Chapter 298 — Give Blessings to the Beautiful Maid!

That day…

When I came back home, for some reason there was a maid.

She was a short, beautiful girl with blue hair, and she gave off somewhat of a quiet impression.

“Oh, welcome home, Kazuma. Jeez, you promised to come with me on my daily explosion, so where were you?”

When the maid caught my attention, Megumin, who sunk into the couch, started talking to me while pouting.

Daily explosions were a stupid daily thing that this loli wizard insisted she had to do or else she’d die.

It’s true that I was supposed to be the one to carry Megumin back home on my back today, but from what I’m seeing, I figure she’s already done with the daily routine.

“We were out of mayonnaise, so I went to go buy some more. I also bought some ingredients for dinner. I’ll take care of dinner tonight, so cut me some slack here will you?”

As I put the ingredients I bought onto the table, the blue haired maid muttered something.

“Mayonnaise……”

“Something wrong with mayonnaise? Actually, what’s a maid even doing here?”

When I asked the maid a question as she got lost in her thoughts, with a surprised look on her face she said,

“No, I was just thinking about someone who loves mayonnaise…… So mayonnaise exists in this world, hm.”

“In this world”?

It almost sounded like she was saying that she came from a different world, so I felt like something was off here.

“Kazuma, allow me to this introduce her. This is Rem. She just happened to pass by when I was resting on the ground after casting explosion magic. When I listened to what she had to say, she sounded kind of troubled, so I thought to help her out and brought her here.”

“To me it just sounds like you were the one to be saved, unable to move and having trouble, can’t see it as anything else. Hell, what were you thinking, going to cast explosion magic all by yourself? What would you have done if that girl didn’t pass by?”

Once this girl casts explosion magic, she has no more magical power at all and she can’t move a muscle.

She may have a quick temper and all sorts of weird things about her, but I’d thought that she wasn’t stupid……

“I went to inspect targets for today’s explosion magic. I found a rock that looked like it’d be pretty good, and I was going to go home, but for some reason a suspicious, white mist started to form. I sensed danger, so I shot it without thinking what’d happen afterwards.”

“Then you were saved by this girl that happened to pass by. I’m sorry that our wizard bothered you.”

“It’s okay……I went out to buy some appas, but just when I felt like a white mist was wrapping me, I saw Megumin-sama passed out right in front of me.”

The maid named Rem says that and looked down in a troubled way.

I wonder what an appa is.

I could see some red fruits that looked like apples in the paper bag the maid was holding. Maybe those were it.

“Rem doesn’t know her way back home. She’d said that she was going back to a mansion, so I’d thought that she was someone from the town Axel, but apparently she doesn’t know the place……”

She said that she’s not familiar with Axel, but it’s the only town around here…

And you said that you were wrapped in white mist, were you being spirited away or something?

“Guess I’ll go to the Adventurer’s Guild and research magic like monsters that manipulate white mist. Rem, right? If you have nowhere you need to be, then you should stay here for a while. We have extra rooms, anyway. It’s to thank you for picking up our crappy wizard, so make yourself at home.”

All I’ve come across were beautiful but peculiar girls up to this point, but it must be fate or something for me to meet a genuine, beautiful maid like this.

“U─Umm, thank you. I’m not sure how useful I’ll be, but at least let me take care of stuff like the housework.”

As I tried to sound cool with some of my lines, Rem, the beautiful maid, let out a sigh of relief, perhaps because she’d been very worried.

And that’s how…

The beautiful maid and us──

“By the way, about the appas you’re carrying, they aren’t going to attack us, right?”

“Why would you think they’d attack? Appas are fruit, you know?”

……A life with Rem, a mysterious girl lacking just a little bit of common knowledge, began──

──The maid wakes up early in the morning.

She gets up in the dark before the sun’s even up, and starts preparing breakfast before the landlord is awake.

“Good morning, Rem. You’re up early again.”

“Good morning, Satou-sama. Satou-sama is up early too. Sorry, breakfast isn’t ready yet…..”

Rem quickly bows her head, maybe because it was disgraceful for a maid to wake up after the landlord.

“Wait, I didn’t wake up early, it’s just that I stayed up all night. I’ll be going to sleep after this, so I don’t need breakfast either.”

