Crimson Magic Clan, Let’s & Go!!

by Natsume Akatsuki

  “You have some nerve, Yunyun, referring to my magic as a gimmick! It’s been a long time since I got to show you just how powerful a gimmick can be!”

  “What? Stop! You’re not going to—?!”

  “Explosion!!”

  Completely ignoring the frantic Yunyun, Megumin let loose on the soldiers who were watching from a distance, catching a huge number of them in a titanic blast.

  The other demons goggled as they got a close-up view of her power, trees pulled by the roots and flung around. When the dust had settled, all that was left was a massive crater.

  “Did you see my most profound magical technique?! Do you still have the gall to call it a mere gimmick? What do you think, Kazuma? How many points for that explosion?!”

  “Minus ninety! How stupid can you be, just up and using your magic like that?! There are still bad guys here! I can’t pick you up and run away!”

  “M-Mr. Kazuma,” Yunyun said, “while you were talking, a bunch of new enemies noticed the noise and came over here!”

  Despite what I’d said, I struggled to heave Megumin off the ground.

  For some reason, Aqua was out front now, looking more confident than she had any right to. “What are you doing?! You actually think you can fight them?!” I shouted, using Drain Touch to transfer some MP to Megumin.

  She cocked her head at me. At first I thought she was giving me a questioning look, but then I realized she just wanted to crack her neck.

  She kicked the ground a few times, took a little bow, and made a fist. “Heh-heh! You know who I am. Surely, you don’t think healing magic is all I’m good for? I am the great Aqua! All my stats are maxed out! What’s a few low-level demons? I could take on that whole crowd with one hand tied behind my back. Just watch—I do have my goddess-like moments!”

  …This is bad.

  It was already all too obvious to me what was going to happen. I increased my MP transfer to Megumin, giving her my shoulder to lean on and standing her up.

  I looked at the Demon King’s soldiers. The explosion had given them a fright, but they had pulled themselves together and were tightening their circle. At least we had Yunyun on our side, but there were just too many of them. We didn’t even know how many of them there were, and I didn’t know how well I could run with the magic-less Megumin in tow.

  “Aqua, we’re getting out of here! Don’t just stand there striking stupid poses; let’s go!”

  She was standing there, striking a variety of stupid poses in the direction of the enemy. I turned around, about to order a general retreat, when I heard Aqua mutter, “…Oh.”

  I turned back around. In the distance, I could see even more agents of the Demon King heading our way at breakneck speed. They weren’t even carrying their weapons—they had thrown them aside so as to reach us faster.

  ……?!

  I was just wondering who they could possibly be when…

  …suddenly, four people in black robes appeared out of thin air.

  No, not all of them wore robes. Two were in something like black motorcycle outfits. Some of them held short staves, and some had no weapon at all. There might have been more people hidden nearby, but I could see only the four of them. And while their weapons and clothes were mismatched, there was one thing they all had in common: their red eyes.

  All four of the black-clad newcomers had deep crimson eyes, just like Megumin and Yunyun. They were from the Crimson Magic Clan.

  They must have been hiding themselves with magic—that was how they’d seemed to appear from nothing. And the Demon King soldiers who were headed our way at such a fearsome pace—it wasn’t that they had noticed us and were coming to attack; they had realized the Crimson Magic people were there before the rest of us had and were trying to beat feet.

  As if to prove me right, the enemy screeched to a halt, looking in confusion first at the pursuing Crimson Magic Clanners, then at the four of us. They must have decided we would be easier to handle, because they turned toward us and prepared to charge…!

  But then…

  “May your flesh vanish without a trace—in the dark fire born from the abyss of my heart!”

  “Argh! It’s no use; I can’t hold back anymore! You shall be the sacrifices that calm the tumult of destruction within me!”

  “Now sleep forever…fast in the embrace of my ice…!”

  “Go into the next life. I shall not forget you… I shall carve you into the memories of my soul forevermore…!”

