Rael was there, there, no there… Sangeen kept dodging, realizing that he could also tell where Takeo was, but not Yonsu.
It felt so easy, so natural, the noble was hard to miss and Takeo was also a solid presence. Was this what the noble was talking about? Yes, it must be, he was trying to trigger Sangeen to use this sense with that exercise the first night.
"I thought so," Takeo said.
"Better," was Rael's only comment, a hint of relief more than condescension in his voice.
Sangeen kept his knives ready for a moment, but after deciding that they seemed to have stopped he opened his eyes. "The 'basic survival package,' huh?" he asked them.
"If you generate enough energy to power the healing ability, then you must also have the energy to power some of the other natural human abilities." Takeo looked thoughtful.
"Humans stealing power from nobles to use their abilities…" Rael gritted his teeth. "Having your own power is less disgusting."
"Are you talking about contracts?"
"No," Takeo said. "Nobles emit energy that humans can absorb, like plants absorb sunlight. Our ancestors used it to power psychic abilities, like your knives and enhanced healing. I'm not surprised Frankenstein's enhancements gave you access to humanity's natural abilities." Takeo smiled. "He has opinions about them."
Sangeen touched his hair – the color hadn't changed, but his skin looked better already. "We noticed." Someone so powerful who didn't like anybody looking down on humans – couldn't be more different from the Union.
If whatever enhancements the experiment had given Sangeen – although the man had said it wasn't an experiment – were unlocked latent abilities, then he wouldn't mind if their doctor managed to reverse engineer the work and unlock them in Yonsu. He'd practically said for them to have at it, that the Union had this stuff already.
"So this sensing opponents – am I only doing it because you're letting me?" he asked.
"Since the Chairman enhanced me, I've been able to sense everyone I've ever fought – except Rael," Takeo said.
"Correct, human, I am letting you." Rael said, and vanished just long enough to make his point. Reappearing where he'd been standing before, he told them, "Don't expect Union scum to fight like Kertia."
"His clan specializes in hiding their auras."
"But Union operatives won't know how to do that, if they even know that auras exist?"
Takeo nodded, but frowned. "I wouldn't count on it. The Union keeps so many secrets that some lab somewhere…"
"They've kidnapped enough Kertia that some of them should have studied us," Rael said. "Our clan scouts the human world because it's safest for us, but enough of us have vanished over the past hundred years, since the traitors, that who knows what the Union scum have done, if they have anyone like Frankenstein."
Takeo winced. "Frankenstein's unique." Thank goodness.
"There are how many of you humans?" Rael pointed out. "And my father acknowledged him because he was fighting to make the nobles acknowledge not just his strength, but the strength of humans."
"More humans than just him…" Takeo nodded in respect, but still frowned. "He's so different from the Union's scientists. He sees things that they… not just dismiss, that they don't even see, even when it's right in front of them. Even if the Union found another Frankenstein, could they be as much of a genius blinded like that?"
"The Union is a festering pile of trash, but those as weak as these," Rael looked at Sangeen and Yonsu meaningfully, "Can't afford to look down on them if they intend to do their duty. Takeo, you train Sangeen's new sense. I'll work on making Yonsu less pathetic fighting anyone faster than her again."
And Rael was still moving in slow motion by his standards fighting Yonsu, but when she desperately needed to avoid hits from more powerful Union enhanced humans, learning how to avoid people faster than her could keep her alive. So, "Thank you," Sangeen said.
A curt nod from Yonsu. "Thanks." Even though she grimaced at how they needed the help, that they needed to go further into debt to these people.
"Takeo," Rael asked when they were home, landed on the balcony.
"Yes, Rael?"
"Do you want a contract with me?" Rael asked, standing there facing the enhanced human squarely. Kertia weren't cowards, he told himself.
Takeo's eyes widened. "Gejutel offered us contracts," he said, which stunned Rael for a moment. "We turned him down. We wanted to keep living the way we were living… and it was nice to be able to turn down something like that."
To not sell their souls for power. To have some pride. Takeo kept surprising Rael with reminders of how elegant he was. For a human.
