Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Author's note (New)

If any of my old readers are back, hi.

First of all, yes, this is still the same story, just rebranded.

I won't waste your time here. The changes made are very minimal; A majority of the grammar should be fixed, making everything more readable, but there are a few changes. As for what is even happening here, I go over it in the author's note at the bottom.

And for any new readers, happy reading.

Chapter 1

A Heroes Origin

My name is Kazuma Satou. I'm a 15-year-old high school freshman.

"WATCH OUT!"

I'm from a somewhat upper-class family. My father is an incredibly successful businessman and politician, my mother was a former model and a beautician, and I had a little brother who was a bit of a brat but an overall good kid.

"What-?"

My father was… pretty strict, to say the least. Due to his extremely high expectations for me, I spent most of my life stressed with trying to be at the top of my class and keeping up with my extracurricular activities. But hey, what father doesn't want his son to succeed?

crash*

Through it all, my mother was incredibly loving and supportive, and my little brother, who was in a similar predicament to me, saw me as a sort of inspiration, so I didn't let some stress drag me down.

Thud*

In the long run, I was planning to graduate from high school, enter university, major in engineering, and hopefully even inherit my father's business.

"*Inaudible*"

But…

"…"

It was a stormy day, a bit unprecedented for the last day of school before summer holidays kick in. Isn't it usually meant to be bright and sunny?

"…"

I was walking home with one of my friends, after the rest of the group had split up earlier. Usually, I walk home with her since we live in the same neighborhood, but today I was going to meet up with my mother and little brother for lunch. So we ended up splitting ways as well, as I watched her cross the street.

"…"

Well, funny thing, while I was watching her cross the road, I saw a speeding car, seemingly losing control due to the slippery road and low visibility, heading straight at her. This is why we should watch both ways before crossing kids.

"…"

I don't consider myself a hero; if it were anyone else in the position, I wouldn't have done anything, but well, I care about this girl… And I guess I sort of just decided to run and push her out of the way, saving her life.

"…"

She's safe, but I? Seems I wasn't…

"…"

I couldn't make out my surroundings, everything was a blur, a high-pitched ringing was blasted in my ear, and I couldn't feel my body. A cliché scenario, not how I wanted to go at all.

"…"

I felt myself slipping in and out of consciousness as I tried to muster what little strength I had to survive, but alas, it was a fruitless effort.

"…."

Then right then, as the chilling feeling of death overtook me….

"Where am I?"

My vision cleared, and I regained my hearing, and I felt my body, yet no pain.

"…"

I was standing in an almost surreal location, a marbled white floor with water up to my ankle stretching for what seemed like forever, marbled white pillars were located in seemingly random locations, the sky was that of night, with stars brighter than any I've seen so far. And in front of me, a woman.

"..?"

I could instantly tell this was God. The aura she gave out was bright, and I had difficulty seeing her features as her figure blurred, but I could tell she had clear, white, pale skin, as flawless as it can be, and blue hair that looked natural and in no way out of place or fake-looking.

"Kazuma Satou, welcome to the afterlife. Unfortunately, you have died. It may have been short, but your life is over."

"Ah"

She said something that confirmed my suspicions, unless this is all a dream, I had indeed died, but where is this? Heaven? Kinda empty despite being so beautiful. And did I feel so calm?

"You no longer possess a human body, or a brain to process emotions, you're but a spirit unable to feel the burdens of life, that is why you don't feel distraught."

That makes sense- wait? Did she just read my mind?

"I did, you are in my domain and lack a physical body, so I can know what you are thinking and doing, what you will think and do, and what you have thought or done."

That just made this very complicated… but I guess that is to be expected of God…

"I am indeed a god, but I am not God as you mortals know. I am the goddess of water, Aqua, one of many gods, and I am duty-bound to guide young men and women such as yourself who have lost their lives by unnatural means."

Polytheism was the way then?

"Not that it matters now that I'm dead."

Aqua, as she called herself, gave me a gentle smile

"Do not think of your life as fruitless; you have died a noble death saving someone you hold dear, and I commend you for that. You have lived a lavish life that was yet filled with hardship, which you have conquered, A short life, but a fulfilling one."

Hearing those words probably would have brought me a bit of comfort, but it seems I'm unable to feel said emotion as of now. My body was transparent, and I was not wearing any clothes; however, there was a cloud-like veil covering my body in a similar fashion to how Greek gods have been depicted.

"Since you have died a hero, you shall be granted a choice. If you wish, you may enter heaven, living among the gods and other departed heroic mortals for all eternity, you shall receive comfort like no other, and live in pure bliss and peace. Or you may choose to reincarnate, your soul will be recycled and the mortal known as Kazuma Satou will be erased with no traces left, and that soul will be born as a human baby, where it will grow and experience life, now completely separated from yours."

Well, I guess karmic retribution isn't a thing. Usually, I would be interested in this topic enough to ask questions about it, but it seems I don't care as of now… In that case, there is only one option.

"I'd like to be reincarnated."

Hearing that the goddess in front of me closed her eyes solemnly for a moment before locking eyes with me once more

"So that is your choice, then it shall be granted, Kazuma Satou, you have brought joy to The Almighty with your actions, and may your next incarnation continue to bring joy to The Almighty, and with that I, the goddess of water Aqua, shall gi- huh? Oh, sorry about that, give a minute."

She vanished… just disappeared in the middle of her grand speech

"The hell just happened?"

Seems I can still feel confusion in this state at least, but more importantly, didn't her speech pattern suddenly become very different? Was that whole thing some pre-written script she practiced?

"…"

Man… it's kind of lonely here, beautiful but lonely, hope she won't take long.

As I said that she appeared in front of me at the same rate as she disappeared.

"Alright, so you got another option."

Option number 3? Wait, wait, don't tell me….

"In the vast reaches of space, there lies a world, not so different from yours, but different."

Oh my god, it's happening, it's happening!

"A world of magic, demi-humans and demons…."

IT'S HAPPENING IT'S HAPPENING!

"A world is once conquered by the evil Demon Emperor, who had been sealed for the past 1000 years, whose return grows closer every day."

AHHH IT'S HAPPENING IT'S HAPPENING!

"Would you quiet down, you geek, I'm trying to explain things here, did you forget I can hear everything you think?"

"Ah… sorry"

What's her problem? Can't a guy be excited to be cho-

"I can still hear you, save the geeking out for later."

… Damn

"*sign* now as I was saying, with his resurrection of the Demon Emperor being more and more likely, we the gods, in our infinite mercy, have decided to send in worthy inhabitants from your world to help prevent his return, Prophets with divine power."

Prophets?

"So wait, you're telling me I'm being sent there as a prophet, not a hero to defeat the demon lord or whatever?"

"A prophet has the duty of aiding humanity in preventing the inevitable return of the Demon Emperor, so yes, you shall still be a hero. And among them, there are 6 Demon kings, each with great powers beyond any regular demon, preparing for the resurrection of the Demon Emperor."

6 Demon Kings? Isn't there usually just one? But I gotta deal with 6 on top of a more powerful one, one day? That's-

"Crazy? Pfft, I guess for you mortals with no real struggles that would be a struggle indeed, especially for a trust fund baby like you."

? the fuck?

"Puhehehe, the look on your face, sorry, I'm a bit stressed and pissing you kids off is a good way to relieve it, don't take is seriously, it's just a prank as you gen Z say"

I see, despite having an aura of light that makes her seem like an unreachable entity, she's a just a bitch.

"HEY! WHO ARE YOU THINKING A BITCH! I'll have know, I the goddess Aqua am revered and worshipped by the people of that world, AND YOU SHOULD DO THE SAME YOU DAMN TRUST FUND GEEK"

"Okay, now you're just picking a fight. I don't care if you're a god or not, square up, let's go."

"Fine, I'll have to teach you a lesson."

As I was ready to go pound for pound with a potentially omnipotent being, the whole room began shaking, making both of us lose our balance, despite me having no physical body…

"Ah look at what you did, you pissed off the higher up gods, jeez."

"I pissed them off, wasn't it you who was trying to rile me up!?"

"Not that you can get riled up, you act like you're angry, but your lack of body makes it impossible to feel any anger."

… She has a point, despite acting like how I would when I was alive, right now, however, I feel nothing, all I feel is calmness, but why am I even-

"You're just acting how you would as a human, it's implanted in your soul that's why, kinda like muscle memory for the soul, soul memory."

"Will you quit with the mind reading, and let me form my own thoughts?"

Rolling her eyes, she said,

"Look, it doesn't matter, you're dead, and you can keep living your life. Hey, I'll even sweeten the deal, if you can actually do a good job at it, the best among the prophets will get any wish they desire."

Now that's intriguing.

"Any, like literally anything"

"Don't get any perverted ideas, you'll gain divine retributi-"

"I WASN'T THINKING ANYTHING LIKE THAT!"

Damn, she's pissing me off right now.

Chuckling, she replied,

"Alright, alright, calm down, I'm just messing around. But well, there are some limitations, you can't ask for infinite power as infinity is a concept that exists outside our finite reality, and only the Almighty, the sustainer of all, can demonstrate such power. But you can ask to be a god, or even that non-blood-related little sister you are so desperate for."

"That last character assassinating line aside, who's this Almighty anyways? The Abrahamic God or something?"

"In a way? Pretty much every one of your earth's religions is true to some extent, but more or less corrupted versions of the original religion that-"

"I told you to stop reading my mind! But ignoring that, if that guy is that powerful, how come he doesn't deal with the Demon Emperor, or like, why don't you?

"The Almighty, not he… and as for your question, we gods aren't allowed to intervene too much with humanity, a rule made by The Almighty when he created Adam, it's so you all have free will."

And yet another bombshell, the first human Adam is also real… if I had a mind now it would be unable to process all this, good that I don't have one… But this is just making me have more questions, the more she speaks, the more questions I have, this might go on forever….

"Unfortunately, I don't have forever to entertain you, I'm very busy, you know? So let's get back to the point."

….

"So, since you Earthlings have like no prior experience with magic or mana, and don't even possess the organ required to cast magic, we decided to help you all out a bit."

"Wait, wait, hold up."

"What now?"

"You mentioned an organ designed to cast mana, what's that about?"

"The humans, demi humans and even animals in the other world had evolved in a world with mana, as such their body possesses an organ called the 'Yamu' it's function is very similar to the heart, while the heart pumps blood through the veins, the yamu pumps mana through the veins, mana is able to be excreted through any part of the body and the yamu is used to control its properties, allowing you to cast spells of different elements"

So evolution is real, too, wait, but didn't she mention Adam earlier?

"Quit with that already, I don't have all day, so let's get-"

"Okay, okay, but just one more question."

"What now?"

"You mentioned the yamu is used to control and cast spells, does it like, allow you to change the properties of elements? Is that even possible?"

"No, it allows you to control mana, mana is sorta like a super element, it can be freely altered and changed to be any element you want. The big bang was just a lot of mana being altered to different elements due to the sheer amount of it."

"So God is real, creation is real, the big bang is real, everything is real? You know what, the more I ask, the more confused I get, so let's just move on."

"Finally, you geeks really need to learn to control yourself."

Why you!

"Where was I? Oh right, since you don't have any body now due to well, you being dead, we will create you a brand new body that has a yamu and is mana compatible, however throwing you into a body with a fully developed Yamu you will not be able to control it and possibly maybe even blow up"

That's not good at all! How the he-

"Now, before you start with that again, I'll tell you the solution: we will create a body with an infant yamu, usually it takes the usual amount of time to grow, as the body is fully matured in your 20s. But we can't take that long, can we? So the Yamu in your system will be adapting to your body, and will start to catch up to your body at a rapid 5x the usual speed."

"Wouldn't that still cause the same problem? And won't it like outgrow me or something?"

"It won't outgrow you, the yamu will adapt to your age and begin growing with your body at the usual phase after it catch up, for you it will take around 3-4 years for it to fully catch up, and no it won't cost the same problem due to our next gift to you mortal."

"Ohh, you're being pretty generous, aren't you? What's this gift?"

"Hmm hmm, you see, you will be given a holy relic, a divine gift for a prophet, it will not only be extremely powerful, allowing you to defeat even the mightiest of opponents, it'll be linked to your yamu acting as a conduit for you to use mana, so you will have full control over it as it matures"

That… does not make any sense at all, ahhh, why do I even bother, you can read my mind, so explain

Grinning a bit, she says,

"I'm aware it doesn't make much sense in theory, but it works in practice, it's one of those things you have to do and see for yourself."

"Right, so what item will I be given?"

Looking a bit smug, Aqua pulls out a small orb, which is glowing with bright rainbow colors, giving off a similar aura to her, but unlike her, I was able to make out the orb. She proceeded to crush it, and its pieces shattered all over the floor

"Ah, what the hell are you doing?"

"Give it a moment."

The shattered shards began to enlarge, each shard now having writing on it, which was in Japanese.

"This is…."

"TADAAAA, you can pick anything from here, but only one, okay?"

"This is a lot… but you know, I didn't even agree to this yet."

"You still aren't convinced? Don't you want that wish? The gift of whatever you want?

"I don't really care for being a god or whatever..."

Stopping on her track, Aqua gave me a grim look before changing to an unreadable expression

"Not even to go back home? To see your loved ones again?"

?

Sensing my surprise, Aqua continued

"Being able to wish for anything means you will be able to return to your former life, to the exact moment you died, but said death can be avoided. You will be able to meet up with your family like nothing happened, you will be able to see your family and friends again, and maybe even finally impress your father."

That last line did something to me; if I had the ability to get angry, I would, but right now, that does not matter. What matters is that I will be able to see them again... If these holy relics are as powerful as she says, then I should have a shot at the wish, right?

Clearly reading my mind, she said,

"So what will you do, Kazuma Satou? Do you still reject being a prophet and a hero, having the chance to meet your loved ones again?

…

"Before I answer, I want to know, how is my family doing?"

"Your friend saw your crash, she is devastated and is rushing to the hospital on the same ambulance you're on, but it won't be of any use, the rest of your family heard the news. Your mother is heartbroken and in tears, and your brother refuses to believe his older brother had died. And your father? Well, you might not believe this, but he is the most hurt out of all of them."

…

That does it, if there is even a chance to fix this, to go back, to be with them again, I'll take it.

"I accept."

Smiling at this, Aqua snaps her finger.

All of a sudden, I felt weight return to me, no longer feeling weightless, I was donned with clothing which seemed to be similar to a typical medieval peasant, brown pants, a white long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves being grey, and a pair of black boots."

More importantly, I was able to feel emotions again, suddenly all the memories and feelings I felt at my death came crashing to me, feelings of pity for myself for what happened, guilt for leaving my friends and family behind, and having a casual conversation with some unknown god.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?"

I fell to my knees, tears running down my face, crying like I was a baby

"Oh boy, I forgot this usually happens, all that calm and peace you felt with no mind is now gone, you are human once again."

I wasn't able to hear a word, just in my sorrows, before I felt a warm embrace, arms wrapped around me, comforting me.

"There, there, it will be okay."

It was Aqua, despite her previous attitude, she seems to still be a goddess after all, guess seeing a mortal so down on the dumps wasn't something she liked seeing…

We stayed like this for a while till I finally calmed down.

"I'm fine now…"

"Alright, take your time…"

After readjusting myself a bit, I got up, walked up to the shards, and sat down

"So I have to pick one of these, huh… Oh, right, what about the language?"

"Oh, the main human language is already downloaded to your brain, you should be able to speak it. Can you understand this?"

That last line, Aqua said in a language I had never heard before, but I knew what she was saying

"Yeah, I can"

I replied in the same language

"Good, good, I was worried that the language download made your brain overload, would have been bad if it made your brain pop."

…. Is she for real? I could have become a vegetable after all that? Isn't that critical information?

"…"

Uhhh, why is she just staring at me blankly?

"Hey, did you hear me? Uh, I guess hear me think?"

"Uh, oh no, since you got a physical body now, I no longer can do that, you're your own person now."

So she can't read my mind anymore? Terrific, thank God, uh, I guess a different god except Aqua.

"Right, right, let's get back to it."

I sat down and read through the shards, and holy hell, these are broken. Magic swords that can slice concepts, armor that can absorb and redirect all damage, Bows that can block the sun? How does that even work? Hell, there's one giving the ability to destroy things down to the atom? Isn't that just hakai? Talk about copyright infringement

"Hey, can you hurry up? I don't have all day, you know, you already took so much time geeking out over pointless things."

"You know, I didn't feel anything before, but right now I'm feeling all the emotions I should, even to your previous comments. The hell did you mean by trust fund baby?"

"You got a rich dad, you lived a lavish life, you're a big geek, trust fund baby… geek? Trust fund geek! Isn't that obvious?"

This bitch….

I can't help be pissed, but at the same time, she took time to comfort me even when I got the body, even though it was cause she thought it was her fault… hey wait a minute.

"You said you aren't allowed to interfere with humans, but if you were, would you be able to defeat a demon king?"

"At my full strength, I would be able to beat him up pretty easily. I am a goddess after all."

She looked so smug, saying that, puffing up her chest and all, it would be really great if they could just do that instead of making other mortals do it… Hey, wait a minute 2x. She can't directly interfere, but what about indirectly? She said I can pick anything from this room, she didn't specify the shards…

Aqua noticed my scheming and said,

"You have a very dangerous look in your eyes. I don't like it."

It's worth a shot, right? If I bring her down with me, she can easily defeat the demon king, and if she can take care of all 6, that should be more than any prophet is capable of, guaranteeing me the wish. And with all that done, she would be returned to heaven when I go back to earth, right? Yeah, this might work. At worst, I'll be struck down and smitten and sent to hell for blasphemy.

Standing up, I looked at her right in the eye, and I saw a shiver go through her body

"Umm, Kazuma, what's wrong?"

"You said I can pick anything, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Okay…"

I pointed at her

"I pick you."

"…. Wha-"

As I said that a bright portal appeared from the sky, and from it came down what seemed to be an angel. She gave out an aura similar to Aqua but not as intense, allowing me to make her out. She had golden hair and red eyes, dark skin and golden wings; she was clad in a royal-like gown that was white with tints of gold, and she had a gentle smile.

"Wha wai wha wait."

Meanwhile Aqua was starting to freaking out

"Kazuma Satou, your request has been approved by the high Goddess Rosaria, and as such, Lady Aqua will accompany you to Radia."

Ah, so the world's called Radia… but never mind that it actually worked.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT NO NO NONO!"

Feel like she's overreacting a bit, it should be fast with her around-

"Lady Aqua's powers will be sealed to bypass the Law of God. Her power will be comparable to that of a holy relic still, and her soul will be linked to yours for the duration you are in Radia."

Fuck!

"AHHH NO NO WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

Aqua crashed into me, grabbing me by the shoulder, shaking me while crying her eyes out.

Just then, a light shone under us, and writing I was unable to read appeared in a circle. The light grew brighter, engulfing us.

"NO NON NO, I DON'T WANNA GO!"

"…."

This is not what I planned.

"Good luck, oh Prophet, we give you our blessings and hope for your triumphant victory against the demons."

As she said that, the lights fully engulfed us, and I felt a sensation similar to elevators from Earth.

"God's blessings to you, hero."

To be continued.

Authors note

Okay, where do I even begin?

First of all, Hi, thank you for reading. if you're a new reader, you can ignore this, but if you're one of my past readers, you're probably confused as to why I'm suddenly reuploading the story with one chapter.

I'll cut to the chase here, I honestly regret deleting it, so I'm going to rerelease it.

But as you all know, my earlier chapters were chock-full of atrocious grammar that, as one person put it, "tickles my eyeballs". So, I decided to correct the grammar and reupload the whole thing at once, but… yeah, these days, I'm honestly so busy that it'll take way too long to get it done, I realized after finishing up about 3 chapters.

So, I decided to compromise. I'll reupload one chapter weekly, and each one will have its grammar corrected, so any newer audiences can have a more pleasant time.

And I will say, I'm still committed to turning this into my own story (which is actually in the works now), despite some major hiccups that happened in the past 6 months. It will be the same story as I have planned, but of course, new characters, and the story lines will be adjusted and changed, so it's not a 1 to 1 copy.

And if any of you wanna check it out, it's available on both RoyalRoad and Webnovel, as The Legacy We Inherit, my username there is TheFirstReader. I will be working on it simultaneously, but my focus now will be to fully reupload this, which I assume will take roughly 6 months if I upload weekly…

Anyways, thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next chapter next week.

Peace!

Royal Road - www.royalroad.com/author-dashboard/dashboard/108824

WebNovel - www.webnovel.com/book/the-legacy-we-inherit_32564306300769705

Chapter Text

I felt a sense of nausea as my vision returned from a blur. I began to regain my hearing and was able to get a clear understanding of where I was. I was on the side of a cobblestone street, surrounded by houses made of brick with a stone foundation, lined with wooded framework, mostly red roofs, some blue or green, and the houses were painted a yellowish white. Although sizes and shapes varied, most of the houses followed this pattern without much variety.

“Ahhh.”

“…”

Surprisingly, there were what seemed to be street lights, not similar to the ones on Earth, but rather a pillar with a sharp gem on top, which was in the shape of a spear. There was nature growing on those street light-looking objects, and some houses along with plenty of trees lining the middle of the street.

“Ahhhh!”

“…”

Carriages were moving through the street, being led by horses, carrying supplies and people. Mesmerized, I remained silent as I look around the area, noticing the street is bustling with people, or rather not just regular people.

The people… There are humans with medieval-like attire and non-humans also in similar attire.

“Huh?

Already knowing that demi-humans existed, I expected them to be people with cat ears, similar to the anime I watched. But rather I see fully furred humanoids with animalistic characteristics, similar to characters from ThunderCats. Not just cat and dog people, but lizard and rhino like too. Also, elven-looking folk with sharp ears and weird-looking eyes, they were slender and tall.

“AHHHHH!”

Man, this was not the kinda diversity I expected…

“AHHHAHHHHHHAAAAA!”

Finally paying attention to the source of the screeching, I see an unfamiliar girl.

“Wait, who the hell are you?”

She had blue, flowy hair down to her lower back and pale skin, a slender, curvy figure with big breasts but not too busty. She was clad in a blue attire lined with gold with exposed shoulder and a mini skirt, blue boots that also act as high heels for some reason, and a half-transparent pink hagoromo around her shoulder, floating and not touching her body.

“AHHHHHHH!”

“Wha-”

Grabbing onto me, she started wailing and screaming while rocking my shoulder.

Wait, is this?

“Goddess?”

“YES! IT’S ME YOU IDIOT!”

Despite her having the same hair color, I wasn’t able to tell it was her at all. The divine aura that she was present with that obscured my view of her was gone, and in front of me was a girl with Greek-like features. More beautiful than even the models of my world.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS!”

“Hold one leme ex-”

I was trying to calm her down to explain what was happening, but she wasn’t having it.

“NO YOU DAMN TRUST FUND GEEK, YOU COULD OF STILL PULLED OUT AT THE LAST MOMENT BUT YOU DIDN’T! NOW I’M STUCK HERE WITH YOU! TELL ME! HOW DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”

With her saying some very misleading things, I saw the townspeople giving us weird looks.

And there goes any hope of being popular…

“Hey, hey, watch you’re phrasing and just let me explain, I didn’t think it would actually work, besides if you hate it that much, you can just head back. I can handle the rest on my own, it’s fine.”

