Chapter 881: Eiji: Kazuma, You Bastard, You Tricked Me!
"What are you arguing about again?"
Eiji walked over with a dark expression on his face.
This was just embarrassing.
After all, Kazuma was his underling. In his mind, if this party lost face, he would lose half of his own face too.
"Boss, you came at the perfect time! Aqua caused trouble outside again!"
Kazuma immediately seemed to have found a savior and quickly grabbed Eiji.
"And another thing, boss, you lied to me! The Axis Cult doesn't have any loli succubi at all!"
"I only heard about it from rumors, so it's understandable if it's not accurate."
Eiji shamelessly laughed, then looked at Kazuma in surprise.
"Kazuma, did you go to the Axis Church just for loli succubi?"
"Uh..."
Kazuma immediately felt terrible.
Aqua, Megumin, and the others nearby all cast disdainful glances at him. Even the innkeeper's gaze toward him lost its warmth.
From a man's perspective, those who like succubi are fellow men of culture, but if you like lolis... Sorry, I don't know this pervert!
"O-of course not! I just went to visit the church! Don't look down on people!"
Kazuma coughed lightly and denied righteously.
The innkeeper silently left the front door, while Aqua and Megumin sneered coldly. Darkness also rolled her eyes. After knowing each other for so long, everyone knew each other well - anyone who believed his words would be a fool!
"Let's not talk about that, boss! Aqua caused trouble at the church!"
Kazuma rapidly changed the subject, glaring at Aqua with bitter disappointment.
"Oh, how did she screw up this time?"
Eiji asked with complete detachment.
"Hey, the way you said that makes it sound like I've screwed up before! Why are you saying such baseless things? It'll affect people's impression of me, a goddess!"
"Heh."
Wherever Aqua went, she would inevitably cause trouble. He had fully accepted this fact now and would never hold any expectations for this idiot goddess again!
"Boss, listen to me..."
Kazuma began chattering incessantly as he recounted what happened.
After separating from Eiji and the others, Kazuma and the three of them headed straight for the Axis Church with clear purpose.
As soon as they arrived at the church, Aqua naturally revealed herself as a goddess in public, which angered the believers.
No one believed she was actually the goddess herself, and they were outraged that she had defiled the goddess's name. Everyone picked up brooms and mops, each wanting to teach her a lesson, forcing them to hide.
In their panicked escape, relying on Kazuma's stealth skills, they managed to sneak into the hot spring behind the church and barely escaped.
That should have been the end of it - they just needed to leave during the chaos and everything would be fine.
Who would have thought that when Aqua saw the church's hot spring, she insisted there was something wrong with the water and immediately wanted to purify it. Kazuma and Megumin couldn't stop her no matter how hard they tried, and by the time they realized what was happening, Aqua had already purified the hot spring.
"Aqua is such an idiot! Her purification ability has no limits - she directly purified the hot spring water into ordinary water, and we got chased again for quite a while!"
"Hey, you skipped over most of the middle part! You skipped most of it! When you heard that purifying the hot spring would get my followers to offer rewards, you were really eager to cooperate with me and even helped me purify the hot spring. Now it's all my fault?!"
After hearing Kazuma's extremely one-sided testimony, Aqua shouted indignantly.
"That's right, Kazuma, just admit it. This is all your and Aqua's fault!"
"Megumin, don't you start! When you heard there was a reward, you were even more enthusiastic than me!"
Kazuma yelled at Megumin, who was acting like she had nothing to do with it.
"So? You just ran back?"
Eiji gave them a dead-fish-eyed look.
"No, we got caught."
Kazuma laughed awkwardly.
"There was a vice bishop in their church who was incredibly strong. Even when I went into stealth mode, she still found me and caught me on the spot..."
"Hmph, this just shows how devoted my followers are! Someone like Eris would never have such devout followers!"
"Hey, you shouldn't talk about Goddess Eris like that. At least my faith in Goddess Eris is very devout..."
Aqua ignored Darkness's objection, proudly puffing out her chest while casually dissing her junior.
The vice bishop of the Axis Church was, of course, a priest. The stronger one's faith in their god, the more power they could borrow from their deity, and thus the stronger they would become.
If even the vice bishop was this strong, the head bishop must be even stronger, which meant their faith in Aqua was extremely devout.
"So how did you get back?"
"Darkness brought us back."
As he said this, Darkness looked over and smiled somewhat sheepishly.
Why are you acting embarrassed?
"Then it's settled? Everyone go home, go soak in the hot springs. I've already had my bath."
"It's not over yet, boss. The important part comes after this..."
Kazuma swallowed hard and pulled Aqua in front of him, using her as a shield.
"That hot spring was a business operated by the church. We ruined their business, so they demanded compensation."
Hiding behind Aqua while avoiding her murderous glare, he continued.
"That hot spring was purified so thoroughly that it probably won't be usable for ten years. At first they asked for two billion, but after my relentless efforts and long negotiations, we finally settled on three hundred million in compensation. I had no choice but to say my boss has plenty of money... Boss, don't hit me, let's talk this out!"
Eiji flew into a rage and kicked out!
Damn it, Wiz screws me over, and now you're screwing me over too!
Wiz is my wife, do you want to give me your wife too?
Aqua let out a frightened shriek. Eiji's fists had left her with deep psychological trauma, but after a moment, she didn't feel any pain. Instead, she saw Kazuma fall to the ground with a thud.
Kazuma looked completely bewildered, not yet processing what had happened.
Is this the worth of a swordsman trained in the Failed World?
"Ahahaha! Kazuma, you finally got what you deserved..."
"Duang!"
Aqua fell to the ground with a thud.
"What are you laughing at? You're at fault too!"
Eiji glared angrily at the back of Aqua's head.
"That's right! Aqua is the main culprit! She's the one who purified the hot spring!"
Kazuma nodded repeatedly, perfectly willing to throw his companion under the bus!
"But, but! That hot spring water really had problems! If anyone soaked in that spring, something terrible would definitely happen! How could I allow such a thing to happen to my beloved followers? Besides, if guests encountered problems, it would damage the reputation of my Axis Cult!"
Aqua covered her head with her hands, defending herself with a deeply wronged expression.
"No, the Axis Cult never had any reputation to begin with. If anything, its reputation is absolutely terrible..."