A small ashen haired girl sat next to Noth, her eyes sparkling at him as he read the passage of a story to her. Sometimes, on their slower days, Ren used to ask him to do this for her, especially when Helt wasn’t feeling up to it. The girl had learned how to read over the course of the past year, but she’d never really gotten over her habit of making others read her favourite stories to her, so Noth would happily oblige every once in a while. Her small arms were laced around one of his, and she would bounce in happiness every so often. Her blatant joy made him smile along too. How nice it was to have such younger siblings to take care of. How had the thought that he would dislike such things ever crossed his mind? While Jean was more the reliable type, and Helt more quiet yet affectionate, Ren was by far the most childish of all the 9 year olds. She never seemed to grow up even a little in these past 2 years that he’d been protecting them all. Not even her height had grown much. It seemed she was truly destined to be the little sister type.
The only worrisome part was that she seemed to look up to him so much that it sometimes made her upset.
Noth knew that although she usually acted quite clingy and like she couldn’t do anything alone, Ren would occasionally sneak off on her own somewhere in their previous house. He’d never been able to figure out where she was, and the possibilities of where she could have gone were not all good ones. During the month she’d been living here he hadn’t seen her go missing yet, but he was worried that it was only a matter of time. Wouldn’t it be better if he knew where she was planning to go ahead of time? Figuring now was as good a time as any to ask, since they were mostly alone (Besides Elillith sewing on the couch across from them), Noth placed the book down on his lap and turned to Ren.
“I have a question for you, Ren.”
The girl wasn’t surprised. She’d often heard Noth ask a lot of questions, even to her and the other children, so she just easily nodded along with her big eager eyes.
“Where did you keep disappearing to in our old home?”
The straight and tactless way that he asked made Ren feel like she was suddenly under interrogation. She could feel herself starting to sweat all of a sudden, and she even hiccoughed from the shock. Elillith, who it seemed hadn’t been paying a shred of attention to them all this time, promptly put aside her sewing, got up, and poured Ren a glass of water. As the tiny girl started to desperately drink, Elillith shot Noth a quick look, as if she was saying to lay off. The teen didn’t really know what it was that he’d said wrong, but he knew if even she was reproaching him for it, then he’d probably actually done something quite discourteous. He tried to open his mouth and worm out some kind of apology, but before he could manage to, Ren spoke first.
“I was, um, playing in the greenhouse by myself. I was… making my own secret base?”
Her words made Noth think back to when he’d made his own secret base with his mother. Ah, how nostalgic. Truth be told, he was actually rather missing his old decrepit greenhouse full of memories. He was also the tiniest bit worried that his father would send in servants to clean the place in his absence and find his graveyard of trophies. … Maybe he should write a quick letter to the Earl, just to be safe. Or maybe he should teleport over? It might be helpful in finding out where the servants he’d sent away had all gone.
As Noth mulled all this over, Ren looked away with a face full of pain. She hated having to lie to someone she cared about. How awful she felt to have done so. Elillith took one look at her face and suddenly picked the girl up.
“Th’ girl’s tired, m’lord. ‘ll take ‘er.”
As they walked away, Elillith patting the little girl’s back all the while, Noth could just barely hear Ren quietly mumbling.
Now that he was left alone in the room, Noth turned to the angel that had been leaning on his free side all this time. Her eyes were closed as if she had fallen asleep during reading time, and yet Noth knew that it was all pretend; Just a play that she was putting on for him, and him alone. She’d once told him that she missed being able to sleep, and that she was worried that Noth might find her odd for not sharing such a basic characteristic as everything else living. To tell the truth, the teen had never even considered that it might be weird that she couldn’t sleep. If anything, it was just one of the many strange things that made Serris Serris to him. He’d made a casual suggestion to her once that she might feel better if she went through the motions and acted out being asleep, thinking that she wouldn’t take his words all too seriously, and yet she’d jumped on the offer enthusiastically. Now, whenever the mood felt right to her, she would put on an affectation of sleep.
When Serris was first trying to get used to her pretend slumber, she’d once let slip that this would be good practice for the day when she could finally sleep again. She’d immediately made a face and tried to pretend like she hadn’t said anything, but Noth had very quickly stored away her accidental words. Seeing how jumpy she’d become when she’d realized she was talking aloud, that meant it was something she wasn’t supposed to let others hear, and the fact that no embarrassed looks ensued meant that she wasn’t trying to hide it for some sort of personal reason. The only assumption Noth could make was that this was somehow related to the second form that he’d previously learned about. …Which meant that he had absolutely no one that he was allowed to double check this thought with, seeing as the God-dess forbade Serris from saying anything, and hadn’t told the prophets a peep about it either. But even with that being the case, Noth desperately wanted to ask the angel anyways, and see what new information he may be able to wrestle free from her. It didn’t matter if he knew he’d find out the truth one day, his patience had worn thin and he wanted to know it now.
Eventually, as he stared at her face, Noth’s desire for answers grew to be more than he could handle.
“Serris…”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The angel immediately opened her eyes and strained them to the max to look his way, staying still all the while.
