The carriage ride back to Noth’s territory was deafeningly quiet. Although Noth would reply to any of Elillith’s few and far between words with a perfectly normal tone, he wouldn’t even spare much of a glance towards Serris. The most he would offer her was a brief, uncaring gaze, as if he didn't even see her there, before it would easily slide away from her. Even if she pressed herself directly in front of him so he couldn’t look away, he would just cross his arms and close his eyes, as if he were only tired and resting. No matter how hard she screamed, no matter what she said, no matter how large of a tantrum she attempted for his attention, nothing worked.

After the long ride home, Serris wasn’t even upset about it anymore; She just felt like an insignificant ghost.

When they made it back to Sleekka, the children immediately ran out to greet them. The villagers all gathered around a short distance away, being polite enough not to interrupt the family reunion while still trying to get a peek at their lord, but their stares still seemed to ruffle Noth, so the children quickly dragged him home so that they could talk.

“You’re both finally home!”

Although Ren had already jumped and hugged at their legs when they’d first arrived, once the group had safely made it into the mansion’s confines, she performed an even more tackling hug once again. Elillith simply gave the girl the same soft pats she’d given her earlier, but for the first time since they’d left Keiran manor, Noth genuinely smiled. He bent down slightly, and talked to her even more softly and delicately than he used to.

“Hello, Ren. We’re back.”

The small ashen girl broke out in a blush, and then timidly let go as she clasped her hands behind her back and looked shyly towards the ground. Helt looked at her with a soft concerned gaze, but despite his worries about Ren, his hand still slowly moved as if it wanted to reach out towards Noth. Jean, however, unshyly voiced her displeasure.

“Yeah? And what about us? We’re here too, you know.”

Noth’s face twitched for a moment, but then an awkward half smile, as if he were trying to remember how to look placating, formed onto his face. He reached out for the other two children and briefly gave them what he hoped weren’t too rough of head pats.

“Of course I missed both of you, too. I’m sorry if it looked like I was giving Ren all the attention.”

His eyes monitored their reactions closely. Jean huffed and crossed her arms, but she couldn’t help the slightly pleased look that crossed her face. Meanwhile, Helt simply blushed softly and gave a tiny smile. Neither of them seemed to have reacted to his words in any particular way, at least not in the way he was looking for. His gaze turned cold for a split moment, but before anyone could notice it he crouched down to Jean and Helt’s level and took ahold of both of their hands with a concerned look.

“You know that I care about all three of you equally, right? You’d tell me if it seemed like I was giving one of you more time than the others?”

Jean quirked her eyebrow at his words and immediately wiggled her hand free.

“Why’re you acting so weird all of a sudden? It’s gross. Did something happen? Or was it my words earlier, because I’ll have you know-”

“Jean would definitely say something if that was happening Noth, don’t worry.”

Helt’s interruption seemed to infuriate Jean. The girl quickly lunged at him, her hands going right for his shiny crystalline hair. As Noth stared at their antics quietly with a steadily dissolving look, Ren, who had been busy hugging Elillith’s legs, reached out to tug at his clothes.

“We all super missed you, big brother Noth.”

