I like crossing the most

Chapter 967 The Last Routine 146
On this day, in the Adventurers' Guild.

In the noisy guild hall, Kobayashi was sitting in a corner with Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin. Unexpectedly, they weren't alone; Alice was also present. Alice was wearing a very ordinary linen robe, looking no different from any other girl.

"I didn't expect you to come, Alice."

Kobayashi couldn't help but open his mouth and say this, his face filled with an indescribable smile. However, he didn't expect that his carefree behavior would make Alice very nervous. She quickly put her little finger to her lips to signal him not to make a fuss, while looking around and explaining in a slightly nervous tone.

"Shh... Brother, I am now just the granddaughter of a silk merchant. Please call me Elizabeth."

This is her fake identity.

Unbeknownst to Kobayashi, she frequently used this false identity to travel to Axel, and even formed a silver-haired thief gang with Megumin, Yuuyu, and Chris, causing huge disturbances in many homes.

“Then, Lady Iris… is it alright to call her that?” Darkness asked in a low voice as well. After all, she was a member of the royal family and held a high position, so she naturally had the obligation to protect the royal family, not to mention that her and Alice’s identities were extraordinary. But it was precisely because Darkness and Alice’s identities were extraordinary, like sisters, that she uttered the following somewhat excessive admonitory words.

“You have your own stance, and the people around you must be worried. You seem to be being a bit too willful.”

"It's okay, it's my day off from work today. I finally get a day off, can I just wander around here for a bit? Please, Lalatina."

"Don't, don't call me by that name!"

Darkness reacted instinctively. Just as Alice didn't want her true identity revealed, Darkness also didn't want anyone to call her by her real name. Of course, it wasn't that she was afraid of being exposed, but rather that she felt the cute name didn't suit her and made her feel ashamed.

“And…” Alice glanced ahead and whispered, “Claire seems particularly wary of my brother; she’ll be stopped if she tells him she’s coming here—”

"Ah, Lady Alice! She's here after all!"

No sooner had she finished speaking than a female knight in slightly ornate armor rushed into the Adventurers' Guild. Upon seeing the familiar figure in the corner where Kobayashi and the others were, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly rushed to her side and loudly questioned her.

"...Claire!?"

Alice became incredibly nervous upon seeing her. Just as she had whispered to Kobayashi earlier, she quickly said, "Shh! Don't call me that name here! Please call me Ellis!"

"No, I'm very sorry. But—"

Claire looked conflicted. As the princess's bodyguard, calling the princess by her first name was extremely disrespectful... even if it was a false name, it would still be the same, and it made her feel very uncomfortable.

"Ah, welcome."

Just as she was struggling with her decision, Aqua greeted her casually and without any hesitation, saying, "Claire, why don't you have a drink too?"

After saying that, he raised his wine glass.

"cheers!?"

Claire's eyes suddenly turned dangerous. She leaned close to Kobayashi's face, glaring at him intently, and said threateningly, "No way! It was Kobayashi again who used sweet words to lure Lady Iris out, wasn't it!?"

She seemed to genuinely consider Kobayashi an enemy, and Alice was right; she was indeed unpopular with him. Not only that, but as if to conceal Alice's faults and shift all the blame onto Kobayashi, she drew her knight's longsword from her waist, pointed it at the composed Kobayashi, and loudly proclaimed, "To instill such vulgarity in the pure and innocent Lady Iris… today, I will not forgive you!"

Ah, this time she actually said the name Ellis properly.

Before Kobayashi could even speak, Claire lunged forward, showing no mercy. Startled, Kobayashi quickly jumped to the side, barely dodging the attack.

"Wait, that's too dangerous!!" Kobayashi glared at her with an unfriendly expression, complaining with equal displeasure, "What are you doing on a day like this, ouch~!"

Was she just a scapegoat? She attacked without any mercy from the start. After all, she had helped her before. Didn't she think it was too much to treat her like this? Even Xiaolin felt a little unhappy.

