[Chapter 6: The Second Hunt Begins!]
(Kazuma POV)
(Copied from Light Novel.)
After returning to Axel and bidding farewell to Yunyun, instead of heading back to the mansion, we headed straight for the Adventurer's guild.
"To think that you actually defeated Moguninnin while I wasn't there. But we are party mates, so you'll split the money even if I was sleeping back then, right?" Aqua said in high spirits.
She seemed to have completely forgotten about how she was lecturing us just a moment ago.
"W-Well, I didn't expect that you really only did vigorous exercises last night. Sorry for doubting you, Megumin, Kazuma. Oh, I know! Aqua, why don't we buy some high quality ingredients and throw a party for them to celebrate their accomplishments!?"
"It's not a problem at all. I actually think it's a wonderful idea, especially coming from the usually hardheaded Darkness."
Perhaps feeling indebted to Megumin and me, Darkness maintained a smile on her face despite being called hardheaded by Aqua.
"So, Megumin, what do you think? Whose portion do you think we should draw the money to buy the high-class ingredients from?"
"Yeah, seriously! After knowing me for so long, you two should know very well that I wouldn't cause trouble just to fulfill my desire to cast Explosions."
"As if." x3
"Kazuma, whose side are you on?"
Leaving Megumin who was starting to get agitated behind, I quickly made my way to the receptionist.
"Yo, Onee-san, it's the large bounty hunter, Satou Kazuma."
"Ah, Satou-san! What brings you here today?"
I showed her the card I got from Megumin…
"I did it again, onee-san. Seriously… If we keep going on at this pace, we'll wipe out all the large bounty targets in no time at all. This will put all the other adventurers out of business, haha!"
"H-Hahaha… So you defeated the Bomber Majin Moguninnin, I see. Congratulations, I'll go prepare the bounty immediately!"
That onee-san doesn't even seem surprised anymore when we turn up with the head of yet another bounty.
However, I don't particularly mind her current reaction.
If you have to ask why, well…
(Copy stops here.)
"Satou; Satou Kazuma. We're here to have an important discussion." Sena's voice suddenly rang from the corner of the guild; I gulped as I slowly turned to her and start sweating bullets; I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything, I swear I didn't do anything!- Or at least I don't think I did- Damn it, AQUA OR MEGUMIN! WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO- HOW ANYWAYS?!
Sena, as if sensing my distress, quickly reassured me. "You don't need to fret yet, Satou. We just have a very special quest for you." I swear I could feel that she was grinning while saying that; I quickly retorted back, not wanting to deal with a larger mess.
"But why me? Aren't there royal gua-" I tried to reason but she quickly cuts off.
"Yes, there indeed are royal guards. But they only can arrive here tomorrow due to... Certain business." Sena grimaced at the last part, I wonder why. "Follow me outside, this is a private conversatio-." Sena instructed.
Megumin, who got back on track, quickly intervened and stepped between me and Sena. "Hey! If you have a reason to pull him out, say that straight to me!"
"Worry not, I will tell your party too..." Sena glanced at the other adventurers in the guild, "But we must not allow others to hear, even though they probably already know this."
"You guys should go, if Sena said so then it probably is important." Darkness said.
"Hey hey! Why do we go home and celebrate our accomplishments first!?" I quickly find the excuse to protest; I'm not going for a quest, I believe that I deserve a rest!
"Ah, so you managed to defeat the Bomber Majin Moguninnin. Congratulations, impressive I must say. I suppose it would be right for you to celebrate however, we will come back in the afternoon."
I let out a sigh of relief despite not getting the result I wanted... But if I still have to do that anyways so why not just ask what is this so-called special quest now.
Sena simply grinned and gestured for us to go outside. Once we are outside, Sena said, "Are you aware of an alien and a demon disguising as a human in this city?" She dropped the devastating question- Wait wait wait, what did she mean by 'alien'? Like, as in someone from the otherworld or a foreigner? Does this world even have laws about trespassing countries or nations?
"What's an alien?" Megumin curiously asked about the term she has never heard of.
"Well, a strong adventurer used that term a few weeks ago. It meant 'a creature from outer space' or so she said." Sena dropped the truth bomb. "It's being widespread in the capitol right now because..."
"There are rather interesting individuals appearing out of nowhere right now. From weak to strong, from common to unique people. And we need to capture them." The knight beside her said. "So, any questions?"
"What are the alien and demon like?" Aqua chimed in with her ever-increasing dark aura.
