“Mission accomplished!”
After a careful knock on the door and a swift reply, Jean burst into Noth’s room with Helt in tow, and announced their success. Noth chuckled at the cute display, and lovingly patted both of them on top of their heads. Jean triumphantly explained what she’d learned from the rats to Noth, before assuring him that they would not be returning. Meanwhile, Helt, whose eyes had been closed this entire time, quietly flopped the top half of his body onto Noth’s bed as if he was deeply worn out. Noth looked worriedly at the boy for a small while, but when Helt waved him off he eventually turned back towards Jean and reaffirmed a few points he’d learned.
“And you’re sure they didn’t know it was the pope who sent them?”
“Yeah, they only knew that they got a lot of money to snoop from someone really high up in the church. Apparently they don’t even have any kind of ties to the church at all, they were just part of some kind of small information guild.”
“Really… And what about the clergyman that they were supposed to report back to?”
“He’s supposed to be a… b-bishop? Um, I think that’s what they said he was. I’m sorry, I don’t really… I don’t know much about the church.”
Noth smiled sympathetically and nodded. He’d never once taken the children to church. In fact, Noth himself hadn’t gone to a church since he was 7, besides the trip he took to see the prophet. Something like him wouldn’t have been greeted warmly inside of a church, so why should he bother to show up? Ren wouldn’t be welcome for the exact same reason, and the church’s stance on Krysthids was very mixed, which meant even if Helt was accepted with open arms one day, he might be prosecuted the next. Funnily enough Jean was the only one who might actually be truly welcomed by the church, and yet just because of the benighted way she grew up, she'd never learned all that much about them. Perhaps if Noth had sent them to church at any time after receiving their [Gifts] then the three children would have cared, but… Well, if Ren and Helt weren’t accepted there, then Jean naturally wouldn’t have gone, just on principle.
And then of course there’s Elillith, who also grew up stolen away from society, and couldn’t give a care for most things in life besides the kids she looked after.
Yes, perhaps her way of living was the most simple, but Noth couldn’t help but admire his friend’s convictions. Would it be so bad if Jean grew up ignorant of the church and simply stuck to her own problems and worries, instead of paying too much mind to the country’s higher ups? She wasn’t very power hungry anyways. Besides, due to almost all of the people she cared about being shunned and hated by the church, maybe it was better that she shunned the church right back. The only one of them who had to care about that particular issue would be Noth and Noth alone; He wouldn’t be subjecting them to the church’s cruelties.
Noth reached out and once again pat Jean’s head, much to her confusion.
“That’s alright, you don’t have to worry yourself about it. We’ll find out what the silly clergyman is once he gets here. Do you know how long we have until then?”
Jean frowned, feeling a bit like she was being treated like a kid again. She huffily looked over towards Helt for help, but when she saw how positively broken and lifeless he still looked after their adventure, she quickly settled down and grew a bit more determined.
“...They said he’s coming in about a month and a half, but they also said that the person seemed a bit wishy-washy, so they weren’t sure.”
“A month and a half, huh?”
It wasn’t very long, but also wasn’t very short. Noth could only hope that his powers would have returned to him and become stable by then. He didn’t want to be caught by the church’s people without any kind of defence; For all he knew, the pope might have sent this bishop over with orders to murder him. The teen's eyes worriedly glanced over to the angel leaning calmly against his side. Her head rested on his shoulder like she was truly tired, but when his gaze turned to her she quickly smiled back.
Noth nodded and tried to look reassured by her words, but he knew he didn’t look very convincing. He trusted her, of course, but what she’d said didn’t particularly instill confidence that he’d be recovering his abilities anytime soon.
Her chilly words and the spooky smile that all of a sudden graced her face were a deadly combo. Noth couldn’t help but straighten up and clench his teeth at the accusation. Before he could will himself to reply, his angel’s position changed. From where she’d been perched against him before, her upper body mysteriously turned to face him. The way her waist was twisted looked quite impossible, and now her eerie smile was placed even closer to his face. From that impossible position her hands reached up, and her fingertips were placed dangerously close to the underside of his eyes. Her breathy, soft voice tickled against his skin as she slowly spoke.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Her fingers seemed to squirm closer and closer up his face, until it felt like she was just about to worm her way past the barrier of his eyelids and make contact with his eyes. Reflexively Noth closed his eyelids, and before he knew what he was doing, he slid away from her on the bed and hopped off of it, opening his eyes and cheerfully calling out to the kids.
“Alright, since you did this favour for me, I owe you a request! I can’t fulfil them just yet, but I promise I will whenever my powers come back! Come on, tell me whatever it is, and I’ll do my best!”