“Stayed up all night, you say……. Um, were you perhaps doing research on that white mist?”

I suddenly look away, as I really didn’t want to say that I was up playing games all night to a worried face like that.

“No, I was just playing stuff since I couldn’t sleep. So you don’t need to worry about anything, Rem.”

“……Okay.”

Rem looked at me with an apologetic look, I guess because she was reading too much into my attitude, and so I panicked and tried to smooth things over.

“No, sorry that’s not quite right. I actually played games until morning! I’m really sorry for giving you the wrong idea! You know what, I’ll have breakfast and I’ll go to the Adventurer’s Guild to do proper research on the fog!”

“O─Okay. But this isn’t good for your health, so please make sure to eat breakfast and get some sleep properly.”

……What is this refreshing feeling?

She’s showing care for me seeing that I’d played games all night.

Since I met a heroine that doesn’t classify as peculiar or crappy, once again I realized just how great my luck is.

I am living together with a beautiful maid that suddenly came to our home one day.

Isn’t this the true life in a different world?

Yep, this is exactly what they call a ‘beautiful girl flag’.

“I don’t want to worry Subaru-kun any more than this, but I also feel bad for pushing you even though you’re taking care of me……”

“Subaru-kun? Is that someone you like or something?”

When I saw Rem faced down with her ears slightly red, I understood that there was never any flag in the first place.

I knew it.

I knew there couldn’t have been something so fortunate in this good-for-nothing world.

──The maid has a lot of work.

All kinds of shopping to prepare meals, taking care of the garden when cleaning the mansion…

And then there was stuff like……

“Today’s black tea is splendid again. I give it a perfect score.”

“Thank you, Aqua-sama.”

Dealing with a worthless goddess that pretends to be a celebrity despite not even knowing what black tea tastes like.

I turn towards Aqua, who has been an attention whore ever since Rem came to this house and wants to poke her nose into other people’s business.

“You’re acting pretty high and mighty for someone who hasn’t even helped out with the investigation whatsoever. Rem, she doesn’t know what black tea tastes like, so next time just give her hot water.”

“Rude. How could I not distinguish taste, I am the Goddess of Water, you know? You are annoying when it comes to the quality of drinks.”

Aqua glared at me for a moment as she said that, but it’s been confirmed that this girl doesn’t even notice when high class sake is replaced with cheap sake.

It is currently in the afternoon.

I wonder if the relaxing time we spend after eating lunch in the hall will be different with the excellent maid.

Then, Darkness smiles at Rem, who was next to Aqua, as she drank the same black tea.

“Still, the black tea Rem makes is really good. Her cooking is also wonderful. Rem, you’re always welcome to become a part of our group, so if you ever want to, just ask.”

“Thank you very much, Dustiness-sama. But just those thoughts are enough.”

Rem’s whole reply was polite. She was too perfect as a maid.

“……Say, Rem, where are you from? You’re kind of perfect as a human, so obviously you’re not from this town full of oddballs, and such a good person being a resident of this country seems suspicious.”

Rem answers my question with another question.

“Do you have any idea what names like Lugnica, Volcania, and Kararagi mean?”

“Well, I know a magical sword user named Katsuragi. Are those names of places? I don’t know them, but how about you guys?”

Aqua and Darkness, the two I asked the question to, also shook their heads.

While Rem pondered something, the entranceway door opened.

“I’m baaaack~ Why does Rem look so serious? Did Kazuma sexually harass you while I wasn’t keep an eye on him?”

“Oi, who do you think I am? I don’t remember ever doing anything weird myself. Mostly just unavoidable counterattacks against outrageous developments.”

Megumin, who’d went to the Adventurer’s Guild, came back and was saying rude things.

“No, apart from assaulting me by looking at me with indecent eyes once I get out of the bath, Satou-sama hasn’t done anything yet.”

“What the!? This girl has a surprisingly sharp tongue! O─Okay then. So, Megumin, how’d it go?”

Megumin had asked an Adventurer Guild member about the fog.

“I’m not sure if this has anything to do with the fog, but recently, never before seen monsters have been appearing near Axel. Apparently they speed up randomly, are pretty strong, and don’t like to go out of town.”

Never before seen monsters?

