Boom!!
With one final, deafening crash, the abandoned mansion that had once stood deep in the forest, steeped in an air of mystery, was reduced before the eyes of the five of them to a heap of rubble smoking blue and reeking of wine and scorched lightning.
Sacred purifying water mixed with shattered bricks and stones, turning the place into a muddy ruin. Even a few lingering sparks still crackled through the debris, as if ceremonially celebrating this spectacular demolition.
Silence.
Other than Aqua's intermittent sobbing, it was so quiet that even the wind could be heard.
Kōichi stood there gripping the waistband of his pants, with Megumin slung over his shoulder looking utterly satisfied. Feeling the heat in his lower body from the intense action quickly carried off by the breeze, he let out a long breath.
"Phew, perfect. The Ghosts are purified, and the mansion's sinister aura is completely gone too. Kazuma, look. Now even sunlight can shine straight onto the foundation. Great lighting, right?"
"Great my ass!!!" Kazuma finally exploded. He leaped up and pointed at the pile of rubble, his eyes practically popping out. "Kōichi! Open your eyes and look! That was an abandoned mansion, not some building scheduled for demolition! The request said exorcism! We were supposed to clean out the filth inside so the client could renovate it and move back in!"
Trembling, he yanked out the request form from his clothes, already soaked through with sweat, and pointed at the fine print as he roared, "Look here! If the main structure of the house is damaged, we have to pay compensation based on its value! The place may have been old, but a mansion that size has to be worth at least tens of millions of Eris, right?! That 300,000 Eris reward would not even cover the transport cost for hauling away this pile of broken rocks!"
"Waaah! My wine! My reputation! My 300,000!" The moment Aqua heard the word compensation, she cried even harder. She flopped onto the ground and kicked wildly, splashing muddy water everywhere. "It's all Kōichi's fault! Why did he have to use lightning magic?! Why did he have to work together with me?! If he hadn't, I only would've torn down half a wall at most!"
"Oh? Compensation based on value?" At some point Darkness had already sidled up to Kōichi's side. Clutching tightly at her collar, she began breathing faster and heavier, her eyes full of deeply unsettling anticipation. "Forced to shoulder an enormous debt, seized by the client, locked in a dark dungeon, and made to do all kinds of shameful labor every day to repay it... maybe even sold off to those bloated nobles as a plaything... ngh! A development like that... it's the highest form of reward!"
"Would you shut up! This is not the time to egg things on!" Kazuma covered his face in agony and crouched on the ground, starting to draw circles. "It's over. It's all over. My first huge fortune after reincarnating has not even made it into my hands yet, and now I'm saddled with tens of millions in debt? What's the point of a life like this..."
Kōichi had still been basking in the thrill of casting magic in total freedom, but the moment he heard Kazuma scream about tens of millions of Eris, his soaring mood was instantly doused with a bucket of ice water.
He looked down at the hands still gripping his waistband, then at the smoking pile of rubble, and finally felt cold sweat run down his spine.
"Um... Kazuma, if I said all of this was to completely eradicate the sinister aura, for the sake of the client's safety, do you think he'd buy it?"
Kōichi asked cautiously, a trace of guilt in his voice.
"Buy your head! If it were you, and you hired somebody to clean your house, and they turned around and blew the whole thing flat, would you pay them or call the guards?!" Kazuma was almost crying now as he grabbed Kōichi by the collar. "Come on! Back to the Adventurers Guild! Before the client finds out, let's see if we can come up with some excuse to bluff our way through this... though I think that's basically impossible!"
And so, the elite party that should have been returning in triumph now looked more like a band of defeated stragglers.
Kōichi was still carrying Megumin on his back, half asleep from exhaustion with a satisfied smile at the corner of her mouth. Kazuma, meanwhile, dragged Aqua along like a dead dog while she continued wailing over the wine bottle. And Darkness followed behind with a flushed face and an oddly light step, occasionally muttering dangerous words like dungeon, debt, and mortgaging my body.
When Kōichi pushed open the heavy doors of the Axel Adventurers Guild, the rowdy tavern fell silent for a second.
Every adventurer turned to look at the party in their filthy, bedraggled state.
"Yo, isn't that Kōichi? What, did the exorcism job fail?"
One adventurer who knew him gave a teasing whistle.
Kōichi ignored him and walked straight to the counter. The receptionist, Luna, put on her professional sweet smile.
"Welcome back, Kōichi-san. About the exorcism request for the abandoned mansion, how did it go? The client sent word just a moment ago asking about it. He said he could hardly wait to go back and see his ancestral estate."
Kōichi swallowed and turned to glance at Kazuma, only to find that the guy had already buried his face in his scarf and was playing dead.
With no other choice, Kōichi awkwardly cleared his throat and tried to sound as natural as possible.
"Um, Luna-san. The mission really was completed. The Ghosts were purified so thoroughly there's not even a trace left. But... because the Ghost was just too tenacious, we made a little noise during the fight. Really, just a little."
"A little?"
Luna-san instantly seized on the key word, and her smile began to stiffen.
"Well... the house has really great lighting now. You can basically see the sun from any angle, and the ventilation is excellent too. Even the separation created by the walls and roof is gone now."
As Kōichi spoke, he carefully watched Luna-san's expression.
"Kōichi-san, please tell me the result directly."
Luna-san's smile vanished completely.
"The house collapsed. Very completely. It has probably turned into a pile of crushed stone about this high."
Kōichi gestured to about waist height with his hand.
Bang! Luna-san slammed her forehead onto the counter, then tremblingly picked up an abacus and a thick stack of legal documents.
"According to Article 127 of the Axel Adventurer Management Regulations, if an adventurer's improper conduct causes catastrophic damage to a client's property... Kōichi-san, the appraised value of that mansion is... 34 million Eris. After deducting your 300,000 Eris reward, your current debt is... 33.7 million Eris."
"Bweh!!!"
Kazuma spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot and collapsed onto the floor spread-eagle, his soul apparently leaving his body.
"Waaah! I don't want to pay off debt! I want to go back to the divine realm! Kōichi, you disaster magnet, give me back my thirty million!"
Aqua pounced on him and began furiously gnawing on Kōichi's thigh.
"More than thirty million in debt..." Darkness covered her face, her body trembling violently as she let out a spine-chilling low laugh. "Does that mean... we'll have to work ourselves to death in this town for the rest of our lives to pay it off? We might even be taken away by creditors and subjected to all sorts of inhuman..."
"Will you shut up! This is not the time for you to be enjoying this!" Kōichi shoved Aqua's head aside. Even though he was panicking like crazy inside, as the self-proclaimed core of the team, he decided to cling to his last shred of dignity. "Luna-san, can we negotiate? Like... pay in installments? Or maybe we can go blow up another Demon King Army General and use the bounty to cover the debt?"
Luna-san looked up, her eyes full of pity.
"Kōichi-san, installment payments are possible. However, until the debt is fully repaid, all income earned by your party will be applied first toward the interest. In other words... for the foreseeable future, you may not even have enough money to buy underwear."
Kōichi's whole body jolted.
No money to buy underwear?
For me, is that a punishment... or a reward?