Chapter 23: Sadistic Passion ;)
|—Clan Head Office, Zenin Clan—|
The atmosphere felt heavy, too heavy in fact that if a normal person was present there right now, it would be enough to make him go unconscious from the pure pressure filling the air within the room.
Naobito Zenin, the Clan Head of the Zenin Clan, sat over his seat with Jinichi Zenin and Ogi Zenin standing on both sides.
At the door stood two people—Chojuro Zenin and Renta Zenin (both were members of the Hei)—either to block people from the inside from leaving or to stop people from the outside from entering, it wasn't clear.
All of these people had solemn faces, their curse energy radiating from within their bodies as they stared at the two people sitting on the couch—in front of the Clan Head.
Both of them showed no worry despite being in the center of the Zenin Clan.
In fact, their attitude showed that they didn't give a damn about the Zenin Clan, seeing how nonchalant both of them seemed.
One with white hair while the other with black hair, the only thing common between them would be the annoying smirk plastered over their faces that doesn't seem to vanish no matter what.
"Isn't she a cute Satoru? She would definitely be a beauty once she grows up."
Noah said, pinching Maki and Mai's cheeks that felt softer than marshmallows. He felt like biting them.
"That is a highly sensitive thing coming out of your mouth, but I guess you are right." Satoru nodded, rubbing Mai's head making her hair a mess. "First Kalluto, now that she ran, you went after the Zenin twins… You might end up with a weird title at this rate."
"... I don't like the way you worded it, but I have no bad intentions."
"Yeah… "I want to buy twins from Zenin"... it wasn't me who said that."
'I admit I had some other intentions… but those were for when they grow up…' — was not something he was going to say out loud.
He might really end up with a weird title if he said that.
While Noah and Gojo were talking with each other while pinching and rubbing the cheeks and head of the twins, everyone else stared at them in silence.
They felt like they were being ignored—it wasn't the best feeling out there.
"I hate to interrupt, but did you bring what you promised?"
"Oh. You guys were still here? I almost forgot that. Hahaha!"
A vein popped onto everyone's forehead, staring at the stupidly laughing Noah (rubbing the back of his head).
"But then again, I guess you really want the cursed weapons of Toji."
The atmosphere became tense, the Zenin staring at Noah and Gojo.
Every higher brass in the Zenin Clan knew the strength of Toji and his status as the Sorcerer Killer wasn't hidden either.
The Cursed Tools he used to achieve that level of strength... they shouldn't be cheap in the least—definitely high-level cursed tools.
Maki and Mai were useless with no value to their clan whatsoever, so selling them in exchange for Toji's Cursed Tools didn't sound a bad deal to them.
In fact, it was too good to be true.
Yet, there was this air of suspiciousness swirling within Naobito's mind — why would they want Maki and Mai?
Is there something special about them that they don't know?
And after seeing and meeting Noah, who also didn't possess any cursed energy while having the strength equal to or even greater than Toji, Naobito's mind started to have some doubts.
Is there something about people without cursed energy that they don't know?
Except for enhanced inhumane strength that they can also achieve with curse energy, is there anything else that he is missing?
But as they say, humans are stupid creatures.
Despite the worth of Toji, did they care? No. The clan still never put Toji in their eyes because he didn't have any curse energy and Naobito who followed the twisted, traditional values of the Zenin Clan thought the same.
So despite him thinking Noah buying the twins was suspicious, he didn't care—for in his eyes, their value was even lower than humans.
Noah's eyes narrowed and his smile became slightly thinner as he stared at the people in front of him—stupid, utterly stupid.
It always amazed him when he see people like Naobito—how stupid can one be?
Is Toji not a prime example of someone without curse energy? Even Naobito as a Clan Head of the Zenin Clan can't defeat him, yet such ignorance was beyond belief.
It was laughable.
If Curse Energy was what decided the worth of humans, then curses were indeed more human than the people sitting in front of him.
With a slight gesture of his hand, the cursed tools saved within his inventory appeared in front of everyone, making their breath stagnate.
Naobito's eyes narrowed and his mind tried its best to come up with an answer to the sudden appearance of the curse tools.
"The Japanese broadsword which has quite a sharp edge, Chain of Thousand Miles, and some other Cursed Tools. Though the first two should be enough, I'm feeling generous today."
Except for Inverted Spear of Heaven, Noah didn't really care for any other Cursed Tools—they might be good but really weren't worth much in Noah's eyes.
"Hahahaha! Indeed, they are quite powerful Cursed Tools!" Naobito laughed, feeling the sweeping curse energy from the tools and their description provided by Noah. "The deal is done, but are you still not going to entertain my question?"
"There's no reason really." Noah answered as his eyes trailed towards the twins who were warily looking at him. "I just thought they were cute."
"So for their faces? Is this what people call future investment?"
"Wow…" Gojo clapped his hand softly before he looked at Noah with a slightly disgusted gaze. "I'm sure now, the title is coming."
Noah's brows twitch hearing Gojo's tone and what he was trying to imply.
