Kazuma POV:
It's already been a month. The sun was rising, the others would be here soon. Man, I just wanna stay in bed…
"Create Earth."
I shot some mud at the window covering it up and keeping it shut. I'll get up when I want to get up.
"What was that?"
Aqua shot up rubbing her eyes. She pulled the blanket over to her. "Oh this again."
"What do you mean again!"
"Third time this week isn't it?"
"Shut up! I'm not allowed to sleep?"
"I don't mind. I'd rather stay in bed anyways." She flopped back down and peered at her bottle of wine.
"Then why are you complaining?"
"I'm not. Just telling the truth."
"Fine. If it's not an issue I'm going back to sleep."
"Hey wait."
I rolled over. I was trying to get some sleep, not get disturbed. "What now?"
"I'm out of drinks."
"That doesn't concern me."
"But! I can't sleep without at least a little."
"Then don't sleep. Or go buy yourself some."
"Well… I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?"
"You see… I might've spent the last of my cash on some fancy eggs yesterday."
"Fancy eggs!?"
"Someone at the guild said they were really good! I don't wanna miss the opportunity."
"If I hear another story like this I'm just going to give your cut to Megumin. You could at least spend it on something good like-"
"Like having that girl teach you a skill that only steals girls' panties!"
"Shut it! That was not what I wanted steal for!"
"Yeah right. I've been around you long enough to know what kind of person you are!"
"I'm getting out of here. It's obvious I won't be able to go back to sleep."
I crawled out of the bed and stumbled over to the door. Those extra gator horns were a mistake.
"Hey wait, where are you going!"
"I don't know."
"Then come back or go buy me some drinks."
"What do you want?"
"You're actually going to get me something!" She hopped up and her eyes sparkled.
"I might consider it."
She jumped up and grabbed some paper. Soon a list longer than One Piece grew on it. Little did she know I did not have plans to buy a single thing on it. Not that I had enough money even if I wanted to.
"Actually I'll just go with you! You're gonna mess something up without me."
"You don't even know where I'm going."
"The liquor store right?"
With a large sigh I slid down the wall onto the floor. "I never said that." I pointed over to the table. "My money isnt even with me."
"Wait but you said-"
"I said I'd consider it. Not that I would."
"You lied! There was never any intention to be nice."
"If you want something, take a quest and buy it for yourself."
"I just thought…"
"Since you're so desperate, let's go take a quest. No way I'm getting any rest after all this."
"Are you sure?"
"Whatever. I could use a few more Eris anyway."
We left the room with our gear. I did not want to take a quest right now, hopefully there would be something easy.
The easiest kill quest was to take out a pack of Zebra Hounds. But the one that appealed to me required us to guard and assist a wagon transporting some goods.
"I'll take it!"
Luna registered the quest for us, there was about twenty minutes before we had to meet with the merchants.
"Want to stop by Ren's and get a snack before we have to do this?"
"Definitely, if you can afford it that is."
"Shut up! Some bread and cookies can't be too much."
We got to Ren's and Martyn greeted us. "Welcome back my people! How shall we serve you today?"
"Just getting a quick bite to eat."
The dedicated baker BigB brought us a cookie and loaf of bread. We split it and paid.
"Can we get you any enchantments today? Our king upgraded the setup yesterday. It's now possible to get level thirty!"
"Ah no thanks."
"My apologies. I will await the day for you to take up the offer we so graciously present."
"Sure."
We left the building, avoiding the guy outfront. He wears nothing but short shorts and has muscles like a bodybuilder. That guy is always picking a fight with the staff. Alongside him was a sleeping guy who was on a LLama.
I pulled Aqua away, she was bound to get distracted with their drama. We had the quest to be at.
"Shit! We're late!"
"What? I thought we had time!"
"You took too long to eat that damn cookie!"
"Don't blame me! I wanted to savor it. You know BigB makes the best in town."
"I'm never buying you food again."
"That's cruel!"
Fresh out of breath we made it to the meeting place. My lungs were about to collapse. There were two people waiting for us, they had a wagon and two horses to move it.
"You're late. This set us behind schedule by a significant amount."
I gave Aqua a push forward waiting for her to explain the situation. She turned around to give me a dirty look. "Uhm… Sorry. We're just running a bit late."
"That's just no good. We have to head out now! Our clients are waiting for us."
