3

On a hill, far away from town.

There was a public cemetery for poor and homeless people.

The dead were buried in this world.

A hole would be dug and they'd be covered with earth.

Our quest this time was defeating the undead monsters that were emerging from the cemetery.

It was almost evening.

We set up a tent near the cemetery and waited for night to fall.

"Slow down, Kazuma, I saw that meat first! Here, the vegetable on this side's done, so eat this instead!"

"After the cabbage hunt, I don't like eating vegetables anymore. I'm afraid of the vegetable flying off somewhere if I grill it."

We set up a hot plate some distance away from the cemetery, barbecuing as we waited for dusk.

We spent the time leisurely, even though it was a hunting quest because the target was a small fry known as a zombie maker.

It was an evil spirit that controlled zombies, possessing high-quality corpses while manipulating several zombies as minions.

This monster could be defeated by a novice party, so we took on this quest.

So even though Darkness didn't have her armour, it wasn't too dangerous for her.

After finishing our meal, I poured coffee powder into a mug, added water with Create Water, and used the Tinder spell to heat the mug.

This was Basic Magic taught to me by a mage I met during the cabbage hunt.

As its name suggested, Tinder was a spell to light a fire and posed no offensive threat.

But, to me, it was an important spell that could replace a lighter.

Megumin looked at me with a complicated expression and held out her cup.

"… Excuse me, please give me some water. I feel that Kazuma's more proficient than me in using magic. No one uses basic spells, but you make it look convenient."

I cast Create Water into Megumin's cup.

"Is that so, isn't this the way to use basic spells? Oh right, Create Earth! … Hey, what's this spell used for?"

I showed Megumin the dusty earth on my palm.

There were all sorts of basic elemental spells, but I wasn't sure how to utilize this earth elemental magic.

"Well, the crops grown from magically created earth are high in quality… That's it."

After listening to Megumin's explanation, Aqua beside me burst into laughter.

"What, Kazuma wants to plow the land? Are you changing jobs to a farmer? You could use Create Water for the plants too! This job's a great fit for you, puhehe!"

I faced Aqua with my right palm and raised my left hand.

"Wind Breath!"

"Puhe, ahhh! Ah–! My eyes!"

A gust of wind blew the dust onto Aqua's face; the goddess rolled on the ground after the sand got into her eyes.

"… I got it, so that's how you use this spell."

"No, normal people don't use it that way! And why are you using basic spells better than a mage!?"

. 

"… It's getting cold. Hey Kazuma, our quest's to take down the zombie maker, right? I have a feeling it won't be a small fry, but a big shot undead."

It was late at night and the moon had risen.

Aqua had commented suddenly.

"… Hey, don't say such ominous things. What if you really jinx the quest? Our quest for the day's to defeat one zombie maker and return the zombies to dust. We can then go back to the stables and sleep. We'll also go back immediately if anything out of the ordinary happens. Understand?"

Everyone nodded and agreed with me.

It was about time.

We walked toward the cemetery with me in the lead as I'd learned Enemy Detection from Chris.

Aqua's words made me worry. But this goddess always said unpleasant things, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

… Probably.

… Hmm?

"What's this, I feel a strong presence. It should be the effect of Enemy Detection. Enemies ahead. 1, 2 3, 4…?"

… Strange, there were too many.

I heard there should be just 2 or 3 zombie minions around a zombie maker.

But this was still within the margin of error…

As I was thinking that, blue and white lights suddenly shone from the middle of the cemetery.

… What was happening?

That white light seemed evil and fantasy-like.

The clearly visible blue light was a giant magic circle.

At the edge of the magic circle was a figure in black robes.

"… Hmm? I think… That isn't a zombie maker…"

Megumin said unconfidently.

Beside the black-robed figure were several fluttering shadows.

"Are we going in? Even if that isn't a zombie maker, anyone staying in the cemetery at this hour's probably an undead. If that's the case, then it wouldn't be a problem with Archpriest Aqua around."

Darkness took out her sword and appeared anxious to move on.

Calm down, you.

Aqua made an exaggerated action now.

"Ah–!"

I didn't know what the suddenly shouting Aqua was thinking as she charged at the robed figure.

"Wait! Hey, wait up!"

The charging Aqua ignored me and rushed toward the figure, pointing at it with her finger.

"How dare you show up here, lich! I'll take care of you!"

Lich.

On par with vampires, they were top-tier among the undead.

High-level mages could desert their mortal bodies through magical arts and become the immortal known as the 'overlord of death'.

