"Here we see Yunyun in an unknown territory, treading carefully, acting like the others in an attempt to fit in or alas she be cast out," Megumin commentated from my side like a David Attenborough documentary.

She was right though.

The girl in question had been waiting in front of a kebab stall for a while now.

She kept looking here and there until one customer came and ordered 3 kebabs from the stall.

Seeing which, Yunyun went ahead and ordered 3 kebabs for herself as well.

It would've been normal if she hadn't repeated the exact words that the previous customer said.

What were Megumin and I doing stalking Yunyun like this? Well…

We had actually taken a day off and decided to just slack off after yesterday's events.

The girls didn't want to do any quests after nearly getting eaten by toads.

Well, Megumin and Aqua didn't want to, Darkness was all for it.

Seeing as we won't be going on quests, Darkness wanted to spend some time at her home, while Aqua took this opportunity to perform her party tricks in the guild and get drunk.

Seeing as Megumin and I were the ones left, we decided to hang out together.

That brought us in front of a kebab stall.

We had just reached it when Megumin had spotted Yunyun.

I thought I would have to stop Megumin from going and teasing Yunyun for her actions, but surprisingly, Megumin left her alone.

Once Yunyun had left, we decided to order a few kebabs for ourselves too.

We decided to sit down on one of the benches to munch on our meal in peace.

The cold wind was gently blowing, other people were roaming the streets. A few couples were even sharing small moments with each other.

That's when the traitorous mind of mine decided to offer me a thought.

Are Megumin and I on a date?

I quickly squashed that thought with a metaphorical hammer.

I've already gone the paragon route before, and I know it leads to nowhere good.

The traitorous thoughts have been nagging me ever since we slept in the same room.

Where before I used to act like my carefree self around Megumin, it was now anything but.

Don't think I'm just ignoring the obvious.

I thought about it all and came to a grand conclusion that…

I'm just going through a phase and I would be back to ogling Darkness and every other girl with big knockers in no time.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something for sometime now. I've been noticing something off about you for a while now." Megumin's words cut through my thoughts like butter.

Wait, am I this easy to read?

Did she figure out what I had been hiding?

At least now she can gently say no and the topic would be over.

Wait, this is Megumin we're talking about, with the way she treats Yunyun, there's a massive chance she's not going to let this go.

She's going to tease me for the rest of my life, how Kazuma the pervert who prefers women with big boobs ended up falling for her mighty charms. She would even do a pose with that.

"You haven't told me to learn other magic for over a month now," she said.

Wait, I have? I didn't even notice that, maybe I got tired of saying it.

But thinking back on it now, I think I know the reason why.

"So why's that?" Megumin asked, seeing I was silent.

"I think I just accepted it as a part of you," I said without even thinking.

Seeing Megumin raise her eyebrow, I elaborated.

"I mean, it would be good if you learned other magic, but the amount of dedication you put into it, and not to forget how every time you cast that explosion. There's something beautiful about how your face lights up with excitement and how happy they make you, so I think I came to a conclusion that you can't have Megumin without explosion magic," I explained.

Okay, now I'm scaring myself.

How the hell did I say that with a straight face?

Was there something in the kebab?

When I was busy with the afterthoughts of my declaration, Megumin was sitting there with her eyes shimmering a little.

She even had a small dusting of pink on her cheeks.

But most importantly, she had a dazzling smile on her face.

Seeing which, I calmed down.

We decided to not say anything after that, and sat there and ate our meal in a comfortable silence.

Once we were done with our meals, Megumin decided to drag me around the streets for a while.

We went stall to stall, checking out stuff being sold and games.

Most of the stuff wasn't to our liking, and most games were just based on luck, where I would've won easily so it felt like cheating, so we didn't play many.

It was around a target shooting game stall that something caught Megumin's eye.

It was a plushy of a red dragon.

So we meet again…

I would've thought the design was cute if not for the lingering PTSD I had from my last encounter with a dragon.

Believe me, getting chewed by a black beast that was more than ten times your size while you tried to attack it with your new axe was not a fun experience.

But seeing as Megumin liked it, I had no choice but to win it for her.

I paid the fee for the game while Megumin stood to the side, watching me carefully.

I also noticed a sign that said I can't use any skills.

Thinking how hard could it be, I picked up the bow, nocked the arrow, let it loose… and the arrow went right past the target and landed on the ground.

Okay, I still have two arrows left.

I tried to give less power to the arrow, and this time it landed too short.

Okay, last arrow.

Megumin's watching me, so I can't afford to look like an idiot here.

Oh Eris, goddess of luck, please help me in this endeavor.

I silently prayed, and I think she heard me 'cause the target hit directly even though I was sure I pulled the string a little too hard.

Well a wins a win.

I turned around and gave the dragon plushy to Megumin.

Megumin was about to say something when…

"Megumin, I let you go last time because you were tired from battle, but this time I won't let you go this time! Let's duel!" Yunyun interrupted her.

She caught Megumin holding the plushy and me standing close to her and came to her own conclusions, 'cause she started to apologize.

"Umm… sorry if I'm disturbing your activities," she said, paying weight on the activity part.

"Ah…" I saw Yunyun now had a lonely expression.

"... Want to come along with us?"

Yunyun made a happy expression for an instance when I said that, but she reverted when she saw Megumin and shook her head.

"I-I came to this town to defeat Megumin! I'm not here to build a friendship with her!"

"Since she doesn't want to, let's go Kazuma," Megumin said as she tugged at my sleeve.

"Oh, right…"

When we left, Yunyun seemed to be rejecting us, keeping her back to us.

"... Sigh…"

In the end, Yunyun let out a depressed sigh, slumped her shoulders and walked away with heavy steps.

She then looked back longingly.

… And locked eyes with the two of us who were walking a few steps behind her…

"... Um, why are the two of you following me?"

"I was thinking that I'll be able to see your lonely and sulking face if I follow behind you, who's alone like usual." Although Megumin said that, I felt that she just wanted to check up on her.

Hearing which, Yunyun pounced on Megumin in tears.

In the end, the two of them decided to have another duel.

"But you can't use magic, so what should we duel in…?" Yunyun pondered.

"Anything's fine, I'm not a kid that's bothered by winning or losing anymore," Megumin supplied.

Hearing her say that so casually, Yunyun smirked.

"Not a kid anymore? I remember when we competed in our degree of growth before. Since you say you're not a kid anymore, do you want to try that again?" Yunyun taunted.

I really don't like that look on Megumin's face, she had a glint in her eyes and a smile that promised trouble.

"No, I mean I'm not a kid anymore in another way. My relationship with Kazuma has progressed so far that we've even slept together."

Hey, don't word it like that, people will get the wrong idea.

"Hey! Shut it, don't tell others about that!"

After hearing me yelling at Megumin, Yunyun's face turned red. Her mouth open and shut, her entire body turned stiff.

"... It's-It's my loss today!"

Yunyun ran away in tears.

Megumin and I stood there for a while.

Megumin then took out a diary and started writing something in it.

I peeked over her shoulder, and it looked like she wrote the date for today and marked a small circle beside it.

"I win again!"

But at what cost, Megumin.

"Hey, don't go around saying stuff like that so lightly, and especially to people who you don't even like in that way," I said once Megumin put her diary away.

Megumin just looked at me and said nonchalantly, "But Kazuma, I do like you."

Wait, what did she just say?

And why the hell do I feel so happy right now?

"Well anyway, there's someone over there who's hosting a game of adamantite breaking, let's go show him that his adamantite is nothing against my explosion magic," Megumin said as she started to walk in the poor guy's direction.

"Hey Megumin, wait! You can't just cast explosions in town!"