It's (almost) free real state

Part 1

Some time had passed since the defeat of the Demon King General Beldia. The celebrations died out and life in the 'Beginner Town' of Axel returned to normal. And in the blink of an eye, it was winter.

The guild's inn was full to it's brim of adventurers drinking and eating despite being daylight. And is this place where:

"Let's go on a quest!"

"I don't wanna."

Darkness dejectedly sat back down and Megumin gave her a pat on the back. Ever since winter began they had been trying their hardest to pull Kazuma out to do quests, but it had been going nowhere so far.

"Hey, you'll become a lazy bum if you stay here all this season. We went the first week of winter but after that you turned us down completely. At least you still accompany me in my chanting strolls so, why don't we do quests?"

Kazuma let out a sigh and shoved a spoonful of food to his mouth, some greens avoiding being eaten. "Listen, I get were you're coming from but look around us! Is anyone else doing quests? No. Winter is simply a bad season to go out adventuring, and unlike that pervert there, I don't feel the need to suffer when we can cozily stay here."

What Kazuma said was true. Winter was a specially harsh time for adventurers. Even adventurers who weren't known for their long-term planning mulled their time away in the inn during the winter.

This was because the weak monsters had all hibernated, only the dangerous creatures were still active. And those creatures became even more desperate territorial in their fight for food as many sources of it were hidden away or destroyed due to the harsh climate. So the strong monsters usually were extremely aggressive. All this meant that tor adventurers who were just slightly stronger than regular people, taking up quests during the winter was straight up suicidal. Only the desperate ones did that.

And there wasn't anyone desperate. After all, the reward for defeating the Demon King's army boss had been paid out to the adventurers who took part in the battle. And these adventurers who had gotten a bit more well off lost all reasons to risk their lives hunting monsters in the winter.

If one were to thoroughly survey the guild, most adventurers were already getting drunk, despite being early in the morning. Because the truth was they were not going to do anything the entire day.

"At first we took a time out on taking quests because we were waiting for the new equipment we bought to came here. But winter came here so it can't be helped."

Out of the 300 million eris they had spent a good amount in getting better equipment. Kazuma who had been officially been granted all the money tried to divide it between the party, but everyone (except Aqua) refused, so he was in charge of the party's money distribution.

Kazuma bought better equipment for him. Although he really wished to use a katana, for now he had to opt for a sword that had been crafted using magic, and as such was more durable and swift. It didn't have any magic properties, but it still applied to that 'Magic Swordsman' look Kazuma wanted.

He placed an order on the blacksmith to create him a new set of adventurer gear also enchanted. It took some time since it was tailor-made in the capital, but the result was spectacular. Locking basically exactly the same to Kazuma's old set up, the new one provided him with slight resistance against magic. It was something like Aqua's hagoromo, but of course it couldn't even hold a candle to it. It was a holy relic after all.

Darkness didn't want anything, being satisfied with just repairing her current set up. And Aqua didn't want anything more with the exception of booze. She claimed her equipment was perfect, but he had already gone shopping with her so he wasn't surprised.

Megumin also didn't upgrade anything, but she did get some mana potions. Raw manatite was way more effective, but was also expensive as hell. Even with all his money it would be too much of an expense, and Kazuma wasn't going to throw his money away, only to have the loli get exited and use her strongest spell. At least the potions would help her cast more Blast and even Detonate spells, because it recovered mana, not exhaustion for depleting it.

That still left him with a lot of money. He had spent 10 million eris in all that, but it barely made a dent in his now enormous savings. He was planning on taking quest with a focus on farming exp instead of money. But now winter came, and he didn't wish to go outside any longer. He was rich and he was going to enjoy it.

"Don't try to convince this man. Kazuma has the lowest level among us after all. It's natural for him to be scared of taking winter quests."

Aqua naturally hit a nerve as if it was nothing. Not only had he the weakest class in a party full of top-tier classes, he had the lowest level too. And the Adventurer class was the easiest to level up too.

Before the defeat of Beldia, Aqua had the lowest level, being level 7. But vanquishing Beldia sent her all the way up to level 16.

Megumin had not been as successful on their grind previous the Dullahan attacks. They mostly hunted frogs after all, and Megumin developed some sort of complex, and it hindered her hunting them. But after wiping out all the Undead Knights she went from 15 to 20.