"About that, I suppose you should ask Luna in the guild."
"I... see... I-I will think about it." I stuttered out.
"We believe in you, Satou Kazuma." Sena said as she walks away with her 2 knights.
Coming back to the mansion. No, ain't no way we are having a celebration.
Megumin who we totally didn't expect, became very very eager about going on another adventure. I can't exactly blame her, I mean we're talking about investigating creatures from another world! Little did she know, she was always living under the same roof with one.
And because I don't think I will be able to get away, I just have to accept this, do I have a choice on this matter now? Having fame as the party that defeated Demon King's generals certainly does have its downside.
"I think we should recruit more people like Taylor's party or Yunyu-"
"NO! We do not need Yunyun, my Explosion will be enough to finish this quest!" Megumin protested.
"Do you hiki-NEET not believe in my goddess power? I can and will destroy that demon in a split second!" Aqua confidently said.
"I wonder what the alien is like. Is it a tentacle monster that-" I quickly pulled Darkness out of her fantasy before it could escalate into something worse.
"No no and no! We were requested to capture them, not to kill them! And we haven't even know anything about them yet, so we might need to ask for some reinforcements first, should the unfortunate situations happen."
"Well, if it comes to that, you can just sacrifice yourself and I will resurrect you." Aqua suggested the absurd idea.
"Do you think my/his life is expendable or something?!" I said with Megumin following suit.
And so, after a few hours, we went to the Adventurer's guild, the place I'd been too familiar with upon arriving in this world.
Luna spotted me and she probably already knew what I'm here for.
"Yo, Luna. So uh, I'm here to ask about this 'alien' and demon or whatever. Sena said I could ask you so if you would be so kind, please tell me all the useful information about them." I got straight to the point.
"As expected of Kazuma, as diligent as ever. But unfortunately, there isn't too much information about them. The only thing we know is the alien can cast rather strange (advanced?) magic and wield a sword. And the same goes for the demon, we only know that the demon is quite strong and capable of flying." Luna answered. "In fact, Mitsurugi is capturing them right now, so there's are chances that you don't need to go but we still need backups should he somehow fail."
"Oh please, cut the compliment." Considering my past experiences with him, I don't have that much faith in him if I'm being honest. Not that I want him to fail, mind you. In fact, if he succeeds, I will gift him something valuable.
"So I guess I should go recruit Taylor's party and Yunyun now huh?" The latter was a whisper, quiet enough to not let Megumin hear it-
"I heard it Kazuma." She whispered back with the tone that sent chills down my spine, "But I will allow it, just this one." I silently nodded without daring to turn back to her.
"Luna, was that all about the demon?" Aqua questioned calmly but everyone knows that she will jump whoever this demon is when she has the slightest of chance; one of the only things she was good at.
"I believe so as he didn't do too much in the past few days. But if I were you, I would be more concerned about the alien, he was capable of manipulating or straight up controlling someone; But even so, both of them are still enigmas, so that's why we need you to investigate them before the royal guards come here."
"Controlling? I guess that's rather troublesome. Hey Aqua, your Break spell can... well, break them, right?" I said as I ignored Darkness who is panting upon hearing 'manipulating' and 'controlling'.
"Who do you think I am? Of course I can, there's no curse I can't break!" Aqua answered with pride as she huffed her chest out.
"Yeah yeah whatever." I said, in the most disinterested and bored voice and moved on.
And true to my words, Taylor and his party accepted our request (Except for Dust, who has certain business) and they will be helping when the time comes. Yunyun was a bit reluctant because of a certain someone but eventually, she gave in and accepted too.
And the investigation begins at 3 PM.
While I'm walking, I began to recount the events yesterday. The Crimson Trial, and a lot of stuff happened there, to say the least. One of which is my relationship with Megumi- Actually no, we don't talk about that.
Back to reality, we've brought an army of 8 people (including me); even though this is literally straight up impossible, like, seriously, even Mitsurugi THE cheat user failed this then what chance do we even have? But against all odds, they managed to drag me along the ride so I have no choice but to do my part. Besides, I want to make sure that they will be ok after all, not that I will ever say out loud, mind you.
"Sniff sniff. Kazuma, I just smelled something disgusting." Aqua begins to identify a scent as Taylor's party just looks at her in absolute confusion; if I'm... Well, me, from a year ago then I would have undoubtedly assumed that Aqua's race was some sort of demi-human dog type.
