CHAPTER 5 - PART 1 & 2

Volume 2 Prologue

"Satou Kazuma-san… Welcome to the world after life ends. I am the goddess who will guide your way, Eris. Your time in the mortal world is up."

Opening my eyes, I found myself standing at a shrine that seemed to be from ancient Rome.

Before I could understand what happened to me, the girl before my eyes explained it to me.

She had long silvery hair with white skin and was wearing a loose and white hagoromo.

From her face that looked delicate and beautiful, I could feel a hint of melancholy.

I don't know her actual age, but she appeared to be younger than me.

The goddess who called herself Eris looked at me with her sad green eyes as I stood there dumbfounded.

After hearing the goddess' words, I finally realized that I have died again.

This was a familiar feeling.

I felt the same way when I met the other goddess(self proclaimed) which resulted me in going to that world.

Right now, I remembered what happened before I died.

— I see, so I died again.

The moment I thought of that, Something warm flowed down my face.

I wasn't like this the first time I died.

Ahhh, that's right–

Unexpectedly, I missed that lousy world I thought I hated.

Part 1

"… I want money!"

I groaned miserably.

I want money. And a lot of it.

—I was inside the bar of the facility known as adventurer's guild.

I hugged my head with both hands and buried my face on the table.

"Anyone would obviously want that. It's the same for me too… By the way, aren't you being too useless? To let a goddess like me stay in the stables, don't you know shame? If you get it, let me live more luxuriously. Take better care of me!"

The one complaining to me was a beautiful girl with blue hair and eyes.

This girl, whose only strong point was her good looks, was Aqua, and I think she was some sort of goddess—

"… Don't you know why I crave for money so badly?"

"The elegant and wonderful me wouldn't understand what a former hikikomori like you is thinking about right? You are after the funds for you to stay a Hikikomori forever, isn't that it?"

"It's debts."

When Aqua heard what I said, she trembled and averted her gaze.

"It's the debts alright! Because of the money you owed, most of the rewards from quest are garnished! My brows were frozen when I woke up in the stables this morning! The other adventurers are already renting rooms in the tavern to sleep! If we keep doing this during winter, we will freeze to death in the stables! Get a grip, now is not the time to say stupid things like 'I will return victoriously after defeating the demon king'!"

I slammed my hand on the table as I lectured Aqua who averted her eyes and cupped her ears.

—In this world, there were people known as adventurers.

They fought monsters that threatened the lives of people night and day, and preoccupied themselves day by day without worrying about the next.

Even the adventurers who were not known for their long term planning mulled their time away in the inn during the winter.

This was because the weak monsters had all hibernated in the winter; only the dangerous creatures were active.

Our base was the town where novice adventurers congregated, Axel.

For adventurers who were just slightly stronger than amateurs, taking up quests during the winter was suicidal.

At this moment, Aqua banged the table and rebuked.

"That couldn't be helped! If not for my superb performance, this town would have been destroyed!? How unreasonable to just throw the debts to us without a word of thanks! This is ridiculous! I want to complain to the counter staff!"

"Hey, stop that, don't trouble the counter staff lady!… In the end, we did receive a large amount of reward… It's just that it was negated by the debts. Destroying a part of town was not something that could be ignored."

This town was attacked by a boss of the demon king named Beldia.

Demon King.

That's right, that kind of Demon king.

The demon king that exists in games and manga sent one of the bosses to attack us.

That time, Aqua summoned a large quantity of water which was the weakness of the enemy. After the boss was weakened, I moved forward courageously and resolved the attack, but—

"What's with you! Kazuma was just running away before using 'steal' during the final moments on the Dullahan, who I weakened, and took his head! Praise me more! Respect me! Don't stop worshipping me! Everyone in the guild should adore me as a goddess and respect me!"

"You annoying fame grabbing idiot! You will act all arrogant if I don't put you in your place! Fine, I admit the incident was settled all thanks to you! So you will get all the credits for it, you happy now!? Then go clear the debts alone!"

