Kazuma handed the letter of payment to the clerk at the bank while glancing around. A vague memory came to mind from his very distant school days, seeing a painting of a Renaissance era bank. This one might as well have been ripped from the painting itself. Overweight men in expensive vibrant clothing, white ruffled collars sitting or standing in various places around the room.
The counter was secured behind a simple ornate lattice of iron with various metal shaped designs of vine leaves and flowers that offered a more inviting air than if it had just been wrought iron.
An open space had an elven woman behind it whose ears twitched obsessively when she read the letter Kazuma handed to her. Her oval eyes widened impressively, but she didn't speak a word.
Instead she quietly walked to the back to a heavy door, opened it, and poked her head in. Kazuma leaned slightly to the side to watch the exchange, and tried to listen. A few seconds later a heavyset man with a thick brown beard and thick arms confined in a dark suit approached. He thrust a fat hand through the open space framed by the metal latticework and said, "Thank you for your patronage, Master Kazuma! It will be wonderful doing business with you!"
Kazuma gingerly took his hand, shook it, and the bearded man with the somewhat balding head pumped the hand with vigor, he slapped his other hand over the back of the one he held, and a big ingratiating smile took shape on his pudgy face.
"I'm Corisimo, the bank manager here, and I'm so pleased you've decided to deposit with us, please, take your card with our compliments, and if you need anything at all, come to me personally!" He had a heavy, thick sort of voice with a slightly gravely accent to it, but his enthusiasm was clear, as was his obsession with his new client.
"Ah, yeah, thanks. One small thing, could you put fifty thousand into her account here?" Kazuma said, stepping back a pace farther than he needed from the window and pointing to Megumin.
"Why yeeeesss, I'd be happy to!" he said and looked the mage over. 'Doesn't look like much, but isn't she the one who hit those zombies that attacked the town? She's connected to the important client, so I'd better be nice.'
Megumin approached with two slow, hesitant steps.
Five minutes later, they were leaving the bank with Kazuma staring down at a little black card. "Wow, three hundred million, it's still so hard to believe."
Megumin looked up at him as they walked back home, "So, you're really OK with this, with Komekko coming to stay with us?"
"Your little sister? Here?" Darkness asked with a tiny frown.
"Yes, I can't leave her with my mother and father." Megumin said and clapped her mouth shut.
Darkness recalled the poverty of the place Megumin called home, but it did not sit well with the crusader nonetheless.
"Wouldn't it be better to just send money home to take care of her, is it really necessary to take her from her home and bring her all the way here?" Darkness gently asked.
"No." Megumin's answer was clipped and shut down all dispute with the obvious vitriol.
It was enough that the silence stretched till they reached the manor again.
Megumin went straight to her room to write a letter home and to prepare to send for her, and Kazuma headed to his own room intending to read. However, to his surprise, Darkness didn't venture off on her own, instead she followed him.
He turned around several times to look at her during his walk down the hall, but she never wavered in her step or her unhappy expression. Finally he entered his room and began to draw the door shut, but her hand came out and stopped it before it closed halfway.
"Kazuma." She said.
"That's my name." He said with indifference, looking over his shoulder at her. "Something on your mind?"
"Yes." Darkness answered as decisively as Megumin had earlier.
He stepped the rest of the way into his room and closed the door when she followed.
"So, what's going on?" He asked and tossed his sword onto the bed.
"I don't think this is a proper environment for a child, Komekko shouldn't be here." Darkness answered at once.
Kazuma took that in in silence for a moment, then asked simply, "Why? Did you not like her or something?"
Darkness crossed her arms in front of her chest, "She's fine as far as any child goes, even cute. But we're adventurers and we go on quests, what kind of life is that for a child? We'll either be abandoning her all the time or we're going to be stuck here looking after her or you'll be leaving her in the care of strangers."
Kazuma sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "You sure you're not just worried you won't be able to be a pervert all the time if a kid is around?"
Darkness arched her back and hugged herself more tightly, a little "Mmmmm…" noise made it past her tight shut lips.
'Nailed it.' Kazuma thought.
When she settled down, he slapped a hand on his knee and said, "The call is mine and I've made it. Things will work out, let Megumin have this, I put up with your crazy pervy nonsense all the time, I put up with Aqua being… Aqua. You can handle having one little one around."
Darkness let out a harsh, "Hmpf." Then crossed her arms again. "I still do not like it. Children of that age are a huge inconvenience to have around and I don't want one to get in the way of adventuring."
