Chapter 394: 394 - A Father's Relief
At first he was at a loss for words, as the tears ebbed, and his and Noah's eyes met in a tacit understanding. The two stared at each other in silence, until the man's years stopped, a minute later.
"Thank you, boy... I never expected to help me this much," he said, nodding at Noah, who nodded back. His pain could not be said to have been cleared, but it had at least been lessened by a bit. The wounds were still too fresh for mere words to give him any such relief, but at least his guilt, which had been eroding his mind since the day before, had been almost entirely cleared.
And Noah was the only person to thank for it. "About my daughter, what did you think of her?" he asked, Noah confusedly trying to find the right answer.
"She's a hard working girl, and her looks don't fall too far behind even that. I think she would make for a fantastic wife and a great mother," Noah said, guessing this was what the man was asking about, only to hear him burst out into laughter.
"You shameless son of a—I don't know if I should get pissed or flattered," he said, trying to stop laughing. "But that's not it."
"Oh.... hmmm, sorry," Noah said, discreetly chuckling in the back of his hand. "I think she has a lot of potential so long as she awakens as a Blessed. But vengeance is a bitter path to follow, so I hope she finds herself before treading it," he answered properly this time, the man's smile and laughter disappearing.
"Damn... I hope she comes to her senses," he said, putting his hand under his chin. "You think I should talk to her about it?" the man asked, frowning as he tried to read Noah's own opinion, rather than take in his words.
"If she's in you part of what not to go through, it'll have the opposite effect. I think letting her feel her way though this is the best option for now. At least, if it comes to it, we can try to help her not burn her chance and life," Noah said, making the man's frown intensify.
"And why would you get involved?" he asked, holding himself from asking something else.
"Because I know who sent them and who their target was," Noah said, the man's frown lessening. "And this place is my second house. Whoever targets my family won't ever be forgiven."
The man stood up, his frown vanishing, as he realized expecting Noah to stop her was pointless. "Thank you, I'll trust you will protect my daughter," he said, standing up and walking away from Noah, turning the back to him, and ending the conversation. This was not done out of spite, anger or disrespect, but rather trust.
"But that's only if she awakens as a Blessed," Noah raised his voice to warn the man, who raised his index finger and shook it from side to side in a clear no sign.
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"She already is," he said, disappearing into the corridor to the kitchen, leaving Noah alone in the dining room to think of his parting words.
'Does he already know? Or does that mean she was like Al?' he thought, unable to understand, exactly what he'd said, as a pair of small hands covered his eyes. "Now, who could this be...?" he muttered aloud laughing as he did so before tunneling a few feet behind, and covering Maggie's eyes with his.
"Hey, that's unfair," she protested, turning around and hugging him, a broad smile on his face as she did so, "Morning, brother,' she said, looking up to him with an expression that made his heart melt, a carefree one that made anyone looking forget he'd been fighting non-stop for almost the whole week, and reaping enough lives to build a small cemetery on his own.
"The two of you are as cute as always, huh," Al's voice made Noah raise his head, not changing his expression, as he looked turned to see the two other sisters, Sha with a worried expression, and Khish as carefree as always.
"Sometimes they seem like parent and child, don't they?" Khish said, as she took her seat, and started serving herself. With Maggie taking the chair to the side of the one Noah was seated at. Al turned around and saw Sha's expression and let her sit by Noah, instead taking the last chair on this side of the table, leaving only Khish across.
"How is she?" Sha asked Noah, who had resumed nibbling on his toast slowly, only because if he left already, Maggie would be sad.
"She's okay, I think she mustn't have slept at all yesterday. She's in my room with Lilith resting a little," he lied to her a little, but there wasn't much distance between what he said and the truth, so it was probably fine. "I'm sorry we missed our dinner yesterday, do you mind doing it tonight?" he shifted the topic back to something less stressful, and smiled as he saw her face grow red.
"I—sure!" she smiled to herself, looking down, and extending her hand to grab something from the table, as the maids started bringing more food. "But what are you guys doing for the day? You skipped a whole day yesterday, did you not have anything important to do?" she asked innocently, reinforcing the image Noah had of her, and starting to eat.
"I mean, I did, which is why I talked to the person to reschedule it," he said, waiting to see her response.
"I see, it must have been really important for you to already have done it—" she started talking normally, but Noah could not hold back, and interrupted her near the end of the sentence, just because he liked to see her redden in shame.
"For tonight, that is," he said, Sha stopping mid-bite onto her just made sandwich, tuning towards him like a clockwork doll without starting to chew, and chewing once as their eyes met, and her face turned bright red, and she looked towards her plate in pure shame, her face the color of a watermelon.
"Oh come on right now, you two... Flirting in front of all of us is cowardice," Kish said across from them, seeing Sha's bright red fae and Noah's nasty smirk.
"Do you enjoy being alive?" Maggie asked, slowly dunking a cookie in a bowl of milk, as he glared at the black-haired Blessed with a stare that was hard to believe was coming from such a young girl.
Kish gulped, and started eating in silence, while Al burst into laughter. "That's what you get for provoking the girl with a brother complex," Al said, laughing heartily, Noah eating in silence while pretending not to hear any of that.
"Considering he also has a sister complex, the two are a match made in heaven," Carlos said, walking out onto the room from his, his clothes being mostly the same as Noah's, with the only difference being his padded collar, which was a lot fancier than Noah's plain pajamas,
"Morning to you too, Carlos," Noah said, making the girls cough into their hands while laughing, while Maggie turned to him and tried to understand what the grown up's joke was.
"Morning to you too, sleepyhead. Did you sleep well at least?" Carlos asked, taking his place at the head of the table, since his parents were out for the day, dealing with the aftermath of the other nights' fights.
"Not enough to make up for all the nights of sleep I lost this week. But it's good enough for now I guess," Noah told him, making him cackle loudly.
"Come on now, and what about Lilith?" Carlos asked, serving himself.
"She's resting with Alice, the maid," Noah looked at him, their eyes crossing, and the two understanding each other, Carlos' worry dissipating, as he understood what had happened earlier, since he had already talked to the head butler about his conversation to Noah a few minutes prior.
"I see... Good to know that girl is better now," he said, his eyes wandering towards Sha, whom he knew was most worried, after having made good friends with the maid the day before, after consoling her for quite a while after the girl learned of the death os his mother.
Her eyes shortly crossed with her's and he instantly knew she was already much more relieved, and started eating with peace of mind. "So, what are we doing day?" he asked Noah, who had now pushed his plate away, and had a near empty glass on his hand, ready to leave the table.
"I don't know, it all boils down to when Lilith wakes up. If they wake up soonm, I'm taking Maggie to the capital shopping and to visit the housing options we have. Your mother is having a lot of work filtering only the best houses," Noah said, remembering all the real estate information she had sent him through the phone, most being great high-profile properties.
"I see... It would be good," Carlos wrapped as quickly as he could, seeing Maggie's eyes glistening, and the girl hurried to swallow her cookie, and talk to Noah.
"Am I getting my stuff for playing Overwatch?!" she asked, excitedly. Her hand holding the glass of water shaking.
"Yep! And a new phone," Noah told her, the girl hopping on her feet celebrating.
"Yaaay!" she said aloud, before happily munching down another cookie.
"Start eating properly, you only had cookies for the entire breakfast," Noah said, standing up, as he saw the girl sit back down and turn from him with a humpf.
"I'm serious, if you don't eat properly now, I won't take you to a fancy place for lunch on the way to the store," he said, the girl immediately picking some fruit and putting on her plate, not even trying to hide it.