“!!!!? Don’t you get it? I CAN’T LEAVE! I’m stuck, I’m stuck here with you! My life of comfort, guiding mortals and eating whatever I want, it’s gone thanks to you. IT’S ALL GONE AND I’M GONNA BE STUCK HERE WTH A FILTHY TRUST FUND GEEK! AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF I’LL EVER BE ABLE TO GET BACK!”

With those harsh words Aqua lost her strength, letting me go and falling on her butt, she curled herself up to a ball and...

“Whaaaaaa!”

Started crying….

Looking at her miserable state, I was at a loss for words. I mean, this whole thing was indeed my fault, but still, come on, you’re a goddess, aren’t you?

The glares of the onlookers became more and more concerned, so I better do something about this fast.

Crouching to her level, I carefully thought about what I should.

“Listen… Goddess”

*sob* “What?”

“Look, I messed up, okay? I didn’t think it would even work, it was just a maybe it might work type of thing. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get you into this mess.”

“But why? Why even try?”

Well mostly because she pissed me off earlier and also well…

“I thought that if I took you with me, you would be able to easily beat the demon kings, which would put me way ahead of the race. I had no idea they’d seal your power.”

“No poop they were going to seal my power! I told you, didn’t I? We gods aren’t allowed to directly interfere with you mortals, the only way this arrangement was gonna work was for me to have my power lowered to that of a holy relic!”

So she’s still pretty powerful then, huh?

“Look, I know I messed up here, but right now, we’re sorta stuck here, both you and me. The only way for us to survive is to cooperate and work together.”

After hearing this, Aqua looked even more pissed.

“You want me to cooperate? After what you have done? Don’t think you can fool me, Satou. I was in charge of guiding you, so I already know every little detail about you! You’re manipulative and would do anything to get your way! Hell I even know the real reason you sacrificed your life to save that girl! Even if you try to fool yourself into thinking you give a damn about anyone except yourself!”

“Shut it!”

Aqua flinched at my tone.

Realizing I messed up, I decided to take a deep breath to get my shit back together.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to raise my voice, and about Yumi… Look, that doesn’t matter now, what matters is we are in some unknown world and we are penniless. Besides, we’ll have a higher chance of finding a way to get you back if we work together instead of you trying to do this alone.”

“… How am I supposed to trust you?”

She seemed hesitant, but she chose to hold onto some suspicion.

Well, I can’t exactly blame her for that.

“I know it’s gonna be hard to know, but please listen, I have no idea how to really navigate this world, so I need your help. So please, let’s put the incident behind us and work together. I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to find a way to get you back to heaven, even if it means hunting down every last Demon king. it’s my goal to go home as well, so it works out right?

Aqua wiped away some of her tears and snot before saying,

“… Do you promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Pinky promise?”

 What are you, a child?

“Yea sure, I pinky promise”

“… Okay, I forgive you, let’s work together”

Well, that was surprisingly easy. I don’t know if this girl is just the forgiving, simple-minded type or if I’m a master gaslighter. Probably both? But why would it be gaslighting? I didn’t lie once, did I? I really do wanna go home, and it’ll result in her getting home too… probably.

Standing up from my crouched position, I showed her a gentle smile and extended my arm to her. She took my hand and I pulled her up, smiling at me in return.

“So, what now?”

What now indeed.

As I looked around, I saw that the previous onlookers stopped staring and went back to their own business. The setting here feels very video gamey to me, specifically an MMO RPG… if I’m right about this, then there’s only one thing to do.

“We gotta look for a town hall or guild. There, we should be able to sign up as adventurers and pick up our first quest.”

Aqua looked a bit surprised at what I said.

“You’re actually kinda reliable? And here I took you for just some trust fund geek. But I guess all the games you played had its use after all.”

I want to smack her.

“Oi, quit calling me that, besides I was at the top of my class and I’m incredibly athletic! I very much deserved those gaming sessions! And besides, I only really started enjoying life like that after I spent most of it being the perfect child.”

“Ah right… I’m uh, sorry about earlier, I said something I shouldn’t have and even tried to bring up your old friend too.”

Damn, these are not emotions I want to feel right now…

“It’s fine, forget it, but as for Nobara… let’s not go into that now, I don’t wanna relive something that happened all those years ago. Wait, actually, do you know where she is?”

Aqua gave me a sad smile and nodded her head no.

“I’m in charge of guiding young men and women, starting in their teenage years. she was a prepubescent, so I wasn’t responsible for her.”

“Right… Thanks anyway… Look, it seems to be past noon now, so we should talk as we make our way to the guild.”

“Right right, let's go”

As we were about to make our way, we realized a crucial detail we had missed.

“Where even is the guild?” 2x

Even she has no clue, huh? I expected her to have some information since she was a goddess and all that, but I guess that was too much to ask for. Actually, how come I didn’t even receive any basic weapons? Oh right, I was meant to get a holy relic before I dragged her with me instead…

“Hey, hey, Kazuma, this is bad, we already hit a wall, what do we do?”

“Let’s just ask locals for directions. If a guild exists, they should know about it.”

“Yea, you’re right, right, let's ask someone.”

I looked around for a friendly-looking local; everyone here had a smile plastered on their face and looked approachable, not a bit of delinquency in their faces. This whole town feels very peaceful… Isn’t this meant to be a world suffering from demon attacks?

I resorted to talking to an old woman.

“Excuse me, ma’am, we’re looking for a sort of adventure guild or tavern, could you help with directions?”

Seeing me suddenly approach her, she looked a bit shocked, but quickly gave me a friendly smile.

“Oh dear, to not know where the adventures guild is, you must be new in town. Fret now, dear, it is only a short walk straight. Once you reach the marketplace, take a turn to the right, walk for a bit, and you should be right in front of it."

“I see, thank you.”

I bid farewell to the old woman and returned to Aqua.

“Alright, I got the goods, also felt kinda weird talking in a language I’ve never spoken before… this planet is named Radia, right? So what's the language called? Radian?”

“Each race has its own language, the human one is simply called human speech, there is also elven speech, beast speech, the beast folk share one language for the most part, but there are alterations like dialects in Japanese.”

Aqua pulled up her imaginary glasses after explaining to me how this world's language works. She seems to be really into it despite her complaints earlier.

With that, Aqua and I began walking towards the guild.

***

Making our way through the bustling street, I was astonished by the town, the air felt fresh too. We were closing in on the market, and as we did, we began to see stalls selling fruits, vegetables, meats, and even other items such as trinkets and weapons. No blacksmith on sight, must be in a different area.

It felt closer to a trading hub than a regular market with humans and demi-humans alike selling their produce. I wonder how prevalent racism is in this world.

“Hey goddess”

“Just Aqua, I don’t mind being called goddess, but it’s better not to cause a commotion by announcing my divinity.”

“Right… Aqua, how come you look so different from earlier? Like I couldn’t even recognize you.”

Aqua gave me a puzzled look before realizing what I meant.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I still look the same as then. You just couldn’t make out my features due to my divine aura, now that most of my divinity is sealed, you can see me clearly.”

Such a thing? It’s hard to believe this person who was throwing a tantrum in the middle of the street is the same goddess I met earlier, but the facts speak for themselves.

As we made the turn, we only had a short walk to the Adventurers Guild. I made a note of the architecture of the street, which felt like a blend of modern day and the past.

“What’s up with these street light things? If they are even street lights”

“They are. The gem on top is a special type of mana crystal that absorbs sunlight in the day and lights up in the night. There are also ones you can manually turn on and off that are used inside buildings.”

Interesting, so just regular light bulbs but magic edition.

“Does other stuff similar exist? Like stuff comparable to modern-day technology”

“Yeah, this world has made a lot of advancements with the use of magic. It doesn’t have cars or anything like that, but there are flushable toilets and showers, for example. Even things similar to electric stoves, but powered by magic instead. They even figured out convenient items like fridges and washing machines, though.”

Feels like my immersion is a bit ruined, but having flushable toilets is something I’m very happy with. So far, this fantasy world is pretty neat.

We continued chatting as we finally reached the place, and just like the old lady said, it was hard to miss. A large building, made with similar material to the rest of the building but with a distinct design, in the middle is what seems to be a clock with numerals I don’t recognize, but my brain understands as numbers, seems to be from the language that was implanted into my brain. So this world has clocks as well. The time now was already 4:10 PM.

“Alright, we’re here, keep close to me, I assume there will be a lot of rough and tough adventures here.”

“You know I’m stronger than you, right? If anyone stirs up trouble, I will be the one protecting you and not the other way around.”

I can’t really deny that, but I got to at least act cool, right?

“I don’t doubt that, but let’s try NOT to stir up trouble, alright.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll be on my best behavior.”

And with that, we made our way inside.

“…”

Opening the door to the guild, I was greeted by the smell of alcohol and food. In front of me was a giant bronze statue of some hero or something, from what I could guess. He was holding the handle of the sword while it was planted on the ground, and was clad in armor.

“Wow”

The guild was split into 2 sections, on my right was 4 counters, but only one of em having a line formed, despite there being 3 empty ones, specifically the one with the most attractive woman who had a busty chest, pale skin, and shoulder-length blonde wavy hair. Her cleavage was exposed, and she was wearing an office woman-like outfit. Next to the counters was a message board, presumably where you could pick up a quest.

To my right was a bar, it seemed to have long tables and chairs, not many adventurers as of now, but the few there were being served food by waiters, there was a staircase on the same side leading to the second floor with more tables, from what I could assume. The bar area had a waiter mixing alcohol and a door leading to what I guess is the kitchen.

Looking back at the counter area, there is another hallway near the quest board with a sign that has male and female stick figures, probably the restrooms. Wonder if the guild also has rooms for rent, don’t seem to from what I can see here.

The few adventurers made eye contact with us, giving us an intimidating glare, which made Aqua hide behind me. What happened to protecting me? I gave the adventurer an upward nod and headed to the counter.

“Hey, Kazuma, how come everyone is lining up to that one girl when there are 3 empty ones?”

“Because she’s hot.”

“Makes sense.”

Among the empty counters, all 3 of them were also women. Guess you make better profit when beautiful women are there to greet customers. I ended up making my way to one of the empty counters. The receptionist there looked at me in shock for a moment, probably surprised I didn’t follow the rat race and join in with the rest.

She had light skin, short red hair, freckles, and was dressed in the same office outfit as the others. Her figure was also on the curvy side, but not as busty as Miss Popular. She’s actually pretty cute, kinda reminds me of Mary Jane, her cleavage wasn’t exposed though.

Regaining her composure, she greeted me.

“Welcome to the adventurers guild, how may I assist you?”

“My friend here and I are looking to be adventurers, both of us are from a foreign land and don’t know anything.”

She looked at Aqua, who was behind me, then back to me before continuing.

“Alright, there will be a fee of 1,000 eris for each, is that fine?”

I looked back at Aqua after hearing this.

“What’s the conversion rate for eris to yen?”

“1 yen is about 1 eris”

“Got it”

Yea we’re already fucked, but let’s try negotiation.

“Ahh, well, you see, since we are new here, we don’t really have any money, and we need to become adventurers to make money as well. Is it possible to get registered right now? We’ll do a quest and pay after.”

She looked a bit hesitant for a moment before replying.

“That should be fine, there will be an interest of about 50% per day you take to pay it off. If you’re fine with it, we can continue.”

So much! Are we being scammed here, or is it the actual price?

“That’s fine, we’ll register.”

“Okay, give me one moment, sir.”

I looked at Aqua, who seemed a bit impressed at my negotiation skills, and she once again said something about me being more useful than she gave me credit for. Just how little did she initially think of me?

Soon the receptionist returned with an orb, kind of similar to the one Aqua used to show the holy relics.

“This right here is a gift to us from the gods, it is a holy relic capable of connecting an adventurer's yamu to their adventurer's card. Once linked, the adventures card will display all of said adventurers' stats and give them the option to choose between one of many classes.”

How video gamey, but wait, did she say holy relic? Like the ones given the reincarnates?

Before I can ask any questions, she continued.

“Once you choose a class, you will receive a stat boost depending on the class you open up the ability to learn skills, you may manually learn the skills but the adventures card allows you to instantly learn it by putting your skill points to it, and depending on your knowledge and proficient on the skill, the skill points needed will vary, for example someone scared of water will need a larger amount of skill points to learn water based abilities”

So it isn’t set in stone, huh? Interesting, this seems to be more similar to how Aqua was able to implant human speech into my brain, and this adventurer's card will do the same thing with skills.

“You can gain experience points by leveling up. Your level will be displayed on your adventurer's card. Each level up will give you skill points depending on your class; basic classes gain 1 skill point per level, while advanced classes gain 3 per level. You level up by gaining experience. all beings in this world have yamus pumping mana and memories from their soul to the body. By killing a creature with a yamu, you will gain a portion of their experience, which will lead you to level up after you gain a certain amount. As you level up, more and more of your stats will increase, the stat increase will be tied to your potential and the class you chose, and the more you level, the harder it will get.”

That’s a lot of information, but all this I’m familiar with via video games, so I’m fine. But it seems yamus circulates memories of the soul, too? whatever that means. Does that mean the soul is the yamu? Can’t be since I didn’t have a yamu before.

Gotta ask Aqua about it later.

“To summarize, the Adventurers card is a divine gift to us that allows humanity to reach its fullest potential. Do you have any questions?”

“Ahh, yes, you mentioned the orb is used to connect my yamu to the adventurer’s card as a divine gift? What’s the origin behind that?”

Before she could answer, Aqua decided to cut in.

“A thousand years ago, when we started sending prophets, even if they were super powerful, they still struggled, so we decided to send this down to make your lives easier and make stronger humans. It doesn’t really give you special powers; instead, it helps you reach your full potential.”

The receptionist looked a bit weirded out, probably at Aqua referring to the gods as we, like she was one of them, but maintained a professional smile regardless.

“She’s correct, it’s thanks to the high goddess Rosaria that we gained the ability to fight back, or more of humanity would have been destroyed by now.”

A new goddess has appeared, Rosaria, yet another thing to ask about Aqua later

“Now, if you don’t have any more questions, could you please place your hand on top of this orb so it can create your adventurer's card?”

“Alright, here I go.”

I placed my hand on the orb, and it began to glow in a multitude of colors, the 7 colors of the rainbow, and then settled for a pure white glow. The orb then shot out 2 small lasers and proceeded to start creating a card from thin air.

“Wow!”

After the construction was complete, the orb stopped glowing. The product produced was the size of an identity card from our world, not that big at all. I took my hand away, and the receptionist took the card and started reading through it.

“Let’s see here… Kazuma Sato- wait Satou?! Could it be?”

As my name Satou was mentioned, she had a panicked look on her face, and the rest of the receptionists and adventurers started looking at me with a shocked expression as well. Confused, I looked at Aqua, who seems to be just as confused as me.

“Sir, could you perhaps be related to the hero Hirata Satou?”

Who the hell is that?

“Ah, no, I don’t really recall any Hiratas in my family. Is he someone important?”

The receptionist looked shocked at my question

“You don’t know?! You don’t know about the hero Hirata Satou, who fought the demon king alongside Sora Tanaka and Emiya Aoi?! The 3 legendary heroes of Belzerg?! Have you been living under a rock???”

“Uhhh I…”

Seeing my panicked look, the receptionist regained her composure

“Ah, my apologies, sir, it’s just so uncalled for someone to now know about the 3 legends that I was surprised. But are you sure? Satou isn’t a common name. Do you really not have any relation to him?”

Well, where I’m from, Satou is actually the most common name… as cool as it would be for one of my relatives to be some hero in this world, I highly doubt it. For starters, my father whom I get my name from is an only child as far as I know. I don’t really know much about his side of the family, so it might still be possible, but likely just a coincidence.”

“Nope, as far as I’m aware, he’s a completely different person with no relation to me.”

“… I see, forgive me, I got a bit too excited there.”

Damn she looks disappointed, even the other adventures went back to minding their own business.

“So, is this Hirata guy the person depicted in the giant statue?”

Judging by the names, they were all likely reincarnated like me, but the guy in the statue didn’t look Japanese.

“Ah, no, we don’t really know who that is, just that he has been honored for the past 1000 years.”

Oooh, a mystery to solve, how fun.

“Let’s get back to the adventure’s card, then.”

She seems to be a bit of an amateur; maybe that’s the actual reason why everyone was lining up behind the hot one. Looking at her collar, I was able to see her name tag, Sarah…

“Ah, my apologies… let’s see here, Kazuma Satou, 15 years old, 5’6”, 65kg…”

Hey, hey, I’m 5’6” ¾, I’m closer to 5’7” than anything.

“All your physical stats are above average, even on the higher side for your age… Your potential is very high, I expect great things from you, and let's see here… Wow, your intelligence is extremely high, and your luck is over 400?! Everyone else I’ve seen has luck lower than 150! The goddess Eris must favor you greatly! Although Luck won’t really prove that useful in adventuring…”

Huh, not surprised with my stats, but I kinda am with my luck. I mean, I did always have really good luck, never lost a game of rock paper scissors in my life, but still, my luck wasn’t good enough to save my life, so I don’t really know…

“Ahh, however, you’re mana and power are unnaturally low, actually it’s some of the lowest I’ve seen, so the mage or priest class is out of the question.”

I looked at Aqua at this revelation.

“I told you, at least 3 years for the yamu to mature and catch up with the rest of your body, that’s why we send you people with divine relics.”

Forgot about that. This kinda sucks, I’m in a world of magic and can’t even become a mage…

“Ah, sir, don’t be down, your stats are high enough for you to be able to choose any of the other base classes. They aren’t high enough for you to pick advanced classes, but with your potential, you’ll gain a class ascension in no time.”

The base and advanced class thing, I can pretty much figure out myself. Guessing each class has an upgraded version which you can reach if you’re good enough, and it seems the upgrade is called class ascension.

“What are the classes available?”

“Except for the mage and priest classes, you can’t access; there are thief, swordsman, barbarian, archer, knight, and monk.”

“There is also an adventurer.”

Aqua went ahead and mentioned the last class, which the receptionist refrained from mentioning. The other classes, I can tell what they do, but what about the adventurer?

Sensing my curiosity, the receptionist said.

“I wouldn’t recommend it, that class gives no stat bonuses so your skills can’t keep up with other classes, its only real strong point is versatility.”

No stat bonus? There’s gotta be some sort of benefit to it, right?

“What do you mean by versatility?”

“You can learn skills from any class available.”

“Isn’t that just broken?”

The hell, every class? Can I do everything? Count me in.

“Sure, you can learn all of them, but since you don’t get stat bonuses, it won’t matter much. it’s a useless class for adventurers not strong enough to pick a proper one, a jack of all trades, but a master of none.”

I heavily disagree here, the lack of stat bonus is kinda sad, but at the same time, think about all the possible combinations? It’ll be amazing, besides, if I don’t like it, I can change to a better class later, I just gotta try everything out.

“It’s fine, I’ll pick adventurer.”

“If that is your choice, I won’t stop you.”

She handed the card over to me.

“Only the person the card is linked to can interact with it, so you need to pick the class. Once you do it will finalize and the main display will appear.”

“Understood”

I scrolled through the menu and picked the class adventurer, which changed the interface a bit, seemingly finalizing it.

“Congratulations on becoming an adventurer, Kazuma Satou. I look forward to your future endeavors.”

“Thanks, once I try out the skills, I’ll change the class to the one with the skills I use most.”

She gave me a puzzled look

“What? You can’t change, once you set a class, it’s locked forever.”

… fuck

“Ahh, that’s fine, I’m sure the class ascension will make it worth it.”

“There is no class ascension for adventurer, at least not one anyone has been able to achieve so far; it seems to be a useless class as far as history is concerned.”

You didn’t think that was important information????

“Puheheheh, you’ve done it now, Kazuma! locking yourself into the weakest class.”

This bitch… finding entertainment in my failure. Fuck I fucked up, I fucked up very bad, wasn’t my luck and intelligence supposed to be high?

As I was freaking out internally Aqua moved infront of me to get her adventurers card made, I decided to give her a whack on the head.

“Ouch, the hell was that for?”

“Just cause.”

“Just cause?!”

Aqua proceeded to whack me, too, which I returned. Soon, it turned into a full-on whack contest where we kept side chopping each other's heads until the receptionist interrupted.

“Ahem, if you don’t mind?”

“Ah, sorry” 2x

Aqua placed her hand on the orb, and it went through the same process, creating her adventurer's card.

As it was being made, I took a proper look at mine.

The material the card was made of felt metallic and strong, I was able to bend it a bit, but I doubt I’ll be able to snap it. On the top right was an avatar that resembled me, only the art style was something out of a drawing from the 1400s. Top left was filled with my name, “Kazuma Satou,” and under it was an empty bar with the numeral for 1, which seems to be my level and experience meter. My basic information was under that, gender, age, race, height, weight, and class… It took about the top 1/3 of the whole card, with the rest being split into 3 categories, that being stats, available skills, and kills.

The stats were as followed, Strength, Speed, Agility, Durability, Endurance, Stamina, Intelligence, Power, Mana, Luck, Charisma, Bravery and Potential which all had different numerals representing my stats, seems I can’t manually increase any of them… all my stats were on the higher side except my Mana and Power which were a depressing 11 and 26 respectively, everything else was above 60 with luck being 437 and intelligence being 125, my luck really is insane. All of them didn’t fit in the card, and I was able to scroll up and down, similar to a touchpad. The available skill section had a pressable button that switched it to active skills, which are probably just the skills you got; both of them are empty. There was a small separation under the available skill section that has ‘available points’; this is probably where my skill points will show. The kills section was also empty.

“WOW WHAT ARE THESE STATS!”

As I finished examining my card, I realized Aqua’s adventurer's card was also being made.

“You’re name’s Aqua? Well, like your friend, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, there’s no way you are related to the goddess Aqua, right?”

She said, not wanting to make the same mistake she did with me earlier, Aqua was about to say something excitedly, and I put a hand on her mouth to shut her up.

After she said we shouldn’t reveal her identity, I won’t let her do it on a whim.

The other adventurers once again started looking at us at all the commotion, and the receptionist lady continued.

“Aside from you’re rock bottom intelligence and your luck, which is somehow in the negatives, all your base stats are over 500, I’ve never seen stats so high in my life!”

500? And here I was, happy to get stats above 60…

“500 base? As in, without the boost from a class!?”

“Is that even possible?”

“Could she be one of those warriors sent by the heavens?”

“She’s the one, she’ll destroy the demons!”

The adventurers started getting extremely riled up at this revelation. Aqua had a shy-looking smile on her face that was slowly turning into a massive grin.

“Hehehe guys come on come on, you don’t have to say all that! Hehe okay okay fine, I’ll defeat the demon kings, it’s my duty now after all. Come on, come on, ramp things up! Praise me more!”

“AQUA! AQUA! AQUA! AQUA!”

Aqua kept getting cockier and cockier while the rest of the adventurers kept encouraging her, some even pushed me aside to come surround her.

“Lady Aqua! I love you!!!”

“And I love you! Random adventurer!”

… isn’t it too soon to become a celebrity with this much status?

Some of the adventures moved out of the way for the 4 receptionists to come forward with the blonde one in the middle, I didn’t even notice them leave their position in this chaos…

“Miss Aqua, we look forward to your future exploits. Welcome to the Adventurers Guild!”

The counter lady gave a grand announcement to Aqua, and the rest of the adventurers began to cheer. Waving at the adventurers, Aqua turned to me.

“Kazuma, you were pretty smart to take me with you! Don’t worry, with me by your side, we’ll rid the world of all those who oppose The Almighty! What are we waiting for? Let's go pick up our first quest!”

