Chapter 6: The City of Maglin

Part 1

"It's been a while since me and you have ridden together," Megumin said after some silence.

I was currently driving the carriage in place of Darkness. Since I had already rested long enough, I thought it was only fair for her to take her own rest. Usually, she would protest a bit, but there was no such occurrence this time; when I suggested it, she simply accepted it without a word, slipping into the back of the carriage a moment later.

"Kazuma, is everything alright?"

"Hm—wha?"

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine. Did you say something?"

Megumin sighed. "Clearly, you're not. Can you tell me what's going on? You've been acting weird ever since you went with Darkness to get Aqua's box. Did something happen?" she said, staring at me with a tinge of worry.

What was I supposed to say? That I felt bad because Darkness was feeling terrible? Was I also supposed to expose that Darkness shed tears for my sake? Even if I did, would that solve anything? Would Megumin's insecurities flare up as a result? It was hard to say, but the only thing I felt was true was that saying any of those things wouldn't resolve anything.

"Nothing happened," I finally replied.

Megumin continued to stare at me with the same worried expression, then she sighed once more. "I'd love to believe you, but I know that isn't true."

"I'm not lying; nothing happened between me and Darkness."

"You and Darkness? I never said it was something about you and her."

"Ah—" In my effort to not reveal anything, I clumsily botched it.

"Kazuma—"

"Just so you know, it wasn't anything you should be worried about."

"Saying that just makes me worry even more—especially after you clearly lied to me about it not being anything."

"*sigh* Alright, alright, I get it. Look, the truth is…that when I went with Darkness to get Aqua's box, I went with the intention of finding out what was going on with her; she was acting weird so I wanted to know why. She told me you and her made some sort of promise about me, about her moving on."

"So, she told you."

"Umu. Then…she started crying."

Megumin looked down rather sadly. "I see. So, is that why you aren't speaking to each other?"

"It's not like I'm trying to avoid her or anything, but…"

"But she's avoiding you."

I nodded. "Or trying to, it looks like."

Suddenly, Megumin jumped in front of me. "You have to take responsibility!"

"Oi! What the—? Can you sit down?!" I said, forcing her back into the seat. "You're gonna make me crash."

"You have to do something."

"Do something? And what is it you'd have me do? I sure as hell don't know. It's not like I can just tell her to forget about it and go back to making moves on me."

"Of course not—"

"Then?"

Megumin looked down once more, this time with a look of contemplation. "Perhaps…perhaps Kazuma doesn't have to."

"What do you mean?"

"Darkness is still our friend; maybe all you need to do…is make that clear; you need to show her how much she means to you and just how much you value your friendship."

"Haven't I done that already?"

"Umu, you have…but I think…sometimes it doesn't hurt reinforcing it. I'm…partly to blame for the way Darkness is feeling, so…maybe I can also lend Kazuma a hand."

"Honestly, I don't even know what I could do to cheer her up; it's not like there's another marriage I can steal her away from."

"Come on, there has to be something else."

"Her fetish?" Megumin stared at me, a worried expression gracing her face yet again. "Hey, don't get the wrong idea, it's not like I want to play into it; I'm just throwing darts on the board, ok?"

"Let's…let's just pass on that one for the time being. Surely, there must be something more that we can do to make her recognize how much we value her."

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"I would hope not," Megumin said with another sigh.

"Look, maybe we don't have to do anything; maybe Darkness will just get over it with time."

Megumin let out a frustrated scoff. "Although that may be true, I certainly don't think you should just let it blow over. Kazuma is way too passive with these things—intentional or not."

"You know what they say, time heals all wounds."

"Again, while I think that time may eventually heal the pain she's currently feeling, I also think you shouldn't let that be the remedy for the situation. I mean…if it was me…you wouldn't do that, right?"

She knew the answer to that question as much as I did, for it wasn't very long ago that we both had to face the situation bearing that question.

I grumbled. "I get it, but honestly, I'm drawing a blank here, Megumin."

"Well, in that case, maybe we should ask Aqua—"

"For advice? I think I'd sooner take the word of a goblin."

"Isn't Kazuma being a little harsh?"

I sighed. "Sometimes I wish you guys can actually experience what I go through."

And Megumin's brow scrunched together in response. "Why is Kazuma making it sound like we're the cause of his every pain and worry?"

"Listen, the problem still stands; we have no idea how to get Darkness to go back to her normal…weird self."

It seemed like my reply was enough to divert Megumin's attention back to the topic at hand because she quickly looked away and began rubbing her chin in contemplation.

"Perhaps," she said, still seemingly wrapped up in thought, "we could…make her something."

"Make her something? Like what?"

"Mhm. That's it, we can make her something; what that something is doesn't matter…as long as it's something we made for her. In fact, maybe we can each make something."

"Oh, that's actually not a bad idea. So, something like a gift? You really think that'd be enough to get her to forget about all this?"

"Well, probably not forget, but I think if she sees how much effort we put into it, it might be enough to get her mind off of it a bit."

"A gift, huh?" I smiled. "Sorta reminds me of the time we made that gift for Iris."

"The eyepatch?"

I nodded. "I'm surprised you still remember."

"Of course I remember; I played an integral role in its design—you seem to have forgotten."

"Oh, I didn't forget." I didn't forget how stupid her initial concepts were right up until the final design. "Anyway, what should we make her?"

"Hmmm, good question. Does Kazuma have any ideas?"

"I have a few; none I would want to make, though." I could see Megumin staring at me out of the corner of my eyes, but even if I couldn't, her judgmental gaze was strong enough to be perceived through its aura alone. "What about you? Since you're looking at me like that, you'd better have something in mind."

"Lucky for you, I do."

"Oh? Well, let's hear it."

"I was thinking about making her a cloak."

"A cloak?"

"Umu."

"Why a cloak? Is it because you think it looks cool or something?"

"Partly, yes, but also because I think it's practical; Darkness has been going around with nothing to really cover her up in this climate. I think a cloak would serve her well while also doubling as an undeniably cool fashion statement."

"That's a good idea…is what I would say if you knew how to sew, but you—"

"I do know how to sew."

"Huh—wha?"

"I said, I do know how to sew."

"Wait, what? Then how come you always had Aqua sew your stuff?"

"Because she's clearly better at it than I am. I might not be the best seamstress around, but I do know how to patch up clothing and what not. How do you think Komekko and I managed?"

"Wait, you mean all those patchworks were yours?"

"Some…most. And before Kazuma goes and judges me, you have to understand, it's not like we had the best quality of cloth and fabrics available; I had to make due with what we had. That's why they look so spotty."

"Hmmm."

"What? Why is Kazuma looking as if he's doubtful of what I've said?"

"'Cause I am."

"What?!"

"I mean, it just sorta reminds me of that time I redid that pajamas of yours."

"That time you…" Megumin's face quickly grew flush with color. "Kazuma seems to be remembering quite a lot."

"It's a pretty good memory."

She quickly slapped me in the arm and looked away, but not fast enough that I missed catching the fiery glow from her eyes. "Wh-, Why bring that up?"

"Well, it just hit me, if you could actually sew, why didn't you just redo your pajamas back then? If I remember right, you said that you were planning on tossing it out."

"Just because I can do something doesn't mean I will; I'm sure it's a concept Kazuma is fairly familiar with."

"Oi."

"I thought it was better to just buy a new pair instead of going through the trouble of refitting it; luckily, you had all the materials needed to do so and so I thought 'why not?'."

"Well, I guess I did offer. Can't really complain since it ended up giving me some good experiences."

"Experience?"

"I know what I said."

Once again, Megumin blushed fiercely.

"That being said," I continued, "I notice you've been kind of reserved this whole time; something up?"

"W-What does Kazuma take me for?! It's not like I'm some wanton beast who only seeks to fulfill such things. I…I figured it'd be best if those types of things took a backseat for the moment—given the recent string of events and the current clime."

"Oh? That so?"

"Kazuma seems rather disappointed in my answer."

"Nah. To be fair, I kinda agree."

"Huh? Really? Is…is Kazuma feeling well?"

"Oi, come on, really? Now I have to ask you, what do you take me for? Sure, I'm not one to shy away from such moments but I'm also a man who's steadfast."

"I'm not sure either of those are true."

"Oi."

"In anycase, let's get back on topic: Darkness' gift."

"Sure. You said a cloak."

"That's right. And now that I shared my idea for a gift, does Kazuma have a better idea of what he might like to offer as a gift himself?"

"Not really."

Megumin sighed exasperatedly. "Are you even trying?"

"Look, why not just offer her cloak on behalf of both of us? It doesn't need to be two gifts, does it?"

"Well…no. I suppose I don't see why it couldn't be."

"Then—"

"Still, I think it'd be a good idea if you actually found something to give her yourself. Think about it, wouldn't you be happier receiving two gifts from people who care about you rather than one?"

"I guess…but wouldn't it be a problem if one gift ends up being blatantly better than the other?"

"Hmmm…it could be…I guess." Suddenly, Megumin showed a shocked expression. "Kazuma couldn't be proposing a competition to see who can make a better gift?!"

"No, I'm not—even though I'm pretty sure I can."

"Ho?"

"Listen, before you get all fired up about something that's not happening, I don't even have an idea in place for a gift."

"Hmmm, that's true. Well, I'll tell you what, I won't present my gift until you can present your own; fair?"

"I guess. You really wanna wait for me to come up with something, though? I don't know if it'd be any time soon."

"Well, Kazuma will just have to give it some serious thought and consideration."

-A few hours later…

"That must be it," I said as the large stone gates came into view.

"Maglin," Megumin said in response.

The ride was surprisingly uneventful despite Nyle's warning of us treading into more dangerous territory; and now, after quite some time, we finally made it to the next major stop in our journey, the City of Maglin. The carriage in front of us, Daichi's and his group, came to a stop, prompting us to do the same. A pair of guards approached their carriage with another pair approaching ours.

"Hey," one of the guards said, "welcome to Maglin; is this your first time here?"

Megumin and I nodded.

"Alright, well, just so you know, Maglin has recently been added to the 'Zone of Neutrality'. That means no discriminating against the occupants, no fighting, and no issues. Failure to adhere to these rules will mean ejection from the city or turning you over to the wronged party for judgment."

"That sounds like it's just mob justice," Megumin remarked.

"Indeed, that's precisely what it is, little lady; so if I were you, I wouldn't break the rules."

"If that's the case, why are you guys even present?"

The guard frowned. "Because, Maglin is still our town; we just happen to have taken a more independent stance in the conflict."

"More like cowardly."

"What?!"

"N-Nothing!" I said, quickly covering Megumin's mouth. "We get it; we'll be on our best behavior."

"Tch. Get moving then."

After driving past the gate (and, more importantly, the guards), I glanced over at the most recent instigator. "We weren't even in the city and you were already trying to cause problems? And here I was thinking you finally made some progress on becoming more restrained."

"Kazuma can't say he wasn't thinking it as well."

"Thinking and saying are two different things."

"Oh I know, believe me; Kazuma would be more guilty than a devil leading a congregation if it wasn't."

"..."

"Kazuma, look…demons," she said, staring in their direction.

"And those guys with the guns; seems like this place really does have both sides intermingling."

"I could never imagine something like this back at home."

"Umu. Funny though, I remember something like this happening in a game I used to play."

"In a game?"

"Yeah, back home there was this game I used to play with some friends. There was a town in it where it was basically lawless—an open pvp zone where you could sell and buy some ill-gotten gains. It was sorta an unspoken rule to not start anything within the town, but occasionally you'd get some that would break that rule."

"Really? And what happened to them, did they get kicked out?"

I chuckled wryly. "No, they'd get hunted and whatever they had on them was fed right back into the town's system of trade."

"Why have such a town, though?"

"Well, sometimes people wanted to play the bad guys and the game punished them for doing so. There was a karma system in that game, and below a certain amount you were barred from entering most towns and cities; so, towns like the one I said would crop up."

"There were many of them?"

