A little over a month. Not quite good, but not my worse update, so that's a plus in my books!

On a related note, one of the reasons this took so long is because that family problem has reached the point where my own father isn't talking to me - actually spent the entirety of Father's day trying to contact him. It didn't work.

Because of all of that, I'm a little worried my writing may have been affected without me knowing it, so if you notice something that seems off let me know. I want to give you all the quality content you deserve!

On another related note, I'm going to bold the author's notes from now on, so you know when the chapter begins and ends. Something I probably should've done in the beginning, but this is as much of a learning experience as it is fun.

Enjoy!

Chapter: 5

"Explosion!"

After being a part of Megumin's daily explosion sessions for so long Kazuma had begun to notice details previously unnoticed. For example, the second in-between the spell's moment of casting and impact there was a moment of absolute silence, so brief everyone else wouldn't notice it, that now filled his entire body with awed-terror. That moment came and went, followed by a shockwave as strong as any other he'd felt as it sent large amounts of water from the lake the spell hit into the sky. Fire quickly turned to steam as the water came back down as rain, but Kazuma had done this enough to bring along a large, flat leaf to cover both himself and the explosion obsessed Arch-Wizard – some drops still made it through, dampening their clothing.

"Not bad." He looked down towards Megumin with a raised eyebrow. "It's hard to asses these ones though. A lake doesn't exactly break down like a castle does."

The girl groaned, turning her head just enough so her voice wouldn't be muffled. "I know, but there isn't anything left for me to use my magic on."

"Nooooo, there's plenty of stuff you could use it on: secluded valleys, faraway mountains, monsters!" Kazuma listed off, stressing the last one even though he knew there was no point in being subtle. "Hell, you could just not use the spell every single day, but because you do…" he threw his arms out while raising his voice. "There's nothing left to BLOW UP!"

"And what would you suggest?!" the girl demanded, turning a little more to glare up at him. "The nearest valley – nearest if I use a horse – is over three days away. If I unleash my immeasurable power on a mountain it might cause an avalanche!"

"And the monsters?!"

She scoffed at that. "What monster could withstand explosion magic?"

"A lot of them I bet." Kazuma replied. Squatting down and rolling the girl over onto her back. He took a calming breath and continued in a much softer tone. "Look, I'm only saying this because there isn't much left around the town for you to use your spell on – seriously, we've been coming to this lake for the past week. Maybe… maybe you should just take a break for a little while."

Megumin actually looked horrified at the suggestion. "But I… I…" but no more words would come out, and she looked away while tightening her grip on her staff. "What if I don't want to?"

"Then you're going to have to figure out a new spot that both satisfies your explosion urges, and doesn't upset the guards like it has been."

"The guards?" She questioned, looking back at him.

Kazuma sighed and leaned back with his arms. "Yeah, they've been bugging me all month to get you to stop using that spell."

"What?" Megumin was shocked for a moment, before quickly getting angry. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Why would I?!" Kazuma matched her anger, quickly leaning forward till he was inches away from her face, giving her the meanest glare he could – which wasn't much by Megumin's standards. "Why would that piece of information change our routine, huh?"

"I would've stopped if I knew you were the one taking the blame!"

"Huh?" Anger switched to confusion as Kazuma narrowed his eyes at the girl below him. "Why?"

"Because…" her face turned a pretty said of pink as she once again turned her head away from Kazuma. "Because while I'm fine with the guards scolding me for doing what I do – it's their jobs to protect the town, so it makes sense to me – what I'm not okay with is my friends getting in trouble or even hurt because of it."

Damn it, he couldn't be mad at her after that. Kazuma scratched his head as he thought of something to say to the Arch-Wizard's confession. "I don't suppose that means you'd be willing to learn other spells?"

"Never." Megumin said as soon as the question was asked, and the party leader was relieved to see his friend relax.

"Didn't think so." He shivered when a sudden gust of cold air came out of nowhere, reminding Kazuma that Winter was just around the corner. "We're going to need to get some warmer clothes this week. Nothing we have is suited for the cold." He moved to put the girl on his back, only to pause halfway when she tugged on his arm and gestured towards his green mantle.