"M-21 tried to make a contract with Frankenstein: I think he did it to atone for asking him to look after the fake, but it was also because he trusted Frankenstein not to control him… or maybe he just didn't mind, if it was Frankenstein." Takeo frowned, a crease of worry for M-21 between his eyes. "The Union has left us alone for some time now, but they won't leave us alone forever. M-21 with his werewolf powers, Tao with a soul weapon: I don't want to hold the others back. For the sake of my comrades, and the life we have here that we want to defend…"
"You don't want a contract," Rael finished for him.
Takeo blinked at him, surprised.
"You want more power so you can defend your clan, the same as me. Your will to protect is strong enough that you'd give up your will to protect everyone: that's not a true contract." That wasn't what Raizel and Frankenstein have.
"For it to be a true contract, both sides have to want it – Rael, do you want a contract?"
Rael's cheeks flushed. "Who wouldn't want what the Noblesse and Frankenstein have?"
"That's true," Takeo agreed. "But Rael, you think you might have that with me?"
"You're elegant." Long-limbed, long-haired. "You fight more and more like a Kertia."
"That's thanks to your training," Takeo told him, modestly rejecting the compliment.
Elegant.
"You're not terrible to train," Rael said, glancing to the side. "You have a strong will to protect, like Frankenstein." Takeo would even try to protect Rael, he thought, even though Takeo would still be weaker than him after the contract. But Frankenstein tried to protect the Noblesse, even though the Noblesse was the very symbol of strength, and that… wasn't inelegant. "You don't want a contract," he repeated himself. And that meant there was no point in this conversation.
"Wait, Rael," Takeo said, reaching out as Rael turned to go.
Rael stopped but didn't turn back to look at him.
"I would make a contract with you," Takeo said, "but if you think that right now it wouldn't be what we want… I was surprised. I didn't think that anyone else would ever offer to make a contract with me."
"You're elegant and you have a strong will to protect," Rael said before Takeo could say anything else.
"Is that really all… I wouldn't want to make a contract with someone I didn't know, like I didn't really know Gejutel. But we've worked together, trained together," Takeo said. "I'm honored that you considered asking me."
"You're saying you don't know if you want a contract with me or not," Rael said, itching to leave. This conversation was bothering him, but he wasn't a child to run away from things that were difficult. Things that stirred up old memories.
"I may want one?" Takeo's voice was quiet, surprised with himself. And why was it such a surprise that he might want a contract with Rael? Rael had a soul weapon… but was that the only reason Takeo was considering it? The power to protect his comrades? Tao, M-21, Regis.
"What would you say if Regis asked you?" Rael demanded.
"I would be surprised, but I would say yes. Even a little more power to protect my friends… Power from someone I could trust. but I think you're right, Rael, and something just for power wouldn't be… even if it was a true contract, it wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be what they have."
"No," Rael agreed, shifting onto the ball of one foot… and shifting back.
"Why did you ask me?" Takeo asked him.
"The Noblesse discussed contracts with me. He said that it's not wrong to want one."
"No," Takeo agreed. "It's not." He shifted closer to Rael. "Rael, you… I'm honored," Rael heard Takeo say, and waited for the 'but.' "We should talk to him," Takeo said. "And maybe Frankenstein."
"Yes." Rael's shoulders relaxed. Takeo was sensible.
"But perhaps not tonight," Takeo said. "I want to think about it first."
Rael nodded and opened the balcony door. He should write to his brother and ask his brother to petition the Lord to allow contracts again. He didn't want to bring more dishonor on the Kertia.
When they went downstairs to the main room the lights were off and Frankenstein's head was on Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel's lap, the Noblesse gently stroking the human's hair while he wrote in a notebook.
Rael wasn't the only one who wanted what they had. Takeo did too.
Takeo wanted to consider it. Knowing him, he would take some time. Seira never had considered Rael, not even for a moment.
Frankenstein had schedules.
It wasn't just born of his need to keep everything in order. He knew that he had obsessive tendencies, and only working on projects for so long at a time was a defense against getting caught up in something and remaining in that state until someone broke into his house to find out if he was dead.
Perfectionism was one of the things that grew harder to keep in check as he grew older. The nobles had very long to practice the few things they actually did, and although Frankenstein kept his interests broad he had so much expertise in so many crafts that something being a millimeter off was now too unusual for it to be an acceptable amount of imprecision under almost any circumstances.
