Chapter 316 - 316 Backstage Visit

"There. I put my number and chat account in. I'll take you out for dinner for helping me and my Lilith. She even praised you, which is not very common at all," he told the blushing girl as he handed her the phone back. But she said nothing to him, and he thought, 'Maybe she's angry at me for not taking her home.'

He was completely unaware of the storm of thoughts and emotions in the girl's head, which were all thanks to him and how uncommon everything around him was. Noah got up, coiling Lilith around his neck, and walked out of the room carrying the bag full of Essence. Behind, a troubling conversation took place, unbeknownst to him.

"... Hey, girl, did I just hear that right?" Michael had a serious expression on his face, grabbing the arm-rest of the sofa Noah just stood up from.

"I think we both heard the same thing," she said, saking a deep breath and leaning back, looking up.

"That guy never ceases to amaze us, right?" the scout shook his head slowly. "Hey, musclehead, have you ever heard of a monster that was able to talk, like, at all?" Everyone turned to the person who was mentioned, the bearded warrior who was scrubbing his weapon clean with a bit of blade oil. Everyone started to tense up, as he didn't show any signs of responding.

"Haah... Why do you guys always make hard questions?" he sighed, putting the piece of cloth aside and looking up to the group. "Look, we're all on the same boat right now. But something tells me we're yet to know the full extent of that guy's powers. He never even once showed us the blessings he uses in that valorwatch game, he also only now showed us how powerful and how many of those monsters he could command. I have never heard of a monster who could speak like a person, but that has to at least be an A-Rank monster, or even higher."

"That much?!" Michael turned to him. "What makes you so sure it has to be at least that much?"

"Kid, ranks are much more than just power alone. The only reason we are so careless in dungeons is because we can always assume the other side to be an enemy. If they could talk, they could ally with us, betray us, or even deceive us. And that whole thing becomes even more dangerous than it already is," he said, before picking a can from the nearby fridge and downing it at once. "All I can say is, it would be wise to never get on his bad side."

"I would agree so because of his power, but is there anything more to it?" Michael asked, a little confused, as he shared everyone's emotions in his words.

"Kid, if he's brazen enough to tame and cary around a monster that shouldn't exist in the first place, and nonchallant enough to tell us it 'recovered its ability to speak' as if it were nothing, unless he got some serious backing, the boy's a fool," the bearded warrior said with a serious face, even more so than any time before, even in battles.

"I'm guessing you don't look at him as a fool, right?" Michael retorted back, probing him for more information, since sharing it with everyone was his intention in the first place, in order to justify them letting go of more than a quarter of the Essence rewards.

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"Remember when he said to us those red things were 'his imps'? Well, we did some digging, and those have been rented out by a family in the car business. Moreover, they started to do so after a mysterious masked man saved a city from a E-Rank Peak Fortress spill. The thing is, nobody knows who that guy is," the bearded warrior said while stroking his beard, then headed for another beer.

"So he's been heeping himself under the radar since then? Why would he choose to make that public now?" the healer said while standing up, surprised.

"That's not it, sit back down," Michael told her, waiting for more information.

"He didn't. He made this effort so that his business partners could charge more after people knew more about the strength of the imps. He's acting as if he just rented them. Besides," he said while cracking the beer open, stopping to down half the can before opening his mouth again, "there's also the whole thing about him being Lucifer, the newbie who took the last Valorwatch contest by storm." He stared at Michael, before calling his attention, "You understand where I'm getting at, don't you?"

"Yeah... This guy is envolved in every major event of the last few months, and he's coming out of nowhere. It's said he used to be an E-Rank Blessed not long ago," Michael crossed his legs the other way while putting his hands on his chin.

"Wait! You're telling me that guy shot up the ranks like that out of nowhere coming from an E-Rank?!" one of the mages yelled, stupified.

"No, it's worse. I have confirmed that he was deemed to be F-Rank for a long time, until just a while back. People thought his only blessing was being handsome, and nobody understood why he was still diving into Fortresses. Until one day, he entered a Super Fortress." This news shook everyone in the room. They knew what a Super Fortress was, and also that it was ranks above that of the fortress was supposed to be, and that most times, almost nobody would come back alive.

"... This is getting too big," the scout said, biting his lip.

"Cheer up, people. I don't know how, but he's on our party. He even said it himself, right? That he'd be in our care," Michael changed to mood in the room, before standing up next to the bearded warrior, and whispering into his ear, "You gotta deal with your tendency to overshare when nervous. This time it went a bit too far," Michael said, prompting the bearded warrior to start laughing.

"Hahaha, guess you are right. Though, this time, it was just orders from above." He turned his head sideways, looking up to Michael, before winking.

"Asshole," Michael said, before walking back to his chair and sitting down. "Welp. Guess it's time for a vote. Are we attending the annoyance or skipping it and going home for the night?" Michael asked, already knowing the answer, to which everyone just stared at him. "Well, in that case, let's meet up tomorrow to celebrate. I'll let you know the location through the Family app, all on me." The people in the room cheered, but a girl's mind was even more confused.

At the same time, Noah was taking his armor off in the room they'd used earlier. "Lilith, are you actually feeling better now?" he asked, still worried.

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"Yeah, I am. My mind still feels a bit hazy, but everything's fine," she got back to him, talking normally.

"You should refrain from speaking whenever we are not alone. That includes Carlos, for now at least," he said, as he fixed his belongings, and changed into a suit. A small cart was available, so he arranged his armor on it, and used a cloth to cover it all.

"Eh? But I just got around to talk again..." Lilith protested, her small snake cheeks pouting.

"Since when did you learn do pout? Are you becoming more human?" Noah asked, a little surprised, but pleasantly so.

"No idea. I guess from today," she answered back, coling around his arm and putting her head on his hand.

"Do you remember what happened today?" he asked, realizing she hadn't talked about the events from earlier at all.

"Not really. I can only remember a few cuts and some stuff... I do remember a little about myself though, and how I became like this."

"Oh, really? That's nice," he said, opening his mouth for another sentence, but going silent. 'I feel we should only talk about it later. Someone's approaching. Talk through telepathy for now,' he told her inside his mind, as pyakugan warned him of some odd behavior outside the door.

"What can I help you with?" Noah asked, opening the door. A woman, dressed in fancy attire waited for him. Her face was pleasant, but she was definitely older than him, at least something told him that, despite her face looking a lot younger than what he would've expected from a person with her posture.

"Not much. I just came to thank you for what you did for me tonight," she said, while her eyes seemed to be measuring him.

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember having done anything for you," Noah quickly responded, nervous. After a second, he finally remembered who she was, not before she said something first.

"Oh, I didn't introduce myself. Tough we sould've already met." Noah could tell she was a bit frustrated, so aimed to fix his blunder.

"I am very sorry, Ms. Yangshu. I could barely recognize you after the change of airs. You look dazzling," he said, making full use of his rudimentary courtship.

"Oh my, to be flattered by a man of your caliber is sure a fresh start. Unfortunately, I am not here to exchange pleasantries like such, I don't have the pleasure of talking to you for long. This is my thank you for what you've done for us today. I hope you'll appreciate it," she said, grabbing Noah's hand and putting something in it and closing.. "Now, I must go before the elders in my family know we talked," she said, turning her back on him, and leaving the way she came.