The lake in question was a large body of water not far from town.

This was one of the town’s major water sources; a small river flowed from this lake all the way to Axel. The snowmelt from mountains immediately bordering the lake was what kept it full.

| could see it: The water was somehow cloudy and stagnant, just as the request had said.

I'd thought maybe monsters liked clean water, just like humans, but | guess not.

As | gazed out at the lake, Aqua’s trembling voice came from behind me—

“Are... Are we really gonna go through with this?” She seemed extremely ill at ease.

But my plan was airtight. What could she possibly object to?

“| feel like some rare monster you’re going to sell to the Guild...or the circus,” Aqua said. She was sitting cross-legged in a steel cage—not unlike the kind you might use to hold a rare monster.

| was going to take the cage, with Aqua inside, and dump it into the lake.

At first I’d thought she could just sit safely in the cage at the lakeside and do her magic, but when | found out she had to touch the water for the magic to work, | revised my plan.

Being the goddess of water, Aqua could, she said, be submerged all day without even getting tense, let alone drowning. And—again, so she said—even if she wasn’t actively using the Purification magic, the water would gradually be cleansed just by her presence in it.

| guess she’s just that holy. She is a goddess, after all, even if you’d never guess it.

We’d borrowed the cage from the Guild; they had it on hand for quests that required prey be captured rather than killed.

The cage didn’t need to go all the way to the bottom of the lake—useless cargo and all. It just needed to sit deep enough for Aqua to touch the water. Since the cage was big enough to carry a monster, Aqua could just stay in the middle of it, out of range of any attacks.

The Guild employee said the monsters would leave the area when the water was purified, but just in case they wouldn’t leave Aqua alone, we’d attached some sturdy chains.

A steel cage isn’t light, so in town we’d borrowed a horse to drag it out here.

In an emergency, we could have the horse pull it back by the chains.

We shoved the cage past the lake’s edge, the water rising until it reached Aqua’s legs and bottom.

The rest of us just needed to wait nearby. Aqua hugged her knees and muttered dejectedly:

“| feel like a tea bag you've left to steep...”

Purification plan in motion, we’d set Aqua in the water at the edge of the lake. Two hours passed, but there was no sign of any monsters.

Megumin, Darkness, and | watched and waited in a spot about twenty meters from Aqua.

Aqua Sat in the partially flooded cage. | called out to her:

“Hey, Aqua! How’s the cleanup going? Not getting cold in that lake water? If you need to go to the bathroom or anything, just tell me! I’ll let you out of there She shouted back:

“It’s going fine! And | don’t need the toilet! Arch-priests don’t go to the bathroom!”

Whatever. She sounded like a washed-up idol.

l’'d thought sitting there in the water for hours might be a problem, but apparently not.

“It looks like she is doing all right. Incidentally, the people of the Crimson Magic Clan do not use the bathroom, either,” Megumin said. As if I’d asked her.

She and Aqua both had bottomless stomachs. | wondered where it all went. “I’m a Crusader, and we...we...hrr...”

“Don’t get into a not-pissing contest with those two, Darkness. One of these days we’re gonna get a quest that takes more than a few hours. Then we’ll see who does and doesn’t go to the bathroom.”

“P-please stop it! Crimson Magic Clan members really do not use the toilet. But | will apologize, so please stop... Strange, though, that there seems to be no sign of the Brutal Alligators. Well, we can only hope they leave us alone,” Megumin said. A line like that was an invitation to raise an event flag if | ever heard one.

No sooner had she spoken than ripples appeared in the water.

It wasn’t any bigger than a normal Earth alligator—but it sure seemed different. It was a monster, no doubt.

“K-Kazuma! Something’s coming! A wh-whole bunch of somethings!” Apparently the alligators here traveled in packs. —Four hours into the purification process—

At first, Aqua had simply sat in the water, relying on her divine powers to purify it, but now she was desperately chanting spells, too.

“Purification! Purification! Purification!!” The crowd of alligators surrounded Aqua’s cage and began gnawing on it.

“Purification! Purification! Y-you know, my cage is c-creaking! I-it’s squeaking! Do somethiiiing!”

But there wasn’t much we could do. With Aqua right in the midst of the monsters, Megumin’s Explosion wasn’t a sound plan.

“Aqua! If you’re ready to throw in the towel, just say the word! I’ll have the horse pull the chains and we’ll get you out of there!”

I'd been shouting similar advice for some time, but Aqua had thus far refused to give up on her quest.

“N-no way! We’ll have wasted all this time, and we won’t get any reward! Purification! Purification! E-eeeek! Did you hear that crack?! That is definitely not a sound you want to hear from the bars protecting you!”

The swarm of alligators mobbing Aqua’s cage didn’t so much as look at us.

Darkness took in the scene and sighed.

“| kind of wish | was in that cage...” “..Don’t get any ideas.” —Seven hours into the purification process—

The battered cage sat glumly in the lake. It was covered in alligator bite marks.

The alligators themselves had turned tail and headed for the mountains. Maybe because we’d finished purifying the lake.

| couldn’t hear Aqua chanting her spells anymore.

Actually, it had been almost an hour since I’d last heard her voice rising from within the crowd of monsters.

“Hey, Aqua, you all right? Looks like all the alligators swam off somewhere.” The rest of us approached, trying to get a look at Aqua. “.Hic...sniff... Waaah...!”

If she was going to sit there hugging her knees and crying, she should’ve just dropped the quest.

On the other hand...| guess, for once, | could understand the reaction.

“Hey. If you’re done purifying the place, let’s go home. | talked to Darkness and Megumin, and we all agreed we don’t need a reward for this one. You can keep the three hundred grand all to yourself.”

Aqua didn’t look up from her knees, but her shoulders stiffened. She made no move to leave her enclosure.

“Come on out of there. The alligators are all gone.”

Aqua whispered something—

“nN the cage...”

| paused, perplexed.

“What'd you say?”

“... The world outside the cage is scary... Just take me back to town in here...”

First, frog-related trauma. Now, alligator-related trauma. | guess it was a hard-knock life for a goddess.