"A few, but the most infamous was the one I was talking about, Sunaku Pitu."

"Sunaku Pitu?" Megumin smirked. "Sounds kind of cool. Hold on, if it was a place for bad people, how did Kazuma get involved with it?"

"Heh. There were all kinds of people in our guild. Some of our best guys were lawless. And, to be fair, it was one of the best ways to strike it rich in the game."

"So, you participated in such activities?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I didn't need to; I was getting rare drops, left, right, and center. Had a couple times where me and a few of the guildmates got attacked by PKers."

"PKers?"

"Player-killers."

"That game sounds really dangerous."

"It was a bit stressful from time to time, but overall, I had a lot of fun with it."

Megumin sighed. "Well, let's just hope this place isn't anywhere near as dangerous as your fictional town."

"Oh?"

"Oh what?"

"I'm surprised you're actually saying something that makes sense for once."

"Excuse me?" Megumin said with a furrowed brow.

"Come on, you'd usually be like, 'oh, it's so dangerous, how cool; I wish this place was like that'."

"Is that how you really see me?!"

"You saying you wouldn't?"

"Of-Of course I wouldn't!"

"Hmmm."

"Kazuma."

Megumin's sudden serious glance towards the front warranted my attention. I expected a group of unsavory people to be approaching us, but it was just Nyle. I quickly stopped the carriage, pulling it over to the side of the road behind Daichi's.

"What's wrong?" I called out to him as he got closer.

"Nothing…yet," he replied. "It's better if we store the carriages and go about on foot."

"Yeah? Why?"

"Less chances of us 'kindly donating' our items to other interested parties. Still likely to get robbed or mugged for your personal belongings, but at least on foot we can limit the damage to whatever we might be carrying."

"Are you saying we should just let ourselves be robbed?"

"Of course not, but conflict here is out of the question, and it's better if we keep our presence here as small as possible. Let us not forget there are those within the Demon King's Army who have taken an interest in us. Moving around on foot as opposed to some carriages whose owners look well-off is what I would consider to be the opposite of discreet, wouldn't you agree?"

"You have a point."

"Also, I have to meet with my contacts; it'll be a while. Normally, I would be the one to show you all around, but since I'm going to be a bit busy it's probably best if you let Daichi and his group show you around."

"Ah, right."

This place was sort of their stomping grounds.

"Anywho, remember, use the slips. I'll find you all when I'm done."

"You sure you'll be alright?" Megumin queried.

Nyle chuckled. "Just who do you think I am, Ms. Mage? I know how to navigate such places and situations; you needn't worry about me. In fact, I'm a whole lot more worried about you all…but I have faith that nothing bad will occur—"

"Ah—that's enough already, Nyle-san," I said, quickly cutting him off. "I got it."

People in this world really love to tempt fate.

"Ok. Well then, I'll leave you all to…" He looked around, slowly trying to find the right words to describe what we'd be doing. "...to take in the sights and experience."

"Right."

With that rather lackluster blessing, Nyle headed back towards Daichi's carriage.

"Guess we should get going," I said, looking around.

"I'll get Darkness and Aqua," Megumin remarked.

"Umu."

A few minutes later we rendezvoused with Daichi and the others.

I called out to him as we walked up to them. "Yo."

"Kazuma."

"Nyle said that you were gonna be showing us around."

Daichi chuckled wryly and then looked around. "The place has changed a whole lot since we've been here. Hard to say that I'd be able to guide you to anything now."

"Changed?" Darkness queried. "Did they actually manage to build this place up despite the situation?"

"Build?" Daichi replied with slight confusion. He shook his head. "No, it's not that; this place was sort of rustic, a bit downtrodden, but it was a safe town and quite welcoming. Anyone could come here and ply their trade with some confidence—but now…look at it."

"So then what?" Megumin asked. "Is there nowhere we can go?"

Hurnus interrupted with a contemplative murmur. "Hmmm…maybe…the guild might still be there."

"The guild?" Daichi remarked. "With the state of things the way they are?"

Hurnus shrugged. "Won't know unless we go see, right? Unless you have another place in mind."

The group exchanged unsure glances.

"Guess it's worth a try," Daichi replied. "We should keep close; we'd be less likely to be targeted if we travel in a large group."

"Sounds good," I said.

"Wait!" Aqua yelled.

We all turned and stared at her.

"What?" I asked.

"Th-The place," she stammered.

"What place?"

"The place!"

"Which place?! What the hell are you talking about?!"

"The one with the drinks! The store that sells that great alcohol we drank back at the outpost. Remember?"

"Oh, that place." The dwarf did say the store was based in Maglin—and this was it, but I found it hard to believe anyone could have an upstanding business in a place like this. "Alright, we can go there after we've taken a look at the place Hurnus-san is talking about."

Aqua smiled excitedly and then rubbed her hands together with glee. "Ok, ok, let's hurry then," she said, pushing us along.

We made our way along the somewhat crowded streets. Despite the rules—or maybe in spite of them, there were many instances of coercion and deception, individuals being led along by nefarious groups into lone alleyways or the darkened interiors of buildings—and it was all done in broad daylight without a hint of caution or shame.

"I can't believe how much this place has changed," Inara remarked.

"The light of Eris-sama has surely waned since our last visit," Kevin said in acknowledgment, muttering out a few prayers shortly after.

"I don't understand how it could've gone from being a place where you could find trusty party members to being barely above a den of thieves and outlaws."

"Something like this could've only happened because of the ones in charge," Hurnus said.

"Maglin was run by a coward by the looks of it," Darkness remarked. "It truly reminds me of something similar that happened back home."

"Oh? Does Belzerg have its own version of this?"

"Not quite, but there was an awful man governing the city of Axel. There were many problems that occurred under his tenure. I fear that something similar may have happened here judging by how different you say your own accounts were."

"Who can say for sure," Daichi replied. "Anyway, that's it," he said, pointing at a large building in the distance.

As we approached it, a large sign scribbled on and defaced hung precariously above the frame of the entrance; although it was a difficult read, it could be discerned to once have said: Maglin City Adventurer's Guild.

Part 2

"This is the adventurer's guild?" I said in disbelief.

"I…I think so," Daichi replied, seemingly unsure himself.

"Only way to know is to head inside, no?" Hurnus remarked.

"I don't know," Inara said. "It sort of looks like the type of place that people go in and don't come back out of."

"The sort of place seedy individuals call their home?" Darkness queried. "Like—like the place those types of people might take someone righteous and upstanding and slowly break them until they're simply husks of their former selves? Th-That type of place?"

"I…"

Darkness didn't stand around and wait for an answer, instead she quickly swung the door open and headed inside.

Although I would've expected someone to stop her, it would seem that the others have slowly begun to catch on to who Darkness really was. Their worried faces were perhaps partly and truly for Darkness' wellbeing, but more than likely because of the typical aversion one had to such tendencies. In earlier times, the rest of us would've rushed in after her, but we knew there was almost no reason to; even if there were shady people who would do half the things Darkness wished they would, her eagerness and acceptance would no-doubt turn them away from subjecting her to those very same ideas.

"Come on," I said with an audible sigh.

Once we stepped foot inside, we realized that the facade outside was nothing like what the inside was; in fact, it didn't look any worse than the guild back at home—and it was just as, if not, more crowded with people and staff.

I wasn't the only one taken aback by the surprise as the others looked around with jaws agape and faces full of astonishment.

"What's going on here?" Megumin queried. "I thought this place would've been run down and full of miscreants."

"I did too," Daichi remarked, "but this looks like it did back when we were around—no, better."

"No," Darkness suddenly said, turning to look at us. "No, this…this must be a mere guise to fool the unsuspecting. I'm sure there are unscrupulous fellows amongst this crowd—there must be."

Darkness took off deeper into the building.

"Darkness, wait!" Megumin called out, but the Crusader paid her no heed.

"What's actually going, though?" Daichi queried. "I certainly didn't expect this place to be like…this."

"Hey," Hurnus interrupted, "why don't we all get something to eat and drink while we're here? It's not like we have anything else to do at the moment."

"The shop," Aqua whispered harshly over my shoulder.

"Oi, I got it, I heard you," I said, sweeping her hand away. "We'll go after. Anyway, it's not like we can just leave Darkness here." I shifted my attention to Hurnus. "Why don't you guys go find a seat? I'll go find that Crusader of ours."

"I'll go too," Megumin said.

"Well, if you guys are going, I am too," Aqua chimed in.

"You guys don't have to come, I can—"

"We're coming with you," Megumin said, cutting me off.

I sighed. "Fine." I looked back at Daichi and the others. "We'll be back soon, so find us a good place to sit."

"Right," he said with a nod.

"Oh, and don't worry about waiting to place an order or whatever, you're free to go ahead."

"Got it."

As Daichi and his crew left, I turned to Megumin and Aqua. "Come on, you two, let's go find Darkness before she gets into trouble."

No sooner than we set out searching for her did we find her…yelling at someone who appeared to be a staff member.

"Surely there must be some people you can say would do such things!"

"M-Miss, I've already told you—even if I did know some people, I wouldn't be at liberty to say."

"But—"

"Oi!"

"Kazuma?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Augh." Darkness turned away sharply, but I could tell it wasn't from embarrassment, rather, a sense of awkwardness. "I-I was…um… I…"

"Do you know her?" the staff lady suddenly asked.

"Yes, we do," Megumin replied.

"She's our valued party member and friend," Aqua added.

"Party member, huh?" The staff lady sighed. "Are you adventurers?"

"We are," I said with a nod.

"I see. Well, if you're here looking for guild services I'm afraid we no longer provide them. Given the recent change of administration, the guild house has been turned into what's now known as the 'Blackstone Tavern'—which, by the way, welcome."

"A tavern? Didn't the sign say this was the adventurer's guild?"

"Oh, the sign. Right, we were in the process of removing it, but things have been a bit busy as of late. Please forgive us for any confusion. But it is as you say, this was the adventurer's guild, but now it functions more as a gathering place…for the most part. To be honest, as far as being a place to find people goes, that much hasn't changed since the guild days. That being said, given the nature of the city, you can find all sorts of people here…good and bad. Although, I suppose it depends on how you look at it. If you all are looking for a place to stay or share a meal and some drinks, we can provide that."

"Are we looking to stay?" Megumin asked, staring at me.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it depends on what our 'guide' says."

"I could go for some food and drinks," Aqua remarked.

"Mostly drinks though, right?"

"Hmph, don't be silly, I'm not about to drown myself in something subpar; it'll only be enough to whet my palate in preparation for the main course."

"Shall I find you a table, then?" the staff lady asked.

"No, no, it's alright," I replied. "We already have some friends waiting for us at a table. Besides, we only came around to find our Crusader."

"Oh, alright. Well then, welcome again to the Blackstone Tavern. Please enjoy your stay and don't hesitate to ask me or any one of the staff if you need any help, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks."

The staff lady headed off, leaving the attention of the group to focus amongst ourselves.

"Should we go find the others?" Megumin asked.

"Yeah, probably."

As we looked around for Daichi and his group, I was suddenly grabbed.

"Hey, what—"

"Shh." It was Daichi.

He quickly pulled me off to the side, gesturing towards the others as he did.

"Yo, Daichi, what's going on?" I whispered.

"Look," he said, subtly pointing at the walkway on the second floor.

"Is that…?"

"It's those demons!" Aqua said, a bit louder than she should have.

"Oi, shhh!"

"What are they doing here?" Megumin queried.

"Are they looking for us?" I asked, turning to Daichi.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Kevin was the one who spotted them. He wasn't happy—isn't happy about letting them go, but he knows as much as any of us, trying to provoke them in a place like this…well, if it wasn't bad enough before, it definitely would be now."

"Dammit. Maybe we should leave."

"I was thinking the same."

"Hold on," Megumin interjected. "I know it wouldn't be a good idea to try and confront them given the circumstances, but I strongly disagree with leaving without doing what we were originally intending to do."

