Hey everyone, I'm back! It's been a little while - school's been taking most of my time lately, but not to worry, I've been hard at work completing this chapter for you to enjoy. Not much to say other than that, so I'll just let you get right to it!
Chapter: 8
"Are you sure you want to go?"
Kazuma looked up to Kyouya, who was leaning against the doorframe leading to his room, pausing his packing to give the Sword Master a look. "Come on Kyouya, we both knew this arrangement wasn't going to last forever. I'm honestly surprised you let us stay here as long as we have. Besides, we already accepted the quest."
Kyouya scratched the back of his head while looking away, the action making his sore muscles groan in protest. Verdia's lessons were pushing him to his limits. "I know, but it's going to be weird with you guys leaving, Fio really seems upset by the whole thing."
They could both hear the mentioned girl despite the fact she was obviously a few rooms away; a crying, blubbering mess as she helped Megumin pack up her things.
The Adventurer gave a snort of laughter at that. "You guys are acting like we're leaving for the other side of the world. At best we're on the other side of town, it shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes to walk over to the new place." Kazuma picked up his folded tracksuit and carefully placed it on top of the rest of his gear, before taking the corners of the fabric that would act as his bag, and tying them together to form a simple knot.
"There is that." Kyouya admitted with a chuckle, stepping back to let his friend through before following him towards the front door where they met up with Darkness, who had finished packing as well, and Clemea.
Kazuma placed his green pack next to Darkness' yellow one while leaning his staff against the wall, and the four of them talked amongst themselves while they waited for the others to finish.
"You made sure to look in all the drawers for your clothes, right?"
The group of four turned around to see Fio as she circled around an exasperated Megumin, a small checklist in hand as she futile wiped away tears while listing off each point.
"Yes," the young Arch-Wizard replied.
"And you grabbed your staff?"
She held out the object for the Hunter to see. "Mmhmm,"
"All of the books?"
Megumin gave the pack on her back a quick jostle. "Yep."
Fio took in a deep breath as she tried to calm herself down. "Ok, I guess that's everything. Are you sure you don't want me too-?"
"Yes," Megumin couldn't stress that word enough as she turned to the girl with a grateful, and annoyed, look. "I'm fine, Fio, besides, we're only going across the town. If I forgot anything you can just bring it over or send me a note for me to pick it up."
"Ah… right." Fio deflated a little, acknowledging the truth of that statement.
"Thank you," The Arch-Wizard breathed a sigh of relief, and turned towards the rest of the group, who were staring at the two with laughter dancing in their eyes. "Are we ready to go?" Megumin asked hotly, looking away from the group with eyes scrunched up in mock anger.
Kazuma shook his head. "Just waiting on Aqua and Verdia, speaking of which, Aqua!"
"Yes?" The Arch-Priest responded, leaning out of her room with a questioning look.
"Almost done?"
"Ne, ne, you need to be more patient, it takes a while to gather up all my materials." Answering his question, Aqua disappeared back into her room where the sounds of packing continued.
"How much stuff does she have?" Clemea asked, looking towards the other party for an answer.
"No idea." All three members answered, mirroring each other by giving an uncaring shrug.
How do they do that? Kyouya silently wondered.
Kazuma sighed, getting the groups attention. "Verdia!" he shouted, loud enough to make the two next to him, Kyouya and Fio, cover their ears while vocalizing their annoyance. "What's taking so long?"
"I'm trying to teach this snow sprite to tie a knot!" the undead replied angrily, the group couldn't tell if that anger was directed at the Adventurer or the spirit mentioned. The group then shared a confused look.
"Why is he teaching it how to tie a knot?"
"I didn't think it was possible for a snow sprite to do anything more than float around."
"Verdia seems to think otherwise."
Their attention was then directed towards Aqua's room, where they saw the Arch-Priest step out with an absurdly large blue pack on her back, only for said pack to get caught on the door. She looked back, confused, huffing in annoyance once she saw the problem before leaning forward, using her full body weight to pull the pack with everything she had.
