again, covering her eyes without making a sound.
"What's wrong with him seeing us wearing them? He always saw me dressing stuff like this, or even underwear and a gown, it's not really a—" she started speaking, only to freeze and open her mouth wide, with a pronouced 'A' sound, as she realized what she was saying and blushed.
"See?" Al asked, and the girl hurriedly nodded.
"It's different among ourselves, but Noah is a Man, so having him—"
"What about me?" A male voice suddenly asked, as a wave of warm air hit them all, Noah tunelling straight into the middle of the room, and hearing them talk about him.
"Hii!" Khish jumped forward scared, before turning back to see him. "Don't scare me like that, jeez!" she told him, only to see a shadow swoosh by.
"Noah!" The shadow was Maggie, leaping towards Noah, who immediately hugged her. Yet, as he put his hand up to caress her head, Maggie saw a darkened spot, and let go of the hug to check his hands.
"Noah, what is this?! Are you hurt?!" she asked, worriedly following the darkened patterns of lighning across his hand and forearm's skin. "What in the hell happened?!" she asked aloud, making Noah realize he had completely forgotten to heal his injuries.
"Sorry, give me a second," he said, enveloping his arms in fire, and healing himself with Healing Flames. "I just took a little bit of—" he was then left with the mouth half-open, as his eyes met with Sha's, and lifted herself, sideways, her hair falling onto the maid's lap as she raised herself, sitting on her knees with her familiar smile towards him. "Lighning," he finished off the sentence, quickly enough most people did not notice his pause, but slow enough the person in question could see his emotionless facade crack for a second, and smile inwar and outwardly.
"Come to think of it," he shook his head, now addressing the maid, "Thank you for following my instructions to the letter. I was happy to know they did not know there was anything wrong going on until Lilith spilled it," he said, turning to the snake with a smirk, and letting the maid flush unhindered.
"Hey! I din't spill it! Heck, you never even told me it was a secret!" she said while slithering down the bed and onto him, coiling around his torso with her face in front of his.
"Of course you didn't," he said, just to anger the snake, taking a long pause before continuing. "It wasn't a secret at all at that point, I was just messing with you," he said, making the snake hiss, before turning back and onto the bed, leaving him standing while being hugged my Maggie still.
"... Should I get going, then?" the maid asked, to which Maggie shook her head profusely.
"No! You can stay with us. You were very good company to Sha, so I think it's better if you stay from now on," Maggie told the ashamed maid, who took a glance sideways to the pink haired healer, who smiled and put a hand over hers.
"By the way, her name is Alice," Maggie said, looking at Noah with puppie eyes, waiting for him to pet her head.
"Wait, Alice!? You are Alice?!" Noah asked, surprised, as he realized she was the daughter the employee outside asked him to find. "Good fucking grief," he calmed himself down, as he realized how on edge everyone was. "You see... I saved a man from the verge of death, and before he fell asleep, he asked me to find someone. I looked everywhere outside and nobody had a clue, so I assumed she was—" he took a pause, reading the mood for the first time in forever, before changing the sentence back. "Who would have thought the girl he asked me to find was the one I asked to take care of my family," he shrugged it off with a sigh, a plethora of strange reactions he didn't notice happening around him, all for the wrong reasons, after he said they were his Family.
Of course, he meant Maggie. But there was no way he would clarify that, and make them his enemies.
The maid rubbed her cheeks, trying to lessen her redness, but couldn't help but smile brightly, until she realized what this could mean, and her eyes went wide. "Wait, did you say, verge of death?!" she asked, horrified, which was when Noah cleared his throat, and decided to tell them the full story.
"What actually happened was," and so he began recounting the tale of how he was waken up by Carlos after the security of the mansion was breached, and how dozens of goons swooped the place, a handful of them being Blessed, some very strong, and how they first isolated all the workers in the dormitory, before invading the main house in search of someone.
"Noah..." Sha called him out, biting her lip in frustration, the maid by her side already silently shedding tears as Noah told her the story, before he even mentioned any of the casualties. "Was it the same people who were at the restaurant earlier?" she asked,clenching her fists so hard her nails embedded into her flesh, making her palms bleed.
Noah noticed this, as used [Healing Flames] on her hands, making the girl snap out of her anger. "It seems so, but their target was different, and the people who came here were more powerful," he said, the girl taking a glance at the maid, and the terrified Maggie, and her eyes watering.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! It's all my fault, isn't it?" the girl asked, crying out of frustration and anger.
Noah signaled Maggie to let of him, and climbed on the bed, sitting by the pink haired healer to calm her down. "Hey, look. Even if they were after one of you, this is not and will never be your fault," he grabbed her shoulder, the girl immediately leaning on his and bursting into tears, exhausted from the overload of emotions and events of tonight.
"But Noah, were they really not after me or her?" Khish asked, nervous, as she glanced over at the maid, who had controled herself, and was glaring at her feet while hugging her knees, clearly angry.
"I don't, the person who interrogated their ringleader was Bel, and he's now passed out cold," he said, quirking his lip as he though of the overwhelming strength the boy showed him, humbling Noah from his lackluster actual power.
"Wait! Bel passed out?! What happened to him?" Maggie asked from behind, climbing on the bed, but her words making Sha cry more out of guilt.
"Nothing. He's perfectly fine!" Noah hurred to say, caressing the crying healer's head and making her calm down. "He just got angry at one of the invaders and used too much of his power, and since he hadn't recovered it all yet, it was too much for his mana and body, so he collapsed exhausted," Noah explained to Maggie, at the same time, Lilith falling into a loud laughter, making everyone look at her while frowning, thinking she must be insane.
"What? Why are you staring at me? I was just thinking this suits that power-hungry meathead perfectly. He never knows when to stop when he gets angry, and ends up leveling entire mountain ranges in the process of venting, only to sleep for weeks afterwards and eating an entire horse!" she said while laughing, not realizing she had just remembered more about Bel as they spoke, everyone staring at her surprised.
"Did you say meathead?!" Maggie asked, surprised she was calling the cute and calm boy a meathead.
"Power-hungry?" Noah asked, not seeing Bel as powergungry by any stretch of imagination.
"An entire horse?!" Allie made a conjecture... showing clearly where her priorities were, Food.
"... Is nobody going to mention the 'level an entire mountain range' part?" the maid muttered, the now calmer Sha looking over Noah's shoulder at her and nodding slightly, feeling better now that the maid she made friends with was no longer crying.
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