Two weeks passed. Noth had learned many different things during his time of studying Jeck, along with his deep thinking. First of all, he’d learned that he was wrong about his feelings about the looks and whispers that he’d been getting. The first week he’d been sure he was perfectly fine with and able to ignore them, but the second week was drastically different. As it turned out, the boy didn’t actually like feeling constantly scrutinized while he went about his day. In fact, it was decidedly grating. It could have just been because he was constantly on high alert due to Jeck, but he was sure that he was somehow more sensitive than he’d been before. He could feel every pair of eyes on him, judging him. He could hear every whisper.

Noth started to notice his constant feelings of being on edge manifesting in certain ways. If a servant brought him a cup or plate that wasn’t a certain colour or shape, then he’d tell them to fix it as menacingly yet subdued as he could. It was hard for him to hold back his smile whenever he noticed them visibly get upset, annoyed, or even a little sad. It only seemed right to the boy to pay them back in the same discomfort they were giving him. Sometimes when he’d lay in bed he’d feel slightly bad about it, especially for the ones who teared up slightly, but those feelings would immediately evaporate whenever he was put back into the same situation once again. It only upped his annoyance further that he had to correct them so often; He just couldn’t understand how it was so difficult for them to learn and adjust to something so simple.

Another way his sensitivity was manifesting had to do with Jeck, and Jeck alone. As he watched and studied him from the shadows, he’d realized that even just looking at the man made his eyes itch. They felt like maybe an eyelash had fallen into them, or perhaps that they’d been upset by allergies, but no matter what he did or how much he rubbed, they never got any better unless he left the area and stopped looking at Jeck. Noth had actually managed to rub at the corner of his eyes so much that he’d started getting small red rash lines, and it was all so irritating that he often had the thought that maybe he should just stop his surveillance of the snake, at least once a day. Of course, that was always just an idle passing grumble; There was no way he could stop now.

The boy had been managing to completely stymie the snake so far. Noth would sneak into the manor to eat, keep up with his studies, and surveil Jeck, then would carefully sneak back out when he felt satisfied or in danger. He was supposed to be learning how to appreciate the arts with the man three times a week, but with his father bedridden, there was no one who could stop him if he just so happened to not show up. It would be a lie if Noth said he didn’t love the frustrated look on Jeck’s face during and after the wasted blocks of time. Honestly, seeing it was the highlight of his day, every single time. There were, however, moments that Noth came a little too close to running into the snake. Sometimes they would catch glimpses of each other through a window, or down a hall. Whenever such things would happen, the boy would make sure to give Jeck the most smug of smirks he could manage before escaping out of sight. Occasionally he’d even wish himself invisible, either out of necessity or just out of the desire to truly stump the man.

The only problem that Noth had encountered so far with his scheme was actually his father. After the big fainting incident, Ruth Kieran hadn’t woken up even after four whole days had gone by. His sleep had been fretful, wrought with fevers, sweating, gasping, and unintelligible screaming here and there. The boy had contemplated coming to visit his poor father, but after considering the gorilla war he was waging with Jeck, he’d decided to only show up if it seemed like the Earl was taking a turn for the worse. He may have felt slightly guilty for the predicament his father was in now, but that didn’t mean that he was willing to put himself in danger for the man. Unexpectedly, though, in a stroke of apparent luck, Ruth Kieran awoke after a week had passed.

It took very little time before people realized that this in fact wasn’t the end, however.

It became apparent that the Earl had become slightly unhinged after his ruthless sleep. He’d woken up disoriented, but it didn’t take long before he started gibbering nonsense. He’d claw at his flesh hard enough to both tear his skin and rip his nails, leaving himself constantly anaemic and battling a few minor infections. His every reaction to outside stimuli was too violent for anyone to approach him, requiring the man to be held down if they ever hoped to treat his wounds or attempt to force-feed him. After a few days of this, the Earl had managed to calm himself down from the violence and had instead crumpled into a small rocking ball. People could at least talk to him in this state, but his answers were very short and stuttered. He stayed in that one small spot on his bed and rocked all day for almost a week.

A large problem for Noth reared its ugly head when the servants who attended to the Earl noticed a certain pattern. If anyone mentioned Ruth Kieran’s son to him, or perhaps something that strongly reminded the man of Noth was brought up, he would proceed to immediately throw a fit in a style reminiscent of the first few days after he’d woken up. It would only last around an hour before he’d tire himself out and fall asleep for a small while, but the strong reaction solidified everyone’s belief that the boy must have been the reason for the Earl’s current affliction.

