I like crossing the most

Chapter 993 The Last Routine 172
Darkness, somewhat surprised to hear him say that, exclaimed, "Oh, it's rare to see Kobayashi so fired up!"

“He’s the mastermind behind this incident.” Aqua was equally puzzled. She said, “Does he feel he should take responsibility?”

"Don't say that..."

What Kobayashi cares about most isn't this kind of thing; he cares about everyone in the town of Axel! ...Well, not all of them. Besides fearing that Axel would be affected and that the Kingdom Prosecutor Serena would make things difficult for him, he was also afraid that Jizo would turn half the town's population into orcs, and then he would be the one to suffer!

"Everyone, cheer up!"

"Oh oh————" xN
While Kobayashi was chasing Jizo, Axel was still living a peaceful life, seemingly unaware of the impending crisis.

On the street, Lynn grabbed Duster by the ear and yelled, "I can't believe it! When did you film that kind of stuff?!"

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! My ear's going to fall off!!" Duster yelled in pain, then complained loudly, sounding a bit aggrieved, "What does it matter? It's just a couple of pictures from the anime/manga series! I just sold them to people who wanted them!"

"Alright, alright, Miss Lynn, Mr. Duster, arguing is not good."

Seeing the two struggling, Cecily, who was passing by, kindly gestured for them to stop arguing. She then took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to them, saying kindly, "Here, as a sign of reconciliation, please sign this paper."

"I would never sign the initiation form..."

Lynn couldn't help but smirk when she saw what Cecily handed her. This beautiful priestess of the Axis Church beside her really knew how to seize any opportunity; if she weren't careful, she would definitely have signed the Axis Church initiation application.

"Tch, I thought I could go with the flow, but there's nothing I can do..." Seeing that her scheme had been exposed, Cecily showed obvious regret and displeasure, and her clicking of her tongue made people wonder if she was really a priestess.

"……oops?"

Cecily suddenly noticed a strange object on the street in front of her and asked Lynn beside her curiously, "Were there statues here before?"

"It's the first time I've seen this, but... Ughh ...

"What? It's suddenly glowing—"

Before Lynn could finish speaking, the statue suddenly burst out with a dazzling light, startling everyone who instinctively covered their eyes and gasped in surprise.

……

the other side.

Axel Small Theater.

"Hey Leah, are you still sleeping? I'm coming inside!" Emily pushed open the door with a slightly forceful gesture, and was startled by the messy room. "It's so dirty! You cleaned it last night, didn't you? When did it become like this again..."

Before she could finish speaking, she saw the strange stone statue that had appeared in the corner and swallowed the rest of her words.

"Huh, what is this... Leah, did you find this by chance?"

"Waaah... Hmm? Good morning, you two."

The girl named Leah crawled out from under the bed in a daze, making one wonder just how far she had sleepwalked last night.

"Now is not the time to bury yourself in piles of clothes and sleep! There's a strange stone statue here, what is it?"

"Stone statue? What are you talking about?"

Feeling a little strange after her companion said that, she followed the other person's finger to the corner and saw a strange stone statue. She didn't know why it was there, and it looked rather eerie.

"It'll get even more chaotic..."

"Wow! The statue is glowing?!"

After the statue uttered those strange words, it burst forth with a blinding light, enveloping both of them. When the light dissipated, Leah stared at them in disbelief.

"Eh eh eh——————"

An unbelievable thing happened before her eyes, leaving her at a loss for what to do.

Starting from this point, the entire town of Axel descended into chaos, with the town in complete disarray, making one wonder whether it was a peaceful and tranquil starting village or a demon king's castle teeming with monsters.

on the street.

A male adventurer, his face contorted in panic, shouted at the monster behind him, "Don't come any closer! No!!"

"What on earth happened all of a sudden?!" The other male adventurer was equally terrified.

"man!!!!"

Numerous orcs appeared on the town's streets, chasing after the men with ferocious fury that sent novice adventurers shivering with fear.

Kobayashi and the others who ran back were also at a loss for what to do.

"Damn it!" Darkness shouted angrily upon seeing this, "Is this also something Ksitigarbha did?!"

She was really angry.

Because orcs are only female; if there were males, she would look completely different.

Not far away, Dust stared dumbfounded at the monster in front of him, and said with some fear, "Hey, hey... what's wrong? Is this your new magic? It's all my fault, please forgive me!"

"Wait...!" Huihui shouted loudly as she saw him, pointing in that direction, "Duster is over there, he's being attacked by orcs!"

"what?!"

Upon seeing a familiar face, Kobayashi rushed over and asked anxiously, "Hey, Duster, are you alright? Were you attacked?!"

"Kobayashi..." Duster asked the three girls with some surprise after seeing him, "Have you all become strange?"

"What? How could you be so rude all of a sudden?"

Aqua pouted slightly, looking somewhat dissatisfied.

Huihui looked seriously at the orc in front of her and said, "We need to find a way to get rid of it."

"Oh oh oh————"

Upon hearing her words, the orc's eyes turned bloodshot as he lunged at them, prompting Darkness to nervously step in front of him, shouting, "Watch out, they're coming!"

"Wait, don't hurt that guy!" Duster quickly stopped Kobayashi and the others who were about to attack the orc.

Kobayashi was dumbfounded and asked, "What? What are you talking about? This is an orc! I know you're Axel and Trash Dust, but when did your tastes become so extreme?!"

"No, Duster is right, don't hurt her!"

"Abyss Swamp!"

A familiar voice came from the other side, and it was two people. Seeing them, Kobayashi said with slight surprise, "Lia and Wiz, you two are here!"

