67. It’s good to be honest

Noah was hitting the table with his knife and fork.

“Is it not ready yet? I’m hungry! Aren’t you hungry, Styzz? We’re hungry, stupidstar!”

“Coming, coming!”

I stirred the soup a bit, was about to taste it, then the mask reminded me that I couldn’t taste human food. I put down the ladle, took the big, steaming cooking pot with both hands, and walked out of the kitchen.

As I approached the round table, I grinned under my mask. There were quite a number of people in Ray’s house. Much to my surprise, Styzz, the green-haired guy who dreamed to become a Hidden Wolf and was Ray’s classmate at Harvard High, was taking part in the training too. I still was in shock to see him here as a Nyomin trainee. I guess he wasn’t just anyone. Also, his electricity power was amazing. I could tell, when, on my arrival, I had asked Noah not to touch me because I had a very contagious allergy; I had made that up on the spot, and when Noah asked, “Eeeh? Can allergies be contagious?”, as he was about to poke my arm, Styzz had sent him an electrical shock that had left the CI’s student stammering for several minutes. They had made up pretty quick, though, upon realizing that both of them were fond of playing Go. They had been so focused on their game, a moment ago, but now all Noah could think about was food.

He served himself a generous portion saying:

“It’d better be yummy, stupidstar!”

“It is. The better poison I found.”

Noah had already put a spoonful into his mouth. He froze, raised an eyebrow at me, swallowed, then whistled.

“Not bad! Thanks for the poison, stupidstar.”

“You’re welcome, perv.”

“At least it’s better than the poison they give us at the Crapperific Institute.”

“…” That… wasn’t a compliment, was it?

“Thanks, Armen!” Styzz said. “We were so focused on our game, we completely ignored you.”

“I saw that! Is Go so interesting?”

“Best game ever!” Noah affirmed.

Huh? So the crimson guy could have fun patiently placing pieces on a game board. That was unexpected.

“Thank you for the food, Armen,” Jing intervened. The bald martial artist was sitting very formally. “Sorry I was taking a bath and couldn’t help.”

“It’s fine, I like cooking.”

“Shank you, Amen!” Nina said, her mouth full. “And I’m sowwy! I took the mushroom book wishout shinking that you might want to take it, too, and—”

“No worries. I didn’t want it.”

“Is that so?” She looked relieved. “Mm. But I still feel like I owe you one. Next time, I’ll cook a mushroom specialty from my hometown for you.”

“Really?! I’m looking forward to…!” Then I remembered I was an undead, and I froze. “Ah… I forgot. I don’t like mushrooms.”

Nina looked at me in shock as if I had said something unbelievable.

“You… don’t like mushrooms?”

“Well… I had a traumatic experience…” Death, more specifically. “So, yeah, I don’t like them. Not anymore. Tastes change as we get older, they say.”

“You say it like you’re an old man,” Jing snorted.

“I’m sorry to hear that you had a traumatic experience with a mushroom…” Nina sympathized.

Eeeh? Did I make it sound that way?

“I like mushrooms,” Noah interjected. “I like anything as long as it’s tasty. So it’s fine if you cook that mushroom specialty for me, Nina. Heh… A big house, tasty food, and a good view… All in all, this training is not too bad, hahaha!”

Boy, was he cheeky. Besides, “I like anything as long as it’s tasty”, he said? What was with that perv’s logic? Nina shrugged.

“I’ll think about it.”

Well said, Nina! Don’t say yes to that little greedy prince! My smile twisted when I saw her mix a chocolate bar with my soup.

“Ugh… Isn’t that mixing… a bit too experimental?” I asked.

Nina shook her head:

“Mm-mm. It’s yummy.”

She was clearly enjoying her meal. For me, who had more or less forgotten how human food tasted like, it was a feast to see her expression. My lips curved.

“I’m glad it is.”

Noah grumbled.

“Oi, you’re making me nervous, standing there. Aren’t you going to sit down? I’m no rich kid to be served by a waiter.”

He did wait for me to bring the food to the table and was asking Nina to cook for him, though? I rolled my eyes.

“I already ate. I’ll bring Ray his dinner.”

“Oh yeah, Ray. He shut himself in his room again, didn’t he? Say, is the shortie really your friend, or is he something like, you know, a rich kid you’re groveling to to get pocket money?”

