"Breakfast is ready!!" Darkness and Inox's voices from the kitchen caught Aqua's attention. She quickly stopped staring at the plant in the center before heading over to eat.
Kazuma came down a moment later, and finally, everyone sat down for breakfast.
"Hmph... You guys owe me, hehehe," Darkness let out a soft giggle. "After all, Inox didn't have much money left, so I bought this week's food supplies."
Everyone at the table nodded. "By the way, I was told you were found in a pitiful state yesterday. It doesn't seem like your style to challenge other adventurers. What was really going through your head?" Darkness asked.
"Hmph..." Kazuma cleared his throat. He looked out the window for a moment before sighing. "I, just, was confused. I met a girl, Megumin. She looked like she hadn't eaten in months and her clothes were dirty, so..."
Darkness flashed a white-toothed smile and leaned forward a bit. "Did you want to be the hero who saves the damsel? Aww, how cute..." Her voice pitched up as she let out light laughs.
Kazuma opened his mouth, about to deny it, but then simply let out a soft chuckle as well. "Who knows. By the way, Inox..." The Japanese boy turned to look at the prince.
"I'm sorry... about yesterday," He gave a bow.
Everyone watched this closely, especially Aqua. She opened her mouth to take a bite of the burger in her hands and glared at the Japanese boy with a frown. She drummed her fingers on the table. "Hmph..." she made a noise with her mouth as her gaze sharpened.
"Some things can't be helped. I suppose I'm not the right person to judge you," Inox forced a smile. The Japanese boy stood up, having finished his burger. He clicked his tongue while looking away before forcing a smile of his own.
"Thanks for breakfast. I should head to the guild to find a quest we can take together to make some money. We're going broke."
Kazuma walked out with a slow and steady pace in front of everyone. Inox watched his back, let out a soft sigh while closing his eyes, and then opened them to see Aqua slouching.
She chewed her burger somewhat slowly, furrowing and relaxing her brow repeatedly. She stopped halfway through her meal, took one last bite, and finally raised her head with a faint smile.
Inox hesitated. He looked at his right hand, which had trembled yesterday. With a slight grinding of his teeth, he spoke up, "Do you know what this is?" He caught everyone's attention, a half-smile on his face. "Chocolates. Take one each. Oh, and now that Kazuma isn't here..."
He paused for a moment, his tunnel vision focused on Aqua. "And... Aqua can have two, taking Kazuma's place, hahahaha..." He forced a laugh, but everyone laughed except Aqua.
The goddess looked at the box. Her blue eyes sparkled slightly, her complexion blooming with a natural pink. She tilted her head, her smile growing slightly wider, and finally let out a soft laugh.
Some time later.
The prince worked in the garden over the following days. Kazuma didn't manage to find any rookie quests for the time being, so everyone helped him prep the land.
Two more rows were dug out, where 10 grade 1 papaya seeds and 10 random grade 1 corn seeds were planted.
With this, a quarter of the garden had been filled. The edges of the house were cleaned up, and the weeds were pulled. Inox wanted to ask everyone to help him water the plants, but Aqua used a minor water spell to water the entire garden all by herself.
"Hehehe, aren't I amazing? Inox, I'm useful, a goddess. I can water your plants for you, I can heal you and heal everyone, and besides... I'm also a girl who can help out. So, hmph, will you buy me some wine? I need something to distract myself," she said the moment Inox saw her water magic, her voice high-pitched but not loud.
Inox was a bit confused by those words. He checked his pockets, looked at the goddess who had watered his garden, and finally bought the wine, exhausting all the Eris he had saved up. He justified this to himself by deciding to find a quest later to earn more Eris.
Curiously enough, two days after Aqua watered the garden, the planted seeds had already sprouted into plants, and the shoots had grown enough to be ready for harvest.
That morning, with the group's help, they harvested 100 grade 1 carrots and 100 grade 1 tomatoes, all ready to be eaten.
Seeing the magic of these vegetables during their previous battle with the grade 1 Berserker, Darkness took the initiative and bought a magical cooler box that would keep anything placed inside it cold for a week.
"Why don't we use Darkness as bait to sell these 200 veggies?" Inox asked in the kitchen, looking at the large, closed black cooler box.
His comment drew everyone's gaze. "Hehehe, actually, the first time I grew tomatoes and carrots—well, just tomatoes—Darkness used some simps she had to buy my tomatoes for 10,000 Eris each."
There was a brief moment of silence. Everyone's eyes immediately landed on the blonde girl. The blush on her face was obvious; she lowered her hands while shifting her legs and mumbling softly.
"No, no, no, Inox is wrong. Besides, who the hell is named Inox? Are you Stainless or something? Ahem..." The girl coughed lightly after her outburst. "I had no idea those guys wanted to... be with me. So I thought it was a good idea for them to buy these veggies to strengthen themselves in battle."
Dust raised an eyebrow at the explanation. Aqua opened her mouth, an idea sparking in her mind, while Kazuma shook his head and sighed.
"Girls always have the advantage," Kazuma sighed.
"It's a good idea. No, it's a magnificent idea!!" Aqua smiled brightly, showing off her white teeth.
"This is a bit indecent," Dust shook his head while grinning from ear to ear. "It's very indecent, Miss Darkness. At the very least, you should offer each of them a kiss for spending 10k Eris on that tomato..." he muttered.
"This isn't humilia... wait," Darkness glared at Dust with a frown. "What the hell did you just say? Repeat it!!!" She took a step forward, but the smile on her face was all too obvious.
Inox tapped the table with a spoon, drawing everyone's attention. "We shouldn't do that. We could make a lot of enemies, probably more than we already have..." He looked at Kazuma for a moment.
"We haven't been called back to the guild regarding the Berserker Rider case and those strange elite goblins. I feel like something weird is going on there. For now, only those guys who wanted Darkness's body and us know about the existence of these veggies that increase strength and agility."
He paused, looking everyone in the eyes.
"Even though the boost isn't rare, and there are cheap potions that do it better, and these veggies only increasing it by 10% might be considered somewhat novel but not incredible right now, I'm sure I can grow something better."