As promised, Noth showed up to his afternoon ‘Appreciating the Arts’ class with his teacher Jeck. The boy sat down in a very unrefined slouch; One knee was bent so that his foot was placed on the corner of the chair's seat, and his chin rested on his hand on top of his knee. The way he seemed to rarely blink as he openly stared at and studied Jeck made the man’s nerves just a tad more on edge. The class started tentatively, and, just as Noth had predicted, the longer that it went on, the more his teacher grew bolder with his insulting comments. It started off with light insinuations and mentions about how lucky Noth was to have such an amazing father, then to talk of what brilliant gift the boy surely had as a prestigious Kieran, then next to how the man couldn’t wait to hear about what noble title would be given to the young master, and soon after about how sad it was that the Earl’s wife wasn’t here to experience the wonderful life of her son these past few years. It was exhausting to realize that all these topics were only just the beginning of the snake’s disgusting whispers.

Honestly, Noth was rather impressed by the man’s gall that he’d observed so far. If the boy wasn’t already so aware of what was happening, he’d have been successfully distracted from the actual class that they’d convened for. There were a few times that Noth had debated on if he should ask the man what any of these topics had to do with the ‘Art’ he was supposed to be learning about, but when he imagined the possibility of the snake smoothly and confidently replying, he decided it wasn’t worth it. The man’s words weren’t worth dignifying with a single response from Noth. Besides, he figured that the longer he quietly stared, studied, and listened to the man, the more Jeck was likely to up his insults. The boy couldn’t wait to see what else this repulsive adult was willing to say to a child’s face; In some odd and sick way, Noth was having a lot of fun seeing just how far this particular monster was willing to go with this. He had to fight against the queer and almost wicked smile that he could feel growing on his face, and as the feeling grew stronger he instead hid his mouth against his knee, much to the misunderstanding and delight of Jeck.

There was another funny fact that was making Noth want to smile and laugh amongst this whole situation. The fact that Jeck was enough of a hypocrite to denigrate Noth over things that were clearly at fault with the painter himself as well without even batting an eye was just all too shameless for the boy to not find hilarious. Perhaps this case of the pot calling the kettle black was part of what spurred on the man’s apparent dislike for Noth? After all, people never like others who suffer from the same unfavourable circumstances as themselves. It reminds them of all the things they hate about their own lives and shortcomings, so it was an obvious reaction to have. Something about that interesting little possible insight really tickled something inside of the boy. Learning these tidbits about people’s actions was very enjoyable to Noth.

And then there was the angel behind him that was only one step short of cackling at the whole situation, and not actually trying to hold it back at all.

Noth was doing his best to ignore her.

Interestingly enough, the painter actually stopped his constant hail of deprecation after the first hour had passed, and proceeded to seriously show the boy different styles and schools of paintings for at least a good thirty minutes. The sudden change into a studious and heartfelt mood from the previous one was very off-putting to Noth, considering how completely off topic the beginning of the class had been up to that point. You could actually feel how much care and passion was being put into this particular segment of the class, and the boy almost let out a noise of appreciation once he realized what was happening. Either the cunning and experienced snake was using this moment of duty and focus to lure Noth into a false sense of security before brutally surprising him with some new heavy hitting remark, or… It could actually be that the man really felt quite strongly for this particular subject.

Yes, that last theory would actually make sense.

The man was a [Superior Painter] after all.

In this vigorously religious country, who wouldn’t have a passion for the [Gift] that was personally bestowed upon them by the God-dess?

Just as Noth had generously thought that the snake might have a human side to him after all, the rug was soon swiftly pulled out from under him. It turns out that both of his theories seemed to be correct. Once Jeck’s beloved topic had finally finished, the man returned to berating the boy with aplomb. This time the subject matter was much more blame and shame heavy, as if the man had to sound out what exactly Noth would react to, since his softly hinted insults from earlier hadn’t quite done the job. As things began to ramp up more and more, even Noth, who was used to being constantly treated like filth by the servants who’d brought him food in the villa for two years, couldn’t just sit there and not react anymore. A well placed remark questioning his mother's chastity and faithfulness was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. Seeing the anger slowly developing on the boy’s face, the snake seemed to get all the more excited. Jeck put on the most menacing face he could muster as he scolded the boy for things that were clearly not his fault, or were completely out of control for a child.

'Oh, he should be so very grateful that the kind Earl was keeping such a useless son.'

'If his father weren’t so loving Noth would typically be tossed out onto the streets.'

'The God-dess was so merciful to let such an unwanted child live such a nice life.'

'It was a kindness that the God-dess took away Noth’s mother at the beginning of such an awful revelation.'

'What possible future could an unwanted child have?'

'It would be doing everyone a great favour if such a person wasn’t around to bother others anymore.'

'Yes, that’s all the boy was, was a bother.'

Somewhere amidst this flood of verbal abuse, the door to the room opened just a crack. The sound was almost too soft to be audible, so it was no wonder that the snake, all too intoxicated in the power his words could have over the weak, didn’t notice that someone was watching him. Of course, Noth could easily catch this change out of the corner of his eye, both due to the position he was sitting in, but also because he’d been eagerly awaiting this moment. He had to do his best to not give the game away too soon, and he made sure to re-bury his face in his knee, so that Jeck couldn’t make out the mischievous expression that he was starting to make.

