One might expect the guild's favorite couple becoming official to cause some waves. In reality? All it did was finally put an end to the betting pool that Luna had organized amongst the adventurers. (Nobody was spot on, the closest one was actually Dust who had placed a bet as a joke.) Aqua and Kazuma still spent most of their time together and they still did their jobs. The biggest change was Aqua occasionally stealing a kiss from Kazuma or the two of them randomly holding hands.

Not too surprising since they'd already been sharing a bed.

Another month had passed since the negotiations and Kazuma was glad to see he had more than a pretty sum of money trickling in. It was only the first month and he had already made back around five percent of what he'd paid to buy the cafes from the panicking owners. A fact that made some people begin to question him.

Luna was working the counter proper, having pushed some of the book keeping off on Kazuma who was seated nearby so he could ask her any questions while she got to interact with 'her people.' It was during a lull in turn-ins she leaned on the desk, smiling as she watched Kazuma hard at work. "Kazuma, I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but you do know your debt has been paid back a dozen times over at this point, right?" She asked, wondering why her friend still worked for the guild instead of focusing on being a merchant or finally starting to adventure in earnest.

Kazume finished balancing the column he'd been on (thankfully the organization of Excel worked, even if it wasn't automated). "Because I enjoy it?" He half asked as he sat back in his chair, tilting it back as he looked up at the ceiling in thought. "I mean, I'm friends with most of the regulars at this point. Hell, other than Aqua you're probably my best friend. Combine that with that fact that Aqua is basically the Guild Nurse in all but name, keeping Megumin out of trouble, helping Darkness stay focused, make sure Dust isn't sexually harassing people…" he trailed off as he continued listing other guild members he took care of now. In his own mind, at least.

Luna's smile became slightly sappy as he continued, realizing he'd started thinking of the guild more like family than a job. She could absolutely relate. Eventually, she let out a light laugh, finally stopping Kazuma as she shook her head. "You remind me of myself when I started out" she admitted.

Kazuma was going to ask what she meant, but was brought up short by Megumin rushing up to him, bouncing with energy. "Hey, hey, Kazuma!"

"Yes, I'm Kazuma."

"I thought of a new idea! I used your idea of adding explosions to magic so I picked up a water spell to see what I could do and it worked!" She explained, clutching her staff happily as her eyes glinted in glee.

"Oh? What did you do?" Kazuma asked, tentatively trusting she didn't mess things up too badly.

"So, I learned Water Orb, and I tried channeling Explosion into it like I did with tele-splosion and kept messing with it until I got something interesting from it" she continued, trying to play it obviously before tilting her head up, looking completely smug. "And I found out a good way to make it rain locally!"

"…So, you made a ball of water burst?" He asked, confused at why that would be so impressive.

He got his answer from an unexpected source as a thoroughly soaked Darkness trudged up behind Megumin. "Megumin, why didn't you wait for me?" She asked, looking slightly hurt that she'd been left behind.

"No, Kazuma, I made it rain!" Megumin emphasized, stomping her foot in frustration as she pointed towards the door, where it was in fact raining outside.

"And how are you dry then?" He asked, willing to ignore that fact that it could have just been a freakish coincidence.

Megumin grumbled, crossing her arms in front of her and looking away. "I learned some utility magic. I might have realized that some of it can be used for dramatic effect."

Kazuma plopped his hand on her head, playfully messing her hair through her hat. "Proud of you to admit that to me. Now, it's done raining, we can go out and see if you can recreate that, alright?"

Megumin's expression was torn between grumpy and embarrassed as she looked away, her cheeks puffed out.

"Darkness, why are you soaked?" Came the voice of Aqua who was drying her hands on a towel before throwing it over her shoulder. Based on the bit of blood visible on the rag, she'd likely been taking care of people in the infirmary.

"Our littlest mage may or may not have caused it to rain" Kazuma explained, standing to give Aqua a hug.

Aqua was slightly put out, frustrated he still hadn't initiated a kiss himself but let it go for now, tilting her head in curiosity at that. "Isn't rain making a specialist spell? I didn't think Archmages could learn that."

"Hah! I didn't learn the spell, I made it!" At this point, most everyone involved were convinced it was a coincidence and that the chuuni had just let it go to her head.

As the gaggle of friends talked, a customer approached Luna. It wasn't an adventurer, but instead a portly noble that looked none too pleased by the weather himself.

Luna noticed him first, smiling and bowing. "Lord Phineas! How are you today? Did you have a quest today?"

The noble nodded, absently trying to shake the damp from his clothes. "Ah, yes Luna dear. I seem to have an issue with ghosts in my mansion. I have asked several priests of Eris to fix it, but they seem to just come back after a few days. I heard you had an Archpriestess that might be able to help?" He ventured, hope clear in his voice.

"That's me!" Aqua happily exclaimed, waving to gain his attention.

"Oh, perfect, perfect. Dear, once I make the request official, would you mind investigating? They seem to be most active at night, so if possible I'd like for your party to stay the night there." He turned to Luna for the next part, smiling, "How much might that run, Luna?"