"M-may I b-b-borrow this?" Megumin's entire body was shaking, and it was very obvious she was trying hard not to let her teeth chatter. Damp clothes and a sudden shift in temperature could take the Arch-Wizard down faster than mana depletion ever could.

"Sure," he unclasped the article of clothing and wrapped around her slender form, before picking her up piggyback style to begin the walk home, "but I don't think another piece of damp clothing is going to help."

"It's another layer at least." Megumin argued, hugging herself closer to his back.

"In fact," he moved his head so he could look at her with a mischievous look. "I think you're supposed to take wet clothes off when it's cold out."

She mumbled something under her breath – that sounded a lot like "pervert," – while moving her hand to tug on Kazuma's ear.

"Your hands are freezing!" he yelped, leaning away in a futile attempt to escape her icy fingers.

"It's not my fault. It's cold."

"Here." Kazuma had the Arch-Wizard wrap her legs around his waist, freeing his hands so they could wrap around hers. He then rubbed their palms together, cupped them, and breathed some warm air onto them. "Better?"

He felt her shiver once more. "Y-yeah, a little."

"Good," he tried to let go, but was surprised when Megumin quickly intertwined their fingers, making the friendly gesture feel a lot more intimate than Kazuma was planning. "Eh, Megumin?"

"Don't let go please. They'll get cold again if you do."

"A-alright." Kazuma momentarily stuttered, getting control of his voice, he continued. "If you say so." He kept his head forward so she wouldn't see the red making its way up his neck to his cheeks, unbeknownst to him was that Megumin's face was a similar shade of red.

"The cold weather is going to ruin the garden back home."

Kazuma felt his eyes go wide at the statement. He hadn't even thought of that when they were planting it. They were only now starting to sprout, but this sudden shift in temperature might be enough for the sprouts. "Well that sucks, we didn't even get to see it grow that much."

"It's not a big deal." Megumin continued, moving their hands to rest on his head, gently rubbing it as if he were a small child that needed consoling. "We can head over to that mage shop in town and buy a few heat lamps to place around the area."

"Heat lamps?"

"It's like a regular lamp, only with a special crystal inside that keeps a certain area around warm." Kazuma felt the girl move their hands through a wide variety of motions as she continued to explain the principles of how such objects were created, making him realize she was a very kinetic explainer. Lately he seemed to be noticing an increasing amount of small details about the Arch-wizard riding on his back.

Weird.

"How many do you think we'll need?" He asked midway through her explanation.

"Mmm… three, maybe four. The yard isn't that big, but the regular lamps don't cover that much area."

"Is there any way to get one that covers the entire area?" Kazuma asked, trying to look at Megumin, only for her to push his head back forward playfully.

"Don't want you to trip like last time."

He could imagine the way her lips would lift with amusement. His eyebrow twitched. "It was one, and it was raining which makes it that much harder to see anything!"

"But to answer your question, yes, we could get one like that, but the only way for that is to have it custom made at a shop, ordered from the capital, or make one ourselves." Megumin listed off, releasing his hands so they could be used to hold her legs up while her arms wrapped comfortably around his neck.

"I'm guessing every option you just said is much more expensive."

"Yeah. The surrounding case is simple enough to make, but the quality of crystal needed is much harder to get than the standard ones."

"Damn." But something about that sentence peaked his adventurer curiosity. "How do they get these crystals?"

"Naturally, which is very difficult to do unless you live around volcanos – where they form – or by making them."

His curiosity rose another level. "How do you make them."

"Umm… I'm not sure." She shrugged. "It's not a field of magic I was interested in. Rune crafting was one area needed, but there was one more. What was that name…? Ah! Crystal shaping!"

"Never seen those two skills used before."

"That's because Adventurers don't learn them, normally. The people who do use it only do so because they want to make a business surrounding it."

"Oh. Have you ever thought about becoming a teacher?" Kazuma asked out of the blue. Startling Megumin by the change in subject.

"Eh? W-why would I want to become a teacher of all things? I'm going to become the greatest Arch-Wizard! There's no room for anything else!"

Her leader laughed at that to which she glared at the back of his head, using a hand to pull his cheek.

