A date in Alcanretia…
On the outside, it's a nice and beautiful city. We walked through the stone paved roads through a marketing district of some sort. There's a beautiful natural cliffs surrounding the city and the water along the canals and bridges are one of the purest I've seen.
The only thing wrong about this city, is of course… The people.
I've heard bad reputations about the Axis Cultist. Even claiming you're from the Axis Order will save you from bandit. The Demon King himself is so afraid of the cult that I just have to wonder, what kind of mad lad is our next boss?
We sat down on a fountain with a statue of the goddess Aqua standing on top of it. I unwrapped the three kebab we bought for breakfast and handed two of them to Megumin. Megumin fed Liz the kebab first, she seems to like it as the dragon started munching down on it. Then, I held my kebab for Megumin to eat.
Feeding each other food like a pair of happy couple. Never in my shut in life have I ever thought that this day ever come. Especially in this beautiful city.
No, really, it's a beautiful town, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Though, we have to wait until tonight where we'll meet up with Darkness and Chris who will show that they are from the Eris Sect and Taylor, Keith, and Yunyun who will pretend to be normal tourist.
Suddenly, the street around us went silent. We looked around in confusion and saw Taylor, Keith, and Yunyun walking down the street. They noticed us, but pretended not to, as part of the plan. They sat down on the other side of fountain and talked among themselves.
A distance away from them, I saw a cultist handing a basket of apple to a girl. The girl nodded a little and walked in front of the trio. The girl then 'tripped' and the apples went rolling down the ground in front of them.
"No, my apples, I just bought them!" she exclaimed.
Keith was the first stand up, followed by Taylor and Yunyun. They all helped her gather the apples and put them back to her basket. She put down the basket near the fountain and smiled at them.
"Thank you so much, because of you I was saved," she said.
"That's alright," Keith said. "But if you wanted to thank us yo-ow!"
Beside him, Taylor shook his head. "It's alright, take care miss…"
"Hehe… You're all so nice," the girl then walked closer to Keith. "Say… Would you like me to return the favor?" she held Keith's hand.
Keith gulped nervously. "You mean it's fine?"
"Yes! You see, I'm a fortune teller," the girl took Keith's hand and began reading his palm. "Let's see…" her face turned into that of concern. "Ara, it seems a great misfortune will befall you, but that's okay, you can avoid it if you join the Axis Order!"
The girl's gaze turned dangerous, both Taylor and Yunyun stiffened a little in fear. Keith tried to let go of his hand, but the girl has an iron grip of his hand.
"Ahaha… No thanks, I'm uhh, I'm good without religion…" Keith said nervously.
"N-no! This misfortune is really great, it will become the worst moment of your life!" the girl brought her face closer to Keith. "Come on, join us! Become one of us!!!"
Keith was downright terrified. He turned to Yunyun and Taylor who wouldn't dare get near them. "H-help me!!!"
After a moment, Yunyun steeled herself. She put a hand on Keith and Taylor's hand before shouting, "Teleport!"
They teleported to the other side of the fountain and quickly ran to the nearest alleyway.
I turned towards Megumin and saw her watching the scene transpiring before her in horror.
"Ka-Kazuma…" she muttered. "What have I done…"
"Don't worry, as long as we…" the fortune teller girl did a little jog towards us and Megumin quickly held Liz protectively. "Hi, how can we help you?"
"Ano, did you see a trio of lost sheep around here?"
Lost Sheep? That's what they call a tourist?
I pointed at an alleyway beside the one Taylor and the rest escaped to. "I think they went that way, could be wrong though," I told her. "But I think they're already too far away at this point,"
The girl sighed a little bit. "Ah, that's too bad..." she sat down beside me to catch her breath. "By the way, are you tourist? I've never seen you before."
"Hmm? Oh, we're adventurers. This is Megumin, my girlfriend. We joined the Axis Order a few weeks ago and is planning to visit this place for a vacation," I told her.
The girl smiled a little. "That sounds lovely. By the way, my name is Misha, it's nice to meet you," she held up her hand.
"Nice to meet you Misha," I shook her hand.
Okay, this is it…
"By the way, Misha, what was that all about? I mean, why use that elaborate apple basket thing to convince them to convert?"
Misha looked at me with stars in her eyes. "You mean you know a better way to make them convert?"
You can try asking them to join another religion.
"Not really, no… Sorry…"
The girl looked down in disappointment. "Oh, well, don't worry, this might not work at first, but it will work eventually," she said positively.
"What do you mean eventually?"
"Well, if we keep doing these repeatedly, they will always relented, usually after attempting to fatally injure themselves before finally signing the registration form in their own blood," she took out the Axis Order registration paper. "Then they will become one of us."
The girl explained this nightmare fuel in a friendly tone and a sweet smile on her face.
"Ano, Kazuma san, is there something wrong with your girlfriend?"
I turned towards Megumin and saw her shivering on her seat and hugging Liz protectively. "Uhh… Heatstroke," I straightened her witch hat. "I think we're going to look for a shadier area, thanks again Misha!"
"Bye, bye!"
---
After walking near the lake surrounding the city, Megumin finally calmed down. Liz is no longer perched on her shoulder, instead hold tightly to her chest. Her other hand held mine as we traverse this crazy city full of cultist.
"This is my fault isn't it?" Megumin muttered to herself. "They weren't like this before, Zesta said they will never use petty means to get people into their religion…" she shudders a little. "And, and now Aqua she…"
I stopped for a moment and pulled her into my embrace.
"It's alright Megumin…"
"But Yunyun and the rest, they…"
"It's not your fault…"
We decided to rest at the side of the street overlooking the large lake in the distance.
Truthfully, I've never seen a large body of water this pure and clean, I can imagine people dunking buckets into the lake for consumption. Added to the beautiful cliffs in the distance that's just pouring out fresh water from the bottom of the earth, it's just beautiful.
Megumin leaned on the stone barrier and simply gazed into the distance.
"Do you have a back up plan?"
"Of course!"
"A back up plan if we failed to save the cult?"
I closed my mouth and looked back at the lake.
"Yes… I have…"
"Will it save Aqua?"
"Perhaps…"
Megumin exhaled a breath of relief.
"Thank you…"
"You're welcome…"
Liz squirmed out of Megumin's embrace. She climbed on to the stone fence and flew on to my head. The dragon purred a little like a cat as she made herself comfortable on my head.
"Yes, thank you Liz, I'll be sure to use my head…"