The next day, early morning.
Everyone sat around the table, discussing Emilia's situation.
"You already know about me and Lia?"
Puck floated in the air, his hands behind his head, smiling at everyone.
"Puck... are you Emilia's contracted spirit?"
Geuse's eyes fixed on Puck.
Although they both had connections to the Witch of Greed, Echidna, Geuse and Puck had never actually met.
But Geuse could sense a familiar feeling from Puck.
"I'm Lia's father!"
Puck said to Geuse, his eyes focused on him, seemingly hiding some hidden meaning.
"Are you called Geuse? Lia said you used to know her, right?"
"Yes, Lia was very important to me. I used to be... it's nothing."
Geuse wanted to say that he used to be like Emilia's adoptive father, but he swallowed the words.
He felt that he wasn't worthy to say that now.
"Sorry, because of the contract, I can't remember a lot of things from the past~"
Puck stuck out his tongue, saying playfully.
Satou Kazuma watched Puck. He remembered Betty mentioning Puck's contract with Echidna last night.
Could that be the reason?
"But what's the deal with Emilia's memories? Puck, do you know?"
Natsuki Subaru asked with some doubt.
"The reason is a bit complicated, but I can tell you all for sure that I care about Lia more than anyone else, I care about Lia more than anyone——"
Before Puck could finish, Geuse said very seriously:
"Sorry to interrupt, but when it comes to caring about Emilia, you are definitely not above me!"
"Hard to agree."
"Please forgive me for disagreeing with your point of view."
Puck and Geuse, two people who called themselves Emilia's fathers, exchanged fierce glances.
"Um, let's get back to the point. Puck, can you tell us the specific reason?"
Natsuki Subaru quickly interrupted.
"I need to make sure Lia isn't hurt. Forgetting her past memories is part of my contract with Lia. Lia might remember one day, but now is not the time."
Puck said slowly.
The way to restore Emilia's memory is very simple: for Puck to break their contract.
And Puck would pay a huge price.
Not only would he gradually lose his past memories, but without a contractor, Puck would not be able to obtain enough mana to act, and he would likely fall into a deep sleep.
Puck wasn't worried about his own safety. For him, Emilia was his everything.
But in Puck's heart, Emilia wasn't completely independent yet. If he wasn't there, there was no one he could trust to take care of her.
Most importantly, Puck didn't want Emilia to remember her past memories right now.
"If it's Puck, I believe what he says."
Emilia reached out and hugged Puck, nodded with a smile, then turned to Geuse apologetically.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Geuse. You must be a very important person to me, and I will definitely try to remember everything from the past."
"Yes, I understand."
Geuse also nodded.
He could feel that Puck really valued Emilia's existence.
If the past memories might really cause Emilia pain, Geuse was unwilling to force it.
As long as Emilia could grow up happily, that was enough.
Now Geuse had only one wish—
To find Fortuna.
. . . . . .
After the meeting, to express her gratitude to Aqua and Satou Kazuma and the others, Emilia took out a lot of the wine that was treasured in the mansion.
Emilia didn't know about the Witch Cult. Natsuki Subaru and Satou Kazuma didn't tell her the truth. They only said that the abnormal situation Ram saw was caused by magical beasts and that they had helped solve it.
Before long, Aqua was excitedly hugging a wine bottle, drinking happily with Emilia.
Roswaal's mansion originally had a lot of wine stored, but no one ever drank it.
After Aqua came to the mansion, most of the wine was finished.
Satou Kazuma, Natsuki Subaru, and the others were resting and chatting in the outside garden.
"I didn't expect Puck and Emilia to have such a story. Emilia's memories were sealed, what happened?"
Natsuki Subaru said, shaking his head.
"I don't know either. Betty told me that we might find answers in the Sacred Ground."
Satou Kazuma found a lounge chair from somewhere and lay on it, sunbathing, looking very comfortable.
Although there were a lot of troubles during this time, after solving them, they could stay here for a few more days without worries.
With Aqua's personality, she would definitely stay here for a few more days, right?
After all, in the royal capital, they had to deal with a lot of troublesome matters, and now they could take it as a relaxation.
"Sacred Ground, what place is that?"
Natsuki Subaru felt unfamiliar when he heard the term.
"Betty told me that there's a place like that in the forest. If we go there, we might be able to find the answer."
Satou Kazuma said slowly,
"But it seems that only Roswaal knows about that place."
"There's such a place… but I'm a little curious, why would the answer to the issues between Emilia, Puck, and Geuse be found in this Sacred Ground?"
"I don't know, but I feel like Roswaal should know something."
"How do you know that?"
"Think about it, every time something like this happens, Roswaal isn't around. How can it be such a coincidence? And think about the other candidates, who are they? Either descendants of famous families, or bosses of trade associations, and one is also from a noble family. Why would Roswaal choose to support Emilia?"
Satou Kazuma's expression gradually became serious,
"Of course, all of this is just my guess, but there is one thing I can be sure of."
"What is it?"
"Roswaal is a pervert!"
"..."
"His makeup is like that, and the tone of his voice is weird. In any anime or novels, he would definitely not be a good person."
"Is that too far-fetched if it's just like that? Are you so sure Roswaal is a pervert?"
