Dinner Gathering (1)

"I'm not falling in love, I'm not falling in love.." Clutching my head I repeated that mantra-- over and over and over and over...

I just realized Eunice wears a silver watch, the non-digital kind with the needles. Her height was slightly taller than Liliath. The hairband she wore today was black in colour, it would've been unnoticed if not for the blue gem attached to it. Her glasses were the normal squared kind with the edges rounded, giving her an honor student kind of look. She usually doesn't talk but when she does, her voice is the gentle mellow kind. Her smile is rare but when it appears, it's just like the gentle warmth of the sun.

THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?!

"Noel, are you alright?" Nine tapped me on the shoulders.

I jumped-- nearly falling off the couch.

"A-AH.. No. No. No. I'm not fine.. Not fine at all!"

"So what's up with not falling in love?" Nine asked with a shitty smile. cutely tilted her head, her hair fell from her shoulder and increased the charm factor.

"Don't tell me it's not only her.. no way." I quickly drilled my face in between my palms.

FUCK?! Turn me into a zealot? Fall in love?!

"Noel, raise your head please?" Liliath called out gently. Raising my head, her lips pressed onto my forehead for a short second before pulling back to meet my eyes.

Liliath shone like an angel. The lights pouring from behind her outline her silhouette as she wore a simple white blouse, short pants combo. Her velvet hair cascaded down flowing down like an endless waterfall. Her soft pink lips glistened a little moist.

My eyes were drawn to her ethereal crimsons eyes and--

"Charm," she said softly, and hugged me.

I felt my vision come back to me-- the world stopped spinning.

"Hey Liliath. What's this about?" I asked, sounding perplexed. Actually, I should be surprised that I was even perplexed by this whole development.

"Have you returned to normal yet?" Prune asked.

"Yup, he looks normal alright. His eyes aren't heart shaped anymore," Nine supplemented, pointing to a floating UI which showed a chibi version of me. Is that Liliath's UI?

"What happened?" I blinked, sliding my hand through Liliath's hair.

I've returned to the apartment-- everyone was sitting in the living room for some reason..

"What happened? You seriously lost yourself, that's what happened."

"Lost myself.. oh yeah."

This entire morning the only thoughts I had was Liliath waging a war against Eunice. An epic battle where neither side was losing nor winning-- me caught in the storm, struck at by shockwave upon shockwave..

Liliath brought the final blow against the world and..

I don't remember?

But I think I get it now-- I became brain dead due to her TALENT. The effects didn't show instantly. It got worse after recess because I couldn't remember anything after that.

"Hey.. isn't Eunice's TALENT really dangerous then?" I asked.

If Liliath wasn't here-- or if she didn't have any magic to counteract Eunice's TALENT, I would've been a goner wouldn't I? What would've happened then?

"It was Eunice?!"

"Who's Eunice?" Nine was absolutely clueless.

"It's the bitch that tried to take Noel from..eh? No, I didn't mean that!" Liliath replied to Prune and Nine just to realize she got caught up in her words and tried to cover up her cuss.

"Wow. I didn't think Liliath knew how to curse-- Congratulations!" Nine cheered.

"Noel, what did Eunice do?"

"What did Eunice do.. I'll have to divulge her TALENT but it's basically what you saw.." in the middle of my words, Liliath shoved me away and crawled up into a ball. Nine consoled and congratulated her for growing up.

"She can make people fall in love?" Prune wanted to confirm.

"I guess?"

Some TALENTS you just can't put into words. Falling in love is one thing, but I think it's much deeper than that. If her TALENT turns people crazy at her command, just like how it did me, she should've been swarmed by boys by now. If she held back using her TALENT, Eunice wouldn't have discovered eleven people resistant to her TALENT-- ten. I'm not resistant to it, the effect was only delayed.

I can't imagine the scene of Eunice commanding an army of zealots-- that's absolutely frightening. Which meant there has to be some sort of limiter or safeguard to her TALENT.

"Thank you Liliath," I said as I messed around with her hair. I didn't, however, fail to notice Prune's ears and tail droop. I guess I'll need to have a heart-to-heart talk with her when the time comes huh?

Liliath only shook her head, her head still buried in between her knees.

"Noel is a womanizer," Nine said aloud.

"Noel, is this really an effect of your TALENT.. getting involved with other people besides Liliath," Prune voiced her doubts.

"I'm pretty sure it is.. and no. I'm not a womanizer."

My TALENT is forcing me into a harem. It's a battle of wits here. Almost every person around me is female. Case exception: Voux, Kai, Wake and Nine. Yes, Nine is an exception.

