Volume 11 Toranoana First-Print Edition Short Story : ‘The Strongest Skill…’
The day we returned to the capital—
“So then, I said this. ‘Before my explosion magic, a dragon is naught but a lizard…!’ After that, Iris made eye contact with me as if to tell me that ‘I will concede this prey to you’.”
“Oh my!”
A banquet was held for us after we escorted Iris back to the castle.
The hot topic at the moment was of course Iris.
To hear about Iris, various nobles and people affiliated with the castle gathered to attend the banquet.
“In that moment, I thought to myself. ‘Would it not be for the greater good were I to concede this grand accomplishment to Iris…?’ While it is certain that my explosion magic can slay a dragon with ease, my explosion magic is simply far too powerful. If I were to strike it with my grand magic, there is no doubt that naught would be left of the dragon’s valuable corpse.”
The nobles gathered around Megumin, who fluently told the tale of her gallantry.
“The purpose of our journey was to obtain the wealth needed to fight against the demon king army. If my opponent were just a dragon, then I, a crimson magic clansman, can beat it without breaking a sweat. However, I ask of you all, would there be any meaning it doing that!? Having found my answer, I decided that I would only make my move if Iris were to miss her chance, so I prepared my magic and patiently looked on.”
“How wonderful!”
“As one would expect of the wise Crimson Magic Clansmen. The wisdom to be able to consider so many factors in an instant is truly superb!”
Megumin has been spreading exaggerations for a while now. If I had to give it a number, I’d say that her stories were exaggerated nine times over.
In truth, Megumin had been really flustered when the dragon appeared, but…
“What happened next, Megumin-dono? How was the dragon defeated? Please continue!”
The nobles who each held a wine glass, who were perhaps excited due to their drunkenness, passionately prompted Megumin to continue.
Megumin, who bore a serious expression, nodded in response.
“’Sacred
· Explode’. When Iris shouted that, the entire mountain was covered in light…! Then before I knew it, the dragon was dead.” She bluntly explained.
“That’s our Iris-sama! Her talents stand out even amongst royalty!”
“Would it not be best for Iris-sama herself to personally embark to slay the demon king?”
“Before that, you would have to convince His Majesty. Surely you know how much he dotes on Iris?”
“However, is it not because our final trump card, Iris-sama, is present at the capital that we may send the greater half of our forces to the frontlines without worry…?”
“That aside, the power is as one would expect of the world’s strongest skill. The security of Belzerg is practically guaranteed!”
The attention of the listeners swiftly drifted from Megumin to Iris.
Megumin, who firmly believed that explosion was the strongest, showed a displeased expression when she heard the conversation. Suddenly, a moment of realization seemed to have overcome her visage.
“ ’Sacred
· Explode’. Doesn’t this name remind you all of something else?” said Megumin with an expression full of confidence and triumph.
“What does it remind me of…? The name ’Sacred
· Explode’ reminds me that it is a legendary sword skill that only the most talented of the royal family, armed with the holy sword, can use,” said one of the nobles as he nodded his head.
“No, wait.”
A different man cried out as if coming to some sort of realization.
“ ’Sacred
· Explode’… Isn’t the name ‘Explode’ eerily similar to ‘Explosion’? Perhaps there is some relationship between them… Ah, probably not huh…”
Embarrassed by what he said, the man tried to pass it of as a joke.
“That’s it!”
Megumin snappily pointed to the man.
“You sir have some very keen insight. Yes, ’Sacred
· Explode’ and ‘Explosion’ have pretty similar names, do they not? Do you all understand what this means?”
“To be honest, I don’t think there’s any special meaning behind the similar names.”
“Shut up for a moment, Kazuma.”
I was told off by Megumin the moment I butted into the conversation.
“Allow me to tell everyone this. The magic, ‘Explosion’, is humanity’s penultimate attack that was devised by a certain grand magician who devoted his life to opposing the absolute beings that exceed human knowledge. If a dragon will meet its end in one strike, then what of demons and gods? Even such great existences will be damaged by this magic of unparalleled destruction.”
Hearing that, the audience gulped.
“’Explosion’ and ‘
Explode’. One is the ultimate magic, and the other the ultimate strike. At this point, it would be strange for you all to fail to see the connection, especially after I have said so much… Yes, the creator of the ultimate strike bore reverence towards this ultimate magic and invented this skill through reference!”
“I-, Is that so?”
“No, but the names are certainly quite similar…”
“Simply put, this skill is a rip-off of ‘Explosion’. Then would it not be correct to say that the dragon was merely defeated by a poor-man’s ‘Explosion’?”
“What the heck are you saying?”
“Shut up, Kazuma.”
As I pulled a straight-man act towards Megumin’s unbelievable statements, the nobles began to discuss this newfound controversy.
Approaching Megumin—
“Oi, haven’t you thrown everyone into disorder with your statements? What’s are you going to do if the scholars start doing intensive research because of this?”
“Do you mean to complain about my conclusion of what the strongest skill is? To start with, the very fact that Explosion was even compared to other inferior skills is very irritating. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.”
This is quite defiant of her.
“Remember when we visited the castle a while back? You got full of yourself and called yourself a grand magician, but when people pestered you to show some advanced magic, all you could do was act all flustered. Who knows when that might happen again? Wait, you didn’t say anything crazy like that anywhere else did you?”
Megumin abruptly turned her eyes away.
“…N-, Nope, not at all.”
“Oi, don’t tell me… what the heck did you do this time? Was this in Axel? Or maybe the village? Oh I see, so it is the village, isn’t it!? Now that I think about it, you sent some pretty exaggerated letters a while back didn’t you!? So, what the heck did you tell them this time!?”
–It wasn’t until several days after we returned to Axel that I learned what Megumin had written.
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