...Interlude...
Rather than spend the night camping outside the capital, they would be reoccupying it. And though it took them many hours, clearing out and burying the dead, they would be able to finish it all before it became dark. At the same time he'd spent his time collecting the equipment from all the dead cheat users, if any overpowered tool that they'd had fell into the wrong hands it would be the cause of more trouble than it was worth. But with all of that done there was a general light hearted feeling amongst his extended party and all of those who'd fought in the battle today, celebration eventually taking over all. He and his party, along with the Princess, were in the royal palace's dining hall having what was essentially a feast. Aqua had gotten completely wasted so early on that she was now sleeping with her head down on the table, Claire and Darkness were both nearing the same point and looked like they would tip over at any point, Anatalia was given an all you can eat buffet a run for its money with Everest and the rest of them sat idly chit chatting at the table. "I'm not sure what to do now," Iris said, exasperated. "So much happened that everything in the country is barely holding together. Normally my dad or brother would be in charge of managing things, but because they're away I'm stuck with all of this."
"I can try and help with what I can."
"You would?"
"I may not be a politician or royalty-"
"You are a noble though."
"-Right, forgot about that, but my point is I don't have the experience of acting as head of state but I know enough to help manage things. I know for a start that a lot of power is either going to have to be devolved or centralized with what happened to the noble houses."
"Right, a lot of the heads of the houses have died and some were wiped out entirely."
"Can we talk about something a little less serious?" Megumin asked, "I think it'd be nice to talk about something a little more lighthearted."
"I suppose you're right, but what is there to talk about?"
"Maybe you can talk about what you'd wish for once we defeat the Demon King? Aqua said that once you defeat the Demon King you'd be given the chance to wish for any one thing."
"Hmm… You are right," she had said that to him before he'd dragged her to this world with him. Of course he'd never really given it thought because he never knew he'd be in the position he was in now, in fact when he'd first come to this world he'd never intended to fight the Demon King. But now here he stood in the royal palace of the capital, preparing for the final battle with the Demon King and his army. "I'm not sure, I've never really thought about what I'd wish for. I'm not even sure about what I want."
"Surely there's something you could ask for?" Iris asked.
"Probably, but I've never really thought about myself. It was always about fighting for others."
"Then maybe you'll wish for something for someone else," Yunyun said.
"Maybe… If not that, then maybe it'll just be me hoping for a peaceful and quiet life."
"I'm sure you can get that, even without a wish," Yunyun said. "But Aurdel. You won't leave us, right? You'll stay here with us?" Megumin gave him a look, as if she meant to ask him the same question.
"Well I certainly don't plan on leaving any time soon."
"Don't say it like that," she said with a slight frown, "Saying it like that is scary."
"Yeah," Megumin added, "When you say it like that it makes it sounds like you might end up leaving whether or not you like it, we don't want that to happen. You know how much you mean to all of us."
"Alright alright, I won't leave you guys. I promise."
Iris smiled, "It's nice to see that you have such great companions. Maybe once this is all over I can go adventuring too, and maybe I can join you."
"That's a tall order Princess, are you sure that they'll let you?"
"Once the Demon King is defeated then my father and brother will be back in the castle for longer periods of time, meaning that I don't have to stay and hold down the fort. Besides," she grinned, "If they don't want me to leave then I'll just leave by myself."
He sighed, "You know, I'd disapprove but that attitude was what saved your life."
"Thank you."
"You don't have to thank me for anything. Besides, it's your life. So I suppose you're free to do whatever you want, no matter what anyone else around you says."
"Then I know for sure that when this is all over I'll go on an adventure, do whatever I want. Maybe I'll even have Claire and Rain come with me." They looked over towards Claire, who by now had become passed out drunk. The two of them had started out on the wrong foot when they first met but he could understand the attitude that she had. Her job protecting the Princess was a stressful duty, not to mention when events like this occurred that jumped several fold. Maybe when this was over they could sit down and talk, start again.
He turned back, "What about you two? What are you going to do once this is all over?"
"What are we going to do?" Megumin repeated, "I don't know about Yunyun, but I'm going to keep using Explosion every day until the day I die. I will become the world's master of Explosion no matter what it takes."
"Is there even anyone else that uses Explosion left besides you? You killed the person who taught you it, after all."
"Wiz knows Explosion."
"She does?"
"Yeah, who do you think gave the final blow to the Mobile Fortress Destroyer after you removed the core? As much as I don't want to admit it, I wasn't able to do it because I'd already used my Explosion for the day at that point and you were in no shape to transfer me any mana." Huh, he'd never really thought about it. He supposed it made sense though. From what he'd heard Wiz used to be an extremely powerful Archwizard before she settled down and set up shop in Axel, so he could see her using a spell like that at some point.