“Then Megumin, continue to get more information in town. Maybe Darkness will find out something with her connections with nobles? Meanwhile, Aqua and I will check out the monsters from afar.”

──The maid is really strong.

“Waaaaaa! Remmm!! Help me, Remmmmm!!!”

Aqua’s voice echoes throughout the vast plain outside of Axel.

“Hoo!”

As she let out a slight yell, an iron sphere with chains flies, and it smashed the head of the giant toad that was chasing Aqua.

Aqua, who had been chased by a frog, clings onto Rem as she had saved her.

“I’m never leaving this girl’s side. I mean, we have the same hair color and eye color, and she doesn’t even feel like a stranger. Please stay with me, even if it’s just when we’re outside of town.”

“I don’t mind……But is it common for frogs as giant as those ones to be around this area?”

“Axel is well known for its giant toads. They perceive most living things without metal armor as bait, and they’re known as the weakest monsters around here. Not to mention, their bodies also are light and taste very good.”

It was going to just be Aqua and I to go, but Rem said that guarding is also a part of a maid’s job and came along with us.

At first, I was worried about if she’d be fine, but the results speak for themselves.

“By the way, where’d that iron sphere come from? You didn’t have it when you left the mansion, right?”

“Satou-sama, it’s insensitive to pry into a maid’s secrets. Still, monsters, huh……they don’t have the witch’s stink, so they aren’t mabeasts.”

I wonder what’s a ‘witch’s stink’.

I set aside the fact that Rem said something strange for now and looked around the area again.

“I haven’t seen anything but toads. Where are the never before seen monsters?”

Megumin said that they’re seen at this plain, but they were nowhere to be found.

“Since there’s nothing but toads in this plain, they probably moved to the forest or something. You know, toads smell like fish unless they’re cooked properly, right? I wanted to eat delicious things, not just monsters and toads. So how about we go back home? Let’s head back and eat Rem’s delicious cooking.”

When I thought about what to do with Aqua not showing one bit of motivation, Rem immediately sniffed.

And then……

“Is it just my imagination……?”

Rem, tilting her head slightly, muttered a few words.

──The maid makes people useless.

Yes.

“Megumin-sama, open wide.”

“Ahhhn”

Right now, in front of me I see Megumin unable to move from having used up all her magical power after her daily routine, making Rem feed her.

Darkness is out to investigate the mysterious monster and the fog, and the useless Goddess who hasn’t been helpful whatsoever is sleeping even now after making Rem play board games with her until it was late at night.

“Hey, Rem, don’t spoil her too much. Or rather, Megumin you become a useless human too quickly.”

While I have lunch, I give some advice to Megumin, who is lying down on the couch, and Rem, who is standing next to her. Lately, Rem has been working her hardest for Megumin, perhaps because she has a habit of spoiling people or something.

“Come on Kazuma, I know you’re jealous, but please don’t ruin this lovely life.”

Megumin, who wasn’t as dissatisfied with this life as I’d thought, gets along very well with Rem.

So well that Rem even goes with her on all of her her daily explosion walks.

“Sorry, it’s just that when I look at the color of Megumin-sama’s eyes, I remember Nee-sama……”

“Oh, so Rem has a big sister. What’s she like? I can imagine that she’s a very competent woman since she’s Rem’s sister.”

Rem looks sort of quiet, and she actually gives off this impression of being difficult to approach.

So her sister should be the same,

“She’s a lovely sister who likes steamed potatoes and naps.”

When I was having those thoughts on her, Rem started staring at me.

“What is it? I don’t dislike you looking at me with passionate eyes, but it does make me feel awkward.”

This is different from the crappy companions I’ve gotten completely used to. I’ll start to carelessly fall in love if a traditional beautiful girl stares at me like this.

“Sorry, Satou-sama’s clothes looked like the clothes Subaru has. Also, I’m just a little disgusted.”

“You really do have a sharp tongue sometimes! Anyway, you said clothes that look like what I have on? ……Say, Rem, does ‘Subaru-kun’ have black hair and black eyes?”

What I have on is a Japanese jersey.

If his looks like that, then that means……

“Yes, that’s right. Subaru-kun has sanpaku eyes, is surprisingly fit, and is handsome.”

