KonoSuba: A Tale of this Beautiful World Vol5

by Dknightodin

The fifth volume of the series.

5. Chapter 4: A Trail of Wine and Whispers

Chapter 4: A Trail of Wine and Whispers

Part 1

In the center of the large cavern an equally large tower was erected, and at its top sat a glowing ball which exuded a soft yet powerful source of light, enough to push the mine's natural darkness into hiding. Despite such an awe-inspiring sight, Aloquin paid no mind to it and continued towards the back of the cavern. We followed along until he reached the back wall and then stopped.

"Here we are," he said.

However, the wall before us simply contained more emeralds, ones that appeared no different than the ones we passed.

Aloquin knelt down and started looking through the piles of viridian crystals.

Each one he grabbed he held up to the light, and after a few seconds of doing this, he either dropped it into a basket he brought or tossed it back into the pile.

"Emeralds," Darkness remarked.

"But what makes these so special?" Gren said.

"Might these be King's Emeralds?" Zu' Re posed.

"King's Emeralds is one of the things I'm looking for, but what I'm really after is something more important than even that."

"More important?"

He held up another emerald in the light and then froze. "I think I may have found it."

"Looks like another emerald," Gren remarked.

"No…not quite," Aloquin replied, almost as if he was mesmerized by the gem in his hand. "Take a look. Can you see it?" he said, holding it out to us.

Gren took the gem as he gently let go and then stared at it closely.

After a few seconds of this, her eyes went wide with shock. Zu' Re, who was also inspecting the crystal, showed the same reaction.

"This is—"

"A Marker Emerald," Aloquin stated.

"Marker Emerald?" I said in curiosity. "The heck's that?"

"It's the unrefined state of a Monarch's Pedigree," Zu' Re replied, still in some level of shock.

"Which is…?"

"The emerald that marks one as the next sovereign of Sylvenn. Why is this here?" Zu' Re asked, looking at Aloquin.

"This is where they're found, only here."

"Then that means…"

All of us looked at the young elven girl who was currently staring at the uncut gem in her hand. "This is…like Mama's."

"Excuse me?" Aloquin said, somewhat surprised by what he heard. "Did she just—"

"What's it to you?" Gren interjected.

"What's it to me? Are you joking, Gren-san? Is she related to the late queen? Are you?"

"Absolutely not."

"Then why is she—"

"I don't think it's any of your business."

"Why are you being so defensive? I'm simply asking if you and your supposed 'sister' are related to the queen."

"And I already said I'm not…and neither is Ferris—and she is my sister."

Aloquin stared at Ferris for a few seconds, then he stuck his hand out. "May I have it back?" he asked.

Ferris quietly handed the unrefined gem back to him.

Then he knelt in front of her. "Are you our next sovereign?"

"Ferris," Gren said, quickly interceding.

"She is," Zu' Re suddenly replied.

Aloquin and Gren stared at her, though for very different reasons.

"She is?" Aloquin said, now looking at Gren for confirmation.

Gren glared at Zu' Re, and then she turned it upon the elf who had now asked her a question. "Does it matter?"

Aloquin silently stared at Gren, and then he turned his gaze on Ferris. "You're undeniably of noble descent, that much I can tell." He got to his feet. "Gren-san, if she is your sister, as you say, then it'd also mean you are of noble descent as well, correct?"

Gren smiled wryly. "Noble? I'm afraid not. But Ferris is my sister. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't just blurt out random things," she said, frowning at Zu' Re.

"I fail to see how both are you related and yet you not be of noble birth, Gren-san."

"Did it ever occur to you that you might be wrong?"

"About?"

"Everything."

Aloquin scoffed. "I know not what personal vendetta you have against me, Gren-san. I can accept my mistakes, however, I don't believe I'm making one at this moment. I know she's not a commoner, at least, not entirely; nobility does run through her veins."

"Psst." Aqua whispered to me. "Is Ferris not the King's daughter? I thought she was."

"Of course she is," I harshly whispered back. "It's obvious Gren-san doesn't want him to know though, so keep your mouth shut."

"Anyhow," Aloquin said, "I've accomplished what I came to do."

Zu' Re spoke. "A Marker Emerald; it must mean that another Monarch's Pedigree will be made soon."

"I don't know the exact details, but my father will be the one to make it—just as he made the one before."

"Strange; I've heard there's only one in existence at a time."

"But the previous one was lost, was it not?"

Once again, Zu' Re glanced at Ferris. "For some time, yes."

"So, it was found?" Aloquin fixed his gaze upon Ferris once more. "I see."

"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "I get that the emerald stands for something big, but is that all there is to it? Is that the only thing that makes it special? If it is, why not just use any old emerald? All the ones in here look amazing."

"Perhaps you haven't gotten a good look at it," Aloquin replied. "Here." He handed it to me to examine; Darkness, Aqua, and Megumin joined in.

We stared at the rough emerald's surface, then I held it up to the light.

"Do you see it?" Aloquin asked.

Glistening in the light was a pattern of silver bands streaking through the gem.

"A Marker Emerald is one that contains silver within it. And while that alone may be enough to make it 'special', it isn't the main reason; the main reason is what the whole thing stands for."

"What it stands for?"

"The blood of Sylvenn's martyr, its first sovereign: Tulah Venn. Our history says that he was a simple soldier who was elevated to King, and that through his heroic actions our race was given The Emerald Gorge. It's said when he was slain the blood he spilled ran silver. Now it is said that emeralds containing silver within are ones infused with Tulah Venn's own blood."

"Sounds amazing," Darkness said.

"It sounds cool!" Megumin yelled, her eyes sparkling with a crimson glow. "C-Can I keep it?! I want it! Something like this would certainly make for an amazing catalyst!"

After dodging our crazed mage's attempts to steal it from me, I returned it to Aloquin, after which we all began to make our way back out of the mine.

"Aloquin!"

The moment we exited the mine Serras was running towards us with a small group of guards.

"A bit late," Aloquin said.

"S, Sorry. I saw the boats so I figured you all managed to reach the shore," Serras remarked.

"Is everyone ok?" one of the guards asked as the group approached.

"Yes, everything is fine," Aloquin replied. "We managed to avert the crisis."

"Did you go into the mine?"

"I did, as you can see," Aloquin said, showing the basket of emeralds.

"Well, since we're here already we might as well conduct the search here."

"Sure."

The group of guards went on to search each of us for possible contraband. Though I expected our idiot goddess and crazy archmage to take something they—luckily—did not; it was one of the situations where them doing so would've been par-for-the-course. Them not taking anything was honestly odd but, truth be told, I wasn't gonna question such a lucky break.

"Hey, what's this?!" one of the guards said, his hand grasping a large emerald.

"No, wait, that's mine! Give it back!"

"Ferris?!" Gren said, turning immediately to her sister's cries.

She quickly leapt towards the guard, prompting the others to swiftly react. Within an instant, a scuffle broke out between her and the guards.

"Wait, stop!" Aloquin said, trying to calm the two groups; however, neither Gren nor the guards did.

As the guards continued to try and restrain Gren, Zu' Re grabbed Ferris and pulled her a safe distance away. Serras joined his brother in trying to soothe the situation while me and the others stood back trying to figure out what to do.

"Stop!" Ferris yelled, trying to break free and run towards Gren. "Stop! Let go of her, let go of Onee-chan! I SAID STOP!"

The moment she said those words the guards and everyone else instantly stopped what they were doing. I felt an odd break in my line of thinking and then a bit of confusion.

"What the heck was that?" I thought.

The guards and everyone else seemed to have felt the same as they all reacted in a similar fashion, looking around and at each other in bewilderment; the only one who I think was unfazed was Aqua, who looked at us with her own sense of confusion.

"Are you guys ok?" she said, still looking at me and the others with a mixed sense of worry and perplexity.

"What, you also feel that?" I replied.

"Feel what? You and everyone froze up all scarily and then just stood there like that for a few seconds."

"What? The heck you talking about?"

"Onee-chan!" Ferris quickly hugged Gren, and in her hand was the emerald the guard once held. "Are you ok?"

"Ferris?" Gren said in an almost unsure tone. "What…what happened?" She shook her head, seemingly trying to get rid of the confusion she was certainly feeling.

The guard that initially took the gem from Ferris looked down at his hand, noticing that he no longer held the emerald. "H-, Hey!"

Before he could do anything, Aloquin jumped in front of him. "Wait."

"Aloquin-san, what's the meaning of this?"

"Give me a moment; let me verify whether or not that emerald was taken from the mine or not."

"You're joking. Where else would she—"

"I'll look at it. You know as well as anyone that my experience with gems goes beyond what the average person knows; allow me to inspect it. I'll gladly let you know if it was taken from the mine."

The guard stared at Aloquin seemingly unconvinced, but then he sighed. "Alright…go ahead."

"What are you doing?" "Aloquin." Gren and Serras stood in front of Ferris, guarding against Aloquin's approach.

"I simply wish to ask her something. May I?"

"You can ask her from there," Gren retorted.

"I'm not going to harm her, Gren-san."

"Of course not…because I won't let you."

Aloquin sighed.

"Gren-san." Serras gently tapped her on the shoulder, drawing her attention. "I think you should let Aloquin speak with Ferris-chan."

"What for? There's no reason you or anybody else needs to speak with Ferris."

Aloquin sighed once again, this time more heavily. "Fine. If speaking with her isn't possible, then may I see that emerald for a moment?"

Gren placed Ferris firmly behind her back. "You don't need to see it. It's not yours and doesn't concern you."

"On the contrary, Gren-san; if you don't let me see it, then I won't be able to stop the guards from placing you under arrest."

Zu' Re spoke. "Aloquin-san, even after what I told you, you'd still react this way?"

"Those are the rules of The Emerald Gorge. You are our honored guests, but even His Majesty must and would abide by the rules of the Gorge. Gren-san, please don't make this hard. If you don't wish for me to speak with Ferris then allow me to inspect the gem for a moment. You have my word that I'll return it to its owner once I have."

Suddenly, Darkness walked over. "Gren-san, if you wish, I'll hold them back while you and the others beat a hasty retreat."

"Darkness-san?"

"Quit it, you idiot!" I said, pulling Darkness away by her braid.

"KYA!"

"Oi, Gren-san, I think you should let him see the emerald. I mean, once he does, won't everything be resolved?"

Gren looked torn on the idea, however, she silently stepped aside, allowing Aloquin to walk over to Ferris.

He knelt in front of the young girl. "May I see it? I promise I'll give it back to you after I do."

Ferris stared at him with slight skepticism and then looked down at the gem in her hand. She glanced over at her sister and then at us. Finally, she looked back at the emerald and then at the elven man kneeling before her.

"You promise?" she said.

"I promise."

Ferris handed the emerald over, hesitating a few times before setting it down in Aloquin's palm.

He silently stared at it for a few seconds, and then he handed it back. "I believe this is yours, Your Highness."

"Your Highness?" one of the guards said.

"Did I hear you right? Did you call her Your Highness?" another remarked.

"That's correct. I'm sure you noticed that it was a cut gem. You probably didn't get a good look at it, but the inside of that emerald contains silver. Without a doubt, it's a Monarch's Pedigree, and it's also my father's work; I don't think I have to tell you how I'd know."

The guards stared at each other with astonishment and then quickly kneeled.

"Your Highness, please forgive us, we were only following the rules," the one said.

"It's…it's ok," Ferris said, mostly hiding behind Gren.

They sighed in relief. "Quick, let us return to the town. Please, follow us. If you take the same way back, you'll find it much more difficult; there's a smaller stream up ahead that loops back towards the docks."

As we followed along, I let out a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong, Kazuma?" Megumin asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just glad everything worked out; I was expecting everything to fall apart."

Darkness sucked her teeth in response. "Why was everyone so accepting? There could've been a little bit of resistance."

"Oi."

"What? I would've gladly stayed behind and allowed you all to escape."

"Yeah, a little too glad. Next time you pull something like that, I'll make sure to snip the edges of your bra and underwear."