Aqua made that grand declaration, which made the audience cheer more. Wasn’t she moping and crying about not wanting to be here 30 minutes ago?

Ignoring the fuss, Aqua took my hand and dragged me to the quest board. As she did, the adventurers began to calm down a bit, and the receptionist ladies all went back to work.

“Alright, what quest should we do first?”

“Hmmm, let’s see here…”

I looked through the quest board for a fitting quest for beginners with no equipment.

“Ah, what the hell?”

The easy “Kill 10 slimes” or the “Pick 10 red herbs from the forest” I was looking for wasn’t there; Instead, I saw some dangerous-looking quests. “Hunt down the rookie killer” Rank B, “Investigate the Hydra activities in the area” Rank A, and “Hunt down the wyvern” Rank SS. The quest board was filled with dangerous-sounding quests like this. What the hell is this? How are we supposed to level up if we die?

Seeing my concerned look, Aqua interjected.

“What are you worried about, Kazuma? didn’t you forget I’m here? A goddess? With me, nothing is impossible for you.”

She must have really let that talk get into her head…

“Still, even if you’re capable, I don’t wanna die on the first day.”

“Hmm, what about this then?”

Aqua took out a quest and showed it to me. “Defeat 5 giant toads, it is the frogs' breeding season and they need to be exterminated, they are found in the west plains from the city walls”.

Giant toads? I admit that it doesn’t sound nearly as dangerous as the other ones. But how giant are we talking? Still, it seems to be the only job available to us. Seems the reward for this job is 10,000 eris, which isn’t that much once we split it between us. We will probably have to do a quest at least 4x a week in order to get by.

“I still don’t have a weapon, and neither do you. it’s still risky, isn't it?”

“Quit being such a worry wot, besides, I got my holy staff, and I can send 'em flying with a punch anyway… probably”

Probably? So even she’s not really sure if she can beat them. Still, we don’t have any more options, so we might as well give it a try and hope Aqua can come in clutch.

“Alright, let's pick this.”

Aqua and I headed towards the counter, which was now empty, seems the previous crowd had cleared off, so we went to Miss Popular to hand in the quest.

“Good afternoon, sir, miss. How may I help you?”

“Afternoon! We would like to take this quest”

I said as I handed it over to her. Looking at her name tag, her name seems to be Luna, and oh man, I kinda get why everyone was lining up to her earlier, she looks even better close up, that cleavage…

Ignoring my staring, which she was probably used to, she took the flyer from my hand and took a look at it.

“Done, the time limit for this job is today itself. If you are unable to complete it, there will be a penalty of 1,000 Eris.”

There’s a penalty? We’re already about 3,000 eris in debt, counting the interest rate, so we can’t mess this up, gotta have to pay it off after this is done.

“Once the monsters are defeated, you may sell the monsters to the guild if you wish, each monster frog earning you 5,000 eris. once the transportation and harvesting fees and deducted, you’ll receive 4,000 eris.”

So I’ll earn more money for selling the frogs than the quest itself, huh? I don’t really get the logic behind that, but sure. A total of 30,000 eris, after paying off our small loan, we took to becoming adventurers, we’ll have 27,000 eris, 13,500 eris each. Not bad for a 1 days work.

“Got it, ahhh, could we also get some directions?”

“Of course, once you leave the Adventurers Guild, you just gotta go straight until you reach the city gates. The trip there is around 35 minutes. after you leave the city walls, head west, you’ll be at frog territory in about 20 minutes.”

“Got it, thanks for the assist.”

“Good luck on your quest, and be careful, those frogs are immune to all blunt damage!”

After bidding farewell to Luna, Aqua and I left the building.

***

We were mostly quiet as we made our way to the city gate, the cobblestone street, the brick houses with chimneys, the demi-humans, and the clean air are something I can’t get over; It feels so fantastical to be in a setting that I usually only see in movies. 

Taking the opportunity, I decided to get some questions I had out of the way.

“So what was up with the Hirata Satou guy?”

“A special case, he and the 2 other heroes she mentioned weren’t reincarnated here by us, but rather summoned from Earth by the king from back then, think it was around 50 years ago.”

“Summoned? Can they do that? It’s allowed?”

“No, the human king at the time was a rotten man, trying to play god. Those poor kids were dragged here against their will and forced to be soldiers in the country’s army.”

Damn… sounds familiar.

“Are they still around?”

“They weren’t under my jurisdiction. As far as I know, Sora and Hirata fell to the current demon king, and as for Emiya, she is alive and currently an advisor for the royal guards.”

Aqua didn’t answer that with the usual enthusiasm; I can tell she doesn’t like the topic. Maybe it’s best to drop it for now…

Moving past the city gate, we gave a quick greeting to the guards protecting it. I set foot outside the gate to be greeted with the sight of a wide, vast open plain, hilly, and in the distance, a forest that seemed to stretch on for longer. Said forest seems to be all around the plains, to the left, there is a mountainside as well, leading, god knows where.

Calm down, Satou, save the exploring for later.

“You look star-struck, these are scenes you’ll find in Japan as well, you know?”

“I know that, but still, something about this place feels so fantastical, I can’t describe it.”

*giggles* “That’s just the geek in you talking, you’ll get used to it, but for now let that gamer in you rage on”

We headed west as instructed and made our way through the hilly plains. Once we reached the top, we were greeted by the sight of huge frogs.

“Wha”

Now, when I heard giant frogs, I expected some dog-sized frogs, since you know? Frogs are usually tiny. Instead, I’m seeing frogs larger than Oxen, at least twice my height when on all fours, croaking and jumping around.

“This is not what I expected at all. how the hell do we even kill them?”

I looked at Aqua, who had a smug smile.

“Watch and learn, Kazuma, beasts such as this are no match for a goddess of my stature.”

As Aqua said that she began to glow in a golden aura, something straight out of Dragon Ball. Star-struck, I watched as Aqua took a step forward.

“Oh, foul beast, repent for your sins, for you shall meet the wrath of the goddess of water, Aqua!”

She said that as she started running at one isolated frog as I gazed on… she was actually looking really cool. The aura she had collected from one of her first, and it gave out a bright golden light.

“GOD BLOWWWW!”

Aqua ran in speeds I’ve only seen cheetahs run on Animal Planet documentaries, and she shouted her attack name. How cliché, does she think this is an anime? Her fists landed on the animal with a heavy thud. I expected to see the frog disintegrate into pieces.

Instead, I saw the attack had no effect, and Aqua’s attack glow disappeared. I was a good distance away, and they seemed like chibis from where I was. I could see Aqua look up at the frog.

 A short moment passed, and she instantly got swallowed…

“AHHHH AQUA!”

Freaking out I instantly ran up to the frog, there was a large distance between us which Aqua was able to cross instantly with her speed, however I wasn’t. Reaching the animal, I started hitting and kicking it with everything I had to no avail. At this moment, I remembered a warning from the receptionist, which I shrugged off like an idiot… The frog was immune to all blunt attacks.

“Damn it!”

The frog was ignoring my attacks like they didn’t even affect it. I was in a panic and at a loss for what to do, but I realized something.

“!!!”

I climbed up the frog and threw a punch right into the frog's eye, no way it’s blunt immunity carried over to its eye as well. The frog started wailing and threw me off, and then went back to swallowing Aqua.

“DAMN YOU!”

I jumped back on it and attempted to get a good grip, it was hard to do so with the body being so slimy, but managing with some effort, I once again punched into the now black eye. I was aiming to pierce through the eye and attack its brain. It kept trying to throw me off, but I kept repeating my punches on it until I eventually pierced through its eye socket. I dug my hand deep into the socket as hard as I could, reaching the monster's brain, and there I began clawing and digging at it.

“Gha”

It spat Aqua out as it began to convulse, and I was thrown on my back. Getting up as fast as I could, I saw the frog, now dead, and Aqua, on the floor, covered in slime. my arm was also covered in blood and brain matter, which spilled onto my face and shirt.

*Cough* “Ahh Kazu” *cough* !”

I wasn’t able to celebrate at the sight of the dead frog as I realized more frogs were coming up to us and we were being surrounded. I quickly ran up to Aqua and took her hand, practically dragging her with me.

“Whaaa Kazuma!”

“NO TIME, LET'S GO RUN!”

We continued running with the frogs running behind us, and one of them shot its tongue out, lashing onto Aquas' leg.

“AHHHH KAZUMA KAZUMA IT GOT ME!”

“HOLD ON!”

I kept holding on to her as she kept kicking the tongue with her other leg, eventually, it let go.

“AHHH WE’RE TOO SLOW!”

As the frogs closed in, I panicked as I realized there was no way to escape, only for Aqua to pick me up in a princess carry.

“Wha-”

“DON’T WORRY, I GOT YOU!”

I was slow, but Aqua wasn’t; she started outrunning the frogs, but they persisted, and one of them shot its tongue out at us again.

“IT’S COMING!”

Hearing my warning, Aqua swiftly jumped to the left, dodging the attack, and continued running. The frogs continued to chase us as I warned Aqua of incoming attacks, which she dodged. Eventually, we managed to lose them as we got near the city gates after running for around 10 minutes.

“phew”

Aqua put me down and started catching her breath. She didn’t seem to be much tired despite running all that much, probably due to her crazy stamina. Those frogs were fast, though; they could cover the distance I ran and more in a single jump, no way I could have escaped them on my own.

I noticed that I had slime all over me from being carried by Aqua.

“Ahhh gross, it stinks!”

As I said that Aqua fell to the ground and…

“WAHHHH THANK YOU KAZUMAAA!”

She started hugging me and crying, still slimy, getting even more slime on me.

“WAHHH IT WAS SOO DARK AND SCARY IN THERE! MY ATTACK DID NOTHING AT ALL AND IT JUST ATE ME! THANK YOU FOR GETTING ME OUT OF THERE!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, you saved me too, if you didn’t carry me and run, we both would have gotten eaten again.”

*sob* “But but, I’m a goddess! I can’t be humiliated by a mere frog like this! I will never be able to bully Eris again after this!”

You’re worried about that now? Also, who’s Eris? Another goddess? The currency is also called eris, right?

“AHHH I’LL GO KILL EM ALL, I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE, THEY WILL EXPERIENCE MY WRATH!”

Aqua was about to run off again in anger, but I tackled her.

“WAIT WAIT, HOLD UP!”

“WHYYY! ARE YOU TELLING ME WE SHOULD JUST LET THEM GO AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO US?”

“CALM DOWN AND LET ME EXPLAIN!”

I was able to hold Aqua down long enough for her to calm down a bit. It’s likely that she allowed me to hold her down; she had the strength to throw me off easily if she wanted to.

*sob* *sob*

Okay, how am I gonna do this.

“Look, Aqua, listen, we just got no diffed by those frogs.”

“!!!”

“AND, if we rush in again without a plan, it will happen again, so we need to stay calm.”

“…. Okay fine, then what do you think we should do?”

“For starters, we need equipment. how can we fight these frogs when we have no weapons to protect ourselves?”

As I said that Aqua looked down at the ground with a sad expression.

“I have a staff…”

“Said staff won’t do damage to it, we need a sharp weapon to cut it.”

“But, but, I can easily flood the whole area, and they’ll be defeated, right?”

“They are frogs, Aqua, they can swim, you’ll give them a territory advantage instead.”

“!!!”

With the final nail in the coffin, Aqua slumped down, feeling completely defeated.

“I can’t believe I lost to frogs…”

Me neither, me neither…

“Look, for now let’s just head back, okay? It’s getting late, and we should probably come up with a plan tomorrow.”

“…okay, but hold on, let me clean us up first.”

Aqua proceeded to create a torrent of water, engulfing both of us

“jgjfjsnjds !?”

The water was warm and was washing away the slime. I was surprised, but more surprised to realize I could breathe. So, this is the power of a goddess. After the water torrent was cleared away, I was surprised again to see that I was completely dry.

“Wow, how did you do that?”

“I’m the goddess of water, I have full authority over water, I can do whatever I want with it, even with my power sealed.”

Man… despite the whole frog incident, she’s pretty OP I made the smart move dragging her here with me.

With daylight burning away, Aqua and I started walking to the guild to report the failure, not something I’m looking forward to…

***

As we made our way back into the city, we passed the same guards as before and gave them a small nod. The sun set and night came, and the gems above the street lights began to glow a brilliant yellow.

“Damn”

It was a sight you see in any modern city, but mixed with the medieval architecture of the town, it was a unique sight to see. We eventually made our way to the adventurers’ guild and entered, only to find it now filled with adventurers compared to earlier. They were drinking, eating, and singing together, now also filled with more waiters serving food and drinks, all female by the way. Some of them spotted us, or more specifically, Aqua, and called out.

“Hey, it’s the strong lady from earlier and her companion! How did it go? Did you give the fight to the demon empire?”

“Ahahah, well you see…”

He asked us a difficult question, which Aqua had even more difficulty answering, so we just ignored it and made our way back to the now-empty counters except for the one with the hot blondie Luna.

“Welcome back! How did you fare on your first quest?”

“We failed, but managed to kill one.”

“Oh, I see..”

She looked rather disappointed but maintained professionalism.

“We managed to kill one of the frogs, and we’ll sell it to you. After the transportation fees are cut, the remaining amount should cover the previous loan and the penalty for failure to correct.”

“That’s right, but are you two okay?”

Aqua remained silent as I continued to speak

“We’ll be fine, we just weren’t prepared, next time we will prepare…”

I gave an answer full of resolution, but I was not feeling very resolute…

“Thank you for today, we’ll be leaving now, goodnight.”

“Ah, yes, goodnight.”

Bidding Luna farewell, Aqua and I left the guild while ignoring the gazes of the adventurers who were looking at us with pity. We walked for a bit before we came to a stop.

“Well.. now what?”

Aqua asked, and frankly, I had no clue.

“I’m hungry, but we’re broke…”

“I’m thirsty…”

“That I can handle.”

Aqua proceeded to create a small ball of water that looked fresh.

“Here say ahhh”

… I did just that, and Aqua slowly poured the water into my mouth; it felt refreshing

“Thanks”

“Don’t mention it.”

Now to address the elephant in the room

“We don’t have any money, we can’t afford a room…”

Aqua looked at the sky with an empty look and said

“Adventurers who can’t afford rooms typically sleep in the stables outside the city walls. We can do that too…”

“Ah…”

Sleeping in the stables, huh? Not something I can look forward to.

“Are you fine with it? Gonna be hard to go from heaven to stables.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Guess not…”

It seems she has accepted her fate…

“We'd better go to sleep then, I’m too tired to think.”

“Me too… There is a bathhouse, but there’s a fee for it, so we won’t be able to enter… Not that we need it.”

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. She’s correct, though, after the torrent cleaning she did, I felt cleaner than when I arrived here. But still, as a Japanese man, it’s hard to go a day without taking a proper hot bath.

“Oh, but there are public restrooms for free, so you don’t need to worry about doing your business in the morning. Me, I’m a goddess, so I don’t need to use the bathroom.”

I don’t know if she’s lying or not, but the abilities she demonstrated today make me think it’s possible.

“Man… We can’t even buy stuff to brush our teeth.”

I mumbled to myself as we made our way towards the stables. I looked up at the sky for some comfort and was greeted with a new sight

“WOW! 2 MOONS?”

I forgot my grievances for a moment as I saw the sight of 2 lunar objects in the sky, a bluish planet with rings, slightly bigger looking than Earth's moon, and an orange planet next to it, about the same size as Earth's moon

“Surprised? Radia is located in a completely different galaxy from Earth, so you won’t be able to recognize any of the planets or stars.”

Damn…

“How come we’re on a different planet, but the inhabitants aren’t tentacle aliens?”

“Cause The Almighty liked humans, so the Almighty spread them all throughout the multiverse. I was a human too before I ascended into godhood.”

Aqua did mention that I could wish to be a god, so I knew ascension was possible, but were there other requirements to be a god? I decided to save those questions for another day as I was too tired. But man, to casually confirm the multiverse is something else.

Aqua and I made our way towards the stables outside the city walls, and we saw a couple of other adventurers taking shelter there.

“So this is gonna be our home for tonight, huh?”

“Probably will be for longer…”

I went to take a piss outside before sleeping and then came back. We walked a bit through the stables before finding a pile of hay not layered with horse shit. Aqua gave a grim look and said.

“We don’t even have a blanket… we need to figure something out before winter hits or we’ll freeze to death”

“We could always share body heat.”

“Try anything and I’ll strangle you.”

“Duly noted.”

With that said, Aqua and I lay on the hay, uncomfortable and itchy, but it’ll have to do. We weren’t close to each other, but there wasn’t a big distance between us either, just enough for it to be comfortable. In the short span of a day I grew strangely close with this girl, going from someone that pissed me off to surviving a near death experience together.

“Good night.”

“Hmm, good night.”

And with that, the two of us drifted off the sleep, penniless and hungry.

To be continued

***

Author's note

Mage -> Arch mage

Priest -> Arch priest

Thief -> Assassin

Swordsman -> Master swordsman

Barbarian -> Berserker

Archer -> Master Archer

Knight -> Crusader

Monk  -> Abbot

Adventurer -> ???

Thank you all once again for reading, and leave your reviews, positive and negative. I’ll see you all in the next chapter.

Peace!

Royal Road - www.royalroad.com/author-dashboard/dashboard/108824

WebNovel - www.webnovel.com/book/the-legacy-we-inherit_32564306300769705

Chapter Text

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the sunlight hitting my face. Groggily, I started wiping my eyes and got up and let out a nice yawn. Despite the uncomfortable hay and the snoring adventurers, I was able to sleep well, likely due to my exhaustion.

*snore*

Looking next to me, I saw a beautiful blue-haired girl. However, instead of sleeping peacefully with light breathing, she was snoring loudly with her mouth wide open and drooling, her mouth was curved upwards like she was having a good dream.

“Quite the goddess you are, Lady Aqua.”

Saying that to myself, I started to stir her, hoping to wake her up.

“Hey, time to get up.” 

“Ngh, 100 more years~”

“Like hell!”

I kept stirring her, but to no avail. I guess she just isn’t going to get up yet, so might as well figure out what to do.

As I tried to get up, I felt that my whole body was sore.

“Damn…”

Lying back down for a bit, I pulled out my adventurer's card, which I hadn’t gotten a chance to check yesterday after the fight. Next to my name, it had a new message. “Status: Sore”.

“Damn, so even these things are displayed.”

I also noticed that my level went up by 1, now being 2. The bar was more than halfway full, and I was closer to level 3, too. That 1 frog I killed must have packed quite a bit of experience. Under available skill points, I saw the number 1, but no skills were available for me yet. All my physical stats have increased by 1 as well. No changes to my mental or imaginary stats.

“Gotta figure out how to get some skills…”

As I said that I forced myself to get up. I was hungry at first, but now there was a different issue. Anime and light novels don’t get into this detail, but humans need to answer the call of nature, and no, I’m not talking about number 1. This new body hasn’t had any food, so I’m probably not going to have a good time.

I recalled Aqua mentioning to me that there were public restrooms available for free, so I went out to look for one.

“Should have kept my eye out for it…”

As I reentered the city, I asked the guards guarding the city walls where the public restroom was, and they were kind enough to give me directions.

I made my way to the building the guards pointed at. It was a one-story building on the large side, and on the sides of the building, there were windows on top, likely keeping ventilation and smell out. I entered and saw who seemed to be a janitor.

“Good morning.”

“Morning”

Greeting the Janitor, I saw 2 doors, one sign with a male stick figure and another with a female stick figure. Saving the peeping for later, I entered the men's room. Entering, I was in a corridor with a row of faucets above a giant sink to the right of me, and stalls to both left and right, passing the sinks. I was surprised to see no urinals, but decided it was for the better.

I entered the stall, fearing the sight of a squat toilet, but thankfully was greeted by a modern-looking commode. It was made of wood and had nothing to close it with, a seat, and a rather large hole in the middle. To the side, there was a stick that had a small attachment. Pulling at the attachment, I was surprised as the toilet flushed, despite having no container for water.

“So this is the power of magic…”

Without further ado, I proceeded to do my business. Diarrhea from an empty stomach; the hard part of life in this new world, my favorite authors tended to skip over…  There was a box similar to a toilet paper roll next to me, thankfully, at least hygiene is a proper part of Radia.

Finishing up, I made my way to the sink and washed my hands. Not having any other option, I also proceeded to wash my face with the refreshing tap water, but avoided letting any enter my mouth. I then made my way back to the stables to see that Aqua had woken up.

“Kazuma, Good morning! I was wondering where you went.”

Aqua greeted me with a smile. I saw she had lit a fire with a bunch of sticks she gathered. Next to her were 2 stones which I imagine she used to light them. She was hovering a ball of water over it, likely heating it up.

“Morning, Aqua, what’s with that?”

“Heating up water so we can wash our faces.”

How convenient, having this girl with me was very useful. If I knew she would do this, I wouldn’t have washed my face with the water in the public bathroom.

The sun was rising, but the air was still cool; the morning air felt nice on my skin.  

“Here, use this.”

Aqua split the water ball in half while somehow keeping the same concentration and size, and floated one of them over to me, keeping it hovering near me.

“Thanks.”

I touched some of the water, feeling that it had been heated up. I took a scoop of water with my hand and washed my face and neck with it. I drank some water and gargled it around a bit before spitting it out. We are unable to buy any toothbrushes yet, so this will have to do for now.  Aqua did the same as me, but she was dry after it was done, while I wasn’t.

“Oh, let me get that.”

I felt the water in my skin evaporate as I dried up, probably the same process she used yesterday after the battle with the frogs.

“Say, Kazuma, what should we do about the frogs?” She asked me out of nowhere.

To be honest, I would like to take revenge, but that’s really not possible yet, looking at yesterday's performance.

“For now, we need to make some cash, which we can use to buy some equipment.”

“How do you reckon we do that? The frog quest was the easiest one available, and we failed that.”

She’s right, though, we couldn’t even take on a few frogs; It’s very clear that we are unprepared.

“Guess we need to start doing some part-time work, that way we can save up for equipment, mainly for me, since you don’t want to use them.”

“A goddess like me using blades is improper.”

That makes no sense to me, but I’ll let her have her way for now…

“If I recall, the guild didn’t have any flyers for odd jobs. Do we gotta have to walk around and ask for work from random people?”

Hopefully, there are some signs or something asking for help.

“The city walls are constantly being rebuilt and improved. We can go ask one of the foremen working for a job; they need all the help they can get, so it’s likely we’ll get the job.”

Makes sense, but construction work, huh? With me being sore to the point the adventurer's card displays it, and being hungry as I am, I don’t know how well I can lift heavy things.

“What’s wrong?”

Aqua noticed me being deep in thought and asked out of concern.

“Nothing, I’m just sore as hell from the frogs, I don’t think I’ll be able to do a good job there.”

“That’s all? Fear not, for the goddess Aqua is here. Healing!”

Aqua lifted her palm up and made a chant, a faint gold glow appeared in her palm, before my whole body began to glow in the same glow and fade away.

“Wha?”

As soon as it did, I felt my body rejuvenate, all the tiredness I felt was gone, and my body felt refreshed. I pulled out my adventurer's card to see my sore status gone. 

“There, I can help you with that, but can’t do anything about the hunger, we just gotta suck it up till we get enough money to eat.”

“Right… Speaking of, it’s still pretty early, I’m guessing they haven’t started work yet.”

“Work starts at around 9 in this world as well, so we've got a bit of time.”

I guess now people would be eating breakfast and then preparing for the work day; however, we can’t really afford breakfast, so we might as well do something else for now.

