Under the bombardment of Yuto's Crimson Inferno Cannon, Arudappu had already been reduced to a pile of ashes.Yet amid the pitch-black cinders, two objects remained intact, stubbornly resisting the terrifying heat of the scarlet flames as they lay quietly within the debris.
As divine relics bestowed by a goddess, it was only natural that they wouldn't be so easily destroyed. So even though Arudappu himself had been burned to nothing, these two sacred artifacts survived.
And thus, the two items—one capable of randomly summoning monsters, and the other allowing the user to swap bodies with another person—ended up, quite naturally, in Ren Kuroda's possession.
After leaving the basement and returning to the lord's manor above, Ren took some extra time to pay a visit to the estate's treasury. Regarding certain ill-gotten gains accumulated by corrupt lords, this particular half-demon felt it was only right to "redistribute the wealth."
As for a certain goddess, the moment she witnessed Ren's actions, her eyes instantly lit up. Taking a page straight out of his book, she began scanning the mansion with great enthusiasm, carefully selecting what looked like the most expensive items.
By the time Ren had finished looting most of the treasury, he finally noticed that Aqua was already standing in the main hall, arms loaded with bags upon bags of valuables. The sheer strength she displayed was shocking—far beyond what a so-called "Arch Priestess" should normally possess.
What left Ren truly speechless, though, was the fact that Aqua had even packed up Arudappu's chamber pot.The reason? It was made of solid gold.Apparently, it was Arudappu's favorite night pot.
Despite constantly proclaiming herself to be a goddess, Aqua's lack of shame in certain areas was truly bottomless. More than once, she managed to completely shatter Ren's common sense.
This trip to the lord's manor could be considered a resounding success. They had defeated the demon duke Makusuweru, dealt with Arudappu—the scourge of the Axel region—and walked away with their pockets full. Naturally, both of them left in extremely good spirits.
The next day, the people of Axel welcomed another morning.But today, the town buzzed with several utterly explosive pieces of news.
Because Makusuweru had lifted his reality-distorting power, the townsfolk's memories finally returned to normal. However, they had absolutely no recollection of what had happened the day before.
At the same time, because the contract between Makusuweru and Arudappu had been severed, all the twisted truths Makusuweru had manipulated on Arudappu's behalf reverted back to how things were meant to be.
As a result, Arudappu's long list of misdeeds resurfaced in everyone's minds. Quite a few hot-headed citizens even planned to storm the lord's manor to demand justice.
Yet when they arrived, the guards delivered another bombshell—
Lord Arudappu had vanished.
Not only was the lord himself missing, but the manor's treasury had been completely cleaned out. Even various furnishings and valuables from inside the estate had been packed up and taken away.
Most outrageously of all, the thieves had apparently gone completely insane—they had even stolen Lord Arudappu's solid-gold chamber pot. Their lack of restraint knew no bounds.
As for the reason behind Arudappu's disappearance, Axel's residents came up with two theories.
One was that the manor had truly been looted, and Arudappu himself had likely already met a gruesome end.
The other theory suggested that Arudappu realized his crimes had finally come to light, panicked, and fled in the dead of night—taking his fortune and his beloved chamber pot with him.
Either way, that vile disaster of a lord had finally disappeared from Axel, which alone was enough to bring the townspeople some measure of comfort.
At the Adventurers' Guild, Kazuma stared suspiciously at Aqua, who—unlike usual—wasn't freeloading meals today. Instead, she had ordered luxurious dishes and fine wine all on her own.
He immediately suspected that Aqua had somehow discovered his hidden stash of emergency funds again. But it didn't take long for him to realize that even if he emptied his entire secret savings, it wouldn't be nearly enough to pay for the feast in front of her.
Today's Aqua was positively radiant.
After tagging along with Ren to the lord's manor yesterday, she'd barely done any work at all—essentially just coasting—and still earned a whopping fifty million eris.
On top of that, she'd swiped plenty of high-value items on the way out. In her excitement, Aqua even generously declared that, since Ren had helped her get rich, she wouldn't charge him the five million eris she'd previously demanded as emotional compensation for touching her chest.
After all, Aqua was rich now.Ren's commission alone had paid her fifty million eris, and once she flipped those items on the black market, breaking the hundred-million mark would be effortless.
…At least, that was the plan.
Unfortunately, once Aqua arrived at the black market, her critical weakness—her intelligence—came into full play. She was no match at all for the seasoned swindlers there and got her prices ruthlessly slashed.
To make matters worse, Aqua's standard for judging an item's value at the lord's manor had been extremely simple:
The bigger it is, the more valuable it must be.