"Claire!!"

Alice quickly stopped the female guard who was going crazy, and said seriously, "Brother did nothing wrong. I came without permission. Blame me!"

"Lord Iris...!"

Now that Alice had pleaded for her, Claire had no excuse to blame Kobayashi anymore. On the contrary, if she insisted on going her own way, it would make Alice feel embarrassed and unable to back down.

Alice clung to Claire's arm, which was gripping the knight's longsword, and pleaded softly, "I want to celebrate this day with my brother and the others, no matter what! Please, Claire!"

"Lord Elis..."

“I like my brother, and I like Claire too. So, I actually hope that the two of you can get along well. I apologize for coming out without permission, so... even just today, would you like to celebrate with me?”

The girl's eyes welled up with tears as she spoke, and her almost-crying appearance deeply moved Claire.

Lady Alice...!

How gentle... and just now, she said she liked him!?

Claire was completely overwhelmed by Alice's words and immediately changed her mind, saying, "I understand. Let me accompany you as your bodyguard today. Please do as you say."

"Claire!" Alice was overjoyed to have her plea granted and hugged Claire tightly, whispering in her ear, "Thank you, I love you the most!"

"I...I love it the most...!" Clairton was immediately overjoyed. She gripped Kobayashi's hands tightly and exclaimed, "Hahaha! Lord Kobayashi, let's get along well today!"

"Ah, ah..."

Xiao Lin couldn't help but twitch his lips. He didn't know whether to say that Alice was too good at using tricks to lure Claire into becoming a cuckold, or that Claire was too perverted to be easily won over, or that he simply couldn't refuse Alice and Claire's request. The situation involving the three parties left him speechless.

Anyway-

"Things resolved perfectly, that's wonderful!" The silly goddess Aqua voiced Kobayashi's thoughts, then raised her folding fans high and exclaimed, "So, a commemorative...flowers, birds, wind, and moon~~~"

Xiaolin had a bit of a headache.

Seeing his appearance, Claire mistakenly thought that he had some plan to be hindered by her, and immediately felt that she had made the right decision to come here. She couldn't help but think: I still can't completely trust Kobayashi. I need to see him more clearly in my own way.

From that moment on, Kobayashi felt uneasy gazes.

So, to welcome Alice to visit, the group decided to enter the virtual city and see more unknown and wonderful things.

When everyone returned to the virtual city...

"Sure enough, there are a lot of people." Darkness looked around and said with a headache, "My head is getting bigger, it's making me very uncomfortable."

"The Crimson Devil Village... no, it probably has more residents than the Royal Capital."

Huihui said the same thing.

Just then, a melodious musical sound came from ahead, making Huihui excitedly point in that direction and shout, "Ah, look! There's someone playing music by the roadside up ahead!"

“That’s really true.” Darkness looked at the person in front of her with some surprise, then said with a puzzled expression, “Generally speaking, people would stop because they care, but almost everyone just walked past… The more I think about it, the more unbelievable it seems—”

"That's because everyone's used to it. It's just a regular street performance."

"Street performances?"

"Because they can't hold their own concerts, or perhaps they like this style, they play their own music here."

Kobayashi explained.

Unlike Axel's small theater, or rather, unlike the overall tone of the other world, they did not watch performances in specific settings, nor were they praised by many people. There are far too many people in modern society who can only perform on the side of the road.

"Hello!!"

Just then, a girl walked towards them, blocking their way. With a bright smile, she said in a light and sweet voice, "There's a live performance coming up! Come join us if you'd like!"

“Wow!?”

Startled by being suddenly stopped, Huihui took several steps back, creating some distance before staring at the girl who had suddenly appeared before her, still shaken, and demanded, "W-What's going on? Who are you?!"

"Ah, I'm an underground idol," the girl said with a sweet smile, pointing to the building in the distance. "Later, there will be a live show nearby."

"...Do you like to shake? Come inside?"

