Chapter 350

Haruto stared at the "flyers" everyone was holding—which were actually applications to join the church—and froze.

No wonder this city had looked so familiar.

This was Alcanretia, the City of Water and Hot Springs.

And these absurdly enthusiastic people were none other than followers of the infamous Axis Cult.

Which meant there was no longer any question about what world he had entered.

This was the world of KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!

Haruto recalled what he knew about the setting, and his expression immediately became complicated.

Of all the places the World Gate could have sent him, he had somehow ended up in a world famous for its comedy and sheer abundance of weirdos.

On paper, the story here should have been the most clichéd fantasy imaginable: summon heroes from another world and send them to defeat the Demon King.

Unfortunately, the goddess responsible for summoning those heroes was Aqua, Goddess of Water.

Yes, that Aqua.

The goddess people joked about with lines like, "If intelligence had a color, it would definitely be blue," and the ever-popular nickname, "the useless goddess."

Naturally, heroes summoned by someone like her rarely turned out normal either.

The people Aqua had sent over before, along with Satou Kazuma himself, were more than enough proof of that.

Haruto stood there as memories of this world’s countless absurdities flashed through his mind, the corner of his mouth twitching.

He glanced at the Axis Cultists surrounding them, whose enthusiasm had long since crossed the line into alarming, and sighed deeply.

He really had ended up in the world of KonoSuba.

Still...

A glimmer of interest appeared in Haruto’s eyes.

As strange as this world was, it also contained plenty of fascinating ingredients that could not be found anywhere else.

There were cabbages that, once harvest season arrived, spread their leaves and migrated through the sky like flocks of birds.

Haruto was genuinely curious how a flying cabbage would taste in a salad or a simple stir-fry.

Then there were potatoes that jumped up and attacked people, carrots that could run away, peppers that breathed fire, grapes that sang...

The sheer variety of bizarre ingredients was enough to stir his appetite just thinking about them.

And then there was Aqua herself.

As the Goddess of Water, she possessed the ability to purify water.

Water purified personally by Aqua might be exceptionally useful for cooking.

With that thought, Haruto’s complicated mood quickly gave way to anticipation.

"All right, all right. We understand."

He waved a hand, cutting off the Axis Cultists who were still talking over one another.

"We just arrived and don’t know the city very well yet. How about you let us find somewhere to stay first, and we’ll slowly consider joining the church afterward?"

One of the cultists immediately leaned forward.

"If you join the Axis Cult, you can get fifty percent off your lodging!"

Haruto stared at him speechlessly.

Rather than respond, he simply grabbed Kagura and Kanna and walked away.

Behind them, the cultists continued waving and shouting for them to seriously consider serving Lady Aqua.

Haruto rubbed his aching temple and let out a long breath.

Once they had finally put some distance between themselves and the crowd, Kagura frowned.

"Those people are weird. They’re way too enthusiastic."

She tilted her head.

"But this Aqua goddess they keep talking about sounds pretty impressive."

Haruto’s mouth twitched again.

"Enthusiastic" barely covered it.

Axis Cultists were practically guaranteed to be weirdos.

As for Aqua...

In Haruto’s view, if one traced the conflict between humans and demons in this world far enough back, it was almost possible to blame the entire mess on the Goddess of Water herself.

That conclusion sounded ridiculous.

Unfortunately, there was a certain amount of truth to it.

Two of the greatest nuisances in the world—the Crimson Demons and the Axis Cult—had both contributed heavily to worsening relations between humans and demons.

And Aqua was connected to both.

The Crimson Demons had originally been ordinary citizens of a certain nation, hardly different from normal humans beyond their widespread obsession with dramatic behavior.

Had things continued that way, they probably would have remained nothing more than a particularly eccentric branch of humanity.

What changed everything was a researcher Aqua had reincarnated into this world.

A researcher with an extreme masochistic streak.

When he reincarnated, Aqua granted him an ability that allowed him to create objects he imagined through intense emotion.

That eccentric researcher later modified the people of the country where he lived, granting them magical talent unrivaled throughout the world.

He named the resulting group the Crimson Demons.

Every Crimson Demon child was born with magical reserves and aptitude far beyond that of ordinary human mages. By adulthood, nearly all of them could qualify as Arch Wizards.

And that was where things went completely off the rails.

Their chuuni tendencies had already been deeply ingrained.

Now they possessed enough raw power to actually act on them.

