Epilogue 2 — Dear Elder Brother
It happened one day about a week after we got back to Axel. I had just put a bowl of food down for Chomusuke in the living room when Megumin said to me, “…Kazuma, I think you’re feeding Chomusuke too much. You must not let her wrap you around her little paw.”
“Are you kidding? Her stomach is bottomless. The more we feed her, the faster she’ll grow.”
And then when she finally turns into that woman, we can all be friends again. I hope she’ll forgive Megumin for dropping an explosion on her.
“…I cannot say I follow your logic, but anyway, there’s a letter for you, Kazuma.”
A letter for me?
“It’s probably about some new dragon egg they claim to have,” Aqua put in. “Ever since I bought Emperor Zel, letters like that have been coming for me every day.”
Turns out once scam artists know you’re an easy mark, they come flocking to you.
“Let me see that,” Darkness said. “I get a bad feeling every time there’s a letter addressed to you.”
“Here,” Megumin said. “Actually, this envelope looks oddly familiar.” She showed it to Darkness…
No sooner had she seen it than Darkness grabbed the letter and clutched it to her chest.
“…Hey, watch how you treat a guy’s mail, huh?”
“…Aqua was right. It’s just someone trying to sell you a dragon egg.”
“See! Aren’t you lucky, Kazuma? The letter they sent me said they only contact big-shot adventurers worthy of owning dragons.”
I ignored Aqua’s nonsense and stared at Darkness, who was trying hard to avoid my eyes. “Let me see that.”
“Uh-uh,” she said immediately, curling around the letter protectively.
That tipped me off to who must have sent it. This wasn’t the first time Darkness had acted this way.
“Iris! That letter is from Iris, isn’t it?!”
“How did you know?! I mean, n-no, it isn’t; it’s—!”
I didn’t think twice about grabbing at Darkness’s chest for the letter.
“Gaaahhh?!”
“I knew it! It is from Iris!”
With the letter stolen, Darkness pressed her hands to her chest and kind of curled into herself. She had run out of luck the moment she assumed I wouldn’t go for the letter if she held it there. I’ve been reborn: I’m a man who no longer holds back in any way at any time.
I savored my small victory as I glanced at the letter. I opened the envelope (complete with the seal of the royal family) and unfolded the letter within…
Dear Elder Brother. I’ve received word of your accomplishments at the fortress near the capital recently. It seems you were your usual dashing self. I do worry about you, though…
The opening alone was enough to make my heart flutter.
Seeing as you’re one of the most renowned adventurers in our nation by now, I wonder if I could make a small request of you.
And then I got to the final sentence.
As it happens, I shall soon be visiting a neighboring country to meet the prince to whom I am betrothed, and I very much wish for you to be my bodyguard on the journey to—
I immediately tore the letter in half.
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