Aria checked her wound and, finding no trace of demonic energy, she let out a breath of relief. After adjusting her clothes, she took out a healing pill and ate it.
When she looked at Max, her gaze was complicated.
She struggled for a moment before speaking in a low voice, "Thank… you."
Max looked at her incredulously. After seeing her behavior until now, he never thought he would ever hear her say 'thank you' to him, even if he cured her.
He waved his hand and smiled, "It's alright. Just don't forget your promise."
"You don't have to worry about it." Aria harrumphed coldly before walking out of the room. Max smiled, stood up and also walked out.
…
Rima, Belen and Leticia were pacing back and forth, waiting for Max to come out.
From their interaction, they had deduced that Max was going to try to heal her injury.
However, because they had seen how short-tempered Aria was, they were worried that she might do something to him if something went wrong with the treatment.
"Why is he even trying to do that when he isn't an alchemist?" Leticia asked, nibbling on her nails in anxiety.
"He must have something in mind." Belen calmly said.
Rima was in deep thought for a while before she said, "I think my decision to become her disciple wasn't a correct one. Given how much she hates humans, even if I do my best to prove myself to her, she might not teach me anything."
Belen refrained from commenting on this while Leticia nodded her head immediately, "Yes, you are right. What if she is a king ranked mage, there would be no point of you being her disciple if you can't learn anything from her."
Leticia was extremely dissatisfied with Aria's behavior and the fact that she attacked her beloved on a small misunderstanding.
Little Arya tugged on Rima's hand and said, "Big sister. You misunderstand my auntie. Once you get to know, her she is very kind, caring and fun person."
Old man Raku sighed but didn't say anything.
Just then, the door opened and Aria and Max walked out.
Seeing Max was safe, the ladies felt relived.
Aria noticed their expressions and frowned in displeasure. Did they think that she was some unreasonable person who would just harm anyone?
Max walked toward Rima and others.
After deploying a sound proofing barrier around them, Rima immediately told him what she was thinking and after hearing her, Max couldn't help but smile wryly and told her that Aria's had promised to treat her nicely and teach her everything without holding anything back.
Hearing this, Rima became emotional. She wanted to hug him, but since they weren't alone; she refrained from doing so. Holding his hand in her soft hands, she softly uttered, "Thank you for caring so much about me."
Max smiled and asked, "So, you are going to stay, right?"
"Yes… I'll stay." After taking a deep breath, Rima nodded. She knew she had to grab this opportunity if she wanted to improve and not leg too much behind Max, since he was improving too fast for her to keep up with him.
"Good." Max nodded and asked, "Before leaving, I'm planning to buy some more things, would you like to come with us?"
"Hmm, I will." Rima nodded. She wanted to spend as much time as she could before they parted.
"Okay then, go and tell your master." Max smiled. Since she was Aria's disciple, she had to ask for the permission or it would seem rude if she just went away with him.
Rima glanced at Aria and hesitated a little before dispersing the barrier. She then walked up to her and just as she was about to ask for permission, Aria indifferently waved her hand, "You can go."
"Hmm?" Rima was surprised by this. Did her master know what she was going to ask? However, that shouldn't be possible since they were talking inside the sound proofing barrier. Unless… Rima's eyes went wide thinking until here.
Seeing her expression, Aria scoffed, "Did you really think your lousy barrier could prevent me, a sonic mage, from hearing what you were talking about?"
Hearing this, Rima's face went pale. This meant she heard everything. If so, she must be angry since she was doubting her.
Thinking this, she panicked and opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. She didn't know how she was supposed to explain herself.
Seeing this, Aria sighed, "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault to think like that since I've left a bad impression on you."
"I'm sorry and thank you, master." Rima bowed. She didn't think that her short-tempered master would suddenly turn this understanding. However, she knew why this was so. It's was because of her man who cured her.
After a while, Max along with Belen, Leticia, Rima and little Arya walked out of Aria's residence and headed towards market.
Before heading out of the city, Max wanted to buy some grade-three attack and defence talismans which he would most likely need in the demon continent.
Although he would like to buy some grade-four ones too, but they weren't available in the market and could only be bought in auctions.
Moreover, even if he could buy them, he wouldn't be able to use them since one could only use talismans maximum one level above their respective realm. If it wasn't so, even a one-star mage could defend or slay mages way stronger than them with higher graded talismans.
…
After Max and the group left, old man Raku hastily asked, "Little girl, was he able to heal you?" Although from the fact that Aria didn't seem angry after coming out of the house, he could tell that it was most likely true.
"Mm. He did." Aria nodded and showed him her wound, which was slowly patching itself up under the effect of the healing pill she had ingested.
"This…" Old man Raku was astonished for a moment. He then nodded and murmured, "That guy sure is a mystery. He even had the medicine for expelling the demonic essence."
Hearing this, Aria shook her head, "No, he didn't have medicine."
"What? Then how was he… don't tell me, he himself expelled it?" He asked incredulously.
