"Even if I said you have to become my tamed creature?"
The determination that Jasmine had built up for this moment was completely destroyed by his question. Isabelle couldn't help but to retreat further from the two. The thought of taking a human never entered her mind, but when she realized what could've happened to her when she didn't own up on their deal. Fear overtook, she needed space away from him in order to breathe.
No matter if it was the grieving Bailey or the worshipping Isshi. Everyone who heard Noah felt a shiver down their spine and their vigilance against him went up even further.
Jasmine was prepared to go the extra mile and have sex with him, that was the most logical thing that any male would ask for in this situation right? Or even an unimaginable amount of gold since she remembered that's what he asked for last time.
But becoming a tamed creature meant more than just being a slave. It meant that her life would be tied to his, probably forever. A slave could still run away or could still choose to obey any order. But what he was implying seemed to strip away all of that. 'Why would he ask for sex if he could force me to do it anytime he wants?' Her erratic mind began to panic.
She took a step back and was prepared to turn him down, but the thought of her brother dying resurfaced in her head. And even worse, when she imagined him changing just for Noah to tame him just like she heard of Fenrir's situation. She just couldn't allow that to happen.
Her body began to quake to the point that you can even tell through the equipment she was wearing. She bit her lip hard enough to pour blood as she resolved herself to make her decision. But for some reason, when Noah saw that resolve, he wasn't as happy as he thought he was going to be.
First it was Isabelle, then Ailetta and now Jasmine? Just how far will they go for someone? He just couldn't understand it, no…He didn't want to understand it. At first he asked the question as a bad joke, but now he was actually contemplating about going through with it now that her selflessness was annoying him. Luckily for the both of them, Alicia was smart enough to make a hasty decision before either makes a bad decision.
She pinched Ailetta's nose and mouth shut simultaneously. It didn't take long for her action to take effect, but to Alicia, the waiting period seemed to be much longer than it really was.
An excessive coughing filled in the silence between Noah anticipating Noah's answer that caused him and Jasmine to look over.
The shaking within Jasmine stopped as she looked towards her friend waking up, neither her nor Noah knew what caused the stir. However Noah could only shake his head at her bad timing.
It seems everyone was waiting for Ailetta to gather her bearings. They watched as she finally recovered from her coughing fit and seemed to finally remember what was happening before she fell unconscious.
"NOAH!" Was the first thing she shouted while she attempted to stand abruptly, but fell back into Alicia's arms. Her face showed a sense of panic and longing.
The fact that Noah was the first person she called for instead of Jasmine had touched Noah considerably. The annoyance he was feeling before was seemingly put on hold for now.
Her body may have difficulty moving but Ailetta's head turned to look around energetically until her eyes made contact with Noah. The lack of color she had lost from the loss of blood seemed to have a visible improvement after seeing that Noah didn't abandon her like she thought. But then she remembered that Fenrir might have been the reason for him staying and not her. She wasn't ready to address him yet, but seeing him was enough to relieve her fragile heart.
"Jas!….what? What's wrong? Mark? Is he….." She seemed to finally recognize her best friend. Her gaze went towards Mark laying next to her. It was too dark to see, but the expression Jasmine had was hard for her to decipher, her first thought was that it had something to do with Mark.
Jasmine didn't know how to respond to Ailetta. She wanted to tell Her about what he said to her, but she didn't want to do that in front of him, she was afraid to.
"Mark is safe, well safe for now that is…" Isabelle was the first to speak, gaining everyone's attention. Deep down they were hoping she would finish clarifying everything else that was happening. The context of what she said was enough for Ailetta to know that Mark was still in danger. She truly believed now that was the reason for Jasmine's current stat.
"Well then what's wrong? If he's alive then he should be fine right? Is he infected? Isabelle can he-"
"Her spell doesn't work, Noah kinda suggested that he could heal him, but he told 'her' that he wouldn't do it unless she became his tamed creature. 'She' was abou-mmph!"
Everyone was shocked when Ishii began to reenact everything. And it seemed that as he rattled on he was becoming excited to tell it all. He was seemingly going to continue before Alicia quickly covered his mouth.
'Urgh why do I hang around this idiot?' Alicia thought, feeling exhausted.
