“Aww, shaddup, Lin! I’m not scared of any enchanted sword! Hey, you, do me a solid! You’re some big-name adventurer, right? Help me out with a little training, then!” “…Indeed, it seems I have no choice. Let’s step outside, then. You two, go rest up at the inn.” “Okay. We’ll meet you there once you finish off this lowlife—don’t take too long.” “He looks like he’d fight dirty. Watch out, okay?” That settled things, it seemed like. With the eyes of the entire Guild on them, the perpetrators left the building. Thinking this seemed poised to go somewhere interesting, I trotted after them for a look, but… “Hold on, Megumin! You said it yourself—you shouldn’t lock eyes with the likes of them!” Yunyun was shouting as softly as she could, being very careful not to look in the troublemakers’ direction as she rained on my parade. “But this seems set for a fascinating denouement. Don’t stop me from seeing what happens.” “N-no, you can’t! It’s obvious who’s going to win. In a few minutes, that punk is going to come back crying. And if your eyes meet his…” “D-dammit, he must be cheating… Handsome and strong? Screw him. And screw all of you! What’re you looking at? This ain’t the zoo!” He really did come right back. Apparently, he had barely lasted a moment after they left the Guild. “I told you to quit while you were ahead. I know you have a dirty personality, and I can’t stop you from getting into fights…but you could at least learn to pick on people your own size.” “G-geez, I get it; I’ll find someone a little weaker next time… Some pigeon from the weakest class with a bunch of good-looking ladies…” That didn’t sound promising at all. I managed not to meet the punk’s eyes even once. Then Yunyun and I decided to hightail it out of the Adventurers Guild before we somehow got involved. 3 The next day. “Explooosion!!” “Not you agaaaaaain!” The guard shouted so loudly, he could practically be heard over my explosion as it echoed across the field. For the second day in a row, I had come to unleash my magic… “Hey, you, what did I say yesterday? Don’t go firing off spells for no reason! Hang on. All those craters that have been appearing near town—are you responsible for those?! Do you know how much work it’ll be to fill those back in?” “B-but I did just as you said yesterday. I have unleashed my explosion against monsters. Specifically, I eliminated a single Giant Toad! …That said, could you help me up?” At the moment, I was facedown in the dirt. The guard sighed and picked me up. “Listen, even I can handle a frog. I’ll take care of any amphibians that get too close to the gates, so maybe you could fire your magic at something farther away from town.” “I am afraid that once I cast my spell, I can no longer move. If I was paralyzed too far from town, I would be easy pickings for any monsters who happened by.” “…Seems to me like you need to find some companions, young lady.” If I could find companions, I wouldn’t be in this position… I said my farewells to the guard and once again dragged my MP-less body toward the Guild. I heard a voice—one that was starting to sound awfully familiar. “Nooooo! I caaaaaan’t! Why me?! Why should I, of all people, be reduced to civil engineering?! Find a job more suited to me!” “Gee, sorry manual labor is such a problem for you, but we need work that pays by the day and pays well—and this is the only thing left. So keep the whining to yourself!” “Noooooo! How about another job in sales? Please let me try being a saleswoman again! This time I’m sure it’ll work out!” “And where exactly are you getting this confidence from? Come on! I don’t want to do this sort of thing, either—I would love to just grab a quest and get going. But with our equipment, we’d be dead in five minutes. Okay? Beggars can’t be choosers; let’s at least give it a shot. It sounds like the town has been desperate for laborers out on the plain recently. Perfect time to make some cash. Don’t worry—for you, it’ll be easy!” It was those two young people again, the ones I seemed to keep running into for some reason. They were outside the town’s Department of Civil Engineering, arguing. It looked like they had struck out with yet another job. They must have come here when they heard about the demand for manual workers. The girl with the blue hair, however, absolutely refused to go inside. Hmm. So it seemed I wasn’t the only one lacking employment because society appeared