IMMORTAL (IMMORTAL SAGA #1)

Noel

In the midst of the spring, everyone in Westwood was restless while waiting for the flower viewing season, especially the students of Saint Iriha University. Be it the first year students or the final year students, they all have this strange similarities of liking to watch the floras bloom, as Saint Iriha have wide estate, and most of the land, excluding the track field, the football field etc. most of them were covered with flowers. Everyone was excited, well, most of them, not Noel though.

Noel stared blankly at the gooey meatball spaghetti. As he scrunched his lips into a fine line, he reluctantly poked the hard yet strangely soggy meatballs while wandering what kind of sorcery the kitchen lady do to make it turn out like this.

Apparently he ran out of luck, especially on his first day of enrolling in this university of Saint Iriha, the university that one of his folks recommend him to go. Starting from enrolling late because some clerk didn't do their job well managing his enrollment documents to some douche who already targeted him the first thing in the morning, and finally getting to the canteen late, leaving nothing but this soggy spaghetti that was in front of him as for now.

He stared at the trash bin while having a mild inner conflict.

"Should I throw it away? I can see a face on it."

"But I need to eat something to look normal to people."

"What for? That 'thing' looks like it could hurt you physically, and mentally."

"How about a sip? We'll at least look human by doing so."

"And reducing years of this immortal life? It's better not eating and staying healthy than eating that and suffer."

Determined, Noel stood up, swept the metal tray into his arms and casually trashed the meatballs into the trash bin. While being on his way to put the tray, Noel glanced at the entity that he left inside the bin. The meatballs looked like it almost mouthed a curse word at him.

Noel flinched.

In his whole years of life, he had never heard of or read about a talking meatballs before. Though that gross entity creeps him out, it's behavior struck his curiosity in wanting to know about it more.

'Guess I'll look out for any keywords relating to talking meatballs later.' The young man thought.

Noel stepped away from the bustling cafeteria and decided to head to the school library. Sauntering his way through the slightly empty hallway, his vision was suddenly blocked by a muscular arm, that was separated by a leather jacket.

He stopped abruptly when someone stood in front of him. Before else, his eyes fluttered in confusion as his eyes gazed at the blocker's chest.

This person is huge...

He thought, realizing the fact that the person in front of him is a huge one, as he was only the height of his chest, Noel looked up to meet the person's eyes. The person grinned, wanton intentions were hidden beneath his blue eyes.

"Hey, you got any money? We're a bit broke here. Mind lending us like, all of your money?"

The other two people on his back-one with an army cut hair and bronze skin, while the other one with a short ginger hair and freckles-who looked like his friends, maybe, started chuckling among themselves and sneering at Noel. He then looked around to see the other students just walked away, didn't want to get involved with him. Noel pondered a bit.

So this is what it felt like to be cornered. He has read this scene countless of times in romance books where the heroine would be cornered by the hero and the heroine would start blushing and her heart skipped a beat.

Though, the difference between his condition and the scene in the books were that he's not a heroine and the person in front of him is someone he doesn't even know and never met before. Oh wait, maybe he was that douche that targeted him in the morning? Anyways, he didn't even blush or anything else even though he's so close to his chest. Even though seeing him did send something unknown and tiny inside of Noel, and he did admit that his heart skipped a beat once when he was first cornered, but it was only because of how stinky the person in front of him smells that it baffles him.

Did he not take a bath or anything?

Noel stared at him with unblinking eyes for a while, enough to make the douche and his group felt disturbed. The douche scowled.

"Hey, give us your-"

"I'll give it to you. Wait a moment." He quietly heaved a sigh. In this particularly beautiful day, he really didn't want to send anyone flying into unconsciousness, so he should just abide to his commands and he'll probably leave him alone.

Noel fumbled inside his backpack before taking out a pouch and handed it over to the douche. The douche snatched it away from Noel's hands, gaining a small wince from him because of how violent his pull is, he opened the pouch while still glaring at Noel. That hostile glare was then replaced with an empty expression, when he looked at the contents of the pouch, eyes widened in disbelief.

"T-This..."

His two other followers who were curious of his reaction also took a look inside the pouch and their jaw dropped in surprise.

Inside the pouch, were shiny gold nuggets, all of them were medium sized.

"We... We're rich...."

The ginger haired, freckled guy said.

"No, this is mine!"

The douche snarled while hugging the pouch to his chest. Out of the blue, the supposedly peaceful hallway turned into a fighting ring, when the three of them started throwing punches among themselves.

Noel sneaked his way out of the increasing crowds, shrugging his shoulders towards those guys who mindlessly fought for a single pouch filled with gold, and threw their friendship away.

He wouldn't knew whether they will reconcile or not, but he mocked them for their greed upon a measly riches given to them.

Truthfully, humans are really a weird creature.

