Kazuma drummed his fingers on the kitchen table idly, a tired yawn slipping past his lips as he used his free hand to rub the sleep from his eyes. His sleep from the previous night hadn't been particularly fulfilling, both due to Chomps' fussing and the lingering offer from Iris. He wasn't really considering it, but...what-ifs did flitter through his mind on occasion.

The part where Iris mentioned that people would die without his help was also a contributing factor in his lackluster sleep last night. Kazuma wasn't a heartless bastard as many viewed him as (though some of his past actions were warranted of that perception), he obviously didn't want innocents to get thrown into the meat grinder. However, war is still war; people dying is inevitable. And despite his party's lucky breaks with the Devil King's generals, Kazuma knew he couldn't rely on that winning streak forever. All it takes is one little slip up for him to lose his…

"God, I really hate politics." He grumbled quietly, shaking his head and pinching his brow as he leaned back in his chair, releasing a heavy sigh in the process. That's enough thinking about that for now. Leaning forward in his chair, he stood up and walked over to the stove, looking for the utensils they usually used to make breakfast. "C'mon, the one time I need the damn thing…"

"By the gods! Kazuma's trying to cook something again! GET DOWN!"

Brain still discombobulated from insufficient sleep, Kazuma didn't react in time to dodge the hyperactive Megumin's incoming attack. As such, he found himself knocked down to the ground with an amused, crimson-eyed girlfriend of his holding back a huge-ass grin.

"Morning to you too, Megumin." Kazuma huffed, a smile rising on his own face as placed a quick kiss on her forehead, before lightly pushing her off of him. "But was that really necessary? I mean, I made Hot Cocoa...once...with Aqua's supervision…"

"And that's why you have me to stop you from burning the house down!" Megumin responded proudly, the cheeky undertone not lost on Kazuma. "Just another day of looking after my man."

"I couldn't be more lucky, could I?" Kazuma hummed in response, earning another short laugh from his girlfriend as they both rose back to their feet. "So, what do you have planned today, since we've officially extended our break because we're too lazy for our own good?"

Megumin rubbed her chin and furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Well, other than my ritual Explosion run…I really don't know. I might write back to my folks since I still owe them a letter, but that's about all I have planned for today really. Maybe I'll just play with Chomusuke or something." The Crimson Demon's concentrated look then shifted into mock irritation as she added, "You have been hogging her for a while after all…"

"Alright, guilty as charged! Not my fault your familiar is so fond of me, y'know." Kazuma retorted, shaking his head with a slight chuckle as he scratched his chin. "It's still weird to think about how Chomps is half of Wolbach, though. You think they share thoughts or something, or are they completely separate beings now? Weird stuff, right?"

"I try no to think too hard about it," Megumin offered, moving to sit down at the kitchen table as Darkness and Aqua shortly entered the pictured. She greeted them appropriately. "Mornin' you two! You just missed me save the mansion from going up in smokes. Out stunning leader/boyfriend here was about to turn the stove on."

"Wha-Kazuma! I thought we agreed you'd never try again without supervision!" Aqua whined, jabbing her boyfriend's arm playfully and sparing him a mock scowl of disappointment. "Don't you remember what happened last time you tried to cook us dinner? Or when you tried to boil rice? Or when you-"

"OW! Aqua, that's my pride as a man you're attacking!" Kazuma half-joked before narrowing his eyes at her in a critical manner. "Don't forget, you used to be just as bad as me when it came to cooking. You have no right to judge me for this."

"True, but at least I've managed to get better at it! You haven't yet, so until that moment arrives, I'm handling the cooking, no exceptions." Aqua replied smugly, before brushing past Kazuma and sauntering over to the stove. "Now, what can your lovely goddess get for you~?"

"Pancakes," Kazuma huffed, unable to stay mad at his dorky deity. "And some bacon if we have any left. I'm hungry enough to eat a horse right about now."

