Chapter 359: 359 - Allie"s Discovery
"Your... Familiars? These? Monsters?" the overwhelmed girl stuttered at Noah"s affirmation.
"Um, yeah?" Noah was confused for a second, not understanding her reaction.
"I think the girl is feeling pressure from us," the unicorn told him, making Noah doubt his ears.
"Al, by any chance, are you a Blessed?" he asked, turning and waiting for her reaction.
"Me? Not a chance, no way. If I was..." She clenched her fists. "I wouldn"t have have to go through all of that," she said, her face full of her past regrets.
"I see..." This was enough to convince Noah, since he couldn"t feel any of the pressure he felt from other Blessed from her. "Either way, they really are terrifying monsters. Terrence is an egg I found at a dungeon, and is probably the offspring of the boss. Unicorn is also incredibly strong, so I won"t even talk about him," he said, making the unicorn turn its head sideways.
"I see... I didn"t expect you to have such amazing monsters around you... I thought that snake was already plenty strong." Al put her finger over her mouth, thoughtful, but her sentence made Noah cackle.
"Plenty, eh? Pffft!" he commented, but could not stop laughing.
"What is it? I don"t get the fun part," Al furrowed her brows in annoyance, but Noah"s words soon brought her back on track.
"Lilith is probably far far stronger than both of them combined, you know. Unicorn aside, Terrence is still a hatchling. And even combined, they are nowhere near as strong as Bel, let alone Lilith," Noah controlled himself, looking up as he sat on the couch.
"Eh? Bel? You mean the little boy?" she asked, stupified, as she too took a couple steps forward as sat by his side.
"Yeah. That boy at full power is probably a lot stronger than I am right now. But since he lost most of his strength, we are about similar at this point." Noah"s mindless confession was enough to throw even experienced Blessed off guard, let alone a person who was not involved with blessed at all.
"Just... How strong are these people...?" she muttered, putting her head between her hands as she looked down, and Noah, not reading the mood, began saying it all.
"I mean, Carlos is about as strong as a Peak D Rank Blessed, he"ll be reaching C Rank strength soon enough. Bel is about as strong as an Peak B Rank Blessed at the leastest. I"m around the Peak B Rank Blessed too. Terrence is as strong as a D Rank monster, but his parent was a C Rank Boss, so we can expect at least that much from him. Unicorn is a Peak C Rank Moster. Lilith is... I can"t even measure her strenght to be honest. I never had her fight and only had her support me from the back, but just her skill alone would put her in the Peak C Rank, and she hasn"t recovered any of her power so far..."
The end of Noah"s rambling called Al"s attention, "Recovered? What happened to her?" she asked, taking note that he talked about the monsters under his as if they were people.
"I don"t know..." He took a deep breath, exhaling before starting to talk, looking down at his hands. "I found her extremely hurt at a pet store. They said they couldn"t do anything and she was very aggressive, but she took a liking to me at first glance... It took me a while to heal her, but she"s still far from recovered," Noah told her, Al seeing the pain in his face as he told the story.
"I"m sorry you couldn"t have helped more... But she ought to recover with enough time, right?" she tried to encourage him, a smile on her face.
"Are you..." Noah started asking, but decided to just accept it, a smile forming on his lips. "Thanks... Either way, I better go take a bath," he said, standing up and leaving towards the room, leaving Al alone with the monsters in the living room.
"Craaa!" Terrence cawed, taking flight and landing next to her, and staring deep into Al"s eyes.
"... Are you... trying to talk to me?" she asked, her eyes wide, as they met the bird"s. Terrence stared deeply into her eyes, before tilting his head, and jumping onto the arm of the couch, staring at the television that was not turned on. "It must have been an impression... No way, right?" she asked herself, as she heard the bird caw once more, and the unicorn walk towards the table and throw a remote over her towards the bird, which caught it, and clicked on a b.u.t.ton with its peak, turning the television on.