Noel

The hour needle of the antique clock that was attached on the wall struck to midnight and the bell chimed. Noel-who was having a deep sleep-immediately opened his eyes and sat up. Dozing off for a few seconds, he then set up his bed and went downstairs to the bathroom to wash himself before starting his night work.

After a few minutes of preparing himself, he walked towards the main door of his house. Flicking the circular lock that was attched above the knob of the door, the door's whole structure suddenly changed it's shape from a bright vintage wooden door to a dark mahogany door. Then, he pushed the door open.

What greeted his eyes wasn't the bustling atmosphere of the neighborhood or a quiet, serene night scenery. Instead, he had to adjust his eyes before he could see clearly of the view on the other side. Stepping through the door, He closed the door behind him, his eyes now able to see clearly in the dimly lit surroundings that were only aided by a few fire torches. A strong stench of book invaded his nose, sending a feeling of melancholy at the back of his mind. He smiled.

"I'm back."

He then snapped his fingers, and the room lit up, revealing towering dark wooden bookshelves that were arranged irregularly like a maze. Amused, Noel took his time to wander around the bookshelves, curious to discover what's probably hiding behind the shelves even though he's the one infused magic to the shelves to move on its own. As Noel walked through the maze, his adventure ended after he somehow managed to exit the shelves. He pouted for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders and sauntered towards the reception desk where he belong, a gremlin who was carrying a stack of books greeted him.

"Welcome home, Master."

The gremlin said with a language only a certain people could understand, including Noel. That dwarf creature curved it's wide mouth into a smile, it's dark marbled eyes sparkled upon reflected by the light of the library. Noel noticed a speck of dust on it's librarian uniform as it was busy cleaning the old bookshelves and stacking the books. Noel crouched down to it's eye level and patted the gremlin's uniform.

"You've worked hard."

The gremlin's smile widened until it's ears and his head bobbed left and right in happiness. Noel let out a lighthearted chuckle.

"Where are the other gremlins?" He stood up and looked around.

The gremlin keenly twitched it's long ears.

"They are finishing the bookshelves upstairs. It will be done soon."

"I see. Well done." Again, Noel weaved a smile to the creature in front of him.

Noel looked around the library and sighed in satisfaction. After deciding to live in this world for a while, he chose this old library to become a place where he make his connection with the humans from this world.

Judging from the way the group of gremlins skillfully decorated the library just like he wanted, he could feel the library can finally be opened tonight.

"I'll go to the reception table now. I assume that everything is prepared?"

The gremlin nodded enthusiastically. Then, it leads Noel to the reception table which was located adjacent from the main entrance of the library.

He took a brief time to adjust his things-cleaning and rearranging the utensils, rechecking the magic tool to stamp the borrowed book, and preparing some borrowing cards to write the name of the visitors who borrowed the books. He heaved a sigh of relieved, now really convinced that he can open the library now.

Noel sat on the chair that was prepared for his reception desk. He decided to wait for any chance of encounter from any random visitors who entered his sanctum while reading some mortals' books that he bought from a book shop nearby his university. Upon closer inspection of the city's map, he noticed that there's a lot of general library and bookshop located in Westwood. He giggled in excitement, impatient to explore all of them soon.

It was after a few moments when his first ever visitor came. Noel stood up, greeting the first visitor of his library.

"Welcome to the library. How can I help you?"

It was an unprecedented leap of fate, when the first visitor of his library was none other than the douche who he handed his gold containing pouch to earlier. A revolting scent entered Noel's nose, causing his face to stiffen in disgust.

"Hic..."

The douche hiccupped and swayed towards the reception desk. Then, he sat on one of the prepared stools in front of the desk.

"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 grey eyes widened in surprise. Never in his life he would feel this disgusted for a person, however, as a patient person, he heaved a sigh to calm his nerves, his eyes twitched again from the scent that corroded the fresh air of the library. A question struck into his mind when he finally calmed down.

How could he find this hidden library anyway?

Noel strategically chose 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 capital of Westwood, near the so-called death forest which people said that 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. For an uncouth an inhumanely imbecile like him, Noel gladly presented his bloodied head to the underworld's doomsguard. They'll LOVE seeing a sinner's head hanging on their gates.

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

Not. This douche.

Noel felt like his veins snapping gradually when the douche drunkenly stated while drooling on his table, forming a waterfall on the shiny wooden surface.

Noel heaved a long sigh. Well, he's going to gain a real time experience bathing an adult drunkard and tending to him. He massaged his temple and called some gremlins.

"Bring him upstairs..."

Ricky

The wind blows gently, slipping its way in between the overgrown grasses. The blades of grasses moves in waves and birds chirping could be heard from a distance, as if harmonising with the gentle movements of the nature while embracing the dawn sun-it's orange orb rose from the horizon.

