47 Volume 3: Epilogue

"I'm.. sniff… just.. so… sniff… HAPPY!-AHH!" Joyful cries filled the room. Poised on the bed, me and Angie found ourselves nearly strangled as Livia held our heads in her abundant cleavage. The action forced our heads together, but collectively we decided to not mention it amidst the pure joy radiating off the girl crying tears of joy.

Off to the side and slightly crinkled from the suddenness at which she grabbed us was the letter that detailed Angie and I's engagement.

"We're going to, ahhh~ …" She tried to stammer out some words but she couldn't over her tears and sniffles. She gripped us tighter and our cheeks pressed together painfully. Who knew she was this strong?

"There there," Angie said awkwardly as she from a weird angle patted the girl on her back. Unfortunately, that only increased the waterworks as Livia decided to focus entirely on Angie for the moment and tackled her to the bed. "ANGIE~!!" She cried and hugged the girl, her massive breast clearly suffocating my new fiancé as Angie grabbed at empty air.

I with a smile allowed the asphyxiation to continue for a few more seconds, just for the joy of my lovable Livia before I pulled her away softly.

She fell into my chest, too distracted by her tears to fight me. I should've known there would be consequences. "NOIR!!!~ NOIRRRRRRRRRRR!" Never had I heard my name screamed with such passion. Nor had I ever felt so constricted as she squeezed all the air out of me.

I endured even amidst Angie's soft chuckle. She crawled over and without pulling Livia away, rubbed and patted her back.

I smiled back at the girl and extended a hand for her to join the hug. She took my hand and placed it against her cheek tenderly. Her eyes trailed from Livia back over to me and with a smile that showed her pearly whites and expressed her insurmountable joy, she mouthed out an 'I love you' to me.

Before I could whisper it back she fell into the remaining space open near my shoulder.

…

"Livia… you aren't.. mad, right?" Angie asked as she looked at the girl in her deep blue orbs. She sat next to me as we sat up on the bed with Livia stretched across our legs. We both played with her hair as she regulated her breathing.

"Of course not!" Still very overwhelmed by emotion, her voice came out louder than intended.

"You should've been Noir's fiancé first though, I feel I've taken that from you." Angie reasoned, guilt bubbling through.

It was quickly sated from several shakes of Livia's head. She picked her head up out of my lap and ran her slightly red and puffy eyes over the both of us.

"Maybe back then I would've…" She thought back to before we started dating officially. "But, not now." She shook her head again and turned an understanding gaze to me. With a giggle, she jumped into my arms and I accepted her with ease.

"Angie is a noble." She spoke to the girl even as she looked into my eyes and stroked my cheeks. "So things like official engagements are really important, I expected it even. I'm happy for you Angie!" She looked back to the girl in question. "I'm happy for Noir, and I'm happy for me too."

Well, that's how she operated, and maybe somewhere in her reasoning Angie forgot that. Nonetheless, the haze in Angie's ruby-red eyes cleared and she with an uncontrolled smile nodded.

"Plus, I don't need any fancy papers or anything to know that Noir is my husband!" Livia concluded with conviction that burned bright in her heart.

"Damn right!" I nodded and squeezed her tighter. Well, she'd still get those soon, no way in hell I wasn't seeing that girl in a wedding dress.

"I suppose you don't." Angie giggled as well, all hints of unease dispersing.

"Now, Noir," Livia called to me. "I have some things to talk to Angie about." She said and lightly pushed away.

"Whatever the misses wants." I sighed and let her go, my sudden eviction clear from the gleam in the girl's eyes.

"Hehe." She giggled and right before I could fully stand she wrapped her lips around mine for a quick second.

"Good luck," I whispered in Angie's ear and pecked her on her lips as well and she deflated into a blushing mess. Hopefully, Angie would survive the questioning of yesterday's events without too much trouble.

…

(Vince Rapha Redgrave POV)

I suspected around this time, my message should have been received. I was happy for her, my daughter. There were days I cursed the Redgrave name, for as much power and prestige as it gave, it took an equal amount of time to be an actual family.

