27 Another one!

-Yunyun POV-

The next day, Megumin and I decided to join Cecily in investigating the matter of the hot spring water.

We walked through the bustling streets of the city, passing by a lively market filled with colorful stalls selling fresh produce and handmade crafts. The aroma of sizzling street food made my stomach growl with hunger, but unfortunately, I didn't have any money on me to buy any.

However, I could only blame myself for this after losing the money for our travel expenses.

Eventually, we arrived at the hotel where Cecily had received a complaint about the issue.

"Excuse me," Megumin said politely as she opened the door to the hotel.

The hotel owner turned to us, revealing a middle-aged woman with tan skin, slit eyes, and white hair. She was wearing a one-piece outfit in a muted shade of blue.

"Yes?" she asked, her tone polite.

"We heard there have been complaints about the hot springs here," Megumin said, informing the owner of the reason for our visit.

(A/N: Tokoroten: Tokoroten (心太, ところてん) is a dish in Japanese cuisine made from agarophytes. Tokoroten has been eaten by the Japanese for over a thousand years.)

"I see. In that case..." the owner said, leading us to the women's bath area. She gestured towards one of the faucets and continued, "The moment you turn the faucet, tokoroten slime will start oozing out."

Cecily furrowed her brow, deep in thought as she tried to come up with a solution.

She stepped forward and squatted closer to the faucet, studying it intently.

Suddenly, Cecily jumped to her feet and seized the owner's shoulder, a look of excitement on her face. "What about the taste?!" she asked eagerly.

The owner appeared a bit nervous at Cecily's sudden enthusiasm. "I think it's grape-flavored," she said tentatively.

Cecily's eyes lit up, and she let out a low chuckle. "This is magnificent!" she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling as she licked her lips in anticipation. "Twisting the faucet causes tokoroten slime to come out? This is a dream come true!"

I glanced over at Megumin, and then back at Cecily. "Wasn't our goal..."

"Yeah..." Megumin agreed.

Cecily's excitement over the tokoroten slime had consumed her. It was to the point where she had completely forgotten about our mission to uncover who was tampering with the hot springs water.

"Cecily, don't we need to—"

"We need to find the source of the hot springs!" Cecily declared with unwavering determination.

"No, that's not what I meant," I said, but she was already gone.

We followed Cecily without much choice as she led us to the mountain where the water source was located.

As we trailed behind Cecily, Megumin and I found the climb to be a piece of cake. We were already accustomed to physical activity, so it felt like a warm-up for us. Cecily was the same and didn't even seem to break a sweat.

It occurred to me that perhaps Cecily checked on the hot spring water every week, maybe even every day, which would explain why she was so physically fit.

Finally, we reached the top of the stairs, and that's when Cecily finished explaining the mountain's significance to the city.

"This is where the water comes from, and since the Axis cult controls this place, we can pretty much do whatever we want in the city."

Just as she finished speaking, however, we noticed a visitor.

It was one of the knight from yesterday.

"Axis cultists, huh?" the knight said, with a hint of frustration in his voice. He held a bag in his hand, as if to signify his recent investigation. "You're too late," he added. "All the evidence has already been collected."

Seeing this, I couldn't help but be curious about the bag the knight was holding. "Did that bag contain tokoroten slime?" I asked.

The knight turned to face me and nodded. "Last night, someone witnessed Lord Zesta bringing this bag into the faculty. With this, there's no way he can evade the charges now," he explained, before walking away.

As Megumin and I watched him walk away, Cecily suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention andthe knight to halt to in his tracks. "Hey, did anyone bring a cup?" she asked.

The knight was instantly alerted as he ran over to pull Cecily away from thrwater source contaminated with tokoroten slime.

"Don't drink the evidence!"

"Nooo!" Cecily became frustrated and started flailing her arms and legs, protesting, "But there's so much! Stop, stop, stop, let me go!"

"Why you?!" The knight said while struggling to pull Cecily. "Why. Are. You. So. Strong?!"

Megumin and I exchanged a glance upon seeing this, both of us unsure of what we were seeing.

"Ehhhhh?"

"So, this is the reason why Axis cult...

***

-Megumin POV-

I sighed in frustration. "In the end, we couldn't find out anything."

Yunyun shifted her gaze to me. "By the way, what will happen to Lord Zesta?" she asked.

