The Depth of Deception

Since the Rookie Killer incident, our reputation in the Adventurer's Guild skyrocketed. People started treating us as the ace of the Adventurer Guild. Especially as the only party who has a name, it makes it easier for people to know about our party.

Today, we're looking for a big bad bounty for our resident demolition maniac to mess around with.

"What about this one?" I showed Megumin a Gryphon extermination mission.

Megumin shook her head. "No, my spell isn't that effective against agile airborne opponent."

I rubbed my chin in deep thought and browsed through the mission some more. Axel is a beginner town so I probably shouldn't expect that many big bounty target. There's also not much monster extermination mission.

"Ne, Kazuma, let's take this one," Aqua said suddenly.

Zombie maker subjugation mission? Huh, that doesn't sound so bad really.

"I see… Since it's a zombie maker, there will probably be a swarm of zombies right?" I turned towards Megumin. "What do you think Megumin? You're up for some zombie demolition mission?"

Megumin looked a little bit reluctant before finally nodding. "Okay, let's do this one,"

…

On a hill far away from town. There was a public cemetery for poor and homeless people. The dead are buried in this world. A hole would be dug and they would be covered with earth.

The Zombie Maker only appears at night, so we decided to camp out near the cemetery and waited for the zombie maker. We even brought a barbecue stand and a hot plate with us.

"Slow down Kazuma, I saw that meat first! Here, the vegetable on this side is done, so eat this instead!"

"This is a hot plate! How dare you telling me to eat vegetables?"

"Ho? So you have something about hot plate vegetables huh? Megumin, you tell him!"

"Of course you can't barbecue vegetables, it has to be meat! Darkness, you tell her!"

We both turned towards Megumin and Darkness. They stared at us with a tired look on their face.

"Can you two do this somewhere else?" Megumin asked flatly.

"Kazuma, Aqua, please don't involve us in your relationship," Darkness said.

Wait what? Did we really sound like…

Aqua and I looked at each other and we scooted away from the barbecue. The goddess then turned to Darkness, waving her hands around in panic.

"Wh-what are you talking about Darkness? What makes you think we're in a relationship?"

"Yeah! Only an idiot would want to be my girlfriend,"

Both Megumin and Darkness tilted their heads in confusion.

"You mean, you're not?" they both asked.

"Of course not!" we replied.

After that slight squabble, the meat and vegetables are finally done. We shared the meat and vegetables equally with each other, kinda.

I looked at the hot plate on the picnic blanket in front of me. I grabbed a skewered Gryphon meat and took a bite out of it.

It taste really, really good. Even without soy sauce or any other seasoning, the high exp makes up for the flavor enchantment and seasoning. The texture is like a combination between a chicken and beef. It's so tender and juicy and...

Incredibly expensive.

Though, everyone does seem to enjoy it. Aqua is eating her food with a cup of wine like some noble lady. Megumin is munching on the food one after another. Darkness didn't seem to have that much appetite.

After eating for a while, we already went through our second batch of meat and vegetables. Everyone but Darkness has seconds, though the Crusader looked like she's actively resisting from eating too much.

"Ne, Darkness, you can have seconds too if you want," I told the Crusader. "We still have plenty more with us,"

"No thank you," Darkness looked down a little. "I… there's too much fat and protein… it's not healthy for you,"

"You're an Adventurer, you don't have to worry about building up fats," I told her. "Anything you eat will probably enhance your iron hard muscle,"

The girl blushed a little and hugged herself after hearing that. She looked at her arms and in slight panic. "I-I'm not building muscles right?"

I blinked a little and tilted my head. "You're seriously self conscious about your appearance?"

Darkness averted eyes, refusing to meet my gaze.

"It's okay Darkness!" Aqua said suddenly. "Even if you were to build up abs and people start mistaking you as a man, you're still an incredible crusader and a precious part of Fantastic Dreamer,"

There was no trace of malice in her tone and gesture as Aqua handed Darkness a plateful of meat.

A very red faced Darkness shook her head and held up her hand. "N-no thank you Aqua…"

I smirked a little and decided to test something out. "Aqua, there's no way Darkness would want a food if you serve it like that," I grabbed the plate out of Aqua's hand and snapped my finger.

The meat burst into flame and I handed it to the Crusader.

"How about now? Wanna try burning your mouth off? Or should I pour this to the ground and let you eat like a pig?"

Aqua and Megumin stared between me and the fiery plate in disbelief. Darkness on the other hand looked incredibly curious for some reason.

"W-well… if you force me to… I…" Darkness grabbed the plate without a second thought. She then picked up a skewered meat and took a closer look at it. Her eyes widened the moment she took a bite of it. She gasped a little put dropped the stick on to the plate.

"Are you okay?" Aqua asked while preparing a healing spell.

Darkness tried and failed to hide a smile. "It's so good…" the Crusader picked up the skewer again. "Ka-Kazuma! You…" she took a bite out of the meat again. "You know I don't want to eat anymore but…"

I chuckled a little and set my plate on fire. Megumin and Aqua on the other hand, looked extremely confused. "It's not hot, I can control the heat of my flames," I took a bite out of some meat. "And apparently, magic fire can enhance the taste of exp inside food."

Aqua gasped and held out her plate. "Kazuma! Do me too, do me too!"

Megumin also held out her plate. "Me too, please,"

Everyone eat vigorously, eating through two kilograms of Gryphon meat and vegetable sticks. The coal fire long forgotten, as they prefer it if I barbecue everything with my magic fire.

"Ahh… That was the greatest feast I've ever had since I arrived here…" Aqua muttered with a blissful look on her face.

"Yes… Thank you everyone…" Megumin said with almost sleepy look on her face.

"Ahh… I ate more than I should have…" Darkness muttered to herself.

I poured coffee powder into a mug, adding water with my 'Create Water', and use 'Tinder' spell to heat the mug. Without chanting of course, because I'm badass like that.

"Ne, Kazuma, who were you really before you become an adventurer?" Megumin asked as she sipped on the warm water. "To master spells like this without incantation, you must be extremely powerful huh?"

"I told you, I was a master strategist and a trainer of heroes," I told her my usual lie. "I guide heroes into saving the world and save countless of life. I led armies to glorious battles and decisive victory," I smiled a little. "It was great while it lasted…"

Megumin and Darkness simply stared at me with new found awe. "Then, what happened? Why did you become an adventurer?" Megumin asked.

"I died and I was transported into this world…" the look of shock in their faces was priceless. "Yeah, I'm not from this world. I died saving some girl I don't even know from an imminent death. Then the gods above gave me this quest to save this world," I explained.

"Sacrificing your life to save others…" Darkness wiped a tear off her face. "To think I'd get to see a literal, living example right now," she smiled at me. "You're such a great person Kazuma, I'm sorry if I ever doubted you as anything less."

I couldn't help but blush a little at her honest praise. "It's nothing, helping those in trouble is common sense after all," I told her.

"Now, now, settle down you two, Kazuma said he doesn't want to attract too much attention," Aqua started putting away the plates and grill. "Come on, help me clean this up,"

With that, we spend the rest of the night, drinking and simply enjoying each other's company.