Chapter 897: The Red-Haired Woman with Cat-like Eyes
"Who are you calling problematic, you damn teacher!"
Megumin roared at Pucchi like an enraged lioness.
"Boss, what are you looking at?"
Kazuma shook his head, thinking whoever married this little ancestor Megumin in the future would have the worst luck imaginable. He noticed Eiji seemed to be squinting into the distance, so he shaded his eyes with his hand and looked in the same direction.
He couldn't see clearly at all, but that was fine.
"Clairvoyance!"
Kazuma activated the archer skill, and his vision instantly sharpened dramatically, allowing him to see the area near the village entrance.
"That's... Wow, another beauty!"
"What? A beauty? Where!"
Pucchi hurriedly looked over, and several young men's eyes simultaneously lit up.
At the village entrance.
A figure cloaked in black slowly descended from the sky, landing at the edge of the meteor crater. The S-curve of the cloak highlighted the person's curvaceous figure.
Silvia rushed over to the person with several subordinates, speaking while wearing an obsequious smile, bowing and scraping in a way that made the status difference between them obvious.
Then, the person slowly removed their hood.
"Wow! She's really super beautiful! Even more beautiful than Darkness and Megumin!"
"Hey!"
"Kazuma!"
"What? Is she really that beautiful? What does she look like?"
Under the displeased gazes of Darkness and Megumin, Pucchi anxiously asked Kazuma.
"Wait, she's taking off her hood! Wow, she has dashing red short hair, totally my type!"
Kazuma's eyes widened, his nostrils gradually flaring as he showed a lecherous expression.
"Her eyes are bright yellow like a cat's, Aqua isn't even fit to be her shoe-shiner! And her figure is top-class!"
"Oooh!"
The men nearby collectively let out admiring exclamations.
Even though they had just been saying they would never forgive anyone who picked a fight.
"Kazuma, you said something really hurtful! Apologize, apologize quickly! If you don't apologize, I'll spread the news about you wetting the bed last night throughout all of Axel!"
"Bullshit, I didn't wet the bed last night! Stop making false accusations!"
Kazuma immediately started wrestling with Aqua.
"Red short hair, cat-like yellow eyes!"
Hearing this, Megumin suddenly widened her eyes, her face showing deep disturbance.
"And she used such powerful Explosion Magic... Could it be, that person is...! But why would she attack the Crimson Demon Clan?"
"Megumin?"
Darkness looked at her strangely.
"The village chief and the others have come out."
Just then, Eiji suddenly spoke up, pointing toward the distant village entrance.
The middle-aged man they had met earlier, along with Yunyun and a group of Crimson Demon Clan's great mages, hurried anxiously to the village entrance, all assuming battle stances and watching the red-haired woman warily.
The village chief was shouting something, seemingly questioning the other's identity.
But the red-haired beauty didn't say a word, only leaving behind an icy smile before disappearing in a blinding white light along with Silvia and the others.
"Just who is that woman?"
"Indeed, using Explosion and Teleportation consecutively—her magical power far surpasses that of our Crimson Demons!"
"Hmph, it seems our Crimson Demons have reached a once-in-a-millennium crisis of survival."
The entire Crimson Demon village descended into chaos that day.
...
Soon after, the group reunited with the village chief and others.
After comparing notes, both sides remained equally clueless about the other's motives, intentions, or plans.
Left with no alternative, the chief could only order heightened vigilance among the villagers, arranging patrols around the village morning and night, with immediate alarm signals at any sign of trouble.
From the looks of it, the intruders weren't just here for a joke. The next few days were likely to become intensely tense and thrilling.
After the meeting disbanded, the chief and others went to discuss strategies, while Eiji's group of five headed toward Megumin's house.
Her home was located on the outskirts of the village, closer to the wilderness, requiring nearly half an hour's walk from the central area.
"Megumin, what's wrong?"
Walking along the grassland path, Darkness looked at Megumin with concern.
Ever since the Explosion magic attack earlier, Megumin had been visibly distracted, as if she'd learned something that left her profoundly shaken.
"Are you upset that your Explosion wasn't as powerful as that person's? It's alright, you're still young with plenty of time ahead. You'll definitely surpass them someday!"
Kazuma glanced at her, feeling uneasy but offering encouragement out of camaraderie.
"No, it's not about the Explosion... well, maybe it is partly about it."
Touched by their concern, Megumin's expression softened as she let out a bitter laugh.
"...Actually, I know that red-haired woman."
"What?!"
Kazuma and the others gasped in unison.
Eiji silently observed Megumin, already forming suspicions in his mind.
"Then why didn't you tell the chief earlier?"
"I was just clinging to hope... That person was my idol. I really didn't want to believe she harbored such deadly hostility toward our Crimson Demons."
Megumin hesitated.
These people were her companions—irreplaceable ones. Though Nangou Eiji wasn't part of their core team, she'd come to understand his character during their time together.
"I'll only tell you this... It happened about seven or eight years ago..."
This occurred when Megumin was five years old.
One day, while playing in a certain area of the village, she encountered a puzzle game that supposedly countless people had attempted over centuries without success.
After struggling with it for a full month, Megumin finally solved the puzzle.
Unintentionally, she released a sealed evil god.
It turned out the puzzle was actually a magical seal—once solved, the evil god trapped within would escape.
After Megumin completed the puzzle, a terrifying, monstrous black beast emerged.
The moment it appeared, the beast seemed ravenous, immediately opening its bloody maw to devour the five-year-old Megumin.
Terrified, Megumin stood frozen.
That's when the red-haired woman appeared.
"Explosion!"
The woman battled the beast fiercely, ultimately ending the fight with a magnificent Explosion spell.
The magical beast was defeated and had shrunk significantly in size, turning into a cat with small, stubby wings.
"The people of this era have finally obtained long-awaited peace. It is not yet time for you to emerge."
Saying this, the woman resealed the black magical beast, now transformed into a cat, back into the tomb. Then she turned around and revealed a gentle smile.
"Little girl, are you alright?"
In that moment, the woman's figure unleashing explosion magic, that tender smile—it felt like a tremor engraved deep within her soul, igniting something within Megumin.