บท 235: Conflict Resolution

After hearing the shout Alex walked over towards the railing to peer over the side, only to see about a dozen members of the emerald haired Dagon race glaring back at him from the water with their tridents posed ready to strike. He smirked at them since even if they tried to attack they would never even be able to breach the barrier Kuroka placed around them. Alex then adopted a serious expression and said,

"We are here as part of a request of the guild branch head of Furhen to return the kidnapped child Myuu to her mother. I have no intention of violence, but if you act unreasonably then I will be forced to act unreasonably as well." Alex's words caused a small stir within the group of dagons since he basically stated he wouldn't comply with their demands, but one in particular spoke up in response,

"Show us Myuu both safe and unharmed." Alex shrugged since that was easy to do, as the young girl in question came running when she heard Alex mention her name. She quickly ran up and jumped into his arms giggling and she asked,

"What is it papa?" Before noticing the group of Dagon people below them. Myuu's face then lit up even more as she started waving her arm and shouted,

"Helloooo!" While the men below then let out a small sigh of relief at seeing her safe and sound, though since they heard her refer to Alex as "papa" many of the single men among them still looked at him with a bit hostility. The one in charge then said,

"If you hand Myuu over then we'll escort her back from here." Alex however shook his head and replied,

"The request was to return her to her mother specifically, and I have more business in Erisen anyways so there's no need. Just lead the way and we'll follow." As Alex rejected his offer, the man who spoke clicked his tongue but didn't say anything else and he led the way towards Erisen with his men surrounding the ship, both to protect Myuu and in case Alex and the others tried anything funny. As they set out Alex let a brief sigh of relief as he recalled there being more drama when Hajime returned Myuu originally.

With everyone aware of the discussions that transpired they were all crowding towards the bow of Zenith as they waited to get a first look of the floating city of Erisen, with Myuu practically jumping in excitement from nearly getting to see her mother again. Soon the floating city came into view as they were directed to one of the docks, where a group of armed men waited for them due to the messenger that was sent ahead. As they docked and Alex disembarked first with Myuu riding on his shoulders to advertise her return, a seemingly important man wearing a badge with the symbol of the Heiligh kingdom stepped forward. He took a look at Zenith, which was larger than any other ship currently docked due to the influence of Alex's magic power, and frowned before turning towards Alex himself. As he approached Alex started pulling out his status card and the letter he received from Ilwa, but before he could say anything the man suddenly said,

"Stop right there! Hand the child over and we'll return her to her mother, you however will be detained and questioned until we verify the facts regarding how she entered your custody, and your trespassing in Erisen waters on an unidentified vessel, one large enough that it surpasses even the kingdoms war ships." Alex was speechless at the mans behavior and words as he was just about to present the letter to man, but he was instead being treated like he was a criminal for trying to do his job. He then slowly lowered the now quiet Myuu who didn't understand what was going on, which made the surrounding Dagon men and the representative of Heiligh let out a small sigh of relief, until they heard what Alex said to Myuu.

"Myuu, quickly run back to Grayfia for a moment, papa needs to have a discussion with the mean man who won't let me take you to your mama." Myuu sent the man in question a small glare before obediently running back to Grayfia and the others who had just disembarked Zenith. Alex then turned back towards the man who was glaring at him, and said,

"You wanted to know how Myuu entered my custody, right? Well it was quite simple, while all of you sat here on your asses I pulled her out of a sewer in Furhen that she tried to escape into during her imprisonment. Then, after I arranged the destruction of the groups related to putting her through such an ordeal, she was entrusted to my care by the branch head of the adventurers guild. As for us trespassing, well I wonder how you expect us to carry out such a request if we can't actually come to Erisen where her mother is? And regarding my ship, I don't think I necessarily need to explain that to you, or is the issue there just that you're jealous mines bigger than yours?" As he was speaking Alex walked over to the front of the largest ship currently docked besides Zenith, a 130 foot frigate warship that had the crest of the Heiligh kingdom flying on it. He then placed his hand on the stem of the ship as if he was appreciating it, while also using his system to send a message to Anne about what he was about to do. Right as she replied the representative then spoke up,

"These waters belong to the territory of the kingdom and therefore it is my business when an unidentified possible warship appears in them. Regardless of what you have to say I will still have you come with me to answer my questions, and unless you take you hand away I will also charge you with possible subterfuge-"

CRACK

The mans words were interrupted by the very distinct crack that rang throughout the air, right before he and every other spectator went slack jawed at what they were witnessing. After placing his hand against the ships stem Alex had tightened his grip, which caused the distinct crack to ring out as he dug his fingers into the wood, and he started lifting the entire ship out of the water with a single hand. As the large vessel started rising out of the water a series of questions went through the heads of those witnessing it as there were several things that should have been "impossible" for this to happen, chief of which was that it should be impossible for someone to be strong enough to lift a ship out of the water. The other thing that should've made such an event impossible was that the ship should have been unable to hold together with its weight as it was raised into the air by a single point from the front, which was where Anne came in. As Alex lifted the ship she used her telekinesis to hold it together and to ensure nothing fell on the people below when Alex eventually lifted it above his head, causing a small downpour of salty rain to fall on them. Then with seemingly little effort he threw the ship away from the floating city, where it crashed into the water and caused several massive waves to spread. It bobbed for a few moments, before silently sliding beneath the surface to never be seen again. Alex then started walking towards the still frozen man and placed his hand on his shoulder, causing the man to startle slightly before Alex started to tighten his grip slightly.