"Well, it is a haunting within the city limits… if Aqua and her party are alright with it, I think we can be a bit generous for this. How does the pay of a low grade extermination sound?" Luna offered, knowing that the noble had fallen on hard times as of late. The haunting was just the most recent nightmare for the poor man.

"Oh, that would be lovely! Truth be told, funds are slightly tight. Until I can clean the place out and sell it, a lot of my fortune is actually tied up in moving closer to the capital" he admitted, his shoulders relaxing as Luna offered him such a low price.

"Oh? You're selling the mansion?" Luna asked, more than a bit surprised.

"Well, yes. With my children having moved on to live their own lives, it has become a bit much for just myself. I figured I'd sell it in hopes of it being put to better use."

At this, Kazuma's attention was fully caught. Strictly speaking, he didn't need a mansion, with him and Aqua still sharing a room in the guild, but the idea of owning one… it set a fire inside him he couldn't quite explain. "Oh, how much are you hoping to sell it for?" Guild clerk Kazuma was gone for the moment, it was Merchant Kazuma's time to rear his head.

-Ko-No-Su-Ba!-

"Kazuma, you are the absolute worst" Aqua complained, stubbornly latched onto his arm as he held a lantern in his other hand.

"Why? He agreed to the deal, right?" Kazuma might have done some slightly questionable dealing with the Lord, managing to bring the price far below what the value of the mansion was.

"You were quite deplorable Kazuma. You took advantage of a tired old man," Darkness chimed in, judgement clear in her voice. Quite the change since that kind of comment would usually be accompanied by her holding herself.

"Says the person who agreed to help the second I offered them a room with a balcony for succubi to land on" Kazuma bit back, Darkness looking away in shame at the completely accurate statement.

"Why am I here again?" Megumin asked, her staff glowing lightly as she gripped it tightly, jumping at any and all movement.

"Because I offered you a room and the fact that I said you could use some of the back yard to set up your own target range. Now, stop complaining, we have a job to do." What he, thankfully, didn't need to bring up, was that he'd strongly implied that the mansion would someday once again be full of the pattering feet of children. An implication that had made Aqua bashfully agree to helping him with his scheme.

Before another argument could break out, the four of them jumped in surprise as the clocks within the house started to chime, ringing out the midnight hour. At first, it seemed fine enough, but the chimes started to slow, becoming louder and closer with every repetition. By the time the tenth chime rang, the party had to cover their ears, the noise too much to handle. The ringing and clanging was joined by their shouts of terror and pain as they closed their eyes, trying to will it all to end. Even Darkness wasn't enjoying this auditory torture.

As the twelfth chime rang, it echoed throughout the house, slowly fading to silence. The four slowly gather themselves back up, shaking in fear. "Well, at least we know he wasn't kidding, right?"

That was when the playful, disembodied laughter of children started to sound around them, accompanied with the sound of small feet slapping against the floor running around them.

"Oh, fuck you Kazuma!" Megumin shouted as a doll floated behind her, terrifying the other three. Megumin was confused why the others were so focused behind her so intently before turning around, coming face to dead, doll eyed face with the mass of floating fabric.

The doll extended a hand, putting against the now frozen in terror Megumin's lips. "Shhh, no curses" came a quiet child's voice.

That was the final straw that broke the party's morale as they all shrieked and scattered, Aqua throwing divine magic around without discretion, Darkness and Megumin going one way while Kazuma tried to keep up with Aqua.

Kazuma quickly caught up to the fleeing goddess, barely keeping pace with her. "Aqua, you're a priest! Stop running and start purifying!" He shouted, fearing for his life and reliant on his somewhat dense girlfriend.

It was almost like a light switch was flipped on inside her head as she came to a skidding halt. "Oh, right." Aqua turned back towards the now veritable wall of possessed dolls, anchoring her feet. "Turn Undead!" She shouted, the dolls shuddering midair for a moment before losing their energy, dropping to the ground. "I guess I'll start the purification ritual then?" She asked, laughing lightly in embarrassment.

Kazuma lightly bopped her on the head before he started helping her. They went straight to the center-most part of the house before she got to work. Not particularly hard for her, being a goddess and all. The entire endeavor took less than a half hour, only occasionally interupted by the distant screams of terror by their other two party members.

Kazuma, having relaxed a bit from the initial panic, was leaning against the wall, trying to amuse himself while Aqua wrapped up. "Hey, Aqua."

"Yes?" Aqua asked, mostly focusing on her task, her tongue poking out slightly in focus.

"Isn't this right next to that graveyard where we met Wiz?" He asked, starting to put some things together in his mind.

"Yup! This house is probably even inside the barrier I put up there" she happily replied, feeling proud of what she'd done that day. She'd even managed to be civil to the seemingly innocent lich. After all, if demons could be alright, why not a lich?

"So, all the spirits that were amassing at the graveyard, could theoretically come here?" He clarified, anger starting to creep into his voice as he realized this was technically her fault.

