Is she serious…?
He would have thought she was here to bully the new adventurers, if it wasn't for her age.
"... Are you here to make fun of us?"
"I-I'm not!"
I would have asked about her names too, but it is a lot less weird in comparison to X Æ A-Xii.
And it was almost like Megumi, which meant blessing.
"That red eye, are you a Crimson Demon?"
The girl nodded in response to Aqua's question and presented her adventurer's card to Aqua.
"That's correct! I'm an elite mage from the Crimson Demon Clan, Megumin! My magic's powerful enough to split mountains!"
Suddenly, Megumin started falling forward and I instinctively caught her.
A heartbreaking growl was heard from her as she said: "I haven't eaten in three days; may you give me something to eat before the interview…?"
From the looks of the bandages on her leg and that eyepatch, she had a rough life, and she had to starve for 3 days at such a young age. I couldn't help but feel sympathy and a need to protect her.
"Come on, sit down and order something light first and eat slowly, then you can order whatever you want, you shouldn't be standing if you haven't eaten anything in three days." I helped her sit down, to which she looked absolutely embarrassed.
Feeling left out, Aqua interjected herself into the conversation. "You know, I am an Archpriest, so I can heal that eye of yours if you address me correctly."
"This is a magic item to restrain my overwhelming power… If you pull it off, a gigantic disaster will befall the world…"
"Oh… So it's something like a seal?" I asked as I sat down next to Aqua and opposite to Megumin.
"I made that up. This is just a normal eyepatch. It just looks nice."
'Give me back my sympathy', I thought as I pulled on Megumin's eyepatch.
"Ah! Sorry! Please don't pull on that! Stop!"
"Listen Kazuma, Crimson Demons are born with high intellect and strong magic power, with most of them having the potential to become powerful mages. They're well known for their red eyes and their strange names." Aqua explained.
You know, that is awfully racist.
"It's rude to say that our names are weird. From where I stand, the names of the people in this town are the weird ones." Megumin said while rubbing the eye where her eyepatch had hit her.
"Could we recruit her as a companion?" Aqua asked me.
"Yes, but at least let me see her card first."
Aqua handed me the adventurer's card.
Well, let's see.
Name: Megumin - Age: 14
Lvl: 6 - Job: {Arch-Mage}
Strength: 21
Vitality: 21
Magic: 565
Agility: 25
Speed: 26
Intelligence: 57
Luck: 47
Wait, she's 14?! She sure as hell doesn't look like it, I wouldn't have questioned her if she said she was 11. Also, I don't know if her mana is high enough or not, since the only people I can compare it to are me, mr poor-stats Kazuma, and Aqua I-am-way-too-good-for-this goddess.
"Well, you should order something to eat. My name's Kazuma, and this useless fellow is Aqua. Pleased to meet you, Megumin."
Megumin just took the menu quietly and started looking through it.
- Toad Fields -
"Explosion's the strongest offensive spell. On the other hand, it has a long casting time. Please keep that frog at bay until I'm ready."
We brought Megumin along with us so she can show her magic, and at the same time, we can seek vengeance against the giant toads, aka dinotoads.
I could see a frog at a distance on the plains.
The frog had already noticed us and was charging our way. I could also see another frog heading toward us from the opposite direction.
Ah shit, here we go again…
"Megumin, please target the frog further away. As for the nearer one… Hey, let's go Aqua. We'll avenge ourselves this time. You're a former something, right? How about showing us what you're made of?"
"What do you mean by 'former'? I'm a current goddess! My position as an Archpriest's just a disguise!" Aqua yelled as she charged down the hill towards the frog.
She is way too gullible.
Megumin looked towards me and asked, "... Goddess?"
"Just a pitiful woman claiming to be a goddess. She'll say stuff like this from time to time, so please don't mind her."
After hearing my explanation, Megumin looked at Aqua with sympathetic eyes.
Like she is any better.
Back to Aqua…
"You're just frogs that are strong against physical attacks! Let me show you the power of a goddess! Kazuma, watch this carefully! I haven't done anything great yet, but I'll definitely succeed today!"
Aqua got eaten… again…
… Then, the air around Megumin started to tremble.
Even a noob like me could tell that shit was about to go down.
"Darkness blacker than black, darker than dark,
I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson.
The time of awakening cometh.
Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary,
appear now as an intangible distortion!
I desire for my torrent of power a destructive force:
a destructive force without equal!
Return all creation to cinders,
and come from the abyss!"
Megumin's red eyes shone with a brilliant light.
"EXPLOSION!"
My first thought was did she just launch a mini nuke or something on the toad?
Poor toad was gone, reduced to atoms.
I was almost blown away by the strong winds and I had to cover my face and brace myself.
