chapter 6

“Hey! Kazuma! Kazuma! Wake up! Wake up already!”

I woke up with a start.

Perhaps it’s because I fell asleep not too long ago, but I came to my senses very easily.

Darkness was violently shaking me while screaming my name…

… …

I closed my eyes once more, wrapped my arms around Darkness, and pulled her onto the bed with me.

“I can’t eat another bite…”

“H-Hey! You’re awake, aren’t you!? Aah, wa-wait!”

… I just wanted to play a little prank on Darkness, but feeling her slowly go limp in my arms brought a sudden halt to my thought processes.

“… What are you doing? … I just asked you to wake Kazuma up! Seriously, the moment I take my eyes off you, you’re back to seducing him! You really are a slut!”

“Ah, n-n-no, that’s not! I haven’t done—!”

Seems like Megumin is in the room too, so I opened my eyes.

And of course, the first thing that I saw was Darkness’s eyes.

“… Did you come to attack me again!?”

“Aah! Y-You little—!”

After separating myself from Darkness whose cheeks turned red under these false accusations, I stretched and said

“What’s the matter, you two? Why are you raising such a fuss so early in the morning?”

“It’s already noon! More importantly, this is really serious! Please read this!”

Rising up from my bed, I accepted the envelope that Megumin handed to me.

Inside it was a letter written with an extremely exquisite penmanship, and I wasted no time in reading it.

“Dear everyone,

The light breeze heralds the refreshing breeze of autumn. How is everyone doing?

Darkness, don’t go overboard with that game you play where you repeatedly stub your toe against the dresser.

Megumin, if you don’t reign in how often you use your Explosion, I’m certain your actions will eventually be counted as one of the factors contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Kazuma, I know that you’re a young man with a healthy libido, but please stop laying out everyone’s laundry on the floor and rolling through them.”

I crumpled the letter I was reading and threw it into the corner of the room.

“Ah!”

Megumin picked up the letter from the floor.

“I understand how you feel, but please read it all the way to the end.”

Well, I couldn’t exactly refuse her request, so I continued reading.

“Now then, the Demon King is currently spreading chaos and destruction throughout this world. Do you think that the beautiful and lovely goddess that I am could simply stand by and let the Demon King do as he wishes?

No, I cannot do that.

For the sake of my beloved Axis Cultists spread throughout the world.

To answer the wishes of the ten billion people who believe in me

I’m heading out on a journey to become a legend…”

I raised my head.

“… Are there really ten billion Axis Cultists in this world?”

“… There’d probably be about a few hundred at best.”

Hearing Darkness’s words, I let out a relieved sigh before continuing to read the letter.

“Thus, in order to turn this lofty ideal into reality…

I’ll be going out for a bit to take down the Demon King.”

I leapt off my bed.

“That idiot…!”

Towards the flustered me, Darkness started

“… Aqua has been saving up the allowance you’ve been giving her. She should’ve saved up quite a sum by now, so she might be trying to hire a few skilled adventurers right now…”

I rushed to grab my jacket.

If I don’t hurry up and chase after her…!

—Then, just as turned back towards the two, I noticed something off about their expressions.

I gave them a questioning look, and Megumin pointed towards a corner of the letter.

I’d probably miss it if I wasn’t paying attention, but right where her finger was pointing were a few words that seemed to be crossed out.

She probably wrote this but canceled it out because it sounded stupid or something.

I leaned in for a closer look.

“PS: Please come after me.”

… Wasn’t it supposed to be “Please don’t come after me”?

—That idiot!

Afterword

First of all, thank you for picking up this book.

This is the volume where the protagonist, Satou Kazuma, launches a counterattack.

Normally, he’s the kind of person who avoids picking fights, and relies upon his friends to bail him out when he does get into a brawl.

However, looking upon Aqua’s sorrowful form, he challenges the general on his own, and continues struggling even when facing the enemy’s mind control…

I don’t think that there are that many people who start reading from the afterword, but if you want a summary, that’s pretty much the gist of it.

Anyway, I was only able to get this book published thanks to: The illustrator Mishima Kurone-sensei, manager I-san, Design-san and Proofreader-san, many people from the editorial department and various people involved, and, of course, all of my readers who have been cheering me on.

That’s why I always do this in every volume…

My deepest thanks to everyone who worked on this project, and to each and every one of my readers!

{And that’s the end of volume 15. Things are finally heading into end game, and I suppose there’s no better time for it given that Natsume’s other projects are picking up () and the past seven volumes having almost entirely LN original content. It’s been a long time coming, and I won’t be surprised if Konosuba ends within the next two or three volumes. Still, Natsume has surprised us before, so, who knows. Whichever direction Natsume intends to take this, I’ll right here to TL them right into your eyeballs, so look forward to it.