Darkness began with the most level at 18, and either weakened or defeated the targets outright, so she was quite high in level at 23. But since she didn't kill anyone at the battle, so despite her epic duel with Beldia she didn't gain any levels.

And just like her, Kazuma didn't earn any exp. But unlike Darkness, he was only level 13. He was hoping to overtake Megumin in level, but now even Aqua surpassed him.

He had been bummed about it so Aqua tried cheering him up by telling him that most people never even reached level 10 in their lifetime. Most adventurers were stuck in the 10-20 level range for a long time, and so being level 30 to 40 was considered a 'veteran'. Level 50 and onward was considered 'hero' material, but many would reach then only when they were too old. And so Aqua said that being level 13 was fine at his age.

Still, he was bothered that Megumin, who was younger than him beat him in level. And while Aqua tried to cheer him on, now here she was talking about his weakness as if it was nothing. She really is something this goddess…

"Hey Kazuma, just because we have a lot of money doesn't mean that we can slack off. I'm itching to actually test my upgraded Explosion on an enemy target."

Kazuma ignored her and took another sip of his Neroid. He had been down to try something with actual alcohol in it but was discouraged by the drunk Aqua, who drank every morning due to the lack of quests.

"Listen, I said no and my word on this is final. In fact instead of bothering me about this you could help me look for a place to stay."

Since basically all of the adventurers in town had earned a small fortune that would last for probably all winter, the inn rooms were all full. Usually some less-lucky adventurers had to sleep on the stables or ask for some housing from the citizens, but now the inn was at full capacity.

And so Kazuma thought that it was the perfect opportunity to achieve one of his goals: Finally have a roof to call his own.

For a shut-in to not have a room that he could rest and laze around was simply unheard of. Kazuma had to share his inn room with Aqua, and so lacked the necessary privacy a teen‒ No. Any man required. Besides he didn't actually leave his parents home in the previous world, and so having a home was something Kazuma really looked forward too.

"Hah. Fine, why not. I suppose you have been planning to do that for a while now." Megumin said to Kazuma: "There's a man who sells building in this town. I'll show you his office with the condition that we return and do some quest. They don't even have to be hard ones for now. But well definitely work on those later, alright?"

Part 2

Kazuma finally gave in and accepted Megumin's offer. And so both of them plus Aqua went looking for what would be their new home.

And currently:

"Well I have some quite the variety of residencies for you to choose from, but only some of them are for multiple people."

The real state agent was showing Kazuma all the choices of housing they could acquire. Money wasn't really a problem and being a 'Beginner Town', many houses were left for sale as adventurers left constantly to other towns.

A slight problem is that they required a house for both Aqua and him. Unfortunately many of the buildings were only made for one person. And Aqua was also insistent in that the house should be spacious. in the end he also decided to search for a house that would allow everyone in his party to stay there, as both Megumin and Darkness also slept in the inn.

"And fewer fit your description as you can see."

The man handed Kazuma various papers were it detailed the parameters of the houses. Some of them had cached Kazuma's eye, and Aqua read over the rest.

"Though I should warn you about something before you consider buying. Lately for some unknown reason, it appears that all sorts of spirits are appearing in all of the empty houses."

Aqua reacted at hearing about spirits, while Kazuma was surprised that he would tell them such a fact. The man continued with a tired face.

"Since it's winter and many adventurers can afford it, they rented many houses for this season. But many spirits are hunting those houses, and they filled complaints and asked for refunds, so I must tell you about this fact."

With Aqua here, spirits won't be a problem. Kazuma recalled how she was particularly strong against the undead types. But something nagged him about the whole issue.

The man seemed to guess both his concern and question from his expression.

"Of course I have even asked around the adventurer's guild. Everyone there said that this was the first time they encountered something like this and didn't know how to handle it. Even after posting a quest to subjugate the spirits, new ones would move in right after the quest was done. It's already the fifth time they return. I was even thinking about enlisting the help of a friend I know if the next one doesn't work."

He sighed and somehow looked even more fatigued than before. "It's just that no matter how we exorcise them, the evil spirits keep coming one after another. Never mind selling the houses, just clearing the houses of spirits is a pain."

