The next day, after quick dream meeting with Megumin, we decided to look for Eris.
Sigh… It's just one problem after another isn't it?
"Okay Megumin, you stay here and look after Aqua, I'll go with Yunyun to look for Eris. Alert me when she wakes up, okay?"
"M'kay, good luck Kazuma,"
With that, Yunyun and I teleported right outside Wiz's shop. I went straight for the door and started knocking. "Wiz, Vanir, anyone here?"
After a few seconds, the door opened, revealing a certain masked demon. "Ah welcome the guy who…"
"Skip it, where can I find Eris?"
The demon frowned a little. "If thou art looking for a goddess, then thou should ask a goddess," he gestured at the street behind us. "Thou can find Lady Paradox working in a little coffee stall near the couple's street,"
"Alright, thank you Vanir, come on Yunyun,"
I grabbed Yunyun's hand and practically ran through the city. We went straight towards the street where we had our 'date' and where Megumin broke a huge chunk of adamantite without breaking a sweat.
Soon enough, we found it. A small yet fancy stall at the side of the street. It's painted white, with a logo of a winged glass of coffee. Standing behind the stall is a certain white haired girl with yellow eyes wearing a trench coat.
"Lady Paradox!" I exclaimed, rushing towards her.
"Get in line hero," Paradox replied flatly. "Don't expect any special treatment now,"
God fucking dammit!
I walked behind the line and simply waited. There's about four people ahead of us and each one took their sweet time choosing their orders. Apparently, Paradox decided to make something like St*rbucks in this world, if the numerous selection of coffee is anything to go by.
The only major difference is that the customer has to bring their own cup or bottle with them. If not, they can buy a bottle or a glass with their coffee for a higher price. I thought it's because Paradox cares a lot about the environment, but then I realized that plastics doesn't exist in this world.
After a few minutes, only two people remaining. I was about to say something when Yunyun suddenly held my hand.
"It's okay Kazuma… Have faith in Megumin, she'll take care of her,"
I exhaled a breath of relief and smiled at her.
"Thank you Yunyun…"
Soon enough, it's our turn. Paradox smiled at us and handed us the menu. "Welcome to Morning Angel Coffee, how can I help you?" she asked.
I looked at the menu. There's a wide selection of coffee and a bunch of bottles in to choose from… Wait no! This isn't the time for that!
"Paradox, where can I find Eris? Does she visit this world often?"
The girl rolled her eyes in response. "Eris was here a few hours ago, they left to investigate a ruins nearby. I'm not sure where it is though…"
"What does she look like?"
"A white haired thief, with a scar on her cheek,"
Finally! A bloody clue!
"Alright thank you!"
"Oi, aren't you gonna ord…"
Her words were cut short because right now, we're at the entrance of the guild. We barged into the building in a hurry. A bunch of adventurers greeted us, but I simply waved back and head straight to the receptionist.
"Kazuma kun, good mor…"
"This is urgent," I cut Luna off. "Just a few hours ago a party of adventurer took a mission to investigate a ruins, can you tell us where it is?"
"The ruins?" Luna quickly rummaged through some papers and took out a quest. "Here, it's this one. What is it Kazuma? Is it dangerous?"
"Extremely," I told her before teleporting Yunyun and I just outside the city.
---
"Kazuma, Aqua is waking up,"
"How's her condition?"
"Not as bad as last night. I'm taking her to the bath."
"That's great, tell me if anything else happen okay?"
"Okay, good luck!"
I sped through the everlasting glades outside of Axel faster than a speeding car. Behind me, Yunyun is barely keeping up with me, but right now, she's the fastest person in fantastic dreamer aside from Megumin.
Soon enough, the terrain turned rocky and a bit desolate. We soon found ourselves staring at a large ruins. There's also a huge structure near it, resembling a fifty foot tall robot. Just like that, I can tell who made this place.
The robot seemed to be pursuing a band of adventurers. Numerous spells were thrown at it, but the robot didn't budge. It slammed its gigantic palm to the adventuring party shock wave followed by a land slide formed.
