Megumin released a gusty sigh as she shuffled past the gate and onto the dirt road to the village as the sun set behind her, clutching her handful of eris.
The less said about her adventures in the herring and cucumber fields the better. A sma…resource efficient girl like herself had level 1 stats better than a much larger Outsider woman, with the buffs her Crimson heritage gave her. Still, she had no business wrangling murderous produce, especially without any applicable magic to help, and had the bruises and stained clothes to prove it.
Chomuske meowed on her shoulder, batting at her hat tassel as she often did to get her chief of staff/owner's attention and earning herself an absentminded pat.
At first, things had gone well after she and Yunyun graduated. She landed a job at Makaromi's, the town apothecary, compounding his various concoctions. Steady work, decent pay, and it used her status as top of her class and undisputed best in their alchemy courses to the fullest.
Until he fired her after a week due to her attempted addition of a warming effect, to inflame the passions, to the batch of contraceptive ointment he assigned her to make. Honestly! Those burn creams had been sitting on the shelf for months and the swelling had responded perfectly well to ice compresses! A mere setback on the road to progress! He should be thanking her for helping him unload his dead stock!
The bakery had been next. Who knew that making enough bread for nearly four hundred people involved kneading dough for hours, carrying tray after tray of shaped dough balls into the brick ovens out back, and then rotating the trays once inside so nothing burned? Wasn't that what golems were for?! But no, apparently there was a precision to baking that a golem simply couldn't match, and she quickly learned that while bakers tended to be rotund like all cooks, they also had arms like a bricklayer. Not aspiring to such things, she quit after sticking it out as long as she could, and before her developing hatred of the smell of yeast and baking bread ruined one of her few affordable food sources from smelling it all day every day.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Explosion could flatten small armies, level hillsides! Bring glorious annihilation to whoever drew its weilder's ire! She should have been the talk of the village, hailed as the greatest wizard of her generation, maybe the age, for learning it so young!
But even in her clan's forests, there weren't any creatures that required an Explosion to slay. Not unless you went far deeper than she could manage on her own. A squad of Crimson Demons could lay waste to any army bar the largest and most wizard heavy. Hillsides crumbled in the face of mere blasting magic, or even earth mover golems. For a brief moment, a traitorous thought flitted across her mind.
Had she made a mistake?
Megumin shook off the absurd notion like Chomuske drying herself after falling in the creek. No, her path was clear. She could still make this work! She must simply acknowledge that success was a journey, and bide her time. Lay low and husband her strength until emerging, as the true hero always does, in her people's greatest hour of need! Reaping tenfold acclaim and gratitude in return for the disdain and disappointment she was subjected to before! THAT was the path forward!
A new spring in her step propelled her down the path, head held high.
But first, she needed to find a better job if she wanted to eat tomorrow.
—
"The most important thing to remember is that most people who want to talk don't actually want you to solve anything," Nerimaki advised from behind her as she finished tying the bow of Megumin's new black and red apron dress styled uniform. "All they want is a pretty face to listen to them and offer sympathy, then bring them drinks. And food, if you can talk them into it." She straightened and brushed her bangs back, then regarded Megumin critically. Nodding sharply, she reached up and plucked out the cocktail stirrer she'd tied her own long black hair up out of the way to let it fall loose. "There! You'll do fine, you're cute and already know everyone!"
That was part of the problem, bussing tables felt like a real letdown from practicing alchemy, even if her classmate had competed with Arue for third place back in school. She had no right to complain though, with the fields waiting for her. Nerimaki had convinced her parents to hire her as a waitress for their tavern, though the skeptical looks they gave Megumin made it clear her reputation was beginning to precede her. Inevitable in a small village, but they would change their tunes and stand in awe of her skills soon enough!
"Of course!" the tavern Succubus Lingerie's newest member proclaimed proudly. "Who shall be my first customer?"
"Right this way! Now remember, smile, small talk, success!"
Nerimaki led her new apprentice out of the back room, clearly enjoying being the one to share her expertise for a change. Awaiting them was a mustachioed middle aged man, black haired and starting to visibly thicken in the middle through the gap of his double breasted coat, perched on a barstool talking to Nerimaki's father while he polished his goggles with a handkerchief.
Nerimaki froze, turning to look at Megumin apologetically.
"I'll take him, it's fine," the newly minted waitress sighed. Pasting on her freshly practiced smile, she trotted over to her very first customer.
