There wasn’t a cloud in the bright blue sky. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! Help me! Aqua, help meee!”

“Pffft! Hee-hee-hee! This is great! Kazuma, your face is so red! The tears, the desperation—I love it!”

Right. I’ll bury her in the ground on my way home.

Even as | plotted to leave Aqua in the dirt, | ran around screaming for her help as the Giant Toad, a massive frog-like monster, chased me.

We were in the vast field surrounding the town. This was where grabbing a quest at the Guild had gotten us...

| had a short sword, the most minimal of weaponry. Aqua, for her part, had said some dumb thing about how a goddess waving a sword just wouldn’t look right, and so she was currently without any weapon at all. Instead, she gaily watched the toad chase me around.

| guess you can’t underestimate your enemy, even when he’s a frog.

These frogs—sorry, toads—were bigger than cows. During mating season, they needed strength to lay their eggs and so would migrate to human towns, where there was plenty of food...as in the local farmers’ goats, which the toads would swallow whole.

Since Aqua and | hardly weighed more than a couple of goats ourselves, we were both pretty concerned by this revelation. As a matter of fact, it turned out that every year, around Giant Toad mating season, a number of farmers and even children would go missing from the town.

On the outside, these monsters looked just like huge frogs. But they were far more dangerous than the weaklings that had been cleared out of the area so long ago.

Incidentally, their meat, while a little tough, was light and mild-tasting and was considered a delicacy.

We’d heard that their thick layer of fat protected them from physical attacks. Then again, we’d also heard that because Giant Toads hate metal, if you wore even just a tiny bit of armor you could avoid being eaten, so they weren’t so hard to deal with after all. That’s why experienced adventurers enjoyed hunting them. We, however...

“Aqua! Aqua!! Don’t just stand there laughing—help meee!” “Maybe you could start by showing me a bit of respect.” “Lady Aquaaaaa!”

l’d get her later. Bury her up to her neck and leave her there so she knew how scary it was to be at the mercy of a Giant Toad. Nearly in tears, | glanced back at the creature pursuing me. But it had turned away from me. It was looking at...

“Well, all right! | guess | have to help you out, then, you hikiNEET. In return, | expect you to worship me—starting tomorrow! When we get back to town, you have to join the Axis Church and pray to me three times a day! At meals, if | ask for something on your plate, you have to give it to me without complaint! And —Hrgh?!”

Aqua and all her self-aggrandizing suddenly vanished.

The Giant Toad that had been chasing me had stopped moving. From one corner of its mouth, something blue was sprouting.

It was...

“Aqua! H-hey, don’t you dare get eaten Aqua’s leg hung out the side of the frog’s mouth, shaking. | drew my short sword—and leaped at the Giant Toad! “Sniffle... Waaaaah! Sniff...”

Aqua squatted on the ground in front of me, hugging her knees. She was dripping with slime.

Next to her lay the Giant Toad, its head split open.

“Sniff...sniff... Th-thank you, Kazuma... Thank you...! Waaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!” She hadn’t stopped crying since I’d pulled her from the toad’s mouth.

| guess even goddesses don’t like being eaten.

“\-it’s all right, Aqua. Take it easy... Hey, let’s go home for today. The quest was to kill five toads in three days, but we’re obviously in over our heads. Let’s get some more gear first. | mean, I’ve got a short sword and a tracksuit... I’d at least like to look like an adventurer.”

l’d been able to kill the toad that swallowed Aqua mainly because Giant Toads stop moving when they swallow their prey. | never would have had the guts to go up against a toad that was happily hopping toward me to attack.

But Aqua, her whole body covered in gleaming toad mucus, rose to her feet.

“Sniff... How can a goddess just allow herself to be brought down to this level by some frog? I’ve been defiled! If one of my followers saw me now, they’d lose all faith in me! If it got out that I’d been laid low by a frog, the reputation of the beautiful and awesome Aqua would be for naught

She sweat every day as she lugged around construction loads, thrilled to be able to carry more than a bunch of middle-aged men. She looked forward to nothing more than dinner after a good bath. Every night she slept next to me on a hay bale, drool dribbling down her chin... But cover her in a little frog slime, and now she worried about appearances?

Before | could stop her, Aqua dashed off toward another Giant Toad in the distance.

“Whoa! Hey, wait—Aqua!”

She ignored me, closing the gap between her and the monster. With all the energy that propelled her, her fist began to emit a white light, and she slammed it into the toad’s belly.

“Know the power of the gods! You shouldn’t have stood against me—and bared your fangs against us—but you'll have time to regret that in Hell! God Strike!”

| recalled hearing from a Guild employee that physical attacks weren’t all that effective against Giant Toads.

Aqua’s fist sank into the monster’s soft stomach with a glug, and the toad casually looked down at her...

Aqua met his eyes. “Y-you know, now that | see you up close, | r-realize how cute Giant Toads really are...”

For the second time that day, | set upon a monster immobilized while eating its meal, and for the second time, | rescued a sobbing, slime-covered goddess.

We decided to call it a day.