23 Chapter 23: Megumin, The One Shot Caster

Subaru was sitting by himself at the worksite and his fellow adventures had disappeared entirely.

'I guess they won't be coming back anytime soon…It's still midday so I can't leave the worksite yet. I guess I'll work for the rest of the day. Then I can talk with Megumin tonight…'

The rest of the day Subaru did nothing but work by brining wood over, painting, placing tiles and much more physical labor.

'I would have definitely preferred if I just kept investigating instead!'

The day ended with no more progress made as to how he was going to stop his death. He also wanted to save his friends but he was still worried about having to kill someone to save his life.

Everyone clocked out and he finally saw Aqua and Kazuma again bickering to eachother as usual. They walked home and saw Darkness and Megumin waiting outside the stable. They waved and so the three waved back.

'Okay, now to wait until everyone's fallen asleep…Hopefully it won't take long…'

Subaru waited for everyone to slowly fall asleep not knowing about everything going on. He wish he could sleep with no cares relating to which one of his friends he had to kill. Instead he'd prefer not being able to sleep because he couldn't afford a game on day one release. Of course that one would never be able to happen.

The stable became silent. He checked if everyone was asleep then proceeded to shake Megumin awake.

"Hey wake up." His voice was just quiet enough to be heard by the others even in such a small space.

He continued to shake Megumin until she finally awakened.

"Subaru? What do you want?"

"I need to talk with you, can you come with me?"

"But I need sleep to recover magic for my explosions…I'm still pretty tired from using one today…"

"What if I carried you out? Then you don't have to move."

"Cant you just talk here?"

"No, I kind of need us alone because I don't want the others hearing."

"….Fine…Carry me."

He picked her up and put her on his back. He walked out of the stable to one of the many stump seats outside. He placed her down and looked at her.

'Could she really be someone I have to kill…? I don't want that…Please don't become a witch…'

He sighed and then recomposed himself before beginning his interrogation.

"So Megumin, I have a few questions for you."

"Okay…? Can you make it quick so I can rebuild my energy?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't take long…First, can you tell me about your past? Like where you grew up? People you knew?"

"Well…I of course grew up in the great Crimson Demon Village where only the best arch wizards are born! I of course being one! In terms of people I knew…Just the usual people you'd know, family and stuff."

"There were no people like…strange? Or rather possibly in a cult?"

"That is a very specific thing to ask but if you must know then of course I don't know anyone in cults. Or at least I'm pretty sure, that seems like something you'd keep secret."

"True. But thanks for answering."

"Why are you asking me these things?"

"Eh, uh well…Maybe I'll explain it all later, I'm feeling pretty tired myself so let's go back to the stable."

He picked Megumin up and walked back to the stable where she was already sleeping on his back. He put her in her bed, or at least what was the closest thing to a bed, then proceeded to go to sleep himself.

Of course his worries continued as he couldn't stop thinking of questions he should've asked.

'Now that I think about it, that guy…He never did tell me if it was meant to be physically weak or mentally weak…If it was physically weak then Megumin and Kazuma would be definite runners…Aqua is definitely the mentally week one…Where would Darkness fall into actually? Sure she's a masochist and all but she's not exactly mentally weak like Aqua or physically weak like Megumin…I guess she's the least likely of the bunch but I still have to investigate her too as a precaution.'

He began to feel his eyelids grow heavier and heavier as he began to drift to sleep.

'…Actually…What's the possibility…that the witch isn't even…'

He had fallen asleep and as the Dawn of the sun woke him up he knew he was slowly running out of time. He had to complete his investigations if he was to save his life.