mtl008 Chapter 973 The Last Routine 152
Chapter 973 The Last Routine 152
Chapter 973 The Last Routine 152
That day, a grumpy-looking figure appeared in the guild: Kobayashi, who was frantically drinking bubble wine. After taking a large gulp, he slammed his glass on the table, unmoved even by the older female members of the guild's reprimands. Instead, he wore a troubled and pained expression, muttering and complaining helplessly:
"Ha... That's just how the Crimson Demon Clan is, utterly unrepentant and shameless... They cause so much trouble, but at least they've considered my feelings a little bit, really!"
"Oh, Kobayashi? That's rare. Are you alone today?"
Lynn said this with some surprise after seeing him, since Xiaolin and the others get together almost every day, and it is really rare for them to be alone like this.
However, Kobayashi also looked annoyed and pained, saying, "I also hope that one day I can be alone. Listen to me, they really went too far...!"
"Sorry, I have to go do my mission now."
Lynn clasped her hands together, making an apologetic expression. However, just as she turned to leave, Kobayashi grabbed her arm, preventing her from leaving.
"I always put up with their messes, so it's okay to complain a little, right? I'll treat you to some bubble tea."
He really wishes someone would appear and listen to his complaints.
However, Kobayashi made a mistake: Lynn didn't like bubble tea at all; in fact, she loathed it. After all, the other guys in the team were constantly drinking bubble tea, which was slowing down their mission progress considerably.
"No need, go find someone else to complain about after drinking..."
"Perfect timing, there are still some snacks left."
"Snacks...!?" Lynn's body stiffened instantly, and her steps, which were about to leave, subconsciously stopped. Then, she smiled and said, "I'll listen to as many complaints as you want!"
Successful.
Lynn is nothing, I can easily handle you.
Kobayashi snorted.
Lynn sat next to him, stuffing a snack into her mouth, and asked suspiciously, "You mentioned the Crimson Demon Clan, are you worried about Miss Megumin?"
"It's perfectly normal for Huihui to cause me trouble; I'm immune to it by now." Kobayashi rolled her eyes helplessly, sighed slightly, and said, "But it's not just that; it happened before too—"
That happened not long ago.
"N-No, something's wrong!!" Kobayashi shouted as he ran towards the mansion, then pushed open the door and yelled, "There's a crisis in the Scarlet Devil Village! Get ready quickly!"
"Tell me what happened!"
"Alright, hurry up!" Ignoring Darkness's questions, Kobayashi kept urging them on, shouting, "It's written in the letter!"
"what? What?"
Aqua was puzzled. She took the letter and read it, saying, "Surrounded by karmic fire, accompanied by the smell of roasting meat, people are choking and swallowing, and one day they will all turn into embers and disappear...?"
"What did you say?! Could it be the Scarlet Devil's Village—"
Darkness echoed this sentiment with great excitement.
“It’s barbecue.” However, Huihui didn’t seem to care. The little red demon girl, sitting calmly on the sofa, pouted and said, “This letter is just to inform you of this.”
"You can't tell the difference, you damn fool!"
Kobayashi roared.
We're always playing the "crying wolf" game. What if one day the "crying wolf" actually happens?!
It's not just that.
When I occasionally visit Huihui's house, it's always the same: "Have you finally made up your mind?" or "Take responsibility and marry my daughter..." and things like that. They keep digging into how much their assets have increased since then, and honestly, it's really scary...
I'm so annoyed!
"You've gotten into trouble again, and now you're being forced into marriage." Lynn patted his shoulder with a sympathetic look and comforted him, "You're really being run around in circles by the Crimson Demon Clan."
She seemed to be wiping her hands with her clothes. Oh well, I don't care about that. There are more important things to do now.
"Yeah," Kobayashi said, clutching his head and looking pained. "It's all thanks to our crazy girl, Explosive Girl, that we have to pay noise damages and repair costs for the crater!"
This refers to the large crater created by the explosive magic.
