Months flew by without much of a change. Noth had thrown his full efforts into returning to the life of a ‘good lord’, in an effort to keep his mind off of the various different worries that now plagued him. Without his angel’s powers he hadn’t been able to keep offering free food to the townspeople, but now that the demons were gone, it was much easier for everyone to hunt and grow new foods. Noth led the coordination of hunting teams, and helped to plan out new fields. He’d even helped to plant a few of the new crops, demonstrating a better planting technique that he’d been taught all those years ago in his territory management classes.
The townspeople were truly pleased to see that their lord had opened up to them again, even if he still wasn’t willing to let any of them enter into his home. After two months of becoming self-sustainable, the townspeople were finally able to spend time focusing on their various [Gifts] without having to worry about starving like they used to before their new lord came, and the quality of their lives seemed to improve greatly.
Even though he tried his best to keep himself busy, and even though he had the gratitude of his subjects, that didn’t mean that Noth was always able to keep himself from thinking of the things he’d tried his best to hold at bay. On occasion, the crashing wave of angst would finally succeed at weighing him down, and would effectively hold him prisoner. When such awful days struck, Noth often found that he liked to retreat to the back of the greenhouse, where he’d kept the various trophies and oddities he’d collected alongside his angel. Reminiscing about his triumphs over monsters, the subduing of his assassins, and how far he’d managed to come, always served as quite the powerful reminder. With them, it was easy to remember that he’d once come from such a weak and powerless place. If he could survive through all of those harrowing trials, then he could be patient enough to survive through these upcoming trials as well. However, such memories were a double-edged sword, also reminding him that he no longer had his angel, who had helped carry him through such horrible times, by his side. And in this way, Noth’s trophy garden would repeatedly both build him up and re-tear him down, each and every time.
One day, however, there was a surprising change.
Noth had taken his usual trip to wallow in the greenhouse. He strolled slowly through the overgrown pathways and slipped under the foliage, expecting to be greeted by the lovely view of the mysterious and dangerous red bushes. However, in an odd twist of fate, a small ashen girl had suddenly caught his eye instead. She sat hugging her knees only a short distance away from the bushes, poking at a few of the fallen petals that decorated the ground. Noth felt like he was frozen for a moment as he witnessed the unexpected scene, but after blinking a few times he swiftly ran over and pulled the girl away from the murderous plant. Ren screamed in surprise at first, but when she realized that she had been caught in a place she’d sworn never to go to by the very person she’d sworn it to in the first place, she quickly covered her mouth and stared wide eyed at the ground in guilt.
Of course Noth scolded the girl, as any good older brother should have, but he didn’t have it in him to be too stern with her.
Although he liked to retreat to this hidden trophy garden, that didn’t mean that he was averse to having company. Noth felt an irreplaceable loneliness deep down inside of himself, and since Ren was already here and admitted that she’d been coming here for quite a while now, he decided to let her stay. Noth sat on the ground next to her, and the two leaned against each other as Ren showered him with questions about the various things that surrounded them. Noth told her abridged stories about each of them, and especially warned her not to touch the dangerous bushes. Ren paled when she finally realized how close she’d come to death each time she’d fiddled with the flowers, and the small sense of gratitude that she already had towards the mysterious friend that had always quietly protected her from it grew quite a bit larger. When Noth asked Ren why she liked to come here, she of course fibbed and told him that she just liked having a secret place to go to, which Noth didn’t seem to think twice about, thankfully.
As the two of them sat there exchanging stories, a small sense of peace seemed to radiate inside of both of them. Noth could feel an almost same-ness between them, similar to the bond that he and his angel shared, and the effect managed to somewhat cool his bleeding heart that felt as if it had had a chunk torn away from it. Ren, too, felt comforted by Noth’s proximity in a way she hadn’t felt since her friend had suddenly gone missing. It was like the two of them were wrapped in a familiar comfortable blanket that they once thought they’d lost, and it was somewhat hard to convince themselves to part from it. However, neither of them consciously realized such a feeling, and as such, neither of them knew to voice the feeling to the other.
This slight magnetic force started a chain reaction of events.
Inexplicably, Noth and Ren would repeatedly run into each other, and should there go a day when they didn’t somehow meet one another, the two would become obviously agitated and anxious, until they managed to come together like magnets, once again. Though Helt was busy learning to overcome the pain of his [Curse], and Jean was usually busy fretting over him as of late, the two of them did not miss the sudden and evident changes that had fallen upon their friends.
“It’s like those people I used to see in the alleys before I came to the orphanage. You know, the ones who smoked or used weird drugs!”
The small and beautiful Jean, who could no longer take what she’d been seeing, had pulled Helt into a secluded, unused room in the mansion. The two of them hid in a corner, out of sight of the doorway, and had huddled together as if afraid they might get caught.
