It had been quiet for a decent while. Eris had been sitting idly in the moment watching as the clock in her hand ticked away at each second."Tick, tick, tick.", it had been the only sound echoing throughout the room for a good few seconds, be it through the Luck Goddess's own perspective of time.

She peacefully sighed as she looked across towards her senior, the overbearing Water Goddess herself. "It's been a long time since then, huh.", she thoroughly remarked as a hint of confusion suddenly burst out of her, transitioning into a faint smile growing upon her face.

Aqua's head had continued to remain facing downwards, her mouth having not moved for anything other than a slight breathing coming out from her lungs.

"Ahahhh, senpai, seems like you had succumbed to slumber while I was off retelling my life story to you, huh. Sounds about right.", she whispered to herself as she smiled, having not been able to muster up the energy to be truly frustrated in the moment. Instead, she felt glad that she could at least speak out her own mind, even if no one was really listening.

She stood up from her chair to try and wake up her senior Goddess. As she proceeded to lower her hand, it was swiftly pushed aback by Aqua's own palm, hinting to the fact that she might've only been slightly asleep for the past few minutes or so.

As she stood up, there happened to be quite the sombre expression drawn out onto her face. "Eris, look, I am sorry for having been so callous with you back then and even now, now that I think about it.", Aqua blurted out sincerely as she tightly gripped onto her juniors's hand.

Eris took in her confession as a sign of forgiveness and maturity coming from the person who gave and taught her everything when it came to being a Divine Goddess. The only thing she could give in return was a heartfelt hug to show appreciation towards her close friend. "You don't have to keep worrying about it now, Aqua. You didn't even know what I was going through at the time; and yet despite it, you chose to look after me when I first became the Goddess of Luck. You might not always act like a normal Goddess in nature, but at the end of the day, I guess that's what makes you your own person, doesn't it? You still cared enough to at least try to pay attention to my story."

"I understand what you mean, Eris. I just feel like I should've set a better example for you ever since you ascended. I should've been a better listener towards your own worries and problems; and I should've a better friend to you… " Aqua lamented, bringing herself to tears as she nearly choked upon uttering her previous statement. Her right hand remained quivering upon Eris's left shoulder.

To which the Luck Goddess took both her hands and held them out beside one another to keep them straight. She assertively looked into her mentors's eyes and said, "You can at least try to be one, senpai. I've seen you at least mature enough to the point where you consider other peoples's feelings before your own… sometimes. But please, don't make it seem like you haven't changed, or that you need to change yourself even more now. You are perfect the way you currently are; genuine, kind and somewhat mature. I feel truly lucky to have had you as my mentor."

Aqua felt even more tears run down her cheeks, this time out of joy instead of sadness. She stood up from where she sat and pulled her friend into a warm and tight embrace. "*Sniff* Thank you so much for choosing to be stay with me, Eris. It… it makes me happy knowing that you still see me as your ideal, even after all this time."

"It's alright, senpai.", Eris replied softly as she accepted the warm embrace wrapped around her. After a good minute or two, they proceeded to pursue their separate ways, leaving each other to their respective workspaces.

Aqua quietly arrived back at her quarters, opting to take a quick bath and chew on some snacks before heading back to work.

As she bathed, she kept on lingering about how much her junior Goddess must've endured as a human, and yet she never seemed to develop any bitterness or hatred towards them as beings who could do so much, but chose to merely observe and provide small amounts of sustenance for the mortals down below. She also haphazardly thought to herself about how much of a practical thinker Eris was compared to her laid-back type of thinking.

'It must've been so hard for her to bottle up her emotions up until now. I feel awful knowing how much I teased and bullied her all this time. I mean, was it deserved? Ehhh… maybe to some extent. I still don't like it when the other Goddesses pretend to be nice to their followers, or lie to their faces about stuff like PADS. Well, I guess some people don't really mind in the slightest; at least that's something I've learned from that NEET. Huh, I guess divine beings like me really can learn a thing or two from mortals after all. *Sigh* We did used to shine in our own way back then…'

As more and more thoughts slid through her mind, she slowly submerged herself deeper into her bath.