“…” I paused on the foot of the stairs and cast a smiling look his way. “Nina, please tell me if you see any deadly mushroom in your book. Next time, I’ll put the poison for real. Just for you, perv.”

As I started to go upstairs, I heard him snort and mutter:

“What, so they really are friends. Wonder why.”

“Yes, wonder why you have been accepted into this house,” Jing replied.

“What was that for?”

“I’m just saying you don’t know how to read the room.”

“Why?”

I ignored them when I reached the second floor and knocked at Ray’s door. The sound couldn’t go through that thick panel, but we didn’t need sound.

‘You can come in,’ Ray said mentally.

He was sitting on the floor, stroking Rainbows’ fur. As soon as I walked in, the cat bolted and hid under the bed. I shut the door with a saddened expression.

“Ray… Does she hate me so much?”

“She doesn’t,” Ray assured. “She’s just being cautious. You didn’t have to go out of your way to bring me the dinner, you know?”

“Don’t complain, dig in, and recover your energies.”

“… Okay.”

As he took his spoon, I turned to gaze out of the window at the crescent moon and the stars. I enjoyed a lively house, but I also liked it when I was alone with Ray. The house was so big we weren’t even using all the rooms. I had borrowed the one next to Ray’s, but I wondered what I would do there alone during the nights, since I couldn’t sleep. Play the violin? That would bother everyone. Wander at night in the academy like a haunting ghost, perhaps? Or maybe I should just…

“Are you planning on becoming a cook?”

Ray’s question came out of the blue. I laughed, looking back.

“Oh? Am I so good at it? Is it yummy?”

“It is. But I’m asking that because you seem to enjoy seeing people eat your meals. That’s a must if you want to be a good cook, isn’t it?”

“Mm, you think so? Well… I do enjoy seeing people enjoy themselves, but…”

“But?”

I sat down before him with a grin under my mask.

“I enjoy it most when it’s you who’s enjoying.”

Zeeta would have blushed at my words, but Ray didn’t. He raised an eyebrow.

“Mm. That may be because of the necro-bond.”

I was taken aback.

“What? The necro-bond? What does that have to do with—?”

“Aaah, forget that, forget that… Anyway, I’ve been thinking about what you told me.”

“…? About the compass?”

Ray had already examined it and concluded it was a great thing that I had chosen it. Although useless for me, it might have caused us trouble if it had ended up in someone else’s hands.

“The compass? Do you want it back?” Ray asked.

“What? No. Keep it, I don’t need it. Did you succeed in deciphering the text engraved on it?”

“No. I have no idea what language it is. Anyway, we have other matters to worry about.”

“That’s true. So? What is it?”

Under my inquisitive look, Ray clarified:

“It’s about Zeeta.”

I breathed in. I had told him how Zeeta had rescued me from my life-lust by pushing Katya away and getting himself in trouble, but at the moment, Ray had only been worried about my core and had me lie down for half an hour before declaring that he had removed almost all the lifeforce I hadn’t transformed yet into deathforce. Seeing him so exhausted, all I could think about was how I could thank Ray and give him back his strengths, and I obviously thought of making a very nutritious dinner for him. I had ended up cooking for the whole house, though…

I looked at him intently.

“How can we save him from Cesarine’s group?”

Ray had finished his plate. He took the brim of his baseball cap between two fingers.

“It’ll be a gamble but… I’ve heard there will be a badge exchange tomorrow night between the Starlanders and the North-Wingers.”

“The North-Wingers?”

“Lovecryce comes from Buenos Aires, remember? In the North-Wing continent. And the four trainees from North-Wing are his daughter and her three bodyguards.”

“His… daughter?” I snorted. “And there I thought for a moment that Cesarine was the Nyomin’s director. It feels so absurd now—”

“Pfff…” Ray’s shoulders trembled as he tried to keep from laughing. “Ahem, well… Not everyone knows Lovecryce has a daughter. She rarely appears on the news. I know her chiefly because my mom works for them.”

“Makes sense.”

“Anyhow, going back to the subject,” he added, “if I go to that meeting, tomorrow night, I can try to buy Zeeta’s badge. The only problem is… does Zeeta really want to leave their side?”