We got directed to ride on the back of the wagon. While the inside would be much preferred, it was filled with unknown boxes and bags. We probably could've fit in there though. Maybe later, hopefully this wouldnt take too long.
"You two just need to sit back there and if any monsters or thieves try to attack us, fend them off. I also would hold on tight! The area we're going into has been the source of unknown explosions. My name is Otto Suwen, if there are any further questions please go ahead and ask!"
The wagon took off and had a bumpy ride out of town. The gate opened for us. I had only gone out this way one time before, when Megumin forced me to carry her back after an explosion.
"This sucks. The sun just barely rose and we're out doing this."
"You're the one who wanted to do this. Don't blame me."
"I'm practically doing this for you."
"Yeah. That's only partially true. I doubt you're gonna donate all the earnings to me."
"Well, I guess so. I'll give you half."
"See. I knew you wanted something for yourself too."
"I guess."
"Don't worry, I appreciate it. I know you wanted to stay in bed all day."
"Not all day… Just another hour or two."
"Sure, sure"
We were quite a ways into the journey. The ride had been going on for about an hour. So far no monsters or anything had jumped out at us either, I was correct in choosing this quest.
All around us were giant trees, we hadn't been this far out from town before. The scenery was surprisingly nice.
However, what wasn't nice was the shockwave that knocked the wagon around. A smoke cloud rose above the trees. She must be having a good day.
"Is everyone alright?!" Otto shouted at everyone in the wagon.
"We're good!" Most everyone replied.
Sadly, the wagon was not alright. A large amount of the boxes fell to one side, with the bumpy road and kinetic energy the wagon fell onto its side.
"Get off me!" Aqua was crushing my stomach, refusing to get up.
"I'm trying! There's a wagon on my leg!"
So I sat up as much as possible and grabbed her thigh and pulled it out from under the wheel. With little effort it was free. "How hard was that?"
"Just, well. I guess it was easier for you."
"Now get off. You probably broke half of my ribs."
"Then I'll just need to cast some healing on you."
She rolled to the side and I proceeded to violently cough. "Lucky my sword fell out over there. It might've gotten you the way we fell."
"Anyway you okay? I guess I landed on you pretty hard."
"I'm fine. Just don't do that again."
"Don't do it again? I didn't choose to land on you."
"Like I'd believe that."
"Delusional as always Kazuma…"
"Whatever."
She reached out a hand to help me up. I accepted. "Want healing?You're so badly injured after all."
"I'll accept it, please bestow your generous magic upon me."
"You're weird"
She casted a quick spell and we stood up to see the situation. "Quit flirting you two! We hired you to help not sit around." Some strange fat guy said to us.
Everyone together pushed the wagon back upright. Then reorganized the boxes. Otto started panicking "Guys this is bad! I've already counted four that've broken!"
"What's in them that matters if the boxes are a little damaged?"
"I don't know! We were just given the order and told to carry it out."
"Where's this going to?"
"That's another thing we're unsure of. Peter has the map and is just directing me where to go."
"Well I say the best thing to do is just keep going. Can't do anything about the broken stuff now."
"Aww I guess you're right. We better get a move on. We're already an hour and a half behind schedule at this point."
Getting back on track took awhile but eventually we made it back on the road.
I looked over to Aqua. She was looking uncharacteristically shy and holding her leg out of view. The one that got freed from the wheel.
"Oi you alright?"
"It's nothing, don't worry. You just ripped my pants."
"Hmm alright. I won't pry anymore I guess."
"Thanks."
Still curious, I decided to try and get a look at what she was hiding. However before I could do anything the front of the wagon shook violently. "Goddammit!" Peter shouted, then jumped off and I think smoke emitted from his ears.
Otto went after "Calm down ! What's the issue?"
"The map is torn."
"What! Torn! How could you let that happen?"
"When we tipped over. It got caught on a nail and I just found it in two."
"This is terrible! How are we going to get there now?"
I went around to the front to take a look. Shouldn't they just be able to hold it together? It's not like all the ink would magically disappear.
In Peter's hands were two blank pieces of paper. No map. "Are you sure this is the map? It's blank."
"This map was meant to be torn after we completed our job. It had an enchantment placed that wipes it clean so that no one else could find this place."
Just what kind of place are we going to?! Who wants their house so secret that a map of it can't even exist. "This is ridiculous! Let's just turn around and go back tomorrow."