-Sometime later…

"Oh my, what a turn of events," Lady Faelyn said as we sat in the living room. "To think that we had Her Highness here this whole time. I hope you'll forgive our lack of hospitality. Oh, I know! Should I fetch Her Highness some ice cream? I got it imported from the Kingdom of Belzerg; I'm sure you'll like it."

"No, no, that's fine," Gren said, jumping out of her seat; she did so sporting a mildly nervous smile. "We wouldn't want to impose on your kindness, Lady Faelyn."

"Impose?! Why, you'd never. It's the very least I can do for Her Highness and her entourage."

"Actually, I don't want her to have too many sweets; wouldn't want her teeth to rot, after all."

"Oh, come now, a little bit of sweets won't do any harm."

Just as Gren looked like she was out of ways to turn Lady Faelyn's offers down, Tarquas interjected.

"Oi, Faelyn, that's enough. If Her Majesty's own sister is saying no, why keep pressing the issue?"

"I only wanted to give her something she'd enjoy…but *sigh* I suppose you're right."

The rest of us quietly sighed in relief.

"Hmm, no wonder you guys are traveling with her," Tarquas went on to say. "Some heroes of another kingdom playing the protectors of a foreign princess."

"Not exactly," I thought.

We didn't even know Ferris was a princess till literally a few days ago. Plus, it wasn't like Ferris was my first experience with a princess. Come to think of it, that was pretty unusual; this was actually the third time—if we counted the Demon King's daughter.

"The bigger surprise is that you're actually her. I still remember what happened back then; it was thought you perished."

Ferris stared at him cluelessly, and then she turned her gaze at Gren, as if waiting for her to confirm his words.

"Master Tarquas, it's best if you say no more," Gren remarked.

"Hm? Ohhh…sure. Still, there's no doubt about it. I cut that Marker myself, so if she's in possession of it then there's nothing left to wonder about."

"Erm, couldn't someone just take the emerald?" I questioned. "What would stop them from becoming the heir if that was the case?"

"Well, sure, but besides the obvious, like His Majesty denying the claim, that emerald is special. If anyone but a true heir of the throne were to take hold of it, it would become a regular ol' emerald."

"But we held it before," Darkness remarked.

"And it still had its distinct features," Megumin continued.

"The effects aren't immediate," Tarquas explained. "Over time the silver within would grow smaller and eventually disappear, contrary to what happens if a true heir is in possession of it."

"The silver in it grows larger?"

"That's right. The fact that it isn't that big tells me Her Highness hasn't been in possession of this Pedigree for long; then again, she hasn't been around for very long either, has she?"

"Wait, doesn't the fact you know this imply it happened before?" Megumin curiously pointed out.

Tarquas nodded. "Shouldn't come as a surprise that once people figured out the Markers were proof of heirship they'd be stolen. It's actually happened three or so times, so I've been told: once when my father was the master of our house and twice during my great grandfather's time. Hasn't really happened since then."

"But like you said," I interjected, "having the emerald wouldn't be enough, so what's the point?"

"Blackmail, money…idiocy? Can't really tell you, but just because it's a stupid idea doesn't mean people won't try it. Whatever the cases were, it didn't get very far; probably one of the reasons something like that hasn't happened since then. Oddly enough, another Marker has shown up," Tarquas said, looking at the special emerald sitting in the basket. "Shouldn't really be the case given the existence of a Monarch's Pedigree."

"Any chance of it being a fake?" Darkness asked.

Tarquas shook his head. "Absolutely not. Give me some credit, I think I'd know my own work. The Marker's authenticity goes without saying: no way to fake a gem you scavenged from the depths of a mine—at least none that I know of."

Back on Earth there were ways of making artificial gems; I don't know if it was possible here, but if it was, I think someone like him, a master artisan, would—at the very least—be aware of it.

"Anyway," Tarquas continued, "I'll get back to work on your accessories."

"No you won't!" Lady Faelyn said, brow knit. "You'll eat first."

Tarquas sighed.

"No way you'll have Illsa slave over the stove only to have you scurry back to that hovel you call a workshop."

"Ah, Illsa's making lunch?"

"She is. I would've loved to help, but I couldn't just ignore Her Highness."

"No, no, Faelyn, you did well."

She smiled.

Suddenly, the door to the kitchen opened. "Lunch is ready," Serras announced.

After we ate, we spent a few hours around town. Serras wished to accompany us, however, he and Aloquin headed out to take care of some errands; Serras specifically headed to Woodcutter's Guild to continue his assignments and Aloquin went off to carry out the errands given to him by his parents. After eating once again, for dinner this time, we eventually returned to the manor.

-That night…

"Haaaaah." I settled into the bed with a sigh. "A warm bath and a warm bed, not much can beat that."

Without notice, the door to my room flew open and standing at its threshold was Megumin.

"Kazuma!"

"Oi, did that voice end up possessing what little common sense you had? Why are you barging into my room like that?"

She raised the slumbering cat in her arms. "This one," she said, placing Chomusuke on the bed. "Also"—she withdrew a book from her under her robe—"this."

I pulled the blankets up and threw them over my head…but they were immediately ripped away.

"Teach me! And I'll also teach you some more magic."

"I refuse; it's way too late for that. Now let me sleep," I replied, pushing her back some.

Despite pulling the sheets over my head and closing my eyes, I didn't hear the sound of anyone leaving; instead, I felt Megumin sit on the edge of the bed. A few minutes went by, but she didn't leave or say anything.

I frowned and pulled the sheets down. "Oi, didn't I tell you—" I briefly fell silent as I looked upon Megumin gloomily looking down at the ground. "Hey, don't think because you put on a sad face that I'll fold."

However, in spite of me saying that, Megumin didn't reply.

"Oi!"

More silence.

"Hey!" I said, sitting up.

Finally, she looked at me, her face still expressing sadness. "Kazuma, I'm afraid."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Afraid of what?"

She looked away, staring at the floor once again.

"Oi."

"What's gonna happen to me?"

"What do you mean? Hey, nothing's gonna happen to you, alright? You'll be fine. Is this about the voice?"

"I can't sleep," she remarked. "I don't even feel tired. I even took a warm bath. Try as I might, I can't bring myself to sleep."

Quiet befell the room, with only the small purrs of Chomusuke filling its space in the interim.

Smack.

The notebook lightly smacked against the back of her head.

"Kazuma!"Megumin yelled as she leapt away in surprise.

"Hey now, keep it down, you'll wake the others. Now come on, sit down already…unless you don't actually wanna learn anything."

Megumin stared at me in surprise, then I saw her smile, faintly at first, and then brimming.

"Umu!"

-A few hours later…

"Kazuma?"

I looked over and saw his head slumped; he dozed off.

And I was still wide awake. Why?

I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling, as I usually did. The dim luminance from the mana lamp barely reached the heights, appearing as if it were in a losing battle with the darkness.

I put it out and the room was immediately engulfed in the dark.

I couldn't see anything, even with my eyes wide open, so I closed them. I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to fall asleep…but I couldn't, so I opened them once more.

"Kazuma," I whispered, but his slow and steady breaths were all I got in reply.

I turned over on my side and then shook him.

"Eh? Megumin?" he said wearily.

"Lay down," I said, patting the area next to me.

He did so.

"What happened? Did I wake you up?"

"No, you fell asleep."

"Huh. I did. My bad."

"It's fine. You're tired, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

I drew close and hugged him. "Then let's go to sleep."

"You too?"

"Umu."

I had no idea if I was going to—chances were I wasn't—but I at least knew I would have an easier time with Kazuma at my side.

I closed my eyes and smiled, then suddenly, I felt weariness and exhaustion overtake me, and then I felt my consciousness slowly slip away.

Part 2

The following days followed much of the same. All-in-all, it was a much-deserved moment of relaxation…aside from the moments where Lady Faelyn's cooking was being brought up. Luckily, throughout the days we were there we were either served by Illsa-san or gone out to eat.

It was our third day in The Emerald Grove, the day that Master Tarquas said he'd be done with our requests. As I laid in bed thinking about this, a knock came from the door. I looked at the door and then at Megumin who was clinging to me, still asleep.

"Kazuma-san." A deep, gravely voice came from the other side.

"Tarquas-san?"

"Aye. May I come in?"

"Ah…yeah, sure, just a minute." I slowly pulled myself free from Megumin's grip and then placed the blanket over her; even though our relationship was pretty much at that point and I, for the most part, didn't mind others thinking me and Megumin were engaged in such activities, it didn't sit right with me to give off that perception in someone else's home.

I opened the door.

"Tarquas-san, something wrong?"

"Umu," he replied with a nod. "Just wanted to tell you the items you requested won't be done today…unfortunately."

"Something happen?"

"Umu. Faelyn's birthday is today and the woman prohibits me from doing work on any celebratory days. I should've told you earlier, but I thought I would've gotten it done before today. Listen, since it's my fault, you can go ahead with your journey; I'll mail the things when I'm done with them."

"Ah, no, no, you don't have to do that. You're just saying you can't get it done today, right? If you think you can get them done by tomorrow or the day after, it's fine."

"Really? You're sure? Weren't you in a hurry?"

"Well, um…"

"Kazuma?" Megumin woke up, sitting up in drowsy confusion.

"Ho? Was I interrupting?" Master Tarquas said with a smirk.

"Ah? N-, No, it's not what you think," I replied rather embarrassed. "Oi, you can go back to sleep," I said, gesturing at her to do so.

Megumin fell back onto the pillow without another word.

I sighed.

"Anyhow," Master Tarquas continued, "that's all I wanted to say. I don't wanna be a bother, so I'll go now."

"Hey, come on, you're not bothering—and it's not like that; she was just having trouble sleeping."

"Of course," he said with another smirk. "Nothing better to cure a bit of restlessness, my boy. Don't mind us; a little bit of noise never killed anyone."

This guy…

After Master Tarquas left, I closed the door and let out a heavy sigh. I couldn't go back to sleep now, not with him thinking something like that was going on.

I walked over to the bed and shook Megumin. "Oi, wake up."

"Eh? Kazuma? What's going on?" she said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Come on, let's head downstairs."

"Huh? Why?"

"It's the lady of the house's birthday."

"Lady of the… Wait, it's Faelyn-san's birthday? How do you know?"

"Master Tarquas was here just a moment ago, he pretty much told me."

"Tarquas-san? Did he really come here just to tell you that? Seems a bit strange."

"Of course not. He actually came to tell me that our stuff won't be ready today because of Lady Faelyn's birthday."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense. So then…what are we going to do? Are we leaving without our things?"

"No, I told him we're good for staying another day or two."

"I see." Megumin yawned and then stretched. "Are we going out?"

"Maybe. We'll see what Aqua and Darkness wanna do. I don't mind going out again, but there aren't too many places we can go freely. We were already getting some stares yesterday and the day before traveling without Aloquin or Serras-san."

I imagined we'd be ok as long as there was an elf with us, but even with that woman we were still being looked at suspiciously; turns out she was even less useful than I thought.

"That's true. Alright. I'll go change, then," Megumin said, getting out of bed.

A few minutes later, I went downstairs and found the three of them waiting for me.

I looked around. "Where's Gren, Ferris, and youknowwhoelse?"

Aqua shrugged. "The three of them were already gone by the time I woke up."

"That's not saying much, considering your usual sleeping habit."

"I know you're not talking, hikkiNEET."

"Hey, my sleeping schedule has changed a lot, alright? Don't lump me in with you."

"Actually, Kazuma," Darkness interjected, "despite your healthier sleep schedule, I'm surprised you woke up this early; I was sure you'd spend the day sleeping in."

I couldn't tell them the only reason I was awake was because Master Tarquas woke me up. "Hey, come on, even I wouldn't sleep-in in someone else's home."

They stared at me, completely unconvinced.

"Really now?" Darkness said. "I don't suppose you want us to remind you all the times you—"

"Alright, alright, whatever! Doesn't matter! I'm awake, aren't I? Let's just figure out what we're gonna do."

"Actually, Megumin told me today was the missus' birthday," Aqua said. "I say we go out and get her a present. She's shown us a lot of hospitality. Not to mention, the tuna mayo she made when we arrived was pretty good. Felt like it was missing something, but overall I'd say it wasn't a bad attempt at replicating it."