It was now time for work. The Goddess of Water Aqua had swiftly changed back into her divine attire, in which this time instead of the normal short skirt that she'd preferably wear most of the time, she opted to try on a sun dress of white and blue colors with golden laces. Though it looked more Goddess-like on her, she still preferred wearing her classic look more.

Once she sat down to start her shift, she couldn't help but feel a sense of depression lingering upon her face, making it really hard for her to think about focusing her attention on her clients for the day in particular.

But even so, she vowed to move past her negligent attitude and start anew, giving her the motivation and energy to sincerely smile with joy again for the first time in a while since she assimilated back into the Divine realm. This helped mark a beginning for her, indeed.

After successfully comforting her own well-being, Aqua took up the courage to finally start judging souls once more.

Although she did notice a slight increase in her daily quota compared to the usual amount.

'I don't remember having to judge this many souls before. This seems way too unusual, even for me.', She thought to herself.

'Maybe nowadays things can get out of hand for these mortals, or maybe accidents are just occurring more than usual today, who knows?'

Thankfully by the end of the day she had been able to complete her daily quota with grace.

On her way back to her quarters, an alarming thought had crossed the Water Goddess's mind: most of the souls that were sent to her just now had mainly died due to either irrational choices they had made in some way, or having committed suicide for multiple different reasons.

Because of this, she'd felt disturbed yet curious as to why that seemed to be happening for today of all days, her face tensing up with fear.

Aqua had always felt hopeless and bitter towards the fact that commonly young people in particular would willingly throw away their lives for some petty, personal reason here and there.

Her experience as a mortal lasted for a fair amount of time, so much so that it has only been a few decades since she regained her divine rights after being sent down alongside another soul to help defeat the Demon King. In that time she'd come to understand how valuable and meaningful life is when one doesn't take it for granted.

'By the gods, what has this world come to?', Aqua faintly wept to herself as she returned to her chambers.

She desperately wanted the day to end already, to the point where she'd proceeded to speed through her usual bath session, and went straight to dinner without even indulging herself in some sweets before heading to bed.

During which she gazed extensively at where she'd kept the journal from earlier. 'Should I try using it again? Could I even take any more sadness after all the things I've been through today?', her thoughts ran around in circles within her mind. On one hand, it'd be nice for her to relive even more happy moments with the person she cherished the most in her life; but still, she understood that all of which she might see has already gone and passed now, with the journal acting as a sort of happy drug for her to hide away her own sorrows and depression.

But right now… right now all she wanted to do was to go back and continue to recall all the happy moments she'd spent with a certain brown-haired boy ages ago. "I guess whatever happens, happens.", Aqua quipped to herself as she pulled out the book and laid it down beside the Prism once more.

And just like before, the Prism had begun to glow in unison with the journal again, radiating the room with a bright light before slowly fading away into a pitch-black darkness as the Goddess of Water had gradually been put to sleep.


Kazuma had become heavily busy, his brain rummaging through all sorts of ideas as to how they could improve their current situation in life. His goal was to achieve a higher financial status, in which he could easily afford all the things he needed without thinking twice, but still having enough to spare on certain luxuries.

His best approach currently was to exploit Aqua's unique skills and features that came packaged with her being a Goddess.

At first he asked Aqua to try showing off all the abilities and skills she had in her arsenal, to which she happily obliged.

Much to Kazuma's surprise, she happened to possess a wide variety of talents and powers that were even more nuanced comparative to the average priest. He could definitely see the potential in making a profit from this.

And so, he giddily sunk down into the place he dubbed as his "humble abode", his "kotatsu" as he liked to call it, thus choosing to spend an entire night coming up with various ideas and marketing strategies to help fully utilize her divine prowess.

