Kapitel 45: Uncomfy, reward, and rival
Our little expedition took only a few hours. It was just around noon that we were already getting close to the city and I landed a few hundred meters before the City Gate. I could spot a few panicked travelers' faces that changed into pure confusion when they saw a big monster transform into a normal human silhouette.
"Why don't you just fly straight into the city, Kazuki? You already flew out of the city once, right?"
Megumin suddenly asked with a pouting expression. I wondered what brought on this slightly displeased tone in her voice. While I was thinking about the answer, Darkness quickly chimed in.
"Of course he can't do that! Normal citizens aren't used to seeing monsters flying above their heads. It was only because he flew out he wasn't shot down immediately by the archers on the walls. They were too surprised to take aim but would not hesitate if a Griffin was flying directly at the city."
"Can't we find some way to let Kazuki use this form in the city? It's much comfier on Griffin's back than on his Human or Crimson Demon form!"
"..." x2
It seemed that Megumin was getting a little bit too comfortable.
"I know! You just have to become famous and then pressure some big wigs to give you freedom of flying above the city. And you could easily achieve both of those if you would take off that mask!"
Apparently, cheekiness was also a characteristic that Megumin acquired too much lately. Darkness seemed a little bit confused about Megumin's comment but before she has asked anything I said to Megumin in a jokingly serious manner:
"I think I am gonna let Darkness piggyback you the rest of the way-"
This elicited a loud yell from Megumin.
"I am sorry! Everything but Darkness's tough back!"
"Hey, I don't have a tough back! I don't even have my armor today so I am sure it would be nice and comfy! Let me show you!"
"No, thank you. I am good right here!"
Megumin seemed to accidentally deal critical damage to Darkness who seemed weirdly self-conscious about her own Endurance and sturdiness. The blonde Crusader wanted to prove her back's comfiness but Megumin glued herself to my own back and somehow had enough strength to oppose Darkness trying to prey her off of me.
Fortunately, Darkness calmed down before we reached the City Gate so we didn't have to explain to the Guards the bizarre sight of a little girl desperately clinging to a masked guy's back while the blonde crusader with tears in her eyes was trying to take the girl away.
After we got let into the city we decided to drop by the guild and check the situation with the queue. When we came into the building it was still irregularly noisy but only because a lot of adventurers decided to drink early, celebrating their huge rewards. The queue to the counters was already normal-sized so we decided to stay.
Darkness was first in the line and I saw her giving her Adventurer Card to the Lady Clerk who checked its contents and then looked up Darkness's name on some list. The lady forced a smile and handed Darkness just a few dozen coins on the counter.
Almost every other adventurer received a sizy moneybag so every person looked confusedly at Darkness who seeing everyone looking at her started breathing heavily with a rosy color on her cheeks.
"..." x2
An adventurer just walked away from a counter and I was next in the line so I quickly walked up.
"Hello! Ummm…"
The lady clerk I didn't know immediately shot me a confused glance when I came up to her with Megumin on my back. With Darkness's help, I already acquired Megumin's card so I handed it first while saying:
"We have finished the goblin extermination quest today."
Megumin's card had more than enough new goblin kills to cover the entire quest so I didn't bother showing mine or Darkness's cards. Lady Receptionist seemed surprised after hearing that we finished the quest today but she quickly put a small-sized money bag on the counter. The lady politely started thanking us but I politely interjected:
"And we also want the reward for yesterday's harvest mission."
"Oh! Of course. Let me see-!"
I immediately knew that that lady hasn't been present during yesterday's event. She went pale when she saw the near four-digit cabbages kill count on Megumin's card. The lady fumbled around some papers but soon she abandoned those and started putting a lot of coins into the money bag. After she was done she put the bag on the counter and said:
"That will be 827,000 Eris."
"Pffffffffft! What?!" "Hey, isn't that the Explosion Girl?" "The 'girl with the screw loose'?" "Hasn't she just cast a single spell?" "I didn't see her catching any cabbages." "827 thousand?!"
Adventurers who managed to hear the actual amount started murmuring and the news had spread quickly. Megumin gave out a satisfied smile and straightened her back a little as if that helped her with showing her dignity while lying on my back.
I took back Megumin's card and the money pouch into my own belt bag, not minding confused stares pointed at my actions and then I handed the lady my own card.
She once again repeated the process of checking the numbers on my card and on her own list and then she started putting some coins into a bag. I was slightly confused when the lady spoke to me:
"Here you go, 70,000 Eris."
I heard multiple adventurers snicker behind me when they heard the amount. Even Megumin let out surprised and confused "Huh?" before I said:
"Excuse me... ummmm... there must have been a mistake. I definitely caught more cabbages than that."
The lady didn't argue with me and once again confirmed the numbers.