Kazuma nodded in understanding about what stress the man must been trough. For a moment he thought he heard: And that place is a lot worse too, but was interrupted by Aqua.

"Kazuma, Kazuma! Look at this one!" Aqua held one of the papers and shoved it in front of Kazuma's face.

"Yes, I'm Kazuma." He grabbed the paper and examined what it said.

"A mansion like that is what a goddess like me deserves! You should feel ashamed that you have made me stay at the inn instead of a place like that one. But I'm very benevolent, so I'll forgive your misdeed if you correct them and purchase that mansion for me!"

Kazuma turned his ears away from the self-aggrandizing piece the goddess was spitting and read the paper in detail. The place was a mansion in the suburbs. It had a lot of rooms (more than they'll need anyways), and so it was quite spacious.

The agent seemed to get nervous when he saw Kazuma considering and reviewing that certain building. And he didn't hide it when Kazuma asked him about it.

"T-that building? W-well you see… That one also has a spirit problem but… this one had the problem since long ago, long before I had this other problem. In fact it has for long been regarded as a haunted mansion."

Kazuma didn't get bothered by that fact thanks to Aqua, and she got more pumped up instead. That seemed to surprise and even bother the agent.

"And how much does it cost?"

"Well since it's so hard to get rid of the spirits it's value drops a lot so around 50 mil‒ W-wait! C-could it be… are you actually considering purchasing the mansion? Despite all of the spirits haunting it?"

Kazuma looked at Aqua who gave him a thumbs up.

"Well, she might not look like it, but my partner here is actually a pretty capable Arch-priest." Kazuma pointed at Aqua. "And I'm certain that she can deal with the spirits on that mansion."

"Ah, she's an Arch-priest? And those other girls… The are you perhaps adventurers?"

Megumin and Darkness had shown them the way to the real state agent office, and after Kazuma had told them that he would search for a place for all of them, Megumin went for an Explosion stroll and dragged Darkness with her.

"Yes, we're adventurers. We're actually looking for a place to stay and make our 'base of operations'. That's why this mansion is a really good catch."

"So you are adventurers. I thought for certain that you 3 girls and a guy were… Never mind. Well in that case I think if you say to be high level adventurers I could consider it."

The man turned to a drawer and took out a stack of papers, and then a file out of them. "The mansion would normally cost a very hefty amount, but since this spirit problem it's price it's around 50 million eris."

The man took another file and examined between them.

"But to be honest… that mansion has actually given me a huge deficit for some time now. It cost me to keep it maintained and it's harder due to the spirits. I would consider giving it away for free in some cases."

The face that was tired and fatigued left and a smile came to the agents face.

"But if you'd like… I have an offer to make you…"

Part 3

"So, this is the mansion."

The documents didn't contain any images of the places, and as such the sight before them was surprising.

According to the real state agent, the number of rooms were few for a mansion, but for Kazuma it sure didn't look like it. It was several times the size of a single mansion in Japan, and it would be more accurate to call it a villa.

The state used to be the villa of a noble family. But that aristocratic family had abandoned that villa. And just as the villa was about to be sold, evil spirits appeared within it.

"Not bad! This place is great! Even better than I thought! This is where someone like me should be staying in from the beginning!"

Aqua shouted while hugging a small bag. Megumin also had a bag with her, and seemed to be blushing with excitement.

Because they were going to be living in this villa.

Because the mansion was huge, there were plenty of evil spirits within. As a result, it had been widely regarded as a haunted mansion.

As such the price for purchasing it was very low considering how big the villa was. And not only that. The agent had offered them to reside there for free while they purify the spirits, and so decide if they really wished to make the purchase.

It was really lucky for them to happen upon such a great opportunity. After all, Aqua would have no problem dealing with the exorcism, and the reward would be a relatively cheap villa, at 25 million eris. Less than a quarter of what it would originally be. And totally affordable to the rich Kazuma.

"But can we really exorcise the evil spirits? I heard new spirits would keep coming back no matter how much you clear them."

Darkness who was carrying a large pack said.

Going by common sense, finding the reason why the spirits kept coming and resolving the issue was the best strategy. But Kazuma had decided to simply deal with the spirits on the mansion for the time being. Besides, the quest they took was limited to exorcising the spirits, so they would gain nothing from going out of their way.

