The sound of trotting horses could be heard as a wagon sped off into the distant, away from the city of Axel. The whole city had turned into a battlefield, with houses inflames and the resonance of small explosions in the atmosphere. The lifeless body of a brunette boy was left lying down on the wooden floor of the cart, his body leaking with blood.

A blue-haired Arch-priest extended her hand to his cheek, rubbing it gently, "Ka... Kazuma, please wake up." Her voice trembled with whisper of fear, as the rest of the passengers in the cart sat in silence, none of them knew anything about them personally. Some may have either heard rumours about them, or seen them pondering around the guild at times, but if there was one common trait they all shared, it would be a dream of becoming an Adventurer in hopes that one day they could achieve something great.

A lot of people had already lost their lives on that night, and an abundant ounces of blood had been spilled out. They felt inclined to comfort the distraught girl, but refused to out of hesitation. Eventually a man sitting beside her mustered enough courage to try saying something to her.

Aqua sat there in a shock-like trance, desperate to try getting him to move, believing that this was a dickish prank he'd pull to scare her.

"Umm… miss-", before the man could say anything, a bright light radiated through his retina, almost like a mini-sun that came into view. It was coming from the very city they had just left, giving them a great rush of heat as an explosive sound reverberated and came along with a massive gust of shockwaves, hurling flying debris towards the mobile carriage. The ground beneath them shook, causing the horses to stoop down neighing.

They might have just witnessed the biggest explosion of all time. It was so big that for a moment it felt like they could have easily been engulfed in the dust that followed. It sounded similar to that of thunder cracking in the sky.

For a moment they all forgot about the deadly predicament they found themselves in moments ago, and the fact that they were sustaining the corpse of a fellow Adventurer with them. The crazy explosion eventually subsided slowly until it was dark and cold again.

Eventually they all came back to their senses, realizing that they were in middle of nowhere with no city to go back to now.

Aqua focused her attention back onto the lifeless body in front of her, shaking him violently and blabbering gibberish pleas. She was on the verge of truly breaking down and becoming a crying mess at any moment.

Seeing this, the same person as before went ahead and put his hand on her shoulder, "I am deeply sorry for your loss, but there can't be any way to bring someone like him back from death."

Aqua felt the comforting sensation on her shoulder and turned to her left side to glance at the source. The man, who looked slightly older than Kazuma, had been looking at her with a pitiful expression.

"S-Sorry, could you repeat wh-what you said just now?", she asked, tears leaking from the side of her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, but he's truly gone now. He pushed himself past his limits to make sure you got on safely. You can cry, but don't try to hurt yourself over this, we can't bring back someone from the dead."

That last part struck through her heart like an arrow. The man's statement made horses dash in her brain, "Bringing back the dead... Oh yeah! Resurrection! How could I forget?"

A sudden spark of hope could be felt in the shift of her tone, and her overall mood had changed. She went from sobs trailing down her face to a smirk stretching across her mouth.

She firmly grasped Kazuma's body, slowly pulling out the spear attached to the back of his abdomen, and throwing it onto the wooden ground. All the on-lookers and the driver glancing at the back of the cart were completely befuddled by the unfolding scene.

Some began muttering to their partners, "She's probably gone crazy.", "Let's just leave them alone until we can reach a town, then we can seek out a doctor for both of them.", and such.

Aqua sat down on her knees and began circling her hand around the blood wound on Kazuma's chest, to which afterwards a green light began to surface over the wound. It healed itself until it looked completely stitched up, as if the gaping hole had shrunk down to not even resemble a scratch.

She stood back up on her feet, and held out both her hands over the Brunette's corpse and began chanting a divine spell.

"Through the divine power assigned to me, may I, Aqua, the Goddess of water, give this poor soul another chance. I shall break the circle of life in order to bring this man back to life. 'Resurrection'!"

His body was thoroughly wrapped in a white casing, and with a sparkle of blue everyone turned silent once more.

