A few hours later, at the Karsten mansion, Satou Kazuma and the others had arrived.
"Aqua-sama! I've heard so many rumors about you!"
"Aqua-sama is truly amazing!"
"Aqua-sama, would you be so kind as to honor our home with a visit sometime?"
In the luxurious and spacious hall, Aqua was surrounded by numerous noble families.
On the other side, Satou Kazuma was also surrounded by beautiful young women.
"...that white whale charged straight at me, but I wasn't afraid at all! Just as the white whale was about to hit me, I used magic to suddenly switch places and lure the white whale into crashing into the ground!"
Satou Kazuma swirled the wine glass in his hand as he spoke to the beauties surrounding him, deliberately putting on a cool expression.
"That's how we managed to defeat the white whale. But I knew very well that a white whale couldn't just appear out of nowhere. Sure enough, one of the witch cult's archbishops soon showed up..."
Seeing that Crusch and the others weren't nearby, Satou Kazuma began to exaggerate the events that had transpired, swirling the wine glass in his hand.
"Kazuma-sama is truly amazing!"
"Kazuma-sama is so wonderful!"
"Can you tell us what happened after that?"
"Of course!"
Satou Kazuma couldn't suppress the corners of his mouth from turning upwards. He had imagined this moment for far too long.
Being treated like a great hero, surrounded by beautiful women!
Of course, Satou Kazuma would occasionally turn his head to look behind him, checking to see where Felix was.
That nightmare still lingered in his heart.
"Later we met Greed, and learned that countless innocent girls had fallen victim to his cruel hands. I absolutely couldn't stand by and watch. Even though I didn't know what powers Greed possessed, I chose to rush forward without hesitation!"
Just as Satou Kazuma was speaking with great enthusiasm, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside the crowd.
"Hey! I'm about to die from being so busy over there! And you're slacking off here!"
Satou Kazuma turned his head to look, and the source of the voice was Felt.
During the few days that Satou Kazuma and Aqua were away from the royal capital, Felt and Old Man Rom had been helping to handle the affairs there.
Old Man Rom possessed a brilliant mind beyond that of ordinary people, so handling the related matters could be said to be as easy as turning his hand.
But for Felt, it was hard.
In order to understand things like market trading, Felt has been cramming information like crazy.
The original Felt wasn't interested in this kind of thing at all. Even if Satou Kazuma asked her to do it, she wouldn't.
But Satou Kazuma's words before he left made Felt very angry.
"You're not refusing because you don't understand this stuff and you're afraid of the trouble, are you?"
This was an obvious attempt to provoke her, which wouldn't work on most people.
But for Felt, it was very effective!
Felt finally bit the bullet and agreed to help Satou Kazuma handle various matters in the royal capital for these few days.
After all, with Old Man Rom helping, Satou Kazuma was relatively relieved.
Seeing Felt's imposing appearance, the people around immediately left, knowing better.
"Hey, hey, I'm not slacking off! I'm just telling the people here what happened earlier! I can't refuse people who are eager to learn!"
Satou Kazuma said to Felt with a smile.
"You, saying such high-sounding words, but in reality, you're just slacking off, aren't you!"
"I'm not! So what if I am slacking off? I defeated the white whale and the witch cult people!"
"Hmph."
Felt snorted coldly.
Although the results seemed to bear that out, her intuition told her that things were definitely not as Satou Kazuma said.
"I've already arranged for those dozens of people you brought back. Seriously, I never thought the slums would ever be so lively one day!"
Felt said with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
She was referring to Regulus's former wives.
After Satou Kazuma and the others rescued them, these women were brought to the royal capital as well.
They had no one to rely on, so their livelihood was probably not even guaranteed. To solve this problem, Satou Kazuma handed them over to Felt, asking her to settle them down.
"It's more than just that many people."
Satou Kazuma pursed his lips and looked in Aqua's direction.
If it were just Regulus's wives, that would be fine.
The problem was the group of followers that Aqua brought back.
They numbered over a hundred people.
Settling all these people wouldn't be an easy task.
However--
After these people became Aqua's followers, their practical skills would be greatly enhanced.
Getting them to build their own homes from scratch shouldn't be a big problem, right?
The 'theater' Aqua and the others used to perform in earlier could also be used for them to rest temporarily for a few days.
"Also...I have a question..."
As Felt spoke, she turned her head to look into the distance.
In the crowd, an unfamiliar face was talking to the others, and it was obvious that those people had expressions of great surprise on their faces, as if they had seen someone incredible.
"Is that guy, Roswaal?"
Felt swallowed and looked at the person in the distance.
No clown makeup, and his voice sounded very normal.
But she had just heard someone next to her call out Roswaal's name.
The tone was also full of shock.
"That's right."
Satou Kazuma also turned his head to look in that direction.
The person who looked even a little delicate was Roswaal.
Previously, Roswaal had stated that as long as he could help revive Echidna, he would be willing to do anything.
And Aqua had, with a mischievous sense of humor, made Roswaal take off his clown makeup and speak in a normal voice.
For Roswaal, removing the makeup was an easy thing.
But changing his way of speaking was still too difficult.
After all, Roswaal had been speaking in this unique voice for nearly four hundred years, and he had even grown somewhat accustomed to it. Although he could occasionally maintain a normal way of speaking, he would always unconsciously revert back to that strange tone - and the people around him noticed his true identity from this subtle change.
"I don't know if it's because I'm already used to his perverted appearance, but he looks a little disgusting now..."
"For once, I strongly agree with you..."
"Why is he willing to do this? Do you have some kind of hold over him?"
"That's a long story."
