I know it's way past Christmas now, but I'm still gonna post this because I spent time on it. But I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays, and Happy New Years everyone!
Also if it isn't obvious, this is just a omake for the actual story.
"Come on Kazuma! Cheer up!" Said a drunk Dale as he downed a glass of Crimson Beer.
"No need to be so glum!" Said an equally drunk Lily as she drank her own glass of beer, however at a more relaxed pace than Dave.
"Easy for you to say..." Kazuma grumbled.
The reason for Kazuma's ire is due to the quest they had taken earlier.
Lily was scanning the quest board for any interesting quests. Today was Christmas Eve so many people weren't taking quests, leaving many options on the board. She eventually spotted one that caught her interest and took it from the board before running over to Kauzma and Dale.
"Guy! Look at this quest!" Lily said excitingly as she held up the quest paper.
Kazuma and Dale looked at the quest paper, curious at what had gotten her excited.
"A herd of Frost Reindeer have recently popped up in the northern forests, causing the forest to go from snowy to an desolate ice land. Eliminate all of them. Reward: 250,000 Eris." Kazuma read out the quest details.
"Frost Reindeer?" Kazuma asked.
"They're a special type of monster, one that can use magic. It brings a massive snowstorm that's colder than even the harshest winters. It can cause villages to completely freeze up solid." Lily explained.
"Right, and why should we take this one then? Doesn't this sound like a that's too much for us?" Dale asked.
"Because I need something from them! Their antlers are amazing catalysts, as their magic gathers there. The antlers could be worth quite a bit, but could be extremely beneficial for my research!" Lily said.
Kazuma and Dale looked at each other before looking back at Lily who was looking at them with wide puppy eyes.
"Ugh... Fine, we'll take the quest..." They both said in unison.
"Alright! Let's get to it!" Lily exclaimed before going to accept the quest.
Dale and Kazuma looked at each other with slight concern.
They had found the herd in one of the far north forests, just as the quest paper noted. There were 3 in total, each minding their own business.
"There they are..." Kazuma whispered as the three were hiding behind a tree, out of sight from the reindeer.
He tried peeking even further out from his hiding spot before Dale grabbed him and pulled him back in place.
"Careful! Those guys are dangerous! Get too close and you might freeze up just from being in the area, and once they catch wind of you they'll freeze you in an instant!" Dale hissed at him.
As to prove his point, he picked up a decently sized rock and threw it far from them. Once it impacted the ground, the monsters immediately snapped their heads towards the rock and blasted a large torrent of ice magic, leaving behind only spikes of ice, while the trees that happened to be near it turned completely into ice.
Kazuma gulped at the sight. He knew if he got blasted by something like that, he would not survive.
"Here, I got these for us." Lily said as she handed them each a vial. "They're powerful ice resistant potions. It'll help us resist against the freezing cold near the monsters, but it won't protect you from that strong of a blast, so be careful." The other two nodded before they all downed the potions.
"Alright, let's do this." Kazuma said.
He slowly creeped around the tree they were hiding behind, drawing his bow and readying a shot. The plan was to take down one, allowing them to have a chance to have the other two focus on two of their own while one deals damage.
As Kazuma notched an arrow and pulled it back, the sound of the bowstring seemed to have attracted the attention of one of the reindeer.
"KAZUMA RUN!" Dale shouted as he and Lily ran to the side.
Kazuma widened his eyes as the monster had prepared an ice attack. He quickly jumped to the side to dodge as it fired its attack. While its shot wasn't as powerful as the one demonstrated earlier, it was still quite dangerous, leaving smaller spikes of ice in its wake.
"Tinder!" Kazuma chanted, causing a fireball to appear in his hand before shooting it at the monster. It quickly dissipated as it got closer, due to it being colder near the monsters.
'Dammit, I can't use fire magic powerful enough to counter them!' Kazuma thought.
He jumped to the side again to dodge another ice blast, but it grazed him slightly, cutting through his jacket, on his arm, leaving the part of his jacket frozen.
Once he recovered he aimed with his bow and managed to shoot an arrow right at the reindeer that was focused on him. It embedded itself into the reindeer's head, causing it to fall to the ground dead.
"I got one!" Kazuma exclaimed.
The other two reindeer seemed to have noticed that one of their comrade had been defeated, and realized that Kazuma was the bigger threat. This caused one of them to turn their attention to Kazuma.
"Seriously?!" Kazuma exclaimed as he had to quickly evade another ice blast.
On the other side, Lily and Dale were dealing with the other reindeer. Thanks to Kazuma, they only needed to deal with one.
Lily was able to use a stronger fire attack that was able to actually damage the reindeer instead of snuff out completely.
Dale on the other hand was unable to attack, as if he were to get too close to the monster, he could be frozen on the spot. As a result, his job was to draw its attention to him, while Lily attacked with her spells.
