The World Traveller Adventure Of An Otaku - Chapter 29 Tilith Moves In?
Noelle glanced at the rectangular box Max had pushed back towards her, slightly confused. “You do realize that I bought this with my own money right?” She picked up the box and opened it. “So basically I bought myself a gift.” She pulled out a brand new wand that looked much better then her old wand.
Max picked up the next black box and slid it over to Mimosa, who grabbed it before it could fall off the edge of the table. “I appreciate the gesture but it would’ve been more meaningful if you had actually bought them yourselves.” Mimosa shook her head as she pulled out a simple golden stopwatch. “However thanks for the gifts anyways.”
Max laughed softly before reaching over and clicking the top of the pocket watch, causing it to pop open. The inside of the watch had engraved words scrawles into the metal, words that left Mimosa stunned, unable to utter a single word. “So, do you like it now? Or do you still think it wasnt worth the money? By the way Noelle, if you channel mana through that wand, you’ll see a message etched in the side but I recommend you to be alone in your room before you do that.” Max grabbed the bags and stood up from the table.
“I’m gonna take these back to the house, it’ll be a pain to carry these around all day,” Max then turned around and left the two girls before either of them could interject. He was actually planning something entirely different from what he had just told them, and it had something to do with Tilith. He had an idea that could get Tilith accepted into the Vermilion House without suspicion, though it did have a few flaws in it. The while reason he wanted to do this was so that Tilith could actually stay in her physical form rather then having to constantly pop in and out of reality like a broken mirage that everyone could see.
He opened the door and walked a couple blocks from the cafe before setting the bags near another store. “Okay Tilith, time for you to get out here, in your younger form please.” Max actually had an actual plan, but it was just to simply lie about where the girl came from. He planned on telling them that he had found the little girl wondering around without any clue as to where she was or anything about her past, only knowing her own name.
“You sure you want me to come out in front of all these people?” Tilith asked, clearly against the idea of revealing her existence. Max nodded in confirmation. “No one will be able to know that your coming out of my head, theyll just think its some kind of magic.” This logic made perfect sense considering the world he was living in.
Tilith simply accepted this as a valid answer before appearing in front of him in a flash of white light, and while this did attract the attention of a number of people, it was quickly dismissed as they continued on their way. It turns out Max’s assumption had actually been correct, nobody seemed to care much that a ten year old girl had magically appeared out of thin air. This may have seemed spectacular in his own world, but in the world of Black Clover, it was a perfectly natural occurence that could be completed with various types of magic such as spatial magic or teleportation magic.
“Okay,” Tilith said as she landed in front of him, a smile on her face. “So what you call me out here for? I’m guessing its not because you wanna get freaky.” She hadn’t exactly whispered this and the words she had spoken and the clothes she was wearing drew the attention of several onlookers. Max literally face slapped himself before placing a hand over the girls mouth. “Please dont say anything inappropriate while in that form please, you’ll give people the wrong idea about me.” He removed his hand after Tilith gave him a reassuring nod.
“Good, now that thats settled, I brought you out here for one thing.” Max walked over to where he left the bags and picked them up. “I want you to follow me and act like your really attached to me like someone I just saved.” He grinned and began a slow walk so that Tilith with her short legs could keep up.
“Thats no different then how every other girls in cliche animes act so it shouldnt be too hard to emulate.” Tilith ran up and jumped onto his back, hugging him from behind. “Hows this?”
“Maybe dial it back a bit, how about just walking to me while hanging on to my shirt. Also, when the girls see you, don’t say anything just act shy and hide behind me, occasionally peeking out only enough to see.” Max smiled at her before turning to face in front of him. He had worked it all out in his head from the moment they had started shopping. He had seen certain scenes where children that were saved developed attachments to the main protagonist and thats where the technique comes in. Usually if one acts cute then the probability and possiblity of arousing suspicion gets a marginal decrease compared to if you approach from a different method. Additionally, Tilith looked 10 years old in this form so he figured that she would arouse little to no suspicion if it came down to it.
Max, with Tilith in tow while clinging to his shirt, made his way through the shopping district until he came back to the cafe where, a bit too convenient to be coincidental, Noelle and Mimosa both exited the building and noticed Max. Mimosa waved to greet him, but her hand slowly decreased its speed as it seemed that she had noticed a little girl with an overly large white button-down. Noelle was also shocked, but she quickly changed her expression and flicked her hair with the back of her hand.
“Um, Max?” Mimosa began with a confused expression on her face. “Whose the little girl? Your not picking up stray kids off the streets are you?” She seemed to be questioning his own sanity and that kinda made him want to defend himself.
Max gave a fake laugh before turning his head to look at Tilith who was peeking out from behind his shirt as instructed. She really did look like a cute child, but Max knew what was behind that charade so he wasn’t very mucb affected by it. “This little girl is Tilith, she was wandering around by herself lost and afraid. I tried to ask her who were parents were or even where she came from but she said she only knew her name.”
Mimosa frowned, clearly questioning Max’s story. She took a step forward and knelt down to get a better look at the young girl but Tilith presses herself closer to him and moved her head back a bit as if she was too shy. Max had to admit that her acting skills were top of the class, even he was a bit fooled by her actions. “Hey there Tilith, I’m Mimosa, Max’s friend.” Mimosa smiled warmly at Tilith but the only response she returned was a brief nod which came as no surprise to Mimosa.
Mimosa stood up and glared at Max before turning around. “How exaclty did she become so attached to you in the full five minutes that you were gone?” She stared off in the distance as she waited for Max’s answer.
Max knelt, setting the bags down, and turned around to face Tilith. “Hey, how about telling them what you CAN remember? Maybe that will help them understand.” He was taking a HUGE leap here by assuming that Tilith could even come up with a plausible story that would fool the others. If the story wasnt believable enough then there was no chance that he could get away with letting this ten year old girl stay at Mimosa’s house.
Tilith gave him a sad look before launching into a heart wrenching tale about the death of her “Parents” and “Siblings” at the hands of rogue mages from the Diamond kingdom. The tale she spun sounded horrible and tear inducing. If Max hadnt known that she was lying, he would’ve once again fell for her act, but he gave her a sad look and pulled her into a hug as Tilith even let fake tears roll down her cheek. “Nice job Tilith, your the best!” Max whispered as he hugged her.
At this point, Max knew Mimosa had lost. Witj the performance that Tilith gave, she wouldve had to been totally heartless to not offer this girl a sanctuary. She definitely had more then enough room, the only thing that Max had to worry about was the wild card, Noelle. However, being a tsundere like her it was easy to guess how she would answer and that she would likely answer first to cover her own emotions.
Just as he predicted, exactly when Mimosa opened her mouth to speak Noelle jumped in. “Well, we are royalty so its only natural that the two of us take in this poor young girl from off the streets.” With Noelle’s input, Mimosa had no choice but to agree even of she had small doubts about it. If the girl had been the same age as them, Max knew she wouldn’t have agreed to it regardless of how much Max had pleaded or how good Tiliths acting skills were.
“Okay, then its settled,” Max said in confirmation holding Tilith at arms length with a small smile. “Tilith, how would you like to move in with me and the girls?” The response she gave was perfect, showing a bright smile and jumping into Max’s arms with tears still in her eyes. He was once again amazed by the amazing actinf skills of this girl, and had to keep reminding himself that she was more then a girl, she was also mentally linked with the system that was held within ‘The Card’.
“Okay then” Max said lifting her up into his arms and the heavy bags in the other. “Lets get moving.” He began a steady walk back towards the place that they had left their brooms. He had accomplished everything he wanted to do today and more, now all that was left was to go home and prepare for his date with Mereleona.