Kazuma's eyes had opened back up. After he regained his consciousness, he began scanning around his surroundings for a minute, finding himself sitting on a chair in a dark room with no source of light to be found, yet it was somehow illuminated. It did feel as if he'd been in this familiar room before, with its customary chessboard-looking floor, it's weird flying cubes and a divine-looking lady sitting in front of him.

He wasn't as shocked this time, but rather he was quite relieved knowing that in this instance his death had not been meaningless.

The lady had radiated quite a divine presence, similar to that of a certain friend of his. This one seemed different in not only appearance but in mood too. She seemed very calm and elegant sitting on the other side of the room. Her style of clothes were in contrast to his Goddess friend, they fully covered her body entirely like a gown, and she wore a purple scarf-like cloth on top of the head to make room for her silver hair.

"So I guess you're another Goddess, and I'm probably dead, aren't I?"

"Yes, your journey in the mortal realm has indeed ended. You lived a rather short life that remained fruitful."

Kazuma didn't know what to make of the statement given to him, considering that he hadn't had much fun in this life either. He was always working during the day and running from trouble in the form of monsters or people whom he tried to settle debts with. At least he struggled way less in his previous life, even if he had no real purpose in his general community.

"Huh, I guess it was.", he replied with a dry laugh.

"I am Eris, the Goddess of luck who sees over this world. Any soul who's recently perished comes to me. Fear not, for I shall send you to your next life."

The calm and sweetness of her voice felt very godlike to the defunct Adventurer, a melodic shake up compared to all the bickering he went through with Aqua on the daily. It made him quite nervous to try and speak with her, so he resorted to simply bowing his head in respect.

"Thank you, lady Eris; I'm eternally grateful to have been given another chance to live.", Kazuma extended his gratitude towards the Luck Goddess, to which she responded.

"Happy to do so, Mr. Kazuma."

"Oh! By the way, Eris, can you make it so that I'm born into a super rich family, with very handsome facial features and cute sisters? Add to it that I'm very popular at school and I have an insanely hot girlfriend."

Eris was immediately taken aback from the brunette boy's odd enthusiastic request, and she started to feel nervous herself.

"Well, that might be outside of my range of abilities, I could just easily make you good person in general."

Eris dropped the formalities before preparing to send the boy to his next life with the necessary adjustments. Just as she was about to open a portal and bid him farewell, the atmosphere in the room started cracking out of nowhere. A blue-ish white light threaded out of it, alongside a familiar voice.

"Kazuma! I've finally healed your wounds and casted a resurrection spell on you! You can come back now, so if you can hear me, please return to your body."

"Aqua?! Is that you?"

"Yes it's me, dummy! Did you hear what I said? You can come back alive now, I've successfully healed your chest, so you're good as ever now."

Eris flinched when she heard the voice of her senior Goddess, to the point where her voice trailed a bit when she started speaking again.

"Senpai? Wait, Kazuma, you know her?"

"Yeah, long story short: we were both sent to this fantasy world to help defeat the Devil king.", Kazuma deliberately hid the fact that he dragged the water Goddess with him out of spite he felt after she laughed about his death.

"Hey, Kazuma, who are you talking to down there? Hurry up or else I'm gonna have to come down there and drag you back like a mutt.", Aqua said in an irritated manner.

"Can you shut up for a second, please? I'm down here talking to Eris right now. She seems to be very kind and sweet unlike you. Oh, and she told me that she'll reincarnate me into a world of my own choosing."

Eris immediately shook her head sideways in a declining fashion.

"Hey, I did not-"

"Shh, she doesn't have to know.", Kazuma shushed the rejecting Goddess.

"Wait a minute, you're talking to ERIS?! That bra stuffing minx? Oh, now I get it, you've become mesmerised by her "beauty". Sorry to pull the curtain on you, but she isn't a natural beaut. Unlike me she pads her own chest, so it must've looked nice to you since you're a NEET after all."