Their tactic eventually managed to take down the monster, leaving just one standing.
As Kazuma was about to take his final shot to kill it, he slipped on some ice that its blast had created. As a result his arrow flew far from it's mark, striking one of the frozen trees beside it.
"Crap!"
"KAZUMA!" Lily and Dale cried as they saw the reindeer charge up another attack.
As it fired, the tree that Kazuma hit cracked, before splitting off a large piece that fell onto the reindeer, killing it. The attack however was already shot, and a torrent of ice hit Kazuma. By some luck, and to the potion Lily gave him, Kazuma was only frozen in a block of ice, but it wasn't enough to be fatal.
The next hour, Dale and Lily worked to free Kazuma from his icy prison. Once he was free he was shivering like crazy. While they were worried, Dale and Lily couldn't help but laugh at Kazuma, which brought on the jokes that lasted all the way until they got to Lorm. Once there, Dale had suggested that they all go for drinks as it was Christmas eve.
Lily agreed while Kazuma reluctantly agreed to go, wanting nothing more than a warm mug of hot chocolate to warm up his body.
And that lead to now, with two drunken adventurers and one with a mug of hot chocolate who was glaring at the two.
"Kazuma... Kazuma's so... COLD!" Lily said after she tried to assemble the joke in the haze of her mind, to which Dale laughed at.
"Alright, you two have had enough, it's time to go home." Kazuma said.
He plopped down the eris for the food and drinks before he helped each drunken adventurer stand up, letting them each rest an arm over his shoulder so they could walk.
He first led Dale back to his house before heading home with Lily.
While they were on their way back, Lily started crawling on Kazuma's back.
"Wha- Hey! Lily! Cut it out!" Kazuma said.
"But I can't walk anymore... Carry me on your back..." Lily said, before she got comfortable, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder.
Kazuma could only sigh before he accepted the situation and let her rest on his back.
'Man... this almost feels nostalgic in a sense. Reminds me of the times I carried Megumin on my back after her daily explosions. Though there is one slight difference. But I can't put my finger on it-' Kazuma's train of thought was cut off as Lily shifted on his back, which pushed certain assets on his back.
'Ohhhh! This is the sensation that was always missing from those days when I carried that explosion loli!' Just as Kazuma thanked the powers that granted him this moment, he also felt a chill run down his spine, as if he was notified that he had committed a grave sin, and retribution was coming.
Kazuma carried Lily on his back all the way to her house, occasionally passing by some people who waved at him, while also being stopped by some guards who thought he was about to take advantage of a drunken girl.
He eventually made it, entering through the door that came out of his wallet.
"Home sweet home..." Kazuma muttered to himself.
He quickly made his way up the stairs and opened the door to Lily's room. He sat her down on her bed before he took her boots off so she wouldn't make her bed dirty. He then laid her down properly so she could sleep comfortably.
Before he was about to leave, he noticed the yellow lily flower hairpin that rested in her golden hair.
"Still wearing that thing huh?" Kazuma said, chuckling at the sight.
Kazuma let out a yawn, indicating that he too should hit the hay. As he got up however, he was held in place as Lily had wrapped her arms around his lower abdomen.
"Huh? Lily? Can you let go?" He asked as he tried to pry her hands off.
"Nooo! I want you to stay!" She cried out, tightening her grasp on him.
"What do you mean stay?! Are you implying I sleep with you?!" Kazuma questioned.
"Yes." She said flatly.
"E-eh? I-If you say that to a guy like me then all kinds of misunderstandings are gonna come up!" He stammered out.
"It's fine... I trust you not to do anything bad." She said as she loosened her grip, lowering her head on her pillow.
He was considering just heading back to his room, but at the same time he felt like he should stay. Letting out a sigh he took off his boots before he also laid down beside the girl.
"There, happy?" Kazuma asked.
"Yes!" She said happily.
While Kazuma sighed, on the inside he was having quite the conflict. On the one hand, he was finally in a bed with a girl, anything could happen! But on the other, she was drunk, and she also held such strong trust for him that he didn't want to ruin it.
He didn't realize until it was too late that he had been staring at Lily while having his internal conflict.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Nothing, just... It surprised me when you said you trusted me."
"What's surprising about that?"
"I guess I'm just not used to that kind of thing."
While he most certainly had trusted his old party members, it definitely wasn't one that went both ways. He was always accused by the girls of being some massive pervert who would sexually harass them at any given point. And while he did almost basically do that, it did put a strain in their relationships. So having someone have complete trust in him was a foreign feeling.
"After all this time, there's no way I couldn't trust you."
"But why?" He asked, which got her to smile.
