Even so, for a goddess of her stature to have her chest groped and then demand only five million eris in compensation—honestly, that alone was enough to completely overturn Ren Kuroda's worldview and shatter every last shred of fantasy he'd ever had about goddesses.(In this world, the value of eris is roughly equivalent to Japanese yen.)
"I'm sorry. I panicked earlier and acted without thinking. I'll pay you the compensation afterward," Ren said seriously."Aqua, since you weren't affected either, do you know what exactly is happening to the residents of Axel?"
Hearing that Ren actually intended to pay her what was clearly a joking claim for emotional damages, Aqua's earlier gloom from being chased all over town vanished in an instant.
Using the exact same trick before, she hadn't even managed to squeeze a single coin out of Kazuma—yet with Ren, she'd effortlessly scammed—ahem, obtained—five million eris in emotional compensation.
To be fair, even that sadistic Kazuma had long since lost any trace of sexual interest when it came to Aqua and the rest of his party, despite their looks all being well above average.
Because no matter how attractive they were, those teammates of his—diverse as their "species" might be—simply couldn't be viewed as women in any normal sense.
"I don't know what's happening to them either," Aqua said, shrugging. "I already tried purification magic on them before, but it had absolutely no effect.And I can't sense any evil aura from them at all, so we can probably rule out things like curses."
Then, suddenly shifting gears, she leaned closer."By the way, Ren, when are you planning to pay the five million eris? You should know, a goddess's anger is terrifying. Lying to me would invite divine punishment, you know?Oh, and if you want to touch a little longer, I can even give you a twenty percent discount!"
The moment Ren heard the first half of her words, his expression turned grave.If even Aqua—a bona fide goddess—couldn't identify what was wrong with Wiz and the others, then he'd need to proceed with extreme caution.
The fact that Wiz, someone Ren considered quite formidable, had fallen victim without noticing anything at all, combined with an effect that even Aqua couldn't dispel, meant this enemy was vastly more troublesome than Beldia ever was.
But the instant he heard the latter half of Aqua's sentence, his expression completely collapsed.
Is this woman really a goddess?How could someone be this hopelessly off the rails?
Ren's gaze drifted briefly to Aqua's not-exactly-impressive chest. Five million eris didn't seem all that expensive—but Ren Kuroda was a gentleman.
Wearing an expression of deep regret—No, wait, damn it.With a perfectly righteous and upright look, he firmly rejected Aqua's incredibly tempting offer and proposed a different deal instead.
If even Aqua, a "High Priestess," couldn't resolve the residents' condition, then Ren—who wasn't specialized in this field at all—stood no chance.
Since the problem affecting the people couldn't be fixed directly, then the only option left was to eliminate the problem at its source.
The memories of Axel's residents had been altered.The former deserter Aldarp had become a heroic savior, while Ren himself had been twisted into a traitor. Coupled with the earlier attempt to "invite" him over, even an idiot could tell that all of this was connected to Lord Aldarp.
From Wiz, Ren had learned quite a bit about Lord Aldarp—but aside from knowing that the man was lecherous, grotesquely pig-like in appearance, and otherwise just an ordinary human, Ren knew almost nothing else.
Which raised an obvious question.
If Aldarp was nothing more than a normal human, why did everyone so firmly believe he'd defeated the Demon King's army?
This went beyond simple memory alteration.Even people's basic ability to recognize and judge reality itself had been twisted.
And more importantly—how could a mere human rewrite the memories of everyone in Axel, including Wiz, reshaping events into his own ideal version of reality?
The unknown was what made this truly terrifying.
Unlike Beldia, Ren didn't even know who was behind this, nor how strong they were. Facing such an insidious, unavoidable ability, caution was absolutely essential.
"Aqua," Ren said slowly, "I want to hire you to help me resolve this abnormal incident. As for the reward… how about fifty million eris?"
The enemy was unknown, and judging from their ability to casually affect Wiz, Ren was convinced this was no ordinary opponent.
After hesitating for a while, he ultimately decided to bring Aqua along.
True—if judged as an adventurer, Aqua was the textbook definition of a walking disaster. But setting aside her personality and intelligence, her raw abilities were undeniably impressive.
The fact that everyone in town had been affected except her alone already proved that her status as a goddess was the real deal.
Even if Aqua ended up being useless in direct combat, a goddess-level "High Priestess" providing buffs alone would significantly boost Ren's strength.
