Prologue

Editing: EddyBT

It was a quiet, peaceful afternoon, and things had been looking up as Sylphina had returned to Darkness' Mansion. It seemed as if nothing else was going to interrupt this peace.

Just as I thought about lazing the day away…

"Kazuma, Kazuma!", I heard Megumin calling.

Right, I had somehow forgotten about Megumin's daily explosion. With Aqua somewhere in town, and Darkness back at her home with Sylph, I guess I won't be able to nap the day away after all.

"Ah, let me guess, your daily explosion? Sorry, I kinda forgot…"

"Actually, while the explosion sounds nice, I was wondering if you'd like to walk around town with me? "

Oh? It'd be hard to turn this opportunity down, we've only had our one "date" so far and it turned into a family picnic thanks to Aqua tagging along. Besides, I can't stay inside all day with me being the only one around to accompany her for her daily explosion.

And hey, maybe this date could turn into more since the others aren't home? I could feel my face start burning up.

"A-Alright, s-sounds good to me, let me just get my s-stuff!"

I heard her giggle from across the room;

"I'll be waiting at the door Kazuma, don't take too long!"

She walked off with a wink.

We ended up going out for our 'date' through town, but not much was available to do today. Figures…

And so, we just ended up heading over to the guild and having lunch, ending the roam through town with a visit to the familiar debt ridden shop.

Just as we walked in, I heard:

"Muahahahahah, if it isn't the brat who played victim to a certain perverted crusader, but was actually looking forward to it, and his failure of an archmage who refuses to learn any useful magic!"

"Hey, who're you calling a failure? I haven't seen you do anything noteworthy recently!"

As they began to argue, I noticed Zereshrute sweeping on the other side of the store. He seemed to be in despair, probably due to Aqua coming in at some point during the day.

Seeing Zereshrute in this state, I decided to leave him alone.

"Anyways brat, before you go, I thought I'd offer you some advice- at a cost of course!"

I heard Vanir tell me this from across the store.

"What advice could you give me that wouldn't end with me becoming food for you? I'll pass and just get out of your hair."

"Ohho, it seems you are not so easily swayed, but I'll at least tell you this: you may want to watch your step these upcoming days, muahahah!"

He told me this with the most devilish grin he's shown in a while. I guess I'll be keeping that in mind.

"Anyways, we better not bother you any further. C'mon Megumin, let's start heading off to… eh?"

As I walked back towards the front of the store I looked over to see Megumin attacking Vanir while he shrugged off her attacks by dodging with ease using his fluid body.

"Not yet Kazuma, let me teach this masked freak a lesson!"

"Who're you calling a freak, you joke of a Crimson Demon?"

I decided to separate Megumin from him and gradually escorted her out of the shop. As I was slowly dragging her out, I could hear Vanir loudly laughing, but something was off about it. I had a bad feeling about what was to come.

And so, we continued on our walk to the usual explosion spot. Megumin was being strangely silent during the walk, until she eventually said:
"About what that masked devil said earlier; he implied Explosion was a useless spell while teasing me. He's obviously wrong, but… well, I wanted to hear your opinion of the Explosion spell, and of me as a mage in general... Just so I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am the greatest mage in Axel!.. Heh..."

Oh? Now that she mentions it, I haven't really given my opinion on explosion magic since having her continue pursuing the spell, or told her how I feel about her as our archmage. I guess I should've known this was coming at some point, and I could tell it was bothering her. I should probably give her a straight answer:

"Well, my opinion on Explosion should be clear at this point as an explosion connoisseur. It's a spell you've used to toy with the Demon King's generals time and time again. It's saved all of us, so to say it's anything less than a saving grace would be a lie, and as an archmage, well, if there's a mage who can achieve better results than you can, I'd like to meet them."

At this point I could feel my face heating up, I can't say it was the easiest thing telling her that much about how I feel. Crap, maybe I said too much?

These thoughts quickly cleared up as I felt her arms wrap around me.

"Thanks… I just wanted that cleared up. I guess I'd just been thinking a bit too much recently and besides, you wouldn't want the greatest mage you've seen doubting herself would you?"

"Heh, of course not. Now let's get a move on, as much as I'm enjoying the embrace, we wouldn't want to get back too late."

And so after the second encounter today that's left my face red, we continued on, eventually reaching our explosion spot.

"Well, now that I know how you truly feel about explosion magic, I'll have to go all out for you today. I'm feeling at least 100 points!"

She began her usual chant, putting in more emphasis than usual. I could already tell this one's going to be big!

After an unusually long cast, I presume for show, a massive explosion shakes the distant land with a hot breeze and a thunderous aftershock rushing towards me.

"So… pant… what did you think of that one?"

"Well there was a perfect balance between destructive power, flair, and force, and the breeze that came off was just perfect, so I'll be giving it a full hundre…"

Just as I was about to finish my review, something ran out from in between the trees.

It was fast, and for some reason wasn't picked up by my Detect Enemy. It seemed panicked, and in its path was..!

I tried to stop the monster as it stampeded towards Megumin, but it's just too fast! I can't match it's speed!

"Hold on! Megumin I'm…"

And just like that, I felt my heart nearly stop.

Hello, I'm Satou Kazuma. I've spent well over a year in this new world, and yet something new, something horrifying has just happened to me that I had yet to experience.

One of my party members had just lost their life in front of my eyes.