"Owowowow, enough!" Kazuma swatted the hand away. "It's not an insult, damn it! You just like to ramble on about all these different subjects that I thought you had fun teaching people things. You're pretty good at it anyway. It probably wouldn't be that difficult for you if you decided to change careers."

It wasn't something she had considered, but Megumin wouldn't deny that the idea had some appeal to it. It was surprisingly easy for the young Arch-Wizard to picture herself back at her village, teaching the next generation the beauty and allure of Explosion magic. She wanted to hear him say it again – just to be sure. "You think so?"

He nodded, his hair tickled her cheek, making her giggle. "Yeah, you're surprisingly smart."

Megumin's smile, and entire demeanor, changed to become something very dangerous. "What's that supposed to mean?" Her tone alone was enough to send a nervous tingle down Kazuma's spine.

His mind screamed at him to correct the misunderstanding before things got worse. "W-w-what I meant was that you're really smart despite so young!" Kazuma held back a grimace at how he squeaked out the sentence.

"I see." Megumin's voice was neutral, revealing nothing about what she was thinking. "Thank you for the compliment."

Nothing else was said between the two as the main city gates came into view, but as they passed the giant structure itself, Kazuma nodded to the guards in greeting as they did the same, he decided to ask something. "Want to head over to that magic shop later? If we're lucky the old lady will have some lamps for us to buy."

"Could we get some winter gear as well?" She requested hugging his mantle tighter around her body. "Kyouya might be willing to chip if we do some shopping for him as well."

"It would be great if he does. Between paying the debt and everything else, we barely have much in terms of spending money."

"We could always take on more quests." Megumin's eyes lit up at the thought of blowing away legions of enemies with her magic. Kazuma had to shake her to get the girl to focus again.

"Not happening." Kazuma shook his head, and remained firm in his decision when she tried to protest. "We're lucky enough that Clemea, Fio, and Kyouya let us do quests with them, because every time we try to do one it ends up with us being eaten by something!"

"It does not!"

"Two words. Giant. Frogs."

That shut her up real quick.

"So just do me a favor, and do a quest unless I'm going with you. Alright?"

"Why just you?"

"Let's be honest. Out of everyone in that house, I'm the only one who's always going to be by your side, ready to pick you up after you use your explosion magic."

Damn it why the hell did he have to say stuff like that? Blood was rushing to her cheeks and she had to do everything in her power to keep her voice steady just for one word.

"Ok."

"You promise?" and even though she couldn't see his face directly, it was easy enough for the Arch-Wizard to picture his eyebrows drawn together in those rare moments where he was truly serious, the slight wrinkle in his nose as he struggled to maintain that look – it wasn't natural for him, and the slight concern his eyes would convey if you knew where to look.

Megumin smiled. Leaning forward so she could press her cheek against his, and whispered softly so he would be the only one who heard her. "I promise, Kazuma."

This was, without a doubt, the worst mission Kyouya had ever been on.

"Darkness, please stop charging towards the enemies so recklessly!" The Sword Master called out even as he blocked an undead's attack. He watched as the woman in question ignored his command, and dived into the middle of a large group of undead.

"I cannot do that. It is my role as a Crusader to take all of my party's punishment! No matter how much it may violate me!" Darkness declared, receiving blow upon blow by the enemies. Her armor began to chip off from the abuse, but her face conveyed satisfaction instead of worry. "Is that all you've got?!"

But the attacks ceased when the undead were destroyed by Kyouya launching two, blue arcs of power from Gram. The group was decimated, and the teen was by her side in an instant. His armored hand grabbed her arm, and he began pulling her towards the top of a hill where Fio was yelling to them. Darkness, however, did not prove to be very cooperative.

"NO!" the Crusader dug in her heels, and looked back towards the direction they came from that was now occupied by a rampaging group of undead warriors. Kyouya nearly recoiled at the look of desire aimed at the monsters. "I cannot abandon the frontlines no matter what! It is my duty to be used as a wall to guard my allies!"

"There's – no – time – for that!" Kyouya grit his teeth as he struggled to move the incredibly strong woman. Gram began to glow red as he used its power to win this impromptu tug-of-war. "Fio's already set the traps, and we'll get caught in the blast if we don't get into position with her!"

