'Ah, this room looks different to mine,' I thought as I woke up in an unfamiliar room.

I looked around and realized that I was in Megumin's room, and with that revelation came the memories of the previous night.

Ah, yeah, Megumin was scared to sleep alone so she made me sleep here.

Speaking of the loli.

She was still fast asleep with her right hand dangling from the side of the bed as the blanket barely covered her petite body.

I looked at the adorable sight as her chest slowly raised and fell.

'What is she dreaming of?' I wondered.

"Explosion," Megumin mumbled.

Ah, of course.

Why did I even ask?

Wait, she's sleeping, so…

She wouldn't know if I were to… y'know…

Sneak a peek…

I slowly stood up and stepped towards her.

After a slow step, I looked around, still no signs of the FBI.

I moved towards her and reached her bed-

"Megumin, are you awake? I know we slept late last night, but still, wake up, Aqua made some breakfast," Darkness's voice shouted from behind the door.

Fuck.

Both Aqua and Darkness didn't know I slept here.

They're definitely going to take this the wrong way.

And this is Darkness we're talking about.

Best case scenario, I will be called a lolicon from now on.

While the worst case being she will execute me in the name of the law before Megumin even wakes up to clear anything up.

Seeing the doorknob turn, I did the only reasonable thing.

I jumped out of the window and accepted the fall damage dealt to me.

I would take a broken leg over being called a lolicon anyday.

Wait, I kinda am a lolicon…

Nah, Megumin comes in the legal loli category like Tatsumaki or a flat chested one…

More importantly, why am I crushing on her?

I like girls with big boobs or tall girls with big asses.

Am I really so deprived of attention that I started falling for the first girl I have a good friendly relationship with in years…?

Maybe…

Well, I should go to the guild and pick out some quest to distract myself.

We still have debt to pay.

When I walked into the guild, I knew there would be trouble coming my way by the way Luna looked towards me and smiled.

You see, all trouble began with that smile, that damn smile.

"Kazuma, you are just the person I was looking for, we got a quest that specifically asked for you," Luna said as I warily approached her.

"Why me?" I asked her in perturbation.

"Well, the local farmers are dealing with some toad problems-"

"Wait, I thought I killed every last one of them, and isn't this their hibernating period?" I asked, interrupting Luna.

"Yeah, that's the thing we were worried about too, and reports say that these toads are from around Keele's dungeon. Something has caused them to wake up early in their hibernation, and as there were no toads hibernating around Axel, they moved here in a mass exodus. You were asked because the local farmers wanted to see the famed toad hunter deal with this," Luna explained to me as I stood there.

That was unexpected…

I mean, I did kill them and all, but I did that when they were sleeping.

When they're awake they are a nuisance to deal with no matter how buffed I get.

But seeing as I was specifically asked, I accepted it nonetheless.

'We are so getting eaten', I thought as I came across the sight of 30 toads lazing around in the snow.

And from the looks of it, they even had a king toad with them.

Why didn't I just wait until night to kill them?

Well, this was a time based quest. As there were no small monsters to feed on in winter, because they were all hibernating, these toads would target the farmers and their farm animals.

Which was the reason why the quest was paying 1.5 million for hunting these toads.

"No! I don't want to be eaten by the toads again! Let me go! Let me go!" Aqua's screams echoed out loud as I kept dragging her toward the hill that overlooked the toad field, the same spot where Aqua got eaten by toads last time.

Ah, the memories…

"But to think the toads are still agile even when it's this cold outside. They're moving as fast as usual," I commented, eyeing the targets which somehow haven't noticed us yet, even though Aqua was shouting her lungs out.

"Because of the harsh environment in this world, all living beings try their hardest every single moment. We mustn't lose to them, we have to become stronger to survive in this dangerous world," Megumin answered my words with a serious expression.

One might wonder why I didn't have to drag her here too.

Well, I might've had to do that if I hadn't challenged her honor as a Crimson Demon mage and a member of my party while doing a pose.

Yeah, her chuunibyou is infectious…

So she was here to defend her honor.

Convincing Darkness was barely an inconvenience.

She was silently waiting behind us, waiting for her chance to get eaten.

"Okay, so Darkness, you go ahead and get their attention. Aqua, you don't want to get eaten right? So you buff Darkness up, and Megumin, you wait 'till you can target a good amount of them in a wider ranged explosion, you can do that, right?" I said, to which all of them nodded.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Aqua asked me.

"I will watch out for any toads that get past Darkness," I said as Darkness and I moved forward.

I had gained some levels in Keele's dungeon.

I was now level 26, which pushed my stats to 273.

So if I tried, I could cleave one of these toads in half easily.