“Well, since we’re waiting around, mind telling me how I can learn skills?”

At my question, Aqua switched back into her teacher mode.

“It’s pretty simple, actually. For one, you need to be aware of the skill, and then you need to learn the inner workings of it and attempt to perform it yourself. Afterwards, the skill will appear on your card. The amount of skill points required will depend on how much of your knowledge needs to be filled to efficiently perform it, so some might cost you a lot, while others might not even cost you any skill points.”

Damn, so I can learn skills for free? Speaking of, I did plenty of martial arts back home. Karate since I was like 4, and at 13 I picked up kick boxing and wrestling, which I only really did for 2 years, so I’m not as good. Since no skills for those two haven’t shown up, I probably need to learn more about it to appear, or the skill card only has martial arts from this world.

Hey, wait a minute!

“How come you were able to use skills despite having no levels? Are you telling me you had a bunch of them available for free?”

“I did, I didn’t even need to pick a class, remember? I was an archpriest from the beginning, and had all the skills available, plus every elemental water skill that was available only for mage and arch mage classes.”

Damn… Seems to me like the author just forgot to write her picking the class, but sure, I’ll go with what she said.

Since I can learn skills from any class, I might as well get her to teach me some skills.

“Can you teach me some?”

“I wouldn’t recommend practicing yet, since you haven’t had any food at all, you’ll need all the energy you need for today, or you’re gonna faint during work…”

Ah… I guess that’s fair.

“I’ll teach you some water magic later, but no healings or blessings, that’s my thing.”

She plans to gate-keep skills? Well, whatever, spells I do won’t ever be nearly as powerful as hers, so who cares? Actually, she wants to be unique like this.

“Should we try to recruit more adventurers as well? You’re strong, but your main abilities involve healing and blessings from what I can tell, and I’m the weakest class. So we should get a front-liner and a mage.”

“Kazuma Kazuma… Not everyone is worthy of teaming with a goddess such as myself, you know? If we’re going to recruit someone, they have to be an advanced class.”

“Yeah, fine, whatever, let’s worry about that when we get to it.” I shrugged her childish needs aside.

 We’re in a situation where we need all the help we can. I don’t know if this is a beginner town or not; the quests make me think it’s not, but the scaling in this world might just be extremely high.

There’s no point in putting up a notice yet, so we might as well wait till we’re ready to actually take part in a quest.

We had nothing to do, so we just chatted and waited till the stable owner kicked us out.

***

Later that day, we made our way to the city walls and walked near them for a while. It wasn’t long before we found a construction crew.

They were a bunch of rough and tough-looking men, all much taller and muscular than I, and they seemed to have already gotten to work.

“How do you reckon we keep up with these guys?”

“I’m stronger than them, it’s fine~”

Right… Despite being a 5’4 girl, Aqua is physically stronger than any human here. At the very least, she’ll be able to pick up where I fail.

I went up to the tallest guy there. He had a full beard and was wearing a white tank top with some work pants. Long hair tied back in a ponytail and a nicely groomed, thick beard.

“Excuse me, the two of us are looking for work.”

He gave us a side eye before continuing.

“Are you two now? We need all the manpower we can get, but this isn’t light work. You sure you’re up to the task?”

“Yes, sir! My friend here actually has a pretty high strength stat; she can be of good use.”

He looked at Aqua.

“Girl, show me your adventurer's card.”

“Ah yeah, here you go.”

Stuttering a bit, Aqua handed it over to him. Despite the reality of their strength, he’s a very intimidating-looking guy that would give Henry Cavill a run for his money in masculinity, and I’m a bit nervous myself.

“Hmmm, you really are a remarkable young lady. With these stats, you’ll fit along fine. But what about you, boy? Show me your card as well.”

He suddenly asked me, my stats aren’t anywhere near Aquas, but I hope I can at least get the job…

I handed over my card to him.

“Hmm, not bad, above average, especially for someone as young as you. It’ll be hard work, but we welcome you both; we’ll begin immediately.”

Thank God.

“Told you, Kazuma, this way we don’t need to go hungry tonight!”

…

Hearing that, the foreman raised an eyebrow.

“You went hungry?”

“Uhh, don’t worry about it, sir, we are pretty fit and can get the work done.”

“Hmmm, my name is Logan. Welcome to the team.”

Shit, he even got a manly name like Logan. Next, you’re telling me he has adamantium bones and claws that come out of his fists.

With that, the two of us got to work.

***

It was summer in this world, and the heat was strong. Despite being physically active all my life, I haven’t really done any manual labor, so this was a first.  I had to carry bricks, pile cement, and help with repairs; the task was grueling. The coworkers pushed me on when I struggled and helped out here and there; it was more difficult, and it would have been due to my hunger as well.

Meanwhile, Aqua was having a great time. She was doing about 10 times the carrying and work as me, all without breaking a sweat. When she repaired walls, she was somehow better at it than the seniors working here, something to do with her natural talent, or as she says. She was getting complimented and cheered on by the workers, who got along pretty well with her as she worked.

As I was working, I heard a sudden boom; the sound was loud, and I felt the vibrations throughout my body.

“What, what!?”

I was worried about a demon attack or something, but the rest of the workers were going about their work just fine. Aqua looked about as freaked out as I.

Seeing our panic, one of the men working said.

“Oh, don’t worry, that’s just the crazy explosion girl.”

Huh?

“Who?”

“Some mage that came to town a week or so ago, she’s been going on quests and casting her explosion magic every day, messing everything up. But the town just sort of used to her antics.”

Her magic is powerful enough to be felt here, while being God knows where?

She sounds like trouble, I should make an active attempt to avoid her for my own safety….

Later, at around noon, the work halted.

“Alright, boys… and girl, it’s time for a break. Enjoy your lunch, and I’ll see you all again in about an hour.”

1 hour break time is pretty generous, but never mind that, we don’t have any food.

I was contemplating our situation as Aqua came up to me with a grim face. Seeing me, she gave me a sad-looking smile, which I also returned. Without really speaking, the two of us sat down and waited for the break to end so we could get it done and get paid.

“Hey, you two!”

“Eep” 2x

It was Mr. Logan; he called to us out of nowhere, his tone intimidating us.

“Uhh, yes, sir?”

I replied as Aqua remained quiet. I noticed how she usually lets me handle any negotiation work while remaining quiet, which doesn’t feel in line with her character, but I appreciate it.

“You two not gonna eat?”

Welp

“Uhh, no, we aren’t hu-”

“We don’t have food.”

Aqua chimed in and replied before I had the chance to. So much for letting me handle things.

“You don’t have any food? How do you plan to work with an empty stomach?”

“We-we’ll manage”

“Young ones like you two shouldn’t go hungry; it’ll stunt your growth. Here, come with me.”

Aqua and I looked at each other. Hesitating a bit, but followed him anyway.

“I remember the girl mentioning something about going hungry. Don’t tell me you two have been doing all this heavy lifting without food in your system?”

“Uhh, no, of course not…”

“You were, I can tell.”

He didn’t buy it, and I began to panic

“Look, sir, I’m sorry for lying, but we really need this work. And if we don’t do it, we won’t be able to eat anyway, and we don’t have the equipment to take on proper quests as well.”

I said, not wanting to be kicked out of work.

“What are you babbling on about? If you just told me, I would have given you something to eat.”

He said that to surprise us. He then took out a lunchbox that had 2 sandwiches and handed one over to us.

“Here, have this. I’m keeping one for myself. It has lizard runner meat in it, so it’s pretty nutritious, should keep you two going till the end of the day.”

Wow, that was unexpected…

Before I could say anything, Aqua chimed in and asked

“But are you sure? It’s your food, isn’t it?”

“So, what if it’s my food? I have a responsibility to look after my workers. And even if you aren’t working for me, I can’t let two young kids like you go hungry with a good conscious.”

…

“Thank you.”

Hesitantly, I took the sandwich from him. Splitting it in half, I gave half to Aqua.

It was toasted with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and a type of fried meat, according to him, lizard meat… I don’t know how I feel about eating lizards, but this is a different world, and I haven’t eaten anything since well… Since I died… This body hasn’t had any food at all.

With that, the two of us took our first bite of food since we got here.

!!!

It was good, extremely good, better than anything I had before. I don’t know if this was because I was that hungry, or if food in this world is just tasty.

I looked at Aqua, who was tearing up.

“Iths shoo ghud”

She said that with a mouth full of food, she continued to eat it as tears kept running down her face. I followed her suit and ate my half as well.

“Dear Eris, you young ones need to be more careful in the future.”

He was a much kinder man than I imagined; first appearances can be really deceiving. I can’t thank this man enough for what he did. Despite it being a small favor, for us, it’s the first act of kindness we've received since arriving in Radia.

I’ll make sure to repay him one day….

***

After the break was over, we went back to work. Working double time to get as much stuff done as possible. I don’t think the pay is based on performance, but still, I went on and did my best to make Mr. Logan’s job as convenient as possible.

After work was done, Aqua and I met up again and were in line to receive our salary.

When we got to the end, we each received a small envelope.

“Here you go, kids, you worked hard, I’m hoping to see you tomorrow as well.”

“Yes, sir!”

We left the line and counted our money, 5000 eris each, so 10,000 total. The individual's salary is more than we get for killing a frog after the transport fee is deducted…

Is questioning worth it? Our total earnings for the Frog Quest would have been 30,000 eris, so 3 days' work. Adventuring is not for the faint of heart.

“Hey! Kauma! Aqua! We’re heading to the bar down the road for drinks and dinner, you guys coming?” One of the seniors asked.

“Drinks? Of course we’re coming!” Aqua immediately replied.

“You guys go on ahead, we’ll join later.”

 But I had other plans. I didn’t mind joining up with them, but there was something else we needed to do.

“Alright, don’t be too late.”

With that, they left, and Aqua gave me a questioning look.

“Why didn’t we go with them immediately?”

Chill out, drinking can wait…

“You said there was a bathhouse, right?”

“Oh…”

Aqua can clean us up with her magic, so we didn’t really need to go to the bathhouse; however, I am a Japanese man, and as such, I must have a warm, steamy bath daily.

“We also need to buy some toothbrushes, soap and towels, some extra underwear, and pajamas won’t be bad. You can instantly dry our clothes, so we don’t need to buy a lot of extra stuff.”

“You’re right, I didn’t think of all that, but will we have enough money for adventuring after all this?”

“Not immediately, after this investment, we have to work for a while more before being able to buy some weapons to help us, then we can take on the frogs.”

“Right…”

Despite having fun during work, it seems Aqua didn’t like the Idea of continuing to work here. I can’t blame her, but it is what it is.

“Well, since you can do the instant wash-dry thing, we can settle for buying clothes later. For now, let’s at least get some stuff for hygiene and take a nice long bath…”

“Lead the way then.”

We started walking, looking for a general goods store.

Along the way, we passed a few stores, one of which caught my interest, called ‘Beldia’s magical goods’. Have to make a note to visit there later.

We eventually found a general goods store and bought 2 toothbrushes, 2 tubs of toothpaste, and 2 bars of soap, all together costing us 1000 eris. It was about 5:20 pm now, so the clothes shops should be open too.

We continued walking till we ran into a small stall run by a middle-aged woman and what looked to be her daughter.

“Good evening, sir. Are you looking to buy anything?”

“We’ll like 2 towels, please.”

“That’ll be 800 eris.”

“Here you go.”

Man… this stuff is necessary, but spending my hard-earned money doesn’t feel good…

We left the stall after buying the towels, we avoided getting new clothes for now, and decided that it was time.

“Guess that’s done, onwards to the bathhouse!”

“Onwards!”

Both pumping our fists up in unison, we marched onwards to the bathhouse as if we were knights on an expedition to conquer new land.

While making our way, I asked Aqua

“About my clothes, it’s better off if you can clean them off now so I don’t have to put on dirty clothes after a bath.”

“Won’t that beat the whole purpose of the bath if you’re fully clean?”

“I’m bathing for spiritual cleaning, not physical.”

“Right…”

Aqua engulfed me in the breathable torrent of water and cleaned me off. After disappearing, I was left completely dry.

“Thank you~”

“You can thank me by paying for my drinks tonight, alright, meet back up after we are done.”

There were 2 entrances to the bathhouse, one for men and one for women. Aqua went into the women's and I went into the men's.

There was a counter with a man managing it. The floor was made of wood, and there were some couches for people to sit down.

I made a payment of 750 eris and received a key with a number on it, then made my way to the next room, which ended up being a locker room, which reminded me of the locker rooms I see in American movies… Likely the work of a reincarnated. I removed my clothes and put them in my locker before tying my towel around my waist and taking only my soap and toothbrush with me.

Before entering the actual bathhouse, I entered the toilet on the other side and used the sink there to brush my teeth, the first time after coming to this world.

No longer worrying about my breath smelling, I made my way to the bath.

“…”

It was similar to the baths you see in Japan, but with some Western elements mixed in. In the large room, there was a row of showers to the left, allowing us to wash our bodies off before entering the big hot tub to the right. The bath was empty, and I had the place all to myself.

I went up to one of the showers. No separation, so I guess people just bathed naked together, something I’m already used to in Japan. I put my soap in the compartment and hung my towel. I realized there were two handles, one with a red circle and the other with a blue one.

“Wait, can it really be?”

I turned on the red handle and was hit with a flow of warm water.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

This felt amazing, never did I imagine I would be able to take a warm shower like this in a medieval world, but here we are. Looking at the tub, it seems it has warm water too.

I soaped up and finished my shower before finally going for a dip in the tub

“AHHHHH YESSSSSS!”

Alone, I was screaming in ecstasy as I dipped into the hot tub. I felt all my stress leave my body as a sense of familiarity hit me.

“OHHH MYYY GOOD!”

“Ahem”

I kept screaming to myself in joy, only to be interrupted by a hum. It seems an old man had entered without my realizing it.

“Uh”

I must have looked like some weirdo to him, because after getting in the bath after his shower, he kept a good distance between us.

Despite the awkward situation, I still enjoyed myself, emptying my mind in a meditative state, not worrying about the troubles of the world.

Finishing, I went out to put on my clothes, which were clean thanks to Aqua’s early contributions. I returned the key to the counter and left the building with a wet towel and a bar of soap I kept in the box I refused to throw away, and of course, my trusty toothbrush.

I’ll be able to talk to women again with confidence!

As I left, I saw that Aqua had already finished her bath and had been waiting for me. Feels weird to bath longer than a woman, but such is my need, I have no shame.

“Enjoyed yourself?” She asked me.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect there to be flowing hot water, though.”

“Hmmm, you can thank your senior prophets for that, who knew sending people for around a thousand years would affect the world in such ways, even though we only really send 7 at a time, so there haven’t even been 100 yet.”

100s still a pretty big number though.

“Why 7 at a time?”

“We had to balance it; if we sent too much, they might change too much about the world. And besides, we only sent a rare few we selected. Only really exceptional people get a chance.”

“Are you calling me exceptional?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth. I admit you’re more useful than I imagined, and you showed promise in your past life. But the one who decides who is to be a prophet is my senior.”

Senior huh? So, even Aqua has a few bosses.

“Is this senior the goddess Eris?”

Hearing that, Aqua looked a bit pissed.

“HUH? Eris? Don’t even say that as a joke, she’s my junior! My senior is Rosaria, the Goddess of Prophecy!”

Ignoring how defensive she was about Eris, I heard the name Rosaria before. Think Sarah called her the high goddess or something?

“Is she a big shot?”

“She and her faith are the equivalent of your world’s Christianity. She’s worshipped by pretty much every race; meanwhile, the rest of us aren’t.”

Okay, now I’m interested.

“But Eris still got this world's currency, how come?”

Looking a bit dejected, Aqua went on

“She ascended to god hood about a thousand years ago. She made great contributions to the journey of the first prophet, so she was remembered very well by the people. The king at the time honored her by naming the world's currency after her, and she’s mostly worshipped by humans.

Ohhhh.

“Who are you worshipped by?”

“Mostly seafolk such as Merman. Although there are a bunch of humans worshipping me over in a city called Arcanletia.” She continued, “Hey, hey, Kazuma! We should totally visit there, it’s the city of hot springs, I really wanna see my cute followers!”

She got all googly eyes and asked me.

Sounds pretty exciting, but we have other things to worry about.

“Ehh sure, we’ll go once we get good cash, so better do our best for now”

“Kay!”

Before the info dumb ends, I gotta ask her this too

“How many gods are there by the way?”

“Total? Way too much to count, but in this pantheon, only four”

“Just four?”

Seems really low compared to the number of gods on earth.

“Yea, there's Lady Rosaria, worshipped by all and the main faith in Radia, the great me worshipped by the seafolk and Axis church, Rave the god worshipped by the beast folk and… Eris”

“Do you have a grudge against Eris or something?”

I don’t really know her character, but she seems pretty esteemed from what I've heard so far.

“She’s stealing my spotlight!”

So that’s it, huh?

“But you’re fine with Rosaria and Rave?”

“I respect Lady Rosaria; she earned all her followers, and so did Rave. Eris is just some really lucky brat that got to be a god and now is being adored for it!”

I see, so she’s basically an idol… Well, I won’t pry too much into it.

“By the way, how much was the ticket to the bath for you?”

“750 eris.”

Same for her, huh? So in that case….

“We’re down  3300 eris already…”

“But we still got more right? Let’s enjoy the night!”

Easy there, girl, we gotta be smart about this.

“I don’t want to sleep in the stables again, so I wanna rent a room too, so it’s better if we do that before dinner.”

“But I’m hungryyyy!!!!”

“So am I, but come on, do you wanna sleep in the hay again?”

“Alright fine…”

Okay, glad that’s sorted, but onwards to the difficult part.

“Also, listen, since we don’t have much cash, it’s better if we just have one room with 2 beds.”

“Okay.”

“Now I know what you thin- wait… really?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You aren’t gonna think I’ll try something?”

“You’re too much of a wimp to.”

This little…

I wanna argue, but better not to. For now, I need to worry about getting a room sorted before we head out for dinner with the guys. They probably started already, but still.

I asked around a bit for a cheap hotel and eventually made our way to one. It was a 3-story building, not all that large. But a building you’ll see adventurers rest in isekais and such. 

“Alright, rent a room, store stuff, go eat.”

“Rent a room, store stuff, go eat.”  

Aqua repeated what I said, and we made our way inside.

It was a cozy building. The interior was mostly wood, and the building was dimly lit. The room I was in felt like a small room for guests to relax while the rooms were being arranged. There was a stone chimney that wasn’t lit; in the summer, it didn’t seem necessary. Even in the stables, it wasn’t that cold. The room was lined with pots with some well-grown plants, and there was a counter run by a middle-aged man, and a staircase leading upstairs. There were a few guests sitting on one of the sofas.

I made my way to the counter.

The owner noticed me but made no comment, so I spoke

“Good evening, I would like to rent a room for the night, 2 beds.”

“2500 eris”

Damn, that’s a lot… We’ll be 5700 down, but I ain’t sleeping in the stables again.

I handed over the money and he accepted. Handing me a paper.

“Sign here.”

I skimmed through the paper, just some basic stuff about the rules and how they aren’t responsible for stolen or lost items.

I signed the paper and handed it over to him. He pulled out a key and gave it to me.

“Room number 003 on the second floor”

“Thanks”

Seeing as I was done, Aqua came up to me and handed me her towel, soap, and toothbrush.

“I’m gonna head to the bar, put these in the room, I’ll see you there!”

“Hey, wait!”

Before I had time to stop her, she ran out through the door. Was she an alcoholic? No way, right? She’s probably just hungry.

I then went up and unlocked my room. Entering, I saw a cozy little room with 2 beds, a wardrobe, a table in front of a mirror, and 1 chair. There was also a small sink but no bathroom; the hotel here probably has a shared one somewhere on the floor.

*sign*

I put out stuff in the wardrobe and went out. I walked around the hall for a bit, looking to confirm the existence of a bathroom, and found it. Just 1 room with a commode and toilet paper…

After having a piss, I made haste to catch up with Aqua and join the rest of the workers for dinner.

***

It wasn’t hard to find the bar, as it was just down the road from the construction site.

Entering, I was greeted by a lively atmosphere, customers being served food and drinks by busy waiters.

It looked more like a saloon I would see in cowboy movies than anything, complete with tables, a bar area, and a man playing the piano and singing.

“Ahhh, Kazuma! You’re here!”

I heard Aqua calling out to me. Looking for her, I found her sitting with the rest of the construction crew. She was drinking something from a large cup, which looked like a beer.

I made my way over to him and sat down in a chair they had saved for me.

“Yo, Kazuma! You worked hard today, good job!”

“Thanks!”

I was praised by one of my seniors. I then noticed that the foreman was nowhere to be found.”

“Where’s Mr. Logan?”

“Oh, him? He has a wife and kid, so he would rather spend the night with them than drinking.”

“I see.”

My early view of him as someone scary keeps shattering more and more. I feel stupid for being scared of such a nice, family-oriented man.

“Khshuma, yho showld ehat”

Aqua said some unknown stuff to me with a mouth full of meat.

“Swallow before you talk.”

Swallowing, she repeated.

“I said you should eat, this food is good.”

Right food… I had half a sandwich but no proper meal yet. I should order something. Where did she find the money to order those drinks?

“Aqua, how much food did you buy?”

“None”

“What?”

Before Aqua could explain herself, one of the workers answered.

“Food’s on us today, you two just eat and drink till your hearts' content.”

“Eh, are you sure?”

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead, eat up!”

“You worked hard, so let us seniors treat you tonight.”

“Here you go, order some.”

And they kept going. How genuinely nice of them. These rough and tough men have the hearts of heroes.

“You’re all so kind to me~ if you keep this up, I’ll fall in love, you know?”

“I don’t swing that way.”

“Me neither.”

“Sorry, kid, you’re not my type.”

They all rejected me.

“It was a joke, forget it.”

I ignored Aqua, who was laughing and enjoying that a bit too much, and took the menu before taking a good look at it.

The menu consisted of food I was pretty familiar with and some I was not:lizard runner steak, fried giant frog meat, and nyroids.

The fuck’s a nyroid?

Ignoring that I looked through the dishes I can expect to find in my world, such as pasta, pork, salads, and even rice and miso soup… rice, I need rice.

I called one of the waiters and ordered a plate of rice with fried pork and an omelet with a bowl of miso soup on the side, a typical katsudon from Japan. Now I know that I’m in an alternate world, but I’m going to ease myself into the weird foods here, and I want to have a meal I’m familiar with for my first proper meal since coming here.

“Aren’t you gonna order any drinks?”

One of the seniors asked me.

“I’m a minor.”

“Eh, but I thought you were 15?”

I am… Huh, I guess the age where you become a legal adult is lower, still I don’t really wanna drink till I’m fully grown for my own sake.

Wondering what that age was, I looked at Aqua, who, through the drinking, guessed my question and answered.

“13”

That young! Maybe the life expectancy is much lower? But man, I feel bad for the kids here, imagine having to be a responsible adult while just starting puberty.

We continued to chat as we waited for my food to arrive.

Aqua is currently drinking her 4^th beer since I got here. My hunch was right… This girl is an alcoholic.

Eventually, my food arrived.

A typical meal I would have in Japan… But seeing it now, it looked like heaven. I was absolutely starving, but decided to keep some table manners.

“Thanks for treating us today, you all, we appreciate it.

“Don’t worry about it, kid.”

“Yeah, enjoy the night! Consider this your welcome to Axel.”

