Volume 2 Short Story: The Crimson Magic Clansmen have High Intelligence

"I won't accept this! One more time! Please, just one more time!"

On a mild afternoon of drizzling rain—

In the living room of the mansion, Megumin began to shout.

Due to the rain, we had decided to take a rest from work and requests for today.

Aqua had dozed off next to the fireplace, and sitting beside her, Darkness was performing repairs on her armor.

And so—

"Fu-, try as you might, it's all pointless in the end, Megumin-kun. If we're playing a game with actual rules, there's no way you can beat me, a real gamer."

"Nnngg…! Crimson Magic Clansmen have high intelligence, so I won't accept losing at a game of wits…!"

Megumin and I amused ourselves for the time being with a certain board game.

Of course, the board game in question was none other than 'SHOGI'.

"Ugh… Since I can't use 'Teleport' and 'Explosion', I can't use any reckless strategies… What should I do…"

This world had board games similar to chess and shogi.

However, since this game existed in a world with magic, questionable moves such as teleport, which allowed the user to move freely across the board, and explosion, which allowed the user to flip the board over, existed.

"To be honest, I don't get why a game with such stupid rules even exists. So anyway, whatcha gonna do? You ready to give up? The loser gets a wrist slap, you know?"

"NNNNNNGGGGG…!"

Hearing about the punishment, Darkness, who was busy polishing her armor, began to act jumpy.

If I play a match with her, she'll definitely throw the match on purpose for the punishment.

"Then… I-, I'll put this here…"

"Alrighty~! I've been waiting for this! Rook to check—!"

"AAAAHHH! Wait wait, that doesn't count! Wait please!"

As Megumin, who refused to give up, released a teary yell, I swung my fingers with great force to carry out the punishment.

"…Ugh. I lost again… At this rate, my one-day-one-explosion policy will be…"

"Give it up already. On a rainy day like this it's better to just sit around and play some games."

I said as I cleaned up the shogi board. Megumin's wrist had already grown red from all the slaps.

If I won, she'd get a slap on the wrist.

If I lost, then I would have to go on an explosion walk with Megumin on this rainy day.

As I tidied up my homemade shogi board, I pulled out my handmade deck of cards.

"Let's play poker next. Since you're so smart I don't need to explain the rules to you, right?"

"I refuse to play this game! Even though it isn't a game of pure luck, I don't think I'll ever win against you!"

Then—

Someone knocked loudly on the door of the mansion.

I set the cards on the table, and went to get the door.

"…It's a male. The visitor is male."

Megumin suddenly murmured that.

"…Oho? So you want to play that game huh? I'll say that the visitor is female."

I fired a confident smile, and in turn, I received a smile as well.

"Fufu, it seems like you're underestimating the brains of a crimson magic clansman. I have a reason to believe that the visitor is male! To start with, this mansion doesn't get many visitors! Next, the kind of people that are most likely to visit this mansion are probably newspaper salesmen or postmen! These two jobs are practically dominated by men! That is why the visitor is male!"

As Megumin confidently announced her reason, I opened the door.

"Good afternoon! Is Darkness here? …Hm? What's is it you two? Why are you so happy, and did she just faceplant onto the couch?"

Waiting at the door was Darkness' friend, the female thief Chris.

"I win!"

"Why is it Chris!? At this time of the day, who else could it be but the postman!?"

Chris tilted her head in puzzlement, and then entered the mansion.

"…What's with these two?"

"Don't worry about it. They're just messing around, so just leave it be."

Chris took a seat next to Darkness and gazed towards me as I entered my wrist-slapping stance.

"Actually, yesterday I heard Darkness and Chris talking about how it was going to rain today. Since it was going to rain, and Chris had nothing to do, she said she would come over today to play."

"What the heck is that!? That's unfair!"

"What's unfair about that? I merely prepared for a battle…!"

As we were arguing—

Someone knocked on the door again.

""...…""

Megumin and I speechlessly turned to face each other.

"It's a male! It will be a male this time! The reason is the same as I said before!"

"H-, Hey wait a second! Why do you get to choose first? You went first last time so I get to choose first this time around. I also predict that it will be a male…!"

I knew that Chris was coming, so I predicted female last time, but this time around I have a feeling that Megumin was right.

"I said that's unfair! Bet on female please Kazuma!"

"No wait, how about we settle this with rock paper scissors…"

As our argument intensified, Darkness said:

"That's enough already, just hurry up and open the door."