The final nail in that belief’s coffin was when Noth himself arrived at the poor man’s door.

Although Noth had been told that his father was gradually getting better, he had distinctly noticed a lack of any summons from his typically needy father. The same man that had demanded so many trivial dinners and reports throughout the week, just for the obvious purpose of getting to see his son, hadn’t even called for said son once. It was obvious that the boy would realize that such a thing was strange. Another small part of his mind was actually quite worried for how his father was doing. A wedge of that worry had to do with the fact that yes, that was his father, monster or not, but that wasn’t the only piece to it. There was also the much more intense fact that he needed the man to live until Noth could finally become independent from him and forge a future of his own. If he lost his guardian while he was still considered a child then he’d be at the mercy of the church, and considered the orphan of a noble lineage. The church took direct control over such children, since high ranking [Gifts] were considered to be a sign of the God-dess’s favour. Even if they didn’t consider the child’s gift to be of noble rank, that didn’t mean that the ugly duckling of a lineage couldn’t end up giving birth to the next swan.

The most important and driving point of Noth’s worry, however, was ultimately his guilt. He was fairly certain that he was the main cause of his father’s collapse, if not also the ailment that was currently plaguing him. He’d made attempts to ask the angel what exactly he’d done, since he was almost sure that no wishes had come from either his mouth or his mind at the time, but she’d refused to tell him anything. The only thing his angel did was give him a mysterious if not bordering on nefarious smile, almost as if any second now she’d rub her hands together and laugh like a plotting villain. This was understandably frustrating to the boy, but he’d eventually resigned himself to somehow figuring it all out on his own in the future. He couldn’t expect the silly spirit to answer every one of his questions; After all, would it make sense for someone to get angry at their cramping hand when it didn’t tell them why it was cramping?

It was a bold move to simply go and see his father when the snake was currently stalking the manor trying to sniff Noth out. His guilt and worry clouded his mind a good bit while he made the decision, but in the end the boy had convinced himself that should he be found he could simply just escape. He knew it was an arrogant thought, but he’d managed to slip away and observe his prey so well so far that his confidence was at its peak. What’s the worst that Jeck could do to him? Hit him? That would be one of the stupidest mistakes he could make while he was still inside of the Kieran manor, the home of Noth’s father. There was even a small mischievous piece of him that wanted to get caught, just to see in what way the snake might strike. It seemed like the perfect kind of test, a dive into the ways of his current monster of study.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The cherry on top of all of this was the thought that there was a chance of him solving the riddle of what he’d done to his father, but only if he could perhaps study him in person and somehow uncover his true condition. His curiosity was spurring him on greatly to find out what exactly happened, and if he was being totally honest, it was in close competition for the biggest driving force in his rash decision-making. Noth was curious to a fault. Noth was so curious, in fact, that it almost felt like he’d start breaking out into a rash at any moment if he couldn’t find out what it was that was being kept secret from him. And that damned ominous look he’d gotten from the angel whenever he couldn’t hold his questions in any longer! That look was ruining him the most! It was almost as if that look was haunting him whenever he looked at her, or when his mind strayed towards his father as of late.

And so, spurred on by his profound inquisitive nature, Noth found himself at the entrance of Ruth Kieran’s room. The maids and doctors that had been looking after his father scampered away like they were running from a bad smell after giving the boy a quick head nod, and soon the two were the only ones left in the room. The man he’d once found so terrifying was now just a crumpled ball on the corner of his bed, frantically rocking as he muttered to himself. His cowardly father who he’d seen cry in front of him a few too many times had still never looked this… unsightly before. The amount of bandages and bruises covering his arms and legs were striking, standing out in far too obvious a way to be just simple wounds. Whenever he caught glimpses of the Earl’s face behind the arms and hands madly winding themselves around the man’s head, he could see how pallid and sunken it had become over just the past few weeks. The way his fingers were fisting his hair looked like they would pull it out at any moment, and as Noth continued his observations he actually did notice many discarded strands laying nearby on the bed. The boy carefully stepped a little closer in the hopes that he might be able to make out some of the words his father was saying underneath his breath.