Darkness looked at the girl who had appeared out of nowhere with a puzzled expression. After all, she was from another world and did not know the local terminology.

“Eh…!?”

The girl clearly hadn't expected Darkness to say that, but seeing her long blonde hair and foreign-looking appearance, she mistakenly thought Darkness was a foreigner, so she kindly explained to her, "Ah, well... it's like having guests watch you sing and dance."

“Hmm, I see, I see. It seems she must be a dancer.” Huihui nodded and said, “In other words, she’s similar to the performers in the Axel Theatre.”

"I see, that's how it is." Darkness also understood, but she still politely said, "But I'm sorry, we don't know when we'll leave this world, so it's a pity we can't—"

Just as she was about to politely decline, Huihui suddenly changed her demeanor. The little girl's eyes lit up as she looked at the flyer in the girl's hand, snatched it, and shouted, "Wait a minute! This is a cool flyer! How do you pronounce the group's name!?"

"Hmph." The underground idol girl puffed out her chest smugly and proudly introduced herself: "Listen to me, it's [Crimson Cry, Azure Echo]! How about that, isn't the name easy to remember?"

No, no, no, this name is hard to remember no matter how you look at it.

Darkness couldn't help but twitch his lips, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "...Is that so? Like the ones in Axel's Little Theater, aren't they easier to remember?"

"What a name that touches the heartstrings of the Crimson Demon Clan!"

"what?"

Huihui suddenly screamed excitedly, shouting, "What a performance! It would be such a waste not to see it!!"

Darkness completely forgot about the personalities of his own squad members.

"Hey, hey! Huihui!" He quickly grabbed Huihui's arm, trying to calm her down, "There's no time for this kind of thing—"

"Where can I buy tickets? Please also tell me the performance location, idol sister!"

"...Looks like it's going to keep going."

Darkness stopped trying to persuade him.

Knowing Huihui's personality, she knew very well that there was no way to persuade her at this time, and she could only let it be. Then, at Huihui's excited invitation, Kobayashi and the others went to see the underground idol's performance.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Just as they were exploring the virtual world, something happened at Wiz's Magic Item Shop in Axel.

"Nighttime Limited Magic Item Set, Purchase!"

"Thank you! Hehe... Please enjoy yourself."

Barnier was pitching the item to an adventurer, and when the adventurer decided to buy it, the succubus smiled and said the same thing.

The adventurer excitedly hugged the magical item and said with a smile, "Y-Of course! Ah, I can't wait for tonight!"

“…Hmm.” Barnier watched the adventurer leave and said, “Today’s sales seem to be better than usual.”

"Me too! I feel like I can recommend products to adventurers even better than usual!"

"Thanks to that dress, it suits you both perfectly!"

Wiz said this to the two of them with a big smile.

"Hmm. I found it by chance while investigating the surrounding ruins, but... I never expected it to suit me so well." Barnier unfolded his clothes.

"I heard the shopkeepers in the neighborhood love it too. As expected of Lord Barnier!"

The loli succubus looked on with adoration.

“It’s Rosalind,” Wiz said with a smile. “It seems like quite a few customers came for that dress. You always come to help… hehe. I’m really… very grateful.”

Wiz walked in carrying a box of things.

"The day we achieve legendary sales isn't far off..." Barnier said confidently, then looked at Wiz and asked, "Useless shopkeeper, what were those things you just brought in?"

"This is magic ore that just arrived! Look at this huge quantity; if we sold it all—"

"Death Ray!!"

"Waaaaahh ...

Before Wiz could finish speaking, Barnier's signature move, the Death Ray, struck her, causing her to scream in pain.

"You idiot shopkeeper!"

"Why...why..."

Wiz, billowing black smoke, couldn't help but ask this question.

The loli succubus explained helplessly, "Selling these magic stones would indeed make a fortune, but who would buy them in this newbie village, a newbie village only for low-level adventurers?"

"what……!"

Wiz was dumbfounded.

(End of this chapter)