Chapter 110: Inconvenient
'Truly a pleasant day.' Noah, who was wearing sunglasses, thought as he looked up at the blue sky which had a large red bird flying freely through it.
Noah had accepted that it would only be a matter of time before someone found out about Terrence, so since some time someone would find out about him anyway, it wouldn't be fair for the poor bird to practically keep him locked up without freedom for a temporary reason.
And seeing how happy Terrence was to be able to fly freely during the day, which was a new experience for him, Noah was sure he had made the right choice. After all, if something went wrong, he could just send Terrence through the portal to the other dimension and take care of things himself.
Noah had already realized that Lilith was not very comfortable in the sunlight, especially when she was still recovering, but now that she had already leveled up, she at least was able to tolerate sunlight.
Wearing one of the many white long-sleeved shirts he had, Noah, with white skin and dark glasses, definitely attracted a little attention. But as that big and seemingly dangerous bird once in a while would land on his shoulder to rest, people looking at it didn't have much courage to approach him.
Noah was satisfied with what he had bought for Maggy. In his hand was a paper bag containing some sweets that his little sister liked most: strawberry truffles, chocolate balls with a crunchy cookie filling, and the main one - quite sour sweets. Noah couldn't understand how that little girl ate a bubble gum called monster drool, which even made Noah wrinkle his face acridly, without her even making a face.
Looking at the clock, Noah noticed that there were still 40 minutes to go before visiting hours at the hospital, and at the pace they were walking, they would be there in 25 minutes. This allowed the three to go unhurriedly, with Noah stopping every now and then to buy things that piqued the interest of Terrence or Lilith, but it was mainly Terrence who was interested, who, whenever he was interested in something, would land on Noah's shoulder and start biting Noah's ear lightly while pointing at what he wanted.
Since the Fortresses were now starting to pay Noah $3,000 for every raid he made, buying those little things for Terrence that cost only a few dollars was pretty cheap. And considering how happy the bird was in flying with a small bell around its neck and a funny black cap that looked particularly cute on the head of the big red bird, it made Noah happy to be able to pay for these things with no conscience.
If it had been a few months ago, Noah wouldn't even have $10 to buy some sweets for Maggy, let alone $40 to spend on some trinkets and treats for a pet bird.
Enjoying the blue sky with few clouds as he walked, Noah did not notice that a strangely familiar sports car was approaching him. Even though the car made a lot of noise because of the powerful engine and the apparently cut exhaust pipe (probably to make even more noise), Noah didn't notice the car at all as he was too focused on Terrence having fun flying between some buildings.
Within seconds, the sports car with only two passenger seats slowed alongside Noah, which finally made him take notice of the flashy car which was starting to gather the attention of some pedestrians around. Noah knew he knew that car from somewhere, but it was only when the window pane went down that Noah recognized where he had seen that car from before.
At his friend Carlos's house, when he went to a party a few weeks ago, a rich young man had mistaken Noah for a local valet and told him to park his car without leaving any scratches. Noah didn't take it to heart at the time, just ignoring it and treating it as irrelevant, until this rich young man appeared in front of him again, this time with the title of Harry's older brother, and most importantly, as a promising Blessed Rank C.
This amused Noah at the time, seeing that Robert seemed so distant and powerful for being a Blessed One at the peak of Rank D in Fortress raids, but now, in just a few weeks, that distance seemed so insignificant.
Because of how much Noah had already progressed, these two weeks seemed to him to have lasted much longer than they actually did, but in fact so little time had really passed, and in that short time he left the base of society and practically positioned himself in the top of the city's power pyramid. He knew he wasn't at peak yet, maybe even a little bit away from that, considering there were some Blessed Rank C in the city while he hadn't even moved from Rank E to Rank D officially, but Noah still had the same thought he had had at Carlos's party: 'It's only a matter of time.'
"Hey, what a coincidence that we meet here, Rank F. Are you looking for a job?" Robert said in an arrogant manner as he looked at Noah through the car window in a clearly arrogant way.
Noah saw that and couldn't help but sigh. He thought that what happened last time with James would be the last time he would have to deal with something so childish, but he had forgotten about the problem that was Harry and his family. Even that girl he rejected after Rank F who was super strong hadn't shown up again, which meant for Noah that maybe he still had troublesome things like that to deal with in the future, even though he hated it.
