Once the four friends were done with their impromptu pillow war, the five adventurers found themselves all sitting in the living room. Most in confusion, one bashful, and one looking indifferent.
"So, um, Yun-yun was it? How can we help you?" Kazuma asked, curious as to why a Crimson Demon had come to their house. He wasn't sure, but her name sounded vaguely familiar.
"Oh! Yes, I came here to challenge my rival, Megumin!" She proclaimed, trying to put on a brave face but painfully nervous.
Megumin didn't even bother to look towards her 'rival,' opting instead to pick up Chomusuke and pet her.
"Oi, don't just ignore her" Kazuma reprimanded Megumin, familiar with that kind of play from his days as a NEET. Watching her do it now, he couldn't help but feel ashamed of who he'd been when he died.
"Ignore who? The cow with two useless bags of flesh on her chest?" Megumin bit back, pointing angrily at Yun-yun. "She's no rival to me and my mastery of Explosion magic! I have gone beyond what has been done before and added my own explosive flair to arcanas older than the Crimson Demons! How could she be my rival?"
Yun-yun, for her part, looked like she was about to cry. Kazuma was about to chew Megumin out when he remembered something. All Crimson Demons were supposedly chuunis, just like Megumin. He also remembered that their chieftain had a daughter by the name Yun-yun that was described as much more sedate and 'normal' amongst their people, according to the few adventurers that had needed to go to their village.
Taking a deep breath, Kazuma rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to think of how to solve this mess. "Megumin, if she isn't your rival, what is she then?"
"Nothing, obviously!" Meguminan answered, puffing her cheeks out and crossing her arms in front of her. This time Yun-yun had to actively hold back from crying.
"Megumin! The hell! Can't you see you're making her cry?" Aqua asked, moving over to wrap her arms around the precious cinnamon roll.
"Oh, nothing? Well, then. If that's the case, I suppose nothing is stopping you from introducing yourself?" Kazuma challenged, an idea starting to take form in his mind.
"I- I suppose not" Megumin admitted, cautious at how calm Kazuma sounded.
"In fact, I think she'd make a great friend for you instead of a rival then, if she truly can't match you" Kazuma added, having realized that Yun-yun was, oddly enough, normal. She didn't see Megumin truly as a rival, but as her friend and Megumin was being a brat for some chuuni reason.
"Crimson Demons don't have friends though!" Megumin tried to argue, her 'cool' demeanor broken.
"Most Crimson Demons don't you mean. After all, what are me, Aqua, and Darkness if not your friends? And if it's so rare amongst your people, wouldn't it be most impressive to have a lot of friends then?" He challenged, internally laughing at this child's logic and how easy it can be to manipulate her.
Megumin opened her mouth to bite back a retort only to stop herself, a contemplative look falling over her face as she considered his logic. Letting out a small noise of frustration, she refused to meet Kazuma's eyes. "Why do you need to make sense?"
"Because I was a chuuni in middle school too" Kazuma dead-panned, not even denying his deep dark past.
Aqua giggled at that, covering her hand from her position next to Yun-yun. "I remember that! It was in your file! What was your deep dark origin? Something about a demonic-" she was cut off by Kazuma lunging across the room, putting his hand over her mouth.
"Now, now, no need to go dredging up the past, right?" He asked, sweating nervously.
Aqua smiled behind his hand, nodding her head before he let her go. She looked innocent for a moment before shattering the illusion, "You could have shut my mouth a few other ways you know?" She asked, her expression making it clear what she meant, causing his face to somehow go even redder.
It took Yun-yun and Darkness, who overheard, a moment to register what she'd said, but were soon enough tomato red themselves. Darkness covered her hand primly, scandalized. "Oh my."
"Oh quiet you or I'll tell Missy she can't come over for a week!" Kazuma threatened Darkness, far too embarrassed to deal with her right now.
Yun-yun, who had stayed quiet, finally cleared her throat, bringing attention to herself. "Um, I don't know if it's what Megumin wants…but I'd like for her to actually be my friend," the shy mage admitted, twiddling her fingers. "I always thought of her as my friend, not my rival anyway… she's the one that insisted on the whole rivals thing."
That caused the others in the room to snap their gazes back to Megumin who was trying to look anywhere but at them with even Chomusuke looking at her judgingly now.
Kazuma let out a sigh, standing up fully and pulling Aqua up with him. "Well, why don't the three of us leave the two of you to it then. You're both old enough you can talk things out I'd like to think… stupid chuuni culture."
"Oi! How dare you insult the Crimson Demon way of life! I'll blow you up where you stand!" Megumin shouted, her shame replaced with indignant fury at the slight to her people.
"And I'll do it again you damn explosion-loli! Looking cool and acting like a badass doesn't mean shit if you can't get anything done! Next you're going to tell me that your parents run a shop and keep losing money because they keep buying expensive products that they can't resell!" He shouted. He was going to continue, but came up short, noticing how Megumin looked away in shame at the insult, anger and frustration clear in her posture. Taking a calming breath, he tried to center himself before continuing. "Okay, that might have hit close to home. We'll talk about that later. For now, can you try to actually talk and listen to Yun-yun? She didn't bother to come all the way here just for you to ignore her." He held a hand up before Megumin could explode again, knowing she wouldn't take such an insult silently. "Megumin, it's fairly obvious your family was never that well off when we met. It isn't an insult, I am offering to help. One thing at a time though. You go have a heart with the girl who likes you enough to not only be your friend, but also take what most would consider abuse from you. You are better than that," he finished, turning away while dragging Aqua along with him. Darkness was thankfully socially aware enough to realise she had best become scarce as well, going to her own room upstairs to unpack.
