I love time travel the most!

When they saw Xiaolin return, they smiled happily, but then immediately panicked.

Huihui said nervously, "No, no, this is bad, Kobayashi! Kazuma... Kazuma has been arrested too! And I heard that the guards stormed into the mansion and forcibly took him away! Could he have done something strange?!"

“I tried to stop them too, but the guards wouldn’t listen,” Darkness chimed in.

"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous, Sato-kun is fine now."

Seeing that the two were a little worried, Kobayashi told them about Sato Kazuma being implicated by an unknown criminal.

"...I never expected it to be like this."

Darkness and Megumin lamented the extent of Kazuma Sato's bad luck. Wasn't he always proud of his extraordinary luck? Why would something like this happen to him?

At that moment, Aqua returned.

Seeing everyone gathered in the living room, she curiously approached and asked, "What? What happened?"

"Ah, actually..."

Just as Xiaolin was about to explain, he saw that she was holding a bottle of sparkling wine in her arms, and the pattern on the bottle was exactly the same as the pattern on the wanted poster!

Even Darkness and Megumin noticed.

"Ah, ah ah... Aqua?! Where did you get your bubble tea?!"

"So you were the culprit?!"

Suddenly everyone understood why Sato Kazuma, who had such incredible luck, had been thrown into jail.

Meanwhile, back in the prison, Sato Kazuma, who was hoping to be rescued, felt an itch in his nose and couldn't help but sneeze loudly.

He felt that someone was persecuting him.

Chapter 123: Men on both sides

"A, Ku, Ya, sit up straight!"

With an angry shout from Kobayashi, the three-way trial officially began.

Kobayashi sat in the main seat, with Darkness on her left and Megumin on her right. A super expensive bottle of sparkling wine was placed in the center, while Aqua knelt at the bottom to be interrogated.

Seeing her bewildered and aggrieved expression as she was suddenly put in a difficult position, Kobayashi felt no sympathy whatsoever, because if she hadn't stolen the nobleman's bubble wine, Sato Kazuma wouldn't have been implicated and thrown into jail.

Kobayashi was the first to question, "Tell me, why did you steal the bubble wine?"

"No! No, no! I didn't steal the bubble wine, I absolutely didn't steal the bubble wine!" Aqua shook her head anxiously to clear her name when she heard herself being falsely accused.

Xiaolin instinctively didn't believe it.

After all, she has a criminal record. In order to drink bubble wine, she even used Kobayashi's name to run up debts with the guild. It's not impossible that this has now extended to stealing wine to drink.

Even if the other party is a goddess, he still believes that the stupid goddess is capable of doing this.

"You...!"

"Wait, Kobayashi."

Darkness reached out to stop Kobayashi, saying, "Now is not the time to question Aqua. The most important thing is to get Kazuma out of prison, isn't it?"

"……you're right."

Xiaolin rubbed his temples.

In reality, he was not afraid of nobles, and even if a noble wanted to exert pressure, Darkness could step in and resolve the situation.

However, on the one hand, Darkness did not want to be exposed, and on the other hand, getting too involved with the nobility would attract attention and make him subject to constraints, making it impossible for him to live a free and unrestrained life afterward.

Due to various factors, he disliked contact with nobles and had always tried to avoid such situations.

"What? What happened to Kazuma, you idiot?"

Aqua was unaware of the situation, but upon hearing that Kazuma Sato was in trouble, she quickly inquired about it.

Kobayashi said irritably, "Sato-kun was thrown into jail by the guards because of this lost bottle of premium sparkling wine!"

"Pfft, pfft—Idiot Kazuma, it's hilarious that he got thrown in jail for this."

After hearing the explanation, Aqua not only did not change her guilty feelings, but instead covered her mouth and laughed at Kazuma Sato.

"Do you even understand whose fault it is?" Xiaolin rolled her eyes at her.

I really can't understand her thought process. If she wanted to see Kazuma Sato make a fool of himself and suffer humiliation, she didn't have to go to this extent.

Aqua puffed out her chest and proudly declared, "I want to make one thing clear: I didn't steal this bottle of premium sparkling wine; it's my reward for a mission! Didn't I mention before that I received a specific mission?"

"...Hmm? What exactly happened? Tell us what happened quickly," Kobayashi pressed.

"actually……"

Yesterday, Aqua received a request. She said the task was to be kept secret for the time being, but the actual task was for the captain of the guards to ask her to cast fire magic in the town's training ground, saying it was to create a little chaos and make the guards a little nervous.