In the haze of Lukedonia, without even the rhythm of seasons, he'd lost track of time as badly as if he was a noble. Ten years! No wonder the Previous Lord hadn't asked him about his accusations against the Central Order Knights: when Frankenstein asked Gejutel and Ragar he was informed that the investigation had begun immediately and heads had rolled for two years. The Previous Lord probably took eight more years after that before sending a messenger Raizel's way for the sake of being certain the Noblesse wouldn't notice and take over the investigation when it was his duty to sentence offenders.
No wonder that to the Previous Lord, Frankenstein's accusations and the accusations against Frankenstein were old news, matters he'd already dealt with. A human wouldn't let a problem like nobles creating mutants and humans experimenting on their people just sit there untouched for a decade while people died. So… why had Frankenstein?
The Previous Lord had lived on Lukedonia for untold eons and still experienced time and handled problems at the rate humans lived?
That was part of why Frankenstein had eventually forced himself to stop vanishing into the wilderness and focusing entirely on researching the sanctuaries and convincing his (and his master's) enemies that his reckless experimentation on himself had finally caught up with him. He needed to retune his mind to the rhythm of human life, to a passage of time that was not eternal and meaningless but a precious, limited resource.
When Lukedonia was meant to hold the nobles for as long as it took humanity to advance, was it perhaps designed to make the nobles lose track of time, so the clans who chafed at their imprisonment wouldn't feel it had been as long as it was? That might explain why the Previous Lord alone was immune to the effect, when he was consciously resisting it.
His conversation with the Previous Lord had left Frankenstein half-stunned, trying to think about too many important subjects at once with all this new data thrown at him to spawn new realizations.
It was only afterwards that he'd realized that first, the Previous Lord was smarter than he was.
Frankenstein was not used to that.
And second, the Previous Lord had expected him to be able to keep up.
The Previous Lord had expected Frankenstein to have the mental quickness and the sheer audacity to immediately jump on the chance to obtain a blood sample, when someone's blood potentially meant having power over them, from the Lord. If Frankenstein had been on the ball, he would have anticipated Gejutel being driven further into apoplexy by this human seriously expecting the Lord to be cut and bleed and taken the opening just to demonstrate his refusal to back down in the face of their power or 'nobility.'
A noble had simply assumed that this human was his intellectual equal, enough to actually draw the blood in advance – and a noble with scientific equipment?
And Frankenstein was… not on the Previous Lord's level.
Not then, he corrected himself.
Now the Previous Lord had gone into eternal sleep after planning it for centuries. Frankenstein doubted he'd ever encounter a hundredth of the Previous Lord's contingency plans – after all, he knew how much care he would take with that much time to prepare, and someone smarter than he was, who had far more experience as a ruler than Frankenstein did as a principal?
He'd never get the chance to outwit him. To prove that no, the Previous Lord hadn't been wrong. Humanity was every bit the equal of the nobles. Even that noble.
The Noblesse was the symbol of Virtue, who protected the nobles with their power.
The Lord was the symbol of Rule, who guided the nobles with their wisdom.
Unfortunately noble psychic translation, while far superior to Google's efforts, was hit-or-miss when it came to fine shades of meaning. He should consider sending Rael to other countries long enough to pick up assigned languages the next time Rael needed time away from Regis and enhanced humans to cool down. Getting a translation of some Lukedonian term into a hundred or so human languages would help him triangulate, if not narrow down, the precise meaning…
His master turned the page of the notes he wrote down in the middle of the night, when he could focus his efforts on translating what he'd heard in class from word to thought and then to symbol, and that was enough to remind Frankenstein yet again that he was touching someone.
Of course not literally: his master was fully clothed and had added a pair of long, thin white gloves to his attire this evening, knowing Frankenstein's difficulties.
His psychic abilities let him constantly feel his master's presence without being… physical.
Warmth, and the sound of a heartbeat, and breath. All of those he could feel at a distance, thanks to his enhancements.
He didn't think he was uncomfortable. Not when this was Master, and Master would be ensuring there were no pathogens or contaminants on his person or clothing for Frankenstein's sake, but he kept expecting to be uncomfortable because if it was anyone else he would be. Most of the things he used to comfort himself by having some control over his environment were out of his reach, for now. He was capable of setting aside discomfort. Even emotional. Dark Spear didn't merely inflict physical pain, but the agony of knowing that he had failed them. His work was used to harm the people he meant to protect, to enslave them and drive them to madness just as surely as if they were turned into mutants.