The rest of us stared at her as if we were looking at someone who was speaking nonsense.

"What? You guys didn't even eat any of it!" she retorted.

There really was no way of saving this girl…

In spite of Aqua's ridiculous comments, we followed her suggestion to go get a present for Lady Faelyn. There was no denying her hospitality has been great, despite her terrible cooking.

"What should we even get her?" I asked as we walked down the road towards the marketplace.

"Wine!" Aqua yelled.

"Of course you'd say that, you drunk."

"Black robes!" Megumin shouted.

"And of course you'd say that!"

"We should get her something for cooking," Darkness said.

"Oi, come on, Darkness, be real."

"I am. I believe a meat tenderizer would be ideal."

"A meat tenderizer? For who, you or her?"

Darkness looked away, trying to hide her burgeoning smile. "H-, Her?"

"What good would a tenderizer do? Everyone knows your muscles are too hard."

"IT-IT'S NOT! L-Look, touch them, they're soft and smooth!"

"Face it, the only part of you that applies to is your brain." After convincing Darkness to stop crushing my windpipe, I continued on with the previous topic. "I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want any of those," I remarked as I rubbed my neck.

"And what do you know, you hikkiNEET?! It'd take someone with class and maturity to know."

"And what does that have to do with you?"

Aqua was briefly astonished by my remark, but then she quickly went on. "I'll let you know that I'm a mature woman with lots of class! I'm a goddess so of course I'd know what someone like Lady Faelyn likes, you shitty NEET."

"Well, as bad as all of those options are, these two aren't really giving anything worth considering."

Now Megumin stared at me with astonishment. "What are you talking about?! As a Crimson Demon, I'm epitome of class and maturity! My suggestion should be more than acceptable!"

"A Crimson Demon? Mature? Classy? In what world? *cough* Anyway, how about some flowers? It's a simple gift that I'm sure she'd like; she has a garden, after all."

"Tch. Flowers, how boring."

"And wine," Aqua said. "Wine pairs well with any gift!"

"You just want some for yourself."

"Is there something wrong with me wanting wine on a day of celebration?! No, there isn't!"

"It's a problem when you consider every day to be a celebration," I replied with a frown.

"Whatever! Just be grateful you have someone like me to give my expertise."

"Ah yes, a professional drunk to weigh in on alcohol; surely, I'm blessed."

"Keep that attitude up and I'll make sure you'll never be able to taste anything but your own pee."

"Sorry! Please don't do that."

Given our recent trips around the Gorge, the marketplace and the stores within were becoming rather familiar. I remembered one shop that sold an assortment of flowers and gardening equipment, and this was the store we ended up visiting. Despite Megumin's cries to buy the sapling of a carnivorous plant called a "Guzzle Root", the trip yielded its intended result.

I wanted to return to E'nah Estate, but Aqua threw a tantrum and forced me to go visit a wine store she was interested in.

"Oi, really, maybe you should lay off the drinking. Aren't you the oldest one here? You're supposed to be setting the example."

"Fine. If Kazuma-san is crying so much, I'll go ahead and let you have a cup or two."

"That's not what this is about."

"Look, we're here!" Aqua said, running ahead; however, as she approached the front of the store, she stopped. "Hey, what's going on here? Wasn't there a wine shop here?" she asked an elf who was putting up a sign.

"Huh? Are you a customer?" the elven man asked in reply. "*sigh* You came a little too late. However, you're right, this was a wine shop. That is…until earlier today. Apparently, someone had the gall to actually steal from my store, but they didn't just steal a bottle, they stole everything! I've had to close the shop down in response."

"Don't you have insurance for this kind of thing?" I queried.

"Insurance? No. Well, it's not like it's unheard of… But here in The Emerald Grove no one would dare steal from another…or so I thought. *sigh* what a mistake."

"Guess that's that," I said, shrugging. "Come on, Aqua."

"H-Hold on! Hey, mister, do you have any idea who could've stolen from you?"

"No idea. It's a complete shock to me that someone would even do it. Why, if they're caught, they'll be sentenced to death."

I quickly intervened. "Oh no, that's terrible, sorry for your loss. Hope the guards find the culprit. Come on, Aqua," I said, pulling her along.

"Wait."

"I know what you're trying to do!" I said as we turned a corner. "Stop it! That's not our responsibility; just let the guards deal with it!"

"Aren't you a hero and upstanding citizen? Or are you really just a shitty NEET who likes to spout nothing but lies?"

"Stop trying to appeal to my better sense of self, it's not gonna work; I REFUSE TO GET INVOLVED IN MORE STUFF THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!"

"B-But just think of the reward we'll receive if we capture whoever did this; that shopkeeper will be forever indebted to us."

"Reward? Maybe a few eris—or likely more wine? But something like that is only really appealing to you!"

"Guh…you really are a shitty NEET."

"Whatever."

"Megumin! Darkness! Say something, you two! Megumin, don't you want to go on an adventure to catch a dangerous wanted criminal? How about you, Darkness? This would be a good chance to show people how gallant the nobles of Belzerg are, right?"

I was about to say something to try and stop Aqua from recruiting those two, but it seemed like they weren't all that interested in doing so anyway, and their replies confirmed it.

"I'm not too sure about chasing after anyone at the moment." "And the nobles of Belzerg aren't all that gallant in any case, Aqua."

"What? WHY?! What's wrong with you two?!"

"Alright, give it up," I said, trying to put an end to Aqua's attempts.

"Megumin, don't you want to be known as the first person in centuries to catch a dangerous thief? Think about it, if that thief is bold enough to steal in a place like this, what makes you think they wouldn't be bold enough to claim themselves the most dangerous and amazing person living. They also probably have a collection of forbidden things that they've stolen from other places around the world. If we captured them, you'd have access to all that stuff, not to mention you could claim that you captured some legendary thief."

Megumin eyes began to sparkle in interest.

"And Darkness," Aqua continued, "we'll definitely need your help to subdue them."

Darkness looked like she was in deep thought. Finally, she looked up with a determined expression. "If this person is indeed dangerous, there's a good chance they'll try to do something unsavory to those that'll try to capture them. I simply can't allow someone to threaten my comrades with that possibility."

"You pervert, you just want that to be you! Oi, you guys aren't seriously considering this, are you?!" I asked exasperatedly.

Megumin smirked as she threw up a pose. "It's up to us, Kazuma, to save this town from the grips of this agent of darkness. We mustn't allow such depravity to run amok."

"That's right, Kazuma," Darkness said, chiming in, "I can't allow someone so depraved to walk freely. There'll be too many people at risk."

"What the hell are you talking about?! You guys are obviously the biggest issues here! No, I say leave this to the city guards and let's head back; there's no need for us to get involved in this."

"Too bad, you shitty NEET," Aqua retorted with a wry grin, "it's three against one."

"Fine, see ya," I said, walking off.

"Huh?!" Megumin was shocked by my action. "Ka-Kazuma, wait, where are you going?!"

"Leave that hikkiNEET be, Megumin; if he wants to leave, let him. We'll take all the glory and rewards for ourselves. Who needs him anyways?"

"But…"

"Listen, Megumin, you can't allow yourself to be so attached to a NEET; trust me, the more attention you give them, the more they're apt to take you for granted."

"Eh, really? Erm…I-I guess…"

"Good. Now let's see if we can't find this wine thief," Aqua said with a determined look on her face.

Aqua, Darkness, and looked for any clues that might lead us to the errant thief; we questioned people and even searched the surrounding area of the wine store; unfortunately, our questions and searching only resulted in people being even more wary about us. Given that, we decided to lay low and consolidate our findings.

"Doesn't seem like the locals have seen anything that could match our thief," Darkness said.

I sighed. "We seemed to be the greatest targets of suspicion. If it wasn't for the wine shop owner, we would've been taken away by the cityguard."

"And likely been thrown into another jail cell."

"Don't tell me you guys are planning on giving up," Aqua said.

"Of course not!" I retorted. "A-A threat or two isn't enough to deter me from seeking an end to those who lurk in the shadows. I-I'm just concerned about our lack of leads; I find it weird that in a town this big and crowded no one saw anything. Don't you guys find that strange?"

"That is strange," Darkness agreed with a nod.

"Which means the people are lying to us!" Aqua deducted.

"Well, I'm not sure about that," I remarked. "Sure, there're probably some who are, but I don't think all of them are; I mean, think about how difficult it'd be to get everyone to lie to us."

"Now that you mention it, that does seem unlikely. But then…what does that mean?"

The three of us fell silent as we began to ponder the possibilities.

Finally, I spoke, breaking the interim silence. "What if…they're not lying at all; everyone who gave us a proper answer said they saw nobody suspicious around the wine shop, right? And if someone stole all the alcohol they would've certainly have stood out, right?"

Darkness rubbed her chin. "Which means…" She let out a gasp. "Do you think the shopkeeper is lying?"

"Hold on," Aqua interrupted. "You think he's lying?"

"Well…maybe," I replied. "All we really have is his word. We didn't get to look into his shop. Not to mention, when the guards came by, he quickly chased them off; we thought it was to help us, but what if that was just a result of trying to keep something from us."

Darkness knit her brow in contemplation. "You would think someone who was robbed would request the guard to look into the matter."

"That is odd," Aqua said. "Maybe we should ask the shopkeeper if we could look inside the store."

"I agree."

I nodded in agreement. "Umu."

Depending on his reaction, the answer we were searching for could be within reach.

With our minds made up, we returned to the wine shop; however, once we returned, the shopkeeper was nowhere to be found. To make matters worse, we couldn't rely on the people around the shop; more questions would've likely resulted in the guards returning.

"Now what?" I said as we pulled into a nearby alley. "Our only lead is gone."

"Should we wait till he returns?" Darkness suggested. "Perhaps he simply stepped away."

"Hmmm, I think I have a better idea," Aqua replied.

-A few minutes later…

"Aqua, I don't think this is—"

*Click*

"Got it!" As Aqua slowly pushed open the door we peeked inside.

"Looks like no one's around," I said.

Seeing no one inside, we entered.

"Looks like there really isn't any wine left," I said.

"So, the shopkeeper wasn't lying then," Darkness remarked.

"Are you guys sure?! There has to be something left!" Aqua desperately cried out.

"Actually," I began, "you have a point, Aqua; if this was actually a wine shop then it must've been filled with a ton of bottles. So how could an entire store be cleaned of its stock?"

"There's no way somebody would be able to do something like this without anyone else noticing."

"Do you think the locals are lying too?"

"I didn't get that impression."

"WAHHHHHH!" Aqua began sobbing. "There really aren't any bottles left. WAHHHHH!"

"Shhhh, Aqua quiet down; we're not supposed to be here, you know," Darkness remarked.

"Noise," I said.

"Noise?"

"Umu. The bottles would've made noise regardless during transport. Which means—"

"Everyone's lying?"

I shook my head. "It means they never left."

"What?"

"HAH! I found one!" Aqua exclaimed happily from the other side of the shop.

We made our way over to find Aqua hugging a bottle tightly.

"There was one left, it seems," Darkness said.

"One left…" I murmured. "Aqua, where did you find that bottle?"

Suddenly, she pulled away, caressing the bottle as if it were her own child. "Why? This one's mine. I'm not like Kazuma, Megumin; I still think it's a little early for you to have alcohol."

"What?! After all the times I— Th-That's not why I'm asking! I only want to know where you found it."

Aqua stared at me suspiciously, then she pointed at the floor in front of us. "Right here."

"Here, huh?"

I rubbed my chin curiously, then I looked at the wall beside us and began passing my hand over it.

"Nothing?" I said, after a few moments. I shifted to the shelves beside the wall.

"Megumin, what are you doing?" Darkness asked.

"Nothing," I said again, becoming slightly frustrated. "Where could it be?"

"Where can what be?"

"I was sure there'd be a switch or something. I guess…I was wrong."

"Well," Aqua said, "let's go; we found what we came for."

"Huh? I thought you said we were looking for a dangerous thief," Darkness replied.