One of the adventurer, a black haired girl wearing a mage cloak, slipped and fall on to the ground. Her friends quickly rushed in towards her, but they weren't fast enough. The golem already raised its huge hand and was about to crush them.
"Yunyun!"
The Crimson Demon vanished and reappeared right beside the golem's outstretched fist.
"LIGHT OF SABER!!!"
A huge blade of light shot out of Yunyun's hand cut through the golem's arm. The earth shook as the arm fell on to the ground near the group of adventurers. I teleported right next to them and threw a handful of seeds on the ground.
"Nature's Beauty!"
Numerous vines burst out of the ground behind me. It latches on to the golem and only grew thicker and larger. The vines drained the golem of its magic, binding and crushing the golem in the process. It kept going until the golem stopped moving.
Soon, all that's left is a gigantic tree bigger than the guild. I turned to the adventurer party I just saved and found them staring at me in awe. There's a vanguard, a mage, an warrior, an adventurer, and a thief.
The thief was Chris, the one who taught me how to steal and my first sexual harassment victim.
"Kazuma sama!" the brown haired vanguard exclaimed. "You saved us, thank you so much!"
The mage who tripped embraced me into a hug. "Kazuma sama, th-thank you…" she cried. "I thought my team would… Because of me they would,"
I gently pat her head and gestured at Yunyun. "If you want to thank anyone, you should thank Yunyun, she's the one who saved your life."
They all turned towards Yunyun to gave her their thanks. I took this time to observe the party some more, looking for a thief with white hair and a scar on her cheek.
Apparently, Chris fits all the criteria.
So yeah, my first sexual harassment victim is Eris sama herself.
I have no idea how I should feel about that.
"Chris,"
The thief turned towards me. "What is it, Kazuma sama?"
I cast a quick steal and managed to stole her adventurer card without her knowing.
"Aqua needs you, right now,"
Chris feigned a confused expression. "What are you talking about Kazuma…" her words faltered when I raised her adventurer card for all to see.
Her stat is somewhat above average. But her luck stat literally doesn't work. The card flickered and glitched, trying to show her infinite amount of luck.
"Please, Eris sama," I bowed down in front of her. "Aqua needs your help,"
"W-wait! Don't call me that in public," Chris turned towards her adventurer team. "You guys! D-don't tell anyone okay? Or else I will curse you with bad luck!"
The rest of the party stared at Chris with wide eyes. They pointed at her with wide eyes and some lost all the colors of their face.
"E-Eris sama!?" the warrior exclaimed in shock disbelief. He dropped down in front of her and started praying. "Fo-forgive me for teasing you earlier! I will repent for all my sins,"
Chris waved her hands furiously. "No stop! Don't pray at me, I'm Chris now, not Eris, no hard feelings, really!" she then shot me an annoyed look. "Look what you did Kazuma! I worked so hard on this disguise!"
I shook my head. "Sorry, but I need you to realize that this is a very urgent matter," I told her. "Aqua is in trouble, she really, really needs you right now. If you don't do anything, I swear to Paradox, she will fade away and the Axis Order will be wiped out."
The thief turned towards Yunyun who just nodded in confirmation. "S-so, it's like that, okay…" she took a deep breath. "What do you need me to do, Kazuma?"
---
"I'm home," I greeted everyone.
A peculiar sight lies before me. There's Megumin, crouching on the ground beside Aqua. The latter is currently making a masterpiece from the dust on the floor. There's Darkness, standing a distance away from them, spreading dust across the floor.
It is a dust painting of what I assume to be Aqua. She has her eyes closed, holding her nature's beauty flower on her hands, submerged inside a beautiful pond. All around her were depictions of people, running around a fiery landscape.
At the background of it was what I assume to be Eris. She held a beautiful pot in her hands, pouring water into Aqua's pond. Eris's form was tied by a bunch of vines that connects to Aqua's flower. Behind them are people, throwing stuff at Eris and people who are giving water to Eris.
"They say a picture speaks a thousand words," I muttered to myself. "Well, this one… This one speaks a million…"
I walked towards Aqua, taking care not to ruin her masterpiece, and crouched down beside her and Megumin. "Ne, Aqua, there's someone who wants to meet you," I told the goddess.
