"Light of Saber!" A crackle of light formed in the air, quickly followed by a blade of magical energy that sliced through rock and earth alike. Not quite the boulder buster that Yunyun had pulled off, but progress nonetheless.
Spent, Kazuma collapsed to his knees. His abilities had improved steadily and now it looked like he could probably use this advanced spell to take down bigger targets. Granted, his teeny MP reserves made this a last ditch option.
He could hear Yunyun clap excitedly behind him. "That's the best one yet!"
The mage walked over to him and offered her hand. With a bit of work they were able to get him up and walking again, albeit with him leaning on her shoulder.
"Oi, Yunyun, don't mean to sound ungrateful but do you mind if I drain a bit of MP? A few seconds is all I need to get myself going again."
She vehemently shook her head and braced herself to bolt away if needed. "Nope! No! No! I never want to feel that icky sensation again!"
Oh man, Wiz must've traumatized this poor girl…
He raised his hand diplomatically. "Okay! You don't want it, I won't do it. Just didn't want to weigh you down."
"Hehe, Kazuma don't be silly. At my level I could probably carry someone small like you around all d-"
She cut herself off after noticing the mix of shame and sadness on his face.
"Erm, actually you're not so short Kazuma! Now that I get a better look at you, you're actually pretty average!" She quickly added.
"Please don't lie for my sake…" Kazuma sighed, his already fragile ego now eviscerated.
For the second time that day, Yunyun brought another exhausted spellcaster to the mansion and tossed them on the sofa. Megumin had already recovered and settled near the fireplace to enjoy a book, paying her rival no mind.
"Thanks, Yunyun." Kazuma said, voice somewhat muffled by the cushion he landed on.
He turned to face his new teacher and noticed her standing near the doorway, looking unsure of herself.
"Care to stick around? We've got card games and pastries from the Dustiness estate."
The mage quickly clasped her hands together. "You r-really wouldn't mind!? I don't want to impose or anything like that!"
Megumin glared at her fellow Crimson Demon. "You steal away my man every morning and now you seek to invade our home? Is there no end to your shame?"
"What!? N-No, I thought..!" Yunyun was once more on the verge of tears.
With some effort, Kazuma sat himself up. "Don't mind her. You're practically part of the team, come on. Sit down, make yourself comfortable."
"Do mind me! I will not put up with a mistress living under our roof!" Megumin snapped back.
Yunyun's head quickly darted between the both of them. She looked moments away from just bolting out and crying all the way back to the village.
Kazuma glared at his lover. "Hey, you're being a little too mean. Yunyun's been helping me out for free, and she kept us safe during our raid against the Demon King. We should show some appreciation."
The other Crimson Demon nodded emphatically at that.
"Agh, fine! Do as you wish then!" She then waved them off dismissively, turning all her attention back to her book.
With that, Yunyun happily set off towards their other sofa and sat across from him.
His arms and legs still felt like jelly so he left all the hospitality duties to Aqua. The goddess had been more than compliant to such demands after a hefty boost to her weekly allowance. With a simple clap of the hands the goddess appeared with fresh cups of what could very well be tea, and cakes for the two of them.
Without a word, Aqua bowed and excused herself. He really liked her better this way.
"I'll send forth my Undead Knight in the defensive position and end my turn!" Yunyun exclaimed.
Kazuma smirked. "You've activated my trap card! A poisonous bog emerges and swallows all your forces."
"A-All? That doesn't seem like a fair card!" She cried out.
"Read it and weep!" He smugly waved the card inches away from her face.
"With that, I'll have my Greater Dullahan strike your life points directly to end this!" He cackled at the look of despair on the sweet wizard's face.
"A-A rematch! Let's have a rematch! Fight me with a fair deck!" She whined.
"We both know how that would end," he said smugly.
Kazuma propped his feet up on the coffee table and leaned back victoriously. Megumin, who had initially been trying to ignore their game, cackled along with Kazuma. She plopped down on the sofa and swung an arm around his shoulders possessively.
"The chief-to-be could not outwit a mere adventurer in a simple card game. Yunyun, I'm afraid I won't be accepting any further challenges until you can best Kazuma."
"..! Now you're just being unreasonable!"
"Alright, that's enough teasing. Here," He tossed the broken card aside, "One more match."
Her mood flipped at once. "Ok! To a fair match between rivals!"
Megumin squeezed her arm around Kazuma tighter, clearly upset by her use of "rival."
"Hey, hey, too tight!" He cried out.
She glared at him. Kazuma looked confused for a moment but swiftly recovered with a quick kiss to her forehead. Now satiated, the blushing mage eased the grip on her lover.
"Ahem," Yunyun cleared her throat. Her cheeks looked a bit rosier than usual.