“Okay enough fawning over him, since I’ll start wanting to kill ‘Subaru-kun’. But I see. I get most of it…… So I have to ask, does ‘Subaru-kun’ have some sort of amazing power? Like an unbelievable ability, or like a special move that turns everything upside down…”

Yeah, in most summonings into a different world, there are those sort of possibilities

“None. He’s just an ordinary boy that was a shut-in before and he has just a little bit of an aptitude for yin magic.”

“Huh?”

It’s not the pattern where you go to a different world with a cheat ability?

“In that case, he must go through the same trouble I go through. And the fact that he’s an ex-shut-in makes me sympathize with him even more. If me and him ever meet, I feel like we could be friends.”

In my case, I have Aqua, so I can come back to life as much as I want as long as I don’t get severely injured a lot.

So that in itself is kind of like a cheat ability.

I have crappy comrades as a handicap to balance it out, but he must be having a hard time, since if he dies, then that’s it for him.

When I considered that, I got over the fact that a beautiful maid likes him.

“Satou-sama, I won’t let you have Subaru-kun, you know?”

“Hold on there, I won’t tolerate those kind of jokes. I assure you that I’m not a homo.”

I faced Rem and gave her a wry smile as she started saying absurd things, but…

“Subaru-kun’s surprisingly popular with the ladies, be it Patrasche or Petra, so I just got worried.”

“Actually, I don’t think I could be friends with Subaru-kun.”

Petra sounds like a name of a beautiful person, though I’m not so sure what a girl named Patrasche would be like.

“Rem, if you’re lonely and want to see your sister, then how about you think of me as your sister and spoil me? I actually have a little sister myself. Leave it up to me to be your big sister.”

“But you’re the one that looks just like a little sister, and there’s something wrong with the older sister being spoiled by the younger one.”

Rem was diligently carrying the spoon to Megumin’s mouth, like how a parent bird would feed its chicks, and she smiled slightly at us.

It was the first smile Rem, who gave off a quiet, calm, cool, and collected impression, showed us ever since she came to this mansion, and it made it seem like she was watching a familiar interaction──

──The maid……

“The bell peppors! Satou-sama, I was preparing meals, and then the bell peppors suddenly attacked me!”

Rem came rushing from the kitchen with a pale face while I was repairing equipment in the hall.

“Who the hell are the bell peppors? Red magical beings? ……Wait, those are bell peppers. You didn’t kill them properly.”

Once I took a look, I saw Rem holding bell peppers tightly.

Bell peppers are tacticians in this world.

They play dead while being harvested. Afterwards, they still continue to do so, waiting patiently to get on a cutting board, and the moment the cook turns their back on them, they attack.

“Did you not learn that you should be careful to check if the bell peppers are dead when you cook them? It’s a good thing that they were bell peppers, because if they were matsutake mushrooms, you might’ve not been alive right around now.”

“Bell peppers are scary. So scary……”

……

“Hey, Rem, you aren’t actually someone from this world, huh? Aren’t you actually from a different world?”

Someone of this world and someone so good at cooking should be well aware of how dangerous bell peppers are.

Plus, she also didn’t know about Axel town, and she also brought up names of places I’ve never heard of before.

“Satou-sama, you aren’t surprised even after finding out that I came from a different world?”

Rem sighs with a worried look on her face.

I was going to tell her, “I probably came from the same different world as Subaru-kun, after all”, but I stopped myself.

Subaru-kun should be the one to come out with something important like this.

It would be against the rules for me to reveal it.

“There are a lot of people from different worlds in this world, after all. It’s nothing that surprises me now.”

As I said that, I placed the sword I was repairing back in its sheath.

“How are those people doing now? I promised to make Subaru-kun appa pie. Is there a way to go back……?”

This beautiful girl facing down with an anxious look probably came to this world through an irregular way.

In that case, forget about the useless Goddess that’s been spoiled by this girl everyday, we have to get the superior Goddess back.

“Don’t worry about it. I promise I’ll send you back. I may not look like it, but I have great luck. Soon enough, I’m sure that……”

Yes, I’m sure that someone will come barging into the mansion and──

……Then, it happened when I was having those thoughts.

“Kazuma, Rem! I found out what exactly the white mist is!”

