I have been asked my opinion of the Rai's Adventure sidestory. It contains a small human tugging at Rai's sleeve.
"He's not… here?" Regis stared at Frankenstein's place at the table with one of his many 'what' expressions. This one was 'this can't be right' with a hint of 'something's wrong,' instead of 'what are you smoking,' 'you can't be serious,' or Tao's favorite, the confuzzled look the little noble got when he was completely lost at sea.
"He's still down in the lab," Tao said, tapping his leg nervously. This wasn't a training trip or when he was off secretly laughing at Dr. Aris. Maybe he'd just gotten wrapped up in some treatment he couldn't get away from? Even for dinner? But not to miss dinner because it was important to the houseowner was the second rule M-21 gave them when they moved in!
Was this Tao's fault for letting Takeo practice on him to try to get info on Takeo's new capabilities, and then letting them demonstrate for the Boss with that scanner? Boss… might as well have pushed them out of the lab and Takeo and Rael over to the KSA. Tao should have gone with them (it was Rael, and Takeo), but with Boss acting weird… And now late for dinner!
Raizel put down his cup of tea with a clink that shouldn't have sounded so loud. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and began to type, face stern, focused and dignified.
It would have been more reassuring if Tao wasn't pretty close to certain that was Raizel's 'worried this is not going to go well' expression instead of one of his 'Frankenstein's being himself again' expressions (maybe one of subcategories 'not sure if this is a case of humans being incomprehensible alien lifeforms or it's just Frankenstein' or 'as the Noblesse I'm supposed to punish those who pick on the weak so it would be nice if my own Bonded would stop picking battles of wits with the unarmed, it puts me in a difficult position'). A preemptive 'I meant to do that' or looking like someone no one would dare to question. Way too dignified to question, but the small details of Raizel's expression gave him away when you knew what to look for.
What also helped ruin the effect was that Tao had seen how cute Raizel's texts were. Chatspeak and Textspeak were languages and he must have picked them up from the kids. Of course, noble elegance meant Raizel wasn't going to use imperfect language, like deliberate misspellings, but getting into the records of 'Master' and 'Franken's' texts back and forth was… He guessed 'short and sweet' was the elegant form of texting with proper courtesies?
Raizel put the phone back as Seira put his ramyeon in front of him and sat back to let the noodles soak up more broth and expand. All utterly composed, as usual, but it wasn't helping the expressions around the room. Rael and Takeo weren't back yet – Frankenstein had said that giving the KSA enough information and training they could start trying to come up with something useful was urgent enough to justify missing dinner.
He'd known that was a red flag, but one this big?
"I don't want to spy on Boss…" Tao started to say finally, because the thing was that he really wanted to except for the fact he also wanted to live.
That was when Raizel stood up, and from the way M-21's eyes widened, Tao was right about that particular expression. "The door will not open for me," Raizel said to the air. "I do not wish to break Frankenstein's things when he is upset."
"Gotcha!" Tao said, and ran for the elevator.
Raizel didn't pause when the door opened and revealed the ruined lab, just kept walking into the center of it. The rest of them, even Seira, needed a moment to process the wreckage. "Kneel," Raizel said, eyes glowing.
The command and the weight of that will weren't directed at him, but Tao's own knees really wanted to hit the ground in self-defense. Even the Union admitted that nobles were once worshipped as gods, and if that was true then Raizel was Tao's god, and his god was angry.
'Mommy and daddy are fighting again,' Tao thought inanely, desperately trying to turn this into a joke, except he'd never seen these two fight. He didn't remember his own parents, but for Raizel to be angry, not with someone from the Union but one of them, and Frankenstein to wreck his own lab?
Wrong, wrong wrong. It felt like the world was broken, just when he'd thought that maybe it wasn't. Tao wanted to jump in there, talking a mile a minute, but he did not want Raizel to look at him the way he'd looked at that door, an obstacle that would be removed, for getting between him and his Bonded. Too late, anyway.
