Chapter 375: 375 - Noah"s Second Ident.i.ty
Sha"s heart was pounding as she waited for the maid to tell her all she had to. Even if it had little to do with him, just a little more for her to know of what she didn"t already would be a lot. That was how much she looked forward to it.
"His mother had died, he was working hard to pay her outstanding debt, all while taking care of his sick sister in the hospital." She took a pause to breathe, before speaking once again. "It always troubled me, how could he not lose hope, how could he deal with all that, you know?" she turned her head from the projection, looking in the girls eyes. "Then he turned his life, became a blessed, started making money, paid his mother"s debt... And healed his sister"s illness. I just couldn"t believe it. And since I, as a mere worker, never could talk to them, I though—I thought," she stuttered, tears growing in his eyes. "That he had turned into one of those unapproachable people too, and pitied myself for being this weak..."
"I can"t even—" Sha started speaking, but the girl raised her hand a little, making her wait.
"But now, talking to you, I realized we are all people. Both Blessed and those who aren"t. Thank you," the girl said, a broad grin in her face, as she turned again to the projection, and Sha too smiled.
Aside from them, two more people heard it all, and were still silent looking at the screen, but with smiles on their faces. What the four of them didn"t know, was how important this invitation would be for the girl...
"What a fight!" Khish exclaimed, as the final ended. Having watched all the fights from the arena, the time had run very late on them. The maid was still attentive, sat by a now almost asleep Sha. But Maggie and Khish were still very energic, being sternly watched by Al, who fought her drowsiness in order to keep up with their accelerated pace.
The two hopped on their feet, and smiled at each other, dashing towards the fridge.
"Huh! Wha—" Sha woke up in a jolt, as the two pa.s.sed her by, swishing air by her ears.
"Lady Maggie and your sister just pa.s.sed," the maid told Sha, who rubbed her eyes turning back towards the table and fridge, where the two were.
Maggie was the first to turn, an open can of Cola on her hand, but she was carying three strange and black cans under her other arm with a grin. Khish did the same, meaning they probably had a plan, the only difference being she had opened herself a different flavor of soda.
"Sha!" she exclaimed, throwing a can at her sister as she pa.s.sed her by. The still hazy Sha letting it fall on her lap.
"Is this an..." she muttered, the maid completing her thought, as she silently thanked Khish for giving her one too.
"Energy drink. These two don"t plan on letting us sleep tonight," she bemoaned, as she glanced over at the bed, eager to take a nap, but faithful to her obligations.
"Dear Goo—od," Sha yawned mid-sentence, finishing it up after closing her mouth, cracking the can open.
"Hey, hey!" Maggie called, making Sha look towards the bed where she was already, shaking something black; Lilith. "Wake up! It"s not time to sleep yet."
Sha almost laughed at the girl"s remark, but chose to simply smile.
"What, What!" Lilith woke up a little drowsy, not thinking straight.
"We are watching the fights," Maggie said, letting go of her hand.
"What mean a Fight be," she stumbled, and tumbled over to the side, speaking only gibberish, "The fight Noah going, but we kill."
"WAKE UP!" Maggie raised her voice, clapping her hands right in front of the snake"s face, making her wake up in a jolt, looking around in panick.
"Now you"re awake," Maggie said, handing her a can of the energy drink and plopping it onto a the bed.
"I"m a demon, I need no sleep," Lilith said, puffing up her body, or what would seem to be her chest if she were a human, making Maggie cackle.
"Them why were you asleep?" she asked amidst her laughter, as the snake coiled around the can and opened the lid with her mouth, gobbling up the energy drink.
"I was not asleep, just taking a little nap," she said, putting the empty can down, having drunken over half a liter of the thing in only a few seconds. "That"s it, a small nap," she said, coiling the lower part of her body around herself and lifting her head.
"And why were you taking that nap, Misses I don"t have to sleep," Maggie asked, a condescending tone to her voice.
"Because I was bored! Was that what you wanted to hear?" Lilith shot back, taking Maggie aback.
