The next morning I woke up with the sun's rays hitting me straight in the face.
"Agh… I should have closed the curtains last night…!" I lamented, squeezing my eyes shut tightly as I rolled over to the side.
"That shitty goddess…"
The image of Aqua was the first thing that came to mind.
Lying on top of me, moving her head up and down while she sucked me off.
The softness of her hair between my fingers. The warmth of her beautiful breasts wrapped around my throbbing cock.
And then, just when we got to the best part…
"Good night, Kaizer ❤"
What a joke!
I was so pissed off thinking about what had happened last night that I didn't even notice someone was knocking at my door.
Knock! Knock!
"AAAARRGH! THAT BITCH!" I shouted. "WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!?"
"I-It's just the maid, sir. I came to let you know that breakfast is ready."
"Huh? Ah…! Oh! Yeah, of course. I'll be right there!" I said, embarrassed. "By the way, what you just heard… I was talking to myself! D-Don't mind me!"
"Please don't worry, sir, I didn't hear anything," the maid's voice sounded nervous from the other side. "I'm only here to serve. So I didn't hear… nor did I see anything last night! Seriously! Nothing at all!"
Then came the sound of footsteps hurrying away at full speed.
"How embarrassing… And on top of that she saw my dick yesterday. She must think I'm some kind of freak!"
Once I finished washing my face, I got dressed and went downstairs to what I assumed was the dining room. Or whatever rich people use to have breakfast.
An ostentatious table full of food stretched across the room. I sat down in one of the chairs, poured myself some coffee, and after looking over the large variety of dishes, decided on a generous slice of pie and some fruit.
Breakfast proceeded completely normally. Except, of course, for the awkward glances the maid kept giving me from the corner of the room, making sure to keep a certain distance between us.
To try and change the terribly awkward atmosphere, I decided to ask her about the lord of the house. I found it strange that he still hadn't come down for breakfast.
Did rich people like to sleep in late?
To my surprise, the girl informed me that Lord Lyamnsen had left early to deal with an important matter.
Does it have something to do with the kidnappings? I wonder.
Thinking about it automatically made me wonder where the hell Aqua had gotten to.
"Miss Aqua was still asleep when I went to call her for breakfast," the young maid explained. "I knocked several times but it seems she didn't hear me."
That troublesome, night-time provocateur goddess!
"Good morning!" Aqua's cheerful and carefree voice suddenly greeted us. Apparently she had finally deigned to remember today's quest.
She walked over to the table, pulled out the chair right in front of me, and plopped down on it as if she were in the living room of her own house. "Aaaah! I slept so well!" she exclaimed. "The beds here are even better than the ones we have at the mansion."
"Good morning my ass!" I said in a serious tone. "It's already noon. Can I ask why you didn't get up earlier?"
"Don't start with that now, will you?" the goddess replied with her usual arrogance. "For your information, I stayed up until the late hours of the night thinking of a strategy to help us defeat that insignificant demon and rescue those girls."
I raised my eyebrows and looked at her in amazement.
"Wow, Aqua. I must say I'm really surprised."
She closed her eyes and smiled proudly, nodding several times.
"So you've finally realized it," she said. "I see, hehe. Now you have no choice but to admit how amazing I am and how lost you'd be without me."
"Oh, I definitely do," I replied. "And while I'm at it, I should apologize."
"Apologize? Why?" Aqua asked, fluttering her eyelashes with a confused expression.
"Yes, an apology," I confirmed. "Because if I'm being honest, after your visit last night I was sure you had gone back to your room to get drunk, and that's why you got up so late."
The moment I finished saying those words I felt a sharp, stinging pain in my leg that made me jolt in my chair.
"Have you lost your mind!?" I growled while bringing a hand down to rub the sore spot with my fingers.
"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about," she said, playing dumb. Something she was way too good at.
"I'm talking about what you just did."
"Oh! Did you experience some kind of pain just now? Mmm… maybe it was divine punishment for making fun of a goddess."
"Well, I'd say it was more like your foot kicking me than divine punishment!"
"I suppose that could have been it too," she conceded.
"So, what's this strategy that's going to help us defeat the Fang Demon?" I asked, deciding to let the kick incident slide.
The goddess flashed a little smile.
"Oh, so I've managed to spark your curiosity, huh?"
"Are you going to tell me or not?" I grunted.
"I suppose it would be very cruel of me not to tell you anything. After all, I'm a merciful goddess."
Aqua made a small pause, as if waiting to see if I would beg her more, and when she saw I wasn't going to, she started talking.
"This Fang Demon is clearly an evil creature, right?"
"Well, I suppose anyone who dedicates themselves to kidnapping girls could fall into that category."
Aqua shook her head, delighted to correct me.
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what?"
"I'm talking about the fact that he's a demon himself. That's what will give us the advantage. Because if he really is a demon, I should be able to purify him."
"That makes sense."
"Of course it does! All you have to do is weaken him enough and then…"
She threw a punch into the air.
"This goddess will come to save the day!"
I looked at her with suspicion.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"Eeeh… How should I put this? It's not that I think it's a bad plan (partly), but if I'm the one who has to fight the demon to weaken it and you're just going to deliver the final blow, wouldn't I be the one who really 'saves the day'?"
"So that's how it is, huh, Kaizer? The hikikomori, tired of being a loser in his old world, is looking for revenge in this one! And he wants all the attention for himself!"
"Hey! I wasn't a loser in my old world."
Though I wasn't exactly someone who stood out much either…
"Don't worry," the goddess continued. "We'll split the reward equally. Even though, well, we'll be winning thanks to MY strategy. So you'd better be grateful and pray to me at least twice a day."
Poor Aqua, I thought. She has such low intelligence that she has no choice but to treasure these rare moments when she can show off.
"And now can I ask why you're looking at me like that?"
"Ah, I was just thinking about how beautiful you look today," I quickly said.
"Is that the best you've got? You are pretty lame when it comes to compliments, Kaizer. No wonder you were single when you died."
"Whatever you say, strategist goddess. You know, regarding your plan, I still have one doubt."
"Oh, really? What is it?"
"I admit your strategy doesn't sound so bad, at least coming from you. But exactly how long did it take you to come up with all that? Did you really spend the whole night on it?"
"Ah, you mean that…? Well, you see…"
"'Let Kaizer take care of the demon and then I'll punch it.' That's a pretty simple strategy if you ask me."
"It might be… I wouldn't know."
"Then why couldn't you get up earlier?"
"W-Well… after coming up with such a brilliant strategy… to congratulate myself I decided to have a few glasses and… m-maybe I got a little carried away…"
In short, the alcoholic goddess had spent the whole night drinking.