"I'm ok with that."

Of for the love of… he suddenly removed his hand from her arm, and Darkness – not expecting this – began to fall backwards as a result. Halfway to the ground, the Sword Master appeared with his blade nearly blinding her with how bright it was and caught her in his now outstretched arms.

"Forgive me for saying this," Kyouya said with shaky knees, "…but you are really heavy."

"I-I-I am not!" Darkness argued, completely flustered at the accusation. "You m-must be lacking in muscle is all!"

"Kyouya, Darkness, the traps are about to go off!" Fio called out once more, wringing her hands together in worry.

It was a good thing that Kazuma was not there, because he would have been screaming his head off about triggering another flag.

Ice and electricity erupted from behind the armored duo, and Kyouya didn't need any more reasons to start running towards his party member. To his left he watched a group of skeleton archers burn into ash as a wave of fire emerged at their feet, and to his right a horde of goblins screamed in pain as electricity arced across their bodies.

A troll broke through a rock-wall that had emerged to surround it, and made a beeline towards Kyouya with a club – twice as big as the adventurer – raised above its head. It didn't make it ten feet before it fell over dead with an arrow sticking between its eyes.

"Thanks Fio!" Kyouya said as he finally reached the girl's side.

She smiled at him, making an affirmative noise as well, before raising up her bow once more at another monster that was charging at them through the magical traps. "Snipe!" She called out the skill as she released the arrow, watching with relief as it took down the target. "Snipe! Snipe! Snipe!"

It was satisfying to watch the creatures fall thanks to his party member's skills. Under normal circumstances, Kyouya would have complimented the girl on her aim. But there was one variable that was throwing everything out of order.

And it wouldn't stop squirming in his arms.

"Would you please put me down?" Darkness politely requested, refusing to look him in the eyes.

"No."

"Why not?!"

He glanced down at her with a knowing look. "Because if I did, you would just run back into that." Kyouya pointed towards the chaos even though the woman couldn't see the extended finger.

"What makes you think that?!" She demanded, giving Kyouya the full force of her glare.

It's not as scary as Clemea's, he thought to himself. "Kazuma was very detailed when it came to instructing me how to deal with you during quests."

"'Deal with me,'" she repeated. Slowly, ever so slowly, Kyouya watched as the Crusader's face grew more and more shocked, until finally…

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Kyouya sighed, trying his best to calm Darkness down as Fio continued to, almost singlehandedly, take care of the quest. Perhaps I should've joined Clemea and Aqua-sama to relax at the guild. It would have been nice to spend some time with them.

KO-NO-SU-BA!

This is ridiculous.

Clemea shook her head as she watched the Arch Priest enthrall the entire guild with a simple party trick.

"How someone like her wields enough power to rival a Demon General is beyond me."

She had to agree with the severed head that was also watching the spectacle. The two of them were resting at a nearby table with a single plate of food – stacked to absurd heights with toad meat – to share between them. Clemea had tried to watch Verdia eat, if only because she was getting tired of everyone cheering on that spoiled brat, but no matter what, he seemed to only consume the food when she wasn't looking.

It's like he could sense when she was or was about to look at him.

"Remind me, how did you lose to that group?"

"I severely underestimated their power, and was not expecting the child to figure out my weakness in the duration of one battle." Verdia admitted freely, sparing only a glance to her before gazing back at Aqua. "If nothing else can be said about them; it's that they can pull off the impossible."

Clemea made a noise of acknowledgement – still having her doubts however. "You could also say Aqua knows how to entertain a crowd."

At that, Verdia let out a bark of laughter. "Indeed, that woman may be horrible in battle, but she is a great entertainer!"

Never in her wildest dreams did Clemea see herself having a civil conversation with one of the Demon King's Generals. Nor did she ever think Kyouya would open up his house to – what essentially was – a complete group of strangers. And above all of that, she never thought that she would enjoy it.

Sure there were several hiccups along the way: her initial distrust, the living arrangements, not to mention the chaos that seemed to follow that group like a starving vulture towards a dying animal, but despite her best efforts, they had somehow dug their way into her life. They sure as hell weren't leaving it anytime soon.

