Chapter 368: 368 - A Rookie Oversight

"She's an actual snake?!" Khish yelped, as she saw the giant black snake take the corner onto the entrance hallway.

'What's the deal with this girl?' she asked him silently, so that the girl herself wouldn't hear.

'The others were joking telling her caracteristics of a snake but disguising it as if you were a human,' Noah said, holding back from laughing.

'I see... I'm not a snake, though,' she muttered, half complaining.

'You look like one right now, though,' Noah said, turning around to see Khish quarrelling with her sisters over their prank. A certain person, however, was not that pleased with being used as a means of laugther.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Khish. I hope you still remember my voice," Lilith said, raising her head to Khish's eye level, before staring deep into them.

"IT WAS YOU?!" She flinched back, shivering, unable to take her eyes off the snake's.

"Khish?" Sha asked, putting her hand onto her sister's shoulder, trying to understand her.

"Hiiie!" Khish screeched as she touched her, squatting down hugging her legs instinctively.

'I think you may have traumatized her a little,' Noah told Lilith, half laughing.

'Can't believe she's thaat weak, though,' she responded softening her gaze. "I won't do anything against you, don't worry. You are Noah's ally now. So long as you don't betray him, I'll also be on your side," Lilith said, a bell ringing inside Noah's mind.

'Did she do it?!' he thoght, deeply disturbed, as he realized Lilith's one-liner had more impact on them than his entire discourse had, and read the words written in fire in front of his eyes.

[Having a group of followers and believers that will do anything for him was the greatest power Lucifer held in hell. His stronger retainers, lead by Lilith, were responsible for the conquest of the entire netherworld. You have glimpsed at the effectiveness of a good leader in keeping these retainers' expectation in check for the beterment of the whole.

Your understanding of [Demon Form] has increased, allowing you to have a partial effect of Lucifer's influence passively.]

As he read, the words started to become hazy, a different message appearing as he struggled to keep up with this and allthe people arround him.

[Hidden Objective: "Unify the opinions of your believers, quelling all disputes." was succeeded. You have used your followers' opinions to help them focus on your interest and goals first and foremost, leaving their personal interests behind. You have received a portion of Lucifer's powers, [Divine Allure] and [Demonic Temptation] have been acquired.]

Noah blinked a couple times, trying to understand the importance of these dangerous looking skills. 'To think there would be a hidden objective that could give me extra skills... I may have underestimated the system to some extent,' he thought, as he analysed how deep this rabbithole went.

"Are you listening to us?" Noah heard someone's voice calling him, and snapped out of it as he stopped focusing his sight on the fiery words, and realized everyone was staring at him.

"Huh? Sorry?" he asked, furrowing his brows, not able to realize who just talked to him.

"Brother, are you okay" Maggie was the one to ask, noticing how dislocated from the place he was.

"Yes, sorry, I was just thinking of something else," he said, walking over to her and petting her head.

'Did you get one of those things only you can see?' Lilith asked as he walked over, Noah responding in his mind as he used the petting to dispel Maggie's worry.

'Yeah, I had a mission. Apparently you talking to her that time fixed the thing I had to address, so it's all done already,' he said, mirroring Maggie's smile.

'A mission that wasn't to do with monsters and fortresses? That's a new one,' Lilith said, sliding onto his hand and up his arm as she shifted to he smaller size.

"So you didn't realize we were talking about you, right?" she whispered onto his ear, making Noah freeze. 'hehe, I'mguessing you didn't,' she said in tought, moving over to Maggie's shoulder.

"Lilith is very friendly today," Maggie said, running her hand over her.

"Yeah, she's more friendly than usual, Noah said, realizing someone angrily staring at him from the sidelines. "Right!" he raised his voice, ruffling Maggie's hair before turning towards him. "This is my friend, Carlos. He's my right hand, and the one friend I have," he gave Carlos a pat in the back, as he raised his hand, waving at the girls in silence.

