Chapter 376: 376 - An Unexpected Visit
"Now that I think of it, did I ever ask your name?" Sha"s voice sounded from the side, cutting her thoughts short.
"Eh, mine?" the maid asked back, embarra.s.sed. "It"s Alice," she said, twirling her hair around her finger.
"That"s a pretty name," the pink-haired healer responded with a smile, the two watching the recorded fight.
After a couple of rounds, Sha started to feel her body waver, as she slowly started loosing to the sleepiness. Having fough in the arena until late yesterday, and been awoken early by the Khan Family invitation, she only had a few minutes to nap during the day. "Hey... I think they won"t oppose if we go sit on the bed..." she told the maid, who stared at her wide-eyed.
"Come on, Alice, let"s go!" She grabbed the maid"s hand, pulling her over to the bed, where the two sat against the wall, watching the Valorwatch battle from afar. Occasionally, the maid would glance sideways, as she felt Sha"s eyes on her, before focusing on the exciting fights on screen.
"She"s adorable, just like a little sister," the healer thought, watching the girl hide her excitement as she watched Noah"s game endeavor.
"S—Sha?!" the maid asked, surprised, as she suddenly felt something against her shoulder. "Eh?" she muttered, seeing it was the pink-haired healer"s head, leaning on her, fallen asleep. "... she"s adorable," she thought, laying the girl on her lap and putting her hand over her head, focusing back on the fight, before she too, not long after, fell asleep.
"Open up!" A soft thump followed by a man"s almost inaudible yell pulled her from the land of dreams back to reality. The maid opened her eyes, to see Sha still fast asleep on her lap.
Another very soft thump.
"I said open the f.u.c.k up!" the same voice once again, but not loud enough to wake anyone else up.
"What do I do? I don"t wanna wake her up," she thought, looking down at the asleep healer on her lap. She caressed her hair instinctively, as her eyes wandered around the room, finding Maggie sleeping on the bed next to her, the snake coiled around her thigh, and the older looking lady sleeping by her side, with the last girl hugging her.
"I definitely shouldn"t make any noise..." she thought, pulling a small cheap phone they used for in-work messaging to check the hour. "3:40? Who the h.e.l.l is that crazy guy... The fire alarms haven"t done anything... there"s also no calls to me. Weird," she thought, realizing something was definitely off, after all, everyone who worked here knew that this room was soundproofed.
A bang happened outside, as a gun was fired, prompting her to look at the door, that was still locked, but now had a small bulge near the keyhole.
"G.o.d f.u.c.king d.a.m.nit!"
"Are you crazy! What if we kill the target?"
"I don"t f.u.c.king c—Ghuaha!"
A conversation took place outside, the maid listening attently, until she heard what sounded like a dying scream from one of the two men who had the conversation, those who were trying to break into the room.
And suddenly, in front of her eyes, almost like a mirage, small specks of ember started appearing from nowhere, as if the air itself was combusting, and a man in a silk sleepwear appeared from within the flames, standing on the bed in front of her.
"Shhh!" he lifted his finger to his mouth, signaling for her to remain quiet, as he sat on the bed across from her, watching everyone sleep.
Alice was dumbstruck as she saw the gorgeous appearance of him, noticing the bloodsplatters across his chest, neck and arms, only a small streak of in oh his face. Yet, he smiled confidently and with grace, as his eyes loomed over his asleep companions.
"I"m glad everyone is okay," he muttered softly, as his hand hovered over, caressing Sha"s head, just like she was doing, and the girl blushed. "Thanks for taking care of them so well. I"ll finish cleaning things up and come back here, don"t open the door unless you hear my voice," he said, his words sounding like music to her ears, and she nodded, him standing up and turning away, while she stared silently at his figure.
He jumped off the bed, but never touched the ground, disappearing into a ball of fire, and leaving her behind, sighing at the vision he just had, and how well he treated her.
A few minutes prior.
"Noah, Noah!" Carlos" voice woke him up, as he was shaken vigorously.
"What the heck...? What time is it?" Noah asked, as he adjusted his eyes to the darkness.
"No time for that, they broke in here," Carlos said, pulling him up by the arm, and Noah quickly jolting up.