"Well met! What will you be having today?"
"For a start, you can tell me they kept you away from the spice rack," Makaromi said dryly. "And a roast boar sandwich wouldn't go amiss. Do you still have the cider from last week?"
"We do, if you mean the Raging Orchard blend," the proprietor interjected, to Megumin's relief.
"That's the one. A plain mug of that if you will."
"I'll bring it right out!" she chirped around gritted teeth, and made haste to do just that.
Thankfully, that was his usual order and Nerimaki's mom had started on it as soon as he appeared in the doorway. So she was able to bring both at once after only a minute, placing the platter before him.
"May our fare sate the ravenous hunger of the beast within you! Will there be anything else?"
"No missy, this will do nicely. Be off with you," Makaromi grunted around his sandwich, and Megumin was too happy to oblige. She meant what she said, but only if it got him out the door faster. 'Old dried up prune. Probably hasn't needed one of those ointments this decade,' she fumed to herself.
After escaping her first awkward service, Megumin did some chores around the dining room preparing for the supper crowd soon to come. Until a new voice oozed its way to her ears and interrupted her furious table wiping. Belonging to someone who thought he was far smoother than he was.
"Hey there, Megumin! You work here now?"
"Yes, Bukororri? What can I get for you today?" Megumin forced a smile in return as sweetly as she could, crossing over to his table with the sway in her steps that her classmate taught her to make her skirts swish.
"Crimson beer and corn hash," he said without glancing at the menu board above the bar. Like any villager he knew it by heart, it was only up there for the tourists. Megumin suppressed a shudder. The tourist season would be coming soon, and the tavern was always packed then. That would be her problem before too long.
"Got it, we'll have it right out!" Keeping the perky, chirpy persona she'd been assured would guarantee tips, she began to turn away to deliver the order.
"Hey, have you heard anything from Soketto?" he asked, lowering his voice.
Megumin turned back, giving him a puzzled look. "Not since your last fool scheme nearly set her alight," she replied, dropping back into her usual affect. "Our soles rarely trod the same path, as well you know."
"I'm…I've been asking around."
"Did your inquiries include her as well? If one has something to say, it must be spoken clearly to the person intended!"
"I can't! She won't speak to me! I tried to have my fortune read like I have every week, but she refused! She said it was obviously never going to change!" Bukkorri lay his forehead on the table, muffling his pitiful recitation. "Blank. Always blank. My future is empty of happiness."
Megumin was many things, but intentionally cruel wasn't one of them. Usually. Mostly. Seeing a fellow villager in distress, she gave him the very best consolation she knew how to.
With one fluid motion she slammed her palm on the tabletop with a sharp crack of flesh on hardwood.
The bereft man jerked upright with a start as she leaned toward him over the table. "It is our crimson soul's pride to howl in the face of the uncaring heavens, is it not?!" she barked, eyes glowing fiercely as they bored into his own from close enough to feel the breath of her tirade directly. "To strive ever onward on the path to greatness?!"
He nodded numbly.
"Cast down the plots of those that would see you brought low?! Rise above the outrages of fortune and the slings and arrows of the ignorant?"
"Y-yes!"
"What more could you wish for then?!" Straightening and crossing her arms over her chest, she did her best to glare down at him despite being almost the same height with him seated. "You have proof that no fate constrains you! Command this boon to serve your will as such divine largess deserves!"
With that, she turned with a sniff and flounced off, having totally forgotten her lessons on tip farming in favor of a stiff backed stride as she made for the kitchens with his order, leaving a stunned, staring young man in her wake.
After the nettled wizard dropped off Bukororri's order, Nerimaki stopped her on the way back to the common room. "About what I said earlier. Forget it. Keep doing that to the right kind of man instead, and you'll get more tips than you know what to do with."
—
That night, she and her mother were washing the family dishes. More accurately, a small waterspout whirled in their sink doing so while the pair sat at the 'venerable' table.
Megumin looked up from the notebook she was composing a new explosion chant in, feeling Yuiyui's gaze on her. Looking up with some irritation, she found her mother smiling slightly in amusement.
"Well? When did this happen?"
Megumin tilted her head in puzzlement. "When did what?"
"You and Bukororri, of course. He was over earlier."
"What in the world for? He was at the tavern at lunch if he wanted something," Megumin grumbled. Did he really have nothing better to do than wander the village?