Cecily responded with a casual shrug. "Maybe he'll face the death penalty."

"I am very sorry!"

Before Yunyun and I could react, a familiar voice broke the silence. It was the female knight from yesterday.

"If apologies solved anything, you would be out of a job!" Lord Zesta's harsh voice followed hers in a lecture.

Cecily's eyes widened in surprise. "Lord Zesta?!" she exclaimed.

As I turned towards the commotion, I saw Lord Zesta berating the female knight from yesterday. She was bowing and apologizing repeatedly, clearly under great stress.

Cecily's surprised voice caught Lord Zesta's attention. "You're out already?!" she exclaimed.

Lord Zesta turned towards us and smiled. "Oh, hello everyone," he said. "Were you all waiting for me to be released?"

'Are we at the police station?' I wondered aloud, looking around. The two-story building in front of us had a blue roof like all the other buildings in the area, but it also bore the insignia of the Arcanletia police.

It was also the same insignia that I had seen on the badge of the cop whom I had tried to trick the other day.

After briefly scanning the surroundings, my focus returned to Lord Zesta, who had already redirected his attention to the female knight and was reproaching her.

"Make sure to thank the prosecutor with the magical lie detector repeatedly! Thanks to her, I'm cleared of suspicion. I'm the chief of the Axis cult. Why would I ever lend help to demons?"

The female knight hung her head low and apologized for mistakenly arresting Lord Zesta, barely containing her anger. "This time," she said, "it was our fault for arresting the devout Lord Zesta of the Axis cult. I am truly sorry."

Lord Zesta responded with a taunt that made the female knight bite her lip and tear up a little. "Instead of focusing on your chest, maybe you should try growing from within too!" he said, pointing to his head as he then turned around and walked away

We followed Lord Zesta, leaving the poor female knight behind with her.

"I must have really worried everyone," Lord Zesta said as we walked back to the church.

Cecily nervously laughed and replied, "Oh no, not at all! This reliable Cecily believed in Lord Zesta's innocence from the start!

Lord Zesta seemed pleased with her response, but Yunyun and I exchanged a knowing look.

[Photo]

As we walked, Cecily discreetly slipped something into our hands and placed a finger over her lips. "Keep this between us, okay?" she whispered.

Curious, I looked at the object she had handed me. It was a small bag of slime powder. I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I thought Cecily had given me money to stay silent. I then tossed the bag onto the ground.

"Wahh! Don't throw away the slime powder!" Cecily shouted, clearly upset at my action.

I rolled my eyes at her words and said, "Anyway, the issue still isn't solved. The fact remains that someone threw tokoroten slime into the hot spring."

Yunyun turned to Lord Zesta and asked, "Do you have any ide--"

Yunyun was cut off as someone suddenly kneeled in front of me.

"Once I learned of your seal being broken, I have traveled from far to visit you. Your loyal subject Arnes is her to pay her respect"

It was a stunning woman in her twenties with cat-like yellow eyes, free-flowing waist-length red hair and massive breasts! She wore a revealing outfit consisting of a gold choker, knee-high boots, a bikini top, underwear, sleeved gloves, and a short cloak with an animal ear hood.

What is going on? Could it be that someone has finally realized my greatness?

My seal was broken.

I couldn't remember any such thing, but this loyal servant said that my memories may yet to be restored to the seal being broken only recently.

What was I?

No, I felt this before.

I always felt that I was different from the others.

My mana capacity and genius intellect were unmatched.

…Now, the mystery was solved.

"Ah yes, it is I, your master who had been sealed... right?

"N-not you! The one you are carrying!"

"Whaaat?"

"So, hand over Lady Wolbach," Arnes said as she stood up, but Chomusuke turned away and ignored her.

"Looks like it doesn't like you very much—"

"But I do!" Lord Zesta interjected, with drool on his face. "Although shameless, she has the looks of a well-honed beauty! Yes, to put it in words, it's like the immoral feeling of wearing a coat over a swim suit!"

"Shut up! What are you saying?!" Arnes shouted, taking the words right out of my mouth.

Once again, Lord Zesta was being a nuisance, so I spoke up before he could utter another word.

"Actually, she's not your master, she's my familiar," I said while petting Komekko on the head as she meowed contentedly. "Besides, why are you trying to take her away from me? And why are you calling her master?"