Aqua started another one of her rambles, in the midst of which Kazuma blocked out most of what she had to say, aside from the occasional comments about her pads.

"You pad your own chest?", he deadpanned asked Eris.

The question made the bound Goddess incredibly flustered and lose her calm demeanour as she tried to dismiss the allegations against her.

"Don't worry, lady Aqua is probably teasing me like usual. She always takes every opportunity to make fun of me. I don't even use pads that often or anything, in all honesty.", Eris pouted, crossing both of her hands across her chest.

"Well, I don't mind if they're padded. You still look pretty otherwise.", Kazuma declared with a face straight as a line.

While all of this was going on, everyone in the wagon were in utter confusion as to what was happening in front of them at that moment.

"By the way, Eris, could you please send Kazuma back right now? As your senior I command you to do so."

"But senpai, you do know that resurrection can only be used in crucial situations, and only one time if you may-"

"Stop reminding me about those bullshit rules and regulations. Likewise, I'd gladly wanna share your secrets right now; Hey guys! you know one time-"

"Kyaaahhh! Please stop, Aqua senpai, I'll send him back now! I'm so sorry for all of this, Kazuma."

Eris quickly opened a portal with a gesture of her hand.

"Oh, dear Adventurer, I pray that you will be able to defeat the Devil king this time, and hopefully won't perish along the way once again. May the gods be with you, Return to your life."

The soon-to-be-revived Adventurer began to levitate on top of the divine chessboard-like floor, and before he could react or say anything, the portal sucked him.

Kazuma gradually began to open his eyes once more again, finding himself lying down on a familiar wooden floor. He glanced around his surroundings to find a shocked group of spectators who looked at him in disbelief.

They had witnessed not one but two amazing miracles on the same day. One was a powerful and destructive explosion that reduced everything in the area to ashes, the other was something that was beyond the normal magic abilities and capabilities: bringing back someone from their death.

After taking a few moments to process all this information, he checked to make sure this wasn't a dream or anything, confirming that he had indeed returned back to reality.

After lifting himself back up, the revitalized Adventurer found his Goddess friend looking really proud of what she did just now.

For a few moments he just stared at her and said nothing.

"No need to thank me, Kazuma. I just did what any helpful Goddess would do, and now you look just as good as ever now. So, how do you feel?"

Kazuma immediately felt a slight nerve pop in his head as she asked him that.

"I feel like absolute shit now because not only did you just save me and ruin my brave sacrifice, I was also about to reincarnate into my dream life, you idiot!"

This was not the gratitude that Aqua was anticipating for; her proud smug face slowly faded into an angry frown.

"What do you mean by that? I just pulled off one of my greatest feats and brought you back from the dead, and instead of praising me or being happy about it, you're getting mad at me again? Hmph, the least you could do was just say "thanks"."

"I never asked you to do that in the first place! If I had actually stayed dead, I would've been able to ditch this stupid fantasy world and get sent to another world of my choice!"

"Damn, I'm sorry I didn't ask for your permission. But hey, who was the one that dragged me into this fantasy world to begin with…? Oh right, it was you! At least what I did against your wishes was actually justified.", and just like that they went back to bickering like usual, both sides spewing insults at each other, none of which made any logical sense.

The driver, having already calmed down from his initial shock moments ago, felt like he should disrupt this lover's quarrel before it eventually got out of hand.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt you two love birds, but right now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere after we just made it out of axel alive. So unlike you the both of you, we'll just move on from here and get going somewhere."

Even Kazuma, although he was stuck in an angry mood, had enough decency to lower his head and apologise to the driver whilst the pent-up Arch-priest fumbled around and started pouting in a corner.

Either of them hadn't spoken about anything for a while. That is until Aqua realised what the driver meant by what he said earlier.

"Hey, ummm, Mr. driver? we don't exactly have a place to go back to now; Do you have a plan?"

"Well, it's nothing too secluded, but I guess I'll try heading on back to my hometown in the Belzerg kingdom. I want to wind down there for a bit after all this Adventurer business."