Axel… that must be the name of the town we’re in. It was my first time hearing it.

“But I admit, I’m surprised at how much little Aqua here can drink.”

“Who are you calling little! I’ll have you know I’m much older than all of you, here my adventurer's card can’t even display my age.”

Aqua was about to show her adventurer's card, which I quickly took from her.

“Hey!”

Before she could retaliate, I took a fork with a cut of pork and stuck it in her mouth.

“hmmm, yum.”

I don’t want anyone here to find out her identity. Looking at her card, I saw that her race was listed as goddess, and her age was glitched out. I guess the receptionist wasn’t able to notice it with the shock of her high stats.

Thank God we went to the amateur instead.

***

The night went on, and I finished my food, feeling content for the first time since I arrived. Aqua was on her 7^th drink and was barely functioning.

“AI CWAN DWO HEGHT”

Seeing her pathetic state, I decided to call it for the night. It’s best not to misuse their generosity. Well, she already had, but whatever.

“Thank you, everyone, for tonight. Aqua and I will be retiring for tonight.”

“Ehehe, it’s about that time, huh? Well, since you’re both teenagers, it's normal, but I don’t think Aqua can consent in her state.”

He got a very wrong impression about us…

“We aren’t in that sort of relation… but anyway, we need to head to bed now so we can get to work tomorrow. Besides, if she keeps drinking, she might throw up.”

“At this rate, she might even now”

He’s right, she very well might… I hope she won’t.

Getting up, I went towards Aqua and lent her my shoulder, she didn’t reply or react, but still let me. Supporting her weight, we began to make our way back. But before exiting, I looked back and said a final farewell for tonight.

“Thank you all, we won’t forget this!”

“See you kids!”

“Get back safe!”

Leaving the building, I felt the cold air hit me. Despite being summer, the climate was still cooler than Earth's, likely due to the lack of carbon pollution.

As we made our way to the hotel, Aqua suddenly pushed me away and ran into a random alleyway.

“Hey, wait up!”

Getting up, I started running after her, confused.

What got into this girl all of a sudden? She was fine just a moment ago. Was she putting up a tough front while actually being miserable all this time? It’s not impossible.

I somehow managed to keep pace with her, likely due to how wasted she was.

She ran into the corner of the alleyway and stopped.

“Aqua?”

Worried, I walked next to her and then…

“Blehhhgggg!”

She threw up….

Holy shit, she’s throwing up rainbow!

No, like literally rainbow! Is this some goddess thing? The smell is still putrid, but still, it’s a rainbow!

She kept going for a while, and I went to support her, patting her back, and she emptied her stomach.

Eventually, she stopped and fell down on her knees.

“???”

*snore*

She fell asleep…

“This little shit…”

She can be quite helpful, but what the fuck is the situation she just put me in here? Well, I guess I have no choice.

With effort, I somehow managed to get her onto my back. She wasn’t very heavy, but with her not being conscious, it was a balancing issue, and I didn’t really wanna princess carry her.

I made my way to the hotel with Aqua in my bag and went inside.

…

I noticed that the chimney was now lit, and also the counter man giving me a questioning look, but I ignored it and went my way up.

Entering my room, I threw Aqua onto one of the beds.

“Man, someday this was…”

It’s nice not to sleep in the stables at least…

I was suddenly hit with a wave of fatigue. All the day's hard work caught up to me, it was about 11 pm too, so better to hit the hay.

Oops, I mean mattress.

I didn’t even bother taking my shirt off; I just got into bed and covered myself with the blanket.

And on the second day, I proceeded to fall asleep with a loud snoring girl next to me. This time in a proper bed and full belly.

To be continued.

***

Authors note

Royal Road - www.royalroad.com/author-dashboard/dashboard/108824

WebNovel - www.webnovel.com/book/the-legacy-we-inherit_32564306300769705

Chapter Text

It’s been a bit over a week since I dragged Aqua down to Radia with me.

Our plan to build enough funds and buy equipment is going somewhat smoother than expected. Aqua’s alcoholism is a hindrance, but I was able to keep her somewhat in check and save enough cash.

Throughout this week, I have fallen into a bit of a routine, repetitive but functional.

We were able to constantly make enough money to keep sleeping in an Inn, so that’s where I typically start my day. Waking up, I fill up a basket with water, brush my teeth, and wash my face. Aqua sleeps in for a while longer, so while she’s busy with sleep, I start a basic training routine.

Leaving the inn, I go for a run around the town. There is no real way for me to measure the distance, so I just keep running till I can’t anymore. It typically lasts for about 45 minutes to an hour, so I must be running a full 10 km at the very least.

After finishing my run, I go back to the inn to start the rest of my training. Pushups, squats, pull-ups, and sit-ups. Yes, I’m doing the typical one-punch man training, but I can’t deny its functionality. I do pull-ups as well, which is typically neglected in the anime I watch.

I’ve been training my whole life, as far back as I can remember, so the typical 100 each isn’t enough. Instead, I do 250 push-ups, 500 squats, 500 sit-ups, and 75 pull-ups. A rigorous training routine that takes me another hour to do. It would be impossible for me to do this every day under normal circumstances, but this is where Miss Goddess comes in.

“Nhhh, morning~”

At about this time, Aqua gets up as well, and she helps me out.

“Morning, if you would do your magic, please.

“Okay~”

Aqua lazily points a palm at me, as it emanates a glow, before my body starts to gleam the same color.

“Ahh, that’s better, thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

Saying that she falls back to sleep…

Aqua has been consistently healing me post-training, allowing my muscles to instantly recover. This way, I can train every day without worrying about any form of overtraining. In fact, Aqua’s healing is so effective that I noticed I’ve already put on more muscle than when I got here.

After relaxing a bit and waiting for Aqua to get up, we head down to a diner to have breakfast. Aqua tends to eat something new and exquisite every day, but I tend to go for a simple meal. 4 eggs, 3 thick slices of bacon, and some bread. A simple meal, but it keeps me going till lunch.  After finishing breakfast, we ordered some more food as takeaway for lunch during our work, typically some sandwiches. I’ve grown accustomed to the food in this world, trying out different meats such as the same giant toads that no-diffed, lizard meats, and I even tried sabretooth tiger meat.

With that done, we return to the inn. Still having some time before our work day begins, I begin the next part of my daily training.

“Alright, now slowly push the mana through your body.”

Aqua was holding on to my hand as she helped me get a feel of how mana circulates through the body. It was a simple exercise; with her help, I was able to guide the mana through various body parts. But I won’t lie, feeling the mana surge through the body was a weird feeling. It was warm and fuzzy, not a bad feeling. I’d imagine high-level mages would have some difficulty moving large quantities of mana through the body.

Aqua let go of one of my hands while holding on to the other and gave me a nod. I opened my palm and focused on transmuting the mana while Aqua also assisted.

“!!!”

“You did it!”

I was able to form a small water ball, my first ever proper spell. After a week of practice, it finally paid off. With the same effort, I was able to make the water disintegrate into mana.

*Phew*

It was a lot more taxing than it looks. My yamu (which is where mana is pumped like the heart pumps blood) is still in its development stage. Any magic I do would be no different from an infant until it matures enough.

By the way, any other person won’t be able to help me do magic like Aqua can. Since I picked her as my item, apparently our yamus were linked together, allowing her to alter and use my mana as long as we have physical contact. On top of that, we are able to always tell the general direction and distance between us, and sometimes I can even feel her emotions. It’s not a consistent thing, but it happened a few times. Personally, I don’t like how intimate this feels, but what can I do about it?

Pulling out my adventure’s card, I saw a pop-up in the available skill section, “create-water”. It cost me 1 point to learn; apparently, the point system is used to fill in the gaps in knowledge, allowing you to use that skill in perfect proficiency. I was conflicted about whether I should learn it or not, but since this was the first spell I learned, I used my skill point to do it.

Swiping my hand through the skill, making it glow, I tapped my avatar. It felt weird; the skill was removed, and now it was in my active skills list.

“Congratulations, you learned your first spell. Why don’t you try it out?”

Focusing mana into my hand, I was able to form a water ball, this time without Aqua’s help.

“Wow, I can just do it now?”

“That’s how it works.”

Pretty cool.

“Now that you've got the hang of spells, the rest is up to you to learn, even skills function the same way, so you’ll be fine. Tomorrow onwards, I’ll start teaching you how to enhance your body with mana.”

“Thank you, teacher!”

Aqua was a surprisingly good teacher; she was patient and willing to teach, which doesn’t go in line with her typical impulsive nature. Some kind of gap-moe?

After that, we get ready and head to work.

“HEY EVERYONE, YOUR FAVOURITE LOVEABLE COOL KIDS ARE BACK!”

Hearing my grand declaration, Aqua cringed a bit and gave me a disapproving look. My seniors, along with Mr. Logan, greeted us.

“Hmm, you two are back for more?”

“We’re gonna milk your funds dry!”

“Hahaha, I’ll be working you to the bone before that comes to pass.”

And thus, the workday began. Now that I’m consistently eating, work is nowhere as difficult as it was on the first day. Also, along with Aqua’s healing, I’ve actually grown a bit stronger, my stats went up a bit to represent that, although not by much…

I did the typical grunt work, carrying and laying bricks. Aqua was so good at her job that she was working directly with Mr. Logan, supervising the other workers while also doing the work. With her assistance, things are going about three times the usual pace, and we’re almost complete with the wall repair. The wall wasn’t damaged by anything major; it’s just your typical maintenance.

*Bang*

“Yep.”

Right on cue, I heard a big bang, and I felt the vibration in my bones as the noise reverberated. The crazy explosion girl I heard about was back at it again, every day at this exact time. I get what they meant now, it’s such a common thing that I’m just used to it. We continued working without giving it any thought.

I have yet to meet her directly, I don’t even know what she looks like, but I admit, I’m a bit curious. The sound and feeling of her magic feel very satisfying. I can only imagine what it’s like to hear it close up…

As lunch break came, I sat down to eat my food with the rest of the guys. Aqua was eating with the big-league guys, so I felt a bit left out…

“Good work so far, Satou!”

“Thanks, you too, senpai~”

“The hell does senpai mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re weird, kid…”

We continued joking and chatting while we ate, even after finishing our lunch, we had some time before the break was over, so we lay down in the shade.

“Hey guys, you heard about that runaway noble?”

That’s news to me.

“Yeah, yeah, heard they are paying a big bounty to anyone who can bring her back.”

“How much are we talking?”

At the mention of a reward, I chimed in.

“Ehh, I think it was about 500,000 eris.”

“Half a million?”

Damn.

“Yeah, she’s the only daughter of the Dustiness Ford noble house; her father, the head of the house, is doing everything he can to get her back.”

“Damn”

Runaway nobles are a pretty common trope in these scenarios. A part of me doesn’t really want to get involved with politics, but the prize is good, maybe I’ll investigate… Nah, better stay out of it.

“I heard about the Dustiness bloodline, aren’t they like related to the royal family or something?”

“The sister of the current head of the house is one of the king's concubines. They also produce crusaders of insane durability, which are a great assist in fighting the demon army.”

In this world, especially in noble houses, marriages are all arranged and done in a way to further the bloodline. Noble houses, in particular, are pretty much selectively breeding their children in order for them to be born with the highest stats possible. Since love isn’t something, you’ll find that they also opt to have a bunch of concubines and even multiple wives. Yes, polygamy is very common in this world, although you only really see it among the noble houses. Hell, even the female nobles who have high status can take in multiple husbands and concubines.

I heard the Eris church is pretty against polygamy, so there’s always some conflict with that church in particular. However, every other faith allows polygamy, and the power-hungry nobles aren’t really the type to care about what the gods want. Most of them follow the church of Rosaria, which has no issue with polygamy, even the beast people who worship their beast god are fine with it.

Not that it matters to me anyways… But I seriously have to figure out how I’m going to go about taking on the six demon kings… just taking out one won’t ever put me ahead of the race against the other prophets. Hell, I don’t even know what most of their contributions are, and I need to study about a thousand years of history for that.

After the break, work went on without a hitch. Aqua and I collected our payment and started discussing our plans. We’ve been putting away 2500 Eris and saving the other 7500 for our daily expenses. It’s been 10 days now, so…

“We have a bit over 25000 right now, should be enough.”

“So that’s it then? We’re going to fight those frogs again?”

“That’s the plan.”

Indeed, we should have enough money to buy our equipment now. Time flew by a lot faster than I expected. Now it’s time to break the news to Mr. Logan.

“So, you wanna break the news? You’ve been working harder than any of us.”

“No way, you did all the talking so far, so you should do this too.”

That’s fair enough, I guess…

“Alright, but stick with me at least.”

We made our way to the construction crew, and with a heavy heart, I announced.

“We’re retiring.”

“Hmm.”

Eh?

“That’s it? Aren’t you gonna be a bit sentimental at least?”

“It was obvious you kids weren’t in it because you had some passion for construction work. Besides, you have more potential than this.”

“EH, YOU GUYS ARE LEAVING? WHAT’LL WE DO WITHOUT AQUA!?”

“AQUA, YOU CAN’T LEAVE! YOU’RE THE MVP!”

“PLEASE DON’T LEAVE US AQUA!”

Despite Mr. Logan’s lack of care, the rest of the guys started freaking out at the news about Aqua’s departure. Makes sense; she was getting a lot of work done. But it’s a bit lonely, I wanted them to miss me as well.

Aqua looked really flustered as she got surrounded by the men.

“Guys, come on, this place won’t start crashing down just because I’m gone. Besides, it’s all thanks to your guidance that I was able to get this far.”

“Aqua…”

“We’ll miss you.”

“That being said, you guys can show your appreciation to me by paying for tonight’s drinks.”

This little…

“Of course! Anything for you!”

“Let’s get Aqua to the bar, guys!”

“Yeah, heave-ho!”

“Hey guys, don’t fall for it!” I snapped.

They all lifted Aqua up and carried her over to their favorite bar, where I imagine they’ll get wasted.

Mr. Logan came up to me and patted me on the back.

“That’s just how they are; they all seem to have a crush on her.”

“On Aqua? They need better taste.”

“Hah, she’s a fine young lady.”

“You should see her snore…”

He laughed at the comment and asked me.

“You plan to join them?”

“I’ll later, I wanna buy some equipment now so I can be fully prepared for tomorrow.”

“Right, you wanted to be an adventurer, correct?”

“That’s the plan, we got messed up by some frogs, but this time we’ll go prepared.”

“Haha, well then, kid, I wish you all the best! I'd best be getting home, my wife gets feisty when I’m late.”

“Good night, sir, thanks for everything!”

He gave me a wave and left. I watched as his large back disappeared into the crowd.

“Well then… time to get to work.”

I’ve been scouting the area these past few weeks, looking for stores. I found a few good stores, but settled for one blacksmith who sells weapons and armor. Unbeknownst to Aqua, I had already spent the money we made and ordered some weapons. I kept the money safe on guard and used it so she won’t end up wasting it all on alcohol. Which is something she nearly did, but that’s a story for another time.

She’s a really beautiful girl, but her alcoholism and mannerisms are genuinely a big turn-off. Also, not just that, it feels weird to say, but I just can’t seem to feel any sort of attraction to her. Just the idea of sleeping in the same room with a beautiful woman is enough to make me go crazy, but Aqua seems to trigger nothing in me. It’s not like I dislike tomboys, in fact, that would be a turn on, but Aqua is just… I don’t know, Aqua? I can’t seem to see her as a woman. The feeling is mutual, from what I can tell.

I made my way to the shop, the open building with the heat of the fire melting iron and other materials alike, hit me.

“Yo, Agatha, I’m here to pick up my order.”

“Ah, Kazuma, come in, come in, I just finished making them.”

The person greeting me was a beast woman. She had fur on her body and long horns like a tree branch; she was a beastfolk. A full-on bipedal deer with some human features and not a human with deer features. 

“Pardon the intrusion.”

Announcing, I made my way inside and made my way to her as she got my things ready.

“And here ya go! A 12-inch steel dagger, leather shin guards, leather breast plate, and iron knuckles. Also, you can have this knife on the house.”

It wasn’t much, but it was enough. All these together cost me 21,000 eris. A lot of money, but worth it. As for why I bought the iron knuckles. It may not be useful against frogs, but I’m a pretty decent hand-to-hand fighter, so I’ll fare better punching than swinging a sword around.

“I like the knife, it’s tiny.”

“I made it out of boredom, since you are a new patriot, I thought you might as well have it.”

“I accept, I dub thee, Knife mini.”

*giggles* “You’re a weird one, Kazuma.”

One by one, I tried out the weapons and armor, and I was satisfied with the quality. I paid 10000 Eris upfront, so I made the rest of the payment now.

“Thanks for your patronage.”

“I’ll be becoming a regular, so watch out.”

“I love my job, so no issue.”

I bid farewell to Agatha and made my way to the inn where I stayed. I passed the grumpy owner and made my way to the room, and stored all my goods.

“Alright… everything check?”

After double-checking and confirming that everything was there, I made my way down to the bathhouse and enjoyed a nice warm bath. Aqua was probably getting wasted, so I made my way to the same bar. It’s up to me to carry her back to the room at nights like this, could also use some food.

Making my way to the bar, I saw the guys drinking and Aqua in the middle, completely wasted.

“Yo, Kazuma, you’re finally here.”

“Yo!”

I sat down and checked the menu before placing my order.

“You know, kid, we’ll miss you.”

“Yeah.. I’ll miss you guys too”

I really would, I never even bothered to remember any of their names, but still, they treated me well. I’m almost getting teary-eyed.

The night proceeded to pass, and the guys were too drunk to make proper conversation, so I just dealt with it as they made their drunk ramblings. After what Mr. Logan said, I realized that some of these guys were actually trying to flirt with Aqua, but it wasn’t working.

After finishing my food, I decided to call it a night.

“Well, guys, we’ll be heading out now.”

“Eh, stay for a bit longer.”

“I would love to, but as you can see, Aqua is unconscious.”

They all comedically looked at Aqua, who was indeed not awake. With the help of one of the guys, I was able to get her into a piggyback and make my way out.

“Hey, kid!”

“Yeah?”

“We’ll be seeing you around.”

I smiled at what they said.

“Yeah, I’ll be seeing y'all.”

With that, I made my way to our room, once again passing the grumpy owner who was now used to me carrying Aqua on my back. Entering my room, I threw Aqua to her bed and brushed my teeth. Changing into my pajamas, I jumped into bed and began drifting off to sleep.

“Tomorrow's gonna be a long day…” 

***

The next day came, and I went through my usual morning routine and ate breakfast with Aqua. She was able to cast healing magic on herself, instantly getting rid of any hangovers, so we never had to worry about that.

Aqua and I made our way to the adventurers’ guild. it was early morning, so I imagine it would be pretty empty.

“Welp, this is it…”

“Yeah, hey, I’ve been meaning to ask”

“What’s up?” 

“Weren’t we going to bring in new members?”

Indeed, we were.

“Don’t worry, I came prepared, here.”

“Hmm?”

It was a notice I was going to attach to the guild board for members. I handed it over to Aqua who gave it a good read.

“This won’t do, Kazuma.”

“It won’t?”

Why not?

“ ‘Looking for capable adventurers to battle against amphibious abominations, level or class does not matter.’ What’s this, Kazuma? What’s this?”

“Ehh, we can change it to just frogs if you want.”

“No, that’s not it. Class or level does not matter, seriously?”

Should it matter? We aren’t really in a position to request anything insane.

“Kazuma, I’m an archpriest, an archpriest! People would be begging to team up with me.”

I honestly doubt it.

“Still, though, this is a rookie town; we can’t expect to find high-class adventurers here.”

“Ah. Still, someone of my caliber can only team up with advanced classes, or it just wouldn’t be right.”

“I’m not an advanced class, though.”

“That’s different.”

How? The hell is she on, all of a sudden?

“Look, Kazuma, just let me handle it. I came prepared myself too, you know, check this”

Aqua pulled a flyer out of thin air and handed it to me.

What the hell was that? Does she have hammer space?

I took the flyer and gave it a good read.

“Beautiful archpriest Aqua, requesting adventurers who are at minimum an advanced class in order to commence a holy crusade against demonic frogs that are surely part of the demon army. P.S. We are not responsible for injuries or lost items in battle.”

“Aqua…”

“Yes?”

She looked at me, all giddy and happy.

“This won’t work, it won’t work at all.”

“Huh, why not?”

“Once again, where do you expect to find advanced classes in a rookie town?”

“I’m sure it’ll work out!”

“No, it won’t!”

“Look, Kazuma, I’m not teaming up with any basic classes, so you just have to listen to me on this.”

“This really isn’t the time for your whims… look, how about this, why don’t we attach both and see which one works?”

“I refuse.”

“Why!?”

“Because they’ll be people coming in regardless, I just want advanced classes, I am a girl of high standards, Kazuma.”

There’s just no arguing with her, it seems. Well, in that case, I guess I've got no choice.

“Fine, we’ll attach your flyer.”

“Yippee!”

Entering the guild, I immediately felt the gaze of the adventurers there. I felt a bit ashamed for being remembered as the guy who lost to frogs. I looked at the counter to see that Luna’s was filled as usual, with the other 3, including Sarah’s, being empty. Sarah saw me and smiled, I smiled back and went to the quest board.

“Let’s see here, ha huh!”

The same quest was still here, whether it’s a different quest with the same objective or the same one, doesn’t matter. What matters is that we can take revenge on the frogs. The reward is the same 10,000, so if we sell the 5 frogs, and deduct the transportation fees, we’ll make 30,000 Eris. 3 days’ work from construction, but whatever, I just want revenge.

“I’ll hand the quest in.”

“Gotcha, I’ll hang the flyer and meet you at the bar.”

“Sure, but don’t order any alcohol.”

Opting to go to the receptionist I’m familiar with, I went up to Sarah to hand over the quest.

“Kazuma! Glad to see you back!”

“Morning, Sarah! I’m here to take revenge on the frogs.”

I said as I handed over the quest. She accepted and eyed me.

“Well, you look prepared this time around. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

She made a note of the armor and weapons I had.

“Hehe, thanks.”

“But what’s up with the knuckles, you know those things aren’t immune to the blunt damage, right?”

“They are for other possible monsters, for the frogs, I got this unnamed dagger and knife mini.”

“Any plans for its name?”

“I’ll think of one.”

“Hmm, well, I confirmed the quest. Would you like the typical summary?”

Ehh, I don’t really need it this time around, but.

“Yeah, sure, hit me.”

“For the quest to be complete, you need to defeat 5 giant frogs within the day. After defeating them, you will be able to sell each frog to the guild for 5000 Eris each. After transportation fees are deducted, your final price will be 4000 Eris. The guild won’t accept the frogs if they’re too damaged, then you will be responsible for the burning of the corpse to make sure it doesn’t come back as a zombie frog.”

Eh, this is new.

“They can come back as zombie frogs?”

“Well, duh?”

Duh? Is that common knowledge here? I’ll ask Aqua, I guess.

“Well, aside from that, you’ll also receive a reward of 10,000 Eris after the quest's completion, making your total income 30,000 Eris. Any questions?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Wanna grab a bite to eat together later?”

She blushed a bit at my sudden proposal, flustered, she answered.

“Ehh, what’s this, it’s sudden, well I’m not entirely opposed to it so… after your quest we’ll…”

Damn, she looks really embarrassed. To be honest, I don’t know why I asked that, it was just a whim, I probably should stop doing that…

“It’s a date then, I’ll see ya around.”