Unlike the undead monster that rose because of strong grudges, a lich twisted the order of nature and were existences which defied the gods.

A powerful monster akin to a final boss…

"Stop, stop–! Who are you? Where'd you come from and why are you destroying my magic circle? Stop! Please stop?"

"You're noisy, shut up undead! You must be thinking of using this suspicious magic circle for devious means, I'll stomp it! Stomp!"

The powerful monster grabbed onto Aqua's waist in tears, attempting to stop her from stepping on the magic circle.

---------------------------->

The minions beside the lich didn't move in to stop the two of them wrestling with each other and just blankly stood there, watching them.

… Eh–what should I do?

In any case, she didn't seem to be a zombie maker.

Aqua claimed that the person she was entangled with was a lich, but the way I saw it, she was just a pitiful passerby being picked on by a hooligan.

"Stop–! Please stop–! This magic circle's used to send the wandering spirits to heaven! Look! The spirits are floating from the magic circle toward the sky, right?"

Just as the lich said, lots of wisp-like, bluish-white objects that came from nowhere drifted into the magic circle and were rising up into the sky along with the light of the magic circle.

"You're acting too arrogant for a lich! An Archpriest like me will perform such benevolent acts, so just scram! You're taking too much time, watch me purify the whole cemetery along with you!"

"Eh? Wait, stop!"

The lich started to panic when she heard Aqua's words.

But Aqua ignored her, opened her arms and shouted:

"Turn Undead–!"

A white light encompassed the entire cemetery with Aqua in the middle.

The light seemed to be gushing out from Aqua's body, and caused the zombies around the lich to vanish upon contact.

It was the same with the spirits gathering at the magic circle of the lich, they disappeared when Aqua's light reached them. The lich was also basked in that light…

"Hya–! My, my body's fading! Stop, my body's disappearing! I'll be purified!"

"Ha, foolish lich! Your existence goes against the law of nature, an undead which defies the will of the gods! Disappear, be vanquished by my power!"

"Hey, stop it!"

I stood behind Aqua and knocked the back of her head with the hilt of my sword.

"…! That hurts! Why'd you hit me!?"

Her focus was broken when the back of her head was hit and she stopped emitting light, held her head and scolded me with tearing eyes.

Darkness and Megumin caught up to us. I ignored Aqua and spoke to the lich, which was trembling while curled up in a ball.

"Hey, are you fine? Um… May I address you as 'Lich'?"

Looking closely, the feet of the lich had turned translucent and were on the verge of disappearing.

Her feet slowly became opaque again and the lich stood up unsteadily with teary eyes.

"I-I-I'm fine… Thank, thank you for saving me from that crisis…! Um, you're right, I'm a lich. My name's Wiz."

After that, she took off the hood she was wearing. Under the moonlight, she seemed to be a beautiful, brown haired woman around twenty years of age.

I thought a lich would have a skull-like face.

Wiz wore a black robe in the style of an evil witch.

No, since she was a lich… She was an evil witch, right?

"Eh, Wiz? What are you doing in this cemetery? You said you wanted to send the spirits to heaven… Now, I don't want to agree with Aqua, but that shouldn't be what a lich like you should be doing, right?"

"What are you doing Kazuma!? Be careful or you'll get contaminated and turn into an undead! Let me cast Turn Undead on her!"

Aqua became agitated after hearing what I said and wanted to cast a spell on Wiz.

Wiz hid behind me with a troubled and terrified expression.

"B-Because as you can see… I'm a lich, the overlord of the undying. As the overlord, I can hear the voices of the spirits wandering in the world. Most of the spirits in this public cemetery don't have money and didn't have a proper burial, so they couldn't move on to the afterlife and haunted the cemetery every night. Since I'm an overlord, I'd visit periodically and send the children on their way."

… My eyes were tearing up.

What a good person.

Apart from the counter lady, she was probably the first normal person I met since coming to this world.

Ah, though I guess she was technically not a human.

"I think that's a wonderful thing, but… Although I'm not Aqua, wouldn't it be better to leave this to the priest in this town?"

In response to my query, Wiz was hesitant to speak as she peeked at the unhappy Aqua, finally saying:

"B-Because… The priests in this town are materialistic… Eh, no. I mean… The rites for those without money would be pushed down their waiting list… Something like that…"

It was probably hard to say it in the presence of the Archpriest Aqua.

"You mean the priests in this town are people who worship money? The public cemetery which is full of poor people is basically ignored by them, right?"