"Even the two of you?" Darkness frowned upon seeing them appear and said, "In that case, we can only trap them...?"

“Just like Mr. Dust said, we can’t fight orcs.” Wiz said with a troubled and sad expression, then turned to the few who were still confused and said, “The guild is already a refuge, let’s take you there quickly…!”

"guild?"

"Is it a shelter?"

Although Kobayashi and the others felt strange and uneasy, since Wiz had said so, they had no choice but to follow the two. Upon arriving at the guild, they found many people there, all with expressions of despair and resentment. At this point, Kobayashi noticed that the number of female adventurers was extremely small. Although there were relatively few female adventurers in Axel, it seemed that only Aqua and her two companions, along with Lia and Wiz, were present.

After hearing the reason, Kobayashi and the others' expressions became strange.

"—You mean, the strange stone statue?"

“Ah. It just happened without me even realizing it.” Duster scratched his head impatiently and said, “Some people say they’ve seen it all over the city.”

"Then there was a sudden light. It seems that's why all the women in the city turned into orcs," Wiz picked up where he left off, offering such an unbelievable answer.

"Sherlock and Erica both turned into orcs right before my eyes." Leah, equally distressed, clenched her fists in resentment and said, "Ever since that statue that looked like Jizo appeared, they've inexplicably become like this..."

"Damn it, it really was Ksitigarbha who did this!"

Kobayashi said the same thing through gritted teeth.

Unexpectedly, we were still a step too late.

They could have used teleportation magic to return first, but although Jizo said he was going to Axel to cause trouble, it was uncertain whether he was deliberately luring them to the wrong place. Kobayashi and the others could only chase after it, but the flying monster was still much faster than them.

Clearly, the female adventurers in the town of Axel have met a terrible end.

Seeing his expression, Duster realized something and quickly asked, "What do you know?"

“The Crimson Demon Village…” Megumin said somewhat unwillingly, “That stone statue… or rather, the fairy spirit, has become very bad because of it.”

What does "terrible" mean?

"He's completely changed. In the end, everyone says the eye patch and the cool poses are boring. He even enjoys learning, is willing to find a stable job, and is even interested in cultivating good relationships with nobles..."

Huihui said this with a resentful look on her face.

Leah twitched the corner of her mouth and said, "I think it's more accurate to say that I've become more serious..."

Good for complaining.

But this only made Huihui very unhappy. She retorted loudly, "No way! It's all because of that Jizo that the Crimson Demon Clan has completely forgotten their own pride!"

“It can change other people’s personality and race…” Wiz was also somewhat surprised and frightened, saying, “I had no idea that there were such terrifying fairies.”

She was, after all, a well-informed former adventurer and now a cadre in the Demon King's army, and the statue that caused the chaos was, in a sense, a colleague, but she was completely unaware of this.

“No, you don’t have to say that,” Aqua comforted her, saying, “In the end, it’s all because Kobayashi made a strange wish. Jizo just incompletely fulfilled his wish, that’s all.”

They're putting all the blame on him!

Kobayashi was slightly annoyed, but what Aqua said was true. However, he hadn't expected that Jizo would use such a method to fulfill his wish, just like the corrupted Holy Grail.

"Kobayashi?!" Leah looked at Kobayashi with a puzzled and incredulous expression and asked, "Why would you do that...?"

"No, no! I didn't mean it!" Kobayashi quickly waved his hands and explained, "I do have some information about the situation with the Crimson Demon Clan, but I didn't wish for Axel to become like this!"

I quickly told her about how I subconsciously made a wish after seeing Jizo, and of course, she understood very quickly.

"In short, Jizo's goal is to create chaos among humanity. So, if we don't stop that guy soon, it will cause even more massive losses."

"Everyone says fairies love pranks, but this is going too far..." Darkness fell into deep thought, then said, "Should we reseal it—"

"Sealing?! If that's the case, I can't help! Sealing, sealing... I strongly object! Sealing someone just because they're a spirit, just because they did something bad... that's too selfish!"

"What's wrong with you all of a sudden?... Ah."

Suddenly realizing something, Kobayashi was speechless.

Darkness, however, said, "I understand how you feel, but this will cause even greater damage... Everyone will suffer, and that's not what you want, is it?"

"That...that's right..."

She was speechless.

Huihui then spoke very sincerely, saying, "Please, even just a little bit, can you help us? We don't even know where Jizo is, it's really troubling us."

“...Even immortals rarely cause this much trouble for humans.” Hearing Huihui say this, she clenched her fists seriously and said, “I don’t want my friends to suffer! I’m against sealing them, but... if you want to punish Jizo, I can help.”

"Thank you!"

Huihui was deeply moved when the other party agreed.

"The strange stone statue just vanished suddenly." Duster asked, somewhat puzzled. "Using such powerful force, yet leaving no trace, is that too strange?"

"Yes. By the way, can you sense anything if you're tracking it..."

"You're saying this all of a sudden... wait a minute, um..." After a while, she said somewhat uncertainly, "As long as we follow this vague feeling, that's enough, right?"

"This is it!" Kobayashi clapped his hands excitedly and said, deeply moved, "Please! Go tell the others who helped."

The last sentence was spoken to Dust beside him. Dust scratched his head with a troubled and helpless expression and said, "There's nothing I can do, I guess I'll go too. Honestly, why did it have to turn out like this?"

He certainly didn't want to get involved in this mess, since he wasn't the one who caused it, but now that Lynn had been turned into a female beastman, he had to find a way to rescue her.

So everyone started to take action.

(End of this chapter)