Staring at the massive pile of Eris stacked in front of her, Wiz could barely contain her excitent.She had been running a magic item shop for so long, yet this was the very first ti she had ever seen money flow back in such quantities.
As she gazed at the mountain of Eris, Wiz had already begun quietly calculating in her head whether she should finally purchase so of the new products she had had her eye on for a while—expand her inventory, grow the business, and reclaim her forr glory.
At the sa ti, a certain utterly self-unaware lich beca even more convinced that her judgnt had been flawless all along.The reason those magic items hadn't sold before clearly wasn't because there was anything wrong with them—it was simply her managent style that had been the problem.
Now that Ren Kuroda was helping her, Wiz felt absolutely certain that even her new stock would sell like crazy.If things continued at this pace, she might even be able to fulfill her promise to that person much sooner than expected.
What Wiz didn't know, however, was that Ren had practically wracked his brain dry just to co up with ways to get rid of those long-unsold items.
So products—like that infamous "Simple Toilet" that caused massive flooding—were still completely unsellable, even now.
Still, as long as most of the stagnant inventory could be cleared out and the recovered funds used to purchase more normal magic items, Wiz's little shop could slowly return to a healthy track.
Unfortunately, Ren had severely underestimated just how confident this lich was in her own taste—and just how obsessed she was with bizarre magic items.
After working nonstop all day, Ren was finally about to check the day's revenue when he saw that the cash register contained only a handful of loose coins.
A deeply ominous feeling imdiately rose in his chest.
Monts later, he spotted Wiz standing nearby, grinning foolishly at a shopping list in her hands.When she noticed Ren looking her way, she froze—then hurriedly hid the list behind her back like a child caught doing sothing wrong.
"Wiz," Ren said slowly,"if I rember correctly, we made an agreent. While I'm managing the shop, all operational authority belongs to ."
"And I definitely don't rember giving you permission to order new magic items, do I?"
Even though Wiz hadn't said a word yet, the empty Eris pile and her overly cheerful expression told Ren everything he needed to know.
To be honest, Ren had already suspected that sothing like this might happen if Wiz handled the money herself.But there were only two people in the shop, and he simply couldn't manage everything at once—which was how she had found her opening.
"Ren, you have to trust my eye!" Wiz insisted earnestly."The magic items I ordered this ti are absolutely fine! They'll definitely sell well!"
Ren had just finished clearing out a huge batch of problematic rchandise and finally recovered so capital—and before he could even catch his breath, this walking disaster had brought in an entirely new batch of problem items.
Looking at the purchase list—showing that only the down paynt had been made—Ren felt his eye twitch violently as his head began to buzz.
That two-billion-Eris magic crystal reward…Getting his hands on it was clearly not going to be as simple as he had hoped.
He had originally planned to use the recovered funds to buy a batch of proper magic items and slowly steer Wiz's shop back toward profitability.
But what he hadn't anticipated was that the mont the books finally showed a bit of cash flow, an even bigger loss would imdiately appear.
They had taken in an enormous amount of Eris today—yet it was only enough to cover the initial paynt for Wiz's new shipnt.
Which ant they still owed a massive remaining balance.
At long last, Ren finally understood why Wiz always said that the harder she worked, the deeper the deficit beca.
Because every ti she had money in hand, she would imdiately spend it on all kinds of weird magic items—which then beca unsellable stock all over again.
If that cycle continued, it would actually be stranger if the deficit didn't keep growing.
"Wiz," Ren said darkly,"I'm starting to suspect you never planned on giving those magic crystals in the first place—and that you're deliberately making my mission harder."
"Th-that's not true…!"
Wiz's fairly delicate face was already being stretched sideways as Ren grabbed her cheeks, yet she still desperately tried to defend herself, insisting that she was only ordering stock to improve the shop's business.
"BOOOOOOM———!"
Just as Ren was clutching his head in frustration and preparing to renegotiate their rules from scratch, a trendous explosion suddenly echoed from outside.
Throughout Axel, adventurers imdiately began flooding toward the city gates.
"So… after all this ti, they're finally here?" Ren muttered."That strongest magic presence in the center—that must be one of the Demon King's generals."