So despite bringing a large number of items, the one that sold for the highest price was—without question—Arudappu's solid-gold chamber pot.
The result left Aqua clutching her chest in regret, bitterly wishing she had searched harder for more chamber pots.
Even so, after selling everything she had taken, she still walked away with twenty million eris. Combined with the fifty million she'd gotten from Ren, she was undeniably a wealthy woman now.
Listening to everyone at the guild gossip about Arudappu's disappearance, Aqua munched on her food while basking smugly on the inside.
Sadly, when everyone speculated about who had delivered justice by eliminating that disgusting pig-bear of a lord, Aqua—who loved showing off more than anything—couldn't step forward and say that it had been her and Ren.
After leaving the manor, the two of them had laid down strict rules:what happened that day would be buried forever.
Otherwise, Ren wouldn't bring Aqua along the next time something this lucrative came up.
So torn between her urge to boast and her obligation to keep quiet, Aqua could only vent her frustration by stuffing her face—ordering expensive wine and dishes she'd never been able to afford before.
She was so insufferably smug that when Kazuma and the others invited her to take on a quest together, she actually turned them down.
After effortlessly raking in eighty million eris by riding Ren's coattails, Aqua declared that, as a goddess-level existence, it was beneath her dignity to keep splitting measly quests worth only tens of thousands of eris.
In short, the Aqua who was usually scorned by Kazuma had clearly gotten carried away now that she had money—so much so that she'd already forgotten how, just one day earlier, she'd fought him tooth and nail over the cheapest black bread.
"Aqua, we're a team, right?" Kazuma pleaded."If you've got some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, we can work together. I don't mind taking a loss—if we really make money, we'll split it four-six. I get four, you get six. How about it?"
Aqua's blatant nouveau-riche behavior made it obvious she'd struck gold, and Kazuma couldn't accept that even an idiot like her could make money while he couldn't.
But upon hearing his proposal, Aqua immediately looked at him with unconcealed disdain and said smugly:
"Nope. Kazuma is completely hopeless. I mean, if you struggle that much just fighting giant toads, there's no way you can keep up when we're making real money…"
That night, just as Ren was about to close up the magic-item shop and head home, a chestnut-haired boy approached him, rubbing his hands together with an ingratiating grin.
"If you're here to mooch a meal, you're a bit late," Ren said calmly."I was actually planning to head home and rest tonight."
Ren had long since prepared himself for Kazuma's thick skin. Aqua was rolling in cash these days, so the usual duo had become a solo act—Kazuma alone.
"Hey, that's unfair! It's not like I come here just to freeload every time," Kazuma protested."Actually, this time I came because I have something else to talk about…"
Watching Kazuma casually sling an arm around his shoulder with excessive friendliness, Ren immediately knew this wouldn't be simple.
"Don't you come here to freeload every single time?" Ren shot back."Or is it to sneak a peek at Wiz? If that's the case, she's not here today. I heard there were evil spirits causing trouble somewhere, so she went to help put them to rest."
Every adventurer in Axel knew Kazuma's personality well. Whenever he and Aqua suddenly became unusually enthusiastic toward someone, the smartest response was to run—fast.
Ren had originally planned to do exactly that. Unfortunately, Kazuma was unusually persistent tonight, keeping an arm hooked around him and refusing to let go.
"Well, you've always been taking care of me, right?" Kazuma said with a grin."So today I figured I'd return the favor. Ren, you've been in Axel longer than I have, but you probably don't know about this succubus shop in town, do you? Succubi—you know, that kind."
Just imagining the legendary beautiful, voluptuous succubi made Kazuma's expression drift into dangerous territory. He quickly glanced around, then sneakily pulled two pink coupons from his coat.
As he revealed them, a distinct look of pain flashed across his face.
Both the succubus shop and these coupons had come from their two so-called "friends," Chris and Dust.In fact, Kazuma had paid a hefty price just to get his hands on those coupons.
He'd originally intended to save them for himself. But now, he believed this was the perfect chance to gamble small for a big return.
Kazuma—actually offering to treat someone?!
If any other adventurer in Axel had witnessed this, their jaw would've hit the floor.
This miracle of Axel was happening right in front of him. Ren did feel a bit curious about succubi… but if Kazuma was paying, he thought maybe it was better to pass.
"Ren, these are succubi," Kazuma pressed desperately."Every man's dream. Don't tell me you're not even a little tempted?"
Seeing that Ren still wasn't biting, Kazuma couldn't help but feel helpless. After all, when he'd first learned about the succubus shop and its services from Chris and Dust, those two had completely played him for a fool.
And now, the bait just wasn't working.
..
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