"But the man did told us this place has not been occupied for a very long time. Didn't the disturbance of the spirits only happen recently? We know this mansion already had issues before the spirit problem hit the entire town, but how big exactly…?"

Megumin said uneasily.

"Yes, but even if this mansion had problems, we'll be fine. We have Aqua with us, right? No worries, she's an expert in fighting the undead."

Even though everyone felt a bit uneasy while hearing him saying that, they still thought Aqua's abilities as an Arch-priest were very impressive, so they were a little less worried.

"Leave it to me! … Fufu, I can see it, I can see it! With my spiritual eyes, I see the noble, who was fooling around with a maid, and the child that the maid bore, who was kept here as the illegitimate child of the noble clan! The noble died from illness, and the maid went missing. The young girl left here contracted the same disease as her father, and died without ever seeing the faces of her parents! Her name was Anna Filante Asteroid. The things she liked were her dolls and the stories of adventurers! But please don't worry, this spirit won't pull pranks on us. She will not harm us! My my, she might be a child, but she liked mature things like drinking fine wine. So, prepare some wine as an offering!"

Aqua kept clamoring on like the cunning psychics that appeared on television all the time. Kazuma looked at her with the eyes of someone looking at a suspicious conman, and whispered Darkness and Megumin.

"… Hey, what do you think? I want to ask why this girl knows such unnecessary settings and names… Is she all right in the head? Or perhaps I judged her too hastily?"

"…"

They had eyes of: 'You know her longer than us, you tell!' and didn't answer his question. But some uneasiness was clearly present in them too.

Part 4

They took until night to sort their equipment and settled down in the mansion. They settled the distribution of the rooms, and brought all respective luggage there.

Since Aqua would be staying in the mansion, Kazuma held on to the faint hope that the evil spirits would be exorcised because of that. But on the other hand, he was worried that her 'goddess' aura might bring attract of them as it had done with the Undead knights.

With those hopeful thoughts, he took the biggest room on the second floor of the mansion, and slept quite soundly for knowing he was in a haunted mansion.

That was his first mistake.

In little time, he heard wails coming from Aqua's room, and it terrified him as he had placed so much hope in her.

He had rushed to Aqua's room and almost teared down the door of fear.

But he just found Aqua cradling an empty wine bottle and crying in the middle of the room.

She distraught told him how she had lost all her wine upon returning to her room. She pinned all of the blame on the evil spirits and even doubled down on the illegitimate child story. Kazuma didn't believe one word coming out of her mouth, and saw it as the rambling of a crazy and irresponsible girl.

That was his second mistake.

Aqua decided to do rounds around the mansion and vanquish any and all evil spirits she came across.

Kazuma thought that if the spirits sense of mischievousness extended to drinking people's wine, it would be fine letting it be. And either way, he trusted that Aqua would prove herself useful and exorcise the either way.

That was his last mistake.

"Aqua! Aqua-sama!"

Kazuma ran barefooted in the corridor toward Aqua's room. He had been in may precarious positions before: Giant frogs, flying cabbages, even chased by a Demon King General. And yet right now this was the fastest he had ever ran.

A plethora of loud cracks and bags came from behind him. There, a horde of dolls –of the terrific kind– chased him after appearing in his room at night. They had literally stared at his face, and as he attempted to escape more and more showed themselves all around his room. It was a miracle he didn't wet himself. Oh yeah. He also wanted to go to the toilet.

All in all, a very bad first night in the haunted mansion.

How scary, scary, super scary! What was that, why was this happening?

As he ran away from the horde of dolls he charged in and didn't even knock as he crashed onto Aqua's room.

He closed the door in a panic and locked it. And not a second to late, as something heavy crashed onto the door.

He resisted the impact through the door, and hastily looked around the room in search for his only hope.

But alas, Aqua wasn't there.

But in her place, sitting in the middle of the room in the darkness, was a black-haired girl with blood-red eyes.

"Hyaaa!"

"Wahhh!"

Kazuma couldn't help screaming, and the girl who upon closer inspection, turned up to be Megumin in her pajamas also left a scared shriek.