The question made me pause. If Zeeta’s intention was to spy on Lovecryce’s daughter, then buying his badge from Cesarine would mean interfering in his plans.

“I don’t care.” The words came straight from my heart. I looked up at Ray. “I don’t care if he doesn’t want to. Tomorrow, I’ll keep an eye on him. If Katya is making him suffer, let’s go buy his badge at that meeting.”

Even if we couldn’t reach an agreement, I guessed the badges would be shown by the participants, so, worst-case scenario, I could always try to steal it with my telekinesis and make a run for it. Once the badge was in my hands, Zeeta would be free. Or more like, according to the rules, he would belong to the house of the one owning his badge, thus having to ‘swear’ loyalty to his new boss. I’d just give it back to him, then, and let him decide of his own free will, and not while being coerced by Cesarine’s tyrannic bodyguard.

After a silence, Ray nodded.

“We’ll do that. But you’re not coming.”

“What?!”

“It’s a meeting for Nyomin trainees. You can’t go. So I—”

The door was suddenly flung open.

“I can’t believe it! Straw Head! That damned doll!”

Linah had barged into the room like a fury. Well, not like a real Fury, of course. I slowly raised my eyes to her frustrated face as she was catching her breath.

“Erma. Are you… Are you calling me a doll?”

“I’m not!” Linah shut the door and sat down uninvited, explaining sharply: “You see, I went to talk to the trainers to ask if we were allowed to leave Yuutow Island in our free time, and I had convinced professor Addison, because, after all, my dad’s a big sponsor of the Nyomin, but then! that damned woman showed up and said it was unacceptable to give permission to ones and not to others, we came to train, not to have fun, and blah blah blah… I’m furious! She turned the tables with a few words and told me that my dad wasn’t sponsoring the Nyomin to make her daughter laze around. So restrictive! Oh, I’m mad, I’m mad, I’m mad!”

She sure was. Her left hand had detached itself from her main body and was restlessly running circles around the room. Quite a while since I had seen her doing so. Rainbows peeped from under the bed to follow the venturous hand with intent eyes, as if ready to pounce on it.

“So… does that mean we won’t be able to go to Phoenix City to search for the Immortal?” I asked.

“The Immortal?” Ray echoed.

“Ah, yes, it’s an old witch I talked with in Phoenix City last night,” I explained as Rainbows just slowly crawled from under the bed, captivated. “She was supposedly born before the Big Blend, she’s like a Hero for the witches, and Erma wants to meet her.”

“I should cut her pretty braids and throw them to a fire!” Linah groaned.

“Didn’t you want to meet her because you’re a fan?!” I freaked out.

“Armen,” Ray cleared his throat. “I think she’s talking about the trainer.”

“Of course I am! That shrew! How dares she!” At that instant, we all saw the tabby cat pouncing on Linah’s hand. The Lil Witch’s expression changed as she lunged and caught the feline in the air enthusiastically. “Cute little Rainbows, so you were here! Did you come to say hello? Such a good cat!”

Cuddled in Linah’s arms, the cat looked anything but happy. Her frightened eyes turned to Ray and even to me, crying for help. So she was more scared of Linah than she was of me, huh. That selfishly made me feel good. I still wanted to help her, but well… getting used to a bit of physical closeness to the living was important—even though she wouldn’t feel anything no matter how much the Lil Witch petted her. She was a ghoul, after all.

“By the way…” Ray was quite embarrassed right now. I wondered why. He grabbed the brim of his baseball cap. “Linah. What is… the name of that trainer?”

“The name of that harpy?! It’s Lizzie Dvorak, the Lightning Veil. Why?”

I widened my eyes at Ray as he shrugged, coughing. Was he laughing? Linah looked at us alternately.

“What’s wrong, guys? Straw Head?”

“That’s… Heh… You see, Erma… the Lightning Veil is Ray’s mom.”

For a moment, none of us said anything. Linah stayed silent for one, two… to five seconds, then burst out:

“Whaaaaaaat?!”

Her left hand literally dropped out of astonishment and embarrassment, and Rainbows finally managed to slip out of her grip and took refuge in Ray’s lap. The Lil Witch covered her face with her right hand and murmured with her eyes shut:

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s good to be honest,” Ray approved gently.

I picked up Linah’s hand and offered it back, grinning.

“Would you like a bit of soup for dinner, Erma?”