After the dust settled, a crater twenty meters in diameter revealed where the frog had been, showing how powerful the explosion was.
"Yup, you're hired."
As I was feeling moved by the power of Megumin's spell, another frog slowly climbed out from underground, probably awakened by the shockwave and sound of the explosion. Its movements were very slow. I can relate to him, I am not a morning person either.
"Megumin! Let's retreat for now and attack from a distance…!"
I looked over at Megumin.
She was lying face down on the ground.
"Explosion's my ultimate spell. It's powerful and uses a lot of mana. Simply put, the mana I used exceeded my limit, so I can't move. Ah, to think that a frog would appear out of nowhere… No good, I'll be eaten. Sorry, please save me. Hya…!"
*Sigh*. This was turning out eerily similar to the last attempt.
I went ahead and slashed the toads underbelly, retrieving Megumin from the dark, slimy abyss that is the insides of these toads.
"Ugh… Why? I thought I had that one…" Aqua muttered, with her head hanging down as she followed behind me.
I again had taken my sweet time in freeing her.
It's not even that I want to teach her a lesson, no. Her intelligence stat shows that she would not remember it even if I did that.
No, I just felt pleasure in her misery.
"Let us never take a quest involving those toads again." Megumin, who I was carrying on my back, added.
"Actually, we have not completed that quest yet. Considering Aqua and I only killed one toad yesterday, and we killed three toads in total today, we still have one more left." I reminded them.
To which they said I would have to deal with it alone.
"Hey Megumin, do you have any other spells? While explosion is good and all, it's only effective when we're fighting against a very overpowered opponent or large mobs, instead of a regular monster or small fry." I asked the petite Arch-mage.
"I don't."
"Huh? You don't what?" I asked.
Megumin grabbed onto me hard and pressed her non-existent chest onto my back.
"I can only use explosion. I don't know any other magic."
…
…
The silence continued for a while until Aqua suddenly decided to break it.
"Wait, if your level is high enough to use explosion magic, shouldn't you be capable of using other magic? For example, even I didn't learn all the Archpriest spells until I learnt the banquet party tricks."
"Hey, that's a wrong example, and what the hell would you use 'banquet party tricks' for?"
"I'm an Arch-wizard who loves explosion magic above all else. There's nothing that can compare to the magnificence of explosion magic. Explosion magic is the only one I love! I could go on as a professional solo adventurer if I learn advanced magic, but I can't allow that! The only thing I love is explosion magic! Even though I can only cast it once per day, even if I will collapse after using the spell, my one true love is still explosion magic! The only reason I chose the path of the Arch-wizard was solely to be able to cast explosion spells!"
There were way too many explosions in her speech.
Normally, her determination and that heartfelt declaration would be able to impress or amaze me, but after seeing her get eaten and when the reminder of the event, the goo covering us all, was still there, I can't help but see the idiocy of such a thing.
Without a party to protect her, she would be done for.
"Wonderful! Simply wonderful! Despite knowing the inefficiencies, I am deeply moved by your great devotion!" Aqua commented.
When I didn't say anything, Megumin grabbed onto me harder.
"My only wish is to use explosion magic. I'll be fine without any payment." She paused for a second, debating on what she was about to do, before suddenly presenting her face very closely to my ear.
"Yes, that's right, my power as an Arch-wizard is available at the mere price of meals and other miscellaneous fees! How could you miss this opportunity to form a long-term contract?" She whispered.
What was I doing you ask? I was debating all the pros and cons of adding her.
The cons were not many, if it was just me and her as a party, but the point was that I still had Aqua to take care of, and adding Megumin to that list would just cause me a lot of headaches.
But then I remembered the fact that she hadn't eaten in the last three days, which means no party was willing to take her in, which reminded me way too much of my own past life in Japan.
It also explained why she decided to join a party of two lvl 1 novices.
What would I gain from adding her to the team? Well, a personal nuke launcher for starters, and considering she had high intelligence stats, and she wasn't too heavy to carry around on my back so…
"You do realize I said you were hired just after that fantastic explosion right?" I said, trying to fan her chuuni flames 'cause the sight of her almost begging to stay in the party was honestly heart breaking, even to cold bastards like me.
Megumin perked right up after that. "Of course you wouldn't let go of the chance to recruit the greatest Arch-mage of the Crimson Demon Clan."
"So that means you will help me kill the last toad-"
"No."
Then a thought occurred to me.
"Hey, when do these toads sleep?" I asked Megumin.
"I don't know, same as normal people." She replied.
"Yeah, duh Kazuma. Even a NEET like you should know that." Aqua put in her two cents.
Suddenly, there was an evil smirk on my face, which sent chills down my two comrades.
Oh, is that so…?