Lucifer's Descendant System

"... This—" Noah widened his eyes, as he recognized the taste as he put the food in his mouth. This was the dish his mother would often make him.

"Is there something wrong with your food?" she asked, as Noah seemed a little strange to her, his attention elsewhere.

"Eh? No, not really. This dish just reminded me of my mother..." he told her, slowly eating the food on his plate, as he supressed the tears from forming.

"I... I'm sorry for your loss," she changed expression mid-sentence, realizing what was going on. At the same time, Lilith called out Noah's attention.

'I mean, is it that much similar that you'd cry? Damn...' she told him, making him struggle to keep his poker-face.

'Maybe, maybe not. I haven't eaten this stuff in years, you think I can know that for sure?' he snarked at her in thought, not stopping eating, and took a mouthful of wine, before addressing the woman across. "Ms.

Yangshu, it was a great pleasure sharing a table with you, I'd love to spend the rest of the afternoon talking, but I feel my sister must already be quite anxious," he said, warning her he was ready to leave.

"I would be very happpy to share the rest of the meal, but I understand your family wants your company. Sorry for disturbing your plans," she said, rolling the last bit of her wine on the glass, her bottle already empty.

"There's nothing to be sorry of. Rather, thank you for being so understanding. It was a pleasure having a meal with you," Noah said, as he pushed his chair back and stood up.

"Pleasure was all mine, hope we have many more of these in the future. But having them planned ahead of time would also be delightful," she responded while Noah nodded, and headed to his own table, where Maggie and others awaited him.

She stared at his back as he left, thinking while rolling her glass around. A set of purple eyes matched her gaze, making her smile and nod slightly, only fot them to look away.

"Ma'am, was the food to your liking?" A woman asked, resting her hand on the backrest of Yangshu's chair.

"It was delightful, Jul. You hands are always perfect when it comes to cooking," she complimented her, befor looking up to see the woman. Dressed in a white apron over fancy clothes, Julia was a rather plain woman. She was younger than Yangshu, but not by much, slowly approaching her late 40s

"I appreciate your kindness. But, who was that youngster? It's not often that I see you eat with anyone's company," she asked, making it clear they were on good terms.

"Him? He is one of the most promissing Blessed around here. He's also a high-up of the Khan Family," she said, drinking the last bit of the whine.

"Khan, huh... Good thing they are the one family you can somewhat trust," the woman said, looking around and hurriedly signing for one of the workers to come over. "Mind if I ask his name?" she made small talk, waiting for someone to fill up her glass.

"That boy is Elder Noah Stern, a B-Rank blessed that won the Khan this week's arena," she said, making Julia look over at his direction. She stared at the table, which was larger than the usual for this restaurant, and saw a face she somewhat remembered.

"Stern... There's no way God would be this kind, is there?" she muttered to herself, making Yangshu interested.

"Why would you say that?" she asked, putting her glass down, just in time for it to be finally filled.

"Many years ago I worked with a woman whose family name was Stern. She was a widow with two children. One was a boy named Noah as well, and her daughter was gravely ill... She taught me most of what I know," she told Yanshu, looking in the distance at the large art on the back wall with the name of her restaurant.

"Is that so... Tell me more, what of her?" Yangshu was rather interested in this conversation, and would not let her go.

"Well... she had just gotten a large loan to open up her restaurant, and I was to be her sous-chef. But as her daughter's condition worsened, she backed off and spent all of her money on hospital bills and treatment for the kid...

We lost contact shortly after, when we had a fight over this..." she said without looking at the woman she was talking to, but to Yangshu, this was not out of disrespect, but rather, not showing her own pain through.

"I see... You probably thought she would've been better off apening up her place and slowly paying for the treatment, isn't that so?" Yangshu asked, and saw a tear form on Julia's eye.

"Now I know there was no such choice... But back then—" she started speaking, but interrupted herself, as she realized the tears were forming, and wiped them off with her cuff. "Back then, I thought it was an option. Now I know if she hadn't done it, her daughter would have soon died.

