It was the first time Noth had heard Elillith speak without her usual lazy sounding drawl. He was so shocked at hearing and seeing the completely out of character response from her, that his hand that had been moving completely stopped, and he didn’t barge into the office like he’d been about to.

Of course, Elillith’s reply was not what Mellen had been wanting to hear.

“How dare you talk to me like that, you harlot!”

The older woman shoved Elillith down in a fit of rage. Her actions broke Noth out of his stunned state, and he quickly slammed open the door and marched in, dispelling his invisibility. The kids flooded in behind him shortly after, and ran over to their now sitting loved one. They surrounded her in big, tear-filled hugs, and yet Elillith’s eyes were instead stuck upon Noth’s angrily marching form as he made his way towards the head maid.

He was absolutely furious with her.

Noth’s eyes were glowing, the previous black and deep depths were now a bright, shining orange. His face was oddly calm, but those eyes… The look in his eyes left no room for misunderstanding. Mellen was at first only shocked that her lord had suddenly caught her in such a compromising position, but when he saw the sheer fury that was being broadcasted upon her, she practically shrunk into herself. What could she possibly say or do to escape from his overpowering gaze? What possible string of words or actions could help to remove his ire? She’d heard what he’d done to the demons, embellished though it could have been. It had to have been based off of something at the very least, and Mellen didn’t want to find out what her lord was capable of in this way.

“My lord, what, what did I-?”

In her fear the head maid called out, her feet slowly staggering backwards. The children and Elillith would have been in her path, but they quickly scrambled out of her way. And yet, despite the fact that they just barely managed to get out of the way, somehow Mellen still managed to trip over Elillith’s foot.

Somehow.

The woman careened backwards, collapsing onto the floor, and yet her gaze never tore away from Noth’s face as he slowly made his way ever closer. The teen only stopped once he was right in front of her, staring down upon her form with utter contempt. Power leaked from his lips as he issued the head maid an icy command.

“Stand.”

Mellen stood up against her will, her body trembling as she felt herself being controlled by some unknown force. Her nails were digging into her palms enough to cause them to bleed from how hard she was fisting her hands, but she couldn’t even feel it due to the mind numbing fear. The sound of her heart beating a mile a minute was pounding in her ears, and yet somehow she was still able to perfectly hear the chilly question that emanated from the teen in front of her.

“What have you been doing to my family?”

The practically growled question made the head maid yip in fear. She tried to force out any kind of explanation, but the pressure of the rage that was being beamed down upon her was making her throat close up and start to choke. Noth’s hateful gaze peered at her for a while, before quickly sweeping to the side, passing over the faces of his family, and then snapping back to Mellen once more. His voice was softer when he opened his mouth again, but somehow his words seemed to have grown even more intensity to them.

“Did you not understand that they were extremely important to me?”

The woman tried her hardest to choke out some kind of reply to him, but it seemed like her throat had zipped itself shut. The only sounds she could manage to compel herself to make were just small high pitched wheezes and grunts. Noth’s patience was wearing thin. He slightly tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, as if he was judging what he was seeing.

“I’m not here for this over dramatic reaction of yours, I’m here for you to ”

With a sudden flushing feeling, Mellen’s throat was immediately unclenched, and a deluge of words spilled up and out from inside of her with zero resistance.

“I was just trying to keep you safe from these freeloaders my Count! I was hoping that if I put them in their place that they might get the hint and leave an important man like you alone! And if they were out of your hair, then you’d have no reason to be distracted and could give all of your focus to protecting the town and ridding the land of demons, unlike the last lord we had! You don’t need to waste time on some shameless hussy and these kids that aren’t even related to you, and I couldn’t stand you being fooled by all of them into letting them stay here! That woman is probably just some whore who keeps getting knocked up by sugar daddy after sugar daddy right? And you’re just too young and naïve to realize that you’re her next victim! Those types of harlots are a dime a dozen, and it’s my job to lead-”

Her words were absolutely deplorable to Noth. How could she have leapt to such an unpleasant conclusion about Elillith and the kids? Had he somehow said something wrong? Just the thought that people could be eyeing up his loved ones with such a disgusting thought in their head was absolutely unbearable. Did everyone else in the mansion think the same thing? A nauseating taste seemed to be filling Noth’s mouth at the prospect, and the only way he could figure out how to get rid of it was to ask the question on the tip of his tongue.

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“You heard me say they were my family and that’s what you assumed I meant?”

“Yes well, that or perhaps that you might be keeping the children for later and the woman for now. It isn’t all that uncommon a thing to hear about amongst the powerful, and they are all quite the attractive kids, aren’t they? I’m sure I’m not the only one in the mansion who thought so; I mean, after all, none of the maids or servants ever said a word to you when I ordered them to help with the bullying, right?”

