"This town has had many of its hot spring pools polluted in a very short time. For contamination to spread this quickly, it must have started from the source at the mountain behind the Axis Cathedral."
The receptionist now looked shrewd, all traces of her previous airheaded personality gone.
It seems she's quite reliable when it matters.
Adam released Aqua and asked, "What should we do, Aqua?"
"Do you even need to ask? Of course we're going to beat him up good!" Aqua replied viciously, her expression equally dangerous.
"Well then, everyone except Darkness, prepare to depart!"
"Yeah!" x6
"Beatrice, you stay behind and protect Darkness."
"Eh? But I also want to..."
"Please, I'm worried about her being alone."
"Hmph, even though Betty wants to go with Adam... fine, I'll stay."
"Thank you, I'm counting on you, Beatrice." Adam entrusted Darkness's safety to her, then led everyone else as they rushed out.
"Be careful."
Behind them came the well-wishes of two women.
To the left of the Axis Cathedral was a massive lake that served as the town's water source. Behind the cathedral, on that tall mountain, springs with healing properties flowed out.
On the road to the hot spring source, many of the town's soldiers stood guard, preventing anyone from going up to cause trouble.
But in reality, someone had already gone up to cause trouble.
"Look! I'm the High Priestess of the Axis Cathedral! Can't you see properly?" Aqua was holding her adventurer card, practically shoving it in the guard's face.
However, she still didn't get permission.
"No! I can't let you in!" The soldier stared straight ahead, not even glancing at her, "Even if you are the High Priestess of the Axis Cathedral, we cannot allow you to proceed. Only the manager responsible for the hot springs is allowed to enter."
He was rigid and formal, the very model of a soldier.
But this approach would only waste time.
"Besides, you're all wearing equipment, so we definitely can't let you in." The soldier eyed their fully armed appearance, his brow furrowing as his hand tightened discreetly on his spear.
Of course everyone needed to be fully equipped — a battle was surely going to happen.
But this only made the guard more nervous.
"Listen, you...!" Just as Aqua was about to explode with anger, she suddenly seemed to remember something and took a deep breath, switching to a more reasonable tone, "Hey, as devout followers of the Axis Order, you all..."
"Ah, sorry, we're followers of the Eris Order."
"WHAT—?!?!" Aqua immediately bristled, stomping her foot and shouting, "Why?! You live in this town, so why are you followers of Eris?!"
"Even if you say that..."
"Please, I'm begging you... let us through! This town's hot springs are in danger! For the sake of saving this town... no, I AM saving this town—!" Aqua grabbed the soldier's armor with tears in her eyes, trying to win sympathy with her pitiful act.
But...
"No means no! Those are the rules!"
"WHY—!!!" Seeing the soldier's inflexibility, Aqua's fury returned in full force.
Then she suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to Adam, her eyes filled with desperate pleading.
"Fine, here you go. Just this once."
He handed Darkness's necklace to Aqua, using clever wording to make it sound to the soldiers like he was reluctant to let her use his family's authority.
That's right — they were disguising Aqua as a noblewoman from the Dustiness family.
"Ahahaha, you guys, look at this!" After receiving the token, Aqua instantly became arrogant, proudly holding up the necklace and shoving it in the soldier's face, "Look carefully, you idiots! This is proof from the Dustiness noble family!"
"What...! It's real!"
The soldiers' faces filled with disbelief.
"Please forgive our rudeness!" xN
The soldiers lowered their heads and parted, making way for them.
The name of the Dustiness lord was truly powerful.
"Hmph." Aqua raised her head and strode forward with exaggerated steps, clearly enjoying her borrowed authority.
"Um... is Lady Aqua trying to act like a noble daughter?"
"...No, she's just drunk on power."
"Hey, be quiet, show her some respect."
The whispers from behind nearly made Aqua stumble.
"You guys... I'll remember this!" With a light snort, she abandoned her noble act and sprinted toward the mountain.
Though relatively flat, the mountain path was overgrown with weeds and covered in snow, slowing their progress. No one had cleared the path — perhaps because it was a restricted area.
As they climbed higher, everyone sensed something was wrong. The path might have been left untended not because it was restricted, but because of the numerous monsters on the mountain.
What shocked them, however, was that these monsters weren't just present — they were dead.
"What... happened here?" Finding a monster's corpse, Kazuma — acting on his thief's instincts — began examining it and harvesting materials.
This was second nature to him.
"There are no sword wounds, no marks from clubs or blunt weapons. No scorch marks from magic either. Just some giant teeth marks... I think it was poison or acid!"
In this moment, Kazuma proved his value to the team.
Though Adam was well-rounded with no weaknesses in strength, he couldn't match the young man's eye for these details.
"Judging by the size of these teeth marks, this monster would challenge even mid-level adventurers. Our troublemaker shouldn't be underestimated... though compared to our 'Hero' party, they're still just small fry."
"Your confidence is commendable, but it's better not to be arrogant before knowing the enemy's strength." Adam cautioned Kazuma against overconfidence, though in his heart, he was already certain Hans was up there.
"We should hurry. I feel like something's about to happen." Aqua suddenly spoke up, urging everyone forward with her claim that she "sensed danger".
"Right, let's go!"
Everyone picked up their pace as they continued upward.
Despite the snow making the path difficult to traverse, it was fortunately relatively flat with only one route leading to the mountaintop.
An hour later, they reached the summit.
"Hah... hah... hah... Adam-senpai, can't you fly? Couldn't you have carried us?"
"I can fly, but I still can't carry people with me. Sorry."
"Forget it, I was just asking." Kazuma wiped the thick sweat from his forehead, then turned and beckoned to everyone, "Everyone, look!"
Following his gesture, they saw a water pipe. At the end of the pipe bubbled the hot spring source...
Black! The hot spring water was pitch black and emitting dark steam.
"Hey, that's poison, right?! The hot spring is completely poisonous, isn't it?!"
"Ah!"
Hearing Kazuma's surprised shout, Aqua recklessly ran forward and thrust her hand into the black hot spring water.
"HOT—!!!" She screamed, "Hot hot hot hot—! It's burning me, I'm going to be cooked alive!"
Despite her words, her hand remained in the water.
"That idiot Aqua!" Adam cursed under his breath, then quickly walked forward and pulled her hand out, "You idiot, what were you thinking?! Why are you so impulsive? What if you got hurt?! Think about yourself for once, you hopeless Goddess!"
"But... but, my water... that hot spring..." Aqua was sobbing.
"Seriously..." Adam sighed, then looked at the scalding hot spring water and gathered his internal mana to use magic.
◈ Frost Nova ◈
Crack!
Under the powerful magic, the temperature of the hot spring rapidly decreased until it froze into ice.
"Huh?"
Just as Adam was about to speak, a light exclamation came from a corner where no one could see clearly.
"Who's there?!"
At Adam's demand, a middle-aged man walked out from the shadows.
Brown-gray hair and fierce eyes… It was Hans!
His appearance matched the portrait Aqua had drawn perfectly!
✧✧✧
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