"R-Right. Time to defend my championship title." He confidently shuffled his deck and drew his hand.
After back to back crushing defeats, Yunyun excused herself and left for the Inn to wallow in private.
"I'm heading out with Yunyun today, need anything?" Kazuma asked, donning his usual outfit.
Aqua put on her nicest smile and cozied up to the adventurer. "Weeell, if you're going near the market district I'd appreciate it if you could get another bottle of Capital Select wine for me…"
"Sure but that'll be coming out of your allowance," he said.
Seeing the downcast look that the Goddess was sporting, he started to reconsider. "Eh, actually, you know what? What the hell, you've been pretty good lately. It'll be my treat today."
Aqua's looming tears immediately vanished. "I always knew you had good in you! Turns out having a teeeeeny bit of female attention is all it took to give this NEET some basic human decency."
"Hey!" It was too late, the woman had already skipped off to god knows where.
"That woman… Agh, forget it. Hey Megumin, you want anything?"
The mage didn't bother to meet his gaze.
"You've already learned her inferior magic, have you not? What use is there in parading around town with that second rate wizard?"
"Hey now, she's been a pretty reliable friend to us. We're just gonna have a look at some real estate for an idea I've been cooking up," he explained.
Megumin scoffed. "Looking to get your new mistress a home now? How brazen, this is a new low, even for you."
"Can you stop calling her my mistress!? Sheesh, it's like I can't have a female friend without you thinking the worst."
The mage was having none of it. "Heh, you've nearly gone all the way with Darkness, your relationship with Princess Iris is questionable, and you've had your way with me. All of us were mere female friends to you, no? I have a right to feel apprehensive."
Damn, she's actually got a point there. But… I want to be right.
"Woah, my relationship with Iris is pure and platonic! And! And what about Chris or Aqua!? We're perfectly platonic. Have a bit of faith in me!"
"...You and Chris do seem a bit too chummy. Anything to confess?"
"Is the greatest mage in the world so threatened by these lowly women?"
She huffed and turned away. "Fine. Go enjoy yourself."
"I will, thank you very much."
He leaned down to kiss the grumpy mage before heading out for the day.
Kazuma inspected the storefront with Yunyun in tow. He carefully examined the ceiling and nodded to himself as if he actually knew something about construction.
"Yes, yes, this will do."
The realtor grinned at that and thrust a contract forward.
"Fourteen million will get you the building as is, and for another 3 million we can turn the rear of the building into a professional kitchen like you requested. Throw in another million for furniture, cookware, and you'll have a restaurant worthy of the capital!"
"Eighteen million in total, huh?" He looked at a random part of the frame pensively.
"W-Well, taking into account the age of the property… Maybe we can settle on 17 million?"
"I don't know… Yunyun, any thoughts?"
To his surprise, she actually did have some insights. "This part of town is kind of empty on most days, and I think I saw some mold in the storeroom…"
The realtor was sweating bullets. "H-How careless of me! Let me look through our portfolio again!"
After a few more trips, they'd finally settled on a former bakery near the Adventurer's Guild. It had most of what he'd need to get his plan going and the location was about as solid as it got. A few signatures and a promissory note for 25 million eris later, he was now the proud owner of a business.
Not long after coming back home from their trip Kazuma began cooking up a storm. Yakisoba noodles, teriyaki chicken skewers, egg fried rice, you name it. Aqua and the Crimson Demons tasted dish after dish for him, jotting notes down on scorecards for each entry.
"Here, try this one. It's a sort of, um, 'flatbread' common in my home country." He set down his best attempt at recreating the pizzas he was used to back on Earth.
Megumin looked at it curiously. "I think I saw a place selling these back at the capital…"
Damn, those other cheaters beat me to it.
"I-Is that so? I haven't seen anything like this in Axel so it should still work…"
Aqua gave him a thumbs up in approval. "Ith pretty closth to the real deal."
Bits of bread splattered him as she spoke.
"Agh! What the hell, Aqua? What type of moron forgets to swallow before talking!?"
He shook the debris off his apron as the goddess continued chewing, looking pleased at her handy work. No doubt this was retaliation for forgetting her liquor.
"What about you two? Any thoughts?"
Yunyun looked pretty pleased with the product. "For the right price this will definitely sell, Kazuma!"
"This satisfies a craving I never knew I had…" Megumin whispered, staring longingly at the slice.
Kazuma felt an unfamiliar warmth fill him as he watched them enjoy dish after dish. Back in Japan there wasn't much that gave him fulfillment, nothing that he could really claim he was passionate about. Seeing people he cared about enjoy something that he made, something that with zero hesitation he could say that he was skilled at, made him swell with pride and affection.