"Dangerous thief? Now why would I want to go after someone like that?" Aqua turned to walk away, but just as she did, she unknowingly stepped on something and slipped; the culprit, an empty bottle.

CRASH!

"Aqua!" Darkness and I yelled.

"Are you alright?" I asked, when suddenly I noticed she was half buried within the floor.

"WAHHHH, my wine!" she cried.

"Aqua, you're in the ground. Is that the hidden room?"

"No wait," Darkness said. "This is a wine shop, right? That must be the cellar."

"Ah…eh…yeah…you might be right. But if that's the case, why was it hidden?"

"I'm not sure. Let's help Aqua out first."

"Umu."

After pulling Aqua free from the hole in the ground, we each examined it.

"Hmm, I'm not sure," Darkness said, arms crossed. "Sure looks like a cellar, but it's too dark to be certain."

"We should probably head in and see, then," I replied.

"We should!" Aqua suddenly yelled. "If it is a wine cellar, then there should be more wine down there, right? I'm not leaving this place without a bottle!"

"Aqua…"

"For Lady Faelyn's birthday, of course; can't go back empty-handed."

Darkness sighed. "Right, but how are we getting in there?"

I smirked. "Stand back, I'll use explosion magic."

Darkness and Aqua quickly restrained me. "Not in here, you'll bury us along with the building if you do."

"There must be another way," Aqua said, releasing me. "Hmmmm—oh! I got it. Darkness, go ahead and use that brutish strength of yours to rip the floor open."

"A-Aqua, w-what are you talking about?!" Darkness retorted. "I-I can't do something like that."

"Sure you can; I saw you do it that one time Kazuma hid your underwear."

Darkness let out a tired sigh. "I remember almost choking the life out of him. To think he actually hid them underneath some floorboards."

"I found some of mine in there too," I said, painfully recalling the memory.

"You see?" Aqua went on. "You can do it. Now hurry up and make an opening; we need to see where this hole leads."

Darkness stared at the hole, sighing once more. She bent over and grabbed the edges of the hole, then she pulled.

Several seconds went by without anything happening, then, slowly but surely, the edge of hole began to bend. A moment later, the wood gave way.

CRRRRACK!

Shards of wooden splinters sprinkled in every direction as the modest hole in the ground was turned into a sizable opening. Of course, the sudden change sent Darkness careening backwards onto the floor.

"Darkness, are you alright?" I asked.

"Ugh, I'm fine," she said, rubbing her bottom. "Looks like the wood was fairly rotten." She tossed the piece she was still grasping in her hand.

"Still impressive," I replied.

"I don't believe I would've been able to, had it been fresh wood."

"Hey, you two, are you just gonna leave me here by myself?! Hurry and come down," Aqua insisted.

"I can't see anything," Darkness said, once we hopped down.

"Don't worry," Aqua said, "I can see just fine; I'll show you guys around."

"Actually, it's not too bad for me," I remarked. "I can't see very clearly, but I can make most shapes out fairly well."

"Really?"

"Umu."

"An attribute of being a Crimson Demon?" Darkness queried.

"Enough talking," Aqua interrupted, "let's hurry and see what we can find down here."

Part 3

As we walked through the wholly darkened room, we saw large casks of wine and numerous racks filled with wine bottles. Eventually, we realized that it was indeed as we originally suspected; this was the cellar of the wine shop.

"Empty," Aqua said as she looked through another one of the bottles on the racks. "What's with this place?!"

"I don't understand though," Darkness said, "we still haven't found any proper entrance; if this is the shop's cellar then how did anyone ever get in here?"

I gasped. "Maybe this place was sealed to contain an unspeakable secret housed within?!"

"Like the fact that none of these bottles have any alcohol in them?!" Aqua screamed, tossing another bottle aside. "Maybe that shopkeeper was lying; he probably didn't have any wine to begin with."

"But wasn't it your idea to come here in the first place, Aqua?" Darkness remarked.

"Yeah, but that was when I thought this place actually sold something! When I came here last time, the shelves were filled with bottles!"

"But if the bottles here are all empty then how'd the shopkeeper manage to keep such a robust stock up top?"

"Beats me, but there has to be at least one bottle that isn't empty."

Aqua returned to ransacking the remaining racks.

"Hmm, something tells me we're overlooking something," I said, rubbing my chin.

"Nothing!" Aqua yelled in defeat. "Wait a minute." She picked up one of the empty bottles and ran over to a nearby cask. "I'll just help myself to a little bit of the stock."

"Hold on, Aqua," Darkness interjected, "I don't think you should—"

"It'll be fine, Darkness, I'm only refilling some of the bottles."

Aqua turned the valve on the large cask…but nothing came out.

"WHY?!" Aqua yelled. She fell to her knees and started crying once again. "Why is this stupid thing empty too?!"

In a sudden rage, she jumped up and punched the casket. Without warning, a violent torrent of wine burst from the valve and emptied onto the floor.

"AHH, the wine!"

Aqua quickly stumbled around trying to get one of the nearby bottles, however, the outward flow from the spilling cask pushed most of them away.

"STOP! STOP!" she shouted.

"Close it!" I yelled.

Darkness quickly grasped the valve and turned it…perhaps too roughly, because it ended up snapping and then shooting out with the rest of the wine.

Within seconds, the floor was covered in wine…and so were we.

"Ugh…" I wrung out my robe and cape.

"My wine. *sniffle* *sniffle* It's all gone. WAHHHHH!"

"Aqua…can't you just…manipulate it, like you do with water?"

Suddenly, Aqua stopped crying. "Oh wait, you're right, Megumin. I forgot."

Aqua put her hands out and, a moment later, the wine on the floor began forming into a ball.

As Darkness and I waited for Aqua to finish, there was the sound of something shifting and then the dim luminance of a torch flowing into the room.

"Where the hell is all this wine coming from?"

Two figures emerged from underground; apparently, the back of the room hid some sort of entrance.

"Perhaps one of you broke something when you came down here; wouldn't be the first time. Do you know how much I had to do to cover your tracks?"

"Yeah, yeah, quit your whining. You'll get paid like we agreed once we get paid."

"Hey," I whispered to Darkness and Aqua from the refuge of our hiding place, "isn't that the shopkeeper?"

"So it is," Darkness replied.

We continued listening in.

"One of the valves to the cask broke," the shopkeeper said as he inspected it.

"That unusual? Given how old this stuff is wouldn't that be par for the course?" the accompanying man remarked.

"The casks are made of Sylvenn Wood, but the valve… Hmm, even so, it'd take a bit of pressure to."

The taller man raised the torch high above his head, illuminating more of the cellar. "Think someone's here?" he said, scanning the room warily.

"There shouldn't be; I boarded the front of the shop and the back door is locked."

The man slowly lowered the torch to normal height. "Then maybe it was an animal or something." Suddenly, he grabbed the shopkeeper by the shirt. "You'd better not be thinking about betraying us."

"W-What are you talking about?! You know how much I've given up to help you guys? Of course I wouldn't betray you!"

The man continued to hold the shopkeeper then, a few moments later, he let go. "Good; you'd better not."

Suddenly, Chomusuke jumped out from under my hat.

"Chomusuke!" I whispered harshly.

"What's that?!" the man said, shining the torch in our direction.

"A cat?" the shopkeeper said as Chomusuke wandered into the light.

"Hehe, so it actually was an animal."

"What's a cat doing down here, though?" the shopkeeper queried. "Remember, I close everything up. So, the only way in is…"

"Shit, did it actually wander in through the passageway?"

"Hey!" the shopkeeper shouted as Chomusuke ran off. "Should we go after it?"

"For what? We only came up here to investigate where the wine was coming from."

"*sigh* You're right, but I still find it odd that a cat would be able to get in here."

"It's a cat, those things can find their way anywhere. Anyway, I'm headin' back; if you want to go chasing around a stray then go ahead."

As the man holding the torch began walking off, the shopkeeper took one more look around. Shortly after doing so, he too walked off, the two men descending back underground.

"Looks like there's something going on," I said as we emerged from our hiding spot.

"Umu, and it looks like the shopkeeper is involved," Darkness added.

"I think we should follow them."

"Me too."

"Aqua?"

"Huh? What'd you say, Megumin?"

"Me and Darkness think we should follow the shopkeeper and the man he was with. There's definitely something they're hiding."

"Well I think we should head back up top. As you can see, I have my hands full at the moment."

Like she pointed out, her arms were currently cradling several bottles.

"Aqua," Darkness said, "we have a duty to follow those men—especially if they're up to no good. According to what they said, there must be more of them."

"B-But what are we supposed to do about that?! I say we go up top and let the authorities know."

"Weren't you the one who was insistent about finding the bad guy?" I retorted.

"Well now I'm not so sure we should be doing this. We should at least find Kazuma if we are going to do something about it."

"I thought you said to forget about him," Darkness pointed out.

"I-I know what I said—but that was before things got dangerous. So, come on you two, let's just head back and—"

"No, I'll not turn my back on the possible machinations of some evil men," Darkness remarked. "On my honor as a Crusader and follower of Eris, I'll find these men and put an end to their schemes."

I nodded in agreement. "Well said, Darkness. Then again, I don't know where Chomusuke has run off; I'll admit I'm a bit worried."

"Then that's all the more reason for us to—"

"I worried, but I know she'll fine," I said, interrupting Aqua. "She's my familiar after all."

"Ohhhh ok! Fine! I'll go along with you two. *sigh*" Aqua put the bottles on the floor and then, placing her hands on her hips, proudly said, "Someone has to make sure nothing bad happens."

-A few minutes later…

"Hmmm, I could have sworn they walked right here and went down," I said, taking a step back to reexamine the wall.

Some time had gone by since we began checking the wall, however, we were unable to figure out how to reveal the secret passage.

"Maybe it's not the correct spot?" Darkness suggested.

"Probably, but…where else could it be? Hmmm."

"Well, if it's too difficult to find it by ourselves, we should probably leave," Aqua remarked.

"We've come to far to leave now, Aqua," Darkness replied.

I sighed. "I give up."

"Megumin?"

"See, even Megumin is saying she wants to leave."

"I'll just use Explosion."

Once again, I found myself being restrained by my so-called comrades.

"Don't do that!" Aqua exclaimed. "On top of being crushed by everything above us, just think of how much wine would go to waste if you did something like that. Even if it's you, I won't abide by such flagrant disregard for wine."

"Well, if I can't cast Explosion then what are we going to do? It isn't like we can just magically find… Hold on. Aqua, can you cast Break Spell on the wall?"

"Hm? Oh, I see! Break Spell!"

A bright flash illuminated the room and then a second later, the wall before us was gone, replaced by a descending staircase.

We proudly pat ourselves on the back for that success and then began the descent. Luckily, the passage was fairly lit, so we could see if something was coming our way; unfortunately, however, that also meant whoever or whatever was prowling this corridor would be able to see us too. Eventually, the cut-stone corridors were replaced by natural rock and leaky ceilings, with roots of all sizes clinging and poking through the soft pockets of sediment.

"What is this place?" I said as we walked along.

"Looks like some sort of cave," Darkness replied.

"It's so damp down here; I could almost taste the water in the air."

"There's a lot of water nearby," Aqua remarked. "I'm pretty sure it's from that big river in town."

"We're that close to it?"

"Hmmm, not super close, but I can sense it's not that far off from here."

Suddenly, Darkness stopped.

"Darkness?"

"Up ahead," she said, pointing at two shadows flickering in the light.

"You think it's the shopkeeper and that guy?" Aqua said worryingly.

"Probably. I'll go check. You two stay here. If anything happens to me, just leave."

"Hold on," I said, grabbing her before she could walk off. "We should probably stick together. There's no need for you to go alone. If something bad happens I'll use Explosion to collapse the cave."

"Um, Megumin," Aqua said tentatively, "wouldn't we be caught in that too?"

"Besides, Darkness, what if there're more of them?"

She gasped. "You're…you're right. I-I didn't think of that. Perhaps we should continue on ahead and see how many are really involved with this scheme. Just remember, if things get real bad, I want you and Aqua to escape."

"You could always escape with us, you know."