Eventually after an entire day's worth of planning and foresight, Kazuma had finally settled on some uses for her purification magic, her knack for art, her unique sense of architecture, and even her moisture control.

"Hey, Aqua, could you come here for a second?", the aspiring entrepreneur called out to the lonesome Goddess to the room. Soon after, an eager Aqua came up to him, having impulsively skipped whilst doing so.

"What is it, Kazuma? Didja figure out how we can get rich already?", the Water Goddess asked as she stood there with her fingers connected behind her back, grinning patiently with anticipation.

"Well, with the aid of your divine powers, we sure can!", Kazuma excitedly answered.

He explained the ways in which he could use all sorts of business tactics to help ensure that her skills could potentially be used to not only make them a lot of money, but to help a ton people aswell. With enough marketing, they could even establish themselves as a well-known brand.

One of his plans involved pawning off Aqua's holy water as a type of healing medicine to people in need around the city. This way they could allow people to carry with them a more efficient and portable restoration potion without even needing to have a mage cast out a healing spell for their party. Of course they would have to charge a significant amount for it; but then again, even after years of shutting himself out from the world, the young lad had at least a simple understanding of how inflation could typically make a product seem more premium than other competitors in the market. Fortunately for them, they had both quality and quantity to offer when it came to holy water.

Additionally he requested for Aqua to help assist in entertaining the general public, making it so that their eyes become captivated by her show of skills and tricks, furthermore selling them on the idea of holy water being sent down from above courtesy of the Goddess of Water herself. This was to ensure that various commodities.

On top of that, he also asked for her to somehow use her artistic latency to help craft various kinds of statues and figurines upon demand. Though it may appear to be an even taller order to additionally ask for, he saw it as a way for her express joy in her craft whilst charging money on the side to help improve their financial stability.

Kazuma would then proceed to explain on how he alone would be in charge of managing the selling aspect; all the while Aqua would only need to establish herself as a performer and artist to market herself as a sort of mascot for the business.

Most importantly, he suggested for her to help aid him in building infrastructure and furniture for the house they planned to live in, as well as being able to use her powers to help suck up the moisture from wet paint so that it could dry up faster.

Moreover, they would proceed to accept a variety of painting jobs from across town, letting the public know about the brilliance of Aqua's unique designs mixed in with Kazuma's ideas on how to build trinkets to help ease difficult tasks on a daily basis. Together they would be known far and wide as contemporary, innovative and artistic partners throughout the land of Belzerg.

And so, the main layout for their plan was set into motion: they would then lure people in with Aqua's performances in the main town's square shortly after finishing up with any ideas they'd come up with on the side.

She certainly did attract a lot of attention for them, and while she hesitated in accepting any money, her brown-haired companion was there to keep her in check, acting more like a manager than a friend at times.

He even gambled a bit with slitting open his palm to help further demonstrate the effectiveness of their healing water.

Afterwards they would then proceed to change the construction landscape to the point where they've helped triple the work efficiency for the workers, as well as helping to reduce the time it would normally take to build the general structures around an ordinary establishment.

They took sweet their time managing these side hustles on weekdays, opting to take breaks only when they've finished work early.

Even if these jobs were considered odd to many, it still paid well enough for the two of them. This was mainly due to how unique their product was for a lot of people, add in to their equally unique approach to designing and managing work ethic in the construction world.

Eventually over the course of a half-year, they've managed to save up an exceptional amount of money for the two of them to consider investing for a larger living space for them to live in. It made it easier for them stockpile their finance due to the fact that frivolous items weren't generally sold around the town they resided in, helping to inhibit any impulsive purchases they would've made along the way. It also helped that they didn't need to spend any money on any weapons or gear for if they were adventuring as a party. All in all, it did help reduce money usage in the long run, and any stress they would've faced had they stayed as laborers in Axel was long gone by now.