"Wahh wait! Sorry I was wrong I apologize don't abandon me!"

Aqua tried to stop me in tears as I stood up to abandon the goddess of debts.

At this moment, someone spoke to us.

"Really, making a scene so early in the morning. Everyone is watching… they are not watching. The guys in the guild have gotten used to you two…"

"You two are up early. Did you find any good quests?"

The ones chatting with us were our companions, a crusader with a masochistic personality and a chuuni arch wizard named Megumin.

Darkness had a great sword on her waist, and was wearing casual clothes as she sat while flicking her long blonde hair.

The crimson eye mage wearing an eye patch sat beside her.

"Yo, you two are ready too. We haven't found any jobs, and I don't think we need to rush. It's fine to wait for you two to join us before we hunt for quests."

I said as I surveyed the guild.

It was morning, but the adventurers were already getting drunk.

It was correct to say this couldn't be helped.

The reward for defeating the demon king's army boss had been paid out to the adventurers who took part in the battle.

The adventurers who had gotten a bit more well off lost the reason to risk their lives hunting monster in the winter.

In conclusion, the quests on the bulletin board were open for picking, but—

I approached the bulletin board, looking for any good quests.

"Let me see… the bounties are great for these quests, but there are no decent ones left…"

Hunt down the white wolf pack attacking the farm, 1,000,000 Eris.

A 'one hit bear' has woken from hibernation. 2,000,000 to kill it, 500,000 for chasing it away.

There's no way to take out the wolf pack.

It is larger and faster than canine type monsters and if they attack in a group, we will definitely be wiped out.

The bear was out of the question. Megumin and I would die with just a scratch from it.

And I don't want anything to do with a monster with a terrifying name like 'one hit bear'.

"… Mobile fortress Destroyer is approaching, recruiting scouts for reconnaissance regarding its route of advancement?… What? What is this Destroyer?"

"The Destroyer is the Destroyer. The huge and fast mobile fortress."

"After rampaging around, it gained uncanny popularity among the kids."

Oh. I don't get it.

I didn't take Darkness and Megumin's explanation to heart and continued browsing the quests.

And so —

"Nah, what is this 'snow fairy hunt'? The name doesn't seem strong."

Each snow fairy had a bounty of 100,000 Eris.

Among the monsters we had defeated, it had a rather high bounty, but the name didn't sound as strong as the wolves and the bears.

"Snow fairies are weak monsters. They can be found in places with lots of snow, and will shatter when hit by a sword. But…"

I tore the notice down as I listen to Megumin.

"Hunting snow fairies? Snow fairies are not dangerous monsters, but defeating one will allow spring to arrive half a day earlier. If we are taking this quest, I will need to make preparations."

Aqua said "wait for a while" and went off somewhere.

Megumin didn't have any problems with hunting snow fairies too.

At this time, Darkness mumbled to herself.

"Snow fairies…"

I thought this M type crusader who was always thinking about fighting strong monsters would object.

But Darkness seemed happy for some reason.

Although Darkness seemed a bit off, but we still left to hunt the snow fairies after Aqua returned.

Part 2

The plains far away from town.

It wasn't snowing in town, but this place was dyed white with shiny snow.

And that must be the snow fairies.

The palm sized white ball that was floating around the place.

It didn't seemed dangerous.

But why would such a harmless thing have the bounty of 100,000 Eris?

They say defeating one of these things will bring spring half a day closer, so the people who couldn't wait for spring to come put up this huge bounty.

Even though the bounty was high, it didn't mean the opposing monsters were powerful.

Monsters that were average in strength, harmless to humans but fed on the crops in the fields.

Monsters that were weak but actively attacked humans, aggressive in nature.

In such cases, defeating the weak monster that attack humans will yield a higher bounty.

Although the bounty of the snow fairies were disturbingly high, I was more concerned with something else.

"… You, can't you do something about your attire?

"

I looked at Aqua who had an insect net and many small bottles, who was dressed like a dumb kid catching crickets in the winter.

