Jhin screwed the faucet on the iron kettle shut, first taking out a small length of Honey Spider-Silk and dropping it inside, then adding the Quaking Leaves and Fizzy Lemon, fastening the lid and plugging in the High-Pressure Vine. Seeing the iron kettle begin to vibrate faintly, he let go and sat back down on the sofa.
After obtaining these special ingredients with their extremely high sugar content, he had sampled the sweetness of each one. He could only say they truly lived up to the name of special ingredients—take the Honey Spider-Silk, for instance: a strand only about a centimeter long, once it went into his mouth, was like gulping down a dozen-some catties of concentrated syrup in one breath, leaving his tongue so sweet it turned bitter.
Seemingly recalling the sensation of having his blood-sugar concentration blown clean off the charts back then, Jhin's face darkened and he unconsciously picked up a cup and downed a full glass of water.
"Are you really only adding this little bit of Honey Spider-Silk? You don't want to add anything else?"
"I think it's sweet enough already. Let's first see how this combination turns out. With too many raw ingredients, mass production will only get more troublesome later on."
Since there were other people watching off to the side, Megumin couldn't sprawl across Jhin's lap and throw a tantrum, so she dragged over a chair and sat down on it backwards, her hands gripping the chair-back impatiently and rocking it back and forth: "Aaaah~ why do we still have to wait half an hour? I want to drink cola right now!"
"Megumin, be a little more patient. Would you like me to tell you some elf-clan stories?"
"I suppose that's not out of the question."
"Then sit nice and still, and stop making the chair go clack-clack."
"Oh." Megumin stopped rocking, her red eyes fixed on Kokkoro brimming with anticipation.
Kyaru had no interest in carbonated drinks, nor any wish to listen to the elf clan's prim and stuffy stories. She stretched and limbered up her body: "I'm going back to my room to sleep for a bit. Wake me when it's time to eat."
"Sure, go get your sleep." Jhin nodded at her, then drew his gaze back and went on staring at the big iron kettle.
Pecorine was in her room with the photos Jhin had taken using his personal terminal, filling in the blank pages of the Monster Ingredient Encyclopedia.
Perhaps because Kokkoro's voice was too gentle, and the elf-clan story was too long-winded and complicated, the Megumin who had been listening with rapt attention didn't fall asleep—instead it was Jhin who, leaning back against the sofa, drifted into a deep slumber.
Noticing that he'd fallen asleep, Megumin's eyes lit up. A mischievous smile had just surfaced on her face, but before she could turn the idea into action she was stopped by Kokkoro: "Let's not wake Master up. Lately he's been coming out of your room very late every time—he must be short on sleep."
Now Megumin couldn't manage a smile at all. Facing those pale-pink, innocent pupils, she felt like a frog being eyed by a venomous snake—her whole body went rigid as she sat frozen in place, not moving an inch, not daring to so much as draw a breath.
She squeezed out an expression more ghastly than crying: "You... how did you know..."
"As his guide, whether Master gets enough sleep each day is also something I need to keep an eye on."
"Ahaha... you really are dutiful and conscientious... uh... if there's nothing else, I'll be going now. When the cola's done, just call me down."
"Megumin, hold on a moment. I know you and Master have only just tasted the forbidden fruit and are deep in the throes of it, but doing this too frequently will affect Master's physical health, so I hope you won't go along with him too readily."
It never occurred to Megumin that Kokkoro would lay the topic bare so bluntly. At once she broke into a sweat like a downpour, but there was one thing she felt obliged to clear up: "I—I haven't done that kind of thing with Jhin!"
"Hmm? Then why were you the one moaning in your room—" Kokkoro hastily clapped a hand over her mouth, but the words she'd already spoken had thoroughly exposed what she'd been up to.
She... she had actually been eavesdropping!
Megumin felt as though the stocking on her left leg was about to be clawed through by her toes. Her flushed-red cheeks spewed out great clouds of vapor like a steam-engine locomotive, her mind a complete mush, not knowing how to face this companion who had been listening in at the wall.
Tears of shame welling in her eyes, her pearly teeth leaving marks on her lips, she stammered out: "In... in any case... he and I... it's not what you're imagining... we did do some things, true... but... I guarantee there's nothing wrong with his body."
"I-is that so? I'm sorry, I misunderstood the two of you." Kokkoro was a little at a loss; she hadn't expected the truth to be so utterly different from her own guess.
After a long silence, Megumin firmly rubbed her little face a couple of times to compose her inner feelings, then said to her in earnest: "Jhin told me he has a matter to take care of. Until that matter is resolved, his relationship with me won't change too much. Kokkoro, you're his exclusive guide—do you know the specifics of that matter he spoke of?"
"I don't know... If it were the task of destroying the Demon King, that should have had nothing to do with Master long ago."
"I see..."
"Don't be so downcast. Since Master already understands your feelings, he surely won't make you wait too long."
"Mm." Megumin nodded gently, gazing at the sleeping Jhin, the tenderness in her eyes nearly brimming over: "Honestly, even if it stays this kind of relationship forever, I wouldn't mind. Ever since I met him, I've been so happy. But... once in a while I do fantasize about being able to announce to everyone at the top of my lungs: 'Look! This is the one and only, most most most most beloved sweetheart of mine, the great archwizard Megumin!'"
"That would surely be a tremendously happy scene." Though Kokkoro was a member of the emotionally dull elf clan, she could still sense the fervent emotion in Megumin's words.
"Hmph, I get the feeling that bastard's attitude toward you is completely different from his attitude toward the three of us."
"Really?"
"You haven't noticed it yourself? Forget it—you're of the elf clan, so it's only normal you can't pick up on it." Megumin had once asked Jhin how he regarded the other girls of the Gourmet Edifice.
In his answer, Kokkoro was currently the only one whose relationship development wouldn't be subject to any limits.
It probably had something to do with her status as his exclusive guide.
That was how she guessed it. Perhaps even Jhin himself hadn't anticipated at the very start that she—this chuunibyou wizard—would be the one whose relationship with him developed the fastest.
"Then from now on I'll have to pay closer attention to Master's everyday behavior. He's so attentive toward me and I didn't even realize it—that's unbecoming of my position as his exclusive guide."
"More than an exclusive guide, he'd rather have you become what he calls 'family.'"
As for Jhin's true intentions, Megumin had no plan to inform Kokkoro of them—even if she spelled them out, she figured Kokkoro would just take it as her joking around. The degree to which long-lived races are dull about matters of love really is that absurd.
As the big iron kettle stopped vibrating, Kokkoro woke Jhin up. Looking at the two of them, whose positions hadn't changed at all from before, he had no idea whatsoever that an eavesdropping incident had just taken place—one severe enough to send him spiraling back into his shell.
Carrying a cup over to the faucet on the iron kettle, Jhin turned the switch open, and a clear carbonated beverage came spraying into the cup carrying a mass of bubbles. Recalling the sour, astringent taste from the very beginning, he raised the cup to his lips, hesitated for a moment, then steeled himself and gulped it down in one big mouthful.
Megumin stared nervously at his Adam's apple bobbing up and down: "How is it? Did it work?"
"The cola didn't come out, but... I made Sprite."
____
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