"Can we talk in private for a moment, milady?" Max asked with a smile.
Old man Raku, Rima and others were surprised hearing his request. What did he want to talk about? And would she even agree to it?
Just as they expected, Aria revealed a displeased expression and coldly said, "I don't have time to waste. If you have something to say, then say it here or scram."
'What a distasteful woman!' Max's brows twitched. Withdrawing his smile, he indifferently said, "You must have fought with a demon and got injured by his self-explosion, is that right?"
Aria's expression froze when she heard this and subconsciously glanced at old man Raku. She thought that her foster father must have told him because only he knew about her encounter with the demon.
However, when she saw the stupefied look on his face, she knew that wasn't the case.
Seeing this, her expression became one of surprise, disbelief, and slight suspicion. She released some of her aura and enquired, "How did you know?"
Max felt pressure weigh on his shoulder because of her aura, but he kept his posture straight and calmly said, "I can sense the demonic essence reeking out of your abdominal area. You must be wounded there."
Max obviously lied.
The moment he stepped past the illusionary formation, the system or in other words the supreme mage, who had been inactive since the day they he appeared in front of him, suddenly spoke up and told him about it all.
He asked him to tell her that he could cure her so he could extract the demonic essence, which was apparently helpful to him, from her wound.
If Max helped him with this, based on the quality and quantity of the demonic essence, the system would deduct lust points from his loan.
Hearing this, Max was more than happy to do it. Not only he could pay off some of his debt, Aria would also owe him a favour.
However, after seeing her hatred toward humans, he decided to use 'the cure' to 'force' her to treat Rima sincerely.
"Sense, you say?" Aria questioned and increased the intensity of her aura.
Max flinched under pressure and his breathing became a little rushed. Trying to keep himself calm, he nodded, "Yes. Or could it be that you suspect me for spying on you?"
Aria looked at him for a moment without saying anything. Seeing that he didn't seem to be lying, she stopped using her aura on him. As for suspecting him of spying? She didn't think he, a mere two-star kid, had what it took to spy on a king ranked mage.
After thinking for a moment, she waved her hand. A surge of Mana burst out of her and created a soundproof field around them.
She sat in her chair again and said, "You better pray that what you want to talk is something important or I wouldn't mind teaching you a lesson."
Max's expression darkened at her behaviour, but he couldn't do anything about it since she was the stronger one.
He took a deep breath and without beating around the bush, he said, "Since you are now poisoned with the demonic essence, I'm sure you would go to the central regions to look for the cure or an emperor rank mage's help, am I right?"
Aria didn't respond and just continued to look at him.
Seeing this, Max continued, "I think there is no need to tell you how difficult finding the cure would be, since the medicinal ingredients are very rare. As for asking some emperor to help you get rid of the demonic essence, that would be difficult since no would want to spend their vital energy without something substantial reward in return."
Aria frowned but didn't say anything since he was speaking the truth. The medicinal cure for demonic essence was very rare, and this was also one of the reasons why many lives would be lost every time demon invasion take place.
After a brief pause, Max continued, "However, if you agree to a condition of mine, you won't have to worry about any of these."
"Oh, you are saying that you can cure me?" Aria asked, narrowing her eyes.
"That's right." Max nodded before adding, "That's only if you agree to my condition."
Aria looked at him with a skeptical expression for a while. Seeing that he appeared pretty confident, she asked, "What's your condition?"
"It's pretty simple, actually. While Rima is here, you need to put away your bias toward humans and treat her sincerely. If you can promise me this, I'll help you take care of the demonic essence in your body." Max straightforwardly said.
Aria only took a moment to think before she nodded. "Alright. I can promise you that. Of course, it's only applicable if you really 'can' cure me. If not... heh, I'll make sure you regret it."
Max felt chills run down his spine when he heard her cold words and saw her ruthless expression.
He instinctively wanted to ask 'the system' whether he was 100% sure of curing her. However, he suppressed the impulse and nodded calmly, "Don't worry about it."
"So, do you need to prepare something?" Aria asked.
"Nope. You just need to take your top off." Max shook his head and smiled.
"You dare?" Hearing his words, Aria's expression dropped, and her aura burst out of her body like raging waves and crashed into him.
Bang!
Fortunately, from the change in her expression, he knew she had misunderstood his words, and before her aura assaulted him; he reacted quickly and deployed some Mana barriers to defend. However, they weren't of much use and immediately collapsed.
He flew for 50 meters before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Cough!
His body ached all over and he coughed out a mouthful of blood.
"Max!" Everyone was caught off guard by this sudden turn of events. A moment later, Rima, Belen and Leticia cried out in worry and dashed toward him.
"What happened?" Leticia worriedly asked as she helped him up while Rima and Belen stood in front of him and assumed a defensive stance, looking at Aria with a mixture of apprehension and fury.
Wiping the blood from his lips, and smiled bitterly, "A misunderstanding." However, inwardly, he was seething with rage.
*****
Happy new year everyone!
As a new year gift, I'll release 3 chapters tomorrow. Moreover, for the whole month of January, there will be 2 chapters daily. If you want more chapters, I've set targets. Please check them out in Author's thought section.