Darkness came barging in as the entranceway door opened.

“Recently, there have been dog monsters frequently appearing near Axel, and when you see them, there will always be white mist that appears with them. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with Rem, but I accepted a quest to subjugate them.”

──When we were heading towards the vast forest near Axel, I saw Aqua and Megumin waiting.

“Kazuma, you’re late! The monsters are getting away! The forest seems to be their territory, so it’d be a pain if they got deep inside it. Let’s hurry up and kill them!”

Megumin, eyes shining red, was pointing at a group of gigantic dog monsters at the forest’s entrance.

I’d thought that there weren’t any monsters living around here that were this strong. Where the heck did they came from?

It happened then.

Rem, who had been standing still behind us up to this point, seemed completely different and it was as if she’d found her parent’s enemy.

Once she brought out her iron sphere, she started running with it in silence.

“Wai!”

Rem rushed out before I could even stop her and she

“Al Huma!”

With a shout, she created several giant ice lances, and she shot them at the group of monsters.

“Hey, Kazuma, you know, that girl is pretty strong. Like so strong that I feel we could just leave.”

“Don’t say that, Aqua. I’ve already declared that I will bring her back while showing off, and I’ve even repaired the equipment that usually doesn’t work very well. What the hell am I supposed to do about this? She doesn’t even need us.”

Rem killed a myriad of dog monsters by using brutal magic we didn’t know about, and after that, she swung around her iron sphere and crushed them one after another.

The maid is strong. Super strong.

I seriously want her in my party.

Then it happened while we were watching her in amazement.

“!? Satou-sama, please run!”

A remarkably large animal with a horn on its forehead ran past Rem and dashed towards us.

Darkness went in front of us to protect us, and the arm she stuck out towards the dog was being bit on hard……!

“Damn! What a treat this is to have a dog reeking of beast on me! Kazuma, leave this up to me and cover Rem! Don’t worry, I’ll keep this guy busy like this! Come on now, leave it up to me to handle this and go on without me!”

I leave behind Darkness, who looked sort of fine, and backed up Rem with the bow I had in my hand……

“Satou-sama, please shoot it!”

I somehow reacted faster than Rem’s frantic speaking.

The giant dog that was biting Darkness dodged it and disappeared into the forest.

“──Darkness-sama, please let me take a look at your injuries!”

Rem, who exterminated all of the dog monsters except for the one that ran away into the forest, came rushing over with a pale face.

“Don’t worry, the wound is extremely minor. It’s just a mere scratch. I wanted to be hit harder……”

“I’m sorry our weirdo acts like this even though you were worried.”

“I’m already used to it because of Roswaal-sama, so it’s okay! ……Ahh……”

Rem gave an odd reply, though I don’t know who Roswaal-sama is, and she moaned softly with a pale face as she looked at Darkness’ wound.

“Rem, your face is pale. Do you know that monster? Does it keep poison or deadly viruses in its nails and fangs or something?”

“It’s not poison, it’s a curse! That mabeast casts a curse that weakens the person it bit! At the moment, the only way to release the curse……is to kill the mabeast that casted it.”

Hearing those words, Aqua starts to feel Darkness’ body.

Rem turns her back on Darkness, and she starts walking towards the forest the monster disappeared into.

“Darkness-sama, please relax. I will now pay you back for the kind hospitality you showed when I wandered into this world. I promise that I’ll save you!”

When Rem said that declaration vigorously, she looked towards the forest with the thirst for revenge in her eyes as I wondered, ‘What ever happened to the timidness she had when she first came to our mansion?’

What should I do?

I feel bad because she’s so fired up, but I’m familiar with these flow of events─or rather, I know what happens after this.

“Calm down, Rem. It’s alright, don’t worry about Darkness.”

“!? What are you saying, at this rate, she’ll……!”

Upon hearing those words, Rem suddenly turns around, and it happened just when she was about to lose control of herself.

“‘Sacred Break Spell’!”

Sure enough, or well, how should I put it…Aqua, being the dense one she is, chanted magic to release curses.

When white light rose from the magical circle that appeared at Darkness’ feet, something like a black haze appeared for a moment, and then it vanished.

“Rem, relax! Darkness is fine now! A curse like this is a piece of cake if you rely on me!”