Outside, Kazume had, much to Aqua's joy, adjusted his grip so their arms were entwined as they walked. "So, where we going?" The bubbly goddess asked, half expecting an impromptu date.
"Well, first we're going to talk to Wiz to help fix the ghost issue" he stopped for a half moment for her to let out her groan of frustration. While she 'accepted' the lich, that didn't mean she actively enjoyed her presence. "And then I was thinking we might either go on a mission or have a small dinner date. Your pick" he clarified, squeezing her hand lightly.
That was easily enough to cheer Aqua up, her only not skipping ahead because of their position. "Ooo, that sounds great! We can swing by the guild and see if anything seems interesting first. If nothing catches my eye, maybe that small place ran by that old couple near the hall?" She asked, trying to think of something more intimate than the guild for food.
"As my goddess wishes" Kazuma teasingly answered, unknowingly causing Aqua to go red. It wasn't the first time he'd called her a goddess, but that addition of 'my' made her stomach flutter and flip in an odd way she liked.
Turning into Wiz's shop of questionable curios, Kazuma raised a hand in greeting as Aqua's face turned stony. "Hey Wiz. Think you could help us with a small spirit problem?"
The lively lich tilted her head, curious and confused at the request. "Aqua couldn't handle them?"
Aqua looked away, embarrassed at her goof still. "Oh, she most certainly could, but she made a mess of a mansion when she put a barrier around that graveyard to help the spirits."
Covering her mouth in shock, Wiz looked at Aqua. "Miss Aqua! Did you forget to leave them a path to the afterlife?"
Aqua looked even more ashamed, that clearly the issue now that it's been pointed out to her. She nodded reluctantly before hiding her face in Kazuma's shoulder.
Kazuma shook his head, patting Aqua with his still free hand. "Do you think you can fix it? We're going out and…" he motioned towards the now disheartened goddess on his arm, making it clear she needed some cheering.
"Of course Kazuma! Anything for the two of you. Oh, and thank you for helping balance my books last month. I was only a few hundred Eris in the red this time!" She exclaimed happily, clapping her hands together.
"…how? Even if you barely sold anything, you should have broken even" Kazuma asked, dreading the answer.
"Oh, well, I was offered some interesting products and I simply had to-" her sentence was cut off as Kazuma hit her on the head, hard.
"You idiotic shop keeper! I gave you a damn budget for a reason! If you can't follow that much just quit keeping up a front and go back to being an adventurer!" He shouted, the poor management skills invoking holy fury inside him after all his time and effort learning to do the same.
"Wah, they were so interesting though!" She complained, shielding her head from another blow that never came.
"If you want something interesting, I'll find you some! Or have me clear them first! You have no business sense Wiz" he lectured, fixing his shirt and going back to Aqua. "We're going now. Please take care of the graveyard and I'll find you some products. Just… stop buying weird things."
Wiz nodded, glad that was all the worst she got. She started to shut down the shop for the day, needing to prepare for her nightly excursion.
-Ko-No-Su-Ba!-
"Hmmm… Toads, wolves, undead, manticore…" Aqua listed off, going over the list of available jobs, trying to find something that actually caught her attention.
Kazuma, while Aqua was occupied, started looking through his own stats. He'd gained quite a lot of levels since he'd come to Belzerg and Axis, nearly level fifty. An insanely high level for a Merchant from what he understood. From what he could gather, selling products and services, while worth experience, pailed in comparison to the amount of experience one got in creating trade deals from nothing. Some in the past had tried to game the system, preparing with the help of others a deal that would then be signed by the merchant, but the system knew they were cheating so it gave them little to nothing. As it was, his stats were finally above what a level ten to twenty person might have with a more combat focused class. It wasn't the insane gains he'd been hoping for, but it gave him enough that he was actually able to keep up with most quests in the hall now that weren't some of the insane 'forever undone' ones.
His Skills were interesting too. He'd gotten "Everything Has a Price" which allowed him to gauge if he could afford something. It was an evolution of his ability to see the cost of an item, making it work on a more abstract scale. Not the best, but allowed him to realize he could afford the mansion. He'd also gotten "Divine Seller" which allowed him to, once a week, sell any object effectively to the void that he owned for its value. He'd used it once to test it, but for the most part he was better off trying to sell it in person. After all, he couldn't negotiate terms with the void. He had also gotten more than a few mercantile and trade skills, most of his points being only spendable in those categories. Smithing, tailoring, cooking, trade, and thankfully, survival had all been ramped up fairly high by this point with only a handful pumping his One-handed Sword and shield stats up with an investment in Lurk as well. He knew he wasn't the strongest so it only made sense to buy it for him. What he was really looking forward to was when he finally hit level fifty. He was hoping this mission would actually push him over the limit.
"Ah! Here we go. Kazuma, they want some crow-cat meat for their restaurant. It offers a free meal if we get enough of them too!" Aqua happily exclaimed, pushing the quest paper at him to review.
It only takes him a quick glance for him to agree. "Sure, seems simple enough."
