"What now?

" Lilith asked, seeing the car turn towards them.

"Let's hope they miss...

" he said, as he saw the car accelerate towards him, invading the oncoming lane, and he too accelerated towards him, the motor roaring, and his car veering hard to the left. 'I hope this bet pays off.' Noah floored the gas, steering right just to keep the car going in a straight line. A glimpse to the speedometer told him he was already past 100 miles per hour, the oncoming car a split second away. 'Now!' he pulled on the brake lever, forcing the car into a drift.

"NOAH!?

" He smiled as he heard Lilith yell at him from the side. The loud noise of metal crumpling and ripping was heard, but neither him nor Lilith felt any force. They and the other car were too fast for that. The other car that had passed him lost control, crashing loudly into the brick wall of a building to the side of the street. Noah's car, now driving on reverse, had its side completely shredded, but from the inside, he and Lilith could not see much of the damage.

"Are you trying to kill us?

" she asked, nearly yelling.

"No, but we should leave this place soon, the rest of them will show up.

" Noah worriedly looked behind the rearview mirror, not seeing anything suspicious, nor any other trailing cars. His phone started ringing, and Marcel's name showed up on the car infotainment system.

You the crazy ass mother**er driving on reverse with a tire missing? Marcel's voice sounded cheerful, which surprised him quite a lot.

"Yeah? Are the guys here?

" he shot back, not paying much attention since he was driving on reverse on a blown tire.

You can pull to the side and stop. I gotcha.

Noah quickly stopped the car, which threw all sorts of error messages from the failing of many parts. 'Good thing it only does this once you stop, else things wouldn't have ended well,' he thought, realizing the car had completely locked up and would not turn back on no matter what he did. As he released his seatbelt, four large CMC trucks parked around his, obscuring his view of the road. Noah prepared to attack at the first sign of threat, but the window of the car closest to him rolled down, revealing Marcel.

"I hadn't expected you to come yourself,

"Noah said, opening his door after letting Lilith up his arms.

"And I hadn't expected you to pull that kind of stunt. Damn, Noah, those guys took a beating,

" Marcel opened the door to his car, jumping to the other side.

"All I did is get rid of them. Wait up,

" Noah told him, leaning back into his car.

"What is it? Leave the keys inside, the guys are gonna take care for it to get fixed,

" Marcel frowned as he stared at Noah's strange behavior.

"Thanks, but that's not it,

" Noah told him, as he circled his car towards the front trunk, and took his equipment from within, and a curious leathered bag.

"Wh—Are you sure you need to get those now? The truck is already coming to tow your car, you could leave that stuff,

" Marcel was confused, until Noah threw the bag at him. He opened the bag as he saw Noah sit by his side, leaving the seat near the window for armor and daggers.

"Wait, why are you walking around with all this?!

"

"It's a long story. But I just didn't have the chance to take it out because they had a guy on lookout for me this morning, and I realized something was fishy.

" Noah threw a glance to the side, letting his hand rest on the seat of the car, and Lilith put her head over it.

"Oh, is that a new snake? Looks gorgeous,

" Marcel leaned forward while speaking, taking a bit more interest on Lilith.

"Nah, same as always. She just got a lot bigger out of a sudden.

" With Noah's words, Marcel leaned back against the headrest, thoughtful. Noah then thought whether his asking was trying to start a conversation or whether he was just surprised, but, after the car started moving, things would become a bit more clear.

"I...

" Marcel started speaking, but took a long pause, making Noah turn his face towards him.

"I've never heard of a snake growing this fast... Is she a monster?

" Marcel asked, something in his expression telling Noah he was more than just curious. His eyes were showing tension marks that linked him to a behavior of anger.

"Yes.

"

"What rank?

"

"Don't know for certain, took her in because she looked cute. But probably F-rank, since she can't really fight on her own,

" Noah shrugged.

'Hey! Why are you **ting on me? I can help you a lot, you know?' Lilith protested in his mind.

'I know. But from an outsider's perspective, since you can't fight like the unicorn, you are an F-rank. Let's wait to see what he says,' Noah gave a satisfying explanation, he thought, but Lilith was clearly still sentimental about being called F-rank. 'Remember I too was considered F-rank because of them not knowing of the trial I was facing.' So he gave another bit of explanation, and making her relax a bit, but something told him that, if she had human-like eyes, she would be rolling them.

"I don't think so... Say, unicorn monster of yours, wasn't it a boss? I feel this one might be the same,

" Noah was pleasantly surprised at how he worded it, but also wary. After all, he knew a lot about his strength, but it was also him who had shown it all on that fortress...

"Don't worry about the driver, this one is a very trustworthy individual,

" Misunderstanding the source of Noah's warriness, Marcel calmed him about the driver, which made Noah realize his slip-up.

"Oh, yeah, okay. I'll try training her to be able to fight monsters on her own, but I feel it'd be kind of hard for now. Let's wait and see,

" Noah said, ignoring the awkward silence that resulted.

It wasn't long before the car came to a stop. After all, Noah had managed to get surprisingly close to the main building before stopping his mangled car.

"We're here. You can leave the armor if you want, but you should take the bag with you,

" Marcel told him, opening the door.

"Or you can leave it to me. I'll give it back as soon as we leave the meeting.

" He walked out of the car, Nah following him, since he was leaving his things inside anyway. Yet, he was carrying the bag full with the essence. Noah followed him through the main entrance, where he would normaly be required to show identification and the family app. But this time, whith Marcel, people just watched him from afar with a curious gaze. Especialy in light of the large snake slithering through by his side.

'I hate it when there's this much people staring at me like this...' Lilith complained through telepathy, making him wonder about whether the people's gaze was directed towards hm, because of Marcel's presence, or because of the large snake.

'Come up here,' he told her in mind, leaning down while extending his arm, just enough for her to coil up. Despite her large weight, with his augmented status, Noah had no difficulty carrying her, not having to even stop while she was sliding up and over the back of his neck.

"So, Marcel, what is this meeting about, exactly?

" he asked, as they passed the main lobby and into a hallway.

"Why don't you try to guess?

" Marcel turned his head around and looked at him with the edge of his vision, seeing Noah simply shrug, unwilling to even try.

"Oh, come on! You gotta be a little more excited... Of course, it's about your position within the family. Especially now that you dealt such a large blow to the Hyu and amassed a small fortune from the bets. You are becoming a large poaching target, so we have to present you with good conditions so you don't leave anytime soon,

" Marcel's tone turned more serious as he said this, looking straight ahead and not bothering to turn around and joke.

"While we 9 families are very powerful in Eyrin, few of us have the power of A Rank Blessed. Rather, some families don't even have one nowadays. People who can fight multiple B-rank Blessed in sucession like you are one in who knows how many millions.

"

"I wonder why you're telling me this before we even get there to begin with,

" Noah spat it back, feeling there was more to this story than the eye can see. And feeling he was gonna get involved into something more troublesome.

"You'll soon see, but wait until I ask you to speak. Just listen to those sly foxes, you'll probably understand why I need you on my side, not just the family's,

" Marcel's words were filled with frustration, to a point where Noah could already grasp what was going to happen in this meeting. People would flaunt him and start throwing benefits, so he would see them with a positive light, while stringing small benefits to themselves in how those would actually work, and try to undermine Marcel's position. He himself hated this kind of internal struggle, but since after today he would probably need the Khan Family's power to ensure everyone's safety, he had to deal with it to some extent.

And the two of them walked through a double-door, leading to a meeting room like those in large companies, but with a lot more people than what he had initially expected.