"What the heck are you talking about?" I replied.

"I'm saying we should stay and share a meal—like we decided to do."

I raised a brow. "Well now I'm deciding we should leave."

"What?! Is Kazuma really returning to being a coward?"

"Oi."

"Why are you so worried? Isn't it against the rules to attack people in the city, anyway?"

"You really think a bunch of demons are gonna follow some rules?"

"He has a point, Megumin," Aqua remarked. "Demons are a bunch of no-good cretins that deserve nothing but unfettered contempt and purification."

"Megumin-san," Daichi said, getting her attention, "we really shouldn't tempt fate; perhaps it might be better for us to avoid this confrontation for now."

Megumin frowned but said nothing in return.

"Daichi!" Hurnus came running over.

"Hurnus? What is it?"

"Bad news. Another set of those demons just walked in."

"What? Just now?"

Hurnus nodded. "To make matters worse, they took a seat near the entrance. So, if we were planning to leave before things got worse, well…"

"Dammit, you've gotta be kidding me."

"What now?" Aqua queried. "Do we go beat those dirty demons up?"

"Is 'memory loss' another trait you acquired, grandma?" I said, frowning at her. "Did you forget how close we were to being off'd last time?"

"Grandma?! Maybe I ought to discipline you like one, then!"

Daichi coughed loudly. "Listen, maybe our best course of action is to stay put and maintain a low profile until we get an opening to escape."

"Hmm." I nodded. "Yeah, sounds like our only option at the moment."

"Hurnus."

"Daichi?"

"Can you find us a table in a spot that won't attract too much attention?"

"Uh, sure, but why me?"

"Better if you do it since it'll be less conspicuous if a single dwarf is moving around than a large group of people, right?"

"Ah, good point. Alright, you guys stay here; I'll come back once I find something."

Daichi nodded and watched as Hurnus blended back into the crowded scenery.

"Great," I thought. "Why do things always have to take a turn for the worst?" I sighed heavily and then noticed Darkness staring towards the entrance. "Hey."

"Hm?"

"What you lookin' at? You see 'em?"

"Huh?"

"The demons."

"Oh. No."

"Then, what? Something on your mind?"

"Actually, yes."

"Oh? What is it?" It was probably the issue regarding me.

"I was wondering…do you think those demons are the type to do unscrupulous things to a fervent disciple of Eris?"

"..."

A few minutes later Hurnus returned. "Alright, Daichi."

"You found a table?"

"Yeah; Inara and Kevin are already waiting."

"Ok, let's go."

"Now hold on," Hurnus said, stopping Daichi from advancing. "I gave what you said a bit of thought and I figure it'll probably be best if we go in small groups of maybe one or two—ya know, to avoid extra attention."

"Ah, right, that's a good idea."

"I'll take you first and then we'll go about choosing who comes once that's done."

"Kazuma, you alright with that idea?" Daichi asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure. Sounds good."

"Alright. Huruus will be back, try not to move from this place."

"Gotcha."

Once again, the dwarf dove back into the crowded scenery, this time with Daichi in tow.

"Kazuma." Megumin tugged on my sleeve.

"Huh? What is it?"

"I was thinking, wouldn't it be a lucky break if all those demons arrived in this place?"

"Sorry? I'm afraid I haven't been exposed to enough of whatever you and clansmen have to understand why the hell that would be a good idea."

"If they're all in one place then we can take them out in one fell swoop."

"And how are we gonna do that?"

"With—"

"You better not say 'explosion'."

"Eugh. B-But even Kazuma has to admit it would be the best way to get rid of them."

"You know, I've been wondering if you're trying to play some game with yourself about who can cause more collateral damage, you or the Demon King."

"The Demon King doesn't know Explosion."

"You're not really helping me think otherwise. Anyways, that's a dumb idea; if you didn't get the message, using Explosion in a highly-populated area is a good way to make an enemy of everything and everyone—not that I think you'd mind that."

"Fufufu. Infamy is just but one way of shaping one's legend."

"Sure, but let me get a divorce before that happens; last thing I wanna do is share a lifetime prison sentence."

"What a ridiculous thing to say; doesn't Kazuma know that'll never happen?"

"The divorce or…?"

"The prison sentence!"

"So, wait, the divorce is on the table?"

"No! Is Kazuma really that desperate to get rid of me?! I'm starting to think that maybe Kazuma doesn't really cherish me as much as he perhaps should."

"I warned you, Megumin," Aqua remarked, "this boy would be terrible in a relationship."

"And who the hell asked you? Also," I said, turning to Megumin, "I never said anything like that, ok?"

Megumin frowned deeply and then sighed. "In any case, you wouldn't have to worry about serving a prison sentence because summary execution is the likely penalty for such a crime."

"How comforting," I thought.

Hurnus returned, and then one by one, we made our way to a table fairly deep in the corner of the building.

"You made it," Daichi said as I arrived with Hurnus on the final trip.

"You figure out a way to get us out of this mess?" I asked as the dwarf and I took our seats.

"Beyond waiting for an opening, no, I haven't been able to really come up with anything. You?"

I shook my head. "Did you guys order already?"

"Not yet."

"Excuse me!" Aqua shouted, raising her hand. "We need some service here!"

"Oi! Quit it!" I said, pulling her arm down.

"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing, you!"

"You're gonna draw too much attention to us, you idiot."

"So then how are we supposed to place our orders?"

"You can still get their attention without having to alert the entire place, you know." I gave a quick whistle, drawing the attention of a nearby waitress. Once she looked our way, I waved her over.

"Yes?" she said as she approached our table. "Can I help you?"

"We'd like to place an order!" Aqua said, nearly climbing over me in the process.

"Ok, what can I get you?"

Aqua paused, most likely due to the fact that she had no idea what was on offer…since we hadn't even received any menus yet.

"Do you still serve the Bargorth Platter?" Hurnus asked, sparing Aqua her moment of embarrassment.

"Yes, we do; would you like one?" the waitress replied.

Hurnus nodded in response.

"Make that two," Daichi said.

"May we have a few menus, please?" Kevin humbly asked.

"Menus. Since we're currently still going through the change of establishment we can only, unfortunately, offer one menu per table. I hope you understand."

"That's fine."

"Alright. Give me a moment to go fetch one; I'll be right back."

The waitress turned around and hurried off to, presumably, find said menu.

"You better thank Hurnus-san for saving you." I said, pushing Aqua off me.

"Saving me from what?"

"From looking stupid. You didn't even have a clue as to what to get, did you?"

"Th-That's not true; I-i certainly had something in mind. In-In anycase, thank you, Hurnus-san," Aqua mumbled.

Hurnus smiled. "No need to thank me; I was just asking a question, is all."

The waitress soon returned, menu in hand. After browsing its contents for a few minutes, we all placed our orders and then she departed.

"Why the heck are you trying to order so much?" I said, snapping at Aqua.

"I wasn't; I didn't order any more than what I would've back at home."

"You order way too much back at home too. We're not in a position to be wasting so much; it's not like I can just stop by a bank and get money wired or anything."

"Wired?" Inara said in perplexity.

"Just a saying from back home," Daichi quickly remarked. "Anyway, Kazuma, don't worry about it too much, me and the group will spot some of you guys' expenses if it comes to that; after everything you've done, it's the least we can offer."

"What? No way," I said, shaking my head. "I can't have you picking up our tabs; I wouldn't feel right about it."

"Alright, well then, how about if you're short some funds?"

"Aghh." I rubbed my head in discomfort. "I mean…"

Daichi chuckled. "Don't worry about it; we'll come back to it if it ever occurs."

"Sure."

Suddenly, a person obscured by heavy robes appeared. "Sorry, do you mind if I sit here real quick?" they asked, tossing a quick glance over their shoulder.

The person quickly forced their way beside Daichi, still casting quick glances over their shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?!" Daichi said angrily.

"Shhhh, keep your voice down. Look, I'll just be here for a moment, alright? Promise."

"That voice," I said to myself; it sounded so familiar.

Then Megumin quickly shot up from her seat. "You!" she said.

The person turned to look at her and did a double take. "Really?"

"Kirby?!" I said in complete surprise.

"Ohhhh, Kazuma. DIdn't think I'd be seeing you here."

"You know each other?" Daichi queried.

"We do," Kirby promptly replied. "Kazuma and I met in Axel's Adventurer's Guild. We hit it off and wouldn't you know it, soon after, we even saw each other in Belzerg's capital."

"Stop making it sound like we're friends," I retorted.

"Ah, come on, Kazuma, really; you're gonna do me like that in front of your table mates?"

"Why don't you tell them who you really are?" Megumin remarked.

"Why hello to you too, Megumin-san."

"Drop the act, Kirby," I said, "why are you really here? Did you guys finally catch up to us?"

"Catch up—Oh! Oh no. Well…I'm not too sure. Anyway, I'm not a part of it."

"Sure you're not; you're a Demon King's General and you're—"

"A what?!" Daichi exclaimed, interrupting the conversation.

Kirby shushed him once again. "Geez, Kazuma, thanks for the discretion."

"Discretion my ass; why are you here, Kirby? And let me just remind you, you're currently outnumbered and outmatched by several other veteran adventurers—each capable of taking down a Demon King themselves. I'd watch what I'd say and do if I were you."

A bluff, for sure, but I had to say something to keep him on his toes.

"Ho? Is that so?" Kirby's eyes narrowed into a malicious gaze.

I silently gulped. "Come on, you bastard, take the bait."

Kirby then smiled, dropping the threatening stare with it. "I'm on vacation."

"Vacation?" Aqua, Megumin, Darkness, and I all said in disbelief.

"Excuse me!" Daichi said, interrupting yet again. "Is no one gonna explain why the hell are we just holding a novel conversation with a Demon King's General?! Tell me you're joking and that this guy is just some weirdo who buddied up to you, Kazuma."

I sighed. "Well, he is a weirdo who buddied up to me, but it's also true that he's a Demon King's General."

"Man, you're really roasting me something serious today," Kirby remarked.

Daichi glanced at the man sitting beside him and then at me. "So…does that mean that you're actually…friends with a Demon King's General?"

"Yes—"

"No," I replied, curtly.

"Awww come on, you're starting to hurt my feelings here."

"Like I care." To be honest, seeing him again made me somewhat angry; I still hadn't forgotten the ass-whooping we received back in the capitol. "Why don't you start by telling us why you're really here; otherwise I might just find it in myself to yell who exactly is sitting at the table with us. Don't think I haven't noticed you looking over your shoulder; someone you tryin' to avoid?"

Kirby stared at me in silence, and then he sighed. "You really know how to put a damper on things, you know that? Look, I'm serious, I'm on vacation; I took some time off. You see, I believe in a proper work-life balance…unlike the rest of my colleagues."

"Not like I believe you, but assuming what you're saying is true, why are you looking around so much? I thought a person like you wouldn't have much to worry about."

"You couldn't be more wrong; I've got plenty to worry about, Kazuma. In particular, said colleagues; if they caught me here I know they'd try to talk me back into working—I refuse, at least for today."

"Wait," Daichi said, "are you trying to say that you won't actually try to attack us because you're on 'vacation'?"

"Is that really so hard to believe?" Kirby said in reply. "I know you hero types like to work yourselves silly, but I like to live a slow and enjoyable life. You can't have that if all you do is work. Anyway, attacking you here wouldn't be in my best interest; I actually like this town, and it would make me sad if I couldn't come back here to enjoy what it has to offer."

"Incredible," Inara said, shaking her head, "I can't believe that someone like you could actually be a Demon King's General. Kazuma-san, are you sure this man isn't just subordinate to an actual General?"

"No, he's the real deal," I replied.

"Despite his attitude," Megumin went on, "this man is actually quite formidable."

"Well now," Kirby said with a smile, "you guys are making me blush."

Just then, the waitress returned with our orders. "Here you go—oh, is this someone—"

"He's no one," Megumin immediately replied.

"Ah, just when I was starting to feel good," Kirby said, his smile deflating.

