Simple Success for This Appreciation Festival! (この感謝祭に清らかな成功を!, Kono Kanshasai ni Kiyorakana Sēkō wo!) is the eighty-fifth chapter of the KonoSuba manga series, and covers Chapter 3 as well as the Prologue in Volume 8 of the light novels.
Cover[]
In response to the exasperated Kazuma's question over why did she suddenly start keeping an ant colony, Darkness awkwardly claims that it's for observations purposes in an attempt to hide a budding fetish for having ants crawling all over her.
Summary[]
In the ensuing days preceding the Eris Appreciation Festival, Kazuma spends the mornings eliminating monsters and the afternoons preparing for the festival, chores which he doesn't feel that painful since it allows him to find enjoyment similar to the school festivals that he as a shut-in had missed out on. The merchants' association meetings aiming for a successful festival also become one of the daily routines for him, who one day proposes having all the vendor girls dress up in swimwear to the delight of the committee, then comes up with an idea to address their concerns over drawing police attention or future cutbacks in festival scale. He afterwards presents to a puzzled Darkness the committee's proposal for allowing swimwear, which cites the vendor girls needing to splash water around for preventing heatstroke as the reason, and manages to get the acting governor's approval.
Yet some days later, he gets into a violent disagreement with the committee because they want to cancel the essential fireworks event due to nobody being capable of Explosion Magic, all the while rejecting the Megumin whom Kazuma endorses. He eventually comes to a compromise by getting permission from Darkness to utilise explosive potion, in addition to giving her an outline for a dress-up parade which is essentially cosplay.
On the morning when the Eris & Aqua Appreciation Festivals commence, Kazuma who had spent the night playing with a handheld video game taken from the Crimson Magic Village heads for the dining room where only Megumin remains, since Aqua had already gone to enjoy the festival while the concerned Darkness went to keep an eye on the Axis Church. Exasperated upon hearing Megumin waiting for Yunyun to turn tearfully distressed from the inability to find company to the festival so that she can go taunt the loner, he who plans to sleep till dusk before touring the festival stalls is surprised to hear the Archwizard inviting him to the fireworks event on the festival's third night, delighting Kazuma with the prospect of enjoying this event of youthfulness.
That evening he heads out into the lively festival, but as soon as Kazuma sets foot at the section set aside for the Axis Church's stalls, he hears Cecily in the middle of an argument with a policeman over the "goldfish fishing" stall proposed by Aqua that she is managing, and too becomes incensed to find out how in place of the unavailable goldfishes the Priest had been selling the tadpoles of Giant Toads. Calling for euthanising the monsters with insecticide, Kazuma is consequently pointed to the other stalls of the Axis Church, including one claiming grilled squid to be grilled kraken, a display of a big fish in a tank that is falsely advertised as a merfolk hybrid, and a shooting stall setting up a figure resembling Eris as the target, the last of which calls the police on an Eris follower complaining about the sacrilege only to get shut down instead. The disgusted Kazuma accordingly comes across Aqua attempting to pressure a young boy into spending all his pocket money on a painted lizard that she alleges is a baby dragon, a scheme he puts a stop to by smacking the stupid goddess.
Later accompanying Aqua who not only finds scamming customers an acceptable act but still believes Emperor Zel to be a Dragon, Kazuma regrets his decision to let the Axis Church handle the stalls. He is anyhow shown the sole successful Axis stall that turns out to be one for drawing straws and managed by an inwardly turmoiled Chris, before witnessing the avatar of the Goddess of Fortune in a winning streak against the customers. The Thief is accordingly devastated because the last customer who calls upon the favour of Eris not just rage quits following another loss but also expresses hatred towards the said goddess, while the clueless Aqua lauds Chris for making an Eris follower convert faith. Faced with Cecily's report about all their stalls being abandoned by the customers and her idea of setting one up for selling the weird Gelatinous Slime, Kazuma worried about the Axis Church's part of the festival dying down decides to take matters into his own hands, an endeavour he calls on Aqua, Cecily, and the reluctant Chris to assist on.
With the Thief helping cut up the ingredients while the goddess and Priest attract customers, the Adventurer utilising his newly learned Cooking skill cooks yakisoba at a stall that soon draws lines of people. An overjoyed Aqua later informs him of the overwhelming positive reviews, and in return Kazuma advises her how it is for the best to run honest businesses. Cecily's attempt to add Gelatinous Slime as a side menu topping though earns his ire, while Chris is depressed to see people being drawn towards them away from the Eris Church's stalls, but all things considered the yakisoba stall becomes the only one of the Axis Church that scores a considerable profit for the day.
On the second night of the festival that is unprecedentedly lively, Kazuma whom Darkness had been chasing after regarding the troubles caused by the Axis followers heads towards the troublemakers' section once more. There he is surprised to find people crowding at stalls honestly selling things like yakisoba and takoyaki made from wild octopi, with Cecily also decently selling shaved ice even though Gelatinous Slime is included as one of the flavours. Asked by Aqua to help her create more ice because the shaved ice quickly sold out, Kazuma has to laud her efforts at recreating the festival features from Japan that had indeed heightened up the festivities, but is surprisingly thanked for his assistance. Wondering about the positive change in Aqua's personality ever since the battles against the insect monsters, he bashfully suggests using the festival profits for renovating the Axis Church's local branch, yet is told by the Archpriest that they are only charging customers economic prices for low margins because their goal is to make people happy, an endeavour she once more expresses gratitude to him for.
The innocent bliss expressed by Aqua makes Kazuma feel shameful about holding the double festivals in order to profit as well as indulging his desires with the swimwear and cosplay, so he heads towards the merchants' association with the intent of resigning his post as advisor before apologising to Aqua about his schemes, so that he can simply enjoy the festivities on the third night with his party members. Yet upon arriving at the festival committee meeting, he finds the president to have also invited as representatives from a popular "small eatery" the Receptionist Succubus and the Newbie Succubus, who are here to thank Kazuma for allowing swimwear and "cosplaying" as Succubi at the festival. Subsequently shown the chair of honour during the ensuing feast, Kazuma despite his initial determination on quitting his post eventually succumbs to the Receptionist Succubus' temptations, thus gets carried away into a night of toasting for bigger profits.
Characters[]
Differences to other versions[]
- The manga skips Kazuma's explanation to the committee about his excuses for letting the vendor girls dress up in swimwear and the details of his disagreement with them over the fireworks event, as well as his suggestions of zumba carnivals and shrine processions getting vetoed, while skimming over his justifications to Darkness regarding the submitted proposals in addition to some details when running the yakisoba stall.
- In the light novel, Kazuma holds a meeting with the committee at the end of the first day where he is congratulated over the yakisoba stall's profits, then Darkness on the second evening reads to Kazuma some of the many complaints against the Axis followers' antics during the previous day, such as Giant Toad tadpoles being released into the lake of the Kowloon Hydra among other fake and unscrupulous stalls, prompting the advisor to quickly head for the festivities, where Aqua later Heals him when he feels bad over using the festival to profit.
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