Before we begin, let's get some reviews out of the way, since I haven't answered many.

Harem? No, never. This isn't the story for that, this is meant to be a semi-reasonable and responsible Kazuma, not hyper perv Kazu-trash we all know and love (to hate). TBH, I might SOME day do one, just because a lot of the ones out there aren't particularly well written (even if they have a great premise) but, real talk? If I did that, I'd be aging everyone up to at least eighteen, and cups would floweth over because that's what I'm about when it comes to smut.

When I said 'All profits' went to the fat man, I meant all profits that aren't needed to keep the place running. Mostly because if it's being used to run the guild, it isn't profit, it's operational costs.

I know some of you don't really care for Aqua as I am writing her, but I am trying to have it so that Kazuma being an 'adult' is making her be a bit more reflective about herself, since she can't just feel better about her own idiocy by looking at the loser.

I think that touches base with everything other than saying "thank you all for the positive feedback and I hope to be more regular with my updates!"

-Ko-No-Su-Ba!-

Kazuma was, in his own humble opinion, a mad genius.

A mad genius that had two women incredibly mad at him.

"I can't believe you, Kazu-trash! They might be my succubi, but you still wanna send them to my holy capital? Are you insane?" Aqua berated him, ineffectively hitting his arm repeatedly as Marigold glared down on him, as one might an insect.

The madam took a long pull on her cigarette, blowing the smoke at his face as she allowed Aqua to get her own anger out. "Indeed. I do think I'd have liked to be asked before my girls were borderline volunteered, boy."

Kazuma tried to smile, hoping to gloss this all over. After all, it wasn't a bad plan, right? "But what's the downside? You even admitted that sometimes they girls would need to go hungry, working the same town together. This will help the lot of you spread out while working for somebody you already have a good working relationship with, right?" He asked, hoping that Marigold wouldn't be too harsh on him.

"And the fact that you'd profit from all of it has no bearing on the matter, hm?" She asked, the corner of her mouth rising slightly.

Kazuma had the decency to look away in shame, twiddling his fingers. "Can't it be both?" Collecting himself, he turned back to the terrifying succubus, meeting her eyes. "Look, the high priest himself said everything is alright. You go up there with Aqua, introduce yourselves, and everything should be fine. I'll even pay for you guys to have protection for the first few months, if that would make you feel safer." After all, the cost of an adventurer doing guard duty for a month would be peanuts compared to what he'd be making. Especially if he handpicked guards that would make use of the services, like Dust.

Marigold folded her arms in thought, tapping a delicate finger on her cheek as she considered the offer. If he put it like that, there wasn't really much to lose. Now it was a matter of ringing him dry. "And what cut would you like from the profits?" She asked, trying to get him to make an offer first so she could cut it down.

Kazuma knew that trick at this point though, smiling back at her, "Oh, you've been in the business so much longer than me and have infinitely more experience. Surely you'd have a better idea than me?"

Letting out a 'tch' of frustration, she can't even refute the claim, biting her thumbnail as she tries to think of a reasonable offer. "Twenty percent of monthly profits for you?" The fact that she could make the profits low by paying her girls more is not worth mentioning.

Kazuma shook his head, a clearly forced smile on his face. "Percentages don't seem like they'd favor either of us. I'd say you'd pay rent for the buildings per month and… how about a portion of the concession profits? The girls get to keep everything they make from the springs proper and their 'services'. Say, 70% of concession profits, since you'll be keeping the rest for yourselves?" He offered, both of them knowing it was a fantastic deal.

Marigold nodded, happy with that offer. The girls kept their money for their own services, he got the money for the buildings and the split on 'extras' at the spring. Since he was the one in charge of securing such things anyway, it was only fair. "Very well then. How many girls will be needed?" She asked, her bargaining face relaxing to her more friendly expression.

"Well, I bought about a dozen hot springs and two cafes. The cafe's still have cooks, thankfully, so I'd say… sixty or so?" Kazuma ventured, unsure himself if that would be enough or too many.

Marigold had gone to take a drink and almost choked on it when she heard that number. "Sixty? That's almost half the total girls I have here!" She complained, anger flaring in her eyes. "That will leave us swamped beyond all reason with the guild hall here!"

