Chapter Text
The city of Axel, somehow, felt even more unbalanced today than it normally did. A familiar set of four adventurers perused the wall of available quests at the Adventurer’s Guild, chaos in their wake as usual.
Today was Harmony Day, one of the five special festivals held in Axel every year. Normally, it was a day that brought a new dawn into the city.
For this group of four adventurers, festivities like these would cause even more hijinks than normal… as well as new opportunities for lucrative ventures.
Initially, it seemed like this time would be similar. Assuming, of course, the group could even remain functional enough to find such opportunities–
“But Kazumaaa!” Aqua wailed familiarly, pointing at a poster for a commission involving a child’s birthday party. “Why can’t we do this one? You know how good I am with tricks like that, the kids will love it!”
Kazuma cringed. “Freakin’ hell. For the last time, I am not working with kids. Not again. Never again. Do you remember what happened last time we decided to fill in at some brat’s birthday party?!”
“But that wasn’t my fault!” Aqua spat back. “Things only went up in smoke because of that one over there!” She jabbed a finger at Megumin, who was distracted by a display of sparklers, followed by a crate of freshly delivered fireworks that were to be set off on the Guild’s roof for the day’s finale.
“S-such a formidable arsenal has assembled here today…” Megumin shakily stated with a rather sinister smirk.
Kazuma and Aqua both grimaced at her.
Aqua turned back to Kazuma and crossed her arms, pouting. “Not my fault they had firecrackers at that party.”
Kazuma groaned. “I, frankly, do not care about the ‘why’ of it all. I learned what I needed to from that… debacle! Bottom line: none of you are to be trusted around kids. I don’t want to be written up by the authorities, or treated by the town like some sort of creep!”
Aqua literally ‘harumphed’ at that, turning to her side. Then, she sighed, and side-eyed at him.
“Well alright then, wise guy. What did you have in mind? We need to choose something, and Megumin’s… well, doing her thing. Who knows where Darkness scampered off to…”
Kazuma lifted a finger and opened his mouth to speak, but found himself… lost. He glanced up at the options they had.
Typical escort mission? Ehh, not worth the time investment. Search and rescue of a noble? Not after last time, when they deducted the reward based on how long it took for themselves to be rescued. Delivery… idol work… filling in for a librarian…
He sighed loudly.
“This sucks.”
A smirk slowly grew on Aqua’s face, as she glanced at him with half-lidded eyes. “My idea sounds pretty good now, eh? Eh?”
He glanced away. Then, he smirked. “In your dreams, Aqua.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You know I’m riiiight~!” she lightly teased.
He met her eyes again, jabbing his finger onto her forehead. “As if, useless goddess.”
The familiar insult. Only this time, he found himself on the back foot. Yes, he knew she was in the right this time, and so did she.
Wincing, but her smile still present, she asked light-heartedly, “Would a useless goddess have come up with such an idea~?”
“You only came up with it because it involves an excuse to use those party tricks of yours!” He raised his voice just a touch.
She, conversely, did not. “And what of it? ‘I, frankly, do not care about the why’. Remember? What matters is that it makes the most sense for this situation.”
He removed his finger. “Quit it.”
“Huh?”
He actually looked annoyed now. “I said quit it.”
Defensive.
Aqua sighed. “Whaaat? Gosh, Kazuma, you can be so needlessly abrasive sometimes.” She paused. Then, she shrugged. “Can’t be helped, though, since you’re a guy and all…”
He was already preparing another retort, but then the last part she had said registered in his brain.
What?
He stopped completely, his eyes wide. Aqua’s smile faded and she tilted her head, evidently puzzled by his reaction. His mouth, which had been slightly ajar, closed, as he broke eye contact. His gaze then moved past her, followed by the ground between them. Aqua’s brows furrowed, her face shifting closer to that of genuine worry. Almost out of instinct, she took a step forward, lifting up a hand as if she were about to reach for him. Kazuma was usually so outspoken, so quick for a comeback. So this silence was deafening to a degree that it almost hurt. “Kazu–”
Then, Darkness bolted out of the blue, skidding between them. In their exchange, they hadn’t noticed her approaching.