'Okay, let's do this', I thought as the toads started to take notice of the crusader approaching them.

8 of them approached her from the front while two groups of 4 flanked us from both sides.

I waited for them to get in my 20 meter range, and once they did I started to spam out snipe.

Apparently toad skin gets harder in winter as it took me 3 snipes for each toad.

I took out the toads on the flanks, with the last one laying barely a few feet away from me.

I looked back towards Darkness and saw she was surrounded by toads, which were apparently fighting each other over who would get to eat Darkness.

Darkness was standing still in between them with her sword sheathed, patiently waiting for the toads to make a decision…

What do I do with this girl…

"Explosion!"

A sudden explosion spell caught my attention as the toads who hadn't approached us yet suddenly went up in a burning ball of destruction.

"I slew their king!" Megumin shouted from the ground behind me.

I looked at the area where the remaining toads were gathered just moments ago.

Now there was just a smoking crater left in its place with no signs of any toads ever being there.

I turned back towards Darkness as she was surrounded by the only toads remaining here.

She was in the middle of two toads as they played some sick version of tug of war with her…

I'm just going to ignore this image and free her.

I started to move towards her with haste when…

"Wait, there's more toads!" Megumin shouted while pointing at the tree line.

I looked over as my enemy detection also started to ring like hell.

About 20 toads jumped out of the tree line behind us.

What is this, fucking Viet Cong?

I did not sign up for this.

Darkness is a big girl so she can deal with her share of toads, so I changed my plans and went to meet this new foe in battle.

When I sniped my 4th toad, I realized that I had reached my limit of snipes I can use in one go.

Shit.

I used dash and well… dashed around them and started to hack them down in melee combat, with the occasional fireball thrown in the mix.

It was my 16th toad when my magic ran out and I skidded to a halt, face planting in the snowy ground.

I looked up and saw that Megumin was slowly being devoured while she said,"Excuse me, I'm being gradually swallowed, you can save me anytime now."

And Aqua was playing some weird kind of peekaboo by jumping in and out of the toad munching on her while screaming her lungs out.

So this is how it ends huh?

Well, I guess this is karma for killing those toads while they were sleeping.

Hell, I didn't even get the chance to sort out my feelings for-

"Light of Saber!"

A voice echoed and a beam of light shone across the body of the toad just in front of me.

A moment later, the light faded away and the toad split in half.

"Energy Ignition!"

The voice announced again and the three toads closing in on us suddenly caught fire, with fire pouring out of their mouth as if they were burning from the inside.

As I sniffed the fragrance of cooked toad meat, I used drain touch to share some mana with Megumin since I didn't want to carry her back while she was covered in goo.

I didn't use the lich skill that often as it is kinda unpleasant, like a cold sick feeling, and I'm not really into that kind of stuff.

… And so Megumin, somewhat unsteadily, managed to stand up.

In Megumin's line of sight was a young girl in black robes.

The girl I had never seen before was staring intently at Megumin and I.

"I don't know who you are, but thank you for saving us," I thanked her. The girl stole a glance at me and seemed a little shy as her cheeks blushed.

Hey, don't do that.

Don't give me hope.

"I-I wasn't planning to save you, it's just that having my rival be eaten by a mere toad would leave a bad taste in my mouth, that's all…" she lowered her head and mumbled.

"What? You and Megumin know each other?"

She never mentioned anything about a rival.

After the toads were defeated, Aqua regained her composure and asked, "Hey, I think they'll take a long time. Can I go back to the guild now? Otherwise, the toad meat will go bad. Can I go get the people from the guild to ferry the toads back?" While she pointed at the carcasses of the toads, I nodded to her.

"Rather than know each other, we're more like rivals… Long time no see, Megumin! As promised, I've returned after completing my training! As you can see, I can use Advanced Magic freely now! All right, it's time to fulfill the promise I made! I'll settle our long-time rivalry today!" The girl said as she pointed at Megumin. She seemed happy, way too happy, a forced kind of happy…

"...? Who are you?" Megumin said as an arrow seemed to pierce the poor girl.

Megumin, you can act savage some other time.

When you're, you know, not covered in goo.

On closer inspection, the girl was definitely a Crimson Demon Clan member.

"It's… It's me! You remember, right? We were classmates at the Crimson Demon Academy! Megumin was always the top student while I was number 2! And I said I would go on a journey to train myself until I could use Advanced Magic…!" The Crimson Demon girl pointed at her own face as she explained frantically with teary eyes.

Seeing me still confused, and Megumin still not responding, the Crimson Demon girl said, "Hey, it's me Megumin! Did you really forget about me? Try to recall how I always challenged you in everything at school. You always said I had to place an adequate bet, and would accept if I bet my lunch! And you conned me out of my lunch every time!"