It was a comical sight watching the Goddess struggle to pull her pack out from the doorframe. Eventually, Aqua was able to wrestle the pack out, and she reached the group with an excited look.
"Alright, let's go!"
"We can't," Kazuma said, grabbing her shoulder before she could reach the door. "We're still waiting for Verdia."
A dark look passed over Aqua's face at the mention of the General's name. "Do we have too?" she whined.
"There is no need," Verdia inserted himself into the conversation as the two spirits floated into the house with two packs levitating behind – a purple one the size of his head, and a white one no bigger than a fist. "We have finished… finally." He muttered the last part to himself.
Now curious, Fio stepped over towards the white pack, looking it over before turning to the General. "Did you really teach it to tie a knot?"
"Against my better judgement."
"That's so adorable!" the Hunter gushed.
Verdia grumbled.
"Can we go now, please?" Megumin requested.
The others quickly agreed, and the group of six exchanged goodbyes with the remaining trio, before heading out to their new home, excited now that they would have a place of their own.
Kazuma was exhausted.
The entire group, save a certain Goddess, had spent the entire day cleaning up as much of the mansion as they could before the sun disappeared from their sights. They got the main dining room, their respective bedrooms, the kitchen – although Megumin did most of that herself, and only just finished up the main hall before Kazuma had called it a day. They would probably spend the rest of the week cleaning before everything was done if he was honest.
But it will be so worth it to have a place to call our own. He reasoned, placing the cleaning materials away in one of the mansion's many closets. Kazuma then dragged his body through the house to his room, where, upon entering, he jumped onto his bed with a happy sigh. The feeling of sinking into the bed sheets was heavenly.
Someone knocked on his door, causing the Adventurer to let out a groan. "What is it?"
The door opened, and Verdia quickly levitated himself to Kazuma's side. "Child, we may have a problem."
His annoyance was conveyed with another groan, because nothing could be done in this world without something or someone making it difficult. So, with dread swelling from the pit of his stomach, Kazuma repeated his question. "What is it?"
"The spirit that resides in this house, the previous owner mentioned only one, correct?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Because I am currently sensing dozens of spirits residing in this mansion." Verdia stated, his voice conveying nothing that would let Kazuma know how the undead felt about the new development.
The Adventurer, however, was much less subtle about how he felt. "What?!" Kazuma bolted upright, fear radiating off him in waves as he looked around the area, half-expecting to see the spirits right behind him.
"I don't feel any malevolent intentions though," Verdia continued, glancing to the side and following something Kazuma couldn't see. "In fact, most of them appear to be bored."
"Ok," the Adventurer relaxed a little, but still felt uneasy at the thought of so many spirits just wandering through the house. He quickly came up with a plan to deal with them. "Come on, we should go tell Aqua." He grabbed Verdia so he wouldn't waste any more mana, before heading out towards the Arch-Priest's room.
"If we are letting her take care of this, do me a favor and stop her from making any barriers. That woman has a tendency of going overboard with them."
Kazuma thought it over for a moment, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, maybe I should just stick with her the entire time." It wouldn't be fun trying to reign in the childish Goddess, but he'd done it before and he'd probably have to do it again. Then a question came to mind. "Since when could you sense the feelings of a spirit?"
"I have been able to do so for a very long time. Much like how a human can project emotions through their body language, a spirit does so through their essence which is how I am able to sense them. A higher spirit is capable of disguising – or at least masking – the essence so they are harder to track from both the living and the dead."
"Huh," Kazuma wasn't quite expecting a long explanation. "That's cool."
"Indeed, now, I do not wish to alarm you, but their boredom is slowly transforming into annoyance."
"What? Why?"
"I can sense emotions not the reasons behind them." Verdia's lone eye glazed over. "Strange… now I'm sensing amusement."
The young Adventurer's steps were hurried as he turned down another hallway, and he glared down at the head in his arm. "Can't you communicate with them? You are an undead after all."
Verdia glared back. "I don't know what you think the extent of my abilities are, but you should know that sensing and communicating are two completely different things!"