'I mean… He is not wrong… Kinda…' He suddenly gripped his head. 'No matter how I play with words… It still doesn't change the fact that I got them because I liked the future twins, did it?'
"Don't worry Noah, I trust you."
"Satoru…" Noah stared at Gojo as if seeing an angel in front of him—when did Satoru look this beautiful? He wondered.
"I trust that no matter how degenerate and pathetic you become, or no matter how bad of a title you receive—I trust that you will definitely be able to find a woman in your life so that you wouldn't have to resort to such means."
"Want me to punch you?" Noah suddenly felt this sudden urge to compel his desire of punching the person in front of him.
'Does he think the reason I'm buying the Zenin twins is that I couldn't find a girl in my life, so I am resorting to buying children and grooming them to be my future partner?... How sharp….'
"Now then…" Noah called back everyone's attention to him.
Standing up, he placed his hand over his chest before giving a small bow.
"Since the deal is complete, we will take our leave. I feel quite stiff here and wouldn't know if I'll be able to control myself from doing… something excessive."
"Also, I would appreciate it if you teach these dogs to have better control over their cursed energy." Walking out of the room, he pointed towards Chojuro Zenin and Renta Zenin standing at the side of the door. "It was quite annoying to have their cursed energy projected on us all the time."
Silence returned to the room after Noah left with Gojo and the twins, leaving everyone standing there, deep in thought.
"Bastard… I will kill him if I ever meet him again in the future." Chojuro muttered under his breath, trying his best to control his breathing which seemed to get out of control due to anger.
"Jinichi… Dig everything you can about Noah Pendragon. I want to know everything about him, since his birth till now, leaving nothing untouched."
Staring at the cursed tools, Naobito said, his voice carrying unimaginable anger and fury.
"Also find what connection he has with the Gojo Family for them to send a personal request of buying Maki and Mai."
'Though I guess most of it is due to the presence of Satoru with him.'
"It will be done." Jinichi nodded.
|—Outside of the Zenin Clan—|
"Ahhhh! That was tiring." Gojo stretched his body before looking back from over his shoulder towards Noah. "Do you have a bad history with the Zenin or something? You looked on edge the whole time."
"Nothing personal." Noah answered, staring back at Zenin before replying. "They just remind me of some shitty collection of memories."
Gojo didn't pray further before looking toward the stiff twins with a smirk.
Noah didn't have any cursed energy, he could defer his treatment wasn't much different than the twins in front of him.
Noah might have felt a personal connection with the twins or he might have remembered his past, nonetheless, it had nothing to do with him.
"Though I'm still curious, why did you get these girls?"
Mai hid behind Maki, cautiously staring at the duo in front of her.
"You know how I'm under the Heavenly Restriction to complete certain contracts provided by the world, right?"
He wanted to know if he could have people post a request manually—instead of the world selecting them—so he told Geto and Gojo about the Quest Board.
He had thought that if they knew about it, Quest Board might recognize them as potential customers but it completely ignored him.
He wondered if the reason was due to him not telling them about the whole Multiverse part—but he would rather avoid sharing that part… for now at least.
"Maki should be the one to post a quest, right?"
"So that's why." Gojo nodded before looking back towards the twins, finding Maki staring at Noah with slight excitement.
"A-are you the Son of Worlds?"
"Son of Worlds?" Noah and Gojo raised a brow at the same time while Gojo gazed at Noah with interest.
"Hmmmm." While rubbing his chin, Noah wondered when he had such a corny name under his belt. "Well… I guess I'll roll with it."
"Yes. But I would appreciate it if you call me Big Brother Noah, I don't want the whole world to know about my prestigious position."
"... You have no idea about it yourself…" Gojo added, staring at the smugly smiling Noah who nodded as if appreciating the grandness of the title.
"Then are you going to make me the strongest?"
"Ho~!" Noah stared down at Maki, who looked up at him with a firm and determined gaze.
There was no hesitation within those golden eyes, making Noah almost shiver with excitement.
He placed his hand over his mouth, hiding the grin that had taken over his face.
'Ahhh! I almost let my bad habit take over. I can't let anyone know about it.'
Calming down the sadist side that seemed to want him to dominate the passion in Maki's eyes, he bent down to reach her level, a red aura seeping out of his body.
"Then are you willing to do anything for strength? Even killing your own family?"
"As long as I can protect my sister, I don't mind killing everyone in the Zenin Clan."
There was no hesitation within her voice despite feeling the dreadful aura of Noah being pressed on her.
One could see how determined she was.
Noah's eyes widened slightly, not in surprise but in euphoric bliss that seemed to take over his body and mind.
The hate, the anger, the pain, the suffering, the darkness—he could particularly feel those emotions from the girl in front of him.
How much suffering she had to go through to reach this point—this was not the question in his mind; rather it was how beautiful Maki would look when she would kill everyone in her clan.
He might hide it but… Noah was a fully-fledged sadist.
"Then I will make sure you achieve it fully in the future." He answered; it was simple yet enough to make Maki happy.
From the side, Gojo stared at Noah with a slight glint in his eyes before he smiled.
'Really… I guess I made a troublesome friend.'
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