Noah looked around the table, as all the people looked at him with anticipation, before staring back at the leader with all the seriousness he could muster and say a single word.

"No.

"

"Eh?

"

Noah had to hold himself froum laughing as he looked at the blank stared of the wide-eyed blessed. Normally he would never had even thought of making a joke like this, but this was the first time someone actually invited him out of true companionship, without really caring about the benefits of his power directly. Though, of course, he knew that had him not been this powerful, they would never have even considered this. But truth was, beyond anything, last fortress was very profitable to Noah, both in terms of money and essences, and in terms of experience and skills. He had done this just as a joke, but seing their expressions of surprise, especially that of the healer by him, he realized he needed to do something before the atmosphere would turn on him.

Despite all his thinking and looking, just a split second had passed, and he straightened himself with a small cackle.

"Of course I don't mind joining you guys.

"

Almost as if by magic, the tension was released and a good portion of the blessed fell into laghter at seing everyone's reaction to his clear joke. Actually, not just a good portion, all but three of them were laughing. The healer, who just relaxed onto her chair with a silent and happy expression while blushing. The bearded warrior, who looked at him with a serious expression, trying to understand the reasons for why he would do this. And the Leader, who laughed awkwardly with a drop of sweat flowing down his temple. He was happy that Noha had accepted his invitation, and that everyone was happy he accepted it, but for a second, he feared he had been refused in front of everybody. He, a B Rank Blessed. It was not often he felt this kind of strange sensation. His heart was pounding on his chest, and while the rest of his sentence had cleared all doubt, he was still feeling the rush, the nervousness, the emotion he normally only felt when fighting the strongest of bosses in the Fortresses he delved into. And as he finally comprehended what had just happened and started to relax again, a thought was engraved deep into his soul, enough that, while laughing and dropping his head to grab his cup, his thoughts slipped from his lips into a sentence he should not have said.

"What are you, the devil?

"

While most did not hear it, the main three people in the table did. And the healer, the bearded warrior and Noah himself's eyes all turned to him.

And before he realized he had even spoken, Noah's words made him realize his own slip.

"Close enough.

"

The leader looked up, surprised that he'd heard it, to see Noah looking at him with a broad smile that contradicted his usual serious appearance. A smile wicked enough in its own sense that only served to reinforce his previous thought.

'This really is the devil!' he thought, before embracing his thought. 'Good thing he's on our side.'

"Good! Having you around will help us rise within the Family!

" Realizing the Leader was deep in thought, the bearded warrior took the lead, raising a toast.

"Yeah!

"

"OOH!

"

Many voices joined him, with Noah and the Leader only joining by raising their arms silently.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this because I'm a good person or anything. Rather, having a group with me that actually knew what they were doing together and had great leadership made my job in the fortress a lot easier,

" Noah said, while thinking, 'Let's not mention anything about the stuff I did alone. They really where pretty goood.'

"You give me way too much credit. If not for you, we might even have lost a lot of people on that fight in the end. That monster was way stronger than the usual.

" The Leader humbly accepted his praise, while returning him some of the flattery.

"I give credit where credit is due. You guys do know how to work together and cover each other's blind sides. Having reliable companions is paramount. If you can't trust someone to protect your back, you might aswell be dead already.

" Noah said. This was, for the most part, true. In reality his back was already protected by those he trusted most. The monsters he had contracted, Lility, Bel, Maggy... Though they still had a long way to go. In the future, Noah wanted to fight alongside them, so that he could protect them at all times. But until then, having trusty companions would increase the speed in which he could strengthen them and himself.

"Yeah, right? That's why we have that girl. She saved us so many times today while you were gone and ever since she joined you could even say we owe her our lives.

" A female warrior responded. Noah hadn't event took time to look at her, but she did have a pretty respectable face. He didn't remember seing her though, so she probably used some heavy armor. By how she was speaking, she probaly got injured while he wasn't there.

"Eh? Me? I just do my job. Rather, I can do very little in the Fortress aside from helping after you get injured. I'm the one who has to thank you all for protecting me all the time.

" The shy healer responded while blushing in shyness.

"Ain't that great?

" the bearded warrior asked the Leader, smiling.

"What?

" the Leader looked at him for a second, confused, before understading his point.

"Ah, Yeah. After all, we all owe each other our successes and our lives. Everyone in this group is equally important and does an amazing job at keeping us afloat. And tonigh, we will show those cocky bastards we don't play around. Cheers!

" The leaders call made everyone stand up, callign the attention of the rest of the restaurant. People started gossiping and how confident these people of the Khan Family were, especially after they had held face against those three from the Hyu family. The betting for tonight's arena had already begun.

Noah was impressed at how the Leader managed to pull everyone together at every change he got. He was trully very talented at leading people. But he did not fail to notice what the bearded warrior had been doing all night. People used to look down on warriors as they were generally focused on physical strength, but reality showed that these people, especially those that had survived long diving into fortresses were outstanding people in many other fields. If the Leader was the person who held everyone's respect and confidence, that warrior was the backbone of this group. A massive living wall that always kept that very Leader on check, making sure he would not walk out of his own path.

Noah started thinking who that person was on his own group, who would be the person that kept him in check. At first, he though about Lilith, his reliable companion, and also about the possibility of it becoming Bel, once he started dealing with hordes of demons. But after not much thought, he came to the obvious conclusion, 'Of course that person to me is Maggy. I can always rely and think of her to remind me of where I aim to reach. So long as I have her, I will never falter in my path. She's my reason to always move forward.'

Noah was proud of this thought, and joined in on the group's small talk. Not long after that thought, a finely dressed person approached the blessed's table.

Noah could see that this was not a run of the mill employee of this place. The person that was approaching was quite respectable on their own. But since he couldn't feel any negative intentions coming from this person, he knew not to worry. But as he approached the table and whispered into the Leader's ear, making him become serious, Noah's curiosity piqueted. Making him ask the girl near him.

"Hey, who would that guy be?

" he asked the healer.

"Oh, that's one of the manager of this place. It's been a while since that time, so it's probably time we start preparing for the Arena.

" Her response made Noah quite excited. He was very curious as to what this arena would look like, and what the facilities would be like since the fighters in this arena were always those of the 9 powerful families. But before he could continue this conversation any further the Leader nodded and raised himself from his seat, making little noise before speaking.

"Guys, the arena will start in about an hour. It's time for us to go get ourselves sorted.

"

As he sat back down, everyone started shuffling on their seats, readying themselves to leave.

"What's happening?

" Noah asked the healer.

"Oh, we weren't panning on fighting, so we didn't bring our stuff. We have to go home and get our equipment and come back so we can fight at the arena.

"

"Oh, right! I completely forgot about that.

"

---

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