"Okay then, what about you Yunyun? What are you going to do when this is over?"
"I-I'm not sure," she seemed a little shy about answering the question, he had a feeling as to why. "At some point I need to take the trials to officially set myself on becoming the chief of the Crimson Demons, so I'll probably do that. But…"
"But what?" Iris asked.
"I'm not sure if I want to say, it's embarrassing," she looked down with red cheeks.
Iris took one good look at her, then nodded with a grin on her face. It was if she knew exactly what Yunyun wanted to say, "That's understandable, I can see why."
"Okay then, what about you Anatalia? Do you have any plans?"
She stopped eating, "I'm going to try and give my sister as normal of a life I can, after everything that she's been through and that I partially put her through it's the least that I can do for her."
"That's not a bad plan, it would be good for her."
"But I might settle down too," she added, "My parents died a long time ago, and they produced no sons. Which means it's either up to me or my sister to have the family name carried on, and I don't want to place that burden upon my sister so early in her life."
"That… makes sense too. But wouldn't you take the name of your husband?"
She put her finger to her mouth and licked it, "Nothing says I have to take his name, nor do I have to be married in the first place. Either way my family name will live on." He granted her that, she did have a plan.
"And I don't suppose you have a plan, do you?" He said to Everest, who nuzzled her beak under his hand and onto his lap.
"Wherever master goes I will follow," he placed his hand on her head and stroked it, she cooed.
"As for them, I don't think we'll be getting much out of them," Aurdel said that while looking at Aqua and Darkness, "But I do think they have the right idea, we should all be getting some rest."
"Do we really have to go so early?" Megumin asked.
"Yes, you do. A wise man once told me that a soldier's greatest weapon is a good night's rest, and today was a tiring day." He stood up, "I'll take them back to their rooms, then I'm heading off to bed."
"Do you remember where all the rooms are?" Iris asked.
"How could I forget?" He said while picking up Aqua from her chair. He wiped the drool from her mouth with his sleeve as he pushed open the door, carrying her out of the room. She mumbled things as he walked down the hall with her in his arms. It was hard to believe that this woman was a Goddess, no less difficult was it for him to believe that he'd gotten used to having her around and didn't mind it, even if she was quite annoying sometimes,
"Hey,,, Aurdel…" She mumbled, stretching out her arms.
"Careful," he chided, "Move like that and you're going to make me drop you by accident."
"Sorry…" She yawned, "I just wanted to ask you something… do we really have to defeat the Demon King?"
"Weren't you the one that said you wanted someone to defeat the Demon King? Especially since you want to go back to heaven?"
"Yeah, but… I was thinking… Is it really that bad staying here? We're always enjoying ourselves even if we go through tough times… Maybe… Maybe I don't want to go back?" Even though she was drunk the way she spoke seemed to be quite genuine, something that rarely ever came out of her mouth. It shocked him, he didn't know what to really say to it. "I know you might say it's stupid but… I think it'd be better if we all stayed here together."
"I don't think you should worry about this right now, I don't think you're in any state of mind to make any big decisions right now. Just worry about getting some rest."
"Okay…" she said, again with a yawn. He dumped her onto the bed in her room, tucked her in and left to go get Darkness.
"To take advantage of a woman like me in such a state… You really are a sick man…"
"I'm not taking advantage of anyone, especially not of you." She was up to her usual tricks.
Compared to Aqua she was much heavier for obvious reasons, though it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. It was more the type of woman that she was that was the issue here. The way she kept moving around and putting herself in… compromising positions… was extremely indecent. "Look if you have so much energy to mess with me trying to do something then I'll just put you down and let you walk back to your room."
"To simply discard me like trash, you are a horrible man," she seemed to enjoy every moment.
"And you're absolutely hopeless." He went as quickly as he could, throwing open the door and tossing her onto the bed.
"W-wait, aren't you going to force me down and-?"
"No!" He slammed the door and walked back through the hall with a sigh, what exactly was it with that girl?
"A-Aurdel, can you help us carry Lady Claire? It's all three of us but I don't think we can carry her." Iris and the others were trying to carry Claire off to her room, and were struggling. So he walked over and, with one arm, picked her up.
"Which way is it?"
"That way…" And he led them all the way there, opening the door and laying Claire down. He completed what they'd set out to do easily.
"Anyways, I'm going to go to bed now," he started to walk down the hallway when Iris grabbed his arm, "What is it?"
"Rain isn't here and Claire is quite drunk, I need someone to stand guard as I sleep."
"I see… that's especially important now given everything that's happened. Alright, I'll do it."
"Thank you," she bowed her head and led the way.
"We'll stay with you," Yunyun and Megumin said while following him.
