The Married Life Of Immortals

Bane walked up to the Shattered Plate, but he didn't go inside at first. Instead, he went to look in the windows to see if Lysia was there. Thankfully, after a bit of looking, Bane decided that it was safe to enter. The moment he did, he froze as soon as he walked in the front door.

"Took you long enough to get here," Lysia said from the chair that she was sitting on beside the door. It was out of sight, so no amount of looking would have helped Bane. "Surprised? I suppose you would have been here sooner if you weren't trying to hide from me, right?"

Bane put up his hands. "I have had enough fighting for this morning. Please save the rest for after lunch. I didn't even get breakfast!"

Lysia nodded. "We are in a public space, so we will act accordingly, but don't think I have forgotten about this morning."

Bane rolled his eyes, making Lysia grit her teeth, but then she smoothed out her pants and stood up. It seemed that she had changed clothing again, this time a white turtleneck and white sweats. They weren't baggy and fit her body very nicely. Bane didn't bother trying to hide his gaze, and Lysia noticed him looking.

"Really?" She asked, and Bane just shrugged.

"You look good," Bane said and then looked around to see if he could see Stella, giving Lysia a chance to turn her face so he didn't see her blushing.

"Stupid man! She is in the back waiting for you! I will see you at home!" Lysia suddenly said, storming out of the restaurant as if she had just found a hairbrush in her food.

Bane didn't even bother to turn to watch her go. He didn't even know why she was there in the first place, but if he had to guess, it might have been because he had never gotten a chance to compliment her properly this morning.

Bane shook his head and muttered, "Women are complicated creatures."

"Yes they are, but that one is quite a bit different than most," Madam Stella said as she walked out of the kitchen. "Though I will have to admit, you do know not only how to push her bad buttons, but you are also very good at pushing the right ones."

Bane turned and smiled at the blonde curly-haired thinly built woman wearing a white apron. "You sure got a glow up," he said, and Stella smiled at him, but then waved for him to follow her.

"You don't look so bad yourself. No wonder Lysia is head over head over heels for you," Stella said as she led Bane back into the busy kitchen, past the workers who were sweating profusely, and then to the door at the back.

"Head over heels? Maybe at a certain point in the day, when the light is just right, and the planets align," Bane joked as Stella opened the door to a small back office with a desk and a chair in front of it. Both of them entered and each took respective seats before Stella gave Bane a serious look.

"While Lysia's approval of you should really be all that I need, or that my great-grandmother would, I would like to ask you a few questions. Do you mind?" Stella asked, and Bane waved his hand, letting her continue.

"First off, where are you from?"

"Neo-Tokyo."

"Is that in one of the empires or kingdoms, or is it a part of the Nine Heavens?"

"No, completely different world."

"I see. So, you plan to leave this island, and you warn everyone of another Heaven's Blessed invasion. What do you plan to do about it?" She asked, and Bane didn't answer right away.

After a moment, he gave her a sheepish smile. "Is it okay that I say that I don't know? I plan on doing my best to stop it all, but how I might do it is questionable. I also have to spend about 120 lifetimes in a dungeon before that, so I feel like it is fair to say that my plans might change."

"Fair enough. What do you know about Purification Magic?" Stella asked, and Bane frowned. He had been just reading about it last night.

"I am not an expert in the matter, but from what I have read, it is pretty useless magic without a great understanding of what you are trying to purify. From what I read, you not only have to have a great understanding, but it also takes a tremendous amount of mana to do it on a normal scale. Besides that, I don't really know that much," Bane explained, and Stella nodded.

"You are not wrong, but what if I told you there was a special magic that could analyze the properties of things and could potentially be used to help with Purification magic?"

"I would be excited to learn about it. I thought that it would be a great thing to help me in my journeys, but after reading about it last night, I had tossed the idea. No wonder Lysia had me reading more about basic magic," Bane said, and Stella nodded.

"I won't go into details, but the magic can be learned. It is not easy, but you are one of the few that might be able to learn it. You have an advantage over everyone else in this world when it comes to mana. You can almost rival Lysia, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. If you didn't you would have to get Lysia's help, but I will give you homework to do with her anyways," Stella explained, making Bane frown.

"Homework? With Lysia?" Bane asked, then his frown deepened. "This had better not be anything that is going to make her violent with me. I can incite her violence all on my own, thank you very much!"

"Don't worry, it will not, but you can't learn the magic right away. Lysia already knows what you two are doing, so I wouldn't worry too much. I would be more concerned about the next person you are going to meet," Stella said, giving Bane a serious look, and he relaxed and shook his head.