"Because I know too much about things like this. When I see him, my pervert scum radar goes off."
"....."
"Think about it, all the maids in your mansion are young and beautiful girls. As the owner of the mansion, how can you do nothing?! That's a waste! Shameful! Look at him. He doesn't know what he's doing every day!"
"..."
"To not cherish such an opportunity can only mean one thing! This guy has something more important than beautiful girls in his mind!"
"....."
Natsuki Subaru didn't know what to say for a moment.
Satou Kazuma's meaning was… only a pervert can understand a pervert?
Why did he look so proud?
And were the reasons he just said a little too outrageous?
But after thinking about it, Natsuki Subaru felt that what Satou Kazuma said seemed to make sense.
Roswaal did seem a little suspicious.
And in any case, for Emilia's sake, it seemed like they should go to the Sacred Ground to take a look.
"Kazuma, I'm going to have to bother you again then——"
"What are you talking about? I'm not going to the Sacred Ground."
"Huh?"
"This place doesn't sound good. It's a place only Roswaal knows about and others can't find. It sounds like there are a lot of problems."
Satou Kazuma picked his nose,
"Aren't you a shut-in too? You've watched a lot of anime and played a lot of games, right? Generally, places like this are very dangerous. Most likely, there will be dangerous enemies and special barriers, right?"
"This....."
"And this is originally your faction's business, right!"
"That's true. You've helped me enough."
Natsuki Subaru still nodded to Satou Kazuma gratefully.
Without Satou Kazuma, they probably wouldn't have been able to get through this crisis so easily.
Maybe Geuse would still be a crazy Sloth Archbishop.
"But~ it's not impossible to help!"
At this time, a meaningful smile appeared on Satou Kazuma's face.
"What?"
"It's definitely money, money!"
Satou Kazuma replied.
Although his current businesses could bring Satou Kazuma a lot of income, money was something that he definitely wanted more of.
After all, he had a money-spending black hole at home.
And if he wanted to expand his production lines, Satou Kazuma would need to invest more money. Not only that, he also planned to transform the slums into his and the useless goddess' territory.
After all, each candidate had their own territory. It was a bit unreasonable for them not to have one.
Just then, Aqua walked quickly to Satou Kazuma:
"Kazuma! We've rested enough here. Let's go back tonight!"
"Huh? Are we going back so early? It doesn't seem like you."
Satou Kazuma looked at Aqua in surprise. According to her personality, she should be enjoying herself here for a while longer.
Since she chose to leave, that means there's one possibility.
"Did you drink all the wine in the mansion?"
"This, this, this wasn't just drunk by me!"
Aqua immediately looked away guiltily,
"Emilia drank a lot too!"
"I knew it....."
Satou Kazuma sighed helplessly.
"Um, Kazuma, I'll go back to the royal capital with you."
Natsuki Subaru said,
"I'm going to see Roswaal."
. . . . . .
That night, Satou Kazuma and the others were already on the dragon carriage ready to leave.
They were originally planning to leave during the day tomorrow, but for Aqua, she couldn't live without drinking wine for a night.
And Natsuki Subaru wanted to see Roswaal as soon as possible the next day, so he also thought about leaving tonight.
Emilia also went with them. She also learned about the Sacred Ground from Natsuki Subaru.
Although Puck thought that the time wasn't right, Emilia also wanted to know about her past.
When she heard the name Fortuna, Emilia would always feel a little out of control.
But she didn't know why.
It was as if Fortuna should have been an important part of her life.
If breaking the contract might have a bad influence on Puck, then Emilia was going to use other means to know about the past.
Maybe Roswaal would know something about it.
At this moment, in the dragon carriage, Aqua was curled up at the end of the dragon carriage, looking at Satou Kazuma with a pleading expression:
"Mr. Kazuma, Kazuma-sama, please let me sit for a while!"
"Isn't this all because of your own reasons? You insisted on rushing back to the royal capital, and you were arrogantly shouting 'revenge' to play rock paper scissors against me. You even used skills to increase your luck this time. You cheated and still lost. You deserve it!"
Satou Kazuma said to Aqua with a sneer, while Beatrice was sitting on his lap.
"Sorry, it's all because of my problem."
Geuse scratched his head awkwardly,
"Aqua-sama, please sit in my seat."
The number of seats in this dragon carriage was not that different originally, but because Geuse was now traveling with Satou Kazuma and the others, it resulted in one less seat.
Aqua became the sacrifice.
But this was also her own fault. She had to fall again in the same place she had fallen before.
Aqua thought that her goddess power had recovered a lot now, and she could use her ability to increase her own luck to win against Satou Kazuma in rock paper scissors.
But she didn't expect that even with that, she still lost.
Why is this NEET so good at rock paper scissors?!
"Don't pity her, Geuse. This is her own fault."
Satou Kazuma said slowly.
"I'm a goddess! You'll be punished by the heavens!"
"If you admit that you're an old woman, I can let you, after all, most of the time, I'm a person who respects the old and loves the young."
Hearing the conversation between the two, Geuse looked a bit at a loss.
In theory, Aqua, as one of the candidates, should be the one with the higher status, right?
How could she be reprimanded by Satou Kazuma like a child?
What kind of relationship do they have?
----
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