Kazuma smirked, an evil glint in his eye. "Ah, don't you think your numbers here might drop just a smidge when it's found out that full hot spring services and the like will be available with your girls? Here it's only dreams, but there? They won't be expected to do anything more, but I can tell you a lot of guys will trip over themselves to see a succubus in nothing but a towel."

Marigold smirked, unable to deny that kind of appeal. Afterall, she'd had her fair share of regulars that loved that exact kind of scenario. "We shall see. Very well, we'll try it on a probationary basis. That is, assuming being in a holy city doesn't hurt us, obviously."

"Obviously. Well, thank you for your time Marigold. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership."

"Mhm. Now, go take care of your friend. She's been sulking since we started talking business" Marigold teased, Aqua in fact pouting as she waited for them to finish.

"Sorry Aqua. We're all good to go now" Kazuma said, the goddess instantly brightening up and dragging him out of the darkened building of the succubus cafe.

"Good! You owe me big for helping you do all of this and I have decided," she paused for dramatic effect, striking a pose even Megumin would approve of, "That you are going to take me out for a nice dinner."

"Oh? Is that all?" Kazuma asked, his face looking indifferent but his mind screaming in absolute terror. He was a NEET that had never taken a girl out and now Aqua was borderline forcing them on a date? Sure, they ate at the guild hall together all the time, but this was different!

"Mhm! I want you to dress up and everything. You have that nice outfit you wore to the capital, right?" She pressed, leaning forward slightly with her hands behind her back.

"Um, yes?" He responded, unsure of where she was going with all of this.

"Perfect! You find the restaurant and I'll go get a new dress! My tab is all paid up and I've made a bit of extra money with emergency healing" she explained, turning away from him and starting to walk away. "Don't keep a girl waiting too long, eh?" She asked before practically skipping away.

Kazuma stood there, dumbfounded for almost a full minute before Missy stumbled across him, poking him in the side. "Hey, you alright?" She asked.

"I… I have a date with Aqua?" He half-asked, half-informed the young succubus.

"Eh? Really?! About time! Come on, me and the girls will help you out! What kind of date? Where are you taking her? What kind of clothes are you planning on?" The succubus rattled off, dragging him back into the darkness of the succubus cafe. Only this time, he felt more like prey than anything else as several of the other succubi heard what was going on and desperately wanted to 'help' their 'brother' and goddess's date go perfectly.

At that moment, Kazuma knew true despair.

-Ko-No-Su-Ba!-

Two hours later of torture (see being used to play dress up by a bunch of playful succubi and grilled on his plans for the date) later, Kazuma was as ready as he was going to be. He had barely been able to make any choices himself, having been effectively railroaded into taking Aqua on the 'perfect date' by the girls. The fact that she was literally their goddess having a large part to play in that.

They had forced him into what passed for 'fancy but casual' in this world, which translated to a slightly higher quality shirt and pants really, with some added embroidery. That much he could live with. The part that had gotten on his last nerve was the place they chose for the date. It was used almost exclusively by nobles, but Missy had made use of Darkness to get the two of them a table. Thankfully, it wasn't always terribly busy since this was an adventurer town and not the home of a large number of nobles.

Regardless, he felt like a pig that was dressed in a suit by the time they were done, having even gone so far as to tame his usually unkempt mop. He didn't know it, but a few of the girls had slipped away to do much the same with Aqua, so she'd know when the date was going to be.

They just hadn't told him it was going to be tonight until they were already done.

"Wait, what?! I'm taking her out now?!" Kazuma shouted, panic seeping into his voice as he started sweating.

Missy smiled, nodding eagerly. "Yup! Some of the girls even helped Lady Aqua get ready! We know you well enough to know you'd get cold feet, given the chance so we put a bit of a rush on it."

Marigold, while not overtly laughing, was standing behind the gathered succubi, covering her mouth with her hand to poorly hide the smug smile on her face.

"But- I- That is… I don't know what to do on a date!" He blurted out, shaking in borderline fear at this point.

Marigold let out a long, exaggerated sigh at that, rolling her eyes as if to ask the god's why they'd sattled her with this boy. "You behave. She's still Aqua, you're still you, treat it like such while making sure to not cause an incident. If she wanted something other than you, she wouldn't have set this all up, right?"

