“Huh? Oh, I’m just speaking to a few friends of mine who came to visit.”

“Why are they wearing ragged and bloodied clothes?”

“Oh, that? Haha, we just had a tiny bit of fun. Right, guys?”

The three proud archmages immediately folded under Noah’s ‘friendly’ smile that accompanied his sentence.

“I don't… Why are you in such a good mood? And weren't you unwell?”

“It's a good day, Ariel; it's a good day. These friends here have shown me the cure! I'm happy, thanks to them! Also, they'll be working for us now. Right guys?”

Another round of definitely not-forced and terrified nodding followed.

“Really? Do you need me to help with anything?”

“Hmm… Don't think so. Actually, these guys are pretty strong; you could train with them. You can head on over to the training area first and warm up for a bit; we’ll be there in thirty minutes or so.”

Three faces paled.

“They're strong? How strong?”

“Well, ten of them could probably handle one major monarch.”

“Woah! Okay!”

The archmages were dumbfounded, and the same thought ran through their minds.

‘The husband is semi-crazy, the wife sees three of us with bloody clothing, and that's all she asks? And it only took a couple minutes of conversation to lead to the conclusion of fighting us? Both, both have multiple screws loose in their skulls!’

At almost the same time that thought concluded, Ariel left the room, and Noah spoke while walking back to the bed to sit down on it.

“Shall we get back to what we were talking about, fellas? Unfortunately, you'll have to listen to me monologue for a bit. See, I had thought previously that my psychosomatic symptoms weren't really related to this vow of strength I had made, but I realise now that I was wrong. When the three of you showed up to kill me, the weight in my chest that prevented me from getting up slowly dissipated, then vanished. Do you get what this means, fellas? It means that pausing my pursuit of strength with lies would lead to a repeat of such incidents. So then, I’m sure you're wondering…”

‘We definitely can't say that we weren't wondering.’

“Where do we come in? Well, I was getting to that. See, I've realised that I've been lying to myself with training recently. As much as I do love Ariel, I won't be able to reap all that many benefits from training with her, but I've been telling myself that it's the best training for me, considering the situation I’m in. But, unfortunately, it's a lie, probably one I made out of a deep-seated fear that rooted within me when I faced the leviathan. No, maybe from as far back as from the Demon Lord? But see, if I wanted to train and figure out new mimic forms, nothing quite compares to training under the pressure of death. And that's what I'm going to do. So, this opens up a few positions of employment! Coincidentally, they're positions perfect for three smart and powerful friends like the three of you! So, are you in? Nod, now.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Three heads nodded obediently.

'Why did he ask if he was going to order us to nod anyway?!'

“Great! Alright, let me describe what the three of you will be doing! Seraphina, were you? You'll be training with Ariel whenever she wants to. At other times, you'll be joining these other two. Draven and Lirael, you were talking about the two of you being the reason we only got one skill and sorta the reason I'm not living my life swimming in alcohol and money right now, right? Well, I don't particularly care. Not like it changes anything. But if you do feel guilty, you can make up for it with your new job! A job where you'll be using your very big and smart heads to calculate the most efficient mimic form for each scenario, where each mimic form currently consists of up to eight possible monsters. The total number of combinations comes out to 8 factorial, so have fun! Talk to Cedric about the logistics. I honestly couldn't be fucked with it, and that man has been too free recently now that I'm doing his work. Alright, bye!”

With the influx of information, the three archmages slowly rose to their feet, then nodded. Seraphina, the youngest archmage, did speak up, though.

“Can I…ask your wife to help with my research as an assistant?”

Noah smirked.

“Sure, if you can. Matter of fact, I'll let you go free if you convince her to help you with the theoretical stuff.”

At that, her eyes brightened before dimming slightly. If he was saying that, that meant there was no way it was happening.

Noah sighed as they left, then flopped onto his bed. As much as he wanted to rush off to battle immediately now tha the was no longer plagues by symptoms, he had some thinking to do. Specifically about Eldoria.

‘Just what is that king thinking? Is he actually braindead?’

Noah knew that the king's decision to hunt him was not wise. Before his power-up, he certainly would have been felled by the three archmages, but not without taking a couple down with him. No matter how they came at him, he would be able to do some damage before he fell, damaging Eldoria at no benefit to Eldoria. Noah knew this; he knew the king knew this, or at least he was supposed to, but what was this?

‘Fuck is he doing? Actually, mmmh, now that I think about it, I struck down his favorite commander, and the trouble it would've caused him must've been too much. He is that type of person, after all, to act on emotion. Hah, what an idiot. Still, I don't think I have the power to do anything. Not yet, anyway. Fuck. It's not just personal power, is it? I'll also have to work on the territory even harder. Damn. I'm definitely the only person to work harder even after I get subordinates. Well, technically they're thralls, slaves of my vampire form, but what's the difference, really?'

If someone more rational were around, they would not have hesitated to point out that there was a major difference between slaves and subordinates. Not Noah, though.

He turned his head slightly to the left, where there was a window beside him that boasted a broad view of the sky. Watching birds fly around, he let his mind wander.

‘If only I could be like those birds. Just flying around without a worry…Wait.’

‘Mimicry - Vampire x 8!’

‘That's not a bird. What is…is that fucking Evan?!’