Chapter 339: 339 - Carlos" Will
"Anyway, it"s late. We should get going if you actually want to eat dinner with Carlos and Meggie," she told him, prompting Noah to read his phone, and realize it was already past the usual dinner time, and the clock already marked almost 7 in the afternoon.
"Oh, boy... I slept a little more than expected..." Noah muttered, as he got himself dressed and out the door with Lilith on tow.
"Look who finally decided to show up," Carlos welcomed them, signaling the employees to bring the food. "Did you sleep well at least?"
"Can"t say I did... Had the wildest dream ever," Noah bemoaned, as he took a seat right next to him. "Did the kids give you any work?" he asked, seeing Maggie and Bel play a strange bard game that used famous blessed as chess pieces.
"Not really... Maggie roasted a handful of imps, and it seems she"s stronger than me," he said while smiling wryly.
"Did you not get used to the powers yet?" Noah asked, befuddled.
"I don"t think that"s the problem... Shes just better than me. She"s probably going to be ranked as a B Rank blessed or higher. Don"t ask how she"s that good with putting things on fire, but..." He threw her a side glance, before sighing loudly. "And here I thought Bel was already too much of a surprise."
"Well, I don"t think there"s much we can do other than help her until she can decide on what she wants to do later on," Noah said, yawning.
"You still sleepy?" Carlos turned to him, furrowing his brows.
"Of course I am, I only slept a handful of hours and this week was awful," Noah complained, feeling his stomach growl, "and I"m hungry was heck."
"Maggie, Bel, let"s go get some dinner," Carlos said aloud, standing up, before turning and giving Noah an approving grin.
Noah too then stood, taking Lilith with him this time, as they went over to the dinner table. "What did you reserve for me tonight?" Noah asked, jokignly.
"Well, you went over a lot of fighting, so today is celebration time, like in the old days," Carlos looked at him with a broad grin, as two people walked inside. "Remember my parents?" he asked just to messs with him, as the couple took their seats around the table.
"Noah, thank you so much for taking care of this trouble-child," Carlos" father gave noah a pat on his shoulder, before sitting at the head of the table, Carlos"s mother sliming and raising her hand as she sad across from him, next to Carlos.
"I"ve done nothing more that what I could as a friend," Noah said smiling, as he jumped over to the next chair, apologizing, and let Maggie sit to his left, while Lilith had already coled herself up on the chair to his right, and was staring at him waiting for him to sit somewhere near her. Noah smiled wryly to the patriarch of Carlos" family, as he apologized for taking a seat away from him, "Sorry for moving, but if any of these two are not seated by my side, I have my ears chewed later on." He took a second to see Carlos" parents confused expressions, before looking at Carlos and seeing him shrug. "Oh, I a.s.sume you don"t know it yet... Lilith, want to introduce yourself?" he turned to the snake, who promply straightened herself, lifting her head above the table and staring at Carlo"s parents.
"Sorry for my lack of cortesy, I am Lilith, Noah"s companion," she nodded her head slightly, showing the voice was indeed coming from the snake.
"Oh Lord," Carlos" mother covered her mouth as it fell open, greatly surprised.
"Well, well! This young man never ceases to amaze me," Carlos" father, however, was grinning from ear to ear. He had probably already known it to some extent, and only wanted to test his wife"s response. "It"s a pleasure to have you with us, Lilith. Marcel had said he had a couple surprises for us tonight, but I didn"t know it would be to this extent," he looked at his son, who was smiling proudly.
"The night has only begun," Carlos stood up, clapping a couple of times, as the workers brought them food he and Noah loved to eat growing up. Also known as trash food. Large fried onions, chicken wings, fries, and all kind of thing the two had loved. "Actually, I called you all here to celebrate something I came to learn by chance, because a certain Head of one of the Nine Families told me after something happened this morning." Carlos winked at Noah, telling him not to mention the issue. "We are here to celebrate a certain someone"s appointment as one of the Elders of the Khan Family!" he said out loud, Bel and Maggie who were already on par of his plan cheering and clapping, as the employees started bringing out beer towers.
