newbobooks #205 - Crossing again
#205 - Crossing again
“Did… did we succeed?”
YuYu, completely drained of magical power, asked breathlessly.
“Yeah.” ZunZun looked at the giant kraken that had lost its life force and nodded. “The plan to get rid of the water and weaken our opponent was a success.”
The only thing that made the kraken troublesome was that water was its main battlefield, so as long as the water was drained, it would have no room to pull or escape.
Although the battle was quite difficult, it was at least easier than before.
The giant kraken wasn't weak, but it wasn't strong either. The problem was that the party's composition was too bizarre. Only ZunZun and YuYu were dealing damage, Darkness was tanking, and the rest were just cheering and acting as cheerleaders.
In addition, the opponent was as thick-skinned as a bull, so it took a long time to completely defeat it, but it was quite refreshing to get revenge.
“… … Huh, where's Aqua?”
Darkness's words made everyone slightly stunned. They realized that the idiot goddess was indeed missing. She had been clamoring to teach the giant kraken a lesson just now, but how did she disappear in the blink of an eye?
“Aqua? Hey, Aqua!”
“H-Here! It hurts, hurts, hurts! Kazuma! Mr. Kazuma! Help me, help me!”
The idiot goddess sent out a distress signal.
“Whoa! At some point, Aqua got pinned under the kraken!”
“How do you have to do it to get so conveniently pinned underneath?”
At this time, everyone realized that Aqua was struggling under the giant kraken, but she was too weak to escape the pressure of the huge weight and had to ask for help.
The idiot goddess shouted with tears in her eyes.
“I didn't want this either! Who knew it would fall right on top of me? I didn't have time to escape. Waaah, help me, Kazuma!”
“Seriously, I have no choice.”
Satou Kazuma reluctantly walked over and dragged Aqua out from under the giant kraken. The sticky, slimy liquid reflecting light made everyone subconsciously retreat.
They were a little disgusted.
Aqua wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and choked, “Seriously, why do I always encounter this kind of thing? I've had enough… Eh?”
Just then, she noticed that she seemed to be holding something in her hand.
It was a hexagonal crystal about the size of a palm. It looked very regular, completely blue and very transparent, like a crystal. The light shining down from the temple refracted beautiful colors on the temple floor.
The others also noticed.
Satou Kazuma was slightly stunned and said, “Aqua, what are you holding…?”
“What is this? Hmm… It looks familiar. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before. Where was it…?”
Aqua looked at the hexagonal crystal in her hand, lost in thought. This was her temple. If there was anything, she should know it, right?
However, ZunZun doubted whether she could shake out anything useful with her water-filled brain.
The only thing that could be determined was that this palm-sized hexagonal crystal contained a considerable amount of magical power.
She really picked up a treasure!
“Aqua, let me see.”
“Okay.”
ZunZun took it in her hand and looked at it for a while, only discovering that it had a large amount of magical power, and that the attribute of the magical power was water, very similar to the high-level material Water Magic Stone, but she didn't know anything else.
She looked up and found everyone looking at her.
“… What?”
“We were wondering if you found something.”
“Shouldn't you ask Aqua about this? This is her temple.”
“That's right, but…”
Satou Kazuma looked at Aqua beside him, and she also appropriately showed a clear stupidity in her eyes.
“Me? I don't know anything.”
“… That's how it is.”
ZunZun twitched the corners of her mouth.
She had completely despaired of the idiot goddess. She was an idiot for even having expectations of her. Then, she told them her guess.
“Water Magic Stone? What is it used for?”
“It's a very rare existence among high-level magic tool materials. Some more complex and precise large-scale magic tools are very prone to overheating and even exploding during operation, and the Water Magic Stone can release a large amount of water…”
“It can cool down, equivalent to a cooling device.”
“Correct, 100 points!”
Satou Kazuma's mind was really quick. But none of this was important. He wasn't a magic tool craftsman, so he didn't care about any rare materials. What he cared about was—
“How much can this sell for?”
“… This size is very rare. It can sell for at least 10 million Eris, and it might even be priceless.”