Even during times when Aqua was prone to causing trouble here and there as an obsessive alcoholic, the money she racked had been nothing but short in comparison to how it was before when they first started. Thankfully they never came across anything too serious that would've landed them in an insane amount of debt.

Over time their profit increased to the point where they could regularly earn more than what they were spending on building materials and advertisements. They now felt comfortable with moving in to one of the bigger houses in the more northern part of Arcanletia.

The brown-haired entrepreneur continued to handle any and all matters they had relating to money, choosing to reward Aqua with either treats or bubbly whenever she showed good behavior.

They still did go through some ups and downs as a result of mischief brought about through Aqua's actions, but through it all he still managed to keep it at a minuscule level of annoyance by the end of the day.

Having to not worry about fighting or surviving out there certainly did make their lives much more bearable and enjoyable.

Soon enough, an entire year had passed ever since they moved to the city of hot springs, as well as an entire year since they had left Axel after the incident that took place shortly beforehand.

They had been living quite the decent life ever since then. The blue-haired performer had only gotten more famous over time, having many people come to her all the time in the pursuit of learning magic tricks from Aqua herself. She gave those lessons out completely for free, gifting the children various figures and models whenever they asked for her to demonstrate for them. She became especially popular with the kids.

Eventually one day Kazuma had begun contemplating about what kind of life he wanted to pursue now that he's earning a respectable income. Now that he's reached the age of a perfectly legal adult in most countries, he wondered about who he wanted to be with as his soulmate for life. His parents had always pushed for him to get a job first before thinking about dating someone, after all. Even after all things they've done wrong by him before and after his death, he at least kept that piece of advice in mind when thinking about marriage.

He then somberly let out a sigh at some point before continuing on with his thoughts, 'I still just can't believe how much I despised working before getting sent to this world, but yet here I am; I'm a decently successful man living an equally decent life, unsure of whether or not I should try finding a good mate for myself, or even one at all.'

He had already left behind all those ambitions he had when coming to this world for the first time, such as his dream of adventuring with an entire party of hot girls to boot, helping to support him in all kinds of ways as they ventured forth on their quest to defeat the Demon Lord. But after everything that's happened up to now, he had become rather contempt with witnessing the fruits of his labor, as well as being able to settle down with his current status and achievements in life comparative to how it was before in Axel.

Life surely was treat for him nowadays. It allowed for him to be more easygoing than he was prior, having stopped complaining as much as before, specifically when it came to his fellow reckless Goddess.

He was busy relaxing on his own, basking on his luxurious balcony before Aqua had suddenly come in to offer some of her bubbly.

She patiently stood there beside him with her night pajamas on, awaiting for him to formally invite her to chill out alongside him.

Kazuma eventually noticed her presence and patted the floor beneath him, gesturing for her to come sit down beside him.

"It sure is refreshing, isn't it?", Kazuma pleasantly asked his Goddess friend after drinking a few sips from her bottle.

"You mean the bubbly, or…?", Aqua curiously responded.

"To live life on your own terms, I mean. Making it work somehow feels so much rewarding, don't you agree?"

Aqua replied with nothing but a silent nod in return as she smiled contently.

"I guess working isn't too bad when you know what you're doing; plus with what we have at our disposal, it does makes it a hell of a lot easier now, huh. Sure, it gets exhausting at times but we do at least get to indulge in what we want for ourselves, especially nowadays, right? Actually, I don't even know why I'm explaining all this to you right now."

"I hadn't felt satisfied like this even when I had all I needed as a teenager back in my old life. Now that I think about it, spending all day inside, eating only the bare necessities for my own appetite, sleeping and waking up at times most people would deem as unhealthy, all of that made me satisfied to a certain point, yes, but I've never truly pleased with the way I'd live until now."

Aqua felt quite perplexed as she listened on to her friend lamenting to her about his thoughts on life in general. At some point she interjected with a statement of her own. "You say that you were extremely sad with your old life, Kazuma, but I didn't exactly see that in you when we first met."