"No, Megumin, I can't; it's my duty as a knight to be the bulwark against the ravenous thirst of dangerous individuals and their ideals. I'll gladly sacrifice myself for the protection of my friends."

"Ah…sure, b-but lets not worry about that right now."

"Right, we should focus on trying to find out if there are others involved."

"Umu, for now let's see if we can sneak past these guys."

As we drew close to the corner and, by extension, the two individuals, we dropped down on all fours and slowly crept around.

A few meters in front of us were four men: two we could identify as the shopkeeper and the other man who accompanied him, but the other two were people we didn't recognize. Because of the postion they were sitting in, one the men's shadow was overlapping with another, and the other one we couldn't see because of the rocky stalagnate the man was sitting behind.

One of the men laughed. "A cat, huh? You sure it wasn't just some shapeshifter?"

"Quit screwing around, it was just a cat. The keeper here even said there was no way for anyone to get in."

"That so?"

The shopkeeper spoke. "The front of the shop is boarded up and the backdoor was locked."

"And?" the remaining person replied. "You act like there aren't ways to open doors without a key, elf! Hey, did you actually check if there was anyone or did you just half-ass the job again, Jensen?!"

"Hey, get off my back, Will! I did the job!"

"Easy now, boys," the other man said. "Listen, Jensen, Will here just wanted to make sure that you weren't slipping up; this is a big payday for us once that bigshot comes for the quarry, understand? It's important to make sure there aren't any rats scurrying about the place."

"I hear ya, Kei. Listen, I took a good look around the place. Tell 'em, you." The man named Jensen slapped the shopkeeper on the back, urging him forward.

"H-He did. He did. It was just a spill from one of the casks; one of the valves broke."

"Ah, all that wine gone to waste," Kei remarked. "A pity. You should take good care of that stock of yours, it's good."

The three men chuckled mockingly, leaving the shopkeeper to look away in either embarrassment or fear…perhaps both.

"I would…accept that as a compliment if you all didn't—"

"Didn't what?!" Jensen retorted. "You have something to say?!"

"Easy now, Jensen, our host here has provided us with an abundance of his finest. We should be grateful. Isn't that right, my friend?"

The shopkeeper nodded unceremoniously.

"Hey"—another two men showed up—"shift change."

"That time already?" Kei said.

"Yeah, that one elf is hella feisty; she's been giving us a lot of problems." one of the new individuals replied.

"Why not just off her and be done with it?" the violent-sounding man, Will, suggested.

"Not our call; the boss wants all of them alive."

"I know, but—"

"Then there's no point in discussing it. Anyway, go on now; you lot been faffin' around while we been doing all the hardwork."

"Oi, what'd you say, you droopy-nose gack?!"

Just when it looked like the group was about to begin brawling, Kei jumped between them. "Ok, ok, we hear ya, we'll go. Just means more wine for us." He slowly let go of the men and dusted himself off. "Alright, boys, let's go."

From the cover of a small rocky outcrop, we watched the first group leave from where the second appeared.

"Did you hear that?" I whispered. "It seems like they've captured some people."

"Umu." Darkness nodded. A small grin was growing on her face. "Looks like these men are the real deal: a bunch of hardened criminals. Ones who'll capture, sell, and even do some outrageous things to people. We must absolutely put a stop to them."

"You guys," Aqua whispered, "I'm starting to have second thoughts; can't we just leave now and tell the guards about this? It's starting to feel like we really shouldn't be here."

"All the more reason for us to continue," Darkness replied, a full-on smile on display.

"I'll admit," I began, "it's a bit scary to think about what would happen if we were caught, but I think if we stop these guys we'll be remembered as heroes of this place. We can't possibly pass up the chance to become legends. I say we continue on."

With that, we decided to resume our infiltration. I felt a sense of giddiness in stealthy bypassing the groups of criminals we went by. There were many close-calls, but Aqua's Versatile Entertainer proved to be more than resourceful.

Thinking about it, I wonder if this is how Kazuma felt went he went out as the Masked Thief. I smiled at the recollection and wondered if I'd ever get to join him in one of the group's escapades.

Eventually, we came to a large open cavern where several people were, the majority drinking or engaging some sort of recreation. In the middle of the cavern was a throne-like chair. A small, plump man was sitting upon it, two women at each side, seemingly vying for the man's attention.

"Ugh, reminds me of that man who ran Axel before," I remarked.

"Alderp," Darkness said. "Indeed. It seems men like him are always at the center of such schemes."

"Look!"

Out in the other corner of the cavern we saw a woman being forcefully dragged towards the center.

"Is that—"

"It's Gren-san," Aqua stated. "What's she doing here?"

"Was that who those guys were talking about?" I queried.

"Seems so," Darkness replied.

"We've gotta save her."

"Yeah, but how?" Aqua asked. "There's so many guys here."

"I have an idea," Darkness said. "Leave it to me."

Just then, another group entered the cavern, this one much closer to us. There was a man in the middle of the group who appeared to be someone of note. This group approached the center of the cavern.

"It looks like something is about to happen," I said. "Yeah, look, it seems like they're trying to have a conversation."

"A deal?" Darkness said curiously.

"Oh no, are they thinking about selling off Gren-san?"

"Traffickers."

"Let's try and get closer."

"Umu."

With some luck, we somehow managed to crawl to within a few meters away from center, in a spot that was, for some reason, unoccupied; here we could listen and get a clear picture of what was going on.

"You have what we agreed upon?" the man of import said.

"That I do. You have what we agreed on?"

"Of course. You'll have your money once I verify the target. Let me just remind you, my master isn't a very patient man, nor is he forgiving for any slights against him."

"Yes, yes, I know."

The plump man clapped, and the group that brought Gren shoved her to her knees and removed her gag.

"You bastards, I'll kill you! You touch one hair on—"

The men gagged her once more.

"What's this?" the envoy queried. "She isn't the one we've requested."

"I know, I know; however, I was wondering if you'd like to add her to the deal. She's the supposed sister of the target. There's also another one if you'd like."

"You insult me, I'm not here to buy any of your troublesome products. Bring the girl here already; I've wasted enough time coming here as is."

The plump man scoffed and then snapped his fingers.

The men who brought Gren picked her back up and then retreated back to the other corner of the cavern.

"Your 'princess' will be here shortly. For now, why don't you have a seat and relax, my friend; standing there with that scowl on your face won't speed anything up."

"I prefer to stand, thank you."

"Tch. Suit yourself."

"Now," Darkness said. She got up and raced towards the group in the center, flail in hand. "Arrrrrggghhh! Face my righteous fury, you unwashed vagrants!"

If it had been anyone other than Darkness her rush would've worked wonders; the enemy was caught completely unaware and were struggling to form a defense by the time Darkness had reached them. Unfortunately, it being Darkness meant that all her attacks completely missed, the spiked balls of the fail, instead, coming around and smashing into various parts of her body.

Within seconds, she was overwhelmed by the numerous individuals surrounding her. And just as Aqua and I were about to do something, we were found. It went without saying, we were immediately subdued and captured. We were quickly dragged over to the center, kicking and screaming, until we were bound by our arms and legs and gagged.

"What's the meaning of this, Galager?!" the envoy shouted at the plump man.

"That's what I'd like to know!" He slammed his fist angrily on the chair's armrest. "You idiots don't know how to keep a place guarded?!" he yelled at the nearby crew of his men. "I want every space of this godforsaken place to be searched! If there's even a rock that looks out of place run it through!"

Several of the men quickly hurried off, presumably to do exactly what their boss just told them to.

"Now then, who are you three?" he asked with a glare. "And how did you find this place?"

"We'll never talk, you fiend!" Darkness retorted. "Not even if you torture me or do unmentionable things!"

"That so? A knight, are you?"

"That's right, I'm a Crusader. I'll have you know that I won't give you answers for anything—not unless you were to take extraordinary measures, say…unsavory methods?"

Everyone glanced at eachother as if checking to see if they weren't the only ones feeling confused by what Darkness was saying.

"Hey, boss," one of the men said, "I think I've seen this girl somewhere before."

"You have?"

"Yeah, I think I have. Blonde hair, blue eyes… *gasp* Shit, I think she's from some famous house in Belzerg!"

"What? Is that true, Crusader? Are you some ojou-sama playing dress-up?"

"I already told you, I won't say another word," Darkness replied.

"Hmm, if that's the case, then—"

"You'll inspect me yourself?!" Darkness said excitedly. "You seem like the kind of man who would have his way with a woman of noble birth! Running your tongue all over her, all the while—"

"Put a gag on her and take her away! Toss her in the cell with that other one!" Galager ordered. "That look on her face is creeping me out."

The men who were restraining Darkness did so at once.

"Now then, you two," he went on, his eyes panning over me and Aqua.

"That'll have to wait," the envoy interrupted. "Seems your men have finally arrived with our quarry."

Approaching the center was a small group of men, Ferris being dragged along beside them, gagged and blindfolded.

"Take the blindfold off," the envoy demanded, "I want to verify it's actually her."

"Of course." Galager snapped his fingers and the men removed Ferris' blindfold.

It was clear she had been crying almost nonstop, for her eyes were bloodshot and the pale skin around said eyes darkened by the strain.

"Good. When's the soonest we can have her?"

"Hmmm, we can smuggle her out two, three days? For a small fee we can try and get her out of here tomorrow."

"You dare try and squeeze me? My master won't be happy to know that you're doing such a thing."

"Tsk. Fine, tomorrow it is; just make sure you send me the payment first."

"We'll make good on our promise, Galager, you just need to keep to yours."

"Please, I wouldn't dare slight such a…notable customer."

"Good." The envoy glanced at me and Aqua and then suddenly his eyes widened as he set his sights on me. "Is this…? You're a Crimson Demon, aren't you?" he said, lifting my face to get a closer view. "Yes…you are. I'll take this one as well. You'll make a fine gift for my master."

Hearing this, I began kicking harder in an attempt to break free.

"Oh, seems like she doesn't like that," Galager said with a chuckle. "She's not part of the original deal, so you know it'll be a bit more."

"Of course."

"I assume you'll want her smuggled with the 'princess' as well, no?"

"Yes."

"How about this other one?" he asked, eyeing Aqua. "Seems like she's a priestess of some sort."

"I've no interest in a priestess."

"Alright, guess I'll keep her for myself," Galager said with a wicked sneer.

Aqua too began kicking harder to free herself.

"I'll leave the instructions on where to send them," the envoy continued. "The handoff will be there."

"Perfect. I'll see you then, my dear friend."

The envoy curtly turned and went on his way, the contingent of guards going with him.

"Take those two to the cells; make sure to keep a close eye on them."

"Yes, boss."

With that said, Aqua and I were hauled away towards the back of the cavern.

Part 4

"Where the heck could those girls be? Are they still looking for whoever stole from that wineshop?" I silently thought this as I laid in bed.

It had been some time since I left them, but not long enough for it to be a cause for concern. Then again, my biggest concern when it came to three of them was them causing me undue amounts of trouble. I decided to not pay it any mind; however, I did find it slightly strange that I was the only one who returned to the estate: Gren and her own group weren't anywhere to be found as well, and Lady Faelyn made it clear that I was the only one who recently returned—which meant Gren and her group have been gone since this morning.

I turned on my side.

Perhaps I was reading too much into this; those three were one thing, but Gren and—especially—that woman were capable fighters. I never would've thought it when we first came across her in Master Holt's shop, but ever since coming to Sylvenn and rescuing Ferris, Gren's become an entirely different person.

"Bah! No use thinking about it. They'll likely be back later—that or I'd have to go pick them up from the local police station. For now, I'll get bit of shut-eye."

-Several hours later…

When I awoke, I noticed that it was dark outside.

I yawned and stretched as I got up. "Are those girls back yet?" I wondered out loud.

I left my room and went over to the others'. After knocking on Aqua's door and waiting, I got no reply.

"Oi, you back?" I asked, opening the door.

However, the room was empty, left in the same state as this morning.

"Guess not. *sigh* Probably at the police station." I frowned.

"Oh, Kazuma-san, there you are," Serras said as he came up the steps. "I almost thought you all left."

"No, not yet. Hey, Serras-san, have you seen Aqua and the others?"