Aqua paused her drawing and turned to look at me. She's not crying anymore, but her eyes are still hollow and lifeless.
"Good afternoon, Kazuma…" she spoke in a soft and monotone voice. "Who wants to meet me?"
The door to the mansion burst open and a bright light shone from within it. A literal godly figure stepped into the mansion. She's a young beauty around Aqua's age. She wore a black and white nun uniform, with her silky white hair peeking out of the side of it.
All at once, everyone in the mansion bowed at her presence. I looked at Aqua and saw a flicker of light appear in her hollow eyes. I couldn't help but sigh a breath of relief before giving Aqua and Eris a little bit of a space.
"Is that Eris sama? For real?"
"Of course! That's our plan wasn't it?"
"Yeah… I just didn't think you'd go as far as bringing the real thing here…"
Eris walked through Aqua's masterpiece. Cleansing wind blows away the painting with every step she took. It was until she cleaned off the floor of the mansion that she finally stood in front of Aqua.
The goddess of luck crouched down in front of Aqua and gave her a patient smile. "Good afternoon, senpai… How are you?"
Aqua raised her head to meet her junior's gaze. "E-Eris…" she looked down a bit and her form started to tremble. "Ne, Eris sama… Can I ask you something?"
"I came all the way from heaven to talk to you senpai, of course you can ask me."
The goddess of water took a deep breath. "Will you forgive me, if I apologize to you?"
Eris narrowed her eyes in confusion. "I don't understand why you need to apologize, but I will. I will always forgive you, no matter what you did, senpai."
Aqua's breath hitched a little and her eyes started to water. "Wh-why would you forgive me? I've been a horrible senpai. I've shoved all my responsibilities to you, I blamed you whenever something went wrong. I repaid you by telling my own worshipper to do the same, to make enemies of you and your religion…"
"Because you're still my senpai and you are an important person to me," Eris gently pet her head and a warm light engulfed the goddess. "Go on, say you're sorry, then I'll forgive you, I will release you of all your sins. So just say the word…"
Aqua burst into tears and embraced her junior.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" she sobbed into her clothing. "I'm sorry for being terrible senpai. I'm sorry for being a horrible goddess. I'm sorry for being ungrateful. I'm sorry for being stupid and useless. I'm sorry for hating you and your worshipper… Forgive me… I'm sorry…"
Eris returned the hug and gently stroked her head.
"There, there, it's okay senpai… You are forgiven,"
I shielded my eyes as a bright light shot out of the goddess. We all averted our gaze as the light went on for a few minutes.
When it dies down, we saw Aqua sleeping on Eris's lap. The latter kept caressing the former, humming a soothing tone like how a mother would to a child. She went at it for a few minutes before turning towards me.
"Kazuma kun," Eris smiled at me. "You are the Champion of Wisdom, Paradox's pride and joy. You embodies her will and power to change fate," she lowered her head. "Please safe Aqua, her people, and rewrite the fate that shall befell her worshipper…"
"Leave it to me, Eris sama,"
The goddess chuckled a little. "It seems like Paradox didn't pick the wrong person," she motioned me to come over and gently lifted Aqua from her lap. "Here, take her to her favorite spot in this mansion, make sure you're there when she wakes up."
I carried Aqua bridal style and simply watched as Eris slowly stood up from the floor.
The goddess then turned towards Darkness who's been standing there in silence. "Hello Darkness, do you still remember your friend, Chris?"
Darkness smiled at the goddess. "Yes, she is a dearest friend of mine," the crusader bowed deeply in front of her. "Thank you, thank you so much for answering my prayers, Eris sama…"
"It's alright, Chris also enjoys your company," the goddess then winked at her. "Do visit her if you have some time, okay?"
"I will,"
The goddess turned to all of us and waved her hand. "Take care everyone, I have a place to return to," she said before fading away from existence.
With that, Megumin and I carried Aqua to her training room. I lay her down on a sofa simply sit right next to her and Megumin. We decided to not do anything else that day. Opting instead to let Aqua sleep and recover.