Raizel had cast Krans down, put him in his place for thinking that the weak were his to toy with, to consume, but Frankenstein's place was by his Master's side. If it weren't for the flash of Frankenstein's dark aura Tao would have sworn he'd been teleported instead of compelled there, on one knee instead of two. Frankenstein's body was pulled up towards Raizel to meet his gaze as the Noblesse turned to regard him, raised up by Raizel's will from where he'd lain collapsed on the ground.
"Master I… I deserve to die."
If Raizel wasn't a noble (like, a dignified noble, not a kid like Regis or Rael), then judging from that expression, he might have asked if Frankenstein was fucking kidding him. "I have not given you permission to die."
"How can I live with myself?" the scientist begged. "Doing something so vile to anyone, but to you…"
"I am the True Noblesse. I am the Protector of the Nobles, the Judge of the Clan Leaders and the Reminder to the Lord. Do you think me incapable of blocking the power of a youth barely past his majority?"
Frankenstein buried his head in his hands, heedless of the blood on them, trapped under his fingernails.
Again, the most powerful of the nobles was not amused. "You no longer have my permission to look away from me."
Blue eyes empty of all but pain and guilt were trapped by glowing red narrowed in judgment.
"You fear that you have harmed me? You drew my blood once and only once, on the night I Awakened you," Raizel stated. "The Previous Lord bore witness to my choice and accepted it as my will."
"So Dark Spear did get an attack through your guard," Frankenstein whispered, broken. His shoulders slumped, and he looked like he would have collapsed to the floor if Raizel hadn't ordered him to kneel. "And soon thereafter you awakened me? Is that how I repaid the sanctuary you gave me, by stealing your will and life to save myself?"
"You dare insult my choice?"
Tao heard the sound of skin smacking skin beside him, and was able to pull his eyes away from the scene long enough to see that Regis had slammed his hands over his mouth, eyes wide in horror.
Right, if Tao knew anything about nobles, and you bet he'd done his best to figure out how to manipulate beings that could squash him, then that was beyond the kind of trash talk M-21 and Regis would use to make people like Rael lose their heads. The part of Tao that told Takeo that really crude Korean phrases were innocent compliments because it was funny insisted on translating what Raizel just said out of Noble-speak as 'You said what about my mother?'
Did Noblesse have mothers? The other nobles had clans with similar powers, but there was only one Noblesse. Seira said that Raizel's powers were a lot like the Lord's – except according to Gejutel, his own blood and soul were his soul weapon, and he couldn't use the Lord's soul weapon.
Tao hoped he never had to see Ragnarok in action. Well, maybe through satellite photos. Gejutel said it was another name that came from what humans thought about something. The damage from soul weapon fights was bad enough without a weapon whose name came from collateral damage, or 'The gods are fighting and we're all going to die.'
The noble Lords fought with world-ending collateral damage.
Which made it kind of obvious why the old Lord split Ragnarok, if you thought about it. Especially when soul weapons got more powerful with each generation and the good nobles really hated humans getting killed. Enough that was what killed the Landegre and Loyard. If Raskreia was more powerful than her dad, would she even be able to fight without wrecking her country? But, if she didn't have to worry about killing her own people, then she could go to town.
Tao hoped the people who pinned the blame for what they did on Raizel found that out the hard way. Ragar did all that stuff with splitting his soul weapon to be sure both his kids were protected: when the Previous Lord was so worried about Raskreia doing okay, there was no way he hadn't set up something for her just as elaborate as sticking half of a soul weapon in Raizel's shine.
Anyway, Raizel didn't get angry; other people got dead. Most of the time he was laid back drinking tea, and then 'Excuse me, did you just say the strong have the right to kill the weak anytime they feel like it? Alright, have it your way,' and then the blood field went up and somebody wasn't even a smear on the pavement.
If Tao knew what happened when Raizel got like this, then Frankenstein had to know. It was when Tao saw that Frankenstein was looking up at the Noblesse with calm eyes full of relief instead of sensible terror or quick calculation, without a trace of the will to fight that he started breathing faster, on the verge of panic, because this wasn't Frankenstein being a perfectionist and getting overdramatic when some tiny thing went wrong. He really did think that Raizel was going to kill him and he was grateful? He wasn't going to fight it? If even the threat of imminent death wasn't enough to make him try to save himself, then who could save him? There wasn't anyone who could stop Boss or him except the other one!
