Answers

"M-milo, you're staring at me so intensely..." Sarah blushed.

Huh, I was? It hadn't occured to me that my U.I. had overlapped with Sarah's figure.

It must have look like I was looking her over like some kind of demented pervert.

"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to~ admire your beauty," I said half-jokingly.

Sarah turned a slight shade of red before brushing past me. "T-thank you. Well, I should get going."

"Yeah, c'ya soon," I said to Sarah.

"That's it?" Erythro questioned my judgement.

"What do you mean?" I asked in return.

"You think I'm naive. You two obviously have excellent chemisty,

Now that I'm alone and Sarah's not at the stand, I should go see if I can get any information from Paul about Merlow.

With a quick spatial magic spell, I was suddenly in front of Paul's stand. Long behold, the old man looked to be doing better than ever.

Wait, there's something weird going on here. There's 3 other Paul's here maning the stand.

"Paul?" I said to the one meditating on a mat.

"Ah, Milo, so good to see you again. Your little remedy did wonders for my back. I haven't felt this good in ages. Also, didn't I tell you to call me dad?" Paul insisted.

Right, I forgot about this.

"D-dad..." I hesistantly said.

Ya know, I'm not sure if I actually have a problem with saying that strangely enough.

"What can I help you with, dating advice? My daughter's favorite flower is a Stargazer Lily and her weak spot is behind her ears-"

Paul suddenly went on a strange tangent.

"No, no, it's nothing like that." I placated.

"Oh...how disappointing," Paul's previous enthusiasm faded.

"Although...I'll be sure to remember that. I wanted to talk about you to be honest."

"Me? I suppose a father should bond with his kids."

"When we were healing you earlier, I noticed a few things of interest. You're a martial artist, aren't you?"

"Hoho~a keen eye with this one! I was, however I've long since been retired."

"Can you also use Umbra Magic?"

"Yup, I'm using it right now. Those other clones of me are shadow clones; hollow constructs being made of umbra magic."

So far so good.

"Did you ever have a student named Merlow?"

Paul tensed up.

"I did, he was quite the troubled fellow. Quick to adapt, but he had trouble letting grudges go."

"Grudges?"

"Yes, the style that's been passed down for generations is known as the Fist of the Gentle Demon. Negative emotions are manifested into energy and are used to harm the soul and body. For that reason, unnecessary use of the art is deemed unacceptable."

"..."

"Merlow disregarded this rule, thus I had to disown him. A shame really. He attacked another, rather arrogant student of mine. Granted, Merlow was antagonized, he still crippled someone for life."

Crippled someone for life? So he's been kind of a loose cannon for a while.

"I'm sorry to inform you, but he's recently done far worse than that. He's killing people and endangering the lives of countless others."

The old man stroked his beard and furrowed his brow.

"I see, so that's why he's got wanted posters all over the city. Whatever will I do with that boy..."

Paul turned his back to me and pulled a copy of the poster off a nearby building. He stared at it for a long while before I broke the silence.

"When I confronted him, I'm confindent that the attack he used on me was your style. I couldn't track his movements, I couldn't heal the damage dealt, and I couldn't use my mana."

Paul looked up at me. "That much is to be expected, although it's remarkable that you're still alive. Negativity is natural, everyone feels it. It's... a type of energy if you will, it doesn't just vanish. With Merlow as he is now, he no doubtedly has a lot built up. The style meant to take opponents down swiftly, thus it was named the Fist of the Gentle Demon."

Then, negativity makes Merlow stronger, great.

"Please, I have to know, is there anyway I can beat him."

Paul sighed. "I know of 3 ways. One, completely outclass him in speed and power. Two, disperse his negativity. And three, learn the style yourself."

I thought about it. I really don't have the time to learn the style, but the second option was easily the most appealing.

"How do I disperse his negativity?" I asked hoping for a simple asnwer.

"It could potentially be done through several means. Purification magic, positive persuasion, or kill the host. Whatever you decide to do, remember, negative energy can't be destroyed, only relocated. Trying to destroy negative energy will surely end in misery."

Killing him... I really don't want to consider that option. I assume positive pesuasion means that I have to talk him down on something like that.

He doesn't seem to be the type to accept the ideology of an outsider.

Purification magic seems to be my best bet, I didn't think to use it at the time of our fight. Although my skill is maxed out, I haven't invested a lot of times into training it.

Right, I know what I need to do, but first, I need to take care of Roland.