"Buy you're undead, doesn't that mean you can communicate with the dead?"
"That's similar to me asking why all humans can't communicate with each other! There is no reason why I should be able to speak with spirits just because I am dead!"
Kazuma angrily scratched his head as the conversation-turned-argument slowly gave him a headache, which of course only made him angrier. He needed to focus, and when someone went from feeling bored to annoyed then amused, it usually meant they were about to do a prank, and spirits doing a prank spelled bad news for whoever the victim would be. Which probably would be his party.
It was just as he finished that thought that the floor beneath him suddenly broke apart.
It was during that moment – the one before he began to fall but just after he realized what was happening – that time seemed to freeze just long enough for Kazuma to utter one word.
"Shit."
Verdia slipped out of Kazuma's grasp as he fell to the first floor, landing on his back with enough force to knock the breath out of him. Groaning, the Adventurer moved to prop himself up with his elbows, before looking around the hallway to get a grasp of where he was. The spirits apparently weren't done yet, because just before Kazuma could move to a sitting position, the floor beneath him gave way once more, sending him plummeting down to the basement where he crashed into the cold stone ground – which he would later suggest they scatter a few cushions around for safety reasons.
"Child, are you alright?" Verdia called out way up high, his red eye the only thing visible to Kazuma from the dark room that he now resided in.
Kazuma wheezed in response.
"Well, at least you are alive." The former General muttered, looking to the side for only a moment before refocusing on the Adventurer. "Are you able to see anything down there?"
Muttering a quick curse under his breath, Kazuma struggled into a sitting position to look around the area around him. "No," he called out after a quick check, "but I can change that." Kazuma reached out and grabbed one of the wooden pieces of debris that used to make up the floors above him, and with a quick, "Tinder," he was able to create a makeshift torch.
"Clever…" he heard Verdia mumble in the ensuring silence as he once again looked around the area.
Kazuma's lips twitched upward, appreciating the compliment but keeping it to himself that he heard the undead, knowing Verdia would deny it. "Still don't see much." He said, not at all surprised by this; it would have been weird if that old man had left anything behind with a group of strangers living in the mansion.
"Do you see an exit at least?"
Moving back to the hole he made, Kazuma looked back up to give Verdia an annoyed look. "You know, you could float down here and look around with me."
"Ah… I suppose I – KYAH!" Verdia screamed as he disappeared from Kazuma's sights.
"Verdia?!" the Adventurer yelled. He waited with baited breath for the undead to come back, laughing at what he would claim was a good prank, but Verdia didn't come back and Kazuma realized he was alone inside a haunted basement.
"I need to find Aqua."
He turned around to head towards where he thought he saw some stairs leading upstairs, only to come face to face with the horrifying visage of a red-eyed, child's doll floating towards him. Screaming out of pure terror, Kazuma turned around to run in the opposite direction, figuring any direction away from that… thing… would be better, however, this proved to be false as he saw three more dolls coming at him. The fear from earlier intensified to new heights as he witnessed more and more dolls slowly coming into the light from his torch as they made their way towards him, but then a thought came to mind that pierced through the fear that had been clouding his mind.
I know drain touch.
And if these spirits were merely possessing the body of a doll and using that levitate spell Verdia always used… Then all I need to do is drain their mana.
He turned towards the dolls, and they paused their approach when they saw the dark gleam in his eyes and a twisted smile on his face.
Oh, he was going to have fun with this.
It was times like these that Megumin contemplated learning one, only one, more spell. She squirmed on Aqua's bed as she tried to think of anything besides how badly she needed to use the restroom right now. Explosion magic worked the first hour, and part of the second if she had been keeping track of time, but even her obsession over the beauty of her spell could only work so long. Her garden came to mind next, and what she was going to do with all the space she had to work with in the back, Verdia claimed he could summon skeletons to help her out.