"Next time think before you start spouting shit. We came to be peaceful and do these people a favor, and all we were met with was stupidity and aggression. And since you represent the Heiligh kingdoms interests here, remember that your attitude could easily create enemies of those that might've been your allies. All I can say is you're lucky I already started cooperating with commander Meld." Hearing Alex's warning about potentially making enemies for his kingdom and the fact that he was already acquainted with the famous commander Meld, the man lost strength in his legs and was soon only standing due to Alex's grip on his shoulder. As Alex released him however he fell to the ground weakly and Alex walked passed him accompanied by the group following him. By this point no one tried to stop him as he made his way off of the docks, at which moment Zenith which had been one of the issues the man wanted to talk about disappeared into mist, adding to the mystery and fear of Alex. Suddenly a new voice spoke and broke the man out of his thoughts,

"You shouldn't be so mean to people mister, papa doesn't like bullies." While leaving those words behind, Myuu ran to catch up with her papa as she directed him to her house. As he walked Grayfia caught up with him and said,

"That was quite the performance, but wouldn't it interfere with your intentions to recruit the Dagon race in the future?" Alex shrugged and said,

"By joining us they wouldn't be in a position where their usefulness would be the only thing keeping them from being enslaved, and what I did shouldn't really effect how they view me since the only ones to suffer from it should be the kingdom. Plus no one got hurt since I made sure there wasn't anyone on the ship beforehand." Grayfia didn't say anything else as she actually liked seeing his domineering side come out occasionally, but not when it interfered with their intentions. Alex then put Myuu back on his shoulders as Anne walked to his side. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close while quickly kissing her and saying,

"Thank you for your help, you were excellent." Anne smiled at Alex's praise and said,

"I don't mind, though I don't like fights they were acting rudely considering we just came to return Myuu." Everyone murmured their agreement as they were directed through the city towards Myuu's home. They soon arrived to find a small group of people gathered outside a house trying to stop a woman's actions.

"Remia you can't, your legs aren't healed!"

"I have to see Myuu though!" The woman cried out before suddenly the little girl on Alex shoulders cried out,

"MAMA!" Drawing everyone's attention as Alex set her down once more before she bolted.

"MYUU!" Remia cried out as she opened her arms with tears in her eyes to pull her daughter into a hug. As the mother and daughter reunited everyone couldn't help the warm feelings they had from watching the scene. The only thing ruining such a reunion was the bandages covering Remia's legs, indicating the injuries she had taken from those who took her daughter from her and prevented her from looking herself. The scene came to an end however as Alex decided it was best to move inside to heal Remia's legs and get the mother-daughter duo out of the public view for their reunion. He stepped forward and swiftly swept up both of them into his arms as he made his way indoors.

"Sorry but we should probably move indoors for the moment so please bear with it." He told Remia's as she looked at him in confusion and slight panic.

"Wait what? Um thank you?" She kept saying as she tried to catch up with who was holding her and what was happening, but her confusion only deepened when Myuu looked at him and happily said,

"Papa!" As Remia was struggling to keep up with what was happening, she tried to tell Myuu that her papa died before she was born, but Alex said,

"She's talking to me, let us heal your legs and then we'll explain everything." With even more questions forming in her mind, Remia stayed silent as Alex moved her into her living room and set her down gently. After setting her down Alex took a step back and Asia, Kaori, and Anne stepped forward.

"We're going to heal your legs now, so please be still." As she was quickly learning to just go with the flow Remia didn't question them as all three girls stepped forward to heal her legs. She had been attacked with a fireball when she found some suspicious men after her daughter went missing, which had dealt serious damage to her body and had ensured that during the entire time Myuu had been missing she had bedridden and unable to help search. Under the three girls magic all the pain in her legs quickly receded and Remia looked down as her now perfectly repaired skin. Tears started welling up in her eyes as she experimented by wiggling her toes, which even that had been impossible just a few minutes prior. As the young woman began crying anew, Myuu crawled into her mother's lap and clung to her as the duo let out all of the feelings they felt from finally being reunited. Alex and the others didn't interrupt the two as they cried, but rather waited silently in the living room for them to calm down. Soon Remia seemed to collect herself and turned towards Alex and said,

"Thank you so much, I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you but I'll do everything I can." Alex waved away Remia's words and said,

"Don't worry about it, we needed to come to Erisen anyways and everyone was happy to have Myuu along with us, right?" All the girls then spoke their agreement with Alex's words, while Kunou and Millicas spoke up about how they were now friends with Myuu as well. They then went through a round of proper introductions before launching into the story of what happened to Myuu and how she came to travel with them, as well as how she started calling Alex papa. After being caught up on the current events Remia started smiling mischievously as she turned her attention towards Alex and said,

"Ufufufufufu, the I guess I should be saying nice to meet you, husband~." The previously warm atmosphere turned chilly in an instant as the majority of the girls suddenly started frowning.