"Ok," the waitress said, slightly confused. She passed us our food and drinks and then looked at Kirby. "Can I get you anything?"

"A cold drink would be nice."

"What type?"

"Anything is fine; I'll take your recommendation."

"Ok. Is that all?"

"Yup, that'll be it."

Pocketing her notepad, the waitress turned back to us. "Please let me know if there's anything else you all need, ok?"

We nodded and then watched as she walked off back towards the front counter.

Despite having our orders in front of us, I noticed none of us had begun to eat—none of us except the exceptionally clueless deity of our group. She dug into her food and drink as if the whole situation was completely routine.

Part 3

"Oh, don't mind me," Kirby said, noticing our glances and overall hesitation to relax. "Just look at your blue-haired friend, she doesn't seem to mind one bit; you should take her example and just live life to the fullest."

"I really don't want to hear life advice from a Demon King's General," Inara replied. "And considering who you are and what you do, I find it strange that you don't see the situation you're currently in."

Kirby shrugged. "What, are you all gonna attack me? It'll only end badly for you guys."

Suddenly, Kevin, who was quiet this entire time, cleared his throat loudly. "We should consume what we can and then focus on tending to the problem we had beforehand."

We all traded glances and then let out a collective sigh; then, with some effort, we began to eat.

A few minutes later the waitress returned with Kirby's drink.

"Thank you very much," he said with a smile.

"Enjoy," she replied and then headed off.

"Hey," Daichi said as he looked over his shoulder, "I think…yeah, I think now's our chance."

"Are they gone?" Inara queried, looking in the same direction.

"Yeah, let's go," he replied, quickly climbing out of his seat.

The rest of us swiftly followed suit, leaving half-finished dishes scattered about the table.

"Are you all leaving?" the waitress asked, quickly approaching us. "You guys still haven't paid."

"He'll handle it," I said, pointing at the Demon King's General still sitting at the table.

"Huh? What? Hey—wait! Kazuma! Hey!"

I drowned Kirby's cries out as we all stealthily made our way past the few demons at the front table and out of the tavern.

Once we stepped outside we all sighed in relief.

"It's too early to relax," Inara remarked. "Let's get clear of this place and try to find somewhere…safer."

With a quick nod, we broke away from the former Adventurer's Guild. We didn't have anywhere in particular in mind, only that it wasn't the guild.

Suddenly, Aqua tugged at my sleeve.

"What? What is it?"

"Didn't Kazuma-san say we were going to the winery?"

"Didn't you just have a drink?"

"I did, but it was only passable. Besides, you promised we'd go."

"Did your memories slip out with your smarts? Didn't you just see what happened? You really think we have the luxury to just walk around and visit places?"

"It's not like we can just leave; don't we have to wait for Nyle-san?"

"Yeah, of course, but that doesn't mean we can just mess around while we wait."

"But you promised! You even said you liked it too," Aqua said, grabbing my arm pleadingly.

"Gah—alright!" I snatched my arm away from her grip. "We'll go. Come to think of it, it should be safe…well, safer." I turned my attention to Daichi and the others. "Hey, what do you guys say we go pay a visit to that winery that dwarf recommended?"

"Winery?" Daichi said.

"Yeah, you know, the one from that dwarf we saw in the underground; he said that he worked in a shop in this town."

"Ah, the one we got that drink from—with the large crowd around him."

"Yeah."

"You really think we should, given the danger?"

"I was just thinking it'd probably be safer heading there than just walking around aimlessly, right?"

Daichi rubbed his chin. "Yeah, you have a point. Alright, I'm with you, I say we go to this wine shop. Now, where is it?"

I pulled out the card the dwarf gave me and explained it briefly before handing it to Daichi. "You'd probably know where this is better than I would."

Daichi glanced over it, but after a few seconds of staring at it silently, it appeared he wasn't sure of its location either.

"Here, let me see it," Hurnus said.

Daichi passed the card over to him, and a few moments later, Hurnus nodded.

"Should be just on the other side of town; would be around where McCrager's Bakery used to be. Remember? The place we used to get the sugar loaves from."

"For Haruto…yeah, I remember."

"Yay!" Aqua shouted gleefully. "Let's go! Let's go!" she said, urging us along.

"O-Oi, relax, the place isn't going anywhere."

"Kazuma-san doesn't know that. Let's hurry."

This girl…

"Hurnus-san?" I said with a sigh.

"Got it, just follow me."

As we headed over to the other side of town there was a remarkable shift in scenery; to describe it in a few words, it was almost as wide a difference as there was in a city's slums and its high-end quarters. There were many more guards patrolling the streets and just as many people crowding shops and merchants peddling their wares. In fact, it could be said that this was an entirely different place altogether.

"Ah, this side of town hasn't changed very much it seems," Kevin said.

"Except that it's way more crowded," Daichi remarked.

"I don't think this place was ever this busy," Inara mentioned.

"Yeah, neither do I. I'll tell you what though, it certainly looks a lot better than the other side of town, that's for sure."

"Wonder why that is."

"Could be because there are more merchants around here, maybe?"

"Or there are more merchants here for another reason."

"Another reason? Like?"

Inara shrugged. "I don't know…but something tells me this side of town being this different isn't normal."

Hurnus interrupted. "Well, whatever the reason is, we're here; McCrager's Bakery should be at the end of the street."

"Near that massive crowd?" Darkness queried.

"Erm…yeah, near that."

As we closed in on the crowd, we could see that it was simply the starting of a line—and that that line turned past the end of the street and onto the next.

Astonished by this, Kevin turned to one of the people in the crowd and asked, "What is this line for?"

"Huh? Oh? You don't know? This is for the emporium."

"Emporium?"

"The Maglin Emporium. You mean, you really haven't heard of it?"

"I'm afraid not. Is it a new addition to the city?"

"It is, actually; the emporium opened when the former mayor left."

"Really?"

"Mhm. Apparently, the emporium was the new mayor's way of assuaging the people's fear of the war coming here."

"Was that when Maglin became part of The Neutrality Zone, too?" Daichi queried.

"Yeah, there's about."

"Excuse me, but is this address"—Daichi showed the dwarf the card—"in the emporium?"

"Hmmm, yeah, it looks like it is. Oh! Grandt's Hall of Spirits. Are you all planning on visiting?"

"That's the plan, yeah."

The dwarf sighed heavily. "Well…you're gonna have a long wait; this line is to enter the emporium, so if you wanna visit that place you're gonna have to get in line."

"This line? Really?"

The dwarf nodded.

"Well, how long is the wait?"

"Wish I could tell you. I've probably been standing here for a few hours—at least. Figure it'll probably be another few hours before I manage to see the entrance."

"Hours?" Daichi turned towards us with a worried look on his face.

A sentiment the majority of us shared.

"We don't have hours to stand around in a line," Inara said.

"Yeah, I agree." Daichi turned his gaze on me. "We mostly came here for Aqua-sama, but I don't think we can really just stand here waiting for several hours."

"No, I get you—and I agree, too. Looks like we'll just have to come see this place another time."

"Wait—no!" Aqua yelled, jumping in front of us. "Come on, you all tasted that wine; it was as heavenly as alcohol made by mortal hands could possibly get!"

"Your followers will probably be devastated to hear that," Megumin said offhandedly.

"Listen," I said, "I wouldn't mind if it was just a few minutes, but you can't really expect me or the others to stand here for hours just to get a drink."

"But Kazuma-san used to stand around in lines for hours just to get some dumb games!"

"Th-That's different! Those were actually collector's editions," I mumbled.

"B-But how about the store itself? It's an emporium! There's probably a bunch of other things that are really amazing in there! Megumin, don't you wanna see if they have some cursed or forbidden tomes in there? Or, Darkness, how about another tool to add to your weird training regimen? I'm sure they probably have something that would be useful for our journey."

Darkness and Megumin seemed mildly persuaded by her sale's pitch—so much so that I felt I had to say something before we ended up sitting in this ridiculously long line.

"Oi, oi, come on, you can't be serious. We're not wasting our time sitting in this damn line. We'll just come back some other time. Let's go."

"B-But—"

"I said no!"

Aqua lips quivered before she inevitably burst into tears. Plenty of the crowd in front of us turned to see what was going on, only to stare at the rest of us with varying degrees of disgust, curiosity, and anger—or any mixture of the three.

"Hey, hey, stop it. Stop it!" I yelled, but Aqua kept bawling her eyes out, drawing even more attention from the onlookers.

"Hey, ok, ok! Alright, we'll go!"

"Really?!" she said through tears and sniffling.

"Yes, just stop crying already."

She cheered up almost instantly.

With a heavy sigh, I turned to Daichi. "You don't have to stick around for this. If you manage to get in touch with Nyle-san just let him know we're over here."

"You sure? I mean, it's not like we got anywhere else to go; we really are just waiting for Nyle-san to get back."

"Still, I don't want you guys to make this line just for our idiot."

"Hey!" Aqua yelled in retort.

"Now, now, Kazuma-san, that's not a very nice thing to say," Kevin remarked with a gentle smile. "While making a line for such a prolonged time isn't at the top of one's list, I believe that it would be most prudent for all of us to remain together. As Daichi-san said, in the end, we're all simply waiting for Nyle-san to return."

"Yeah, I get it, but…" I rubbed my chin. "There has to be some faster way to get in."

"I know of a quicker way to get in," Megumin suddenly said—almost as if she read my mind.

"You do?" Daichi said in surprise.

"Umu. I'll cast Explo—"

"Ok, that's enough out of you," I said, clasping my hands around her mouth.

Several minutes passed and in that time, the line barely moved. It was then that Aqua suddenly pulled me aside.

"Oi, what are you—"

"Shhh. Listen, I have a brilliant plan."

"A brilliant plan? You?" I crossed my arms. "Well go on, I'm listening; what's this 'brilliant plan' of yours."

Aqua smiled confidently. "Waiting in this line is a problem, right? Well, what if we can skip right by it without anyone knowing?"

"What? And how are we supposed to do that?"

Aqua snickered. "Looks like Kazuma-san is the one whose memory is going; we can just use your invisibility spell."

"I refuse."

"Huh? Why?!"

"Because a queue is a sacred thing. These people are waiting here to claim something of their own. They're waiting here diligently—some for an untold amount of time. I can't trample on the sanctity of people camping out a venue to get their hands on something they treasure."

"What?! What are you talking about?! This is definitely some kind of NEET ritual you've done, isn't it?"

"It's something you wouldn't know about!" I snapped. "Anyway, I'm not about to use my skills for something like that."

"Why?! Come on, I don't wanna wait days just to get a sip of such great-tasting alcohol. Please!" She quickly latched onto my arm and began to whine.

"Gaahhh! Get off, you dumb ass!" But her crying only grew louder. The others looked our way. "Don't, Don't worry," I said, laughing somewhat nervously as I waved off their stares. I pulled Aqua and myself further from the group. "Oi! Quit it!"

"I jus wan some bubbly. WAHHHH!"

"Would you stop?!"

But she didn't.

"Aren't you supposed to be a grown woman?!"

Her crying only worsened.

"Tch. Alright! Alright! I get it!"

"So you'll help?" she said, quickly turning off the waterworks.

"This bitch; she was only pretending!" With grit teeth and notable apprehension, I nodded.

"See? I knew Kazuma-san could be a reliable person if he's encouraged."

"I'm gonna shove that entire bottle down her throat once I get the chance to."

After waving the others over, I went over Aqua's "brilliant" plan.

"I'll admit," Daichi said, "skipping this line would be for the best, but I also feel kinda bad doing it when so many people are waiting."

"B-But we can't keep waiting," Aqua quickly retorted. "If we just stand here there's a good chance we won't be able to drink—I mean, experience the wonders this place might hold. It might be a bit frowned upon, but as a goddess, I assure you once it's your time we won't hold it against you."

"As a goddess?" Hurnus remarked curiously.

