Chapter 35
"She'll come with me," Ben grinningly said while pointing at Maria. After speaking, he looked at Aakesh to see what his response was? But he saw nothing, so he laughed.
"Bring her!" He then ordered his guards.
Maria rushed behind Aakesh to save herself without thinking anything. "You can't stop me from taking her," Ben tried to warn Aakesh after seeing her standing behind him.
"I won't!" Aakesh suddenly commented, making Ben laugh and Maria shuddering in fear. She couldn't help but take two steps away. She expected the store owner to save her, not leave her on her own.
"But..." Aakesh started speaking once more, making Maria stop moving.
"I won't stop her if she wants to go with you, but if you think that I'll allow you to take her forcefully, then you're badly mistaken," He added. Ben's laughter got stuck in his throat.
"Let's go!" Pento suddenly interjected before Ben spoke something and made the already bad situation worse for him.
"You just wait!" Ben threatened Aakesh with a scoff and left the store. He decided in his mind to come back to the store later with Nascent soul guards to destroy the store and kill the owner.
Pento sighed with relief when Ben left the store. He decided to come later and apologize to the store owner for his rudeness and buy the products to make a good relation with him.
"Thank you for saving me, store owner!" Maria thanked Aakesh after Ben left the store.
"It's not a big deal you're in my store, so it's my responsibility to stop anyone from harming you," He responded expressionlessly.
He then looked at the hardwood down below and noticed a tiny chunk of meat and blood all over it. Maria also noticed where he was looking. An apologized expression appeared on her face as she apologized to him.
He didn't mind, he only snapped his fingers, and a sudden pressure arrived on the meat and the blood around it. The pressure was so intense that it disintegrated the blood and flesh into nothingness in less than a blink of an eye.
As soon as Maria blinked, everything was gone. Despite intense pressure attacking the hardwood, the hardwood floor became the same as before, without even a dent appearing.
"Come here!" He then called Maria toward him. Her feet, without her permission, moved toward him. It was the second time when something like this happened to her. The more it happened, the horrified she became of his power. Her feet stopped just a single hand distance away from him.
"Since your injury occurred in my store, it's my duty to heal you," He then commented, pointing at her mouth, which looked weird after a missing chunk of flesh.
"It's alright, store owner. I don't mind this injury much," Maria responded with a smile. But there was sadness present in her smile. Her appearance once mattered to her, but after that tragic night, she no longer cared for it, instead, she started hating it.
In her heart, she blamed both Ben and her appearance for what happened to her family. If she didn't have a beautiful face, nothing would've happened to her family. Her father would've still been alive and teaching him; her mother would still make her favorite dishes every day.
"Lily, heal her," He ignored her and requested Lily to heal her.
Lily didn't speak anything and waved her hand. A clock with a single hand appeared in the air. The clock hand then started moving anti-clockwise. A green light engulfed the injured portion in Maria's mouth, and as if time was moving backward, the flesh appeared out of nowhere and started moving backward and reinstated itself to the position from where it fell off. The clock then disappeared after her mouth became the same as before without any wound.
Maria shockingly looked at the scene. "Is she an Immortal?" She tremblingly asked while looking at Lily. When Lily looked back at her, she looked away, not daring to directly look into her eyes.
"Yes, I am an Immortal," Lily spoke before Aakesh could refuse.
A playful smile appeared on her face as she suddenly ordered, "Now, Kneel, to apologize for even thinking of touching me."
"Yes...yes!" Maria tremblingly spoke and Knelt without thinking of anything.
Lily and Aakesh couldn't help but laugh, seeing Maria kneeling sincerely to apologize. When Maria heard a laugh, she looked up and noticed both of them laughing at her. Her face turned red from embarrassment, and looking at Aakesh's laughing face made her heartbeat accelerate.
"You can stand up now, I forgive you," Lily then commented after she had her fun.
Maria stood up with a red face. "Are you truly an Immortal?" She asked again.
"No, she isn't," Aakesh said as he returned to his expressionless face, which he uses while talking to customers.
"Then, how can she manipulate time?" She asked in shock. Her heartbeat accelerated again when she looked at Aakesh's face. She immediately looked down to calm her heart down.
"Is manipulating time a big deal?" Lily asked instead.
"Yes, it is," Maria responded straight away, looking up at Lily. She didn't dare to look into the eyes of Aakesh.
"It's a big deal for weak people like you; I can manipulate time from the first day I was born," Lily scoffed in response.
A dumbstruck look appeared on Maria's face as she didn't know what to say. She wanted to think that Lily was lying, but what she had seen just now made her believe that everything lily said was the truth.
"When are you leaving?" Aakesh suddenly asked.
"You don't have money to buy anything; you can't get compensation since the pill worked, so I think it's time for you to leave," He bluntly added.
A sour expression appeared on Maria's face after Aakesh's spoke. She wanted to stay for some more time and look at him laughing once more. She became obsessed with his laughing face after seeing it only once. She even forgot about the three more pills she needed to buy to heal her dantian.
She nodded and started leaving, but she returned running right after reaching the door and grabbed Aakesh's right arm.