I started walking toward the exit, thinking I'd had more than enough for one single day.
Not only had I been kicked out of my party, but I'd also run into Aqua again — the goddess who had sent me to this world with the mission of defeating the Demon King, only for me to discover she was nothing more than a completely useless dead weight. And to top it all off, her morals were more than questionable.
"I've had enough!" I exclaimed as I pushed my way toward the door. Though probably no one heard me over all the commotion in the guild. Most of the adventurers were still eating and drinking, laughing loudly without a single apparent worry.
I was just a few steps away from the door when suddenly I felt someone tugging on my arm.
"Wait! Please, wait!"
Knowing exactly who it was just from hearing that irritating voice, I simply kept walking.
"Eeyyy! I'm telling you to wait! Are you even listening to me?! You stupid hikikomori!"
When I glanced over my shoulder, sure enough, there was Aqua standing in front of me. She was clinging to my arm with both hands, a pleading look on her face.
"What?" I asked, maybe a bit more sharply than I intended. "I'm not buying you another beer, got it?"
At my words, Aqua's cheeks flushed red as she glared at me angrily while pouting. It was the second time I'd seen her make that gesture.
I didn't know if it was because of her somewhat childish behavior or her very particular way of expressing anger, but when she looked like that, she somehow seemed even more beautiful.
"That's not what I was going to say! Drinking it's not the only thing I think about, you know?!"
"No, of course not. You also think about ways to trick people into buying it for you. Ouch! What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?"
Out of nowhere, Aqua punched me in the arm.
"That's no way to treat people. Especially a goddess."
"Says the one who called me a pathetic adventurer after making me replace the beer she spilled herself. And now that I think about it, what was that 'hikikomori' thing about?"
"Huh? You really don't know what a hikikomori is?"
"Of course I know. But I'm not a hikikomori."
In case you're wondering, if I have to explain it as simply as possible: hikikomori are people who basically shut themselves in their rooms and never go out. They don't go to school, they don't work. They spend the whole day locked up playing video games or watching anime.
While in my old world I was never exactly the most sociable person and I loved video games, I also had my small circle of friends I used to go out with from time to time.
Whether it was to the movies, to eat, or just to talk about life itself.
Something a hikikomori clearly could never do, right?
And that was exactly what I was trying to explain to this self-proclaimed goddess, who kept insisting I was a hikikomori.
"You used to play video games more than four days a week and you didn't have a girlfriend. That clearly makes you a hikikomori!" she explained, delivering every word with such confidence that anyone listening would think there was no room for error in her deduction.
What was wrong with her? Was she out of her mind? Did the beer have some kind of hallucinogen?
"What? But having a girlfriend has nothing to do with being a—" I started to explain, but stopped dead, knowing it would be useless. "Bah! Forget it. Why don't you just tell me what you want so I can go to bed already? I've had a pretty shitty day. The sooner it ends, the better."
The goddess's blue eyes met mine, but a moment later she looked away. As if she didn't have the courage to look me in the face while saying whatever she was about to say.
"Well… um… what I mean is, I thought about it again and maybe I wouldn't mind teaming up with you temporarily and…"
"Huh?"
"Well, no! Actually, what I want to say is… Arrrrghh!"
For some reason the words wouldn't come out. It seemed this goddess was too proud to ask a mere mortal for a favor.
"Y-Your help," she finally managed to stammer, "wouldn't be so bad for defeating the monsters on the higher-level quests. And I really need the money."
Aqua's eyes stared straight at the floor while she fidgeted with her fingers, tapping them together nervously.
Without saying anything, I gently took Aqua by the chin and lifted her head.
The skin of her cheeks felt soft and delicate under my fingertips. And thanks to the guild's light dancing inside those huge, dazzling blue eyes, I could see she was blushing a little.
Although it wasn't particularly strong, at such a close distance the smell of alcohol from her mouth quickly slipped into my nostrils.
Still holding her face, my gaze slowly descended. Leaving her eyes behind, passing over her fine, small nose, until it finally settled on her mouth.
Suddenly her lips — elegant and extremely, extremely seductive — had captured all my attention. And before I realized it, my entire body felt an uncontrollable urge to kiss her right there.
Fortunately I managed to hold back, and instead I said:
"In that case, why don't you just say it? You want my help, right? Because even though you're a goddess, you have no way to fight monsters by yourself, or am I wrong?"
"Hey! Who said you could touch me?" Aqua swatted my hands away and took a step back. "Errr… actually I do, but let's just say the last time I used my technique things didn't go so well."
Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something extremely unpleasant, Aqua began shaking her head vigorously in a desperate attempt to clear whatever had come to mind.
"Fine, alright! I want your help! There, I said it! Are you satisfied now? I'm desperate to get out of debt as soon as possible, and if I have to team up with some arrogant cocky NEET like you to do it, then I'll do it!"
She had called me a NEET again, and now apparently I was arrogant too. And cocky. And she is so noisy too!
"Alright, alright," I began. It was already quite late and I wanted to settle this quickly. "Let's suppose I accept forming a party since you're the one who needs someone to fight for you. In that case, what do I get in return?"
"Eeh!? What do you mean what do you get in return? The privilege of teaming up with a beautiful and talented goddess like me, of course!"
"You say that, but if I take into account everything you've told me so far, most of the problems your party has gotten into were caused by you. On top of that, you seem to have serious drinking issues and a natural talent for spending money. Which, let's not forget, is what got you into the situation you're in now. Oh, and most importantly! While your healing abilities can be a great help, since you have no way to attack, that means I'm the one who has to face all the monsters and then split the reward with you. In short: you're dead weight."
Suddenly, the goddess Aqua's eyes began to water. And before I could say or do anything else, she burst into tears.
"BUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Though I have to say the word "crying" doesn't really do justice to the spectacle my eyes were witnessing. The goddess was crying with such intensity that her tears had turned into actual streams, shooting out of her eyes like a fountain.
Several adventurers seated at their tables began turning to look at us, murmuring among themselves.
To be honest, I think I went a bit too far with what I said to Aqua. That last part, "you're dead weight" had been a serious critical hiy, and the moment I said it I started feeling guilty.
Under normal circumstances I would never have said something like that to her — or to anyone. I guess the beer was starting to affect me too.
"Hey… I didn't mean that. I'm sorry. Today really hasn't been my best day. So please, stop crying."
"You called me dead weight!"
"I didn't mean to, seriously. I don't want you to cry. I'll team up with you and help you pay your debts."
Then, almost as if someone had flipped a switch, Aqua stopped crying (in fact, I couldn't see a single tear left in her eyes) and looked at me with an enthusiastic smile.
"Really!?"
"Yes, I promise I'll help you with your debts… but in exchange…"
"Huh?" Aqua tilted her head slightly and stared at me, studying me with her blue eyes.
Yeah. The beer had definitely affected me more than it should have.
Because otherwise there was no reasonable explanation for the words that came out of my mouth next.
"Have sex with me," I said.
A simple sentence made of three words.
Even I don't know why I suggested something like that.
The goddess raised her eyebrows, trying to process what her ears had just heard. Thinking that maybe, because of all the noise in the guild, she had misheard me. However, that idea quickly vanished when I saw Aqua's face turn tomato-red and her body start to tremble.
"Aqua…?"
At that moment I thought I heard a strange sound coming from the floor, so I looked down to see what it was.
There, I saw the goddess's right hand clenched into a fist…
…which had begun to generate a huge, multi-colored flame.