Sunrise glistened over the shacks and houses that made up the fortified town of Axel. In the far distance, the high concrete and mortar walls that made up the beginners village soared, drifts of fog glazing across the barriers reaching hundreds of feet into the skies. Rays of light glinted across the Ohashi River, the channel that ran straight through the heart of the town. Birds rose up out of alarm at the first dramatic bong...bong...bong of the morning church bells. Seven o'clock, on a beautiful Friday morning.
At the northern edge of the town, tucked in the forest, was a slightly dingy mansion estate. Colonial style, three stories tall, surrounded by a red brick wall and lined with shrubbery along the base. A puff of smoke gently rose from the chimney, nestled on the green shingle roof.
Perched high above the rooftop was Satou Kazuma; messy haired, twenty years old and constantly squinting, still dressed in his drab green jumpsuit (which had these days been reduced to nightwear). Morning was his favorite time of the day; no squabbling party members, no worrying about the next villain to face off with, just sit and watch the sun rise.
Kazuma leaned back against the roof, his feet propped up by the roof of his window. He took a sip of his mug of orange juice and smiled. The sun was just starting to break through the clouds, and Kazuma could smell the fresh morning dew in the air. Kazuma's eyes drifted up to the sky, and he could see a pair of brown-feathered eagles swirling above, encircling each other. For a moment, that's all they were doing. Two birds flying around each other.
Kazuma shifted in his spot.
The two eagles continued to circle about each other, before they suddenly approached each other, maybe a few feet apart. Splaying their class out to each other, they locked their talons together and seemed to go limp, dropping into a freefall.
Kazuma stood up now, staring at the feathery deadweights crashing to the ground like an asteroid. What on Earth was this, an impromptu suicide pact? Kazuma stared as the pair of eagles continued to spiral towards the ground, gaining speed every second. For a brief moment, he really thought the two would crash into the ground.
Then, in a dramatic display, they broke off the engagement and soared upwards into the sky, maybe ten feet off the ground. The two birds soared up and met again, flying off into the distance together.
Wow, a mating dance.
He leaned back against the roof.
The whole concept of dating wasn't really high on his priorities, but he couldn't help but think about it sometimes. Considering his, er, reputation as a womanizing panty-stealer with most of the townspeople, he wasn't exactly the talk of the town with the ladies. You'd think that owning a luxurious mansion and sitting on close to half a billion dollars would make you a little bit desirable, but no such luck.
He ran down the names of girls he knew. Kazuma hadn't heard from Eris/Chris, the only goddess worth a damn here in this world, in months (and besides that, love between a reincarnated human and a goddess was forbidden, so another adventurer told him). Dust had recently told him that he finally convinced YunYun to a date, which ended with a kiss on the cheek. Wiz was always busy tending to her shop and her services to commit to anything serious. While Darkness and him got along well, it simply wouldn't work out. Kazuma would rather perform a self circumcision then date Aqua.
And of course-
"KAZUMAAAAAAAA!", a shrill voice called out to him from inside the mansion.
Kazuma closed his eyes, and slowly sucked in a lung full of air.
"KAZUMAAAAAAAA! HEY, KAZUMAAAAAAA!" the voice called again, not hiding it's annoyance.
He exhaled slowly.
Kazuma picked up his cup and dumped the remnants out, watching it rain down onto the nearly cut grass below. Taking a grip on his rappel, he leapt off the room and twisted his body mid-air, launching himself back into his room.
With a tumble and a fall, he rolled into his room, knocking off a glass from his nightstand in the process. Kazuma quickly got up and dusted himself off, and stepped out into the hallway.
Kazuma peeked into the kitchen. A blue haired girl, her ponytail tied up with some cheap cosplay prop, was bent over in a row of cabinets sifting through racks of spices and sweets, grumbling to herself. She stood up and slammed the door shut.
She reared her head back.
