Chapter 31 - 『Big House』

Reentering the house hand in hand, the duo looked at the stained floors from their little battle. The Foyer could be easily remedied of the mess that was left over. Be it with hand held tools or magic.

Jack let out a light sigh, he was rather disappointed that the past two houses he had gone to purchase had something to do with the undead. First Dread Wraiths, now there were Cultists who wanted to turn people into a mass of undead monsters for the some crazed obsession over Death itself.

Arche however was looking up at Jack, her ambient signature lifeless doll impression apparent, her eyes trailed down to their hands. He seemed to like the feeling, of holding someone's hand.

She had just accepted courtship between them. Was this normal?

When she took her hand out from his soft grasp, she would remove her hard leather glove, before slowly weaseling her hand back into his.

Jack just looked down at her when she had pulled her hand from him. A matching stoic expression on his face as he looked her over. So as she went to slip her hand back into his, he'd remove his glove as well. For the first time she would feel the warmth, the strange unnatural holy radiance which permeated his skin.

Her lips remained pressed together as she would take his hands into both of hers. Looking over his fingers, as if studying a magic relic of sorts. That's when her eyes then shot up to him.

Jack smiled softly seeing her expression, "Find something interesting under my nails?" His sarcasm caused her face to flush lightly.

"N-no, I just feel this strange warm calming sensation when I touched your hand..."

Jack nodded slowly as she noted this to him, he hadn't noticed before. Though he did know that if he had his wings away, he had less of an area effect on the undead should they be around him. Mostly when the much weaker Lich didn't get ambient holy damage.

Suavely moving his hand, he would caress her cheek with his bare fingers. She almost shuttered at his touch, from the strange holy energy which would surge through her, without causing harm.

Goltron who was standing by the fountain just happened to glance over towards the open front doors of the Foyer. Resting is eyes on the pair, he raised a brow. As if being blessed by the gods, Arche's skin was giving a saintly glow as Jack was caressing her face.

Her hues shivered at the feeling, her eyes trailing from his face to watching his wrist as his hand moved. Biting her lower lip she would reach up and place her gloved hand on his forearm, lowering his hand to his side. A smile captured her face, Arche then held his hand again.

Her head slowly turned, her eyes perceiving Goltron from their peripheral sight, before she looked up to Jack once more and lightly gesturing her head to the side. "You… Wanted to explore the place, right?"

Jack chuckled lightly, before shifting his gaze to look at Goltron from over his shoulder as they continued farther into the home. There was awe and realization written all over that High Priest's face.

The two of them started down the corridor towards the West wing of the manor. His gaze danced from door to door. Each room was open, there was plenty of decent furniture here, most of it custom made. Unlike the previous how which was trashed, this one was well maintained.

Perhaps this place could work rather well for an alternate home to the Great Tomb. It had some normality to it. At least in the sense that there was no fake sky on the ceiling, even though he could probably add it. The walls were plain except for some portraits of people wearing fancy military or noble attire. He didn't quite know who they were, but they did add some fineness to the place.

Ten bedrooms, five in each wing. Two servants barracks, one on either side of the central complex with six small storage cellars, then one large bathing area. This place was definitely meant for the rich. Even then, it was dwarfed by the Royal Palace.

The bathing area reminded Jack of the historic Roman Bathhouses during the Holy Roman Empire which was in various books he's read in the past.

There was even a ballroom for glorious social parties. That was something which somewhat interested him. He knew how to formally dance, at least by twenty first and twenty second century standards.

Perhaps he could invite the Bloody Emperor and his Bureaucratic party to the house, hold a ball, introduce the foods of Nazarick? Begin his economic takeover? That should be amusing, right? Even with Fluder probably attending as Court Wizard, it'd be even more interesting to see the old man try to hide his interests.

While Jack seemed to be in his head and occasionally looking to the rooms they passed, or even walked inside to check them out, Arche watched their surroundings.