  Those were chants of…well, not magic. They had to be catchphrases or something. The Crimson Magic wizards must have had buffs on their physical abilities, because they caught up with the soldiers in no time. Then they all began the exact same chant. One of the Demon King’s soldiers stuck out a hand…!

  “P-please— Wait— Wait just a—!”

  He tried to say something, but the Crimson Magic Clan people had already finished their incantation.

  “Light of Saber!”

  “Light of Saber!”

  “Saber!” “Saber!!”

  As they called out, their knife hands began to glow. They carved through the air, then thrust at the Demon King’s minions. And in the space of a moment…

  All that was left on the field was a pile of bits.

  Holy crap! These Crimson Magic Clanners are scary as hell!

  So scary that the Demon King’s soldiers, who had vastly outnumbered them, went running for their lives. So scary that I was even a little afraid to make a smarmy remark about how all that dark-fire and icy-embrace stuff ended up seeming kind of irrelevant.

  Then one of the Crimson Magic Clan people looked at me. It was the man who had mentioned flesh vanishing without a trace. “We followed the Demon King’s strike team here when we heard the rumbling from that explosion,” he said. “But to think we would find you, Megumin and Yunyun! What are you doing here?” His tone was weirdly conversational.

  Megumin responded in kind, getting unsteadily to her feet. “If it is not Bukkororii, the cobbler’s son. It’s been a long time. We heard the village was in trouble and came rushing back.”

  “Trouble?” Bukkororii said, giving Megumin a puzzled look.

  …Huh?

  I noticed the other Crimson Magic Clan people were looking at me with interest. Then the man called Bukkororii said, “Megumin, are these your adventuring companions?”

  Megumin nodded, looking more than a little pleased. This brought a stern frown to Bukkororii’s face, and he gave a dramatic flourish of his robe.

  “My name is Bukkororii! First among the cobblers’ sons of the Crimson Magic Clan! Arch-wizard and wielder of advanced magic…!”

  Well, that self-introduction certainly came out of left field.

  In the old days, this might have been where I would have tuned out, but my experience with Megumin and Yunyun had given me a bit of tolerance for these things.

  “A pleasure to meet you,” I replied, striking a genial tone somewhat like Bukkororii’s. “My name is Kazuma Satou. Learner of many skills in Axel Town and occasional opponent of the Demon King’s generals.”

  ““““Oooooh!””””

  All four of the Crimson Magic Clan wizards seemed duly impressed.

  “Wonderful, absolutely wonderful!” Bukkororii exclaimed. “Most people have the strangest reactions when they hear our Crimson Magic names, but you…! To think that an outsider should answer us in kind!” The others nodded emphatically.

  “…Kazuma, you seem to get along awfully well with Bukkororii and the others. I wish you had responded so readily when I introduced myself!” There was something strange in Megumin’s voice, and I wasn’t sure how I should respond. Normally, I might think it was a hint of jealousy, or maybe nervous excitement. But given that I was talking to an older guy, I couldn’t imagine what she was jealous of.

  …But Crimson Magic Clan people could be sensitive. Maybe I had touched a nerve.

  What was going on? She wasn’t jealous, but I didn’t think she was esp
ecially happy, either. It was hardly as if we were about to break out into a romantic comedy or something.

  As I was still trying to puzzle this out…

  “My name is Aqua! Venerated being and she who shall finally destroy the Demon King! And my true identity is the goddess of water!”

  …Aqua suddenly launched into a totally uninvited self-introduction. She seemed to have taken to Crimson Magic Clan ways very quickly.

  ““““Oh, really? Good for you.””””

  “Hey, what gives? Why does everyone always do this to me?!”

  Ignoring Aqua and her whining, the Crimson Magic Clan people looked expectantly at Darkness. She said falteringly:

  “M-my name is L-Lalatina…F-Ford…Dusti…ne…ss…of Axel Town, and… Nnngh…”

  Despite her obvious desire to please, being the center of attention slowly sapped her ability to speak.