"... Am I imagining things? Seeing things?" she thought to herself, shaking her head, and staring blankly at the news on the television about the earlier events.
"Is that... Noah?" she asked herself, in shock, as she saw the image of a masked man laying on the ground, protected by a gigantic black snake and a small boy that looked just like Bel, after the boss fight from the Fortress Spillage had ended. "Was it always him?" she asked herself out loud, staring at the news in shock.
Near her, both monsters saw the news in envy, wanting to have partic.i.p.ated.
"Sorry for making you wait so long, I finally..." After a handful of minutes, Noah walked out in jeans and a t-shirt, and saw her and the monsters watching the television where the archors were talking about who he might be. "Oh..." he watched, as she turned around in silence, her face slightly scared.
"Maybe all that happened today was too much for her..." he thought, putting a jacket over his arm and taking a seat in the couch. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking at his side to her watching without batting an eyelid.
"Yeah," she responded coldly, so he waited for the news piece to be over before calling her out.
"So... Mind if we go to a place I like?" he asked, standing up.
"No, anywhere is fine by me," she answered, looking at him. "His clothes... Did he change into something more casual to fit me?" she wondered, overtinking his choice of clothing, not knowing he was wearing the fancy outfit earlier because of the meeting earlier in the day, not because he always wore them.
"Great, you"re gonna love it," he said, grinning, as he wondered whether a good portion of fries and wings would lighten up the mood. The two got into the car, and Noah started driving towards his favorite restaurant, however, a strange atmosphere roamed the two ever since he had come out of the bathroom.
"So..." he tried calling out some topic, "What have you been up to all this time?" he asked.
"Nothing much. Mostly just working..." she told him, making Noah grow silent. "Sorry if I"m boring... It"s just that I never had the time or the money to do anything interesting ever since you stopped working there," she said, making Noah furrow his brows.
"So, after I stopped working, was it always just you and him for everything?!" Noah asked, surprised, only throwing slight glances in order to pay attention to driving.
"Yeah... Business slowed down and Youseff couldn"t afford anybody else. So I took care of everything alone," she said, fiddling.
"I"m sorry to hear that... Must"ve been a lot of work, right?" Noah asked.
"Yeah... It was a bit overwhelming at first. I got used to it, and since that"d mean I would only spend the time I had to at home, it was also welcome." Noah thought she had said something absurd, but thinking about her whole situation, and where she was living, he could see how it was probably for the best.
"Sorry to ask but... did you have no friends?" he asked, although he knew it was a bit irresponsible of him.
"Not really," she started speaking. The fact she had kept her cool and started answering him wholeheartedly was something that suprised him a little, but was fitting of the Al he had worked with over the years, so he accepted it without much issue. "I was always very much alone, and the only person who I got around to talk to over the years that was anywhere near my age was you," she said, reminding Noah she was aways very silent.
"I see..." he muttered, deep in thought.
"You know, sometimes I feel people don"t even realize I"m there," she said, looking out the window and seeing the city lights.
"Must be rough... But I"ve always seen you, haven"t I? And so has the old man," Noah said, trying to cheer her up.
"Yeah, I guess so." But her answer was only half hearted.
Seeing her mood gloom, Noah chose to stay silent, just paying attention to the road the rest of the way to the restaurant.
"Night, sir. Would you like a table for o—two?" the hostress said, stuttering as her eyes widened.
"Yes, table for two," Noah quickly responded, not realizing her blunder, although Al quietly clicked her tongue.
"This is your favorite restaurant, huh?" she asked, looking around with a warm expression.
"Yeah, the fried chicken here is awesome, and they have great fries," Noah told her with glee as the two followed the hostress towards their table.
"You know, I had thought you had changed, but I think you"re still the same as before," she told him, as they reached the table.
"Of course I wouldn"t," he protested as he sat across from her. "Things only started to change for me very recently. And even if they had changed for a while, I would never change over something so trivial," he said, making her furrow her brows.