Two days had passed since then.
"Haa, I've been feeling kind of sluggish nonstop."
Today, I was taking a break from my Magecraft research and quietly manning the counter.
Apparently, I'd overdone it and played around too much all day yesterday.
Thanks to that, I really didn't feel like doing anything today.
Well, I'd already automated the guy's condition, so it wasn't a big deal.
"This is exactly how it feels when you leave mobile auto-farming on."
Sigh. I didn't really have anything else to do anyway.
I was just about to grab a broom and clean the shop for a change when—
"Hm?"
I sensed something strange outside the shop door.
Could it be a Newtype!?
...No, that was a lie.
It was just that something else had approached and gotten caught in the detection barrier I always kept spread around the shop.
Let's see, this mana pattern is roughly...
"What are you doing standing outside? Come in, Hestia."
"W-Wah! M-Magus-kun, it's been a while! Have you been well?"
"Don't try to test the waters so awkwardly. Just get to the point."
"Ugh, you're still as rude and sharp-tongued as ever. But today will be different!"
Just as she said, the goddess was unusually confident today.
What's gotten into her?
Did she maybe eat some spoiled potato croquettes yesterday or today?
"Now then, I have paid the price! Fulfill the contract at once, Magus-kun!"
"The contract? Ah, that?"
Only then did I remember what I'd completely forgotten all this time.
Right, I'd said I'd make a magic item for Bell something-or-other, hadn't I?
So I honestly told her everything.
"Honestly. I forgot."
"W-Wh-what did you sayyyyy!?"
Heh.
My refreshing answer sent the goddess into a very intense reaction.
Even her hair, tied into twin tails and hanging down, shot straight up over her head from sheer shock.
What a strange sight. Truly a goddess.
"Y-You're terrible. I did my very best. I kept every promise I made. And after you so wantonly toyed with and violated a goddess's chastity, you just forgot about it as if nothing happened..."
"Could you please stop making statements that sound horribly misleading to anyone who hears them?"
Before long, our little goddess was even sitting down on the shop floor and crying like some tragic heroine from a drama.
That still doesn't make something that doesn't exist appear out of thin air, you know.
"Well, if that's all, I can just make one from scratch starting now..."
At that moment.
Bang!
"Ugyak!?"
"W-What was that just now?!"
Suddenly, the shop door was smashed apart and sent flying, opening the view to the outside wide open.
And there, the person I saw was...
"A~n?"
A brown-haired beauty smiling brighter than ever before.
Tiona had visited my shop in a bizarre pose, as if she were practicing some kind of straight punch.
It was an extremely neat and excellent stance.
"H-Hey, Tiona? It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Yep. It's been reeeally, reeeally, reeeally long, An."
"Ah, haha..."
For some reason, that smile of hers felt terrifyingly scary to me.
This was just my imagination, right?
Please, somebody tell me this is just my imagination!
"M-More importantly, what brings you here? At this hour?"
"Why~? Is there some special reason I'm not allowed to come here or something~?"
"N-Not at all! Y-You're welcome to come anytime!"
"Hehe, right?"
She was still smiling.
Then, all of a sudden, her expression hardened and the smile vanished from her lips.
Tiona slowly opened her eyes, which had been shut in a stern glare.
"By the way, Aaan~?"
"W-What is it?"
Her eyes, visible between the opened lids, held no light at all.
In other words, dead eyes.
"I think I just heard something weird a moment ago..."
"S-Something weird? W-What do you mean?"
Whatwhatwhatwhat'swithherallofasuddenwhyissheso scaryMomI'msooooo scared!
"A goddess's chastity."
Gulp.
"Toyed with, violated."
Gulp! Gulp!
"What on earth is that supposed to mean~?"
And then Tiona smiled again.
But miss, your eyes!
Your eyes are not smiling at allllll!
"L-Look, Tiona. I think I get roughly what kind of misunderstanding you've got going on right now. But it's all just a misunderstanding. I don't even know why I'm having to explain myself like this, but please, just listen to me first..."
With that, I desperately tried to persuade her somehow.
After all, the fact that this was all a misunderstanding was absolute truth.