"Your soul sensed mine and came to me for refuge," Raizel reminded Frankenstein. "I watched you deduce the magnitude of my power, and instead of fleeing from an enemy you could not fight, you gave me your name and did me the honor of remaining under my roof, trusting in my honor."
"But I did not. I tried to compel you." Boss looked so agonized, and Frankenstein could stand there wreathed in Dark Spear and not show pain.
"Compel me? And wager your pride as a human on your ability to maintain control over the Lord's peer every hour of every day for ten years, while you exhausted your strength fighting Gejutel, Ragar and Dark Spear." Hahaha: No.
Right, right, Tao knew. Frankenstein wasn't that stupid, and Raizel had known him for years.
Frankenstein's smile was pale and false. "The fact that my subconscious was just begging for you to be forced to kill me or take my blood in order to free yourself does not help, Master. Apparently I'm an idiot as well as a monster."
The look Raizel gave him was disdainful. "The idea that you could sink to the level of the nobles you despised, remain in the home of the True Noblesse for ten years and still breathe… you insult me, Frankenstein."
"Forgive me, Master," he said, almost reflexively, but Tao could finally see wheels turning behind his eyes.
Thank god. Or no, thank Boss. Or Boss' master.
"The Previous Lord did not call you to answer for the accusations against you because the fact you still breathed was proof of your innocence. To care for someone is to place their will above your own. It is my will that you stay with me, regardless of the cost to myself. It is your will that you die, rather than harm the innocent or myself. Is that understood?"
"…Yes, Master," Frankenstein said, and Tao watched his eyes soften and grow gentle with more than just relief. "I know that I can always rely on you." His shoulders straightened as the weight was lifted from them, and Tao wondered what it was like, for submission to be something that restored your dignity instead of stripping it from you. To have a master who was a source of honor instead of terror.
Raizel was still frowning down at him. He raised a hand and Frankenstein's clothes mended themselves, the blood was wiped from his face. "You were not talkative on the night you came to my home. You were trying to hide." So of course not. Raizel hesitated, but, "Humans were said to be talkative when they were pleased with the conduct of a noble." His tone was apologetic, probably because talkative was usually an insult for nobles. "I was aware that you did not know that you were being talkative, but you enjoyed making great amounts of noise and bothering the clan leaders in other ways." Frankenstein resembled that remark, Tao thought. "And I did not wish to imply that it was unwanted."
His frown deepened. "You give me your blood and then say that you are afraid that you are compelling me…"
"My apologies for being ridiculous, Master," Frankenstein said, reaching out to take Raizel's hand. He managed to smile. "After all, I am only human."
The Noblesse nodded regally. "I rely on your pride as a human. Your permission to do as you will is restored."
Frankenstein curled his fingers around those of Raizel's hand, and pressed his forehead to the back of that hand. They remained there, just like that.
For the sake of Frankenstein's dignity Raizel was probably putting extra effort into the appearance that this was the expected and proper response and in no way was Raizel internally asking himself what the especially-strange human he'd ended up stuck with was doing now and what on earth it meant. What if it meant that the words hadn't worked and Frankenstein was still upset?
Tao was actually a little confused, because he'd been looking up that chivalry stuff and shouldn't the proper courtesy be kissing Raizel's ring? Oh, right, Frankenstein had that thing with germs. When the boss was already this wound up, the thought of someone getting their saliva all over his poor master would probably make him scream bloody murder and then commit it.
Automatically, Tao added 'French kiss Raizel,' to the list of potential methods of temporarily incapacitating the Boss, should it ever become necessary, and then quickly amended that to 'have someone I don't like French kiss Raizel,' and cross-referenced it with assassination methods.
Something toppled over in the ruined lab with a clatter and a squelch, and they heard a groan. Tao turned around to see that Muzaka had fallen over the wreckage of his tube and the puddle of fluid that ran out if it when it broke. The werewolf's eyes opened, glowing white, and the groan turned into a rising growl as he pushed himself up from the rubble.
