Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of cash. The caravan had finally arrived and once the paper work was sorted out the party cashed in a whole billion, tax exempt. After weeks of frugal living the party was now once again part of high society. No quests, no chores, just pure lethargic bliss for the better part of a month now.

"A cup of tea for you, Sir Kazuma?" Aqua offered.

"Mmm, certainly." He fanned himself luxuriously with a wad of bills.

A cup of piping hot water was presented to him.

"You've still much to learn, Lady Aqua. But I will acknowledge your efforts. Again, if you would."

The goddess bowed graciously and left him to enjoy himself once more.

What brought about this particular dynamic?


The party arrived at the gates of Axel after a bright flash of teleportation magic. A quick check ensured that everyone had safely made it back from the Demon King's castle. Bodies of Dark Knights and other servants of the Demon King littered the streets. Sounds of trumpets and drums filled the air, the town had won.

"They're back!" A group of adventurers cried out at the sight of them.

A crowd formed as Aqua bombarded the party members with magic.

"Sacred heal! Sacred heal!"

The worst of Mitsurugi and Darkness' wounds sealed up, leaving them only with minor bruising. Everyone else was pretty much back to 100%. Clothes torn and bloody? Sure, but otherwise pristine.

With everyone taken care of, Aqua turned to face the adventurer of the hour. "Kazuma?"

"Yep, I'm Kazuma."

The priest was sporting a rosy blush and an uncharacteristically pure smile.

"I know that maybe I've been a bit of a hassle and mayyyybe some of your deaths and tribulations could have been avoided if I'd been a little less stubborn…"

"You're just realizing this now!?" Kazuma cried out.

She continued, "Annnnd… Well, you dying an irreparable death was also sorta part of the whole goal I gave you of defeating the Demon King… Soooo, I've decided. A simple resurrection and words are not enough. I'm going to be a proper Goddess and graciously give you a reward befitting of my title!"

Now she had his full attention.

A real gift from a Goddess? Some cheat item or crazy broken skill? Oh man, I've been waiting for this!

"You may have your pick, a Hero's kiss from the one and only Goddess of Water herself, or my share of the reward for today's battle?"

"I'll take the cash." Not an ounce of hesitation filled his voice.

"Waa…?! Wait now, hold on, this is a once in a lifetime kiss from a beautiful Goddess you're passing on! A-Anyone can get a little money together with hard work and time, but even Kings and nobles will die without ever experiencing this!"

Kazuma stood there, arms crossed. "Cash."

"Such a noble deity like yourself can surely pass on a bit of pocket money if your most heroic servant requests it as their due reward, no?" Megumin chimed in.

"I know Lady Eris would for a fact keep to her word once an offer was made." Darkness added.

The sweet, angelic arch-priest was now fuming with a veritable ocean of tears threatening to spill out.

Eris went for the killing blow. "I've never once broken a promise to one of my faithful believers."

"Waah! You guys suck! Fine, you want money so damn bad you can have it all!" The blue haired priest took off predictably towards the nearest bar.


The arch-priest brought Kazuma another cup of tea. He didn't even have to sip it to know.

"Mmm, dear Aqua. I believe I've had my fill for the day." He waved her off and smacked a 10,000 eris note into her hands.

She gave him a curt bow and happily skipped away to god knows where.

Ah, to finally live the good life once again.


Weeks came and went, lazy and unproductive, about as ideal as could be. Yunyun was back in town so she and Megumin went to their "secret practice spot" to train their magical abilities on the daily. Darkness had excused herself to her family estate on account of a tidal wave of suitors from across the continent, and Aqua, well, she was doing something or another around the house.

Yep, nothing but peace and quiet for Kazuma. He'd been grinding out levels on their Game Girl console and keeping up with his inventions for Vanir with no one to nag him or wrap him up in another scheme.

Still, something was missing from his life…

The day quickly passed and a pretty snazzy meal prepped by Kazuma was shared that evening. Aqua was the first to turn in for the night, leaving him and the mage to do the clean up. Bits of banter were exchanged, but it all felt a bit hollow. The arch-wizard gave him a quick hug before heading off to bed herself, leaving Kazuma to his own devices.

He flopped down on the sofa and sighed. Even his romance was unsatisfying as of late. At first he blamed Yunyun for hogging up all the mage's attention and energy, but that didn't seem right. In days past she'd still hang out with him after getting her explosion out in the morning with one of the other party members.

