The next day, Paradox visited us.
"Good morning everyone!" she exclaimed with a cheerful wave as she stepped into the mansion.
Everyone but Darkness bowed at her presence. The latter to which didn't recognize the little girl. She turned towards me and slowly whispered.
"Kazuma, who is that? I feel like I've seen her before…"
"That's Lady Paradox, the Goddess of Wisdom and Trickery and the owner of Morning Angel Cafe," I explained.
Darkness's eyes widened after hearing that. "She's a goddess?" she was about to quickly bow down in her presence when Paradox waved her hand dismissively.
"That's enough guys, this isn't a formal visit," she snapped her fingers and a table appeared beside her. On top of the table are dozens of colorful bottles full of coffee. "Say, have any of you tried the Morning Angel Coffee yet? We have a wide selection of taste and blend, you should try it!"
Is she… is she here just to advertise her product? And that finger snapping, was that teleportation? Or was it simply her goddess power? Can Aqua do that?
Everyone looked at each other before walking towards the table. Each one of the bottles have their contents hand written with a marker. Some I recognize as ordinary coffee from japan such as espresso, mocha, and cappuccino. Others are unique to this world, like Neroid Latte and Skillful Blend. The latter to which has a golden colored bottle.
I picked up the neroid latte, curious to how it taste. "So, how much do these cost anyway?"
"Not including the bottle, most are around four hundred Eris," Paradox then pointed at the golden bottle containing Skillful Blend. "Except for that one, that one cost two hundred thousand,"
Ah, so it's a fancy skill up potion…
I decided to go with Neroid Latte and took a sip of it. It was cold and sweet, there's a hint of swish and the bitter taste of coffee. It tasted much better than I expected and I drank more of it than I expected.
Everyone else seems to enjoy the coffee. Darkness picked the double espresso and drank it like she would drink her tea. Yunyun tried the mocha and smiled a little at the bitter sweet chocolaty taste of it. Megumin went for cappucinno and nodded a little in satisfaction. Aqua on the other hand…
"Ano… Paradox sama," Aqua walked towards Paradox before bowing in front of her. "I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"
Paradox just rolled her eyes. "Sure, now grab the Skillful Blend," she told her. "Make yourself more useful."
Aqua picked up the golden bottle. "Eh? Are you sure? Isn't this worth like, two hundred thousand Eris?" she turned towards me and was about to say something. But then, she quickly shook her head and put it on the table. "I can't afford it…"
"It's free dimwit, just drink the damn thing and learn a new skill," Paradox then averted her gaze. "I just feel like I should give it to you…" her voice gets fainter. "Y-you know… for what happened the other day, I guess I was a bit hard on you…"
Oh… So she pretended to advertise her product just so she can apologize to Aqua about what happened the other day.
Like a true tsundere…
Aqua picked up the bottle again and took a sip of it. Her eyes widened a little and she looked at Paradox. "What is this!? It's so good!" she then turned towards. "Kazuma! Kazuma! This is so good, you should try it!"
I shook my head and held up my hands.
"N-no, it's okay, just finish it Aqua. Seriously, you have to finish it."
"Okay then, more for me! Thanks Kazuma," she chugged down the bottle before exhaling a breath of relief. "Ahh… So good, it's sweet, bitter, and the texture was…" she smiled at Paradox. "Thank you so much Paradox sama!"
The little goddess smirked in response. "It's nothing, a bottle of Skillful Blend will be more than enough to appease a simpleton like you," then her gaze hardened. "Well? What are you waiting for? Learn a new skill and make yourself useful."
Aqua took out her adventurer card. "Whoa! Twenty skill points!?"
Megumin coughed on her coffee and hastily put it down. "T-twenty!?" she turned towards Aqua and looked at her adventurer card. "Are you sure you had ten before this?"
"Yes, I had ten now I have thirty," she explained.
The little girl grabbed the empty golden bottle in disbelief. "Wh-what is this made of? Most skill up potions only gives five skill points max!" she exclaimed.
Paradox has that smug grin on her face. "Trade secret," she then turned towards everyone else. "So, how was it? Do you like them?"
Darkness nodded as she put down an empty bottle. "Yes, I enjoyed it a lot. Especially the strong bittersweet and the aftertaste. It was one of the best drink I had…"
Yunyun nodded in agreement. A sweet smile could be seen on her face. "Aah… It's so sweet and tasty. Like hot chocolate but bittersweet and it taste really good."
Megumin simply put down her bottle. "Not bad, I suppose it passes the standard of a Crimson Demon such as I."
The goddess nodded in satisfaction. "Good, good, that will be 1250 Eris, pay up," she said this while staring at me.
I just rolled my eyes and turned towards our treasury. Darkness nodded and took out some coins out of her wallet. "Here you go, keep the change."
Paradox smirked and bowed a little. "Thank you for your patronage, have a nice day!" she turned around, snapped her fingers, before vanishing from existence. The bottles, tables, and all.
After that, I turned towards Aqua. She's staring at her adventurer card in concentration. "So, have you decided, Aqua?"
The goddess turned towards me. "I don't know Kazuma… Should I go with Archpriest or Bard skills? Both of them are advanced so I can only pick one of them," she handed me the card and I showed it to everyone else.
She's level forty two. Her stats are above mine except for her intelligence and her luck. Though, her luck is no longer pit bottom and has entered slightly below average area. She has twenty skill points remaining and two major choices.
