Chapter 141

Broly returned carrying a large amount of magic beasts, a scene the residents of Axel had already grown somewhat accustomed to.

"Last time it was Giant Frogs, this time it's Running Lizards; looks like the price of lizard meat in the city is going to drop!"

When Broly and Aqua went out on subjugation quests, if the magic beasts they subjugated were edible existences, they would definitely bring back a huge pile of such corpses.

And this behavior of large quantities of magic beast corpses flooding into the town would, every time, destroy the original market prices through supply and demand.

Quite a few meat merchants had a love-hate relationship with this situation; what they loved was that purchase prices became cheap, and because the meat was cheap it sold better than before.

What they hated was that if, by bad luck, they had acquired the hunted magic beast meat chunks on the very day Broly and Aqua were active, they might have to sell their accumulated stock at a loss.

Live off the mountain, live off the water; this world's wilderness has large amounts of demonized wild beasts, so naturally they eat magic beasts.

Eating this stuff, if you're a Professional, increases experience; even if you're not a Professional, it strengthens the body.

So magic beast meat has always had a market, it's just that every place adjusts prices according to conditions; once hunting yields are high and they're sold in one place simultaneously, a situation where they can't fetch a price appears.

Of course, hunting to the point of affecting local market prices generally requires large numbers of Professional Adventurers simultaneously hunting large amounts of magic beasts, but Broly achieved this point relying on just one person.

Therefore, in today's Axel, other town residents might not pay much attention to Aqua's party's situation, but merchants who regularly trade in magic beast meat constantly monitor the Water Goddess and her Disciple's movements.

Monitoring whether this party has taken on more subjugation quests for edible magic beasts at the Adventurer's Guild, and preparing at all times to clear out stock of the subjugation target's meat in advance.

However, this was something already finished by noon; what welcomes Broly and Aqua now are staff dispatched by the Adventurer's Guild to help them sell the magic beast meat.

These people count as logistics staff; they're responsible for liaising with the town's meat merchants, restaurant purchasers, and merchants doing magic beast meat business.

Broly and Aqua only need to pay a small handling fee to hand over the problems of processing large batches of prey and paying taxes to these professionals; all in all, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

After all, if they really had to handle it personally, with just Aqua, an unreliable Water Goddess, plus Broly, a little wild man from Planet Wanpa, given their commercial level, in price negotiations they'd probably only suffer huge losses.

"Another day of a full harvest, Miss Aqua, Miss Darkness, and Broly, welcome back!"

Luna is the Adventurer's Guild receptionist precisely because every time Adventurers finish quests and return, they receive her warm, at-home welcome.

"Please come to the counter this way to settle the quest."

"Hey, masochist girl who doesn't know swordsmanship, we're going to settle the quest, you go save a seat first, we're gonna feast later!"

"Ugh, this direct insult, ah, no, who are you calling a masochist girl? Also, my swordsmanship aim is just a bit off, it's not that I don't know swordsmanship?"

After reacting, Darkness immediately retorted, but her swordsmanship so bad it makes you curl your toes is destined to become Aqua's attack weak point.

However, verbally insulted by Aqua, Darkness spoke words of rebuttal on the surface, but her Happiness Value rising a little betrayed her heart's true state.

After retorting one sentence to Aqua, Darkness obediently went to the side to save a seat; after all, no one wants to sit near the toilet.

But she hadn't been sitting long before a white-haired girl leaned over.

"Hey~"

Eris slapped a hand onto Darkness's shoulder.

"Eh, it's you, thief!"

Darkness turned her head, saw the Thief girl who had come to her side, and immediately said.

"What thief, you had some nerve this morning, actually daring to drag me to the police station, do you know what I went through there? Lectures, a full two hours of lectures, no one ever dared speak to me like that before!"

When Eris descended to the mortal world before, she never suffered this kind of thing.

"Isn't it because you stole my wallet and even dared jump out and mock me to my face?"

Darkness complained back. "That wasn't mocking you, okay? I wanted to make a bet with you."

Eris reddened and retorted.

"Bet what?"

Darkness was actually a bit curious.

"Bet on whether you can catch me; if you catch me, I'll give the wallet back."

"But if I can't catch you?"

"The wallet becomes mine, however, I'll give you a chance."

"Hm?"

"I, Chris, never steal from friends, so as long as you become my friend, I'll give the wallet back to you."

Eris spoke the scene originally designed to get acquainted with her own Believer.

"But I did catch you."

Darkness said, not really caring about that IF route's development.

"That's because you don't observe martial virtue, you grabbed me before I even finished explaining the bet's contents."

What Eris resented most was this point; who acts directly without listening to the rules?

Darkness: "..."

A thief who stole her wallet actually turned around and said she doesn't observe martial virtue.

Feelings are good, skills like Backstab and Steal actually should all be learned by Crusaders.

"You don't have any friends, do you?"

Darkness thought of something and suddenly asked.

"Eh?!"

Eris, who was complaining about Darkness not observing martial virtue and acting, had her complaints cut off abruptly.

Then she saw her own Believer looking at her with somewhat pitying eyes.

"What's with that look in your eyes?"

She, the dignified Goddess of Luck Eris, could she be someone without friends... ugh, thinking carefully, back in the Celestial Realm, she was often grabbed by a certain Senior Goddess to do heavy labor.

Ostensibly to train this Junior's abilities, but actually just the other party dumping her own work onto her to handle.

Leading to her being busy all day handling the official Goddess's work, with absolutely no time to make friends at the Heaven Academy.

By the time she had free time, she had already been arranged to come manage this world, becoming this remote world's manager, and there were no longer any objects around to make friends with.

Every day she faced were souls wanting to escape from this world ravaged by the Demon King to other worlds.

Thinking of this, Eris crouched in the corner, the low pressure around her like a tangible substance, muttering to herself: "So it turns out, I'm also someone without friends……"

(Chapter End)