to see no need for me. “Don’t be stupid, idiot! Just who do you think I am?! I’m not made for dusty, dirty physical work! And it’s about time I had some real gourmet food! It’s been bread crusts every day! Why should I have to eat like that?! A being as exalted as I am needs to take care what she eats!” “You were eating potato chips when I met you! Now stop whining, and let’s get going! I want to earn some equipment and get adventuring!” “Nooooo! I hate civil engineering! How can a socially withdrawn loser like you be so proactive?!” They were like me—just doing everything they could to scrape by. I watched the young man drag the girl away before I headed to the Adventurers Guild to find some work of my own. 4 Several adventurers got to their feet when they saw me enter the Guild. Almost like they were afraid of me. Could it be because I was Crimson Magic Clan? Or was it because I had acquired the gravitas of a true adventurer? The thought made me smirk, but then I saw the adventurers who had stood up go over to the bulletin board and tear down several flyers. ……………… “Excuse me.” “Y-yes?! Can I help you?!” I was speaking to one of the adventurers who had torn something off the board; she seemed unduly worried. “…Ma’am, could I perhaps have a look at that flyer you just tore down?” “Uh… No.” “Gimme!” I grabbed the piece of paper from where she had tried to hide it behind her back. Whereupon… Wizard wanted. Four-person party. Any spells okay. “Oh-ho! Any spells, I see! How convenient! I just so happen to be a wizard in between parties myself!” “S-s-sorry, spot’s filled; we found our newest member just a moment ago, and that’s why I was removing our post…!” The woman tried to get away, but I grabbed her. “I have had quite enough of these excuses! What is this, anti-Explosion discrimination? Is this entire Guild conspiring to shun me?!” “D-don’t get the wrong idea! No one is discriminating against Explosion; it’s just recently… There’s been this girl who knows Explosion, and she’s really… Like, the moment she sees a monster, it’s bam! Explosion! According to the rumors, she’s a real nutjob…” “I believe those are fighting words! Let us see how much you can bad-mouth me after you witness my explosion! …Hey, what are you—? Stop that!” “No magic inside the building!” I had begun to intone my spell despite the fact that I was out of MP, and I soon found myself overpowered by an assortment of staff and adventurers and dragged into another room. “Miss Megumin, this just won’t do. Anything more powerful than advanced magic is forbidden in town. The next time we catch you trying to use magic around here, you’ll be locked up for a whole night.” Maybe it was a sign of how far I had sunk that my first thought was to file that threat away for when I was out of money and really needed a place to stay. Having suffered my scolding by the Guild staff, I went over to where Yunyun was entertaining herself… “N-no way! Do you think I’m so easy, I would just go toddling after anyone at all?!” “No, I don’t! I’m just asking you! I swear I don’t have any ulterior motives! All I want is to get my mom off my back, so I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend for a while! My poor, sick mother says she wants to see her grandchild’s face before she dies…! Or if that’s not possible, at least see her son’s wife…! I’m turning to the only person I could lean on at a time like this, my one and only friend, you, Yunyun…!” A man I didn’t recognize in the least bowed repeatedly, begging Yunyun to do…something or other for him. “O-only friend… Ugh, but—pretending to be your girlfriend…?! I’m only thirteen! I’m still a minor!” she rejected. “That doesn’t matter—I just need you to poke your head in and say hello to her!” the man said. “Don’t worry—you don’t have to do anything! It’ll be fine!” “Really?! H-hold on. Why do you sound so desperate?! I really don’t think I can—” “Pleeeease! I’m begging you, just a date, just an hour—just thirty minutes!” The man sounded downright tragic, practically worshipping Yunyun now. “But wait, that’s not what you said before…! I thought I was only supposed to pretend for your sick mother?! How did that turn into a date…?” “Pleeeaaassse, please, please, please, please!” The man was begging on his hands and knees. “Wait, hold on, just wait a moment…” “Please, please, please, please! You see how it is, and I’m begging you, just a little, I’m