Chapter 15

The next morning.

Jax woke up to a soft tickle on his back. Liv was drawing a long line across his entire back with her finger.

"What are you doing?" Jax asked as he rolled over to face her.

Liv pouted. "I WAS tracing your scar. Now turn back around, I have to restart!"

Jax giggled and rolled back over, allowing her to start over.

Liv smiled as she was about halfway through the web-like scar. "You were kinda cool back then. Jumping in the way of danger to rescue me." She pinched his back.

"Ow, ow, ow! What was that for?" Jax asked.

"If only you didn't call me an idiot while you were doing it, it might have actually been cool." Liv said in spite.

"Hey, I saved your life! I'm allowed to call you an idiot once! You do it all the time!"

Liv smiled. "You get to call me what?" She asked in an eerie voice.

"Beautiful! That's the only thing I've ever called you!" Jax replied in a heartbeat.

Liv laughed and finished tracing the scar. "I guess it was a little cool. But just a little."

Jax smiled and turned over to face her before giving her a peck on the lips.

Liv started twirling his hair on her finger as the two looked at each other in silence, enjoying the moment.

After a while Jax got up. He grabbed the second bed and tossed it out of the tent. "Only need one of these now." He mumbled before getting dressed.

Liv laughed and got up as well. "That's only if you're not an idiot. Otherwise, you'll be getting used to sleeping on the floor again."

The two giggled, while Jax was secretly concerned.

That morning Liv prepared breakfast while Jax was working on a project. When she walked outside she plugged her nose after smelling the burnt fish they forgot about and left on the fire last night.

A few hours went by and Liv ended up going hunting for a bit around the area before returning to the tent.

Jax was still working away on something.

"What's that?" Liv asked.

Jax didn't take his attention off of what he was making. "Something new."

Liv sat down behind him and watched him work while casually asking questions from time to time.

After a little while the two started hearing noises outside.

They tried to ignore them but they kept on persisting and even getting louder. Jax had a tick mark appear on his forehead as he stood up and marched out of the tent.

"Could you PLEASE shut the fuck up! I'm trying to do something!" Jax yelled before he even saw who he was talking to.

Jax finally saw who it was and it was… everyone.

Naofumi was standing with his party and Melty, while Motoyasu, Ren and their parties were pointing their weapons at them.

However, now everyone was silent and staring back at Jax, who happened to be shirtless and sweaty.

Even though he could use cleaning magic it still wasn't a pleasant experience to sweat in armour and medieval clothing. So, Jax worked without his shirt on to avoid the inconvenience.

Finally, the silence was broken by Myne who ran over to Jax and tried to latch herself on his arm.

"Sir hero! The Shield devil kidnapped and brainwashed my sister! Please help!" She cried out.

Jax dodged her attempted hug and she fell to her knees after missing him.

"I don't care. Just shut up." Jax replied.

Myne wasn't one to take no for an answer. So she tried to jump back on Jax and plead again.

"Sir hero! Ple-" She was cut off by the feeling of cold steel on her neck.

A cold voice, devoid of empathy, spoke, "Try to touch him again and I'll kill you." Liv said with her sword at Myne's neck.

Myne gulped. "S-sir hero. Please help me!" She screamed out.

Jax ignored her pleas. Motoyasu looked at the two like he was struggling. This was due to the fact that he couldn't decide what to do. He could either help his teammate and anger the goddess, or let his teammate die.

A truly grueling choice!

… Not really.

Anyway!

Jax was tired of the whole thing. "Can you just leave the poor man alone? You're making a ruckus for no reason. And so early in the morning too." He said as he yawned.

"But, it's the afternoon." Mald said from behind Ren.

Jax stretched and shrugged. "Is that so? I didn't get a great sleep last night. More importantly, who cares. He clearly didn't kidnap her, plus no one here can brainwash anyone. So that's not true. There ya go, I solved the problem for you, now go back home. I'm trying to do something actually important."

Everyone listened to Jax but no one moved a muscle.

Jax sighed. "For fuck's sake woman. Was it not enough to lie about him raping you? Now you have to pretend he kidnaped your sister just so you can kill her? Why are you such a bitch?!"

Everyone was stunned speechless and Naofumi smiled and chuckled.

"She really is a bitch. Finally someone gets it!" Naofumi said.

Motoyasu stepped in before anything else could happen. "Stop lying! How could you defend him?!"

Jax groaned. "Cause I was there! I saw it! Nothing happened! Naofumi didn't even drink! And they slept in separate rooms! Take two seconds and think. Think real hard. You might struggle to comprehend this with your one brain cell, but it's impossible to have sex, if you are not in the same room. Trust me, I'd know."

Liv kicked him in the butt. "You already want to be acquainted with the floor?"

Jax started apologizing while everyone else processed what he said.

"T-that's not true!" Myne cried out.

"Y-yeah! If you really saw something why didn't you speak up!?" Motoyasu said.

"I want to hear the answer to this too." Naofumi said, clearly upset.

Jax sighed. "None of you would have believed me anyway. As for you." Jax pointed at Naofumi. "You have me to thank for that special shield. If I said something you would still be no better than a glorified punching bag."

Naofumi grunted, upset, but also yielding to the fact that Jax was correct. Plus, by this point he had started getting over it as he now had real comrades and people he could trust.

"You're lying! I don't believe you!" Motoyasu declared.

Jax threw up his arms in exasperation. "I don't care! Just shut the fuck up so I can go back to what I was doing! And leave Naofumi alone."

Ren finally stepped in. "We saw evidence of him kidnapping the princess. We can't let him get away with this."

"ARGH! You morons are infuriating!" Jax yelled.

He took a deep breath and walked over to Naofumi's group. He walked up to Melty, grabbed her collar and lifted her in the air.

"There, now I kidnapped the princess." He said.

"Wut?" Ren and Motoyasu asked in unison.

"Now I kidnapped the princess." Jax repeated.

Myne didn't let the opportunity go to waste. She shot a massive fireball at Melty.

Jax didn't move an inch and just swung Melty to the side so the fireball missed.

"Tsk, tsk. I'll have you know, this isn't my first kidnapping. I won't make such rookie mistakes." Jax said proudly.

Liv rubbed her temples with annoyance, however the look was betrayed by the fact that she had a smile on her face and was suppressing a laugh.

"Attack! We can't let him get away!" Myne yelled.

Jax sighed. "Can you have lunch ready for me when I get back?"

Liv started laughing out loud and gave him a thumbs up.

Jax smiled and started running away with Melty in hand.

"Wha- what are you doing?! Put me DOWNNN!" Was all that you could hear as the duo took off into the trees.