Either way, since she couldn't pay back her debt, all she did was trade her daughter's life for her own," she said, clearly saddened, but a lot calmer. "I wonder what was of her children after she died..." she muttered, taking the hand off the back-rest. "I have to go back to the kitchen, if you don't mind," she said, to which Yangshu waved her hand, letting her go.

"Interesting..." Yangshu muttered, as she stared at her now glass of wine, with a smile full of curiosity, before staring at Noah's table in the distance as a man served her dessert. "To think he really was that woman's son... What a coincidence," she told herself, remembering of a person she had sought to help long ago, but who refused her, unlike Julia.

"So, Noah, what do you have to say in your defense?" Maggie bombarded him with questions as soon as he sat down at the table on the chair they reserved him between her and Sha, and across from Carlos, for some reason.

"She was not a person I can say no to," was his short and decisive answer...

"HEY!" while Carlos protested having his beer stolen and swigged down in a swift and continuous motion. "Asswhole..." Carlos cursed, making the whole table get into a fit of laughter.

"What did I miss?" Noah asked, as the laughter died down.

"Not much... We still haven't decided what to get for the main dish, but there's this thing Maggie wants a lot..." Sha told him in a soft voice, making Noah aware there was at least some debate over the food.

"I want Parmeggiana!" Maggie exclaimed with glee, but Carlos interjected.

"But that is just deep fried meat with sauce! I'm in favor of pasta!"

Noah soon became deaf to their heated debate, and started a conversation with Lilith instead.

'So, care to say why you're so silent?' he asked the snake, distancing himself from the debate.

'I'm just not feeling like talking much,' she responded, making Noah feel a little worried. 'Also, she was looking your way for quite some time now, did you not feel it?' she asked.

'I did, there was just no good in turning to face her too, since she doesn't know I can notice it,' he told the snake, brushing it off.

'I'm still hungry,' the snake told him, making him realize he hadn't even offered her the pasta. 'And eating pasta is hard and gets me dirty. I want more of that thing,' she said, making Noah giggle a little, before signing the nearest waiter and requesting some of the carpaccio again.

Lilith was clearly happy about it, and with her appeased, he could be a lot more at ease.

"Noah," he heard the pink healer talk to him, and turned to see her staring at him with pleading eyes. "Can you do something about them?" she asked, looking over at Carlos as Maggie.

Noah sighed, since he was not really inclined into fixing others' problems, but since she asked, he couldn't just ignore it. "You two, stop it. Maggie, ask for your Parmeggiana. It seems to be able to feed four people at most. Carlos, stop picking with Maggie, most pasta is an individual dish anyways.

And I'm getting Lasagna, so shut up," he said, making the girls giggle while Carlos shrunk in his seat. He was clearly trying to show off in front of Alice, but it had backfired. "Alice, you can pick whatever you want from the menu, my treat," he said, making the girl's eyes gleam.

Carlos stared at Noah as if he'd been backstabbed, but Noah didn't care in the slightest. He was, instead, covetly attacking Maggie's fried while she made her request to the waiter.

"Where did my fries go?!" she cried out as soon as she turned back, realizing they went missing, and Noah had just about finished swallowing the last of them.

"Give us the family portion of fries with cheddar and bacon," he told the waiter with a smile, while everyone started laughing, except for Maggie.

For the rest of the lunch, it was an uneventful meal. Sometimes there were reasons to laugh, but time was mostly spent eating. Carlos would occasionally try his luck talking to Alicem but him being her former boss, there was something like a canyon between the two. It was only when Carlos asked for a chocolate pizza as desert, that she finally talked to him.

"Um... Can I share it with you?" she asked, making Carlos' heart race.

"S—sure! Waiter, bring a couple more of the pizzas, I think everyone will want a little," but he ruined the possibility of a slightly romantic thing by acting... like himself.

Maggie and Noah looked at each other, before giggling. Lilith was silently eating her fourth portion of carpaccio.