One is an Advanced Archpriest Skill called 'Goddess Embrace', it's a buff that makes the target literally invincible for ten minutes. It has the same mana consumption as Explosion so it supposed to be a once a day trump card. However, Aqua is literally a goddess who can pull of a hundred of these in one day.
The other is an Advanced Bard Skill called the 'Puppet Orchestra', it's a mass mind control magic that lets the user control the mind of anyone who hear the music. The skill works with an instrument, be it actual instrument or a song. The skill is broken when the user is distracted.
"Hmm…" Megumin pointed at the bard skill. "This gotta be more useful right? I mean, mass mind control, that sounds like something we need."
"Megumin's right," Yunyun added. "The 'Goddess Embrace' might be powerful, but the 'Puppet Orchestra' has much more versatile uses."
Well then, who am I to argue against the genius of the Crimson Demon Clan?
"Take the Bard Skill Aqua," I told her while handing her Adventurer card.
Aqua nodded and learned the Bard Skill. "Okay, now what?"
"Now, we plan…"
---
"Can we just skip this? We've already seen it!" Megumin yelled from the side of the street.
Right in front of us is young Megumin lying on the ground. Yunyun stood on top of her, asking what the hell is she doing there. In a corner of the back alley is a Priest Zesta, watching them.
I couldn't help but laugh after seeing both Megumin's expression. But still, that's not what I'm focusing on, I'm just trying to pin point when exactly everything went wrong.
There's the prophecy from the Crimson Demon Village, there's Megumin's Ideas, there's Zesta and Cecily and much more. Even if we reverse Megumin's teaching, the Axis Cult is still a cancer to the society.
"Well then Megumin, how do you think we should solve this?" I asked her after witnessing Zesta's arrest.
"Stop blaming me, they're already bad to begin with!"
"Still, I heard that at this point the Axis Cult has taken over the entire city," I told her. "That one is your fault."
Megumin rolled her eyes before looking down in deep thought.
"Manga…" she said. "There's gotta something similar to this in the amount of fiction you've read right? Anything like a changed system of belief?"
I grinned a little. "Now we're on to something."
I snapped my fingers and we are no longer in Alcanretia.
Megumin walked around my room, browsing through my collections. "If it isn't a shonen, it's a doujin," she muttered.
"You've already been here before, please don't comment on it again…"
The girl smirked in response and grabbed a random doujin. "What's with your addiction to step sisters anyway? "
"Listen, if you want this to develop into a doujin, just say so," I told her. "We can even have that exhibition play you're too embarrassed to tell me about."
Megumin's cheek reddens and she quickly looked away. "Sh-shut up! That demon was lying!"
After a slight banter, we browsed through my more serious collections. There's a lot to choose from and by looking at the title, I can tell if something is useful or not.
"Huh, is this the one that inspires you to learn Nature's Beauty?" Megumin asked while holding one of the later volume of N*ruto. "Whoa, that looks awesome! Though this long haired dude is cooler. Can you make giant energy golem?"
"It's just nostalgia, it's one of the first series I'm invested to. There are better shonen series out there," I picked up O*e Pi*ce, a series that last longer than my lifetime. There's something similar to a changed belief here but… "No, that only work if the Axis Order feels oppressed…"
Soon enough it was four hours of dream time. Megumin's already caught on to the N*ruto series. I have skimmed over five different shonen series and around a dozen shorter manga. In almost all scenario, the believers are feeling oppressed or are oppressing a minor race or religion.
The problem is, Axis Order is a minority and they are extremely fanatic about their religion.
"I don't get it, so is this a good guy or a bad guy?" Megumin muttered with a huge stack of the manga beside her. "And what's with all the panic? Can't this guy who control plant just control this giant plant?"
"Megumin, you should at least read from the beginning…"
"No, I'm getting to the good part! The bad guy was manipulated by another bad guy who was the bad guy subordinate who's actually an even badder bad guy's subordinate!"
I can somehow tell what scene she's reading right now. Kag*ya's awakening and the truth about the…
Oh my Paradox… I GOT IT!!!
"YES!" I pumped my fist to the air, grabbed Megumin by the waist and hugged her tight. "Oh you lovely bundle of Chuuni!" I let go of her and smacked her lips with mine before grinning like a mad man. "I GOT IT!"
Megumin struggled under my grip before punching me in the face. It hurts and would've woke me up if it's just a normal lucid dream. I rubbed my nose and smiled sheepishly with arms up in surrender.
"Then? What is it?"
"We're gonna make ourselves a villain…"
Megumin blinked a little before she continues on her reading. "Okay then… Now let me read this…"
I rolled my eyes and sat down in front of her. "Oi, Megumin, it's a really cool plan you know?"
"I'm sure it is. We'll talk about it with everyone over breakfast."
I frowned a little until an idea came to me. I slowly positioned myself behind her and put a hand over her shoulders. "So, you like that book huh?"
"The story's cool… Though I think they talk too much,"
"Hee…" I slipped my hand under Megumin's arm and put a hand over her thigh. "I'm sure you're really invested in it huh?" I asked her while stroking her thigh just above her bandage.
"S-stop it…" she muttered. "If you want to do it, just say so…"
"No, keep reading, I'd like to see you keeping it together…"
The girl bit her lip and flipped a page.
"You stupid perv…"