"Wiz, we'll settle accounts after I deal with the Demon King's army."
With his senses fully extended, Ren quickly detected a massive gathering of presences near Axel's gates.
None of them were weak.While they weren't as terrifying as the undead dragon he'd faced before, they were far stronger than most monsters in the surrounding region.
And among them—
One presence stood out, overwhelmingly powerful.Aside from Wiz herself, it was the strongest being Ren had encountered since arriving in this world.
At the city gates, a huge number of adventurers had already assembled, all standing on high alert as they faced the approaching horde.
What stood before them was a legion of undead knights, led by one of the Demon King's commanders—
The Dullahan, Beldia.
Although his race was that of a headless knight, Beldia did in fact possess a head—he simply carried it in his hand.
Under normal circumstances, he used that head to speak and to cast curses.
The creation of a Dullahan was extrely rare and cruel:once a noble, righteous knight, unjustly executed by beheading, reborn through resentnt.
In a dieval European-style world, such a being was considered undead—but in Ren's original world, it would undoubtedly be classified as a vengeful spirit-type yokai.
"My na is Beldia!" the knight roared."Race: Dullahan! One of the Demon King's commanders!"
"Soone in this town killed the undead dragon under my command, didn't they?!"
"And also—EVERY SINGLE DAY!DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY—WHO IS THE INSANE IDIOT WHO KEEPS RUNNING TO MY CASTLE AND BLASTING IT WITH EXPLOSION MAGIC—?!!"
Beldia had always prided himself on his forr life as a noble knight, maintaining elegant conduct and refusing to attack those he considered weak.
He had only retreated to this remote area to recover from injuries sustained on the front lines.
Axel—a beginner town—had never interested him.As a Demon King commander, bullying novice adventurers would have been beneath him.
Yet what he never expected was that while he had left Axel alone, Axel refused to leave him alone.
Every single day, without fail, soone would bombard his castle with Explosion Magic.
At first, Beldia tried to ignore it.
After several days, he snapped.
He was supposed to be resting—instead, he was living in constant tension, never knowing when another explosion would hit.
Worse still, the culprit never showed themselves.
They would fire off Explosion Magic and imdiately flee, always at unpredictable tis.
By the ti Beldia arrived, they were long gone.
In order to track down the bastard responsible, he even dispatched a powerful undead dragon to conduct aerial surveillance.
And yet—
The dragon vanished without a single report.
Through that incident, Beldia finally realized that the beginner town he had dismissed might not be so weak after all.
Explosion Magic powerful enough to shake a castle.Strength sufficient to kill an undead dragon.
That was no ordinary adventurer.
And if Axel possessed adventurers like that, then attacking the town could hardly be called bullying the weak.
"…The one who killed the undead dragon should be Ren Kuroda, right?" soone muttered among the adventurers."But does that guy even use Explosion Magic?"
"From the way that commander's talking, the reason he's attacking Axel is because soone kept blasting his castle with Explosion Magic."
"Who the hell has that much free ti?!""And Explosion Magic is high-tier stuff—there can't be many people in Axel who can use it!"
After so thought, the adventurers all ca to the sa conclusion.
There was exactly one person in Axel who could use Explosion Magic…and who also had far too much ti on her hands.
As everyone's gaze slowly turned toward a staff-wielding girl in the crowd, Satō Kazuma felt a powerful sense of dread.
He had a bad feeling—
A very bad feeling—
—that he was about to be dragged into sothing again.
"What was I supposed to do?!" the chuuni girl protested."Crimson Demons have to cast Explosion Magic once a day, or we'll die!"
"My reason for living is firing it off daily!If you tell to hold it in, I might as well be dead!"
She tried desperately to defend herself, but no one believed her nonsense—
Because everyone knew the Crimson Demons really were that ridiculous.
"…I'd love to ask what kind of grudge you have against ," Beldia said coldly,"but since the culprit is clearly an idiot, there's no point."
"With that level of Explosion Magic, and the power to kill an undead dragon—if adventurers like you are allowed to keep growing, you'll eventually beco a serious threat to the Demon King's army."
"So prepare yourselves."
"Today, every last one of you will die here."
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