"Aqua-san? Hmmm, no, I haven't; then again, I've been out for most of the day. Why? Have you not seen them?"

"Not since this morning."

"Really? Is it strange for them to be gone for so long?"

"Well, not exactly, but I'm starting to think they might've caused some trouble in town or something. Listen, do you think you can—"

"Serras"—I could hear Aloquin from the bottom of the steps—"are you ready? Mother is in the garden at the moment, so now is the best time for us to do this."

"Ah, right; I'll be right there. Sorry, Kazuma-san, you were saying?"

"Ah, no, nothing."

"Will you join us for Lady Faelyn's birthday?"

"Sure, but let me just go find those pesky partymates of mine. I might be a little late; hope you don't mind."

"No, it's fine; I'm just glad we can have more people joining us this year."

"Right. Well, I'll be back."

"Umu, see you then."

Once Serras left, I searched the other rooms, but they were bereft of their owners as well.

"Meow."

"Huh?" Turning around, I saw Chomusuke sitting behind me. "Hey, where'd you come from? Is Megumin back?"

"Reow." She turned and then headed down the steps.

"Hey, wait!"

I followed after her thinking she was running away, but Chomusuke seemed to deliberately stop and wait for me to catch up.

"Oi, where are you taking me? Did your owner do something stupid again? Who am I kidding, this is Megumin we're talking about."

I followed Chomusuke closely, trying not to lose her in the darkness of the night.

Eventually, she led me to the marketplace. Even at this time, the stalls and stores were still busy with the needs and wants of their customers.

"Oi, Chomusuke, where are you taking me?" I asked as we dipped into an alleyway. Finally, she stopped at a door. "Where is this? Where are we?"

"Reow."

Chomusuke scratched at the door.

"What, you want me to go in? Can we just do that? This looks like a back entrance or something."

She continued to paw at the door.

"Ok, I get it."

I looked around to make sure there weren't any eyes on me, but there weren't many people around save for a few drunks and beggars.

"Here goes nothing. Open Lock." But there was no accompanying sound signifying the skill's success. "Shoot. Is the magic on this door too powerful?"

"Reow." Chomusuke pawed the door once again and, suddenly, it opened.

"Oi, oi, since when can you unlock doors, huh? Did getting a human form also give you human abilities too? What else do you know, huh?"

As if ignoring me, Chomusuke silently wandered in.

I followed along, cautiously.

"What the heck is this place? It's so dark in here." With a mere thought, my night sight activated, allowing me to see the shapes and heat signatures of the things around me. "Hey, Chomusuke, why don't you hurry up and turn human, it'll make following you around easier."

She continued on until we came to a hole in the ground.

I could see light coming from it and could make out the sound of voices.

"The passage was clear."

"Yeah, only thing I found was some wine on the floor."

"Damn mess, that is, all that wine."

"Hey, did you two find anything?"

"Nope, nothing. Jonathan here slashed all them stone walls just to be safe, ya know; don't want the boss gettin' all mad. How's about yous two?"

"Same, nothin'."

"We've been searchin' for hours and haven't found a damn thing."

"Hey!" one man cried out; he was a lot closer than the others. "You guys, I think I found something."

I backed away from the hole and took cover as I saw the light grow in intensity and the sound of hurried footsteps come my way.

"A hole?"

"Yeah."

"How the hell did that happen?"

"What the heck coulda made something like that?"

"I don't know, but I'ms thinkin' it couldn't've been human."

"So…like a monster?"

"Oi, come on now, quit joking around."

"I'm not jokin'—just look at that damn thing, you really think a person made something like that?"

"Alright, alright! But if you're right, where the hell did that thing go? We already searched everywhere and didn't find anything."

The men went quiet.

Then one of them, in fearful apprehension, said, "Maybe…it's up there?"

The was a brief silence yet again.

Then, like before, someone spoke. "Who's going up, then?"

"Leif, you go!" another said. "Yous got the torch."

"I ain't going up there, you're crazy! Here, you can have the torch!"

"I don wan' it!"

"Stop being such a louse, Fred, you're the biggest one outta all of us!"

"It jus' mean I'll be a bigguh target!"

"Alright, quit your moaning, you two!" another exclaimed. "I'll go."

"You'll go?"

"Yeah—but the moment I give a holler, you guys better come up! I'm not jokin', if something happens to me I'll make sure to haunt all of you till the end of time!"

"Alright, alright, we hear ya. Here ya go. We'll be right up there if we hear anything, ok?"

A few seconds later, the head of a man poked out from the hole.

"Meow."

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And almost immediately, he dipped right back under.

The sound of manic shuffling could be heard, no doubt coming from the man trying to escape his fearful experience.

"Oi, what happen?! What'd ya see?!"

"I don't know, it was a furry black thing!"

"Furry black thing?"

"Yeah, now let me go! That thing's probably gonna come down and eat us!"

"Oh, forget this! Let's go, boys! We'll just come back with more guys!"

Once again, I could hear the sound of scurrying feet, but this time the sound faded until eventually I couldn't hear it anymore. I sighed in relief.

"Hey, good girl," I said, scratching Chomusuke behind her ears.

She purred lazily and then a moment later dipped from under fingers and into the hole.

"Meow."

"You want me to go down there?" I sighed. "What the heck is going on here? Well, no point in standing around thinking about it; might as well see what's what." I jumped down into the hole. "Alright then, lead the way."

"Reow."

With Lurk activated, I cautiously prowled the halls. Eventually, I came upon groups of men who I understood to be of the wrong crowd. By this point, Chomusuke had stopped leading and was riding along on my shoulder. If Chomusuke was leading me down here, it must've been for a good reason; although I was really hoping it wasn't the case, my initial thoughts led me to believe that those three were down here. Luckily, my assortment of stealth-related skills made getting through this area a breeze…or so I would've liked to believe.

"Hey, who the hell are you?!"

Before I noticed, a man had approached from behind me, and in moments, I was completely surrounded by no less than a dozen others.

"H-Hey, sorry, I'm lost; I just wandered down here by mistake," I said nervously.

"Quit the crap, you bastard! Now come quietly and we won't immediately carve you up!"

"Come on, guys, I was just—FLASH!"

The sudden burst of light left all of them stunned (and poor Chomusuke howling) and swiping at the air for balance. In that moment, I ran forward and used Drain Touch on any that were blocking the way forward and then dashed towards an opening in the passageway. Upon rounding the corner, I immediately used Concealment, however, another group was already upon me. Soon enough, more than double the amount of men had surrounded me.

"Damn…not good. Hey guys, look, we can—FLASH!"

The tactic partially worked, blinding the fresh reinforcements; the men behind me, however, were unaffected and quickly pounced on me. A few were caught by my Drain Touch, but there were too many, and eventually, I was captured.

The group of men led me to the center of a large cavern and shoved me to the ground before a short, fat guy.

"We found an intruder, boss," one of the men said.

"Yes, I see that, you idiot," the fat man retorted. "And who might you be?" he asked me, frowning deeply as he did.

Had I not been bound, I likely would've used Flash yet again and used Escape to find some place to lay low; however, since that was clearly not the case, I decided to play the situation safe.

"Kazuma, Satou Kazuma."

"Oh? And what brings you to my merry home, Satou Kazuma? Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"If I say 'no', will you let me go?"

"Tch, a joker, aren't we? Since I'm a busy man, I'll deal with you later, Satou Kazuma." The fat man snapped his fingers. "Get this clown out of my sight, and the rest of you keep searching; where there's one pest there are bound to be others."

I was lifted up and then dragged away.

-Meanwhile…

"Oi, shut it already or I'll sew that little mouth of yours closed!"

"My name is Megumin and if you don't let me out of here, you're gonna regret it!" I shouted.

"Oi, which one of yous took her gag out?"

"I did," another man said. "Had to use it on that other blonde haired one; things she was sayin' were right creepin' me out."

"Well then get another one!"

"I would, but we're all out of 'em."

"Then use your sock or somethin'."

"I ain't got no socks!"

"Hey," I shouted, "you'd better not, you hear me?!"

"Unfortunately. Listen, little girl, if you shut up we'll find you a loli to suck on later, alright?!"

"Little girl?! I-I'm not a little girl!"

"Hey, coming through," another man shouted. "We've got another one."

"Another? Where the hell these buggers comin' from?"

"Who knows? Where do you want him?"

"Just put him in the cell with the girl. Hey, you, if you can get her to shut up, I'll tell the other guys to go easy on ya when they go to take turns bashin' your face in."

The moment I was tossed into the cell Megumin ran over to me. "Kazuma!"

"Roew!" Chomusuke quickly hopped over to Megumin.

"Chomusuke."

"Guh." I rubbed my head. "Dammit, why'd I have a feeling you'd be down here? Were you the only one captured or did those other two idiots get captured as well?"

"Umu. Darkness is in another cell and Aqua was taken away by some men earlier. Listen, Kazuma, Gren-san, Ferris, and even Zu' Re have been captured as well. They're planning on selling me and Ferris to some guy with red robes and a silver mask."

"Sell?! Really?! Wait, Gren and the others are here too? Dammit, this is worse than I thought. How the hell did you guys even get in this situation?"

"Well, we sort of entered the wine shop…illegally?"

"Illegal—*sigh*… Can't you guys just stay out of trouble?!" I whispered harshly.

"Sorry. I didn't think it would've been anything like this."

"Forget it; no use in regretting it now. We've gotta find a way out of this cell and then get to the others. Do you know when the sale is supposed to take place?"

"Tomorrow, I believe."

"Tomorrow? Like in the morning or…?"

"I don't know; they just said tomorrow."

"Damn. Alright. Alright, give me a minute; I have to think."

"Umu."

"By the way, you ok?"

"Hm? Am I… Oh…yeah, I'm fine; they didn't hit me or anything," Megumin replied with a slight smile.

"Really? I thought with all the nonsense you usually say and do they would've given you a slap or two."

Suddenly, her smile faded and was replaced with a frown. "Maybe I should slap Kazuma instead."

"Shhh, let me think for a moment."

Megumin growled, but ultimately shut up.

"Hey, Megumin?"

"Hm?"

"Did they give you anything to eat?"

"Um, no. Might I ask what does that have to do with us getting free from this cell?"

"Well, if they did give you something to eat then they might do it again; that'd be a good opportunity to try and escape."

"Oh, I see. Well, no, they haven't."

"Damn. They didn't leave anything on you perchance, did they?"

"On me? Like what?"

"Like your pouch; it's pretty well hidden since it's usually covered by your cape." Megumin lifted said cape to reveal the absence of her pouch. "I see; I guess that was hoping for too much. I'm guessing they took your dagger too."

"It was attached to my belt as well."

"Gah. Usually guys like these aren't too bright; honestly kinda surprised they're as thorough as they are."

"Did they not take Kazuma's things?"

"Obviously they did; I wouldn't be asking you if they didn't."

"I see, so what do we do now?"

"Good question, I'm not really sure. There's not much we can do from here since we're locked in— Wait a minute." I placed my hand on the cell gate's lock. "Unlock."

For a second it seemed like my skill was gonna work, when suddenly, there was some sort of feedback that shot out a spark and repulsive wave.

"Guh. Figures. Did these guys really think of everything?!"

"Doesn't seems like skills or magic are going to work here," Megumin stated. "I'm sure brute-forcing it won't work either."

"Hmm, this is a problem." I rubbed my chin, hoping to have a eureka moment; then it hit me. "Hold on. The cell is protected against skills or magic, but how about us?"

Was it just the cell or the entire area? Admittedly, with all the bases they've already covered it wouldn't really surprise me if they've warded the entire area.

"Does Kazuma have some ability that can be cast on himself?"

"I do actually." I closed my eyes and silently chanted the spell lines.

"Ah, Kazuma! Kazuma, where'd you go? That man, did he really just leave me here?!"

"Of course not," I replied, dropping the spell. "I'm surprised; it actually works."

What a major oversight.

"What was that? Was that—"

"Yeah, Light of Refraction; picked it up back in the village. Bukkorori and Soketto taught me."