She blushed more at my comment about a date. I ignored that and made my way to Aqua, who had sat down.

“What were you saying to that girl? She looked very troubled.”

“I asked her out on a date.”

“Hah… I was wondering where that womanizing side of you from the previous life went. Just don’t go overboard, we've got demon kings to defeat.”

“Gotcha, by the way, what’s up with the zombie frog thing?”

“Oh, I forgot to mention, in this world, if a soul doesn’t move on, there is a chance it’ll resurrect as a zombie; the only real ways to prevent it are to burn the corpse or do religious rites to send the soul on its way.”

Right… that makes sense.

“So, if you don’t do these rights, even humans will become zombies?”

“Yes, for poor families that can’t afford it, they just burn the body. When you turn into a zombie, you don’t just suddenly turn into a mindless monster; you’ll just be alive, but dead, you’ll feel your body rotting away as you exist in anguish, waiting for a priest to purify you or to rot away.”

Holy fuck, that’s genuinely fucked up.

“It’s my duty as a goddess to send such souls on their way, those poor children… I should probably head to the gravesite tonight and do a massive purification just in case.”

“Yeah, you do that…”

The idea of zombies being fully conscious with memories is terrifying. I can’t imagine the suffering they're going through. Even without Aqua, if I encounter one, the best course of action would be to kill it and burn the body.

“Does every soul stay if it’s not burnt?”

“No, most move on, but some with grudges stay, some are here for so long that their flesh rots away, and the brain slowly stops working. At that point, when there’s nothing left to hold on to control of the body, the soul is forced to pass on.”

Damn… no skeletons huh? No spooky, scary skeletons? This shouldn’t be something I joke about, not gonna lie.

“No ghosts?”

“Wraiths and ghouls exist, but they are beings that have separated their souls from their bodies via unnatural means. Similarly, liches become undead by corrupting their soul, but they stay in the same body. By the way, liches in their final form are practically just walking skeletons with their yamu and nerves along with the brain still intact.”

That’s a terrifying thought, hopefully I don’t run into them anytime soon…

“By the way, Aqua.”

“Hmm?”

“No one’s coming.”

“Ah”

***

A few hours passed, and we were still waiting.

“I fucking told you!”

“But, but!”

“Look, Aqua, there ARE no advanced classes here! It’s a damn rookie town.”

“There’s got to be at least one! I mean I’m here!”

“Because I dragged you here!”

“!!!”

*sigh* “Look, I’m gonna go put my flyer up, that way we can get some people to finish this quest before the day ends, it’s already noon and we didn’t even start.”

“No, I don’t want to!”

“Oh, for Christ's sake! Quit being so difficult! Do you wanna do this quest by ourselves again?”

“I'd rather that than team up with basic classes! I’m an arch priest!”

She doesn’t seem to budge at all. The hell am I supposed to do here? Man fuck it, guess we're doing this.

“Alright fine, you win.”

“Huh, I do? Did someone show up?”

Aqua looked around for someone to join the party, but the few people she made eye contact with immediately looked away.

“No, I mean to say, no one’s coming, and we’re doing this alone.”

“Wha, isn’t it too dangerous for you?”

“You said you got buffs, right? Just buff me to shit and I’ll take them out, if something bad happens, I’ll run to you and you heal me.”

“I want to fight too!”

“You do no damage to them with your attack, and you refuse to use weapons.”

“But still, isn’t that too risky, won’t you get hurt?”

“If they all gang up on me, I might have some trouble. But nah, I’d win.”

“Still… maybe I made a mistake, okay fine, let’s get some basic classes.”

“Nah, I’m hyped now, let’s go!”

“Wait, wait!”

I took Aqua by the hand and dragged her with me.

“Waiittttt!”

***

We made a big scene as we left the guild.

After a while of walking, we eventually made our way to the hilly plains where the frogs were.

“And here they are…”

“Just seeing them again sends shivers down my spine…”

They were croaking and jumping around like usual, vibrant colors, slimy, and huge.

“Well, what sorta buffs do you have?”

“Every sort you can think of.”

“Give me all of it.”

“Got it.”

Aqua raised both palms to me, and without any chant, her palms started glowing in all colors of the rainbow, which then started hitting me. The process went on for only a second before it died down.

“Done.”

I didn’t feel much different… Stretching a bit, I noticed myself being a lot more flexible than usual.

“Hmm?”

I jumped, except I flew up a good 6 feet into the air. Landing, I felt no pain in my knees.

“WOW!”

“Why do you look shocked? That is to be expected of blessings from a goddess.”

Taking out my adventurer’s card, I looked at it. It had a status next to my name called “blessed,” and all my stats have gone up except for intelligence. All my physical stats were averaging in the 60s and 70s, now they have doubled to around 130. But for some reason, my luck, which was over 400, had gone down to 224.

“Why did my luck go down?”

“…”

“…”

“You and that Eris really got that much beef?”

“That’s none of your business!” She snapped, “Anyways, I still don’t like this, it’s too dangerous for you.”

“Relax, I’ll be fine, I got your buffs. So you just sit here and look pretty, while I do all the work.”

“I really don’t like how you worded that.”

Ignoring her, I stretched and bit more and got into a runner’s stance.

Unsheathing my to-be-named dagger, I looked at my reflection through the blade.

“I got a good name for you once this is done.”

…

“Alright.”

Locking onto the frogs, I tensed up.

“Maximum effort.”

Saying that, I sprinted towards one of the frogs.

“WOW!”

I was fast, insanely fast, and I covered the distance before I knew it. Even before the frog noticed me, I jumped up, jabbing my dagger into its throat and making a long cut. Blood covered me as the frog convulsed and dropped dead.

“One down, four to go.”

Two other frogs noticed me and got ready to attack. I sprinted towards them, and both of them shot their tongue out at the same time. I slid down, avoiding the tongues that latched onto each other. Jumping up, I immediately cut one of their throats. The other frog took its tongue back and aimed at me. I hid behind the dead frog, avoiding the tongue. Climbing it, I then made a big jump towards the frog, gripping the dagger with both my hands, I slashed right into its brain, killing it instantly.

“Three down.”

1 frog came out to me from the side and shot its tongue at me. I dodged to the side and grabbed its tongue. Using my now enhanced strength, I held on to it and used the dagger to cut its tongue, making it croak in pain. I then sprinted towards it, jumping and slashing its throat.

“Four.”

“KAZUMA, WATCH OUT”

Before I could react to Aqua, I felt something hit my back, and I was suddenly pulled at high speeds. Another frog caught me off guard, and the sudden pull made me drop my dagger.

“I WON’T DIE LIKE THIS!”

As it tried to swallow me, I gripped onto its flesh, clawing my way to get a good grip and avoiding being fully eaten. This was possible only due to the buff Aqua gave me.

“DIE!”

I pulled out knife mini with my other hand and started hacking at its head, killing the frog.

It spat me out and I dropped onto the grass. I was covered in blood and slime.

“Five.”

“KAZUMA! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!”

Aqua ran over to me, clearly worried after the fight. I ignored her and got up and went over to pick up my dropped dagger.

“Uhh, Kazuma?”

I picked up the dagger and lifted it to the sky.

“I dub thee Amphibious destructus.”

“Uhhh.”

Aqua seemed confused at my random comment, but I just casually cleaned the dagger and sheathed it, and then.

“FUCK YEA!”

“Wha-?”

I lifted my arms to the sky and shouted, celebrating my victory.

“I FUCKING DID IT, I TOOK OUT THE FROGS, I'M THE FUCKING MAN LETS, GOOOOOO!”

I was jumping around, pumping my hands up like an idiot; it felt good to take revenge.

“You actually did it, huh… I've got to say I’m impressed.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Hehe.”

It’s true, without her buffs, I would have been absolutely screwed, but I managed to pull it off due to all the buffs she gave me.

*Croak*

“Shit”

“Oh no”

My celebration was cut short as another batch of frogs showed up.

Makes sense, it’s weird to think there would be exactly 5 for us to kill…

“Hey, Kazuma, there’s more. What do we do? Huh?!”

Aqua looked for me, but I was long gone; there was no reason to fight more than 5, so I ran.

“RUN AQUA RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”

“HEY WAIT, DON’T ABANDON ME!”

Aqua and I kept running until we got to safety, and I began to catch my breath.

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!? WHY!?”

Aqua grabbed onto me and started violently shaking me, clearly mad that I ran away without her.

“Chill out, you got away, didn’t you? Besides, you got a higher speed stat even with my buffs, so I just thought you’d make it.”

“Still!”

I pulled out my adventure card to see if it confirmed my kills, which it did. In the kill list, there is a new entry with today’s date: “giant frogs” with 5 next to it. But more importantly.

“I’m level 6.”

Last time the 1 frog got me to level 2, now killing another 5 got me to level 6. Seems the exp needed increased a bunch since I wasn’t level 7 from the 5 kills. Still, that’s 4 skill points I can spend.

“What skills do you plan to learn? For the record, I’m not teaching you any healing or buffs.”

“You already said that… but to be honest, I’m not sure, I’ll go ask around the guild to see if someone will teach me anything good.”

“Hmm”

“By the way, why are you standing that far away from me?”

“You stink.”

“Uhhh.”

She’s right, I was covered in slime and blood, I needed a bath, but before actually entering the city, I would rather be clean. After all, baths for me are about spiritual cleansing over physical.

“Lady Aqua, cleanse me, please~”

*sign* “I’m not your personal laundry machine, you know, but sure.”

Being engulfed in a torrent of water, I came out of it completely clean and completely dry.

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’m still gonna go take a bath before going to the guild, you coming?”

“Yeah sure.”

***

We went to the inn and got our towels and other bath essentials, then went to the bathhouse. After all that physical activity, showering and dipping in the warm hot pool felt like I was in heaven.

“This isn’t bad at all…”

After finishing the bath, Aqua and I met up outside and made our way to the guild.

“Wanna have dinner at the guild today?”

“Sure, let’s have some fried frogs to celebrate!”

“Took the words right out of my mouth.”

Making our way to the guild, it was now filled with adventures, the sun was setting, the it was time to drink and rest for them.

“You go have a seat, I’ll hand in the quest.”

“Got it, I’ll order the frogs!”

Aqua left to have a seat, and I made my way to the counter. It was now all empty except for Luna, just like last time.

“You work late, huh?”

“Ah, Kazuma! Yes, being the head receptionist, I have my work cut out for me. But forget that, you seem to be in a good mood, I’m guessing the quest went well?”

“You betcha”

Saying that I handed over the card to confirm my kills.

“Hmm, well done, and would you be selling the frogs?”

“Yep, although I did cut one of their tongues out, does that count as too much damage?”

“No, of course not! When we say damage, we mean frogs that have been burned or destroyed to the point that the meat can’t be harvested. A few hacks and slices are a no-brainer.”

“Ahaha, speaking of brains, 2 of 'em don’t have one anymore.”

“That’s fine too, frog brains don’t really sell for much and they don’t taste very good.”

“I don’t know, I had brain before, I think it tastes alright.”

“Right… give me a moment while I go get your reward.”

Luna left and, before long, returned with a pouch full of money.

“You’re reward of 10,000 Eris for quest completion. Once the frogs are fully transported and the transportation fees are covered, you’ll receive the 20,000 Eris. Be sure to come claim it tomorrow.”

“Gotcha, I’m going to go enjoy the night now, you wanna join?”

“Aha, I’ll have to pass, got a lot more paperwork to do.”

Oof rejected, but oh well, whatever.

“Suit yourself, well, you have a good night!”

“You too, don’t drink too much.”

“I’m a minor, I don’t drink.”

Saying that, I made my way back to find Aqua, which was easy.

“Hey Aqua, cash is made, time to eat till we can’t get up! Uhhh, who are they?”

“Ah, Kazuma, these girls here…”

There were 2 girls talking to Aqua. One with short black hair, wearing what I can only describe as a witch-like red and black outfit, complete with a hat and everything. She was even holding onto a staff.

Next to her, there was another girl. She was wearing some normal-looking clothes with a hood. I could see her frame was well-built from the back, maybe she was wearing armor underneath? There was a big and heavy-looking sword sheathed on her side.

They both turned to me. The witch girl had red eyes with what looked to be red eye shadow, and 2 red horns… demon? Her facial features were young, and her body was petite; she almost looked like a doll.

The other girl had blue eyes and blond hair popping out of the hood; she had beautiful European-like features. Even through her clothes, I could still see that she was well-endowed and curvy.

“Are you perhaps the leader of this party?”

The blonde girl said while showing me a flyer, the same one Aqua posted on the guild.

Right, we didn’t take it off…

“Uhh, I guess you can say that? Is there an issue?”

The 2 girls looked at each other and nodded before looking back at me.

“I would like to join your party!”

“I ask that you allow me to join your party!”

The two of them said in unison.

I looked at Aqua, who gave me a concerned look. 

Well, seems things are going to get a lot more interesting from here on out.

To be continued

Authors note

Royal Road - www.royalroad.com/author-dashboard/dashboard/108824

WebNovel - www.webnovel.com/book/the-legacy-we-inherit_32564306300769705

Chapter Text

Have you ever heard the saying “The more the merrier”?

Well, it’s only half of it; the full version is “The more the merrier, the lesser the better fare”.  That is to say, it’s fun with more people, but you’ll get more pay if you don’t have to split your cash.

At first, I wanted more teammates. The disaster of the frog incident made me want some reliable comrades to fight alongside me, so that we won’t risk the chance of death again. But today I was able to defeat those same frogs on my own with Aqua’s support, and it made me think,

Do I really need more players in this game?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, questing would be a breeze if there were more people, but as the saying goes, what about the pay? Today I earned a total of 10,000 Eris, and tomorrow I will get the remaining 20,000 Eris. Now that may seem like a good pay for the day, but I have to split it between Aqua and I’ll only really get 15,000. If there were two more people, I’d get 7,500 Eris. Only 2500 more from construction, plus the chance of dying.

Maybe I’m just being greedy, but the idea of doing these dangerous quests every single day to get by, versus only doing them 2 or 3 times per week, makes me think the answer is obvious.

Right now, two girls are asking to join my party, both of them are beautiful as hell. I want to let them in just for that, but I can’t be simping right now. No, no, I’ve got to evaluate this properly, make sure their presence will help me in the long run instead of forcing me to sleep in the stables again.

The 2 girls stared at me after their grand declaration, “I want to join your party,” and I was the person in power to decide if they would or not. Well, Aqua’s input matters too, but I don’t trust her judgment.

“This is a bit sudden, so why don’t you two sit down and we’ll discuss this while having a meal?”

The two girls looked at each other; they suddenly seemed meek.

“Umm, we don’t have any money, so we can’t afford food.”  Said the black-haired girl, breaking the silence.

I see, so they’re flat broke.

That doesn’t make sense to me. The poster Aqua put up only requested advanced classes. Unless they skipped over the actual message, they should have advanced classes, which is a big deal in this world. Actually, I didn’t even think there would be advanced classes in this rookie town of Axel, aside from the few high levels that decide to come back to the start location for fun, that is.

But I’ll worry about those details later. Aqua and I went hungry for the first day and a half after we came here. I’ve never ever really gone hungry in my life until then, so it was a new experience and not a pleasant one, so I can sympathize.

“When was the last time you two ate?” I asked them.

“One of my good friends got me some food this evening, so I had that.” Said the blonde girl.

At least Blondie over here had eaten, but what about the little girl here?

“I… Haven’t eaten in 3 days…”

As she said that, her stomach conveniently grumbled, signaling her hunger.

“Sorry…”

She blushed, clearly embarrassed about what happened. The girl looks to be a bit younger than me; she was skinny and short, probably around 4’11”? Seeing a girl like that go hungry did sting at my heart a bit.

I looked at Aqua, who gave me a nod of approval.

Smiling at them, I said, “We’ll pay for your food today. Sit down and order anything you want.”

The two girls looked at each other; the blonde seemed conflicted, meanwhile, the other immediately sat down and began looking through the menu.

She must have been hungry.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to do this for us.” Said the blonde.

The modest type, ay?

She was slightly taller than me. We both were wearing similar boots, so she probably is even with them off. I’m around 5’7”, so she should be around 5’8”, also probably a bit older than me.

“Don’t worry about it, my name is Kazuma Satou by the way.”

“Satou? Oh, umm, my name is Lal- Darkness. My name is Darkness.”

She stopped herself, clearly intending to say a different name.

Well, whatever, time for food.

I sat down alongside the girls. Seeing that we all had sat down, Aqua decided to speak.

“I haven’t introduced myself either, my name's Aqua, nice to meet you, Darkness! And you are?”

Aqua directed the final part at the other girl, who was busy looking through the menu.

Hearing this, the little girl put down the menu, and her expression changed. Standing up, she held on to her hat and staff, making a weird pose.

“Eh?”

Aqua and I were confused while she went on to say.

“My name is Megumin! The foremost arch mage of the crimson demon clan and the wielder of the most powerful magic known to mankind, Explosion! Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

There was a silence that followed after that.

“Are you making fun of us?”

“What? No!”

Also, Megumin? Does she mean Megumi?

No, I doubt anyone would mess up their own names. Her name's very Japanese-like. I’m confused, we got a girl with horns and a Japanese-ish name.

I looked at Darkness to see that she had both hands on her face, refusing to meet my eye.

“Ah, Kazuma, you wouldn’t know, right? She’s a Crimson-demon, and they’re all known to be autistic like this. You’ll get used to it.”

“Hey, are you calling me and my people weird?” Megumin snapped, “Also, what do you mean by autistic? I have never heard the word, but I  don’t like the sound of it.”

Hmm…

“Hey, can you give us a minute?” I spoke.

“Ah, right sure…” Said Megumin, as Darkness remained silent.

I took Aqua and went into a corner with her.

“What? I get that she’s weird, but we should at least wait till we see her skills before choosing.”

“No, not that!”

She is indeed weird, but there is a more pressing concern.

“She’s a demon, right? With those little horns and literally calling herself a Crimson-demon, I thought you’d try to kill her on the spot.”

Aqua looked confused for a bit but then burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Oh no, no, you’re right, if she were a demon or undead, I would have definitely attacked her on the spot. If she were one”

“So, you're telling me she isn’t a demon.”

“Yep, she’s 100% human, don’t worry.”

Huh…

“What about the horns?”

“Well, crimson demons are a special case; they are genetically modified humans. This was done by a prophet a long time ago; they were given those horns and red eyes that can glow when they are excited, and they were given an insane affinity for magic.”

Their eyes and horns glow? That’s awesome! I wanna see!

Wait, forget that, they are cyborgs? Modified by a prophet? Well, that explains the Japanese name. High magic affinity sounds pretty useful. We could use a mage. So far, things seem promising.

“Well, if there’s no issue, let’s go join back up with them.”

“Okie!”

We went back to see a waitress taking Megumin's order.

“Ah, you guys are back. I ordered, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, sure, get anything you want. Did you order too Darkness?” 

“Uh, well, I’ll wait for you two to order first.”

“Hmm, suit yourself.”

Aqua and I sat back down, and the waitress asked to take our order too.

“Can you give us a bit? We didn’t really decide yet.”

“That’s fine, I’ll be back in a bit with her food so you guys can decide till then.”

“Alright, gotcha!”

Saying that she left, leaving the four of us alone.

Alright, back to business.

“First of all, the two of you came to us together, right? Have you been acquainted for long?”

The two of them looked at each other for a bit, and then Darkness went on to say.

“No, we just met moments ago.”

Huh?

“So, you weren’t previously adventuring partners or childhood friends or something like that?”

“Not at all, we just happened to pick up your flyer at the same time.”

…

Megumin added on to what Darkness said, “Hmm, since we both took it at the same time, we fought for it a bit, and it tore. We freaked out and decided to just go together.”

Now that she mentioned it, the flyer is torn a bit from the top…

I mean, fair enough? I just assumed they were friends since they came together, but I guess not.

“Well… Can we get a look at your adventurer’s card?” Said Aqua, breaking the silence.

Megumin instantly pulled out her card and handed it over to Aqua while Darkness hesitated.

“What’s wrong, Darkness?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing… here you go.”

She took out her card and handed it to me. Now let's see here… eh?

I looked at her, and she refused to look me in the eye.

Looking back at the card, then her again, I couldn’t really figure out what to say. The adventurer’s card presented all your information accurately, even your name, and instead of the name Darkness, there was a different name.

Lalatina Ford Dustiness… Dustiness, isn’t that the family name of that runaway noble girl?

Looking back at her, things suddenly started to click; I didn’t pay much mind to it, but blue eyes and blonde hair are typically a quality of noble houses, right? Might also be why she was wearing a hood; she’s trying to hide.

“Yeah, nah.”

“Please let me explain!”

“Hell, no! I’m not dealing with runaway nobles.”

At the mention of noble, both Aqua and Megumin looked at Darkness in shock.

“Shhh, not so loud, please, people might hear.”

“D-Darkness, you’re a noble?”

Megumin asked while breaking into a cold sweat, likely worried about her treatment of Darkness earlier.

“N-no I’m not!”

“Like hell you aren’t!”

I said out loud, causing a bunch of other adventurers to look at us.

Oops.

Darkness went quiet and stared daggers at me.

Well, it looks more like she was pleading with me to stay quiet and let her explain. Fine, I’ll do just that.

Everyone went back to what they were doing. Megumin was still freaking out a bit while Aqua looked calm.

“I’ll let you explain, not that there is anything to explain.”

Darkness took a deep breath, resigning to her fate.

“I guess there is no hiding it… Yes, I am indeed the only daughter of the Dustiness family, Lalatina Ford Dustiness.”

We knew that much… I just want to know why the hell you are here in plain clothing.

At our silence, Darkness continued.

“… And, I want to be an adventurer!”

…

That’s cool and all, but that’s not really what I’m trying to figure out.

“Why did you run away?”

She looked away, hesitating a bit, and she answered.

“It’s complicated, really… I’m not comfortable with sharing those details with people I just met.”

Fair enough, I wouldn’t exactly reveal my personal information to a stranger either, but,

“I understand, but I can’t just accept a runaway noble into the party like that. If we get caught, the rest of us will get in trouble, might even face execution, depending on the circumstances.”

Indeed, it’ll be easy to flip the message and say we kidnapped her, instead of saying she ran away, which would sullen the family’s name.

“It won’t come to that, I promise! My father is many things, but corrupt is not one of them.”

“Even if you say that…”

“Look, I can be of great use to you! My durability stat is really high, and I’ll be able to tank any damage monsters or even bandits throw at me. Just look at my card for proof.”

She’s very insistent…

“Why do you even want to join this party so badly? It’s just 2 people.”

“Well, uhhh- Others wouldn’t have me…”

Huh? But aren’t your stats super high?

I checked her stats, confused as to why she wasn’t accepted by others. Let’s see here, she’s only level 1, huh… guess she hasn’t killed anything yet. As for her stats, holy fuck. Her strength is 278, and her durability and endurance are 290 and 288, respectively. That’s more than 4x higher than mine… speed is 130, not bad, not bad, intelligence is 105, that’s the average it seems. Luck 90, also average and mana and power 50 and 52 respectively, not a mage, but…

“Umm, Miss Lalatina.”

“Call me Darkness, please.”

“Right, Darkness, there must be some kind of mistake here.”

“Why is that?”

“It says your agility is in the negatives?”

“…”

Hearing what I said, the other 2 also stared at Darkness, who was looking down in shame now.

Huh? Might be my imagination, but it looks like she’s smiling a bit? Is she blushing?