"This would've been after you saw him, he came by this afternoon. Whatever you said, it really impressed him."
"Huh. Well that's nice for him. Guess I'm glad I could help," the younger wizard shrugged apathetically. For all that they were somewhat neighbors, the two families had never been particularly close.
"So what are you going to do about it? He's not chasing Soketto anymore from what I've heard…" Yuiyui trailed off suggestively.
Megumin looked up again from her notepad. Her mother smiled cheerfully back. Too cheerfully. For all that there were plenty of teeth showing and the lines around her eyes crinkled, there was something a little predatory to it.
"A girl needs to know when to seize the main chance," her mother went on. "Especially given our clan's circumstances, since boys don't grow on trees. You just made a big impression on him. If you want to settle down in the village and avoid going on a Journey, you should make your move, make it stick, and make it soon."
Megumin set down her pad, neck hairs rising with a tingle as she stared back. She wasn't blind, and could do the math involved since she could walk. She was almost fourteen, her mother thirty one, and father thirty. Her parents had to have been fresh out of the Red Prison when she was conceived.
Nothing terribly unusual there, most people in Belzerg married young if they had the eris to. Time waited for no one, and tomorrow had no guarantees.
But her family had never not been on the ragged edge of hunger. Her mom and dad gave their daughters everything they could, and she couldn't ask for more loving parents. But what they could give was often damned little, and feelings only went so far.
"Is…Is that what you did? Made a…move that stuck?"
Yuiyui nodded. "Yes. I didn't want to leave the village to wander the kingdom looking for an Outsider, not when I was happy here. And your father was always good with his hands and loved making tools."
Megumin breathed in sharply, her face flushing. In anger, in shock, she couldn't say. But in that moment she saw the future laid out before her, as if it was one of Soketto's divinations. Hooking Bukorori, tripping him into bed if she had to. Marriage, and moving in above his parents' grocery store. A couple of kids while running the store for him, since heaven knew he'd never be able to do it right. Raising the kids, though he seemed to like Komekko so he might be good with them at least. But with or without his help, soon enough sitting with her own daughter at their table for a private discussion.
Becoming just like her mother.
Stuttering like Yunyun on a bad day, she barely got out, "I…I'm done for now. S…should we t-triumph above the night's terrors, I…I shall s…seek you with the dawn." The traditional Crimson Demon goodnight finished, she picked up her notepad and hastily started to rise.
Yuiyui shook her head. "Stay if you want, I'm ready for bed myself. 'I shall greet you with the dawn'" she replied, finishing her tea before heading for the main bedroom.
Once her mother left, Megumin sat back down at the low, rickety table. She wondered, more than once, if she was an 'accident' given her parents had clearly not been ready to start a family. It wouldn't be the first time, not by far. But finding out she'd been the product of a cold calculation…it felt, she wasn't sure what but it left a taste in her mouth and a flutter in her stomach that wouldn't go away, even after she tried to go back to arranging her chant.
After perhaps another hour she tossed down her quill, blew out the candle, and gave it up as a bad job. Padding across the creaky wooden floor soundlessly from years of experience, she slipped into the futon and cuddled Komekko like a hug pillow without rousing her.
—
The next morning, she went to work. Taverns are all day operations, from morning all the way to last call. Not necessarily for the patrons, but the staff were present long before the first hungry or thirsty customers showed up. This time she requested a shift helping in the kitchen, despite the lower pay. It was mindless, repetitive, tiring work, but for once that was exactly what she wanted.
The last thing she needed was to run into Bukorrori again or, may any gods or goddesses forbid it, give her mom a chance to engineer something between them if she did.
That night, she avoided her parents by eating at work and coming home late. Slipping into the dark, quiet house, she pried out the small stash of funds Wolbach left from its hiding spot between two floorboards in her and Komekko's room. Flipping a random coin in the air and catching it in the dim light through the gap around the window curtain, the young wizard sat contemplating it as thoughts she tried to push away came back to haunt her in the witching hours.
She could take one path, and stay in the Village while marrying a clansman. As much as Megumin hated to admit it, if she stayed there were very few options, so probably Bukorrori. Settle down to slaying monsters in the local forest and exterminating the odd demonic incursion, in between working the store or waiting tables. Children soon enough, uncomfortable as that idea made her still. Later, certainly, but not by next winter.