"Coming right up! Get cozy everyone!" Aqua insisted before cracking her knuckles and getting to work. Within a matter of minutes, pancakes were being flipped and bacon was sizzling. If Kazuma had to give his girlfriend props for one thing above all else, it was how shockingly talented of a chef she was. "Almost done with the first batch! Everyone ready for some unbearably divine pancakes?"

With enthusiastic nods all around, Aqua set the plate of food down on the table as the gang grabbed their share and dug in. There was a brief period of blissful silence amongst the group as everyone savored the fluffy discs and crispy strips. It was one of few moments of silence that Kazuma didn't dread; there was nothing awkward about quietly enjoying some good food. Eventually, though, he did break the silence to ask about the two people that were absent from the table.

"So...where's Sena and Wolbach, then?" Kazuma mused, glancing down the nearby hall and frowning slightly in mild concern. "You think they're both just sleeping in or something? Usually they're up and with us around the same time…"

"I'm...not particularly sure, actually." Darkness replied, her brow furrowing in consideration as she hummed in thought. "Aqua mentioned that Wolbach was taking some time for herself yesterday, but I'm unaware if Sena has any similar convictions at this time."

"Oh, that's easy," Aqua spoke up. "Last night she told me she'd be going out first thing in the morning to 'take care of business'. Whatever that means. She's probably just job-hunting again like usual, I wouldn't worry about it!"

"Huh. Well, good for her, I suppose." Kazuma replied, returning to his breakfast with little pause, momentarily satisfied with his party member's explanations. "I know she really wanted to get back out into the game, so I guess it's good she's taking the incentive. Lord knows we have enough trouble with that, huh?"

"I'll say," Megumin commented in between bites. After being lightly scolded by Kazuma and Darkness to not talk with her mouth full, she swallowed and said, "When I first joined this party, I didn't think we'd be well-off enough to afford being lazy. Keep in mind, I come from a poor family, so having days where I can do nothing is still kind of a culture shock for me."

"Well, as fun as being lazy can be, there's definitely a point when it starts to become stifling, that's for sure." Kazuma replied, briefly considering his life back on Earth with slight chagrin. If he was back there, he'd sure as hell be worse than he already was. "Regardless, we need to do something in the coming week. I don't care if it's a mission, or a job, whatever. As long as we do something as a party away from the mansion, I'm game."

Kazuma's girlfriends all agreed and the couples resumed eating in peace. However, as they were finishing their breakfast, Sena suddenly entered the kitchen unannounced, startling Kazuma somewhat when he looked up from his plate and took note of her presence.

"Hey, there you are! We were wondering where you went, y'know?" He greeted, before he noticed the fairly serious look on her face, sitting up straighter from instinct alone. "Uh...you ok, Sena? You look like you have something to say."

"That would be because I do…have something to say, I mean," Sena explained, seemingly keeping her voice leveled for reasons Kazuma couldn't quite discern yet. "In fact, I'm not the only one who has something to say. The rest of your friends have something on their minds as well and we were wondering if you'd like to…hear us out. If that's not an inconvenience of course."

Kazuma cocked an eyebrow in uncertainty, but after glancing around the table and noticing how the rest of his teammates/girlfriends seemed to support the idea, he loosely shrugged his shoulders and nodded, standing up. "Sure, it's not like I had anything planned for the moment. Lead the way, I guess."

Sena relaxed briefly and smiled genuinely before becoming rigid in her posture once again as she led Kazuma to the front door. Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness looked to one another knowingly and smiled in satisfaction. Looks like the water goddess' little "incentive" for Sena was working its magic.

"Alright, since we're all settled in now, you guys wanna tell me what this is about?" Kazuma asked gingerly, glancing amongst the assembled girls in Wiz's shop with a small amount of nervousness. "You all look pretty serious right now, so I'd assume this is really important."

