Chapter 78 – A hug is the chicken soup for the soul!

Noah didn’t need Blackie’s mind-reading powers to deduce what dark thoughts were going through Levi’s head. The incident had clearly dealt a huge mental blow to this obstinate brother-in-law.

Astar Levi was a proud man who was hard on others but harder on himself. He had little tolerance for mistakes to begin with, so having his own power hurt people he cared about would undoubtedly be something hard for him to accept. Even though he logically knew that it was out of his control, he couldn’t escape from blaming himself.

‘If only he had waited for Trey’s shield before coming out of the Magcart. If only he wasn't so impatient to meet his fiancée. If only he had been a bit more careful.’

But how could he have possibly known that someone was waiting in ambush at the station and would perfectly exploit those several seconds? No one could have predicted that.

And even if they assume, for the sake of argument, that the incident occurred due to Levi’s mistake, how could one blame him for it? He hadn’t had enough sleep last night and hadn't seen his fiancée for days. Of course he would be looking forward to reuniting with his darling wifey! No one could stay perfectly rational all the time! It isn’t a matter of being right or wrong, it’s just a matter of being human!

And thus, Noah, this wordborn with an attention span of a goldfish, forgot about going to the toilet like he had claimed and climbed back onto the bed.

“Brother, don’t be sad. Everything is alright now.” In his anxiousness to comfort his pitiful brother-in-law, Noah even forgot his previous embarrassment and straightforwardly pounced on Levi to give him a warm hug. A hug is the chicken soup for the soul! What could be more immediately comforting than a warm hug?

Alright. So, for the moment, let’s just ignore the awkwardness of trying to hug a person who was lying flat on their back. Yeah, let just pretend that this one-quarter-hug, one-quarter-straddle, and one-half-snuggle was actually a completely ordinary, touching brotherly hug.

…

(ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻ Screw that! Who could look past all that?!? Levi sure as hell couldn’t!

Feeling his darling pounce on him, Levi’s soul nearly leaped out of his body in a mix of shock and disbelief.

Was he hallucinating?!?

It must be his mind playing tricks on him!! This pig teammate! Giving him false hope like this would only make the reality all the more unbearable!!

Noah felt Levi’s body stiffen, and due to his cheek that was once again pressed onto the other’s chest, he could even feel Levi’s heart racing. Levi’s mental power got even more agitated, but the nature of the flow showed clear signs of switching from something chaotically self-destructive into something healthier, an orderly liveliness of youth.

Noah interpreted this as his quasi-hug being super-effective. His brother-in-law was neither catatonic nor out of his mind. He just nearly lost a person he cared for and was still not over it. He was unused to experiencing such intense emotions, so now he had this suffocating feeling in his chest that he didn’t know how to vent out. He could only hold it in until it overflowed.

But that was no good! Strong emotions needed an outlet! They absolutely couldn’t be bottled up!

Brother-in-law needed to just cry his heart out, to spill out all his grievances! Only then, after properly venting, would he be able to fully recover and move on.

And to help Levi with this process, Noah would make sure to properly soothe him, both literally and metaphorically. Thus, Noah immediately activated his soothing, or attempted to, because as soon as he tried to crank it up, a sharp pain suddenly flared inside his head.

“You can’t use your power right now, host!” Blackie admonished, “You went over your power limits earlier, so for the time being, you won’t be able to use your full power output. Overdoing stuff is no good, ah! Take it easy until you are fully recovered.”

Ah, right. Overuse of power wasn’t something a Healer could fix.

Noah frowned, “But my brother-in-law needs my soothing right now! Can this natural healing process be sped up? How long until I can use my power again?”

“It depends. Maybe a day, maybe more. Your mental power has high compatibility with Levi’s, so if you are in his vicinity, you’ll both recover faster.”

“Can you do something about it from your end? Didn’t you claim to be a super awesome AI system that comes bundled with cheats?”

Blackie was rendered speechless by his host once again, ಠ_ಠ ‘There are terrorists amok, power rampages happening every day, you nearly died three times, and only now that your brother-in-law is sad do you remember to ask about those cheats!!! Host, how do you still have the cheek to claim this relationship as a pure and simple brotherhood?!?’

Blackie swallowed down his internal outrage with great difficulty, “Of course I’ve got ‘cheats’! But these special effects don’t come out of thin air; someone has to pay for the operation costs! Everything is an equivalent exchange, and you, host, are broke. Forget about it for the time being; you don’t really need to use your power actively anyway, your passive soothing is still fully functional. Just go back to coaxing your ‘good brother’...”

Noah didn’t need Blackie to tell him what to do; he was already on it. He had wanted to rub Levi’s back consolingly, but since Levi was already lying on his back, he could only settle for rubbing his cheek on the other’s chest. Like a little kitten acting coquettishly.

“Was it very painful? Does your head still hurt?” Noah gently asked, his voice tinged with concern.

Levi, who felt electrocuted out of his wits by the overwhelming dose of sugary cuteness, couldn’t help but open his eyes wide and blurt out, “How can you ask ME if it hurts?! It’s you who had been hurt!!”

“Oh, so you are awake after all,” Noah hid his smirk by burying his face in Levi’s shirt.

‘Foul!!!! Baby, you are too much!!’ the colorful expression Levi made at that moment couldn’t be adequately explained in words. Wide-eyed, sluggish yet ecstatic. He was an image of a diabetic, moments away from dropping dead due to a sugar arrow his baby had pierced straight into his heart, yet still unable to believe he had been shot at.

Not daring to hope for anything, yet still unable to stop himself from hoping. Thrilled that his baby seemed not to want to cut ties with him, yet indignant because he felt that his baby didn’t properly cherish himself. Blissful that his baby had returned back to his arms of his own accord, yet upset that he’d been caught pretending to be dead.

Astar Levi had never been so flustered and confused in all 24 years of his life.