  Don’t hurt yourself.

  As Darkness stood with tears of embarrassment beading in her eyes, turning red and muttering to herself, Bukkororii smiled widely and began to chant a spell in a loud voice.

  “Lovely friends you have, Megumin,” he said. “We’re still a ways from the village. Come, outsiders, we will guide you. Let’s go by Teleport!” And then he intoned the spell.

  I suddenly found my vision warping and dizziness assailing me as the scenery changed in the blink of an eye.

  We found ourselves in a tiny hamlet, the very definition of idyllic. As the rest of us took it in, dumbstruck, Bukkororii gave us another broad grin.

  “Welcome, outsiders, to Crimson Magic Village. And to Megumin and Yunyun—welcome home!”

  Chapter 3

  May We Get Some R&R in This Pitiful Village!

  1

  “We’ll get back to our patrol, then,” Bukkororii said, edging away from us. He and the other three clustered together, and after he intoned a brief bit of magic—

  “See you later!”

  —all four of them vanished from sight.

  Awesome! Now those are some real wizards. They must have teleported straight back to the battlefield…!

  “They are so cool,” I said admiringly, still not taking my eyes off the place where they had disappeared. “They’re like an elite combat brigade or something.”

  “You think so? I’m sure they’re very happy to hear that,” Megumin said, still leaning on my shoulder.

  “What do you mean, they are very happy? They’ve already teleported away, right?”

  But Yunyun answered, “They disappeared using magic that bends light. Teleport takes a lot of MP. If they used it after every battle, they wouldn’t have enough magic to last a whole day. I’m pretty sure they just disappeared like that because they wanted to make a dramatic exi— Eyow!”

  Suddenly a pebble came flying from where the other wizards had been standing, bopping Yunyun on the head. Sort of a warning to keep her mouth shut.

  …So they were there.

  “Incidentally, light-bending magic creates a field a few yards in diameter around a specific person or object, making it invisible to everyone outside of it. But if you get close enough, you can still see it,” Megumin said blandly.

  This prompted Aqua to take a few quiet steps forward.

  “…!”

  There was a tiny gasp of distress and the noise of something scuttling backward. Aqua froze in her tracks, staring intently but not moving…

  “…………”

  “…………”

  …until she suddenly jumped forward.

  ““““?!””””

  At the same moment, I could hear several people scrambling away.

  Oh, quit it already…

  I turned away from Aqua, who was merrily chasing the invisible thing around, and the rest of us headed into the village. For starters, we would go to Yunyun’s house and see if we could figure out what was going on.

  Aqua finally caught up with us, having apparently tired of the chase.

  “Hey, those people are something, huh?” she said. “Even I couldn’t catch them!”

  So they’d gotten away from Aqua, who did have strong stats in everything except Intelligence and Luck. Exactly how they had managed to escape was somewhat ambiguous, but they must have been a true special-strike team. Elites among the Crimson Magic villagers, no doubt.

  “They probably doped themselves up with physical buffs so they could run away. I can’t imagine the NEET brigade has all that much stamina, lolling about like they do every day.” …And thus Megumin stuck a pin in my admiring fantasies.

  “…What do you mean, the NEET brigade? Aren’t they a special guerrilla strike force, doing battle with the Demon King’s army?” I asked. “They even said they were going back on patrol.”

  “Those people never managed to get jobs, so they have plenty of time on their hands. If they went to some other town to become adventurers, they would probably find everybody wanted to party up with them, but they just want to stay in the village, never cutting the apron strings. They decided to call themselves a strike force and wander the village because they didn’t want everyone to notice that they were just sitting around all day.”

  Megumin gave me an answer, but I thought I would have been happier not knowing it.

  And anyway, so what? Apparently, even the NEETs around here could kick some serious butt.

