"Now, please, we want a narration of things that happened at the gym that day," Noah said, turning to look down at Balair as he dropped the teacup he had been drinking from. Now empty, it clicked as it sat on its holder.
Is this the investigation group sent to look into the attack?
Balair questioned inwardly, his mind beginning to reminisce on the terror-filled night. This only served to bring more questions he had no answers to: Was the demon subdued? If it were, how did it die? How were they still alive? How did they even survive the encounter? What was that void he was trapped in until just a few hours ago?
Questions raced through his mind, all crashing forcefully against a hard wall.
All he could do at this time was to give them whatever information they wanted, and maybe later get an answer from them concerning the crash pit of questions filling up his mind.
With that in mind, he began to speak, his voice steadfast with a certainty in it. The room fell eerily silent as he began to talk, the hum from the temperature regulator that had been going off in the background fading out almost immediately; however, he still felt its effects on his skin.
He first recounted how they had gotten to the gym and his reaction on seeing a freshly cleaned gym. He then talked about Dustin's spirit search and his discovery of the gallery, and the room where they had found Jim being possessed by a demon. He tried his best to paint a good picture of the possession and how their fight ensued just after Dustin fainted, down to his ghastly injuries and his at-the-time presumed death. It did not take too long to recount the evening of terror. Something that at the time felt like time had come to a screeching halt just to lengthen the duration of their plight, being summarised in just about twenty minutes, was nerve-wracking to Balair, who was currently doing just that. The group listened keenly, with the occasional gasps from Sabastin, who seemed amused by the sudden quest Balair was busy narrating, pulling tissues out of his breast pockets to dab tears from his eyes as Balair began to describe his injuries.
"So you were seriously wounded while trying to protect your friend, oh! How noble!" Sabastin cried out at the end of the narration, three heavily used handkerchiefs folded by his side on the table.
Balair had simply never seen such an organised crier in his life, if that was even the word for it. The group just looked on at Sabastin as he pulled himself back together, Nilith clicking her tongue at the performance.
"It is sad a cadet had to go through an event as harrowing as that…" Noah paused, sliding out of the table and then turning to face Balair, who jerked back from the sudden movement, lifting his head to meet Noah's gaze, which suddenly dropped as he began talking.
"My squad and I apologise sincerely for the neglect of our duties in exterminating the demon, and I am ready to pay any price as an apology for risking the lives of both you, your friend, and the janitor."
The room went silent again, no sniffling from Sabastin or clicking from Nilith.
The promise of any price, one placed without limit, was too great a risk for someone ranked as highly as The Man Born of Flames, Noah. To promise it to not one but three people, one could only guess what they were going to be requesting.
Nilith looked on, her golden iris dilated to its limits. First, his promise to fulfil one of her requests just for this one case, and then this… There was supposed to be something more to it, but she knew Noah too well for it to be anything evil.
All she felt from him was calm and a hint of regret, but knowing him, he was probably just covering a bulk of that regret with his calm and control.
"Any price?" Balair questioned, his brows arching in interest.
"Yes," Noah replied, his head still bowed.
"Can I meet your squad first before I name my price?" Balair requested, his eyes still arched. A wave of confusion washed through all but Sergeant Hansen's face. He seemed to know what the request was going to be, but was too tired to say anything. The redness in his eyes had intensified since the time the story had started, so he had just remained silent throughout the meeting.
"I can arrange for that now," Noah replied, raising his head and tapping the screen of his aluwris thrice. The device let out a short beep and went back to silence, making Balair remember about his aluwris.
He quickly looked down at his wrist for it, and just as he thought, it wasn't on him.
"Don't worry about that, it was a bit banged up, so they took it in for repairs," Sabastin said, finally done with his weeping, as he looked up at Balair, his creepy smile back in place.
"Oh, okay, thanks…" Balair replied almost blankly, not knowing how to convey what he felt when relating to Sabastin. His creepy smile continuously triggered his senses, plus the fact that he had not shifted his gaze from him.
Could he even call it a gaze? His eyes were not even open…
After about two minutes of Noah standing and Nilith avoiding looking in his general direction, a group of six people walked into the mess hall, all clad in an all-white uniform, just like Noah's. They saluted immediately they got before Noah.
Each one of them looked as if they were chiselled out of stone. Though they were a lot smaller than Noah in height—the tallest amongst them being at six feet and three inches and the shortest being around five feet and eight inches—compared to Noah's seven-foot frame, they were pretty tame, even in muscle mass. Though they were very toned, they were nothing compared to Noah's slim, carved form. He was a hulk, yes, but not in width, but in height. His body was also very toned, with not a single blemish on his skin. He was perfect in every sense of it, a woman's dream, and Balair's keen eyes had noticed this.
Balair nodded in approval, a grin appearing on the fringes of his lips.
A distant sigh sounded. Hansen shook his head in a corner of the table. Sabastin just sat with his eyes closed as always, all smiles, only occasionally messing with his hair and rearranging it, while Nilith continued her efforts to avoid looking at Noah, who was still standing, speaking distantly to the group that had just entered the mess hall.
"This is my–"
"I have one question, Sir Noah, please may I ask?" Balair said, cutting Noah off.
"...Yes, you may," Noah answered, ignoring what Balair had just done.
"What is the difference between a 'superset' and a 'dropset'?" Balair shot out, to the surprise of everybody but Hansen, who just let out a heavy, drawn-out sigh. The men in white were beaming with smiles as they processed the question in their minds.
"A superset involves performing two different exercises back-to-back with no rest in between. A dropset involves performing an exercise at a certain weight until failure, then immediately dropping the weight and performing more reps until failure again," Noah replied almost immediately, a curious look brewing in the depths of his crimson eyes. The words flowed out as though he had just been waiting for a moment like this one.
"Sir, I have my price for you! Please, take me under your fold!" Balair screamed at the top of his lungs as he spun out of the table. A loud knock sounded as he kowtowed to Noah, kneeling perfectly, his bum protruding. The group of men who had just entered, who had been all smiles when Balair asked his question, were now basically cheering at the sight before them. They had just met their kind.
Sabastin let out a loud laugh as the men burst into an uproar.
"That is quite the reward, kid! Lessons from the Son of Flames himself! Haha! Bold!"
Nilith looked on, shaking her head as she digested the events that had just occurred.
So he was a fool after all. Noah, who is so against having students? Accepting you? What a joke…
But then a thought ran through her mind, remembering the no-limits condition of the price, but she quickly dismissed it, favouring her knowledge of Noah over the fleeting thought.
Hansen shook his head, an imaginary hand doing a face palm for him, too tired to even lift a finger as he slowly slumped, lying fully on the full length of the chair, and fell asleep.
Noah just stood looking down at all the chaos caused by the boy's request. He let out a heavy sigh.
"Stand up, boy, you have put me in quite the predicament."