While Megumin and Kazuma screamed for a moment to regain a bit of their composure. Kazuma subconscious thought back at when was the last time he saw a girl on pajamas fir a sec, but the banging sound that kept coming from the door put him back in reality

"Don't–don't scare me like that Megumin, I almost pissed myself!"

"That–that's my line! Why did Kazuma come to this room! I thought Aqua was coming back…!"

Kazuma calmed himself upon seeing it was just her. "And why were you in Aqua's room? And where did Aqua go?"

Megumin stuttered. "Ugh… Eh, th- there was a doll, eh– moving around my room…"

Ah, so Megumin encountered the same thing as me.

"And… Well… I wanted to ask Aqua to protect me… I wanted to ask her to take me to the ladies…"

"… No, could it be… You too…?"

Hearing what he said, Megumin seemed to realize about the gravity of their situation, as Kazuma was in the same boat as her.

"Kazuma was chased around by dolls too? I think Aqua and Darkness went out to exorcise the spirits."

"… Aqua aside, even Darkness… Ah, that girl is a Crusader."

Darkness might've acted that way, but her job was still a Crusader. Crusaders were holy knights that followed the will of the gods. They might not have been at the level of priests, but they should be able to invoke holy powers.

And who's to say that a good slash of her sword won't be enough to drive them out? Kazuma would be grateful for either.

But that meant that the situation they were had gotten worse.

As it was too sudden, things like weapons had been unaccounted in their escape. His newly-bought sword and Megumin's staff were both left behind.

Using Explosion or Detonate magic indoors without her staff would be devastating.

"Can you cast blast spells on the dolls Megumin?"

"W-well technically I could but… it would probably cause some collateral damage."

That was the downside of the Detonation series. Most attack spells were related to some kind of element. If used in a certain way then they would most likely leave some kind of recoil, some more than others, but in these cases even a minor spell like Blast was enough to cause some considerable damage to their mansion. The mansion they technically hadn't bought yet.

As Kazuma racked his brain trying to plan something out, Megumin seemed to realize something.

"Kazuma, the noise outside the door seems to have stopped. Maybe the dolls aren't there anymore?"

Just as she mentioned the pounding sound had stopped. Still, neither of them dared to open the door.

After all Aqua could purify a lich easily, so she would not be taken down by some dolls. And so the most wise choice would be to bunker down in the room until Aqua and Darkness exorcised all the spirits in the mansion.

But of course, there was the other problem.

"Hey, Megumin, please face the door and cover your ears. Excuse me, but I'm going to relieve myself at the balcony…"

Kazuma wouldn't have doubted to settle the call of nature, but Megumin grabbed the belt of his trousers from behind, not letting me go.

"Hey, what are you doing? Release me, or my trousers and the carpet in this room will be ruined!"

"I won't let you go! How could I let you relieve yourself! Aren't we comrades?! Whether it's the toilet or anywhere, we'll go together…!"

Megumin said with a serene smile.

"Ah, but didn't you say that Crimson Demons don't need to use the washroom earlier? Surely you wouldn't say something with such strong conviction without it not being true right?"

Kazuma replied with just a tranquil and calm smile as she had shown.

"Oho? When did you ever hear that? You must have misheard– No, misunderstood me. Of course we Crimson Demons don't need to use the washrooms thanks to our well conditioned bodies, but that's only when doing quests and after previous preparations you see?"

Kazuma had forced his smile as Megumin grasped stronger while she talked. He really had a desire to go on a long quest and force her to finally abandon her facade but for now…

"Is that so? That must be it then. Well how about… Look, there's an empty wine bottle there, just use that. There shouldn't be any trouble right?"

Megumin also had hardened her smile and was about to retort when she started staring intensely at the balcony window.

Kazuma looked over there with a foreboding feeling.

Was this unexpected, or was this just as expected.

Many dolls were pressing against the window and looking their way. Even more than those who had came after him.

Both of them turned to each other, their smiled still as serene as calm breeze. They took a breath and…

"Ahhhhhh!"

… charged out of the room.

Part 5

"Turn Undead! Turn Undead! Turn Undead! Hah… That's another room cleaned out. Weren't the spirits supposed to be all aver town? With this many of them you could swear they all are being drawn here!"