If I explained it properly, everything would work out.
That was what I expected as I started to speak.
"...chest, right?"
"Huh?"
I had no idea at all.
That a clumsy mouth was a pretty lousy countermeasure against an Amazon whose eyes had already gone completely out of focus.
"So it was the chest after all!? You fell for that huge chest, didn't you!? You like that lump of fat way more than a flat board like me, don't you!?"
"No, what the hell are you going on about all of a sudden, miss?!"
"Then it's not that? You don't like big chests?"
"No, that's not it... Hup!"
Damn it! I made a classic mistake!
But what choice did I have!
In what world are there many males who don't like big chests!?
"F-Fufufu..."
"T-Tiona?"
At this point, Tiona had lowered her head and started trembling.
"...I'll do it."
"Huh?"
Then she snapped her head up and finally couldn't hold back her anger any longer.
"I'll kill An and then I'll die toooooooo!"
"Aaaaaah! [Boil up, my blood]aaaahhh!"
I hurriedly pulled out the Moon Spirit Slime from my coat and scattered it across the floor.
Fortunately, she was empty-handed right now.
If I could just succeed in restraining her somehow, no matter what method I used, I could still go for the next step!
"[Emergency acceleration! Turtle-shell binding! Full power deployment! No, breakthrough limit]!"
Shrrrk!
"This is...! Gghhh!"
Thus activated the Moon Spirit Slime's latest binding function.
Since I'd loaded it with plenty of personal motives, its performance was absolutely reliable.
And with the boost activated too, it was even more reliable.
"Huff, huff... Raaahhh!"
But that still wasn't enough to stop a level 5 like her.
In fact, how long had it even been since I bound her? She was already halfway to breaking free.
As expected of a first-class adventurer. Truly amazing.
"[Thunder carriage wheel's gap, divide this into six by light; I wait at the source of the pond of dialogue—Parkdo 61, Six-Arm Thunder]aaaaah!"
Papat!
"Hah, hah, hah. I-I did it..."
So I gave it my all too.
This might have been the first time in my life I'd ever succeeded at high-speed incantation.
But even that still wasn't enough.
Just binding her up wouldn't stop her in her current state.
In that case!
"[O ruler! Mask of flesh and blood, wings of all things, you who govern the names of mankind! Engrave the name of twin lotuses upon the wall of azure flame]!"
Wave 73, Twin Lotus Azure Flame Strike!
KWAANG!
In a stance eerily similar to firing a ki blast.
In that position, I unleashed the mana of blue flames gathered in my hand at the girl before me with everything I had.
Of course, Tiona took the blast head-on, got caught in the explosion, and was blown straight backward out of the building.
"Waaahhh! An is an idiottttt!"
Even as she flew away, she kept wailing.
I felt a little guilty, but I still forced myself to comfort myself by saying there was nothing I could do.
Since I'd fired in such a rush, she'd probably be hurt to some extent... but that much could just be treated on my end.
"Damn it. So this morning's grumbling was a flag after all."
Having barely escaped the crisis, I could finally let out a sigh of relief.
And behind me, our troublesome goddess timidly poked her head out.
"I-Is it over?"
So that's where she'd been hiding. She'd taken cover behind the counter.
I glared at her and said accusingly, "This is all because of you, Goddess. Why would you go saying something like that in front of a kid?"
"W-Well... I said it knowing that child was there too... N-No! It's not a lie, is it! You forced yourself on me when I hated it and even made a pure goddess bleed!"
...I want it.
I really want a huge, heavy punishment for false accusation.
"I'm sorry, but could we please speak properly? I've got limits to how much I can let this slide as a joke."
She was still holding a grudge over me accidentally poking the syringe a few times while I was just trying to draw a little blood.
What kind of goddess has such a long memory?
Could she please show the broad-mindedness and mercy to match those huge breasts of hers?
At this rate, I really wondered how she was supposed to create and lead a Familia.
I sighed as I looked at the half-destroyed shop entrance.
Man, my life.
For a moment, I found myself missing that sluggish feeling from earlier terribly.
Give me back my peaceful everyday life~