"Waaah!"
Megumin startled awake from a nightmare. Still rattled, she looked around and found herself lying in her familiar bedroom; only then did she pat her little chest and let out a sigh of relief. As she came back to herself, the fine cold sweat on her back had made her clothes cling to her skin, leaving her rather uncomfortable.
"That was no good dream."
After successfully helping Jhin "discharge his venom" last night, she'd hurried to the bathroom to rinse off her feet, and once she'd wiped them clean she returned to her room to sleep—only for Jhin, in her dream, to come knocking with that venomous snake of his in tow, muttering something about teaching her to be a "lecher," which poked her right awake.
Recalling what she'd done the day before, Megumin's little face grew hot and her toes curled up tightly together; but then she quickly switched her mindset, turning righteous and self-assured.
I did Jhin a huge favor—I'll go demand my reward from him in a bit!
Letting out a smug little hum, she flung off the covers and slid into her slippers. The soles of her feet still seemed to hold the searing warmth of last night, and her legs felt a touch soft and weak—which reminded her of the first time Jhin had ever massaged her, turning her already-pink cheeks even redder.
It—it's fine. That weak version of me is already dead; the me of now is long since not the me of before!
By the time she'd composed her feelings and stepped out of her room, she met eyes squarely with Jhin, who had come upstairs to call everyone down.
"Ah…"
Like a startled rabbit, Megumin bolted down the stairs, terrified he'd stop her to say something. The mental fortitude she'd built up back in her room was like flimsy paper that pops at a single poke—shattered utterly the very instant she laid eyes on him.
Jhin gazed worriedly at Megumin's retreating back. He had no idea how to broach with her what had happened last night—he could hardly just come right out and tell her: Sorry, for now we can only be friends.
The consequence of doing that would be getting dragged down to mutual destruction by her [Explosion magic].
If she brought the matter up herself, then he'd explain the current situation to her—on the condition of not leaking any information about [What Heads Toward Death].
Thinking this, he turned and went to knock on Kyaru's door: "Kyaru, are you up? It's time for breakfast!"
"Mmh… let… let me sleep five more minutes…"
"Wait five more minutes and Pecorine will have polished off your share of breakfast!"
"Okay, okay~ I'm getting up now."
After a hearty breakfast, everyone changed into their adventuring gear and stepped out of the Capsule House. Brimming with energy, Pecorine thrust her right hand into the air to declare the start of a new day: "Lovely weather again today! We're not far from Maple Sugar Valley now—let's aim to get there before nightfall!"
"Why do we have to arrive before nightfall?"
"Because we need to collect the morning dew on the leaves of the three-colored sugar maples. The Rainbow Hens have to drink that morning dew before they'll lay their eggs."
"I think that's how it goes, yes. Then let's get a move on—they say the scenery of Maple Sugar Valley is quite splendid too."
"Mm!"
Along the way Megumin deliberately slowed her steps to come up beside Jhin, and seeing that none of the others were paying attention this way, she tugged his sleeve to make him stoop down, then leaned in close to his ear and whispered: "If you ever feel like you're about to burst and absolutely have to discharge your venom, you can come find me in my room—but this sort of thing isn't free. From now on, my daily cola has to go up by one more bottle!"
Having said all this, she gave him no time to answer, immediately quickening her pace to catch back up with the main pack of girls up ahead.
Jhin felt he really needed to look into just what exactly was inside that copy of "Puberty Education" he'd once shoved at Megumin—how on earth had it given her such bizarre misconceptions about certain matters?
Granted, having a beautiful girl help him "discharge his venom" was something he genuinely enjoyed—to say nothing of the fact that the price he paid was merely one extra bottle of cola a day; even reckoning it with his toes, he was coming out enormously ahead.
Still… at this rate he'd have to give her four bottles of cola a day—wasn't her sugar intake getting a bit over the limit?
Sneaking a glance at Megumin's slender, well-proportioned figure, Jhin decided to keep a wait-and-see attitude for now. Even setting the cola aside, she ate no small amount of snacks on a regular basis, yet showed not the slightest sign of gaining weight—in fact, none of the girls of the Gourmet Edifice had put on any fat at all. Perhaps it was because, being adventurers, they were always heading out to take on quests.
Their level of physical activity was who-knows-how-many times higher than that of an ordinary high school girl, so getting fat would surely be a hard thing to manage.
Hurrying along by fits and starts, the group finally reached Maple Sugar Valley just before the setting sun was swallowed by the horizon.
As far as the eye could see, maple leaves in three colors—blue, red, and orange—blanketed the entire valley. According to what was drawn on the map, the whole of Maple Sugar Valley was shaped rather like a round-bottomed, long-necked flask: the entrance, formed by the sheer peaks on either side, made a passage running straight into the valley's depths, while the main body was a broad, circular basin.
Gazing at the dead-straight road before her, looking as though it had been cleaved open by a giant axe, Megumin gripped her [True Crimson Flame Staff] and fantasized about one day using [Explosion magic] to carve out a similar marvel of her own. Drool kept seeping from the corner of her mouth as she let out a weird "heh heh" cackle.
"Snap out of it!" Jhin brought a hand-chop down on her head, then used a handkerchief to wipe away her drool. "Don't you even think about using Explosion magic here—if it goes wrong, we'll all end up buried underground."
"I know that, I don't need you to remind me."
Megumin let Jhin wipe her face for her. Had it been any time before last night, he'd surely have just tossed the handkerchief at her, rather than wiping her face like this.
The relationship between the two of them seemed to have inched forward just a little bit more, which made her unable to keep from snickering to herself.
That evening, everyone sat gathered around the living room, listening to Pecorine and Jhin discuss the route ahead.
"Let's arrange the order of gathering ingredients like this: the Honey-Sugar Spider first, then the Rainbow Hens, then the spring water of Cloudmist Falls. The entrance to the magic-crystal cavern is in the middle of this straight passage; we can collect the maple morning dew along the way, and once we've subjugated the Honey-Sugar Spider Empress and reached the valley's interior, we can head straight up the peaks to find the Rainbow Hens."
"The spring water of Cloudmist Falls is the hardest to find, so we'll save it for last. If we can't find it, that's fine too—we'll already have at least two kinds of special ingredients, so it won't count as coming back empty-handed."
"Jhin, should we gather some maple sugar to bring back as well?"
"Sure. We're planning to make drinks in different flavors later anyway, so collecting improvement materials ahead of time isn't a bad idea. That's roughly the plan of action, then—does anyone have any objections?"
The girls shook their heads in perfect unison; they had no opinions whatsoever about the route planning.
"Then it's settled. Everyone get some early rest and build up your strength, so we're ready to take on the Honey-Sugar Spider afterward."
"Got it." ×4
Deep in the night, Jhin slipped quietly out of his room, then came to the door of Megumin's bedroom and gave a light knock; without even waiting for her to respond, he walked in: "Megumin, is that copy of 'Puberty Education' still with you?"
"Yeah, it's here. You want it back?"
"No… I want to check its contents."
"Just for that?"
"Uh… there's one other thing, too."
"Say it."
"Bro, stick your foot out—it's urgent."
____
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