"W-Well, that's how it is…"

Everyone gazed at Aqua silently while she averted her eyes from everyone.

"Since that's the case, then it can't be helped. But could you stop animating the zombies? We're here because of a quest to defeat the zombie maker."

Wiz was troubled by what I said.

"Ah, I see. But I didn't animate them, the corpses that are intact would rise automatically due to my magic every time I come. Um, I won't have any reason to visit if the spirits in the cemetery don't wander anymore and return to heaven… So, how should we resolve this?"

. 

We left the cemetery and were journeying back to town.

"I can't accept this!"

Aqua was still fuming.

Dawn was just about to break.

"It couldn't be helped; she was such a nice person. You couldn't bear to kill her, right?"

We decided to let that lich off.

At the same time, we came to a consensus for the idle Aqua to purify the cemetery periodically.

Fortunately, no matter how bad Aqua was, she still was a goddess. She knew that purifying the undead and wandering spirits was her job.

But she threw a tantrum because her sleeping time would be reduced.

Megumin and Darkness were hesitant about letting a monster off, but they agreed after learning Wiz had never attacked a human before.

I looked at the paper Wiz gave to me and said:

"But for a lich to live normally in town, the security's really lacking."

The piece of paper had Wiz's address on it.

That lich seemed to be living life as a normal human in our town.

She even said she was running a small magic item shop.

I told her my impression of liches dwelling in dungeons and she replied that it wasn't convenient and there was no reason to live there.

Liches were once humans too, so I knew what she meant.

I did understand, but since coming to this world my fantasies about alternate worlds have been shattered.

This wasn't the kind of world I was hoping for.

"We were lucky things turned out so well in the end. Even with Aqua here, the opponent was still a lich. If we really had fought, Kazuma and I would definitely be dead."

Hearing Megumin say that nonchalantly, I was stunned.

"Eh, are liches such dangerous monsters? Would it have been a tough fight?"

"It's much worse than that! Liches have a high magic defense, so nothing can harm her except enchanted weapons. She can trigger all sorts of abnormal statuses just by touching her enemies, and she can also drain their life and mana; she's a legendary immortal monster. What surprised me was that Aqua's Turn Undead had such a great effect on such a powerful being."

I almost lost control of my bowels.

That was right, she was the boss of the undead after all.

When I heard she was willing to teach me the skills of a lich, I took her name card gleefully. When I visit her to learn new skills, I must remember to bring Aqua along.

"Kazuma, give me the name card. I want to set up a holy barrier around the home of that woman and make her cry."

"Please let her go."

On second thought, it'd be better not to take Aqua along…

As we were thinking about that, Darkness said quietly:

"By the way, what about the quest to defeat the zombie maker?"

"Ah."

Quest failed.

. 

"Have you heard? Rumour says that a General of the Demon King's army has taken over the old castle on that hill a short distance away from town."

In the corner of the bar operated by the guild.

I was listening to a man sitting at my table and drinking during the day.

I wasn't drinking beer though, but Neroid Swish.

What was Neroid?

What was Swish?

I only tried it out of curiosity since the people told me this was the non-alcoholic beverage of choice among patrons…

If you asked me if it was good, I could only answer it in this way:

… Um, I don't know.

But I knew what swish meant.

It was the texture you felt when you drank it.

This wasn't a carbonated drink. I didn't really get what the swish texture was, but this feeling could only be described as swish.

I finished the Neroid and placed the cup on the table…

"A Demon King's General. That sounds bad, but it has nothing to do with us."

"That's right."

The man before me agreed with my negative and irresponsible words.

There was an unexpectedly huge crowd of people chatting in the guild, and I could hear many interesting topics.

For example, the places to avoid taking quests in because dangerous monsters have been spotted there.

I had a hard time just surviving since coming to this world and had never gathered intelligence in this way before.

Collecting information was the most important step to avoid raising flags.

Talking about such things in a bar had an adventurer-like feeling, so it made me happy.

The man sitting opposite me said:

"Anyway, it's better not to approach the abandoned castle to the north of town. This isn't the capital of the kingdom, so who knows what a Demon King's General is doing here. But since it's a general, it's probably an ogre lord, vampire, archdemon or dragon. No matter what it is, it'll be a monster that can kill us instantly. It'd be best not to take any quests around that place for now."

After thanking the man, I left my seat and returned to the table my party was at…

"… What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Aqua, Darkness and Megumin took small mouthfuls of the vegetable sticks in the cup at the centre of the table as they stared at me.