Knowing that he was supposed to relax and be in the moment, to place his faith in the fact that if a true emergency occurred Master would restore his permissions, he drew in a deep breath and let the link open a little.
Feel Master's fondness and quite deliberate distance, focused on his studies so that Frankenstein could open their link while… perturbed and not have to worry about the possibility of disturbing his master by being 'talkative.'
He was aware that noble psychic communication before simply sending words became a possibility was intrusive, but he honestly hadn't thought through what it implied that 'talkative' was how they were translating 'attempting to force someone else to share your views and feel your emotions.'
Unenhanced humans were powerless against mental invasion, but noble mental defenses were good enough that they could afford to use mind control to communicate?
Then when they said that the Lords were the absolute masters of blood and mind control… were they the noble clan who poured all their efforts into trying to… what had it meant to them when humans evolved, when communication was at the core of human survival? While the other nobles sheltered humans because hominids were cute, had the Lords done their duty of looking into the future and seen the potential to have some intelligent conversation around here?
Master hadn't told Frankenstein what he was doing because he really had seen it as part of the same thing as serving him tea and talking at him the way a programmer would talk at a rubber duck these days. He hadn't wanted to mention any of it in case Frankenstein took that as an indication that Master wanted him to stop.
Frankenstein supposed he was lucky that Master considered aimless speculation 'entertainment' and therefore acceptable. …honestly, that was true, Frankenstein had to admit. It wasn't science without testing or engineering unless it was being applied.
Whenever the nobles developed their own equivalent of anthropology, the Kertia's tendency to draw graffiti on the fabric of reality was going to be one of the very few primary sources they had to go on. Oh, there was the option of having the Loyard speak to various soul weapons, but there was only one Loyard and aside from the Previous Lord, if nobles wanted to talk to people they wouldn't choose to go into Eternal Sleep.
…but then, how many nobles had lived and slept without anyone who would insist on talking to them? On dragging them away from whatever served as their window and into life?
Shinwoo certainly didn't rewrite his notes, and while Ikhan did glance up at the board every so often to see if new material was up there, and at least listened to the teacher with half an ear, the laptop was mainly allowed in order to keep him from getting bored and disruptive in class.
Ikhan was something of a nightmare at his last school, but make a simple accommodation and he became a model pupil. Saving Ikhan's academic career was how Frankenstein got the local police in his pocket.
Yuna didn't take a great deal of notes because she seemed to be an auditory learner, and taking her mind away from what the teacher was saying long enough to turn it into text on a page would not contribute to her ability to absorb the material. Suyi's methods of studying weren't a useful example for Master either because she was simply too good at studying. She'd mastered memorizing scripts and stage directions quickly, and it took a great deal of intellectual ability to keep up with Ye Ran's coursework despite frequently lengthy absences from class.
So none of his friends had helped Rai find an effective method of studying. His difficulties enhanced the cover story that he was a foreigner who might have learned Korean before coming to the country, but lacked practice with it before he was thrown into the deep end and enrolled in a prestigious Korean school. The students thought that Rai and the Chairman never used their native language in order to help Rai learn through immersion.
Rai had come up with this on his own, and it was delightful. Simply delightful to lie here with his head on his master's lap and take a break from everything, everything but this. From being here in this moment, his hands still warm from the cup of tea he was drinking when Raizel stood up and sat down on the couch, patting the cushion next to him for Frankenstein to join him. That movement was what made him notice his master's gloves.
He hoped Master would want to do this again – he must like it, if he'd offered it a second time, when Frankenstein wasn't being punished. This was a pleasant meditative state, the hand in his hair, thinking about the past and what a fool he'd been not to realize why he was staying so happily with a noble like Cadis Etrama di Raizel.
He'd never make a mistake like that again: he knew how much Master meant to him now. Enough to make a contract with him, enough to live for him, because Raizel wanted Frankenstein to live and be happy and that meant he would do his best and succeed, if it came to that.
Not that it would. He had avenues to research, and it had been some time since Master spent his power, and there was that second Ragnarok. Raskreia wouldn't absorb it, the last thing she needed was more power. The only sticking point was that he needed an excuse to bring his Master to Lukedonia…