Chapter 12

“No, wait, what I said just now doesn’t count!” “Uh-uh, let us hear what you were going to say while the mood was so nice, in front of a young girl!” Seeing Kazuma, who held his tongue in a fluster when he saw the color of my eyes, I felt sort of weird for having gotten so caught up in my head. Raiding with a perfectly prepared plan wasn’t like me. Managing everyone and stopping them, thinking about what was to come… None of this was like me at all. I always just gave it my all. What on earth had I been worrying about? “No, Megumin, I don’t think that sort of questioning is fair. Like, if you gave me three choices, I’d definitely know the answer. Give me another chance.” I’d feel guilty always relying on him, but if things got too hairy for me to handle on my own, this guy would help me if I asked him to. Kazuma was still babbling about something stupid. I just said, “No, it’s fine.” I smiled to show I wasn’t mad anymore. …However… “Wait. I said I’m sorry; forgive me! I’ll think about it again, seriously this time! …Of course! That would’ve been taking things too quickly. First, maybe a kiss…” “I told you it’s fine! Anyway, lower your voice! Aqua and Darkness are in the kitchen; if they see us like this…!” No sooner had I said that than… …I realized Kazuma wasn’t looking at me. “Oh nononono…” What Kazuma was looking at was a figure poking her head out from the hallway, grasping a rag with both hands as if she’d come to wipe the table—Aqua. She backed up as she stared with a look of horror… “Hey, Darkness, this is bad! Kazuma and Megumin are sitting close to each other, red-faced and talking about kissing or something!” I stopped Aqua in a panic as she tried to go snitch. 7 The next day. We’d all gathered together in the hideout. I whirled my mantle in front of my minions. “I am fired up today! And with this good weather, it is a fine day for a B and E!” Striking a cool pose, I took my favorite staff in hand. “Hey, just asking, but we’re sneaking into a mansion to steal from a crooked noble, right? What’s a B and E? I’m not sure what that means, but it somehow sounds dangerous…,” Yunyun said, looking worried. “It is exactly what it sounds like. I learned it from Kazuma; he said it was a term you use during a raid or whatever. Why don’t we go to the noble’s mansion for now, and we can wing it the rest of the way?” “Hey, we’re a thief gang, right? We’re a group of thieves, not robbers, right?!” I thought it best to ignore Yunyun, who had grabbed me by the shoulders. Instead, I turned to Chris. “Well, did you find a target worth hitting, like you were saying yesterday?” “Y-yeah, more or less. Not to sound like Yunyun, but we’re going in to steal, right? We aren’t mugging them, right?” Shaking a bit, Chris took out a map outlining the town of Axel. The girl pointed a finger at a forest outside of town. “Um, actually, a certain rich person has their second home nearby. Something strange is definitely going on around there.” According to Chris, there had been eyewitness accounts of monsters near that house that were stronger than anything found near Axel. “Is that not the jurisdiction of the Adventurers Guild? I heard recently that Axel’s adventurers are not working at all because they made a small fortune from hunting the stronger monsters over and over for their rewards. Maybe that caused a migration of stronger monsters that prey on weaker ones?” At that, Chris shook her head with a conflicted look. “That might be true, but it might not. There could be a Sacred Treasure that’s being used at that house.” That Sacred Treasure was a supposedly powerful item that could summon random monsters and bind them into service. If that was true, such a name would certainly be an apt one, but… “Could a noble I have never even heard of really get their hands on such an amazing thing? I would not be surprised if it went for a ridiculous price.” “Well, you see, actually, that artifact was sealed away—sunk to the bottom of a lake where a wicked and powerful bounty monster slept—so that no one could ever find it.” A wicked and powerful bounty monster. …Suddenly, I recalled something like that had been vanquished in a lake near Axel recently. “Yes, the Kowloon Hydra. It absorbed the magical power of the land, polluting even the trees. Apparently, they sealed the artifact there, thinking no one would ever come close to a place like that, but… The vegetation around the lake returned much sooner than expected, and people started to visit. Then the person who had sealed the artifact away tried dredging it up from the bottom of the lake to move it somewhere safer, but…” “I see. Someone else had already stolen it.” The eyewitness info about powerful monsters appearing only added to the validity of the story. Actually, when I thought about it, it was odd someone would build a mansion there, rather than inside a walled town. Supposedly, they were summoning monsters at random, too, so when any appeared that they didn’t like, maybe they were chucking them into the forest. “Also, about that artifact… For some reason, it seems to find its way into the hands of nasty, wealthy people a lot—its former owner was a middle-aged lord named