"Let me guess, demon or undead?" Talking about race, we're currently doing a quest with Taylor's party (excluding Dust, of course) and Yunyun. Megumin has made a fuss this morning about letting Yunyun join the quest and the drama took a while to finally conclude with letting Yunyun join, of course, with the condition of Megumin being the superior mage in our party as she always was.
Aqua suddenly looks at me with a deadpan expression. Making me say, "What?"
"No, it's you, you stinky Loli-NEET! You think I didn't know what you do in Megumin's roo-" I smacked her hard and she begins to bawl nonsense.
You probably know what this quest is about but that, doesn't matter whether if you ask or not because I'm going to say anyways; this quest is about capturing a demon and surprisingly, an alien. I didn't even know that this world knows (or thinks) aliens exist because if I'm being honest here, me and maybe Aqua are probably aliens. But luckily, the 'race' on my card showed 'Human' and for Aqua, it showed 'Goddess'. It straight up showed 'Goddess' but no one seemed to take notice which is... Fortunate? But I can't help but wonder, where fate would have brought us to if Luna noticed that little detail.
Funny how she overlooked Aqua but not the two creatures who I assume just wanted to have a normal life like me. Or maybe not, maybe they have a greater goal?
"Kazuma Kazuma, you're spacing out." Megumin pulled me out of my narration.
"Oh, sorry. I'm just thinking of a plan-"
"What plan do you even need? You just need to bring me to that disgusting demon and I will just exorcism him away with ease" Aqua clearly forgot another individual.
"Aren't you forgetting someone else here?" Aqua shrugged, looking confused. I sighed and says,
"They said there's an alien, didn't they?" Aqua nodded as if that statement was nothing. "Then how are we going to deal with him? Pray tell, Aqua-sama."
"Simple, just let Megumin cast her Explosion on that creature! (Then a line of nonsense)" Aqua said with confidence; please send help-
"But we don't know what that guy can do, aside from using spells and sword." Taylor pointed out.
"Mitsurugi was so terrified that he couldn't explain properly." Keith said while trying not to roll on the ground and laugh.
"Pfft, what a crybaby." I snickered mockingly.
Walking through a small forest, I suddenly feel something unsettling, and as such. "Guys, I think we should get out of here. Something is telling me that-"
"What's wrong Kazuma? Weren't you calling Mitsuragi a coward a few minutes ago? And now you're backing out?" Aqua retorted.
"Hey! I just have a bad feeling is all!" I quickly retorted. "Though, can't say that I'm not excited too. I mean, that's someone from another world who somehow got their race to be 'unidentified'." I mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Megumin asked.
"Ah, nothing nothing."
Megumin then stares at me with her glowing crimson eyes, piercing my soul and sending telepathic messages into my head, "I know you have something to say." I whisper to her.
"I know you're impatience but please just wait, I will... explain it one day." "Better be." Megumin whispered back.
Then we suddenly hear a not-so-manly scream from Keith and in contrast, we rushed to where he is; upon arriving at the scene, we see the archer horrifiedly pointing at the corpse of a Rookie Killer...
No... THIS isn't even a corpse anymore. This is minced meat Rookie Killer, and it's gross as there are insects and even vegetables eating it. There was a possibility that I pissed myself without noticing when this THING got into my sight.
"S-So... Anyone w-wanna give up?" I suggested and Keith immediately put his hands up, agreeing with me that this quest is borderline impossible, I could see Aqua briefly holding up but then back down as she remembers to kill the thing she hates most.
Aqua, Lynn and Megumin are clearly scared but they try their best to hide it. Taylor winced... and Darkness is looking VERY excited.
"N-No, t-this is clearly f-fine. I-I can easily h-heal you guys...!" Aqua stuttered out as she looks away and walks in random directions, anywhere but the corpse.
"Y-Yeah, I just need t-to cast Explosion o-on that monster and w-we will be f-fine." Megumin definitely pissed herself.
"I wonder what kind of depraved tortures they have planned for me?! Are they gonna beat me up and steal my panties like the degenerated Kazuma -(Oi!)- and force themselves on me and let you watch or even join?! [Some curious sounds]" Darkness's masochism just had to awaken in this situation out of- Oh wait, she's always like this when we're going on a quest anyways, I shakily sighed.
"Darkness, calm down! That's a matter of life or death!" I retorted; Taylor's party clearly looking not-so-comfortable on top of being horrified by the corpse.