"No can do. We need this done before sundown, and it's already later than it should be."
"What's the genius plan to find this mysterious place then?"
"We keep following the path! I was given a general description of the place so we aren't completely hopeless. There is still a good six hours left to do this!"
"Fine, go along with that crazy plan. As long as I get paid I don't care."
"Do your job and the promise will be delivered."
"Good."
I went back around to the back. It sucked back here. Everything was so much bumpier and the wood was uneven, even a bit scratchy. I hopped back up and looked into the center.
"Think we can fit in there? Just moving a few boxes aside should be good enough."
Aqua also turned around to look into it. She pushed some stuff around and turned back "Seems fine. But first I need to do something."
"What now?"
"I just wanna cover this leg up. I'm cold."
"Cold? It's been getting hotter every day."
"Back off. it'll be fast."
"Okay then…"
Something was definitely off with her, even when she got upset it was never really like this. "You hit your head or something? Since we fell you've been acting off."
Her face went red and she turned back to the bags. "D-Don't worry about it!" I heard bottles hit the floor and she pulled an empty sack back to the front.
Quickly she tore a hole in one side and put it over her leg. With the strings she tightened and then relaxed. "Sorry about that. I just needed to get that really quick."
"Is having one torn side such a big deal?"
"You wouldnt understand…"
"That bag can't be comfortable."
"It's not too bad. Maybe a little rough is all."
"Do what you want I guess."
We rode on the back for a while. Aqua had seemed to relax again but we didn't really talk much.
There was a voice from the forest, no, two actually. "Hey!" They were calling out to us. Otto slowed the wagon down to see what the commotion was. Emilia came running out of the forest, Megumin was on her back waving at us. "What are you doing riding on this wagon!"
"I could ask the same about why you're running out of these woods."
"My explosions of course! Since the townsfolk don't want it around there I've been blowing this massive manor up!"
Otto came running around back and shouted "Did you say manor?! That's where we need to be! If you'd tell us where that is I'd be eternally grateful!"
Megumin grabbed her staff out of Emilia's hand and pointed forward and to the right. "Only an hour of walking that way! I can direct you back!"
"Yes please! That would be very helpful!"
"Hold on, don't we need to get back to town? We told Subaru that we would be back before noon."
"I'll stay behind then. Go ahead without me. I'll guide them to the manor!"
Emilia sat her down on the front of the wagon with us. "I guess I can come along. As long as it won't be too long before we're home."
"Don't worry! With a guide this will go by in no time!"
Otto excitedly ran around back to his seat. Emilia joined us on the back of the wagon. The horses began moving again and we took off again.
"So what are you two doing here? No wonder we couldn't find you this morning."
"Aqua was complaining about being poor so we decided to take on this quest. It sounded simple enough."
"You know we were going to do questing today, why didn't you just wait for us?"
"I thought this would be a quick buck, instead we have to go on this big journey in the woods."
"That's fair I guess. Anyway, why not clear some space in there? If we move some boxes I think we would be more comfortable."
"I suggested we do that but this girl decided to dump those bottles and ignore it instead."
Emilia turned around to see the dozen glass bottles filled with a mysterious liquid dumped all over the floor. "One of them spilled, this is a mess."
"What happened!"
Otto turned around and looked mortified when he saw the spill and gasped. "Clean that up!"
I made Aqua clean up the mess, Emila helped too but I would've preferred if she didn't.
Finally the mess was cleaned and we reorganized some stuff. We all climbed up and in. The cotton roof and sides were definitely nicer than the hard wooden back from before.
After we moved aside boxes giving us enough room to fit back there, and all while Otto had Peter observe our every step we finally got comfortable.
I sat by Aqua and used the softer sacks as an arm and headrest. "How much longer are we gonna be going!" I shouted to Otto.
"We will be arriving at my spot shortly!" Megumin responded.
And she wasn't lying, rather than the manor we were meant to be at, it was a cliff overlooking the Manor. We couldn't even get down to it easily since the dropoff was at least one hundred feet.
"This isn't where you said we would be!"
Once again Otto was panicking seeing the manor at least two miles away. It was close but there was not a single easily accessible path to it from here. "This is all going wrong! You mislead us! Terribly!"