“Everyone!” she exclaimed, nearly out of breath. “There’s… there’s something outside the city gates… again.”
They all sprung to action, Darkness’s serious urgency enough to put their exchange on the backburner for now. Kazuma strode with Darkness, looking over his shoulder. He saw Aqua dash up to Megumin to drag her to the main gate.
As they ran on, Kazuma couldn’t stop asking himself one question.
Why… did I react like that?
***
A familiar-looking foe was far off in the field beyond the city gates.
“A Dullahan,” a focused Darkness murmured, hearing her three companions joining her. Her right hand gripped tightly on her sheathed sword’s hilt.
Sure enough, the headless former knight on an equally headless equine beckoned at them from the field, pointing its halberd at them. This one was quite boisterous, apparently, as it laughed maniacally. Its armor was an almost obsidian-like sheened black, and its steed had a cape flowing from it seemingly attached to nothing, the back edges of which faded into nothingness. The Dullahan held its own head in its left hand, the piercing cyan of its eyes visible, somehow, even all the way from the city gate.
“Can’t be Beldia, can it?” Megumin asked, her previous explosive-caused stupor safely over now.
“No, there’s no way…!” Aqua exclaimed. “W-we all saw him dissolve after I hit him with my Sacred Turn Undead spell, didn’t we? He’s gone for good… right?” She worriedly looked down, despite being the one who had delivered the killing blow to the Dullahan.
“This one isn’t him,” Darkness responded confidently. “This one… looks like he has a different type of intention to him, judging by that laugh of his. His weapon is different as well. Beldia wielded a heavy broadsword, remember?”
The other two nodded. Kazuma stood behind, wordless.
They all noticed, turning to him.
Megumin was the one to speak up. “Any ideas on what to do?” Kazuma was visibly out of it. Then, he snapped back to the moment. “Huh? Wuh– oh. Um. Maybe Aqua should use the same spell again? And do what she did last time by deluging him with water first, since Dullahans are weak to water?”
Aqua thought hard about that. “Hmmnh… I’ll have to get in range. But that won’t be too hard–”
“Water goddess!” the Dullahan bellowed so loudly that his words somehow reached them from so far off. The four of them jumped at that.
“You think you are safe in that walled city, and as such you are an even greater fool than I anticipated! Do not think for a moment that we’ve forgotten what you did to poor Beldia. I, Caladia, will avenge my comrade, and bring glory to the Devil King by personally delivering to him the severed head of a fallen deity!”
Darkness, Megumin, and Kazuma all turned to Aqua, expecting something resembling fear out of her at that.
After all, he somehow knew she was a goddess.
They instead received a stare of absolute focus from her to her foe.
“I must destroy him as I did Beldia,” she said to them. “I can tell: this is one of the more bloodthirsty Dullahan out there. No second thoughts. No hesitation. We need to defeat him right here and now.”
Her sheer focus, although unexpected, was also infectious. Even to Kazuma, with his head for some reason feeling more… shaky now than usual.
They came together and whipped up a plan.
***
Moments later, all four of them were dashing up to Caladia.
He cackled. “Ahahaha! Head-on. I love it! Despite me being… y-y’know what, forget it! Hyah!”
He kicked his spur into his steed, which leaned back, kicking its forelegs and bellowing a phantasmic, disembodied neigh. It then charged ahead, as Caladia pointed his halberd like a jousting lance at his enemies.
Aqua wasted no time. Skidding to a halt as her comrades continued forth, she then began her summoning, well within her effective range now.
A gigantic, deep blue rune appeared underneath her as bright heavenly light bursted forth from the ground.
Her eyes shut tight as she sharply took in a breath. Then, her eyes snapped open, and:
“Sacred… Create Water!” she cried out, casting the spell.
A flash from up above. Then, the clouds parted as a deluge uniformly crashed down from the sky, looking almost like a solid pillar to a far-off observer.
Unlike Beldia, however, this Dullahan was prepared. In an instant, he yanked the reins to the side. Grunting, his steed leapt in an almost impossible arc, just out of range of the cascading water. The column splashed violently into the ground, into a small group of trees, and even into a rocky hillside… but not into its target. A few stray drops slammed against his armor, which caused him to wince slightly as they instantly turned to steam; otherwise, he was unharmed.