"Nothing– I wasn't worried about Kazuma joining another party or anything."

Aqua said as she looked at me with uneasy eyes.

"…? Eh, I was just gathering information. That's what adventurers do."

I took a seat at their table and reached for a vegetable stick.

Dodge.

The vegetable stick dodged my outstretched hand.

… Hey!

"What are you doing, Kazuma?"

Aqua slammed the table, making the vegetable sticks jump in surprise.

While they were momentarily in the air, Aqua grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth.

"… Hmm. You looked so happy. You were really having fun chatting, Kazuma. Were you that close with members of the other parties?"

Megumin slammed the table with her fist, picked up the vegetable stick that was too scared to move and shoved it in her mouth.

"… What's this refreshing feeling? Seeing Kazuma being on good terms with the other parties, the melancholic feeling's mixed with something good. Could this be the legendary NTR…?"

<TL Note: NTR (netorare) refers to the fetish of getting aroused by being cuckolded>

That crazy pervert who was spilling nonsense flicked the edge of the cup with her finger and grabbed a vegetable stick nimbly.

"What's with all of you? Isn't collecting intelligence in such a place what adventurers do…?"

I hit the table as I spoke and reached for a vegetable stick…

Dodge.

"… What's with this dodging–!?"

"S-Stop–! What are you doing to my vegetable sticks!? No, don't destroy the food!"

I grabbed the cup containing the vegetable sticks and prepared to throw it against the wall, but Aqua, who was on the verge of tears, restrained my hand.

"How dare a mere vegetable look down on me! It's a little late to say this, but… But how can the vegetables run!? Can you please serve food that is already dead!?"

"What are you talking about? Be it fish or vegetable, it tastes better if it's fresh, right? Haven't you heard of killing it and serving it on the spot?"

Then kill it before serving it!

I gave up on eating the vegetable sticks.

"Right… Forget it, let's ignore the vegetables for now, I've got something important to ask you. I was thinking about what new skills to learn after leveling up. To be honest, the composition of this party's too unbalanced. So I'm thinking of making up for our weakness since I have the most flexible job. By the way, what skills have all of you learned?"

Indeed, in order to take on more difficult quests, it was important to consider the teamwork of the party before learning any new skills.

That was what I thought when I came to discuss things with them, but…

"My skills are centred around Physical Defense, Magical Resistance and Abnormal Status Resistance. I also have a skill called Decoy that's used to taunt the enemy."

"… Don't you plan to learn something like Two-handed Sword to increase your attack accuracy?"

"I don't plan to. It might sound like I'm boasting, but my stamina and strength are great. If my attacks land easily, I could easily defeat monsters without taking damage. And it's not good to hold back intentionally. This is how things should go: Attacking with all my might but not being able hit the enemy and being captured as my strength wanes. That's the best."

"Enough you, shut up."

"… Hahaha…! You're the one who asked, but to treat me like this…"

I decided to ignore Darkness as she panted with a red face.

I looked at Megumin, who tilted her head and said:

"Of course, I learned explosion-related skills… Explosion, Explosion Damage Increase, Fast Chanting, et cetera. All the skills needed to cast the perfect explosion spell. It's the same as before and will be so in the future."

"… Do you have no intention of learning something like mid-tier magic?"

"I don't plan to."

This girl won't do either…

"As for me…"

"There's no need."

"Ahem?"

Aqua was planning to explain her skills, but I shut her up immediately.

It was just party tricks, party tricks and party tricks anyway.

And so…

"Why can't this party get its act together…? Maybe I should think about switching parties…"

"!"

My soft mumbling surprised the three of them.

. 

– A few days after the emergency cabbage hunt quest.

All the cabbages captured back then had been sold.

And the adventurers got their bounties.

"Kazuma, look! I earned a lot, so I upgraded the armour I sent in for repair. How does it look?"

Inside the adventurer's guild filled to the brim with people collecting their bounties, Darkness happily showed me the armour she got back from the repair shop.

If I wanted to put it simply…

"This armour looks like something the upstart son of nobility would wear."

"… Kazuma's merciless regardless of the situation. Even I want to hear an honest compliment from time to time."

Darkness said with a dejected expression.

How could I tell?

Anyway…

"There's someone even worse, so I don't have the time to play with you. Could you please take care of that pervert before she drops lower than you?"

"Huff… Huff… I can't, I can't take it! The magic of this manatite staff, the colour and glister… Huff…Huff…"

Megumin was hugging her decked out staff and grinding her face against it.