Jean watched the whole display, all from Noth looking away towards who she assumed was his [Gift] angel, and then the ensuing terror that filled his face. She could tell how unnatural this sudden cheery shift was, and through her, the collapsed Helt also knew by extension. However, who were they to try to intervene in whatever had just happened? They’d long learned since their days at the orphanage not to ask questions that they didn’t want to hear the answers to, and if Noth wasn’t directly in trouble then they wouldn’t be adding trouble where it didn’t need to be. Besides, it wasn’t the first time Noth had seemed to be suddenly shocked by something. The best thing they could do would be to gloss over it, at least for now.
“Erm, um… I- I only want Helt to get better. I have everything I need already, besides that.”
Jean’s humble and heartfelt answer put a sincere smile on Noth’s frantic visage. It helped that he could feel that Serris was flopped onto the bed, no longer seeking after his eyes. Deep down he was very relieved that he seemed to have made the right choice.
“That’s really kind of you Jean, but I’d try to help Helt anyways. Why not think of something else? It doesn’t have to be something super important if you don’t want it to be.”
“Oh…”
Jean screwed her face up in thought for a while. Her sincere answer hadn’t gotten quite the response she’d hoped for, and she rather didn’t like how much she was being put on the spot. However, she also had some vague fear that if she didn’t use up her wish now, that the opportunity would go away forever. He was right, the wish didn’t have to be for something terribly important, and with how pressed she was at being suddenly told to think something up, she ended up just blurting out something she’d often thought of.
“Well, then I’d love for some help cleaning the mansion and villa, I guess. There’s only five of us in here, and this mansion is just so big that it’s getting really dirty. There’s no way we can keep up with just us. Maybe Elillith and I can clean the villa just fine, but if only we had a few more people to help with the rest, you know?”
Jean fluttered her eyelashes and looked pointedly at Noth, trying hard to send him the many hints she was placing for him. As she and Helt had been out looking for the rats, she’d heard him mention many times how the townsfolk felt deeply saddened by the incident with the servants. Apparently a lot of the ex-servants felt truly remorseful. Jean was pretty sure she, Helt, and Ren had already gotten over the, what she considered to be, relatively mild bullying that they’d experienced. Yes, it might not have been very long since then, but Noth was the only one who was holding on to it all and refusing to interact with the townspeople. He’d been so excited to be a lord before all of this, and his people needed him. Wasn’t it okay to at least offer an olive branch to the poor townspeople and take the first step to re-invite servants into the mansion? Then he could gradually work his way back to helping out the town again.
Noth paused and thought her words over, but it seemed that he didn’t manage to catch the subtle undertones of her true intentions.
Serris chuckled softly at the girl’s small misfortune from her position on the bed.
“Alright, I’ll work on it. And you, Helt?”
The small boy groaned and slightly turned his face. His body was all but on the border of sleep, trying its best to lower down its responsibilities so that Helt might get a bit of rest from the burden of his [Curse]. He had to wake up a bit as he was now being talked to, but it was just so hard to struggle back from the half consciousness that he’d been in. After a moment he opened his eyes and blinked at Noth, but only a few seconds later he reclosed them, grimacing under the burden of using another sense. He had so many different things to ask for, how could he choose just one with his mind addled like this? His mother had been missing for years, he had no way to find or identify his father, he wanted to help Ren with whatever seemed to be trying to possess her, he wanted to be free of his [Curse]… There were too many options to choose from. He was already getting so much love and support from everyone, and he was currently weak, helpless, and in pain. He was surely a big burden for everyone, both before and even more now. How could he possibly ask the person who gave food, shelter, and warmth to him and all his friends for even more?
No… These were his problems.
Helt would fix them alone.
He had all the power he needed to find his missing people and solve the riddle within Ren inside of his [Gift], he just needed to learn how to wield it without hurting himself.
He would learn how to not be so weak and helpless.
He’d learn to stop being a burden.
He was a Krysthid, and every Krysthid learned to face their [Curse] and live with it.
The small boy shook his head with much effort. Determination bubbled in his heart, and yet he did his best to keep it hidden.
“It’s alright, I don’t need anything right now but to get better. I’ll save my wish for another time.”
“That’s fine with me, but tell me when you think of something, okay?”
Noth seemed not to notice the change in Helt’s heart, so Helt felt pleased that his resolution was safe. However, he quickly learned that he was wrong. He peeked over at Jean, noting the concern in her mind and on her face. She knew him too well. It was going to be very hard to keep his longest friend from clinging to him in worry now.
…Well even if he had resolved to handle everything alone, that didn’t mean he didn’t like being cared about.
It was nice to know that there would always be someone to worry about him.
Once again Helt began to drift off, this time with a smile on his face.