Chapter 332 - 332 - Under Pressure
"Remove anything that makes it hard to identify her face and make sure she's well tied up and blindfolded. If she has nothing to do with the Families and we can assure that, there's no reason to kill her if she doesn't know about you and the others," Noah told her, not realizing what Lilith meant since he hadn't seen her face.
He walked by Lilith dragging her inside, before she reached the dinner table, dropping all the boxes on it. "Let us see what's up with all this crap," he muttered, excitedly untying the packaging of all boxes. After unpacking it all, all that remained was a small glint of disappointment, "Seriously? D Rank Essence?" Noah complained, as he set aside the boxes, focusing on what had been given to him. Aside from Michael and Tyrel, who sent him another suck mysterious token together, seven other elders sent him "trinkets", which were rather underwhelming. Low rank essence, small precious stones with little value of re-sale, invitations to events he would never go, all pointless rewards.
'Noah, I think she's waking back up,' Lilith's voice woke him up and turned his attention to another matter.
'Time to get things done,' he thought to himself, standing up and pulling the token into his pocket, together with all others. Noah walked down to his room, to see a woman in very revealing gym clothes moving her head side to side on the bed.
'Hey, Lilith! Why the hell is she like this?' he asked, seeing the woman tied down to the bed.
'Isn't this what you asked me to do tho? She was just wearing a hooded black cloth over herself. It's not my fault that she dresses herself like this,' the snake responded, almost as if shrugging, and raised her face from the bedside.
Snakes have no hands or arms, but they are long. What was tying the woman to the bed was Lilith herself. 'Goddamnit! I hate it, but you have a point. Now, what do we do with her?' Noah thought to himself while relayign it to Lilith, a curious bird watching from behind him in amazement despite not being able to hear the main conversation.
"Aww... My head... Wha—where am I? Who are you?" the woman finally woke up, raising her blindfolded face while pulling her limbs, to no avail.
'You can talk, Lilith. Since she can't see you, it'd be good to have a woman's voice to make things easier,' Noah said, before addressing the girl. "We don't want to hurt you, but you need to answer quite a few questions, young lass." Noah took a deep breath, before taking a few steps towards the woman. "Now, who sent you here? What did you want in this place?"
"Huh? What are you gonna do to me?! Why do I have to tell you anything?!" The woman yelled, pulling her bound arms upwards, but not enough to make the massive snake bulge. "What are you doing! Let me go!"
"Like I said, you need to answer the questions first. Who sent you here?" Noah doubled down, talking on his emotionless tone right next to her.
"N—Nobody! Nobody sent me here! I came here on my own!" the woman cried out, as she tried to free herself to no avail.
"If nobody sent you here, why the hell did you even come here of all places? Does this look like a good place to burglarize?" Lilith asked, her voice sounding from right behind and above the woman, making her lie down trying to track her position.
"What? Burglarize?! No way! I wasn't trying to rob the place or anything," the woman pleaded her innocence, pointing her blindfolded gaze towards the source of Lilith's voice. "I just wanted to know where the hell this Noah guy came from!"
'Let go of her eyes when I tell you to. Let's see if she keeps her tone after seeing "that",' Noah told Lilith, activating [Devil Form] at once, and waiting to give the girl a scare that would make her tell him everything. He climbed onto the bed, leaving his face only a few feet away from hers, and straight onto her vision. 'Now.'
"Wait, wha—hyaaaa!" A mindshattering scream of terror resounded in everyone's ears, as the woman stare straight into the eyes of the Devil from a feet away, her body trembled with every muscle, her jaw shivering as if she were in an ice storm without any winter clothes.
'blindfold her again,' Noah ordered Lilith, making the snake coil the end of her tail once again around the eyes of the shattered woman, who stared blankly ahead while babbling something uninteligible. "Are you ready to talk now? What is your relationship to the Nine Families," Noah questioned once again, not leaving her any time to recover.
"I—I'm not! I have nothing to do with them, I swear! I just wanted to come and get some information from about Noah. My parents asked me to dig around and find out about his origins and how he climbed so fast, I swear to god!" The woman trembled powerlessly, her head thrashing around as she spoke, terrified.
