It's late morning. We're currently sleeping in our mansion in Axel City. We just arrived back here three hours ago because the wedding reception went far longer than we expected. Aqua picked up where Megumin left off and just kept singing different songs.
Aqua passed out at three AM mark and that's when the reception is officially over.
On my right, I can feel Megumin shifting a little beside me. I turned towards her, staring at her sleeping form. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing a pair of bright red eyes. She smiled at me for a moment before she suddenly cringed.
"Aah…" she sat up and groaned in pain. "Why isn't the ring doing anything?! I thought it's supposed to heal you!"
"Yeah, that's what I thought too," I told her while trying my best to ignore my head. "Had a good night sleep?"
Megumin shot me a look.
"We barely slept, you animal"
"I think it's your fault,"
"No it's your fault,"
"No it's your fault because… You know what? This conversation is going nowhere, let's just get this day started,"
"Yeah, let's do that…"
…
After our daily morning routine, we made it down to the living room. There we saw Aqua and Liz fighting for what seems to be a G*me B*y. Beside them sat Darkness, watching the two of them bicker with a tired look on her face.
"Twas your loss! Unhand the console, it's my turn!"
"No! That monster just appeared out of nowhere! The game is cheating!"
"You disregarded the signs of danger and charged forth recklessly!"
"Oh, you think you can do better than me?"
"That barely counts as a challenge,"
They glared at each other for a moment before Aqua finally handed Liz the console. The dragon then picked up where Aqua left off with the goddess breathing down her neck.
"Good morning/morning Darkness," Megumin and I greeted the crusader.
Darkness turned towards us while the rest just waved their hands.
"Good morning Kazuma, Megumin," she then glanced at Liz and Aqua. "Ano… they've been at this for an hour now, should we stop them?"
"An hour is fine," I told her. "I've play longer than that,"
"Longer?"
"Seventy two hours, nonstop,"
Megumin stepped on my foot and shot me a look.
"Don't give them ideas, Kazuma…" then she looked around a little. "Also, where's Yunyun?"
Darkness pointed outside. "Yunyun and Elena are in the garden outside. There's still box of bread from Chakamiya san if you're hungry,"
Megumin and I went towards the huge piles of wedding gifts in a corner of the mansion. I've categorized it into food, magic items, weapons, accessories, and misc. I grabbed one of the box that was signed by the 'Master of Yeast' and opened it.
"Too bad Elena doesn't eat solid food," I commented while walking out of the mansion.
"What about drink?" Megumin asked while grabbing a bread.
"Just water,"
After walking for a while, I finally found them, lying on the ground staring straight at the blue sky at the side of the mansion. They both held hands with each other as they gazed upon the clouds in comfortable silence.
"Good Morning," I greeted them while Megumin just waved her hand with her mouth full. "What are you doing?"
"Photosynthesizing / cloud watching," they both replied at the same time. "Can we take a day off?" Yunyun added.
"Sure, sure," I turned to Megumin. "What do you think Megumin? Should we go out for a date? Blow up stuff? Show off our wedding rings to the virgins at the guild?"
"I'm thinking of the good old explosion date," Megumin replied. "I want to see if I can make double rainbows by blowing up a lake," then she looked at her ring. "And see how many a explosions this half a billion Eris ring can get me."
We were about to walk out of the mansion when we saw a man walking towards us. It's a middle aged man wearing a butler uniform. He knocked on the gate and waved at us a little.
"That's Darkness's butler, Hagen," Megumin said, still remembers about her time back when she spied on Darkness's mansion. "Darkness told him not to come here except for an emergency, if we play our cards right, we might be able to convince Darkness to deal with the problem herself."
"With great powers came great responsibility,"
Megumin just looked at me flatly before turning around.
"I'll go get Darkness,"
She sounds pissed, oh no…
"Wait! Megumin, we'll have our date later, I promise!"
The girl didn't answer and I sighed a little. I walked towards Hagen and looked at him flatly.
"Can't you give us a break? We just had our wedding two days ago!"
Hagen bowed in front of me.
"Forgive me Kazuma sama, but this is an urgent matter."
---
I sat on a sofa with Megumin facing Hagen and Darkness. The Dustiness and her servant has that slightly anxious look on their faces. Megumin and I on the other hand are quite interested and somewhat curious.
"Your tea,"
Yunyun put down four cups of tea on the table in front of us.
"Thank you, Yunyun,"
The crimson demon bowed a little before walking away from us.
I picked up the letter and read the contents of it once again. Judging by the semi-formal tone and how straightforward this letter is, I can assume that this letter was a personal letter from Princess Iris herself. Then again, it could be forged to look that way.
"What do you think Megumin?"
Megumin nodded in approval.
"I think it's about time they heard of our accomplishments,"
"So you think we should go then?"
"Of course,"
I turned to Darkness and she seems like she has something to say about this.
"What do you think Darkness?"
Darkness took a deep breath and exhaled.
"I think… I think you should come but," Darkness turned to Megumin and bit her lip. "I don't think Megumin should come with you," Megumin shot Darkness a look and the crusader waved her hands. "It's not like that, I just think that… You know, dealing with royalties can be a little bit frustrating and I just don't want you to lose your patience…"
"I understand, you're afraid the pompous nobles will piss off Megumin and the castle gets blown up in the process, is that right?"
"Exactly,"
"You know that's not how it works," I put an arm over Megumin's shoulder and pulled her closer towards me. "Wherever I'm going, she's going," I told them.
Darkness sighed in defeat. "I knew you'd say that, but…" she looked at Megumin and clasped her hands together. "Megumin, I beg you, please, please don't get triggered, okay? You're an adventurer, to them adventurers are… lowlifes."
I narrowed my eyes at that.
"Excuse me? We're risking our life on a daily basis killing monsters and protecting people they've sworn to protect and they call us lowlifes?"
Darkness looked at me in slight horror.
"Oh no, Kazuma, not you too! Look, it's not that," she groaned and put both her hands on her face. "Aah… just, please don't get arrested again Kazuma… I can't stop you, but please, please don't piss them off, I'm begging you,"
I rolled my eyes and turned to Megumin. She slowly shook her head.
"I cannot sit still and watch this disrespect go by,"
Darkness looked like she wanted to cry and I'm starting to get a little bit guilty.
"We can't promise anything, however…" I took out a red eyepatch from my pocket and handed it to Megumin. She looked at the eyepatch for a moment before slowly putting it on. The girl then raised hand but nothing happened.
"I'll be wearing this during my stay there," Megumin said while pointing at her eyepatch. "Hopefully it'll keep me from blowing up the castle."
Darkness and Hagen bowed at us.
"Thank you, Kazuma sama, Megumin sama!"