“So you mean it’s like they have some kind of addiction…”
“Yeah! Ren might have had a huge hero worship thing or whatever going on for Noth for a long time now, but she would never have the nerve to be this clingy to him, right? She would have just stuck to you or me like normal and complained that she was probably just bothering him! Well… probably you. She never really liked to complain to me that much…”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Helt chuckled at Jean’s suddenly pouting face. Seeing her so energetic and flipping through emotions how she sometimes did, seemed to make some of his fatigue and pain melt away, even if only slightly. He softly patted the taller girl’s head and shot her a quick, weak grin.
“Don’t worry, she’s only like that because she also complains that she’s a burden to you, too.”
“Wha-?!”
“-And she knows how harshly you’d scold her if she said anything about it.”
Jean’s already pouting face seemed to grow just a tad bit poutier and puffier, and as her eyebrows began to knit together as if she were recalling something, Helt slumped against the wall and let out a wry chuckle.
“It already happened while I was asleep, huh… See? She thinks she’s a burden. The only reason she’s okay coming up to me and complaining is because she knows I can already hear what she’s thinking anyways. Or… Well… I could, back then… Urgh.”
As a sudden cold sweat poured over Helt’s face, Jean reached out a handkerchief, as she’d done so many, many times by now, and wiped it away.
“Do you think her weird change and them suddenly clinging to each other is connected?”
“I don’t know how it couldn’t be. She only got stranger after Noth’s powers changed; I’m worried that he might have somehow used his powers on her by accident or something. I mean, if he can accidentally make a whole new race, then it’s not crazy to think that he could accidentally do this, too, right? What else could possibly have changed her like this?”
“Um… Well, you might be right, but…”
“But…?”
Between twinges of pain, Helt turned his narrowed eyes towards Jean’s downturned face. Slowly, as he followed along with her train of thoughts, his glistening amethyst face gradually grew more and more offended.
“Oh no, you can’t possibly believe that’s true!”
“Well, but, I’m sure you’ve heard it before just like I have-”
“You know better than to think that after living with Ren for so long! And with Noth, even!”
“But if so many people keep saying it for so long then it’s possible it’s true! I mean look, even Noth has his angel, right? Is it so far-fetched to believe it’s so impossible after knowing that? I mean she’s been so strange, and it only got worse after Noth got power from the demons, and-”
“There’s no way that Ren would be possessed by a demon! You just said so yourself that Noth killed them all off!”
The ferocity of Helt’s voice seemed to make Jean quiver. Her mouth still hung open and quivered as if she wanted to continue her words, but not a single one of them would come out. After a moment she slowly closed her eyes and raised her shaky hands up to cover them. Sob-like breaths began to puff out from between her lips, until she suddenly roughly bit them as if she finally found her resolve. Her hands lowered down to clasp against her chest, but even though her eyes were once again visible and now held a determined if not pained expression, she wouldn’t let them stray towards Helt’s disapproving gaze.
Helt took in her almost desperate visage and couldn’t help but feel worried that he’d maybe been too harsh on his friend. He wanted to reach out and apologize to the friend he knew was only acting like this because of her great concern and worry. He knew how much pressure she usually felt to be the level-headed ‘leader’ of their little group, and he knew how much she cherished her loved ones. Such a person would have never talked about such hurtful rumours if she didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary. He knew her better than that…
The amethyst boy was so drowned in his own thoughts that he didn’t even have the ability to follow along with the thoughts of the girl in front of him. As Helt hesitated over how to apologize to his friend, Jean’s hand suddenly came over and firmly grasped his own. Her voice seemed to tremble just as much as her hand did. However, the more she spoke, the more conviction her words began to take on.
“...Helt… You… Do you remember the first day Noth went off to fight the demons?”
“What? Why are you-”
“Noth praised me and the two of you were teasing me, right? And then Noth left?”
“Yeah? I remember it just fine I think.”
“Well do you remember what happened later on at dinner, when we saw him again?”
“I think so… Didn’t he look really tired?”
“Yes. And Ren had been acting odd all day and said she was really afraid Noth would get hurt. She looked really guilty for some reason…”
“You’re right, she did. Actually, maybe she was already acting weird even back then. Is that why you’re-”
“No, just… Do you remember what Noth told her after she said that?”
“I think… Didn’t he say there was no way the demons could hurt him?”
“...He said they couldn’t hurt him because they liked him way too much. He said they ‘wanted’ him for some reason.”
“...What does that have to do with all this?”
Jean visibly gulped, as if she almost couldn’t stomach what she was going to have to say. Her head lowered, and her shoulders and voice once again shook.
“I-if that’s how the demons react to him… Then maybe this thing with Ren…”
Helt’s eyes narrowed, and then quickly grew wide. He wanted to pull his hand out of Jean’s grasp, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He knew what she was saying should sound absolutely absurd to him, just like it did earlier, but… But now… With how sudden and strange everything was...
Now Helt hated that he thought it could be true.