begging you!!” Finally worn down, Yunyun, looking more than a little apprehensive, said to the kneeling man, “Urrrgh… W-well, maybe if it’s only…j-just for a little while!” “You’ll do it?!” “Of course she won’t do it. Who do you think you are, taking advantage of people’s kindness! I’m going to call the police on you!” “Wh-who the heck are you?! Wait— Oh! You’ve got to be that crazy—! No, stop, don’t call the cops! Anything but that! I get it! I’ll go away—I promise!” And true to his word, he went dashing off. I made a shooing motion in his direction as I went over to Yunyun. “What do you think you are doing?! I cannot believe you, getting swept along so easily! No good can come of letting him pull you into his little games!” “A-awww, but, but! His sick mother, she just wanted to see—” “That’s a low-down lie! What else?! Did anyone ask you to do anything else shady while I was away?!” “N-nobody asked me to do anything shady! The only person who asked me to do anything was that old man who drinks here every day. He said, ‘Start calling me Daddy, sweetheart.’ But that was it…” “That sounds like the very definition of shady! You turned him down, right?! Listen to me: If that old fart talks to you again, don’t give him the time of day! If your real father, the chief of our clan, found out that his daughter was in a far-off city calling strange men Daddy, he would burst into tears!” Yunyun was so immensely, desperately vulnerable. Look at all the trouble she had managed to get herself caught up in just a week after we had arrived. Yunyun only pulled out a piece of paper and studied it. “What else am I supposed to do? I spend all day, every day by myself in this tavern—if someone wants to talk to me, why, I would hardly even care if they were a recruiter for the Axis Church…” “What do you have there? Throw that away—you don’t need that!” I grabbed the Axis profession of faith from Yunyun, wadded it up, and tossed it aside. This would never do. I had been leaving Yunyun to fend for herself in the hopes that it would cure her of her shyness, but she was too far gone in her loneliness, and it was taking her to some dangerous places. But I had my hands full looking for an adventuring party… It hit me in a flash. “Yunyun. How about this: You and I can form a party temporarily—until we both find parties of our own.” “Whaaaaaaaaat?!” Yunyun really seemed more surprised than necessary by my invitation. Was it that strange? “But! B-b-but…! I made a resolution…! I made a declaration, and it’s hardly been a week since then…” Hmm? I had no idea what Yunyun was talking about. “What is the matter? I am only suggesting we form a party together—why should it cause you such consternation?” Yunyun scrunched up her face. “…H-hey, Megumin. You remember what I said, don’t you? You know, about…about how we were going to settle things once I learned advanced magic?” “Oh, you mean your mutterings in the carriage after we finished off Arnes. What about them?” I thought I was encouraging her to go on, but Yunyun looked like she might burst into tears. “What do you mean, ‘what about them’…? I can’t believe this! We make an important promise, and it just pops right out of your head! This is how it always is with you, Megumin! How can you claim to be the greatest genius of the Crimson Magic Clan when you’re just a dummy who can’t remember one single important thing?!” “Say what?!” “Yikes, no fighting in the building!” For the second time that day, I, along with Yunyun, found myself being lectured by a Guild employee, after which we were summarily ejected from the building. 5 “Ugh! Megumin, why are you always like this?! Do you never learn? Has the shock wave from those explosions scrambled your brain so badly that you have permanent amnesia?” “You still have a bone to pick with me? And now that we are outside, there is no one to stop me from going berserk!” “Wh-what, you want to fight?! You’re so low on MP, you can hardly stand up, and you still think you can beat me?!” We were on our way back to the inn. And we were still at each other’s throats. “Argh…! That was the declaration of a lifetime, and you don’t even remember…! I can’t believe you; I just can’t!” Yunyun buried her face in her hands and shook her head vigorously. “Fine, I understand. It was wrong of me to forget. So what? What was this all-important vow that you made? Repeat it for me.” “What?!” Yunyun went bright