Focusing on the garden eventually led to the very recent moment she had shared with Kazuma, one that left her a blushing mess. She knew it had been a mistake the very next day when neither of them could hold a conversation with each other for more than a minute without trailing off as the memory of that stupid kiss on the cheek forced both of them to look away and come up with a poor excuse to leave the room. It had been a spur of the moment decision, a bad one at that, and now Megumin was worried it may have ruined a friendship she held very dear.
The door to Aqua's room opened, distracting Megumin from her thoughts as she looked, with mild apprehension, to see who – or what – had entered the room. Whatever entered the room immediately started screaming, causing the young Arch-Wizard to let out a terrified yell herself. However, it was those screams that proved to be exactly what the two people needed to recognize the other.
"Megumin?" Kazuma asked, placing a hand over his racing heart to calm it down. "What the hell are you doing?! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"You're one to talk!" She retorted. If she wasn't so afraid and angry right now, Megumin would have found it funny that the first, normal conversation they had with each other started as an argument.
Sighing, Kazuma did a quick once over on Megumin to see if she was okay before continuing the conversation. "What are you doing in Aqua's room?"
Megumin relaxed a little. "Those dolls roaming around the house scared me, and I thought it would be best to be with Aqua."
He scratched the back of his head, already guessing that had been the reason. "But Aqua's not here, do you think she's already taking care of this?"
"Probably," the Explosion maniac gave a sigh of her own.
Meanwhile…
"Turn undead! Turn undead! Turn undead!" Aqua repeated her spell multiple times as she charged through the house with a fire in her eyes every time she saw, heard, or even caught a scent of the spirits that tried to flee from her holy wrath. "Sacred turn undead!" she watched the spell go off within the common room with a satisfied cheer, celebrating briefly with nature's beauty, before continuing her charge through the house.
"Do you think Darkness is out there too?" Megumin asked.
"I would be surprised if she wasn't." Kazuma had to repress the urge to shudder as his mind involuntarily conjured up the image of Darkness, clad in her nightgown, roaming through the house with a makeshift weapon in hand and a deranged expression on her face. "Verdia's out there somewhere too, no idea where ever since those dolls dragged him away." He really should figure out where they took him off too.
"What about the snow sprite?"
He blinked at that question. "I have no idea, it normally follows Verdia around everywhere."
She made an affirmative noise, only to squirm once more when she realized the second reason for going to Aqua's room.
"Megumin, are you okay?"
The girl felt her cheeks flush from both the concern he displayed as the Adventurer took two steps closer while his eyes once again checked her body for injuries, and embarrassment at the situation she was in.
"I'm fine, but I need to use the bathroom."
In the ensuring silence, Megumin did everything she could not to glance at her friend. It was when the silence stretched out to unreasonable lengths that she turned back forward to figure out what was keeping Kazuma silent, only to see him looking behind her with his mouth wide open in surprise.
Her head was slow as it turned to view whatever it was that kept Kazuma in a stunned state of silence, knowing full well she wouldn't like it, and only when it finally did finish turning did Megumin see the entire window covered from top to bottom with those creepy dolls, staring at the two of them with lifeless eyes.
KO-NO-SU-BA!
The house felt empty without them.
Kyouya looked through today's paper for, what must have been, the fourth time as Clemea and Fio worked on the garden outside. He took a sip of coffee he made early, cringing at the bitter taste – Kazuma usually made it in the mornings, being the first one awake almost every day. Kyouya was going to ask him how he did it next time they saw each other.
Setting down the paper, Kyouya felt his hand twitch towards the deck of cards resting beside him – it was game night tonight, poker specifically, but now that they weren't here…
Kyouya sighed, even knowing this was going to happen eventually, it still didn't prepare him for the sheer silence that it came with. No longer was the kitchen filled with the noise of Megumin humming a song from her home village with Kazuma occasionally joining in on the parts he recognized – he was almost able to hum a whole song now, a fact that never failed to bring a smile to the Arch-Wizard's face. Darkness wasn't here to help him with their monthly budget anymore, although, it would be much easier now that it was just his party again. And to top it all off, Aqua-sama would no longer be around, occasionally entertaining them with her many party tricks or helping when it came to shopping – that Goddess was surprisingly good at figuring out when people were trying to charge more than they should.