"Wait, you're from Belzerg? Isn't that place like really close to the Devil king's army, and the people there get attacked every week or so?

"Yeah, that's definitely true, but it also means that we have a hive of the greatest Adventurers alive there. Plus the royal knights and guards are a real force to be reckoned with, and I've heard rumours that the princess is a little kid who's been secretly trained to possess some terrifying powers and weapons on her hands, passed down from generation to generation. She's even surpassed her own brother, Prince Jatis, in battle prowess."

"Well when you put it like that, it does sound safe.", Everyone seemed to pretty much agree with her, although the expressions on Kazuma's face seemed to think otherwise.

"I personally would like to stay as far away from the war as possible from now on. This Devil king and his army sound like bad news to me.", Kazuma said, shaking his head.

After a few minutes of discussion among the other Adventurers, each of them decided where they wanted to go separately. Some would go along with the driver to Belzerg, whilst others wanted to head back to their respective hometowns. The main duo, however, still couldn't come up with a common conclusion in mind. Kazuma didn't know anywhere else outside of Axel, and Aqua, having been silent the entire time, only made their situation more thought-provoking. Eventually she spoke out her suggestion to the bumbling brunette.

"I actually would like to visit Arcanletia, the city of your's truly."

"The city of hot springs, you mean.", The driver interjected.

Aqua's eyes started glinting knowing that their is someone knows about her city.

"Yessss….. the people there are quite devout followers of me- er, I mean the Goddess Aqua."

Aqua bit her tongue in humility.

"Hmm, so you want to be like that Goddess, then. What about you, kid? Anywhere else you want to head off to, or do you just plan to follow us to Belzerg?"

"I'll have him tag along with me on the condition that he apologizes right to my face", she turned her head back towards Kazuma with a negotiating look on her face.

"And why would I even want to do that? Besides, if that Alcenretia place has people there worshipping you, then it must be a really weird hellhole.", Kazuma snarked sarcastically.

"No, it's not! It's a nice place with beautiful scenery and some of the best baths in the world. Trust me, if you get to know them well, the people there are really nice."

"…", He lowered his eyebrows as a sign of doubt.

"But if you still don't want to come with me, then I guess you can go off somewhere else if you want...", Aqua trailed off in defeat.

"Well, I don't have that much knowledge about know this world in general, so even if Aqua can be an absolute dum-dum for the most part, she also knows a lot about here. This might be a risky choice, and I'll probably regret it later on given how dreadful Alcanretia sounds like to me.", Kazuma thought to himself.

"*cough, *cough, *cough*", Kazuma purposely used his throat to bring call for everyone's attention while they were whispering to each other. "Okay, then. Aqua, I'm sorry if I under-appreciated your efforts to save me from dying. I know that I can be mean to you at times, and I feel really bad about it now. So please, can I follow you to Alcanretia?"

"You mean Arcanletia."

"Whatever."

Aqua took the opportunity to ask the pleading Adventurer to beg her for it.

"*sigh, Oh Aqua-sama, the Goddess of water, may I follow you to the holy city of Arcanleechia, Pleasee!"

"Hmm, I do feel like you didn't put that much your heart into it, but I guess I'll let slide this one time."

" Why you...", Kazuma clenched a fist and gritted his teeth.

After a trip that took a few days time, the carriage finally approached the gates of Arcanletia. The horses were heading towards a drop-off point in the capital, and the duo were preparing to step out again after sitting idle for most of the journey. As they started stretching their stiffened legs, the remaining passengers on-board came by to give them a warm farewell, especially towards Aqua. They've seemed to have grown fond of the Arch-priest after all their interactions together, and the magic tricks she had flaunted to them throughout the entire journey.

"You are one real, lucky guy, Satou. Not only do you have a really beautiful Goddess as a friend, but you get to live with her too." The driver jokingly nudged the brunette Adventurer before heading off with his group to Belzerg.