red. “I do not think what I said was that difficult. But to reiterate, what was this vow that was so important to you? I promise I’m listening now. Go ahead.” I walked slightly off the road, just into the underbrush, and assumed a formal sitting position to show how seriously I was attending to her. That only seemed to throw Yunyun off even more. “L-look, it’s nothing, okay? It doesn’t matter anymore—just forget about it, for real this time! We’ll talk about it some other time.” “Excuse me. What do you mean, then, by going around calling people dummies? I do not know what has you so embarrassed, but hurry up and come out with it. I will certainly listen now.” Yunyun, confronted with my serious listening pose, looked almost tearful. But then she scrunched up her face with resolve…! “It was, well… O-once I learn advanced magic, once I’m not going to slow you down anymore—! Then you and I—” “Excuse me, you there!! May I trouble you for a moment?” A middle-aged butler in a coat with tails interrupted Yunyun. “You certainly may not. We were just getting to the good part; go away!” “P-please hear me out! I am looking for someone!” he said. Yunyun and I glanced at each other. “It so happens that a young lady of our household has run away to escape an arranged marriage… I’m very sorry to trouble two strangers with this business, but please help me search for her…! In this land, beautiful golden hair and blue eyes are the sign of a pure-blooded noble. Our young lady has golden hair that stretches all the way down her back. If you see anyone fitting her description, please be so kind as to inform the Dustiness household. I assure you, we will be certain to show our gratitude…!” Then the middle-aged man bowed politely. The Dustiness household—they were a noble family so prominent that even I, with my minimum of experience of the world, knew who they were. A young woman who had run away from her family was a serious thing indeed. The man’s description of her conjured up a gorgeous, refined person. No doubt she was elegant, with a delicate figure. A sweet young girl at heart—I was interested in seeing such a proper young lady for myself and even more interested in the proffered reward. “Please leave it to us,” I said. “If we see any such person, we will certainly bring her to you.” “Thank you so much! It would mean the world to us!” Then the butler went running after another passerby. “Yunyun, let us go! Seeing how our wallets are empty, finding that poor, lost lamb of a noble girl should be our first priority!” “U-uh…! I’m not especially lacking in money…!” I dragged Yunyun along as I went running off! “So tired… And we never found the noble girl…” “Tsk…! And here I ran all over town in hopes of a nice, fat reward from House Dustiness! Where could that girl be hiding…?” We had turned the town inside out but had come back to our inn without having found so much as a clue to the whereabouts of the missing girl. We were dealing with a child of nobility. Getting out of the house would be easy enough, but once in the outside world, she would have no idea what to do. She was probably hiding somewhere, paralyzed with fright. Or worse, maybe an awful man had dragged her off someplace. Gold hair and blue eyes was such an unusual combination that I had thought for sure we would find her right away, but the only person we saw with gold hair around Axel was some lady in filthy armor, traveling with a silver-haired Thief and yammering something about how a demon had appeared in the forest and she was going to “beat the living crap out of it” in the name of the goddess Eris. No matter how hard we searched, there was no sign of a refined young noblewoman anywhere. “…It seems we must admit defeat. I should not have relied on the vagaries of fortune! Starting tomorrow, we will take up a proper quest!” “So are we really starting a party?! Come on—after I was so serious about the whole learning-advanced-magic thing! You know, it took me a lot of courage to say all that! Do you really not remember?!” 