It's not like he wouldn't see them again, the training schedule he had with Verdia ensured that they would meet up at least three times a week, but there was no denying the day-to-day life will be a lot less entertaining without them.
"Kyouya, are you alright?"
The Sword Master turned towards the source of the question and saw Fio – with some dirt smeared on her face and clothes – looking at him with slight worry.
He smiled. "Yeah, just getting used to the quiet is all."
Fio nodded in understanding, offering him her own sympathetic smile as she moved from the backyard's door over to a nearby closet to gather a few more tools. "Yeah, it's definitely not the same without them. I think Clemea is taking it harder than us."
Kyouya was surprised to hear that. "You think so?"
"Mmm," she nodded once more, assured of her assessment. "She's hiding it really well, but she definitely misses them a lot."
"Wow," he honestly expected Clemea to be handling the transition better than both of them, something he thought was reinforced by Fio's reaction that morning, but then again, he wasn't that good at reading people. "Is that why you've been with her the whole day?"
"For both of us really." The hunter admitted. "I can't really claim to be doing much better, but it does feel nice being able to talk with each other one on one again. I can't remember the last time we've done that."
"That's good." Kyouya was happy they had each other, but that only made him feel even more isolated. He didn't know why, but the Sword Master couldn't remember what the three of them used to do besides doing quests, eating at whatever restaurant was nearby, and sleeping at home. If that were the case, then he needed to get a hobby.
Maybe woodcarving? It was something that he was fascinated by.
"Would you like to join us?" Fio asked, bringing Kyouya back into the conversation.
"Huh?" he questioned before realizing what she was asking. "Ah, no, not right now at least."
"Alright…" she said, clearly disappointed by his answer.
Kyouya bit the corner of his lip so he didn't take back his answer, he appreciated the offer, but he wanted to continue his previous line of thought. He almost caved after watching Fio walk out, tools in hand and shoulders sagging. Let them have their time together, Kyouya reasoned, reaching down to grab the paper once more.
There were a few puzzles on it he could work on until he went to bed tonight.
"Are you almost done?" Kazuma asked as he leaned on the wall next to the bathroom door.
"Don't rush me! This is really embarrassing." Megumin's voice replied from within the room.
The Adventurer blew a strand of hair out of his face entertaining the idea of getting a clip to hold his extra hair out of the way, before deciding it would easier just to get a regular haircut. I wonder if there's any place nearby I could get one.
Kazuma looked over to his left to see a few of those possessed dolls flying towards him at high speed. A few seconds later, and a drain touch here and there, left Kazuma alone once again with the dolls lying at his feet. Next time he saw her, Kazuma was going to thank Wiz for an amazing skill.
Another group of dolls – larger than the last one – appeared from around the same corner as the other group, but with a surprising addition to it.
"Verdia?" Kazuma questioned when he saw the telltale purple helmet floating with the group with a panicked expression in his eyes.
"Child!" the undead screamed as he and the dolls flew past the Adventurer fast enough to create a small gust of wind. "Saaaaaaaave meeeee!" the group disappeared from Kazuma's sight as they turned around another corner.
Scratching his head in confusion, Kazuma turned towards where the group came from and asked himself a question. "Save you from what?"
His answer came in the form of a blue-haired Goddess, who was currently in the middle of a rampage, as she came charging down the hallway with an expression so focused that Kazuma doubted she could even see anything other than the spirits. Just as she ran past him, Kazuma reached out and snagged the back of Aqua's pajama shirt, stopping her from continuing her conquest.
"Hold on there, Aqua."
"Eh?" the Goddess looked around, her face scrunched up in confusion as if she didn't know where she was – which was a real possibility. Aqua then turned towards him with annoyance after short period of time. "Kazuma, why did you stop me? I was about to catch another group."
"I stopped you because that next group had Verdia in it." He replied, keeping a firm hold on the Arch-Priest, knowing she would take off like an arrow if he let go.
"And?" She asked, only confirming his previous assessment.
