Sudden Intimacy and Lies

Hal felt a bit peeved that he wasn't able to release his pent-up bloodlust in the end.

The fiasco wrapped up at Zeke's arrival. It turned out that a bottle of antidote was in Eli's possession for some reason, and with that, they're able to bring Allen back to his senses. Fortunately, he recuperated in an instant and was able to raise on his feet several minutes later. The students and guests inside the gallery had all their memories of the incident erased before they even regained consciousness. Lord Caspar, on the other hand, did not show up anymore, but he knew that it won't be the last time they'll see him. If anything, what he did was but the leading edge.

"Hal, I'm sorry for letting my guard down. I should've been more careful."

"Enough now, Allen. I already told you that none of us was at fault here."

Zeke and the Champions were now heading back to the library. The flower exhibition has already ended a while ago, so Allen and Lance decided to tag along. They also needed to have a brief review of what went down and discuss their next course of actions. It won't probably take as long as their recent strategy meetings since they already laid out a number of countermeasures back then. Though they weren't able to execute any of the plans they came up with for the past days, they're still able to accomplish something noteworthy. That is, marking this certain villain at the top of their hunting list.

"Also, forgive me for everything I did when I was under the poison's influence. I couldn't really remember them, but judging by how frustrated you were earlier, it must terrible," Allen continued with an apologetic look.

"Oh right, Lance did mention that your memories became hazy, but you don't need to say sorry for something like that either. I was... frustrated at something else," Hal replied with hooded eyes, still a bit miffed after Lord Caspar ditched them.

"What about me, Allen? I was mostly your target that time. I even took care of you," Zeke huffed indignantly to which the red head only chuckled in reply.

"Yes, of course. Thank you, Mr. Zeke, and I'm sorry."

"You're welcome."

For some reason, the young heir looked proud and delighted at that. Allen then turned to Lance and expressed his gratitude for holding him down while he simply nodded in return. Looking at his slumped figure and heavy eyelids, he could see how exhausted he was from using hypnotism too much. Usually, he'd only use it on a smaller number since not many summoned creatures were bold enough to pique their attention by dragging too many victims into their ploy.

"It'll be nice if Calliope can replenish human energy too," Allen mused out loud, much to his surprise.

"This Calliope... You also know about its abilities?"

"Yes. It may be a summoned creature, but it only follows Angelica's orders. We're able to utilize it quite effectively."

Lance appeared to be deep in thought after he said that. That's when he recalled that he hadn't been inside the library for a while now, probably ever since Eli gained permission to enter Hal's office. He used to avoid her by cooping up there and shutting her out altogether. Then again, unlike him and Noah, he had a different approach in dealing with his grudge towards the former Empress, and it clearly showed whenever her human vessel was around.

"You should come with us more often instead of playing around with girls," Allen quipped teasingly, which only made his eyebrows furrow in annoyance.

"Someone has to dump me in public first before I hang out there," Lance retorted, unamused.

"As expected of you... You didn't even deny that you're a playboy."

"Don't make it sound like I'm chasing after them on purpose. They're the ones who come after me, you know."

"And does that mean you'd entertain? You may not be the one who's taking the initiative, but you still don't mind if the other party does."

"Ugh... Just shut it, will you?"

Their banter stopped as soon as they reached the library. A bit ecstatic to see Eli and Noah again, Zeke hurried to the office with the others in tow. But then, right after pushing the door open, he stiffened all of the sudden. Eyes bulging in surprise and mouth agape, the young heir just stood still at the doorway. Hal and the others were puzzled upon seeing his flummoxed reaction. Only when they looked at the same direction he's staring at did the reason for this came to light.

Bathing in the glittering mellowness of mid-afternoon light, the two were in the middle of a nap, bodies draped over the floor. Noah was snoring away with his cheek buried on his upperclassman's lap. Eli, on the other hand, was in a sound slumber herself, half of her body crouching down and her face nestling in Noah's hair. With the two looking that intimate at the moment, Hal and the others couldn't help but be astonished.

"Uhh... What did we miss?" Allen voiced out amidst the sprawling silence.

Hal and Zeke just remained unmoving, faces as rigid as stone. That's until Eli suddenly started to stir in her sleep, sitting upright again. She then yawned for a second before rubbing her eyes with the hem of her sleeves. They slowly flutter open and squint again upon catching sight of four figures standing at the doorway. Still feeling a bit drowsy, she only peered back at them with a blank expression. With that, the five of them just engaged in a mini staring contest.

"What kind of witchcraft did you do this time, Eli?" Hal started, expression rid of any jest.

"Hal..." she called weakly, much to his surprise.

"What?"

"My legs are having cramps. Can you get Noah off?"

At this, everyone finally snapped out of their daze. When Hal and Allen carried Noah to the couch, Eli recoiled at the feeling of stabbing numbness on her legs. Blood rushed through her veins again the moment they lifted him. Zeke then helped her sit in a more comfortable position while Lance only watched from the side with an indifferent expression.

"Did something happen, Ms. Claes?" the young heir questioned, making her flinch in surprise.

"W-Well..."

Then, she gulped. Everyone's now looking at her expectantly, waiting for her answer. Eli then recalled Venus's instructions after Wes left the office. In order to keep her part of the deal, lying was inevitable. She had to fabricate a scenario on how she received the antidote and avoid disclosing her discovery that there's a normal student who's working with a summoned creature. Aside from the fact that it was easier said than done, she felt heavy for keeping such a vital information from them. She also doesn't have it in her to take this one to the grave, but if she didn't comply, she'd be digging a friend's grave instead.

"S-So, you see... Noah was behaving queerly earlier. He called me mother and things happened. As for the antidotes, someone suddenly knocked on the door while Noah was acting funny and I just kinda found them there along with the letter. I don't know who the sender was, but I did get Noah to settle down after having him drink the potion. Then, I let Calliope take the other one, got tired and tried to rest, but Noah suddenly started having a real fever this time, so I gave him some meds, let him sleep on my thigh again, and- Ouch!"

Then, she bit her tongue.

Apart from cringing at such a lame excuse, Eli now felt like burying herself alive for messing it up by biting her tongue accidentally. She's just not very good at acting, much less lying. The only thing she felt relieved about the whole skit was that she managed not to stutter. Her voice didn't come out wobbly as well, though she did sound like she's rapping.

Half of what she said was true, though. Noah suddenly broke out into a fever after Calliope left to bring the potion. He then started whining like a toddler when he saw her face, flailing his arms around and rolling all over the floor. The most dumbfounding of them all was when he asked to be pampered. She was scared stiff at first, unsure of how things escalated this quickly, but because he kept insisting her and there's the fact that he's not in his stable mind at the moment, she just gave in and complied to his request.

"...And because I'm a mature grown-up, I bear with it," Eli deadpanned.

In reality, she was just bewitched by Noah's cuteness that time.