After a night of frantically drawing, finding, and even wishing up duplicates of pictures of various kinds of houses, Noth decided to return to the street that had been attacked yesterday. Oddly enough, before the teen could leave, Elillith suddenly ambushed him with the kids in tow. She hastily took the compilation of pictures out of Noth’s hands, gently enough to not hurt any of them, but roughly enough to cause a look of consternation to smack onto his face. With a mumble to take the kids along on his trip, Elillith split the stack of pictures into three and handed them each to the children. The whole thing happened in such a rushing flurry that Noth didn’t even have a single second to realize what was happening, and as he slowly made his way out of the mansion with a growing visage of confusion and concern, he could hear the tittering laughter of his angel following after him.

Well, if the all knowing angel was telling him that, then Noth would just have to shut up and be grateful.

The teen had been unaware of the numerous eyes that had been on him when he saved the family and rebuilt their house, but when he came back to check on how they were doing, suddenly almost everyone with a home on this street had been out and giving him intense stares. The townsfolk only kept their ominous silence up for the time it took Noth to finish speaking with the profusely thankful family he’d saved, and then out of nowhere a particularly big and bold woman appeared. She approached with such fierce determination that the teen actually grew worried for a minute, and did his best to hide the children behind him. And yet, although he was trying to shield the kids with his body, he couldn’t stop the woman’s loud, booming words from assaulting their ears and making them wince.

“You!”

Noth flinched a bit and nervously pointed to himself. The woman’s eyes narrowed just a tad bit more, almost looking threatening.

“Yer the new Count, yah?”

The teen’s eyes grew a little bit bigger, but he nodded. Was she perhaps upset with him about something? Had he done something to hurt his image as a lord in her eyes?

“And yer the one who killed that demon yesterday, also.”

This one she said in more of an unimpressed huff, even while her face took on a kind of smug smirk. Maybe she… wasn’t upset at him? And how had she known about the demon? Had she been there, hiding in her house yesterday? Before Noth could open his mouth to try and ask how she knew, the woman’s booming voice once more smacked into his ears.

“And the house?”

The way that everyone around them seemed to lean in and listen even harder didn’t go without the teen’s notice. He looked around at the almost predatory seeming onlookers and then back at the house he’d upgraded. Oh, so this was why they were all here. Well, didn't it make sense? Wouldn’t anyone jump at the chance to magically get a better home? It would be especially alluring if there was already a tried and proven example of it that had popped up right on your street. Noth cleared his throat and tried to stand with dignity. This was going to be far easier to pull off than he’d expected.

“Yes, I was also the one who made the house. I’ll gladly do the same for everyone, although it will take some time. Ah, and of course, it will be completely free.”

There were massive ripples of whispers around him when the townsfolk heard it would be ‘free’. Many of them seemed to be unconvinced of his words, wondering what he could possibly ask of them in the future, while others that knew he was the one behind the free food they’d been enjoying were busy refuting the other’s words. Just as Noth was wondering what he could do to help prove his sincerity, the children behind him sprung into action, with Jean acting as their representative as per usual. They surrounded the large woman with their tiny bodies and held out the pictures they held in their hands.

“Please ma’am, look at these pictures that Count Noct prepared for everyone. He knew that you all might have trouble choosing the looks of your new homes, so he spent his own precious time last night making these!”

Jean hadn’t even needed to use a hint of her [Gift], her overpowering beauty and sonorous voice had been enough to quiet everyone down easily. The people crowded around the big woman, as much clambering to see the pictures she held as they were eager to get a better look at the gorgeous girl. They passed around the various pictures amongst themselves, marvelling at the many wonderful different buildings they’d never seen before, and casting more and more hopeful looks Noth’s way. It seemed they’d been quite successfully won over.

Yes, Serris was right. It was indeed a good idea to bring the children along.

He really really needed to work on his social skills.

Noth mouthed his thanks to the children and finally stepped forwards.