“10 million!?” xN
Everyone shouted subconsciously.
This was undoubtedly a huge sum of money. Even though they had defeated the Demon King Army executive Hans and had a 400 million Eris bounty, it hadn't been approved by the kingdom and hadn't been credited to their account, so they didn't have the concept of being rich. But this Water Magic Stone could actually be exchanged for money.
“Aqua, where did you get it?”
“When I was entangled by the kraken and pinned underneath, when I was struggling to get out, I seemed to have unknowingly grabbed it in my hand. Ah, but when I wanted to move the kraken, I seemed to have taken something from the statue that the kraken was entangled with.”
The idiot goddess recalled uncertainly.
Darkness said, “The kraken was entangled with the Axis Church's goddess statue… Could it be inlaid on the statue?”
“Because it's a Water Magic Stone. Like precious gems, it's something dedicated to the gods.” ZunZun nodded.
Aqua's eyes lit up.
“Ah, I know! Because it was inlaid on this statue, it naturally came into my hands! Because I am the goddess of the Axis Church, Aqua! This temple was also built for me. It was fate from the beginning!”
“Ah, yes, yes.” xN
“It's true! You should believe me!”
Aqua was so angry that she yelled.
It wasn't that her companions didn't believe her, but even the Axis Church believers didn't believe that she was the goddess they worshiped. They even threw stones and dunked her in a pig cage. How could they believe her?
Moreover…
If she really was the goddess of the Axis Church and wasn't believed by her own believers, wouldn't that be even more tragic?
“But 10 million, what should I use it for when we get back? I must drink sparkling wine until I'm full, and eat frog legs, and be lazy at home all day without working! That kind of life must be great…!”
Aqua seemed to be lost in delusion.
However, her delusion was too low-end. With money, she only dared to think about eating frog legs and drinking sparkling wine. This was the sequelae of poor people getting rich without knowing how to spend it.
“Squid… squid… ah!”
“Hey, useless goddess, I think I just heard an 'ah'.”
“When I was pinned down by the squid, I remembered.”
Under Kazuma Satou's unkind questioning, Aqua said with slight embarrassment, "How about Alkantia's new specialty, grilled squid? (pun intended)"
"What?"
"So, how about grilled squid?"
"You actually said such a boring joke twice."
Yunyun also twitched her lips.
Aqua puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction and said, "W-what did you say? This is an important slogan that the Axis cultists came up with in the past. For the revitalization of Alkantia, the Axis cultists once made grilled squid from fresh monster squid and kraken into a specialty for a while."
"Oh?"
"Although it was quite popular, the breeding of monsters in the lake and the consumption of tourists became unbalanced… When I was at a loss, the lake flooded, and that temple was also submerged underground. After the lake calmed down, it completely disappeared, and the grilled squid was also abandoned. I thought the environment had changed, but it turns out everyone was hiding in the temple."
In other words, the squid live here because of the Axis cultists!?
"Isn't that a bit too much? This is a common occurrence."
"Where is 'a bit'?"
"Isn't the dereliction of duty of the believers your dereliction of duty!?!"
Aqua stuck out her tongue, Yunyun couldn't help but retort, and Kazuma Satou even cursed angrily.
The idiot goddess waved her hand dismissively and said with a smile, "Alright, alright, don't worry about so much. We've gained a lot this time, so be happier."
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"…Wait, Aqua."
"What is it, Kazuma-san?"
Probably because a large sum of money was about to be deposited, Aqua's voice was very gentle.
Kazuma Satou asked with dead fish eyes, "You wouldn't be planning to pocket all this money, would you…"
"Eh?"
"Eh… my ass! I'm talking about you, this is a monster that everyone defeated together, you absolutely can't pocket it all!"
"I wouldn't do that! Speaking of which, Kazuma-san, didn't you listen carefully just now? This is my temple, and the Water Magic Stone is also offered to me, so I have the right to dispose of it!"
"Don't joke around! You guys, it's because you were messing around with the believers that we just encountered danger. What if these squid run out and harm others? So we who dealt with them are qualified to take this Water Magic Stone as a reward!"
