One of the longest chapters I have ever written. Enjoy and please review!

Chapter 6

I sank down on the comfy, turquoise chair in the corner of my achromatic room that had a couple vibrant flowers that had bloomed. That mission had been too exhausting for just a test. I felt as though there had been more to it, but what exactly, I couldn't figure it out. Each time I managed to touch the surface, it slipped underneath me and I no longer clutched the answer.

"What's wrong~?" I jumped before sinking back into the recliner. It was just Road getting her fill on scaring people.

I waved her off, "nothing."

She moved to where she was leaning on the arm rest of the chair, and had her head propped up by an arm. She popped a mint in her mouth, white teeth flashing as she did so. She bit down on it and it crumbled to pieces before being swallowed. Her eyes moved back to mine. "Tell me."

"…feel like there was more to the test than what you told me." I mumbled before closing my eyes and tilting my head back.

"Maybe." She hummed thoughtfully before groaning. "Though why did you give me so much homework!"

I smirked, "your punishment for calling me a doll."

"It's a compliment."

"Not for me."

She pouted before looking curious, "are you scared after seeing me kill someone in cold blood?"

"Not really."

"Why?" She pressed.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because I know you and I know you're not a killing machine. I don't know, now stop bugging me and finish your homework." I shooed her away, but she stayed right where she was.

"I'm not moving, Cori~" Road sang, taking out another mint from her pocket and stuffing it into her mouth.

This time it was me groaning, "Why?"

"Because I don't feel like leaving just yet."

"Fine, what do you want to do?" I asked, giving up on trying to relax.

The Noah smiled and twirled in joy. "You need to meet Wisely. He's the white hair guy."

"The one who can read minds?" I said dubiously.

She nodded and grabbed my hand, pushing me off the recliner with her weirdly, strong arm. Too tired to fight, I reluctantly follow after her.

I zone out, no longer paying attention, and run into her; she had stopped.

She giggled, "Woops, I forgot. I have to have dinner with Klive and Joyd today, which means I can't do the Mesopotamia worksheet you gave me later like I had planned."

I sighed, "Go do it now, Road. I'm not dealing with you turning things late anymore."

She walked off, pouting about how she should get Jasdevi to ruin it. She disappeared once she took a turn, and it was only then that I realized she had brought me to the part of the Ark I didn't know my way around. I went to catch up to her, but was met with an empty hallway.

"Fuck. She probably used that stupid ability of hers." I muttered under my breath. I would now have to wander the halls till I found my way back.

I was strolling around, not having a clue where I was going, when someone bumped into me. And as luck would have it, that someone happened to be Wisely. Might as well get it over with. Hopefully, it wouldn't be as embarrassing as my introduction to Neah had gone.

"Hello. My name is-"

"Corian, correct?" He said with a knowing smile that set me on edge, and apparently, I didn't even have to introduce myself this time… not sure if that was good or bad though. "Ah, so you're the human the twins were talking about." Didn't know if that was good or bad either, for that matter.

I narrowed my eyes, warily, and asked, "How did you know for sure? I could have been a random servant."

"I can read your mind. My sister hadn't been lying when she told you that." He winked and I paled considerably fast.

He couldn't find out about this world be a show in another world/universe… Crap! I had thought about it, which meant he now knew about it. I looked up at him, bracing myself for his reaction. To my surprise, the only thing he did was smile ruefully.

"There is a reason why I am called Wisely, Corian."

"Oh." And that was all I could say. I had just revealed a secret that could turn this world upside down and all he could say was that there was a reason for his name.

Just how absurd was that?! Very.

Part of me was scolding me, it was the Noah I was talking about, not some puny humans. While the other me was wanting talk all about my terrible situation.

Wisely cackled, apparently amused at the dilemma happening in my mind. I frowned before shrugging and going along with the latter option.

"So, um, do you know why I was brought here?" I looked up hoping to finally get an answer to a question that had been plaguing me since day one.

He shook his head and popped the 'p' in nope. I sighed, should've known that the answer wouldn't have been handed to me on a silver platter.

"But tell me, how was your first life?" At my skeptical look, he added, "I don't look in personal details. I was taught that it was rude."

"So there are some polite Noah other than sheryl- and he's still pretty rude."

He chuckled, "I'm not that polite, Cori. I just don't want to be tempted to change things that could easily bring us to ruin. And from what I saw, we were winning so there's no point to move things along."

"I guess."

After that he showed me the way back to my room and I stayed there thinking about what he had said; we were winning. Had they been? I didn't know anymore. I had always thought they had been losing because if I remembered right, they had lost a couple of Noah to exorcist. I no longer knew, perhaps it was fate... Or the less dramatic and the more realistic one, I had a bad memory.

