Even though he didn't show it, inwardly, Max was seething in rage.
How could he not? He only asked her to take off her top so he could examine and cure her wound and not with any other intention. So, it was technically not his fault that she misunderstood his words.
Even if she misunderstood, there was no need to attack him with her aura and injure him, was there?
'Fortunately, I reacted quick enough and deployed some defensive barrier or her attack would've seriously injured me.' He thought and thanked his quick reactions.
As if the system knew what he was thinking and chuckled jeeringly, [Hehe, kid. If you are thinking that you didn't get any severe injury because of your fast reactions, you can't be any more ignorant.]
After laughing for a while, the system continued, [Although this Elf beauty seemed to hate humans quite a bit, she isn't heartless enough to kill you at this slight transgression. So, that's why she held back at the last moment or you would be nothing more than a pile to squashed bones now. Don't forget that a king mage is leagues above a five-star mage, not to mention an insignificant two-star mage like you.]
Hearing this, Max felt chills ran down his spine and his anger toward her abated significantly.
With Leticia's help, he stood and patted Rima and Belen's shoulders and told them to calm down.
After taking a healing pill, he slowly walked toward Aria and smiled apologetically, "Milady, you seem to have misunderstood my words. I merely wanted to check your wound and had no indecent intention."
Aria nodded and her eyes briefly flashed with guilt. She had also realised this and that's why she held back. However, it didn't mean she was going to apologise to him.
Snorting coldly, she waved her hand and lifted Max into the air. Under the restriction of her Mana, Max had no way of resisting and was easily lifted.
Aria then glanced at the old man Raku and others. "We'll be back in a short while."
Saying this, she walked inside the house with Max floating behind her.
Rima and others were worried, fearing that she might attack him again. But when they saw Max nod reassuringly toward them, they calmed down.
...
Inside the house, Aria sat on a simple wooden bed and lifted her top enough so her wound was visible to Max, who was standing in front of her.
"Go ahead." She spoke in an even tone, but Max could see a slight blush on her cheeks.
'Well, she is a woman, after all.' He thought and walked near her.
He focused his gaze on the palm sized black wound on the left side of her abdomen. It looked too ghastly, and Max couldn't help but wrinkle his brows in disgust.
[Don't think too much and put your hand on the wound.] System's voice sounded in his ears.
Max looked at her and said, "Milady, I'll have to touch it to extract this demonic energy. You'll feel some pain, so bear it."
"What? You can extract it?" Aria asked with an incredulous expression on her face.
"Yes. I can. So, get ready. It might sting." Max nodded and, wasting no time, he pressed his palm against the wound.
Siiii!
Aria flinched in pain but didn't move or made any excessive noise. Her eyes focused on Max. She wanted to see how he was going to heal her. Although she wasn't sure if he could heal her at all, his confidence made her feel hopeful.
After touching her wound, Max closed his eyes. He wanted to urge the system to do something, but he couldn't speak, so he could only wait.
Aria frowned after not seeing any kind of development from him. However, she didn't say anything, seeing that he seemed to be deep in his thoughts.
A few more seconds passed. Both Aria and Max were feeling anxious, but for different reasons.
"Huh?" Just then, Aria felt the demonic essence slowly leaving her wound and travel to his hand before disappearing completely.
This dumbfounded her as she couldn't believe that a mere two-star mage could extract demonic essence which even she was helpless against. At the same time, she was happy that she won't have to join the main branch of elves in the central region in exchange for the cure.
Time passed slowly. After a few minutes, all the demonic essence was extracted and her wound was no longer ghastly black.
Max, however, didn't know about it because he couldn't feel any change. Thinking that the system had tricked him, beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
In Aria's eyes, however, Max seemed to do his best to extract the demonic essence, and this caused her to view him in new a light.
Remembering how she sent him flying over a slight misunderstanding, she felt apologetic and thought, 'It seems what the foster father said is right. Not every human is scum.'
Just when Max was about to have a nervous breakdown, the system's voice sounded in his ears, [It's done, kid. You can retract your hand now.]
Phew!
Max exhaled deeply and fell back on his butt. Because of the stress he felt just now, he was mentally spent.
'This damnable 'old man'! He didn't tell me that the extraction process was already ongoing on purpose. If he had told me, I wouldn't have felt so much mental pressure.' He gnashed his teeth in anger. (Since the supreme mage is quite old, Max is calling him the old man even though he looks quite young.)
Just as usual, the system seemed to guess what he was thinking and laughed, [Hehe, kid. If I had told you, your performance wouldn't have been satisfactory enough and this little girl would have suspected you.]
Max wanted to curse him, but held back the urge to do so. He looked at Aria and smiled with a tired expression. "I've extracted all the demonic energy, milady. You just need to use some healing pills and this wound will also be gone."