"Oi, KAZUMAAA-
"Yes, Aqua. How may I help you, my dewdripped princess?", Kazuma said with an entirely faked-in smile, cutting her off.
Aqua squinted her eyes, a flash of disgust across her face. "I need more money so I can get groceries from the market. We're already low on spices and we're completely out of eggs."
"Really? More money for your grocery budget for the month? And what happened to the previous three hundred dollars I already put in there?" Kazuma sneered.
Aqua was unfazed by the point. "Well, I could always just skip making breakfast for everyone today!" Aqua proclaimed, hands at her hips.
After almost a year of living at the mansion, everyone had assumed unofficial roles. Aqua was in charge of the cooking, Darkness in charge of the cleaning (with the implication she gets some weird sexual pleasure out of it), Megumin was in charge of laundry and Kazuma was the assumed role of treasurer/head of house. Kazuma had made the mistake exactly once of letting Aqua run off with whatever money she wanted for her grocery runs, only to return later with more booze than food (good booze, but that was beside the point).
Kazuma pondered for a second. A lightbulb popped in his head.
"Tell you what,", Kazuma started, putting a firm hand on Aqua's shoulders. "How's about I go out to the market and pick up some groceries, and I prepare breakfast for today." Kazuma sat Aqua down at the head of the dining table. "Lord forbid we allow Axel's most beautiful and most gormless goddess to lift a finger on such a fine Friday like today!"
Aqua blushed. "Whyyy, thank you, Kazuma-san! Only a gentleman of your nature would appreciate my charms and harmonious good looks!" She tucked a strand of her sky blue hair behind her ear for good measure.
Kazuma faked a smile. "You just sit right here and I will be right back with some food for our goddess of the hour." With that, Kazuma spun around and made his way back up to his room.
Aqua smiled and waved him goodbye, then stopped.
"What does gormless mean?"
Kazuma broke out into laughter as he took off up the stairs.
He had almost made it up to his room when the door further down from his clicked open. Out stepped a short girl, about 5'5 to Kazuma's 5'11. Slim figure with a slightly lacking bust. Flush pink pajamas with a fluffy white bordering, a button missing at the top. Crimson red eyes, as deep as the most lavish of sapphires.
Megumin. Axel's resident explosion extraordinaire.
Kazuma felt his heart pick up a little faster.
"Ahhh, good morning, Megumin." Kazuma said, bowing respectfully. "How did you sleep?"
Megumin shrugged, pushing her rich black hair out of her face. "Eh, as good as it could get with last night's thunderstorm keeping me up. "
Slowly strutting up behind her was a jet black feline, with solid yellow eyes and a small red cross embellished in the fur on its forehead. On its back, a pair of tiny wings, almost like a bat. The little cat yawned, showing off it's shiny white fangs. It stretched itself out and hopped up on Megumin's leg, and quickly scaled the distance up to her shoulder.
Megumin pushed her cheek into the cats fur, and gently scratched under its chin. "But this little girl kept me company the whole night." Megumin gently kissed Chomusuke on the cheek, and paused. "Why are you up so early?"
"Well, I was actually about to go into town for some groceries. Would you like to join me? I-if you're not doing anything, that is."
Megumin gave him a quizzical look. "Kazuma, you really are a dummy."
E-ehh?
"I just woke up, what could I possibly be up to?"
Kazuma's cheeks tinted pink. "Ahaha, right! Duh, of course."
Pause.
"So was that a-"
"Yes. It was a yes, Kazuma."
…
After a quick shower, the two were ready to hit the town. Kazuma opted to wear his trusty green-black tracksuit (one of his few reminders of his previous life in Japan). Megumin opted to wear a coincidentally similar outfit, with a maroon jacket and dirt brown undershirt, with loose shorts and boots to match. Her bangs were combed back and tied up with a stylish strawberry hair-clip, that matched the reds of her eyes.
If you didn't know any better, you'd say they almost looked like…
Kazuma sweated internally.
From the gates of the estate, it was a ten minute walk to the heart of town.