A Father's Duty

After tending to hawk's injury, I saw Irene coming towards me.

"So? How was it?" I asked her.

"Turns out one of them is the princess of this kingdom and the owner is one of the sin's member, their captain at that." She said.

"I see." I replied.

"I need to get back to mama." Hawk said and ran out as we followed him.

When we reached the bar

"Mama! Come up! We're leaving." Hawk said and the ground shook before revealing a big green pig, surprising Irene. She haven't able to scan such creature making her think that it was strong or has a way to avoid detection. She also now knew why the bar was named like that because it do look like a boar hat sitting atop the big green pig.

Hawk from atop, threw a ladder towards us, and I climbed in it while Irene just flew atop the big green pig.

"Mama! Let's go to where Meliodas is." Hawk said and the big green pig lowered for a second before jumping up at the direction that hawk pointed out.

Lord Twigo is telling his subordinates to request for back up but a pig foot slammed him deep into the ground.

Meliodas and Princess Elizabeth saw the big green pig and Meliodas grinned.

"Hawk Mama! Right on time!" Meliodas said as Elizabeth is shocked to see Hawk Mama.

Hawk then threw the ladder down and Meliodas carried Elizabeth and climbed up the ladder.

When they got up, Meliodas pointed the direction for Hawk Mama to go to.

Irene and I were about to leave since the bar owner has came back but Meliodas stopped me.

"Would you mind if I hired you as a cook in my bar?" He asked me before thinking about it.

"To tell you the truth, I'm a bar master as well. And we are travelling in search of rare ingredients to put in my menu. So I think I may not be able to help you." I replied but Meliodas is still optimistic.

"Oh. We are travelling as well. I'm pretty sure your companion has told you who we are. I have some business with the other members of the seven deadly sins. We will be able to visit many places and you might be able to encounter rare ingredients as well." Meliodas said making me ponder.

Its true that Meliodas has more knowledge of this Kingdom than we are and we have no currency at the moment. I am also not sure whether those rare ingredients are compatible with my cells.

"Your proposal seems interesting to me but... do you mind if I talk about this with my wife first? We are travelling together after all." I said making Meliodas nod.

I went out to see Irene sitting on top of Hawk Mama's nose and she seems to be thinking about something deeply.

I sat beside her and she seemed to be in a daze to not be able to notice me.

"Is... there something wrong? My love?" I asked her.

Irene seemed to wake up after hearing my voice.

"Oh. It's nothing." She said, I felt that something is wrong but I don't know what it is. Taking it off my mind, I asked Irene.

"I see. Then should we join them while collecting rare ingredients on the way?" I said.

"Sure, I trust your decision." She said with a smile but I felt that it is forced one.

An awkward silence enveloped us and to remove the awkwardness, I stood up and went inside to inform Meliodas of our decision to stay with them for a while.

"*Sigh* When are you going to tell me the truth, my love?" Irene muttered in a small voice that only she and Hawk Mama could hear.

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Three days have passed by and the atmosphere between me and Irene is getting weirder and weirder. I don't know how to patch it up because I've never had a situation like this even before transmigrating to this body. So I just acted passively towards it.

We arrived at our next destination, Bernia Village. Meliodas said that we are going to stock up on Bernia ale as his own stock is almost depleted. I have never tasted one and he says its taste is indeed good, a sweet and strong ale, is what he said.

We all got out as Hawk Mama started digging, ssoon her big body is now buried underneath only revealing the bar. Since Elizabeth doesn't have any spare clothes, Meliodas lent her the bar's uniform which consist of tight upper and short skirt with only one black stocking and a pair of black and white doll shoes.

After Hawk Mama settled down, Meliodas invited us to go to the village. I accepted his invitation and to my surprise, Irene wanted to stay at the bar and told us to have fun.

I'm now stuck in a hard position on whether to stay with Irene or to go with Meliodas, Elizabeth, and Hawk.

Since I have already agreed, I joined them. Irene watched our departing backs with a complicated emotion in her eyes. She too noticed the awkwardness between her and me but she too doesn't know what to do and had no idea what to do.

"Looks like we'll be together for now, Hawk Mama." She said before sighing.

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Meliodas on the way to the village has been telling us that the Bernia Ale tasted really good because of their water source that they used for watering their ingredients. To their surprise though, the water under the small bridge has completely dried up and the plants were slowly dying.

"These plants will die for a week if they don't receive water at all." I said.

"Are you a farmer yourself? Mister..." Elizabeth then remember that I haven't told my name yet.

"Noctis. Or just call me Noct, like my wife do. She's Irene by the way." I said with a proud voice then remembered the awkwardness between us as it turned me sullen.

