Noth froze as a stranger entered the balcony. He hoped that he hadn’t been caught interacting with his angel. He didn’t really care if the other nobles thought he was crazy or anything since they already had such a low opinion of him, but having anyone who might be reporting to the Pope mention that he had been talking to something invisible was a little risky.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you or anything.”
The young man put on an apologetic smile and took a few slow steps towards Noth.
“I heard your voice coming from this direction and I had hoped I might find you here.”
Noth looked him up and down and straightened up as he assessed this new opponent. This person could have easily been sent to find and harass him for whatever reason, or maybe he had come looking for Noth to tell him it was time for the ceremony. There was even a distant possibility that he’d secretly been sent by the Prophet, who Noth had lost contact with.
“...And might I ask why you were looking for me?”
The young man chuckled as if Noth was being silly, and raised both of his hands to signal that he was harmless.
“You don’t have to be so stiff, we’re both nobles and we’re around the same age. It’s not like I came to be rude to you like you must think; I just… I came hoping that the two of us could possibly talk.”
The still completely stiff and distrusting look on Noth’s face didn’t go away. The young man let out a little sighing laugh like he was accepting his defeat, but then he moved to join Noth next to the railing, leaning his back on it in a casual way. He flashed Noth a disarming smile and then looked up into the sky, letting his words float up above them as he talked.
“I really liked how you stood up to that pair of dirty old men. Most of us younger nobles really didn’t care for the way they liked to lord over everyone else, so I’m sure you have a bunch of secret supporters right now. I know my sister certainly seemed to be rooting for you from the start, but she always did like an underdog.”
Noth crossed his arms and joined in on leaning against the railing, but it was obvious from his face wasn’t terribly impressed with what he was hearing.
“No one ‘supported’ me enough to step up and do anything when I needed it though. I don’t need such useless supporters.”
“Hah, understandable.”
The young man turned his head to give Noth a quick apologetic smile, and then moved to lean his side on the railing so that he could fully look at Noth.
“Well what if it’s not a supporter but a friend? Like I said, I was really impressed. Rilly- Oh sorry, that’s my sister’s nickname. Riln urged me to go and make friends with you. Don’t get me wrong, I had the same idea as her, but she’s especially pushy about it. Oh, and I’m ‘Mark’ by the way. Noble names and all that. I’ll never get used to it. You’re, um, Noct, right?”
Noth nodded, letting his walls down just a tad. He knew he couldn’t trust a noble just showing up and talking to him like this, especially not here at the noble’s gathering designed to put him in his place. However, hearing how affectionately the man talked about his sister, how uneasy he was with the new naming just like Noth was, along with his casual and friendly demeanour, they all were chipping away at Noth’s defences. No one had ever been so immediately friendly to Noth in his life, so it was quite the unusual meeting. But if he was truly being honest with himself, the biggest reason that he wanted to give this young man, Mark, a chance was because of his angel’s suggestion of finding a friend his own age here. It made meeting Mark like this seem as if it was fated to happen.
He knew that he was being sloppy.
He knew that he should have still been vigilant in this den of snakes.
But what harm could be done if he just gave Mark a simple chance?
“...Yes, it’s Noct now… I also feel awkward with the new names. It’s nice to meet you, Mark.”
Mark smiled brilliantly, looking ecstatic that Noth seemed to be opening up to him. He leaned a little bit closer to Noth, and spoke just a bit softer, making their conversation feel slightly more intimate than before.
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“It’s nice to meet you too, friend. Hey, look over to the doorway. Do you see the person who’s trying to be sneaky about peeking in at us?”
Noth’s peered over to the entrance of the balcony. He hadn’t noticed before, but there really was someone trying to stealthily look in on them. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better view of the person, but the only thing Noth could make out was a long black veil and the hem of a lacy black dress.
“That’s Rilly.”
Mark chuckled and smiled affectionately.
