Remembering that Case was still waiting on the line, Noah resumed the call very apologetically, "Um… sorry, bro, my brother-in-law shot the idea down," then he quickly added, "he is rather shy with strangers. You must have heard all about Astar Levi before, he isn't really a social butterfly…"
Hearing no response from the other end, Noah felt even worse about the whole matter, "Sorry…" Noah spoke tentatively, "But, we can go have some fun another day! My brother-in-law has taken several vacation days for this upcoming wedding, and I doubt he'd be spending all of them with me. He and sis will probably ditch me soon to go on a date somewhere."
Case hummed an agreement, but one could tell from his tone that he was still dejected.
Thus, Noah added in one last encouragement, "And besides, if all fails, there is always the honeymoon. When the newlyweds go off on their honeymoon, I'll be totally free to hang with you!"
Blackie looked at his silly host who was raising death flags in great amusement, 'Heh, you are looking forward to the honeymoon, are you? I hope you are just as enthusiastic when the honeymoon starts and you realize it's your own.' (¬‿¬)
Future Noah: QAQ '…please don't mention the word honeymoon …I have PTSD…'
"Yeah, you're right!" Case finally cheered up. His buddy might be too busy right now with handling his brother-in-law and all the wedding matters, but this will pass soon, and the two of them will go back to hanging together just like they used to! "Call me when you manage to ditch your brother-in-law!"
Blackie: 'Soooo… never?' 🤔
Levi: 'Damn right!'
"Alright, you'll be the first I call!" Noah very happily agreed, "Talk to you later bro, gotta go."
After exchanging his goodbyes, Noah took a quick shower to wash away the salt and got dressed.
In the meantime, Trey was guarding his door like Cerberus guarding the gates of hell. Not that there was any need to, Levi was busy with "handling" his own matters.
And thus, it took a while before all three were ready to go to lunch.
The restaurant Noah had chosen was inside the resort so they didn't need to travel far. Soon enough they were very comfortably seated around the table, inspecting their menus.
Noah glanced down towards his communicator which had just received a message notification. "Oh, brother, I forgot to mention it, but sis is awake. She asked me where we were so I told her. She's on her way."
Levi's face immediately darkened, and he almost inadvertently tore the menu in half.
…Alright. It would seem that he couldn't avoid this particular third wheel after all. That's fine too. He needed to talk to her anyway.
Levi was brimming with righteous indignation on his darling's behalf: his precious baby couldn't be a little concubine! Only the title of an empress is worthy enough of his precious baby! He couldn't wrong his kitten like this! The harem had to be cleanly and completely emptied!
Blackie's chip was sizzling with laughter, 'Great emperor, do tell, where is your harem, ah? 😂 Are you including your right hand?'
Unable to hear certain AI's remarks, Levi continued his very righteous internal monologue.
Only his precious treasure is worthy enough to climb the dragon bed!
Blackie: 'Wow, you want him to climb your bed? Heh, it's nice to have dreams, but you should be more grounded. The only way you can get your baby to climb your bed is if you rebranded your bed into his bed.'
Levi: 'Hmph, you are not the first to come up with the idea of marriage. I am already working on it!'
Noah: 'No, wait! That's not what marriage is about!' QAQ
Levi ordered his food and started to seriously ponder over how he could break off this engagement in a peaceful way – no, he didn't want to break it off, he wanted to transfer it from his darling's sister to his darling. If he had met his baby a few months earlier, Levi would have had enough time to work it out, but with the wedding all planned out and about to happen, it was far trickier to pull off.
His baby's sister and him were a famous couple in both of their cities! Their parents had been bragging for years that the two of them were a match made in heaven. The two families had already exchanged wedding gifts, if he remembered correctly, his folks gave her a personalized hovercraft. They even bought a house for them, which his fiancée personally decorated.
His fiancée also had a hand in all of the wedding preparations, from decorating the hall with her favorite flowers, to humming a happy tune while she planned out their honeymoon. She was also very excited about the wedding dress which was a custom order she'd worked with the designer on.
The wedding invitations had been sent months before, all their friends and colleagues were invited!
…
…Oh dear, the more he thought about it, the worse it all looked!
…Would …would his baby think he was a scum male and refuse to marry him?!?
Blackie: '…wait …are you saying this entire time you didn't consider your perverted cheating self as scum???' （ ﾟДﾟ）
Levi's was starting to cold-sweat. How could he possibly break off this engagement in a peaceful way?!?
His time and effort would be better spent planning how to buy a secret island and kidnap his baby so they could live there happily for the rest of their lives… certainly looked like a plan with a higher chance of success then settling this marriage peacefully… ○|￣|_
Luckily for Noah, Levi's pondering, that was about to derail in a whole new unpleasant direction, was abruptly interrupted by his instincts which were screaming for attention.
Levi got a very bad feeling.
His eyes darted around the restaurant, but everyone was going about doing their own things, no one looked suspicious. He especially scrutinized the closest occupied table a few times.
He had been lost in his thoughts so he didn't notice when the two middle-aged white-collar workers had taken their seats there. One of the two had just gone to the toilet, while the other was busy inspecting the menu.
Finding nothing suspicious about them, Levi's eyes darted about. There were several waiters busing about, that could potentially be carrying anything underneath the lids of those trays.
There was a group of dark-skinned tourists that were dining and laughing merrily. A lecherous looking fat man dining with a beauty. A burly bald man sitting alone in a corner, looking very misplaced in his floral shirt.
"Brother, are you alright?" Levi's attention was drawn again by his clueless little kitty tilting his head.
However, he didn't reply, instead, he directed his attention to the table next to them, "Trey!"
Trey, who was sitting at that table, shot him a bewildered look. Oh, so this big shot actually remembered his name?
However, when he noticed how grim the mentioned bigshot looked, Trey immediately turned alert. He scanned the perimeter again, as he had done many times already, but just like all the other times, found nothing notable.
A smack attracted their attention back to the table with the white-collar worker. The man had slapped the back of his own neck as if shooing away a mosquito. His eyebrows slightly furrowed in annoyance but he continued to read the menu.
Nothing notable was happening, yet Levi's instincts were screaming danger louder and louder.
Left without any other options, Levi abruptly stood up. Trey jumped up along with him, alarmed by the man's demeanor.
While Noah confusedly glanced between the two, Levi had already reached right next to him and…
And picked him up by his waist like a kid! QAQ
Levi's shout of "Shield!" was almost drowned out by an abrupt eruption of something piercing and sizzling nearby.