Chapter 16 - Arc 1 15 – You Ditched Me To Go On A Date?!?

Soon enough, their ordered food arrived, and Noah started to happily munch on his fish. Pure bliss was radiating off of him as he ate. In his entire life on Cradle, he had never before eaten something so tasty. In fact, he had never even bought an expensive meal before. As an orphan, he had no funds to buy himself a high-quality meal. He did get a scholarship due to his excellent school grades, but naturally, the thought of eating this hard-earned reward away had never occurred to him.

Thus, this meal was Noah’s first hedonistic indulgence in his entire life. And he was positively glowing.

He was shining so brightly that he was blinding the two black-clothed men in his vicinity.

Levi had no idea what he was eating. It could have been a dead rat, and he wouldn’t have noticed. All he could see was the adorable little guy blissfully munching on his fish like a satisfied little kitten.

All he could think about was that cute little pink tongue, which he would occasionally catch a glimpse of, licking those equally as tempting lips.

Speaking of which, those delicious looking pink lips, wet with fish oil, made the food in front of Levi seem unappetizing in comparison. His throat turned painfully dry, and it became hard to swallow.

Levi desperately downed a glass of water, but bafflingly, it did nothing to ease his discomfort. He still couldn’t taste his food at all.

He suddenly regretted wearing black on such a hot and sunny day. How come such an expensive restaurant didn’t have air conditioning?!

As Noah’s hunger was slowly sated, his munching turned into reluctant nibbling.

That seemingly ordinary action, when performed by an enchanting worldborn, turned into a devastating temptation, the likes of which the observing men had never seen before. What should have been an eighteen-year-old eating his food, turned into an alluring invitation of an incubus enticing its next prey.

Both men choked on their food at the same time, eliciting half-bewildered half-worried look from their incubus.

After nearly choking again - on the water they had inhaled to unclog their throats in the first place, the two didn’t dare look at Noah again for the remaining duration of the meal.

Just as their meal was nearing its end, an animated voice interrupted their comfortable silence.

“Hey, hey, hey! Arisssss! Didn’t you say you couldn’t have lunch with me today because you had plans with your sis?? What is this?! How did your sister turn into a handsome dude? Don’t tell me you ditched me to go on a date?!?”

Noah turned towards the familiar voice to meet the grinning face of Case, one of Aris’s good friends. Case was a social butterfly, as you could tell from both his behavior and trendy appearance. He had a blond hairstyle resembling what a k-pop idol from Cradle would don, and a single silver earring that dangled from his left ear.

He squinted his lively gray eyes at Noah and judging by his expression, it was clear that he was joking.

Case came from a wealthy family that owned several restaurant chains. Including the seafood restaurant they were currently in. Aris had first met him in middle school, and the two were friends ever since.

Case didn’t wait for Noah to respond before sliding into the seat next to him and wrapping his arm around Noah’s shoulder.

Noah gave him an exasperated look before turning his apologetic gaze to Levi. “Brother-in-law, this is one of my good friends, Case.”

Then he turned back towards Case - and nearly kissed him!! The man’s face was that close to Noah’s!

Noah elbowed him in annoyance and moved to the side to create more room between them. “Case, this is Astar Levi, my sister’s fiancé. The reason why my sister isn’t here is because she was called on an emergency due to a power rampage that happened earlier.”

Case made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth. “That's great. I always wanted to meet this famous brother-in-law. How come you've never introduced him to me before?”

Noah rolled his eyes at him good-naturedly, and then proceeded to tease with a mock-angry huff “Do you think my brother-in-law is as free as you?”

Levi scrutinized the newcomer with his most critical eyes. The first thing this so-called Case did after appearing on the scene, was to display his ownership by wrapping his arm around Noah’s shoulders. A move that instantly put him in Levi’s bad books. He then proceeded to intentionally stick to his little brother-in-law like glue.

When Noah’s head, thankfully, avoided contact with his, Levi caught disappointment flash briefly in Case’s gray eyes, and that made full-blown alarm bells start ringing in Levi’s head.

When he finally got elbowed due to his transgression, Levi was greatly disappointed. Noah’s jab was way too light for Case’s transgression. If it were up to him, Levi would have stopped a wee short of gutting him. (ꐦ ◠‿◠)ﾉ

And look at the brazen fellow! He completely ignored it, as if he had been elbowed too many times to count in the past! You will not stop that obviously shameful behavior with such a light elbow jab!

ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

Oh dear, no wonder father-in-law hired a bodyguard! (◞‸ლ)

The said bodyguard had already appeared near their table, and judging by his dark face, was thinking the exact same thing as Levi.

Case feigned hurt at Noah’s words, exaggeratingly clutching at his heart. He was about to say something, but a snide snort interrupted his train of thought.

“Don't bother him, Case. The young master of Concordia has better things to do than hang around with the likes of us.” All heads present turned towards the source of the voice to see a short and skinny dark-haired teen whose presence was easy to miss. His clothes were fine, but his appearance was average if not a bit on the gloomy side.

Noah recognized the teen as Asan. He was the eldest young master of an influential family that ran a pharmaceutical business and was groomed into inheriting the company since young. Asan was Case’s childhood friend, and in the beginning, the three of them got along fine. It was only when their respective powers awakened that Asan, fueled by his own sense of inferiority, started to despise Aris, who seemed like an embodiment of perfection. From then on, to avoid the two butting heads, when Case went out with Aris, he wouldn’t bring Asan along, and vice versa.

The atmosphere had deteriorated due to Asan’s sarcastic interruption, and Noah felt that whether it could be salvaged or not depended on none other than himself. Luckily, Noah grew up in an orphanage with many kids, through which he gained a powerful passive ability of instinctively knowing how to resolve heated confrontations.

He put his craft into action, immediately defusing the awkwardness with a well-placed joke, "Of course I have better things to do! Like hanging with my brother-in-law! Instead of having to look after a certain rascal, lest he gets into trouble, I get to relax while brother-in-law looks after me. (ﾉ*^o^)ﾉ*"

Noah’s eyes sparkled with clear humor as he pretended to glare at Case, clearly implying who the rascal was. Then he puffed up his chest as if to say ‘my brother-in-law is the best’.

And just like that, everyone besides Asan melted into a puddle. Case was rejoicing, thinking about how he was being cared for by Noah. Trey was thinking how kind and thoughtful his young master was even to those who were clearly hostile to him. And Levi was still replaying that ‘my brother-in-law is the best’ look over and over again in his head, wanting nothing more than to print it out so he could look at it all the time.

Asan was still as grumpy as ever, but he couldn’t find any justification to attack Noah with, so he wisely chose to remain silent.

After solidifying from his melted-puddle state, Case tightened the arm he had around Noah’s shoulders to pull him closer and then started to ruffle his hair. “Alright, alright! You are super busy today! What about tomorrow? Have lunch with me?” (≧∇≦)

Noah had nothing against hanging out with Case, but he couldn’t promise anything right now. He didn’t know what plans his sister and Levi would have tomorrow, and he didn’t wish to ditch his lovely family for an unruly friend. Not to mention that there was the whole Blazer case going on, and who knows how that whole thing will pan out.

“Hmm, I'm not sure I'll be available then either.” Noah scrunched up his nose cutely and tried to get out of the headlock.

Seeing the intimate pose of the two people in front of them, Levi’s fingers itched to give someone a good beating, while Trey had to take deep breaths to restrain the urge to “rescue” his charge.