Epilogue

I was in my usual room, doing my usual things. It was a pretty boring place to work, never different, never changing…and then a very familiar visitor arrived.

"Hey," he said, giving me a little wave.

Hey, indeed… "Kazuma," I said. "I don't know how you manage it…" I'd never known anyone who dropped dead so easily. I wished the man who had defeated the Demon King himself would stop showing up here so nonchalantly. For that matter, I wished he would stop treating it like a place to hang out. At the moment, he'd put his hands behind his back and kicked his feet out on the floor, relaxing contentedly.

This is supposed to be where the souls of this world's deceased are summoned. Not a place to kick back and relax… "Aw, man, this is the best place to kick back and relax. Just looking at you makes me feel healed, Lady Eris," he said, resting his head on his arms.

"Hrm. Things weren't easy after you pulled your little stunt," I informed him.

"Do you know how hard I worked just to get back here?"

"Aw, c'mon, Lady Eris. You weren't even in town when I got back. I was hoping to give you a proper send-off."

Send-off?

No, no, there were more important things to attend to.

"Ahem. Would you stop calling me Lady Eris already? You're the hero who defeated the Demon King, and you know my true identity, so I don't mind if you address me less formally. And feel free to speak casually, like you normally do."

"Fine. Same to you, then. You can just talk casually to me, like you always do."

"Er… When I'm in this form, I can't seem to help myself speaking more formally… But anyway, you seem tired. What happened this time? What with the mortal plane being so peaceful these days, I don't get to go down there too often anymore…" What manner of monster could possibly have killed him this time? With the Demon King defeated, the monsters of this world had gotten weaker. There really shouldn't have been anything left that could take him out like this.

"Eh, things happen. But listen to this! They kicked me out of my mansion just 'cause I got a little full of myself! I'm the big hero who defeated the Demon King, right? I think I deserve a little more, y'know, credit."

That was terrible. I didn't know what had happened, but I agreed that he deserved better than that.

"It sounds like everyone's in good spirits, at least. I trust there's no serious trouble?"

"Yeah, in fact, maybe everyone's spirits are a little too good. As for trouble, nothing much, I guess… But I do have this bad feeling that won't go away.

Megumin and Yunyun keep teleporting off somewhere, and then Megumin comes back looking really refreshed. I just know she's letting off her explosions someplace, but the question is, where?"

I decided not to mention to him that the girls were teleporting to the Demon King's castle each day and using it for target practice.

"Darkness is famous now as the big noble who gave everything to kill the Demon King. She said they even gave her more territory or something. And now she's complaining that she's got loads of marriage proposals—not just from our country but from neighboring countries, too! She's been shut up in her mansion for ages lately, entertaining messengers from the government."

To think, he himself was the reason she kept turning down those proposals, and he talked about it as if it had nothing to do with him… It must be tough for Darkness. She had some powerful rivals for him, including Megumin and my adopted younger sister, and all for such an uninhibited man.

"And then there's Aqua… She's the one who chased me out of the house, and now she won't let me back in. She keeps asking if I'm going to continue saying such stupid things, but I don't know what stupid things I said…" "Well, whatever did you say to get yourself kicked out in the first place?"

If I wasn't mistaken, this was the second time he'd found himself chased out of his own mansion. Considering that he had saved the entire world, it was hard to believe that anything he might say could make Aqua so mad at him… "Well, remember, I defeated the Demon King, and the entire town was fawning over me, and I admit I sort of let it go to my head. But I only said it as, you know, a little joke. Lightheartedly. 'Cool! Daddy's gonna start himself a harem!' I said."

"...…" "Lady Eris, I promise I've seen the error of my ways. Please don't go quiet on me. You're scaring me."

I take back everything I said. This guy could really use a little more pain.

"Well, make yourself at home until my senior goddess calls you back, I suppose," I said. I figured it wouldn't be so bad to let him relax a little while he was here.

"Calls for me?" he asked, lifting his head as he lay on his back. "Oh, I'm not, like, dead, you know."

"You're not? But… You're here, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh. Got here by myself."

…?

"I used Teleport! Remember how I came here just before the final battle with the Demon King? I still had one more slot. So…" "?!"

Was he saying what I thought he was saying? "Wait a second—here? You registered this as one of your destinations?"

"Uh-huh. Believe me, even I wouldn't have left Aqua here if I hadn't had a plan for coming back to get her. So can I visit you sometimes? Like, anytime I get caught up in some kind of trouble…?"

"Absolutely not! What are you even saying?! Let's go back to the part about you registering this place as a Teleport destination! How were you even able to do that?! I don't understand! How is it you're continually able to do things no one else even thinks of?!"

"H-hey, I was just curious. I wondered if I could register this place, and next thing I knew…" Next thing he knew, he was dropping in here like it was no big deal?!

"By the way, Darkness keeps going around looking for Chris. Heck, if I could bump into you every once in a while, maybe I wouldn't have to do stuff like this."

"Urk… It seems a lot of people are looking for me. I'm sure I'll come see you eventually…" Then he lifted himself up tiredly. "What do they take the world-saving hero for anyway? All right, that tears it! I'm going to make them pay!" He cracked his neck and yawned.

The world-saving hero, I thought. He said it so lightheartedly, but did he really understand the magnitude of what he had done? Completely and totally powerless himself, he'd dragged along a party of troublesome comrades, defeating not only the Demon King's generals but a whole host of other powerful opponents, finally toppling the Demon King himself. Even the heroes of fairy tales (which always included a fair amount of exaggeration) first obtained legendary equipment, then gathered powerful friends, and only after that did the great deeds for which they became renowned.

"First up is the moron who chased me out. I act the tiniest bit soft toward her, and she gets on her high horse again…" He started doing some light stretches and began intoning the Teleport incantation. Just thinking of what was about to happen, I couldn't resist a smile. He always seemed to be at the center of a lot of trouble and danger, but at least it was always a fun time.

"'Kay. See ya, Lady Eris. I'm gonna go reduce a certain someone to tears."

"Have a safe trip. And don't be too hard on her, all right?"

The world-saving hero only grinned and turned away from me.

May this person receive at least a little more of a reward. May he not regret staying in this world instead of going back to Japan.

"Kazuma, do you think you could hold on a moment? Since you've come all this way, let me give you a little gift."

He looked at me, curious. I reached out my hand and smiled. "For you who worked so hard on behalf of this world, may you have just a little bit of good fortune."

May you fall more and more in love with this wonderful world you protected.

With my hand outstretched, I prayed with all my might.

"Blessing! God's blessing upon you!"

The End.

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