“Now if you could please form a line starting with this woman, I’ll gladly get to work.”

~~~

It took quite a bit longer to work his way through all the homes than Noth had thought it would. It was true that the amount of wishes he could make in a day had grown to a very large amount, and in all actuality he probably had enough in him to make it through almost half the town’s homes in just one day. The problem, however, was having to interact with the people whose homes he was making. There were times that some families would fight with each other over who was next in line. Some families wouldn’t agree on the house they wanted. Sometimes someone would ask for a home that was much too large for their needs, and had to be thoroughly explained why it was a bad idea. Some just couldn’t decide on what they wanted. And some had so many different changes and specifications to add that it made it hard for Noth to envision what exactly he was wishing for. By the end of the day so much time would have been wasted that Noth could only really make his way through around 10 houses a day at most.

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There was, however, a small saving grace for Noth through these mentally exhausting days. Usually at least one of the children would accompany Noth and assist him in dealing with everyone. It was a huge help, considering how the teen really didn’t know what to say half the time when something went awry. Sometimes a particular child would be more helpful with that than others of course, like how Jean was practically unstoppable. But even the usually calm and reserved Helt and the shy and needy Ren had their moments to shine. It truly nailed in the fact that Noth wasn’t cut out for this kind of interaction.

The trickiest one had been the day before he finished everything, however. Instead of sending one of the children, they instead all insisted on Noth bringing Elillith along with him. They’d refused to give him a reason why, citing the lame excuse that the woman had actually really wanted to come along, and shoved the two out the door. The trip had been a quiet one, not that Noth minded, but the real problem cropped up when he tried to talk to the townsfolk. So far he’d had the children to help him, but this time he had the completely quiet Elillith, who was absolutely no help whatsoever in such social situations. Noth had had to work through the people’s problems completely on his own, and although a part of him knew this was necessary for his own personal growth, another part of him was lamenting the entire situation.

Another worrying aspect was how her eyes seemed to be boring holes into his skull the whole time.

In the end Noth actually gave up and went home early that day from the stress.

As the two of them marched home, Elillith looked like she desperately wanted to say something to him. The fact that he could actually tell what she was thinking just by looking at her was actually very surprising to Noth. He’d love to say that it was due to him having gotten to know her so well, but that would have been a lie. No, it was honestly all because her emotions seemed to be leaking through the expressionless doll-like mask that she usually had for a face. And yet, even when he tried to ask her if something was wrong, Elillith would just squeeze her mouth shut tighter, not allowing a peep to escape her lips.

It was all very troubling.

Even by the time they made it back home to the mansion, Elillith hadn’t spoken a single word. And when the children assembled and shot her hopeful looks she just slowly shook her head, causing their faces to all suddenly drop. Noth’s face dropped too, although more in confusion than in the pure sadness that they were all showing. But still, even when he tried to ask, no one would give him an answer. Even later, when Noth had tried to ask his angel, she just gave him a wry smile and told him he’d find out tomorrow.

It never bode well when his angel refused to tell him something.

He’d have to be especially wary tomorrow.

~~~

On the foretold day all three of the children came along with him, something that hadn’t happened since his first day of making houses. They all wore dire faces when they first left the mansion, but when they got into town and started interacting with the people they quickly did their best to look better. Ren didn’t do quite as good of a job as the other two in hiding her feelings, however. Noth couldn’t help but work slower as he observed them all and worried over what had done this to them, and yet somehow he finished up his work faster than any of the other days. It was practically awe-inspiring how easily they had handled everyone. The teen was truly and thoroughly impressed. He couldn't help but imagine how quickly he couldn't gotten everything done if they'd just came along with him every day. As they began their trek back home Noth couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't all gone with him from the get-go.

The way the children's faces turned resolute once the group neared the mansion was completely unmissable.

The children all motioned for Noth to keep quiet and sneak, and without telling them he muttered a wish for the group’s invisibility, just to be safe. The cute infiltration that they were leading him on would have seemed so charming and fun to Noth, if he wasn’t already gravely worried about what big secret everyone had been keeping from him. They waited, and then entered through a back servant’s entrance right after one of the maids opened the door and left through it.

Their progress through the mansion was slow since the children were being so cautious, but luckily enough the place they were headed for wasn’t too far away. Since they were already near the servant’s quarters, the head maid’s office wasn’t too terribly far away, and after a handful of minutes they managed to reach the door. Even though the office’s door was fully closed, they could still hear the sound of someone yelling from inside. And when the grave small faces next to him all turned in his direction, Noth slowly reached out to crack open the door, doing his utmost best to not make too much noise and interrupt whoever was inside. Luckily it seemed whoever was shouting was far too focused on their opponent to notice the quiet creak of the door hinges. As Noth and the children crammed their faces against the small opening, the sight of the head maid Mellen standing in front of Elillith came into view. From the angle that they were at the group couldn’t see the expression on the head maid’s face, but they could clearly see the slightly sombre look that was resting on Elillith’s gently downturned face.

“-And you even let all three of those useless children tag along with Count Noct today as well! What kind of caretaker are you?! Shouldn’t you be wrangling those worthless things and keeping them out of the way until he’s finished working? It’s already bad enough that you kept letting one of them go along every day and distract him, but did you really think it would be a good idea to just-”

The woman’s ranting went on and on, and all the while Elillith never moved or said a word back. Noth was confused why the usually unfazed Elillith would just stand there and let herself be forced to listen to all of her blathering. And even more than that, he was confused why Mellen was here berating her for him bringing the kids along. If anything they’d been a massive help to him, and if he’d had all three of them along the whole time he probably would have finished a lot sooner.

While Noth’s mind was trying to understand what problem Mellen might have had, Elillith’s lips mumbled out a small sentence, and it seemed that the head maid grew somehow even more irate.

“What did you just say, you shameless thing?!”

A loud smacking sound rang out inside of the office.

Elillith’s face was now turned slightly to the right.

Mellen’s slap was quickly causing Elillith’s pale skin to light up where she’d been struck.

And yet despite the pain she must have felt, the woman was still standing strong, her eyes now turned up towards Mellen with a clear glow of anger.

“I said the kids. Ain’t. Worthless.”