2 years have passed since the useless goddess, a crazy explosion mage, a hopeless crusader, and a sly underhanded neet vanquished the feared Demon King. Now, a great new threat has arisen in the land of Belzerg and these so-called "great heroes" hav...
Megumin was shaking uncontrollably. Potion quickly stood up and put her hands on Megumin's shoulders to comfort her.
I waited patiently, allowing her to compose herself.
There were questions I had about her story, but she would have to finish the story first, of course.
Megumin took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Then, she spoke...
"Sorry...just...bad memories. Anyway... after Kazuma died, Princess Iris kept the news of his death from the public. So, only we (my party members and I) and Princess Iris know what truly happened that day," Megumin took another breath in and out, then continued. "We brought his remains back here after the battle, under the cover of night. We did this to keep the news from spreading."
I scratched my head. I was about to ask a question, but Potion beat me to it.
"Wait, why did you keep Kazuma's death private? Shouldn't he have been great honor like all the heroes of old?"
"Yeah, now that I think about it..." I began, but I was interrupted by Megumin.
"LISTEN. It was the last joint decision we made as a group. We wanted it to be private because we didn't want to share something like this with anyone else. It was the last thing we could agree on as a team," Megumin took a deep breath and continued. "After he died, we lost the will to do anything together. Aqua stayed everyday at the mansion, basically lazing around all day. Darkness left most of the time to continue her training as lord over the region of Axel, maybe to keep her mind occupied. And I..."
Megumin swallowed hard and sniffled.
"...I couldn't do anything, but cry," she admitted. "You wouldn't know how much it hurt to see him get buried."
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I wanted to console this young girl as I sat across from her. But I felt like I couldn't do anything for Megumin.
Potion rubbed her shoulders out of sympathy trying to calm Megumin down.
Megumin laid her head down on the table and spoke softly," We just didn't feel like a team anymore. We just...it felt empty. Kazuma's death was eating us up on the inside to the point that when we looked at each other, we couldn't help but remember how we couldn't save him. Me, most of all, if I just could have lifted that damn shield!" she cried and cried. "We just couldn't stay together anymore. So, we went our separate ways without even saying 'good-bye'. It was easier that way. I know we were acting like jerks by doing that, but...we were just hurting too much. Seeing each other just kept reminding us of our own goddamn failure!"
Megumin's crimson red eyes had tears flowing down. She covered her face in shame.
Potion stroked Megumin's head to give her at least some semblance of comfort.