Aqua gasped.
Another cackle emanated from Caladia, as his steed continued to gallop towards them. “Ahhahahaa! You think just because you wield the most potent weapon against me that you’re sure to come out victorious? Time has made you complacent against my kind, let alone the fact I have twice the battle experience Beldia ever had. It’s high time I brought you down a peg!”
Megumin was up next. She didn’t preempt her cast with any sort of her usual flair. Instead, she grinned sharply, elated by the intensity of this moment. Even more than just the excuse to use her signature form of magic: the thrill of the battle, coupled with as good an excuse as any to go all-out, made her nerves tingle all over. She shuddered, clearly psyched up. She twirled her magic staff with furious intensity.
“Exploooooooosion!” she screamed out.
Caladia laughed. “Another slowly casted area-of-effect spell? The same old tricks with you lot! Hyyy-ahh!”
The gigantic fireball that the young Arch Wizard had cast burst out of thin air, shaking the ground violently and causing smoke and raining cinders to cover the battlefield. Sure enough, Caladia had made his steed leap out of the way again, as it was clearly quite agile.
This time, though, in his own hubris, he had failed to realize how much distance his foes had gained on him.
Darkness leapt over a crumpling Megumin, flying at him. Caught off-guard and mid-jump, Caladia was unable to dodge. He recoiled violently as the blonde knight bashed an armored shoulder into his stomach, knocking him from his steed and causing him to lose his grip on his head.
“Graghh!!”
He slammed into the ground as cinders rained down nearby, causing a haze of steam to emanate from the water-soaked dirt beneath them. His head had no chance to even roll away as his helmet dug into the wet soil.
The intense impact had also left Darkness on the ground, writhing… in a questionable manner… muttering something indistinctly to herself.
And so, the only two adventurers left standing, Kazuma and Aqua, approached the grounded Caladia.
He leaned up, facing…? The two of them.
He frantically looked for his halberd, which he then spotted standing straight-up in the mud.
He reached for it, but then–
“Steeeeeeal!” Kazuma cried out. A flash of blinding light, and the weapon disappeared. Sure enough, the weapon was now in Kazuma’s hands.
The headless knight slammed a first into the dirt. “Goddamn it! You’re just as annoying as the reports indicated.” Kazuma and Aqua stood side-by-side, glancing down at him condescendingly.
What the Dullahan didn’t catch, though, was how much Kazuma was concealing to him with that look. How uncertain and off-balance he felt, close to panicking now. I still don’t know why I acted like that back there, Kazuma thought, his mind clearly still back at the guildhouse. That feeling hasn’t gone away. That feeling… what—
“Your days terrorizing the citizenry are over,” Aqua announced to their foe, cutting off Kazuma’s train of thought. She then held up her right hand, as her scepter flew out from all the way behind the city walls somewhere. It tumbled in the air towards her. With a loud smack, she caught it, jabbing its end towards Caladia to initiate the cast of her finishing spell.
The bud at the scepter’s end blossomed. The same gigantic blue rune appeared underneath her again, except this time the light was even more intensely bright.
Caladia’s cyan eyes went wide.
“Sacred…” she began with her incantation. For all intents and purposes, Caladia was finished.
Only…
An ear-piercing screech of a neigh suddenly bombarded Kazuma and Aqua’s eardrums. Before they had a chance to react, the headless horse slammed into Aqua, knocking her to the dirt. Kazuma moved to counter from behind, but then the horse bucked. He was only narrowly able to block the attack with the halberd’s shaft, inexperienced with the weapon as he was. Even still, the sheer force of the kick was enough to send him flying. He lost his grip on the halberd as he crashed into the ground, knocking the wind out of him. The horse then kicked the weapon back to its master before dashing over to him.
Aqua winced, powering her way back to her feet despite the pain, but the horse had already scooped Caladia up with an unexpected amount of grace for its power and athleticism. The Dullahan retrieved his weapon as he whipped the reins. His horse turned and sped into a dash, as he reached down with his free hand and scooped up his head from the dirt.
Caladia was escaping.
