Despite my companion's somewhat crippling shyness, I nevertheless found myself enjoying our journey into Axel.

While I was the one who had to instigate most of our conversations, Yunyun proved to be a rather effective guide when it came to the history and customs of this world.

The lands that we were currently traveling through belonged to the Kingdom of Belzerg. Which was the main country fighting the forces of the Demon Lord because their territory overlapped with his.

The town of Axel was considered to be merely a steppingstone for those seeking the path of adventurers. Which meant that I would have plenty of time to master my newly acquired skills before I start challenging more dangerous opponents.

And perhaps the two most important pieces of information since they would shape how I went about accomplishing my 'mission'.

The first being that the Demon Lord has 8 generals leading his army. Would have been helpful to have this knowledge BEFORE I accepted the offer to be reincarnated. But I suppose its better that I discover this now instead of learning it during an unlooked-for encounter.

However, it somewhat paled in comparison to the reminder that this world, for the most part, still clung to the ideology of feudalism.

Which meant at best I had to deal with nobles who either wouldn't bend their moral code even when death was staring them right in the face or were convinced that they could treat people like crap just because their distant ancestors performed some heroic feat.

Still, I suppose it could be worse.

My chosen abilities do give me a bit of an edge if I ever do run afoul of some corrupt individual. God, or would that be Gods now since I'm not sure if there is a singular deity in the big chair, only know what would happen if I came to this world with no special skills.

I could probably already di…

"Sarlor! We need to get out of here!"

Shooting my 13-year-old guide, and damn do I still feel uncomfortable about that, a look of confusion, I felt my eyes widen as I followed her gaze. And did the only smart thing I could do since the sky was filled with a large, glowing red circle.

Ran as if Death itself was after me.

….

Though pleased that Sarlor had followed her direction, even if he did spare a quick moment to see what she was worried about, Yunyun felt only two emotions as they ran to escape the inevitable explosion.

Anger, and regret.

The latter because she blamed herself for accidentally leading her now heavily panting companion to his potential demise.

The former because this was yet another example of just how inconsiderate her rival was when it came to using her favorite and only spell.

Yes it was powerful, but it was also dangerous.

Not only to those unfortunate enough to get caught in it, but also to its caster since Megumin was foolish enough to sink all of her advancement points into improving the power of her Ex..

"I..I hope this fu…fucking works!"

Sparing her panting companion a brief look of confusion as she was pulled out of her musings, Yunyun let out an eep of fright as she found herself tacked to the ground by her savor.

Closing her eyes, for even if Sarlor's intent to shield her with his body was noble it was still ineffective, Yunyun flinched as he shouted a spell that she had never heard before.

"INVULNERABILITY!"

Opening her eyes to see her companion now covered in a light glow, Yunyun was prevented from saying anything further as two metallic wings sprouted from his back.

Surrounding the pair of them just as the inevitable clash of energy boomed throughout the forest.

…..

Standing my ground as my wings shieled us from the blast, I was instantly made aware of two things.

First being that my spell and feat combo worked.

I honestly thought they wouldn't since I had for the most part built Sarlor's character as one that didn't give support to his allies. Best shown by my decision to choose the Invulnerability spell instead of the spell that would have protected anyone within a 10 foot radius.

So the fact that making myself into an impromptu barrier of invulnerability turned out to work was a relief.

The second thing I was aware of was the nature of my position above Yunyun.

Luckily my hands were on the ground, and our bodies weren't touching.

But it was embarrassing, and judging by the girl's face, also mortifying.

"I…I apologize Yunyun. I…I thought that this would work and.."

"You…you saved me."

And now I potentially have a potential ship to deal with due to saving her life.

Lifting myself off the ground, idly noting that we were now on the only piece of ground in a 100-foot radius that wasn't slanted down into a crater, I proceeded to dismiss her response by giving her the credit for our lucky escape.

"Maybe. But if you hadn't warned me in time, we would probably be dead. Speaking of which, how the hell did you know what that thing was?!"

Receiving a look of surprise for refusing to accept full credit for our escape from death, I felt my expression morph into one of barely contained annoyance as she answered my question.

"Be…because I've seen Megumin cast that spell dozens of times. I know most members of my village tend to get a bit…distracted when they are performing their spells. But that girl's single-mindedness borders on the obsessive when it comes to casting that spell! I mean, yes its powerful, but she can't even move after casting it. AND it's the only spell she knows! I've lost count of how many times I've tried to get her to use other spells! Spells that are far safer to use for everyone around her. BUT SHE JUST WON'T LISTEN!"

Nodding my head to show that I agreed with her argument, for it sounded like this Megumin was the very definition of a one shot/glass cannon, I willed my metallic wings to disappear as I gave thought to a potential solution to this problem.

