Noel

Ricky swayed towards the reception desk. Then, he sat on one of the prepared stools in front of it.

"I want... a bottle of whiskey..."

He said to Noel while pointing his finger to him, mouth forming a messy grin while he swayed again, slamming his head on the table. Noel’s eyes widened in surprise, before his eyelids twitched. For an ample amount of time, he stared at the snoozing person in front of him, as he thought…

How could he find this hidden library?

Noel had strategically chosen his library's location to be on the most secluded place, away from the bustling city of Westwood. He chose his place carefully, at the back of the alleyway of a suburban road north to the town of Westwood, near the so-called death forest—which people said that there are meat ravaging ghosts who kidnapped people and scattered their blood everywhere on the roadside. Actually, the legend about the ghost weren’t true at all. There’s nothing, except for some psychopath who hid inside an abandoned house inside the forest and killed people occasionally. That too, have been handled by Noel. He wouldn’t want to harm any visitors coming to his library.

Then again, his selection of location is to determine the personality of his visitors who found this library. He wanted the people who entered his library to have a personality bordering between not too moping over their live but also not too oblivious of their surroundings. In sum, he just wanted a normal looking people—who’re willing to share their story—to be the one visiting his library.

His library is not what one would call normal anyways.

Not, this douche.

His mind suddenly recalled his first encounter with Ricky. It was a neutral meeting between two people who didn’t know each other, supposedly, but Ricky somehow managed to tick him off with his cheeky behaviour. Fair enough, bringing a pouch filled with gold might not be a go-to way of bringing money to school, but Noel barely arrived in this world last week, he wasn’t sure what kind of currency he should bring to school, or whether he should bring any money at all.

Noel pondered for a bit, before letting one of his hands to brush Ricky’s hair. The strange feeling—which he first got during daytime—returned. This drunkard felt warm to the touch, highly due to the fact that he had consumed alcohol plenty enough to heat up his entire body.

After a few moments of Noel passively stroking the side of Ricky’s hair, while Ricky was snoozing his way to dreamland, a thought came to his mind.

“You have a pretty bad drinking habit, huh?” He muttered. From their encounter, Ricky seemed like a particularly reasonable person, given his neutral role in school, and the tone of his voice, which exerts authority occasionally. He didn’t know that Ricky could be this messy when he’s drunk, not that he had ever known him at all.

Noel’s fingers twitched. For some reason, he felt a little sense of regret when he pulled up his hand. He contemplated whether he should send Ricky out and place him at any random place, or send him home. Noel’s brows twitched, in response to the incessant revolting scent which seemed to source from somewhere. He grabbed onto both of Ricky’s arms and pushed him backwards, revealing his abdomen.

“Ah…” Noel’s lips parted a bit.

He proceeded to call a handful of gremlins, as he slowly laid Ricky on the table to continue his sleep.

“Bring him upstairs.” Noel ordered the gremlins. While the gremlins hauled Ricky up to a flight of stairs, which Noel conjured, Noel heaved a long sigh, deeply contemplating his decision, which he made right after seeing the vomit on Ricky’s clothes.

Noel’s idea is crazy. If deciding to bathe a full-grown adult is not a crazy idea, he wouldn’t know what is. After scrubbing Ricky clean, and was surprised by the amount of masculine features Ricky had (censor needed), Noel dragged the douche’s titan body onto the bed, he was pulled by the force, and unwillingly laid on the bed beside where the douche fell down. Luckily his scent is bearable now, after gotten dressed with new and clean clothes. He's rather impressed that the douche didn't wake up even the slightest bit from what were done to him.

Alcohol sure is scary...

Noel massaged his shoulders as he heaved a long, tired sigh.

The gremlins—after assisting Noel and cleaning up the grimy bathtub— were also sitting on the floor, expressing their heartfelt complains among each other. They chatted about how hard it was to bathe the douche and would rather bathe an ox than bathing a human who didn't even know what a personal hygiene is.

Noel chuckled when he understood the gremlin's monster tongue conversation. The gremlins who realized that they've been found out, quickly stood out and excuse themselves out of embarrassment.

Then room fell silent after the chatterboxes left. Only the smooth whooshing sound from the new vintage ceiling fan filled the tranquil air.

Noel exhaled and turned his head to the side to face that douche. After bathing him, he doesn't look that half bad and his actual body odour smells nice, like a warm summer. The douche breathes softly, his fingers twitched occasionally from his sleep. Just what kind of dream he's having there?

Noel pondered for a bit, as he stared at Ricky. Ricky’s fingers twitched again, which made Noel really curious what kind of dream Ricky might be having to have that kind of movement. Slowly, he touched the douche’s twitching index finger with his right index. An immediate zap suddenly happened, rendering him to flinch and pulled away.

What was that…?

That zap definitely felt like an electric rush, that surged the Mana inside him into a state of haywire. He creased his eyebrows, trying to calm down his Mana Circulation—one of the paths for him to cycle his Mana to its optimum efficiency.

He felt his right nape throb.

Noel took a few minutes calming his Mana Circulation down. As he did, he could see a hint of Mana in his surroundings. Some came from him, but most of it was from Ricky. He heaved a relieved sigh after his Mana Flow returned normal. He then shot the douche a strange look. “How did you do that?” He muttered, throwing that question into air. He knew he won’t get that answer from Ricky any time soon, not like he even knew what Mana is.

With a scoff, Noel brushed back his hair until far down.

“Hm?” He turned to his back. “Ah, right. I forgot that my hair is short in this world.” He said, after dithering a bit. Noel then turned to Ricky.

"Now then..." Noel heaved a sharp sigh, and snapped his fingers—both dispersing the remaining unnecessary thoughts, and beginning a chant.

"Where should I send you back to...?"