"Just ignore her," I said, a heavy sigh accompanying it. "Anyway, what do you guys think? If you don't like it, I'm not gonna drag you along. I just know if I don't get this girl inside she'll never stop nagging me about it."

"Hey!" Aqua yelled once more.

Daichi and his group looked amongst themselves and then, after a few moments, turned their attention back towards me.

"Personal feelings aside," Daichi began, "I don't think it'll be too much of an issue. We get in and take a quick look around and then we can go and look for Nyle-san."

"Yup, sounds good," I said in affirmation. "Now then." I grabbed Aqua.

"Wha—?!"

"I'm gonna need a good energy source, so—"

"Wait! Wait! You can't just—"

"Do you wanna get in or not?!"

"B-But how about Darkness? Darkness don't you wanna—"

"Don't try to put this on other people; you're the one who wants to get inside using this method!"

"B-But—"

"Just shut up and let it happen; it'll go quick if you cooperate."

Aqua looked as if she was ready to break down and cry again, but her depressive state only limited itself to appearances.

We peeled away from the crowd and found a nearby corner to set up. After we were sure no one was looking, I grabbed Aqua and signaled the others to huddle around us. I concentrated and then went over the incantations to the spell; a moment later and we vanished from sight.

Aqua groaned in displeasure as we moved past the queue of people waiting to enter.

"Shhh, they can still hear us, you know," I whispered harshly.

"Ugh, I just can't get over the feeling of having you drain the energy given to me by precious followers; you don't know how sad it makes me."

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to do this; if you want me to stop, I'll be more than glad to."

"No, no, I'm sure my followers would understand if I told them this was all for a taste of a wonderful drink."

"Pretty sure they'd string you up if you attempted to tell 'em that."

"Nonsense!"

A guard who was patrolling the queue suddenly looked in our direction, perplexed by the absence of something not being there.

"Shhhh," I said once again, yet this time at a lower volume.

Aqua, who had clasped her hands over mouth as a result, nodded in acknowledgment.

A few mostly quiet moves later and we managed to make it near the entrance of the emporium; unfortunately, that's where the real trouble began.

"Dammit," I cursed.

"One door and one person at a time," Darkness remarked. "What do we do now?"

A good question—and one I was currently asking myself.

Suddenly, Hurnus spoke, giving valuable insight and a possible solution to the problem. "There has to be another way in; a place this big isn't going to have just one way in. Usually, there's a place where items and cargo are moved to before being moved to their proper areas."

"Right, like a loading bay," Daichi said.

That's right, a loading bay; I don't know why I didn't think of that. It wasn't like things just magically materialized—often, anyway. Most of the time they were physical items or objects that would have to be moved along. If this place was anything like malls back in Japan, a loading dock would've been a reasonable expectation. if I had to guess, a loading dock would've probably been…

"Probably in the back," I said.

"Ok, let's go," Aqua murmured, shuddering slightly. "I'd like Kazuma-san to stop touching me."

"Why'd she have to say it like that?" I wondered.

But as she said that, I could feel the energy being siphoned from her begin ebb and flow; there was likely only a few more minutes before Aqua would forcefully reject Drain Touch. While I didn't really care for this whole thing to finish, I certainly didn't want to be caught out in the open trying to skip a giant queue.

We made our way to the back of the emporium along a fairly narrow alley until we found ourselves skirting the outside of a walled-off area.

"This has to be it," Daichi said.

As we rounded the corner, we could see several wagons full of cargo, some tucked beneath the wagon's tarp, others being unloaded, and even more wagons arriving.

"Looks like it is," Inara said, replying to Daichi's earlier remark.

Aqua groaned in displeasure once more. "Can we hurry?"

"Oi, take it easy; we're going as fast as we can, so quit your whining."

Aqua looked back at me with a frown. "Kazuma-san is lucky I'm such a benevolent and understanding person, otherwise, I'd be inclined to take such disrespect—"

I increased the drain rate suddenly, causing her to jump in surprise. "What do you think you're doing, you—?!"

"Shhhh, focus, otherwise you'll blow our cover."

Taking my remark to heart, Aqua fell silent yet her annoyance with me was still clearly visible.

We drew closer to the entrance of the loading bay; to no one's surprise, it was guarded.

"Now what?" Darkness queried as we paused to assess the situation.

Suddenly, Megumin snickered. "Fufufu, seems it's my time to—"

"Shut it. We don't need an explosion."

"I wasn't gonna use it here! I was planning on shooting towards the outskirts."

"Hey, who's there?!" the guard roared, turning in our direction.

We slowly backed away until the guard returned his attention to an incoming wagon.

"Shhh, you idiot, are you trying to get us found out?" I whispered angrily at Megumin.

"S-, Sorry. I just don't like the fact that Kazuma believes that I would be so rash as to use Explosion on a large, hard thing, that's full of many viable targets."

"Did she just say targets?" Kevin murmured.

"Viable targets? People. I think you're—"

"Can you two finish this some other time?" Aqua interrupted in an annoyed tone. "I hope Kazuma-san has an idea to get us through this soon because I don't know how long I can continue this whole draining thing."

An idea…a plan. I was pondering on it, but nothing came to mind besides walking in under the cover of invisibility, but then a better idea came to me.

"I got it. What if we can sneak in by playing merchants?"

"What? Merchants?" Inara queried.

"And how would we do that?" Daichi asked.

"Easy; we just use our carriages. We can also use our cargo as cargo meant for the emporium. From what I can see, there really isn't anything that would give away the fact that our boxes wouldn't belong—at least, not without a super close look."

"Worth a try."

"What's the worst that can happen?" Megumin said with a proud smile.

"Oi, I know you said that on purpose, you—"

"Let's go!" Aqua said, clearly getting fed up with the situation.

"You're the whole reason why we're here in the first place, you—"

"Hey!" Once again, the guard turned his attention in our direction. "Hey, Karfen. Karfen!" He gestured at the guard nearby, keeping his eyes towards us.

"What is it?" the other guard replied, looking mildly annoyed.

"I-, I think there's something there." The guard pointed towards us.

"Where?"

"There."

"The heck are ya on about, Garvin? Have ye been drinking that blight again? I've told ya—"

"I haven't!" I'm telling you, there's something there; I've heard voices coming from that direction twice now."

"Voices?" The two guards now kept their gaze locked in our direction, but the one in the back, Karfen, sighed heavily. "Honestly, what's wrong with ye? Thinkin' it's a spirit or somethin'?"

"I don't know, but…"

The one in the back picked up a rock and tossed it our way; luckily, it landed just right of us.

"See? Nothin. Now pay attention, we got company." The guard turned around and shifted his attention to the outgoing wagon.

Once the other guard turned away, we quickly scurried off.

-Some distance away…

"That was close," Daichi said as we sat sighing in relief.

"S-, Sorry," I apologized.

"And here you were telling me to quiet down," Aqua remarked. She stretched and then sighed loudly. "Hahhhh! I'm so glad to be free from that gross feeling, and since that part of the plan is done, why don't we get on with the next one?"

"Why, you really are interested in that drink, aren't you, Aqua-sama?" Kevin said.

"It definitely suits my refined palate. A single cup wasn't enough; I'd like to see if I can buy a bottle or two to drink back at home."

Refined, my ass; this girl would drink anything as long as it has some alcohol in it. I could remember a time where she mixed some water in a practically empty bottle just so that—in her own words—she wouldn't 'let any of it go to waste'.

"Kazuma." Daichi called out to me.

"Hm?"

"Are you ready?"

"For?"

"The slips, so that we can retrieve the carriages."

"Oh, right. Yeah."

I dug into my bag and procured two, handing one to Daichi.

He walked over to a nearby wall and pressed the talisman to it. A few seconds later, a portal opened up and relinquished the group's horses and carriage.

It was my turn now.

I did the same, and just as the Daichi's carriage appeared, ours did as well.

Now all that was left was to approach the gate and outwit the guards.

Part 4

The plan was simple: we would approach the entrance, get checked by the guards, and provided everyone kept their cool, head right on in. I didn't want to imagine failure, but with these girls, I fully expected it; as such, I had a backup plan just in case.

We sat waiting just down the bend of a service road that led to the loading bay of the emporium. As one of the wagons made the turn on to the road, we began moving. The carriage and its occupants passed by us without issue.

"Alright, remember, don't say anything—just let me handle it," I said, looking at Aqua who was sitting beside me.

"I know, I know, you've already said it; Kazuma-san will do all the talking while I smile and keep quiet."

"Good. Now quiet, we're getting close."

The guards slowly moved towards the carriage as we came to a stop.

"Hmmm, you new around here? Never seen you before."

"Ah yeah," I said with a somewhat nervous chuckle. "First time here."

"First time? Well, you've got i.d.?"

"Huh?"

"I.d. Identification. You were handed one at the gate, weren't you?"

"ID?! Really?! Shit! When the hell do they ever I.D. someone in this world?! Eh, well, uh…"

"Kazuma-san, hurry up and give the little man the i.d; I'm getting impatient here."

"THIS DUMBASS!" I wanted to punch her. Not only did she immediately break the sole instruction I gave her, but she even thought to say something completely unnecessary.

Given Aqua's latest comment, the dwarven guard furrowed his brow and asked me again—this time in a more aggressive tone. "Where's your I.D?" He gave the spear in his hand some slack, causing its point to lean towards me.

"Y-, Yeah, I.D. I-I got it. Give me a sec." I began to dig into my bag; an act to buy me some time to think of what to do.

There was the back up plan, but I really didn't want to enact it unless I had no other choice. To be fair, it was starting to look like I might have to.

"Hey!" the guard roared. "Do you have it or not?!" He gripped his spear in both hands, holding it ready.

"Yeah yeah, it's here somewhere," I said, nervously rummaging through the pack. "Dammit, looks like I have no choice."

"Here you go," Aqua said, reaching past me.

The guard snatched something from her hand and examined it. "What the hell is this?" he said, looking up from the card in his hand.

"Identification; that's what you wanted, right?"

"This is an adventurer's card! I'm asking you for your Merchant's pass!"

"A Merchant's pass? Why would anyone ever need that?" she asked, looking directly at me. "I thought you could just sell whatever you wanted, wherever you wanted. Who came up with such a stupid restriction?"

I facepalmed, knowing full well what was coming next.

""You guys aren't—"

"FLASH!"

"AH!" "WAHH! MY EYES!"

I leapt down and quickly used Drain Touch on the guard.

"Garvin!" The other guard arrived just in time to see me wrestle his friend to the ground. "Create Golem!"

"FLASH!"

I let off another just as the golem surfaced and Megumin came into view.

"AH!" "AHHH, MY EYES!" "WAHHH! WHYYY?!"

As the three individuals struggled to regain their sight, an earthen golem towered over me, and just as I was wondering what I was gonna do about it, the horses from our carriage were spooked by the construct in front of them. They immediately darted away from it, smashing the carriage into the creation and sending it crumbling to the ground. While the act was kind somewhat fortuitous, it was also just as unfortunate, as the horse and carriage now raced off down the road, Aqua and Darkness still inside.

I was momentarily stunned by the turn of events, but quickly remembered that there was still another guard that we hadn't taken care of.

I grabbed his head just as he seemed to regain his sight and used Drain Touch once more. Before he could retaliate, he slumped over, unconscious.

I sighed heavily; the worst was over.

"Kazuma! Megumin-san!" Daichi said as he pulled over beside us. "What happened? Your carriage, it—"

"Yeah, the horses got scared and took off. We should go after them since this is pretty much a bust."

"Alright, but what about the guards?"

"They'll be alright, I think; they're just unconscious, so they should wake up in a little while. Long enough for us to be far away from here when they do."

"Ok. Hop on."

"Oi," I said, turning to Megumin who was still rubbing her eyes. "We've gotta go, come on."

I grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the shotgun seat of the carriage.

Daichi whipped the reins, spurring the horses into a gallop.

"What happened?" Daichi asked me once again.

"That idiot happened; I told her not to say anything and the first thing she does is open that mouth of hers."