As the implications that, ‘Yes, Noth should just give up and die already’ grew more and more clear, the gap in the door subsequently grew wider and wider, until it became suddenly very evident that the Earl was standing there in the doorway with an extremely ugly expression on his face. His loud, almost stomping footsteps as he made his way towards his childhood friend were both threatening and deafening; There was no way that the snake couldn’t hear Ruth Kieran’s menacing approach now. Jeck’s face looked absolutely pallid out of seemingly nowhere once he realized that he’d been caught in the act, and you could clearly see that the gears in his head were turning as he tried to figure out how he could best worm his way out of the situation.

The vindictive laughter of an angel was echoing throughout the room, but no one but Noth could hear it.

***

The Earl was practically snarling as he confronted the painter. It took him barely even a blinks-worth of time to unsheathe his blade and point it at the snake's neck.

“Explain yourself, Jeck”.

“Wha- Er- No, you seem to have misunderstood me, Earl Kieran!”

“Oh I highly doubt that, sir. I’ve been looking in on your little ‘class’ for just a bit longer than you must realize, and unless I’ve misunderstood that this was actually a class to blatantly bash and abuse my son, and was in fact not the art class that I asked you to perform, I think I’ve seen correctly.”

“No no, you see, there’s a missing context!”

“And what would that be? What possible context could exist that would give you the excuse to repeatedly say such horrible things to my child?”

Jeck bit his tongue. He was too frazzled and scared to come up with a good argument out of the blue, and he’d in no way expected the man who’d been sick for about two weeks now to just stroll in on them like this. The only thing that he could come up with to tell him at that very moment was the reasoning that Noth was a [Gift]less invalid, hated by the God-dess, but he knew how poorly that answer would work in this situation. When Jeck stayed silent and just kept sweating with his head bowed, the Earl sighed and looked at the man with pity. As his words started to poor out, his blade slowly lowered as well.

“I know talking down to people like this has always been a bad habit of yours, even ever since we were kids, but I didn’t expect it to go this far. You may have shared your thoughts on my shortcomings with me out of kindness because we were friends, but I can’t see how the things you’ve been saying to my son can be considered anything close to that. If I’d just stumbled upon you saying something in one small slip of the tongue, I could forgive you my friend, but this… Exactly how many ill-mannered things were you planning to say, Jeck?”

Even as the seconds ticked by, no reply was given to the Earl. Anything that Jeck could have possibly said would have only incriminated him further, and more importantly than that, he’d never actually seen Ruth Kieran get angry like this before. The man that he’d known and manipulated since childhood was supposed to be a cowardly wimp who could only ever worry about what others thought of him. Jeck had made sure to prey upon those insecurities many times in the past, so he knew very well of their existence. So then what was this? That spineless and pathetic Earl was actually standing up to him? And for the son that the snake had almost convinced him to kill a few times?

What he had failed to notice was that for all that he could succeed to disparage Ruth Kieran to his face time and time again, the Earl’s self esteem problems didn’t mean that he would simply roll over and watch the snake do the same to others, especially not his loved ones.

Honestly, Jeck was starting to get furious. He wasn’t used to being talked down to like this, and he was quite upset that he’d been caught in such an unsightly spot. The biggest thing that he hated, however, was that right now he was completely powerless to do anything about this particular situation. He wasn’t a noble, even if he had noble parents, and he’d completely been caught red handed. What’s worse is that the Earl’s sense of duty that he’d had drilled into him throughout his life and that Jeck had constantly used against him could easily make this turn into a case of defamation against a noble and lead to something terrible for the snake. The lightest he could get away with was imprisonment. The harshest was death, although the Earl would be looked upon unfavourably by the commoners for it.

In reality he knew that the only appeal he could make now was to lean on his friendship with the Earl, and to try and make the man feel guilty for doing this to a friend and doubting him.

The problem was that right in the moment that Jeck opened his mouth to protest, a third voice that he hadn’t heard all day suddenly spoke. It was a far more meek voice than he’d ever heard from the boy, and the timidness that his words were laced with made the man frown. When has that rude boy ever sounded like this before? Certainly not when Jeck had been around.

“Father, please. I don’t want to come between you two any further. I’m sorry that you had to see such an ugly side of someone you cared for for so long.”

The way the boy’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as he appealed to his father was very convincing. Of course, Jeck didn’t buy it, but it seemed that of course the idiot father of the boy was eating it right up. The Earl immediately dropped his sword and snatched up Noth into his arms, and gently stroked the boy’s hair. As he watched what should have been a touching scene, Jeck’s blood was boiling, and it was only made worse when the boy flashed a smug look in his direction from inside of his father’s arms. That look completely said ‘You know I’ve won, right?’. Before the snake could strike back at the boy in any way for this, however, the pitiful look was back on the boy’s face, and he looked up at his father once again.

“I know that there’s no way that I can stop you from sending my teacher away from here, but could you maybe let him stay for just one more day before tossing him out? I want to try and talk to him just a little bit more. I hate the idea that I’m going to have to end up in a bad relationship with someone my father had cherished so much. I wonder if I can maybe get him to like me, if only just a tiny bit.”

Ruth Kieran couldn’t help but sniffle at this cute and sweet display, and so of course he allowed it. After a few words of caution from the Earl and continuous reassurances from his son that he’d be ok, the man finally left, and Noth and Jeck were once more the only people left in the room. Once the sounds of retreating footsteps were far enough away, the sombre atmosphere of the room immediately changed, and a smug, malicious smile spread over Noth’s face. His eyes were narrowed like a hungry beast who’d successfully cornered their prey.

“Oh no, look at this poor painter. Seems as if you’ve screwed up and gotten on my father’s bad side. What will you do?”