The next day, when I woke up in bed, Luna was nowhere to be seen. She must have already left for work at the guild. Whether it was because I was asleep and couldn't clean up, the vigorous traces from yesterday were still plainly visible on the bed.
'Ugh... we did way too much yesterday...'
Partly, we were too excited yesterday, and it felt like letting out all the pent-up frustration until now. I started to feel sorry, thinking maybe I tormented Luna too much. First, to at least clean up, I gathered all the sheets and blankets that were spread on the bed. As I stepped out of the room, I saw a letter placed conspicuously on the dining table and a large plate covered with cloth.
[Cassian, I'm heading to work first. I prepared a simple meal in case you're hungry when you wake up. There's a key under the plate, please lock up.]
Lifting the cloth covering the plate revealed grilled sausages, a fried egg, and a little bit of vegetables and bread. It was the first time I'd received such treatment from a woman, other than my parents, so I was somewhat touched. I enjoyed the meal Luna prepared, washed the dishes, then washed and hung out the old sheets and blankets. I bought new sheets and a blanket and spread them on the bed.
"Phew~ I should learn Clean magic quickly or something..."
I locked up, took a bath, and headed to the guild. Entering the guild, I saw Yunyun sitting in a corner who greeted me happily.
"Ah! Cassian, welcome."
"Oh, Yunyun, were you waiting since morning?"
"Well... yes..."
It wasn't lunchtime yet, but considering last time and Yunyun's personality, I should have expected her to come early. I felt sorry for not being more considerate.
"Sorry, I had a lot to do in the morning so I'm late."
"It's okay."
Yunyun and I moved to the guild board to check for available requests.
[Slay the Water Dragon]
[Slay the Giant Toad]
[Slay the Bone Dragon]
[Slay the Grim Reaper]
Now there were only four requests left. It seems we worked too hard during this time. The Water Dragon slaying would be impossible if we fell in the water. The Bone Dragon might be possible if we brought Aqua, but we wouldn't get EXP, so that's on hold for now. The Grim Reaper might be stronger than Verdia.
"Wow~ Nothing to do now?"
"Yeah... So, should we do the Giant Toad slaying?"
"Can't do that. The lack of requests is partly because of the Demon King's general, but also because we handled too many. Let's not touch the ones beginner adventurers can do."
"Yes... Then what should we do now?"
"For the time being, we should rest until a suitable request comes up."
"How about going to the royal capital?"
"It's not that I haven't thought about it, but right now a Demon King's general has settled near the town. If the strongest people in town, us, leave, it could be dangerous."
Since that's the biggest goal right now, I had no intention of leaving Axel until we dealt with Verdia.
"Yunyun, do you have enough spare funds right now?"
"Yes! I've been working hard lately, so I'm not short on money."
"Then, let's rest for a while. Once the general business is over, we'll discuss it again."
"Understood."
"And, can you wait a moment? I have something to talk to Luna about."
"Then, I'll wait at the table."
Yunyun went to sit at a table in the dining area to wait, and I went to the guild reception desk where Luna was. When I got to the reception desk, I saw Luna dozing off while sitting there, probably tired.
'Ahem... I feel bad waking her up...'
Knowing why Luna was dozing off, I couldn't bring myself to wake her and returned to Yunyun. Since there was still time before lunch, I decided to learn magic from Yunyun.
"Yunyun, can I learn some magic?"
"Yes!"
Magic in Konosuba doesn't cost many points to learn. Beginner magic costs 1 point, Intermediate magic costs 10 points, Advanced magic costs 30 points, and so on. Once you allocate the points, you can use all magic of that attribute.
One might think, 'If it costs so few points, why doesn't everyone become a mage and easily defeat the Demon King?' But that's only for learning it. To increase power, points are needed separately. Also, if one's intelligence is inherently low, it costs more points, and if mana is low, even if you learn it, you can't use it. Explosion magic, Blast magic, and Detonation magic are learned separately, costing 50, 30, and 30 points just to learn, respectively.