“The whole clan is so reckless…” Kobayashi kept rubbing his forehead and complained, “Ugh, just thinking about it gives me a terrible headache.”
“But aren’t the Crimson Demons all excellent Archmages?” Lynn wanted to speak up for them, trying to comfort them, “A few minor flaws can be ignored, right…”
It's common knowledge that geniuses all have some flaws, and given the existence of such an exaggerated race as the Crimson Demon Clan, what's wrong with them being a little chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur)?
"I'll mostly pretend I didn't see it!"
Kobayashi snorted, then said, quite annoyed, "But you're only saying that because you don't usually hang out with those guys—"
Just then, three familiar figures entered the guild; they were the idiots from his team.
"Ah, so you're drinking here after all."
Darkness said this with a look of satisfaction.
"Hey, what are you drinking all by yourself?!" Aqua pointed at him angrily and shouted, "It's against the rules! It's against the rules!!"
"When did we make the rule of drinking together?!" Kobayashi shoved away the idiot goddess who was running over to snatch the sparkling wine, and scolded her, "Didn't I tell you I was supposed to be alone?!"
However, these guys completely disregarded his feelings.
Darkness looked at Lynn sitting next to Kobayashi and said with some surprise, "Lynn is also going on a mission? Perfect timing, we just accepted a mission too."
"Lately, Kobayashi seems to be in a bad mood, so he found an investigation mission to clear his head," Huihui said, making him feel slightly depressed. "There's a newly discovered ruin in the forest, and they say it holds a lot of treasure!"
"Humph……"
Xiaolin remained unmoved, sitting motionless in the chair.
"Let's go, Kobayashi!" Aqua grabbed his arm, dragging him away from the guild as she said, "I don't know what's wrong with you, but if you do a quest and get some exercise, you'll feel refreshed again!"
Does this guy really not know why Kobayashi is upset?
Kobayashi rolled her eyes in annoyance.
Huihui understood somewhat. She apologized quietly, a little embarrassed, saying, "If you were upset because of the letter from Gouhui a few days ago, I apologize. But that was a greeting from the Crimson Demon Clan, which is normal for us."
"Is it my fault? Because I was worried that there might be danger in the Crimson Demon Village, I urged you to pack your bags and go to the rescue. Is that my fault?"
Xiaolin was making things difficult for Huihui.
"No, no, no... that's not how it is!" Huihui quickly waved her hands, apologizing as she said, "Can we pretend nothing happened? I'll definitely come in handy in this investigation mission!"
"...Could you please stop saying things that sound like a flag?"
Xiaolin twitched the corner of her mouth.
Although he was a little annoyed, since Huihui and the others had admitted their mistakes and were so considerate of him, continuing to dwell on it would only make him seem petty.
There was no other way, so I agreed to go on a mission with them.
Then, upon arriving at the vicinity of the ruins they were investigating, they discovered there were far too many monsters. Kobayashi cleared out the monsters while protecting the three of them behind him. Wasn't this just like before, with no difference?
Darkness said with some surprise, "There are so many monsters. No wonder it's an untouched ruin."
"Yes."
Kobayashi nodded in agreement; the endless monsters were leaving him exhausted. He sighed and said, "There's no other way but to gather them all together and wipe them out in one go… Wait, Megumin, it's too early!"
"No, now is the time... Penetrate, Explosion!!"
If Huihui listened to advice, she wouldn't be Huihui anymore. As a violent explosion descended from the sky, the ruins were almost in a state of partial collapse. Not only that, many monsters also poured into this place through the blasted gap.
Aqua screamed in terror, "I said, more monsters noticed the explosion over here!!!"
"You idiot!!" Kobayashi cursed at Megumin, who lay limp on the ground, yelling at her, "So you were just creating a crisis! Didn't you just say you'd come in handy? Huh!?"
"Hmph... crisis is opportunity... this is the teaching of the Crimson Demon Clan...!"
She fell to the ground and could not get up.
"So that's how the Crimson Demon Clan is!"