"They who?" Noah asked fully awake, standing by his terrified friend.
"No clue. I just got a call from one of the gate guards saying 20 or so people broke through the gates with a truck and are storming the worker"s quarters searching for someone."
"... You think they are after the girls?" Noah asked, connecting the dots.
"Don"t know. All I know is that they are killing anyone who even slightly opposes them, we need to do something," Carlos said, wide eyed, as he walked out the room, looking around to see if it was still safe.
"Is there a panick room in this house?" Noah asked, quirking the corner of his lip in annoyance. "Can"t I get a single night of f.u.c.king sleep around here?" he asked himself mentally, wondering whether Maggie was safe.
"Two, actually, one is the room your sister used for the sleepover," Carlos said, instantly making Noah sigh out of relief.
"Good grief. Now go and lock yourself in the other," he said, touching Carlos" shoulder, as he cracked his knuckles.
"What about you? Carlos asked, seeing Noah grab his blessed daggers from the table on his bedroom near the door.
"I"ll make things clear again," he said, walking out of the room slowly, Carlos watching in awe from behind as his friend left to the corridor wearing his silk sleepwear without any shoes on, like a maniac.
"I hope the poor things are alright," he thought about the invaders, seeing dozens of evocation circles etch themselves with fire onto the walls and many Imps fall from them onto the ground. Carlos shook his head, and ran on the opposite direction, towards the lower floor panick room.
"Now... where were we," Noah told himself aloud, as he pa.s.sed the dining-room, the Imps divinding in groups as they ran around the house, covering up the entrances Noah had not seen.
"Go, go! Let"s find them quick, before reinforcements arrive!" A voice yelled from the entrance corrior, as the doors opened with a loud crash. They had rammed the front doors open, and Noah watched from the shadows as about 20 men entered the house, dividing themselves and heading into different directions, just like the imps had done a little prior.
"Head deeper in and lay ambush. Kill them immediately without sound," he ordered the Imps mentally, though he didn"t know whether the range he could relay would work. Either way, they would kill all those who tried to face them, since those people were at most D-Rank Blessed, most not even that. But more importantly, he saw some of them walk up the stairs towards were the girls were.
"Oh well... I better start dealing with those my—" he muttered to himself, until he saw a person fallen near the end of the staircase. "f.u.c.k... there"s the personnel, I better hurry," he told himself, healing the woman that was resting against the wall, a large cut across her chest. And he hurried his step towards the rooms.
With Pyakugan, he noticed the men had taken three distinct paths, each going towards a side of the corridor, while the last one went straight down the hallway towards the room Maggie and the girls were in.
"It"s a panick room, I should rather get rid of all others first," he told himself, taking a quick turn to the left and tunelling towards the goon inside the room, ripping his throat with a single slice.
As he fell to the ground without making a sound, excep the b.l.o.o.d.y gurgling, Noah turned away and left towards the corridor again, when he heard a gunshot.
"f.u.c.k! Did they get inside?" he asked himself, worried the door might not have been locked, and they could have hurt her.
Blood rushed through his head as he dashed through the corridor, not bothering hidding his presence at all, and teleporting straight towards the two men who seemed to be discussing in front of the door, not able to open it. "Good grief, but I need to get rid of them already," he thought, tunelling his way above the two.
"What"s th—" one started asking, as he saw the light from his tunnelling down the corridor, bust was quickly silenced by Noah"s blade across his throat.
"Huh?" the other had time to think about the man"s sudden silence, before a sharp pain attacked his spine, Noah having mised his mark and stabbing his spine instead, "Ghuhaaa!" he yelled in pain, as he lost force on all limbs, seeing the beautiful devil who took his life away dressed in pajamas, before Noah"s blade reaped his life for good with a swing at his throat.
Noah tunelled his way through the door, not sure about the layout of the room, to confirm eveyone"s safety. In his familiar fiery appearance, he ender up standing onto the bed, to the eyes of a shocked maid, who was the only person awake, with Sha sleeping on her lap.
"... Just what happened here tonight," he thought to himself, before addressing her, who seemed about to scream.