Chapter 13

It was bold of her to assume that there would be anything left after I was done. “When you cast the spell, some of them are sure to come this way. Let me handle the ones that do! Today, I am your shield, boss!” I felt like this girl was the one most worthy of protecting. Oblivious to such things, Iris stood behind me on my left, sword held in her hands. “Then I will help you from the back! I’ll heal you nice and slow if you get hurt, so make sure you let me know!” Everyone smiled unconsciously at Cecily, a woman who was unwavering, even in this situation. Chris drew her dagger to cover me. “Well then, I guess I’ll get serious, too. I’ll show you what a Thief can do. All right, Megumin, let’s do this!” Maybe we could come together as a thief gang a little later—yes, like after the Demon King was defeated and peace had returned. “Look, I’ll let you do the honors, so go all out, boss,” Yunyun urged provocatively. In response… “Explooosion—!!” I unleashed my spell with all my might…! 8 After my mana recovered enough for me to walk, I plodded back home to the mansion. “Welcome home! Listen to this, Megumin! We’re having speckled crab for the first time in a while! Reminds you of when we first moved here, doesn’t it?!” Aqua welcomed me back with a big smile as she made the pincers of the crab in her hands go snip-snip. “Well, that is a treat. I never thought I would get to eat speckled crab again in my life.” Dragging my languid, mana-deficient body along, I collapsed onto the sofa. “You seem even more exhausted than usual today. I heard the boom all the way from here, but it felt a bit different. I didn’t see it with my eyes, but I’ll give today’s Explosion ninety-five points,” Kazuma said excitedly from where he was seated at the table. “Speaking of, Megumin, you look kind of pleased. Did something good happen?” Darkness asked with a kind face as she placed a boiling pot on the table. “Well, today it became very clear what I want to do more than anything. That must be the reason.” “There’s something you wanna do besides cast Explosion?” Kazuma put a damper on my enthusiasm with an unnecessary interruption. I wish he’d finally stop thinking of me as just an Explosion girl. All I did today was take everyone to the noble’s mansion and cast Explosion to help the people there, as monsters attacked them for some reason… “…Wait, was casting Explosion all I did today?” “What’s up with you all of a sudden? Anyway, isn’t it a little late to be asking that? All you ever do is use that spell, right? If you took away that spell, the only thing that’d be left is the loli part of you.” I looked Kazuma up and down. He was pouring booze into a glass with a glug-glug. This man had just called me something disgusting. “Then you are a loli-lover for coming on to me every now and then. I’ll let everyone at the Adventurers Guild know about Loli-ma.” “C-cut it out—don’t take me down with you. You’ll be officially known as a loli yourself.” Ignoring us, Aqua wasted no time putting the crabs on the grill. “Sheesh, what are the two of you thinking, arguing with amazing food in front of you? Can’t you live like me, calm and relaxed?” “Didn’t you just cry when you stubbed your toe on the sofa, after you jumped around all thrilled about getting seafood from Darkness’s dad?” I was about to wash up for dinner when Darkness came to lend a hand after she put the pot on the table. “I don’t know what happened, but you seem especially perky. Why don’t you tell me what you did today while we eat? Seems like you’ve been having a lot of fun recently, Megumin,” the blond woman said with a laugh. …In the end, the noble we’d helped had been, in a word, awful. After we’d eradicated the monsters, a young lady of the house had appeared. She was about our age and had apparently fled from the mansion by herself. She’d promptly told us she hadn’t even asked for our help, despite us not asking for thanks. If I hadn’t been completely dry on mana and unable to move, I probably would’ve found myself assaulting her. Why was that place being attacked to begin with? Chris had said we’d have the answers sooner or later, even if we were left with questions now, as the Silver-Haired Thief Brigade also had their eye on that noble’s residence. I’d been curious as to how Chris could’ve possibly known that. Probably through some sort of bandit information network. “Well said, Darkness. Actually, I’ve been wondering what Megumin’s been getting into, as well—probably up to some nonsense again.” Kazuma spoke without taking his eyes off the sizzling crabs. “I know,” Aqua said. “I heard from Cecily. She said she’d thought up some way of earning easy money by using pretty little girls.” Kazuma and Darkness gave me a look that said they couldn’t believe I’d been roped into something that sketchy. “Do not worry—I will tell you all what I was doing. It wasn’t anything unsavory… I mean it, okay?! You don’t have to look at me like that!” After I gave a flustered explanation for myself, I recalled the day’s events. The result had been lame and a bit frustrating, but I couldn’t help but feel it was all good as long as the heroic thieves I admired so deeply took care of things for us. If things went as I hoped… “Everything started on the night of the fireworks show. I escaped the clutches of the police, and as I was heading back to the mansion alone…” If only I could meet those people I look up to, even just one more time…