The last few days had been a rollercoaster ride for Megumin.

First they ended up facing against a general of the Demon King's army, which Kazuma was still claiming meant them no harm and was just pranking Aqua by giving her a little spook.

Then Kazuma wanted to invent some device that calculated mathematical problems, a calculator he called it. He was so hyped about it that she felt really bad when she burst his bubble of excitement by telling him that there were skills and spells already present for that.

For the next week, that kind of thing kept repeating itself.

During that time there was no one taking care of Jarippa, so she thought she would take care of the little one.

And then the dragon decided to bite her fingers…

He kept giving her that attitude whenever she tried feeding or petting him.

Finally she gave up on it.

Bad dragon kept giving her that attitude, who did he think he was?

Chomusuke was cuter than him anyways…

Then Kazuma declared that he was quitting adventuring after somehow procuring 500 million Eris from some kind of deal he made with the devil.

First of all, how did that devil get access to so much money?

Her whole village can't gather a sum that large, and that's even if they sell every bit of stuff they have.

But what scared her more was that Kazuma was calling it quits…

But it didn't take a lot of convincing to change that.

She just deployed her best tactic, her charms (crying and puppy dog eyes) at him and he came around.

Or it was what Aqua whispered to him that changed his mind…

Nah, it was the work of her mighty charms!

She sometimes liked how she could make him dance on her whims.

They were currently walking through the forest for their daily explosion trip.

Gusts of cold winter wind were rattling the trees as they marched through the snow covered roads.

Kazuma was carrying a bag that carried something that Kazuma had been working on since he decided to go adventuring again.

And although she hadn't accepted Kazuma's idea of hiring adventurers and then throwing them at the Demon King, looking back on it now, she felt that he could mobilize the whole Crimson Demon Village to fight against the Demon King with the kind of money he had.

Oh who is she kidding, her village can be persuaded to attack the Demon King's castle just for the glory and bragging rights that came with it.

After walking for a few more minutes, they reached their usual spot.

She was about to take her usual stance when Kazuma halted her and motioned for her to stand back.

"I've been working on these for a while and I think I've finally gotten them right, so I wanted to test it out, and seeing as it's the first time I made something like this, I want you to take a few steps back in case this goes badly," Kazuma said as he pulled out a single cylindrical red stick from his bag.

She did as she was told and bid him good luck on whatever he was trying to do.

He smiled at her. That smile of his that definitely didn't make the winter a little warmer, and casted Tinder at the end of the thread that was coming out of the stick, and with a heave, he threw it away.

The stick flew through the air for about a few seconds and then it…

Exploded…

Its sound was on a par with Megumin's explosion spell, but it wasn't on a par in size to the ones she casts on a daily basis, but it was still big enough to take out most monsters with ease…

"So how was it?" Kazuma asked as he looked back towards her.

Kazuma didn't know what he was expecting to see when he turned back, but it wasn't this…

Megumin was looking at the ground with her hands clenched into fists.

"Are you trying to replace me?" she said in a small voice, which would've made him reach out to her if not for the blood lust that he was feeling oozing into the air.

His enemy detection had started to glitch out and was displaying him only one thing…

RUN!

And seeing Megumin going for her staff, he did exactly that.

"Hey! Why are you running! Come here and fight me like a man!" He could hear her shout from behind as he dashed into the forest.

"You have the wrong idea!"

"Oh no no no, I have never been more certain in my entire life! Now stop running so I can show you and your boomstick what real explosion magic is!"

"Wait, I'll-"

"Darkness blacker than black."

"AHHHHH!"

Megumin and I had kept our game of cat and mouse going for 30 minutes.

We were now sitting on a log as we had decided to call a truce.

Why did she decide to let me go you ask, well 1) we both were tired after running so much, and 2) we got lost while we were running through the dense snowy forest.

I was regretting not getting any skill that gave you directions or teleport.

It sure would've come in handy now…

I looked towards Megumin who was breathing hard as she sat beside me.

I really just wanted to make something that would help us take down the Demon King.

You may ask why I was now trying to go after him when I should just be lazing around, as I now had money.

Well that was the idea. To lay around the house doing nothing and living off the money I would get from Vanir and then settle down with some cute girl who may or may not be a Crimson Demon… until Aqua decided to tell me that because I had a cheat weapon, I can't just quit adventuring. If I did then there was a major chance that the Elder God, of Big B as Aqua called him, may just bring some divine retribution on me…

After thinking about that I decided that I maybe shouldn't tempt fate, and it wasn't like I would face any Demon King Generals after coming across one so recently.

"Yunyun, you can come out now," Megumin said as she looked towards the sky.

Huh? Yunyun's here? What's Megumin talking about?

I looked around to see if she was indeed here, but found that she was not.

"Well it was worth a shot," Megumin said as she sighed.

"Were you expecting her to follow us?"

"You'd be surprised by how many times she's followed us," Megumin told me as she stood up.

"You know, you never told me, what's your beef with Yunyun? I mean, you told me about Arue and everybody else, but never about her," I said to her.

Hearing that, she looked at me with a thoughtful expression.

