As the sun sank fully below the horizon, the streets of Axel lit up beneath warm yellow magic lamps.
Kōichi and Kazuma walked side by side on the way back to the inn, carrying their newly bought gear, though it was obvious neither of them had their mind on that.
A subtle silence hung in the air.
It was not an awkward silence, but the unspoken understanding unique to men.
"Um..." Kazuma suddenly broke the silence, keeping his eyes on the shop signs by the roadside and pretending to sound casual. "Kōichi, do you think... this so-called dream service is really as amazing as the flyer says? I mean, it's just a dream, right? It's not actually real..."
Kōichi kept his eyes forward as well and answered flatly, "Who knows. But if it's magic from another world, then it probably has that kind of... unnatural realism to it. Things like touch, temperature, maybe even scent."
"T-touch?!" Kazuma's throat visibly bobbed, his voice jumping an octave before he hurriedly lowered it again. "Ahem. I'm only curious from an academic perspective. We're adventurers, after all, so understanding all kinds of magic is part of our training. Right?"
"Exactly." Kōichi nodded, keeping a perfectly straight face while talking complete nonsense. "And the shopkeeper said it too, this is for relieving stress. If you stay in a high-pressure combat state for too long, your mind starts to crack. Proper relaxation is for the sake of fighting better."
"Right, exactly!" Kazuma suddenly looked like he had found theoretical support and slapped his thigh hard. "This is completely for the future of the party! Absolutely not because I want to see a succubus onee-san in a maid outfit or anything! Absolutely not!"
The two exchanged a smile. Everything that needed to be said had already been understood.
Reality, however, was cruel.
They had found the justification, and they had gathered the intel, but the biggest problem was still right in front of them.
No money.
Buying equipment had practically emptied their savings, and between the two of them they only had a little over a thousand Eris left.
They did not know the exact pricing at the succubus shop, but a high-end service like that was definitely not going to be cheap.
"Sigh..." Kazuma let out a long breath, and much of his earlier excitement faded. "At the end of the day, we're still poor. If only we could be like those novel protagonists, walking outside and immediately finding a divine artifact or running into some idiot who hands us money."
Just then, the two of them passed the mouth of a dim little alley.
A strange chill suddenly drifted out from inside, making Kazuma, who was wearing only a thin shirt, shiver.
"Why did it suddenly get colder?" Kazuma rubbed his arms and looked into the alley.
Deep inside stood a little rundown shop, with a crooked sign hanging over the entrance.
Wiz Magic Item Shop. If you can imagine it, we can sell it!
Today's special. All items start at 10% off!
"10% off?!" Kazuma's eyes lit up instantly. "Kōichi! Look at that! A magic item shop! And there's a sale!"
Kōichi followed his gaze, and something stirred in his mind.
Wiz... that name sounded familiar. He vaguely remembered a friend mentioning her before. Was she a former Demon King's Army general? Most of what she sold was apparently scam-tier junk—explosive potions, cursed necklaces, that sort of thing—but as a lich who had lived for a very long time, she had to have some genuinely valuable items too. And her personality... if he remembered right, she practically existed to be taken advantage of.
"Let's go." Kōichi decisively changed course away from the inn. "Let's see if we can dig up something worthwhile. If we get lucky, tonight's entrance fee might sort itself out."
"I knew you'd understand me!" Kazuma grinned and rubbed his hands together as he followed.
They pushed open the creaking wooden door, and a cold, damp draft rushed out to greet them.
The shop was dimly lit, its shelves crammed with all sorts of strangely shaped jars, bottles, and unidentifiable objects.
"W-welcome..."
A weak voice came from behind the counter.
A beautiful woman in a purple robe, with long brown hair, was slumped over it as if she had not eaten in days.
Her skin was unnaturally pale, but her fine features and voluptuous figure were still striking enough to catch the eye.
"Ah... customers?" Wiz raised her head, and the instant her lifeless eyes landed on the two of them, they seemed to light up. "You really are customers! Thank goodness! I haven't made a single sale in three days! Please, look around! Everything is discounted today! You don't even have to buy anything, just please look! Please don't leave!"
Kōichi and Kazuma exchanged a glance as they looked at this beautiful shop owner, already so emotional she looked ready to cry.
So this was the legendary lich Wiz?
No matter how he looked at her, she seemed less like a terrifying undead and more like the easiest sucker in the world.
"Ahem, miss." Kōichi stepped forward, picked up a smoking bottle from the counter, and put on a professional air. "We're new adventurers looking for something practical. Do you have anything that could... make someone rich overnight, or at least something valuable enough to resell for a decent profit?"
Wiz froze for a second, then looked troubled. "Um... I don't have anything that can make you rich, but this Misfortune Potion will make whoever drinks it unlucky for an entire day. Maybe it could work as a kind of reverse motivation..."
"Who would ever buy something like that?!" Kazuma could not stop himself from blurting out.
"Then... how about this talking soil? If you water it, it keeps praising you for being handsome..."
"Isn't that just plain dirt?! And disgusting dirt at that!"
It seemed that squeezing money out of this useless shopkeeper was going to be much harder than they had imagined.
Still, since they were already here, they could not very well leave empty-handed.
Kōichi's gaze swept across the shop and finally landed on a dusty scroll carelessly tossed into a corner.
A faint but pure magical aura was coming from it, completely different from the curse-ridden junk around it.