Not to mention that Aqua possessed skills countless High Priestesses could never master in their entire lives—resurrection.
As long as the body remained intact, resurrection could be used. It was practically an extra life.
Compared to the value of Aqua's abilities, Ren felt that fifty million eris was an absolute steal. The only question was whether such a reward would be enough to tempt a goddess—especially given the very real risks involved.
"Fifty million eris…" Aqua coughed lightly, straightening her posture."Well, money isn't really the point here. What matters is that, as the goddess Aqua, saving innocent residents of Axel is my sacred duty.And more importantly, I'm nothing like that heartless Kazuma. If my dear friend has been wronged, how could I possibly stand by and do nothing?"
…Yeah.Ren had clearly overthought things.
Fifty million eris was more than enough to hire Aqua. In fact, the moment she heard the number, she'd already decided she'd follow him through fire and brimstone.
After all, this was fifty million eris.
For high-level adventurers, it might not be that outrageous—but for Kazuma's party, this was easily the biggest commission they'd ever seen in their lives.
Their usual jobs involved hunting low-level monsters harassing farms or failing miserably at haunted house exorcisms. The highest reward they'd ever earned was maybe a hundred thousand eris.
A commission in the tens of millions? When had they ever seen something like that?
And with Kazuma and the others conveniently absent this time, it meant the entire fifty million eris would belong to Aqua alone.
Even better, her teammate had gone from a shut-in sadist, a chuunibyou explosion maniac, and a perverted Crusader—to a powerful, reliable, and wealthy Ren.
In Aqua's eyes, this was nothing short of the legendary "earn money while lying down" scenario.
"Weren't you just asking me for emotional damages a moment ago? And now you're talking about risking your life for a dear friend.Does your conscience seriously not hurt at all?"
Ren sighed."Well, whatever. Aqua knows where the lord's mansion is, right? If nothing unexpected happens, whoever caused the residents' memory issues is either the lord himself—or closely connected to him."
"The lord's mansion?" Aqua tilted her head. "That huge one in the city, right? Kazuma and I once joked that we'd live in a place like that after we got rich.And I think Darkness mentioned before that it belongs to the Lord of Axel."
With Ren's wanted posters plastered all over town—and the fact that he couldn't bring himself to seriously harm these people—the only option left was to take unconventional routes.
Carrying Aqua in a princess carry, Ren leapt across rooftops with terrifying speed and incredible jumping power, leaving her staring at him in wide-eyed amazement.
Even when they reached the heavily guarded lord's mansion, the elite soldiers stationed there barely had time to register what they were seeing before collapsing unconscious to the ground.
The two of them pushed straight into the mansion without any resistance at all.
Aqua didn't cast a single spell—she didn't even have to walk.
Every time she noticed someone rushing toward them, she'd blink, and the next instant they'd already be sprawled on the floor.
This only reinforced Aqua's belief that accepting Ren's commission had been the smartest decision of her life.
Compared to Kazuma and the others, Ren was on an entirely different level. This fifty million eris really was free money.
Still, to avoid appearing completely useless—and risking Ren squeezing her reward later—Aqua followed his instructions and immediately began sensing for anything unnatural within the mansion.
As a genuine goddess, Aqua's sensitivity to ominous and evil presences far surpassed Ren's. If the mansion truly harbored something unclean, no amount of concealment would fool her at this range.
"I found it, Ren," Aqua said seriously. "Just like you suspected, there's a demonic presence in this mansion—and it's a high-level one.Everyone else here seems normal, but there's one human who reeks horribly. That stench probably comes from frequent, close contact with a demon."
Now visibly solemn, Aqua continued.After all, gods and demons—or undead—were natural enemies.
And from what she could sense, the demon inside the mansion might even surpass the level of an upper-class demon. Normally, there was no way an ordinary human should be able to interact with something like that.
"In that case," Ren said quietly, "the human reeking of demonic stench must be our dear Lord Aldarp."
At that very moment, Aldarp reclined comfortably in an ornate armchair, lazily swirling a glass of red wine. His bloated, barrel-like belly supported a maid sprawled across it, while another stood nearby feeding him fruit.
His expression couldn't have been more indulgent.
Unaware of what was happening outside, Aldarp nonetheless felt no concern. His faith in Makusueru's power was absolute—after all, this wasn't the first time.
"That arrogant adventurer should be scurrying around like a rat by now," Aldarp sneered."Falling from hero to traitor in an instant… I really wish I could see the look on his face right now."
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