"I guess I haven't told you, have I? Well, when I was in magic school, I decided to save up all my points so I can apply them to explosion magic. It was hard to not use them because I ran the risk of falling behind-"

"Okay, sorry to interrupt, but you've already told me that before, so can you get straight to it?" I said to her.

She gave me a really mean look for interrupting her story but then continued.

"Well, long story short, some monsters were about to hurt Komekko, and when I was hesitating to put points into advanced magic, Yunyun used her points for intermediate magic and saved her."

"That still doesn't explain why you two are rivals," I said to her.

"It's complicated okay!"

We were brought out of our banter when we heard some rustling by the bushes.

My enemy detection started to buzz.

"Huh, I guess Yunyun was here," Megumin said.

But what came out from the dense tree line wasn't Yunyun.

It was an Ent.

A hulking piece of wood that had humanoid features. It had roots in place of arms which were at least 10 meters long. It was covered in bark with moss littered around.

It was quite different from ones I'd seen in Lord of the Rings or any game.

Rather than have a face that was close to a humans, it was demonic.

"Rogue Ent." Megumin breathed out next to me with stars in her eyes.

They're the Ents that get separated from their group at a young age and grow up in the wilderness.

They were like an invasive species and were very dangerous so they usually had a large bounty on their heads.

Ent colonies were few in numbers and they hardly let any young ones get away from the group, so they were very rare…

The Ent still wasn't anything against explosion magic, so I was about to call on Megumin to prepare when the Ent decided to take action.

It lifted its hands that looked like roots and brought them down on the place where Megumin was standing.

I dashed towards her and threw her out of harm's way with me barely making it out safely.

It seemed to be targeting the weaker looking one of us two.

That was problematic because now I can't distract it and let Megumin use explosion…

What is it with me and getting into annoying fights?

First the Shogun and then Vanir and now this…

I'd have to make sure to use the magic I had efficiently.

All my stats except luck were at 291, so I believed I had a decent chance against it.

Wait, it's made of wood!

I had an awesome idea and casted 3 fireballs at him.

Fireball x3 [Mana = 261/291]

The balls made of fire crashed into its torso.

I was expecting it to catch on fire, but the fireballs only did as much damage on it as Tinder would do to Darkness.

"They contain water inside them to protect themselves from forest fires," Megumin said from behind me.

I had put myself between her and the Ent without even noticing it.

Well, that's bad I guess.

There was no way in hell I could cleave through the trunk that made up its main body, so I did the only thing possible.

Run

I noticed that the winds had picked up a lot since the morning.

"Megumin, run!" I shouted as I booked it.

The Ent was larger and bulky, so we didn't expect it to be able to keep up with us.

We were very wrong.

The giant tree kept its chase.

We were already tired from running earlier so we were also considerably slower.

If I was alone I could've just used dash to get away.

I felt something coming from my right so I leapt out of the way.

The massive roots of the Ent came crashing down onto the place that I had been moments ago.

"KAZUMA!"

A shout for help sent a chill down my spine as I turned around and was faced with the scene before me.

The Ent had grabbed Megumin while it had attacked me with its other arm.

It was pulling Megumin towards its mouth to devour her.

At that moment, I felt more motivated to act than I did against the Shogun.

When Megumin's life was at stake…

I used Arrow and to the Ent it felt like I had teleported right into his face.

Arrow x1 [Mana = 161/291]

I put everything into my strike and felt the roots cut in half against my axe.

Megumin landed next to me with a thud.

Seeing its mouth open, I went for a follow up strike and stuck my axe deep inside the palate of the Ent.

The Ent roared out when it was struck and stumbled a little due to the loss of one of its limbs…

I picked Megumin up and used Dash to get some distance between us and the Ent.

"Megumin, do it now!"

Megumin didn't need to be told twice as she took her stance.

"Darkness blacker than black, darker than dark."

The Ent started to stumble in an attempt to stand up.

"I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson."

Seeing the Ent moving, I summoned my axe back from its mouth.

"The time of awakening cometh."

My axe flew back to me and the Ent started to leak some gooey brown liquid from its wounded mouth.

"Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary."

"Megumin, a little faster," I said as the Ent got its footing.

"I desire for my torrent of power, a destructive force."

I started to use Snipe with my axe in an attempt to distract the Ent, but it was futile.

"Return all creation to cinders, and come from the abyss!"

The Ent raised its remaining arm to squash us down.

"Strike forth! Explosion!"

Explosion x1 [Megumin's Mana = 0/775]

"The storm isn't showing any signs of slowing down," Kazuma said as he slid down the walls of the cave.

They were both currently taking shelter in a cave they had found.

After defeating the Ent, they had realized why the wind had been picking up all day.

They were hit by a snowstorm and were lucky to have found this cave or they would've frozen to death.

He didn't know how long they had been cooped up inside, but seeing the fire he had started with some leaves and sticks had already gone out, it had been some time.

Megumin was already weak from her last explosion and was hugging her legs next to him.

"You okay?" he asked her

"Y-Yeah," she said in a small voice as she shivered a little.

"Megumin, I can see you're shivering, so please, let me help."

"O-Okay."

And so she sat down with him hugging her from behind, arms snaking around her.