Honestly, that girl was raised more by the help.

The least I could do was support her and the things that made her happy, and more recently it seemed Noir Stardia, was the person that did that. I just wish I could say it was just for her happiness I allowed the engagement.

My wife had died quite a while ago. Long enough that Angelica hadn't remembered her. She had developed some type of sickness, that none of the doctors I had employed could figure out. It ate her energy, her skin grew pale, and she turned frail. That lovely blonde hair turned white and before I knew it, the love of my life resembled a corpse.

Her eyes constantly glowed that ruby red color. As time went on, she started to turn senile. I would call her name and it was a gamble if I'd get any type of response. Most times she'd be looking off into space, and muttering under her breath.

It scared me, truly. All the money and supposed power I had couldn't help her. I instead had to sit at the edge of her bed, spoon-feeding her liquified food. It was a painful memory, one that I was glad Angelica didn't have to handle.

Towards the end, I found the book full of drawings she kept under her pillow.

Every page detailed the same characters. A girl with blonde hair and red eyes, another girl with shorter blonde hair and blue eyes, and lastly, a boy. He was drawn with extreme detail that surpassed the other two.

So yes, most of the reason I am so supportive of this marriage is because of the uncanny resemblance between the boy drawn in the book and Noir Stardia. Initially, I thought the red-eyed girl to be her, but with how much Angelica took after her… And then there was the last girl, one I had learned from other sources to have blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair.

All three characters portrayed in the story seemed to have exact human matches in real life.

Now, I was never one to believe in superstitions, but if even my dead wife could predict the joy of our daughter with this boy, then I would be a failure as a husband to deny them.

…

(Noir POV)

[You've become what they call, a harem protagonist.]

Luxions voice rang amongst the cool afternoon air.

[In the real world though, we call people like you scumbags.] Yeah, that was to be expected, being called a harem protagonist was to tame an insult for my AI pal.

"They sure don't think so." I shrugged, and honestly neither did I, even if I would've probably been castrated in my old world.

[Which is an anomaly within itself, my records of human social structure tells me such things are frowned upon. Maybe the scum that has evolved from true humans is different.]

"If your follow-up comment is that you'd like to dissect some, the answer is no." I deadpanned and continued walking on the path towards the academy.

[Not even Maria?]

"Don't tempt me." I held back a smirk. God, I hate that wench.

It was while I was passing by the gate to the academy that a familiar boy came running after me.

"Dan? I'm surprised, I thought you'd be off serving your new mistress." I frowned and stopped so the man could catch up.

He ignored my words, panic clear in his tone as he asked me, "Have you seen Clarice?"

I wasn't stupid enough to ignore the urgency. "No, why?"

"No one has seen her since yesterday morning, she's not in her dorm, nor the shopping district, and someone would've known if she had gone back to the estate!" He started muttering and pacing around.

"Is it possible she just went somewhere else without saying anything?" I questioned, Luxion had already gone to search around.

He shook his head violently. "No! Damn it, she would've said something to someone, I know her!" His tone was annoyed and given the circumstances I understood.

With a frown, I instantly summoned Get Creative. The 20,000 LP it took to immediately know where she was wasn't a problem considering I was closing in on one million.

My brows furrowed, she was far. "Dan, in what direction is the Atlee estate?" I asked as I stared off in the direction my skill told me.

"East. But again, no one saw any ship bearing their crest, going in that direction." He shook his head, clear desperation in his eyes.

"You're right…" My eyes furrowed further, Luxion returning to my side and shaking his robotic 'body' in a way that told me he hadn't seen her.

It was obvious no one had seen her going back to her estate, but that only made things more confusing, considering my skill was telling me she was exactly west from where we stood.

'Clarice, where the hell are you.."

…

Volume 3 END,

…

A/N: No author notes or character sheets for this mini-arc. I need time to plan out what I want to do, but the plot is going to really start thickening pretty soon.