Chapter 35 : The Same Night

"Haaaaaaaah...."

"Haaaaaaaaah...."

"Haaaaaaaaah...."

The guards of Orario dropped to their knees, sighing in relief once they were freed from the paralyze spell cast by Megumin. At first, they were terrified by her bright red eyes, which glowed intensely even in daylight. They thought they would end up like the unconscious bandits. Yet, none of them expected that they would be spared so easily.

"What… what was that just now…?"

"Those red eyes are seriously dangerous…"

"We couldn't move just from her gaze alone."

One by one, the guards of Orario began discussing the foe they had just encountered.

"Stop talking so much and hurry up with capture these bandits. Those who fought against Yunyun and Pikapikamaru must have more information about them,"

Shakti ordered them while raising her eyebrow. She was somewhat frustrated with the situation. They were supposed to be Orario's guards—how could they panic so easily over an enemy who hadn't even done anything to them?

The panicked guards fell silent at Shakti's command. It didn't take long for them to capture the bandits since most of them were already unconscious. Meanwhile, a few lucky bandits managed to escape, but because the guards' priority was capturing the ones left behind to gather information on Yunyun and Pikapikamaru. Chasing after the ones who fled could wait, given there were plenty of bandits still knocked out.

Shakti led the Orario guards in escorting the captured bandits to prison, where they were then interrogated by the Ganesha Familia in front of guild officials. The bandits were surprisingly cooperative and honest during questioning, and most of them provided the same information. With this, the Ganesha Familia's mission to uncover the mastermind behind the explosion magic around Orario was complete.

Through the interrogation, the Ganesha Familia and the guild gathered some useful information about Yunyun and Pikapikamaru. First, they confirmed that Yunyun was responsible for the explosion magic that had been disrupting Orario for the past several weeks. Second, they learned that Yunyun possessed two additional magic spells: one that could immobilize others with a mere glance, and another that allowed her to emit beams of light from her eyes.

From this, they concluded that these were indeed Yunyun's magical abilities. Generally, adventurers in this world are limited to three magic slots, making it almost impossible for them to wield more than three spells. However, "almost impossible" doesn't mean completely impossible; there are a few rare adventurers capable of mastering more than three spells. One such adventurer is Lefiya from the Loki Familia. As long as Lefiya knows a spell's incantation, she can cast it.

On the other hand, the Ganesha Familia and the guild had little information about Pikapikamaru. Pikapikamaru had made no moves against the bandits or when facing the Orario guards. All they knew was that Pikapikamaru had an impressive escape ability, making it impossible for the guards to track or understand how the pair managed to flee.

By the evening, once the Ganesha Familia and the guild had gathered all the information they could from the bandits, the guild immediately spread wanted posters of Yunyun and Pikapikamaru all across Orario.

Meanwhile, Kazuma and Megumin were completely unaware of the commotion outside Twilight Manor. After returning home, Kazuma escorted Megumin to her room to rest, while he spent the the day by sleeping in his own room.

...

...

...

At a shallow river within the city of Orario, Aqua and Darkness stood in the middle of the river, where the water only reached up to their waists. They were searching for river stones for Aqua's collection. Originally, Darkness had only intended to watch from the side, but Aqua forced Darkness to help her searching weird-shaped stones.

"Hey, Aqua, the sun's about to set. Let's head back. Haven't you gathered enough stones by now?"

Uncomfortable with her current situation, Darkness urged Aqua to head back to the manor. Their condition was indeed quite pitiful. Both of them were soaked, and their clothes were covered in dirt and mud.

"Ah… it's already evening. I didn't realize how quickly time passed. Alright, let's head back,"

Aqua said, looking up at the sky to see the sun setting. She wasn't so stupid that she didn't know that sunset was a sign that night would soon fall. So she readily agreed to Darkness's suggestion. Although Aqua wanted to keep searching for stones a bit longer, nighttime was a risky time for her to be wandering outside the manor.

Nighttime was the perfect time for the undead to appear, and Aqua neither knew nor wanted to find out if any undead would emerge here, seeking to be sent to heaven while she was out in the wild.

Carrying a large bag stuffed with river stones, Aqua took the lead on the walk back to the manor, with Darkness following closely behind.

"Aqua, didn't Kazuma give you a spatial ring? Why aren't you using it? We're going to draw a lot of attention like this—it's so embarrassing."

"I don't want to use that spatial ring. Darkness, you know Kazuma is so greedy. If I bring all the stones I worked so hard to collect back to the manor with this ring, Kazuma will steal them."

"Um… Aqua, I don't think Kazuma is so greedy that he'd go as far as stealing your stones. Besides, I doubt anyone would want to steal them."