6 The next morning. We were happy that there weren’t too many adventurers at the Guild when we arrived early that day—it gave us a chance to have a close look at all the quests on the bulletin board. Chomusuke was back in my room, Yunyun and I having decided that we wouldn’t be able to protect her in case of a monster attack. “Megumin, how about we start with something simple?” Yunyun said, holding up a post representing the bread and butter of adventuring in this town, a Giant Toad hunt. These extremely fecund frogs were also an essential part of the food chain in Axel. I mentally put it in the “maybe” pile as I scanned the other posts… Clean Gravestones by the Mansion on the Outskirts of Town Laborers Wanted to Fill in Craters on Plain Common Graveyard: Zombie Maker Hunt Seeking Runaway Young Noblewoman Lake Water Quality Inspection: The recent uptick in civil engineering projects has resulted in leftover silt and dirt washing into the lake. And so on and so forth… Hmm, this posed a riddle. We were a party of two wizards. The ideal quest for us would be a hunt mission demanding considerable firepower. “Then perhaps we should go where rumor says all the tastiest stuff is—into the forest.” “What?! You mean the forest, where there’s supposed to be a demon so big and so bad that they put a bounty on its head?! There’s only two of us! Let’s start with some nice, easy monsters on the plain!” That demon with the huge bounty was exactly what I was after. But I knew better than to tell Yunyun that, lest she decide to spend another day sitting by herself in the Guild. Fine, we could go to the stupid plain first, if that was what she needed to build up some confidence…! “Ah, brought a friend today, Miss? That’s good, that’s great, now you’ll be just fine. Get plenty of distance from town, and then you can fire off magic to your heart’s content.” As we exited the town gate, I had to suffer the condescension of the guardsman. It seemed he already remembered who I was. Not far outside of town, Yunyun’s eyes began to sparkle. “G-gosh, Megumin, you’ve been so busy that the guard already knows who you are? And here I thought you had just been killing time.” “Th-that is quite enough! Don’t pretend I am like you, with your communication impediment. While you have been playing in a corner by yourself, I have already succeeded in establishing something of a reputation for myself in this town. Why, even at the Adventurers Guild, there are more than a few who know me by sight.” “What?! Since when?!” I ignored Yunyun’s shock and went in search of my prey. …Nothing I’d said was untrue. “Fireball!” Yunyun’s magic exploded against the frog, which had been sitting lazily on the plain. It was nothing next to Explosion, but it made a fairly decent boom, and it successfully fried the frog. My stomach rumbled a little at the appetizing aroma of cooking frog flesh. “Yunyun… You don’t happen to have any salt with you, do you?” “What, you want to sit down and eat right here?! No, we need to take this frog back to the Guild and sell it to them. Subtract transport fees, and the frogs get us five thousand eris each. And if we take out five of them, there’s a quest completion bonus, too—I’d say that’s pretty good.” I looked longingly at the blackened frog. Three of them, in total, lay collapsed on the ground. That represented a total of fifteen thousand eris. Two more, and we would allegedly get a hundred-thousand-eris completion bonus as well. I had heard frog hunts were pretty standard work, and I had to admit, I was impressed by the rate of return. It wasn’t bad, and yet… “Very well. I think you should be feeling reasonably confident by now. Let us alert the Guild to pick up these frogs, and then we shall proceed to the forest.” “What, so soon?! We only just finished our first battle!” Yunyun objected. “Yes, and what has it proven to us? It shows precisely how strong the magic of the Crimson Magic Clan is. These minor pests are beneath us; we should seek out a stronger foe. Your level will never increase if you spend all your time picking off small fries.” “Okay, that’s a fair point, but, Megumin, you didn’t do anything! Be honest: Am I the only one of us who can actually fight? I can’t help feeling like if we go into the woods, we’re bound to run into that demon everyone’s talking about…” “And that would be ideal. Just think about it for two seconds. I defeated Arnes, did I not? She may have had a few screws loose, but she was still a high-level demon. Compared with her, some random fiend haunting the woods is nothing. You just handle the minor enemies, Yunyun, and if the big bad shows up, leave it to me. How does that sound?” Despite my confidence, Yunyun scrunched her nose, sensing something fishy. “Well…maybe it would be all right. Even though I know that