"I can see that you have killed 62 cabbages and caught 1. The one you have caught must have been not in particularly good condition so the prize went down a little."
"No no, I mean I caught a lot more-"
"Shari, Satou-san is also listed as Toad-san."
Luna-san seemed to listen to our conversation while sitting the 2nd counter to my right. When I looked at her I saw her do "I am watching you." sign with her hand. Afterward, she quickly resumed putting money into the bag while the adventurer leaning on her counter who was waiting for his reward looked with confused face in my direction.
It seemed that I had to hurry up about the promise I've made to Luna-san about showing her my animal forms.
The lady in front of me, apparently named Shari, took one more look at the list and seemingly taking Luna-san's word as definite said to me:
"I am sorry..., I didn't know that you were listed under two different pseudonyms, Satou-san. That will be an additional 756,000 Eris. There's also a note. 'Unfortunately, although cabbages caught by you were of good quality, all of them have been covered with sticky fluid so they didn't sell for much."
Apparently, my Toad Strategy wasn't the most optimal way to catch cabbages. But considering that I didn't have to rely on Darkness's sacrifice or that I didn't have many skills to help me catch those cabbages normally this wasn't a bad reward.
After a while, Shari-san, with a mild confusion written on her face, handed me the money bag with my total reward of 826,000 Eris I thanked the lady, turned around and saw a few adventurers that snickered at me before surprisingly silent.
"I earned more! I won! Hehe."
Suddenly Megumin exclaimed with a laugh while we were walking away from the counter.
"I didn't know we had a competition."
"Of course we had! It's obvious that two Crimson Demons would compete with each other at every event like that."
I was about to say that I wasn't a Crimson Demon originally and I only use that form due to my power but Megumin seemed to predict my thoughts and proudly stated:
"It doesn't matter if you have been a Human or a Mouse first. You have a soul of a Crimson Demon inside of you! You are only just learning Explosion Magic but I already consider you a worthy rival!"
I was stunned for a few seconds unsure about which point should I talk about first. The joke about me being a Mouse originally, my supposedly 'Crimson Demon soul', the 'rival' thing or maybe the fact that she 'won' ONLY by 1,000 Eris.
But before I managed to settle my mind on the subject Megumin suddenly interjected:
"A-anyways… As the winner of this competition, I can make a request of you that you have to listen to... So… Will you take me with you today as well?"
"I mean… yeah, sure."
I answered absentmindedly upon hearing Megumin ask her question in an uncertain voice. Her change of demeanor threw me off completely so I turned my head and saw her nod happily with a wide smile on her face.
"I wanted to go to Wiz's first and then go shopping. Is that okay with you 'Winner-san'?"
"Sure."
Megumin didn't seem to mind visiting Wiz two days in a row and quickly answered my question.
With that matter settled I was about to start walking forwards again but my eyes caught a glimpse of a certain quest on the quest board to my right. It was not the reward that made me look twice, but the picture of the monster. I walked up to the board to make sure I was seeing things right.
The quest was about "Raging Young Griffin" that was spotted in the nearby village. It supposedly destroyed someone's entire barn to get to the cattle hiding inside. But the main thing that grabbed my attention were scars that Griffin had drawn on his limbs. It was exactly the same Young Griffin I saw while traveling to the Lord Vessec's lands.
"Just to be sure, it isn't you, right?"
Megumin suddenly asked me teasingly to which I promptly replied:
"Of course not!"
"I mean… I haven't seen you eat anything during our journey and I heard Griffins eat a ton when they are growing..."
"That's why I need to go shopping today. I thought about feeding my forms and then buying some equipment-..."
"Hey, are you planning on taking another quest today? I was thinking about taking care of a few things but if you plan on taking on a raging Griffin I will go with you!"
Suddenly Darkness came up behind us while we were looking at the quest. I had no idea how was that even a possibility with Megumin practically out of the equation but Darkness seemed to be extremely excited at the idea. Her mood worsened when she heard that we would not take that quest.
Soon we left the guild together with Darkness but she was heading in a different direction than us. We agreed on meeting the next day at the usual hour, hoping that the rest of the team will also be there although Kazuma and Aqua didn't specify their 'time-off' period.
After parting with Darkness I went straight to some restaurant that Megumin has pointed out as 'good' and bought food for three people. After waiting for a couple of minutes I received the packaged food and headed towards Wiz's shop.
When I went through the shop's front door I immediately spotted a dozen bottles standing on the counter that I could've sworn weren't there yesterday.
"Oh! Hello again!"
Wiz who was in the middle of pouring water into a cup with a bit of white sugar on the bottom of it exclaimed happily when she saw us come in.
"Look what I've managed to buy for all the money you gave me yesterday~"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein