Chapter 369: 369 - Noah's Blunders
'You bastard...' Lilith cursed Noah after having spent the entire day running around the house, only to ahve all merit taken from her.
'My bad, you worked perfectly, I'm the one who told you to do something pointless,' Noah said, getting only a 'Hmpf!' out of her, as she turned away and did not look back.
'Lilith?' he called her, but the snake did not bulge, not turning to face him. 'I said it was my fault, stop being so finicky," he said, to which she also didn't answer, and he just ignored it.
Hearing something, Maggie looked down towards her shoulder, where the snake was, and saw her looking towards nowhere in particular, "Is everything ok?" she asked, worried about the fellow.
"Yeah, all good. Your brother is an idiot," the snake told her softly, in an annoyed voice, making Maggie giggle.
"Tell me something I don't know already," she responded while lauging, reaching the room she and Carlos had prepared for tonight. "We're here!" she exclaimed, opening the door to the room where a large television was set on tha wall, with two king-size beds tucked into a corner together, making a massive bed that could fit a lot more people than necessary. A large empty area in front of the tv was set with a large and fluffy carpet and cushions, which Noah immediately assumed was what Maggie had planed to spend the night doing. There was also a table full of food and popcorn, and a small fridge with all sorts of drinks. "Welcome to Maggie's Sleepover!" the girl exclaimed, running and jumping onto the bed, where a pile of matching pink pajamas was, and started handing it to the girls.
Noah just stood on the door with Carlos dumbfounded at how happy she was over something this simple. The girls quickly walked inside, taking the pajamas from her and checking the size, which of course, fit them well.
'Don't go putting them on just yet!" Maggie told the girls, who had some interesting reactions. "You have to take a bath first," she said, Noah looking to the site and matching Carlos' gaze, both shurugging. But as they did so, Bel walked out of the joined bathroom with a maid, a wide smile plastered across his face, and walked straight to Maggie. It's all done," he said, Maggie springing onto her feet from the bed and calling the girls towards the bathroom, while Bel walked towards Carlos and Noah.
'.',
"Man, setting this stuff up was fun. Reminds me of when Lilith would order me to get the banquets ready," he said in a sigh of nostalgia, getting Noah and Carlos by their backs, and pulling them with him away from the room, closing the door. "Let's go, leave the girls' night to happen without us. At least we don't have to worry about anything," he said, and the two understood him and walked away.
"Thanks, you two... I didn't expect you to pull something this fancy off..." Noah said, before a sudden realization occured to him and he looked behind, "I barely even introduced them... will this be okay?" he asked himself, but Bel quickly put a hand on his shoulder.
"Relax. There are few people more charismatc than Maggie," Bel said, turning back and walking forward with Carlos, "She's gonna pull that sleepover off just fine. Especially considering she plans on watching all the arena fights you were in with them," he said, making Noah feel a little bad for Sha, who would have to watch herself the whole time. "You know, I din't plan on helping," Bel started talking, almost venting, as the three reached the living room. "But there was something about how happy she was over this whole thing that made me stop doing my own things to help, you know?"
Noah was troubled by Bel's huge shift in behavior from earlier to now. If before he acted like a child and liked to be pampered, now he was acting a lot more mature, which felt strange to Noah. "I see... So you spent the whole night organiznig that?" Noah asked, sitting down on a couch, where Carlos and Bel sat immediately across.
"No, that didn't take long. Me and Carlos spent most of the night overlooking Lilith," he said, Noah's eyes widening, as he felt both of his and Carlos' eyes on him.
"What the hell, man?" Carlos asked, making Noah instantly realize what had happened.
"Shit..." Noah sighed, taking a deep breath, realizing he had somehow made things a lot harder for these two.
"She woulnd't stay still the whole day, going all over the place and trying to watch people from afar all the time... We figured it had to do something with you, but at some point we started getting worried he knew something we didn't," Bel said, looking at him," And then she said some dumb stuff about finding the infiltrated people and we were at a loss," Carlos told him everything that had happened during the afternoon and night, making Noah lose count of how many times he sighed.
"I see... Sorry to have troubled you guys. I didn't expect her to go all out," he said, making Carlos and Bel look at each other and nod.
"You owe me a large ice-cream!" Bel said, returning to his regular self, as he stood up and walked away, leaving Carlos and Noah alone in the living room.
"You knew of their presence already, didn't you?" Noah asked something obvious, just to confirm and let Carlos speak his mind, now that Bel left them, having vented his frustrations.
'',
"We did. We own a large company after all," Carlos, on the other hand, had just gotten himself started. "There's many of them coming ever since we started renting the Imps, which is to be expected. But you can't just have them see Lilith... Only the ones inside the house know she can speak and think like a person, and those are employees we trust," he said, the conversation veering into a warning.
"I see, sorry. I told her to keep an eye out at people from other places here, but I hadn't realized it would be this troublesome," Noah said, sighing.
"The main issue would be if they were to realize she can understand them. If that happens, they would send more qualified people, or even try to take her away so they can learn about her." Carlos no longer sounded annoyed, instead, his concern was very transparent.
"I can see the problem. I'll talk to her tomorrow, but I already told her to stop," Noah said, putting his head between his hands to think.
"On another note, Mother has told me to get you around to learn how to fly a plane."
"What?" Noah raised his head in confusion, as another completely unexpected topic popped up.
"She said if you are to leave the city to live in the capital, having the means of returning here quickly if necessary was very important," Carlos was speaking absentmindedly, but Noah could see this went a lot further than just an empty conversation. "The amount of Fortress Spillages in increasing a lot in the entire planet. We don't know the reason yet, but it seems a lot of C Rank and above Fortresses are starting to pop up. The Khan and XXXX Families have contacted my division to buy a lot of the prototype car you tried today, because they need the speed and autonomy." Carlos scratched his head, looking Noah in the eyes. "You need to be ready to protect everyone that is not with you in case something happens."
Carlos word made Noah swallow dry. There was a lot happening around him at the same time, and he was not sure the order he wanted to deal with things just yet. "I need to—" Noah started responding, but was immediately interrupted by Carlos himself, who stood up, raising his hand.
"Noah, you are overdoing yourself too much," he said, walking away without listening to what he had to say, "Go to sleep. We can talk about all of this tomorrow. Just rest a little," he said as he walked away into the corridors, leaving Noah behind sitting alone in the living room.
"Damn it..." he muttered, leaning back against the sofa while looking up. For the first time today, he picked up his phone, checking all the notifications he had. His eyes widened upon seeing the bank notifications for the transfers he had received. The amound of them and value was enough to overshadow everything he'd ever made before this week. Granted, it was nowhere near the money he'd cashed in today at the bank from Marcel and that woman, but it was a substantial amount of money, most of it coming from the company he had with Carlos. "I guess it's the money from the fight with the boss today," he muttered, before checking into the Khan Family app. He was very disappointed in Marcel's behavior today, but he understood where it all was coming from. As he opened the store, he could see the amount of points he had amassed was very high already, despite not having done much in terms of Fortresses since last time he cashed out on them. Also, the Essence was all out of stock, which was unfortunate, but understandable.
'For him to go as far as to have someone tap into my Essence means something very weird has happened... But I can't trust him either, not after that and the tracking...' he thought to himself, wondering who he should talk to about the suspicious things going on with the Khan Family. "I guess my only option is talking to Carlos for now...' he told himself, choosing not to trust anyone from the Khan Family itself, nor the two girls he only recently met.