" yeah… sure, buddy.", Kazuma mused to himself with a dry laugh to follow-up.

Both of them have gone through some really hellish labor work, but the past few days had been quite a weird nightmare that either of them couldn't wake up from. When they finally arrived at Arcanletia, they kind of realized that they didn't exactly think through on what they should do afterwards. None of them had any money, meaning that they couldn't really afford any real food to eat. They hadn't come up with a decent-enough plan, and they didn't have a place to stay at now. They were together yet simultaneously alone in this new city.

A cold wind blew through their hairs, signalling to them a sense of safety and calmness in the air.

"Hey, Kazuma, are you ever going to apologise to me for real?"

"Wait, didn't I do that already? Especially in front of everyone?"

"That was hardly an apology, I could tell that you didn't even mean what you said.", Aqua rebutted, crossing her arms, "Remember what you said that night in the carriage; that I'm the only good thing you have going on in your life right now? Was that just a quick lie to make me do what you want, or was there some truth to what you told me?"

Her words rang a deep bell somewhere in his mind. He did say it to her, but he couldn't pinpoint the reasoning behind it. It's true that he said it to make her listen to him in the moment, but he also somewhat wanted to make her smile for once. The uncertainty of his actions left him questioning himself for a few seconds. The only reasonable thing he could think of doing right now was to avoid the question altogether.

"I, uhhh… I don't exactly remember saying something like that, Aqua."

"…", she kept staring at him with a doubtful expression.

"Ah, right. The plan. I guess we'll just need to look for a place to stay at for now, then afterwards we can think about getting something to eat."

Kazuma slowly stepped back and turned around, crossing both his hands at the back of his chest whilst creating some distance between him and the Water Goddess. He did so to move past this discussion, and to also hide an obvious hint of redness on his face.

Aqua remained there as she stood behind him, accepting that she wasn't going to be getting any answers from him, at least for now.

"Hey, Kazuma? Do you know any places we can try going to right now?"

"I'm still thinking about it.", he began tapping two of his fingers on his left temple to help him focus on his thoughts.

Eventually after staring at his display for a while, Aqua became bored and started walking away.

And after a heavy amount of brainstorming, nothing came to Kazuma's mind. When he turned around again, he found that the blue-haired girl wasn't there anymore. He quickly scanned across to see her walking away in the distance.

So he started running after her.

"Hey, Aqua, where are you going? We still need to think this through."

"I'm going to visit the axis church right now; surely they'll recognize their magnificent goddess and welcome her with open arms. I have faith in them the same way they do for me."

Since Kazuma couldn't think of any other places to go to, he decided it'd be best to follow her this time around, though he was still skeptical about the whole "warm welcome" part of her plan.

After walking for a mile or two they spotted a nearby church. In the middle of them walking towards said church, a large amount of people started approaching them. Most tried to sell them something, some asked for them to join the Axis cult, some suggested they visit the hot springs, and some just flat-out begged them to eat some soap.

Kazuma started blabbering in anger again, "I swear to all the other Goddesses out there, if one more person tries to get me to join the damn Axis faith or shove soap down my throat, I'll fucking explode on the spot! I haven't even been here for half a day, and this place has already pissed me off to my limit!"

The cathedral ahead of them looked well-built and quite massive in size compared to the Eris sect. churches in Axel. It seemed to be in great condition and had a shiny blue roof on top, with an Axis order crest on its top.

Aqua opened the gates and walked inside with Kazuma. Immediately they saw a good amount of people sitting on the chairs in the middle there, so they went ahead and asked one of the senior priests at the front if they could stay there, to which he told them that it wouldn't be a problem whatsoever. Although Aqua tried to reveal herself as their Goddess, she of course failed miserably and was laughed at by the entire church.

They assumed she loved their goddess too much to the point that she considered calling herself like that. The same senior priest politely asked her to stop deluding herself like that, and told her that cosplays weren't allowed there.

'Man, I feel kind of bad right now.'

"Poor girl.", Kazuma mumbled to himself.

