Chapter 212 201 : Theory
After that, Ethan took Aqua to a hotel and rented a room.
Not because of anything romantic. The useless goddess was already becoming a problem, so the moment they entered the room, he shoved her into the bedroom, locked the door, and sat down in the living area before she could create another disaster.
Aqua immediately started banging on the door while Ethan turned on the television.
Every news channel was covering the same event. Reporters stood near the coastline while footage of the ocean played on the screen. The remains of the creatures that had surfaced earlier were scattered across the shore, and nobody seemed to have the slightest idea what they were looking at.
"Authorities have yet to identify the organisms recovered from the water. At this time, experts have not determined the cause of the incident and investigations remain ongoing."
Ethan watched for a few more seconds before switching the television off.
Nobody was going to figure out what happened.
Opening his system, he immediately noticed a new message waiting for him.
[New Dimensional Map Is Being Discovered]
[Time Remaining Until Mapping Is Complete: 7 Days]
Ethan narrowed his eyes while reading the notification.
The concept wasn't unfamiliar. He had seen similar scenarios in novels before.
Two worlds drawing close to one another, overlapping dimensions, unstable pathways forming between realities, and eventually creating breaches large enough for things to pass through.
Considering a giant crack had just opened in the sky and dumped monsters into the ocean, the theory seemed more plausible than anything else.
"Is the other world Konosuba?"
The thought crossed his mind almost immediately.
Aqua was here. A dimensional crack had appeared. The timing was suspicious enough that the possibility couldn't be ignored.
If it really was Konosuba, things weren't too bad. The world was dangerous despite the comedic tone. It contained powerful monsters, devils, divine beings, and the Demon King. None of that particularly concerned Ethan.
The real problem was if it wasn't Konosuba.
There were countless worlds in existence. Some contained beings capable of destroying planets. Others contained creatures that viewed gods as prey. Compared to those places, the Demon King looked almost harmless.
While Ethan was thinking, a loud banging sound came from the bedroom.
"Hey! How dare you lock a goddess in a room!" Aqua shouted from the other side of the door. "Open this immediately unless you want to face the wrath of the Goddess of Water Aqua!"
Ethan didn't even bother looking toward the bedroom.
"Direct some of that wrath at the door."
"Don't mock me!"
The banging immediately became louder.
Ethan remained completely unconcerned.
Aqua possessed some genuinely absurd abilities. Her healing magic bordered on ridiculous, her purification could turn entire lakes into holy water, and undead creatures treated her existence as a personal attack against them.
Unfortunately for her, none of those abilities helped against a locked hotel room door.
"Open it!"
"No."
The sound of kicking soon joined the banging.
Then it suddenly stopped.
"I'm hungry."
This time Aqua sounded more miserable than angry.
Ethan got up from the sofa, crossed the room, and opened the bedroom door.
Aqua was on the floor. Calling it sitting would have been generous. She was sprawled across the carpet with puffed cheeks and an expression of profound suffering, looking less like a goddess and more like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away.
He looked at her for a moment before speaking.
"Would you stay quiet if I got you something to eat?"
Aqua immediately nodded. The change was so sudden it almost looked rehearsed. One second she had been prepared to declare war on the apartment and the next she was staring at him with complete cooperation.
"Good."
Ethan turned and headed for the door.
He made it exactly three steps.
Something slammed into his back.
Aqua wrapped herself around him with the determination of a parasite that had finally found a host. Her arms locked around his neck while her legs squeezed around his waist, refusing to give him even the slightest chance of escape.
"You bad guy," she complained, attempting to bite his shoulder. "Take the Goddess of Water seriously."
The bite accomplished nothing.
"You treated me like luggage."
"Because you acted like luggage."
Aqua narrowed her eyes.
"You should be grateful a divine being chose to accompany you."
"Would gratitude cost less than feeding you?"
Her expression twitched.
"That was rude."
"You didn't answer the question."
Several minutes later Ethan returned carrying pizza and burgers.
Aqua attacked the food with the intensity of someone making up for years of starvation rather than a few missed meals.
Ethan barely had enough time to sit down before she had already finished a burger and reached for a slice of pizza. By the time he picked up his own food, wrappers, crumbs, and empty containers were already beginning to spread across the table.
For a while the only sound in the room was chewing.
Eventually Ethan decided to try something useful.
"So, Aqua. Can you contact the Divine Realm?"
That finally got her attention.
Aqua paused in the middle of reaching for another slice and actually thought about the question. After several seconds she slowly shook her head.
"No."
Ethan clicked his tongue.
The reaction lasted less than a second, but Aqua immediately caught it.
"You're judging me."
"No."
"You are."
"Paranoid."
Aqua pointed at him without hesitation.
"You always get that look."
"What look?"
"The one that says you're insulting me without saying anything."
Ethan calmly took a bite of pizza.
Unfortunately, that only seemed to strengthen her confidence.
"There! That look!"
For a moment he considered denying it. Then he decided the conversation wasn't worth the effort.
"Your observational skills have improved."
Aqua's face lit up with pride.
The pride lasted exactly long enough for her brain to process the statement.
"Wait."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Was that another insult?"
***
A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.
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