Megumin was demoted from a front seat position to the back with the rest of us. She crammed in next to Emilia. Luckily we barely had to move anything due to her small frame.
"Anyone got ideas? It's already three, there's not much time left especially if we need to find a way there from here."
"Let's go through the forest." I pointed to an area that looked relatively open. "It won't be a clean path but it will get us there."
"You're right! That's the best idea we've got now so let's do it!"
He took the wagon into the woods. It was much darker than before and I could sense monsters lurking in the trees. Fortunately none have attacked yet so we could continue sitting around.
Short into the forest we came across a large rock. It blocked our path, the trees were too dense to go around it.
"Time for you two to do some work! We hired you for a reason!" Peter grabbed Aqua and Me and pulled us out front.
"Just move that thing out of the way. That's easy enough aint it?"
He laughed annoyingly and pushed me forward. This rock had to be at least a thousand pounds. My first plan was to use water to push it aside. My magic wasn't strong enough.
"Step aside! I can handle this with no issues! Sacred Create Water!"
A massive wave surged from her hand pushing the rock away swiftly. But that wasn't the only thing it pushed away, trees got knocked over and collapsed. The wave carried me downhill tons of yards away.
When the water cleared I was nowhere in sight of the others. I could see some of the fallen trees. A couple big branches must've gotten loose too. This is great.
Rolling straight at me was a giant branch. It hit my stomach and pushed me onto a tree. Great, I was pinned.
Just when I thought it was over 5 more branches and even a couple trees rolled down onto me also. It felt like the soul was leaving my body. Maybe this is how I die in this world. I reached my hand into the air as much as possible.
A soft hand grabbed, and forcefully pulled me through the branches. "Gee you're clumsy." The one who caused this whole thing was standing in front of me. "Clumsy? You're to blame for this!"
"Maybe a bit. You could've held onto me or something if it was that hard for you to be stable."
"Just heal me and let's get back."
"Alright let's go."
We went back up the hill. Not due to any fault of my own of course, I happened to kick a rock in her way causing her to trip and fall into the mud.
"Oww! What was that for!"
"Just a happy little accident."
She got up covered in mud. So obviously I cast water all over her to clean it off. "Look now you're all better."
"You got me all wet! This sucks!"
"Like I'm any better! I might've died in that flood you caused."
"It wouldn't be your first time."
"And it's your fault both times too."
She stopped walking, blinked a few times and looked over to me. "I guess I never properly apologized for that. You tried to save me, as unsuccessful as it was for both of us."
"You don't say" I scratch my head not really knowing what to say or do.
With a small bow she spoke again. "I appreciate everything you've done. If I do end up getting you killed again, just make sure your body is intact so I can use revive." She turned up to face me again and her face was blushed. "Just don't expect me to act all formal like this. Just wanted to say that. Let's go."
She walked faster than before and made it to the top of the hill a minute before me. Otto was already ready with the wagon "Where have you been? We've been waiting!"
"Just casually getting crushed by trees."
"Are you okay? Those things are heavy!"
"I'm fine. Just needed a little healing is all."
We got back into the wagon and took off again. I feel like Aqua was sitting a bit closer to me than before, it was probably just been my imagination though.
"It's lucky the wagon didn't tip over again. But we had to re-adjust some boxes back there. Don't use that spell around us again little-lady!" Peter glared at Aqua. His glasses reflected red making it all the more terrifying.
We kept going for a while without any more roadblocks. I looked out the window, it was already getting a bit darker outside.
Megumin had fallen asleep and I could see Emilia dozing off as well. Aqua claimed earlier it's impossible to sleep without alcohol, so I lost all hope of her falling asleep too. Ultimately though I was able to sleep for the rest of the ride.
Finally we arrived at the manor. The gates opened and we were led inside by two girls in maid outfits. I sat up more and looked out the window, the outside was charred and looked damaged. I could tell this place had gotten explosions more than just a couple times.
Otto and Peter hopped out of the wagon and waited for instructions from the girls.
"This is my sister Rem." She pointed to the blue haired girl.
"My sister Ram and I have been patiently awaiting your arrival." She pointed to the pink haired girl.
I looked out the window at the maids. I tried to hide a smile at seeing girls in maid outfits. This was like something out of a video game or anime.
I noted Rem handing Otto a piece of paper. Man if I was in Otto's place. Aqua pushed me aside and looked out the window too. She turned to me with a smirk. "Got a thing for blue haired girls it seems?" I felt an elbow to my ribs.