Raizel removed his right hand from Frankenstein's grasp, reached for the charm bracelet on his left wrist, snapped off one of the charms and swallowed it. The entire time he looked as if he was completely unhurried, not doing anything he didn't do on a daily basis and still one hundred percent done with this day. His hand went up again, and a blood field sprang up around him. "Sleep," he ordered.
Muzaka fell over onto a pile of equipment. It went clang and clatter, and a broken scalpel went skittering across the floor.
Also standing up now, Frankenstein's hand hit his forehead before he removed it to bow formally. "My apologies, Master. How could I have let my lack of faith in you endanger your fri-" He stopped, seeing something in his master's expression.
"Frankenstein."
"Yes, Master?"
"My ramyeon is cold."
"Yes, Master."
Raizel walked past them without acknowledging Frankenstein's bow or the audience, with the air of complete certainty that before long everyone would be reconvening for family dinner and they would never speak of this again, because everybody else knew what was good for them.
The instant the door closed behind him, Tao wondered why Boss wasn't hurrying to his Master's side and turned to see a slow smile spreading across Frankenstein's face. He started to chuckle, then laugh, the same 'I win' laugh he'd used when they'd managed to shut the KSA's program out of Ye Ran and away from his students.
Tao heard the elevator door open and his heart froze in his chest (modifications meant to keep him from giving away his location with sound on overdrive) before he saw that it was just Seira leaving in order to do the noble thing of pointedly pretending they hadn't seen that when someone did something they should be embarrassed about.
Then two seconds later it opened again, but it was just Seira coming in to pick up Regis and sling him over her shoulder, probably because she was responsible for this kid and therefore she really shouldn't let him be exposed to such inelegant examples. Regis was too stunned that something this inelegant was happening to him to do more than let out something of an oof when he landed on her shoulder. The automatic door reopened for her, but then she paused, turned around, looked between Tao and M-21 and walked over to Tao.
"Hey!" Tao protested when he was slung over the white-haired clan leader's other shoulder, probably because out of the two other enhanced humans in the room he was the one more vulnerable to Frankenstein's horrible influences. "I want to know what happens!"
"I'm practically two hundred!" Regis said, highly offended by being treated like a kid.
The Loyard clan leader was unmoved by their protests.
"Why are you taking me and not M-21?" Regis went on when they were in the elevator.
"I will be returning to fetch those two shortly," Seira said. "I selected dishes that could be reheated later for Takeo, Frankenstein and Rael's late dinners, but there is a limited window before the food set out on the table dries out and becomes unpalatable." She was willing to make accommodations for her housekeeping teacher's mental breakdowns, but not for his trolling.
M-21 just stood there and stared at Frankenstein until the chuckling stopped.
"Oh, don't mind me," Frankenstein said. "Master just made it possible for me to use a certain method to extend his lifespan."
Okay, yeah, M-21 had to admit that justified some glee, although it would have been good if Frankenstein could just yell "Hell yes!" or something like a normal person. For a moment he wondered if the whole thing had been a set-up, but Raizel wouldn't have fallen for it. He almost asked 'Really?' because it was too good to be true, but there was no way Frankenstein would joke about this. Not about him.
"A ruined lab and an embarrassing lapse in judgment are small prices to pay to increase Master's lifespan even small amounts," Frankenstein mused, which calmed M-21 down a little more. "I can't believe I jumped to conclusions when I knew that the ancient nobles used mind control for communication. They learned to speak our languages; there's nothing wrong about early humans evolving the instinct to speak theirs, when their mental defenses mean it wouldn't affect them as much as it would a human." He shook his head, getting back to business. "Thank goodness the next lab down has been kept all warmed up and ready to treat wounded since the Mark incident." He looked at Muzaka and winced. "I hope this hasn't set back his recovery process by too much." Turning back to M-21, it was clear that he was back in control. "I'm moving him to the new lab. Go ransom Tao from Miss Seira and send him down to assist me; there should be a stage in the setup process soon that Tao can handle on his own while I prepare Master's ramyeon."
Watching the scientist pick up the werewolf and go through the automatic elevator door, M-21 remembered when he saw Raizel open the house door on the way to bust up the Union's South Korea lab. "M-24, everyone," he thought, "I miss you guys."
Not only because he wished they could have lived to see this place, a home where people cared about what they wanted, a doctor who could and would save them, but he missed sane people.