The other traditional path was the Outside, seeking her fortune and a partner before returning with both or either to start her own small branch of the Clan. She knew a few adventurers in the village who adopted the clan's ways, though none of her classmates had been their children. That was assuming she could find any who were worthy of the honor, and what she heard of the lands beyond their forests didn't fill her with hope. Either way, she'd be gone for who knew how long except the very occasional visit. Levels were hard to come by in the provinces farther south, it was said in Axel it could take years to make level twenty and safely move to a higher reward area.
Or, she could pick the least trodden road of them all. A jump to Arcanretia and from there, she could contact her mentor for pickup. Learn all the secrets Wolbach refused to teach her so far. Prove herself the greatest wizard of the age after all. Blaze a path to her destiny in the fashion of a true Crimson Demon and spit in the eye of those who would deny her greatness.
Her eyes glowed brighter in the dimness. With one final toss, Megumin snatched the coin out of the air.
After that, the time went quickly, with her doing extra hours at the tavern to scrape up funds. Inn fees for several days waiting for Wolbach would probably be cheaper than the passenger fare to Axel, but there was no reason not to have a little extra.
"I have decided to go on a Journey," Megumin announced at breakfast one morning, using a very specific meaning of the word.
Her dad nearly dropped his spoon in his porridge. "But you just started at the tavern! You're leaving already? I was just talking to Sukasiki, he said that you've been doing well!"
"No! Sis! Don't go!" Komekko wailed, sniffling up at her as she clutched at Megumin. The elder sister's resolve wavered at her heartfelt protest, until she noticed Komekko's gaze locked on her familiar.
Her mom, in contrast, calmly set down her teacup. "How do you plan to get to Arcanretia? You shouldn't be walking that road alone, not yet."
In reply, Megumin took out her little sack of funds. "I've been saving up, I should have enough for the teleport and carriage tickets." Not strictly false, she had been saving back most of her pay from her various jobs even before starting at the tavern. For a moment she was afraid one or the other, probably her mom, would do a little mental math and realize it was possible, but unlikely, she had come up with the eris to buy a ticket on her own given what her pay and likely tips had been. But the moment passed, and her dad nodded.
"If you're that set on doing this, then I accept your resolve. I know you'll make us proud."
Her mom echoed the sentiment, but the little, maybe knowing, smirk on her lips made Megumin wonder.
-—
The day of her departure she rose early, meaning mid-morning in the Crimson Demon village. Last night she bought her ticket for the first departure of the day, with the money spent there was no turning back.
Only Komekko stirred with her. Her parents had already risen for their own trip to a nearby festival, hoping to sell some of their new tools. The reason she'd taken the earliest teleport she possibly could was to make sure they were here when she left.
Their mother was making breakfast from last night's leftovers for them both one last time as she walked in. A familiar scene, one of thousands over her life. But this one would be the last. Even when she inevitably returned triumphant, her home would be elsewhere, her household not just blood but whoever she met in her travels.
I gave her an uncharacteristic somber feeling as she sat. One shared by the rest of the family. Komekko was unusually quiet, while her Mom and Dad both pointedly fussed over Megumin's pack at length one last time, not that either of them had done a Journey. But, with as much traveling as they did trying to sell their wares, Megumin supposed they might have some wisdom to add and had graciously accepted their suggestions.
A knock at the front door was followed by a familiar face stepping into the kitchen doorway.
"Well met," said the buxom, black haired visitor, who had traded in her uniform for a snug black skirt and blouse not long ago. "Are you ready to come visit, Komekko?"
"Yay! Sleepover at Arue's!" The munchkin cheered, an accident with a bit of porridge on her skirt narrowly averted by her lightning fast snatch, only possible because there was food on the line.
"Be careful, I won't be here to clean up after you," Megumin chided. Turning to her former classmate, she nodded. "Thanks for watching her."
"No trouble. My muse has been deserting me these last days, perhaps a change of routine might rekindle something," the aspiring author waved off her thanks. "But here, for your Journey." The taller girl handed over a red and gold shield shaped eyepatch. "With the acquisition of my magic I no longer require it to seal my sorcerous might."
Megumin had noticed she was binocular today, but assumed it was because it was early. "Thank you, I'm sure it will figure prominently in my legend." Placing the patch on her own eye she turned to her family. "I'm off. 'Mekko, be good until I come back. Mom, dad, I…" she paused, pretending to adjust her new eyepatch. "I'll write when I get there. Good luck at the fair."