"Well, I yes, but why- … oh" Aqua lamely trailed off, realizing her blunder.

Kazuma lightly bopped her on the head, letting out a sigh of frustration. "I won't say anything to the others. Just… take care of it? I mean, you did help me get a steal on this place after all. If we'd done it on purpose, it would have been a hell of a con" he admitted, letting a small chuckle out.

Aqua chuckled lightly back, glad he wasn't angrier at her for the goof up. "Uh, yeah. Thanks Kazzy…"

Kazuma froze up at that name, never having been called a nickname like that before. "Kazzy?"

Aqua looked a bit more bashful now, refusing to meet his eyes as she fiddled with her fingers. "I just thought it might be a cute nickname… do you not like it?" She asked, pouting.

"No, no! It's fine. Just, I wasn't expecting it is all" he explained, it now being his turn to be unable to look at her.

The two of them stood there in awkward silence for a moment before Aqua broke it, motioning towards her spell work. "I'm gonna finish evicting all of these spirits and set up a barrier, then we can go to bed. If that's okay… Kazzy?" She asked towards the end, a small smile on her face.

The smile was infectious as Kazuma nodded back, the nerves visibly leaving his body. "Yeah, I think I'd like that too" he admitted, a distant shout of terror stopping him though. "Maybe after we save the wonder duo though?"

-Ko-No-Su-Ba!-

The next day, the spirit issue was resolved, the deed was now officially under Kazuma's name, and he was nearly left broke for it. He didn't want to admit it, but 'losing' so much money in a single transaction bugged him far more than he'd like to admit. That said, he only even had that much money from being a bit ruthless with negotiating for the guild and the succubi. All of that was just to effectively put a down payment on the thing too, with him paying the rest back over the next several years.

Grumbling to himself as he lugged his belongings into the mansion, he and the girls were determined to, if not get unpacked, at least get their belongings into the mansion. It wasn't as hard as it could have been, with Aqua and him having little more than their clothes, Megumin only having a few sets of clothes and a small collection of 'cool' objects, with Darkness being the only one with anything more substantial in the form of her armor and maintenance kit.

One the last box of belonging was inside the living room, Kazuma collapsed onto the couch, letting out an exhausted sigh. "I hate moving. I couldn't even bribe friends with pizza to come help" he complained as Aqua plopped down next to him, looking slightly tired herself, before laying across his lap.

"What's 'pizza'?" Megumin asked as she sat on the floor, already playing with her cat Chomusuke.

"Something from where Kazuma is from. It's a kind of food. Enough of that, praise me!" Aqua demanded, puffing out her cheeks and reaching up to pull on Kazuma's own. She'd become more than a bit affection hungry since they'd become a couple.

Kazuma took it like a sport and began to gently card his fingers through her hair. "You did good, you did good" he assured her, the simple words enough to make her smile and cease her assault.

Megumin faked gagging at the display of affection, ignoring Chomusuke just long enough for the cat to meow and swat at her hand to regain her attention.

"Jealous?" Aqua asked, her face incredibly smug as she enjoyed her lap pillow.

"Pft, please. As a Crimson Demon I have no desire for such trivial-" Megumin was cut off as a loud knocking was heard on the door.

"Megumin!? Megumin!" a girl's voice came from the front door that made Megumin try to deliberately ignore it.

After a few more seconds of shouting, Kazuma spoke up. "You, uh, going to get that?"

"Get what?" Megumin tried to feign, doing a poor job of acting innocent.

"Well, if you don't I will. I don't want any crazy people from your past trying to bust in here angry after you blew something up!" Kazuma threatened, his previous chill mood destroyed in seconds.

"I don't have anybody like that after me! What do you think I do, go around blowing everything up that I can?" Megumin shouted back in indignation, pointing at the now smug Kazuma.

"I mean, you were kind of like that when you joined the guild" Aqua chimed in, glad to not be the one getting reprimanded for once. Kazuma just pointed down at Aqua, her effectively having pointed out his main argument.

The three's argument devolved from there, none of them even realizing the knocking and shouting outside had stopped. They didn't even notice Darkness coming in with an oddly dressed girl behind her. While petite, the auburn haired girl was certainly developed for her age and had the trademark eyes of the Crimson Demons.

The new girl cautiously leaned forward, watching as the fighting had escalated to pillow throwing, Chomusuke having retreated from the battlefield. "Do they always act like this?" She asked the crusader, slightly curious.

"Heh, yeah. This is our… little family, I guess" Darkness admitted, watching the three now smiling as they took out their 'rage' at each other. The fun only stopped when an errant pillow managed to crash into Darkness's face, bringing her presence to the attention of the other three. Pulling it off, she had a manic grin on her face. "Oh-ho? Perhaps we shall see if One-handed skills work on pillows? Have at you!" She shouted, diving in at the melee, pillow brandished and Yun-Yun, who was in fact their visitor, to watch in confusion. The reuniting of rivals could wait until later.