"That's too expensive!"
The two of them started arguing again over this matter, and eventually, they dragged Yunyun into the conflict and asked for her opinion.
"…I don't care about such things, anyway, there's still the bounty for subjugating the Demon King's executives, just a mere 10 million Eris."
"Ah, right."
"Forgot about it."
They suddenly didn't care anymore.
I really don't understand these two guys' thought circuits, but it's always been them arguing like this.
Darkness, Megumin, and Yunyun were waiting impatiently at the entrance. The sun was about to set, and if they didn't leave, they would be trapped in the lake, so they urged them to leave quickly.
And just then—
The hexagonal crystal in Yunyun's hand suddenly burst out with a bright blue light, and the light extended outwards, completely covering her and turning her into a little blue person.
"…Eh?" X 2
Kazuma Satou and Aqua stared blankly at the glowing Yunyun.
"W-w-w-what… What's going on, Kazuma-san!?!"
"Why are you asking me!?! I don't know either! Speaking of which, isn't this a gem offered to you? Don't you have any impression of it!?!"
"I don't know either!"
Aqua panicked. She was already stupid, and the more panicked she was, the less her brain worked.
Kazuma Satou shouted at the little blue person, "Yunyun, quickly throw away that Water Magic Stone!"
"I can't, I can't let go!"
In fact, Yunyun had already wanted to throw the Water Magic Stone away when she first felt something was wrong, but the magic stone in her hand had already connected a magic power channel to the gem on her forehead through her body, and she couldn't even shake the magic stone off.
"Hey, Aqua, Kazuma! What's wrong with Yunyun?"
"We don't know either."
Darkness and Yunyun's two childhood friends, noticing the abnormality, quickly ran over to inquire about the situation, but they could only wait anxiously with Aqua and Kazuma Satou, who also didn't know what was happening.
Suddenly—
A black vortex appeared behind Yunyun, and before everyone could react, she was sucked in, and then the vortex completely closed.
"…Ah, a-are?"
Everyone looked blank.
Megumin shouted excitedly, "Yunyun!?!"
But her figure was no longer here. The previous miracle had also completely disappeared, as if it had never happened.
"W-what should we do, Kazuma-san!?!"
"I don't know either!"
Kazuma Satou's head was also in a mess. He had a little cleverness, but not much, and he couldn't figure out what had happened at all.
"Yunyun might still be somewhere in this temple, let's hurry up and find…"
"No, Megumin, there's no time."
Darkness signaled everyone to look outside the temple. The sun was gradually setting. Although the bottom of the lake had not been submerged yet, the waves on both sides of the lake were already unstable, and it was clear that they didn't have time to linger any longer.
"But Yunyun, she…!"
"I know."
"Megumin!?!"
Yunyun looked at her good friend in disbelief, seemingly not believing that she would say such a thing.
"We can't let our companions fall into danger, can we? And… I believe Yunyun won't have an accident, I believe in her."
Megumin's face was firm. Her voice was very soft, but that belief was unquestionable. Yunyun was silent for a moment, then nodded unwillingly.
Aqua said in a light tone, "It's okay! You two, don't worry too much. Even if Yunyun has an accident, I can save her!"
"…Idiot."
Kazuma Satou knocked her on the head, causing the idiot goddess to glare at him in displeasure.
He understood that she wanted to comfort the two of them and put their minds at ease, but her words were too unreliable.
But as Aqua said, even if Yunyun died, she could be resurrected, and countless times. This had already been proven on Kazuma Satou, so the worried expressions on Megumin and Yunyun's faces eased slightly.
— — — —
On the other side.
Yunyun appeared in a bustling street with cars and horses and people coming and going, in the pose of Ultraman Tiga's debut. This street had humans, beastmen, and carriages dragged by lizard-like monsters, which was obviously a lively city area. But it wasn't the Alkantia she was familiar with, or Axel.
She stood up blankly and looked around.
"Where the hell did I come to? Is this still 'Konosuba'?"