Manatite was a rare metal said to have special properties. Utilizing it in building a staff would increase the power of its spells.

Megumin had been acting this way ever since she upgraded her staff with her earnings.

I heard the power of the explosion spell would increase by a dozen or so percent.

Why are you increasing the power of explosion magic which is already overpowered?

Instead of doing that, shouldn't you be learning magic that can be more convenient? I had plenty of similar questions on the tip of my tongue, but I really didn't want to bother with Megumin as she is currently, so I decided to ignore it.

I was already satisfied after collecting my rewards.

Darkness who attracted the monsters towards her.

Megumin who destroyed those monsters with a single spell.

And Aqua who chased the cabbages on her own without caring about these two.

We decided to not split the earnings from the cabbage hunt and collected our own bounties.

The one who suggested this was Aqua, whose harvest was only second to mine.

And that person was waiting her turn to collect the bounty, but…

"What'd you say–? Wait, what's this?"

Aqua's voice reverberated through the guild.

"Hey…! How could this be…!"

As expected, Aqua was arguing with the person manning the counter.

She grabbed the collar of the counter lady and was protesting something.

"Why's there only 50,000 eris!? Do you know how many cabbages I caught!? It's more than 20!"

"Um, this is hard to say…"

"What!?"

"… What Aqua-san turned in was mostly lettuce."

"… Why was lettuce mixed in there!?"

"Even if you ask me that, I wouldn't know!"

From their conversation, there seemed to be a problem with the bounty.

Aqua probably realized there was no use in arguing with the counter lady. She put her hands behind her and approached me with a smile.

"Ka~zuma-san! How much did you get from this quest?"

"A little over a million."

"A million!?"

Aqua, Darkness and Megumin were stunned beyond words.

Indeed, I earned a small fortune from the sudden quest.

The cabbages I caught were mostly high-grade cabbages that yielded plenty of experience points.

This was the difference in our luck.

"Kazuma-sama–! How should I put this, I always thought you were such a great person!"

"Don't push yourself if you can't think of any ways to compliment me. Let me say this first: I've already decided on how to utilize the money, so I won't give you any."

After hearing me interrupt her, Aqua's smile stiffened.

"Kazuma-san–! I thought I'd earn a lot from the quest, so I spent all the money on me these past few days! I estimated I'd make a killing, so I owe nearly 100,000 eris in this bar! I can't pay it off with the bounty!"

I pulled Aqua who was crying as she clung on me off. As I pressed on my temples, I wondered why this girl couldn't think things through carefully.

"I don't care, you're the one who wanted 'everyone to keep their own earnings'. Anyway, I should find a house for myself. It's uncomfortable to keep staying in the stables, right?"

Normally, adventurers wouldn't buy a house.

Because adventurers didn't seek stability and travelled a lot.

The reason why there were so few successful adventurers were due to most of them making only enough to get by.

To be honest, it was impossible to take down the Demon King with these members. I was on the verge of giving up.

The job of fighting the Demon King's army should be left to the people sent here before me who had gotten powerful abilities and equipment.

After all, I had the basic job anyone could take, the weakest job, Adventurer.

And unlike those who'd trained to be adventurers from the beginning, all my stats were low; I was really a commoner you could find anywhere.

After adventuring in a safe place to satisfy my curiosity, I'd be satisfied in spending the rest of my days leisurely.

Hence, I was planning to find a small house to rent and buy if it was cheap enough.

Aqua looked like she was about to cry as she grabbed onto me tightly.

"Why did it turn out like this? Ahhh! Please, Kazuma, lend me money! Just enough to pay off my debts! I know Kazuma's a boy and you'd do sneaky things in the stables sometimes, so I understand why you want a private room! 50,000! Just 50,000's enough! Please–!"

"I get it, 50,000's just chump change! I really get it, so shut up!"

. 

"Kazuma, let's hurry and find a quest! One with lots of weak monsters! I want to test the power of my new staff!"

Megumin suddenly said.

Yeah.

"You're right, when we were hunting the zombie maker, I didn't have time to test out my new skills. Let's find a safe and simple quest."

"No, let's find a quest that can earn lots of money! I cleared my tabs, so I don't even have money for food today!"

"No, let's find one with strong enemies! One with monsters that have strong attacks and are tough as nails…!"

Hey, there should be a limit on how disunited a party could be.

"Anyway, let's decide after looking at the bulletin board."

Everyone followed my suggestion and moved to the bulletin board.

And…

"… Weird? Why are there so few requests?"