Well, seeing as Megumin had a poor family, that was her just trying to survive, so I can't fault her, even though this did make her look like some kind of lunch bully.

Megumin still averted her eyes though when I looked at her.

"Ok, I-I think I should- I'll introduce myself!... I'm Yunyun, an Archwizard, wielder of Advanced Magic, and the one who'll become the chief of the Crimson Demon Clan…!"

"Anyway, so this is Yunyun. She claimed to be my rival during our school days, and will inherit the position of village chief in the future."

"Okay. I'm this girl's adventuring comrade, Kazuma. Nice to meet you, Yunyun."

"So you do remember me! Umm, Kazuma…? Um, why didn't you laugh after hearing my name?"

Well, since Megumin introduced me to Chomusuke and tried to name my axe Chunchunmaru, I really don't get surprised with the names that Crimson Demons come up with.

"Your name's a bit strange, but that has nothing to do with your personality, right?" I said, keeping my thoughts on their names to myself.

"... I see, as expected of Megumin, you found a good comrade. You're my rival indeed."

Yunyun remembered something from the looks of it.

"Megumin, I'm here to settle things with you! I'm the one who'll be the chief of the Crimson Demons! And most importantly… I'll be defeating you and getting the title of strongest mage of the Crimson Demons. That way, no one can fault me when I take the position of chief. I won't let anyone say I depended on my family connections! Come Megumin, let's duel!" Yunyun declared to Megumin with resolve in her eyes.

"Umm, can we talk about this at another place? It's cold out here and Megumin is covered in goo, I don't think that's healthy," I offered to them, seeing as it really wasn't a good time.

I was surprised by the tinge of worry that seeped into my voice.

Megumin too was surprised by the looks of it, and looked back at me with suspicion, probably thinking I have some ulterior motive.

Although I would tell you that it really was genuine care, 'cause crush or no crush, she is the person who has kept my name from going into the gutter on several occasions.

"I don't wanna, and as Kazuma said, it's freezing outside, and my body temperature is starting to drop." Hearing Megumin say that, Yunyun adopted a look of sadness and loneliness and stood there stiffly.

"It's settled then, let's go back. I'll heat the water up, so you go wash up first Megumin. After your bath, we'll all have a meal together. Yunyun, you came all the way here, so why don't you join us?" I said in an attempt to get Yunyun out of that funk, 'cause she was looking way too much like the past me with that look.

After hearing that, Yunyun looked somewhat better and started to follow us back to our mansion.

Megumin did give me a look for inviting Yunyun, which was odd.

"We haven't seen each other in so long, so why are you treating me so coldly, Megumin?" Yunyun asked once we reached halfway to our house.

Yeah, I would like to know that too.

The girl was definitely strong, pretty, and had a kind energy.

Oh wait, I get it now! She feels insecure.

Those knockers and the fact that she can use Advanced Magic must make her question herself.

Although Megumin doesn't use any other magic by her own choice, but it still must bug her after seeing Yunyun take out so many toads with ease.

… Or it was just a girl thing…

"Whatever are you talking about?" Megumin said nonchalantly.

*Sigh*, this girl…

After we reached the mansion, Megumin went to take a bath while Yunyun and I awkwardly sat in the living room.

Hey, I did try and make some small talk but Yunyun just kept acting weird.

Like she wanted to say something, then thought better of it.

"So… did you come to Axel just to challenge Megumin?" I asked after a while.

"No, I also came here to meet y-you," she said in a shy tone.

Wait, what…?

Is this my popular phase…?

Wait, no… I like Megumin… Well, I think I do…

I would have to gently let Yunyun down.

"I-I wanted to thank you for saving my village from the Destroyer. I was away at the time and only came to know about it recently, and as the next Crimson Clan leader, this is my duty," she explained to me.

Oh…

Well I would just pretend that I didn't go through a million different emotions just right now.

"He wouldn't have been able to do that alone, it was I who perceived the Destroyer's secrets and then brought it down with the might of just my mind." Before I could reply to her, Megumin came into the room and declared in her usual chuunibyou style.

And let's just say that after that, Yunyun kept getting bullied by Megumin for the whole meal and leave it at that…

After the meal, I felt like something was wrong.

"I think I forgot something," I said to Megumin.

"Well if you forgot, then it wasn't important," Megumin replied.

"Yeah, you're right," I said as I relaxed.

Back in the toad fields, a toad can be seen struggling for breath as it seemed to choke on something.

A few moments later, the toad gave out and an armour-clad crusader slid out of its mouth, covered in goo, her chest heaved as her face was coloured red.

"Where did everyone go?" she said as she stood up and looked around at the signs of carnage left behind.