A night passed without incident.
The next day.
When Hayashi Maki woke up, the goddess Aqua was still sleeping soundly in his arms.
She was clinging to him like an octopus, cheek slightly flushed, completely defenseless.
Hayashi Maki ran his hand through her blue hair, then opened his Demon System panel to see what ability he'd gained from contracting with a goddess.
[Congratulations, Player. You have contracted with the true deity of the Axis Church, the Water Goddess Aqua. The wise goddess has granted you the Blessing of Water. You have acquired the special skill: Authority of Water.]
[Authority of Water: Perfect control of water. At full power, you can flood the world.]
Seeing the description, Hayashi Maki's eyes lit up.
Now this was a big deal.
Back in the Zero no Tsukaima world, the water spirit had wanted to flood the world just to recover a stolen ring.
Now he could pull off the same stunt himself.
Not that anyone in their right mind would actually drown the entire world.
Still, the skill meant he truly had water under his complete control—more than enough to develop all kinds of powerful water-based techniques.
And skills that Hayashi Maki developed could be shared with his contracted followers, which meant this was also a big buff for the whole "family."
He fondly stroked Aqua's soft blue hair, a pleased smile tugging at his lips.
Getting Aqua really had been worth it—in every way.
Her body, especially, was absurdly resilient; he'd kept going almost until dawn.
On top of that, she had purification abilities. He didn't need to worry about "little accidents."
Not feeling like getting up, Hayashi Maki simply closed his eyes again and went back to sleep.
It wasn't until noon that the hungry goddess stirred.
When she opened her eyes and saw the man still holding her, she froze for a second—then burst into tears.
"Waaah… my goddess chastity… how are you going to compensate me for this!?"
Hayashi Maki pinched her cheek, amused.
"I'll take responsibility and offer myself. How's that?"
"Of course that's not okay! The divine realm has rules—you can't have that kind of impure relationship with a goddess! I broke the rules!"
"But we're not in the divine realm now, are we? It probably doesn't count. And you can't go back anyway, so who's there to enforce anything?"
He chuckled as he coaxed her.
"…Oh, right!"
Aqua blinked, then nodded as if enlightened.
She'd never exactly been a stickler for rules anyway.
Otherwise she wouldn't have constantly revived Kazuma back in the original story—there was a rule that once you were reincarnated into another world and received a resurrection, you only got one. Yet Satou Kazuma had died who knows how many times, and Aqua just kept reviving him without batting an eye.
Of course, Kazuma had nothing to do with her anymore. Aqua was now officially Hayashi Maki's goddess.
She'd just finished nodding and accepting this when her tears surged again.
"Waaah… we literally just met and you did that kind of thing to a goddess! I don't wanna live anymore! My life is over, waaah!"
Her shoulders shook as she sobbed, making Hayashi Maki's mouth twitch.
"So what would it take for you to want to go on living?"
At that, Aqua immediately stopped crying. She lifted her pale chin, closed her eyes, and declared loudly:
"You can join my Axis Church! And from now on you'll put this goddess on a pedestal and worship me properly! If I say go east, you can't go west. If I say chase that dog, you aren't allowed to steal a chicken—"
"Yeah, never mind. Go ahead and die then. If your conditions are that excessive, I'm out."
Hayashi Maki rolled his eyes, pushed her off him, and started getting dressed.
Aqua turned to stone.
"Y-you can't treat a goddess like this! I'm the true deity of the Axis Church, the Water Goddess Aqua! Do you have any idea what you're passing up on!?"
"Nope. Just know your demands are ridiculous. I was thinking of joining, but now… not so much."
"Wait, wait… forget the other stuff, just join! My Axis Church is great! I can even make you a High Priest!"
The mask slipped. Seeing him calmly get ready to leave, all cool and detached, Aqua panicked and hugged his waist in desperation.
In fairness, her biggest strength was knowing when to yield.
In this strange new world, there was no Axis Church, no followers of Eris, nothing familiar at all—she was starting from zero.
And while she thought highly of her own divine power, she definitely did not want to suffer.
Hayashi Maki clearly wasn't your typical fresh reincarnated adventurer, either. He had a personal storage space, and even before registering any class, he'd been able to pull out gold and silver and exchange them for currency.
If she stuck with him, life would be comfortable: good food, good drink… and at night, well—never mind that part. Not important.
In short, Aqua was a hedonistic goddess at heart. If there was comfort to be had, she would absolutely go for it.
Plus, the guy was handsome—and last night had been… very satisfactory. She really couldn't bring herself to let such a premium follower slip away.
And if she did let him go, some other goddess—like that annoying, padded-chest junior of hers—might swoop in and steal him. She'd cry for real then.
With Aqua wrapped around his waist, Hayashi Maki raised an eyebrow.
"So you're dropping all those conditions?"
"Yes, yes, I won't mention them anymore. Hayashi Maki, please join my Axis Church, okay?"
Aqua gazed up at him with teary, pleading eyes.
Hayashi Maki's lips curled up.
"Alright then. Since the great goddess is begging me so earnestly, I'll reluctantly agree to join your Axis Church. But I am a demon, you know. You sure you want me as a follower?"
At that, Aqua rolled her eyes hard.
"Demon, my butt. There's no way you're a demon. Quit spouting nonsense."
Hayashi Maki was honestly surprised.
So even Aqua couldn't sense what he really was.
Looked like his "Demon System" was more of a conceptual power than a literal species thing.
He was a "demon" because he wanted a free, self-indulgent life—that was all.
After glaring at him, Aqua huffed and continued:
"Anyway, since this world doesn't have an Axis Church yet, as my only High Priest, you've got to work hard to build up our flock!"
"No problem. I'll do my best to build us a nice comfy home base. Just sit back and enjoy the benefits, Aqua-sama."
Hayashi Maki ruffled her hair.
The warm touch made Aqua half-close her eyes, a dreamy look on her face.
Coming to this strange world might not be so bad after all.
"Alright then, Aqua-sama must be hungry by now. Let's go find something to eat first."
"Yes! Food! Let's go, I've been starving!"
She was a goddess—the Water Goddess, even—but while she could draw strength from water, she could still feel hunger.
She wouldn't die from it, but being hungry was uncomfortable.
And to Aqua, discomfort was absolutely unacceptable.