No, something had changed. It wasn't just the amount of time they spent together. The flirting, the banter, the physical touch. It was steadily reverting to the same state as before, just like they'd never had any interest in each other. A little while back they'd been cuddling in bed, holding hands, kissing, all that awesome crap that came with being together pretty often… It hadn't been sudden, it all just sort of... died out over time.

Could it be that her love was waning? Was there someone else? Did he mess something up without even realizing? He didn't want to consider it, they'd had a good vibe going for about a year now.

Eh, I'm probably overthinking it.

With that, he swung his legs onto the sofa and opted to sleep next to the fireplace for a change.

Or so he planned. The man tossed and turned, thoughts of the past couple weeks playing back and forth as he tried to scan for any obvious culprits, any hints to his predicament…

It couldn't be cheating. Outside of the silver haired thief persona he'd donned, she'd never once uttered a word of praise nor expressed any interest in another person. Plus, she wasn't the type to betray or backstab. If she wanted to break things off, she'd do it upfront and bombastically.

"So why the hell…" He muttered to himself.

These thoughts would continue to haunt him.


Another week had passed, and now it was painfully clear that something was wrong. The goodnight hugs had vanished. They hadn't held hands, kissed… Hell, they didn't really talk that much anymore. Were Darkness there he could probably ask for a bit of women's intui-

Nope, not the right candidate for that talk.

Come to think of it, Megumin and Yunyun had been hanging out all the time now. Maybe he could steal the chief-to-be for a few minutes and pick her brain? Yeah, that sounded like the right play in this situation.

He couldn't just open with that though, they weren't exactly close enough to spill their guts to each other. No, he'd need an opener.

That led him to his current situation. He'd ambushed the mage after she dropped off a snoozing Megumin at the Mansion and invited her to a café. The duo sat quietly sipping their drinks, unsure of what to say.

"Say, Yunyun? I'd like you to help me learn advanced magic," Kazuma said blankly.

"Erm, please." He quickly added.

Yunyun looked a bit shocked. "H-Huh!? What brought this on? Ah, not that I wouldn't want to teach you, it's just, well- it's a bit sudden is all."

He shrugged. "Y'know, I'd like to make myself a little more useful in battle. You saw me back at the castle. I'm all about strategy and tactics, finding the right opening. A front line fighter like you can just blast her way through anything. I may not have the MP to compete with a Crimson Demon but even one spell could pull us out of a tight situation."

"Oh, ok. Well... why not? We can go over to the hills outside of town and practice the fundamentals of… Hmm, what spell did you want to start with?"

As if there was any other.

"Let's go with light of saber, that one seems pretty nifty."


A new routine had been added to his days. Yunyun would drop off their mage, they'd go out for brunch and then spend an hour or two practicing movements, MP flow, and incantations. A week had passed. He was starting to get the hang of it and could produce a much wimpier variant of the fearsome spell with a bit of concentration by this point.

"Light of saber!" A flash of bright light snapped across the open fields before quickly vanishing. The rock he'd been aiming at now sported a shallow cut. Weak as that was, it still did a number on his stamina. He found a nice spot next to a nearby tree to relax and waved the chief over.

The mage sat down beside him and offered an encouraging thumbs up. "You're doing great, Kazuma! I think by next week you'll be able to use it reliably. Though… I don't think you'll be able to get more than 1 or 2 uses out of it. Oh, but don't let that take away from your hard work!"

Ever sensitive to others, ay Yunyun?

"Eh, I knew that coming into this. Thanks, though. You've always been pretty reliable. It's good to have friends like you."

He meant it. This little side project had been intended as a way to get close enough to openly discuss his relationship troubles with the mage, but now he was pretty invested. She was good company, a real sweetheart, and their training helped clear his mind.

She beamed at his comment. "Friends…!?"

"You know, Kazuma, people say a lot of bad stuff about you, and well… maybe you haven't always behaved the best around me, but I think you're a pretty reliable friend too!" She said, now a bit giddy with excitement.

Not exactly the best compliment ever given to him, but he'd take it.

She gave him a warm smile. "Not many people would do what you did to get Miss Aqua back. And I think that gift you gave Megumin was really sweet! …In its own destructive way."

It's now or never…

"I, um… I think I hurt her," he admitted.

"Oh." The mood suddenly shifted.