I jumped to my feet and moved my feet in a curtsy, ready for anyone to come through the ark gate that had shown up in my room. I bowed my head in submission with my hands clutching my lacy, purple skirt Road had given me.

"Cor- oh, no need for that Corian." I looked up at the familiar voice that made its way to my ears. I smiled, happy to see the fourteenth Noah, but then it faltered as I remembered Allen and how he knew him.

I fisted my hands, trying to gather my courage and interrogate him. "Nea-"

"Corian-"

I gave the floor to him being the coward I was.

"Listen, I'm sorry I got you involved in this mess of mine and I get it if you don't really want to talk to me... But," his voice turned to steel, "you can't tell anyone about Allen not even Road."

I swallowed nervously, "fine, but tell me what's going on."

He nodded and stepped back into the ark gate but this time with me following behind like a duckling with its mother. We appeared in his mansion and I gasped as I recognized the man sitting on the leather chair.

"Allen!" He gave a small wave in return before facing Neah who ran a hand through his dark, brown hair.

"She needs to know. And she could help us. Road loves me but she knows somethings up and my brother no longer knows what's real and what's not. The memory is effecting him too much." He explained to the red haired man who nodded tersely.

I stopped them by putting my hand up, "wait, your brother?"

"Oh, did you not know? The earls my brother."

"Seriously?!" I spluttered, trying to wrap my mind around the idea.

"Yeah..."

Allen interrupted by asking, "Mana has gone mad and so are the other Noah." At my confused looked, "Mana is Neah's brother, the Earl."

I stayed silent for a minute or so, I needed time to process the information they had just given me. The earl was mad and so was Road... "But Road isn't that crazy."

The men exchanged a look before Neah said, "She is, you just haven't seen her yet."

"Then are you pretending to like her each time you see her?" I said meeting his eyes, determined to find out. Road truly loved him and for all she knew, he might have been just wearing a mask the entire time. Smiling and laughing in her face, knowing she would soak it up like a paper towel and not even look twice.

He avoided my eyes, "I haven't... lied to her. I just haven't told her somethings and to be honest Corian, I have trouble containing this pure hatred whenever I see her. "

My heartbeat sped faster in rage. "How dare you mess with a girl's heart! She loves you and you're just playing with her heartstrings!"

"Why are you so invested about this?" Allen questioned with orbs narrowed.

I took a step back under the intensity of his glare while internally asking myself the same thing, why was I so affected by Neah's affair? Road was a Noah, an enemy of the human race. So why?

I shrugged not meeting their eyes before muttering, "I should go before Road realized I'm gone."

"No. Not till you answer my question." Allen had stood up, and was ready to hold me down and get the response he wanted.

"Why do you want to know so badly?" I shot a glance at Neah but she shook his head slightly, letting me know that he wanted to hear my answer as well. So much for that escape route, I thought wryly.

"Why do you feel the need to protect the Noah?" He snapped back at me and I stomped my foot on the ground in frustration.

"Ugh! You wouldn't understand." I defended myself with a growl.

"Your right, I wouldn't because I don't take a Noah's fucking side!" I flinched at his steel tone. "So just tell me why!"

I stumbled back into a chair that had been behind me and took deep breaths before collecting myself and calming replying. "I feel the need to protect her because I have a heart and when I see her with Neah, she's in a venerable position and I can't help but want to shelter her. And I owe her my life."

Allen and Neah's heads swiveled towards me at my last statement. "What do you mean you owe her your life?"

"She indirectly saved it..."

This time Neah was the one pressuring me, "what do you mean by that?"

"It's how I became her tutor." I said shortly, hoping to leave the subject.

"You're Roads tutor?" Disbelief tainted his words.

I smiled, "yeah."

"She's Road's tutor, Allen. I don't know exactly how she became that though, no one knows actually. I asked my other fellow Noah and none of them knew except Mana but when I asked him, he wouldn't tell me." Neah inserted.

"So, please do tell Corian." Allen said caught up on my affairs with the Noah. I cursed them out for ganging up on me.

"I'd rather not." I was stubborn, sue me.

"You're going to answer my questions, dammit!"

I stared at him, where had the polite, young man that I had met on Neah's lawn gone? Why was it so bad too keep secrets? "You're worse than the Noah, Allen! They never pry on how I met the Earl! They respect me enough!" I was panting by now.

He squirmed, obviously uncomfortable with the thought that he was being compared to his enemy. "…Maybe I am worse but I need to know to trust you."

"Why do you need me to trust you?" I shot back at him, annoyed.

Neah stepped in and gave me a look, "we'll tell you later. But we first need to know this, Cori."

"Don't call me that." I hissed, hearing Jessica in the background saying my name with that street accent of hers.