He casted a small flame with Tinder and kept it going with his magic.

It was tiny, just the size of his fist, but it was enough to keep them somewhat warm.

He still had enough mana left to maybe last them a few hours, but he thought that may just be wishful thinking.

"Thank you Kazuma," Megumin mumbled after a while.

"What for?" he asked her, perplexed.

"For everything. Taking me into your party, going with me for my explosions and carrying me back-"

"Why are you thanking me?"

"Because I never did, and I just thought I should while I still can," she said slowly.

Kazuma didn't know what to say. He wanted to thank her for what she had done for him, even though she would just see it as taking care of her end of a deal.

So he didn't say anything and just hugged her tighter to show his appreciation.

"I think it's getting even colder," she said, snuggling closer to Kazuma.

"Yeah, it must be getting dark outside."

"I guess you're right. I'm feeling sleepy."

"No, Megumin! Don't fall asleep, it's dangerous to fall asleep in the cold!"

"But I'm exhausted, Kazuma. I won't be able to stay awake all night."

"Why don't you tell me about your explosion magic, o-or about how you would master it!" Kazuma said frantically in an attempt to keep her awake.

"Heh, you want to talk about explosion magic," she said with a weak chuckle.

Seeing him nod, she started to talk about it.

Her eyes were not as bright as they usually would be when talking about explosions, but they were brighter than they had been just a few moments ago.

They talked about anything they could think about for a few hours, but Megumin was still getting sleepy. Kazuma was now beginning to lack ways to keep her awake.

He even said that she would never master explosion magic if she were to fall asleep.

He himself was tired and the fire he had started with Tinder had gone out. They were now depending on each other's body heat.

After a few minutes of silence because he was searching for anything to talk about, he noticed her eyes were closed.

"Megumin?"

He got no answer and started to get really worried.

"Megumin, please wake up." He shook her, though she wouldn't open her eyes.

"Megumin, please wake up! If you fall asleep here you could die!" he shouted.

When she didn't wake up he didn't know what to do.

He was barely awake himself. He had regenerated some mana during their stay, which he transferred to Megumin before darkness consumed him too.

Kazuma woke up with a start, feeling numb and weak.

He looked around and found that Wiz was sitting in a chair.

"Hey, you're finally awake, you gave us all a scare there-"

"Where is Megumin? Is she safe? Is she alright?" he asked her with a hoarse voice.

She motioned to look back towards his bed.

Megumin was sleeping soundly next to him, in the same bed.

"When we found you two, you were hugging like your life depended on it. Even Darkness couldn't make you let go of your grip, so we decided to just put you in the same bed," Wiz said with a knowing smile.

"Wait, how did you guys find us?" he said in an attempt to change the topic.

Wiz smiled at him mischievously as if already catching onto what he was doing but still answered.

"Well, when you both didn't come back to your house, Darkness and Aqua came barging into the guild to find you. It was then that I came to know about your disappearance. By the time I asked Vanir-san about your location, the storm had already picked up. It was only due to Darkness-san's enthusiasm to go out there to find you that we and some adventurers went out to look for you despite the weather," Wiz explained.

He could feel my eyes watering. He didn't know those two cared for me so much, although he had an inkling suspicion as to why Darkness did it, he was still more than happy.

"Wait, I heard noises from inside, he must be awake." He heard a voice that sounded like Aqua come from outside.

He was so happy that he shouted "Lady Aqua" in a cheerful manner when the door opened.

"What did you do to poor Megumin you hikiNEET! Oh, I knew you were planning something but to kidnap the poor girl is too far! Oh, I'm going to love bringing some divine punishment on you!"

Huh?

Darkness was standing behind her giving me the same disappointed look. For the first time she didn't even say that I should have done it to her instead.

Hearing the commotion, Megumin woke up and sat up groggily.

"What's gowing on?"

"Oh Megumin. Poor, poor Megumin. Don't worry, you'll get through this, Kazuma won't hurt you now." Aqua said with a consoling voice to Megumin who looked on in confusion.

"What are you talking about Aqua? I'm fine-"

"Poor girl, doesn't even remember what happened to her. You're a disgrace to humanity Kazuma," Darkness said in a sad tone and then went to insult him.

It took Megumin an hour to make Darkness and Aqua believe that Kazuma hadn't done anything other than challenge her explosion magic, for which she had already punished him.

During that hour, Kazuma just layed there in bed thinking about the day's events.

He had come to grasp that what he felt for Megumin wasn't some teenage crush of phase, but something deeper.

It only took him the fear of losing her to understand it…

So he did what any guy would do…

Panic.

A few days later it was the 14th of February, or well, the equivalent of the 14th of February in this world.

Kazuma's panic and worry over the whole thing had declined as all matters did with him.

He almost didn't even register the box of chocolates that was lying next to his bed when he woke up.

Almost.

When he picked it up, he found a note attached to it.

On that note, someone had written in broken Japanese, 'I want something good for white day'.

He knew that someone and her handwriting, 'cause it was him who had taught her Japanese, or as she called it an ancient language after the Destroyer incident.

His panic came back in full force.

What do you even gift someone who doesn't think about anything but explosions?