Chapter 9 (1/2)
Gin, quit being so nosy
Isefel turned his head, black irises fixing on the object of his attention. Feisha suspects that Isefel had actually raised himself a little bit, because Feisha had to crane his neck in order to maintain eye contact. The height difference easily made Isefel look more imposing, which didn’t do wonders for Feisha’s request.
Isefel was truly a despicable being.
Feisha resolved to not let him have his way and scrambled to stand up immediately, sweeping his sight over the head of black hair. Isefel, on the other hand, did not move at all and instead remained staring forwards – Feisha’s stomach.
“Reason?”
“My life is currently filled with impoverishment, frustration and distress.” Within one month of his stay at Noah’s Ark, he had already piled up a debt of one and a half thousand to the hotel, seven hundred and fifty of which was to Hughes.
“Rejected,” Isefel replied nonchalantly.
“Why?” Despite not expecting Isefel to agree, Feisha was annoyed nonetheless at the curt reply.
“People whose lives are filled with impoverishment, frustration and distress tend not to be overweight.”
After delivering the flawless fatality, Isefel resumed swimming. This was to be done daily as per God’s Will, but to be honest Isefel didn’t think that it helped him at all.
He resurfaced after an hour to the sight of Feisha, still daydreaming at the edge of the pool.
“I will not be changing my mind.” He made to leave, dripping water onto the ground.
Feisha followed silently.
Ignoring the person behind him, Isefel strode lightly into his room; this floor was unique from the others in that apart from the pool, the only other room was Isefel’s bedroom. Thankfully, there was nothing that stood out in particular with it, which eased Feisha’s mind somewhat.
“I’m here to ask for your help,” Feisha quickly said upon seeing Isefel enter the bathroom.
“Your mentor is Hughes.”
Seeing no other option, Feisha shoved himself between Isefel and the bathroom door. “You know, I think you’re more well-read.” Sorry, Hughes, I’m just sucking up to him a bit.
Isefel looked at Feisha’s armful of books. “You really believe that I know more about the language of the invisible race than an actual invisible person?”
“…Yeah, it’ll be a real reflection of your intelligence.” Feisha decided that if Isefel refused again, he was going to cling onto to Isefel’s waist and physically stop him from taking a shower. He had readied himself to pounce when Isefel replied-
“Very well.”
“Err,” Feisha paused. “I mean- great! I’ll- uh, I’ll be waiting outside.”
He felt kind of disappointed, actually. He had imagined that Isefel’s abs would have a similar feel to a Simmons mattress, but now he’ll never know for sure.
Hearing the sound of a running shower behind the door, Feisha wandered around the room. Despite having the same layout, Isefel’s room clearly had a sharper palette. White curtains, black bedsheets, black and white closet; even the lamp gave off a snowy white glow. The entire room was minimalistic to the point of being monotonous, much like Isefel’s way of speech.
Come to think of it, Gin could probably donate a few of his roses to liven this room up a little.
The door opened and a suit-clad Isefel emerged, backed by waves of steam pouring out from behind him.
“Do you hang your suits in the bathroom?” Wouldn’t it get damp from the steam?
“No.”
Feisha pointed at Isefel’s getup. “But you’re wearing…”
Isefel held up a hand and instantly, a set of neatly hanged dress uniform appeared in his hand.
A pause.
Perhaps it was time for Feisha to abandon the narrow-minded human mindset of getting clothes from a closet.
Isefel put the clothes back. “What did you need to ask?”
At this, Feisha excitedly opened the book in his hand and pointed at the symbol he had noticed earlier. “Does this character mean ‘the’?” The time has come for him to awaken the prodigy within.
Isefel glanced at it, and replied unhurriedly, “That is a symbol. It serves a similar purpose to your full stop.”
……………
Feisha sighed in disappointment. “You made it too complicated…”
Aside from the perpetual monotone, Isefel was actually a pretty good teacher. At the very least, he was patient, a fact Feisha was very satisfied with.
In reality, all Feisha did was sit there and listen while Isefel translated everything.
One piece of information caught his attention.
“So what you’re saying is that within the werewolf race, there’s a disease going around that makes them crave human flesh and blood when they see the full moon.”
“Yes.”
“Why can’t they cure it?” asked Feisha. “Don’t the worlds all have pretty good relationships with each other? Can’t you just ask God to do something about it? Instead of being triggered by seeing a full moon, the disease can be triggered instead by a square moon.”
Isefel’s face twisted into a weird expression, sending Feisha into a panic:
“I was joking, I was joking. Please don’t actually cut the moon down to a cube; the astronauts will fall off the edge.”
“………..”
“Sorry, you can go take a drink if my joke was too dry for you.”
“………..”
Maybe it’d be better if he just stopped talking.
“That is enough for today,” Isefel finally said, closing the book and handing it back to Feisha.
“Then I’ll be back tomorrow,” said Feisha reluctantly. Walking to the door, something suddenly occurred to him:
“Wait, correct me if I’m wrong but- isn’t the day after tomorrow a full moon? Doesn’t that mean the werewolf guests that checked in today will…?” Feisha’s pretty sure that he was the only human on Noah’s Ark.
“Yes.” Isefel confirmed his death penalty with an emotionless expression.
“Apparently they’re staying for five days.”
“Yes.”