"Wait... Elders—" Carlos" father"s eyes widened for the first time, as a smile started to curl on his lips. "That"s amazing!" the stood up, banging the table. "Congratulations young man, I couldn"t have been more proud of my son"s best friend."
"That"s not all!" Carlos interrupted him, bringing in more news. "About him still, this man is now worth about half as much as our family is! The most profitable bet in the history of the Nine Families Arena," Carlos said as he filled a cup, downing it in one go. "Oh, and about me," he stopped a second, turning to his father, "I now own 1% of our family"s business, from my own money I earned."
Carlos" father sat back down, a smile on his face as tears started forming on his eyes. "And here I thought you had completely given up on the family business."
"Honey, look how you look... I had told you already, it was just a phase. Look at our boy now," his mother also had a smile, as she had stood up to tend to Carlos" father, who was now happier than ever.
"Like I said, dad. I don"t want to live under your shadow. That doesn"t mean I can"t love what we have. I just wanted to do it with my own steps," Carlos said while sitting back down. Noah watching this while munching on fries, occasionally, handing one to Lilith as she too watched with a pleased expression. "Now that the mood is set," he said as he turned to the blutler by his side, "you can bring the fancy stuff too. My mom is not so fond of junk food."
Over the nexr few hours, the beer and food flowed unrestricted. Lilith found herself incredibly kin to the petals of deep fried onion, while Noah experimented with the normal food he enjoyed and the fancy toppings gathered for Carlos" mother. There was this strange greenish grilled pasty substance he could spread over the potatoes, and it made them tase even better. "Hey, Carlos, what"s the name of this thing?" Noah asked, as he spread a nice piece of the thing over a cannoe fry, making it look almost like a boat full of the thing.
"Oh, that? It"s Foie Gras. Mom says it"s delicious, but I never got myself to eat it. They say it comes from a particular breed of ducks, but it"s just liver to me," he said while shrugging, dipping his wings into some hot sauce.
"This is just duck liver?! d.a.m.n, it tastes so good I thought it was something more expensive," he said, annaware of the small blunder, as he took a good bite out of the fry.
"Oh, dear, this is a fattened duck liver. It"s very expensive to get it to this quality. But I do appreciate your taste in food," Carlos" mother said, while sipping on a gla.s.s of wine. Her platter had a single piece of the same thing Noah was eating with fries, but topped with a little bit of fish eggs.
"I"ll look forward to have you help me get the best kind of food when I settle in the capital," Noah said non-chalantly.
"Wait, Noah my boy, you"re going to move to the capital?" Carlos" father asked, curiously sipping on a large gla.s.s of beer from the towers.
"Oh, yes, but I will keep my house here and often com—" Noah started explaining and giving excuses, but Carlos" father raised his hand, telling him to speak no more.
"You got it wrong. Actually, I"ve been wanting to talk to Carlos about moving there too, since we have been travelling to the capital almost every week," he explained, shrugging as he stared at Carlos, who had a not so pleased expression.
"That"s great. If we can, we should get houses in the same neighborhood or at least close by enough I can et there walking," Noah said, to which Carlos" parents stared at each other, still used to the casual and cheap Noah. "Don"t worry, I will let you guys deal with most of that choice. I just don"t want anything too large since it would be a pain to maintain. But since you are also searching, having your help to find a perfect place for me and Maggie would be perfect," Noah explained to them his idea on finding, to which Carlos" mother happily complied.
"Great! Guess I now have another reason to shop for houses in the capital," she said happily, before taking a sip of her wine in joy.
"And there she goes again... Boy, prepare to have a ma.s.sive hole drilled into your pocket," Carlos" father told while sighing, making Noah chuckle wryly, understanding what he meant.
"I can always use it as a base and choose something else, I reckon," he thought to himself, deciding how much he wanted to spend in a house this time.