Darkness stared at Aqua's handwork. While she had attempted to assist in the clearing of the evil spirits as her Crusader code demanded of her. But to be honest she didn't really seem to be of any use in the exorcism. Aqua basically exterminated all of them just when they were in reach, and she couldn't even perform as a meat– as a shield.

"Uhm, Aqua… you should be fine on your own right? I should go looking for Kazuma and Megumin. They are probably really distraught without any protection."

Darkness had also forbade all of her equipment at her room when she had chased after Aqua. She was just in her nightgown, which meant that if the dolls ever got to her, she would have no means to protect her body…!

Of course, since she was accompanied by Aqua, none of the dolls got a chance to even approach even three meters of them. How was she supposed to feel the thrill of… performing her duty, when she couldn't do anything but just stare there.

"Fufu… well of course those two would be lost without my guiding light! Megumin would probably be fine with her spells, but that shut-in NEET must be praying for my help at this very moment! Alright Darkness, let's go save them from-"

Boom!

A loud sound came from somewhere in the mansion. A sound they all had became too accustomed in these later days.

Megumin and her spells…!

"Yes, no more problems. There were plenty of evil spirits here. I worked until daybreak."

After Aqua purified the last spirit possessing the dolls, she said so while looking outside the brightening window.

The brightening broken window.

Megumin was prostrating and asking multiple times for forgiveness from Darkness, who kept berating her about not getting to reckless.

They both had shared a heartwarming moment together. Kazuma had a slight problem on the fact that it had happened while accompanying her to the bathroom, but it was fine for him. The bonding they had in there, both as comrades and friends, was something Kazuma wouldn't have ever dreamed of happening to him.

It would have been great if just some minutes later, Megumin would fail to hold back and release an Air-blast spell.

She didn't have her staff, so her spell was less concentrated and powerful. The less power was great. The less accuracy, not so much.

"You should be thankful you only broke a window and didn't damage any of the walls. We're given the chance to live in this place for free and you go and do this…"

Kazuma wouldn't be lying if he had now some guilt over this and felt some obligation to buy the mansion. After all he probably could have dissuaded Megumin from using her magic, but he had been to scarred of the doll wave chasing after them. Still, the place had been cleared of evil spirits, so purchasing the place should be fine.

But even an expert in fighting undead like Aqua took an entire night to dispose of all the spirits in this mansion.

"Hmm, I think we should report this to the guild. Although we didn't take on this quest in the guild, this is a job for adventurers anyway. We might get some unexpected bounty for exorcising all the spirits in this mansion. I also want to know why there are so many spirits turning up in town suddenly."

Everyone agreed with Darkness, Megumin finally stood up and promised to not cast spells on their own -soon to be- house.

Darkness and Megumin stayed in the mansion to tidy up the place after the spirit scuffle. Meanwhile Kazuma and Aqua headed to report to the guild.

On the way there, both of them talked about exorcising the undead from the house. Aqua brought once again the outrageous lie about that child spirit only so she could get some booze out of him.

Kazuma ignored Aqua and extended a hand to open the door into the guild.

"Good morning. It's a bit early, but I have something to report, is it convenient?"

It was early, but the receptionist was already working. They headed there and talked to her.

"No problem, may I ask what is it?"

Aqua and Kazuma both explained to her how they took a request from the property agent and went to subjugate the evil spirits in the mansion, but there had been a strangely large number of them. The receptionist looked at Aqua's adventurer's card and nodded.

"There are many who are seeking help due to the spread of the evil spirits. Since you've successfully repelled the monsters, we should give you some bounty rewards. Thank you for your hard work."

After listening to her, both of them almost made a quiet victory pose before she continued.

"Sorry for taking your time, but we've found out why the evil spirits were wandering around. Here's the report. There's a public cemetery in Axel town, right? I don't know who played a prank, creating a giant holy barrier on that cemetery. The spirits in the cemetery had nowhere to go, so they had to go to town and haunt houses where no one was living in…"

Aqua's body shook for a moment and stiffened.

…

"Ah yes. Thank you for your time, but we'll actually refuse the rewards. We're already being rewarded by the real state agent after all. Speaking of which, we should probably head there and report him about our success. Goodbye!"

Kazuma interrupted the receptionist and pulled Aqua out of the guild.

"Hey, you know what happened, right? Tell me!"