The floor was well taken care of, it didn't squeak under their feet as they moved. She didn't hear any rats in the walls nearby, or see any immediate health risks. She was pretty sure this place was bigger than her old home. The home which her parents currently ran into the ground and into disrepair.

Arche lead Jack into one of the bedrooms in the west wing, looking over the furniture. Whomever had lived here before, had to have been more wealthy than her family was prior to losing their status.

The quilted comforters matched the curtains which blotched out the tinted windows, being a light blue. Like the flooring, the dresser and other vanity items were made from expensive dark wood.

"You want this as your room?" Jack asked as he glanced around from the doorway, with her at his side.

The bed was King-sized and had dimensions close to that of a perfect square, being eighty inches wide and eighty inches long. Plenty of people could sleep on that bed, be it all lined up together, or laying in random locations across its surface.

Jack smirked a bit as he remembered the one time he and his sister slept at the end of their parents bed, after a fire had taken out their home.

Arche just stared up at him for a few seconds before looking to the bed as he was seemingly smirking at it. "If you'd allow it," she said quietly, her eyes drifting towards the full length mirror by the bed.

Her eyes rested on their two figures standing beside one another. The height difference was slightly awkward, but also at the same time he seemed pleased with it. Though she herself didn't really dislike I either. In a way, it was appealing.

"I can't believe I'm actually taking my sisters away from my parents..." She couldn't take her eyes off of the mirror, watching as the man who was holding her hand set his gaze upon it.

Jack would slip his weapon into his item box before placing his free hand on the top of her head.

"Perhaps my parents will see their wrongdoings," Arche seemed to be smiling faintly, hope in her eyes. "Once I take my sisters away…"

Jack said nothing and just watched her, the hope in her eyes, as it shimmered brightly.

Slowly she turned to face him, her head tilting back a bit to take in the features of his face. "I'm still trying to figure out… Why you're helping me, and why you have interest in me.."

Jack's eyes lifted from her, when she spoke, and wondered over toward the nearby wardrobe. "Oh..?"

She could see he wasn't necessarily enthusiastic about the questions, definitely after hearing his voice trail off on such a small line. Politically she didn't see him clinging to them to be of real gain to him. Heck, he could have just abandoned them out there on the plains. She was sure they'd survive should they have ran away.

A house to keep her sisters. A place to use as their headquarters. Everything benefitted them monetarily and her goals were going to be sated almost immediately with his help. She could go back to the Magic Academy, or continue working as a Worker.

The fallen noble was sure she didn't want to leech off of him, so it was likely she'd continue to develop her own independent wealth. Her eyes narrowed, most of the things he was giving seemed focused on her.

"So… Why are you helping me?"

Jack's eyes traced over her face as he turned to her as she asked why he was helping her in particular. She didn't ask why he was helping the group, but her, only her. "I wanted to make an impression on you, selfish, isn't it?"

"...Selfish..." She repeated the word he used before slowly slipping her hand from his.

"You gave the air of something I would want to protect and hold onto. Even though… You kind of puked the moment you saw me." Jack almost burst into laughter as he remembered the first thing he said pertaining to her, 'how rude,' with a mused smirk.

Her face turned red as he spoke of how she had reacted to his magical energy when she saw him in the sky, flying with wings on his back. It definitely wasn't something she expected. "If you wore that ring, I wouldn't have...!" Her voice seemed to squeak at him, her bare hand palming the side of her head. "So embarrassing..."

"You're too adorable," Jack's head shook side to side in a relaxed fashion.

Arche seemed to whine in the back of her throat before letting her arms fall to her sides. "We're done here. Let's go look at the next floor," tossing the iron staff of hers onto the bed, she would walk out of the room. Brushing passed him, looking up at him fondly from the corner of her eye.

Jack rolled his eyes slightly and chuckled, following after her with his hand folded against his lower back. His eyes watched as the hair framing her face bounced with each oddly stringent step she took.

When they finally made it to a doorway leading to the staircase, they both peered inside from the side of the frame. He was leaning over her in the process. "Why are you stopping?" He'd whisper in her ear.