"But you got embarrassed when I called you out though," Nine pouted. I felt goosebumps all over my body.

Buzt. Buzt.

I was about to retort when I heard such a sound.

"Hm?" Prune picked up her phone on the table. "Ah, dinner."

"What dinner?" Nine pressed her face against Prune.

"A gathering dinner to celebrate the coming of autumn-- this Sunday. At a ShinXian restaurant," Prune tapped on Liliath's shoulders and showed it to her before showing it to me.

A dinner to get to know each other better. That meant everyone's family was invited. The message also told Prune to ask Nine to persuade his parents about it. Why Nine? They should have her parent's contacts right?

"Oh, a gathering huh?" Nine seemed to show a faraway gaze.

"Well, is there something about it that's bothering you?"

"I can be honest but I think I'll keep it to myself for now. It's not a big deal," Nine showed a rare frown. The genuine kind of frown, not the one she usually makes when joking around.

"We're open to listen if you have anything to say alright?" Prune petted her head.

"Thanks. I'll see when the time comes."

"Nine, I believe this is a chance for you to ask for the preparation of the documents you wanted?"

"Oh yeah! There's that too.." her eyes turned dull. "Nevermind."

Surely it has something to do with the upcoming dinner. That said, leaving Nine out of it feels kinda.. wrong. It'll depend on oher. If she's adamant about not going then we'll probably respect her opinion but at the moment she's only reluctant-- or uncertain..

Liliath went over and started petting Nine's head too.

And so was how today came to an end.

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On the days leading up to the dinner gathering, Eunice got a piece of her own medicine when she herself became charmed by Liliath magic-- it was totally possible. She fawned over Liliath in the cutest ways.

The class no longer looked at the servant (Eunice) and master (Liliath) the same way again ever since then. Liliath is an S, Eunice is an M.

Liliath talked to Wall-san a few times-- I had no idea if there's someone there or what but I just accompanied her as she explained her actions to the wall-san which kept moving around.

Eunice was released from this hell of course-- she vowed never to mess with us again. But that didn't mean the two were hostile. They became friends-- in a normal sense.

I learnt that the reason why I went half insane was because Eunice stacked the effects of her TALENT. So it is proven I have resistance to it.

But honestly, realizing that all it takes for her TALENT to take effect is a glance at her target is nothing but unsettling. More so was the stacking ability.. the heck is up with that. I pray for the safety of her future husband.

Rishell didn't show up the rest of the week-- which was great.

We didn't strike up a conversation with KaI at all but from Eunice's gossip, we were able to learn that the girl KaI talked to back in Nine's class was called Lyndia. Those two probably have a thing for each other. But I can't help but feel a bad premonition. A flag is sure to be raised in the future, I can practically feel it.

We bumped into the student Council President a few times and greeted each other when we had the chance.

At the end of the week, teacher Glib mentioned something about joining some sort of demonstration next week. The students will be separated into groups and tested, then potentially recruited by the government depending on the utility of our TALENTS. I think it's to do with what Lieutenant Sanders said last time? I wasn't too sure.

Nine was alright but whenever the topic of the family was brought up, she would talk in an aversive manner. So we tried to avoid the topic if possible.

Prune looked like she was forcing herself. It doesn't happen every time but becomes quite obvious whenever Liliath and I are together or when she's tired. It's becoming obvious by the day. I'll keep that in mind.

As for Liliath, she was getting used to common sense. Her dense, innocent demeanor was returning but it's basically self destruction whenever she realized she said something she shouldn't have a beat too late.

Daily Quests were a pain but Liliath and I were able to do a few without being overly consciously about it-- that's a lie by the way.

Also, regarding her plans, there weren't any hints on that.

I've been browsing through the shop and stopping at the philosopher's stone section a good number of times now. My instincts are telling me it has to do with this-- but I don't know how.

Doing a little research-- aka reading light novels-- demons lords are usually demons or fallen angels with a philosopher's stone embedded inside them. Just like Liliath.

Reverse engineering the thought, the hypothesis I came to was: could I become a demon lord if I fused a philosopher's stone inside me? But I ruled out this possibility because, in the first place, my body wasn't built to accommodate something like this. I'm human, not a demon or angel. Not to mention, it's down right unrealistic, Liliath doesn't do surgery. Trying to insert a philosopher's stone inside me would probably only cause more complications...

More importantly, having said up to this point, I think I've been infected with eighth-graders syndrome. Send help.

So what exactly is Liliath's plan?