The Author's POV

Chapter 187: When everything comes crashing down [1]

"Whaaa! Pwudding!"

Sitting on the red sofa in my parent's house, I watched as Nola happily played with 'Pudding' a.k.a Angelica in the living room. A peaceful and relaxed smile appeared on my face.

For the past month, I had to be on constant alert as I was in a completely new planet where dangers lied everywhere.

From infiltrating Gud Khodror to infiltrating Setin and assassinating the young chief. Not a moment that I spent in Immorra did I relax or let my guard down.

Honestly, this relaxing atmosphere where I didn't have to worry about someone attacking me or had to be on constant alert was a nice change of pace.

I really needed this…

"Calm down Nola, you're going to scare the cat if you do that"

Sitting next to me, my mother, placed her hand on her cheek as a troubled look appeared on her face. Staring at me who was peacefully lying down on the sofa, she tapped my shoulder and worriedly said.

"Ren do something about this, I don't want Nola to get hurt"

Glancing at my mom, I reassured her.

"Nah it's fine, Pudding is a very docile cat"

"Is that so?"

Waving it off, I further reassured her that everything was fine.

"Yeah, she's a very gentle one. She won't hurt a fly"

"Well, if you say so"

Trusting my words, my mother finally calmed down.

Honestly, when my parents saw Angelica for the first time they were surprised. The reaction I got from my mom rendered me speechless.

She immediately hugged me and apologized to me by saying things like;

'For you to go all the way and buy a cat, you must've been lonely'

'Come here mama will comfort you'

'I'm sorry for not being with you all the times'

Yeah…

My speechless reaction was understandable.

This would've never have happened if Angelica remained as a ring, but tired of being a ring, Angelica transformed into her usual cat form.

I guess she disliked always being on my finger, but who was I to bash her for it. Had I been in her position I probably would've felt the same way.

Either way, her being in her cat form was ideal.

Especially since I needed for her to stay with my parents for a bit whilst I took care of the 'trash'

Someone had to protect them whilst I was gone after all.

Sitting on the floor of the living room, turning her head in my direction, Angelica spoke to me inside of my mind.

[Human, get this monkey away from me]

Hearing Angelica's voice inside of my head, I shook my head as an odd look appeared on my face.

'Stop pretending, I know that you've fallen for the charms of little Nola'

Staring at Nola happily petting Angelica with her small hands, I knew that Angelica had fallen for her charms.

If she disliked it so much she could've simply moved away, but she didn't as she just laid on the ground with Nola caressing her back constantly.

Moreover, whilst Nola was caressing her, Angelica's ears were perked upright indicating that she liked it.

Feigning ignorance, Angelica angrily said.

[What are you talking about human?]

Raising my brow and looking at Angelica, I shook my head disappointedly.

'mmmhmmm, then why are you letting her pet you?'

She may have been able to fool someone else, but not me. Since she had previously told me she disliked being treated like a cat, why would just be so docile in front of Nola?

…just because she was a child?

No, that was not it.

She had fallen!

Slightly flustered, Angelica turned her head sideways and said.

[B-beacuse she is a child]

Hearing her response, I smirked at her.

'Sure, what about all of the children outside that wanted to pet you?'

On the way here, there were many children Nola's age that wanted to caress her, but Angelica outright refused them as she just ignored them or moved away.

There was no way that excuse would work on me.

Pausing for a second and realizing that she couldn't refute as I was indeed right, Angelica glared at me.

[Shut up human]

Crossing my legs, I shook my head and clicked my tongue.

'Tsk, you tsundere'

[Tzundure? What is that?]

'Hm, who knows'

Feigning ignorance, I proceeded to look at my watch.

[Hey human, what does Tzundure mean? Answer me!]

Whatever she said, I just ignored it.

Better not let her know what it means or I'll get a massive headache.

Either way, after I managed to rank up, I immediately headed towards my parent's house to get rid of the curse.

The less time I wasted, the better.

Every single second that my parents had the curse was second more that they were in danger. Although it was a Monday and tomorrow was a school day, if I headed back in the morning, I should only miss the first lecture with Donna being the professor in charge.

Although I might get scolded a bit, with my current relationship with Donna, I would at most just be scolded.

After all, this was far more important.

Why would I care about being scolded?

Standing up and heading towards the kitchen area, I looked at my mom and asked.

"Mom, would you like some tea?"

Scrolling through her phone, hearing my call, and raising her head my mom covered her mouth as she asked.

"Oh, sweetie, you're going to make some tea?"

"Yeah"

Nodding my head, I stared at my father who was sitting at the living room table busy looking through some files.

He had glaring dark circles beneath his eyes which were evident signs of the fact that he was currently being overworked.

Secretly clenching my fists behind my back, I smiled and said.

"Yeah, I'll make one for dad that too"

Smiling brightly, my mother nodded her head.

"What a sweetheart, of course, I would love some tea"

"Then some tea you shall get"

"Oh dear, I truly have the most handsome and wonderful son"

"Indeed"

Hearing my mother's comments I couldn't agree more.

With my charm now having risen to F rank, if before I could topple countries, I could now topple continents.

What she said was very understandable and factual.

Kevin who?