“Well, you see… I’m extremely clumsy, so I’m unable to hit anything.”

Ah, I get it now.

“You’re worthless.”

“Kyu.”

“Eh?”

She made a weird sound when I said that… What’s her class anyway? Hmm, she’s a crusader, huh? So she is an advanced class… an advanced class that can’t hit anything…

“Yeah, look, I really don’t think this is gonna work out.”

“Just give me one chance! Even if I can’t hit anything, I can still defend you! My durability is so high that no matter how many monsters bash and ram into me, I won’t be troubled at all. I’ll be the perfect meat shield for you!”

As she said that, she started getting more and more excited…

I feel like something's wrong here.

“But like, it wouldn’t be right to use a woman as a shield to hide behind, you know?”

“I don’t mind at all! I can take any kind of abuse they throw at me! In fact, if you have any pent-up anger, I’ll be more than happy to take it head-on, so you can have something to release your stress on.”

…

We all just looked at her as she went on, her sudden outburst and request leaving me at a loss for words.

“Umm, Kazuma, why don’t we give her a chance?” Said Aqua.

“Are you serious?”

Aqua may have felt bad for her or something, I don’t know. But me? I’m just creeped out.

“I uh, I apologize for what I said… that won’t happen again, I promise.”

“Right…”

I looked at Megumin to see her reaction to this, sensing my gaze, she said,

“I didn’t know this perv even 30 minutes ago, don’t drag me into this, please.”

“To call me a pervert! How crude of you!”

She got even more excited at Megumin’s comment.

Giving up on her, I moved on to Megumin.

“Aqua, how’s Megumin’s card looking?”

“Oh, umm, her stats are really good for a mage, her mana, intelligence, and power, which is the most important factor here, are very high, but uhhh…”

“What?”

“Just see for yourself.”

She handed the card over to me, and I accepted. Her level is 12, which suggests she did some leveling up; her physical stats were lower than mine, which is to be expected of a mage. Mana is…

“658!?!?!?”

“Hmpf!” Megumin grinned, puffing her chest.

Her intelligence was 148, which was even higher than mine, and I apparently have a high stat. And her power… it’s 698!

Holy shit, she’s motivated!

“This is great! This is beyond amazing! Megumin! Welcome to the team!”

“Hmpf, I’m glad to see that at least someone can see my greatness, after all, I was the foremost best mage the Red Prison has produced.”

Red prison?

Before I could question it, Aqua interrupted, “Umm, Kazuma.”

“What?”

“Her stats are great and all, but…”

“But?”

“Well, uh, it’s her skills you want to check.”

“Hmm?”

I forgot about that, actually… didn’t even check with Darkness, but she probably doesn’t have any attack-related skills anyways…

Let’s see here, active skills aaaand…

What the hell?

“It’s just explosion magic?”

“Always has been.”

Huh? What? Her class is arch mage, so she should be able to learn more magic… Especially with her mana, intelligence, and power. Looking at her available skills, the list goes on and on with all sorts of magic. Light of saber, Meteorite, Hydro blast, Tornado, and many more overpowered sounding abilities, but…

“…”

All those skills had a required skill point of zero.

“…”

That means she already knows them all and doesn’t have any gaps to fill in her knowledge.

“Why do you have explosion magic when you already learned literally every other skill there is?”

“I just learned them to graduate.” Megumin said, “You see, my one true love is explosion magic. Ever since I was a child, I vowed to become a master of explosion magic. I’m not interested in any other school of magic; they all are lacking compared to explosion magic.”

Right…

More importantly, how is that even possible? Don’t those skills auto get added to your active skills? But well,

“I guess it must be a really strong spell for you to love it that much, huh? You could probably blast anyone that comes in your way with it anyway, so whatever, I guess.”

“Actually, explosion magic uses every last bit of your mana to cast, no matter how much or how little you have, so I can only cast it once per day and won’t be able to move afterwards.”

“I see, so you’re worthless too?”

“Hey! Who do you think you're calling worthless?”

“To belittle a young girl like that, Kazuma’s tongue knows no limits! Could it be you are my complementary opposite?”

The hell is she talking about?

Hey, wait a minute, I just realized something… Explosion magic… once per day… all of her mana…

“Ahhh! You’re that crazy explosion girl I heard so much about!”

“You wanna take this outside? Let’s do it! Let’s fight! I’ll show you crazy!”

She stood up from her seat, smashing her hands on the tables, and started yelling all that.

We were making quite a scene, and everyone in the guild began to stare at us.

“Sit down, kid, you’re making a scene! What if people think we’re a bunch of weirdos? Scratch that, we are weirdos at this point.”

“Hey, I’m not a kid! I’m 13! 13! I’ll be 14 this winter too! Besides, you can’t be that much older than me.”

I really don’t care how old you are; I just want to eat my dinner and go to bed now.

Where the hell is that waiter!?

Sighing, I spoke, “What do you think, Aqua?”

“I think we should give them a shot.”

“Come on!”

I laid my head on the table, pissed off. Chance for what? The hell will come from it? Both of them are liabilities.

“Look, Kazuma, explosion magic is pretty strong.” Spoke Aqua.

“What she said!” Added Megumin.

Aqua continued, “I’m sure you can figure out a way to make good use of it, you’re pretty quick-witted, aren’t you? Also, negative agility isn’t all that bad, my luck is in the negatives too, remember?”

“That’s not something to brag about!” I snapped.

I lifted my head up, looking at the 3 girls.

“…”

They all were looking at me expectantly. These 2 are Aqua’s chance to get the advanced teammates she so desired; that’s probably why she wants to give them a shot.

But I really don’t want to! I just wish someone would come so I have an excuse to leave.

“Uhh, Kazuma, I’m here.”

“Sarah! I love you!”

“Wha!”

The person to approach us was Sarah, the red-haired counter girl, a total lifesaver. Not sure what she’s here for, but might be able to use this as an opportunity to get the hell out of here.

“What’s up? You been looking for me?”

She still seemed panicked at the earlier statement but managed to recover.

“Ahem, I’m here for our date.”

“Huh?”

“?”

Date?

“…”

Wait, holy shit! I asked her out on a date, didn’t I? I totally forgot!

“Right, right, our date, I was just about to come look for you.”

“Uhh, but you seem like you were in the middle of something? I was here for a bit, waiting for you to approach me.”

Shit.

Calm down, Kazuma, you can recover from this.

“Ah, sorry about that, these 2 wanted to join the party, so I was just conducting a mini-interview, but it’s over now.”

“It’s over? Did we get it?”

The one to ask was Megumin; next to her, Darkness was also looking at me expectantly.

“I’ll grade your exams and reveal the results tomorrow.”

“But-”

“Welp, gotta go, let’s go, Sarah!”

“Huh, oh right.”

I got up and took Sarah by the hand and began leaving.

“Hey, Kazuma, wait!”

This time, it was Aqua that stopped me.

“What?”

“What about the celebration? We were meant to eat frogs to rub salt on their wounds!”

We were, weren’t we? But if I stayed, I’d have to answer to the other 2 girls whom I really didn’t want to deal with right now.

Taking half the reward from the quest, I gave it to Aqua.

“We’ll celebrate sometime later. This is your half of the reward, the rest we’ll get tomorrow. Pay for these 2 as well, I’ll cover you tomorrow.”

“But-”

“Okay, bye!”

With that, I ran out of the guild, practically dragging Sarah with me.

***

“Phew, good to get out of there, you’re a lifesaver.”

“I have no idea what just happened, but I guess I’m happy to help?”

Sarah and I were now walking through the streets of Axel, away from the chaos of the guild.

She was dressed in a casual outfit, a white and red blouse, a maxi skirt of the same colors to match, and some boots.

Weird not seeing her in her guild uniform.

I was wearing my typical adventurer’s outfit, still carrying my weapons and all. It’s fine, Knife mini and Amphibious Destructus are staples now, can’t on anywhere without them.

The sun had completely set, and it was dark out, but the streets were illuminated by the magical lamp posts that absorb sunlight during the day. It was a nice sight, just walking through here; the mood felt pretty romantic.

“The moon sure is beautiful today.”

“Which one?”

“Both of them.”

In Japan, saying the moon is beautiful typically meant the same thing as calling your partner beautiful. I guess there isn’t a saying like that here, so lost in translation.

But man, still can’t get over how there are two moons here, really goes to show that I’m on a different planet.

“We’re here.”

The two of us arrived at a restaurant. This was a small building with a kitchen and a counter where the chefs were cooking the food. The actual dining area was outdoors, and the building typically only opened at night. The candle-lit atmosphere gives a perfect vibe for a date.

Guess Aqua’s need to try out a new spot every day paid off…

“Kazuma… It’s perfect.”

“Glad you like it.”

When Aqua and I came here, we ended up very impressed with the taste, but also in pain due to the pricing. I have some extra money with me, since I didn’t use everything on the weapons, so it’s fine for today.

Aqua should have some too, so feeding the other 2 shouldn’t be a problem.

Hmm, what’s up with this weird feeling in my chest?

Pushing away my concerns, I walked over to one of the tables and pulled out a chair for Sarah.

“Milady”

“My, my, who would have thought Kazuma was such a gentleman?”

“Hard to tell when I’m carrying a big dagger with me, huh?”

After she took her seat, I took mine opposite to her. Almost immediately, the waiter came and gave us the menu before leaving.

“So many options, and to only choose one…”

“That’s the beauty of it.”

I looked through the menu a bit, the typical foods from this world, but a few familiar ones. I’m now adept at this world’s cuisine, but I still prefer somewhat normal food.

“What are you going for?”

“I was thinking alligator steak, what about you?”

“Some noodles, probably…”

Soon, the waiter arrived to take our order.

Sarah ordered alligator steak, and I ordered some spaghetti; you can never go wrong with spaghetti.

“And some good wine, please.”

Guess she’s a drinker, makes sense.

I mostly chose not to drink, but the one time I tried, Aqua stopped me and said it was her duty to make sure I go on the right path. Pretty sure she just wanted to drink my share too.

“What’s the matter, Kazuma?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing.”

There was an awkward silence that followed.

To be honest, I didn’t think this through; I just asked her out on a whim, and now I’m currently sitting face-to-face with her on a date. What do I even do in this scenario?

“You’re right.”

She was the one to break the silence while I mulled over my next move

“About what?”

“The moons, they sure are pretty.”

Two moons, a blue one with rings and a smaller orange one orbiting next to it. I wonder if the orange one is a sub-moon. 

Looking back at her, I saw she was resting her chin on her palm, staring at the sky with a slight smile on her face.

I had to admit, she was beautiful, heightened by the candlelight illuminating her.

“The stars, too, did you know that they are all set in stone and change depending on the season? People have been using them to explore the world since ancient times. I wonder why they change.”

“Since the planet is orbiting the sun, the perspective of the stars differs throughout the year.”

She looked a bit shocked at what I said.

“Wow, Kazuma, do you know a lot about the stars?”

Not really… this is just common knowledge in my world. I’m pretty sure the people in this world are aware that the world is round, since I have seen some globes here and there. But I guess they haven’t gotten deep into astronomy yet.

“Not much, where I came from, the people have mapped every single star in the sky and given each of them names and constellations.”

“Wow! Where are you from, though? You’re clearly not from Belzerg, or even the eastern continent as a whole, from what I can tell. Are you from the northern continent, perhaps?”

“Ehh, not really, it’s a bit complicated and you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“I see…”

Soon after our orders arrived. The waiter also placed 2 wine glasses and filled each with some good quality wine.

I haven’t had any real alcohol, as said before, but I have had some wine from time to time, courtesy of daddy dearest, if that even counts.

“Thank you!”

We thanked the waiter, and he went on his way, leaving the 2 of us alone.

Won’t lie, her crocodile steak actually looks pretty decent, my spaghetti also looked good, obviously.

“Well, cheers.”

She took her wine glass and pointed it at me, and I did the same.

“Cheers.”

*Clink*

We both took a sip. The strong taste of wine hit my tongue, savoring it a bit, and I swallowed, sending a warm feeling through my body.

God, I’m glad I tried wine before; it would have been embarrassing if I did this for the first time and was shocked by the feeling. But isn’t this just underage drinking right now? And why does it feel like she’s leading the date? Actually, how old is she? I never asked.

“What’s wrong, Kazuma?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

“Hmm…”

Putting my worries away, I took a bite of my spaghetti dish. She also cut her steak and ate a piece.

“Food's good.”

“It is, thanks for taking me here.”

“…”

Awkward silence again…

What am I doing here? I can’t seem to focus on the date for some reason; something's scratching me in the back of the head.

“So, Kazuma, why did you choose to become an adventurer?” Sarah asked, once again initiating conversation.

Why huh? Well, there is only one reason, and that is to go home… And for me to go home, I need to…

“I need to kill the demon kings.”

“Wow! Big goal, didn’t expect that.”

It is indeed a big goal, a nearly impossible one, but I have no other choice. I even kidnapped a literal goddess to make it easier to accomplish.

“It’s a good goal to have, though. if you defeat them, you’re ensuring humanity returns to peace. Do you plan to start with the one here, then move to the other continents?”

Well, I’m not doing this for world peace or anything… Besides, even if I succeed, humans will just start a war with the demi-humans, and after that, themselves.

“I’ll start with the one in Belzerg, then I’ll pivot over to the other ones.

“Eh, but there isn’t a demon king in Belzerg?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, we have a human king; the nearest demon king is in Veilguard.”

Veilguard… Another country, then?

“Well, doesn’t matter. I just need to hunt him down, wherever he is.” 

“Wow, you seem very determined… did the demons perhaps harm someone you love? Family perhaps…” Sarah continued, “Ah, I’m sorry if I’m intruding; you probably don’t want to talk about it.”

“No, not at all, I don’t really have any generation beef with the demons.” I clarified, “It’s just killing them is the only way to further my goal.”

“Which is?”

“…”

“It’s fine, you don’t have to say anything you don’t want to.”

“…”

I keep getting this horrible feeling in my gut, like I’m doing something wrong.

Can’t focus… What’s wrong?

“So, uh, I see that most of the adventurers go to Luna. What do you even do behind the counter all day?”

“Oh, umm… technically we have the same level of work, but everyone goes to her for some reason, so the rest of us are just stuck with the paperwork.”

There is a reason, though, actually, two big reasons.

“Do you enjoy your work?”

“Well, at first, I wanted to be an adventurer, but I didn’t have good enough stats for it.” Sarah explained, “Still, I wanted to help in whatever way I could, so I decided to become a guild receptionist and help other adventurers out.”

How noble of her, she’s a far better person than I am.

“You know, Kazuma, when you said you wanted to kill the demon kings, I was really impressed. They have been terrorizing humanity for so long. I can’t help in the battles no matter how much I want to, so I respect you all who do.”

“…”

I…

“Hey Kazuma…” Sarah spoke,

“…”

She continued, “Why did you ask me out today?”

…

“Well, I thought you were cute…”

“I see, thank you. But is that it? Did you just ask me out in hopes of getting me to sleep with you later?”

Huh?

“No, of course not! It was a whim, really, but you know, you were the first person I interacted with after coming here, aside from Aqua, that is.”

Wait…

“Right… and you were willing to leave her alone to come here despite clearly planning on having dinner together earlier.”

Aqua…

“…”

“...”

Ah, I get it now.

“…”

I feel like shit for abandoning my friend, who, despite everything, had been here for me throughout the shitty week I’ve been here.

“…”

***

The rest of the date went on mostly in silence. We finished our meal, but neither of us touched the rest of the wine.

Eventually, the waiter arrived and handed us the bill.

“Here, Kazuma, I’ll cover half.

“No, no, I got it.”

“But…”

“It’s fine.”

“…”

Finishing up the payment, we left the restaurant.

“Can I walk you home?”

“Hmm, sure.”

I didn’t exactly know where she lived, so I just followed her the whole time and stayed close.

The streets were relatively safe in Axel, but you still couldn’t be sure.

“…”

It was quiet, and we didn’t really speak a word… might as well use this opportunity to apologize.

“Look, Sarah.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Well, I asked you out on a whim, and it sort of got awkward later…” I said, “So yeah, sorry if I gave you any hopes.”

“Yeah, how dare you get a girl's hopes up and then act like you don’t want to be there.”

Shit.

“I…”

She started laughing. “Relax, I’m just messing with you, apology accepted.”

Oh, thank God.

“You’re young, Kazuma, I get it, you like to flirt, but you should be a bit clearer about those things, you know?”

“Right… but like, you can’t be that much older than me, right?”

“I’m 16.”

So young! And she’s a dedicated worker at the guild, very impressive, Sarah, very impressive indeed.

“I’m 15, so we’re just 1 year apart.”

“I still win.”

“This is a competition now?”

“Yep!”

We somehow built up a good mood afterwards, and we kept joking and laughing around as we made our way to her place.

“Alright, this is the spot, thanks for walking me.”

“No problem.”

“Hmm, hey Kazuma?”

“Yes?”

“Look, umm, I get that today was a bit awkward for both of us, but well, you seem like a nice guy, you know?”

“Thank you very much!”

“Yeah, right… You’re welcome, but well…”

“Hmm?”

“But I still kinda did have fun, at least at the end, so… I’d like to do this again sometime, if you want to.”  

D-did I just make a new friend by being neglectful at a date?

“Of course!”

She smiled. “I’m glad… and hey, since you did buy me dinner today, it’ll be my treat next time.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

*giggles* “Well then, Kazuma, I’ll see you later, good night!”

“Night!”

With that, she made her way inside, leaving me alone.

…

***

“Evening, Gramps,” I said as I entered the hotel where Aqua and I were staying.

“Hmph”

The grumpy old man ignored me as usual, and I made my way into the room; I saw that the light was on from the door crack.

I guess Aqua was back.

I knocked on the door to announce my presence so I won’t end up in a cliché scenario where she was changing or something.

“Come in!”

“I’m back,” I announced and made my way inside.

I saw she was in her pajamas sitting at the edge of her bed, she was rocking he legs back and forward like a kid.

“Ah, Kazuma, how did the date go?”

“I wouldn’t really call it a date, but I did get a new hangout buddy out of it.”

“That’s good, I guess? Least you got someone to keep you company when I’m out on crusades.”

 “I thought you promised to stop throwing rocks at the Eris church!?”

“It’s for a righteous cause!”

“It’s literally vandalism!?” I snapped. “Ah, well, whatever, do what you want. why are you still up? Were you waiting for me?”

“Yes.”

Huh, didn’t expect her to actually say it, but I guess that’s kind of nice.

I made my way to the sink and prepared to brush my teeth.

“I hit it off with those girls, they are great! We should really team up with them.”

“You mean the crusader who can’t hit a thing and the arch mage that only knows one spell?”

“Hey, come on, don’t be rude! I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it work.”

“I would rather have competent party members… I’m only an adventurer’s class, so I have the luxury of running around saving others, you know?”

“So, it’s a no?”

“For now, yes.”

“Come on, Kazuma, we won’t ever be able to find advanced classes like that here in Axel again.”

“I would rather have basic classes that are competent than them… You know the rumors, especially of Megumin, right? She’s not right in the head, and Darkness seemed like a total weirdo with the whole meat shield thing.”

“Megumin’s just dedicated, and Darkness well… I’m sure she has her good points.”

“Right…”

Yeah, I think I’ll pass on that.

“The frog quest showed that I can get things done with your buffs, so we’ll be fine on our own.”

“…”

I brushed my teeth and slipped into my pajamas. I didn’t really care that Aqua was there. We were used to it, and she just looked away.

After that was done, I had a glass of water and went to turn the lights off.

“I’m turning it off.”

“Okay, I’m already comfy.”

Turning the lights off, I made my way to my bed and lay down, the pillows and mattress weren’t as comfortable as the ones in my world, but they are alright, I guess, definitely better than hay.

Anyways, there is something I need to do before Aqua ends up slipping off to bed.

“Hey, Aqua…”

*Snore*

“So quick!”

I was going to apologize for ditching her, but I guess that isn’t happening anymore.

Oh well, guess I’ll sleep.

I have gotten used to Aqua’s snoring, and I felt myself dozing off almost immediately.

The frog fight was seriously that exhausting, huh?

I drifted off to sleep and dreamt about Pikachu having a death battle with Wolverine.

…

***

“Weird ass dream…”

I mumbled to myself as I practiced magic with Aqua. It was now the next day, my routine was done, and since I already got the hang of spells, a new lesson began, enhancing my body with mana.

“You’re already used to moving your mana across different body parts, now you just need to focus it on your tendons and muscles to enhance them.”

“Easier said than done.”

In a world where people get superhuman stats because of some magical card given to them by god, enhancing my strength with mana is the one thing I absolutely must do to remain relevant, since my dumbass picked a class with no stat boosts.

“You know, Aqua.”

“Hmm?”

“Isn’t Princess Leia a whore?”

“…. What?”

“Princess Leia, you know, from Star Wars?”

“I know who she is, I’m just asking why you’re suddenly saying that.”

“Well, it’s just… literally moments after her introduction, she started kissing Luke, going, 'It’s for good luck.’ Then immediately started having another fling with Han Solo. Like, the next movie, she proceeds to make out with Luke in front of Han Solo to say she’s not interested, then when Luke’s gone off to some random ass planet, she decides she actually likes Solo?”

“…”

“That’s not the end of it, after bro got trapped in carbonite, she escaped and proceeded to make out with Luke again despite now being in a relationship with Solo, and it was very much implied that she and Luke have been fucking throughout the time skip between the 2^nd and 3^rd movie. Not only that, right after Luke tells her that she is his sister, she goes, ‘I always kinda knew.’ Like, the fuck do you mean you knew? You knew it was your brother and still decided to fuck? Like why? That’s some next-level hoe shit.”

“I mean… yes, but where are you going with this exactly?”

“Well, you see… if we switched the roles and made Luke do the same thing, I bet everyone would have been okay with it.”

“…”

“That’s really unfair, you know. Like Leia is definitely a hoe, but so is Solo, he is an intergalactic hoe, and Luke also sorta knew she was somehow related, and didn’t care. They're all a bunch of hoes. Yet Leia’s the only person that gets shit for it.”

“This took a completely different turn from what I expected… Kazuma, have you ever been tested for ADHD?”

“No, but like, I just think it’s unfair, you know? A wise woman once told me to be an advocate of true gender equality, not only defend women who get shit on, but also drop kick any woman that tries to shit on you, it’s just fair.”

“I don’t think drop-kicking people is a normal thing to do.”

“It is the only fair thing to do; the entire cast of the original trilogy needs to be drop-kicked.”

“Right, right, can you focus on this now, please?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I brought my focus to the task literally at hand.

Focusing my mana onto my arm, I focused it once again on to my muscles.

“!!!”

It was a bit difficult to maintain, but I managed it.

“How does it feel?”

“Tingly and warm… did it work?”

“Only one way to find out, punch the wall with all your strength.”

“Huh? The owner will kill us.”

“I’m just joking, check your adventurer’s card, if it worked, it should be there in your available skills.”

“Wait, that’s a skill too? I have to put points to it?”

“It’s a skill, you can just learn it naturally without putting points to it if you want.”

“I mean, fair enough…”

I took my adventurers card and checked my available skills list, and there it was, “mana enhancement,” and it cost me 2 points.

I should hold off on it for now. When I get better at it, the required points will go down, and I’ll be able to fully get it without spending points on it.

“I’ll put it on hold for now, and practice more.”

“Your choice.”

With that done with we made our way to the guild. We still had to claim the rest of the reward from killing the frogs, so we don’t really need to do another quest today, but might as well check out the guild notices for something good, right?