  “Everyone in the Crimson Magic Clan learns advanced magic when they grow up,” Yunyun said, reading my mind. “Every single person in the village belongs to the Arch-wizard class. After learning advanced magic, they pick up as many different spells as their skill points allow. At least, that’s what they normally do…”

  Megumin avoided looking at Yunyun under the guise of taking in the nostalgic sights of her hometown. Crimson Magic Village was about the size of a small farming settlement. None of the various clan members I saw looked the least bit concerned about anything; in fact, some of them were yawning openly. Maybe the spring weather was getting to them.

  Really, this didn’t look like a place at war with the Demon King at all…

  Darkness spoke up. “…Mm. This is quite a griffin statue. Did a famous sculptor carve it?” She was patting a stone sculpture near the entrance to the village. I could see what she meant: The griffin was so realistic, it looked like it might swoop down and grab one of us in its talons at any moment…

  “That is a griffin that wandered into the village and was turned to stone by petrification magic,” Megumin said. “It looks rather cool, so we decided to leave it there as a tourist attraction. These days, people mostly use it as a landmark when they’re trying to meet up.”

  Wh-what a ridiculous tourist attraction.

  After Megumin’s explanation, Aqua was patting the statue with great interest, muttering something to herself.

  “Hey, you,” I said. “What’s that spell you’re using?”

  “Just some magic to reverse status effects. I want to see a real live griffin!”

  The four of us dragged Aqua away and headed for Yunyun’s place to find out just what was going on.

  2

  Her home was a big house in the middle of the village. We were at a table with sofas on either side, where a middle-aged man sat furrowing his brow. This was the sitting room of the chief of the Crimson Magic Clan, and that was the chief himself in front of us—that is to say, Yunyun’s father.

  “Aww, that? That was just a letter to let my daughter know what was going on. I got a bit carried away was all. My Crimson Magic Clan blood just won’t let me write a normal letter…”

  “Sir, you’re not making any sense,” I said pointedly. Beside me, Yunyun’s mouth was hanging open.

  “…What? D-Dad? Not that I’m not happy you’re safe and all, but could you go over that again? Your letter began, ‘By the time this letter reaches you, I will be dead’…”

  “Why, that’s the way members of the Crimson Magic Clan have always opened their letters. Didn’t they teach you in school? …Ah, you and Megu
min both had such good grades; you graduated early, didn’t you?”

  “…And the part about not being able to destroy the Demon King’s base?”

  “Oh yes, they put up a pretty impressive encampment. No one can agree on whether to tear it down or leave it there as a new tourist attraction.”

  “Hey, Yunyun. Mind if I sock your dad one?”

  “Be my guest.”

  “Yunyun?!”

  Darkness gave Yunyun’s appalled father a quizzical look. “…Hmm? Just a moment. You said the Demon King’s army really did establish a base, right? So were you telling the truth about one of his generals being here, too?”

  “Oh yes, one who’s strong against magic, just like I wrote in my letter. She’ll be around soon. Wanna have a look?”

  Just as the chief was offering us his easygoing invitation…

  “Alert! The Demon King’s forces are approaching. Alert! The Demon King’s forces are approaching! All who are able, please assemble near the griffin statue. The enemy appears to number roughly a thousand.”

  ““A th—?!””

  Darkness and I both reacted with shock, but the three Crimson Magic Clanners looked as if this was nothing special. Maybe they hadn’t heard the part about there being a thousand enemies out there. This whole village was home to at most three hundred, by my reckoning. More than triple that number of the Demon King’s soldiers was on their way, and these guys were acting like it was no big deal.

  Aqua, demonstrating an unusual maturity as she sipped the tea that had been brought out, said suddenly, “A thousand of the Demon King’s minions, huh? Looks like it might finally be time to show the true power of a goddess.” This village seemed to be having a really weird effect on her.

  I’m begging you, please, please don’t do anything else stupid…

  Darkness sat frozen. Megumin said calmly to her, “There is no need to panic. This is Crimson Magic Village, and everyone here is a powerful wizard. Would you like to see?”

  3

  …It was really pretty amazing.