When the Headless Horseman attacked, the town's guards performed poorly.

So the captain of the guard wanted to tell them that even though Axel was a remote starting village, there would still be powerful enemies attacking, and it would be absolutely unacceptable to continue to be complacent.

Therefore, I asked Aqua to help.

"The reward isn't money, but sparkling wine? Aqua, you haven't been scammed, have you? I don't know what kind of request it is, but sparkling wine as a reward seems really strange."

Huihui looked at her with great concern, seemingly worried about the other person's intelligence.

Kobayashi really wanted to tell her that there was no need to worry at all, because Aqua's intelligence was pitifully low.

Wait a minute, something seems off.

"Hey, Aqua, you said you used fire magic in the training ground, it couldn't be that you...?"

"Yes! It's Planetary Fire!"

"So it was you?!"

Planetary Fire is an intermediate-level fire magic spell. When used, magical light will rise into the sky like fireworks and then explode.

In other words!

"Is it you who's provoking Huihui?!"

It's all her fault for making Huihui want to compare herself to others with her magic. Then, in order not to disturb Kazuma, she accompanied Huihui to release the explosion magic. After that, in order not to hurt Huihui, she blurted out some perverted remarks, which led to the guards overhearing her and arresting her on the spot.

Besides, why would a water goddess cast fire magic? That's so strange!

It's all Aqua's fault!

"Huh?...Huh—?!!!"

Aqua cried out in surprise, completely bewildered.

She had no intention of provoking Huihui at all; she was just fulfilling a request by casting a mid-level spell. Why did it turn into a provocation?

"Damn it, you stupid goddess!"

Xiaolin held his head, feeling extremely frustrated.

He was wrong, he was really wrong. He shouldn't have let Aqua complete the mission on her own in the first place.

If he had gone with them, Aqua wouldn't have taken the bubble wine, Megumin wouldn't have thought of casting magic, he wouldn't have been arrested on the spot, and Kazuma Sato wouldn't have been implicated and thrown into jail.

Unlike Kazuma Sato, the idiot goddess is never able to complete her missions smoothly; every time she gets into trouble, they're the ones who have to clean up her messes.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Aqua, feeling wronged, threw herself into Kobayashi's arms and cried. It was so strange that she was being scolded even though she hadn't done anything wrong.

Seriously, what's with this habit of always running into the arms of the person who made you cry?

But it wouldn't work if she wasn't appeased.

The goddess unleashed a torrent of water; no one could withstand it.

"Kobayashi, let's not blame Aqua too much. Let's think about what to do now." Darkness stepped in again to steer the conversation forward, while simultaneously stopping Aqua from crying uncontrollably.

The solution is simple: just return the bubble wine.

According to Aqua, the bottle of premium sparkling wine was a reward from the guard captain, so it was obvious that the other party had made a mistake and mistakenly accepted the expensive sparkling wine as payment.

Therefore, as long as you talk it out, there will be no problem.

but……

"This bottle of sparkling wine has already been opened, and more than half of it is gone." Kobayashi covered his forehead in anguish.

While in prison, he inquired and learned that the nobleman valued this bottle of high-end sparkling wine very much; otherwise, he wouldn't have issued a warrant specifically to investigate the murderer and hold him accountable.

Therefore, in this situation, the captain of the guard would likely deny any wrongdoing to protect himself.

"Aqua, you didn't go to the guild to get it notarized, did you?"

"……No."

"I guess so!"

Aqua's awkward expression chilled Kobayashi's heart.

The fact that they didn't go to the Adventurers' Guild for notarization means there's no evidence. To protect themselves, the other party could easily deny that it was their fault, so they would never explain why.

Now, there is only one way.

"Can I only buy one more bottle?"

Kobayashi murmured.

The solution is simple: since the bottle of premium sparkling wine has been drunk, just buy another bottle to compensate the other party. At the same time, explain the reason for the incident. When the other party receives the wine, they will know that it was their own fault and they certainly won't blame them too much.

After all, their natures are completely different.

The issue is……

Kobayashi looked at the well-informed, hidden noble lady in the team and asked nervously, "Darkness, how much does this bottle of sparkling wine cost?"

"Probably several hundred thousand Eris."

"Hundreds of thousands of Eris?!... Wait, only a few hundred thousand Eris?!"

Kobayashi was shocked twice in a row.

He was prepared to bleed a lot of money, but he never expected that this bottle of high-end sparkling wine, which was so highly valued that a warrant had been issued for its arrest, would only cost a few hundred thousand erys.