The receptionist's face twitched violently. The apology that had filled his eyes only moments ago had been replaced by a rage deadlier than Hans's poison.
He slammed his hand down on the table, making the teacups in the inn rattle.
"Maybe so?! Kōichi-san, face reality!" the man roared in despair. "Just now, screams came from every hot spring inn in the city! Our finest hot spring water, rich in minerals, good for the skin, capable of curing all kinds of ailments, all of it… all of it turned into crystal-clear pure water after that blue lunatic jumped in for a bath! It's so clean you could brew tea with it!"
Several believers nearby looked as if their parents had died. One even dropped to his knees, grabbed the carpet, and shouted:
"That's the lifeblood of our Arcanletia! Who is that woman?! Hans of the Demon King's Army spent months and still couldn't fully purify our water source, but she bankrupted the entire city's hot spring industry in a single afternoon! She's the real Demon King, isn't she?!"
Kōichi stared at the believers on the verge of going berserk, cold sweat streaming down his temples.
Without making a sound, he took a step back. The hand that had been about to drag Kazuma off for a feast instantly changed direction and pointed firmly toward the door, his tone solemn enough to sound like a sworn oath.
"Wait! I think everyone's got this all wrong!" Kōichi said with righteous conviction. "Actually… we barely know that blue-haired woman! She's just some homeless person we picked up on the roadside who claimed to be a performance artist. We only let her join us for a bit because she looked pitiful and needed a meal. We never imagined she was under so much mental stress that she'd commit such antisocial acts!"
"Exactly!" Kazuma caught on at once, instantly putting on an expression of heartfelt grief. "We're victims too! She even stole my premium sparkling wine yesterday! A blue scourge that destroys public property like that deserves to be hunted down by everyone! Fellow believers, please issue a wanted notice at once. We're willing to provide detailed descriptions, including key clues like her low-looking intelligence and extremely loud crying!"
The believers were stunned by Kōichi and Kazuma's textbook-perfect betrayal of a teammate.
The middle-aged man leading them gave the two a suspicious look, then waved his arm.
"Fine! Since you've drawn a clear line, we'll search the whole city! We can't let that Devil who turned our hot springs into plain water escape! Everyone, move out!"
As the mob of believers charged out of the inn holding torches and membership applications, Kōichi's group exchanged a glance. In perfect sync, they hoisted up the still-drooling Megumin, dragged along Darkness, who looked disappointed that she couldn't keep being locked up, and slipped out the back door in a flash.
...
Half an hour later, beside a secluded public spring on the outskirts of town.
Kōichi finally found the blue Devil.
Aqua stood in the middle of the spring with her sleeves rolled up, wearing a holy, and extremely punchable, expression as soft blue light flowed continuously from her hands.
The steaming, sulfur-scented hot spring was rapidly becoming clear and transparent beneath her touch.
"Heave-ho! Purification!" Aqua wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled proudly. "There we go! This water source is completely purified too! I really am a genius Goddess. With efficiency like this, even that little brat Eris couldn't possibly keep up!"
"Aqua!" Kōichi rushed over through gritted teeth and grabbed her by the back of the collar. "What are you doing?! Do you know every believer in the city is looking for you with knives?!"
Aqua's eyes rolled back from being choked. She turned around with an aggrieved look.
"Waaah! Kōichi, why are you being so mean?! I was disinfecting the whole city! Hans was a Poison Slime, wasn't he? What if there were still toxins left in the water? What if my believers got sick? I worked so hard running all over the city to purify every spring just to make sure no toxins were left! You should be praising me!"
Kazuma stared at the spring that had become pure water and covered his face in despair.
"You idiot… A hot spring is a hot spring because it has impurities in it! If you purify all the impurities, it just becomes ordinary bathwater! Our free pass… our deluxe package… you washed it all away with one round of disinfection!"
Across the streets of Arcanletia, torchlight flickered everywhere, and the enraged, fanatical shouts of the Axis Order cultists rose one after another.
Kōichi clamped a hand over Aqua's mouth as she kept trying to explain that she had really done it for everyone's sake, then led the group through the dark alleys while keeping low.
"Kazuma, there's no way we can take a carriage now. Those lunatics are checking every vehicle at the city gates. If they see anyone with blue hair or anyone who looks even slightly stupid, they'll drag them off to fill a pit!" Kōichi whispered, his voice carrying a trace of relief after barely escaping disaster. "Wiz! Wiz, where are you? Come out and save us!"
At the end of the alley, Wiz, who had been trembling in the shadows, finally poked her head out. The Lich shopkeeper looked weaker than ever, and her eyes were full of fear toward the crazed believers.
"K-Kōichi-san! I'm here! They nearly dragged me away just now, saying I was a remnant of the Demon King's Army… I mean, I am, but the way they looked at me, like I was some kind of pest, was so scary… waaah…"
"Save it, Wiz!" Kazuma grabbed her shoulders anxiously. "Hurry! Use [Teleport]! Anywhere is fine, as long as it gets us out of this damned Water Capital. I'd even sleep in the hay at Axel's stables!"
Wiz nodded and forced out the last of her magic, drawing a complex teleportation circle on the ground.
"Everyone, step inside! Destination… the gates of Axel!"
With a blinding flash of light, Kōichi, Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness, who still looked regretful that she hadn't been publicly executed, vanished on the spot.
Less than five minutes after they left, an old man in ornate priestly robes, his eyes carrying a kind of almost pathological wisdom, slowly arrived at the fountain Aqua had purified. He was Zesta, the Grand Archbishop of the Axis Order. Behind him trailed a group of innkeepers already preparing to pack up and leave.
Zesta stretched out a trembling hand, scooped up a handful of crystal-clear pure water, and took a small sip.
The entire area fell silent. Everyone waited for the Grand Archbishop to issue a continent-wide wanted order for that blue lunatic.
However, Zesta's expression shifted from confusion to shock, then finally to a near-maddened joy.
"T-This is no mere pure water!" Zesta roared like thunder, startling the surrounding believers into dropping to their knees. "This is the highest-grade Holy Water! The Tears of God, imbued with pure sacred magic, powerful enough to instantly vaporize high-ranking Devils! This purity… this taste… That blue-haired girl is no madwoman. She is Aqua-sama herself, the one we have longed for day and night, descended to the mortal realm!"
"Wh-what?!" The receptionist who had been cursing a moment ago was dumbfounded. "But she was trying to tear down the statue earlier…"
"That was the Goddess testing our loyalty! She was dissatisfied that our statue wasn't painted beautifully enough!" Zesta shot to his feet, his eyes gleaming with the sharpness of a seasoned merchant.
"Spread the order! Stop the manhunt at once! Announce to the public that the hot springs are undergoing a Goddess Blessing upgrade! Starting tomorrow, Arcanletia will no longer sell hot springs. We will sell Aqua-sama's bath Holy Water! Ten thousand Eris for one small bottle! Also, send several capable Arch Priests to Axel in secret. Make sure the Goddess has a good quality of life. As for the profits from the Holy Water… open a secret account just for the Goddess and quietly transfer a portion to her every month. Do not let her know we're the ones sending it. Given the Goddess's personality, she would definitely squander it all in an instant!"
And so, while Kōichi and the others fled back to Axel battered and miserable, they had no idea that the penniless, dim-witted Goddess had actually become the richest hidden tycoon in the entire Fantasy World.
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