Indeed, the board was usually full of requests.

But there were only a few today.

Also…

"Kazuma! Pick this one, this one! A giant bear showed up in the mountains, its name is Black Fang…"

"Rejected! Hey, what's this? Why are there only high-difficulty quests left!?"

Precisely, all the quests left on the board were beyond our capabilities.

As we were filled with doubt, a staff member came to us.

"I'm sorry… A Demon King's General seemed to have moved into a small castle near town… It might've been the influence of the general, but the weak monsters in the region have all lain low, resulting in a drastic drop in quests. A band of knights dispatched from the capital will be here next month to take out the general. But before that, there are only high-difficulty quests left…"

When she heard the staff member say that, the penniless Aqua screamed.

"Why–!?"

… Even I was feeling sympathetic toward Aqua.

"Really… Why did he pick this moment to move here!? I don't know what this general is, but it'd better watch out if it's an undead!"

Aqua complained in tears as she browsed through the employment magazine.

The other adventurers were feeling the same and seemed down. There were more people getting drunk in broad daylight.

I didn't know why the general chose to move here.

Frankly speaking, most of the adventurers in this town were about our level.

There were many parties stronger than us, but their powers were still limited.

This was the first town novice adventurers visited, a place for beginners to learn the basics.

In gaming terms, a Demon King's General should be a character that appears toward the end.

We had a hard time fighting toads, so there was no way we could take on a general no matter how many of us there were.

. 

"That means that before the powerful adventurers and knights from the capital arrive here next month, we can't work as usual."

"That's how it is… During this period when we can't do quests, I'll need you to accompany me…"

I came with Megumin to the outskirts of town.

There were no dangerous monsters around town right now.

After the Demon King's General arrived, the weak monsters all hid themselves in fear.

I came along with Megumin, who couldn't use Explosion because we couldn't take on quests, for a walk.

This girl had something she needed to do every day, which was casting her Explosion.

Would I need to accompany this fellow out here every day for the entire month?

I thought about ignoring Megumin and asked her to go alone, but she countered that no one would be carrying her on the way back.

"Here should be far enough, right? Hurry up, cast your spell so we can head back."

A short distance from town, I rushed Megumin to cast her spell.

But Megumin shook her head and said:

"No, the guards will lecture me again if we do this too close to town."

"You said 'again' just now, right? Because it was too loud?"

Megumin nodded to acknowledge me.

It couldn't be helped. I felt a bit uneasy without my weapon, but there were no monsters around anyway.

And so, I decided to hike a bit further.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't have many chances to walk around outside leisurely like this.

My trips outside were usually for hunting monsters or quests.

Not a casual stroll like this…

"…? What is that, an abandoned castle?"

On the hills some distance ahead.

An ancient, dilapidated castle was erected there.

It looked just like a haunted house…

"It feels creepy… As if there are ghosts residing in there…"

I mumbled to myself…

"Let's pick that place! No one will complain even if I destroy a ruin like that."

Megumin happily prepared the spell after she finished.

A breeze blew through the hills, making me feel refreshed.

The chanting of the explosion spell that didn't fit in with the comfortable atmosphere was carried off by the wind…!

… And so, Megumin and I started our new daily routine.

The penniless Aqua was working hard every day.

Darkness said she would return home to train.

The idle Megumin went to the abandoned castle to cast her explosion spell daily without fail.

Whether it is a cold evening with icy rain…

… Or a lazy afternoon after lunch.

… Or a refreshing morning when she went for a stroll.

But no matter the time, Megumin would cast her spell at that castle every single day…

And I watched Megumin's spell every day, and was even able to judge whether the condition of the explosion spell was good or bad.

"Explosion–!"

"Oh, that seemed pretty good. The impact of the explosion could be felt through my bones, followed by the air tremors which trailed immediately after. It's strange that the abandoned castle remains intact but… What an explosion!"

"Great explosion! Kuku, Kazuma understands the way of explosions more now. Your comment today hit the mark and was poetic, so… How about it? I'm not just talking about this casually; Kazuma do you want to seriously consider learning Explosion magic?"

"Yeah– the path of explosions is interesting… But from the composition of our current party, there's no need for two mages. But when I retire from adventuring and have leftover skill points, it would be interesting to use them to learn explosion magic."

Megumin discussed such things with me with a smile.

Just like this, we had conversations about explosions. We'd rate them based on things like their sound (not just the volume, but other factors like the pitch as well), and just chatted about the path of explosions in general.