Aqua was without a doubt the most annoying, childish, and stubborn girl she had ever known, but she was full of so much life and energy that Clemea couldn't help but smile and sing along as she and Aqua worked on their laundry together from time to time, and end up laughing outright at Aqua as she forgot what they were singing halfway through and make something up because of it. If she tried to come up with an excuse not to go along with the group for dinner at the guild then Aqua would get right up to her face with that exaggerated pout of hers and complain nonstop until she finally gave in. It was weird to think of her as anything more than an overgrown - lovable - child

And just like a child, she was the most annoying thing that existed on the planet.

Megumin was the little sister she never knew she wanted. Passionate about her dreams at becoming the world's strongest mage with nothing more than her explosion magic – something that both Clemea and Fio found absolutely adorable – while trying to act mature when it came to performing chores around the house, she had a hard time resisting the urge to affectionately pinch the girl's cheek. She would definitely get chewed out for it, but Clemea was finding more and more reasons to do it every day.

Darkness… well, she had her eyes on that woman. Kyouya had been glancing in her direction with a weird look for the past couple of days, and she didn't like that. Until that mater was cleared up, Clemea would hold off on passing any judgements.

She still thought that creep Kazuma was a pervert, and if he tried anything on her, or worse, Fio, she would cut off his hands. Consequences be damned.

"Nature's Beauty!"

She looked up to see the entire guild cheering as Aqua's party trick caused two different plants to grow out of the cup on her head.

Scoffing at the sight, Clemea crossed her arms and looked away with an upturned nose. As much as she liked her, watching Aqua perform the same trick over and over, and still get such a reaction, rubbed her the wrong way. She just didn't know why.

"Are you jealous?" Verdia asked suddenly.

Feeling defensive – not to mention confused, because that plate had a lot less food on it now – Clemea replied quickly. "Why would I be jealous?"

"Because that Arch Priest is getting more attention from a simple party trick than you ever have despite all of your accomplishments."

Wow. That… that was not what she was expecting. She really didn't have a reply to that. Verdia took her silence as an answer though.

"It wouldn't be wrong if you did."

"Why do you even care? Last I checked, you only look after yourself."

"I do." Verdia answered honestly. "But after several weeks of having little to no power of my own, being carried around like some glorified trophy, and being threatened by the very girl we were talking about a second ago, I can honestly say I'd rather see you all get along rather than exchanging passive-aggressive insults with each other. It would certainly make this living hell a little more bearable."

Clemea opened and closed her mouth several times, only to find that she had no words to say to the General. None that would really matter at least.

"We make one hell of a group, don't we?"

Verdia finally gave her his full attention, and Clemea had a feeling that he was smiling at her.

"We?" he questioned, his voice full of mirth.

"Oh don't get me wrong, I don't trust you in any way shape or form, but in terms of conversation partners, you're not that bad."

"That's sweet, but why don't you do us both a favor and go over there and show that Arch-Priest how it's done?" Verdia's red eye widened in fear, and he barely hopped away as a small stream of water landed where he used to be. "Watch where you're aiming that!"

"It must have slipped during the casting." Aqua said with an innocent shrug. The dark look in her eyes and the disappointed twitch of her lips told Clemea otherwise. "Maybe you should be more careful."

"Aqua," Clemea stood up, immediately getting the girl's attention. "Would you mind teaching me that skill?"

Within an instant the Arch-Priest was in her personal space, her eyes glowing as bright as the stars in the night sky. "Really?" She asked, excitement radiating from her body.

Placing her hands on the girl's shoulders, Clemea took a step back so there was some distance between them. "Calm down. Calm down." She instructed. "All I need is for you to give me the name of that skill one more time."

Aqua did so, and the warrior was glad she had some spare skill points to spend on the skill.

"Now here, use this!"

Clemea took the fan Aqua handed her, before being pushed up towards the corner where she was met with a guild full of expectant eyes. Somehow, Aqua had moved to the back of the area so she was the only one they could focus on. She was giving her two thumbs up, and Clemea rolled her eyes with a smile.

Here we go. "Nature's Beauty!"

Nothing happened.