Aqua grit her teeth. “Coward!”
He cackled wickedly. “This is not the end, water goddess. I will avenge Beldia… in time. Rest assured, your day will arrive. Ahhahahaaa!”
With that, he and his steed made their exit, their figures fading off into the dense mist.
Aqua sighed, knowing there was no hope to possibly catch up to him. The battle was over.
She then turned, gasping as she saw Kazuma still on the ground, stirring in pain. “Kazuma!” she exclaimed, running up to him. “Where does it hurt? Are you alright?!”
He groaned, but then was able to sit up, wincing. “I-I think so… just hit the ground pretty hard, I’ll be fine…”
He looked up now, seeing the concerned look on Aqua’s face. As often as he called her certain things such as “useless”, he couldn’t deny how much she would switch into protective mode every time one of them got hurt in combat. Part of that, of course, was a natural result of her being the party’s healer. But for some reason, this aspect of Aqua’s personality was standing out even more today than it normally did.
It wasn’t all in his own head, either. Aqua was more concerned this time. An almost imperceptible shift in how furrowed her brow was, the inflection of her voice, how long she looked him over for injuries… all of it added up to something. Is it because I made her worried earlier? he thought.
His train of thought was then cut off a second time, as they both noticed Darkness approaching, holding up piggyback style and only recently conscious-again Megumin.
“We did our best, but that Dullahan was obviously a step up from Beldia,” Darkness said. “He seems to have been intensely training compared to his precursor.”
“I…” Megumin began, still quite out of it. “...I missed. If I had just landed the spell, we coulda…” She trailed off, looking like she was only barely staying awake.
Darkness smiled softly, nuzzling her cheek softly with her forehead. “Hey, like I said, we did our best. It’s okay. We’ll be more prepared next time.”
Megumin pouted, but then the expression faded. In less than a moment, she returned the smile, though tired as she was. She gripped a little tighter around Darkness, and they exchanged soft giggles. “Yeah, you’re right…” she said.
This was a moment where Kazuma would typically say something quippy, or berate one of them for failing horribly, but no such thing occurred. He just sat there, on the dirt, speechless. Because the feeling he’d been dealing with all day had grown even more.
In fact, watching Darkness and Megumin’s little exchange had made that feeling stronger… and sharper.
For some reason that still eluded him, he just wanted to go lock himself in his room and hide. But why? he thought. He often thought they were a pain, but never before now had he wanted to separate himself from them because of an innocent, rather wholesome interaction they’d had together.
After all, they were girls that were also close friends, right? Wasn’t it normal for them to have little soft moments of empathy together like that?
So why did he want nothing more than to sulk about it?
Aqua reached a hand down to him, once again returning him to the moment. He looked up at her again, as she smiled just as softly as the other two were.
“C’mon, let’s go,” she said. A simple gesture, yet one that shifted that feeling in his stomach into a new shape. It didn’t disappear, but merely morphed into something… gentler. Like a warm pillow held against his chest. He then realized he was both smiling back and blushing. He liked this feeling, but couldn’t even tell what it was, or why he even liked it.
Then, he held out his hand, grasping Aqua’s.
With him leaning on her shoulder, and Darkness holding Megumin, the four of them trudged back to the city.
***
It was already late afternoon as the group finally made its way through the stalls at Harmony Day’s special market. There were still plenty of people in the street despite the later hour, and most of the vendors were still selling their wares. People from all over Belzerg were here to show this city’s people their unique dishes, clothing, weapons, magic, and everything in between. And although Caladia had escaped, the guild had provided Kazuma’s party a handsome payment for their efforts in repelling the threat, providing the perfect excuse to simply go out and have some fun.
Only, Kazuma still wasn’t really in the go-out-and-have-fun-type of mood.
He stayed a few steps behind the three girls as they browsed the stalls, only providing a word or two whenever one of them showed him something that piqued their interest. A “that’s neat” here, an “Aqua, you already have five bottles just like that back home” there. Nothing much more than being in the background…
…which is exactly where he felt like he belonged right now.
He’d temporarily given himself a break from racking his brain about the feeling, which was still just as present as before. Mostly because everything around him was too damn noisy and crowded, but also partially because, frankly, he was exhausted from doing so. For now, he just wanted to exist behind the three of them.
