episode_0100

“Hmm…”

Lian wiped his neck with a sigh. Normally, he would have said he’d come back next time and left, but today he was in a state of having received a mission to “detain Noah for a surprise party.”

Because of that, he could only look towards the bathroom with an ambiguous expression.

“Since he’s showering, maybe I can buy some time until he finishes getting ready for the party?”

If it hadn’t been long since he started showering, he would have naturally taken longer without needing to be detained. Considering the time it would take to dry his hair and change clothes, going back to the kitchen felt like a better choice.

While Lian was pondering optimistically, the sound of water coming from the bathroom suddenly stopped.

“It seems like he’s about to come out.”

“Ah…”

Lian sighed in disappointment. Soon, he brushed off his disappointment lightly.

“I had to deliver the message that he has to leave Cardisan anyway. Let’s think positively.”

With that thought in mind, Lian turned his gaze towards the bathroom. Even if they were of the same gender, it would have been awkward to keep staring as if waiting for a friend to come out undressed.

Lian’s gaze shifted towards Julianna.

“Uh, Julianna? It looks like Noah has finished showering. Shouldn’t you vacate the spot?”

“Oh! Right, I guess so.”

Julianna chuckled as she got up from her seat. At the same time, Noah’s voice came from the bathroom.

“Julianna, we’re out of towels here. Could you bring one?”

“What…?!”

At Noah’s casual request, Lian’s body froze like a statue. Lian’s gaze alternated between the bathroom and Julianna.

“Are they…?!”

As that thought became vivid on Lian’s face, Julianna let out a small sigh and said,

“Alright, I’ll bring one right away.”

“Eek!”

Startled, Lian stepped back abruptly and stuck to the door. His face flushed, his eyes darted around wildly.

“Now, how much of an age difference is there really?”

As Lian was mentally calculating the age gap, something swiftly flew towards him and hit his chest. He reflexively caught the object that was about to fall to the ground. It was a nearly dry towel.

“Why is this…?”

“Shouldn’t a woman like me bring it instead?”

“But Noah just…”

“I meant there’s no one else inside except me. If you leave it at the door, he’ll pick it up himself. Since you’re here now, there’s no need for that. ”

Julianna shrugged and returned to her original position, starting to read a book. Lian looked down at the towel with a puzzled expression.

His once heated face had now returned to its normal temperature. Lian breathed a long sigh of relief internally.

“Phew, thank goodness. No matter what, if the age gap is over a hundred years, it’s a bit much.”

Although Lian couldn’t know the exact age difference between Julianna and Noah, his personal guess was that it must be over 100 years.

Relieved that his friend was over 100 years old, and not in a ghostly romantic relationship, Lian neatly folded the crumpled towel and headed towards the bathroom.

Thud.

Noah, who had grown tired of waiting, slightly opened the bathroom door and said,

“Julianna?”

At Noah’s urging, Lian quickly approached the bathroom. The bathroom door appeared opaque, as if it had mosaic treatment on the inside. Lian looked at the silhouette beyond the opaque door and thought,

“Why was Noah so diminutive like this?”

The door was opaque, so she couldn’t be sure, but her shoulders seemed narrower and her waist thinner than usual. Lian thought, raising her eyebrows.

“Maybe I’ve been seeing Noah too much like an adult until now.”

Lian, who always tried to take care of the children, relied quite a bit on Noah, who became the focus of others.

Like a child who realizes one day that their father’s back is smaller than they thought, Lian gazed sentimentally at Noah’s withered body through the opaque door.

“What does it mean to have a friend! Let’s make an effort to be someone you can rely on whenever things get tough in the future!”

Lian silently made that resolution and pulled the slightly open door. Despite just thinking about being a good friend to Noah, she also felt a desire to play a little prank, so she forcefully pulled the door with a mischievous look.

Lian opened the door wide and laughed mischievously.

“Here’s some -… cough!”

“Uh, uh?”

Unable to defeat even the big hands of the underworld, the boss of the organization, or the gods of another world, Lian spilled coffee and fell backward. Noah, not understanding what had happened, stared blankly at Lian with a bewildered expression.

“W-what…? Wha-what’s… happening, Li-Lian?”