"Quiet you, with your reasonable logic! It can't be that simple!" He exclaimed, pointing a finger at the smug succubus as the other girls nodded along, agreeing with her.

"Oh, but it is. Sure, be a bit more gentlemanly, perhaps, but otherwise treat it as a private dinner at the hall after a hard day's work. Trust this old lady, hm? I've seen more romances than you've seen days and I'd like to think I'm a bit of an expert" Marigold finished, walking up to give him a final once over. "You treat our goddess good now, alright? It would be a shame to have to kill one of our best benefactors."

"Heh, that's a joke, right Marigold? … Marigold?" With no answer forthcoming and the girls nearly pushing him out, he started on his way towards "The Golden Spoon." Not the most original of names, but when you didn't have giant chain restaurants or need to worry about having the same name as another, one could get away with that.

Kazuma took a calming breath, going over the orders he'd been given. Wait outside near the bench, Aqua would be there shortly after, party of two for Satou. It was a simple list that he shouldn't be able to mess up, but his nerves were causing him to nearly shut down all mental functions.

So lost he was in his own anxiety, Kazuma didn't even notice when Aqua showed up. She could see the panic in his eyes though and took pity on him, coughing politely to get his attention.

Turning to see her, Kazuma comes up short on breath, never having seen her dressed up.

She'd gone for something more modern than the world was used to, having the succubi help her modify a dress that matched her normal outfit and hair. It had no sleeves, instead wrapping around her neck and hugging her upper body before bellowing out past the waist. It wasn't particularly scandalous, technically covering more than her normal outfit, but it was so different that it brought him up short. Combined with her having let her hair down, he might not have recognized her if her smile wasn't so recognizable. "Ready to go in, Kazuma?" She asked, happily grabbing his hand before hooking her arm in his.

"I, uh, yes?" He dumbly responded, pulling a chuckle from Aqua.

"My, my, so articulate today, eh?"

Letting it go, Kazuma led them in, procuring their reservations and holding Aqua's chair out for her as he'd been instructed. Once seated, he started to realize that maybe the girls were right, this wasn't that much different from when they ate in the back at the hall. "So, the girls ambush you too?" He asked, motioning towards how her hair managed to be wavy, despite how it was usually up with her little H2O hairpin.

"Yup! They told me they were helping you out too, so It felt rude to turn down the offer. Besides, who better to know a man's dreams, right?" She finished, blushing lightly towards the end and realizing what she'd implied.

Kazuma let out a small chuckle, shaking his head. "I think they were just excited. Missy has complained that they don't really get to do the whole dating thing, so I think they're using us to do it by proxy."

Aqua nodded, a goofy grin on her face. "That's exactly what it felt like! They wanted to get me into something a lot more… revealing, until I reminded them that it was our date, not theirs."

One word in that sentence stopped Kazuma cold. Date. She had officially recognized it as such and his nerves were back, again. "S-so you see this as a date then?"

Aqua looked confused, tilting her head and almost causing the poor lad to break at how cute she looked. "Yeah? What else would it be?"

"I just… I don't…" Kazuma trailed off, unsure of how to explain himself.

Aqua reached forward, grabbing his hands to get his attention. "Kazuma, I literally snuggle you every night and you're my best friend. The only reason we're not a couple is because you haven't said anything. I've watched you grow from being a useless NEET that got scared to death by a tractor into a guy that literally saved a guild, me, and a bunch of girls that were in a bad spot. Sure, you're still a bit of a goof, but… I'd like to think you're my goof?" She finished, now blushing herself as she realized what she had just admitted to him.

Kazuma took a deep breath, nodding both to her and to steady himself before smiling. "I guess… that makes us a couple then?"

"Damn straight! Now, I think that calls for some bubbly, don't you think so?" Aqua asked, flagging down a waiter so they could get started.

"I thought you quit?"

"Luna drilled it into my head. It's fine for special occasions if I manage to keep it moderate. You admitting we're a couple is definitely a special occasion" she cheered, already excited at having her first glass in nearly half a year.

Kazuma sighed, leaning on his elbow as she excitedly prattled on about what kind of drink to get. To himself, he silently admitted, 'I guess you're right' before enjoying his first ever date.