Yunyun, Chris, Wiz, and Sena all looked to one another briefly before letting the latter go through with this. At this point, it was now or never for them. "Yes, this is rather important not only to us but to you as well, Kazuma. You…may not like what we have to say, and that's perfectly fine. It's your right to choose to accept our proposition or not, so there's no peer pressure. And, well, um…"

"Look, there's no reason for us to dance around this anymore, so I'm gonna do us all a favor and bite the arrow on this one." Chirs interjected, taking a deep breath before looking Kazuma in the eyes and speaking again with all the sincerity she could muster. "Kazuma, we have feelings for you. All four of us. We've been hiding them for a while now, but with your girlfriends' permission, we've decided to confess to you properly. So there."

Funnily enough, after having a moment to process and subsequently reboot his brain upon hearing this delivery, Kazuma had only one thing to say, and he mostly said it to himself out of honest confusion.

"…What the fuck is going on with this romcom, slice-of-life, harem anime madness?"

Obviously, the majority of the girls were completely bewildered by his initial response, not that Chris was much better, as she immediately pinched the bridge of her and muttered a quiet, "Goddammit, Kazuma, focus please."

"Focus?! How am I supposed to focus after what you've just told me?!" Kazuma retorted, his voice an octave or so higher than normal. Shaking his head, he tried his best to compose himself as he continued. "Alright, just...someone walk me through this right now, before more dumb shit leaves my mouth."

"W-well, there's not too much to tell, really." Yunyun answered quietly, steeling herself enough to look her crush in the eyes as she addressed him. "We all have our own reasons for having feelings for you, a-and we figured that if we had the permission of Megumin and the others, m-maybe we could...I guess...have something of our own?"

"What, you mean like become…friends with b-benefits or something?" Kazuma asked, not believing he was actually partaking in a conversation like this. Even if what they said was true about his girlfriends giving them the all-clear, it was still a lot to take in all at once. One thing was for certain though: he was definitely going to have a little "chat" with his team once he got back home.

Those numbskulls have a lot to answer to…

"Well, while that title in particular has some...i-interesting connotations, I can't say it's completely incorrect." Wiz admitted through an involuntary chuckle. She laced her hands together in her lap and composed herself slightly before uttering her next words, which still held a certain amount of fear in them. "However, if you don't reciprocate our feelings and you don't want to entertain such prospects, I understand. I think we all do."

Kazuma exhaled heavily through his nose and rubbed his temples as put his weight on the countertop. He was at a loss for words. While his id was all in favor of succumbing to his base urges (who wouldn't with how attractive these four women are?), his superego was having a hard time accepting it. Admittedly, being in a polygamous relationship for the first time was already strange enough. But being in a polygamous relationship while having friends with benefits on the side? That…sounded insane.

This normally wouldn't be such a big deal in ecchi anime; those shows are founded on absurd premises, Kazuma rationalized in his head. But this isn't an ecchi anime, this is real life! MY life! Parallels to isekai aside, this isn't usually how real life operates! But at the same time…I don't want to disappoint my friends. Not after what they've for me. Plus, I always have thought that each of them are hot in their own right. Still, where do I go from here…?

"I...am in favor of giving whatever this is a try." He eventually answered, his words slow and measured with no small amount of skepticism. The four women immediately lit up regardless, which prompted him to continue. "However, before we do anything, we really gotta pin this down. What does it entail, how are we gonna go about it, everything important about how this 'friends with benefits' deal is gonna play out. I don't want any room for misunderstanding here, considering how bizarre this already is."

"Of course, an astute observation," Wiz praised before turning a shade of gray as the implications suddenly hit her along with the others. "Well…to be perfectly honest with you, Kazuma, we're not entirely sure how to go about this ourselves. I suppose it wouldn't be too different to how we normally interact with one another. We can still hang out and chat like always, but we could also be allowed to get more physical and…i-intimate with each other…"

Kazuma himself flushed a tad, admittedly not entirely against such a prospect, though he wasn't sure if that was something he should admit quite yet. Still, glancing around the room, he didn't see any objections at Wiz's suggestion. Sena had an idle smile on her face, though she was dabbing at a small trickle of blood that seemed to originate from her nose, while both Yunyun and Chris seemed equally eager at the prospect, though there was a level of shyness lingering in the former's gaze.

