Chapter 36 Quiet Days with No Problems Whatsoever Arc Part 8

Michael dismissed his projected sword, took a breath, and then deal with the situation in front of him.

"Wiz," Michael kneeled in front of the undead woman while keeping a bit of distance for her sake. "Breathe. Look at me, breathe." He did the motion of inhaling while point with his hand at his chest, then raising his hand toward his chin. Then he exhaled while lowering his hand to gesture at the air leaving his lung. "Fully breathe in. Then all the way out." Without really focusing, Wiz began to mimic his breathing pattern. "That's good." Michael warmly smiled. "Fully in, all out. Now," Michael pointed at the shop in general. "Look at what's you see in front of you, and start listing it. What's that?" Michael pointed at something random.

"T-table."

"And that?"

"B-Beaker."

"Good, good. Keep going." As Wiz did as instructed, Michael turned around and stood up, before heading toward his party members.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Aqua shouted as Michael grabbed her ear.

"Are you going to calm down?" Michael said in a dry tone.

"I'm calm, I'm calm!" Aqua said while trying to get him to let go without having him pull on her ear more.

"M-Michael, what are you doing!?" Schwanhild said, her eyes wide in disbelief that he would manhandle a goddess.

"Disciplining a troublemaker." Michael answered without a hint of care. "Now Aqua, I'm going to let go and you will listen to the guild announcement. Alright?"

"Yes, yes," Aqua said quickly. She sighed in relief as she gently rubbed her reddening ear, and pouted at Michael.

"What are they saying?" Michael pointed up.

Disgruntled but obeying, Aqua tilted her head, listening to the announcement. Her eyes lit up as she finally got what was being broadcasted.

"It's cabbage season!" Aqua said like an excited kid.

"Yep," Michael nodded. "So, I want you to go to the gate they mention, find our party as they are likely there. Or rather find Darkness as that's the most important. Have her cast Decoy, then use support magic to strengthen the effect. After that catch as many as you can with the rest of our party. Good?"

"Good!" Aqua nodded vigorously, then moved to leave.

"Aren't you coming?" Schwanhild asked, preparing to follow Aqua who stopped to hear Michael's answer.

"I need to apologize to our shopkeeper here for the scare, and to buy those manatites. I'll head up to join you when I'm done." Michael replied.

Schwanhild's eyes widened, before she tried to school her expression and nodded.

She probably thinks I'm subtly saying I'll 'take care' of Wiz mafia style or something. 

Aqua pouted.

And she probably thinks Wiz is gonna 'bewitch me with her kindness' or something.

"Alright, I guess it's fine since she's no longer a Demon General, but don't go being too nice to the lich, and get bewitched by her deredere attitude, you hear me, Michael?" Aqua pointed accusingly.

Meh, close.

"What's that, Aqua? You wanna try out the sobriety lifestyle?" Michael asked with a friendly smile.

"Let's go! Let's go, we got cabbages to catch!" Aqua grabbed Schwanhild and bolted out of the shop.

Michael chuckled to himself then walked back and sat in front of Wiz.

The Lich Shopkeeper flinched upon seeing the Dark Paladin in front of her. She had calmed down considerablely but was still wary of him.

Michael raised his empty hands placatingly, then placed them behind him to lean on them. He was leaving himself to be open and vulnerable to ease her worries.

Michael looked away, mostly to gather his thoughts, and appear distracted, and so Wiz can see he's harmless, even if both knew he wasn't.

"...Did you ever have to fix someone's dislocated shoulder without a healer around?" Michael asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"Um," Wiz found herself thinking on his question. "I think once. Brad and I went out to fight this griffon and he got hit. We didn't have our healer that day. I think it was that she was at church due to an Eris holiday or something. I had to put his shoulder back together as we didn't know if we were in the clear from monsters or not, and the injury wasn't that bad. Well...beyond the dislocation." Wiz looked embarrassed at remembering that memory.

"And odds are you tried not to get him to tense before popping the socket back in, right?"

"Yes," Wiz smiled and nodded.

"Well, I'm sorry for the decapitation fright, but it was basically the same idea." Michael smiled sheepishly.

"Eh?" Wiz tilted her head in confusion, but didn't seem as scared anymore.

"The thing is, there was no easy way to try and explain that I can cut spiritual objects, like a magic contract, which in this case your connection to the Demon King's castle barrier, without freaking out, because well...it involved what would look like cutting you with a sword. It would seem like I'm doing an elaborate ruse to kill you." Michael began explaining.

"I...suppose that's true." Wiz then crossed her arms. "But it was still a very cruel thing, Mr. Michael." She tried to appear angry, but Michael couldn't help but think she looked cute.

"And I'm sorry, but there's another reason why I did it that suddenly, beyond not wanting you to tense up." Michael looked a bit more serious. "A magical connection can allow for quite a few things. I had no way of knowing if the Demon King was using your connection to his barrier to spy on you, or gather information from the things you experience. So, doing it suddenly, would give the impression that I just, as you said, cruelly killed you."

"...I don't think the Demon King would do something like that." Wiz said after thinking about it for a while.

"Really? He's the honorable type?" Michael casually fished for information about his eventual adversary.

"No, it's just that from the brief time I met him, I didn't get the impression that he thinks long term about anything." Wiz said with an innocent and sincere tone.

Ouch. Demon King burn. Michael thought.

"Ah, I see." Michael replied, before scratching the back of his head. "Well, at least when it came to your contract, all's well that ends well."

