Noth couldn’t fault the children for being curious, especially when he himself had quite a notorious curiosity streak. However, he’d never truly mastered the art of wordplay, let alone crafting his words in a way that would pacify children. And, in all reality, even he didn’t know for sure why his hair had changed! In the end he decided that the only option was to tell them a small part of the truth that he’d guessed at, and hoped that it would be enough to satiate them for now.


    “It…seems that my powers have been affected by the death of the archdemon.”


    The two children made sounds of awe, their eyes almost sparkling from the interesting knowledge. They clearly wanted to hear more, but Noth didn’t really have any more information to give. Luckily Helt suddenly spoke up, saving Noth from the awkward situation he could feel building.


    “So that’s why you aren’t covering up my [Gift] as well anymore?”


    “Huh? I’m not?”


    Noth looked towards his angel once more, the question he wanted to ask clearly painted on his face.


    <Yup, he’s completely right. The nulling field that I usually have on you isn’t working quite as well since your body hasn’t learned how to fully assimilate the energy yet. You shouldn’t be in any danger... but this kid sure might be.>


    “What? But that’s-”


    <You worry too much, my love. Perhaps he was right before, this might be a good time for him to learn to work with his [Gift], instead of just being sheltered from it all the time. He had to put up with it while you were off fighting demons, even if that was only for a few hours, and he was perfectly fine. What had you planed to do in the future when you might have needed to spend even longer away from him?>


    Noth flinched. He hadn’t even once thought about what Helt had done during the days he’d been gone hunting demons. How foolish of him to have neglected such an obvious thing. His face twisted in regret and concern. Serris chuckled and ran her fingers through his purple ends.


    <If you hate it so much, you could just do your best to absorb this new power as quickly as you can~… but I don’t think it’ll just take a few days to do. Stop being so overprotective and let him try to solve this on his own. You’re still blocking his pain sometimes at least; That’s better than nothing. I’d say it’s quite a good environment for him to learn to get used to it all, wouldn’t you?>


    Noth frowned a small bit. He couldn’t help but still feel uncomfortable with the whole ordeal, even with her ''encouragement''.


    “I… suppose that’s right.”


    Serris smiled and patted him on the head.


    <Good, good, I’m glad you realize it. In fact, if he wants to try and get used to his [Gift], I have a nice little assignment that might be perfect for the boy.>


    “...Is this another one of your ‘favours’?”


    <Hoo, well… I’d say yes, but then you’d expect some kind of reward at the end, right? And since your use of my powers should be all out of whack right now, it’ll be up to those little kids to handle it. Does that mean I’ll have to give the reward to those kids instead…? But I think they’d be willing to do it for free, since it’s to help their beloved ‘Big Brother’.>


    Serris’s last words came out sounding as teasing as possible. Noth’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her disapprovingly, but eventually he sighed and rolled his eyes.


    “I’m guessing this is something important, then?”


    <You say that as if every favour I ask of you isn’t important.>


    Noth looked at her with a disbelieving gaze, but eventually he conceded by looking away. The angel giggled and came close, once again choosing to whisper into his ear as if she was sharing a precious secret with him.


    <The pope has sent two little rats to snoop around in your territory. I don’t think we should let them just do as they please in your lands, and it would be especially bad if they came in contact with certain people. Since you won’t be able to handle it right now, don’t you think those two would be perfect for this?>


    Noth didn’t want to agree, but he couldn’t think of a single reason to say no besides the fact that they were just young kids. Serris would never accept such an excuse for such talented children, and with Jean there and willing to use her [Gift], no danger would be likely to befall them. In the end the only thing holding Noth back from saying yes was just his aversion to making his loved ones do his dirty work.


    The teen sighed and bit his lip, but after a moment he looked towards his beloved siblings.


    “Jean, Helt…”


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    The children sat up a little straighter, hearing the distress in his voice. Had something gone wrong? They knew he must have been talking to the angel that he says follows him around; That was typically the reason he had for staring off in a random direction suddenly, or talking to seemingly no one out of nowhere. Could it be the angel had just told him that the change in hair colour was bad somehow?


    “I’m sorry to ask you to do this, but I need a favour. I’m… unable to do it right now, and only you two can. Could you please help me?”


    Jean immediately lit up, looking entirely ready to help with whatever Noth might ask of her. Helt, on the other hand, looked a small bit apprehensive. What could they do that the powerful Noth, someone who had shown such overwhelming ability compared to them, could not? And what’s more, if he was asking it of both of them, then that meant Helt would have to fight against the random waves of head-splitting agony he’d been experiencing just to be of any use. He simply didn’t have the confidence in himself to truly agree.


    “Of course we’ll help!”