Kazuma let out a long-winded sigh at that. "You can't use your spells on him."
Aqua huffed, and looked away from him with a pout on her face. "I wasn't going to use them on him." She muttered.
"Sure you weren't."
A small amount of red creeped up the Goddess' face as Kazuma easily called out her lie. She stuck out her tongue at him in response.
It was just after she finished doing that that Megumin finished up inside the bathroom and came out to see a familiar sight, one that made her cover her mouth so they wouldn't hear her laughing. "Did I miss something?" the Arch-Wizard asked with a grin.
Kazuma shrugged. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
Verdia popped out from around the corner, his expression and movements were hesitant as he eyed the Arch-Priest who returned the look with one of disgust. "Thank you," the former General said with a surprising amount of gratitude. He shivered all of a sudden, and Kazuma had a feeling he knew what the reason was.
His suspicions were confirmed when the snow sprite appeared from the corner everyone seemed to be coming from tonight, where it soon gave a delighted chirp once it saw Verdia.
"Oh no…" the undead muttered as he watched the tiny spirit float towards, and eventually around him, never losing the happy expression on its face. "How do you keep finding me?" Verdia demanded, knowing full well he wouldn't get an actual answer from the snow sprite.
"Why does it like you so much?!" Aqua couldn't comprehend how such an adorable creature such as that could stand being in the presence of an undead, much less enjoy it.
"If I knew the answer to that, I would do everything in my power to change." Verdia answered as the snow sprite took its usual place atop his helmet. "Unfortunately, nothing I do now seems to change its opinion of me."
KONOSUBA!
Luckily the rest of the night proved to be much less eventful for the group as Aqua's previous cleansing rampage had cleared out most of the spirits in the house while the remainder fled in terror to get away from the crazy Arch-Priest. Aqua decided to set up a simple barrier – under Kazuma's strict supervision – around the house, one weak enough to allow Verdia safe passage but strong enough to repel the spirits, and it was only once that was done did the Adventurer get the chance to go to sleep.
The morning sunlight slowly dragged Kazuma out of his slumber. His muffled groans alerting anyone within earshot that he was not happy about.
"Rough night?"
Startled by the voice, Kazuma shot up with a yelp where he was then able to see who was in his room.
"Chris?!" the startled Adventurer asked as the well-known thief snickered in amusement at his expense. "How did you-?! When did-?! WHY?!" Kazuma finally settled on a question, but Chris went ahead and answered all three.
"One of your windows was left unlocked, about an hour ago, and I wanted to say congratulations on the new place." Each answer was given and the three fingers she had raised were pulled back down with each one. "You're usually an early riser, I even half-expected you to be finished with your morning routine by the time I got here." Chris teased with another laugh.
"So you've been watching me sleep for an hour?" Out of all the questions he could have asked, that was the one he was most concerned about.
"No. It took me about ten minutes to find your room, and then I explored the rest of the place when I realized you were still asleep."
Still tired, Kazuma rubbed his eyes while asking the next question. "You didn't steal anything, did you?"
Chris pouted at that. "I may be a Thief, but you know I don't steal from friends."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." He replied right before standing up to stretch, sighing in relief after hearing a satisfying pop come from his back. "But you don't usually break into people's houses just to say hi."
"True," Chris admitted as she watched the teenager put on the top half of his strange outfit, "but I thought it would be fun to watch your reaction. It was by the way."
"Good to know." Kazuma muttered sarcastically, reaching the handle to his door before giving the Thief an expectant look. "Coming?"
Nodding, Chris hopped off her perch on his desk and began following the Adventurer down the long hallways. "Where are we going?"
"Kitchen, I need a cup of coffee."
And so, the two headed down to the sparsely stocked room where Kazuma quickly brewed up a cup for both himself and Chris who was all too eager to try his well-made drink. The Thief described some of the jobs she had been doing over the last few weeks as Kazuma slowly began to wake up thanks to the caffeine, and was eventually able to describe the events that happened last night that left him so exhausted this morning.