He sat down at the dining table with the rest of the group to rest his legs and give himself a bit of a break. Aqua filled a glass of water for him and slid it over, happily humming one of her usual tunes. Kazuma chugged it and offered a quiet "thank you."
"I had given this some thought when I picked up the cooking skill a while back, but being weeks away from opening my own restaurant…? It feels unreal," he said.
"I hope the best for your business, Kazuma, but would this not take away the majority of your time?" Megumin asked, looking worried.
Huh. Never gave that any thought.
"Hmm… It's just a few minutes from home and practically next to the Guild so you guys can stop by whenever. I need staff too…"
A quick look at the people before him made him reconsider. "Though maybe it's better if I hire professionals to start with…"
"I'll be sure to stop by often to support your business," Yunyun said with a smile.
Ah, bless this sweetheart.
Aqua leaned in towards him. "Hey-a, Kazuma? As close friends and the one who brought you back to life time and time again, I believe it's only fair that I be exempt from paying at your restaurant."
"Huh? Screw you, half those deaths happened as a result of me trying to clean up your mess!"
He thought about what he'd just said a little deeper.
"...So I guess I owe you for the other half then. Yeah, fine. You can get ONE free meal a day. And I get to pick for you, no ordering the most expensive thing exclusively."
The goddess seemed happy enough with that arrangement. Truth be told, seeing all of them love his cooking just put him in a sappy mood.
Ah, what the hell, why not?
"That goes for you guys as well, and Darkness when she gets back. One dish on the house each day. I'm already pretty rich so I can afford to give out some freebies to my friends."
"Your friends get one free meal a day, so what would someone who's more than friends get?" Megumin asked.
Kazuma blushed a bit and did his best to ignore Aqua's intensely curious stare.
"Ah, well, someone like that… Well, they could have whatever they want," he said almost too quietly for the others to hear.
The night dragged on with plenty of food and drink. It had gotten late enough that the weather outside had dipped below freezing. Kazuma set up the spare bedroom for Yunyun to use much to Megumin's dismay. After a pretty heated argument, the poor girl was scared off and ran for the Inn, though at least she'd accepted the coat he'd offered.
Now the adventurer was stuck trying to sleep with a glowing pair of crimson eyes glaring at him.
"I don't like how close you've gotten with my rival," Megumin muttered. Mad or not, she still decided to sleep in his room tonight.
Kazuma sighed.
This again?
"What happened to the confident Megumin? Back before we committed you rarely showed your jealous side," he asked.
"I held my tongue back then since things were less clear between us. Now I intend to defend what's mine!"
He gently patted her on the back and pulled her a bit closer.
"You're going to have to trust me more, Megumin," he said. "And I guess I'm gonna have to earn that trust…"
"But Yunyun is a friend, for both of us. We ought to treat her like one."
Megumin let out a frustrated groan and gave his pillow a merciless beating.
"There's your damn compassion again! I love it so much yet it pisses me off to no end! What the hell am I supposed to do with these feelings!?" She belted out.
She flopped back down on the mattress and nestled back into his arms. They held each other silently, though Kazuma could still sense lingering tension.
"Another thing… I don't like that merely being in bed with me no longer excites you. Months ago you would've been battling your lust! Have I lost so much charm since?"
Kazuma suddenly found himself in an awkward spot. It was precisely because they'd found themselves sleeping in the same bed so often that he'd found himself deploying more countermeasures.
"Oh, ah… Well, it has nothing to do with you. I've just… um, been taking care of that any time that I think we're gonna end up like this."
Realization struck Megumin. "All that time in the bathroom then…"
"Hey, you don't need to do that! And no more of that 'special' cafe that you and Dust frequent so often!" She demanded.
A moment later, she climbed on top of him and rested her head on his chest.
"I love those tense moments. When we're full of anticipation and desire, unsure if it'll happen or not. Kazuma, I'm not going to beg but I have needs too…"
"I-I, wow…"
Despite his earlier relief, he found himself getting excited again. Her brazenly open way of discussing such a topic already had him hot and bothered. He began to resonate with her. What he felt right now and those nights before their greatest battle, as torturous as it might have felt at the time, it was still damn exciting. Few things ever got his heart racing like those moments...
"Your sword is poking my stomach."
"I know dammit! I'm trying to focus!"
I don't think she could've spelled it out any clearer, but it feels too good to be true for some reason!
"So I can just… whenever I…?"
She nodded. "What we discussed before? I wasn't just referring to the smaller gestures, though I do crave those too, and I will acknowledge your improvement in that regard."
The mage leaned in, gently whispering into his ear, "I want you. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, even if we can't go all the way, I still cherish every moment of it. Hold nothing back with me. I find myself craving the perverted jokes, glances, and touching that you pulled off before. I'm all yours, Kazuma."
At a loss for words, he decided to let his actions speak that night.