As I said from the beginning, [Leisure Life] can increase power, so as long as I can learn it, I can strengthen it without using Konosuba's points.
I went outside the town with Yunyun and was able to learn Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced magic.
"Yunyun, thanks! Let's go back and have lunch now. Since I learned magic, my treat."
"Yes, thank you."
Yunyun and I returned to the guild and sat at a dining table.
"Then, Yunyun, order whatever you want, as much as you like."
"Yes!"
Unlike Aqua, Yunyun didn't order recklessly. She just ordered a saury set meal and one more steak.
"Yunyun, you can order more."
"This is enough. Even if I order more, I can't eat it."
As expected, Yunyun was kind. After finishing the meal with Yunyun, I told her not to come out early starting tomorrow and to get plenty of sleep before coming. I also added that she could come find me anytime if she got bored.
"Then, see you tomorrow. The meal was delicious."
"Alright, let me know if there's a request worth doing."
"Yes~"
After seeing Yunyun off like that, I went back to the reception desk where Luna was. This time, fortunately, Luna was awake.
"Hey~ Luna!"
Luna saw me, came out from behind the reception desk, and delivered a back smack to me.
Whack!
"Hwah! That hurts, Luna!"
"You went too far yesterday! My back hurts and I couldn't sleep, I'm dying of fatigue."
"Haha! Sorry~ But it's not like I was the only one who enjoyed it."
"That's... true, but it was excessive."
Luna's face turned red. I gave Luna the house key and said.
"And here, the key. I did a bit of cleaning at the house."
"You didn't have to give the key back..."
I took the key back from Luna.
'What does this mean? Is she asking me to come live with her? Or is it okay to come over anytime?'
"Luna, are you sure about this?"
"Yes... I heard you're staying at an inn with your companions..."
She must have heard that I live with Kazuma and Aqua. Luna and I have already seen everything of each other, but strictly speaking, we're not officially lovers or married yet. But it seemed Luna had already made up her mind even before giving me the key. It felt like she was saying with the key, 'Decide for yourself whether to open the door or not.'
'Am I the one who has to choose?'
"Then... the order is a bit off, but..."
I approached Luna, extended my hand respectfully, and said.
"Would you go out with me? Miss Luna?"
Luna smiled, gently took my hand, and answered.
"Yes! Gladly."
As Luna answered, sudden applause and cheers erupted from the surroundings.
Wooaaah~ Clap clap clap~
"Congratulations! Silver Flash!" "Don't you dare make Luna cry!" "When's the wedding?!" "Have a beautiful romance!" "Damn! I want a girlfriend too!"
I don't know when they got there, but guild staff and adventurers had gathered to congratulate us. Luna was so embarrassed she didn't know what to do. Then, one of the female guild employees with long blonde hair said to Luna.
"Sis! I told you the lucky panties would work. You should thank me!"
'So you were the culprit?'
----------------------
Escaping singlehood in Konosuba after 48 years was nice, but until Verdia comes, there are no requests to do and no monsters to hunt nearby. Going to another town would take too much time. In short, there was nothing to do.
I could just stay put like this and fight Verdia when the time comes, but I wanted a more certain victory.
'I should do some draws and go to other creations to gain abilities.'
First, deciding to go to reality, I went to find Aqua, who was working part-time, to learn skills to solve the radiation issue with my remaining Konosuba points. Aqua was working at a food stall.
"Cheap, so cheap! Delicious croquettes here~!"
Seeing Aqua, who somehow fit perfectly, made me laugh spontaneously. That girl could make big money if she started a business with Kazuma. Ah! But maybe not because of Aqua's luck?
"Aqua!"
"Ah~ Cassian!"
"Aqua, do you have a moment?"
"I'm in the middle of my part-time job now..."
"Is that so? Wait a moment!"
I looked for the owner of the stall where Aqua worked and found him frying croquettes behind the stall.
