Lucifer's Descendant System

Chapter 400: 400 - Parallel Invitation

"The maid Maggie took a liking to? She's been waiting with the girls, I think. Khish said something about her needing to be fluffed up," Carlos said while shrugging, Noah looking around to see if anyone could translate what this meant, but the only person around was Lilith, who had the same expression on his face.

"Uh... Care to explain what the heck that means?" Noah asked, only for Carlos to shrug once again. But soon, Noah saw Carlos' eyes widen, as his jaw dropped.

"Well, this is what fluff is," a voice called from behind, that of Khish, and Noah turned to see the reason Carlos was so surprised. Ahead of the group was a blonde girl whose hair curled at the ends, the makeup was simple, yet enough to bring a lot of her beauty out. Lashes and eyeliner simple enough not to look overdone, but delicate enough to make her look like an entirely different person.

The beautiful dress also helped to further enforce that difference, especially for Noah, who had only seen her in uniform thus far.

"Welp, it seems we should go somewhere different for lunch, huh?" he turned to Carlos with a smile, and struggled to keep his laughter in, as he saw his friend still frozen in place, mouth agape. "Right, Carlos?" he asked once again, pulling the boy out from his little world.

"Huh? Oh, right, yeah! Maybe we should go somewhere more... adequate. The girls have dressed themselves too finely," Carlos managed to say, still half entranced by the girl's beauty.

"Eeh? But I wanted fried chicken!" Maggie protested with a pout, only to see Carlos signal her to come over. Noah watched with the corner of his eye as he muttered something into her ear, to which the girl nodded gleefully.

"Alright! We can eat fried chicken at another time," she said, making Noah wonder what in the world Carlos had promised her.

'I just hope it doesn't have anything to do with fortresses...' he muttered to himself, only for a familiar voice to echo into his mind.

'You know very well it probably has.' Lilith's voice was the same as always, even her tone. Yet, he still could not brush away the awkwardness from his mind. Although he had not seen it, it felt similar to accidentally listening in, and having shared Lucifer's body's feelings adding insult to injury.

'At least we share the same impression,' he told her in his mind, focusing on her request, regardless of his own troubles. "You all look stunning," he addressed the other three, before the mood turned sour. One thing he had learned was that not complimenting a woman's attire while complimenting another was a recipe for disaster.

"Thanks," Sha was the only one to respond, blushing, while her sisters only nodded while averting their gazes.

"Anybody fancying pasta?" Carlos finally took a hold of himself, targeting the kids with his question. And, as would be expected, Maggie was happy with the suggestion. Even if Noah knew it was part of the bribing.

"What's pasta?" And everyone was taken aback by the sudden question from none other than Bel, who was seemingly oblivious to such a staple food of Planet E.

While Carlos explained all the different kinds of pasta to him, the group walked towards the car, a black limo. Noah, as usual, moved for the front seat, until an arm showed in front of his chest. Apparently, Carlos had blocked him without talking to Bel at all.

"Alright, I'll let the driver take care of it," Noah said, as he saw Carlos shake his head without interrupting himself, their conversation having finally reached the sauces topic.

"Noah." He was surprised by Sha's voice calling him, and turned as soon as he sat down, Sha herself taking the seat to his left, while Maggie sat on his right. Noah had the impression he'd heard smebody click their tongue, but thought it was probably his imagination, until he realized there was a person who could do such noises directly to his mind.

"Is everything alright between you and Lilith?" the pink-haired healer asked into his ear, surprising him with her quick realization that something was different.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" he shot back, without any emotion added to his voice.

Sha almost got taken aback, surprised at how coldly he'd responded. 'There's definitely something,' she thought, though, almost as if guessing being the topic of the conversation, the snake slid across the car from the outside, being the last to enter, and coiling herself on his lap.

Having sat across the door into the limo, Noah was sat straight across from Carlos with Bel between him and Maggie. Khish and Al were seated opposite of Bel, facing towards the rear of the car, with Alice quietly sitting in the corner. As the car started moving, it quickly became clear that Bel and Carlos would not stop talking about pasta anytime soon.

Carlos was still talking about sauces, their conversation having finally reached Bechamel or something.

"So, about today," Noah began addressing the sisters, who turned towards them. Maggie was already searching for something on his phone, so it didn't hurt to have somebody to talk a little, especially since he was still avoiding Lilith. "After lunch, we'll drop Khish and Al at our old place and then leave you at home. Good, Sha?"

"It's probably gonna be a little rushed... But I can live with that," she responded, half jokingly.

"Rushed? Got something to do tonight?"

"Khish! Stop it!" Khish leaned over, resting on top of Al, in order to question Sha, warranting a protest.

"I have a... dinner to go to," Sha said, blushing and looking away.

Noah saw this as his queue to turn around, as the girls started talking to one another. After all, he was pretty sure they knew fairly well whom she'd be going out with.

'In the end, you end up only having me to talk to, isn't it?' Lilith's voice rang into his mind, making Noah draw a deep breath.

'So it seems,' he responded, before sighing. 'Sorry for avoiding you,' he told her, making the snake turn around almost instantly.

'Oh? I thought you weren't avoiding me...' she said, their eyes meeting, as he imagined a smirk on her face.

'Shut up. You know I couldn't just say I was... or why,' he said, the snake looking up in dismay.

'Are you not living that up yet? It was nothing that serious...' she said, to Noah's disbelief.

"Because it wasn't you who was there without being able to control their own body," he muttered, making the snake glare at him. 'Alright, alright. I'll forget that,' he conceded, certain that, if he didn't, she would never let him live up to it, swallowing dry.

"We've arrived already?!" Carlos suddenly exclaimed, as he looked out the window to see the restaurant.

As they crossed the door, however, a familiar voice called Noah out, "Elder Stern, would you fancy accompanying me?"

The group turned to see a middle aged woman, dressed rather fancily. "Ms. Yangshu, it is a pleasure to have such a fateful encounter." Noah said, extending his hand down, letting Lilith climb onto it as she diminished in size.

Sha and Maggie looked at each other, both sensing the strange tone in his voice, and turned to see Carlos shrug, not knowing who that was.

"I'll be joining you after making this miss company,' he said, nodding at Carlos to lead the group in, as he walked closer to the mysterious woman. "What do I owe you the pleasure of your company?" he asked, taking the arm she extended to him.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, this was just a fortuitous occurrence. I often come here to have lunch," the woman said, as she signaled the maitre to arrange her another place at the table.

"Oh, I'm glad to know we chose such a great place for a meal," he said, as she led him into the fanciful restaurant.

"This is a great place for an ordinary every-day meal. Also, I invited you because of the matter of the other night," she said, making Noah finally understand.

"So you already know," he said, looking towards her to have their eyes meet.

"I was notified of it. It seems a couple of the Nine Families are getting far too hasty. Making such a grave mistake in judgment..." she shook her head slowly, as the two reached the table.

"I guess power went up their heads," Noah responded in kind, pulling her a chair.

"Thank you," she said, sitting down, waiting for Noah to sit before continuing, "For them to become drunken in just this much power... The Nine Families is doomed as an organization if that really is the case," she said without a care in the world, raising the empty glass a couple inches from the table.

Almost immediately, without a word, a man appeared and poured it full, before waiting for Noah to do the same, which he did.

"Barollo, Italy, Planet E. 2084," he said, before pouring the rest of the bottle into a wine pitcher, and placing the bottle itself on the table. The mere fact this wine was from another country was enough for Noah to look at it strange. But he was yet to address the thing that sent shivers down his spine.

His company had equated the Nine Families power to "just this much", a power that was incomparable in this entire planet was made sound like nothing.