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Chapter 44: 44—Demon Hunt [4] Noah counted the seconds down in class. He had a meeting with Madeleine in a two hours. But first he had to survive being a student. His day was annoyingly long despite only having a couple classes. Everyone wanted to try talking to him and they all read silence as Noah being shy. A guy sat on his desk during a break asking, "I’m having a party next week in Drachma, do you want to—" "I’ve got practice and homework," Noah replied blankly. An hour later he was in the library trying to do some studying before his next class and someone sat next to him. A pretty girl with bright red hair, who asked. "I was just passing by, what are you doing here?" Noah glanced at the book on the table and back at the girl in confusion. "Reading?" Instead of catching his distaste, she hung around to find the most inane topics to talk about. You know, back in my day (My past life), girls just used to ignore me. Everyone used to ignore me actually. It wasn’t even that he felt he was more attractive after the transmigration, but his transformation didn’t warrant this much pestering. Something else must have changed in the way people perceive him. He checked his watch and abruptly stood up, leaving the girl behind; it was time to go meet Madeleine. Westpoint’s cafeteria was very well stocked so it was packed with people most days. Noah entered the wide hall with shops along the walls and sighed. "Where am I going to find her?" he muttered, searching the crowds of people. Along the long tables he spotted her waving at him close to the back of the hall. She was sitting with a bunch of chatting people. Mostly from other departments so he didn’t know any of them. He just walked to the free end of the table a bit far from them and sat down. Madeleine shuffled over to him. Her friends glanced at both of them but just murmured between themselves. "You didn’t buy anything?" Madeleine asked, drawing his attention. Noah shook his head. "Not hungry. I’m not ever really hungry so these days I don’t spend money if I don’t have to." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 Madeleine frowned, amber eyes searching his face quietly. "Eating is one of the joys of being human. It’s advised to keep doing it for Phantasm Keepers." She handed him a wrapped sandwich that was still hot. "Have this, someone got it for me, but I already bought one." She looks away when she lies. In the meantime he took a bite of the sandwich and hummed. "That’s really good." He nodded. "There are specific differences between normal Keepers and Phantasm Keepers." It was a bit of an awkward ask, but he needed more info, and Madeleine looked happy to answer. "Yeah, Keepers with phantasms can’t use Dark arts," Madeleine said with a smile. "Dark arts work by calling on the power of friendly, well-known Phantasms with a lot of power. If you have a Phantasm in your body, it’ll clash with you when you try to use other powers." Noah took another bite before he spoke. "So it limits you a bit... Is it okay for us to talk about this with normal people around?" She raised a bracelet with crimson gems on her arm. "It’s a dark tool my aunt gave me for Christmas. It casts a sort of advanced glamour around me. Normies will hear something different when I talk about the supernatural." "That’s why you were so open at McCain’s mansion," Noah pointed out. "When you were following your cousin and a random guy." Madeleine groaned, covering her face. "I just had this slight sense of danger from you, I’m not into that kind of thing." "I never said you were," Noah muttered, lowering his sandwich; Madeleine punched him. "Why didn’t Mikaela sense danger from me?" "She never trained for that kind of thing," Madeleine waved off. Then her face grew a bit dark. "So you and Mikaela..." "Don’t worry about it," Noah said, glancing around. "I wasn’t really looking for anything serious, I’ll just tell her we aren’t a fit." Madeleine blinked twice, confusion dancing in her eyes then she realized what he meant. "Ohhh, no, I meant you shouldn’t try to move things forward with her. She has a boyfriend kind of." Noah froze mid-bite. "That’s fucked up. Poor guy, why wasn’t he at the party?" "He schools abroad these days," Madeleine explained. "They’re long distance. Or at least I thought they were. Mikaela has been trying to keep it going, but from their texts it looks... meh." Noah sighed, waving away the matter. "Forget that, where’s Tammy, how is she doing?" Madeleine pulled her bag closer and opened it slightly to reveal a clay jar inside it. "It’s a sealing jar. She’ll be sleeping peacefully in there while we find the... person that hurt her." Noah glanced at her friends but they didn’t seem to be listening. He finished his sandwich and turned to her. "Let’s get started then," Noah said. "Are you done with classes? If you are, we can stop by Tammy’s house and scope things out." "Yeah, I’m with you. What plans do you have? I don’t do much investigating," Madeleine admitted. Noah shrugged. "You could involve the Union if you think they’ll help." "Their first priority will be to destroy Tammy," Madeleine said with a sigh. "Then they’ll leave it to the police if there are no supernatural ties." Asking cops for help seems like a waste of time in both worlds. Noah shrugged. "I’ll see what I can do. Let’s get to the house." ●——● It was a short drive. Paul had been allowing Noah to take the car more these days, so he drove himself and Madeleine to the house. They both stared at the dilapidated building, the street was empty, and the sun pressing down on it in a haze. Noah stared into the house; he could see Tammy’s mother there. "What should we tell her? We can pretend to be investigators reopening the case. I know a place where we can get fake badges and a maroon jacket." "No need for disguises," Madeleine said with a smile. She raised her hand to show off her bracelet again. "I can change the glamour around me, make mundanes believe every word I say." Noah raised an eyebrow then followed her out of the car. "Lots of stuff for tricking the mundanes." Madeleine’s amber eyes flashed with worry. "I don’t mean that in an insulting way." "Didn’t say that," Noah clarified. He remembered Hadrian calling normal people a similar name, but with a more venomous tone. "The most researched dark tools are the ones that fool normal people," Madeleine explained carefully as they walked to the porch. "Controlling what the normal world sees is important. Watch and learn." Madeleine knocked on the door and waited. Tammy’s mother was there almost immediately, opening the door slightly, and scanning them through the gap in the door and its many latches. "Who are you?" She asked in a weak voice. Madeleine pointed her bracelet at the woman. "Investigators from NMPD; I’m here to gain some new insights on the disappearance of your daughter. I know you may be reluc—" Tammy’s mother shut the door and all the latches were rapidly unbolted until she reopened it with a bright smile on her tired face. "You came back!" She exclaimed, pulling them both in. "It’s been three months, I thought you people forgot about my Tammy." She led them into a scattered house. Newspapers, old takeout boxes, and mysterious stains dotted the living room. She left them at a small dining table with a flowery tablecloth. "Let me make you some coffee." Before Madeleine could protest or even ask the woman’s name she was off. She turned to Noah. "They usually aren’t this cooperative." "The police shelved her case," Noah said with a small frown. "This might be a bit harder than I thought."