Lucifer's Descendant System

Chapter 393 - A Muted Warning

"Everything," the word echoed in Lilith's mind as would the ripples on a still lake. and as her fangs bore into the girl, she remembered something important.

The source of her power.

She was, first and foremost, a demon. A treacherous existence that feeds on the desire of humans. How could she have forgotten? Actually, she knew. Now, as she felt her mana pour into her fangs and into the girl, she knew. She remembered.

The battle that was never supposed to have happened, the fight that should never have existed, the traitor who backstabbed her. Now everything clicked in place, as the curse inside her body weakened from her new contract being signed in blood.

But a contract also had a cost to her, and for a demon without as much of an ounce of her power former power available, it was a very high toll. Lilith barely held on to her consciousness, trying to look at Noah, and warn him about the traitor, but she was not strong enough to resist the intense urge to close her eyes, which slowly overcame her force of will, and she faded into sleep, exhausted.

Noah watched, wary. He tried to stop the two as he saw Lilith's fangs dig into the girl's neck, but it happened way too fast for him to react. He'd already helped by giving her part of his power, just like he'd done with others, which was what the girl had asked him.

However, there was something else going on Lilith was not the kind of person to openly help anyone, and as far as he knew, she couldn't do what he did. But something he'd never seen was happening in front of him, and that was very much clear. Lilith's behavior was weird, definitely different than her usual self, and also the image of the two of them seemed surprisingly peaceful.

And as suddenly as it had started, it ended, with Lilith's fangs disappearing, a pair of purple dots appearing where they had poked through the girl's skin, leaving a brand that almost looked like a tattoo, before it too started to fade away and disappear. Much to Noah's surprise, there was no blood, or anything else to it.

Just the small mark in the girl's neck. Lilith suddenly turned smaller, very much so, and slumped over the girl's shoulder, unconscious. "Lilith?!" Noah called, standing from his seat and rushing towards the two who were just a few feet from him.

"Alice, are you okay?" he asked, as he saw the girl sway back and forward, like a pendulum, and used his hand tu support her back, and she turned towards him.

"I feel weird..." she responded, half drunkenly, as she struggled to connect the words and push them off her mouth, a sudden dizziness assaulting her head. "I think I'm gonna—" she started telling him, collapsing against his hand, and passing out while still kneeling, Noah slowly lowering her and laying her on the ground, still confused, as he stared at the unsconscious snake near her.

He thought of yelling for help, but that would be pointless. He used healing flames on the girl's forehead and Lilith's head, but it was clear they were fine. Their breathing was spaced out normally, their hearts were beating at a normal rate, and healing flames did not take any mana no matter how much he tried to force it. There was nothing to heal. They were clearly asleep, but why?

It was all a mystery to him, and he did the only think he could think of, lifted the girl in a princess carry, the snake skill laying over her chest and hanging off her shoulder, and he took her to the room, carefully laying the two of them on the bed, and walking out, closing the door behind him.

'How long are they going to sleep for...' he thought, there being no information to him abou any of it, and went alone back to the table, eating breakfast on his own. Despite the entire variety of things to pick from, he was not hungry. Or rather, he was incredibly so, but had no interest in eating, not after what happened.

Thousands of possibilities ran through his mind as fast as they could thing of them, as he tried to make something off of what he'd seen. In his hands a piece of plain toast without naything on it and a glass of whatever juice was in the pitcher closest. He wasn't thinking about eating, he was doing so out of instinc, while his thoughts where somewhere else entirely.

As his early morning passed in a blink of his eyes, as he did not notice time zoom across, his mind too busy trying to find something, anything.

"Mr. Noah?" until a middle aged man's voice broke his concentraition. "Mr. Noah?" there was no response the first four times he asked, Noah clearly elsewhere, so he asked again, reaching for the young man's shoulder. "Mister—"

"Yes?" Noah finally heard him, slowly turning his face to see the man's surprised face, as he pulled his hand back carefully. "Did I not hear it the first time you asked?" Noah asked the man, who had a troubled expression.

"First time would be an understatement, I've called you a dozen times," the man said, smiling wryly.

"I see..." was everything Noah could say as he heard that, knowing it was most likely the truth, since he only heard the man when he touched his shoulder, so concentrated he was. "Say, how can I help you?" Noah asked, seeing the man's carefully hidden unease and anxiousness peek through the gaps in his self control.

"Have you seen my daughter? I couldn't find her the entire morning, and neither could the other employees, though the kitchen staff said she came out earlier to serve you," he told him, incredibly nervous, not knowing what to expect after the girl spent the last entire day locked into her own room.

"She's currently sleeping," Noah said calmly, but the experienced man knew this answer meant he was somehow involved in this.

"Sleeping? At this hour still? It doesn't suit her schedule," the man muttered to himself, completely forgetting for a second the fact that she was awake and working earlier in the day, and then realizing it, looking at Noah with a slight frown.

"Did you, perhaps, put her to sleep?" the man asked, thinking she may have inconvenienced him, but then looking to see he was alone, but a chair by his side had been pulled. "Where's the snake that always accompanies you, Lilith?" the man asked, changing the topic from his daughter, but still waiting for Noah's reply.

"Also sleeping. And no, it was not me who put your daughter to sleep, but rather, it's a situation I myself did not entirely comprehend," he told the man the truth, feeling this man was very worried for his daughter. Suddenly, a though occured to him, thinking deeper into the man's question, and he felt forced to ask, "Also, did you just say you have been looking for him for the 'entire morning'?"

"Yes, the entire morning. She was already missing when I clocked in, since I overslept and only woke up at 8 after trying to talk to her until deep into the night," the man told him, ashamed, but also trying to convey Noah his troubles, hoping the boy could help him somehow.

"I see... What time is it now, then?" Noah asked, realizing at least a pair of hours had passed since he carried the girl and snake to bed, the realization he'd been thinking about explanations for this situation for way to long without any fruits striking him like a truck, for a person who had though they had only spent a few minutes at best.

"It's about 30 past 9, Mister," the man looked at him in disbelief, not understanding what the time had to do with his question, and wondering whether he was alright.

"It seems I spend far too long thinking about it... Would you mind taking a seat?" Noah asked the man, who promptly pulled the chair Noah pointed him to, and sat down, waiting to see what the boy reserved him. "Would you mind telling me what happened yesterday? You seem to be very troubled about it," Noah asked, the man taking a deep breath before sighing.

"Is it that obvious?" the man asked him, his facade cracking in front of Noah, and being replaced by the face of a worried father, as he leaned forward, resting both forearms on his legs, rubbing his hands together.

"Not really, no. I'm just good at reading people," Noah said, trying to relieve a bit of the tension, and making the man smile sideways, chuckling a little.

"Thank you for presenving my image," the man answered, before the smile completely disappeared from his face. "When she woke up yesterday, I wasn't awake. I had drunked myself to sleep with the help of Carlos, as you probably remember. By the time I woke up, Carlos had already arranged everything for the veiling and burial, and the other employees had already told her that her mother had died.

I felt like the worst excuse for a father, when I went into her room to find her crying, alone.

It seems she had already gone into mine, and found me asleep, nursing an empty bottle..." he poured himself out, not bothering to even look at Noah, fearing what face the boy would make as he listened to his story, but his words would completely dismiss that worry, as a weighty voice responded to him, a ton of pain loaded into it.

"I don't think you should feel that way. Before being a father, you are also a husband, who not only lost his lifetime partner, but also nearly lost his own life. I think you had the right to deserve yourself to at least that much mourning," Noah told him, the man raising his head for the first time, as silent tears fell from his eyes, and he saw Noah's expression.