That first day in the city passed by without much happening afterwards. They spent the entire afternoon walking through the city and exploring the majority of the capital. If anything, what Kazuma liked most about this city was the gorgeous sceneries and the baths they had. Both of them split off to their respective bathhouses, Aqua taking up the women's section and Kazuma relaxing in the mixed bath for obvious reasons.

They were able to find some good food to eat, courtesy of the senior priest giving them money. It wasn't really out of kindness, but rather out of pity for Aqua's whole identity situation.

The next day they tried scouting out some work. Kazuma had made it clear that he wasn't going to be joining some stupid religion, he opted to instead work at the hot springs. The work there was thankfully not very heavy-based, plus he gets access to free baths in the men's section.

Slowly but gradually they began settling down in Arcanletia. Kazuma was more reluctant to travel much outside because of the residents, and Aqua became a junior priest at the city's cathedral. It made it easier for her since she knew all the commandants and verses of her own faith. She was also very proficient in that line of work, so much so that she was becoming quite popular with her people, her entertaining nature making it extremely easy for them to get along.

Starting out again turned out to be very different compared to when they began adventuring and working labor. They had trouble finding a place to live in until Aqua finally saved up enough money for the both of them, perks of being a priest. (Kazuma kept a grim eye on her the whole time.)

It was simple: a two-room house, nothing fancy but comfortable, and it was located nearby the shopping district. Life had finally seemed to settle down for them again. It wasn't as fun and rowdy as before, but it was quite nice for all it's worth. News about the Devil king army's attack on Axel had still not reached that area of the world, especially with a lack of communication via technology. Sometimes the duo would overhear random people talking about it on the streets and such, however no official statement had been released yet by the Arcanletian government.

Aqua changed herself to become less impulsive, and put more of her focus on church work. Her and Kazuma's daily interactions had also turned into an occasional thing. She hadn't taken many opportunities to make fun of him that often, nor engage in random intervals of pointless bickering with the brunette for the smallest of irritations.

It's also been a while since the young Adventurer had even had to deal with any debt, courtesy of the both of them currently having a decent financial position. He liked this lifestyle, although he couldn't shake off the feeling that his relationship with the Arch-priest had become more distant.

They may have had an increase in their productivity, but their resolve seemed to be diminishing. He found that he could no longer feel completely normal and upfront around her, to the point that sometimes he would try saying something to Aqua, and she wouldn't reply. It made things increasingly awkward between the two of them, a problem they never had before in their previous hectic life.

After a month had already passed, they've become quite comfortable living in Arcanletia. One evening after Kazuma returned from work, he began waiting for Aqua to come back so that he could try talking with her and liven up her mood again.

He took this chance to setup the table and prepare food for dinner with his newly-learned cooking skills. In this world gathering up skill points felt easier than stealing chocolates from kids. Pretty much as an Adventurer, simply going though your card and selecting skills was child's play because with enough points you could easily learn all the basic skills.

Aqua had finally returned home after taking a bath at the hot springs, only to be met by a friendly Kazuma.

"Yo, Aqua. How was work today, any new members joining that cult of yours?"

"Great.", She mustered up a smile that looked devoid of her usual charm.

The both of them sat down to eat dinner.

Kazuma attempted to start a conversation with the miffed housemate, but she simply ate her food, gave him a thank you for making said food, and went back to her bedroom.

That awkward and distant feeling Kazuma had earlier came back knocking, except this time he felt like it was becoming serious.

Soon they both went to bed, but after a few hours, Kazuma woke up feeling thirsty, and jumped out of his bed to drink some water.

When walking back to his room, he saw the door to Aqua's room being slightly ajar.

'Is she awake right now?'

Just as Kazuma was entering his room, audible sounds of weeping could be heard from Aqua's open room.

He tried ignoring it, but couldn't scratch an itch that surfaced on his mental skin. Usually he'd find it hysterical when she started crying, but in this instance her sobs didn't sit right with him.