"I, I see. Well, at least you managed to get away without any problems."

"Guhhh." Megumin groaned as she forced an eye open into a squint.

"You ok?" I asked.

Her response was a deep frown followed by a low growl. "What does Kazuma think? Perhaps I should learn some type of Explosion magic that releases blinding light and expose it to him completely by surprise."

"Hey, how was I supposed to know that you were there? Why were you there? Weren't you inside the carriage? Why'd you come out?"

"I came out because I heard how the situation was developing. After the guard checked the inside of our carriage, he rushed back outside. I figured he was probably going to be a problem so I suggested to Darkness that we head out and try to ambush him while you and Aqua took care of the other guard."

"So why did you come out alone?"

"Darkness was still hesitant about—" Megumin paused, taking a quick glance at Daichi. She cleared her throat and then went on. "She was still hesitant about you know what. I thought she would've joined me eventually, but…well…"

"Right."

"I suppose this means we're not going to the emporium?"

"What do you think? Of course not. Once we get back to the carriage we'll see about trying to find Nyle-san and getting the hell out of here."

"What?! Really? Is that all we're gonna do here? We just got here and we're already leaving?"

"Are you just as dumb as Aqua? Haven't you seen what's been happening since we've got here? Bad situation after bad situation; it'll only be a matter of time before our luck runs out and we find ourselves stuck in this place against our will."

"Kazuma, look," Daichi said, focusing my attention on the development ahead.

Just ahead lay the carriage, completely sidelined and free of its horses—and not far from it was Aqua and Darkness, surrounded by a group of angry-looking people.

"Dammit. What the hell is going on now?" I murmured.

"What do you wanna do?" Daichi asked.

"I'll get off here."

"Got it. Don't worry; if things go bad, me and the others will back you up."

"Ah. Thanks."

Daichi nodded and then brought the carriage to a halt a few meters away from Aqua and Darkness' position.

I hopped off and was quickly joined by Megumin.

"What are you—"

"Don't think that you're going by yourself. Aqua and Darkness are in trouble, so there's no way I'm about to sit this out and watch from the sidelines."

"Alright, alright, but listen, don't make the same mistake Aqua did, you hear me? Let me figure out what's going on."

Megumin nodded. "I understand," she said with a thumbs up.

I stared at her, somewhat doubtful of her acknowledgment; nevertheless, there wasn't much more I could do to make it a certainty without setting up future problems between me and her, and so, I just decided to go with it.

"Come on," I said, taking off down the road.

As we approached, I could hear Aqua desperately trying to convince the group about something.

"You have it all wrong!" she cried. "I keep trying to tell you all that this wasn't my fault!"

"Wasn't your fault?!" one of the men retorted in anger.

"What's going on here?" I said, making my presence known.

"K-, Kazuma-san!" Aqua said, throwing her arms around me, tears beading the corner of her eyes.

"Kazuma-san?" another of the group queried.

The man who was directing his vicious remarks at Aqua, turned to me and spoke. "Are you acquainted?"

"Maybe," I replied, pushing Aqua away. "What happened here?"

"What happened?! This imbecile and her sow crashed into the governor's carriage, as you can see!" The man and crowd dispersed slightly to reveal another carriage not too far behind them; it was in just as bad a shape as our own.

"Oi." I turned and looked at the accused, waiting for their accounts and rebuttals.

"Th-That's not true!" Aqua said, desperately clinging to me again. "I couldn't see anything! Next thing I knew I was thrown from the carriage! When I finally could see these people were surrounding me."

"You knave! You dare call us liars?! We saw you and your friend here come careening towards us, nearly taking out the governor's carriage in the process! I dare say you have it in mind to try and assassinate him!"

"Now wait a minute," Darkness interjected, "we—"

"Shut your mouth, sow! No one's speaking to you!"

"KYU!" Darkness recoiled in delight.

There's a sight I haven't seen for a while.

"That's an incredibly rude thing to say that to a lady, you know," Megumin said, stepping forward, stave grasped tightly in her hands.

"And who might you be? Some beginner wizard or something?"

Megumin went silent—which could only mean something bad was gonna happen.

"Kazuma."

"Eh? W-What?"

"Permission to blow this man up?"

"What?! Of course not!" I said, quickly grabbing her.

"Let me go! Let me go!" she yelled, trying to wrestle herself free. "This guy needs a lesson in what it means to cross a Crimson Demon!"

The man in question huffed, likely not knowing just how much danger his life was in. "I see you're just another troublemaker who saw it fit to come and populate our good town. All the clemency the governor has given you all"—the man scoffed—"I dare say it was a mistake. He should've kept all the vermin out like advised."

Honestly, his uptight and arrogant attitude was starting to piss me off. And in my momentary lack of awareness, Megumin slipped my grasp and hurled herself at the man, stave flung back in a preparatory swing.

"HA!"

SWISH! The stave cut through the air.

"What's going on he—UGH!"

A man collapsed to the floor, but it wasn't the intended target—no, that man had (impressively) managed to dodge Megumin's swing. The man who was laying on the ground was—

"Governor!" "Governor Maulin!" "Mayor!" "Sir!"

The crowd slowly turned their glares on us.

"Arrest these insolent curs!" the man with the sour personality howled.

A contingent of knights quickly shot out from behind the crowd and surrounded us.

"W-Wait! Hold on!" I said, slowly backing away. "This is just a misunderstanding!"

Yet my remarks seemed to fall on deaf ears; the knights rushed us with weapons drawn.

"FLASH! RUN!"

But I forgot how disappointingly realistic some things were in this world, and thus…

"AH, MY EYES!" "WHYYYYY?!" "HAH! I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE!"

The three that were supposed to make their escape with me ended up being blinded by my skill yet again.

"Oi, come on, you—"

"GOT HIM!"

I was tackled to the ground as another knight somehow got behind me. He pressed my hands behind my back as he lay on top of me.

I tried using Drain Touch, unfortunately, the knight was wearing gauntlets and heavily padded armor.

"AHH!"

Suddenly, he fell to the ground beside me as cinders fell around me and the remnant embers flickered into the sky. In the distance, I could see Daichi and the others running towards us.

"Hey, come on!" I said, grabbing Aqua and Megumin. I reached out to grab Darkness but was quickly tackled to the ground once again.

"No you don't, you scoundrel!" It was the arrogant bastard.

"Get off!" I growled, shoving my hands into his face.

"Not a chance! I—buhhhh…"

He keeled over unconscious as Drain Touch did its thing.

"Kazuma!" Daichi said as he and his group arrived.

I pushed the unconscious man off me and got to my feet with some help. "We've gotta go!" I said, quickly grabbing onto Aqua and Megumin once again.

"R-, Right!"

But before we could take off, several other knights poured in from every end of the street. There was nowhere to run; we were cutoff and completely surrounded.

As we looked around for any route of escape, a dwarf wearing similar knightly armor appeared.

"Drop yer weapons an' surrender," he said, waddling to the front of the other knights.

Daichi glanced at me, seemingly waiting on my decision.

If we resisted, there was likely gonna be some huge consequences for our trip going forward, but if we surrendered, there was no guarantee I'd be able to smooth things over. It was a right dilemma. Still, getting into trouble with the authorities was the last thing I wanted, considering that we already had no shortage of enemies in this territory. As much as it pained me to do so, I threw my hands up in surrender. Daichi and the others soon followed my response. With that, the knights quickly closed in and apprehended us.

-Sometime later, in a prison cell…

"I'm hungry," Megumin suddenly declared.

I frowned. "We wouldn't be in this mess if you just listened to what I said."

"I did! Did Kazuma forget that I was insulted?!"

"Sometimes you just gotta live with that! Now we're stuck in here without knowing what the hell they're gonna do with us. And I'm getting real tired of seeing the inside of a cell! It's like we're trying to speedrun visiting all the prisons in the world. Tch. At this rate I could probably start reviewing them or something."

It was bad enough that they separated the group, but there was almost no way to tell what was going on outside the cells either.

"I don't understand why Kazuma is throwing such a fit; a prison break would be child's play for someone like me. A quick Explosion would grant us an easy way out."

I lunged at her and aggressively pulled on her cheeks.

"WAHHHHH! Schtop! SCHTOOOPPPP!"

I let go. "Keep saying dumb stuff like that and I'll pull them even harder next time!" I threatened, a heavy frown still adorning my face.

Megumin rubbed her cheeks with sought after relief, then she looked down at the ground, almost as if she was distracted by something.

"What is it?" I asked, noticing.

"Chomusuke."

"Huh?"

"She was in your bag, wasn't she?"

I sat up in realization; the guards took our belongings, my bag included. "Dammit."

"We need to get her back."

"Of course…but we also gotta get out of here ourselves, the others too."

"Does Kazuma have a plan?"

"Not exactly."

I wish I could've said I did, but the reality of it was that I didn't. Sure, we could've probably broken out if we didn't care about any issues that would arise from doing so, but we surrendered to avoid just that.

"Then—?"

"We can't just blow our way out of here. Think about why we surrendered to them in the first place."

Megumin could act stupid, and she was certainly capable of doing dumb things, but she wasn't an idiot—and her immediate body language told me she understood what I meant.

"Then…what do we do?"

"Good question." I said with a heavy sigh.

I looked around, assessing the cell once more, this time with greater acuity. There wasn't much I could do without any tools or items; even if I had them, the locks weren't pickable, as they featured no keyholes or combinations to speak of. The cells also had no windows or slits to peek from, nor did the door itself. The only things that weren't native to the room itself were the straw mats that functioned as our beds and a tiny bucket that presumably functioned as our place to do our business. None of it was useful to us in forming a way to escape—not even the bucket, for its size was so small that it could barely be called a "bucket"; it was more like a large tankard or mug.

"The door is magically sealed," Megumin announced.

"What?"

"The door, it's magically sealed."

"Yeah, I figured. Can you dispel it or anything?"

She shook her head. "That would be something only a thief or a priest can do. But…if destroying is something—"

"Oi."

"R-, Right. No, there's nothing I can do about it."

I sighed yet again.

There had to be something we could do, something I wasn't seeing, something I must've missed.

I walked over to the door and pressed an ear to it. I could hear—just barely, but I could hear. I knocked on it and the sound it returned was like knocking stones together. I wondered…could anyone on the other side hear us?

I began banging on the door. "Hey!" I yelled. "Hey!"

No reply, and the door didn't even budge. Maybe they couldn't hear us.

"Is this door wood?" I said rhetorically.

Megumin answered anyway. "I don't think so; wooden doors for a cell would be a pretty bad idea."

It didn't sound like wood when I knocked on it, but it sure looked like it.

"Hmmm."

I didn't fancy destroying the door; after all, the point wasn't to cause more problems or give our captors any more reasons for keeping us incarcerated, but I couldn't be sure that we wouldn't be subject to worse punishment even if we stayed in our cells obediently.

I stepped back from the door. "Megumin, stand back."

"Huh? Is Kazuma planning to do something?"

I nodded and then raised my hand towards the door. "Fireball!" I said it clearly, and yet…nothing happened. "What? Fireball!" I said, louder, as if that would've willed the spell to work.

Megumin stared at me incredulously and then at the walls and room. "Is it…?" She raised her hand towards the wall.

"Wait!"

"EXPLOSION!"

I closed my eyes to prepare for what inevitably would come, but just like my own spell, nothing came of Megumin's.

"Antimagic," she murmured.

I sighed in relief, and then I grabbed Megumin, glaring at her intensely. "You could've killed us both with that."

"I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't work."

"A suspicion—and what if your 'suspicion' was wrong?"

"Then I suppose that would've solved our problem of being stuck in a cell, wouldn't it?" My brow twitched, and Megumin seemed to have known that I was close to lashing out at her. "B-But it didn't come to that! We should probably thank the Goddess of Fortune for such providence, right?"

"Drain Touch."

"WAHHHH! Wait! Wait! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please stop!"