"If by 'adventuring' you mean 'perving' I believe you, but it's done, deal with it." Kazuma cut conversation short.
"But-" She started, leaning forward intently, only to stop short.
"Done." Kazuma crossed his arms and stood up, Darkness straightened up.
"What's with this newfound manly decisiveness of yours… this isn't like you, Kazuma?" Darkness's voice became smaller, more high pitched, and more confused.
"It's just important." Kazuma said and took a deep breath, he came over and put a hand on her shoulder as one would a comrade, "Just trust me, we'll make all this work, and Komekko isn't a difficult kid, we'll be fine. You'll get used to her."
With nothing else she could think to say, Darkness quietly left the room.
When the door closed, Kazuma could only roll his eyes and mutter, "We'll have to, but it's fine, we've got time, I'll need a lot more information about where we're going, before we leave. That will give us time to sort things out here."
A few weeks later, a tiny girl in a patchwork dark cloak was running over to a crouched Megumin who held out her arms with a broad smile on both their faces. "Big sissssterrrr!" Komekko shouted as her little legs pumped and she ate up ground.
"Komekkoooo!" Megumin emulated the way the words were drawn out and caught the girl when she jumped forward.
Megumin's arms wrapped around her and squeezed tight before she stood up and set the girl down. At her back stood Kazuma and Aqua. "You remember Kazuma, and Aqua, right?"
Komekko's little mouth opened to stare up at the two. "Hi there." Aqua said and bent forward to touch the little girl's nose. "Do you remember what I taught you?"
Komekko brightened and flung her arms up as the memory returned, "The Goddess Eris pads her chest!"
"Smart girl." Aqua patted Komekko's dark hair and straightened up, the little girl then turned to look at Kazuma.
"I 'member you! You're big sister's man!" She grinned ear to ear and Kazuma blinked and stepped back, his casual air suddenly shocked, his mouth opened uncertain of whether to deny it or not.
Megumin blushed as crimson as her eyes, "No, Komekko, he's my teammate and my very good friend."
"But you slept with him! Mom said that makes him yours and I'd get a niece! Gimme a niece!" Komekko waved her hands around, frantic and eager like a child who'd seen a cake just out of reach.
"Ohhhh boy… ah, Megumin, why don't you show her where your room is, huh?" Kazuma suggested gently while the crimson demon adventurer turned ever deeper shades of red.
"Where's boob lady?" Komekko asked and looked around when they walked into the manor.
Megumin's flush did not fade any with that.
"Darkness… right, ah, she's busy, just leave her be." Kazuma said when Megumin stepped within and shut the door behind her.
It wasn't long before Komekko's loud voice could be heard throughout most of the manor, "Oh wow! This is your house Mr. Kazuma?! Wow oh wow oh wow!" She ran around full of excitement, "I wanna explore! Can I explore? Please Mr. Kazuma man? Is that OK?!" Komekko begged and hopped up and down as soon as Megumin set her on the floor.
"Do you mind, Kazuma? I'll keep an eye on her so she doesn't get lost." Megumin asked, snatching the little girl's hand and holding it fast despite the young one's bouncy excited ways.
"Yeah, fine, she won't get in my way, I'll be in the library seeing what else the ditz missed." Kazuma chuckled, and Megumin let her little sister go.
Komekko walked the halls barefoot, the red carpet she walked on now was soft as goose feathers and it became a pleasure to scrunch her toes into the soft fabric over and over again. Her naturally big round eyes of deep crimson barely blinked when she walked from room to room. Megumin was well behind her, and occasionally called out to ensure she didn't get lost, but that didn't matter to Komekko.
'I don't mind getting lost! This is amazing! A single building so large a person can get lost in it?! Wow! Who knew that was even possible?!' She asked of herself and took to making large 'Boop' noises in rooms large enough to create an echo.
The sound of her voice coming back to her from off the high stone walls was a source of endless fascination.
Then she found the stairs. "Big sis! Did you know there are stairs here?! This building has more than one ground! How is that even possible?!" She clapped her hands and started to run down the corkscrew pattern staircase descending into the lower floor.
The area below was dimly lit by small holes that tunnelled up to the surface and allowed light to stream in from the outside, and she could only gasp at what she saw.
Cheese. Lots, and lots, and lots of cheese. And bread. And potatoes, bags of rice, flour, and endless shelves of other basic foodstuffs. Komekko let out a mousey little squeak as her eyes became like saucers. "All the food in the world must be hidden down here!"