“Oh……”

They turn towards Rem as she unconsciously dropped her iron sphere and looked at them in confusion.

“Thanks, Rem. Um……you tried to save me, and just those feelings are enough. I am very grateful.”

“Y─Yeah, stuff like risking your life and trying to dispel a curse aren’t things that people could do very easily! Yes, you were very cool!”

These two, as people who have memories of this same development, follow-up while considering Rem’s current feelings.

Rem was facing down, so her facial expression couldn’t be seen, but they were at least able to guess how she was feeling right now since her ears were red.

“Thank goodness, Rem, Darkness is saved! But that’s a relief. You usually don’t really show much facial expressions, but you’re actually really nice, huh!”

With another dense remark, Rem crouched down while covering her face.

“──This might just be my gamer’s intuition, but I feel like Rem will be able to go back if we exterminate the mabeast that ran into the forest.”

Hearing my words, Rem, who’d been crouched down up to this point, stood up as if nothing had happened.

“In that case, I’ll go into the forest now and chase it. But those mabeasts’ stink is very faint, I wonder if it’s because they came into this world where the witch isn’t strong enough.…….I’m not sure how many days it’ll take to hunt those mabeasts, but I hope that it’s okay for me to be under your care until then……”

I shake my head at Rem, who said that with an apologetic look.

“You can stay in the house for as long as you want, but I told you earlier, didn’t I? I promise to send you back.”

When Rem said that, I started using Enemy Detection with all the magical power I had in me.

It was that strong.

Just as I’d thought, the weak monsters around this area seemed to have ran away, and from inside the forest, I could only sense the presence of what seems to be the large dog from earlier.

“Oi, Megumin, are you ready? The target is in the direction I’m pointing in. If you cast magic with everything you have in you, the distance should be spot on. The town might get angry afterwards, but go ahead and hit the middle of the forest as hard as you want!”

“You can count on me! Allow me to blast away that mutt with my powers! Rem, your big sister’s going to show you what she’s really got. I, not Kazuma, will send you back home!”

Rem chuckles softly at Megumin, who went ahead and called herself her sister.

While Megumin was starting to chant magic resonantly, a remarkably loud cry was heard nearby.

“Nooooo! Nooo! Rem, be ours! Please, stay by my side forever and spoil me!”

“Aqua, don’t be selfish! Everyone wants it, but why do you have to say things you shouldn’t say out loud! Rem has a home, don’t bother her anymore!”

Darkness frantically holds down Aqua, who was crying and trying to hold back Rem, as she probably anticipated what was going to happen.

Rem looks at the two of them, and in a bit of a troubled manner,

“Thank you all for taking good care of me. I felt a little confident in this world.”

She says that, bidding a shy farewell while sounding a little happy.

“Oh, Rem. Take this with you.”

While Megumin continued to chant magic, I said that and handed her large box closed tight.

“What’s this?”

I faced Rem who looked curious,

“You worked as a maid, but you weren’t even paid properly, right? Even if I gave you money from this world, you wouldn’t even be able to use it, so at least take this.”

And when I said that, with a slight smile, Rem said,

“Thank you very much. By the way, what’s in it?”

I also smile back and,

“Rem was in the middle of buying apples, right? I bought some high-class ones, so take them home with you and make some appa pie or whatever for ‘Subaru-kun’.”

When I said that and handed over the box to Rem, she blushed happily.

“──And well, I’m a little jealous, but I wish for happiness for you and Subaru-kun.”

To be honest, I’m not just a ‘little’ jealous, but it’s someone that such a great girl likes.

He must be someone I could never hope to compare to, liked by everyone, honest, sincere──

“Yes! Subaru-kun’s number one is Emilia-sama, but I’ll do my best to become number two!”

…….

“Oi, what did you just say?”

“Do my best and become number two.”

“Oi, Megumin, stop the magic! We’re going to make this girl ours! That asshole Subaru is an awful two-timing bastard! ……Ah, what are you doing, Darkness, stop it! Oi, let go of me. Megumin, you too, stop the mag……!”

The beautiful maid from a different world had a worried expression, but she had an amused smile on her face.

“‘Explosion’────!”

The forest was wrapped in white light while a thunderous noise resounded throughout it──