the more confident you are, Megumin, the worse things seem to go…” “Y-you are very sassy today! Look, consider that if we exterminate this notorious demon, the other adventurers will certainly be grateful to us. Imagine that day, all the parties that will invite you to join them…” “……I’ll go.” And so we went. 7 We proceeded assiduously into the dim, overgrown forest, Yunyun ahead and me behind. So far, everything was going well; we hadn’t encountered any monsters to speak of. “The last time I was in these woods, we were beset by slimes and assailed by flying squirrels, yet today there is no sign of any of them.” “Flying squirrels? There are flying squirrels in this forest? Ooh, flying squirrels are kinda cute, aren’t they?” Yunyun, blissfully unaware of the true terror of those monsters, was enjoying the thought. Meanwhile, I was thinking she could do with getting some squirrel pee on her head. The bushes just in front of us rustled, and I cried out. “L-look! You’ve called them forth by talking about them!” Yunyun was immediately on the alert, drawing both her wand and her dagger from her belt. In front of us appeared—! “I-it’s so cute…!!” Yunyun breathed, her eyes sparkling. In front of us appeared a fluffy, moist-eyed bunny about the size of a puppy. The only unusual thing about it was the horn sprouting from its head. It might be cute, but I suspected it was still plenty monstrous. “Yunyun, the Guild employee warned us specifically about this monster—the Lovely Rabbit. Don’t let its cuteness fool you—keep up your guard and finish it off.” “What?! Y-you want me to kill it?! This sweet little thing?!” Yunyun was practically weeping. Despite her tearful appeal, though, this was a monster we were facing. And we were adventurers…! “Coo…,” the rabbit said. Then it cocked its fluffy head. A—a c-cute monster was still a monster. I must not let down my guard…! The Lovely Rabbit came toward us at what could best be described as a toddle, approaching Yunyun at an unsteady gait. “It’s so cute…! Megumin, it’s so cute, I can hardly stand it! It’s unbelievably adorable! Megumin, there has to be some kind of mistake—this thing can’t be a monster! Just look how sweet it is!” “Keep it together, Yunyun; we were specifically warned about this creature. ‘Lovely Rabbit’ is just a name; I’m sure we can’t be too caref—” Before I could finish, the rabbit fixed me with its wet, red eyes. “Coo?” You don’t like me? it seemed to be asking. …I wanted to pet it. I wanted to give it a hug and pet all its troubles away! “Here, sweetheart, I have a veggie stick! C’mere, sweetie!” Yunyun, already completely taken in, took out a vegetable stick that perhaps she had been planning to have for lunch and set it on the ground. “That’s no fair! I want to—” —feed it, too, I was about to say, but the rabbit crept closer to Yunyun, completely ignoring the vegetable stick. There was considerably more rustling from the bushes the bunny had come from. ““………?”” Yunyun and I looked at each other; then slowly we turned toward the underbrush… Waiting there was an entire horde of white bunnies, all crouched around something. What were they doing there? …I squinted, and then I realized what the something was. They must have stabbed it with their sharp horns. For lying on the ground, dead from the assortment of stab wounds on its body, was a huge gray wolf. That was what the rabbits had flocked to. Meaning… ““They’re carnivores?!”” we exclaimed, causing the rabbits to collectively look in our direction. The bunny that had been waddling along a moment before got a glint in its eye, and I threw myself to the ground. A beat later, something white flew over my head. I heard a thump of something impacting the trunk of a tree. Slowly, fearfully, I looked back, where I saw my hat pinned to a tree trunk by a rabbit horn, with the rabbit still attached. As the creature struggled to free itself, I ran over and wrung its neck. Then I pulled the limp rabbit out of the tree and retrieved my hat. “Yunyun, these creatures are just despicable! They pretended to be cute and then attacked us when our guards were down!!” “All that cuteness and cooing—these monsters are nasty, nasty, nasty!” But our complaining didn’t stop the horde of rabbits from bearing down on us! 8 We managed to outrun the stampeding bunnies by the skin of our teeth, after which we found a tree stump to rest upon. “Arrrgh, now I have a hole