Megumin looked at me in surprised, her expression swiftly turning to displeasure. "I see; Kazuma will everything from everyone else except from me."

"The heck are you talking about? I have no problem learning from you if you didn't only try to teach me Explosion."

"And what else should you learn?!" she exclaimed. "With Explosion we would've been out of this cell already!"

"Yeah, and on our way to visiting Heaven! Now listen, these guys are gonna come by and check on us at some point, but there's no way I can maintain the spell for that long, so here's the plan."

-A few minutes later…

"Hey, I'm hungry!" Megumin yelled. "Hey! HEEEYYY!"

"Enough, dammit!" One of the men came by, glaring furiously at her. "I hear ya already; what the heck do you want?"

"Food, preferably some meat."

"Yeah, meat will probably do ya some good." He chuckled derisively and then left.

"Hey, are you getting it?! Hey!"

The man walked away without saying another word.

"Do you think he'll come back?" Megumin asked me.

"Let's hope he does; the plan kinda hinges on it. Ok, remember what I said."

"Mhm, I'll let Kazuma know when the man is coming back."

"Good."

I took my place in a darkened part of the cell. Even with some warning, it'll take some time to get the spell going; this shadowy area will help keep me out of sight until I finish the chant.

-Sometime later…

"Kazuma!"

"Is he coming back?"

"Yeah, but there's also another guy with him."

"Shit. I didn't expect two of them to come. No matter, the plan should still work. Don't worry about it, just do like I told you and try to get them as close to the cell as possible."

"Umu."

"You're too much of a softie, I would never give a prisoner this much—especially not this much meat."

"She's skin and— Hey, wait! Where's…where's the other guy?!"

"What?"

The two men rushed over.

"Hey, you! What happened to the other guy?! Tell me or you're not getting anything!"

Before they could even understand what happened, I reached out and used Drain Touch; the two men collapsed to the floor in seconds.

"You, you did it!" Megumin said half taken by surprise.

I sighed in relief. "Yeah, surprised it worked so well. Now then, let's see which one of these guys has a key."

I dug around their pockets for quite a while, but I couldn't find any keys.

"Dammit, do these guys really not have the keys?! What kind of guards don't have the cell keys on them?!"

Despite all the times my expectations were subverted, I still failed to take into account the possibility of this happening.

"Kazuma?"

"Dammit. These guys don't have the keys on them."

"So…so we can't get out?"

"What do you think? Unless you know some magic spell that allow us to phase through these bars."

"I do not, but I do know of spell that'll destroy this cage in its entirety."

"You better not say Explosion or you'll be joining those two napping."

Megumin looked away with a bummed expression and then began fiddling with Chomusuke.

"Dammit, now what? There has to be a way out of this. I'd better come up with something soon before these two wake up."

"Wah— Chomusuke! Where are you going?!"

In that brief moment where I heard these words, I saw the feline dash past me and squeeze through the bars.

"Wait! Chomusuke," I said, clinging to the bars. Surprisingly, she stopped. "Keys. Find the keys. Bring back keys. You know, metal, jingly. It'll fit in here," I said, pointing at the keyhole. "If you do, I'll cook you a big fish and give you a warm bath the next time I'm able to, alright?"

She titled her head. "Reow."

"Y-You get me, don't you?" Without replying, Chomusuke hurried off. "Hey, wait! Dammit." I stepped back and sat down in defeat. "If only I had something I could strike these bars with maybe I could do something. Who am I kidding, it'll probably have some type of magic protecting it against something like that."

"Now what?" Megumin said.

"I don't know. I was hoping one of those guys had the keys to the cell, but…"

There was silence for a few seconds, till Megumin spoke. "I'm not saying Kazuma's plan was dumb, but…why would random guards have the keys to the cell?"

"I don't know! It's a trope in a lot of games, alright?!"

"There you go talking about some strange things again."

"Oi, I don't wanna hear that coming from you of all people."

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?!"

"Listen, we need to find a way out of here before these guys wake up, otherwise, we're gonna have a bad time, understand? If you do, then put all that effort you put into talking back into trying to find a reasonable way of this scenario!"

"Wha—you!" Once again, Megumin fumed at me but said nothing in response.

Part 5

"There has to be a way out of here. Come on think, Kazuma, think!"

"I still think we should use Explosion," Megumin said in the ensuing silence.

"Oi, is Explosion all you— Wait. Explosion. That's a brilliant idea. That's right, we can blow open the lock."

"Blow open the lock? How are you going to do that?"

"Actually, I'm gonna need your help. First things first." I stared at the lock, took a deep breath, and then gave a brief but earnest prayer to the only deity I knew to be reliable. "Please, Eris-sama, let this work. Freeze!"

Once again, there was some sparks that flew from the surface of the lock and then a wave of repulsion.

"Dammit. Should've guessed that would've happened. Wait a minute." I stared at the bars of the cell. "Rust. Which means… Could…" I raised my hand and pointed it towards the lock once more. "Create Water."

The stream of liquid water washed upon the surface of the metal without disruption.

I smiled. "Woohoo, it works! Alright then, now… Freeze!"

There was some initial sparking, but soon after, the sparking completely ceased and the lock completely froze over.

"Nice!" I yelled in joy. "Alright. Megumin."

"Huh?"

"Come 'ere." Megumin walked over with a curious look on her face. "Go ahead and cast Tinder on the lock."

"Tinder? But…you know I can't cast anything but Explosion."

"It's alright; just go ahead and cast it."

"Alright, I'll try my best—but no promises."

"No, it's alright, just go ahead and cast Tinder; you don't have to try."

"What? But…don't you want me to—"

"I want you to just cast Tinder. Just do it how you usually do. Don't think about it, just do it, alright?"

"Don't think, just do. Alright." Megumin looked at the lock and then closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Tinder!" she yelled, and the moment she did, the blast that occurred knocked both of us back and shattered the entire housing for the cell door's lock.

"Yes, it worked!" I said, gleefully getting to my feet.

"Ugh." As she rubbed her bottom, Megumin got up. "Ah! What happened? D-Did I do that?!"

"Mhm. A little ice to make the metal brittle and then a small explosion. I'm gonna be honest, I'm surprised it worked so well."

"A, Amazing."

"Alright, let's get out of here before these guys wake up."

"Umu."

"Do you know where Darkness and the others were taken to, by the way?" I asked as we slipped from our cell.

"I recall her being somewhere over in that direction. Aqua was with me, but like I said earlier, they ended up taking her away somewhere."

"How about Gren?"

Megumin shook her head. "I don't know; they took Gren-san and Ferris away far before us."

"Alright, let's get going then. Stay close to me." I activated Lurk on both of us and headed in the direction Megumin suggested.

As we moved toward the area where Aqua was supposedly taken to, we came across another room with some smugglers and more cells; and in one of these cells, we saw a certain Crusader bound and gagged, squirming—without a doubt—in happiness.

"It's Darkness," Megumin pointed out.

"Yeah."

"We need to rescue her."

"You sure? She sure doesn't look like she wants to be rescued."

Megumin couldn't really dispute that fact, and her following expression conveyed that. "S, Still, I think we should."

"Hmm, no, maybe you're right. Darkness still has her uses. She can definitely serve as bait in most cases. That said, how are we gonna get her out? We still don't have the keys and using the method we used back in our own cell would just get us caught."

"I see, maybe it's time for me to use Explosion."

"I'm gonna uncloak you."

"No wait, please don't; I was just kidding. But, seriously, what other options do we have?"

"Hmm, maybe one of these guys has the keys on him; or maybe it could be somewhere in this room."

"Is Kazuma going to risk getting a closer look? Maybe Light of Refraction could help?"

"No way I can keep the spell going for that long. If only there was some way to find where the keys are."

"Hey, get back here, dammit!" A man was running down one of the corridors chasing after a familiar black cat, a ring of keys in its mouth.

In a magnificent stroke of luck, Chomusuke not only managed to find the keys but also managed to find herself in the same chamber we were currently in.

"Chomusuke!" Megumin exclaimed as quietly as she could. "And look, Kazuma, I think she's found the keys. With it, we can rescue the others."

"Yeah, but how do we get the keys from her without getting spotted?"

"Hey, you idiots, stop that cat; it's got the keys!" the man yelled as Chomusuke scurried past a group sitting at a table.

"The hell?! How'd you let a cat get the keys?!" another remarked.

"Shut up, just get after it!"

"Dammit."

The group of men got up and promptly began chasing after Chomusuke. As deft as she was, it would be only a matter of time before she would be caught; we had to do something before then. Unfortunately, they managed to corner Chomusuke much faster than I thought.

"Kazuma, Chomusuke is about to be caught."

"I know. Dammit, what the hell do I do? Do I just run in and hope for the best?! Arrrgh, no time to think!"

As I was about to run in and engage the group, the two men who I Drain Touched entered the chamber.

"Hey, the prisoners escaped!"

"What?!"

The brief moment of surprise was enough of a distraction to allow Chomusuke to slip away.

"Hey! Dammit, the cat!"

"Forget about it, we need to find those prisoners before the boss finds out! One of them was that girl that silver-masked freak wanted."

"You kidding me?! What the hell were you two doing?! Guh. Alright, Larry, Jason, you two stay here and get that damn cat, the rest of us will go with these idiots and find those prisoners; if you see them just give a hollar, understand?!"

The two men nodded, and then the rest of the group sped off back towards the previous chamber.

"Now where the heck did that cat go?"

"Damn, we lost it."

"It couldn't have gone too far; it should still be here."

"Just listen for the jingle of the keys."

"Ah, right."

"Oi, Larry, look!"

"Aha, there it is," the man said with a sneer. "Now just stay still, we aren't gonna hurt you."

The moment they drew close to Chomusuke I lept out of the shadows and immediately used Drain Touch.

"*sigh* That's two more down; we'd better hurry before that group decides to come back."

"Umu. Good job, my familiar," Megumin said, picking up Chomusuke.

"Reow."

With the keys in hand, I quickly unlocked Darkness' cell.

"Megumin? Kazuma, what are you doing here?" she asked, once I removed her from her bonds.

"I followed Chomusuke."

"Chomusuke? I, I see. Did Megumin tell you everything?"

"More or less. Do you know where the others are?"

"Not really. Zu' Re was here earlier, but they moved her some time ago."

"Great. *sigh*"

I really didn't fancy the idea of sneaking around this place in search for Aqua and the others; still, it wasn't like I had a choice.

With Darkness in tow, we continued, quickly moving through the next set of corridors and arriving at yet another cavern housing cells. It was at this point that I really had to wonder, just what was this place? A smuggler's hideout wouldn't have this many cells or rooms, would it? That thought was promptly set aside the moment we came across the prison cells harboring both Gren and Zu' Re.

"There they are," Darkness said.

"Yeah, but there are more guards," Megumin replied. "How are we gonna get past them?"

"You two stay here," I ordered. "I'll go."

"Are you sure?" Darkness remarked. "I can go out and distract them."

"There's no need for that at the moment, but if I end up getting caught, use that moment to get their attention."

"Hold on," Megumin said, grabbing my arm, "will Kazuma even be able to get by? It's pretty far and open. If need be, I could go out and hit them with—"

"Stop it," I flatly interjected. "I'll get by, don't worry. Just stay here."

I knew Lurk wasn't gonna be enough and Light of Refraction would've taken too much energy to maintain, but I still had Concealment. Though the toll on my mana would still be somewhat worrisome, it was far easier to keep up than a spell like Light of Refraction.

Using that skill, I crept towards the cells.

Unlike Light of Refraction, Concealment only hid my presence; I was still visible and could produce sound, it was just much harder for others to notice me. In a lot of ways, it sort of reminded me of Yunyun's ability to be both present and not at the same time.

Keeping as close to the darkened areas of the cavern as I could, I managed to get by unnoticed.

"Hey," I whispered, once I was in front of the cell.

"Kazuma-san?" Gren said, quickly sitting up. "What are you doing here? Did you rescue the others? Is Ferris with you?!"

"Shhh, no—well, Megumin and Darkness are, but we still haven't found Ferris or Aqua."

Gren backed away, looking down in disappointment and dismay.

