Lucifer's Descendant System

Noah blinked a couple times as the bill arrived. 'Am I seeing things right?' he wondered, as he looked down at the piece of paper.

'Yep, it does seem like you are,' Lilith reinforced, seeing the four digits.

"Yo, Carlos. Wasn't it you who suggested this place?" Noah asked, his poker-face plastered across his face.

"Um, yeah, what of it?" Carlos asked, still busy making small talk with Khish, who was somewhat interested in cars.

"Then you foot the bill," Noah said, throwing him the leather booklet in which the bill came, Carlos just barely catching it before it hit him in the face.

"Yo! What the—" he started protesting, but as he opened the booklet, he realized why Noah was being like this. "Oh... I see, wanna split?" he asked, to which Noah shrugged, pulling out his wallet.

"It's getting a little late..." Sha muttered, looking at her phone, and back at Noah.

"Yeah... We are dropping you guys off and then heading to buy the things," Noah told her, which made Sha smile.

She was relieved, actually. Though she enjoyed being with all of them, Sha was looking forward to going out tonight. And for a person like her, that means the very rare occasion of taking a while to get herself pretty.

"Alright! I'm finally getting my thing!" Maggie cheered, as she finished the last bit of chocolate on her plate.

"You have... something on your teeth." Only to sit back covering her mouth as Bel warned her, making Noah hold back his laughter.

"Alright, here we go," Noah stood after paying, leaving a tip for the waiter. Lilith was still hung around his neck, although a lot more loosely than usual.

'I think I ate a bit too much... I'm sleepy,' she said, making Noah giggle.

'You think? But that means you had a good time, so it's alright.' He shrugged. 'You can grab some sleep, I'll wake you up when we get there,' he told the snake, making her coil a bit differently, and rest her head on his shoulder, quickly falling asleep as they headed for the car.

"Noah, what does a dedicated machine look like?" Bel asked, since Maggie had spent quite some time telling him about how the machines used for Valorwatch differed from one another.

"It depends a lot on the brand and style. Most look like a fancy chair," Noah responded, remembering the various types he'd seen in the past.

"Eh? Not really." But Carlos, a lot more into the stuff than him, quickly corrected his mistake. "In the past it used to be so, but nowadays there are all kinds. There are the Tube setups, the helmet ones, and even ones that look like those cryo-chambers from movies," he said, making Noah even more interested.

"So there are ones where you don't need anything on your head?" he asked, only for Carlos to shake his head.

"They all need some kind of connection. But many of these use small guides or holders for your head to be in the right place. Though there are a few that use electrodes… but it seems they are more aimed at engineers and academics," he said, shrugging with his hands.

"Women tend to like the tiara-styled ones that come with phones, so those are the most common implement even in the dedicated machines, only they use better sensors," he completed, making Noah a bit thoughtful.

'It seems testing for you will be a bit of a hassle, since we don't know for sure which will work...' he told Lilith, thinking about how to make sure a system would work for her before buying. It then clicked that, with the electrode styled ones, it was a guaranteed success, though he would have to do some trial and error with the positioning.

"Hey, Carlos, does the electrode one have any sort of system to easily put the electrodes right on the first time?" he asked, to which Carlos didn't respond, instead stopping walking for a second.

"They probably do, right? After all, there's all kinds of people with different head sizes. Also, they seem to work best on bald people," he said something rather obvious, but that Noah couldn't have thought of without seeing it first. The electrode design was perfect for Lilith.

"Good, we'll check them and also the best phones for playing," he said, making Maggie close her fists, anxious.

As they entered the car, things were much like before, but a certain blonde girl was full of questions.

"Um... Noah, how expensive are those phones and things to play?" she asked, rubbing her knees together, afraid at how to pay for something that sounded so far from her reality.

"Eh? If you want I can buy you a phone, or you can have mine, though it's cheap and old," he said, taking a phone from his pocket she recognized as being the same model as her mother's.

"Ah, I think I have a phone of that same model..." she said, trying to brush aside her mother's death from her mind. "But I don't think that tiara thing is anywhere to be found," she said, scratching behind her ear.

"Oh? Even then, I can get you something better. Also, you'll be making a bit of money soon, so you should look forward to things you might want in the future," he said, making the girl start thinking of the many things she'd once seen on tv, or being worn by people at parties but never had the chance to buy.

After all, her money as an apprentice maid was paid to her parents in her stead, so she could only use it for things by them approved.

Noah realized he hadn't looked at his phone in a long time, and turned the screen on to be shocked by the amount of calls, messages and notifications in general. There was a lot for him to check and process. He excused himself and started reading through the things in order of what could be more important, starting from the missing calls. Dozens of them, most from the Khan Family Headquarters.

"Hello?" he called back to one of said numbers, making Maggie look at him with curiosity, asking Bel to be quiet.

[Khan Conglomerate, what can I help you with?] a female voice responded to his call, making Noah feel like he had been tricked into calling them instead.

"This is Noah Stern, I was called many times by you since yesterday. Is there something I can help with? he said, only to hear some nervous fumbling from across the line, and furrowed his brows.

[E—Elder Stern, this is Marcel's receptionist. He wanted to talk to you about the events of the other day at your friend's place. Also, he was made aware that there was some damage to his car...] she said with fear in her voice, making Noah sigh.

"It's alright. Tell him I have plans for today, but that I'll somehow see him either tomorrow or the day after," Noah said, without thinking much.

[Erm... Elder, tomorrow is Saturday, and the day after is Sunday,] she said, making Noah realize the week had flown by rather quickly.

"Right... Tell his to call me on those days if he wants, and that either way I'll meet him Monday to give him the car back. The damage is a dent, caused by a person throwing me against it, not a crash. It should only be bodywork repairs," he said, making her draw a relieved sigh.

[I'll make him aware of it, thank you for returning my calls,] she said, to which Noah welcomed, before hanging out.

"Umm... Noah?" Carlos called his attention as soon as he hung, making Noah raise his head.

"Yeah?"

"Are you aware that a lot of the car was damaged by the flying rubble, right?" he asked, surprising Noah a little.

"Oh..." he muttered, pressing his eyes with his fingers. "Guess I'll have to correct that Monday," he said, shrugging once again, before taking the phone once more.

To Noah's surprise and discontempt, most of the notifications seemed to be coming from the Khan Family app. Apparently, someone had found out about his forum account, and made it public to the rest of the family, making for a ton of messages to come through. They ranged from people asking favors, to Blessed asking for advice, to straight up bribery for him to rank up some parties.

Either way, he didn't care for it, and only used the app to mute those annoying messages. After clearing those up, a single message remained. Apparently, his party was going to dive into a fortress tonight, without him and Sha.

"Sha, did you see the Fortress Invitation?" he asked, to which she nodded.

"Uhum, but I refused it, since I have an appointment already," she responded proudly, making Noah question whether he should have even asked this in the first place.

"I see. I hope they do well," he muttered, to which she responded by whispering into his ear.

"You don't have to worry about it. They've been diving longer than the two of us. They'll be fine," she said, putting a hand on top of his, and leaning back to sit normally, a smile on her and Noah's lips.

With that out of the way, Noah checked the rest of the stuff on his phone, and, aside from a couple rather interesting messages from his bank, there was nothing of note. Except for one thing he saw last.

"Erm, is anyone familiar with a Blessed Governing Body Summons?" he asked everyone, making Khish, Sha and Carlos exchange looks, before Khish spoke.

"Noah, have you killed someone?"