To which he looked back at her, staring at her for a while before diverting his gaze back towards the night sky and saying, "Well, yeah, I said I was happy for a while, but I was never content with how I lived my own life.", he struggled to find other ways in which he could better explain it to her. "How should I put this… well, imagine if I said I liked someone or something, but I never did truly loved them by the end of the day. Looking back now, I do realize that I wasted so much time playing games all day back then; I tried making excuses to justify how lazy I was, but that's all they were: excuses. They could only go so far as to make me feel content, but never fulfilled in life."

Aqua opted to continue listening to him with an open mind instead, holding herself back from saying something stupid for the sake of hearing her friend out for once.

"Aqua, I just really hated myself deep down for how I ended up the way I did, my inability to change having definitely not done me any favors, if I'm being honest. I even hated the world for pushing me to change myself when I didn't anything see wrong with either my appearance or living conditions; I just didn't want people to control me like that.

I could've easily seen myself as a brilliant student with what I've managed to accomplish here. It's just a shame that I threw it all away just because of some girl promising to marry me like in those romcom mangas. She probably forgot immediately and that's why she quickly hopped onto someone else's bike like that right in front of me. But even so, I appreciate all the things I've earned here in Arcanletia, and I'm thankful for you sticking by with me whenever I need you the most, Aqua. *Sniff* Sorry if I sounded corny or melodramatic just now, it's just that I wanted to speak my mind out for once after all this time.", Kazuma lightly chuckled, to which Aqua responded with a chuckle of her own, hers sounding more sorrowful compared to his.

"I guess you have changed since then, Kazuma. From the very first time we met to even our first day in Axel, I've seen so many sides to you that it feels like you're rubbing off on me in a weird way, somehow. Back then even I was spoiled in my way, so much so that the other Goddesses essentially just kicked my ass out for making fun of you and probably countless others before you for my own amusement. Buuuut, I hafta say that it's even weirder for me to not miss living the heavenly life as much as I did when we came here for the first time."

"I do feel very relaxed with where I am now, and honestly I just feel like a much more happier person nowadays, so thank you for that, ex-NEET." Aqua lightly teased as she held down Kazuma's hand with both her own hands, lowering her forehead down onto them as a simple gesture of gratitude from her.

Although it seemed platonic and innocent to her at least, it soon made the brown-haired boy's temperature go up a few celsius's higher.

"Am I actually getting nervous right now just because of a simple thank you gesture?!", Kazuma was left confused as to why and how this whiny Goddess's personality could've changed so drastically like that. It caught him off guard because he never expected her to actually tolerate him, let alone actually appreciate him the same way he does for her. He assumed after all this time she'd continue to dislike him for checking her body at times and refusing to admire her clear beauty.

He didn't even know if she thought of him as more than a friend or not at times like when he has to drag her drunk ass out of the bar in the middle of the night, or even whenever he decides to join in on entertaining the town's children with Aqua as she performed tricks for them as a part of her job.

A lot things he couldn't exactly figure out at the moment, one of which was certainly different compared to the others.

Before he could even further think about what it was, the blue-haired girl in front of him suddenly pulled him out of his balcony chair to start a fun dance between the two of them. It wasn't romantic in any way, but they still had fun vibing with each other on a purely platonic basis. He found himself smiling and even blushing at times, like as if he wanted this small party of theirs to go on for a lot longer, but was too embarrassed to say so himself.

Aqua had certainly changed, but also not changed in his perspective, but hearing her appreciate their bond together made him see her in a whole new different light.

'Am I… am I starting to like her but in a different way now?…'

Kazuma profusely asked himself as he kept dancing around to Aqua's singing voice. It was like an entire puzzle that he became too scared to even solve. He knew that somewhere there was an implication hiding beneath it, but refused to accept it. For now, at least.