Kazuma slowly opened her door and peeped his head inside.

His blue friend was sitting down on the floor in her night suit, one leg dangling from her back and the other up front. Her hands rested on the arch of the window, and her hair was an untied mess lying on the floor.

She seemed to be hung up on something as the moon's light illuminated upon her face. In that frame she looked so simple yet truly elegant, raising a spike in Kazuma's heartbeat for the first time since he died in his past life.

"Aqua…", Kazuma slowly called out to her.

Upon hearing this, the vulnerable Goddess quickly started wiping the tears off her eyes in a panic.

"O-Oh! Kazuma… what are doing here? Wait, are you trying to do something perverted to me right now?"

"Shut up! What kind of person do you think I am? All I heard was a friend crying, so I came to check if you're alright."

"Well, there's nothing wrong here, I'm alright as you can see. Now can you please leave my room?"

It was now clear to him that she was trying to hide something, and it was made evident as he could clearly see tear marks on her face when she faced towards him.

He walked up to Aqua and sat down beside her.

"Hey, did someone at the church mistreat you? If anything did happen at work today, you can always tell me about it. Don't worry, even if the culprit's a woman, I could simply drop kick her ovaries on the spot."

"No, it's nothing like that, Kazuma. This city's people admire and praise Aqua, but eventually I started realizing that they were only focusing on the looks and ideals of the perfect Goddess they worshipped. That's not me at all."

Kazuma started getting confused.

"What do you mean by that? You look so happy living here; I thought you'd love being surrounded by people admiring and complimenting you everyday."

"I know… but still. You didn't even want to come back to life because you said that living with me was so troublesome. You're only with me because you have to, and if you were given the chance, I'd bet you'd easily replace me with someone else. First heaven kicked me out, and now my own people don't even acknowledge the Goddess that I am, they only see me as a hassle."

"I'm sure they don't mean it like that-"

"I feel like I don't matter anymore, and I'm not even sure if I want to return home now."

Her response hit Kazuma like a goddamn wrecking Ball. This was the first time he'd ever felt genuine sorrow and sadness coming from the usually-cheerful Goddess. He always thought that all his insults and remarks never truly affected her all the much, but now it had started to bite at him in the ass, a slow build-up to something.

He felt really bad for her, considering that he himself went through a similar cycle back then, deluding one's self to enjoy life by indulging in their desires. Deep inside he still despised himself for everything, including his miserable life.

The brunette saw a glimpse of himself in her during that moment.

He mustered up enough strength to say what he knew the blue Goddess has wanted to hear from him for a long time now.

Kazuma stood back up, and bowed to her.

"Aqua, I am so sorry. For all the times I teased you or hurt your feelings. I guess it was all just a grudge I still had with you since we first met."

"I am sorry for all the times I mistreated you."

"I am sorry for all the times I took you for granted, especially when you revived me a while back. You are gifted with such amazing abilities, and I envy you for that. "

"Kazuma…", Aqua was taken aback by the sudden shift in his usual attitude.

"Looking back, I do admit that I used to be extremely selfish back then, and I probably still am now. I understand that you never meant to start arguments with me that often, even if it was over some stupid stuff.", he trailed his eyes around the room.

"Most of the time you tried being the sensible one in every situation, but my sour attitude kind of contradicted you into doing the opposite. It really annoyed me back then, but I know now that I could've handled it better."

"Almost all of my moody insults came down to just you racking up so much debt for me, and bringing in trouble when I didn't want any; but at the same time, you've always stood by me during said trouble. You may not be a great Goddess, but you are always a great friend in my eyes."

Aqua's eyes began to water up again hearing him utter these compliments from the bottom of his heart.

"You asked if I really meant what I said the other day, and to put it short: I really did mean it. Please don't think of yourself as worthless or replaceable, oh Goddess of mine. I don't really know if you'll forgive me for everything, but I can only ask and hope for it."

