"I've been called a pervert again..."
After taking a bath, Satou Kazuma sat on the floor and sighed deeply.
"Weren't you called that the first time you met Ram?"
Felt teased from the side.
"It's completely different!"
Satou Kazuma shook his head.
At first, Ram simply called him a pervert.
But now, she probably added 'loli-con' to his list of labels.
He couldn't accept it.
"What are you two talking about?"
Aqua, who had just returned, looked at them, confused.
"Nothing!"
Satou Kazuma and Felt shook their heads almost at the same time.
Although they hadn't communicated much, they'd reached an understanding: no matter what happened, they absolutely couldn't let Aqua know what had happened earlier.
Just then, Natsuki Subaru returned to the mansion.
"You're all here! How was your progress today?"
Natsuki Subaru asked, very curious.
"As for progress... the monsters around the area have mostly been taken care of!"
Aqua said seriously.
Even though Beatrice was the one who did all the work, you could say the monsters were dealt with.
"Amazing! I didn't think you'd actually get rid of all the monsters. I thought Aqua just wanted to go on a picnic and made up an excuse to fight monsters, and would end up running away with her tail between her legs!"
Natsuki Subaru said with a smile.
Satou Kazuma's face was incredibly gloomy.
Because Natsuki Subaru's joking words were completely correct...
Luckily, he had Beatrice come along.
Otherwise, their group would have been wiped out by the monsters.
That monster called a Rock Boar had incredibly tough skin; they really couldn't handle it.
The only one who could use magic was an unreliable idiot.
Sigh...
A feeling of sadness arose in his heart.
"Huh?"
Just then, Aqua noticed that Natsuki Subaru's hand was wrapped in a handkerchief, and asked,
"Subaru, what happened to your hand?"
"Oh, I was playing in the village and got bitten by a little kid's dog."
Natsuki Subaru said, not really caring.
"You might die, Subaru."
Aqua's face showed a very serious expression.
"Don't scare me, Aqua. You're not going to say something about rabies, are you?"
Natsuki Subaru took a step back.
"No, it seems like a curse."
Aqua reached out and gently touched Natsuki Subaru's wound, then a light burst from her fingertips—
A black mark appeared on the back of Natsuki Subaru's hand.
This was the curse that Meili's monster had placed on Natsuki Subaru earlier.
"Wha-what?"
A look of surprise appeared on Natsuki Subaru's face; he hadn't expected Aqua to be telling the truth.
"I'm going to start purifying you, are you ready?"
"Purify? What's it like, and what do I need to prepar—"
Before Natsuki Subaru could finish speaking, an even more blinding blue light burst from Aqua's fingertips, landing on him.
"Aaaaaaaah!!!"
Like a high-voltage current sweeping through his body, Natsuki Subaru was shocked and let out a painful scream, his body convulsing.
After several seconds, Aqua clapped her hands and said with a smile,
"Okay, it's purified!"
As Aqua finished casting the spell, the black mark on the back of Natsuki Subaru's hand disappeared.
"You can start praising me now!"
Although Aqua's goddess powers hadn't fully recovered, purifying this kind of curse was still easy for her.
It was because she was a goddess that Aqua was able to detect the curse's aura on Natsuki Subaru right away.
"The useless goddess is unexpectedly reliable at this time."
Satou Kazuma yawned.
"Hey, shouldn't you be most concerned about my safety? I really almost died!"
Natsuki Subaru said, still a little shaken.
Not from the curse, he felt like he was going to die at Aqua's hands.
Natsuki Subaru looked at the back of his hand.
This was where the little dog bit him...
Could it be that the dog was some kind of dangerous being?
"No, we have to go back to the village quickly! Otherwise, the villagers and the children will be in danger! If we're too slow, it might be too late!"
"Don't worry, I have a way. Come with me! Felt, I'll have to trouble you to inform Roswaal!"
Satou Kazuma immediately led Aqua and Natsuki Subaru in a certain direction—
The mansion's bathroom.
"Huh? Kazuma, are you crazy! You're not so nervous that you want to go to the bathroom at this time, are you!"
Aqua looked at Satou Kazuma, puzzled.
"This is the fastest way to get back to the village!"
Satou Kazuma pushed the door open, and what appeared before him wasn't the bathroom, but the forbidden library.
Beatrice was sitting on a bench, resting with her eyes closed.
As an artificial spirit, Beatrice was a special existence; she couldn't produce mana herself, so she could only use the forbidden library to replenish it.
Beatrice had already used up a lot of mana during the battle in the daytime.
She'd just come back and was about to rest when Satou Kazuma and the others suddenly barged in.
"Yo, super strong little girl Betty!"
"Get out of Betty's face!!!"
Beatrice looked at Satou Kazuma and an unknown fire welled up in her heart.
Using the excuse of going out to play and being hurt by Betty, he forced Beatrice to go with him to the forest.
In the end, Beatrice ended up exterminating the monsters by herself!
"Don't be angry, Betty. But it's still pretty cute when a little girl gets angry!"
"Ugh, shut up, Betty doesn't want to hear it!"
In the four hundred years that Beatrice had been alive, she hadn't heard the words 'little girl' as much as she had in the past two days.
"Do me another favor! Don't you have that teleportation magic? Help us get back to the village!"
Satou Kazuma said to Beatrice, and then explained what had happened.
"What does this have to do with Betty!"
"Betty's a great spirit, so strong, and so cute~"
Hearing these words, Beatrice, who was still trying hard to put on an indifferent expression, had the corners of her mouth turning up slightly.
"I'll treat you to dinner later!"
"Betty doesn't care! Ugh, Betty will reluctantly help you one more time then! Really! Betty is only helping you because of your compliments, and just thinks you dummies are too annoying!"
"Tsundere."
"Shut up!"
Beatrice didn't give Satou Kazuma a chance to say anything more, and used magic to teleport them away.
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