in my hat… I’ll have to borrow a needle and thread when we get back to the inn,” I moaned, clutching my hat. “Hff… Hff… Th-that scared the life out of me… A species of adorable monster that forms packs to hunt and kill? Imagine the trauma a psychologically unprepared person might face…” Yunyun was breathing hard, her face pale, having used up a lot of her magic on a spell. True, they had been fearsome foes. The way the thing had waddled toward us at first turned out to be just an act. The sheer speed of them as they chased us down…! “We had to run away; there were too many of them. I didn’t even get to bring back the rabbit I managed to defeat. We won’t get any reward for rabbit meat that way.” “Are you suggesting you want to go back to those killer rabbits, Megumin? I sure don’t. They might be cute, but you saw them—they were eating a wolf. When I saw that, I thought I was going to cry.” I sympathized. I wasn’t eager to get anywhere near them again, myself. “Megumin, how about we call it quits for today? I used up a lot of my MP in that battle. Let’s at least go back and do our hunting on the plains.” I nodded slowly at Yunyun’s suggestion. After a few minutes’ rest, we could circle around back to town, avoiding the place where we had run into the bunnies. “Oh, by the way, I exterminated enough of those rabbits that my level increased. At this rate, it won’t be long before the day when I finally learn advanced magic.” Yunyun was downright gleeful. “…We should definitely limit our hunting to the weak enemies on the plain, starting tomorrow.” “B-but why? What, are you afraid that I’ll get ahead of you? You are, aren’t you? I knew it!” Yunyun was busy shaking me by the shoulders, but that was when I noticed something. “…? Is it just me, or is something coming this way? I hear a sound.” It was a faint rumbling. Then Yunyun heard it, too. “…? You know, I think you’re right. I wonder what that is. A monster? Perfect, I’ll take it out and get another level…” “That is no fair; I get the next one. You watch and learn.” “What’s this about, Megumin? I thought you were going to be our ace in the hole in case we ran into that demon. Just because you don’t want me to catch up to you… Hey, does something seem weird to you?” Yunyun looked distinctly uneasy. Yes, there was something strange, all right. The number of rumbles… “I have a bad feeling about this. I think we ought to withdraw for now. The greatest warrior is she who wins without fighting and all.” “Y-yeah, I agree. I think I’ve had enough battles for today. Let’s go home, cash in our frogs, and use the money to get some dinner.” Even as Yunyun spoke, the noise got louder. It sounded a lot like a group of monsters coming our way…! “R-run, Yunyun! We can’t win this one; we don’t want to be here when they arrive!” “Oh, wait for me, Megumin! Don’t leave me here… Oh!” The sound suddenly stopped. All that we heard in the ensuing silence was something rustling in the bushes behind us. And then it came flying out… A Lovely Rabbit, just like we had fought earlier. Had it been chasing us, or was something chasing it? There was no hint of cuteness left in its eyes. “““““Coo!””””” The rabbits came pouring out of the underbrush, howling, red eyes gleaming. “Megumin— Megumin, there are so many of them— Lightning! Wh-what do we do?!” “T-try to buy us some time, and then I’ll take them all out in one shot!” I called as Yunyun unleashed a spell on the rabbit in the vanguard. I raised my staff and began to chant. “Won’t everyone be angry if you use Explosion in the woods?! I’ve been purposely avoiding my Fireball spell so I don’t start a forest fire! Blade of Wind!” Yunyun backed up, casting another spell in the meantime that swept one of the rabbits away. Yunyun had whipped out her short sword, which crashed into the horn on a rabbit, sending sparks flying into the air. “If I don’t do this, we’re going to be bunny food! Natural destruction is nothing to be afraid of, not if you want to be a master of Explosion! Yunyun, get down!” “What?! No—! Wait…!!” “Explooosion!!” The rabbits were really too close for comfort, which meant, I knew, that they were close enough that we would feel some of the effects of the blast. A beam of light flew from the end of my staff, landing squarely in the middle of the furry horde. There was a pause, and then a vicious blast tore up the area, trees and all. Yunyun and I were at the mercy of