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! "Keep it down in there!" The voice came from the other side of the door, along with the thunderous knocks.

"So they can hear if the noise is loud enough." I felt a strong grip on my arm. "Huh?"

"P-, Please…stop," Megumin pleaded, the color draining from her already near-pallid complexion.

"Ah." I quickly deactivated the skill. The moment I did, she staggered backwards onto the floor. "Sorry; didn't mean to keep it going that long."

"Ugh."

"You ok?"

"Besides feeling a bit queasy, I believe I'm fine." Megumin stumbled to her feet.

"Usually you wouldn't be able to even move after I used it for a few seconds but now it doesn't even seem to faze you all that much."

"I still would rather not be subjected to that heinous skill. Please refrain from using it on me in the future."

"I wouldn't use it at all if you didn't give me every reason to."

"Kazuma just seems to have a short temper."

I stared at her. "I have a short temper?"

Megumin frowned. "I sense that Kazuma is insinuating something."

"There's no insinuating, you definitely have a short temper; in fact, your temper is the reason we're stuck in here in the first place."

She quickly averted her gaze, the frown accompanying it just moments earlier nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by a look of consternation.

"Whatever," I said, taking a seat by the straw mats. "I'm actually pretty tired."

"Huh? Are you going to sleep? What about our escape?"

"I can't think of anything at the moment." I yawned. "Maybe something will come to me in my dreams."

"In your dreams? It would be appreciated if Kazuma can think of something before falling asleep; unlike him, I have no weariness afflicting me right now."

"That's great, maybe you can figure something out while I'm taking a rest." I laid down. "Just make sure it has nothing to do with blowing us up."

"What?! Wait! You can't fall asleep. What about…" I stared at him and knew that he was already in a fairly deep sleep. "*sigh* This man…" I took a look around the room, hoping to spot something that could aid in our eventual escape. "Nothing. If only I could use magic. Hmm…magic."

I looked down at my hand and flexed it. Despite having been drained quite intensely, I still felt as if I hadn't.

"This has to be your doing, isn't it?" Furiosa, the deity within me. She was quite talkative before, but now she was silent—and had been for quite some time now. "Still nothing, huh?"

Was she mad at me? Did I do something to offend her? Nothing I could remember; our last conversation ended with us on amicable terms, so…

I sighed and then sat down at the foot of the straw mats. "Nothing, for now." Then I laid down beside Kazuma and stared up at the ceiling. "Luminite?"

A single large piece was encrusted into the roof. I hadn't noticed it before, but this is what must've been casting the light in the room. If I was oblivious to something like this then I certainly wasn't in any condition to come up with an escape plan. I yawned.

"Hmm."

Maybe I was tired. Perhaps closing my eyes would help me think—just for the moment. And so, I did just that, my eyelids quickly drawing to a close upon my permission.

-Elsewhere…

"How dare they lock up a goddess," Aqua said, pouting angrily. She began pounding on the door. "Hey! HEY! Open this door! I'm being wrongly accused for something I didn't do! HEY!"

"Aqua-sama, I don't think they're willing to listen," the priest from Daichi's group said. "Perhaps it might be best if we just stay put for now."

"Darkness!" Aqua abruptly said, turning towards me.

"Huh? Y-Yes?!"

"Can't you do something about this?"

"Do something? What are you expecting me to do?"

"There's definitely something you have that the rest of us can't really claim; why don't you use that to its advantage?"

"Huh?! Are you…are you saying that I should use my body to somehow convince the guards to let us out?!"

"Huh? No, I meant to use your family connections; even in some place like this the Dustiness family should have some pull, no?"

"Huh? Is…is that it?" I could feel my face grow hot with embarrassment. "I'm afraid my family's influence doesn't extend all the way over here, Aqua."

She pouted and then went back to banging on the door.

Part 5

After pounding on the cell's entrance for quite some time and hearing no answer, Aqua finally gave up. With a heavy sigh, she sat down beside me.

"It's no use, we're gonna stay in here forever."

The Priest chuckled. "I doubt we'll be in here for very long, Aqua-sama. Actually, I've been meaning to ask you both about your group."

"Our group?"

"Yes, you know, you and your friends; I know you've already shared with us quite a bit, but those things were mostly about your experiences and exploits—not really about yourselves. If you don't mind, I'd like to hear more about you all—plus, I believe it'll help pass the time. What do you think?"

Aqua glanced at me, to which I simply smiled gently and shrugged.

"What would you like to know?" I asked, looking past her and towards the priest.

"Dustiness; quite a prominent noble family, isn't it—or so I've heard."

"Have you been to Belzerg?"

He shook his head. "No, the farthest west I've ever gone has been Elroad."

"Really? And yet you've heard of the Dustiness family?"

"Is it that surprising? I've heard the name before but only understood that it was a fairly famous house from farther west."

"I suppose it's not. I'm curious, though; what have you heard?"

"Nothing specific, if that's what you're asking. I simply remember being denied access to some area because a noble from the Dustiness family was supposed to be arriving there."

"I see. I'm sorry for that."

The priest chuckled. "No need to apologize; I know how it can be."

"You know?"

"Once upon a time I too was a noble."

"You were?!" Aqua and I said in unison.

Seeing this reaction, the priest chuckled yet again. "That I was…but this was a long time ago. I'm now—and have been for quite some time—just a novel servant of the Goddess Eris."

"Eris," Aqua said, scoffing. "I don't get it. Didn't you say the farthest west you've gone was Elroad? If that's the case, why did you decide to worship that girl? Joining the Axis Church would have provided you with far more benefits."

The priest appeared wholly uncomfortable with Aqua's remark—not angry, just concerned and rather hesitant.

I spoke. "I was surprised to see that Eris-sama's grace reaches this far east; it'd make sense for Elroad to worship her, but the dwarven kingdom has their own god of worship, don't they?"

He nodded. "Indeed they do; the god, Dargon."

"It begs the question, then: why Eris-sama?"

He smiled faintly and then, like so many times before, chuckled again. "I thought I was getting to know you all even more; it turns out that I'm now the one having to share my past—not that it's an issue."

"Is your past something you would rather not discuss? If it isn't, we can—"

"I'd rather not…but as I've said, it's not an issue."

Aqua and I traded glances.

"Very well," I said, "we won't ask."

"A-, Are you sure? After all, I'm asking you all about your pasts; I'd feel wrong if I didn't share—"

"There isn't much I want to hide about my past, but I sense that you want to leave yours behind; if that's the case, I feel it'd be wrong to press you into disclosing that if it makes you feel that uncomfortable."

The priest stared at me in surprise, mouth slightly agape.

"Is something wrong with what I said?" I asked, feeling a bit of embarrassment start to come on.

"N-, No…no. I'm just…" He smiled and then shook his head. "It's alright. You asked, 'why Eris'? It's because I was born in Elroad."

"Born in Elroad. So that means—!"

"My family were nobles in Elroad. I should clarify, they probably are still amongst the noble houses of Elroad, but…I'm no longer part of it."

"What happened?" Aqua asked.

"Aqua!" I shouted in reprimand.

The priest raised his hand as if to absolve her of her faux pas. "Simply put, I fell to the temptations that were on offer in the city. I gambled much too hard—and in doing so, lost everything. My family disowned me. When they did…I was besides myself. At first, I cursed them; I swore vengeance against them. Then, I tried to bargain with them; I tried to win it all back. But even with some meager gains in my pocket, they still rejected me. I pleaded with them many times, but no matter what I said or did they wouldn't let me back in. I spent many days wandering the streets of Elroad withering away. Until one day, in a drunken stupor, I got into a fight. I lost and blacked out.

"And while I was unconscious,, I had a dream—and in that dream, a young girl with silver hair came to me. She asked me what was wrong, why was I crying? I recounted to her my follies and how I was cast out by my family. The girl proceeded to tell me that I was dying. She said that my gambling had brought me to where I was. I made wrong choices in life but that, ultimately, such was life; it is something that's full of gambles. It was a hard-learned lesson, and a lesson that quickly shifted my views on gambling—albeit, a little too late, or so I thought. But despite that fearsome message, she went on to do something that completely stunned me. Do you know what this girl said after telling me all that?" Aqua and I shook our heads. "She asked me if I wanted to make a bet."

He chuckled as he said it.

"Here I was, in the state I was, because of my uncontrollable betting—and this young girl now asked me if I wanted to indulge in the very thing that got me there. Any normal person would've said no—I was about to say no, but before I could, she said that if I won the bet, I would live. Now, with everything that had happened I felt that life wasn't worth living anymore, but for some reason—despite that, I didn't want to die—not like that…so I accepted her bet. She said if I won, I could live, I could go on and live how I wanted, that whatever I wanted my life to become, it would…but if she won, I had to devote myself to the vocation of whatever I found myself waking up to. The bet was made with a simple eris. Heads or Tails. I picked Heads."

"So, it landed on Heads, right?" I said, curiously.

The priest smiled. "The coin…landed on its edge; neither Heads nor Tails…or so that was my guess. I thought I lost, but the young girl said, 'you both lost and won'. She smiled at me; such a warm smile. I still remember it so clearly. Seeing it just gave me this sense that everything was going to be ok. Afterward, she said to remember the promise, and then shortly after that I woke up in the nearby church. Apparently, one of the nuns nursed me back to health. The lead priest of the church told me how grave I was when I was brought in—that I was…lucky…to be alive. I asked them who brought me in; they told me I was simply laying on one of the pews. They said I was so injured that I couldn't have come in on my own, so it only made sense that someone else must have dropped me off." He smiled once again. "I can't tell you who did, but I can say that person saved me. I didn't forget my promise to that girl in my dreams, and ever since then I've given up on unnecessary gambles and devoted myself to Eris-sama."

I smiled. "It reminds me a lot of my own childhood."

"You were an uncontrollable gambler, Darkness?!" Aqua queried in surprise.

"No! The young girl with silver hair! Chris! Remember? I've told you, Kazuma, and Megumin this before—I'm sure of it."

"Ah, Chris-san, that's right. She does have silver hair. Wow, that's a pretty remarkable coincidence, don't you think, Darkness?"

"I do. I also think it's a coincidence how attentive Eris-sama is to her followers."

"Indeed she is," the priest said with a nod.

"When I was younger, I was quite isolated. Given my status, I was only allowed to be around those who were of noble blood; unfortunately, there weren't many noble children in Axel, so I often found myself quite alone. I used to go to the Eris church…to pray for my mother…and one of those days, I prayed for a friend—someone I could share my secrets with…someone I could find happiness with. It wasn't long after that I met Chris; she's been my best friend ever since."

"I see. Eris-sama has touched both our lives, directly; truly a gracious and benevolent goddess."

"Pfft." Aqua snorted. "That girl just has way too much time on her hands. If she acted like a real goddess she would be crying her eyes out every weekend; there's tons of work to do and weekends tend to be our only freetime."

The priest coughed deliberately. "That's quite the…fantasy you've dreamt up, Aqua-sama; although, I really believe you should stop treating Eris-sama with such blatant disrespect. Although I'm a simple priest that wishes to harbor no ill will nor engage in any confrontations it's becoming quite difficult for me to ignore all those remarks you have directed toward Eris-sama. I would like to ask you to stop, in general, but if you cannot, I would ask you to—at the very least, to please do so in my presence."

"Dream? But—"

"Aqua," I said, cutting her off.

"What is it, Darkness?"

"Maybe you should agree to Kevin-san's request? I think it's only respectful to do so." I leaned in close and whispered. "Also, I think a goddess like yourself should probably display that understanding and benevolence that many people believe they're capable of."

"Darkness," she said, almost brought to tears, "you finally believe that I'm a goddess?"

I sighed. "At this point it would be pretty difficult to deny it, given the fact that we met with Ambrosia-sama. Although, I'm fairly hesitant to believe that Eris-sama is your junior."

"She is, though!"

"Aqua."