"Huh?" She shook the fan a few times and tried again. "Nature's Beauty!"

This was wrong. This was wrong on so many levels. More than that it was just plain unfair. This had to be, without a doubt, the simplest spell to perform. It was a damn party trick for crying out loud!

"Nature's Beauty!"

Something happened this time, and it was worse than nothing.

A small, pitiful trickle of water came out of the fan, but all it did was drip down off the object to form a puddle at Clemea's feet.

Never before had something mocked her more than that puddle did.

The entire guild began to roar with laughter.

"Ne, Ne, what's the matter with this thing?" Aqua asked, having appeared next to the embarrassed warrior out of thin air to take the fan out of her hands. Clemea was sure she didn't know any teleportation magic, so how did she get here so fast?

And above everyone else's laughter, she could hear Verdia's as he rolled around the table without a care in the world. Bastard. She would make him suffer later.

"Why isn't it working Aqua?" Clemea had seen it done over a thousand times now, knew it required little to no mana to work, and it was a damn party trick! What could she possibly be missing?

"Perhaps you weren't putting enough heart into it?"

Heart? That – that had to be the stupidest reason she ever heard. It was, and she couldn't emphasize this enough, a damn. Party. Trick! "What the hell does that even mean, Aqua?"

The Arch-Priest chewed on the corner of her lip as she looked away from Clemea, trying to either figure out how to explain what she just said or make something up so it didn't seem like she didn't know what was going on.

"I think… it only works when you want to entertain people with it."

It almost sounded like a question, and she Clemea figured Aqua really didn't know what was going on. It made her sigh. "Can't even do a damn party trick of all things. Fight a monster? No problem. Hunt for food and cook? Easy. But a try to do something stupidly simple like this? And I get a great big load of nothing."

"Maybe you just need practice?" This time it was a question, which told her better than any explanation could that maybe she wasn't cut out to entertain people like this. "Not everyone can do what I do."

You mean be useless? It was mean, but there was truth in that thought. Aqua was unreliable when it came to actual combat, and even simple housework became tedious when the girl messed something up. Clemea might like her, but in no way, shape, or form did she ever want to be her. She would rather be useful and trusted rather than loved.

And just like that, the jealousy that Verdia had accurately identified had vanished. They were who they were, and Clemea smirked as she remembered how devious she could be. "Maybe you should include Verdia in your next set of tricks. I think he might be lonely over there."

Aqua blinked, before smiling a sickly-sweet smile that sent a shiver down her spine.

Both of them looked towards the former General, who immediately stopped laughing when he felt their gazes on him.

I suddenly regret coming here with them.

KONOSUBA!

"These ones over here look like they'll be ready to grow something in another week."

Megumin looked over towards Fio as the girl leaned in close to one of the many plants, examining it with wide, excited eyes. She smiled, feeling a similar sense of delight at seeing the garden grow so successfully.

"It was a good thing the cold didn't last more than a couple hours, it might have killed some of the plants if it did."

"That would have been horrible!" Fio placed both hands along the stem of the plant in-front of her, almost cradling it as she began to whisper to it. "Don't worry little one, we'll take good care of you."

Walking over until she was behind the girl, Megumin leaned forward with her smile only growing bigger. "I don't think it can understand you."

"You don't know that!" Fio turned her head back to look at the Arch-Wizard. "I heard that plants will grow better if you're nice to them. Even more so if you mean it."

"Where did you hear something like that?" Megumin walked towards the other end of the garden to examine a vine plant that looked a little pale compared to its companions. It had the flowers on it just like all the others, so it was still alive. Maybe there aren't enough nutrients in the soil over here. She made a mental note to have someone – maybe even herself – spread some fertilizer around this area within the next couple days.

Realizing she had zoned out during the examination, the Arch-Wizard shifted her focus back onto Fio just in time to hear her finish a story. Noticing the warrior giving her an expectant look, Megumin racked her brain for something vague enough to sound like an honest answer.

"I see…"

Fio gave a small pout at that, obviously hoping for a different answer. "Well I still think it's worth a try."

She coughed into her hand to disguise the laugh that would have surely offended the girl. "I didn't say you couldn't do it, I just think it's weird is all." Despite saying that, Megumin still decided to gently pet the pale plant. It wouldn't hurt trying at least.