Truly, it was a very beautiful scenery.

For most of people that is. Not for Ricky who woke up from his sleep feeling groggy, accompanied with head splitting severe hangover. He grunted-for a long time and despairingly-before sluggishly made his way through the hallway of his house to reach the kitchen. He was hoping that he could find something to drink-a water or anything-that could at least slightly disperse the insane amount of pain he felt starting from his forehead down to his nape, when he knew very well that he's not the type of person to buy groceries and all his exes never really know how to cook so there's barely any utensils in his kitchen.

Upon reaching the kitchen, his narrowing eyes-which sometimes twitched from the headache-gradually widened when he saw something on the kitchen counter.

On the counter, still steaming hot, was a bowl of hangover soup and a bowl of rice with a side of rolled eggs.

"What...?"

Although he was still suspicious of the phenomenon that he saw right in front of him, being an air-headed as he is, he slowly sat down in front of the dishes and looked around. His tummy grumbled simultaneously with his drooling mouth.

He wiped the drool, feeling more starved rather than feeling scared or disturbed by the dish. There's a strong probability that a stalker might've been sneaking inside his house and cooked his meals, or he's simply just still hallucinating about eating a hearty breakfast when in reality, he's still sprawling on the side of the road, sleeping somewhere random outside his house. His eyes focused towards the steamy hangover soup in front of him.

It was a substance that he'd never seen before, a clear soup, with some dark greens floating above the surface. At a glance, it doesn't look that delicious at all, but he could've sworn that soup fumed the most delicious smell he'd ever smell before, like the smell of the sea.

"Well..."

He looked around for one last time to see whether there were anyone other than him in this house, before mindlessly digging in.

Not far from where Ricky sat as he inhaled the food, at the upper cabinet, a pair of eyes watched him intently as he savored the soup, while also letting out a delightful moan upon biting the fluffy rolled eggs.

As he finished his food, it grinned.

***

"Dude, did you take a bath or something?"

That was the first question being asked by Taylor to Ricky when they met at school in the morning.

"What are you talking about?"

He scowled, still mad at him for recklessly threw a punch at his face yesterday when they fought for the pouch. Even so, he smelled himself, abiding to his friend's curiosity. Weird, he smelled like lavender. His mind suddenly recalled the last few hours at his house before he went to school.

After having breakfast-which he's never done before after enrolling into university-weirdly enough, he had this strong urge to wash his face and brush his teeth, when he rarely even wash his face in the morning especially in cold seasons.

After washing his face, he ought to just wear something that was scattering on the floor of his bedroom when he suddenly heard his wardrobe rattle. Alarmed, he reached his pillow and brought it to his front as a protection. He slowly inched closer towards the wardrobe.

After just a few foot away from the wardrobe, he flung the door open to see a pair of hangers with his clothes on it, other than it being empty because he never folded his clothes. On one hanger, it was just some jeans that he usually wear and a piece of white t-shirt while on the other hanger is his brown leather coat. However, both of them smelled nice, as if they're washed.

Ricky inadvertently froze.

Then, like a normal human being, he freaked out, again mindlessly accepting the hospitality by grabbing the hangers and slammed the door shut. After that, he brought them to the living room and changed his clothes there before quickly leaving the house without locking the door.

"Hey, Rick, you okay?"

Adam snapped his fingers in front of him.

"Huh?" Ricky flinched, slowly coming back to reality. "What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good...."

Another person who's worthy of his grudge appeared in front of him. If not because of his wide connections, Ricky would've targeted Adam as his prey. Ricky blinked his eyes for a bit. He still couldn't digest of what happened to him earlier-receiving a delicious breakfast dish and also a great hospitality. Was it because he drank too much?

"But seriously, you... You should drink your alcohol moderately. It's not weekend, you know?"

Adam snickered as he patted Ricky's shoulder.

"What? It's your fault that you bought too much alcohol. Drink moderately my ass."

Ricky retorted and gave Adam a jab on his side. They all cackled sarcastically, disturbing the surrounding.

"Anyway, you know about the pouch that we got from that nerd yesterday? It's a fake."

Ricky's thick eyebrows furrowed into a frown After hearing what Adam just said.

"What? All of them?"

Adam nodded.

"After we celebrated being rich last night, me and Taylor went to the money exchanger to exchange money for the nuggets. But when we took out the nuggets, it turned into stone."

Taylor clenched his fist. "That nerd bastard, how dare he messed with us..."

Upon hearing what they said about that nerd, Ricky was struck with a strange sense of familiarity, particularly from his chest.

What is this...?

He frowned uncomfortably.

"Well, let's find him and teach him some manners, shall we?"

Taylor grinned, his amber eyes shone a wanton intentions, followed by Ricky who sneered at that nerd who made him feel weird. The university hallway was once again disturbed by their evil laugh.