Learning a bit about Wiz.

"By the way, are you the ones who got Beldia to leave?" Wiz asked.

"Actually, yes," Kazuma blinked.

"How did you do that?" Wiz questioned.

"Well... I kind of tricked him into thinking the big holy thing he was looking for might not even be in Axel Town anymore," Kazuma chuckled. "It was pretty easy, considering he was actually looking for Aqua here, and she really didn't act the part of a goddess most of the time down here, so he had no idea."

"Hey!" Aqua whined.

"Why do you ask though?" Kazuma asked.

"I'm just impressed is all. Even among the Devil King's generals, Beldia was one of the best swordsmen. I should know, I'm one of the generals too, albeit semi retired," Wiz smiled, before pausing, and realizing what she had let slip.

Silence. "You're mine!" Aqua shouted, tackling Wiz to the ground.

"Aqua, you promised not to do this!" Kazuma growled, grabbing Aqua by the hair.

"That was before we found out who she was!" Aqua shouted in protest. "Imagine the reward for bringing her down!"

"Wait, please hear me out!" Wiz protested. "I'm just small fry among the generals! All he has me doing is connected me to the barrier around his castle! I've never done any harm to anyone, I swear!"

"You're still maintaining that barrier though, we can't attack the Devil King until it's down!"

"If you can lower the number of his generals down to two or three, you can break through the barrier!" Wiz informed her. "You wouldn't bring it down just by killing one of us, but if you kill enough of his other generals, you can weaken it!"

"And why, pray tell, should I pass up an opportunity to weaken it here and now?" Aqua asked.

"...because I know Explosion and can help break it?" Wiz suggested.

"Also because I actually quite like her, and she DID just teach me a skill," Kazuma added. "...still though, how DID you end up becoming a general?" Kazuma asked Wiz.

"...well, it's actually kind of Beldia's fault," she replied. "You see, back when I was simply an Arch Mage, me and my party tried fighting Beldia, but he ended up putting death curses on my party. Desperate, I ended up fighting another of the generals, a Devil by the name of Vanir, and managed to push him quite far, though I had to use forbidden items that depleted my life force. I was aiming to get his respect so he would make a contract with me."

"A contract?" Kazuma blinked.

"My soul for him lifting Beldia's curse. However, because I had depleted my life force and had months to live at most as a result, Vanir told me my soul was worthless to him... But he had a counter offer for me. I help him create a dungeon, and in exchange, he would teach me how to become a lich. That solved both the problem of my being not long for this world, and gave me enough power to fight Beldia again. After I successfully became a lich, I stormed the Devil King's castle before he had enough generals to maintain a strong enough barrier to stop me, did some damage, found Beldia, and beat him into submission and forced him to lift the curses he put on my party."

"...holy shit," Kazuma replied, impressed at that story. "How did that lead to joining the Devil King, even only to maintain the barrier though?"

"I was too exhausted to keep fighting, and in exchange for forgiving the damage I did to his castle, he asked me to help maintain the barrier. Not wanting to die yet, I agreed. I did take the first opportunity to leave though, and made off with some powerful items from his treasury to sell in the bargain," Wiz grinned mischievously. "The best part is, he couldn't do much about it, because I'm still linked to his castle, so killing me would weaken the barrier, which he does not want, and of course, he knows capturing me back would be more trouble than it's worth, so he lets me be."

"Damn," Kazuma whistled, impressed. "...wonder if that's part of why Beldia didn't attack Axel Town... He didn't want to incur your wrath..." he mused.

"Oh no, even without me here, he does have a sense of honor... Though it probably helped keep him from losing his temper about the Explosions, that might have been enough to provoke him otherwise. He didn't want to get beat up by me a third time if he could help it."

"Wait, a third time? What was the second?"

"After he rolled his head between my legs to look up my skirt while I was still residing in the castle," Wiz said in a dead tone. "He doesn't act like it in public, but he's a real pervert..."

"...and there goes a good amount of the respect I actually had for the guy," Kazuma deadpanned.

"Oh like you're not a pervert yourself," Aqua growled. He had the Sex Note and was using it, even if that could partly be blamed on Darkness, for crying out loud!

"Not that! I mean being stupid enough to provoke the wrath of someone who already kicked his ass once," Kazuma replied smoothly. "At least I can control myself!"

"...and there it is," Aqua face palmed as Wiz giggled, not minding Kazuma's admission of pervertedness due to her attraction to him, and having slept with him once.