“...Ican’tIcan’tit’stoomuchnoplease… …don’t, no… …not…too… …whatdoI…”

The words were so quiet and slurred together that it almost felt like Noth’s ears were getting tired from how hard he was straining them to listen in and make sense of what he was hearing. He steadily continued to move closer and closer, but whether he’d moved too close too quickly, or possibly that he’d gotten careless in his impatience, his father’s head suddenly snapped to his direction. The boy’s heart felt like it stopped for a second, and he couldn’t help but open his mouth wide in horror.

He’d never seen his father’s eyes open so wide before.

It was almost supernatural how wide his eyes had become.

If the man’s eyes popped out of his head and rolled to the floor, Noth wouldn’t have been surprised; That’s how absurdly wide they were. But it wasn’t just that the eyes were wide, they also seemed oddly big, as if they’d somehow puffed up or perhaps ballooned somehow, and were struggling in their small confines. They were particularly glassy as well, almost looking like a reflective white lake, with only small specks where his usual blue eyes would be. And leaking from the corners of those giant eyes in single straight lines…

Oh no.

That colour…

Noth knew that colour very well.

The boy couldn’t help turning his head to the angel behind him once he’d realized. The slightly amused eyes of his angel that were busy studying his poor father. The rusty colour of his tears were an exact match for the colour rimming around the irises of her eyes. Suddenly her gaze swept to meet his own, and the intensity in her stare made the boy bite his lip. Noth was so stupefied by his own astonishment and lack of understanding, that the sudden yelling that started filling the room took a while for him to register. His neck felt stiff as he tried to tear his eyes away from the angel and investigate the noise. It felt like it took an eternity for him to manage to escape, but just as he succeeded, the angel’s arms whipped out and pulled the boy away. The inhuman way that the two of them shot across the room like a snapped rubber band made Noth’s teeth that were still clenching his lip bite down all the harder, slicing into his weak flesh.

It was obvious that Noth would want to cry out in pain and annoyance, but his mouth opened instead for a completely different reason; He’d finally noticed the cause of all the noise he’d been hearing since before he’d been dragged away. His father had apparently been flailing about like a madman while the boy hadn’t been looking, and Noth had caught sight of the hand that had been unintentionally rocketing towards him just as he’d been yanked out of harm’s way. Of course the situation was dangerous enough already, what with the man being a [Warrior] and Noth still being just a young boy, but everything was suddenly made all the more dire by a totally new realization.

Ruth Kieran’s hands were turning into claws.

As the boy stared on, disgusted and horrified by the scene he was witnessing, his father started slowly transforming. Even as his body seized, flailed, and screeched, parts of him would suddenly bubble, distend, and ripple, as if trying to make up its mind on what form it should take. The man’s ears, clearly visible behind his short messy hair, were starting to grow tufts of fur. The man’s teeth, bared as he screamed in agony, were starting to grow jagged and extended. A truly grotesque grinding sound competed with the man’s screams as his nose started elongating, forming an almost snout-like appearance on his face.

Noth wanted to close his eyes.

He wanted to look away.

He couldn’t stand it.

It was all too hideous for the boy.

Yes, he’d told himself a million times that his father was a monster.

He acknowledged that.

He knew it well.

But seeing and believing something was just so different.

Especially when the process was as unbelievable as this.

No… This is unnatural.

For all that the boy had repeatedly told himself that his father and Jeck were monsters and not humans, that didn’t mean that he was so deluded that he thought it was actually literal. Noth’s mind screamed at him over and over again that something was wrong, and he had to accept that he knew that this was somehow his fault. His father was visibly turning into some mouse-like thing, just as the boy had thought him to be. There was no way this could be a coincidence. Whatever he’d done that had caused the man’s collapse was the only possible reason that Noth could scrape together as to why this might be happening; That mysterious power he’d used that his angel was playfully refusing to tell him about must be to blame.

A moment after his angel crossed into his thoughts, her hand gracefully came up to his mouth. One of her beautiful fingers traced up the trail of blood that had been dribbling down to his chin, the red stain erasing as she passed over it. Next, her thumb gently slid over his abused bottom lip, the swollen and bleeding divots disappearing as the brushing digit passed. She gazed into his face with a look of satisfaction, even as he stared back with a look of dismay. His lip quivered under her thumb as he worked up the courage to look back upon his father, even as one of his hands came up to clutch at the spirit’s sleeve. The boy’s eyes started to blur and swim, and a lump was forming in his throat. He knew it would hurt all the more to hear it, but he had to hear the truth from her.

“Did… Did I do this?”

“Then how do I… f-fix it?”