Their trip to a specific stand, however, forced him out of his trance-like state.
It was an accessory stand with wares from the western edge of the kingdom, headed by a middle-aged lady with silvery hair and kind, lavender eyes. It seemed primarily tailored towards young women, with ribbons, jewelry, ornate hair clips, and all sorts of other adornments throughout its stock. Although he was just out of earshot from them, he saw Megumin gasp as the vendor held up a crimson ribbon to try out in her hair, which caused her to then shuffle shyly about. Then, Aqua nudged her, shrugging. Before long, Megumin nodded, and Aqua took her hat off for her as the vendor handed her the ribbon with a soft smile. Megumin deftly tied it into her hair in a bow, the ears of which peeked out over the top of her head. Aqua smiled. Kazuma could see the blush on Megumin’s face, although she did her best to hide it.
“She loves it, doesn’t she?” Darkness said.
Kazuma jumped. “Holy– oh, god, Darkness. Don’t scare me like that!”
She chuckled. “Apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
He sighed, turning back to the other two.
She followed his gaze. “It’s not every day she gets to try out new things. It’s good for her, especially with the money we got today, feeling like she has the freedom to branch out a little from what she’s comfortable with.”
He blinked, shoulders slumping just a touch. “Yeah,” he said barely above a whisper.
She sighed through her nose. “And Aqua… you can tell.”
Aqua was trying on a choker made of seashells now, politely smiling at the vendor as Megumin nodded in kind.
Kazuma turned to Darkness, blinking with a confused expression, then looked back to the stall. “Tell what?”
“That her mind’s elsewhere,” Darkness replied. “She’ll probably purchase that necklace to play along with Megumin, but she’s thinking about something else right now. And I think you can guess what it is.”
He nodded. “She did look pretty serious during that fight with the Dullahan… in a way I don’t normally see from her.”
Darkness crossed her arms. “Yes. I think seeing the danger he posed flipped a switch in her mind somehow. Especially since he knows of her true identity. Perhaps she knows more about him specifically. Or perhaps she’s had a run-in with other Dullahans like him before. It’s anyone’s guess, but there’s probably more to it than she’s going to let on, even if we asked her.”
Kazuma didn’t reply. He knew that if Aqua’s mind was really elsewhere, that it probably wasn’t only their run-in with Caladia that she was thinking about.
Darkness looked at him, her smile fading. But she didn’t pry. “That being said, maybe there’s something over there you’ll like, too? In fact, I saw a–”
“I’m fine,” he interjected. “Let’s just check out the other stands or something.”
Her face grew to one of concern. Then, it grew more serious. “Kazuma, as your friend and comrade, I can’t just ignore this. You’re acting strange. Are you certain you’re fine? Are you… perhaps injured from the battle? Or…?” Her voice trailed off. She wasn’t used to playing this sort of role with him.
He sighed again. “Just… tired is all.”
She met his eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Fret not. I’ll see if the other two would be okay going home. It… has been a long day.”
He gasped softly at the care she was giving him. “Y-Yeah… it has.”
She gave a smile, and walked over to the stand as Aqua and Megumin were in the midst of payment for their new accessories.
A third sigh from Kazuma. “It… god, it really has,” he muttered to himself, before his companions joined back up with him.
The sun was well into its setting on their way home, an orangish-violet hue washing over Axel’s landscape.
Megumin met Kazuma’s pace behind the rest of the group. They simply walked together for a moment or two, her ribbon bouncing with her steps as she shuffled her hat in her hands. Glancing up at him, she noticed his very obviously forlorn expression. She looked down at the ground, deep in thought for a moment, and then glanced up at him, giving a smile. “Hey, um, do you…” She pointed up at her new ribbon. “...like it?”
His breath caught. His brain was knocked off-balance so hard that he almost forgot he was supposed to give a response. His gaze immediately shifted from her bow to the ground.
“U-um y-yeah! It’s… it’s good,” he replied, stammering and clearly hesitant about which words to use.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Aqua glancing over her shoulder at them. No, at him.