"Wonder if a high-level Counterspell would work on her. Would have to take precautions of course. Just in case I accidentally trigger it, but it should work. In theory at least."

Pulling myself out of my musings, if only because I could see that my companion was currently looking at me like I had just come up with the solution to all of life's problems, I hastily cleared my throat.

"Anyways, we should probably get moving. A blast like that, I wouldn't be surprised if more than one creature was irritated at having a nuke go off in their home."

Ignoring her look of confusion, while also briefly wondering about the potential for magical radiation, proceeded to try and climb up the edges of this newly formed crator.

Keeping it to myself that I fully intended to have words with the maniac that almost ended my journey before it could fully begin.

….

Despite the fact that her body was still numb from the excitement of releasing her full magical potential, Megumin couldn't help but feel a slight shiver of fear course through her.

It wasn't the same feeling she had gotten when her prone body was being devoured by giant toads.

Or how she felt when she realized that her current mule was a pervert after he had stolen her panties. Which actually turned out to work in her favor since it had allowed her to manipulate him to accepting her into the party when he was still ignorant about how lucky he was to have her as a member of the team.

No.

This feeling was similar to how she usually felt when her mother, or Yunyun when she was in a rare position of dominance, were about to scold her for something that even she admitted was stupid.

But for the life of her the hat-wearing Crimson Demon couldn't recall doing anything too bad.

Apart from attracting the attention of a Demon General by blowing up his castle, and getting Darkness cursed.

But that was nicely resolved thanks to Aqua's astonishing ability to enhance the Break Spell. And so far she had successfully resisted the urge to recast Explosion on that crummy Dulhallan's castle.

Although, thanks to now knowing the satisfaction of using her magic to blow up a building, she was finding it more and more difficult to derive pleasure from blowing up nature's landscape.

However, even if she couldn't think of anything that she had done to warrant her demon foresight going off, that didn't mean that she couldn't pinpoint the source of her potential misfortune.

And wasted no time in ensuring that her position was clear on the matter.

"Just so we're clear Kazuma, this isn't a date. So don't get any weird ideas."

Smirking as her current mode of transportation sputtered in anger, Megumin's amusement turned into anger.

"As if I would ever want to date a little girl like you. I know you, Darkness, and Aqua think that I'm just a pervert, but I assure you that my taste in women is to the highest standards."

She wasted no time in putting a pin in this delusion.

"Really? Cause it seems to me that every time we meet a pretty girl, your desire for women's underwear overrides your common sense. Which I suppose is partly my fault. I was considered to be the most beautiful Crimson Demon back in my village."

A blatant lie, but one that she was more than happy to believe, even if the entirety of her class had gained all that useless fat in their chests.

But as usual, Kazuma was more than ready to refute her in a manner that was highly disrespectful.

"Well if you're the pinnacle for Crimson Demon Beauty, I might seriously consider my stance on either Darkness or Aqua. Sure one is a full blown masochist, whose perversions are more than extreme than my own perfectly healthy interest in the womanly form, and the other is an egotistical failure of a crybaby. But at least they have the jiggling proportions that you currently lack."

She couldn't really do anything but growl in frustration at the reminder that her body currently lacked the useless fat that was carried around by their teammates.

And there was no way in Hell that she was going to tell him that one of the reasons why she loved Explosion, apart from the tingling sensation that came from a display of her awesome power, was because she believed that it would eventually give her a chest that could rival that of her pink-haired Idol.

But that didn't mean that she couldn't think of ways in which to properly punish Kazuma for his insensitivity.

Darkness would probably be of little help, for despite her interests she was the most upstanding member of the party.

But Megumin was certain that Aqua would want to help her teach Kazuma a lesson that there were some things one didn't say to beautiful young ladies like them.

And, if she played her cards right, she MIGHT just be able to convince the blue-haired arch priestess to serve as a temporary replacement for Kazuma's role as her post Explosion courier.

Because while pranking the easily irritated boy was good, she needed a proper form of stress relief.

Which at this point could only be accomplished by targeting the residence of a certain Dulhan.

….

"Hello. Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild. My name's Luna. How may I help you today."

Briefly shooting my companion a look to ensure that she was ok with me taking the lead on this, I cleared my throat and introduced myself to the rather curvaceous receptionist.

"Well, my companion and I were hoping to become registered adventurers here in Axel. Hopefully that isn't too big of an issue?"

Flashing her what I hoped was a polite but charming smile, something that I always struggled with since my confidence in my previously life wasn't exactly the greatest, I was pleased to see Luna respond to it cheerfully.

"Oh certainly! If the two of you can just fill out these forms, and hand over the required 1000 Eries for the registration fee, I can hand you your guild cards."

