A young girl jumped out of the bushes, wait isn't that girl from before?
(Y/N) - "Wait, is that you? Elisa?"
She nodded, but before she could say anything...
Megumin - "Who do you think you are?! Jumping out of bushes like that!" Megumin got mad.
Elisa - "I'm sorry..."
Megumin - "... Humph, and how do you even know her (Y/N)?!"
(Y/N) - "Ehh... I saved her from some goblin before..."
Elisa - "And I'm still very grateful for that, I'm sorry for scaring you..."
Megumin - "Me? Scared? Stop joking around, you can't scare me like that, after all, I'm a powerful archwizard! Wielder of the most powerful spell! Explosion Magic!"
Elisa - "But I saw you hidden behind-"
Megumin - "I wasn't hiding! I was just preparing my magic!"
Elisa giggled.
Elisa - "Oh, I'm sorry then 'powerful' archwizard. Could you please tell me your name?"
Megumin wanted to make a pose and tell her 'speech' as we might say, but I stopped her.
(Y/N) - "Her name is Megumin."
Megumin looked at me madly, because she was already prepared.
Elisa - "Wow! What a nice name..."
(Y/N) - "Indeed it is, but what are you even doing here?" We both looked at her.
Elisa - "Oh, well I was just picking up some mushrooms and saw you two, so I thought I would surprise you." She said that with a calm smile.
Megumin - "You could have just approached us, you didn't have to jump out of bushes!"
Elisa - "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
(Y/N) - "No need to apologize, anyways we will be on our way..."
This is the third time I'm here, never coming back ever. This forest is weird.
Elisa - "Okay! Have fun you two!"
(Y/N)/Megumin - "Bye!"
We then went our ways, and not even after a second of walking, Megumin grabbed my shirt.
Megumin - "Who was that girl?"
(Y/N) - "You already asked but, her name is Elise, and when I was walking here this morning, I found her being attacked by some goblin. So I saved her."
Megumin - "That's all?"
(Y/N) - "Yup." I said with a smile.
She then looked down. After just about 5 minutes of walking, we found some kind of cave.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Megumin - "Let's explore it!" When was Megumin so energetic?
(Y/N) - "Not now, it's getting late. Let's tell Kazuma about this cave tomorrow. As a team, it will be easier for us."
Megumin - "Okay then." She looked a bit sad, but I still couldn't allow it.
(Y/N) - "Let's head back, for now, I don't want to see what kind of monsters are here at night."
Megumin nodded.
The sun was already setting as we continued walking back, and the wind became colder. Then, Megumin yawned. I also yawned.
(Y/N) - "Let's try walking to the hotel faster. I'm also getting tired."
Megumin - "I'm tired as well." I can see that you didn't have to tell me this...
We then speeded up a bit, so we could reach the hotel faster. Even though it wasn't much...
After about half an hour of trying to get back to the hotel.
(Y/N) - "We reached the hotel. What a relief." I smiled at Megumin and she slightly blushed. We two are getting along well.
Megumin - "Yes, let's head to our rooms, we should take a long rest." She then headed to her room and I to mine.
(Y/N) - "See you tomorrow in the adventurer's hall!" I said with a smile.
Megumin - "See you!" I then entered my room and went to sleep.
...
The next day.
I got up from my bed and started to do my daily routine. I changed into my clothes and took a shower. I then did my exercise because a Mage like me also needs to be in good shape. I then went back to the adventurer's hall. I saw Megumin, Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness already sitting. As I got closer to our table, I could hear Darkness and Megumin commenting on Kazumas attire.
Kazuma then told us his though, that he has new equipment and we should do a quest.
We all nodded.
Darkness - "It's the giant toad mating season, and they've been showing up near the town. How about..."
Aqua/Megumin - "No toads!"
Darkness - "Why not? Toads fear blades and are easy to take down, their sole mode of attack's grabbing prey with their tongues, and the meat of toads can be sold for easy money. I've heard that you might get eaten if your equipment's too weak, but since toads hate metal, Kazuma should be safe with his current equipment. I'll protect Aqua and Megumin, and (Y/N) can protect himself."
Kazuma - "Eh... The two of them were eaten by toads before, so they've got some psychological trauma about it. They were eaten head first in one gulp and ended up covered in slime, so it can't be helped. Let's find another quest." Good thing I didn't experience that.
Darkness's face turned slightly red after hearing Kazumas's explanation for some reason.
Darkness - "... Eaten head first in one gulp... Covered in slime..."
Kazuma - " Did that make you excited?"
(Y/N) - "Ain't no way you got excited because of that!"
Darkness - "O-Of course I didn't!!!"
Darkness averted her eyes and answered with a red face, making us uneasy... She's weird.
Kazuma - "The emergency cabbage hunt aside, this is our party's first quest. Let's pick something easy to complete."
Megumin and Darkness went to the bulletin board after hearing his suggestion, but Aqua didn't seem to like it...
Aqua - "What an introverted hikiNEET... Only Kazuma has the weakest job, so I understand why you're being cautious. But including me, the other members have top-tier jobs! And we also have (Y/N) who can blast lasers that one-shotted a toad, and unlike Megumin he can still stand and shoot many more! We should take on a bunch of high-difficulty jobs and make lots of money, level up like crazy, and take down the Demon King easily! That's why we should take on difficult quests!" First time and probably the last time I will hear Aqua praising me.
Kazuma - "I really didn't want to say this, but... You haven't been of use so far."
Aqua looked stunned... I don't want to hear them fight, so I hurriedly stood up and walked to Megumin and Darkness. After a while, we didn't find anything interesting, so we returned back to our table just to see a crying Aqua on the table.