The main problem for Noah in all of this was that it seemed extremely repetitive, all these tall and powerful arrogant young snobs acted in exactly the same way, and they didn't even have a plausible reason for acting that way.
"Yes, I am looking for a job and you are disturbing me. Goodbye." Noah waved his hand as he started walking again and ignored Robert after saying the first excuse that came to mind. Noah was a proud person, but in situations like this, he felt like it didn't make sense, just like when an adult wouldn't feel their pride hurt if a child called them a fool.
Robert was momentarily shocked that Noah admitted so readily that he was really looking for a job. As a Blessed Rank D with a Rank C Blessing, he saw jobs as something humiliating, especially when the person in question was Blessed, after all it just demonstrated that you were not strong enough to use your own Blessing to earn enough money to survive and buy your own things.
The only exception he had for this thought was from powerful and influential people like Carlos's parents, who, because of the large business conglomerate they owned, made the jobs from them earn no less than a Blessed at high ranking, and could even pay high enough wages to hire Blessed Rank C to protect themselves. But it was still unworthy for him to be rich this way, after all, to have the strength of a Blessed Rank C and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Fortresses, in addition to the thousands of dollars that fame would also bring was something he truly believed as worthy.
Seeing that Noah was moving away from him, Robert accelerated the car slowly and reached Noah, who was walking on foot, in a few seconds, before speaking. "Wait! With your Blessing, I believe I have a job for you. How about being the stove lighter in my house? Hahaha!" Robert said and started laughing like it was the funniest joke in the world.
Noah looked at him with a disappointed look before putting his hand on his face, there was no way he could think of this person as the tall and powerful Blessed he had heard about from Carlos. This apparently 23 or 25 year old man was obviously acting like a 10 year old. At that moment, Noah didn't even know what to do, since he was starting to feel cringe when looking at Robert.
Robert took Noah's silence as a sign that he was ashamed of being humiliated, rather than that he was cringing at seeing what he was saying, and felt better after having been ignored.
Since Noah didn't respond, Robert kept saying, "Don't worry, it's a good spot. We can pay you $800 a week to be our personal lighter."
Noah was no longer able to control himself; he was almost running away from there to not hear any more embarrassing things from Robert. It was uncomfortable to hear him say that kind of thing as if it were normal.
That was until an idea came into Noah's mind, how he was on foot, he would have to teleport to get out of there, which he was not willing to do in a public place. So he thought of just saying something random to scare Robert off. "I need $100,000. If you want, take it or leave it," Noah said it as if it were something natural.
Hearing what Noah said, Robert started laughing out loud. "HAHAHAHA!!!!"
Noah just ignored him and kept walking.
When he had calmed down, Robert replied, "Well, if you need that much money, why don't you join the fight that will take place in a few minutes? I'm going with some friends to watch an underground fight that is going on right now; the prize for the fight is $85,000. I can even pay your registration fee, but if you die it's not my fault. I believe it would be funny to see you beat up by other Blessed Ones, but if you really have confidence in yourself, why not try? Maybe you can really win... pfft..." The last part was said while Robert held his laughter so much that Noah didn't realize that he was talking bullshit.
Noah was surprised that an underground fight was going on so early. It was still 10:20 am; he thought that this kind of thing happened only during the night. He didn't realize it was set up that way to outwit the police, since for the most part, these sort of fights were illegal.
Robert was curious about Noah's answer, after all, on the one hand Noah was just a Blessed Rank F, the lowest rank in the pyramid of strength, but from what he heard from his brother, Harry, about Noah's strength during the super Fortress that they had invaded, Noah's strength at least ranked at the top of Rank F. This had probably developed a great deal of pride in Noah, Robert figured, which perhaps even meant that he would accept the proposal, believing that he would have some chance of winning from being found invincible at dealing with people in his rank.
But Robert knew that was not even close to the truth, after all, any random Blessed Rank E would be considered as strong, if not much stronger than a peak Blessed F Rank. He just wanted to tempt Noah to accept the offer and have free entertainment for the day.
Looking at Robert, Noah replied.
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Please read the author's notes down here! he he :3 ↓↓↓