"Who are your parents? Where did they find about me?" he asked again, pressing the woman, while exchanging a confused gaze with Lilith.
"Are you from the Hyu Family?" the snake asked, breaking the girl's line of thought, and inducing her into a clear and concise answer.
"Who?! Hyu!? I have nothing to do with those bastards! I have nothing to do with them!" she yelped, almost as if praying for some kind of god.
"What is your blessing? What are you hiding?" Lilith didn't let her think, bombarding her with another question, and making things go the way Noah wanted.
"I can't tell you that—Ouch!" the girl refused to answer, groaning in pain as something hod touched the sole of her feet.
"Should we increase the heat, or are you telling me," Noah asked, conjuring a bit of fire close to her stomach, only to scare her.
"No, No! Please! Don't hurt me! My blessing is just the Thieve's Secret. All I can do is get rid of my presence and pick locks! Please don't hurt me!" she blurted out, her entire body contracting as if trying to run from the flames.
'Hmm... She might be quite useful...' Noah thought, thinking about the uses of her blessing. "Who are your parents and how did you get to know about him?" Noah asked her aloud, ordering Lilith mentally to tighten her grip on the girl.
"Ugh~! She groaned, as Lilith's body squeezed her face and limbs, Noah sitting by her side on the bed as he figured it was all about to end. "I'm the daughter of the Lifuet Family. It's not one of the Nine Families, but it's an influential family."
"Why do you guys have your eyes on Noah? Speak up!" Noah raised his tone, putting power behind his voice, since this was the answer that would decide whether he had to do something about her or not.
"My sister! Dad was angry you were messing around with my sister!" she cried out loud, raising her chest from the bed.
"Huh?!" Noah asked, blankly.
"Excuse me?!" Lilith angrily snarked, constricting the girl into pain.
"Ahh! Please stop! I told you the truth! Stop!"
'Lilith! What the hell are you doing?' Noah asked, seing the girl writhing in pain as she squeezed her.
'Who the hell are you messing around with?! Who are you going out? Isn't that pink haired healer enough?!' Lilith snaked at him, letting go of the girl just enough for her to no longer feel pain, but Noah could see she was fuming.
'Wait... You said she looked like—' he thought to himself, staring closely at the girl's face for the first time, and widening his own. 'They do look alike, shit...' Noah finally realized something very important about this whole ordeal. This girl was probably Sha's sister.
"I see," muttered, sighing aloud, as he told Lilith to release her limbs but still keep her to the bed, without taking off her blindfold. "I'll offer you a contract," Noah bit his lower lip, as he thought of the best way to come out of this mess on top, knowing this girl would mean problem if not handled well. "You will not comment to anyone about anything that you saw or heard or experienced here; You will also never attempt anything of the sort against Noah ever again; and lastly, you will not assist anyone who is trying to do the same. As a counterpart, you will be leaving this place today, unharmed, and nothing will be done to you by us."
"Are you serious?! After everything you did, you want me to agree to that?" the girl protested, thrashing, but Lilith had a good grip of her still, and pressed her back onto the bed. "Wait, what is this on me, it's cold and I feel scales is it—"
"Yes, it is a snake. There's a snake coiling around you and on your face," Noah said while rolling his eyes, disappointed at how long it took her to notice it.
"Kyaaa! Take it away! Please! I'll sign it! Just get it away from me!" the girl despaired, almost crying for help, which made Noah furrow his brows in utter amazement.
'Guess what the eyes can't see, the heart can't feel, huh,' he thought to himself, as a contract with the terms he had told before appeared mid-air above the bed, and he had Lilith let go of her hand. "The terms are exactly as described, we shall now sign the contract," he told her while pulling her hand free from Lilith's grasp, and helping her sign it.
"Okay, but please just hurry and take this thing from me, please!" she cried out, leaving Noah to stare at her with a satisfied expression, as the signed contract disappeared in a burst of flames.
"She'll let you go now. But make sure you keep that contract in mind.. After all, you made a deal with the devil."