The teen couldn’t help but grin back at her sweet little smile.

~~~

Noth closed the door to the room behind him and put down his bags. He busied himself with unpacking his clothes and laying them out on his bed. His angel pouted, remembering the cute reunion from earlier and feeling vastly unloved. For the umpteenth time since they’d left the Kieran manor, she tried to talk to her bond.

“Sit.”

The voice was so icey and commanding that Serris complied with his order before she even realized it. Never once had Noth spoken to her in such a cold and hostile way, not in all the years they’d been together. Her mouth squirmed, and after a moment she decided that she wanted to get back up, but what she saw quickly stopped her in her tracks. One by one, Noth was touching the clothes on the bed, and one by one they were becoming clean and neat. They even somehow squirmed themselves into a folded shape afterwards, too.

Noth’s head slightly turned to glance at her, but he soon focused back on putting his clothing away.

“Why shouldn’t I know how to use it? It’s all the same thing anyway.”

Serris’s eyebrows crinkled. There’s no way that Noth should have been able to tell that. If anything, the two energies should have still felt distinctly different from each other to him. He certainly had never been able to use her powers so easily without saying a wish like this. Her eyes followed him closely, and her gaze grew harder and harder the more she looked at him. As she stared, Noth finished putting everything away, and finally he sat down on the bed in front of her with his arms crossed. His impassive yet intense look that bore down on her seemed to be quietly judging her, and when he suddenly spoke, her hands on her thighs turned into fists.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“So, angel. Tell me why you erased everyone’s memories.”

At first Serris felt confused by the question that seemed to come out of nowhere. She was sure she hadn’t felt him break through the mental block, despite how much he’d been resisting against it, so it didn’t make sense that he could even ask such a thing.

But then, as she looked up into his cold and uncaring eyes, she abruptly realized. A loving, beaming, almost too long smile plastered itself across her face, and she leaned forward intimately with her hands on the floor.

Noth didn’t bother to reply to her words, but a tiny tinge of disgust did manage to seep into his eyes. The reaction only managed to make Serris’s smile even wider, if not more crooked.

Noth’s look of disdain only grew, and his eyes narrowed as his tone took a turn for the venomous.

“Yes, you tampered and you tampered and now your little plans have gone awry. Now the energy you were hoping to give to your obedient pet has integrated with me instead.”

Despite his clearly malicious tone, Serris just continued to smile and nod along, her eyes wide open as if she couldn’t bear to miss even a single second of him.

His eyes rolled up as if he couldn’t take much more of her terribly inappropriate reactions to the situation, but eventually they slid back down and refocused their icy-ness onto her.

“And what if it’s just me? What if the trusting child you raised was erased by me?”

The angel blinked for a moment and then tilted her head in thought. Slowly a frown took shape on her face, but soon a small embarrassed grin took its place.

“Even though his existence is a prison for you?”

Noth’s arms loosened, and the chilling look in his eyes visibly softened.

“Yes, you did save him… You saved him from my horrible fate, and for that, I must say that I appreciate you, despite the way you’re trying to use him. The both of us owe you.”

“You’re fooling no one.”

The chilliness that had been removed from his demeanour easily came back. Noth’s eyes narrowed, and his voice sounded as if he were denouncing her.

“I’m the one holding this energy, so I know what it is you’re trying to do with that god. You’re both trying to fix that thing’s mistakes. At this point, you’re trying to reach that goal just as much as that god is.”

Serris bit her lip and seemed to shrink under his harsh truths. She peeked up at him guiltily through her eyelashes, not daring to look at him directly in her shame.

Noth snorted and rolled his eyes, stopping his gaze away from her as if he couldn’t bear to let her image enter his view right now. A wry smile formed to match his mocking words.

“You have no plans to hurt Noth, but you use his loved ones for your deeds. I can maybe forgive what you’ve done to Helt, but you think I don’t know what you’re doing to Ren?”

The angel’s already pale skin seemed to blanche even further. Her shoulders shook, and her head hung down, covering her face in a curtain of her hair.

The teen’s mocking face slowly eased, turning back into his beginning impassive look. His tone still held a bit of steel to it, but Serris could tell that it had softened just the slightest amount, as if he were talking about something fragile.

“No… There’s still some things that I can’t tell him just yet. He’s not yet ready, and more importantly he loves those children like his own flesh and blood. I suppose this is the pot calling the kettle black at this point, huh?”

A self deprecating chuckle escaped his lips, and his cold eyes gently closed.

“Even with its ups and downs, this Noth is living a kind of happy life that I couldn’t have possibly ever dreamed of. His family loves him, his people respect him, and for the most part he’s safe. I know that you’re using Ren in order to save this Noth in the long run. None of this could have been possible without you, angel, so I won’t do anything to jeapordize your plan. We both owe you. However, you must know that this Noth won’t be happy with the end of that plan of yours.”

Serris offered up a weak smile, and then looked back down to the floor as she spoke softly.

“That’s going to be quite the tall order.”

Sighing, Noth got up from the bed and knelt down in front of the dejected angel.

“I’ll be here watching. If it’s what Noth wants, then I’m willing to turn a blind eye to all of it. But if you manage to hurt him beyond his forgiving, then I won’t ever let your plan succeed, no matter how much I despise the God-dess.”

The angel fisted the floor, giving a nod that had absolutely zero strength behind it. She knew his words were reasonable, and that this was the best offer she could have hoped to receive at the moment. Noth stood up and looked down upon her one last time, pity lightly tinging his eyes.

“...I’ll be watching.”

And with that, he gave Noth back.