Over the next few days, Axel's mansion was filled with an air of extreme decadence.
Thanks to their reputation as the heroes who saved the town, Kōichi and his group had not even received their official reward yet, but they were already using their "adventurer cards of the town's saviors" to run tabs all over town.
The mansion's hall was piled high with expensive imported red wine, premium Frost Spirit Roast, and even a full-length mirror with a pure gold frame that Aqua had insisted on buying, claiming it could enhance her divine aura.
"Ohohoho! Kōichi, look at this mirror! Only this dazzling gold can bring out the nobility of a savior Goddess like me!" Aqua, dressed in a brand-new silk nightgown, swirled a bottle of top-tier red wine worth fifty thousand Eris while striking various poses in front of the mirror that she thought looked holy. "Once the reward comes in, I'm going to pave the entire mansion floor with gold bricks like this! Then I'll glide over them every day. That is the life a god deserves!"
"That's as far as your ambition goes?" Kazuma lay sprawled on the expensive leather sofa, holding a copy of The Royal Capital's Socialite Guide in his arms, an extremely wicked smile on his face. "I've already picked out a three-story villa in the center of the Royal Capital's business district. Kōichi, you and I will each take one floor, and we'll fill the last floor with twenty cat-eared maids who take turns waking us up every morning. Adventures? The Demon King's Army? Whoever wants that exhausting work can go do it!"
"My name is Megumin! I am the strongest Wizard who brought an end to the Mobile Fortress!" Megumin stood on the table, rewrapping her completely uninjured left eye with bandages, her voice full of chuunibyou madness. "Kōichi, do you think the country will establish an Explosion Magic Memorial Day just for me? On that day, everyone in the city will shout Explosion together at noon, and then I will personally set off the biggest firework outside the city as the grand finale!"
Kōichi sat in the main seat, cutting into a juicy piece of roast meat. Listening to their increasingly ridiculous bragging filled him with deep satisfaction.
The image of that red-glowing Coronatite core, teleported to who knew where, flashed through his mind from time to time, but he quickly forced it down with the logic that if he had not seen it explode, then it had not exploded.
"That's right, we're all heroes!" Kōichi raised his glass, his face flushed as he joined in. "Wiz, stop doing the accounts over there and come have a drink! Those little restocking costs are nothing compared to the billions we'll get in future rewards! Once we become national heroes, even if the Demon King shows up in person, he'll have to offer us a cigarette first!"
Just then, Darkness, who had been sitting silently off to the side with empty eyes and flushed cheeks, suddenly spoke.
"Hey, Kōichi... Don't you think the peace these past few days feels a little too much like the calm before the storm? That enormous energy core, the fluctuation it released the instant it vanished was aimed right at the place where Axel's power is most concentrated... Ngh... After enjoying a few days of luxury, suddenly having a fully armed order of Knights burst in, twist my arms behind my back, and publicly announce the seizure of all our assets and our execution... Ah... Just imagining that difference is enough to make me..."
"Shut up, you jinxed pervert!"
Aqua and Kazuma roared in perfect unison.
Before Darkness's moan of perverted fantasy had even faded, the mansion's two mahogany doors, decorated with ostentatious gold trim, were shoved open from the outside with a loud bang.
Sunlight poured through the doorway into the dim hall, revealing a neat row of silver armor gleaming with cold light.
At the front stood a woman with neat short hair and eyes as sharp as ice blades. She wore a crisp Kingdom Prosecutor's uniform, and the badge on her chest shone so brightly it almost hurt to look at.
"Oh? You're here? Pretty quick, aren't you?" Kōichi leaned back in the main seat, still holding the half-eaten bone from a premium Frost Spirit Roast.
He deliberately lowered his voice and put on the air of a reclusive master who hid his achievements and fame. "No need to bow. We did save Axel, but that was only our duty as adventurers. As for the reward, just carry it straight to the warehouse in the back. Remember to split it according to the ratio we discussed earlier."
Kazuma took it even further. He had somehow pulled out a folding fan and was lazily waving it while looking sideways at the female prosecutor.
"Ahem, Envoy-san, please go back and tell His Majesty that we're not interested in medals or anything like that. As long as there's enough Eris, we'll still step up next time the Demon King's Army comes. Also, while you're at it, could you check whether any weird copper coins got mixed into that box of gold bars?"
Aqua, meanwhile, was grinning so hard her mouth would not close. She pointed at the pure gold-framed mirror and shouted.
"See? I told you my divine light shines upon the land! Even an envoy from the Royal Capital couldn't wait to come admire my true form! Hey, short-haired one, did you bring tribute? I won't give you a Blessing that easily unless it's the finest sparkling wine!"
For a moment, the hall was filled with cheerful energy.
Except for the elite Knights, who stood expressionless with their hands already on their sword hilts, and the woman who was staring at them as if they were garbage.
"I am Sena, a Royal Prosecutor." The short-haired woman stepped forward expressionlessly. The parchment scroll in her hand made a teeth-grinding rustle as her cold voice echoed through the hall. "Adventurers Kōichi Hayashi and Kazuma Satou. I apologize for interrupting your delusions, but I did not come here today to deliver any reward."
The meat bone in Kōichi's mouth suddenly stopped moving. A terrible sense of foreboding shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
"Under the Kingdom Emergency Act, and according to the handwritten accusation submitted by Lord Alderp." Sena snapped the scroll open. It was so long it nearly dragged across the floor, and it was densely covered in red seals. "During your operation to subjugate the Mobile Fortress Destroyer, you are suspected of maliciously manipulating a teleportation device, causing an energy core with destructive power to strike the lord's residence with pinpoint accuracy, resulting in the complete destruction of the residence, the warehouse, and three annex buildings. The charge is currently... subversion of the state."
"Pffft!!!"
Kazuma sprayed the red wine he had just drunk straight into Megumin's face.
"Huh? Subversion... of the state?" Aqua tilted her head and set down her wine glass with a blank look. "What's that? It sounds even more impressive than savior Goddess... Wait! Where's my reward?! Where's my red wine?!"
"Knights, proceed." Sena completely ignored Aqua's nonsense and gave the order with a wave of her hand. "Arrest the suspects Kōichi Hayashi and Kazuma Satou on the spot and take them to the lord's manor dungeon for interrogation! If any of the others resist, treat them as accomplices!"
Clang!
Dozens of longswords were drawn at once, and the mansion that had just been filled with the aroma of wine and meat instantly became a grim execution ground.
"W-Wait! This is a misunderstanding! It was force majeure!" Kazuma slid straight off the sofa and scrambled behind Kōichi. "Kōichi! Think of something! Didn't you say if we didn't see the explosion, then it didn't explode?! Now the victim is right at our door!"
Kōichi looked at the Knights closing in step by step, then looked at Darkness, whose face had already gone bright red with excitement from the words "interrogation" and "dungeon." She had even voluntarily held out her wrists, waiting for handcuffs.
A sharp pain stabbed through his head.