"Miss, how much is this table rag?"
Kōichi picked up the dust-covered scroll between two fingers with a look of utter disdain, like he was shopping for scrap.
"Th-that's not a table rag!" Wiz waved her hands frantically, trying to defend the item's dignity. "It's... it's... an unidentified high-level magic scroll! I can't really read the writing on it, but it has to be something amazing! Probably!"
"Probably?" Kazuma piled on from the side. "So it's just waste paper, then? What, are we supposed to buy it as toilet paper? That paper looks pretty rough. It'd scrape your butt raw."
"Ugh..." Wiz was left completely speechless, and her already pale face turned even paler. "B-but it was a bonus item from a shipment... no, I mean, it's a rare product! It should be worth at least... 1,000 Eris!"
"100 Eris." Kōichi named a price with a blank face, an amount that was not even enough to buy a loaf of bread.
"That's way too low! That doesn't even cover the cost! Even if it was a bonus item, there were still shipping fees!" Wiz clasped her hands together, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Please, kind adventurers! At least... at least let me earn enough for dinner tonight! 500! How about 500 Eris?"
Kōichi looked at this former Demon King's Army general, who had completely thrown away her dignity over a few hundred Eris, sighed, and counted out three coins from his pocket before slapping them onto the counter.
"300 Eris. Take it or leave it. If not, we'll just go next door and buy skewers."
"Sold! Thank you very much! Please come again!" With astonishing speed, Wiz snatched up the 300 Eris, shoved the scroll into Kōichi's arms before he could change his mind, and beamed happily. "Thank goodness... tonight I can finally afford udon with an extra egg..."
After stepping outside, Kazuma stared at the tattered scroll in Kōichi's hands with obvious suspicion. "Hey, Kōichi, is this thing actually useful? We spent 300 Eris on it! That was part of the succubus shop fund!"
"Instinct." Kōichi gave him a mysterious smile. "Come on. Let's head back to the inn and check it out."
...
Back in the inn room.
The moment they opened the door, they saw Aqua sprawled flat on the floor in a starfish position, because the bed was too hot, with a few empty snack bags scattered around her.
"Ah! You're finally back!" The moment she saw Kōichi and Kazuma, Aqua sprang up like a fish leaping from water and rushed over with both hands outstretched. "Where's my red wine? Where are my fancy snacks? You two heartless jerks left the Goddess alone in the room while you went off to enjoy yourselves, didn't you? I can smell it! You've got... huh? What's that smell? Moldy paper?"
She leaned in toward Kōichi and stared at the scroll in his hand with disgust. "What is that? You were gone all that time and brought back this piece of garbage? Something like that would make too much smoke even for starting a fire!"
"Shut up. This is treasure."
Kōichi sat down on the edge of the bed and unrolled the scroll under the light.
To his disappointment, though, it was blank. There were only a few blurry stains on it, like the traces left behind after a child had scribbled on it and then wiped it away.
"Hah! So you got scammed after all!" Aqua pointed at the scroll and burst out laughing. "This is killing me. There's actually someone even stupider than I am... ow!"
Because she was laughing too hard, Aqua accidentally knocked over the glass on the nightstand.
It was the cup she had just been drinking from, filled with divine holy water she had created herself.
Splash.
The entire cup poured straight onto the open scroll.
"Ah! You useless Goddess!" Kazuma let out a shriek. "We paid 300 Eris for that! Even if it was junk, you can't just ruin it like that!"
"I-I didn't mean to!" Aqua panicked and tried to wipe it up with her sleeve. "Besides, it was junk anyway! So what if it got wet..."
"Wait!"
Kōichi grabbed Aqua by the wrist and stopped her.
The blank scroll, after absorbing Aqua's holy water, suddenly began to glow with a faint golden light.
Those blurry stains started to shift and rearrange themselves, gradually forming a clear image.
"What is this..." Kazuma leaned in, his eyes growing wider and wider. "A map? And that mark... is that a treasure chest?!"
What appeared on the scroll was a map of the terrain around Axel.
Deep inside a forest not far from town was a conspicuous red X, and beside it was a line of text written in an ancient script.
"That's divine-era writing..." Aqua blinked, suddenly turning serious, though only for a moment. "It says... 'For my dearest friend, the legacy hidden in the mist.' Wow! It really is a treasure map! And judging by the magical reaction, it only appears when it comes into contact with high-purity holy water!"
"High-purity holy water..." Kōichi looked at Aqua, then at the spilled water.
So this useless Goddess's body actually had this kind of use too?
"Treasure! Legacy!" Kazuma's eyes instantly turned into giant yen symbols as he hugged the soggy scroll like it was the whole world. "We're rich! We're going to get rich! This is definitely one of those huge hidden fortunes left behind by some ancient person!"
"Hmph! And that's all thanks to this Goddess's holy water!" Aqua immediately put her hands on her hips and claimed all the credit for herself. "Well? Now do you understand how amazing I am? I want fifty percent! No, sixty!"
Kōichi looked at his two teammates, who were already drunk on excitement, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
300 Eris for a treasure map. This deal was an absolute steal.
Still, if it was hidden in mist, then it probably would not be that easy to get.
"Don't get too excited yet." Kōichi calmly poured cold water over them, even if he was pretty thrilled inside. "Treasure sites like this usually have guardian monsters or traps. With our current equipment and levels, there's a pretty good chance we'd just go there to die."