"Oh fine, whatever," she said, crossing her arms and pouting. There was a brief moment of silence before Aqua spoke once again. "Do you think the others are ok? Maybe they already let them out and we're the only ones still stuck in here."

"I don't think so, Aqua."

"That's right," the priest said. "You don't really believe your companions will leave you behind, do you? I'm certain that Daichi-san and the others wouldn't leave me, nor do I think he would leave you or your group behind."

"Well, no—but you don't know that boy like I do; he might not leave us behind, but he'd certainly take his time coming to our rescue."

Once again, the priest chuckled. "Is that so? Listen, I apologize if I came across a little aggressive, Aqua-sama; it's just that Eris-sama is…well she's the one I've chosen to devote everything to. I might be a priest, but I'm still human—as such, I ask that you forgive me if I've offended you in any way."

"Huh? Ah, well…of, of course, of course…of course," she repeated, nodding her head as she did. "A gracious person like myself can whole-heartedly forgive any transgression—even if it was against me. Well, almost all. If you're dealing with demons or undead you're gonna have a lot to answer for."

"Heh. Undead or demons? I guess I have nothing to worry about, then; Eris-sama detests undead and demons."

"Oh, I know. It's a pretty well-known fact that she absolutely despises them. It's one of the things me and her—"

"Aqua," I said, once again stopping her before she could say something that could cause a misunderstanding.

"What is it, Darkness? You know, you keep interrupting me when I'm speaking—don't you know that's rude?"

"Ah, right, forgive me. I-I know, why don't you show us some of your performances to pass the time?"

"Ah, my performances. But there isn't even a crowd; I feel it'd be a waste."

"Surely there's some small act you could do."

Aqua sighed. "Fine, I guess I could. Now let's see, what can I do?" She raised the top layer of her skirt, and then out of nowhere, a staggering amount of trinkets and baubles dropped out of it.

Despite having witnessed several of her performances before, it was no less astonishing to me to see something like this.

The priest sat up with an astounded look on his face. "H-, How are you…? Where…?"

"Now then, which one should I use?" Aqua said, bending down to pick from the assortment on the ground.

Suddenly, the cell door opened.

The guard started silently at the items on the ground, and then at us…we at him.

"Wut in Dargon's—"

"I-I can pick it up!" Aqua said, scrambling to do so.

"Bardur!"

"Wut?" Another guard said, running over.

"Help me 'ere. Git de door. Olright, you two get on up."

"Are we leaving?!" Aqua asked with excitement.

"Leaving? No, you an' dat blonde one are goin' te the interrogator."

The world seemed to slow down as I heard the guard utter that singular word. "In…Interrogator? Interrogator?!" I shot up from the ground and rushed over to the guard.

"Whoa! Hey!" He quickly took a step back, placing his spear in front of him as a deterrence.

"Did you say we're going to see an interrogator?" I asked, my voice trembling slightly.

"Eh, y-, yeh, dat's right. Wut about it?"

"Do…do they have a rather infamous reputation?"

"Eh? Well uh… Are yeh scared? You should be."

"D-Does that mean yes?!"

The guards looked as if they were experiencing something uncomfortable, trading glances with each other before the one in the room shifted his attention back to us.

"Just stick yer hand out." I did so and was quickly shackled. "You too, come on," he said, gesturing to Aqua.

"What? No, I don't wanna."

"Quit yer whining and git over 'ere b' fore I jab meh spear into ye."

"There's no need for violence," the priest said. He walked over to Aqua. "Come on, Aqua-sama, go with the guard. I'm sure if you cooperate you'll be fine, isn't that right, sir?"

The guard stared at the priest cautiously, but he didn't reply. Once Aqua edged close enough to the guard, he quickly threw some manacles over her wrists.

"Wait, no! Don't put these on, they'll leave bruises!"

"Shut it, already! Come on! Out! Blastin' mites. Olways complainin'. If ye didn' wanna do de time, doun do the crime."

"But I didn't do anything!" Aqua cried.

As the door closed behind us, we were led down the corridor we came in through. After passing several doors, we made a turn into another long corridor. We followed this one to its end and entered through the door; there, Inside, a man sat quietly behind a table reading a book. He looked up at us and then at the guards.

"We've brought them, sir interrogator."

"Yes, I can see that. But why did you bring them both?"

"Eh?"

"I asked why did you bring them both?"

"Well, uh…you said—"

"That I wanted to speak with both of them—but not at the same time; I thought it would've been obvious which is why I didn't bother to specify. It seems I was wrong."

"Uh, do ye want us te—"

"I want you to leave. You can leave both of them here."

"Eh, right."

The guards let us go and then promptly exited the room.

"Have a seat," the man said, gesturing to the seats in front of the table.

"A-Are you the interrogator?" I asked, my heart pounding in excitement.

"That I am."

"A-Are you going to do stuff to us?"

"I may; it all depends if you—"

"I'll take it all!" I yelled.

"Excuse me?"

"You can never break me—though you can try! I really encourage you to try! You might find that I may!"

The man stared at me with visible confusion, and then he shook his head. "Sit down. Now."

"And if I refuse?"

"You shouldn't. You should do as your friend has and just sit down."

As he said, Aqua had already complied.

"A-, Aqua?!"

"What?! I don't wanna stay standing!"

I sighed and then, begrudgingly, sat down.

"Now," the man began, "I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Depending on your answers you may or may not come to experience…some discomfort." I began to feel giddy once more. "Answer truthfully or you may come to regret it—sooner rather than later. Now then, let us begin."

-Meanwhile…

"So, what do you think?" I said, waiting for Hurnus' answer.

He tapped on the cell door and then ran his finger across its surface. "Nullstone."

"Which means—"

"Magic won't work," Inara remarked.

Hurnus nodded.

It shouldn't be a surprise; after all, they must've had some way to keep magic users in check.

"I figure they'd use some in its construction, but this much?" Hurnus said as he looked around. "Almost seems like they made this place for magic users first and then your average person last."

"Is Nullstone hard to get?" I asked.

"Yeah; the stuff is pretty rare. In normal quantities it won't do much by itself except maybe make it harder for a mage to cast their spells, maybe cause a misfire or two, but in this quantity, works just as well as an antimagic field."

"Then it seems like getting out of here is gonna prove harder than I initially thought."

"Do you have a plan?" Inara asked.

"Not much we can do without any tools or magic."

"If only you had your sword," Hurnus said. "We'd be out of here in the toss of a pebble."

Although he was right, I wouldn't draw it for something like this.

"So then what?" Inara queried. "Are we really waiting for them to release us? Assuming they will, anyway."

"It's the only option we've got right now."

Inara frowned and then sat down in the corner.

I could understand her frustration; we were in this situation due to my decision. Sure, Kazuma was the one who made the call but, ultimately, I was responsible for my group—and because I made the choice to follow Kazuma, we were all now stuck in jail.

"Do you think Kevin's alright?" I asked.

"I'm sure he's fine," Hurnus replied. "Not like he got a cell by himself. He went off with the other Priest and Ms. Dustiness."

"Right. Do you think the others found a way out?"

"The others?" Inara said, speaking up. "You mean Megumin-san and their group?"

"Yeah."

Inara paused for a moment; she seemed to be contemplating it. "I doubt it," she finally said. "Something tells me they wouldn't leave us even if they did find some way."

"Yeah…maybe. Well, at least… No, you're right, Inara; I don't think Kazuma and them would leave us."

"Instead of worrying about them, why don't you focus on trying to find some way to get us out of here. Don't worry, I'll think as well."

-Elsewhere…

"Ugh." I tried to roll over, but couldn't. When I opened my eyes to look, I saw that Megumin was lying beside me. "Oi," I said, sitting up. To my surprise, she didn't respond; in fact, she seemed to actually be asleep. "Hey, you actually asleep?"

She answered me with a half-irritated groan.

"So you're actually tired now?"

Once again, she didn't reply with words, just a weak moan.

Then out of nowhere, there was a loud thump followed by the sound of armor clanking; something was going on outside.

"What the heck?"

I got up and walked over to the door. Pressing my ear against it, I focused to try and glean what was happening.

The sound was incredibly muffled, but I could tell there was a commotion; the yelling and loud thumps and bangs told me that there was likely a fight taking place. Was someone busting us out? Was it Nyle-san?!

"Hey, we're here!" I yelled, hoping to get the attention of our would-be rescuer. I banged on the door for good measure.

BANG! I was tossed back into the far side wall, the impact and cloud of dust causing me to cough heavily. When I finally recovered my senses, I looked up and saw a dark-skinned figure standing at the door….naked.

"Ch-, Chomusuke?"

"Master? Master!" she said, leaping onto me.

"Wait! Wait!" I said, quickly looking over at Megumin.

To my great relief, Megumin seemed to be fast asleep.

I sighed deeply and then looked at the unconscious guards, sprawled out where a door used to be.

"Achoo!" Chomusuke sneezed and then swiftly dipped under my shirt.

"O-Oi!"

"Cold. Chomusuke cold. Master warm," she said, purring contently.

Despite the rather serious situation, it was hard to maintain my composure when a completely naked cat-girl was pressing herself against my chest; it was everything I could do to keep myself from letting things go in the hopeful—yet wrong—direction.

"Focus, Kazuma, now's not the time. Yes, her face and breasts are practically scraping against your body—and I can feel the perky bits poking—but now's not the time to be focusing on things that I could only dream of occurring!"

Plus, I figured, if things were to develop that way and Megumin were to suddenly wake up amidst such an event… Well, at least I could rely on Eris-sama to sympathize with my plight.

"Ch-, Chomusuke," I said, trying my best to shift my attention to something else.

"Hm?" she said, her head popping out from the top of my shirt. "Yes, Master?"

I closed my eyes, tears beginning to well up.

WHO COULD BLAME ME FOR FAILING IN SUCH A SCENARIO?!

"Ch-, Chomusuke…can you please…get out from under my shirt?"

"But Chomusuke cold," she replied, clearly saddened by the request.

"Eris-sama…please help me."

"Hello?!" The voice of someone unfamiliar rang out from down the corridor. "Is anyone still… Who's conscious?!"

"Who's conscious? If they're asking that then… Chomusuke," I said, quickly feeling my attention shift to matters at hand, "did you do all this?"

She tilted her head curiously. "Did Chomusuke do what?"

"The guards, did you take them all out?"

"Hello?!" the voice called out once more.

"The hard people?" Chomusuke remarked.

"Hard people? Like those guys," I said, pointing at the unconscious men laying just a few paces from us.

"Ah!" she nodded fervently. "They try to catch Chomusuke. Chomusuke defend herself."

"Got it. Listen, you're gonna have to get out from under there."

"But—"

"I'll give you my coat," I said, pointing at the large fur mantle I was wearing.

Without another word, Chomusuke swiftly slipped out from under my shirt, bouncing excitedly as she waited for me to give her what I offered. It was another instance of my focus beginning to slip, but I nimbly took my mantle off and draped it over her.

"Keep that on, will you?"

Chomusuke nodded, happily wrapping the mantle tightly against herself.

"Now then."

I carefully made my way over to where the stone door once stood and peeked around the corner. There, I spied a single man looking at the mess of unconscious guards and crushed stone strewn about the corridor. I dipped back into the room.

"A guard?" I asked myself.

He wasn't wearing any armor that I could see and his attire looked more like what a nobleman would wear. Perhaps he was someone important from the prison. In any case, this was the perfect time to try and escape. I rushed over to Megumin.

"Hey," I said, trying to rock her awake; however, she was in a deeper sleep than before, not even responding to my attempts in the slightest. "Dammit. Argh." I picked her up and placed her on my back. "Chomusuke."

"Mew?"

"I need you to go and take out that guy at the end of the hallway; can you do that?"

She nodded once again.

"Good. Go."

It startled me how quickly she darted past me and into the corridor. Within a few seconds, I could hear the man commanding her to yield, but a loud thump and bang later, and the noise from the corridor went silent. Stepping out, I could see that the man was indeed pacified, the wall above where his body lay slumped, caved in.