Before they knew it, Mash and Mizuki were standing in a vacant lot surrounded by trees. Sunlight streamed through the canopy—it felt like daytime. Cobblestone roads stretched in both directions.
"I don't know which way leads to the city," Mash muttered.
As he was about to speak to her, he realized that Mizuki was crying in earnest.
"What? Did you enjoy the kiss?" he asked.
"No! It's frustrating!" She wiped away her tears with a handkerchief and glared at him.
But for some reason, her gaze shifted to confusion. Mash also felt something was off about Mizuki's facial features. She already had pretty good features, but with some changes it felt like she'd become even more beautiful.
"Were you really that beautiful? Maybe you were an idol or something?"
He couldn't help but say it out loud.
"What, are you trying to flatter me so you can kiss me again?"
"No! But I'd do it anytime. Look at the color of your hair."
She took her hair in her hands and looked surprised. Her hair, which had been completely black in Lachsel's space, now had a bluish tint.
"Maybe it's because of the light?"
"I think it's different. I can't really explain it, but your whole atmosphere has changed."
"That's right. Your hair is turning green too. When I saw you on the train I thought you looked like someone I knew, but now you look even more similar..."
Had Mizuki mistaken him for that guy and treated him like a molester?
"Was he a habitual molester?"
"N-no, that person, well, how should I put it..." For some reason, she seemed extremely flustered.
"So he's your boyfriend?"
"No!" She got angry.
"But please forgive me for suspecting you of molestation. I'll accept that kiss as punishment."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Mash knew they should call it even, but he wanted Mizuki to tell him what he'd done to her.
"I don't want to say it. I've already forgotten."
"After that, I got slapped in retaliation. We're not balanced."
He stroked the cheek that had been hit. It felt hot and swollen.
"Uh, I'll think of something to apologize for that."
"Just a kiss will do. If you do it once, it's the same no matter how many times you do it."
"It's not about the number of times! I really can't do it physically! Please, let me forget!"
She was still the one hurting his feelings.
"Besides..." Mizuki hesitated.
"What, do you have a boyfriend?"
"Well, it's not that, but there is someone I think I might like. And for me..."
She hesitated and looked at him as if to confirm what she was saying. He had no recollection of it, but he wondered if she and he had some kind of connection in the past.
"What's going on? Are you dating a sugar daddy?"
"There's no way I did that! Stop making weird assumptions!"
After that, they started walking toward town. Not knowing which way to go, Mash decided they should walk until they found a place where the view opened up and they could see the landscape.
Mizuki, who won at rock-paper-scissors, chose the direction.
"Lachsel should have just transferred us somewhere easier to understand," Mash complained.
"Maybe it was good that it takes a while to get to town."
"Why?"
He was walking along the road so it shouldn't be a problem, but if they got lost and stranded, it seemed like no one would come to rescue them. This was starting to look bad.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Hmm, sure."
"Before that, can I call you Mash?"
"That's fine. I'll call you Mizuki-chan too."
"Ugh, it's weird, but call me by my first name. It's shorter, so it's more bearable than adding 'chan.'"
"Got it, Mizuki."
When he went out of his way to call her by name, she started trembling with discomfort. She really did hate him. Why did high school girls hate older men?
"Your handprint is on Mash's cheek. I want it to disappear before we reach the city."
"Seriously! It hurt a lot."
Mash wished they could meet someone, but they encountered no one. He had a feeling they were heading in a direction where there were no people—meaning away from the city—but he wasn't sure. It would be terrible if they had to camp out in a place like this.
As they kept walking, he started to sweat.
"It's hot."
He took off his tie and roughly tried to throw it into storage, but failed, dropping it on the road.
"Hey, don't litter," Mizuki said, quickly noticing and picking it up.
"Huh? I just messed up a little."
When he tried to take the tie from Mizuki, she dodged.
"I'll keep it for you."
"Why? Give it back. I don't need it, but it's mine."
"You're probably just going to throw it away again," Mizuki said, putting it in her own storage.
As they were going through this exchange, Mash thought he heard a scream coming from deep in the bushes off the path.
"Hmm, is anyone there?" He listened carefully.
"Help me!"