And disaster struck when Yunyun who seemed to get stuck behind, arrives at the scene. The last thing I heard was a super-sonic scream as she was literally right behind me before my vision starts to become a blur and my consciousness slips away like a slim paper in the wind.
...
Regaining my consciousness with a slight headache, I opened my eyes and I could see that I'm being carried by Taylor. "Ugh, where are we?" I lazily asked as my brain try to reload and process what happened before I was knocked out.
Taylor noticing this, places me down and say, "Yunyun's scream was so loud that it knocked you out on the spot."
"Oh...Right. I hope that my eardrums didn't break or else that would be really troublesome." I still can feel my aching head, seeing this, Megumin helps me stand and walks; Yunyun stutters out her apology, I replied with, "It's fine." In truth, it was not.
"Ugh, so are we near the location where Keith said yet?" Keith shakes his head.
"Actually, we're." Aqua interjected, "The smell is getting more disgusting, which means we're near."
"Are you sure the smell isn't mixed with that... thing?" I reminded Aqua of the horrible scene, her face went a bit pale. She refuted immediately and Megumin bonked me in the head with her staff.
"Ow! What was that for?!" I grumbled as I massage my head, "I literally just woke up from Yunyun's god-like scream!" Yunyun flinched and I could hear her stutter another apology, red-faced.
Megumin furrowed her brows, "That's for reminding us of that scene." She said with a hint of disgust.
"Oh? The great goddess of destruction is scared of mere-" BONK* "Ow! Ok ok! I'm sorry ok?!" I kneeled before her as she was about to assault me again.
"Hey Kazuma, I think I saw something there." Keith said as he pointed toward a direction.
Looking afar with our farsight, I and Keith could see the smoke floating up to the sky, "Uh oh, that doesn't look like a very good sight if I'm being honest here."
"The disgusting smell is getting denser and denser too." Aqua, the self-proclaimed goddess of water with her absolute hatred for the unholy.
"We're not even that close, is your sense of smell that good? Or the demon just reeks?" I questioned.
"I remember that when I studied in heaven, they taught me that, the stronger the demon is, the worse their smell is. So maybe it's just that my sense of smell is really good like the goddess I am today." Aqua pridefully answered.
"Wow, you study? That's unbelievable." I mocked; surprisingly Aqua just pouted and did not overreact like she usually does, strange.
"Shhh! The demon is here." Ah, so that's why she was acting like that, I thought she would throw a tantrum; lurking through the bushes and trees, we spotted a man with silver hair, unbuttoned steel gray coat and a blue demon symbol printed on the back of the coat; peacefully munching on small popcorn-sized fruits in a basket. Luna did say that the demon and the alien are capable of disguising themselves as humans. So this is definitely the demon, he even matched the description.
I don't see the demon's wings though, so maybe he has another way of flying instead of using wings? The alien is nowhere to be seen though; that reminds of the information Luna gave me before we go.
"Mitsurugi got injured quite badly so he couldn't speak for himself, but his party members did. They said that the demon has terrifying magic, one that summons a thunderstorm, he also has a really strong defense, possibly as strong as Darkness, or dare I say, he is even stronger than Darkness's absolute defense. They heard his name was 'Ville', it might be a nickname though." Luna said with concern.
"Oh... Wow, that was... kind of unexpected. Not sure if this will be an easy match for Aqua." I still remember the time when Vanir possessed Darkness and Aqua's exorcism wasn't exactly too effective. But now imagine an even more tanky target; yeah, I'm starting to get second thoughts about this whole thing and might as well just run back to the crimson village. Still though, if I'm gonna commit myself to this then I have to do my best. "Luna, what about the, uh, alien?" I asked Luna.
"Ah, yes, the alien. His name was 'X', or so they said. He, too, has incredible magic power, I think Mitsurugi explained to them that the arena's gravity was reduced immensely for objects but the effects were reduced for them for unknown reasons. 'X' was capable of summoning his sword out of nowhere, his agility was also insane, just like what I've seen on his card..." Luna took a deep breath and spilled the rest, "Somehow, he also could transform electrified water into dangerous small slimes. They're still total enigmas at the end of the day."
So I guess we really need a plan before engaging with them and not just making one right on the battleground. "Alright, guys-"
"SACRED HIGHNESS EXORCISM!" Aqua shoots out a massive beam of light.
"AQUA, WHY?!" Kazuma screamed.
AN: Sorry for the constant update, but it can't be helped.
