Epilogue 1 — For a Certain Someone

I cannot believe what I did.

Yes, I was bothered by my final encounter with my idol, after I had been looking for her for so long and finally found her, but still, I let it drive me to do something totally irresponsible.

How was I going to hold my head up after that?

More importantly, if we had both said we loved each other, then were we… lovers?

I would have to be especially careful of how I spoke and acted now that— "Hooo! Gooood morning!" The very villain who had me in such a tizzy came into the room, yawning widely and looking very tired. Kazuma didn't even bother to fix his bedhead as he made ready for our return journey. "Yunyun, let's teleport home already."

…He was the one who had suggested that, since we had taken the time to come out here, maybe we should take a nice, slow trip back, stop at a hot spring or something, rather than going back to Axel in the blink of an eye.

"I'd be happy to, but why the sudden change of heart?" Yunyun asked, suspicious.

"N-n-no reason in particular. I've just been thinking about how lovely Axel is."

"You're right," Aqua said, despite Kazuma's totally unexpected rationale. "I want to hurry back and see Emperor Zel again! Then it's decided. Let's head home today, and then we can have a We-Worked-Hard-to-Defeat-a-Dark-God party!" She probably just wanted any excuse for us all to celebrate together.

"Good idea. We deserve to be proud of ourselves this time. It wasn't like the other times we've defeated generals of the Demon King. This time we deliberately sought her out and then put a stop to her." Darkness, whose armor had been all but destroyed on this trip, stuck out her chest proudly.

But… "You hardly did anything," Kazuma shot back.

"Erm…" And just like that, Darkness was near tears.

"Hey, Yunyun," Aqua said. "You're staying over, too, aren't you? Not that I would let you go home even if you wanted to."

"What?! Who, m-me?! Um, ahhh… If you don't mind having me, I would happily…!"

But just as everyone was starting to get in the partying mood, Kazuma spoke up.

"Oh, hey, guys, I'm not staying at the house tonight."

It wasn't like Kazuma to spoil a moment like that. Who did he think he was, Aqua?

"You aren't? Where in the world do you intend to go? Come to think of it, you do slip away periodically. Where is it you get off to?"

"Huh?! I j-j-j-j-just, you know, wanna hang out with the guys and stuff…" My Crimson Magic Clan intuition was telling me something fishy was going on.

"'With the guys,' you say? Why not simply ask them to join us, then? The more the merrier, as they say."

"Huh?!"

Kazuma looked as if the world was ending—meaning my intuition had been correct. I didn't know where he wanted to go or what he wanted to do there, but it was clear he was up to no good.

I went over to Kazuma, his shoulders slumped, and gave him an encouraging pat on the back. "Never fear, Kazuma. You've worked so hard these last few days; we just want to have a little drink with you tonight."

"Do you have any idea why I'm not staying at the house tonight?" he growled, but of course, I certainly didn't.

"No idea at all. Where did you want to go tonight?"

"A café, Megumin. A café. One that's open all night."

An all-night café? There was only one establishment in Axel matching that description. As I recalled, all the staff members were attractive young women… "…You have quite some nerve, after what happened last night."

"Hmm? What's wrong, Megumin? Your eyes are glowing—what's got you so excited? You remembering last night?"

Curse this man!

…No, no. We may have exchanged words of love, but I hadn't confirmed if we were technically lovers. So I had no grounds to get angry yet.

"…They say that shop is overflowing with sexy women. So, what? Are they your type, Kazuma?"

"Heck, you know about that place? I dunno if I'd say they're my type, but… y'know?"

That was the most tepid answer he could have given.

"…May I ask what is your type, perchance, Kazuma?"

"My type? Hmm, I guess I'd never really thought about it, but…if I had to give an answer, maybe I'd go with someone with long, straight hair and big boobs who would baby me all the time."

When I heard him say that with a completely straight face, I started to have serious doubts about how I could ever have had feelings for a man like this.

After what had happened between us, surely a normal person would have at least made an attempt to list a few things that sounded like me.

"Ah, what's wrong? I've heard if you go around sighing like that, your Luck will go down."

Personally, I thought that if he went around acting like this, it was no wonder he never seemed to be popular with the ladies, but maybe it didn't matter.

I was the only one who needed to be in love with this most unusual person.

"Teleport is ready to go, everyone."

Once Yunyun was ready, we all gathered around, our preparations for the journey home finished.

"Awesome! I don't know what the bounty on that general was, but maybe I'll take the reward money this time and just sleep out as long as I want!"

I still didn't know exactly what he planned to do by being out of the house so long, but it was nothing good, I assumed.

Even as the thought ran through my mind, Yunyun exclaimed:

"Teleport!"

Maybe I'll grow my hair out.