“Excuse her for hiding like that. She has to wear a veil to protect herself from the sunlight because of her [Gift], and since she grew up getting teased about it, it made her terribly shy about meeting new people.”
It wasn’t uncommon that someone’s [Gift] came with some sort of a side effect. Some were more severe, like Helt’s, but some were simply an occupational development that lightly affected one's life. Many [Maids] developed OCD, many [Seamstresses] developed thick skin on their hands, and many [Gardeners] grew anxious in areas that lacked any plants. There were plenty of cases for such things, so it wasn’t so odd of a topic. However, Noth’s curiosity flared up drastically as he wondered what kind of [Gift] would cause photosensitivity like that. Perhaps a kind of nocturnal [Gift], or one that forced a person to get little to no sun like a [Miner]?
Noth desperately wanted to ask, but he knew it would have been extremely rude to ask about the [Gift] of someone he hadn’t even really met. If he were alone he might have immediately turned to Serris to wish for an answer, but now he had Mark, his new friend, next to him, so there was no opportunity.
Mark could easily tell from Noth’s face that his curiosity was eating him up. He smiled and looked for a second like he might tease Noth over how obvious he was being, but soon he just smiled and turned towards his sister once more.
“You know, this actually has to do with why my sister wanted me to go talk to you so badly. Don’t get me wrong, I just want to be your friend, but my sister has ulterior motives with this. She’s a mineral researcher by trade, you see, and you, my dear new friend-”
Mark looked at Noth out of the corner of his eyes and poked his shoulder.
“-You, have the only volcano in all of Odessia in your land.”
Noth looked confused for a moment about what Mark could mean, but nodded and looked back and forth between the two siblings.
“Your sister wants to see the volcano?”
“Well not just her, it’s the both of us. She used to read me stories about different amazing places when we were younger. She’s older than me, you see, and our parents weren’t always around. Ever since she became a researcher, we’ve gone to every one of those pretty landscapes we could find, and my sister would learn about the minerals there to her heart’s content. Now there’s only two of them left that we still haven’t been to: The sea and a volcano. Odessia doesn’t have a sea, but you know what it does have?”
Mark smiled cheesily at Noth, and Noth couldn’t help the way the corner of his mouth rose up.
“So you two want my permission to come to Sleekka.”
“Yup! It’s illegal for one noble to visit another without getting permission first, you know. We wanted to go right after I became old enough to be a noble two years ago, but there wasn’t anyone in Sleekka to get permission from. And also, well, there were a whole bunch of demons roaming about the place!”
Noth easily nodded, understanding his logic.
“I wouldn’t mind you two coming to look at the volcano, so long as you both promise to stay out of trouble. But there’s no inn in my territory, so unless you’re okay with staying in a house in the town on your own…”
“Why would I do that when I could just visit my new friend’s place?”
Mark’s cheeky smile somehow smoothly washed away any resentment Noth could have felt over his pushiness. He wasn’t even surprised how easy it was to smile along with the bright and playful young man.
“Yes, that would probably be for the best. Just make sure you don’t do anything to distress my siblings, please.”
Mark’s eyes widened for a split second, but then his smiley, happy-go-lucky look quickly returned.
“Oh wow. Rilly’s gonna be so happy. Would a week from now be alright?”
Noth nodded, and Mark jumped happily away from the railing.
“A Baron being invited to the territory of a Count! Boy, I’m sure moving up in the world; What would the other Barons think?”
The young man gave Noth one last playful wink before rushing off towards the door and gleefully calling for his sister.
“Rilly! He said yes! We get to go!”
The heartwarming scene brought a soft smile to Noth’s face. He was starting to miss his own siblings after seeing how much Mark seemed to care for his sister. Thinking of family reminded him of how his own mother had also been a Baron, just like Mark is. The teen was convinced that for all he disliked the nobles so far, Barons must be alright overall.
He wondered what Mark's [Gift] was. He was sure it would be interesting when his new friend decided to tell him about it.