"Hey, Mr. Kobayashi!" Aqua stopped the furious Kobayashi and shouted, "This isn't the time to yell! The frog, the frog is coming!"
"Kolin, a large group of tree spirits is attacking from over there!"
"And running lizards..."
The sound of the explosion attracted many monsters, leaving them unable to resolve the situation.
"This isn't an investigation mission, it's a raiding mission!" Kobayashi complained, clutching his head in obvious pain. "Seriously, with so many monsters, isn't this a really ominous ruin?!"
"Hooohoooohoo——————"
“Damn it!!!”
While clearing away the attacking monsters, Kobayashi led Aqua and the others toward the ruins. Once they could get into the ruins, they could use the narrow passages to thwart the monsters' attacks.
Just as he had thought, it seemed that because the entrance to the ruins was too small, the monsters were unable to rush in en masse. In addition, there were also antagonistic relationships between the races, so they began to attack each other.
During this time, Kobayashi and the others entered the ruins.
"Huihui, the ceiling is low here, be careful—"
"It hurts!"
Before Kobayashi could finish speaking, Huihui was hit hard on the head. After crying out in pain, she complained to Kobayashi, "Kobayashi, walk properly with your back bent! You hit your head like that!!"
"I gave you a proper warning." Xiaolin indicated that she wouldn't take the blame; she'd rather carry something even more troublesome than the blame. "I'm carrying your burden, so you'd better observe your surroundings carefully."
He spoke with absolutely no emotion.
He acted like a businessperson, as if he were dealing with a customer at a bank, appearing unusually distant. He even seemed to have suppressed his own emotions.
“Um…” Aqua looked at him uncertainly and asked softly, “Mr. Kobayashi, are you angry?”
"I am not angry."
Kobayashi said this expressionlessly.
He was no longer in the mood to be angry. If it were the old him, he would have definitely yelled and screamed in frustration. However, the current Huihui couldn't stir any emotion in him anymore. Because this guy was truly a complete and utter idiot.
"Alright, alright, Kobayashi," Darkness said with a smile, acting as the peacemaker for the team. "Megumin didn't mean any harm. This kind of thing happens all the time, right?"
"I'm not angry." Kobayashi remained unmoved and said to the little girl on his back, "Once you're recovered, get down and walk by yourself."
"Well……!"
Unexpectedly, this guy hugged his neck even tighter.
"Never mind, don't worry," Aqua said with a smile. "I'll use my goddess power to crush the undead in these ruins."
She's really confident. And that strength is real; maybe we can have some expectations for her.
"Oh? It's a fork in the road." Aqua looked at the split passageway in the ruins ahead, thought for a moment, and then said, "That... this way! This is the path to the treasure!"
"Are you sure everything's okay?" Kobayashi couldn't hold back any longer. He said anxiously, "When you're so confident, I always feel like something bad is going to happen."
As the saying goes, if something makes a person emotionally shut down, then you have to do something even more extreme to stimulate them.
"How rude of me!" Aqua pouted, a little annoyed, and said with her hands on her hips, "You haven't fallen into any traps yet, have you? Don't underestimate the goddess's learning ability—"
"Hooohoooooo————"
Before she could finish speaking, a large number of undead appeared from the corner in front of the ruins passage; at a glance, there were at least dozens of monsters.
"What!?" Darkness asked, somewhat nervous and worried, in astonishment, "Where did so many undead come from!?"
"Here they come, spirits of the dead!" Aqua seemed to have been waiting for this for a long time, and she shouted eagerly, "Come on, submit to the power of Lady Aqua!"
"Hooohoooooo————"
However, it wasn't just this side of the ruins passage that saw a large number of undead appearing; the other side of the ruins passage also saw a large number of undead.
"Hey, another route is coming too!" Kobayashi called out nervously and worriedly. "There are just too many of them!"
"Very good, very good, bring on more! Watch me bury you all!"
In a moment of excitement, Aqua charged towards the undead.
"Hey, Aqua!" Kobayashi called out quickly from behind her, "Where are you going, Aqua?!"
(End of this chapter)