Chapter 161

## Chapter Guide

**"Noble Heart"** (気 (け) 高 (だか) き心 (こころ) , *Kedakaki Kokoro*?) is the one hundred sixty-first chapter of the Shadows House manga series.

## Summary

Margaret resumes her attack on the group, and they retreat to the Mk. 3 though Lydia notices Patrick's soot heart. Making their way down the wall, the team regroups with the rest of the Research Team who attempt to decide on their next course of action. Oliver suggests waiting it out as Margaret will self destruct from the sheer soot she is giving off but Patrick wishes to save her. Jeremiah offers to carry him up the wall, and the rest of the team goes to fetch tools. As Patrick feels responsible for Margaret's current state, he decides that he will apply for marriage with her.

## Plot

Margaret abruptly begins to scream and attack Patrick and the group, who retreat to the Oliver MK. 3, after Lydia notices Patrick's heart of soot. Olly anchors Patrick and Ricky to the bars of MK. 3 with a warning the machine tends to shake. However they nearly fall out when the MK. 3 begins to walk down the walls to its water refueling station run by Jeremiah and Anna. The Research Team wishes to analyze how Margaret increased her soot quantity, but switch to deciding countermeasures and rescuing trapped shadows. Anna is picked up by the ivy but quickly freed by a water gun from Jeremiah. She notes the soot ivy is extremely sticky, as it slows her fall when it sticks to the tank platform, and how she can't move. Patrick is confused by the reach of Margaret's soot power, but Oliver theorizes that she will eventually self-destruct from the strain to Patrick's horror. Patrick resolves to save Margaret, due to his duty as Star Bearer to Lydia's anger. He reveals that he understands Margaret's anxiety from being powerless, and sees the cruelty in leaving her to her fate. Lydia relents, as she understood Margaret's despair from her analysis and asks for his plan. Since the Mk. 3 cannot climb the walls Margaret is stationed at, Jeremiah offers carry him, and the group splits up, with the rest of the Research Team focusing on saving the trapped shadows.

In a moment of privacy, Rick has realized Patrick's plan and the two admit to each other their knowledge of the other's love. However Ricky is shocked to learn that Patrick is in fact in love with Emilico, not Kate, but is still willing to go with Patrick's plan. Patrick confesses to Ricky that that he felt ashamed when he learned shadows were not true nobles and wanting to run away. However, he has since decided that birth and position doesn't matter, and that being a noble means helping the weak and conducting one's self as a role model for society. He decides that even if he isn't a rule noble, and powerless, his actions will be his reason to keep going. Since he is the source of Margaret's suffering, Patrick resolves to be the only one to save her and reveals his plan: to apply for marriage with Margaret.

## Characters

* Liddy (Non-speaking Role)
* Lydia
* Ricky
* Patrick
* Olly
* Rum (Non-speaking Role)
* Shirley (Non-speaking Role)
* Margaret (Non-speaking Role)
* Jeremiah
* Jeremy
* Anna
* Nancy (Non-speaking Role)
* Oliver
* Kate (Fantasy)
* Emilico (Fantasy)
* Shaun (Flashback)(Non-speaking Role)
* John (Flashback)(Non-speaking Role)
* Lou (Flashback)(Non-speaking Role)