139 A Message to be Forgotten

My visit to Noah's and Emilia's place was a brief one where I simply stayed for a dinner meal. That was the plan at least, but... it was one that was extremely awkward. It's not that I wasn't welcomed, instead, Emilia greeted me with an oddly high amount of fervor as she welcomed me, and almost as if she had known of my arrival, she had already prepared dinner for three people when I entered through the door.

Their house was smaller than the one I resided in since on their floor, there were four different independent houses due to the fact that the lower levels were more suited for individual residents while the higher up floors were larger and more suited for a family to live in. Despite this, their house wasn't small and was actually quite roomy for two people. When entering through the front door, I was immediately greeted by the living room where the couches, coffee table, and the television were located in the corner of the room near the sliding glass doors that led out to the balcony with the open-counter style kitchen not too far from it with a rectangular dining table. Then leading away from the living room was also a door that led away to a small hallway where the bedrooms were.

"Welcome," Emilia smiled as she greeted me when I entered. Like I had stated before, it was oddly welcoming which got on my nerves and made me quite nervous about what I was bringing myself into. "Dinner will be ready soon."

Although she was still dressed in her formal wear that she wore to her job as a teacher at our school, at the moment she was wearing an apron over it, making her appear in an outfit that I had never seen her in before while in class. Seeing her like this reminded me that the entirety of her existence wasn't centered around the school but rather it was to monitor me, which I still do not know the reason as to why. Even though I don't feel like I'm being monitored since Emilia gives me an oddly large amount of liberty to do as I wish without her constant accompaniment, which I believe has been fairly nonexistent ever since I've met her, I know for a fact that she knows everything that I do. It must be her divine powers as an angel because how else would she be able to gather so much information about me?

I nervously looked over at Noah, and even though I am quite ashamed to admit this, but I am looking towards him for help. This boy who sighed might be the other person that was sent to monitor me, but even if he is someone that's here to watch what I'm doing and reporting it, at least his method of doing things are more relaxed and comfortable to the mind since his behavior really distracts one's mind away from the fact that they might be being spied upon.

"Let's head to my room for now," Noah shook his head and continued towards the hallway where their rooms were located in.

I nodded towards Emilia, acknowledging her before I started walking after Noah. However, before I was able to disappear into his room, I was halted by her words.

"Just act like before and treat it like your own place," she said with a soft smile.

I looked over my shoulders, confused as to why she had said "like before". This should be the first time that I visited their home, so why does she say before? Did she mean like before as in the time where she stayed in my room as she searched for a place to stay? Whatever the case may be, my mind was boggled by it but I tried not to think to much about it.

When I entered Noah's room, I was surprised by how normal it appeared. Like a regular teenage boy's room, there was a computer desk with a PC on it up against the corner, and nearby it was a single bed with dark blue bed sheets that appeared extremely warm and downy in this winter season. There were also some clothes tossed out on the bed which Noah was folding as he returned them into his wardrobe.

"If I don't do this and Emilia sees it," he explained, "she'll get so mad. Like it'll be a death stare type of mad, if you get what I mean."

"I know," I nodded as I sat down on his computer chair. "There's a reason why you act so restrained right now compared to before."

"Right," he laughed. "She's like a strict older sister to me."

"So is it just the four archangels like in the scriptures?" I then asked out of curiosity. I had been in contact with God and three of his four archangels. Therefore, it's natural for me to have this sense of desire to know more about the divine which had appeared to be so mysterious ever since the creation of this world.

"Yeah," Noah responded. "So in order from youngest to oldest, there's me, Emilia and Ralus are about the same age but Ralus is a bit older, and Messiah is the eldest."

"Messiah?" I asked, perking my ears at this unfamiliar name.

"Humans know him better as Michael," Noah supplemented. "Just like how you call us Lucifer, Gabrielle, and Raphael."

"Are there any other angels aside from the four of you?"

"There are," Noah sighed. "But their really not that significant. The four of us are the main angels, hence the title archangel." Then, he sat down on his bed and yawned. On his face was an extremely fatigued and yet relaxed countenance as he allowed the momentary period of immobility to soothe his body of the day's weathering. "Alevian," Noah then started speaking. "Have you ever wondered why it was that you received that app?"

"Of course," I said as I spun around and stared at my own reflection in his blank computer monitor. "Who wouldn't wonder why they were chosen to carry out these stupid tasks assigned either by God or his angels?"

"I guess you're right," he laughed, but that laughter was only short-lived as his tone of voice transitioned into the former more serious one. "Then I don't think I can tell you the answer just yet then..." His voice slowly became quieter and quieter until at the very end, his lips were moving but I was unable to hear him say anything.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," he shook his head. Then, he looked over at me once again. "Do you think what we're doing is helping you or harming you?"

"What kind of question is that?" I mumbled to myself. "I guess harm me. If not for these missions, then my life would be so much easier."

"But don't you think it's these missions that gave you what you have right now?" Noah asked. "If not for them, you wouldn't be in the club with Loyd, Muria, and you would never have met Irina, Zaksus, and Luna."

"It might have some good to it," I sighed. "But it also brought to me many troubles."

"I guess you have a point," Noah smiled and nodded. "I apologize if the missions we've sent you have been causing you trouble."

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, feeling an odd eeriness to the atmosphere in Noah's room at the moment after seeing him behave in such a calm and reserved manner that I've never truly seen from him.

"Nothing," he smiled and lowered his head until his chin was against his neck and his eyes stared down at his lap. "A long, long time ago," he suddenly started, "right after I was born as an angel, I was greeted by three of angels: Messiah; Ralus, who was then Lucifer; and Emilia. Since Messiah was the eldest and trusted the most by our creator, he was often busy, and Ralus would always follow him around to assist him. Therefore, it was Emilia who raised me."

I didn't interrupted him as he suddenly started talking about his past. I felt a great deal of confusion from the suddenness of it, but there must be a reason why he chose to do so now, unless he's just doing it because he can. Either choice has a high possibility of occurring because he's Noah, making it extremely difficult for me to decide which one of the two choices was the one that had influenced him to tell his story.

"Emilia was kind and all, but it was the few moments that I shared with Messiah that was the most memorable," Noah continued. "He was always so kind and composed, acting like the perfect older brother figure in my world. But... a few years later, he disappeared."

"Messiah?" I asked.

"Right," Noah nodded. "I only knew of the reason for his disappearance a couple hundred years later after I bothered Ralus to tell me about it...." He remained silent as he lifted his head to look up at the ceiling light over head. "Dinner should be ready soon. Let's go wait in the living room."

He got up from his bed and walked to the exit of his bedroom, not looking back to make sure that I was following. I believe that he must be intentionally trying to conceal the reason of Messiah's disappearance from me or else he would not have paused the story at that moment. Another suspicion I have is that he wanted me to be curious about the reason why, which explained why he chose to leave it at a cliffhanger. Whatever the case may be, I could not ask him any further as when we returned to the living room, Emilia had finished the dinner preparations and had laid out a miniature feast on the dining table.

Once at the dining table, everything seemed to have returned to normal. Noah acted as if he had never told me about what he had said in his bedroom and behaved the same way as before. As for Emilia, she seemed to be occasionally glancing over at me, which I do not understand the reason for. However, all I know was that at the moment, there does not appear to be any hints of harm or any threat looming about.

What Noah told me was soon pushed to the depths of my memories as the day then passed to welcome the next. All I know is that I will forget about it unless it is mentioned to me. However, that will be in the far future since I have other matters to attend to that's approaching in the near future.