"Ok, sure," Kazuma sighed, somehow feeling more drained than how he was just this morning. "I think that's about as good of a battle plan as I'll get. How about this, we'll just go with the flow and figure this along the way. That's more or less what I've been doing with my girlfriends and it seems to be working out. Sound reasonable enough?"

"More than reasonable, yes." Sena confirmed, seemingly composing herself while he wasn't looking, with a small but bright smile having risen on her lips in that same period of time. "Thank you for even considering this, Kazuma. I understand how strange our request must seem, but after so much time passed with us unable to express ourselves fully to you...we figured we at least deserved the chance to confess, right?"

"Yeah, well, there's nothing wrong with being honest with your feelings," Kazuma said with a mild shrug. "Who am I to condemn you for that. In fact, I'm actually kinda glad you guys were upfront with me on this. You know how much I hate it when girls expect me to just 'get it' when it's obvious my social skills aren't up to snuff. No offense if any of you actually tried being subtle with me, I'm just speaking my mind is all."

"Well, I wouldn't say we were really pushing too hard before. Maybe a hint or two, but we didn't want to risk making you uncomfortable, so we took it pretty slowly." Chris replied, before a sly smile grew on her face as she turned her attention to Wiz, who had been attempting to look inconspicuous. "Wiz here had a bit of trouble with subtle thought. Poor girl has it bad, just like the rest of us."

The poor undead shopkeeper buried her blushing face in her hands and stifled an embarrassed whine of protest. Yunyun, being the kind soul that she was, was generous to be by her side and pat her comfortably on the shoulder. Timid people had to stick together.

"Now, now, Chris, there's no need to tease Wiz like that. She tried her best, just like the rest of us." Sena lightly chided, before her own smile rose as she leveled an amused look at the thief's way. "Not to mention that you're one to talk about subtly. I mean, pinching his ass? Making a point of not wearing panties around him? If what Yunyun and Wiz have told me is true, you weren't exactly being as careful as you claim."

Chris was quick on the response. "One, he's got a cute ass, there's no denying it girl. Two, he's stolen my panties more than once, so forgoing them was only logical, not to mention liberating. Three, who said I was trying to be careful?" She then turned to the man in question and said, "I love you Kazuma, don't get me wrong, but by Eris you can be so damn dense! At that point, I just had to mess with you like I did, it was a golden opportunity."

"Well, I'm glad you had fun messing with me. I'm sure it was a ball." Kazuma snarked, rolling his eyes and shaking his head lightly. Chris was a wild one, that was for damn sure. A part of him wondered just what that might entail given their new arrangement. "Ok, so, I really gotta get a straight answer from all of you: when exactly did you start to have feelings for me?"

"Oh, man. That's...kind of a toughie, actually." Chris admitted, tapping her chin in consideration before ultimately shrugging. "Honestly, I don't know if I can put a date to it. Excusing the obvious incidents, you've always had this weird brand of charm to you. I guess I just always had a thing for you way back when, even if you were a total perv. Just got stronger over time."

"Unlike Chris, I believe I can pinpoint the night I realized I had a crush on you," Wiz said, her moment of embarrassment over once she began reminiscing. "It was actually the night we first met, over at the graveyard. Even though you were sent to exterminate me due to my second-class status as an undead, you were the first human who didn't immediately go for the attack. Instead, you choose to hear my words first before deciding my character. Up until then, nobody who recognized me as a lich has ever treated me like a human before. That…well, that really says something about you, Kazuma. You may do questionable things sometimes, but you truly are a good person, through and through."'