"… Yes. Didn't Wiz ask me to periodically visit the cemetery to send the lost spirits to the other world? But going there every now and then is a real hassle, right? So, I thought if I chased all the spirits in the cemetery away and let them wander around, they would dissipate naturally over time…"

Aqua seemed to have given up struggling, revealing the truth honestly. No matter how earnestly she had worked cleansing the spirits from the mansion, she was lazy by nature. And because of her laziness, the spirits had nowhere to go and came to town.

Aqua guiltily accepted Kazuma's terms of apologizing to the agent, as it was almost fraud what they were doing. They returned to the mansion since the real state agent was going to come in the morning to see everything.

"My my, I was worried and came to look. I didn't expect all the evil spirits to be exorcised! To dispose of so many spirits proves that you are powerful adventurers!"

They had broken his property and also basically caused the problem that had stressed him for the last few days. But here he was happy to see them well. Seeing the smiling face of that man and knowing how worried he was about them, Kazuma couldn't stand it anymore.

Aqua and him started to spill the beans, and were planning to return the house to that man after finishing the exorcism and paying the repairs.

"I see… But you were going to purchase a house for me if I remember… So if possible, could you please consider staying here from now on? This house is too big, and there are more evil spirits here than other places, so it has a bad reputation…"

Seeing the charitable and kind spirit of the agent, Kazuma really gave in and purchased the mansion directly.

Kazuma and the agent settled the purchase right there, as the man predicted that they would buy the mansion and brought the respective papers.

For such an impressive (and surprisingly well maintained) domain, the prize was quite low. Part because of the bad reputation as being haunted lowering it's value and because of a big discount from the agent. In the end Kazuma bought the mansion at 20 million eris, less than a fourth of what it would normally be prized.

The agent made the discount under two conditions. He pushed hard enough so that they sounded like conditions for living in the mansion. And both were a bit strange.

One condition for living here was cleaning the small tomb at the corner of the courtyard.

And so, Kazuma started weeding the courtyard immediately. While cleaning, he could make out some vague words on the tombstone.

Those word probably spelled the name of the person who was resting there.

Yet Kazuma payed it no mind as he finished up cleaning the tombstone and ran toward the mansion to ready himself. The other were probably already set to go.

Because the second condition was…

"After finishing your adventures, or when eating dinner, you have to chat about your adventures with your companions… That's a strange condition, but it's not very hard."

But that meant one thing.

"It's time to go adventuring again."

Part 6

Kazuma had pushed the matter around as long as he could. But it was time for them to finally return to do quests.

He had no more excuses, and in fact he was feeling quite exited to return to adventuring and raise his level. Money wasn't a problem and probably wouldn't be for a long time unless something really, really bad happened, so Kazuma was focused entirely on defeating monsters and gaining exp.

They had actually just finished defeating a pack of White Wolfs that were roaming around and attacking the farms.

A pack of twelve giant wolves white as the snow they traveled in, they had been quite an ordeal to handle. Kazuma had asked his partners to attempt to leave the kills to him so that he would level up, but they were quite ferocious and powerful, so they didn't take any chances and had to fight them seriously.

As expected of winter monsters, they were quite hard to take. Megumin's Detonate killed three and then she finished two more with some Blast spells. Darkness finished another four and Kazuma the last three.

Both Megumin and him gained one level and had gained one million eris too, but since Kazuma wanted to do some serious grinding instead of earning money, they hadn't really gained much.

While they could give some serious experience, they were not ideal for grinding how Kazuma wanted to. He wanted some enemies that he could take on while the rest just assisted him. And there were really few quests that fit these parameters on winter. Because most winter monsters were the toughest Axel could throw at any adventurers.

After some discussion they were about to settle on hunting dire wolves, the white wolves smaller and less threatening cousins, when a male voice shook them:

"I don't know why they let you tag along, dead-weight."

"Hey, say that again."

"I can say it as many times as you want. You mentioned doing easy target quests? In a party full of high-tier job members, can't you take on a harder quest? You're the dead weight holding them back, right, man with the weakest job?"

The man dressed like a warrior said as his companions at his table laughed with him. Kazuma, who was the target of a group which had too much to drink, had to bear with it.