    The excited Jean practically sprang up, grabbing hold of Helt’s hand and pulling him closer. It seemed that, in her eagerness, she wasn’t about to let Helt back out of helping. In fear of seeming disappointing, Helt reluctantly nodded along with Jean’s words. Noth smiled gently at the cute children, although his facade held a slight tinge of melancholy. He was happy that they wanted to help him so much, but he worried that they were so willing to do something for him without knowing what it was first. He wanted to believe that the willingness came from a place of love and respect for their big brother, and not some odd sense of worship or indebtedness.


    “I see. Thank you, both of you. There’s, um… some bad people who have come here from the church, and are trying to harm me by talking to the people who used to be servants here. Helt, I need your help locating them quickly, and Jean, I need you to… well, convince them to leave and not come back. I’m very sorry to ask this of you both, especially you, Helt. It’s only been a day since you woke up. Since then you’ve already been in so much pain because of your [Gift], and now I’m asking you to use the very thing that’s been hurting you… I just hope that with some practice you can learn to suppress it a bit.”


    The fire of Jean’s eagerness seemed to dim slightly when she heard Noth’s concerns over Helt. She felt a little ashamed of herself for having been so excited without taking his situation into any kind of consideration. It was true that he’d been randomly in pain for the past day, so maybe going even farther away from Noth would only make things worse for him…


    Jean glanced nervously towards Helt’s now serious expression and slowly released the hand she had been holding, instead fiddling with her hands against her lap.


    “I… Helt,-”


    “It’s okay, Jean.”


    Helt sighed, a slight grimace from pain appearing on his face as he retook her hand.


    “I know. I can’t help but know how you feel right now, but that’s exactly why I can’t turn this down. He’s right, we’re the only two people who can do this right now, and if I’m ever going to get over this pain, then… It’s better to learn how sooner rather than later.”


    Jean’s concern was obvious, but before she could say anything, Helt leaned towards her and rested his head on her shoulder.


    “If you’re so worried about me, then why not just stick close to me like you’re going to do anyways? You can even use your [Gift] on me and hypnotize me into not feeling any pain.”


    The young girl’s visage looked so flustered and confused, but she didn’t dare move and possibly cause even more pain to her already hurting friend.


    “B-but that wouldn’t even work! You know I can’t use my power on you, your [Gift] is too strong! And besides, even if I could, I would never use my powers on my friends!”


    Noth couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at their antics, and even another louder one when Jean heard and shot him a glare. It was easy to see how close Jean was with Helt, considering she’d never let someone she didn’t extremely care about see her get flustered like this.


    “Come on Jean, why not do it since he’s specially asking for it?”


    Jean bit her lip and looked away. She seemed completely unwilling, but Noth could see her seriously considering his words.


    “Look. There’s no harm in giving it a shot, and if it works he’ll be able to shake it off afterwards whenever he wants since he’s strong enough. You don’t have to feel bad over it when you’re doing it to help out your friend.”


    Noth reached out and stroked the luscious lavender hair on the top of Jean’s head. She pouted a bit when she felt like she was being treated like a child, but eventually she nodded and redoubled her hold on Helt’s hand. Helt smiled weakly up at Jean, happy that Noth’s words had swayed her. Perhaps with this she could continue to grow past the notions that forever plagued her, and become even stronger. He was pleased for his friend, and yet… Maybe he was a little jealous that the chains that held her back were purely psychological. He was convinced that his fight with his [Curse] would not be as simple as her own.


    As Helt sifted through his conflicted feelings, suddenly and surprisingly a person’s thoughts drifted into his mind that he hadn’t encountered all day.


    Ever since the terrifying event when he tried to peer into Ren’s thoughts and fainted, Helt hadn’t been able to see into Ren’s mind. It was almost as if she was hidden, or maybe muffled. It could be that if he really tried to use his [Gift], then he might have been able to hear her just fine, unlike Noth. However, with how much the intermittent pain of his [Gift] had been torturing him throughout the day, he didn’t have the courage to try and use it again, sure that it would only make things worse. But for some strange reason, without even trying, he was now able to hear her again. Could it have been because she was outside of the door at the moment, secretly watching them through the crack? Helt doubted that it was due to proximity; Ren had hugged him so hard that he felt like he might throw up when he had finally awoken. The only reasonable guess he could come up with was that her thoughts were just particularly loud right now, due to the sheer intensity and focus of them.


    Helt’s head whipped around and caught sight of the small girl through the crack in the door.


    Even while looking at her, all Helt could hear was just one, all consuming line of thought.


    With her small grey eyes focused desperately on Noth, she thought it again and again.


    It was like her mind had broken, or had gotten stuck.


    The thought overlapped itself like an echo in her head.


    Once more she thought it, her eyes wide and unblinking.


    ‘You don’t have to feel bad if it’s for a friend.’