"You'll need good fortune far more than we, but do write when you can. Otherwise your poor, worried parents will have to come check on you," her mom rejoined as she smiled tearfully back.
Megumin still wasn't sure how to feel about that night's conversation, but right then it didn't matter. She hugged her mom one last time, then her dad.
Her dad nodded vigorously as they parted. "Exactly. And anyone who comes sniffing around you had better be ready to pass inspection!"
Megumin chuckled, a prickle in her eyes. "It will have to be a bold Outsider indeed to dare win my affections." She shouldered her pack, and with a final wave for all of them stepped out the door.
Onward, to Arcanretia!
The fountain hissed and splashed behind her the next day as Megumin nibbled on the salted pretzel roll saved from the complimentary breakfast at her inn. So far as she had seen, the city seemed purposefully designed to separate people from their money as efficiently as possible. This, atop being a girl for whom ordering tea instead of water was a luxury, made the resulting prices a rude shock. She had planned to spend up to a week waiting for Wolbach; she might manage to afford three days…if she didn't eat anything besides the breakfast.
It was all lovely, she had to admit, her grumbling stomach bringing down her enjoyment or not. Chomusuke seemed to agree, seemingly taking root on her room's windowsill to doze in the sun and watch passerby when she left. Nothing you couldn't duplicate with magic, but the city definitely had a beauty and weight of presence and that her beloved little village just couldn't match. Out of appreciation for that, she decided to refrain from practicing her Explosion while she was here. Even though the gently rippling waters of the lake called to her, and the plume the spell left would make the most amazing rainbows to admire as she lay waiting for her mana to recover enough to move…
Before she talked herself into doing the world either a grave sin, or a great service, her stomach rumbled again. She hurriedly finished off her roll, telling herself that eating one meal a day was a totally reasonable thing to do as she set off down the street.
Still, even with a cash flow problem there were things to do. The water garden was supposed to be worth…
"Hi there! You look lost, sweetie," a cheery voice said from beside her. "I'm Cecily, let me help!" Turning to face it, she found a blonde, blue eyed woman about her mother's age dressed in the robes and habit of an Axis priestess. Her gaze was locked onto Megumin's as she blinked wide blue eyes at her playfully.
"I'm not donating anything," Megumin said curtly, stepping back and turning away. "And don't tell me you're a long lost friend, or I won a prize, or you're being chased by someone. We use those in the village all the time." She said over one shoulder as she strode off.
The priestess' gaze turned from adoration to consideration. "I hadn't planned on any of those things…but it's true we've had a squeeze on our finances and recruiting lately…why don't you tell me more about them? I can make it worth the while."
Megumin turned back to her, giving a deeply skeptical look. Her stomach rumbled again, and Cecily smiled victoriously. "Tell you what. There's a cafe right up the street. I'll buy you anything you want."
Megumin grinned. Challenge accepted.
Later that afternoon, Megumin parted ways from her self proclaimed new best girlfriend after putting 'anything' to the test. All the while, relating what she knew of the Clan's strategies that served them well for decades in fleecing the parties who trained there, while doing her best Komekko impression on the menu.
Cecily had agreed to meet again tomorrow with the promise of a better cafe, so her food problems were solved at least for now. Provided she could remember more about what Nerimaki had told her at least. The priestess had also offered her a room at the cathedral, but…
But no, only if things got truly desperate would she go down that route, tempting as the offer to room rent free was, with her purse getting lighter seemingly by the hour...
A new bounce in her step as she went, Megumin circled the main square and water garden for the afternoon before heading back to the inn. Who knew, maybe she could con the kitchen out of some dinner leftovers?
Blessedly, on the fourth day when Megumin was seriously considering whether sleeping on the streets or taking Cecily up on her housing offer was the lesser evil, help arrived in the form of General Wolbach.
"You could've told me how expensive this place is," her student grumbled upon meeting her at the city gate. "My inn was probably kicking me out tonight."
Wolbach snorted. "If you think this is bad you should see the capital. More money flows through there in a day than here in a week, and the prices show it." She looked Megumin up and down. "Is that everything?"
She nodded gravely. "Indeed. Cast out into the world to seek my fortune alone and unaided, this is the whole sum of my mortal possessions."
"Wonderful," Wolbach replied dryly, bracing herself for a more concentrated dose of Megu-ness than she was used to.