On their way back to the manor, Aqua and Darkness noticed a group of adventurers gathered around what looked like a bulletin board. In the center of the crowd were two guild employees, busy putting up and distributing wanted posters around Orario.

"Excuse me, excuse me, this Goddess Aqua is coming through! What's going on here? Is something interesting happening?"

Unable to resist her curiosity at the sight of so many adventurers gathered, Aqua pushed her way into the middle of the crowd to see what was going on.

"Um… Aqua-sama, actually, this is a new wanted poster. The person on it is the mastermind behind the explosion magic that's been happening around Orario every day for the past few weeks."

The guild employee was a bit surprised to see a goddess in wet clothes suddenly appear and ask them about the situation. Despite the surprise, the employee politely answered Aqua's question.

At first, Darkness wasn't interested in the crowd, but since Aqua suddenly barged in, she had no choice but to follow her. When Darkness caught up behind Aqua, she overheard everything the guild employee had said.

Darkness couldn't help but raise her eyebrow, her face serious as she heard the words "wanted" and "explosion magic." Without even needing to look at the wanted posters, she already knew who they were talking about.

"Excuse me, may I see the wanted posters you're referring to?"

The two guild employees handed Darkness the two wanted posters. On each of them was an image of a person wearing an owl mask and a black cloak. The names on the posters were Yunyun and Pikapikamaru.

"Phew..."

Darkness felt a slight sense of relief when she saw that the names and faces on the posters weren't Megumin or Kazuma. However, she still knew exactly who the individuals behind the names Yunyun and Pikapikamaru were.

"Aqua, we can't waste any more time here. Let's go home."

Darkness tightly grabbed Aqua's hand, urging her to return to the manor as quickly as possible before Aqua started talking about things she shouldn't. Upon arriving at the manor, Darkness immediately called Kazuma and Megumin to gather in the dining room.

She forced them to sit in seiza posture in front of her and scolded them thoroughly. Meanwhile, Aqua was preparing dinner for the four of them. Every so often, Aqua peeked from the kitchen, smirking and making mocking faces at Kazuma and Megumin as they were reprimanded by Darkness.

...

.....

.....

It was already midnight, and everyone at Twilight Manor had gone to sleep—everyone except Kazuma. As a veteran night owl who usually stayed up until 3 AM to watch anime or play games, Kazuma was still wide awake.

He was reading a book in his room that he had borrowed from the manor's library. Although the books in the library weren't particularly important, because it was unlikely that Loki Familia would leave any valuable or confidential information around for Aqua Familia. The book Kazuma was reading was a story about the heroes of this world.

"The hero stories in this world are actually pretty interesting. Not like the ones in my previous world, which were filled with irresponsible Japanese reincarnates."

Knock... Knock... Knock...

"Who is it?"

Just as Kazuma was reading the most exciting parts of the hero story, he heard a knock on the door.

"Kazuma, it's me."

"Darkness?? The door's not locked, just come in."

Kazuma immediately invited Darkness in upon hearing her voice.

"Excuse me."

Darkness, a little embarrassed, entered Kazuma's room after receiving permission.

"Wait, Darkness, what the hell is going on with your clothes right now?"

Kazuma, seeing Darkness's current appearance, couldn't help but be surprised. Her outfit was extremely revealing and almost provocative. It seemed as though Darkness had intentionally dressed like this to send a clear signal to Kazuma, hoping he would take the initiative and act without hesitation. However, even Kazuma, despite the obvious invitation, still wasn't brave enough to take that first step when Darkness had presented herself like this.

"Kazuma, I'm sorry. I think I went too far earlier with the scolding."

"No, no, no... you didn't do anything wrong. It's all my fault for constantly indulging Megumin."

"But at least, let me apologize for this."

Darkness slowly approached Kazuma, who was sitting and reading a book.

"Wait... Darkness."

"Kazuma, don't say anything, I'll take responsibility for all of this. I'll talk to Megumin about it."

Without any hesitation, she placed her hand on his body and gradually lifted him up in a princess-like manner. Darkness walked slowly toward the bed while holding Kazuma carefully. Once they reached the bed, Darkness gently laid Kazuma down.

....

"AAAAAAAAH!!!!"

"HELP!!!"

"HELP ME!!!!"

As Darkness was about to do something with Kazuma, both of them suddenly heard a loud scream coming from behind the manor.

"Darkness... did you hear that?"

"Huh? Hear what? I don't think there's anything."

However, due to the distance between the back of the manor and Kazuma's room, they couldn't hear the scream clearly and decided to ignore it.

Just like the previous night, Kazuma and Darkness once again lost themselves in unmatched happiness and pleasure.

(To Be Continued)