Someone was shouting in the distance. Screams were mixed in. There was also the faint sound of a struggle.
"We have to go!"
"Hey, wait!"
He grabbed Mizuki's arm as she tried to run toward the scream and stopped her. Mizuki gave him a reproachful look.
"Are you going to abandon them?"
"That's not it. This isn't Japan. I want to proceed carefully."
"Right, I get it."
"First, take out your sword from Storage. Let's approach while hiding until we can see what's going on."
Mizuki nodded and drew the small one-handed sword Lachsel had given them. Gripping it tightly, Mash headed toward the sound while hiding behind trees. He had no choice but to push through bushes, so he gave up on moving silently.
The overlapping sounds became clearer—the sounds of beatings, animal cries, human groans. He wanted to pretend he hadn't heard them and just walk away.
Mash reached a position where he could see what was happening. Small, human-like creatures that resembled hairless monkeys wearing only loincloths were wielding clubs and attacking a man and woman in a group. There were about ten of them.
A woman was lying on the ground while a man tried to rescue her as the monsters beat them with clubs.
"Goblins? Kobolds?"
It was a situation they couldn't handle. He didn't even know his own strength, let alone his opponents'.
"Let's go."
"What?"
Before he could stop her, Mizuki leaped forward, skillfully catching one of the monsters by surprise and cutting it down. The monster vanished in a flash.
Mizuki bravely attacked a second one but was blocked by a club. Several enemies approached her, and Mash charged toward one of them.
His sword pierced the enemy and it disappeared with a scream. However, this didn't improve the situation, and Mizuki was forced to defend against attacks from two monsters.
Another monster was approaching her from behind, aiming its club at the back of her head.
"Damn it!"
He quickly rushed to Mizuki and tried to block the club with his sword, but couldn't neutralize its momentum. He felt a dull impact on his shoulder, and the next thing he knew he was face down on the ground.
When he tried to stand by putting his hands on the ground, sharp pain ran through his shoulder and he fell back down. It was hopeless.
"Mizuki! This failed! Run!"
"Super Save...?"
Mizuki muttered, looking down at him. There seemed to be a blue light in her eyes, but what was even more dazzling were the light blue panties visible from under her skirt.
Her subsequent moves were spectacular. Although she received some blows from the group, she avoided every strike that looked fatal, and the swords she swung landed sure fatal wounds.
As the enemy's numbers dwindled, the man who had called for help also joined the battle. The fight ended while Mash was lying down watching Mizuki's panties flash.
"Are you okay?"
Mizuki came running over.
"Mind your own business. You've been hit a few times too."
"I'm fine. Nothing hit me directly."
Mash endured the pain in his shoulder and somehow managed to get up. As they were recovering, a group of four people who had heard the commotion appeared.
"My name is Reid. I'm the leader of Wind Blade. I'm an adventurer who belongs to the Adventurer's Guild in the town of Richelle. There have been many incidents of goblin groups attacking people, so I was assigned to patrol the area."
The man at the front introduced himself. He was young and very handsome. "Wind Blade" seemed to be the party name, consisting of an adventurer, a warrior, a magician, and a priest.
Mash wished they had come sooner—that they had defeated the goblins before he and Mizuki arrived.
"It's a potion. Drink it."
He did as the wizard-like woman told him and drank the liquid. It was bitter.
The priestess-like woman put her hand on his shoulder and chanted a spell. The pain in his shoulder disappeared.
"I'll treat Mizuki too."
"I'm fine," Mizuki hastily declined.
"Hmm. But you've taken damage. Let me cast a healing spell."
The female priest insisted. Her chest was quite large, Mash noted.
"T-Thank you."
The man and woman they'd helped had apparently been attacked by goblins while collecting medicinal herbs. Usually, the area around the city was patrolled by knights and adventurers who hunted monsters, so only weak monsters appeared alone—groups like this were rare.
The two people they'd helped were both seriously injured. The woman had collapsed when they arrived, and the man who'd been fighting also collapsed afterward.
The man was able to walk on his own thanks to healing magic, but the woman's injuries couldn't be fully healed with potions and magic, so she would need treatment in town.
A small, bearded man who came after Wind Blade was identified as a dwarf. Everyone decided to return to town, so Mash and Mizuki decided to follow them.