Noth’s mind wanted to give up and shut down. He couldn’t handle what he was hearing right now at all. He hated these new, horrific things he was hearing come out of Mellen’s mouth. He’d learned from the last time, and he knew better than to keep asking questions, even if his overactive and morbid mind wouldn’t stop churning them out. He knew that if he went down the rabbit hole in front of him that there was no way he’d be leaving it unscarred. No, he’d learned enough, and this would be ending now. He did his best to focus on the anger he was feeling instead of the disgust and confusion, hoping to drown it all out and get done what needed to be done.

“How awful. How awful you are. How awful you’ve all been! I don’t need such awful people in my home. I want you gone. I want you all gone! I want you all far, far away from here! ”

Noth’s eyes flashed bright, there was a pressure on the mansion, and a loud cracking sound resounded throughout the office.

Suddenly Noth and his family were the only ones left in the building.

~~~

Noth had collapsed shortly after using his powers, and had to be carefully dragged up to his room by Elillith and the children. He managed to wake up two hours later to the concerned faces of his family, but he hadn’t quite worked up the strength to talk to them about anything yet. Instead he just laid there, staring up at the smiling face of his angel. As he took in the clearly pleased look resting on her face, he ruminated over the feelings that were flooding him. Of course there was the stabbing pain of his overclocked bracelet that was vying for his attention, but there was also something else there… Something he’d been actively ignoring ever since it first appeared.

There was an odd, buzzing energy that was resonating somewhere inside of him.

In all likelihood, Noth might’ve accidentally broken his bracelet if he hadn’t had that extra bit of energy. He’d first noticed its presence on the day that Serris had killed the demons. It was so different from any of the other energy that he had inside of him, like it came from a completely separate place than the power he channelled from his angel, so he was fairly certain that it hadn’t been there before then. Perhaps he’d been a little bit distracted by the whole demon affair, but there was no way that he wouldn’t have eventually noticed the odd feeling.

Didn’t it make sense to assume that this weird, extra power was somehow connected to the demons that Serris slayed? But why had Noth been the one to receive it when his angel had been the one to put in all the work? Perhaps it could be argued that Noth had made a wish and that Serris had just been the one to carry out his will… but it still didn’t quite sit right in the teen’s mind. And why do the demons even give this extra power away upon dying in the first place? Is it some kind of divine reward from the God-dess for defeating the evil beings plaguing her world? But what would a normal person even do with such energy?

Noth’s eyes shifted away from Serris’s face. Even if he had the impulse to try and ask what was going on, it was highly unlikely that she’d actually give him a proper answer. Maybe he’d take his chances later, but now certainly wasn’t the time. His gaze turned towards the others in the room. Elillith, Jean, Helt, Ren… They’d all been treated so awful, right in the home that he’d brought them to. They were his responsibility, and he’d failed them for such a long time. Why hadn’t any of them told him what was happening? Did they not believe in him? Noth wanted to open his mouth and ask them all why they just sat there and took what that awful old woman was doing to them, but he was scared that it would come out sounding like he was blaming them. It would be better if he took the time to calm down a bit first and plan out his words more carefully before he tried to confront them on anything. It'd be terrible if he started becoming like his father and acted on his emotions towards his loved ones with no plan. No, he’d never accept himself becoming like that.

Instead, Noth decided to play things safe and ask a more mundane set of questions for now.

“How long have I been out?”

Helt sprung at the question. He’d been given a lovely watch as a gift by Noth’s father, and had been diligently keeping track of the time. He leaned over even closer to Noth and put out his arm towards the teen’s face.

“It’s been two hours. See?”

“Two hours…?”

Noth sat up a bit in his bed.

“Nothing happened while I wasn’t around, right?”

A hint of concern creeped into Noth’s eyes. There hadn’t been any demon attacks while he’d been gone, right? The angry servants hadn’t come back to stir up a fuss about him removing them? In his worry, he looked towards Serris, but all she did was giggle at him as if he was being silly. Seeing the angst growing on Noth’s face, Ren decided to hurry and reassure him.

“No no, nothing too major happened while you were asleep!”

Noth let out the breath he didn't know he’d been holding, grateful that their luck hadn’t run out while he wasn’t able to protect them. Ren smiled at his growing look of relief, and in her own relaxation she ended up letting something slip that she shouldn’t have.

“Yeah there’s nothing to worry about! The only worrying thing that hap-”

The way the girl suddenly shut up with a squeak and an odd face easily caught Noth’s attention. His eyes swept over the wincing faces of his family. Even Elillith looked a little bothered by the slip. And then of course there was the far too large and almost menacing smile on Serris’s lips. A sigh was threatening to make its way out of the teen's lips, but he held it in and instead wearily put his hands over his eyes.

“...What happened?”