"I see, aren't you too young to marry, mister Noct?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, we are not bound by the oath yet but I do love her and consider her my wife already." I replied to Elizabeth.

"Is there something bothering Miss Irene? She always look at you when you are not looking at her. Did the two of you fight?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know. I have no idea why it would happen." I said.

"Did you do something wrong to her? I think you need to apologize to her if you did something wrong. My father always told me that when someone is in the wrong, they should apologize to not hurt someone else's feelings." She said and I didn't reply back immediately but continued staring in front of us.

'Did I do something wrong? Have I done something wrong? I don't think so? right?' I thought before replying to Elizabeth.

"Thank you for the advice. I'll keep it." I said as Elizabeth beamed a warm smile.

When we arrived at Bernia Village, there are crowd gathering happening and Meliodas asked the local what is happening.

Turns out that a holy knight punished them and as a punishment he cut off the supply of water of Bernia Village, and now they are trying to pull the sword out with all they've got or else their village will be doomed and the famous Bernia Ale would be erased in history.

"Holy...knight? Is it the one you defeated?" Elizabeth asked.

"You mean Twigo? He's not a holy knight. A real holy knight is a lot stronger compared to him." Meliodas said.

"Aren't you all pathetic? To which Holy sword did this belong to? This is nothing compared to my friend, a deadly sin!" A kid suddenly said gathering everyone's attention.

"Mead! What are you saying?! Don't speak such criminal names like that!" An elderly woman said.

"That's right! We can't irritate the holy knights any more!" A man said.

"What do you have against us?!" Another man said.

"What? This isn't what I wanted...." Mead replied back.

"Enough of your bullsh*t!" A man said.

"Mead! You asshat!" A kid said before throwing a rock which hit Meliodas face accurately. The kids then started throwing rocks at mead and some of them were dodged by Meliodas as he pushed Mead all the way back to the bar leaving us behind as we looked at each other before sighing.

"Why are the villagers so mad at mead?" Elizabeth asked.

"Because... he put a bug in the holy knight's drink after the holy knight berated our drink." The Village head said.

"Heh~ so that's how it was." I said.

"What do you mean, Mister Noct?" Elizabeth asked.

"These guys, got mad at a kid for protecting the pride of your village. The ale you worked so hard for was suddenly stepped over by a holy knight who doesn't even know how to appreciate a good drink." I said making the crowd silent.

"Isn't it too harsh to say that, Mister Noct?" Elizabeth asked.

"Harsh? Is saying the truth harsh now, little miss? Mead just spoke their true feelings and they got mad over it and treated him as an outcast. Am I right?" I said to her and she can't reply.

"Why don't you go back and check on Mead instead and confirm whether Mead really has a Sin as friend. I'll stay around here for a while." I said as Elizabeth nodded as she brought Hawk with her.

"Old man, is there such thing as a rare ingredient in this place?" I asked the village head.

"Our specialty lies in the grout we used in making Bernia Ale where we grow it with the help of our unique water source. We don't have such a thing called a rare ingredient... wait, if I remember correctly, Old Ajax found a seed that doesn't grow even after planting it in different ways. Old Ajax is an antique collector, if you want something rare, you can ask him if you want." The Village head said.

"Then may I know where is he?" I asked.

"Well... that's the problem, he isn't back until the sun has set as he kept on going to the surrounding village to see if he can get lucky in buying antiques and only returns when the sun has set." The village head said.

"I see." I said and was about to walk away when I heard a knight speaking.

"Alright you sc.u.mbags, listen up!" A fat knight said.

"If you do not withdraw the sword after sunset, then we will increase the tax of this town by tenfold!" A slim knight said.

"This is insane! If we do not have water, not a drop to drink, how could you imagine us paying ten times more?!" A villager said.

"This is punishment! Not only have you insulted a holy knight, but you've also spoke to someone related to the seven deadly sins..." the fat knight said and Mead came to the sword and started pulling it out.

The villagers were about to berate Mead when they remembered my words to them. No one spoke a word but they approached Mead and apologized as they started pulling the sword with him.

The knights started laughing as they watched the villagers pull out the sword.

"Remember! If you do not pull it out by sunset, tax will increase by 20x." The slim knight said before laughing as he offered a drink to the fat knight.

The crowd then started pulling even harder while I watch from the side before making a move. I wanted to try their famous ale as well.

The knights were drinking alcohol in a mug, berating and insulting the villagers for trying hard to remove the sword that the holy knight stabbed into the ground. I walked towards them and took it away from them.

"People who can not appreciate a good drink doesn't deserve to drink it." I said as I sent one of the mug to Meliodas without it spilling as I used my space magic to teleport it to him.

Elizabeth and Meliodas soon caught up to mead and Meliodas caught the mug I teleported to him.