The dwarf tried to carry the woman, but Reid stopped him.
"Aidan, I know you're an A-rank adventurer, but I can't let you do that. I'll have my companion carry her."
"Yeah," Aidan nodded.
"Beers, carry her."
A warrior-like man called Beers carried the woman, with Aidan helping. They walked in the opposite direction from where Mash and Mizuki had been heading.
As they walked along the cobblestone road toward town, Mizuki was already chatting intimately with the members of Wind Blade. It was extraordinary communication skill that couldn't be replicated.
Mash was wondering why she wasn't using that ability to interact with him when she came and walked beside him.
"The wizard is Cecily and the priest is Ayla. They're both beautiful."
"Ah."
Mizuki laughed at his curt reply. She seemed to have anticipated his reaction.
"They're both Reid's girlfriends!"
"What?" Mash felt a surge of hatred for Reid.
"The citizens living in the city practice monogamy, but adventurers are free people, so it's different. There's a Demon Kingdom far to the east, and it seems they practice polygamy there."
It was a wonderful system, but if he thought about it, it was a system where good-looking men took all the beautiful women. Reid had two beautiful women as companions and even a slave. It didn't seem like a system designed for him.
"Changing the subject, this..."
She handed him something that looked like a small marble, with something white in the center that took the shape of a flame and flickered.
"It was dropped by the monster you defeated. It's a magic seed."
It seemed more accurate to call it a jewel than a seed.
"Consuming magic seeds can increase your stats and give magical effects to weapons and armor."
"Do you know what stats the goblin magic seed increases?"
"It seems like it's random with goblins, unlike other monsters."
"I see. It might be good to collect as many magic seeds as possible and raise stats to the limit."
"Apparently, you have to hunt about 10,000 of them before they drop."
"I see. That's incredible. If you defeat 10,000 of them, you'll probably become strong enough that you won't need magic seeds anymore."
He laughed. It was a valuable item.
"So, please, can I have it? I want to use it as a good luck charm."
"Huh? A good luck charm? What a waste. It's rare, so it should sell for a high price. Let's split the money."
"Mm, of course it's a drop from an enemy you defeated, so if you want to sell it, that's fine. I'll give the money to you."
Mizuki pouted and pursed her lips. It didn't seem like she was planning to keep it all or secretly sell it off.
"Well, I almost died because you ran off on your own, but I was saved thanks to you being there. You should keep it, Mizuki."
He returned the magic seed to her.
"I know that sounds reluctant, but I'll treasure it. Thank you, Mash."
"So, about the battle just now—do you remember the special skill you acquired?"
"The Retail Store Law?"
"I knew you were just saying stupid things to get a laugh."
According to Mizuki, the Super Save skill allowed her to avoid fatal blows to herself. Super Kill was a skill that had a chance of delivering a fatal blow to enemies.
When either of these activated, Super Expansion would activate, improving the ability to evade for Super Save and increasing the chance of Super Kill. With each Super Save or Super Kill, Super Expansion infinitely improved the skills' power—the ability to avoid fatal hits now also covered avoiding normal attacks, and increased the chances of killing enemies in one hit.
The skill activated regardless of Mizuki's basic abilities. The chain of skills had pulverized the group of goblins.
"So, in other words, super save activated without my help, and Mizuki was able to wipe out the goblins with just her power."
She was so overpowered it made him laugh. The ability Lachsel had given Mizuki was too much of a cheat.
"I think it would have been dangerous if you hadn't helped me. When you did help, it was like super save was activated."
Even without his help, her super save ability would have protected her in a different way, but it was difficult when she was under saturated attack.
"I see. But it's best not to tell anyone about your skills or that you're a summoned hero."
"Hmm, why?"
"I want to explain, but I can't put it into words very well. I hope that when something happens, they'll realize their mistake and regret it."
If Mizuki's power was the best in the world, then she should just keep using it. However, there was a Demon Lord. There must be people who had been given powers like them.
Additionally, Mizuki's reckless personality meant she'd likely continue using her powers carelessly. It was clear this would eventually meet with backlash from greater forces.
"I kind of understand what you want to say. I'll be careful."
That honesty was both admirable and scary.