My face felt warm and I turned away from her. "I never said that!" Before she could say anything else Peter came around the back.
"Come on helpers! We've gotta get this stuff inside their storage room fast!"
His shouting woke Megumin and Emilia up. Megumin instinctively grabbed her staff and pointed it out at him. "You stay out of the way. And don't blow anything up while you're at it!"
"Hah! Lucky I've already used my explosion today."
Aqua and I began to start moving stuff inside. The boxes were too heavy. Inside was like a palace, giant staircases and marble floors. Sitting at the top of the stairs was a tall man with long dark blue hair. He wore makeup of a clown and an over the top outfit.
When Otto stepped inside and saw the man he instantly fell to his knees. "General? Wha-What? Are you the one who wanted all this?"
The man began to slowly step down the stairs. "Why of course! Who else would want such an extravagant variety of goods."
" , I beg of you please don't hurt me!"
"Do not fear me, I have no bad blood against you whatsoever. Please continue with the job you have been hired to complete."
"Y-Yes sir!"
Roswall sat at the base of the stairs observing our every movement. We took boxes and bags from the wagon, up the stairs, to the left and inside a large room filled with tons of unknown objects. Emilia even decided to help out a bit.
After about an hour we got everything inside. Roswall stood up and placed a bag of Eris in Otto's hand. "Thank you for these services. I wish you well on the journey home."
Rem and Ram escorted us off the property and closed the gate behind us. Otto was panting heavily and directed the horses to get us away as fast as possible.
"So, um, Otto, what's the big deal with that guy? You seemed rather scared."
"You don't know who that is?"
"Not a clue."
"That's Roswall! A general of the Devil King!"
Emilia shot up hearing that name "Devil King! You mean one of that guys' servants lives there?"
"Yup! A dangerous one two. He's known as one of the top five strongest."
"See! I knew I was doing the right thing blowing this manor up every day! Now you've given me even more of a reason to use the greatest magic in all the lands on this!"
"No you shouldn't do that. What if he finds out it's you and comes to get revenge."
"No one is a match for my explosions! Just have Aqua give me a stat boost and he will be a goner!"
Aqua leaned forward excitedly "I agree! We could take that guy out if we really tried!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. "Don't you agree?"
"Oi I never even cared about this Devil King guy why should I have to fight him."
"If you're scared just say so."
"I'm not scared!"
All three of the girls looked at me and said in unison. "Then I guess you're fighting him with us!" "Fine!"
After that whole situation we went back to the path. "Now, how exactly do we get back?" Otto questioned.
"You don't know!?" All of us including Peter shouted at him.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
It was pitch black outside when I heard the gates to the city open. Guess I must've fallen asleep. I slowly opened my eyes and looked to the front. Seems Ottos the only one awake.
Wait? Otto the only one awake? Fully taking everything in I felt and saw Aqua hugging me arm and asleep on my shoulder. I guess even she gets tired without drinks.
The wagon finally stopped moving when we arrived at the guild. Everyone else around was waking up too. Peter took a look back at us and squinted, before hopping out and stumbling away somewhere.
I tried to wake Aqua but she was out hard. So ultimately I just decided to carry her out on my back.
"Thanks for helping everyone. Even you crazy girl, we probably wouldn't have gotten there without you. Farewell for now, maybe we'll get a chance to work together another time!"
"That would be nice." Emilia said to him.
"Sure. Maybe if the pay is a bit better next time!"
"Just let me blow something up and it'll be alright!"
I waved bye to the other girls and started walking back to the inn.
"Hey. Put me down."
Seemed she had woken up with all the comotion "Sure."
I loosed my grip on her but before I could fully drop she started panicking. "Wait! Wait! Wait! No. I'll just get down myself."
Sadly she remembered what happened last time. Too bad I couldn't drop her this time.
We walked back to the inn and when we got to our room I fell onto the bed. I wonder why I'm so tired today. All we did was sit around for most of it. Maybe those logs.
"Scoot over."
I rolled onto my side of the bed and covered up. "Tomorrow let's just do a kill quest. All we got was twenty thousand for an all day thing."
"That sounds good. Just no frogs."
"Frogs sound perfect!"
"No! Anything but that!"
She laid down next to me and said "I need some beer."