Illimitable Until Death

Chapter 902: IUD-Chapter 897 Feasts Frenzies and Unlikely Allies

Adventurer Guild

As dusk gradually descended, adventurers returning from quests outside the city began to trickle back in, one after another, filling the Adventurer Guild with renewed energy and noise.

The staff bustled about, serving steaming dishes and chilled drinks to every table, adding warmth to the raucous atmosphere.

At one of the worn wooden tables, the food was vanishing at an alarming rate, as if it were being devoured by a small pack of feral beasts.

“Hau! Hau!”

A girl from the Crimson Demon Clan tossed her staff aside with a loud thunk, grabbing a chunk of roasted meat and wolfing it down like a revenant who hadn’t tasted food in days.

“Hau! Hau!”

Sitting beside her, for some inexplicable reason, Aqua was also in full glutton mode, stuffing her cheeks to capacity and chewing like a frenzied squirrel on speed.

“……”

Fang Li and Kazuma sat across from the duo, their eyes glazed over as they silently watched the feeding frenzy unfold.

Their expressions were practically mirrored,

Dead fish eyes.

“Aaah, aaah!”

Kazuma suddenly clutched his head and groaned dramatically, looking as if the weight of the world had just landed on his shoulders.

“They’re both cute girls! Objectively, they’re both super cute!”

He cried out, as if trying to exorcise a cruel cosmic joke.

Fang Li didn’t need an explanation, he understood exactly what Kazuma meant.

Yes.

They were undeniably cute.

If they just sat there quietly, composed and still, they’d draw stares from every man in the room.

The kind of attention that usually came with rose-colored filters and sparkling background effects.

But this chaotic, unrestrained gluttony?

It completely obliterated any trace of elegance or charm.

The “beautiful” part of “beautiful girls” had fled the scene faster than Aqua fleeing responsibility.

Fang Li silently consoled himself, thankfully, he already had a girlfriend.

He didn’t need to deal with this disaster.

Kazuma, however, was not so lucky.

At this rate, the poor guy’s idealized image of feminine beauty was probably in ruins.

Beyond repair.

Just ash in the wind.

Choosing to ignore Kazuma’s dramatic breakdown, Fang Li turned to the Crimson Magic girl, breaking the carnivorous trance.

“Are you done? If you’re full, can we go now?”

His voice betrayed his eagerness to escape.

The girl slowed her chewing slightly, glaring at him with crimson eyes while gnawing on her meat in small, deliberate bites.

She muttered under her breath:

“The more you try to run from me, the more I feel like clinging to you.”

With that ominous declaration, she stood up, flared her crimson-lined robe with theatrical flair, and launched into a grandiose self-introduction:

“My name is Megumin! Class: Archmage! Wielder of the most powerful and supreme magic, Explosion!”

Fang Li blinked.

He’d heard something similar before… from a certain awkward girl named Yunyun.

Without missing a beat, he asked: “You know Yunyun?”

Megumin froze.

No, more than froze.

Her whole body tensed, her eyes wide as if someone had just revealed her deepest secret.

“…Why are you reacting like that?” Fang Li said incredulously.

“Is it really that strange that I know a girl named Yunyun?”

“Of course it’s strange!” Megumin replied emphatically, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“It’s so absurd that if you told me the Demon King himself was planning to attack this town tomorrow because he feared my incredible magic, I’d believe that instead!”

‘What kind of warped logic was that?’

Megumin leaned in, eyeing him suspiciously.

“You really know Yunyun?” she muttered.

“That lonely girl… if she actually made a friend, she would’ve come rushing to me, grinning ear to ear just to rub it in. But I haven’t heard a thing!”

“…Is that so?” Fang Li replied, somewhat irritated.

“Then who exactly is that girl I met?”

“That girl’s the daughter of the Crimson Demon Clan’s chief,” Megumin said matter-of-factly.

“We’re in the same year, attended the same arcane academy, graduated together, and came to Axel with the same goal, to become full-fledged Adventurers.”

She spoke with the kind of pride only a Crimson Magic user could summon.

“At the academy, I was always ranked first. She came in second every time. She’s been challenging me since day one, but naturally, she’s never managed to beat me. Not even once.”

Then Megumin added, almost like an afterthought, but with deliberate emphasis:

“And she has no friends.”

Fang Li raised an eyebrow.

No friends?

That little detail was oddly familiar.

“That girl,” Megumin continued, as if reading Fang Li’s mind, “Is infamous in the clan for being ashamed of her own name. At the academy, she always ate alone. Thirteen years, and not a single person she could call a friend.”

Megumin puffed out her chest a little, taking clear satisfaction in what came next.

“So whenever I’m out here flaunting my greatness, eating meat in front of her, enjoying life, she can’t help but challenge me. Says she needs to defeat me to earn her place as rightful heir to the Crimson Demon Clan.”

So that’s what it was…

No wonder that girl, Yunyun, had posted such a desperate recruitment notice on the guild board.

At the time, Fang Li had misread the situation.

He thought she was looking for a boyfriend.

But now, it all made sense, she just wanted to make friends.

That sparkle in her eyes when she saw someone approach her?

That wasn’t romantic interest.

That was hope.

Desperate, soul-crushing hope… for connection.

And that dramatic self-introduction back then?

Pure Crimson Demon Clan behavior.

Fang Li had read up on them.

A top-tier archmage bloodline in the Belzerg Kingdom, capable of wielding destructive force powerful enough to act as a last-resort military asset.

And yet…

Every single member of the clan suffered from terminal Chuunibyou.

Weird names.

Over-the-top theatrics.

Delusions of grandeur.

The whole deal.

Yunyun, on the other hand, was the odd one out.

Probably the only Crimson Demon Clan member born with a shred of common sense.

Ashamed of her ridiculous name, utterly lacking in Chuunibyou spirit, naturally, her classmates would treat her like some kind of aberration.

Now it was all clear.

When she gave that tearful, exaggerated self-introduction and ran away in embarrassment… she wasn’t being weird.

She was trying so hard to fit in.

A powerful, sensible, well-endowed, and genuinely sweet girl, one who’d have no trouble attracting suitors in any other place, was crushed under the weight of her eccentric heritage.

Doomed to loneliness just for being normal.

Fang Li sighed inwardly.

After meeting so many strange people today, regret started to creep in.

“If I had just approached Yunyun back then… maybe I wouldn’t be stuck in this situation now.”

‘Why hadn’t he talked to her?’

As he brooded, Megumin stood up, brushing off her hands and adjusting her robes.

Her stomach was finally full.

“Thanks, by the way,” She said nonchalantly.

“If you guys hadn’t shown up, I probably would’ve starved to death today.”

She swept back her robe dramatically, adjusted her wizard’s hat with a gleam in her eye, and let a mischievous grin spread across her face.

Her voice dropped low, carrying a theatrical flair:

“In return for saving me, I, the Great Archmage Megumin, have made my decision!”

She raised a hand toward the heavens.

“From this moment forth, I shall join your party!”

(End of Chapter)