"You two really don't want to leave my side, do you?"
"Why should we?" Yunyun asked, "You mean a lot to us, Aurdel."
"Yeah, we'll stay by you no matter what," Megumin added, "And we want you to do the same."
A thought passed through his mind, something he'd heard before. He muttered silently, "Can't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it..."
"What was that?"
"Nothing, just thinking to myself."
Night would turn to day quickly, an unfortunate fact with how long the days ahead of them would be. Luckily there were no attacks during the night, so they were able to sleep well without interruption. "We're back," Six said, teleporting back into the palace grounds with Wiz.
"How were things?" He asked. The two had gone out during the night to check on Axel and both the Crimson Demon village, wanting to see whether or not they were still standing and whether or not they were ready for the battle.
"The Crimson Demon village was fine, they're all ready for the fight. They even gave us this," Six handed him an item, "They said it's something called a barrier breaker, they found it some time ago while they were looking through the remains of Sylvia's camp. They assume that she was going to use it to open the "seal" that you unlocked, but regardless it's in our hands now since she's long dead."
"Right, we'll need to use it to get through the barrier around the castle," he pocketed the device. Even though they'd killed a good majority of the Generals the barrier was still up, as though Wiz was now fighting against the Demon King because she was still alive it was supporting the barrier. There was also the Demon King's daughter keeping up the barrier, though she was bound to be there when they attacked. "And how is Axel doing?"
"Axel is fine, all the adventurers there are gearing up for the fight too. There haven't been any attacks there either so they've been able to do it in peace. And Dust said he'd bring what you wanted, though I don't exactly know what that means."
"It's fine, I know what it means. Anything else?"
"Vanir surprisingly said he would be coming to participate too. I don't know why he had a change of heart, but I'm glad!" Wiz said. Yes, that was odd… From his understanding Devils didn't do anything unless they would get something out of it. So what was Vanir planning to gain from this? KIlling his ex-boss doesn't grant him anything, nor would it probably grant him the finances he needs to support the building of his dungeon. It was something he'd have to keep in the back of his mind. Then again, it was possible he had an idea of what it was.
"We also picked up a few people on our way back," Six motion to his and Wiz's back.
"Komekko?!"
"Saria?!"
"Sylphina?!"
"Yeah, those three." All three of them had come along on the way out. "The first hitched a ride on my leg when we were teleporting out of the village, the other two were given to us by the guild. The guild also apparently chipped in to power level those two, because they have cards now and have their levels in the teens."
"Seriously?" The two girls extended out their hands with the cards. Yeah, they were in the teens. Just how much had the guild spent to do that? He'd have to find out so he could pay them back.
"And apparently this little rugrat has something to give to you," Komekko jumped off of Six's back with a bag in hand, the sound of clinking glass could be heard from inside.
"Here onii-chan!" She thrust a bag into his hands, opening it so he could see inside.
"Are those… skill up potions?" Megumin asked.
"Yep! Onii-chan has to be really strong for big sister!"
"That's great, but how did you get these? The only place they stockpile them like this is at the school!"
"I broke in!" She exclaimed proudly.
"How?!"
"Remember when onii-chan was asleep? I took one of those green things he had and held on to it, I used it to blow up the door!" There was no end to her enthusiasm, but there was also no end to the shock on their faces.
"I… I should probably keep a better track of my equipment," he sighed. "Do you have any more of them?"
"Of course I do, they're all at home!"
"Please give them back…"
"No can do, I like them too much!" He looked at Megumin, she shrugged. It seemed having a fascination for explosives would run in the family now. "I even used a few potions to get my skills up, I learned some magic! Watch! Detonation!" Thankfully they were outside when she let it off, as it only ended up blowing up a tree rather than something important in the palace. "How was that?!"
"T-that was great, but you should probably use it somewhere else," Megumin said, panickedly going to her sister to make sure she didn't do it again. "Aurdel, what are you going to do with those potions?"
He scratched his non-existent beard, something he'd been meaning to grow out. "Megumin, how many points does it take to learn Explosion?"
"Fifty, why…?"
"And Yunyun, how much does much Advanced Magic cost?"
"Thirty skill points."
"Bind?"
"It'd just be two points," Anatalia said.
He scratched his chin again, "Hey Aqua, show me your God Blo-"
Without hesitation she slammed her fist into him, "God Blow!"
"You could have at least let me finish my sentence!" He nursed his face
"Aurdel, what is this all about?"
"Well," he said while standing up, "It just so happens that I've raised levels quite a bit, and as a result I have quite the stockpile of skill points. So between those and this pile of potions, why not learn a few things?"
AN: Apologies for the shorter than usual chapter, but next will be the assault on the Demon King's castle