"Why? Road can."

I gave up, they weren't going to let me off the hook anyway, so when I spoke my voice was weak and cracking from my yelling earlier. "Because... I don't hear Jessica when she says it. I just hear her, that high, girly voice of hers."

"Jessica?" Allen prodded, sensing that he would get his answers now.

"A girl who took me in on the streets and saved my life. She was the one who found me a job and a warm bed to sleep in. But...but then she went and died!" My grief slipped in. "She died and left Fred alone. And then he went and died as well. Then I went and let people at the inn I worked at die." I covered my face, not wanting them to see my quickly becoming red and tear filled eyes. I let out a small laugh, "maybe that's why I protect her. I'm just as messed as her."

"...don't tell me the guy became an alumna trying to bring Jessica back."

"He did and I went to save him. But I was too late, I just came when she was entering his skin. And then being the coward I am, I plead with the Earl to take me with him. I could help Road do her homework so she, in a way, did save me. He accepted and had Sheryl teach me so I left the inn I worked at die at the hands of Fred and at the soul of Jessica."

After rubbing my eyes, I hesitantly looked up at Allen and Neah who were both keeping there mouths closed with pity shining in their orbs. I glanced back down waiting for the silence to end, waiting for their response.

Neah was the first one to speak. "That explains a lot."

"Yeah, it really does." Allen agreed quietly. "Though, even so, I have to ask her."

I frowned, what did he need to ask me after all those questions?

Neah nodded slightly, making my eyes flicker between the two. "Ask me what?"

"Help us kill the Noah and the rescue Mana." Allen said flat out.

I choked and I snapped to my feet, "W- what?!"

"You heard me."

"I can't." I couldn't change the events of what happened. The stage set needed to be the same as it had been. My presence couldn't alter anything and part of me knew even if I could, I wouldn't, I had grown too attached to the sadistic girl. "I can't help you but I won't say anything."

I hoped they would let me leave now but it seemed they still needed me for something, unfortunately.

"Just tell us something, has the Earl ever seemed mad to you?" Neah had curiosity glowing in his golden, cat-like eyes.

Frowning, I cocked my head, "what do you mean, mad? Aren't all Noah mad?"

Instead of being insulted, he chuckled and ran his hands through his head. "I suppose so." Then he repeated it, softer and more like a question, "I suppose so."

After that silence took control and we were left wordless. I finally won against it and stuttered out slightly, "C- can I, uh, go now?"

"Hm?" Neah hummed in surprise as though he had forgotten I was there, "oh but of course. Here let me open a gate for you."

I stared at him in astonishment. After all that, he was going to revert to the gentleman he had been. I resisted the urge to slap him and instead waited for the gate to materialize before me.

Meanwhile, Allen continued to look upon me in an emotion I did not recognize. In fact, it reminded me of my first encounter with him. He had left me wondering what exactly I had done to make him look at me like that, but now I wondered if he gazed upon everyone the same way. Emotionless and calculating, and most of all, cold.

"Cori~"

I grumbled under my breath before answering, "what?!"

Road barreled through the white door into my room with a cheer, "the Earls having a family dinner! And guess who's invited?"

"...me?"

"Yup!" I sighed in defeat. Last time I had been invited, I hadn't said a word and had barely eaten. Who knew what was going to happen this time?

"C'mon~" she whined, "Everyone's going to be here tonight, even Neah!"

I stiffened and felt dread slip into my veins like poison. Everyone was going to be there? Everyone, as in, everyone Neah was going to slaughter? Like pigs, might I add.

Crap! This was going to be bad, so very, very bad.

I flinched when I felt a sharp, pointy finger poke into my chest and snapped out of my my panic induced daze. "Huh? Yeah?"

"You need to listen more often Cori!" She pouted and I nodded my head, only half hearing her. I couldn't allow Road to go, she would be killed! But because Neah was going, she was sure to go. Damn it!

Damn the stupid irony!

"So are you going?"

I had zone out again. Great. Was I going? Going where? Oh, the dinner. "Um... I guess."

"Yay~ that means you'll give me a day extra to do my geography homework, right?"

I raised an eyebrow but gave up once I met her hopeful golden orbs that were quite different from her boyfriend. "Fine. But only by a day."

She grinned cheekily and licked the lollipop she had apparently brought in with her.

"Now, what did I say about those?"

"...not to bring them in here."

"Correct. So explain to me why I see one in your hand."

"But Cori~ I promise I won't do that again!"

I shook my head despite her arguments. Never again. Not after she had stuck one in my hair and had conveniently forgotten to tell me. It had taken hours to take it out.

But I had other things to worry about. Like a dinner that included the Noah being killed.

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