Aqua had a 'what are you saying!?' face, looking at me like a moron.

This idiot.

"I want to catch the snow fairies and put them into the small bottles! If I put it together with a beverage in a box, I would be able to drink ice cold Neroid at any time! I want to make a fridge! What do you think? I'm smart right?"

I can already see the ending, but I guess I will let her be.

And…

"Where is your armor?"

"Still being repaired."

After the shenanigans of Aqua, the tank in our party— Darkness was wearing casual clothing without a piece of armor, she only had a great sword on her back.

"… The armor was battered after the fight with the demon king army's boss… but is this equipment really okay?… Well, I don't think the snow fairies will attack us though."

"It's fine, don't worry. It is a bit cold, but this is like a cold endurance contest and feels nice…"

Darkness who was only wearing a tight skirt and black shirt, was panting in her minimal attire.

Maybe perverts who were hot in the head had a high body temperature too.

We focused on the task and began hunting the snow fairies.

"Megumin, Darkness! They are escaping your way, take care of them! Damn, they are squirming all over!"

"They float around leisurely if you leave them alone, but they dodge agilely if you attack them."

It was hard to hit these guys.

But the bounty for each one was 100,000 after all, so such difficulties were expected.

After taking down the 3rd snow fairy, I took a deep breath.

"I caught a 4th one! Look Kazuma! What a harvest!"

Following the source of Aqua's cheerful voice, I saw her putting the snow fairy caught by the insect net into a small bottle.

… Should I try using an insect net too?

If the numbers we took down were too low, I should take out all the snow fairies she caught.

"They are too fast Kazuma, Darkness and I couldn't get them… Can I use explosion spell to blow up an area?"

Megumin said while panting. Chasing alongside Darkness, Megumin finally got one snow fairy with her staff.

I was worried about drawing the attention of creatures such as white wolves and one hit bears, but I could keep a look out with 'detect enemy', and run away if there were any reactions.

"Alright, I'm counting on you Megumin. Get them all."

Megumin started chanting her spell —!

"Explosion!!!"

Megumin released her powerful spell that could only be used once a day.

The cold dry air trembled, and with a roar, the brown earth in the center of the snow white plains exploded, forming a crater.

Megumin laid prone onto the snowy ground after exhausting her mana, displaying her adventurer's card proudly.

"Eight! I took out 8. And I raised a level!"

Oh, well done. You would look much cooler if you didn't say that while half buried in the snow.

With this, I took 3, Megumin got 9. Making it a total of 12.

Including Aqua's catch, there were 16, so 1,600,000 Eris.

Splitting it 4 ways, that would be 400,000 each.

That's a large haul for less than an hour of work.

What is this, hunting in winter yields lots of money.

Why didn't anyone take up this easy job with such a large bounty?

Answering my doubts — That suddenly appeared before us.

"… Ah, it appeared!"

Darkness looked at that thing as she took a stance with her great sword and smiled.

Because it appeared so suddenly, I couldn't use 'detect enemy' to escape.

"..."

Megumin who was boasting of her victory was playing dead.

"…Kazuma. Let me tell you why the adventurers don't take on quests in the winter."

Aqua took a step back as she stared at that.

— That thing which was the focus of our attention took a heavy step forward.

"You stayed in Japan in the past. When you were young you must have heard this name during this season in the weather reports and news right?"

That thing with pure, white, heavy armor released its boundless killing intent at us.

As a Japanese citizen, I could tell from a glance what Aqua was talking about.

Just that terrifying figure was enough even if Aqua didn't explain. But I still waited for her to say it.

"The master of the snow fairies, and the symbol of winter itself…"

The Japanese style white, heavy helmet matched the snow white scale armor.

The armored warrior with a white mask breathed cold white smog as it stood before us.

— Aqua said with a serious face.

"That's right. This is Jack Frost."

"Idiocy! All the people, food and monsters in this damn world are stupid!!"

The terrifyingly sharp blade reflected the sunlight— Jack Frost attacked!