"You have my gratitude for caring Lady Wolbach. It would be better for not to inquire any further. Now, please hand her over to me."

Arnes reached out to grab Komekko, but I slapped her hand away.

"Listen here you brat, If you don't want to suffer—"

"In case I do, what should I do to receive this suffering?!" Lord Zesta interjected again excitedly as I couldn't help but facepalm upon hearing his words.

"What a strange man. If you wish, I'll let you suffer!" Arnes had enough and took a step back and raised her hand, conjuring a fiery ball of magic. She hurled the fireball towards us with a fierce determination.

However, Lord Zesta was quick to react.

"Reflect," Lord Zesta said, his voice calm and collected. He raised his hand and summoned a shield of shimmering glass, which appeared in front of us just in time to stop the fiery projectile.

The shield glowed briefly before it redirected the fireball back towards Arnes with even greater force.

Arnes gasped in surprise as she was swiftly forced to dodge the incoming attack. In the process, her hood fell down, revealing the pair of horns on her head that had been carefully hidden until now.

A demon? No, more importantly, Zesta was actually useful?!

"Oh, and here I thought you were just a weird old man!" Arnes said as I secretly agreed with her.

"I see… a female demon… what a pity," Lord Zesta said, genuinely disappointed. "So the faint stench I've felt for a while has been coming from you."

Stench?

As soon as I heard those words slip out of Zesta's mouth, I looked down at Komekko, who was snuggled up in my arms.

It suddenly dawned on me that Komekko's wings resembled those of the demon. And what's more, the demon had referred to Komekko as her master.

I decided to keep this to myself and took a quick scan of my surroundings. Yunyun seemed to have picked up on it too, but Cecily and Zesta were oblivious.

Come to think of it, where did Cecily go?

Just as I was thinking about this, Arnes, the demon, interrupted, "What are you guys talking about? I just got here."

Upon hearing this, my suspicion was confirmed: Komekko was indeed a demon, well, a demon beast and the stench Zesta mentioned must have been emanating from her.

Yunyun nudged me and whispered, "Do you think Zesta—?"

I cut her off with a quick nod. "Let's keep this between us for now."

After I spoke those words, a group of Axis cult members suddenly emerged, led by Cecily. They encircled the demon, appearing fierce and resolute.

In that moment, it was difficult to discern who was on the side of good and who was not. This was made even more apparent by Cecily's sinister grin as she shouted, "We've got you surrounded!"

"Because of you, I had to go through all that trouble. Scared Highness Exorcism!" Lord Zesta's voice boomed with anger. He clasped his hands together and cast a spell, summoning a magic circle beneath the demon's feet.

A blinding pillar of light descended from the sky, but Arnes reacted quickly. Wings sprouted from her back, and she dodged the attack with ease.

Rather than engaging in combat, Arnes opted to retreat by taking flight.

It was only natural as she was outnumbered and at a disadvantage.

I couldn't let Arnes get away. If I allowed her to escape now, she would surely return and attempt to take Komekko from me once more. I turned to Yunyun and asked urgently, "Can you bring her down?"

Yunyun nodded and raised her hand to the sky. "Lightning Strike!" she exclaimed.

Bolts of lightning descended from the heavens, crackling with electricity, and struck the demon with a deafening boom. Arnes recoiled from the impact and plummeted backwards, crashing into the mountains behind the Axis church.

"Good job, Yunyun!" Cecily praised as the Axis cultists joined in.

"As expected of a Crimson Demon."

"Good job, little girl!"

Yunyun blushed in embarrassment as she hid her face in her hands under all the praise.

I let out a sigh and suggested, "The demon won't be able to move for a few minutes. Let's head over there before she tries to escape again."

"Good idea," Lord Zesta agreed before turning to the Axis cultists. "In the name of the Axis Cult, let's make this demon regret the day she was born!" His face contorted with rage as he yelled out.

Cecily joined in, leading the charge of the other cultists. "Let's finish her off!" she shouted with fervor.

"Yeah, hang the demon!"

"Let's kill this demon!"

The voices of the cultists echoed through the air as they headed towards the spot where Arnes had fallen.

Yunyun and I followed closely behind them, just in case something unexpected happens.