"Yesh, you just can't get a break, can you?" Chris took another sip of her coffee, sighing happily as the liquid warmed her body from the morning cold.
"Seems to be the story of my life."
The master Thief finished off her cup before setting the object down, she then made sure that he was focused on her before continuing. "Tell you what, you sound like you need a break – not so much from work, but everyone and everything here in town, and I've been needing to find a partner lately. So, how about this." Chris leaned in closer, staring Kazuma down with a look filled with determination and positively bursting with excitement. "Join me on my next heist!"
"…I-" Kazuma didn't even get a chance to truly start his sentence before the Thief slammed a hand – much harder than necessary he would add – over the young Adventurer's mouth, preventing him from answering.
"Don't answer right away!" Chris chastised with a grin before removing her hand from his mouth. She laughed once she saw the red hand print left behind from her enthusiasm. It would probably sting for a little while. "I want you to really think about it before you give me an answer."
"And you couldn't have just said that?" Kazuma quietly demanded, his voice slightly muffled as he rubbed his own hand over the mark.
She gave him an innocent shrug in response.
There was a knock on the front door, and Kazuma had to suppress the very exaggerated groan he wanted to let out because he wanted one, just one, morning where he could just relax and not have to worry about something.
"Are you going to get that, or should I tell them nobody's home?"
If Kazuma didn't respect her so much as a mentor and friend, he would have used the first skill she taught him to take her panties once more just to shut Chris up. Swallowing his annoyance, Kazuma walked towards the door, Chris following close behind due to her curiosity, and opened the door expecting the worse. He got something else instead.
"H-hey there, Kazuma!" Kyouya greeted, a pack on his back and both Clemea and Fio right behind him, the former looking about two seconds away from murdering the closest living thing in the most painful way possible. "How's it going?"
The Adventurer stared at the group of three for a good long while, taking in their soot-covered bodies and hastily thrown together packs into account, before coming up with a conclusion he wanted the Sword Master to confirm. "You burned the house down after trying to cook a meal, didn't you?"
"He did," Clemea answered for him, her voice containing enough venom to kill a fully grown Giant Toad. She then walked inside the house, being damn sure to bump into her leader in the process, calling out to Kazuma as she disappeared down one of the many halls. "We're staying here until it gets rebuilt." Her voice left no room for argument.
"I'll… go pick a room now." Fio awkwardly slipped past the Adventurer, leaving both Chris and Kazuma who stared down the now alone Kyouya.
The silence stretched on for several long minutes, neither person moving from their spot as the information sunk in. Kyouya's head was aimed down in shame as he shuffled back and forth on both feet. Neither the Adventurer nor the Thief needed to verbalize any of the accusations running through their minds as they could see the same ones running through Kyouya's own.
But there was one thing Kazuma needed to know.
"Was the garden destroyed?"
Swallowing a nervous lump, Kyouya nodded.
"And the heat lamps as well?"
"They made the fire worse, actually." The Sword Master admitted.
"Well shit," Kazuma was going to need another cup of coffee. "I hope you know you're telling Megumin this, and you'll be helping her start up the new garden as well."
Kyouya rubbed the back of his head while laughing nervously. "She won't… she won't kill me, right?"
"You'll have to find that out yourself." Kazuma said, stepping aside to allow his fellow party leader to walk in. "Go ahead and pick any open room you want."
Kyouya thanked him, and proceeded inside while leaving Chris and Kazuma alone in-front of the door.
Once she was sure he was gone, Chris openly laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. "I'm so glad I came by today!" Wiping away a tear, the Thief decided she had had enough fun for one morning, and waved Kazuma goodbye, but not before reminding him to think over her proposal.
Now alone, Kazuma pondered what he should do before finally settling on getting the cleaning supplies ready. An extra three people would really help speed things along. Especially when he could guilt trip one of them.
"Oi! Kyouya! I got a job for you!"
Oh boy, Kyouya's in trouble now.
Like I said up top, there isn't much more for me to say, so I'll just say thank you to everyone who's reviewed, followed, and favorite this story, and wish you all a great day!