the brutal blast wind… 9 “—O…o, humans… Yo, humans. You alive?” The voice seemed so far away. It appeared I had lost consciousness for a moment. From what I could tell, I was lying on my side on the ground. A tree branch or something was digging into my cheek, so I assumed I was still in the woods. My eyes fluttered open, and I was confronted with Yunyun, blissfully asleep. I gave her a good smack on the cheek. She frowned in discomfort, but I was relieved to know she was still breathing. I wondered how long I had been out. Despite draining my MP on Explosion, I felt like I could sit up if I really wanted to, so it must have been long enough for some of my MP to regenerate. “You awake? Those eyes—are y’all Crimson Magic Clan?” There was that voice again, above me. Perhaps whoever was speaking had been keeping us safe while we were unconscious. “…Oof, ow-ow-ow-ow…? Where are we? I hurt all over…” Frowning, Yunyun opened her eyes and tried to sit up. As I made to do the same… …I turned to our interlocutor and said, “Yes, we are from the Crimson Magic Clan. My name is Megumin, and—” Then I saw who I was talking to and froze. Yunyun managed to sit up, looking a bit out of it. “…? What’s wrong, Megumin? You look like you’ve seen a ghost… Hey, wait! I remember! What’s wrong with you, setting off an explosion right in front of us? Hey, are you listening…to…me…?” Her stern rebuke trailed off as she followed my fixated gaze… “Hey, ’sup? Got a minute? The name’s Host, and, uh, I’m lookin’ for a big, black magical beast right around here… Whoa, hey, hang on. You…you look familiar. Have we met? Nah, wait—you look like someone I know…” A demon stood before us. His inky-black skin reflected the light as if it were metal. His massive wings looked like they belonged to a wildly overgrown bat. He was big enough that he could have intimidated an ogre, and it was impossible to miss the twisting horns and fangs. A high-level demon. We were locking eyes with the sort of creature you would normally see only in the very deepest depths of some final dungeon somewhere. “…My name is Host! High-level demon—not just some overgrown goblin! He who will one day be commanded by this one kid I know! …How’s about that? Little self-intro for ya. I know you’re Crimson Magic folks, right? I know this is how you roll.” ““Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”” One look at the demon’s toothy grin sent Yunyun and me screaming in the other direction. 10 I had no idea how far we had run. We had made it out of the forest at some point, whereupon we looked back to make sure the demon wasn’t following us and then collapsed into a heap. Yunyun’s eyes were puffy with tears; she must have been genuinely terrified. “Hff… Hff…! Wh-wha…? Wh-what the heck?! That was a demon! A big, mean, high-level demon! I’ve never been so scared in my whole life…” “Hff… Hff… I must admit, I underestimated the sort of demon that would be living around here. I never expected him to be quite so big…” To be frank, if I had run into that creature when I was all alone, I do believe I would have wet myself. Arnes, my most recent demon acquaintance, had also been of a high level. But I guess the bigger they are, the more impact they have, because the demon in those woods was far scarier. Now that I had a chance to think about it, I was amazed we had escaped. Yunyun, gradually collecting herself, said, “Megumin. Did you think it was weird, what that demon said? He was talking about the Crimson Magic Clan and a huge magical beast…” “I don’t really recall, for I had better things to do than memorizing his every word. I think he said I looked familiar… Well, in any event. We can be grateful simply to still have our lives after encountering the likes of him. I think I would prefer to stay out of the woods for a while.” I let out a long breath. Yunyun nodded, pale-faced. “I’m so tired… Come on. Let’s go home and get some rest, okay?” “Yes, perhaps we should… Oh, but before that. We need to stop by the Guild and get paid for our frogs. We can report about that demon, too.” After a few minutes’ rest there on the border between the forest and the field, we headed back to town. We had gone out early that day, but between hunting on the plains and hunting in the woods, quite a bit of time had passed. Sunset had begun to color the scenery when we pushed open the door of the Adventurers Guild.
Chapter 27
33 min read