"We're back!" Kyouya called out as he and Kazuma walked out of the house, a lantern with a red crystal in it in each of their hands.

"How did it go?" Megumin asked, walking towards her party leader while gazing at the objects with slight fascination. "They weren't too expensive, were they?"

"Surprisingly no." Kazuma replied, holding out one of the lamps for her to grab.

"The shop you recommended was very nice." Kyouya complimented. "The owner there was very generous, she even offered us a discount!"

"Why did she do that?" Fio took one lamp from her party leader, and moved towards one of the corners to set it up. Although, setting it up was as simple as placing it down in a designated spot.

"We buy stuff there often." Megumin answered as she set her lamp down. "I guess she just likes us."

Once all of the lamps were placed, everyone out in the yard felt the area get a few degrees warmer. The nice temperature and setting sun gave Fio an idea.

"Let's have a picnic out here!"

The four of them unanimously agreed on the idea.

"I can help Megumin cook while you two get move some of the furniture outside!" Fio didn't wait for an answer before heading back into the house.

"Give me a second to change then." Kyouya said to Kazuma as he too entered the house.

Both Kazuma and Megumin sighed, but instead of exasperation like it normally was, it was filled with a pleasant feeling, one that made them feel right at home. A short gust of wind came by, but the lamps did their job and warmed the air immediately on contact, turning what would have been a biting chill into a gentle caress. Kazuma had a hard time finding a word to properly describe how he felt right now.

He looked over towards his explosive companion, just in time to see her move some stray hair behind her ear. Kazuma blinked. Her eyes were closed and there was a gentle smile on her face, and he realized she must have been feeling the same thing he was.

Megumin must have felt his gaze, however, because she turned towards him – still smiling – with a questioning look. "What?"

"Nothing." He shrugged. "It's just nice out here."

She hummed in agreement, and the two of them decided to go inside themselves to get started. "How much longer do you think Aqua, Clemea, and Darkness will be gone?"

"No idea, they said they were going to get some winter gear for everyone, but I don't know how long it will take them to do that. Especially since Aqua will want to try out a lot of things before she comes to a decision."

"Ah," Megumin nodded. That made sense.

They were almost to the door, and she felt a strange impulse to do something, anything, to keep this conversation going just a bit longer.

"Do you want anything in particular?"

Kazuma's hand halted on the door's handle. "Huh?" he asked, looking back.

"Dinner. Do you want anything specific?" Megumin used all of her willpower to keep the blush threatening to make itself known under wraps.

He thought about it for a moment before giving her a simple shrug. "Not really."

She deflated a little at that.

"Everything you make is really good."

Megumin looked back up with wide eyes just to see Kazuma's back as he entered the house. Her smile came back in full force, and she allowed a little pink to dust her cheeks this time around. It was nice to know he liked her cooking.

"If he is not going to take up your offer, then I would gladly like to request some tea be served with this meal."

A yelp made its way out of her lips as the girl whirled around to see Verdia staring at her from his spot on the scarecrow.

"W-what?"

"Tea." The head repeated, his voice devoid of any form of mockery like she thought it would. "I know I've been requesting nothing but alcohol in our time together, but I feel as if it is time to try something new. Who knows? It might even help me relax."

Megumin stuttered as her brain was slow to process this for some reason.

"I don't think it's a ridiculous request." Verdia continued. "It's actually pretty trivial compared to what you were offering."

She took a breath to organize her thoughts, and came to a decision. "You know what? I'm actually in a good mood right now, so fine, you can have some tea."

Megumin grabbed his head, and together, the two of them entered the house.

"I'm choosing the tea though."

"I can accept that."

And it's done!

A little more day to day stuff for the group to deal with this chapter, something that seems way more difficult for them to complete than it should. Some more interaction between Kazuma and Megumin then I had originally planned, but I like what I came up with. All in all, another chapter that could have happened in-between episodes. I'll probably use the next chapter or the one after that to tie this series back to the back, with some alterations of course.

Nothing else to say really, I'll try to be faster on updates but I can't really promise that.

Have a wonderful day!