Zu' Re came forward. "I assume that since you're here you found a way to get us out of here?" I raised the keys in reply. "Good. Now hurry and let us out. These scoundrels mean to sell Her Highness."

"Yeah."

As I fiddled with keys, I sensed someone coming up behind me; Gren's warning confirmed it.

"Kazuma-san, someone's coming! Hide!"

Problem was, there was nowhere to hide.

"Dammit."

I quickly chanted the lines for Light of Refraction, and a second before our mystery guest showed, I vanished from sight.

"You two have been nice and quiet. Good. Here's a gift," the man said with a sneer. He tossed a link of sausages into the cell, and just as he was about to turn and walk away, he froze. "What the?"

The keys were still dangling from the lock! In my panic, I must've forgotten to grab them.

"Shit!" I shouted.

That instantly caught his attention, but not seeing where it came from, it caused him surprise—and in that moment of surprise, I was able to use Drain Touch. Once he went down, the others in the room looked in our direction.

That's it, we were had.

The other guys grabbed their weapons and began barreling toward me.

Wasting no time, I unlocked the cell door.

"Hey!" Megumin yelled, drawing their attention.

Darkness dashed towards them, almost pulling their aggro completely away from me.

Zu' Re and Gren were now able to join the fray and quickly went out to do so. With so many distractions, I was able to sneak around and drop those who were entirely absorbed by the others' presence. Within a few minutes, we were able to pacify the room of assailants.

I sighed in relief. "Geez, what the hell."

Before I could catch my breath, Zu' Re and Gren had already scavenged the smugglers and room of tools and weapons and then began to walk towards the next corridor.

"H-Hey, hold up, where are you guys going?"

"We must hurry and find Her Highness," Zu' Re replied.

"That's right, Kazuma-san," Gren followed up, "I have no idea what these disgusting pieces of filth might be doing to her. We have to find her, quickly!"

"I got it, I got it, but just give me a minute."

"If you're out of breath you can just hand me the keys and stay here," Zu' Re remarked.

"Oi, it's not like I don't wanna find Ferris-chan; I'm just asking for a moment to catch my breath."

"Sorry, Kazuma-san," Gren said, "but as much as I hate to agree with her, well…I have to agree. I won't wait, but I also won't force you to move at my pace. You understand how I feel."

"*sigh* Alright. I'm good to go, so don't worry. How about you two?" I said, glancing over at Megumin and Darkness.

"I'm fine," Darkness replied.

"Me too," Megumin said, holding Chomusuke in her arms.

While we were down here, we had to find where our things were stashed, so one way or another we'd have to look around; I just wished we could've done so drawing as little attention as possible.

Somehow, I managed to convince Gren and Zu' Re to slow down, however, with so many people in the group, it just wasn't possible for me to cover everyone in Lurk. Darkness insisted on going ahead and becoming the decoy for the group, but I knew very well what her true intentions were—and it didn't seem like she wasn't fooling anyone else.

In the end, Gren was the one to take lead; her ability to move quietly was something I hadn't taken notice till now, but it certainly was something to marvel at since she was naturally able to move around to nearly the same degree as I could with Lurk.

Eventually, we moved into a room where many items, supplies, and weapons were stashed: a treasure room of sorts. Here we found our equipment. After reclaiming them (and pocketing a few coins and items along the way), we continued on.

As we approached the next room, we began to hear Aqua's voice and a number of men.

"No, stop, don't touch it! You'll ruin it if you do that!" she shouted.

A man snickered in response. "Aw, come on, it can't be that bad; you'll still be able to perform well. I'm just havin' a little fun is all. Been a while since we got a hold of a real beaute of an entertainer like yourself."

"Hey," another man growled, "quit it, ya bastard! If she said not to touch it then don't! It ain't your turn anyhow!"

"What was that, ya shithead, you wanna go?!"

"Hey, Aqua-chan, don't mind those two, here." The sound of running liquid could be heard. "You'll entertain me next, right? I'll give you a little more if you do."

"What the hell is going on?" I thought. That couldn't be happening…right? Come on, this wasn't that type of world, surely.

Then we heard Aqua reply. "What do you take me for?! I won't sell my services for one simple serving."

"Fine, don't worry, I'll satisfy you plenty."

There was a moment of silence and then came the sound of something unzipping.

There was an audible gasp from Aqua. "W-Wow, it's so big; how the heck did that thing fit in there?!"

I felt myself begin to sweat and feelings of doubt begin to take hold. Looking at the others, they too seemed to be thinking something wasn't quite right. Before any of us decided to take any action, however, Darkness dashed around the corner.

"Cease your insatiable lust, you fiends! If you must exert your desires on someone, take me instead; spare my comrade!"

Dashing out to join her shortly after, we came upon the scene of Aqua sitting at a table, cup in hand, a group of men across from her, an assortment of playing cards strewn about the table, and several bottles—including a very large one—littered about the place as well.

"Darkness? Kazuma?! S-Save me!"

"Hey, who the hell are you guys?!" one of the men said, shooting to his feet.

"That's the prisoners, you idiot!" another exclaimed.

"Shit! FLASH!"

Once again, I managed to blind my teammates, but more importantly, our enemies were blinded as well. And despite their attempts to fight through the blindness, I was able to dispatch the lot of them before some of the others could recover.

Unfortunately, more smugglers—including some of the other men we encountered along the way—began pouring into the room due to all the commotion. With more and more men streaming into the room, we were beginning to run the risk of being completely overwhelmed.

"Kazuma-san," Gren yelled as we tried to hold off the groups that were engaging us, "we need to escape! We need to find Ferris!"

I knew as much, but there was nowhere for us to really run to; both entrances to the room were clogged with smugglers.

"Dammit, how the hell do we get out of this now? Will another Flash work here? No, if I do it without warning again, the others will just be blinded too. Shit."

Suddenly, another smuggler ran into the room with a terrified expression. "The guards are here! The hideout's been discovered!"

And not a moment sooner, a contingent of elven sentries flowed into the room and began clashing with the numerous smugglers. Eventually, the guards defeated them. One of them approached us with three others following.

"Your friends are defeated, give up and we'll go easy on you," he said, the three others brandishing their weapons threateningly.

"H-Hold on," I stammered, "we're not part of their group; we're prisoners!"

"Prisoners? With weapons?" he remarked, full of skepticism.

"We were actually staging an escape when you arrived," Gren replied. "Listen, have you found anyone else? A girl, perhaps? She's elven and has white hair and deep green eyes, freckles."

"Hmm, I can't say I know for sure, but we have found others."

"You have?!"

The guard nodded. "We'll have to confiscate your weapons and bind you for the time being. If it turns out you all are—"

"Hold on," I said. I quickly dug into my bag, nearly causing them to pounce on me in alarm. Luckily, I was able to find the King's Emeralds and show it to them before they did.

The guard still looked at me with a hint of suspicion as he handed the emeralds back, however, he motioned to the men behind him and they quickly relaxed their weapons.

"You're guests of His Majesty? What are you doing down here?"

"Like I said, we're prisoners; we were captured and then locked up."

"And where did these men capture you?"

"Uh, well…"

"We were drugged," Gren replied in my place. "We were passing by a wine shop when someone took my sister; we gave chase and were ambushed, then we woke up here."

"I see. Well, you're all safe now. We'll send you back up with a team."

"I'm not going anywhere unless it's with my sister."

"I must also agree with that sentiment," Zu' Re added.

"His Majesty's guests or not, please comply with the order," the guard said. "If we find that this girl you speak of is here, we'll gladly return her to you once we confirm the veracity of your claims."

Gren and the guard stared off.

Sensing the tension in the air, I quickly asked a question in the hopes that it would distract from the current issue.

"How, How did you find us down here, anyway?"

"Hm? Oh. A concerned citizen made a report about seeing a suspicious individual entering a building. We followed the lead until it led us down here."

Suspicious person, huh? Suddenly I felt a little hot under the collar. I instinctively looked away.

"What is this place, anyway?" Megumin queried. "It doesn't look like it's just some random cave."

"Well…it used to be a prison, but that was a long time ago. The entrances should've all been sealed though, so I'm surprised these criminals were able to set up down here."

"You all sure dropped the ball," Zu' Re remarked. "To have a smuggler's ring in the heart of The Emerald Grove…" She shook her head in disappointment.

"Indeed, it is as you say; this is a travesty. Anyhow, I'll send you all with my men. And…" He paused as he waited for Gren to introduce herself.

"Gren."

"Gren-san, I promise you we'll send you this Ferris you speak of the moment we're able to."

Gren looked as if she was debating on following the order or not; not doing so would likely put us at odds with the guards here so I quickly tried to coax her into agreeing.

"Hey, Gren-san, we should probably do as they say; I'm sure Ferris-chan will be with us in no time."

"No," she replied. As expected, the guards quickly tensed up, preparing to take defensive action; however, Gren continued. "I wouldn't mind going along with you all—even if it's under restraints. I won't let another person take Ferris from me."

The main guard sighed. "I can see this Ferris girl is really important to you. Fine. You may come along with us and search, but we'll take your suggestion and keep you restrained; you have no protests against that, do you?"

"As long as I can be with Ferris I don't mind."

"I'd like to come along as well," Zu' Re said.

"You too?" the guard queried in slight surprise.

"She's…very important…to the both of us."

The guard said nothing else, he simply motioned to the others and then they quickly moved forward and restrained both Zu' Re and Gren.

"The rest of you will be leaving, I take it? Or will you join these two in the search?" he asked us.

"Kazuma-san," Gren interrupted, "you all don't need to come; I'll see you once things are done here, ok?"

"Ugh…you sure? I mean—"

"Yes, I'm sure. Please go."

"Erm, alright."

The lead guard gave a nod to his group; two of them broke off and began leading us back up top. Along the way, we saw numerous others rounding up the various smugglers and equipment within the maze of rooms and caves, however, the fat guy in charge was nowhere to be seen amongst the captured.

"Hey look, it's the wineshop owner," Megumin pointed out.

The man was currently surrounded by a group of guards, seemingly pleading with them over something.

"What's he doing here?" I remarked. "They capture him too?"

Megumin shook her head. "Turns out he was helping these guys."

"Oh. See? I told you guys he was bad news. Oi, and you," I said, glancing over my shoulder at Aqua, "we have a lot to talk about once we get back."

"What?! Wh-Why?! What could Kazuma-san possibly have to speak to me about? Does it have to do with that time you had an unfortunate accident all over the bathroom floor? I had nothing to do with that!"

"What?! That was your doing?!"

"I already said I didn't!" Aqua said, looking away.

"You bitch, so it was you!"

"WAH! Stop it! You're gonna mess up my hair, you shitty NEET!"

"You'd better count yourself lucky that's all I'm messing up!"

"Stop it! WAHHHH! Megumin! Darkness! Help! WAHHH!"

-Sometime later; back at the E'nah Estate

"So that's what happened," I said, concluding the story of our latest experience.

"I see. What a terrible day it's been for you all," Lady Faelyn said.

"Incredible," Tarquas continued, "I would have never thought such a thing would be taking place right beneath our feet. I imagine the guard will be doubling their efforts these coming days."

"It's a shame we weren't able to celebrate the day with you all," Darkness remarked.

"It is, however, I'm glad you all came out safe from this ordeal," Lady Faelyn replied. "There's still plenty of food if you all wish to eat; I can imagine you're all quite famished after such an experience."

Each of us traded glances of uncertainty until Aloquin coughed.

"Mother had no hand in making the food today—since it was our treat to her."

"That's right," Tarquas went on, "you're free to eat to your heart's content."

Lady Faelyn sighed. "Oh, I feel so bad for you all; perhaps I should just make something sma—"

"NO!" we all shouted simultaneously.

-A few hours later; near midnight…

I sighed in relief. The water was warm and my body ached from the burst of activity I did today. After waiting for the others to use the bath, I finally had the chance to do so myself. Although it might seem like a detriment, I found going last was better; it allowed me to relax knowing no one was waiting for me to finish. As I lowered myself into the water, I heard the sound of two voices coming from outside the door: Tarquas and Lady Faelyn.