CHAPTER 7 - PART 7 & 8

Part 7

I woke up in the middle of the night, wondering how long I had slept.

The mansion was silent, it should be late at night.

— I wanted to go to the toilet.

I tried getting up from the bed…

… but my body couldn't move.

What's happening… Sleep paralysis?

I tried sounding out, but that failed too, only a mumble escaped my lips. I couldn't call out to Aqua for aid.

I realized how desperate the situation was.

Correction, my need to pee was facing a never before seen crisis.

No, I had to endure, I am already an adult!

There were only two situations for an adult to urinate as he pleased: 1, in a special shop, or 2, if you were an old man.

Unable to move my body, I gritted my teeth to hold it in. At this moment, I heard a sound come from the corner of my room.

— Poop.

That sound was really loud in this quiet room.

Hearing this sound, I shifted my gaze to a corner of the room.

In the corner of the room… stood a tiny doll of a girl in a dress. Why did she appear here?

"…!"

I gulped unconsciously.

Cold sweat kept breaking out.

What was going on, why did this object appear here?

I didn't have any recollection of this thing being in this room in the first place. Did Aqua place it here to scare me?

Yeah, that should be it. It definitely was.

That useless goddess; I will take care of her tomorrow.

I pushed the blame onto Aqua one sidedly, and closed my eyes to escape reality.

— Dang

A sound reverberated through the entire room, and made me burst out into cold sweat while my eyes were closed.

Yeah, that's right. It was too pitiful to push everything onto Aqua.

Yeah, that's right, that girl also had times when she worked hard, so I should be gentle to her every now and then.

— Bang.

She was a goddess-sama after all, yeah!

Correct, a goddess was living in this mansion.

Evil spirits? Those things would be killed instantly if they meet Aqua. Our Aqua was a goddess that could easily purify a lich!

Clank.

Clank.

Clank–!

I will apologize to Aqua for the incident in the morning. I was too disrespectful to a goddess. Yeah, I will reflect on it, I will definitely reflect on it.

–Clank clank clank clank clank clank clank clank clank, clank clank clank clank!

Ahhhhhhhh I will absolutely apologize and turn over a new leaf!

I will apologize, so Aqua-sama, please help me!

… I was not sure if my confession and prayers worked, but the sound from the corner of the room stopped.

That's great, there were no such things as spirits after all.

I relaxed slightly.

At the same time, a certain curiosity welled up within me.

— Should I open my eyes?

I wanted to open my eyes, and check on the status of that doll.

But, my instinct or something like a 6th sense was holding me back.

What should I do? I was so bothered by it. But I thought it would be scary if I opened my eyes, and it was also scary if I didn't!

After considering it for a moment, I remembered I couldn't go to the toilet if this went on.

And so I made up my mind to open my eyes slightly…

I locked eyes with the doll that was staring at my face.

"Hyaaaa!!"

I screamed as if I was squeezing my psyche dry, and swiped the doll away the moment I could move my body.

Part 8

"Aqua! Aqua-sama!"

I ran barefooted on the corridor towards Aqua's room.

I could hear something chasing me from behind.

How scary, scary, super scary! What was that, why was this happening?

— Clank! Crack crack crack, bang bang bang!

As I listen to the unpleasant noise behind me, I didn't even knock and charged into Aqua's room directly.

I closed the door in a panic and locked it.

A second later, I heard the sound of something crashing into the door.

I felt the impact came through the door onto my back. I looked around the room.

Aqua wasn't here.

In her place, sitting in the middle of the room in the darkness was a black haired girl with blood red eyes.

"Hyaaaa!"

"Wahhhh!"

I couldn't help screaming, and the brunette before me was also shrieking for some reason.

She sounded familiar, so I looked closely and realized it was Megumin in her pajamas.

After Megumin and I screamed for a moment, we regained a bit of our composure.

The banging sound kept coming from the door.

It was too scary, so I didn't dare to think about what was hitting against the door.

"Don't, don't scare me Megumin, I almost peed myself!"

"That, that's my line! Why did Kazuma come to this room! I thought Aqua was coming back…!"

Hearing Megumin's words, I calmed myself down.

"And why were you in Aqua's room? And where did Aqua went?"

Megumin stuttered.

"Ugh… eh, there, there was a doll, eh, moving around my room…"

Ahh, so Megumin encountered the same thing as me.

"And... well… I wanted to ask Aqua to protect me… I wanted to ask her to take me… to the ladies…"

"… So you too…"

Hearing what I said, Megumin seemed to realize I was in the same boat as her.

"Kazuma was chased around by dolls too? I think Aqua and Darkness went out to exorcise the spirits."

"… Aqua aside, even Darkness… Ahh, that girl is a crusader."

Darkness might have acted that way, but her job was still a crusader. Crusaders were holy knights that follow the will of the gods; devoted believers.

They might not be at the level of priests, but they should be able to invoke the holy powers.

I didn't think the muscle headed Darkness would learn magic skills, but she should have been able to do something like offering prayers to gods.

But that meant Megumin and my situation had gotten worse.

As it was too sudden, things like weapons had been left in my room.

Megumin didn't have her staff either.

Using explosion magic indoors without her staff would be devastating.

As I was troubling over what to do, Megumin seemed to realized something and said:

"Kazuma, the noise outside the door seemed to have stopped. Maybe the dolls are not there anymore?"

Ah, now that she mentioned it, I noticed that the sound had stopped.

But frankly speaking, I didn't dare to open the door.

Aqua could purify a lich easily, so she would not be taken down by a doll.

If that was the case, we could only defend this room until Aqua and Darkness exorcised all the spirits in the mansion.

–But there was another problem.

"Nah, Megumin, please face the door and cover your ears. Excuse me, but I am going to relieve myself at the balcony…"

I slowly undo the belt on my trousers, in order to settle my biological problem, I walked towards the balcony…

At this point.

Megumin grabbed the belt of my trousers from behind, not letting me go.

"Hey, what are you doing, release me, or my trousers and the carpet in this room would be ruined!"

"I won't let you go! How could I let you relieve yourself! Aren't we comrades?! Whether it's the toilet or anywhere, we will go together…!"

Megumin said with a serene smile…

"Stop that you! Why are picking this moment to talk about being comrades! Didn't you say people of the Crimson magic race don't need to use the washroom?! How about… look, there is an empty wine bottle there, just use that!"

"You seem to have said something incredible! What do you want me to use that empty bottle to do!? I won't let you get your way! I can at least guard Kazuma's back while you pee… that's why, let's use the bottle together…"

I felt something wrong when Megumin's voice became softer, and looked at her.

I found her staring intensely at the balcony window.

…I looked over there with a foreboding feeling.

Was this unexpected, or was this just as expected.

A large number of dolls were pressing against the window and looking our way.

"Ahhhhhhh!" x2

Megumin and I screamed at the same time and charged out of the room.