"Boss."
"Yes? Can I help you?"
"I need Aqua, so if you let her leave work early today, I'll buy all the croquettes made today."
"Are you serious? We make them considering the daily sales amount, but after she works, croquettes are always left over. I was even considering cutting her pay."
I don't really understand why they don't sell even though Aqua works hard. Are the croquettes not tasty?
"Is that so? Then, since I'm buying them today, please think about it for one more day."
"Yes, understood. Let's do that."
I spent 90,000 Eris to buy about 300, and received the remaining 10 as service. 200 were still being made, so I decided to pick them up in the evening. I could have just waited until Aqua finished work in the evening and then learned the skills without spending money, but I'd earned a lot, and if I could use Gold-den-den back in reality, money would be meaningless now. And honestly, I didn't feel like waiting.
"Wow~! Cassian! Thank you~"
Hearing she could leave work early, Aqua was overjoyed. I put all but two croquettes into my inventory, and sharing one with Aqua each, we moved to an empty lot suitable for learning skills.
"Huh? It's tasty, so why didn't it sell? Aqua was selling them hard too."
The croquette had well-seasoned meat and vegetables that blended nicely, and the chunky texture of the filling was alive, making it good to chew. When I showed curiosity, Aqua scratched her head as if it was awkward to say.
"That's... a secret..."
"A secret? What secret?"
"I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone."
"Alright, I won't tell. Spill it."
"I accidentally tasted the secret seasoning by dipping and eating it, and then I had to Purify it, so I had to make the seasoning again. So the taste changed and customers decreased a bit."
"The ones we're eating now are tasty though?"
"The ones I made hastily are already all sold out."
It was absurd. I knew Aqua was a troll, but causing accidents like this...
"Does the boss know?"
"No, he doesn't know."
"Then, how about telling the truth and asking for forgiveness?"
"Please let it slide, I have no money now so I can't compensate. If it goes wrong, I might even get sold off somewhere. Instead, I'm selling them hard, right!"
Listening to Aqua's unique way of making excuses after causing a big accident made me so dumbfounded I really wanted to hit her.
"Anyway, I get it. I promised, so I'll keep it a secret. And how about giving up on working at shops that sell alcohol or seasoning?"
"Well... because there are no requests for beginner adventurers, everyone's doing part-time jobs, so there aren't many positions available."
"Then you need to control your abilities. What if you Purify some really expensive alcohol? You'll really get sold off, you know?"
"Waaah~ There's nothing I can do about it."
Aqua started crying pitifully. I almost felt a little sorry for her. Thinking about it calmly, this trouble arose because Aqua's spending habits are reckless.
"If you hadn't drunk expensive Chuwachuwa in the first place, this wouldn't have happened."
"Sniff... But that ended with just teaching skills, right?"
This girl makes no sense.
"Sigh... Alright, I give up. Later, come with me and Yunyun to slay the Bone Dragon."
"Yesss~~~!"
Her expression changed completely, as if she had never cried. She couldn't have planned this, could she?
"Anyway, teach me the skills. [Detox] (poison healing magic), [Purification] (purification magic), [Resurrection] (resurrection magic), [Reflector] (magic reflection). These four for now."
"Got it."
[Detox] and [Purification] cost few points, but [Resurrection] and [Reflector] cost a lot. After learning the four skills, only 5 points remained. If I could, I wanted to learn [Sacred Exorcism] (purifies evil beings) or [Sacred Break Spell] (nullifies barriers, curses, etc.), but I had no choice and only learned [Blessing] (increases luck) one more.
'It's a shame, but I'll have to level up and learn them next time.'
"Anyway, thanks."
"Um... give me some croquettes."
"Huh? You got paid for today's work, right? Aren't you going to eat?"
"I borrowed yesterday's lodging fee from Kazuma to pay it. So if I give that, I won't have money for food..."
And thus, Aqua became that penniless goddess.