"I-I can relate to Wiz's perspective, given how I first developed f-feelings for you." Yunyun chimed in, still fighting against her bashful nature as she forced herself to look at Kazuma, her cheeks flushed a light pink. "It was after you saved me from the Black Fang that day you teamed up with Chris and I. Y-you put your life at risk for me, and afterwards you treated it like it was no big deal! I just...I couldn't get you out of my head after that. Even though our previous interactions had been...awkward on both of our parts, from that day forth I couldn't help but see you as a sweet guy who helped someone when they needed it most."

Kazuma, who was still reeling back from the last two heartfelt speeches, turned to Sena. The woman blinked, jumped, acted like she dropped something, realized she didn't, and looked away while adjusting her glasses. The Japanese adventurer watched the whole thing play out in amusement.

"W-well if you must know, Mr. Satou, I simply thought of you as cute right from the get-go. Honestly, does there have to be anything more to it…?"

"Mhm, when you say it like that, it certainly sounds like there's more to it." Kazuma snarked, before turning his undivided attention to Sena and adopting a slightly more serious tone. "C'mon, Sena, you don't have to be shy. I really wanna know how you fell for me...god, that's still so weird to say."

Just like that, Sena's faux serious persona fell and she sighed like the desperate bachelorette she was. "Oh, who am I trying to fool? Of course there's more to it than just you being hot as hell! Looking past your dubious background, you're a forgiving soul who doesn't even realize it! Despite being cold to you in the beginning and misfiling you as an actual terrorist, you still decided to befriend me for some reason! You've helped me with minor investigations, you've listened to me vent my frustrations, you even let me stay rent-free at your home for Eris' sake! What self-respecting, single woman wouldn't want to be with you!?"

Kazuma blinked, genuinely surprised with the former prosecutor's passionate declaration. While he had his moments of indecency, he never really saw being nice to good people as any reason be praised. Still, considering the new arrangement he'd entered with these four girls, their confessions still managed to surprise him. After all, he was still under the impression that he wasn't anyone special, no matter how hard the people around him tried to change his mind.

"Wow…" He uttered stupidly. "I, uh, had no idea that's what you all thought of me. I mean, I was still kind of a douche way back when, are you all just gonna overlook that? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful you're giving me a chance but…I've done a lot of shitty things to you before…"

"None of us are forgetting who you used to be, Kazuma, but that's exactly why we're not holding onto it either." Chris reassured, a genuine smile resting on her face as her tone softened remarkably. "You've grown up a lot in the last year and a half, and you've gotten a lot better for it too. You're trying to be better, and that's more than enough for us. Hell, you managed to go from a panty-snatching fiend to a fairly respected member of both the Adventurer's Guild and Axel. People sorta look up to you these days, and to a certain degree, the four of us can relate to that admiration."

Kazuma blinked once. Then twice. Then slowly stood up and rubbed his head. There were…people who looked up to him and weren't faking it like that "Ran" chick?

I knew I had reached my popular phase, but I didn't think it would last for THIS long! He thought to himself in slight astonishment.

"Wow, that's...a lot to take in, honestly. Today's been bizarrely eye-opening, and it's not even close to noon!" He remarked with a slight chuckle, before looking amongst the assembled girls and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "So...where do we go from here, then? With this new 'friends with benefits' thing we have going, did any of you have any plans for after we finished our talk?"

Kazuma took the extended silence as an answer to his question.

"So...none of you considered making a plan, then?" He guessed, receiving a few embarrassed and bashful confirmations in return. "Alright then, no big deal. How about...we all go out to lunch? No harm with a celebration of our new arrangement, right?"

"I certainly don't see any reason why not. That sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate." Sena replied, a small but bright smile rising on her face. "I assume you're all in favor then?"

"Hell yeah, sounds like a plan!" Chris confirmed with a nod and accompanying thumbs up.

"Of course, lunch would be lovely!" Yunyun agreed exuberantly, quite excited with the prospect of a semi-date.