“Ah, you’re finally here!”

The moment I opened the door, Megumin greeted me with Darkness next to her.

Did they just wait in front of the door all this time for us to arrive?

“Morning, you two! Did you sleep well last night?” Beamed Aqua.

“Aqua! Good morning, yep, I did at least, what about you, Darkness?”

“I had to sleep in the stables. It was fine, though, the hay was itchy, and the cold air kept me awake; I had such a blissful time! Especially with all the male adventurers around, who knew what those fiends would have done to me!”

She was blushing pretty heavily as she said that…

I’m not one to kink shame, but this woman needs help. Also seems these three grew pretty close last night.

Great, getting rid of them might be harder than expected.

After calming down, Darkness looked at me and gave me a dutiful smile.

“Well, Kazuma, we weren’t able to get fully acquainted last night. So I’ll say it again, my name is Darkness, and my calling is that of a crusader. That is to say, I hope you allow me to join your party.”

“No.”

“Instant rejection!”

Darkness started blushing and squirming at my instant rejection. Did she enjoy that too?

“Hmpf, I suggest you reconsider Kazuma. I’ve developed a close bond with Darkness in the short time we've known each other, and I won’t be joining you if you don’t allow her in as well.”

“I don’t want you either.”

“Gha!”

Did she think I would be desperate for a mage that can only cast a singular spell once per day?

Kinda delusional of her, not gonna lie.

Wait a minute… she’s a young girl aka a loli, a delusional loli… a Deluloli, Hah!

Unlike Degeneress here, the Deluloli just put her head down, all depressed, and started mumbling to herself.

“H-he doesn’t want me…”

Wow, did that rejection sting that badly?

“Hey, Kazuma, come on… Let’s give them one shot.”

This time it was Aqua’s turn to cut in, I already told her before, and,

“The answers still no.”

“But…”

Before she could say anything, I walked past them, leaving Aqua with them. I looked at the counter to see the usual sight with Luna busy and the rest just there… Sarah saw me and gave me a smile, which I returned.

At least I got one presence of comfort, let’s go talk to her.

Walking up to her, I spoke, “Morning, Sarah, sleep well?”

“I did! Thanks again for the meal yesterday.”

“No problem!”

How wholesome.

“So, is there something I can help you with? Or did you just want to see me?”

…

“Ehe, I’m here to claim my reward for the frog corpses from yesterday, but I can stay for a chat since you seem eager.”

*giggles* “You can be a smooth talker at times, too, you know? Just gotta work on the consistency of it. Hold up, I’ll go get your reward.”

…

Did I just get called out?

“And here it is, a reward of 20,000 Eris for 5 frog corpses, initially 25,000, 1000 was deducted for each frog due to transportation.”

“Thanks.”

“Hmm, so Kazuma, when are we going out again?”

Someone’s bold.  

“Look at you, so eager.”

“Hey, I did promise to treat you to a meal.”

“You did, didn’t you?” I continued, “But well, I probably can’t today, but we can some other time. I’ll let you know.”

“Gotcha!”

Connections, Kazuma! Networking! Woo!

After bidding her goodbye, I went back to see Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness all sitting together. Likely waiting for me for another round of convincing.

Nope, not doing that.

Instead, I went to the guild notice board to check for any quests I could do.

“Let’s see here, hmmm.”

 The Frog Quest is back; it seems it’s in season or something.

I was told that this is the frogs' mating season, so that is probably why. Outside that, the available quests all seem dangerous. The previous quests about the wyvern, rookie killer, and hydra and still there. There were some new ones: kill the pack of silver wolves that has been ravaging the farmland, A rank…. Every one of these quests, except for the frog and the rookie killer one, is A rank or higher. Why? Isn’t this meant to be a rookie town?

Well, it’s either I fight the frogs again or the Rookie killer…

The name sounds dangerous, but the reward for it is 50,000, and who knows how expensive the corpse of it is. It is a B rank quest, though. The frog quest was D rank, and there are no other D ranks or even C ranks.

What’s up with that? I need to ask Sarah about it later.

“Heya! Got a minute?”

As I was contemplating what to do, I was approached by a stranger.

Looking at them, I saw that it was a girl about my age with short silver hair and amethyst eyes; she had a scar on her cheeks and was giving me tomboy vibes.

Forget that, actually, on closer inspection, she was wearing very revealing clothes. A sports bra looking thing with only one strap, a green scarf, and shorts that barely go below her ass line. She also had a dagger sheathed at her waist.

Oooh, shiny.

But a classic thief build, huh? I’m guessing she saw me collect the reward earlier and is now trying to scam me. Well, at times like this, there is only one thing you can do.

“AQUA! A NAKED PERVERT IS TRYING TO TALK TO ME!”

“WAIT, HOLD ON!”

Hearing me shout, the whole guild looked our way, and Aqua quickly hurried over along with Megumin and Darkness.

“Kazuma! I’m here. What happened? Is she giving you trouble? Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it.”

After saying some delinquent-like lines, she began charging up her god blow, and her arms began to glow a brilliant gold, almost blinding me.

“PLEASE WAIT! HUH? YOU’RE!”

“HOLD IT!”

As Aqua charged up her attack, Darkness got in between them and waved her arms up.

“SHE’S MY FRIEND, SHE’S SAFE SHE’S SAFE!”

Hearing that, Aqua stopped charging her attack and calmed down a bit.

Looking back at the stranger, I saw she was in tears and was staring at Aqua with a horrified expression.

“KAZUMA, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?”

Darkness suddenly got in my face and started screaming.

Well, it’s not my fault. I had to protect my money; it’s a cold, cold world.

“I’m sorry, she suddenly came up to me, and I thought she was after my manhood.”

“LIKE ANYONE WOULD BE AFTER SOMETHING LIKE THAT!”

I ignored Darkness, who was still trying to lecture me. I saw that the girl was staring at Aqua, completely bewildered as if she saw a ghost. Meanwhile, Aqua was also looking at her curiously.

“You look really familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?”

“Wha, no, no, definitely not!”

She got defensive and denied it, but Aqua doesn’t just randomly call out strangers like that. Maybe they met at a bar before or something, and got blacked out drunk and forgot the encounter?

“No, I definitely know you… wait Eris? That you?”

Huh?

“NO, NO, I’M NOT!”

“Yeah, it is you! What the hell are you doing down here? I have an excuse, but you’ll be in big trouble with Lady Rosaria if you just pop up in the mortal world.”

Everyone was now staring at Chris, who was freaking out. Also, Eris? Like the goddess Eris? Aqua knows her, so she can recognize her. But here? Why?

“Umm, Aqua, I don’t know what to say, but his is actually my friend Chris, definitely not the goddess Eris…”

Darkness got in between them again and defended the panicking girl.

If she isn’t Eris, why is she freaking out so much?

“No, this is definitely Eris, there’s no way I won’t recognize my junior.”

“Junior? Aqua, what are you saying?”

“LOOK, LOOK, LOOK AT MY ADVENTURER’S CARD! IT SAYS CHRIS!”

The girl freaked out more and pulled out her adventurer’s card and handed it over to Aqua, who accepted it.

“Hmmm, well, what do you know, guess you really aren’t Eris… My bad, sorry.”

…

Chris let out a big sigh of relief and fell on her butt.

Seeing the panicked Chris has finally calmed down and the rest of the guild went back to what they were doing.

Darkness turned to me, and spoke, “Kazuma, what the actual hell?”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what?! Why did you do that to the poor girl? And Aqua,”

“Huh?”

Now she turned to Aqua and began an onslaught on her.

“Why did you just get ready to attack her like that? You didn’t even understand the proper situation!”

“When your friends are in trouble, you usually punch first and ask questions second, right?”

“No, you don’t!”

Aqua had a good point, but I guess Darkness wasn’t having it.

“Actually, Darkness, I kinda agree with Aqua here, isn’t it normal to put your friend above a stranger? You are doing the same thing with Chris here, and since Aqua and Kazuma are lovers, it’s even more severe.”

“Megumin, not you too!”

“Hey, we aren’t lovers!”

Megumin came in and said something completely wrong about our relationship.

This is the 2^nd time that happened. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

“You aren’t? But you sleep in the same room, don’t you?”

“Different beds, besides, you can’t exactly afford separate rooms in this economy. Besides, how do you explain to me going out with Sarah yesterday if Aqua and I were dating?”

“The receptionist? I thought she was just your side chick.”

Wow, this little girl is saying some wild shit. Looking back at Sarah, it looks like she didn’t hear it. But she did see the whole commotion and gave us a questioning look.

“Hey guys, relax a bit, let me explain myself.”

While the four of us were arguing, Chris got up and managed to intervene.

“Oh, Chris, right? Sorry about that, you just can’t be safe in this world.”

“I… apology accepted? I don’t know, let’s just forget that ever happened and start over.”

“Kay!”

“Ahem, Heya! Got a minute?”

Wow, she really meant it when she said start over, huh? Guess I’ll play along.

“AQUA! A NAKED PERVERT IS TRYING TO TALK TO ME!”

“YOU DID IT AGAIN!?”

“Well, that will be my natural response to you, unless you don’t want to start over.”

“Ugh, fine… as you already know, my name is Chris, I’m an adventurer of the thief class.”

Hunch was right, she was indeed a thief.

“I’m Kazuma, the blue-haired girl over there is Aqua.”

“Nice to meet you, Chris. Sorry for trying to kill you. I just sort of took it as my duty to protect Kazuma, you see.”

“Right, okay…”

“Well, Chris, what can I help you with?” I said.

“Well, you see, as you heard earlier, I’m a friend of this girl, Darkness.”

“So, I was right, you really are a pervert!”

“WHAT, NO!”

I kind of feel bad about bullying this girl so much, but it’s weirdly fun.

“Ngh, to be called a pervert just for associating with me. Kazuma must have a really twisted view of me.”

“Darkness, you aren’t helping!”

She took a moment to calm down again from the chaotic situation.

“Well, to get back on track, I’m here to vouch for her and ask you to give her a spot in your party along with Megumin.”

“I’m out.”

“Wait, wait!”

“No, I won’t, if that’s all you got to say, I’ll be on my way, bother someone else.”

As I tried to leave, Chris grabbed my hand and stopped me from leaving,

“Let go.”

“Please wait, you don’t have to give them a permanent spot immediately, just take them on one quest so they can prove themselves.”

I looked at the other three girls who were just staring at us silently.

I don’t like this feeling. Why do I seem like the bad guy here…

“I already heard all I need to know about them. Besides, why are you even insisting on her place?”

“Look, look, just please… I’ll make it worthwhile for you.”

“I WAS RIGHT, AQUA, THIS GIRL IS DEFINITELY A PERVERT!”

“I WASN’T IMPLYING ANYTHING LIKE THAT!”

The 3 girls looked at themselves and then at me and Chris. They all nodded to each other and just walked away.

“Hey, where are you all going?” I asked.                     

“We’ll let the two of you sort your issues out.” Said Aqua.

“Yeah, I feel like I’m in the middle of some weird lovers' quarrel.” Added Megumin.

“By the way, Kazuma, I didn’t ask Chris to do this or anything!” Finally, Darkness.

With that, the three of them were gone, leaving just the two of us.

Sighing, Chris spoke, “Look, Kazuma, Darkness over there is in a really difficult situation, and right now she needs comrades… It’s also been her dream since a kid to be a proper adventurer, so I’m begging you here.”

She really cares about Darkness, huh…

“I still don’t get why that’s my problem. Also, didn’t the other parties reject her? What makes you think I’ll be any different?”

Chris was quiet for a moment but looked at me with resolve.

“I-I can’t tell you, but… look, your class is Adventurer, right?”

“What’s that got to do with this?”

“Well, you can learn any skill from any class, so I can teach you Thief skills. For absolutely free, too, all I ask is that you take Darkness and Megumin on one quest, just one.”

…

“What kind of skills do Thieves have?”

“Well, thief skills are mostly about scouting and stealth, so they use spatial magic, they aren’t damage-based, but it’ll be very useful for you. Skills like steal, lurk, danger sense, and bind, to name a few.”

Spatial magic? That sounds op. But for the Thief class? I mean, those aren’t any damage-based moves, but still, it sounds seriously overpowered.

“What’s the class ascension for Thief?”

“That would be Assassin.”

Yeah, that explains it. The weak-sounding Thief class, when evolved, becomes an Assassin. No wonder the moves sound overpowered. Maybe this will be worth it? I just have to take them on one quest and I’ll get to learn any skills I want, right?”

“Alright, I’ll do it. When are we learning?”

“Wow, that’s a big change in attitude from before.”

Yeah, cause I’m promised some broken-sounding abilities.

I’m guessing that for most adventurers here, they would sound weak, but for me? Come on, anyone who played Skyrim would know how busted stealth archers are. On that note, I should probably also look for someone to teach me the bow.

“Hmm, well, how about this, I’ll teach you one skill now as an advanced payment. And after you take them on a quest, I’ll teach you the rest. I won’t be able to teach you all of them in one day, but we’ll do it slowly and get you proficient in them, alright?

“You got yourself a deal.”

I extended my arm to her, which she accepted in a handshake.

“Heh, I knew you’d come around, come on, let’s go!”

She got a good grip of my hand and started dragging me with her. She had a surprising amount of strength in that petite body.

“Hey, wait, where are you taking me?”

“We can’t exactly learn skills here, come on, let’s go somewhere more private.”

I didn’t even get a chance to tell Aqua and the rest, as I was.

***

She took me through the street and turned into a random alleyway. After walking for a bit longer, the alley widened. The area was spacious, and there was no one here for some reason. A couple of garbage containers were here, too.

“Why did you drag me to a random alleyway? I was right, weren’t I? You ARE after my manhood!”

“Why do you keep saying that? Do you WANT me to assault you? That makes you no different from Darkness.”

So, she is aware of Darkness’s degenerate behavior. Maybe she got some good sides if Chris is willing to go this far for her? But to answer her question, yes, I would not mind her assaulting me at all. In fact, come at me, I’m wide open!

“Why are you opening up your arms like that? I’m not going to touch you!”

*Tsk*

“… Look, uhh, can we get to teaching you a skill?”

“Sure, sure, what do you have in mind?”

She started scratching her cheek and looked up, almost like she was contemplating what she should do now.

“Well, with how difficult the quests are now, a good skill to teach you would be danger sense, it’ll help you out the most, the rest can wait till later.”

Right, that makes sense. But speaking of danger.

“Actually, how come all the quests available are so dangerous? I thought this was a rookie town.”

“The wyvern perched in the castle on the mountainside… the weak monster seemed to have run off due to it.”

Shit, that makes sense, I suppose.

“So until it’s defeated, we’re fucked?”

“Pretty much, I heard the guild has sent a request for some royal knights from the capital to come and defeat it, but they got their hands full with the demon army… So recently, they sent out a message to Michael of the magic sword to come defeat it.”

“Who the hell is Michael?”

“You don’t know him? He’s a foreign warrior who has arrived in Belzerg. He has a magical sword named Gram that can cut through anything.”

Foreign warrior with a magic sword… could he be another prophet? But Michael isn’t a Japanese name… Aqua didn’t specifically say they were only sending Japanese people to this world, so I guess it’s a possibility.

“Is he like super overpowered?”

“Well, he’s strong, some say he will be the one the defeat the demon army. But the strongest warrior we've got is still the first prince Jatis.”

Wow, so much new exposition and we’re already 10,000 words in. Homestretch people, I promise we’re almost done.

“Well, character introductions aside, I guess I’m lucky to have people like Aqua who have really high stats. With her around, even the super strong monsters are something I can sorta deal with.”

“Exactly! And with Darkness and Megumin, it’ll be even easier.”

“I doubt it…”

“Well, why don’t we get to learning your new skill. Do you know mana enhancement?”

“I didn’t get the skill yet, so I’m not proficient, but I do know it.”

“Right, that’s fine, don’t bother getting that skill, you can learn it without spending points pretty easily with some dedication.” She explained, “Now, to get to the task at hand, danger sense involves having your brain enhanced with mana, enhancing all your senses. This is a basic level ability everyone has, but the specialty of danger sense is that you overload your brain with mana, causing it to develop an almost 6^th sense.” She continued, “Once you’re proficient at it, there are two paths to the skill: clairvoyance and perma sense. Clairvoyance allows you to get a reading of the surrounding area, essentially giving you a map of the area in your head, and allows you to tell how many enemies and traps are present. And perma sense makes it so your danger sense is constantly active without you having to turn it on or off.”

Holy shit.

“Are these really basic-level skills? They sound busted as hell.”

“They are, but the Thief class has a bit of a bad reputation due to its role in stealing and its class ascension being Assassin. So, no one really picks up the role, which is a good thing because it means we thieves are constantly in high demand, making jobs very easy to come by.”

Makes sense, sounds like learning these skills will be very beneficial for me in the future.

“Well, should we get started?”

“Right, now to start off, I need you to first move all your mana to your head, and then focus it all onto your brain.”

As instructed, I began focusing my mana into my head and then slowly started flowing it into my brain. I haven’t done this before, so it was a whole new experience. I felt my senses enhance, my hearing got better, I could see better, further, and even my sense of smell improved.

Hmmm, those garbage containers are really hitting the nose right now.

“Okay, I think it’s working. Now what?”

“Okay, now you need to overload it. You usually just flow a decent amount to any body part, but now you need to squeeze out every single drop of mana into your brain without any leaking out.”

Makes sense?

I went to work and did as instructed. It took me a bit, and I slipped in and out of that state. But after a while, I was able to make it work.

“Wow.”

I suddenly felt everything, can’t explain it, but the wind and dust hitting my skin I could feel like never before. And even Chris’s presence… her slight movements I felt on my skin, giving me goosebumps.

So, this is a dangerous sense?

Seeing that I succeeded, Chris smiled at me.

“Now, close your eyes.”

“…”

I did as instructed and waited, still staying in the same state; it was a bit difficult to maintain… Suddenly, the hair on my skin stood up, and I broke down in cold sweat. I felt something coming from the side, causing me to freak out and dodge.

I opened my eyes to see Chris there, and her arms extended with a dagger in hand.

“THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?”

“Relax, I was making sure that you learned it, and it seems you have.” She spoke, “Now, check your adventurer’s card.”

“… Okay.”

I stopped the mana flow to the brain and let my senses return to normal.

Damn, that felt weird… I really don’t like it.

“Isn’t this just spider sense?”

“Heh, I guess it really is similar to that, huh?”

“Yeah, I could feel everyth- wait, how do you know what spider sense is?”

Chris’s eyes widened at what I said, and she started panicking again.

“Uhh, uhh, well, spiders have senses, a lot of senses, right? That’s what you meant, right?”

She struggled to put those words together…

“Chris… are you perhaps from Earth?”

“…”

After hearing what I said, she froze for a moment. Her hair and eye color were unique, something I haven’t even seen in this world yet, so how could she be from Earth? Still, she is acting pretty weird.

“I don’t know where or what that is…”

“Right…”

I don’t believe her.

But still, better not push it.

I took out my adventurer’s card and checked the available skill section. There, it had mana enhancement from morning, and a new skill, danger sense, which is only 1 point.

“Well, Ima need it for later, so might as well…”

Saying that, I scrolled my fingers through danger sense and tapped my avatar.

“!!!”

I felt a sudden change in me as the skill disappeared from the available skill section and went to my active skill section. It should be easier to do now, hope it helps me… I have 3 skill points left.

“Congratulations, Kazuma, you have officially begun your path of becoming a thief.”

“I don’t wanna be one… but anyways, how do I get the upgrades for it?”

“Oh, just keep using it, and it’ll eventually pop up. Of course, you have to work on the specific path for it to appear and have knowledge of it, but don’t worry, I’ll help you out with it.”

“Thanks.”

“Mhm, don’t forget, this wasn’t free.”

“Desperate, aren’t you? I don’t really want to do it out in the open, so let’s get a room, okay?”

“What the hell are you talking about? I meant taking Darkness and Megumin on a quest!”

I love messing with her. Seeing her blush and freak out is a really pleasant experience.

“Alright, alright, I’ll do it, and you’ll teach me more after?”

“That’s the deal, oh, but I wouldn’t mind a glass of cold crimson beer as well.”

“That I can do, come on, let’s head back.”

“Hmm.”

As we went back, I noticed the sun had already risen to its peak,

“Holy shit, it’s already noon?”

“Guess we were there for longer than we thought…”

“yeah… You know, since we still need to do lunch, I probably should save the quest till tomorrow.”

“That works, just make sure to keep your end of the bargain, okay?”

“I never break promises.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

***

We made our way to the guild, and Aqua and the other two immediately came rushing over to us.

“There you are, where did you two go without saying anything?” Said Aqua.

“Chris was teaching me how to feel new sensations I never felt before.”

“Wha?”

“IT WAS DANGER SENSE! I WAS TEACHING HIM DANGER SENSE!”

“Right… so, what did you offer her in return?”

“Well…”

I looked at Darkness and Megumin, who were giving me puppy eye looks all day, practically begging me to accept them.

“You two, tomorrow we’re going on a quest, be prepared.”

As I said that all three of them got shocked.

“Kazuma finally came to his senses, huh? No way you could reject an amazing mage like me.”

“Kazuma, I’m extremely grateful for this, as thanks, I won’t mind you abusing me anytime you have any pent-up anger.”

“This is great, guys! We can all go on a quest together now!”

Seeing the three of them excited, I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe this won’t be such a bad idea after all. And as a bonus, I’ll get to learn some new skills from Chris.

“Don’t get your hopes up, it’s only one quest to see if you two are up to par.”

“We won’t fail you!”

“Yeah!”

As they were celebrating, a sudden loud growl was heard.

“…”

It was from Megumin… I guess she was hungry; it was noon after all. Wait, did she even have breakfast?”

“Sorry…”

She looked really embarrassed.

Oh well.

“Let’s go get some lunch, Chris, you should join too, I’ll pay, of course.”

“I won’t say no to free food.” Spoke Chris.

“Umm, Kazuma, are you sure? You two even paid last night…” Said Darkness.

“Don’t worry about it, just enjoy the meal.”

“Hmm, if you say so, thank you.”

We went to have a seat and started checking through the menu. I still haven’t given Aqua half of the reward, but I guess I’ll have to wait till this is done. I’m sure she won’t mind if it’s used to feed her newfound friends, right?

“You never know what to pick in this situation, huh?”

“Indeed, every meal on the menu looks good.”

“Well, I got a solution for that. Hey, waiter, give us one of everything, please!”

“Coming right up, miss!”

It was Aqua who gave that order.

“Hey! The hell are you doing?” I snapped.

“Huh, what’s wrong?”

“If you order that much, we’ll end up using all of the money from yesterday’s quest, and possibly even in debt!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You also need to eat, since you’re a growing boy, you know? Also, you got three advanced classes now, we can recover this and ten times more from now on.”

“Still…”

“Quit being such a spoilsport and enjoy the day!”

“…”

The four girls started chatting and laughing with each other as they had a great time. Even though Chris won’t be joining us for the quest, her company here was great. They even tried to include me in the conversation despite my trying to stay quiet the entire time.

To be honest, I was having fun, a lot of fun. But maybe because I have a dangerous sense now, I just couldn’t shake a feeling in my gut.

I have a really bad feeling about this…

To be continued

***

Authors note

Most changes I made to a chapter so far. Nothing major will be changed, don’t worry, I’ll just make the whole thing a bit more concrete and structured, since the story is actually already written.

Peace! 

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