"I don't know exactly how I did it, I mean, you know how I can be, but I… I don't know. Things were great and then they've steadily gotten worse."

He looked at her. "Did you… notice anything? On your trips, I mean."

"Well… I guess she hasn't been enjoying them as much any more. All this time that I've known her, her explosions have always been the highlight of her day. She still has fun when we go out to train, but…"

He frowned. It'd be one thing if it was just their vibe going sour, but having less fun blowing stuff up just wasn't normal for his mage.

"Did she mention anything about me? Or maybe about how she felt?"

"Megumin's strong. Whenever she has problems she prefers to tackle them straight on. For harder stuff though, she doesn't share easily, not with me or anyone back at the village. Sorry I can't be more helpful. I don't like to see her like this too, but that just means I need to be here for her."

He smiled at that. "You really care about her, don't you?"

"Erm, well… she's my rival! If something were to happen to one of us, then we'd stop growing."

If, or rather, when I fix things between us, I'll get her to stop being so mean to you…

Kazuma stood and dusted himself off. He offered the mage a hand and helped pull her to her feet.

"Hey, don't be afraid to stick around after dropping Megumin off. Have some tea, play some games with us. You're welcome in our home, no matter what the arch-bully says."

"Kazuma…" She started.

"Welp, I'm off! Thanks for the training today."

His gut began to twist as he contemplated his next steps. He'd been hoping Yunyun would slip him some gossip like Megumin being jealous or maybe some dumb comment he'd said that hurt her feelings… But now? All that was left was a deeply uncomfortable conversation that he'd been trying to avoid.


Knock knock

He rapped his knuckles against the door and waited for a reply. He heard nothing in response. Dread began to fill his heart. This was bad.

No, no, don't overthink it. It's late, she's probabl-

The door slowly creaked open. A small hand reached out for his and gently tugged him forwards. She wordlessly led him to the bed and pulled both of them under the covers. Despite the poor lighting he could tell she'd been crying. The mage hugged him tightly as he tried to get his bearings.

"Megumin? I, um, I'm not sure what I did or what happened but… I'm sorry either way."

She didn't say anything back. The young man began to panic. He was sure the mage could hear his heart racing.

"Y-You know I'm, ah- I'm pretty lousy at these things… and well, I did agree to take responsibility. Can you help me… be better to you?"

He wasn't even sure if it had anything to do with him. If she was pissed they probably wouldn't be hugging. But he still felt like if it had been anything else, she would've handled things herself or gotten the party together to deal with it.

"Kazuma... am I ugly?" Fresh tears began to well in those Crimson eyes he'd grown so fond of.

Huh?

"N-No, of course not!" He stammered out in a panic. "I've been crushing on you for almost as long as we've known each other!"

This felt wrong. Megumin was never shy to praise her own appearance, even more so in the company of other party members. If anything he'd always found her overflowing confidence a bit charming.

"Kazuma, I have no objections with taking the lead… but I've been counting as of late. You haven't so much as touched me of your own volition for over a month! Is it me? Is there someone else!? Do I... bore you?"

He processed her words, almost wanting to object. They'd definitely touched! But the more he thought about it, it was always a reaction to her. She'd lean into him, and he'd wrap an arm around her. She'd peck his cheek and he'd peck back. Even for their more... intimate activities, both times she'd been the one to initiate. Even going back to the days before the Demon King was slain, she'd pretty much always initiated and pushed the relationship forward.

Has it really been like this for so long?

At that revelation he pulled her in to an even tighter embrace. "I didn't, I never…"

He sighed. "All this time you were waiting to see if I'd even notice, weren't you?"

No words, just a nod.

"You know I've always been all talk… This is new territory for me. N-Not like it's not for you too, but.. Well I guess what I mean to say is… we're both going into this blind." A knot was beginning to form in his throat.

"I'll be more affectionate, I really will! Just, bear with me, please?"

She began to chuckle softly. "Heh, All this heartache… all this time. I was driving myself crazy. I thought maybe you were regretting your choice… That I wasn't making you happy. One conversation was all it took to clear the air."

Megumin grabbed his collar and brought his gaze down to meet her eyes.

"Lovers should not be so afraid to speak their mind with one another, wouldn't you agree? I forgive you for not noticing that I wasn't getting the affection I needed, for not taking more initiative. Now, will you forgive me for my cowardice?"

A kiss was his response.