"Oh, wow... Although he's not as handsome as you, he looks pretty damn great," Khish said, making Carlos blush. Noah, on the other hand, only felt sorry for him. "If I didn't have someone I like, I would probably take a shot at going out with you," and she drove the nail in the coffin, making Noah almost chuckle at the disappointment in Carlos' face.

"Don't worry man, we'll find you a nice girl one day," Noah taunted him, making Carlos laugh wryly. "That one was Khish, she's the Blessed I told you about in the morning. The other two you probably already know all too well."

"Yeah, the healer is Sha, from the Khan, we have met before at one point. And I was there when we met Al," he said this to Noah, but not failing to speak as if he were to them, in what looked to be a gesture of good will.

"Noah, Noah," Maggie called him out, "Are they gonna stayor my sleepover?!" she asked, her smile going from ear to ear.

"Yeah. Since they are sisters, I though them all coming would be fun," he said turning around as she cheered. "Can you arrange clothes for them?" Noah asked Carlos, who had a smirk on his face.

"All has been dealt with," he responded with a strange grin, making Noah question whether there was something else going on that he didn't know of.

While he did so, Carlos started walking, Maggie quckly following him and motioning for them to follow, with Lilith still on her shoulders.

'Do you know something I don't?' Noah asked Lilith, trying to read the environment but failing to do so.

'Nope, I was out searching for the people you asked me to look for,' she quickly responded, turning her head around and facing him, as he walked behind Maggie, who was skipping around for some reason.

'Any news?' Noah changed the topic, figuring he would know either way about the thing, but halfway noticing something, 'Also, where's Bel?'

'Bel?' Lilith repeated after him, looking around. 'I didn't even notice he was not around... He's probably involved with Carlos and Maggie's thing... As for the people,' she looked up, relaying him a mental sigh, 'I found some, quite a few actually..." she began, making Noah wary. "There was nobody inside the house, but that may be because they worry more since some have seen me speak. But outside I found some strange things.'

'Like what?' Noah asked, as they walked up the stairs to the second floor of the house.

'About half of the gardening people were associated to the Khan Family, they all reported to a manager that was also related to them. I think they were coerced into it though,' she said, Noah starting to get a feeling of the situation. 'He didn't feel like a spy, same with them, it could the manager was just trying to help someone try to make it up the laddder into the Family. But the Hyu people... those were professionals. There were at least 4 of them, all the names were sent to Carlos and dealt with, but they were always either on the safety side or on the cars area. They want information on who leaves and who comes here.'

Noah was surprised she actually had gotten that far, but something told him there was more to it that this, that he was being led by the nose. 'Are you sure this is all there is to it?' he asked her, trying to get to the bottom of the situation as fast as possible, in order to move himself, an try to deal with things.

'I found people from each of the 7 other main families, plus some from some nameless families too. It's almost like this place is meant to be the sorce of information to all of them,' she said, thinking. 'More importantly,' she interrupted herself, in order to warn Noah, 'It seems they already knew about most of them, and left them in specific jobs so that they could not any crucial information from them.'

Lilith's sentence left Noah in awe, dumbstruck that he himself had not realized it yet. 'Damn... I made a rookie mistake,' he noticed, also realizing he shot himself in the foot. 'They were feeding you information. They already know you mayhavea way to communicate with me,' he told her, cursing himself for not realizing this earlier, 'To think I'd make this rookie of a mistake... Either way, Carlos' parents are probably experts in dealing with spies and industrial secrets... I'll leave all action to them, you can stop.'

Lilith widened her eyes in awe, 'Why?! Haven't we caught them?' she asked, to which Noah answered with a sigh..

'If they let you notice them, they are not good at their job. You better give those hope so they don't send in better stuff and get too deep into you,' he quoted some weirdo espionage book he read as a kid, and stayed silent, only watching they go down the hall towards the very last guest room on the floor.