The pair left the city, moving to an open area off the caravan parking before teleporting out.
"Welcome to New Azuchi," Wolbach announced as the light of the Teleport faded. Around them was a flagstone courtyard surrounded by a white and red painted stone wall, blocking off sight of anything except several step roofed towers visible over it. Before them was a four level structure with projecting red painted roofs rising in tiers much like the more distant ones, with a sliding paneled front door. "You know it is the Demon King's Castle. This is my residence when I'm here, do come in."
The young archwizard did so, the sliding door opening on its own at her teacher's approach to reveal a dark wood paneled hallway, open on one side to a garden. The garden itself was fairly simple, a few potted or planted small shrubs with pebbles and sand arranged between them in patterns not immediately obvious to the new arrival. She could also smell a hint of sulfur which, given she didn't seem to be in the infernal realm, was unexpected.
Seeing her confusion and twitching nose, Wolbach chuckled. "I have a small artificial hot spring here. Nothing compared to what you saw in Arcanretia, but it has its uses." She gestured to one side, towards one of the sliding wood framed doors set in the hallway wall. "Your room is through here, give your bag to that golem and it will be taken there. For now, I hope you enjoyed your stay in the Water City, because it's time to get to work."
Megumin lit up, quite literally, as she hurried to comply, Chomuske choosing to jump ship as well for first dibs on a new nap spot. Finally! The secrets she coveted so long would soon be hers!
"To start with, let's see what you're capable of." She pointed at a set of straw dummies lined up against the wall around the garden. "Destroy those as quickly as possible, without destroying the wall behind them." An easy test, but speed and finesse were as important as raw power in magic.
Megumin coughed, and looked away. "Without damaging the wall?" she asked, face coloring in embarrassment.
Wolbach sighed. She should've known. With as much power as her student had, fine control was likely still a problem, she chided herself. "Very well, just destroy them as you see fit. I can have it repaired later."
"Very well then! In that case I shall begin!" Megumin proclaimed, then flourished her staff as she began to chant:
Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark,
I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson.
The time of awakening cometh….
A ball of writhing destructive energies began to form around the gem in the staff's tip, and Wolbach's heart nearly stopped. Acting with the reflexes born of decades of magical combat experience, she pounced on her student, knocking the staff out of her hands in an instant. The freed magic buffeted the pair as it released without control, but not enough to cause real harm save to some of the wooden shingles and blowing down the targets.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! I said destroy the targets, not the city!" she bellowed. "And how do you even…" her anger slowly fizzled out, her mind catching up with her reflexes as her heaving breaths calmed. Explosion was a fifty point skill. There should be no possible way a not even fourteen year old girl, Crimson Demon or not, had gotten it…
"Card. Now." she ordered, holding out a hand.
Megumin complied, glaring back and obviously extremely miffed at having her performance interrupted. "I was just going to make a little one…"
Not believing that for a moment, Wolbach scanned the spell list and saw a whole host of available options. Just as expected of someone who grew up with a clan who used the most advanced of magics in their everyday lives. All were grayed out, however, except for one.
"Why…why is Explosion the only active spell here?" she asked, a sort of fragile calm descending on her as she handed the card back.
"Because there are no problems that cannot be solved with the use of a sufficiently large explosion!" her brilliantly idiotic student replied boastfully, quoting directly from the Crimson Demon tactical pamphlet she'd been taught from. Of course, the actual quote was 'appropriately sized' and the very next line had gone on to warn that 'can' is not always the same as 'should', but naturally Megumin had ignored that part.
"I see. And what about the second problem you face that same day?" Wolbach asked, still in that detached state.
Megumin adjusted her hat, totally coincidentally shielding her face. "If large enough…one could catch both of them within the blast radius…" She rallied, glaring at her teacher and the one person she'd thought would support her choice without question. "Why are you complaining? You're the one who showed me this spell!"
Wolbach's calm shattered, and her eyes blazed as she snarled back at her unrepentant student. "Yes, because I needed to kill a legendary monster right that second! I only even had it because when you're my age you have skill points laying around!"
Her other half that seemingly latched onto Megumin was the one who could breathe fire, but she could do a pretty good verbal imitation if she said so herself and if there was anyone who deserved it for this…this…
As she prepared to metaphorically fry the offender in her shoes, she caught sight of her face.