".. Watching those fights... was boring, you say?" Maggie asked, teary-eyed.
"That"s not what I meant... It"s just that I already had seen it all in first person and when you and Bel were a.n.a.lysing them... I"ve seen those tens of times," Lilith defender her point, taking care not to hurt Maggie. Not that she really minded anyways.
"Then you"ll love the lext fights. Who wants to watch him fight seriously with no restraint?!" Maggie turned back to normal as she faced Khish and Al, who looked at her in confusion. "Have you ever heard of Valorwatch?" she asked, making Al frown.
"You mean that online game people pretend to be blessed?" she asked, having already heard some things from colleagues from the neighbouring stores, about how they played the game to feel as if they were Blessed.
"Yup, that one!" But Maggie"s enthusiasm showed her it had something more to it than just that. "Now that I think of it, did anyone in here ever play it?" she asked aloud, n.o.body responding, until the maid timidly raised her hand. "See, one of us has played it. So, wanna know why it"s an amazing game for studying fights?" she asked the maid, who was taken aback, but remained serious and professional.
"I played it to play around with having a blessing somehow. I had the most basic kit of Blessing though, an F-Rank one, because i couldn"t pay to improve it, but it was still plently fun," she smiled as she said, making Al curious.
"Besides that, Blessed can play the game with their actual real life blessing, instead of the basic one. So it"s the perfect place to start training before divind into harder Fortresses or even fighting against other blessed in arenas." Maggie"s words interested the girls, especially Al, who had no idea how her blessing even worked, only having used it inadvertently over the years.
"Maybe playing it would help me understand and control it..." she thought, since she had already foregone the Idea of getting rid of the blessing altogether, which was obviously not possible to her.
"Let"s watch the tournament, then," Maggie said, taking the controller up, and changing the screen to the recordings of Noah"s last Valorwatch championship, where he had fought and won alongside Carlos and his friends.
At first, the girls looked at the screen, confused, not recognizing anyone as the fantasy-looking in-game characters started moving and using their blessinds. But after not long, the familiar pattern of a fiery teleportation and quick attacks with a patters was recognized by them all. A good-looking demon pulling off the same stunts he pulled in real life, the player called Lucifer. Instantly, the girls who had heard Lilith"s background story earlier with attention recognized the name of the forgotten G.o.d she once served, and saw Lucifer—Noah—with awe-filled eyes.
The maid, however, had not been here before, and had never seen either Noah or Carlos in the game, and although could understand the skill of the players, could not understand who was who.
Sha noticed this, signaling her to come closer. "See the demon character, who is using the same skills from the Arena fights earlier, that"s Noah"s character," she said, pointing out to the maid, who widened her eyes as she made the connection.
"Lucifer?! That well known player Lucifer?! You"re telling me the Valorwatch sensation is actually Noah?!" She was overjoyed, and also ashamed that, as a player, she couldn"t notice it.
"Now that I think of it, one of the guys in his team is Carlos," Lilith said, squinting as she tried to remember how Carlos used his fire blessing.
"Yeah. That one over there is him," Maggie pointed at the projection, showing a player that despite using a blessing very very similar to Noah had very limited firepower.
"... To think I could have played with Master Carlos at one point and not even realized it..." the maid muttered, realizing there was a lot more in common between her and the people he had once seen as untouchables. "Come to think of it, wasn"t Carlos not a blessed until not long ago?" she asked aloud, to which Maggie quickly responded.
"Yeah, that"s why his flames are so pitiful compared to Noah. He used to use the general non-Blessed kit too, and only now started using the flames, see?" Maggie showed him switch back to using the basic set of skills a non-Blessed would after dying and resp.a.w.ning, now with a lot more skill and fluidity than before.
"I see..." she muttered, as her eyes shone watching the screen, "I wonder what G.o.d gave Master Carlos that flame blessing," she muttered, thinking to herself she should start praying wholeheartedly to a G.o.d, so that maybe she could get a blessing some day.
"Now that I think of it, did I ever ask your name?" Sha"s voice sounded from the side, cutting her thoughts short.