Alderp.” Ah, that man who was always obsessed with Darkness and went missing. “As royalty, I cannot allow such a dangerous item to be out there. Let’s go there for sure, boss!” “Hey, Illis, did you just say you were royalty?” “No, I didn’t.” Iris backed away slowly from Yunyun’s serious expression. Then Cecily, who had been sitting quietly on the sofa sipping tea, said, “I could use something like that…that Sacred Treasure thing. I would summon a monster and, after making it rampage about, Axis followers would join by the hundreds. Yes, I bet recruitment numbers would double just like that!” Huh, I guess there are ways to abuse it. It seemed more and more like an item we had to do something about. Although, wasn’t this going to be a pretty risky venture? It seemed too momentous, like something we couldn’t handle ourselves—it already felt like a bad sign. Still… “I am certain recovering dangerous divine artifacts was one of the Silver-Haired Thief Brigade’s goals. Let us try hitting that house!” …It was a smallish mansion, visibly spotless, as if it had only just been built. As apparent anti-monster defenses, the outside of the mansion was surrounded by a sturdy iron fence. Within, numerous traps had been laid, as well. Sure, that was good and all, but… “Well, this place sure is a sight.” “Hey, this is not the time for that kind of talk! We have to help right away!” The noble mansion that we had been planning to raid was at that very moment getting attacked by a bunch of monsters. “Oh no, maybe they summoned some monsters they couldn’t control! Even then, it would be strange for the monster swarm to be attacking.” As Chris calmly observed the situation next to me, Iris drew her sword. “Either way, shouldn’t we go rescue them? This has to be too much for their guards alone…” The princess turned to me for direction. I looked over the scene; guards were fighting back from behind the fence, using spears and bows. However… “No, I have an idea. We should let them be!” Cecily suddenly blurted out. “True. As a thief gang, checking things out a bit is the right answer. After all, if they really have the Sacred Treasure, they’ll probably bring it out to try to control the monsters.” Even Chris was on board. “Great minds think alike, even if you are an Eris follower! Yes, we shouldn’t interfere until the last moment, and once they’re in real trouble, we’ll help them as patronizingly as possible! At that point, there’ll be fewer monsters, making it easier to rescue them, too!” “No, that’s not why I said it! I just meant that to do this like true bandits, we should check if the thing we’re after is even here or not…!” Sure, sure. Cecily nodded at a flustered Chris. “Then in return for our help, we demand that powerful item we searched for, right? Always crafty, you Eris followers! I can’t say I mind that sort of thing, though!” “N-n-n-no—! I never said we should wait that late to help…!” I could understand what Chris was saying. Indeed, if they really had this Sacred Treasure thing, they’d use it if they got into trouble. We could save ourselves the risky business of sneaking deep into the mansion to find its location if we just waited it out. “I did not think you were such a cruel person, Chris, but, well, it is not a bad idea.” “You too, Megumin?! No, listen here, both of you!” It was at that moment when… “I told you—let’s not live in a place like this!” “It’s too late for that; that young lady always gets her way!” Hearing the voices of guards from the other side of the fence, Yunyun and Iris gave me a worried look. “Where is she?! We have to at least make sure she gets out safe…” “I haven’t seen her! We’ve got to stay to make sure.” Having heard the plight, I turned to my crew. “If we go up against that many monsters, even we might not get out unscathed.” “Megumin…,” Yunyun muttered softly at my hushed statement. Not responding to her, I kept my eyes on the creatures assailing the manor and continued quietly. “Also, I am the boss of this thief gang, so I have a responsibility to try to keep everyone out of danger. You are an intelligent Crimson Magic Clan member yourself, so I’m sure you can see that leaving them alone to see what happens is the wise option.” Seeming to understand that, Yunyun shut up, looking dejected. Iris, sword drawn as she stood at my side, looked back and forth between me and the mansion. Turning my back on the two of them, I took a step forward. “For me, however, being an adventurer comes before being the boss of a bandit crew. Since I intend to eventually defeat the Demon King, I cannot simply watch and wait while there are monsters in front of me,” I declared, taking up a stance with my staff. Someone let out a quiet laugh from behind me. “Huh. Being an adventurer is more up your alley than being in a thief gang.” Chris’s words didn’t sound like praise, yet she seemed somehow pleased. Listening to her giggles, I began to chant. I’d wanted to be like those people I admired so much, but oh well. I could never stand by with monsters right in front of me. “Megumin, let me handle any monsters you miss. I’ll pick them all off!” As I chanted, Yunyun gleefully took a stance behind me on my right side, her wand readied.