The Crimson Demons promptly evolved from "a strange but harmless population" into one of the world’s greatest recurring headaches.

They had contributed considerably to worsening hostilities between humans and demons.

For example, Crimson Demons enjoyed using petrification magic to turn demons into statues and display them as decorations.

The streets of the Crimson Demon Village were filled with demon statues frozen in all sorts of poses.

Even worse, they supposedly had a tradition in which, once every four years, all adult Crimson Demons gathered together and teleported near the Demon King’s Castle.

Then they bombarded the place with magic.

Once they had nearly exhausted their mana, they simply teleported home, leaving behind a devastated castle and an enraged Demon King.

They had even installed surveillance equipment in the Demon King’s daughter’s room.

And whenever the Crimson Demons caused trouble themselves, they had another notorious habit.

Blame the demons.

If they accidentally blew up a village with magic, then clearly the village had been attacked by demons.

Afterward, they would happily claim the moral high ground and denounce the demons’ "barbaric atrocities."

The Axis Cult had done its own share of damage.

As Aqua’s religion, its membership could only be described as... difficult.

From eighty-year-old grandmothers to three-year-old children, almost none of them seemed remotely normal.

Their thought processes operated on an entirely different frequency from ordinary people, while their behavior ranged from strange to outright incomprehensible.

Their greatest specialty was relentlessly badgering people until they agreed to join the cult.

And proselytizing was not all they did.

The Axis Cult also went out of its way to smear demons whenever possible.

According to Axis propaganda, demons were inherently evil creatures responsible for every imaginable atrocity.

They ate children, destroyed villages, spread disease, and brought death wherever they went.

The cult had invented countless terrifying stories about demons and spread them throughout human society.

Plenty of crimes that had never even happened were casually pinned on demons as well.

As far as Haruto was concerned, the Axis Cult deserved a substantial share of the blame for just how terrible the demons’ reputation had become among humans.

Between the Crimson Demons and the Axis Cult working together in their own special way, conflict between humans and demons had eventually become inevitable.

Haruto could only find the whole thing absurd.

Wars in other worlds broke out over resources, territory, or the survival of entire races.

In KonoSuba, somehow a group of overpowered chuunis and a religion full of lunatics had helped fan one into existence.

Nobody would believe it if they heard the story out of context.

And Aqua was connected to all of it.

Still, Haruto had no intention of doing anything about it.

He was not a hero, nor did he have any interest in rewriting this world’s fate.

Whether the war was justified, whether it should continue, or whether it should end had nothing to do with him.

He had come to the world of KonoSuba for one reason.

Ingredients.

"Still, I can collect ingredients anytime."

Haruto stretched, feeling the faint moisture hanging in the air, and smiled.

"Since we’ve come all the way to Alcanretia, the City of Water and Hot Springs, it’d be a waste not to enjoy the hot springs."

"Hot springs?"

Kagura looked at him in surprise.

As far as she was concerned, Haruto cared about ingredients and cooking more than almost anything else.

This was the first time she could remember him voluntarily suggesting that they simply relax and enjoy themselves.

Surprised or not, Kagura certainly had no objection to soaking in a hot spring.

Kanna also gave a slight nod, a faint trace of anticipation appearing in her eyes.

Haruto led them toward the center of the city.

First, however, they needed local currency.

The standard currency here was the eris, issued by the Kingdom of Belzerg and named after Eris, the Goddess of Fortune.

Haruto took a gold bar from the Gourmet Restaurant and exchanged it at a jewelry shop in town.

Gold was valuable in practically any world.

That single bar brought him several million eris, more than enough for the three of them to enjoy a comfortable stay.

Once the money problem was solved, Haruto brought Kagura and Kanna to a well-appointed hot-spring inn.

A large sign hung above the entrance.

Natural Hot Springs — Remarkable Therapeutic Benefits

The moment they stepped through the door, a middle-aged innkeeper greeted them with an enthusiastic smile.

"Welcome! Are the three of you staying overnight, or are you here for the hot springs?"

"We’ll use the hot springs first. Arrange rooms for us afterward."

"Of course, of course!"

The innkeeper nodded eagerly.

Then he reached beneath the counter, pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen, and handed them to Haruto.

"Sir, would you mind signing this first? If you do, we’ll even include a complimentary massage!"

Haruto glanced down.

His mouth twitched once again.

The piece of paper was unmistakably an application to join the Axis Cult.

Of course.

In Alcanretia, apparently there was nowhere the Axis Cult would not try to recruit you.