"No reason," nonchalantly she waltzed on into the room and started going up the steps.

Jack continued to casually stalk behind her at the edge of her shadow. Even in armor he was hardly even making a sound as he did so.

As they continued to walk along the corridors and looking at each of the rooms. It seemed that the only worth left behind since the fall of the noble house that once lived there, was just the furniture and décor. Jewelry, and personal items that were actually worth something, were no where to be seen.

In a way it was saddening, but at the same time, not really.

This was a place he was to make his home, or at least that is what he wanted to believe.

As his eyes turned to the girl who was moving in front of him, the shifting and movement of the cape on her back captivating him temporarily. That was until the two of them came across a pair of double doors, both of them stepping in front of it with a brows raised.

"What do you think is in here?" Jack inquired.

"Master bedroom?" Guessing, Arche would reach forward and lightly jiggle the knob. It was locked. "If we kicked down the door, how hard would it be to put back up?"

"Depends on if the Termite got to it."

Arche just stared at him when he made this joke, using her friends and leader's surname in a pun. One could clearly however see her dimples as she was withholding a smile and a bundle of laughter. Yet she still seemed to carry that impression of a lifeless doll, which was still oddly alluring.

Jack would wave a hand over the doorknob, it would shine a light pink for a split second followed by a a well known click, as the door unlocked. He would then proceed to nudge it open.

"Can you teach me that?" Arche gazed over his hand for a moment before curling her lower lip a bit into her mouth.

"What are you going to do with it? Rob the Merchants Guild?" Snickering at this, Jack would peer into the room, his eyes taking in the surroundings. It was the Master's study. He could see tons of books, a desk and even a fire place. The room was rather long, dark. It reminded him of a rich villains lair almost. "Hm, looks safe." Jack stepped inside, Arche following in closely behind.

Unlike the other rooms which seemed to be the same temperature as the outside. This one in particular was cold. The curtains were tattered and there was a shape in the chair in front of the desk.

"Hm..." Jack picked up the pace and turned the chair around with his armored hand. It was a corpse, it had been dead several months now. There was clear evidence that the person's throat had been slit open execution style. His eyes drifted over towards a glass of brown liquid on the desk, only partially drunk.

"Appears to be the master of the house," He turned his head and looked to Arche who was running her fingers along the spines of the books on the long walls of shelves.

"The Emperor did kill the nobles who wouldn't back down," she said with a light sigh, "while some of the families were spared." Her family was spared, but in the end, her parents became delusional.

"Are you still going to be paying off their debt?" Jack asked curiously, wondering if she would keep trying to save the rest of her family, even after getting her sisters.

"I don't… I don't know," She adjusted herself accordingly to face him, her fingers curling around the skirting of her sturdy attire. "They're my family."

Jack understood the sentiment which was going through her mind. Her parents hadn't always been as delusional as they were now. They were nobility, they lived a comfortable life style, and that is what had doomed them from the start. Only she seemed to be the practical one in the family.

"Do you have faith that I will protect your sisters, and yourself?"

Arche hadn't removed her eyes from him, but she was trying her best not to look at the decomposing corpse in the chair. Though she was rather happy it hadn't reanimated. In a hard to notice, low-key, manner she appeared to nod to him.

He had saved her and her group without hesitation by demonstrating great power. Why wouldn't she have faith in him? Plus he was an Angel, despite his not entirely holy behavior.

She'd watch as he walked over to the window, open it, and then wheel the body over before tossing it out of the study. A sickening splat sound followed.

Jack glanced down at the seat, frowning at the ruined cushion before tossing the rest of the chair out the window as well, breaking off the pieces that got stuck on the window frame.

"Shall we get going?" He asked as reaching out a hand for her own, a casual smile across his lips.

"You really like holding my hand..." Arche spoke loosely as she reached over and dancing her fingers into his hand almost playfully.

"It reminds me that you're there, that you're real."

Arche flexed her eyelids, "What else would I be?" She'd ask rather confounded by his response.