The shock was easily noted on Ailetta's face, she couldn't believe it at first and looked to Noah for answers. She couldn't believe it when she locked eyes with him and he looked away! But when she thought about his recent changes and how those recent changes are the reason he's still alive and as strong as he is now, she began to accept that it sounded like something he would do. But she was still upset….more than upset, she was jealous!
"Noah…" she called out, waiting for him to give her his attention. Yet when he turned towards her, she just couldn't continue to say what she wanted to while facing him.
"Why didn't you ask me that…?"
Gasp!*
If anyone were surprised before when they heard the deal Noah made to Jasmine, then they were stupefied to hear what Ailetta just said.
Even Noah didn't know how to take that. He had to process it one then twice before he broke out into a laugh, gaining wary glances from the others.
"Haaaa~Well who would actually ask that? Of course I didn't mean it." He smiled awkwardly to hide away his guilt.
"If I tamed her then I would have to protect her too and I wouldn't do that to myself. Hey!" Out of nowhere, he shouted towards the dorms. Everyone was so focused on him that they didn't notice the gigantic spider crawling towards the second floor window.
Arachne was beginning to feel antsy being around so much food. She knew Noah wouldn't want her to eat any of the ones here so she decided that she would be productive and surprise Noah with her evolution.
Everyone but Jasmine was focused on the gigantic spider, even though she was looking, she felt a huge blow to her self esteem. Noah made her seem worse than a nuisance. What kind of male would turn down a beauty as a slave and think it would be bothersome?
"Don't behave like that foolish wolf and choose on your own. Wait in there and wait for me ok?"
Arachne looked down towards him with downcast eyes, but she couldn't let Noah think of her as foolish along with Fenrir. She was a queen, not a foolish one.
"Yes" she responded like a well behaved child. The people in the vicinity were constantly receiving a bigger shock after the next.
"It-it talked!" The conversation that was happening prior didn't seem to hold a candle to the new revelation.
While everyone was still stumped, Noah made his way towards Ailetta. When he was almost upon her, she finally realized how close he was.
She reached out her hands subconsciously, thinking that he was going to help her up. But what she got in return was a bottle with a green liquid. She was asleep the last time so she never saw what the infection cure looked like.
"This should be able to heal him, if it does then you can make the deal in my stead, we don't do anything for free." He walked away after the interaction. He first wanted to check on Fenrir before he started Arachne's process.
Everyone else sat there in silence, but their eyes were glued to Ailetta, more specifically, the cure.
Jasmine's eyes were already tearing up when she realized that her brother's life could be saved.
"Ailetta please, we have to hurry! Who knows if there's a time limit!" She urged while Ailetta struggled to get to her feet with the help of Ailicia.
Jasmine was becoming more anxious the closer Ailetta was approaching and had half the urge to meet her halfway to receive the vial. However she began to grow nervous when she saw the conflicted expression on Ailetta's face.
"Jasmine….I'm giving this to you, but I can't let Noah down, we have to work something out in exchange for this…" She said with a guilty conscience, but her face showed that she meant every word.
"...I can't believe this…fine…" Jasmine gave up trying to argue, at least her brother will be saved and Ailetta would be less difficult to talk to.
"Wow, she's really in love with him.."
"Sheesh! More like whipped." Isabelle and Alicia said respectively.
While Ailetta and Jasmine were discussing the terms for the cure, Noah was now in the room with Arachne filling almost a quarter of it.
"Can I start now?" Arachne asked impatiently, she wanted to hurry and grow stronger, she already was beginning to feel inferior to Fenrir and he already started evolving ahead of her.
"Yes we can start, but before that….would you like to choose? I'm not sure if you already know the cho-"
"Impure Queen! I want to be a Queen!" She shouted in excitement, her fangs moved sporadically, showing her emotional state.
"Do you even know what it does?" Noah asked in reassurance, but he was already feeling helpless while expecting her answer.
"Yes! It makes me a Queen! I'm ready!"
Noah hung his head in defeat, he didn't even want to bother to try to sway her in any way. It was already the choice he wanted anyways.
[Confirmed evolution path, Impure Queen. Beginning evolution!]
"Well let's see how you'll look in the morning Queen…" He muttered as he layed in bed and stared at the comatose Arachne standing in the middle of the room.
....
A/N: I notice some peoples comments are being deleted. I think it has something to do when they use profanity. So if you want to complain or tell me that the story isn't good, try to do so without the profanity so I can at least reply.