Chapter 16

Jax was laughing while running shirtless through the forest and carrying a little girl by her collar, who was yelling at him to put her down.

Jax smiled and spoke out loud. "This would be the perfect intro to a movie." He cleared his throat and spoke in a narrator's voice. "Yeah, that's me. Now you might be wondering how I got into this mess. It all started a few months ago, when I got…"

He continued his meaningless narration while giggling from time to time at his own jokes. He turned back and noticed the large group of people still following him. He started using ki to speed up and instantly started leaving them in the dust. Normally he would have been able to do that without ki, but he was carrying a fragile child, so he was being careful and going a little easy.

After the group was out of sight, Jax slowed down and hid behind a tree. He grabbed the buckle on his belt. Melty saw this and got scared, she started screaming and trying to run away.

Jax twisted his belt buckle and a light enveloped them. They were briefly blinded and when they could see again they were inside.

Jax looked down at Melty and noticed a small scratch on her cheek. He cast healing magic on her before turning around and seeing an odd sight.

Liv was in the kitchen cooking while plates floated around. Plates with food floated to the table a few feet away and empty plates floated back. As for who was clearing the plates, that was Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo. However, it was mainly Filo.

Naofumi was staring at Jax with his jaw slack and his spoon fell out of his hand into the bowl in front of him.

"What? Never seen a handsome man before?" Jax asked as he tossed Melty into a seat and a plate floated and landed in front of her. "Eat up." Jax said as he walked over to Liv and gave her a quick kiss.

"Welcome back." She said with a smile.

Raphtalia looked at the two and started blushing.

Jax laughed and walked over, patting her on the head. "How are you ever going to seduce your master if you blush because of that?"

She started blushing even harder. "I-I'll do my best!"

"No! You won't! You're still a kid! No seducing anyone!" Naofumi called out.

Jax laughed and grabbed a plate out of the air before sitting down. "There's a reason they say they grow up too fast."

"Stop encouraging her!" Naofumi yelled at Jax.

Jax laughed as he started eating, quickly scarfing down his food.

The table gradually grew more and more silent as people started filling their mouths. Eventually, Melty, who had been staring at the plates going back and forth for a while, spoke up. "Woah, how do you even do that?"

"I use Gravity magic." Liv replied as she begun her meal.

"What?! That's super advanced magic!" Melty exclaimed.

Jax smiled proudly. "My girlfriend's pretty awesome."

"Who said I was your girlfriend?" Liv asked.

"Eh? Wha- but, huh?" Jax mumbled in a daze.

Liv laughed out loud. "I'm kidding. You should see the look on your face."

Naofumi burst into laughter. "Looks like we know who wears the pants in the relationship. You look like a lost puppy!"

"I don't wanna hear anything from you and your harem of children!" Jax replied.

Naofumi defended. "I don't have a harem!"

Jax grinned menacingly. "You really are a pervert!"

"That's it!" Naofumi exclaimed.

"Mr. Naofumi isn't a pervert!" Raphtalia cried out.

Jax started laughing and continued eating. The rest of the meal was filled with banter and laughter.

After finishing, Jax was cleaning all the dishes while Filo and Melty played outside together. Jax watched the children play while he was doing chores and sighed. "Naofumi, you're harem is making me feel like an old man. I'm only 18! I'm not ready for kids yet!"

Naofumi threw a pillow at him. "I don't HAVE a harem." Then he sighed. "But I get what you mean, I feel like a father… I haven't even had my first kiss yet!"

Liv giggled and whispered to Raphtalia. "You can fix that."

Raphtalia's face turned bright red as she looked at Naofumi. Jax saw this and started giggling. He looked over at Liv and gave her a thumbs up.

Naofumi facepalmed. "What did you say this time?"

Liv looked around and whistled. "Who? Me? What are you talking about?"

Naofumi sighed and gave up. Lying down sideways on the couch. "It must be nice… having a girlfriend, that is."

Jax finished doing the dishes and cleaning the table and walked over behind Liv, who was sitting down. He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "It is."

Naofumi nodded. "How did you two meet anyways?"

Jax had a reminiscent smile on his face as if recalling better times. "Ahh, what nostalgia." He wiped a fake tear from his eye. "She was my first kidnappee."

"What?" Naofumi and Raphtalia asked in sync.

A pillow started flying from the bed towards Jax and hit him in the back of the head. He started rubbing the back of his head as he chuckled.

Liv sent the pillow back to the bed with a flick of her wrist. "Tell them the real story." She said.

"You sure?" Jax asked.

Liv nodded.

Jax smiled. "Well, that technically is the real story…" Liv glared at him. "Ahem, well what I meant was. I was in the castle for some reason… oh yeah! It was when you were falsely accused. After you left I went on a little stroll. I happened to end up in the castle dungeon. I got my feet soaked. Then I had a bunch of prisoners try to attack me through the bars of their cells… Anyway, eventually I met someone who wasn't hostile. I talked to them about this and that. They kept asking me to torture them. Then I realized it was a cute girl. I figured that I could use someone who I could trust to fight by my side. So I asked her to join my party. She said no. Then I kidnapped her."

Jax nodded along after his explanation in satisfaction.

Liv smiled and stood up. She grabbed Jax by his ankle and slowly dragged him outside the tent. Once outside she threw him into the forest and he hit a tree, knocking it down.