"From the day we found you in the forest, wounded after being attacked by those bandits, everything changed. I've had so much fun having you around, going around town with you, hanging out with you and Dale, and even going on quests together! I'm sure Dale would say the same thing. You two have become quite the close friends too. Having you here has been so fun, so amazing... I'm really happy you chose to stay here with me instead of staying at an inn or something. If it weren't for that, I don't know how much less I'd be enjoying things as I am right now."
Kazuma could only agree with her. Ever since he met the two, he had been enjoying their company, hanging out, seeing new things, questing together. If he had decided to live at an inn, he probably would have seen them less often than now.
"But most of all..." Lily said, catching his attention again.
"If it weren't for you staying here with me, I don't know if I'd be able to..." She trailed off.
"To...?"
"To... To love you as much as I do now..." She said before she slowly planted her lips on his, catching him completely off guard.
'EHHHHH?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!' Kazuma screamed internally.
Once they were apart, before he could question her, he noticed she had fallen asleep.
'Seriously?! She does all that and then falls sleep?! How am I supposed to sleep now?!' Kazuma screamed internally.
What didn't help either was the fact that Lily had once again wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer to her to hug like some plush toy.
"This is gonna be one long night..." Kazuma muttered to himself.
Morning had come, and Lily slowly rose, rubbing her eyes while also dealing with a headache.
"Guess I had too much to drink... Looks like Kazuma helped me back to my room. I should thank him later for... Eh?" Lily stopped talking when she lowered her hand and landed on something beside her that wasn't her bed.
She looked to the side slowly and spotted Kazuma sleeping beside her. Once she realized the situation, her face turned bright red before freaking out.
"W-W-W-WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Lily screamed, causing Kazuma to suddenly wake up and fall off the bed.
"Ow..." Kazuma muttered from the ground.
"Ah! Sorry! Are you okay?" Lily asked as she peeked over the edge to see him sprawled out on the floor.
"Yeah... I'm alright..." Kazuma said in a tired voice, indicating he didn't sleep much.
"Um... Can you explain what happened last night, and why we were in my bed?" Lily asked slightly embarrassed.
Kazuma agreed to tell her, so they went downstairs to the living room. After she drank a glass of water and a potion to aid with her hangover, she sat down beside Kazuma.
He explained the events of last night, which got Lily to turn a bright red again, realizing she accidentally confessed to him in a drunken state, even kissing him to boot!
"Gosh... This is so embarrassing... I'm really sorry Kazuma!" Lily said, bowing her head down, while small tears started forming in her eyes as she thought she might have ruined her chances with Kazuma.
"You don't need to apologize Lily." He said calmly as he put his hand on her head and gave her a head pat.
"W-What did you mean?"
"I spent some time last night thinking about it, and before I say anything, I just want to know. How long have you liked me for?" Kazuma asked.
"Well... I guess ever since that day you gave me this hairpin." She said, reaching a hand up to touch it before continuing.
"Ever since then, I started thinking about you more, how much I've been enjoying spending time with you. Before I knew it, I had started liking you. But I'm really sorry that I ended up confessing like that, but it is true... I do love you! Lily said with a serious tone.
"Well, this is quite unexpected. Honestly, I never thought something like this could ever happen, especially knowing my history..." Kazuma muttered the last part, recalling his first relationship, and then the mixed bag of girls he was in a party with that complicated his chances at forming a relationship.
"But, I have to say, I also really like you Lily. If you really don't mind it being me, then would you like to go out with me?" Kazuma asked, cheeks slightly red as he asked her.
"Y-Yes!" Lily cried out, basically throwing her arms out to hug him while she let out tears of joy as she was relived.
"Thank you Kazuma!" Lily said as she looked at Kazuma with a big smile.
Kazuma only smiled at the girl who was extremely happy, as he wiped off some of the tears from her face before she put a hand over his.
They stared at each other for a moment before they both started moving towards each other.
But just as their lips met, which sent sparks flying through both their heads, the front door suddenly burst open.
"Kazuma, are you here?!" Cried out a familiar voice.
The two stayed in place like deer in headlights, before looking over to the entrance.
There stood a Crusader, an Arch-Mage, and an Arch-Priest.
"Kazuma! We finally found you- Hold on, what's going on here?" Aqua asked.
"You guys..." Kazuma said in shock.
"Kazuma, its us! We came all this way to find you!" Darkness said.
"You guys..." He said again, his eyes covered in a shadow.
"Anyways what's going on here? Did Kazu-trash do something to that girl there?" Megumin asked.
"YOU IDIOTS!" Kazuma screamed as he ran over to the three and smacked them all over the heads, leaving a mark.
"Ow!" The three cried out.
Lily stared as she watched Kazuma yell at the newcomers who seemed to match the description of his old party when he was in Axel.
She couldn't help but laugh at their antics.
Even though their moment was ruined, she did get the best Christmas gift ever.
