The crowd of adventurers stood silently, seemingly overwhelmed by the turn of events.

| felt the same way. Next to me, Megumin clutched her staff, pale and trembling. Alone, she made to walk through the town gate.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going? What have you got in mind?” | grabbed her mantle. Megumin just pulled harder as she tried to walk away. She didn’t look back as she answered:

“This is my fault. | am simply going to go to that castle, let off one good explosion right in that Dullahan’s face, and break Darkness’s curse.”

Like she was going to manage anything by herself. Actually, come to think of it...

“I’m going with you, obviously. By yourself, you’d probably use up your explosion on some piddling guard, and then what? You were too dim to even notice we were blowing up the castle of the Demon King’s general.”

Megumin stared at me for a moment, then her shoulders relaxed as if resigned.

“Fine, come with me, then. But that monster mentioned a legion of Undead Knights. Your sword is not going to be very effective against such enemies. Today, you must rely on my magic.” A slight smile flitted across her face.

Undead Knights presumably wore armor, like their living counterparts. My cheap sword wasn’t going to scratch them. But | had an idea.

“| can use my Sense Foe skill to tell where the enemies are. As we go through the castle, I’ll track them, and then we can jump them with my Ambush skill. Or maybe we could go there once a day and take out all the enemies on one floor of the castle with Explosion. Then we go home and come back the next day. We could probably clear the whole place in a week, right?”

Megumin brightened a bit, perhaps seeing a glimmer of hope in my strategy. The two of us turned to Darkness.

“Hey, Darkness! We’re gonna lift that curse, | guarantee it! So you just—” “Sacred Dispel!”

Aqua’s incantation interrupted my attempt to encourage Darkness. Darkness’s body shone with a faint light.

Aqua’s cheerful face was a stark contrast to the despondent-looking Crusader.

“Some Dullahan’s little curses don’t stand a chance against me! How about that, huh? | can totally act like a real Priest sometimes Megumin and | looked at her. “Huh...2” we said.

And here Megumin and | had been just starting to get excited. Way to take the wind out of our sails, Aqua.