She then furrowed her little brow. "Wait… if it's all down here… no wonder…" She touched her little hand to her belly just in time for it to rumble. "No wonder we're always hungry! They hid most of it from us!"
She walked between row after row, shelf after shelf, growing ever more certain of her conclusion. But that wasn't without its problems. 'Wait, big sis wouldn't hide food from me. And Mr. Kazuma is letting me live here. Blue hair taught me about padding…' As Komekko thought it over, it became more obvious. 'Boob lady! She's been hiding it all along!'
As Komekko reached that conclusion, she found herself at another door, she opened it, and found a staircase leading up.
Now more wary and concerned, she followed the stairs up, her little feet echoing off the rough stone with every step until she came to a door with orange light coming from the crack underneath.
The smell of roasting reached her nose, her belly rumbled again. Her mouth filled with saliva and her belly with anticipation, she rushed the door and opened it, and there she was. 'Boob lady!' Komekko thought and pursed her lips, there she was. The one to hide all the world's food in the underground.
"Oh, hello there, Komekko. I was just preparing lunch, are you hungry?" Darkness said with a deceptive pleasant smile on her face, a ladle in hand, the pale blue eyed woman brought it to her lips and took a sip of something that smelled amazing.
'I'll punish the boob lady for hiding it all! Ask for what can't be and make her cry like mommy does!' Komekko decided and walked over to a small table and clambered up onto the long wooden seating. "Meat!" Komekko pounded her hands on the table.
"I have some right here." Darkness pointed behind her to a spit that was rotating over a fire, smoke wafted up a chimney, and true to Darkness's word, a thick leg of lamb was impaled over the flame.
"What's in the pot?" Komekko asked, staring from that to the big cast iron pot.
"This is a special stew you put over the lamb to make it taste better." Darkness explained patiently and began to stir the pot again, it put the heavy scent of herbs and spices in the air, which quickly reached Komekko's nostrils.
'Boob lady took all the meat too! No wonder she's not crying!' Komekko thought and wiped her mouth on her patchwork sleeve. The stitching rubbed over her lips, and it only called more attention to the boob lady's clothing.
The one she knew as Darkness was dressed in elaborate gold and black clothing with a white armor over legs, breasts, and shoulders, with a flourished wing design over her right shoulder. There didn't appear to be a single patch on any of her clothing, and from her side hung a sheathed sword.
That only made it worse. All of it made it worse. She held her little growl in her heart and glared at the beautiful blonde when the grown-up went and began to cut meat off of the spit.
The juices dripped onto a small wooden bowl, and Komekko pasted a wide smile on her face as soon as Darkness turned toward her again and returned to the pot. The ladle came up again and the smile became an expression of tremendous awe as a heaping pile of broth and vegetables that had until that moment existed only in Komekko's hopeless dreams, was poured like nothing over the meat.
"Here you go, eat up." Darkness smiled down at the girl, "You must be hungry, so eat." she smiled down at the little girl, and Komekko regained her senses and snatched up her implements and began to rip and tear into the fragrant richness that assaulted her senses.
'It must be a trick, but it's a delicious trick!' She thought and tore into bite after bite, the bowl was empty before boob lady even sat down with one of her own.
'I'm still hungry…' Komekko looked down at the bowl and began to lick the juices up, 'How do I get more?' She wondered, and thought to the time at school she'd gotten seconds. She held up the bowl and bowed her head and said, "Please ma'am, may I have some more?"
"Still hungry?" Darkness asked.
Komekko thrust the bowl out again and nodded rapidly. 'Like anyone can have two helpings of meat.'
"Sure, just a moment." The blonde woman said and stood up.
"I've got it, Darkness, you go ahead and eat." Megumin said when she came through the same door Komekko used to enter the kitchen.
"Alright, that's fine." Darkness replied and started to eat.
Komekko looked at the clothing her big sister wore, it was new, but she knew it was only because Mr. Kazuma bought it for her, the rest of her clothing was patch riddled. 'Boob lady turned my sister into a servant for food, ohhhh… boob lady, you are my enemy!' Komekko made her private declaration of war before her big sister brought the bowl back, again heavy with meat and stew.
The one Komekko knew as 'Darkness' began to banter with Megumin, oblivious to the tiny declaration of war, or the glare hidden by the bowl Komekko dove her face into to lick clean a second time. 'Boob lady… in the name of justice, I will punish you!' She declared to herself alone, and began to plot.