Kazuma could easily handle this maturely. Compared to the usual drunk insults from Aqua, the taunts from a drunkard you could find anywhere weren't worth mentioning for him.

But this man's words made some sense. Just as he'd said, all of his companions had high-tier jobs, and his 'Adventurer' job was indeed the weakest.

Why was he then the leader of such an unbalanced party. Well Kazuma knew the reason. He was tho one with the most common sense in the party, and that made him the leader. And since he was the leader, he wasn't bothered at all from the insults of that man.

After all his teammates were a destruction fanatic Arch-priest, who had the most devastating line of spells at her command; a masochist perverted Crusader, who was almost immune to damage and was strong enough to prove it; and a scatterbrained idiot drunkard Goddess who had capped stats since the start.

Of them all he was just a normal teenage boy you could find anywhere, so of course he had the most common sense. He was completely normal- No, mediocre compared to them. But it didn't bother him.

It didn't bother him at all.

It also didn't bother him that he had nothing to rebuke the man. Or the fact that man thought he was afraid of him because he'd kept quiet.

"Hey, say something, weakest job holder. Really, bringing three pretty ladies around, are you planning to create a harem? And all of them have top-tier jobs. You must be creating wonderful memories everyday with these girls, right?"

Hearing this, the guild exploded in laughter. Rowdy all-time drunk adventurers, they just laughed because something interesting was happening. Kazuma felt that with those people in the crowd, he could get over this with just clenching his fists.

Glancing at the commotion, Megumin, Darkness, and Aqua came over to encourage Kazuma.

"Kazuma, don't bother with them. I won't mind no matter what they say about us."

"That's right Kazuma, ignore those drunkards."

"Yeah, that man is just jealous that Kazuma has us. I don't mind, so just leave them be."

Correct, the man before us is the typical troublemaker you would find in mangas. There is no need to be concerned with him.

"Yeah you're right. Let's go everyone."

He could hear the troublemaker take another jab at him but he didn't listen to it. He really shouldn't care about what that warrior had to say.

Then why am I so angry?

He already knew that he was the weakest, and also knew that sometimes he felt jealous of his teammates, but it never gate even close to this level of spite he was feeling on his abilities.

"Ka… Kazuma, are you alright?"

Aqua timidly approached him noticing how hard he was sulking.

Seeing her, the usual deliver of insults attempt to cheer him on snapped Kazuma out of it.

"Ah yes, of course I'm fine Aqua. I was just thinking of a way to prove them all wrong."

"Ah, huh?"

Megumin and Darkness gave each other worried looks as Aqua gasped. Kazuma ignored their gazes and once more checked the quest board.

Kazuma had previously focused on tasks that were normal in terms of danger, but there were a plethora of quests that, even for his party could be called challenging. Of course, many of them would actually be impossible for his party, but it didn't shadow the fact that he had ignored many hard quest in favor of more simple ones.

That was about to change.

'A 'One-hit Bear' has woken from hibernation. 2,000,000 to kill it, 500,000 for chasing it away.'

'A female Three-headed Lizard has nested on a nearby cave. 1,500,000 to kill it along with any of it's pack. Additionally collect any eggs of the lizard. 50,000 for each egg.'

'A large number of Frozen Warriors has gathered near some roads. 2,000,000 to defeat all of them.'

He saw multiple quests that fit his new parameters. And under the worried gazes of his party members, he ripped the three quest notices off the board.

Despite the title, there isn't any free real state in this chapter. Don't believe everything you see on the internet.

On that note; Due to a variety of things that required my attention I wasn't able to write any more of this story. Or that's how it should have been, because even though I should probably focus on matters like those, I couldn't stop myself from writing this story. I love doing it. Oh and also, the things that required my attention are done, so I should be pumping more of these faster.

I had this chapter finished since long ago, but didn't release it since it was part of a biggest chapter. I decided to divide them, and here it is. That also means that the next one should come any time soon, so be ready for that I guess.

And recently this story got 100 follows, for me it's the first time I've ever got that, so I wanted to say thank you for all the support! If you have any suggestions or ideas feel free to drop a review! Or maybe just do it regardless. You do you.

Kinda long note, but I wanted to say all of this. Once again thanks for reading my dumb story about these dumb lovable idiots. Until next time!