Chapter 395: 395 - The Maid's Blessing
Warily, Noah made his way to the bedroom, where both of the girls were sleeping. A shift in gears in his mind took place definitely this time, but it would still take him a good while to recognize this change, and, either way, he needed to grab his things and a change of clothes.
Noah entered and quickly made his way to the wardrobe, not even looking towards the bed, albeit he was certainly curious. After all, he always woke up being squashed by Lilith, and he was positive the girl would die if she did it. As he grabbed a good set of casual clothes, his curiosity got the best of him, and he looked towards the bed, to see the maid laid sideways, and Lilith nowhere to be seen.
'Where is she?' he wondered, taking a few steps towards the two, to see something that completely overthrew his expectations. In the girls hands, hugged like would a plush toy, was a large-ish snake, being hugged and pressed against her chest.
'I guess the tables have turned,' Noah thought, laughing, as he circled the bed, standing to its side, and sat on it, his hand hovering over to Lilith's head and patting it. "You should wake up soon, I need you to come with us, else we'll have to go tomorrow to the capital instead," he muttered close to the snake's head with a smile on his face, only to freeze, as he felt a gaze on him.
Noah froze, slowly turning his head towards the source of his sudden impression, to see a pair of beautiful light-colored eyes looking at him with a timid smile. The girl had awoken. She had woken up exactly in the moment Noah had leaned and muttered to the sleeping snake.
"Good morning," he said, swallowing dry as he wondered what color his face had turned now, and the girl responded without moving, as she stared at him.
"Good morning, I feel a lot better now," she said, looking down at the snake sleeping in her arms, smiling even more. "To think all of my dreams would come true like this... Even if the reason it happened was awful, it's hard for me to not feel great," she told him, caressing the snake's head as Noah lifted himself and sat back properly on the bed, listening.
"But Noah, I feel very strange right now... it's like there are two different powers inside me that don't really talk that well," she told him what he already expected, and fortunately he was already familiar with that feeling.
"I never expected her to be able to do it as well, so I didn't plan ahead to explain. But it's fine, I guess..." he muttered, looking at the girl while holding his chin. "Even if they don't converse, you can use either when you feel it's best, and stack their effects.
Blessings are no better than the person using them," he said, looking over to see the girl had raised herself too, and was carefully laying Lilith on the bed.
"Thank you," she said, as she caressed the sleeping snake, and sat down on the bed, looking at him. "But... why did both of us get so exhausted?" she asked him, curious about the answer.
"Unfortunately, only Lilith can tell you that. The power that made you guys that exhausted was hers, and there's also the mark on your neck," Noah said the girl immediately looking down to try to see it. "I don't know the conditions for it to appear, I guess it only appears in certain situations or maybe if you want." he said, wondering.
"Oh, I see... Is it pretty, though?" she asked, confusing Noah about her priorities. "What?! I'm a girl, and it's already there... At least I need to know what kind of collar I'll use from now on."
"Don't worry too much. It's just two purple dots like a vampire bite-mark," Noah said, the girl's eyes immediately shining.
"So it's pretty!" she exclaimed, making Noah look at her, dumbfounded. "Also, I loved the massive nails you gave me. Thank you, Noah," she said, turning the topic back to something Noah could understand, but she soon would step in again on it, about a detail. "But there's a thing I don't quite get about it. It says it emits a flame around them, but I can control the temperature of it?
Isn't fire just fire?" she asked, making Noah remember the blessing he just absorbed and what it said.
"See, no. Fire's temperature depends on its color and pressure. Most are hot, but we are an exception." Noah created a flame on his fingertip and extended it towards her, the girl suddenly feeling a cool breeze as the fire approached her. Noah having set it to be colder than the air.
"Wow... if it didn't take so much mana, I would use it all the time," she said, extending [Flame Claws]. But it wasn't the way Noah used them. She controlled the length and they looked just like fancy red nails." She rolled her hands, watching her new nails, which Noah watched with endearment and curiosity. To see someone use blessings and a worldly assed, and not a weapon.
It was something different and alien to him, despite the fact his beauty was also somehow related to his blessing, and was perfectly plain and worldly. "But the other blessing I have is strange," she said, calling for Noah's attention once again.
"How?" Noah asked, curious to what kind of blessing she would get from Lilith, especially since he did not know her powers aside from the few he saw already.
"It has a "growth" thing to it... but it's weird. It's called [Lust for Death]," she said, biting her lip.
"Oh, so it's probably like mine. If I burn the monsters and blessed I killed, I can recover my mana, and I can sometimes absorb a little of their power," he downplayed his blessing, though he knew it went far further than that.
"Yeah... but... it's related to me dying," she said, making Noah freeze and break his poker face, widening his eyes. "I mean, almost dying," she corrected herself, making Noah have a sigh of relief.
"Good grief, so it's about being in near-death situations, right?" he asked, the girl swiftly nodding, to which he continued. "So long as the group you are diving with has a great healer, like Sha, you'll be using that quite often without any fear.
But for all that's worth it, don't try almost dying just to get stronger," he said, making the girl fall into a well controlled and soft laughter, her worrying about the sleeping snake.
"I'll take that into account. It's not like I want to go and try dying either," she said, a smile on her face. "The blessing I got from her looks more like a contract with the devil than a blessing, though," she said, looking at the sleeping snake.
She said it with a wmile of her face, making Noah realize this was an innocent remark, and he had no clue of how close to the truth it was, or rather, that it was the whole truth.
"Why?" Noah asked, curious at the terms of her demonic contract.
"It says a lot about working in her name and making it greater, and how she will gain power from me killing monsters, and that I can use her powers to transform into a powerful monster, though it would take a price in sanity and life-force," she explained, making Noah bite his lower lip to stop him for falling into laughter, so demon-like the terms were.
And how close to Lilith's normal state it felt too.
"Yep, that's a demon for you. But is that all?" Noah asked, realizing the girl was holding back from at least a part of her blessing being known, and stared at him in half-disbelief as he asked precisely about it.
"... I can tell you, if you promise to never tell anyone about it. Ever. Ok?" she asked, making Noah half-guess what it was most likely about and nod. "I also have a blessing... about seducing men..." she said, making Noah fall into laughter, unable to control himself.
"Uh..." she groaned, as she saw him laugh, a little hurt.
"It's not because of you. You're just adorable," he said, making the girl blush. "But the seducing part suits this perverted demon all too well," he said, laughing loudly, and trying with all his mind to stop, but not being able to.
"Why are you guys talking about me?" the snake asked, waking up in a daze, the girl looking at hear in fear, while Noah looked at her warmly.
"Since when did you hear?" Noah asked with a broad smile, as he watched the snake stretch herself, and grow in size again.
"Just the seduction and the perverted demon," she responded, completely unmoved. "Don't look at me like that. I am literally the first woman to ever exist, it's an ability I got over the years without even trying," she told the girl, whose expression softened, before smirking. "Also, yours is incomplete, or rather, it reflects your interests.
After all, my skills make no such distinction between men and women," she said, making the girl become as red as a tomato, while Noah's mouth dropped with dead-fish eyes, in utter amazement... and not the good kind. "What?
That pinky wishy-washy healer girl also fell for the cutie over here," she said, pointing to the maid with her head, only making Noah's 'I wish I was dead' expression further cement itself in his face. "Pretty girls are pretty, huh," she said. At this point, the girl had already turned into a tomato.
"Noah, I think if she kills some monsters, I might be able to turn human again," Lilith said, changing topics, and entirely changing Noah's expression.