"...Um, your severing of my connection to the barrier. Could it...have not ended well?" Wiz asked, as her face paled.

"Err, no?"

"Were...were you not sure?" Wiz's eyes widened.

"Well, I did see my mentor do a few times, but I never really had practical experience doing it." Wiz's jaw dropped. "H-However I had the theory down pat, and I perfected killing demons in spirit form, so it's basically the same thing, right?" Michael tried to laugh in a way to wave off the kind-hearted store owner's worries.

Wiz fainted while foaming at the mouth.

===x===

After Wiz woke up she had another bout of hyperventilating, with Michael helping her calm down. She saw a much kinder side to the Dark Paladin, and Wiz was grateful for it.

However, it was only after he had bought the manatite (the large stacks of money were the first she saw in such a long time, that she cried), and left that Wiz felt she could breathe easier.

Michael did seem like a kind individual, even if he's mentally off, if he thinks beheading someone (even if they aren't actually being beheaded) is helping someone. He seemed knowledgeable about magic artifacts, experienced in fighting demons if the constant cutting aura she felt from him was any indication (she was morbidly curious on what would happen if the aura interacts with an actual demon), and overall he had the confidence of a veteran adventurer that didn't need to prove himself. None of these qualities worried her though.

It was the fact that she felt nothing from him when he sliced her. There was no hint. He gave off no killing intent.

Either the act of severing her bond to the barrier was something he sincerely believed wasn't a harmful thing, or he has such control over his own reactions, that even Wiz with all her experiences as an adventurer couldn't sense anything from him, until after the deed was done. She didn't know which was the more terrifying possibility.

Wiz never thought that one day she would meet the Goddess of the Axis Order, and then fear someone else even more.

Maybe I should sharpen my fighting skills. Just in case. Wiz thought to herself, as she went about handling her finance.

===x===

When Michael headed toward the northern gate to join the cabbage harvest, he expected his party to have made a mess of things.

It wasn't like he didn't have faith in them, but he knew without him around, they would each act in what they thought was the best strategy. He should probably have a 'party tactics' meeting sometime in the future, so they can act independently of him, if he's not around.

What he saw upon reaching the gate however, was beyond his expectations.

"Hey, Michael, Michael, look!" Aqua waved and shouted in enthusiasm, as she pointed at Darkness buried under a hill of cabbages surrounded by a net made of hardened water. "We got all the cabbages!"

"Indeed, this is the might of our party." Megumin said while holding her hat.

"But...we didn't do anything." Yunyun added, to which Megumin admonished her for not going with the flow.

"As expected of Lady Aqua." Schwanhild replied.

Honestly, Michael was impressed.

"You okay in there, Darkness?" Michael shouted.

A hand made it's way from under the caged vegetables, to give a thumbs up.

"Cool," Michael smiled and nodded. "That's just...fantastic."

He was however worried at how every single adventurers were now glaring daggers at him, like harvesting all the cabbages, and thus getting all the money for it was his fault.

===x===

Later on in the day, Michael and his party were celebrating Aqua and Darkness's success with the emergency quest, and after some talking a bit with Aqua, even the other adventurers were all smiles and laughter.

"Another beer, Lady Arch Priest!"

"Coming right up!"

An adventurer raised his empty glass, to which a water tentacle summoned by Aqua went toward it, and poured in water that transformed into beer. It seemed that in an effort to drink beer, Aqua pushed Michael's Gebo Rune, which helped increase her power over water, into helping her increased her control over water, thus allowing her to now change water into other liquids. Namely alcoholic ones.

I really shouldn't ask Aqua for help on PR problems. 

When told Aqua that the adventurers of Axel would be annoyed at them for hogging all the cabbage prize money, Aqua just said to leave it to her, and told the adventurers that all foods and drinks were on her for a whole day. Then she wanted to save some, and learned to transform summoned water into beer.

This new water mastery came with it's own problems.

"M-Michael." Yunyun spoke.

"Yeah, I see him." Michael sighed. The bartender of the tavern looked really pissed off, that they were costing him money from all the drinks Aqua was making.

"You get a beer! And you get a beer! Who else wants beer!"

"Aaaaaye!" Many shouted back in approval.

Michael could see the barkeep's face turn an unhealthy shade of red.

"M-Michael." Yunyun said again.

"Yeah, this has gone on for long enough." Michael stood up. "Aqua's powers are getting to her head, and this needs to stop. Megumin," the Explosion Mage looked up from her drink. "How good are you in tickling?"

Megumin put down her mug, cracked her knuckles, then her neck. She held her hands up and wiggled her fingers.

"I'm ready, Boss."

"Don't call me 'Boss'." Michael walked toward the Arch Priest with his Arch Wizard in tow.

"Let's do this, Big Boss."

"Still no, and I don't have the eye-patch for it." Michael reached the Water Goddess and tapped her on the shoulders. "Hey, Aqua, high-five!" Michael said boisterously cheerful with both hands raised up.

"Yay, high-five!"

Aqua smacked Michael's hands, then he smoothly interlaced their fingers and grabbed her hands.

"Eh?" Aqua blinked in surprise.

"Megumin, do it."

"Do wha-AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Michael held Aqua while Megumin tickled her, and they only stopped once Aqua promised to not abuse her water magic powers, in a way that would ruin the economy, or piss off business owners.

The Axel adventurers' animosity toward Michael may have returned, but he far preferred that to all restaurants and bars in Axel banning their party from them.