In all of her existence, Aqua had never heard of such kind and heartfelt words from anyone she met. Most of the kindness she was given had been friendly banter or praises from people whom she knew she'd receive it from, yet hearing from someone she'd never expect it from made her heart flutter on the inside.

She couldn't contain her composure anymore, and broke down again, snivelling and crying tears once more.

Kazuma didn't really anticipate this outcome, thus he was left not knowing what he should do now. Most scenarios in his head played out with Aqua being a tsundere and rejecting his sincere apology like an egomaniac, but with the situation given to him, he simply walked up to the bawling Goddess and wrapped his arms around her. At first he felt very awkward about it, mostly because the hug felt really stiff and robotic from his point of view, but also because he'd never imagined being in this position at all in his life.

Aqua on the other hand just went with the flow and completely buried herself in his chest, her face resting on his arms as she simmered down from crying..

Kazuma held back from moving all that much since he wanted to make it look not creepy at all. So he just stood still, waiting for her to take the initiative and move again.

"I… *sniff*… I am sorry too, Kajuuumaa, for all the trouble I've caused you."

Eventually after tears ceased to fall down her face, the melancholic brunette started wiping her tears off with his tracksuit.

"There, there. Don't fret, Aqua, You really are my one and only true friend in this crazy fantasy world."

She tried smiling through her tear-stained face, because even if she knew that she looked like a complete mess on the outside, she also knew that Kazuma wanted to see her smile with radiance again.

"Y'know what, Aqua? I say Fuck the Devil king. Let's start over from here, and do our best to eventually become rich one day and finally live a normal life."

"What do you mean by that?", she asked in a confused manner.

"I'm just trying to say: let's live out a normal life together. I mean, there are always stronger Warriors and Adventurers out there than us anyway, so why can't we just do something else?"

Aqua wasn't exactly sold yet on this idea.

"With my high luck, I could actually try becoming a merchant with all of my ideas from the past life. I have a really solid plan now, but I need your help with it. Don't worry, you can still keep focusing on your work and such while aiding me on the side."

Aqua questioned his idea with a doubt of her own, "But what about the war out there with the Devil king?", to which Kazuma responded.

"Look, I understand that deep down you wanna return home sometime soon, but as of now, we just simply aren't strong enough yet. Maybe if we manage to gather enough resources and Adventurer skills, then probably in the future we could develop something that can help support the army in some way."

"And who's to say that someone else wouldn't be able to defeat him head-on? Maybe that princess Iris girl or that Jatis guy could do it. Is it even specifically me who has to kill the Devil lord in order for you to return?"

"Nothing like that as far as I know, but a wish can only be granted to that one person who defeats him."

"Works for me, then.", Kazuma replied almost spontaneously.

"Listen, we will simply live out a normal, luxurious life. If you say that you're on-board with me, then you can live however you want alongside your's truly, although I'd appreciate it if you could try controlling your drinking habits and stop wasting money. If you can manage to do that, then I can promise that I'll stop being mad at you when you do mess up."

Kazuma extended out a hand, awaiting for her response.

"…"

"..."

"…Okay then, Kazuma."

Aqua reached her own hand out to him, clasping onto his hand tightly.

"Yes, I will. I want to live by my own way too."

A gleeful smile had finally sprouted from the Aqua's face, as she felt like an invisible wall that was built between them started to crumble.

"Say, how about we celebrate this moment with some good ol' fine wine?"

The thought of enjoying wine together with his blue-haired Goddess friend sounded like a nice idea to Kazuma.

"Sure, then."

He zipped into the kitchen to bring out a bottle of wine, coupled with two glasses.

"Well, I was kind of saving this for a special occasion, but I can't really think of anything more special than tonight, soooo…"

After pouring the wine into both glasses, they sat there in front of Aqua's window with a hint of glint in their eyes. With a new sense of vigor and fire set ablaze in their hearts, they set out to change their lives for the better, a strong burst of strength and energy flowing through them already.

So they clinked their glasses with each other signify a toast:

"To a new future together."