The malfunctioning Noah began to stutter heavily and started to step back. A pool of blood began to form around the fallen Lian.

Her face, stained with embarrassment and confusion, began to turn into worry.

“L-Lian? Are you okay?!”

As blood poured out onto the floor to the point where an ordinary person could die from excessive bleeding, Noah, throwing aside his embarrassment, hurriedly approached Lian.

“Lian! Lian! Ju-Juliana! Lian!”

[Um…]

Juliana’s gaze, flying to Lian and Noah, trembled aimlessly.

[“I never imagined it would turn out like this…?”]

The scene she had imagined was more like “What’s this, Noah?!”, not a murder scene. Juliana said to Noah with a puzzled face.

“You didn’t stab Lian thinking he was a pervert, did you?”

“T-there’s no way that happened!”

Noah was so flustered that he trembled and even shed tears. The overlapping confusion and shock made it impossible for him to calm his emotions.

“Ugh…”

“…Lian! Are you awake?!”

“Ugh, why did I… cough!”

Puhwak!

As soon as Lian opened her eyes, she fainted, pouring blood onto her white skin. Although a white mist covered Noah’s body, due to the close distance between them, many things were visible to Lian.

“What do we do?!”

[First, how about putting on some clothes?]

“Ah?!”

Upon realizing her state thanks to Juliana’s words, Noah blushed red like blood, covering her upper body with both arms. She looked around, unsure of what to do. Her desire to help Lian conflicted with her desire to hide her body.

Juliana sighed softly and said,

[Lian will be taken to the bed by me, so wash off the blood on your body first and then put on your clothes.]

Amidst the chaos, Juliana pushed the confused Noah into the bathroom and floated Lian into the air, carrying her to the bed and laying her down. She didn’t forget to wipe Lian’s face with the towel she was holding.

[Does this guy really have some kind of illness? Why is there suddenly so much blood…?]

At first, I thought she was so excited by the erotic scene that she might have even sneezed out coffee. Such scenes often appeared in the novels she read. But there was just too much blood.

Facing Noah’s shocking scene, it made more sense that the hidden illness burst out.

After roughly wiping Ryan’s face, Julianna took off his top. It couldn’t be helped due to the arousal from being drenched in blood.

[ Huh? ]

Julianna looked down at Ryan’s upper body with a bewildered expression. A firm body with fair skin. A handsome face that matched his body well.

[ Why are there no traces at all? ]

Julianna had clearly heard from Noah that Ryan had undergone terrible experiments. She had heard stories of severe scars on his body and had seen them with her own eyes. Yet the body in front of her was immaculate as if it had never suffered.

[ This can’t be true, right? ]

Julianna began to feel Ryan’s body with a bewildered expression. It was an action born out of the expectation that there would be at least one trace somewhere.

Clunk!

Noah, worried about Ryan, heard the sound of him washing off the blood quickly and roughly opening the bathroom door.

“Julianna, is Ryan okay -…?”

When Noah’s gaze landed on the bed, he couldn’t help but tremble like crazy. Ryan half-undressed and Julianna feeling him up.

In Noah’s mind, he heard something snap abruptly.

[ Oh, Noah, did you finish bathing? But I found something strange… huh? Wait a minute? Noah? My disciple? Why are you wearing black? ]

Not long after, a ‘bang!’ echoed in Noah’s room. However, apart from Noah and Ryan, no one could hear the sound.

After some time passed, misunderstandings between Julianna and Noah were finally resolved. Noah looked at Julianna sternly and said, “Even so, you shouldn’t touch someone else’s body recklessly.”

[ You’re mean… sniff. ]

Julianna sniffled while rubbing her sore head. Ignoring her cries, Noah quickly put on his clothes and used magic.

His body swelled, his shoulders broadened. The large chest that seemed like it would flow down changed into a perky shape. Noah even wrapped bandages around it to make it completely flat.

The shirt that had been crying, “Save me…” changed into a state of relief, “Phew, I’m alive.”

Once dressed, Noah approached Ryan.

“Ryan…”

As Noah gazed down at Ryan with concern, Julianna, who had come closer while scratching her head, blurted out her thoughts.

[ Something seems odd. ]