I then put the mug down and spoke.

"Although this is not bernia ale, this is a good alcohol, I must say. I will take this mug. As for payment... does this work?" I said gathering the attention of the villagers as I walked to the sword and grasped it.

"Banshō Ten'in." I muttered in a low voice as I pulled the sword up with ease making the villagers surprised and happy at the same time.

A small earthquake suddenly erupted as water finally spurt out of the well throwing the knights into the air before falling down. I then approached them with the sword in hand.

"I believe this is yours." I said and threw the sword back to the knights as they took it and immediately ran away. They were not stupid, someone who could pull the sword of the holy knight then that someone must have the strength of a holy knight and they ran away, afraid that I would change my mind and kill them and they couldn't be more wrong.

"Wait. Before you go back to your master like a dog. Here's your punishment. Banshō Ten'in." I pulled them towards me and took out a bottle from my pocket that has a nuclear bomb sign on it. I then used knocking so that they won't be able to move I then took out a dropper started dropping the content of the bottle to their nose.

The content of that bottle is more outrageous than wasabi. It is a bottle of The Bomb, Beyond Insanity. The knights then started fuming as their face went red as they screamed in pain and grabbed the sword before leaving the place. The villagers were satisfied to see the knights being punished and were grateful to me for that.

I shrugged it all off and made my way back to the bar to start preparing. I'm pretty sure that Bernia Village has some stock of Bernian Ale that they could sell to Meliodas at a cheap price, so i'm not worried about not being able to stock.

After entering the bar, I saw Irene sitting near the bar counter as we stared at each other not knowing what to say as I stationed myself at the bar counter and started cleaning the mugs.

"Noct, let's go home, I miss the kids." Irene suddenly said.

"Then let's go home tomorrow, I'm pretty sure Meliodas wouldn't mind it." I said as she nodded.

The night came by as the villagers started coming to the bar to drink as they celebrated because they have water now and was able to produce Bernian Ale once more.

Mead started teasing Meliodas for the food as he s.u.c.k.e.d at cooking and the villagers berated Mead before praising me for such a wonderful food.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth's debut as a waitress is a big fail as she started creating mess after mess after mess making Hawk clean up everything but he is really satisfied and really enjoyed his job because it was my food that spilled, not Meliodas'.

Seeing Elizabeth make a mess, Irene started helping out as they teased me for having such a beautiful and graceful wife. To which I only smiled back. Meliodas started pouring drinks and serving for the customer. While I am cooking my ears perked up as Meliodas and Irene perked up as well.

"My love, will you please takeover?" I said and Hawk asked me.

"Where are you going?" Hawk said.

"Just hoping a shooting star would come out and be able to wish to it." I said making him confused.

When I went outside, I saw Elizabeth sitting outside and Elizabeth was surprised to see me.

"Mister Noct. I'm sorry, I know we're in the middle of work but when I saw Mead and the others, I remembered my father." She said

"I see." I simply replied.

"I hope he's okay." She said.

"Just hope for it. Nothing's wrong in wishing for your father being in a better condition." I said

"I'm no good, right? nor is it the time to worry about father. There are lots of people suffering from the tyranny of the holy knights and if the princess get slaughtered for it, the future will be bad." She replied as I adjusted my position slightly.

"But you found one, right? You found Meliodas. If fate doesn't want you to succeed, you wouldn't stumble and pass out in front of the person you sought out so desperately, but you did. If fate doesn't want you to succeed, none of this would've happened in the first place." I said as Elizabeth realized what I said is true and hopes that she really can succeed.

"I have a mission." She said.

"So do I." I replied before raising my hand.

"Banshō Ten'in." I muttered in a low voice as a spear flying towards Bernia obediently flew towards my hand. I could feel electric sparks course through my body but it doesn't affect me in any way.

"What is that?!" Elizabeth panicked seeing a spear with sounds of lightning cackling could be heard in my hand.

"This? A spear of a Holy Knight, I guess. Let's repay them back." I said as Elizabeth became confused.

I c.o.c.ked my arm back and threw the spear at the angle and same speed at which it came from.

"Let's go back, we're still working." I said as Elizabeth was dumbfounded after seeing everything that has happened.

Meanwhile in a tower, a man with a pink hair has been reading the report about the man who pulled the sword out. There was nothing that could be found as if he suddenly popped out of nowhere.

He suddenly perked up after a minute as the spear he threw, came back to his castle and hit his castle.

"Lord Gilthunder! Are you okay?!" A knight said trying to find Gilthunder in the rubbles and was surprised to see Gilthunder injured as he evaded the spear by turning his head to the side.

"Interesting. A person on par with him. Looks like I need to move personally." He said as he stared at the night sky with anticipation in his eyes.