Wiz simply nodded, her eyes sparkling with joy and happiness. This blessed moment in her undead life could only be rivaled by the day her old adventuring party made her a godmother to their child.

"Alright, great! Let's get going, then!" Kazuma replied, feeling his own renewed spark of energy and happiness as he stepped out of the shop, holding the door open for the rest of the girls as they exited. While this certainly wasn't the way he'd imagined his day was going to go, he wasn't going to complain in the slightest.

...of course, there was still the matter of that "chat" he needed to have with his party members…

"Oh, Kazzy! How's our favorite hunk of man~?" Aqua asked, laying on the mushy love the moment he stepped into the living room. "Did you have fun going out, getting some sun, all that good stuff?"

"Yeah, today wasn't half bad. Had a good time with the rest of the gang." Kazuma confirmed neutrally, before leveling Aqua and his other girlfriends with a serious look. "However, we need to have a frank discussion about what you three have been keeping from me."

Confused with the change in mood, Kazuma's girlfriends all looked at each other before Darkness dared to ask, "Whatever do you mean, Love?"

"Well, while I was out with the girls, a certain, unexpected subject was brought up regarding feelings. Specifically, their feelings for me." Kazuma explained, crossing his arms and maintaining his stern expression to the best of his ability. "And apparently, you three knew about these feelings for quite some time."

After dropping the bomb on them, a sudden revelation shined in their eyes. While Darkness and Megumin started sweating bullets at Kazuma's accusation, the ever so oblivious Aqua cheered, "Really? That's wonderful! Looks like I owe my girl a favor…So, what'd you say? C'mon, spill the beans Kazzy!"

"Ah, ah, ah! We'll get to that in a minute!" Kazuma retorted, still keeping his serious façade up, knowing full well that he probably won't last much longer. "Why were you three keeping this from me? I thought you'd trust me with something as important as this!"

"We do trust you!" Megumin insisted, believing they were legitimately in trouble with their boyfriend. "We just didn't want to dump all that information on you and give you another heart attack! So we…just kinda…neglected to mention it…in any capacity."

"Unbelievable. From the people I loved most, no less." Kazuma mused with some theatrics, bringing a hand up to his mouth in mock disappointment, really just trying to hide his smile. "Well, there's only one course of action then. Clearly, if you don't trust me with such sensitive material, perhaps I need to reevaluate what I tell you lot as well! Can't believe you don't trust me…"

"Okay, now you're just being a dick," Megumin pointed out, quickly piecing together that he was just messing with them. "How else should we have done it, hmm? Walk up to you and say, 'By the way, now that we're dating, you should know that the rest of your friends also want in on some of the action'?"

"Alright, alright! Fair is fair, I can't argue with that." Kazuma relented, cracking a small smile as he finally dropped the charade. "Still, you guys really couldn't have told me anything? I'm terrible at catching the signs, you know that! It would have been nice to have at least some hint of how they felt before this morning, y'know?"

"Yes, perhaps you're right," Darkness admitted with a blush, only minimally aroused at being outed. "We really didn't think this plan through all the way, did we?"

"Not particularly, no." Kazuma confirmed, before rolling his eyes and settling on the couch between his girlfriends. "But it could have been worse. Sorry about the theatrics, by the way. It was just way too tempting to pass up, and you guys did kinda have it coming."

With a devious and almost sensual giggle, Aqua pinched Kazuma on the cheek and stated, "Well, we'll see who's coming the next time we're in bed and I'm making you scream my name all over again~"

Kazuma snorted at that, earning an indignant look from the goddess before he cupped her chin, replying in a surprisingly suave tone. "Oh, we'll see who's screaming what when that time comes, goddess of mine."

Aqua sputtered helplessly at that, sparking a round of laughter that echoed through the halls of the mansion. Right now, Kazuma's life was good, better than it's ever been before. For the first time in a long time, Kazuma Satou was well and truly happy.