“Well I…”
He was so close to saying it, but Noth just couldn’t manage to finally mutter out the question. Now that she was looking at him, he suddenly struggled with himself over if it was right to put his closest companion through such hurdles just for the sake of his own curiosity, and eventually his concern for how uncomfortable it might make her won out. How many times had this exact same train of thought caused him to fail like this? The teen sighed and looked away, thinking up some other topic to ask her about, and eventually settled on one they’d been discussing frequently over the past 2 days.
“...I just wanted to know what happened to the people I sent away.”
Serris closed her eyes and sighed, keeping them shut for a short while before she eventually sprang up and looked down upon him with an ambiguous gaze.
“Insignificant beings…? Even if they upset me, that doesn’t make them suddenly stop being my responsibility. I’m their lord, and I’m also the one who did whatever it was that happened to them, so I should care about what’s been done.”
The angel stared down upon his ruffled brow, bringing a hand up to massage it back into place as her expression slid down into disappointment.
<...What a model answer. You’re becoming very lord-like, and yet you’re still just so young.>
Another sigh escaped the spirit’s lips as she let her hand fall from his face.
And with those words said, Serris turned and fluttered away.
~~~
Noth’s eyelids slowly opened.
It was dark.
He raised himself up from his sleeping position and looked around.
Serris was still nowhere to be found.
After the angel had delivered her cryptic words, she’d disappeared off somewhere. Noth felt a little guilty, as if him pushing her to answer his question had somehow driven her away. It wasn't the first time Serris had gone missing on him, and he could still feel her presence somewhere in the distance through their bond, yet he still felt terribly lonely and guilty. Perhaps it was something residual, like a carryover of the dejected emotions he felt when he found out about his family getting harassed without telling him. Maybe, because it was all so fresh, he wanted to keep everyone he cared about within his arm’s reach.
Feeling a desperate need for company, Noth climbed out of bed and hastily left his room. He scrambled through the hallways, almost panting, and opened the first door he found. Helt’s room had been to the left of his, and he hurried into the dark room and knelt down at the side of the bed, his gaze locked onto the boy. Helt was asleep, with a serene look on his face. The drool that dripped from the corner of his mouth was steadily dropping onto the glass of his watch, and as Noth’s eyes followed the flow of it all, he couldn’t help noticing the time. It was only two hours past midnight. Of course Helt would be asleep, everyone would be by now. With a frown forming on his face, the teen slowly stood up. It wouldn’t do for him to wake up the children just because he felt upset over something trivial. What kind of reliable brother would he be to them, then?
Before he knew it, Noth began to wander. His feet carried him all through the mansion, while his brain became one big black fog. Eventually, without any recollection as to how, he found his way to the back of the building, facing towards the veritable wall that was the Lang trees. A heartfelt wish absentmindedly leaked from the teen’s lips, and with a flick of his wrist and the glow of his eyes, the section of the thicket he’d been looking at was suddenly pushed back by 100 feet, practically beginning to climb the volcano behind it. And then, with a tightening of that same hand into a firm fist, suddenly his mother’s villa appeared, greenhouse and all. As Noth’s gaze raked over the familiar sight, a dreamy smile slowly grew on his face. Yes, this place would never let him be lonely, not with all the good memories he’d built up in it. It was his one true home; He would always belong there.
The inside looked exactly like he remembered it, although the pantry had been cleared out. Everyone’s rooms were clean and ready, as if Noth and the others were expected to come back any day, and yet all the blankets and rugs had been changed. His father must have ordered some servants to come through and keep the villa in good shape while he’d been gone. Even without seeing his father, he could feel the love emanating from the gesture alone. And unexpectedly he’d also managed to teleport along a large amount of the cats that he’d been taking care of previously as well. As he roamed through the halls and rooms they would often come up to brush against him, almost like the villa itself was welcoming him back home. In his overly emotional state he could almost feel tears threatening to well up in his eyes. He roughly wiped at his face and headed towards the greenhouse, knowing that the contents deep inside of it would put him in a more sombre mood.
It seemed that the servants had cleaned up the entrance of the greenhouse, and there were even some cute random patches of flowers that Ren had insisted on trying to grow that were flourishing in a few of the planters near the front. Noth ran his hands over a few of the petals, a small smile gracing his features as he thought of the small sweet girl. He could practically see her cute little ashen ponytail bobbing within his view. Automatically his hand reached out to stroke the soft hair.
“Um… Noth?”
The embarrassed voice broke the teen out of his dream-like state.
“Wh- Ren? Huh?”
Noth picked up his hand and stared down at the small girl, repeatedly blinking as if she’d disappear at any second.
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh well, I heard you wandering around outside my room, so I followed you.”
The shy look on her face told that she knew she’d done something bad, but the cute expression she was making made it hard to truly want to scold her. Noth couldn’t help but give a wry smile and look away from what she’d done with a soft sigh.
“Ah, I was lonely anyways. You can’t sleep either?”
Ren enthusiastically nodded back.
“Then come with me.”
Noth led her over to the dining room, both of them sitting at the table and chatting away about trivial things into the wee hours of the morning.