“No? What, were you not listening when I introduced myself? It’s Zoemi Benevi Banemor.”

Zoemi’s smirk turned into a weirded-out expression as he gave Aaron’s father a confused look.

As he did, he breathed out deactivating his star power, and the moment he did, the heat that Rhodes and Alan felt stopped raising.

“But… but you look so… No. Nevermind… You are too young and from the land of mana anyways.”

Rhodes flinched and shook his head, massaging his forehead with a bothered expression.

“Yeah, that was not an odd thing to say at all… Anyway, Do you want to cooperate and help me deal with the fire so it will not spread any further, or do you prefer to get knocked out again?”

Zoemi scoffed, rolling his eyes at the rather confusing behavior of the dark sect member.

“I’ll… cooperate.”

Rhodes glanced over at Alan and his unconscious son before straightening his back and nodding.

The stopping of the fire consisted of a bit of preventive deforestation – Zoemi would simply uproot the trees while Rhodes destroyed them with the ranged burst of star power.

After they were done they returned to the small cave where Alan was keeping an eye on Aaron…

…although instead of inside, the young man chose to get the unconscious boy outside of the shelter…

“Did I accidentally make you claustrophobic?’

Zoemi asked in a worried voice, tilting his head and looking at his employer.

“…not really… but… better check what it’s like inside now…”

“…?”

Alan glanced down, blushed, and looked back up before fidgeting and motioning at the cave with his chin without taking his hands off of Aaron’s side as his star power was healing up the boy, making Zoemi even more surprised.

As he was instructed, the black-haired man leaned down and put his head inside the cave he dug out himself…

*crack*

…immediately upon doing that he tensed up and the hand he put on the edge of the stones clenched into a fist, crushing the rocks into a fine powder.

“…law of Libra… Law of Aries and law of Aquarius. Law of Aquarius.”

Then, without explaining anything, Zoemi used his fledgling star power of his to gain access to the cleansing law that he used immediately.

“Law of Aquarius.”

As he stepped away from the compromised shelter, the black-haired man approached Alan and the still unconscious Aaron and used the same star power once more.

“Umm… why are you…?”

“Ugh-huaaagh…!”

The young man furrowed his brows, momentarily lost because of his bodyguard’s behavior but before he could even ask the full question the boy by his side sat upright gasping for air as a drowning man pulled out of the water.

“The same power that began to take over the monster was gathering there too. It seems that it wanted to take over a human this time. Piece of **.”

Zoemi held back on a more verbose response and simply shrugged his shoulders making a face like he was chewing on something disgusting.

“Aaron! How are you feeling?!”

“Dad!”

While that was going on, Rhodes ran up to their group and kneeled by his son’s side getting teary-eyed.

Even when angry, Zoemi motioned at Alan to step aside for a moment to give at least the minimum of privacy for the family reunion.

Not that he would let down his guard and allow the two to slip away from his grasp, of course…

“Yeah… what exactly happened here?”

The young man sucked in some air trying to get the courage to speak up and finally asked, looking up at his black-haired comrade.

“The black mist took over a wounded boss monster and forced it to get all of its subordinates to come here. When I killed it a rampage started as I had to deal with it.”

Zoemi explained without taking his eyes off the father and son catching up.

“Sorry, it took so long. It took a while before I got access to ranged attacks.”

“…?”

The black-haired man continued speaking while the expression that the young marital artist by his side was making was becoming more and more confused.

“I just find it funny on the personal level that the fire is the element that I have access to. It’s impossible to tell nowadays, but I used to have a rather large burn scar here after taking a fireball to the face back when I was a kid.”𝑜𝑣𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

Zoemi snickered to himself, running his fingers through the stubble covering his cheek.

“YOU had a scar? Dear Guide, how strong is magic?!”

Despite it being a lighthearted comment, Alan reacted to the information with a fearful gasp.

“…I don’t believe that I was actively using the star power back then. I mean, I definitely didn’t erupt into flames. Although I am not really sure about the science revolving around mana and spiritual energy influencing each other…”

The black-haired man stopped for a moment and considered his next words before shrugging his shoulders dismissively and shaking his head with a faint smile.

“Y-yeah… umm…”

Alan nodded, sneaking another glance down and immediately getting completely red in the face and turning the opposite way.

“What’s going on, Alan? You seem to be distracted. I was expecting you to ask me more about the ability to use fire that’s not magical. Is something the matter?”

The black-haired man furrowed his brows and asked with worry clearly resounding in his voice.

“…I-I… n.. n-no…? N-nothing’s wr…”

The young man flinched and began to slowly turn back towards the considerate bodyguard of his… and inadvertently having his eyes dart down and staying focused at a certain point as the blush was claiming not only his face but his ears and even neck as well.

“Nghyaaaah…!”

Alan ended up letting out a high-pitched sound of embarrassment and covered his face with both hands, while bashfully turning away again and even crouching down to make himself look as small as possible.

“Alan…?! Waht is…?!”

Zoemi gasped in shock, taking a step forward and…

“Zoemi…! How long do you want to stay naked?! Are you a pervert?! I mean, I can see why you would be proud of yourself, but my heart isn’t ready for that much!”

The young man trembled and glanced back – his eyes followed the swaying motion as the black-haired man approached him – causing him to let out a flustered cry and hide his face again.