Well.

This sucked.

Because in my haste to ensure that I had all the skills and items of my character, I forgot to add the amount of money I had. Which last I recalled was hovering around 98,000 gold coins.

Even if the currency was different, I could have melted it down and sold it for whatever the going price of gold was.

But sadly, no such luck.

"2…2000 thousand gold for the both of us? I can pay that."

Turning my attention towards Yunyun, before quickly withdrawing my gaze since it rapidly became obvious that she didn't keep her wallet in her skirt, I allowed my tone to become a touch firm as I made my position clear.

"I appreciate the gesture Yunyun. Truly I do. But you've already done so much for me at this point. It would be rather rude of me to continue relying on your generosity without reciprocating."

Turning my full attention to Luna, who had been watching this exchange with a smile, I gave her my most charming smile as I tried to do my first active persuasion check.

"I don't suppose you could waive my initial registration fee in exchange for subtracting it off my first completed quest? You may even double the amount I owe if it takes me longer than 48 hours to complete it."

For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the conversations of the relaxing adventurers. With a few of them chuckling at my attempts to sweet-talk Luna into accepting my offer.

However, those looks of amusement quickly turned into glares as soon as they heard the buxom blond woman's reply.

"Welllll, normally I'd say no, but I suppose that if you make your deadline, I could grant you a probationary guild member. With the promise to upgrade it once you come back."

Fighting the urge not to cheer at having successfully passed my persuasion check, I managed to keep my expression relatively mild as Luna handed me what appeared to be a blank card.

"Just touch this, and both you and the guild can know what your current class, and skill set is."

Reaching out to accept the offered card, a sudden flash of inspiration struck me as I turned towards my shyly mumbling companion.

"Why don't you go first Yunyun?"

While my suggestion snapped the girl out of her mood, judging by the way she was acting like a scared rabbit I could tell that by making her the center of attention might have been a bit too much for her.

…..

She wasn't sure which was worse.

The fact that she was now drawing the gazes of dozens of adventurers, which sadly included that blond boy who convinced her to wear more revealing clothing than she was used to, she couldn't quite recall if his name was Dirt or Soot.

Or the fact that her companion, who had previously been flirting with an attractive older woman, was now trying to get rid of her.

She had expected this to happen.

Eris knows that many of her schoolmates had merely used her to get what they wanted before they returned to acting like she wasn't even in the room.

But it still hurt.

Mostly because she had allowed herself to believe that perhaps she wouldn't be beginning as a solo adventurer.

However, she had gotten used to the idea that she would be alone.

And therefore timidily accepted Sarlor's suggestion.

"O…okay. If that's what you want."

Seeing him nod his head, Yunyun felt her eyes widen in shock at his next suggestion.

'Perfect. Then after you've registered, why don't you pick a quest that isn't two difficult for us to do while Luna walks me through the details? Nothing too complicated of course, since I doubt that we are at the stage where we can take out a high leveled monster. But I'm sure that we can probably handle something easy like a troll or something."

Us?

We?

Those were the words that echoed in Yunyun's head as Sarlor proved her fears wrong.

Leaving her with a smile, even as Luna inadvertently drew more attention to her thanks to her gasp of astonishment.

"W…well my dear, according to your card, you meet all the requirements to be an Archwizard. Not surprising of course since you're a member of the Crimson Demon tribe. Advanced and Immediate magic. High intelligence, maybe slightly above average when it comes to physical capabilities. And most importantly for your class, you have a high amount of MP. Surely much more than that other girl."

Missing that last point since she concentrated on keeping her cool as she was lauded with praise, the brown-haired girl felt her expression turn nearly red as her ribbons as her companion made his own approval known.

"That's fantastic Yunyun. First day on the job, and the Guild is already praising your skill set. Good job."

These words pushing her past her limit, Yunyun hastily bowed in gratitude before rushing towards the clearly marked quest board.

For the sooner she picked a quest, the sooner they could leave.

…..

ANNNNND this is where I will end this chapter.

Still laying the groundwork for the meeting between Sarlor and Kazuma's party.

But I believe this was important in terms of character development. Especially Yunyun since it will take time to make her more confident in her abilities/help reduce her feelings of shyness.

Also, just going to clear this up because numerous people have mentioned it, I WILL be following the points rule of Konosuba for this story. BUT, Sarlor doesn't, or didn't considering he was there as Luna explained Yunyun's card, know the rules quite yet, still thinking in terms of slot allotment and ability checks instead of MP and Stamina bars. Also that his decision to blend official and homebrew on his character sheet instead of full out maxing out everything is a result of having DMs who are ok with SOME homebrew content, but not too much.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this.

Pls review. No flames.

Til next time.