While Megumin's eyes glowed crimson as she matched her gaze, setting her jaw and glaring back, her face was tense and pale, and her aggressive posture was marred by anxious tremors in her clenched fists and arms.
After a long moment, Wolbach released a harsh breath and let the tension drain from her. Damnation, what would be the point? What was done was done. All anyone could do now was move forward.
Chiding herself that she was getting soft in her old age, the elder wizard stepped closer to lay both hands on Megumin's shoulders.
"Learning Explosion at your age is an incredible achievement. Never doubt it," she began, firmly but with no small amount of pride. "The list of wizards through recorded history who could have done it fits on your fingers and toes, with room left over."
Megumin relaxed in turn, both at the touch and the recognition. Seeing she was getting through to her, Wolbach went on. "However, in rushing to reach the pinnacle of your magic, you have neglected your foundation."
Megumin sputtered indignantly, likely at the mere idea that she wasn't incredibly dangerous as it was.
"A wizard must have a tool for every situation, not merely the biggest possible hammer," she admonished sternly, giving her student's shoulders a squeeze for emphasis. "Once you complete this, I shall then initiate you into the magic that we couldn't practice in your village."
This addition seemed to do the trick, Megumin quit looking away at the reminder of the oft repeated adage, her mulish expression vanishing. "Very well! Your bargain is hard, but acceptable," she allowed graciously.
"Splendid," Wolbach replied dryly. "Now then," she paused, mentally shredding an entire curriculum predicated on the idea that Megumin had chosen a sane skill build, and began the process of rebuilding one on the fly. "I think I'll have you review some of the support magic tomes. Teleport combined with Explosion could be a devastating combination, for example. As it would with Invisibility. Since both are somewhat expensive however, we shall for now be focusing on a few low hanging fruits that can be useful in many common situations when adventuring, such as Basic Magic or Ankle Snare…"
As she spoke, she released Megumin with a final pat and led her to a table and chairs in an alcove off the open hallway, gesturing a golem into existence to fetch the necessary books.
"Basic Magic?! How on earth am I supposed to hunt anything with that?" Megumin scoffed, the familiar rhythm beginning to reassert itself between them as they went.
-—-
After about two weeks of remedial instruction in all but name, Wolbach made a decision that had nothing at all to do with getting her student out from underfoot for a while.
"I have a task for you," she told Megumin one afternoon. "And I believe you're able to do a bit of independent work now."
Megumin strained to look up from where she was stretched out on her back, her staff by her side watching the dust settle from her latest demolition. A reward for learning Ankle Snare. "You found something that requires an explosion at last?! My talents are wasted on rocks and mountain goats!"
"No, but it's still something that might take your interest. All of our soothsayers reported a 'blindingly bright star' descending from the heavens near Axel. It's hard to imagine anything unusual happening in that backwater, but on the other hand it is also where the otherworlders seem to always show up first. His majesty dispatched General Beldia to investigate, but I'd like you to go on your own and see what you can find out. My web of informants is nonexistent out there, and this is as good an opportunity as any to help remedy that and give you some field experience."
Frowning mightily, the tiny terror roused herself to prop up on one elbow, the better to bestow a truly skeptical look upon her. "I'm in no way a spy. And what would I even be looking for?"
Wolbach waved her concerns away. "You don't need to be. Axel is full of new adventurers, a brand new wizard will blend in perfectly well. Just talk to people, join some parties, pick up some practical experience, and see if anything unusual has happened recently. Find out what you can, and encourage them to write to you after you leave. I doubt Beldia will tolerate being away from the action for long."
Seeing Megumin still decidedly unconvinced, Wolbach added, "If nothing else, you might start by visiting that friend of yours. Isn't she in Axel with General Wiz?"
Megumin froze. "G-general Wiz?" she asked hesitantly, sure she hadn't heard correctly.
"Well yes, quite a coup really. Turning the heir to the Crimson Demon Clan to our side, I didn't think that soft twit had it in her."
A cold, stony weight settled in Megumin's guts. Her best rival was many things, but she couldn't believe Yunyun would turn traitor. What could they even offer her? She already had everything she ever wanted.
But, someone she had grown up trusting, that the whole village had grown to trust over the years? That might be someone who could lure her away.
Gritting her teeth, Megumin staggered to her feet, ignoring Wolbach's raised eyebrows as she leaned on her staff with wobbly knees.
"When can I leave?"