"Maybe I should hang out with the school kids more often," he thought, and then remembered Shinwoo fighting with the infected, and DA-5, and…
Did he actually know any normal people? The janitor was nice, but no, he could handle Frankenstein's neatness obsession and still be laid back about it. Ikhan got into hack-offs with Tao, Suyi was an idol… There was Yuna! She was a normal person, right?
M-21 realized what it said about his life, that he had no idea how to tell whether or not someone was normal. All he really knew about it was that it was not this.
…although this was… not bad.
When he got upstairs, Raizel was drinking tea in the main room while Seira, Regis and Tao did arcane things with tinfoil and stuff.
M-21 had to tell them right away that, "He was happy at the end since he came up with something to extend his lifespan."
And now Regis was looking at him overjoyed and Tao was vaulting over the counter to grab him and shake him down for details.
This place, these people… the thought of being stuck here forever… he'd still sell his soul for it.
After Takeo and Rael returned, dinner was finally served for good this time, with both Takeo and Rael aware that they had missed something big and clearly having something to report, but there seemed to be a 'no talking business at the dinner table' rule in effect.
When it was over, Raizel placed his chopsticks down with an air of finality. "Frankenstein."
"Yes, Master?"
"How many times now have you opened our mental link and flooded my mind with maniacal laughter?"
Frankenstein winced. "My apologies, Master."
"I appreciate everything you have done for me. I have faith in your judgment, and I trusted that you would not break your seal lightly." Frankenstein winced, caught. "However, if you have lost your faith in my willingness to judge you and it causes you such distress, then it is my duty to be less permissive in future. Your punishment begins at midnight. You have until then to prepare yourself."
"…Yes, Master." Frankenstein bowed his head for a moment and vanished like a Kertia.
"How is this a punishment?" M-21 wondered the next morning.
Rael nodded, looking about ready to stab Frankenstein out of a combination of shock and envy. The scientist lay on the backless couch on one side of the coffee table. Head in Raizel's lap, forearm over his own eyes as his Master carried on studying as though there was nothing unusual about this.
"Are you kidding?" Tao demanded. "Not allowed to do any work for forty-eight hours? Especially when he wants to work on a way to make him live longer! And Boss only sleeps for like fifteen minutes, so that's forty-seven and a half hours awake! No training, no research, no keeping the paperwork from piling up, no checking up on Muzaka or the Union… it's diabolical!" He threw his head back and laughed. "I wish I could have met the Previous Lord!"
"Did you see the chore lists he left us?" M-21 asked him, holding up the stack he'd found on his pillow.
"He does not have my permission to give orders," Frankenstein's master told them, eyes still focused on the pages of a spiral notebook. "If you obey his orders, I will be forced to hold him responsible for it."
…Had M-21 seriously just heard Frankenstein whimper? No, no, there was no way.
"I told you to prepare yourself, not avoid your just punishment by doing your work through other means." Raizel frowned down at Frankenstein briefly, before delicately turning the page of his notebook.
Remember the shotgun vs. scalpel analogy in the last chapter? 'How do you change someone's mind with a scalpel? You give them a lobotomy.' So yeah, no wonder Frankenstein freaked out, especially since he's seen inter-species mind control before and it was not pretty.
However, nobles were used to getting (and healing) shotgun blast levels of damage per communication, not minimum-power scratch damage. So what for humans might be mental enslavement/mind rape/brain damage possibly requiring years of deprogramming to fix was just pure unadulterated fluff for nobles, since before humans who would be sending nobles 'love me' messages with far less power behind them than an adult noble could manage? Children. Only human noises were even tinier and cuter.
Of course, Frankenstein is not a teeny kitten and could do serious damage if that was something he would ever do to anyone.
When Frankenstein sees Raizel come into his office after all those years, he goes to one knee, which in chivalric tradition is for when you have already sworn fealty to someone – he's renewing/acknowledging an oath. Rai sends people who have lost all their honor and have to submit to judgment to both knees. Instead of pushing Frankenstein down on his knees, pulling him up to bend only one knee is a message that yes, Frankenstein's honor is still intact, and with it his oath.