Satou Kazuma looked at Roswaal. Everything he did was for the sake of reviving Echidna.
What a terrifying love-struck brain.
Satou Kazuma had previously asked Beatrice about Echidna. In her words, his mother was a kind and gentle person, and Geuse agreed with Beatrice's words.
But that wasn't the point for Satou Kazuma.
The key thing was that Satou Kazuma had also heard them say that Echidna was a super beauty!
And not a young girl, not a young girl, not a young girl, but an older sister type!
Gentle, kind, older sister, could there really be such a perfect woman in this world?!
Satou Kazuma wanted to see what kind of person Echidna was.
But he had a bad feeling about it.
In this world, there were no normal people.
Although Satou Kazuma had dropped out of school early and wasn't very good at math, he felt that according to probability, this witch called Echidna must also be abnormal in some way.
For example, making Betty wait in the forbidden library for so long, when she could have said things more clearly.
"The reason is--"
"Don't need to say it, scum Kazuma, you certainly won't have any good intentions! Either it's for money, or it's because you're a lecher!"
Although Felt hadn't known Satou Kazuma for very long, she could see through his true colors at a glance.
"Hey, hey, don't you have some misunderstanding about me?"
"Then tell me, what is it?"
"I, I, I'm for world peace!"
Satou Kazuma crossed his fingers and supported his chin, deliberately putting on a serious expression.
"Looking a little disgusting, you!"
If it were any other time, Felt would have already kicked Satou Kazuma in the face.
But she didn't.
"Seeing as you're going to change the situation in the slums, I'll let you off this time! Hmph!"
After saying that, Felt prepared to leave.
As she left, her eyes fell on the wine glass placed beside her.
Satou Kazuma never let her drink, but today she was determined to have a taste.
Felt used her thieving skills, and while no one was looking, she quickly grabbed the wine glass.
However, Satou Kazuma saw everything clearly.
"Hmph, little loli, you're not old enough to drink!"
Satou Kazuma sneered, and then activated his Steal ability, preparing to steal the wine glass directly from Felt's hand.
"Steal!"
After activating the ability, Satou Kazuma closed his eyes and proudly raised the spoils in his hand over his head.
"If you want to compete with me, you're still too inexperienced. A loli is just a loli after all~"
"Oh my..."
"What is he doing?"
"Kazuma-sama...so he's that kind of person?"
Hearing the voices of the surrounding people, Satou Kazuma realized that something was wrong.
The feel wasn't right either...
He trembled as he opened his eyes, and what came into view was something very familiar.
Felt's panties.
In everyone's eyes, Satou Kazuma had just raised a girl's panties over his head.
"As expected of you~ Kazuma-sama, to be able to do something like this in this kind of setting~ How wonderful~"
Elsa, who was wearing formal attire to hide her identity, looked at Satou Kazuma with a smile, her eyes full of admiration.
"...Felt, would you believe me if I said this was all a misunderstanding?"
Satou Kazuma swallowed and then prepared to turn his head with a smile to explain to Felt.
But the moment he turned his head, something completely blocked his view.
It was Felt's shoe.
The next second, Satou Kazuma's face caved in like a rice cake.
"Kazuma-sama has a really good relationship with his companions!"
On the other side of the hall, Crusch was watching Satou Kazuma from afar.
Although Crusch had initially thought that Satou Kazuma was an unreliable person, after the white whale and the archbishop incidents, she had completely changed her opinion of Satou Kazuma.
She could even say she admired him.
"Without Kazuma-sama, the consequences would have been unimaginable."
A smile appeared on Crusch's face.
Without Satou Kazuma and Aqua, just finding the whereabouts of the white whale alone would have taken a lot of time. And they would most likely have been in an isolated and helpless situation, and they would not have been able to break the white whale's special abilities.
Even if they had successfully defeated the white whale, facing the attacks of the two archbishops afterward wouldn't have been an easy thing.
Although the process seemed very easy, Crusch knew very well that without Satou Kazuma and the others, this operation would have been incredibly dangerous.
"It's been a long time since I've seen Crusch-sama make this kind of expression, nya!"
Just then, Felix suddenly popped up from the side and said to Crusch.
"Crusch-sama, could it be that you have some feelings for Kazuma-sama, nya!"
"Don't talk nonsense, Ferris!"
Hearing the other party's words, Crusch quickly waved her hand and said,
"I have never interacted with Kazuma-sama from a woman's perspective, but I must admit that at certain moments, my heart was indeed a little touched. But I also have a greater ideal, and I believe Kazuma-sama does as well."
After saying that, a smile appeared on Crusch's face as she looked towards Satou Kazuma - although at this moment it seemed that Felt was pouncing on Satou Kazuma and beating him wildly - but in Crusch's eyes, this should be close interaction within Satou Kazuma's group.
After all, she had seen Satou Kazuma do similar things to Aqua before.
She didn't understand, but she respected it.
"Crusch-sama, did you know that if you want to improve your relationship with someone, the best way is to call them by a nickname or pet name, nya~"
A sly smile appeared on Felix's face. He loved to play pranks on Crusch the most, as she didn't understand much about interpersonal relationships.
"A nickname?"
Crusch's eyebrows twitched slightly.
Satou Kazuma seemed to have used the term 'lie detector' to refer to her earlier. Could that be considered a nickname?
Did that mean Satou Kazuma was showing goodwill towards her?
Then to improve their relationship, she should give him a nickname as well.
Just as Crusch was thinking, Felt, who had just finished teaching Satou Kazuma a lesson, stormed past her.
"Hello, are you friends with Kazuma-sama?"
----
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