Megumin chuckled at his awkwardness. “Good? Like… Do you think it’s cute?” she offered, tilting her head and leaning in just slightly.
The blush returned to his face. “If you think that fits for it, then I guess I do too,” he replied. He didn’t take his eyes off the ground, refusing to make eye contact with her.
She blinked, then smiled again. “Well, that’s not a no, so I guess I’ll take it,” she said.
Silence returned between them. But she didn’t leave his side.
“Hey,” she came in with once again, this time nudging his shoulder. “Cheer up. We got a huge haul for our work today. Things could’ve gone… better. I know I can imagine ways it could’ve, but there’s always next time, like Darkness said. We deserve this sort of break and to treat ourselves, you know?”
He met her eyes, chuckling for the first time that day. “Thanks.”
She flashed a bright smile.
They were silent for most of the trip’s remainder until they returned home.
***
Rest brought him short-lived relief, but it wasn’t enough.
Inevitably, Kazuma felt it again.
That hole in the pit of his stomach opened up, just enough to where it was actively uncomfortable.
He shifted in the velvety chair next to the fireplace. He glanced at the three of them.
Aqua, passed out on the couch cuddling a bottle of bubbly she’d gotten from one of the stalls earlier, snoring loudly and with her blue hair frazzled.
Megumin, petting Chomusuke with one hand and holding a tome for a novel type of explosion magic from another vendor, her attention diverting back and forth between them.
Darkness, calmly sharpening her sword with a whetstone, humming to herself. Who knew what was going on in that wacked-out mind of hers.
All three wildly different personalities. All three absolute disasters.
And yet, Kazuma felt oddly… uncomfortable? Being in there with them, and it was the same feeling directed towards all of them equally.
What’s this feeling? He thought to himself. Sure, they’re always insufferable, but they hadn’t been any more insufferable today than usual…
The feeling buried deeper and splintered, like wood with a chisel hammered into it. Turns out, thinking about it only caused more discomfort.
So, he moved off the chair and walked to his room without saying a word. While he wasn’t sneaking or anything, he wasn’t exactly trying to draw too much attention to himself either, his footsteps light on the hardwood.
Megumin, while quietly and softly baby-talking Chomusuke and scritching the top of the cat’s head, glanced up and noticed Kazuma skulking away. Her eyes narrowed, and she frowned.
She’d never seen him just up and leave without a word like that.
Kazuma rounded the corner of the hall, moving at a brisk pace for a reason that was still an almost complete mystery to him.
He turned the knob of his bedroom door, as he opened it with a force that even surprised himself. Shaking his head, he then walked up to the bedside, and stood there a moment before plopping into it, the coils and wooden supports rhythmically creaking underneath. His arms spread out wide, with his eyes staring directly at the ceiling.
Finally alone with his thoughts now, that feeling that had tormented him all day finally revealed itself by name:
Jealousy.
His eyes went wide.
Jealousy? Why?
His eyes darted back and forth, his mind kicking into high gear as he searched for the answer.
No such answer provided him any relief. All he was given instead was the searing edge of that feeling in his gut that, mercifully, he could at the very least now recognize for what it was.
With a desperation he wouldn’t… couldn’t… fully admit to himself, Kazuma scoffed, smirking. “Heh, yeah right,” he muttered under his breath. “Jealous? Of them? Like hell.”
Silence. The smirk faded. He tried to ignore his shaking hands. He failed.
Without a second thought, or rather, without even needing to think about why he was doing it at all, Kazuma walked back up to his bedroom door and softly closed it with a click. He then fell back into the bed, face-first this time.
Unbeknownst to him, a certain brunette had been peeking down the hall from the corner of the hallway, and had seen his door close and click shut.
So Megumin knew he was holing himself up in his room, despite having been seemingly fine mere minutes prior.
She got a few steps from the door before she sat there on the ground, her back against the wall. Not listening in or anything, but simply being there. She just kept hoping he was okay, but not knowing whether she should invade his privacy. Like Darkness, she wasn’t really sure what to do with him acting like this. So… unlike his usual self.
Not a peep came out from under his door. After all, as far as she knew, he was simply lying in his bed.
His pillow was superb at muffling his sobs.