Making my way towards the kitchen, Nola suddenly ran up to me as she exclaimed.

"Nola too! Nola wants tea!"

Staring at Nola I shook my head.

"Sorry Nola, but you can't"

Looking up to me as a hurt look appeared on her face, Nola clasped her hands together as she weakly said.

"Why can't Nola have tea?"

Looking at Nola's crystal eyes that seemed to burst at any moment, I felt a slight peng inside of my heart as I kneeled down on the floor and stood at eye level with her.

Wiping the tears that were about to fall from her cheeks, I explained.

"Nola you can't have the tea because it is very bitter, just like coffee, you don't like bitter right?"

Shaking her head, Nola said.

"Um! Coffee bleargh! No like bitter!"

"Good, how about this I'll give you a cup of hot cocoa instead, does that sound good?"

Hearing my proposition, Nola instantly brightened up as she repeatedly nodded her head.

"Um!"

"Great"

Seeing that Nola had calmed down, standing up I patted her in the head resulting in her letting out a small giggle.

"hehehe"

Smiling, I headed to the kitchen and proceeded to look around the kitchen for the tools needed to make the tea.

"If I don't remember wrong, the stuff should be here…"

Taking out the tea equipment, I quickly boiled the water in the kettle and took out the tea leaves from the top cupboard.

Waiting for the water to boil, sneakily taking two out of the four Xurin fruits in my possession, I took a deep breath.

"Huuu…hopefully, this works"

Although I knew that the fruits would without a doubt cure my parents of the curse, I was still quite nervous.

…there was this voice inside of my mind that kept asking what-ifs resulting in me becoming nervous.

However, this only lasted for a brief moment as I was able to quickly calm down.

There was no point in being nervous.

Being nervous was not going to solve anything.

It was an unnecessary emotion that only further added to my anxiety and prevented me from thinking rationally.

I needed to learn to always remain composed at all times.

Just like in this case, even if the cure doesn't work, panicking was not going to solve anything.

I needed to remain cool-headed at all times regardless of the situation…

"Bwig bruda! Look at pwudding!"

"Yes, Nola"

As I was making the tea, snapping me out of my thoughts was Nola's voice that came all the way from the living room.

"Look! Look! Look at pwudding!"

Staring at Nola from the Kitchen, my eyes drifted towards the direction she was pointing at and I soon spotted Angelica in her cat form wearing black sunglasses with a pink tiara on top of her head.

"pfftt…"

Caught off-guard, I almost laughed out loud as my body trembled uncontrollably.

Staring at Angelica's unamused face that seemed as though she wanted to bury herself in the ground I had to forcefully bite my tongue to try to prevent myself from laughing out loud.

It was only after a couple of minutes that I was somewhat able to calm myself down.

Weakly looking away from Angelica who was glaring daggers at me, I secretly did a thumbs up.

"She looks fantastic Nola"

Smiling widely, Nola clapped her little hands together.

"Yaah!"

[Human, do you want me to gauge your eyes out?]

'I'm good'

Shaking my head, I proceeded to make my way back to the kitchen as I tried to hold my laughter back.

In the end, even a borderline Viscount ranked demon fell for Nola's charms.

-Ding!

As I was still waiting for the water to boil, feeling my pocket vibrate, staring at the caller ID, I quickly picked up the call and answered in a low voice so that my parents wouldn't hear.

"Smallsnake, is everything ready?"

After a short pause, Smallsnake's voice echoed from the speaker of the phone.

[Yes, we are outside the establishment of the target]

Frowning slightly, I proceeded to nod my head.

"Have you got your eyes on the target? What is he doing?"

[The target is currently resting after having attended a banquet with his father. They are currently staying inside of Hotel Dellamorca in Avenue street XXX]

"Is his father with him?"

[No, he is currently staying in a separate room of the establishment]

Whilst playing with the Xurin fruit in my hand, I bit my lips for a couple of seconds before I nodded my head.

"Good, I'll be there shortly, report anything to me if you see the target escaping"

[Okay]

Hanging up the phone, my face became incomparably solemn. Staring at the tea before me that was turning murkier and murkier by the minute, I knew that once my parents ingested it and the curse was broken, Matthew would quickly be made aware of what had happened.

The reason he would notice it was because as soon as the curse was removed the demon Matthew was contracted with would suffer an intense backlash resulting in him becoming heavily injured.

…and so without a doubt, the demon would directly go to Matthew to find out what was going on.

Meaning that it was the perfect time for me to strike.

Kill both Matthew and the demon behind him in one fell swoop.

This was the plan.

Currently, Smallsnake and Leopold were surveilling the building Matthew was on, and so I would instantly be notified if anything happened or if Matthew tried to escape.

I had made these arrangements prior to coming to Immorra as I knew this would've happened.

The quicker I dealt with them, the higher the chances of me succeeding.

"Huuu…"

Taking a deep breath and placing the two teacups on the tray, I then proceeded to cut the two Xurin fruits open and squeezed the juices into the tea.

After making sure I squeezed all the juices from the fruits, placing the used up fruits back in my dimensional space, with a smile on my face I proceeded to make my way towards my parents.

"Tea's ready!"