Chapter 363

Kagura looked at Satou Kazuma with undisguised contempt.

“You use such a filthy trick to bully girls, and you’re not even ashamed of yourself?”

Beside her, Kanna silently raised the Mirror of Death and aimed its surface directly at Kazuma.

Haruto sighed and reached out to gently lower the mirror.

“All right, Kanna. Don’t get worked up.”

Kanna glanced at him before obediently lowering the mirror.

Kazuma noticed the exchange between Haruto and Kanna, but he didn’t pay much attention to it. He was still desperately trying to explain himself to everyone around him.

Just then, Aqua looked at him suspiciously.

“Wait a second, Kazuma.”

“Did you really learn the Steal skill?”

The moment Aqua questioned him, Kazuma completely forgot about defending his reputation.

He straightened his back and immediately put on a smug grin.

“It’s just a little Steal skill. What’s so difficult about that?”

“Hmph. Watch closely!”

Kazuma turned toward Megumin, opened his right hand in her direction, then abruptly clenched his fingers.

“Steal!”

The moment he felt something soft appear in his palm, a triumphant smile spread across his face.

Megumin blinked in confusion at first.

Then a sudden cool sensation made her face flush bright red, and moisture immediately gathered at the corners of her eyes.

Kazuma proudly looked down at his “loot.”

It was a pair of black panties trimmed with lace.

Megumin stared at him with a gloomy expression.

“What happened to you…?”

“Did leveling up improve your stats so much that you changed classes from Adventurer to Pervert?”

She slowly held out one hand toward him.

“Um… it’s cold… Please give my panties back…”

Kazuma stared blankly at the underwear in his hand, utterly baffled.

“Eh? EHH?! Why did this happen again?!”

“Isn’t Steal supposed to randomly take one item from the target?”

After stealing panties twice in a row, even Kazuma was beginning to wonder whether the Steal skill itself was somehow indecent.

Watching the entire scene unfold, Darkness only became even more eager to join Kazuma’s party.

“You disgusting pervert! You did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”

Kagura snapped her wind fan open with a sharp swish.

Several razor-sharp wind blades immediately formed around her.

“A hopeless pervert like you is only going to become a danger to society. We might as well kill you now!”

Seeing Kagura’s murderous expression and the wind blades circling around her, Kazuma dropped to his knees without the slightest hesitation.

“WAIT! WAIT! I’M SORRY! I’M REALLY SORRY!”

“All right, all right. Kagura, calm down.”

Haruto stepped forward and pressed down on her fan.

Actually killing Kazuma would create all kinds of unnecessary trouble.

Of course, even if they did kill him, Aqua could simply resurrect him afterward.

“He really is a pervert—an absolutely hopeless one—but I don’t think this deserves the death penalty.”

Chris hurriedly joined Haruto in trying to calm Kagura down.

She had only wanted a little revenge after what Kazuma had done to her. She certainly hadn’t intended for him to actually lose his life over it.

With Haruto and Chris both intervening, Kagura finally closed her fan.

The wind blades circling around her vanished immediately.

Kazuma, who had barely dared to breathe, finally let out a long sigh of relief.

He looked at Kagura with lingering fear and silently swore that whenever she was nearby, he would never use Steal on another woman again, even if someone threatened to kill him.

For one brief moment, he had genuinely thought he was about to become the newest grave in Axel’s cemetery.

Perhaps thoroughly intimidated by Kagura, Kazuma behaved unusually well after that.

Haruto, meanwhile, took Kagura and Kanna over to the guild’s quest board and began searching for a suitable assignment.

He had just found a quest to subjugate Rock Turtles when an urgent bell suddenly rang throughout Axel.

DONG—! DONG—! DONG—!

The alarm continued repeatedly, immediately drawing everyone’s attention.

A moment later, Luna’s anxious voice echoed clearly from the magical announcement devices installed throughout the guild.

“Emergency quest! Emergency quest! All adventurers, please assemble immediately at Axel’s main gate!”

“I repeat! All adventurers, please report to Axel’s main gate immediately!”

The previously noisy guild hall abruptly fell silent.

Then, almost simultaneously, every adventurer who had been casually drinking or chatting sprang to their feet.

Their relaxed expressions vanished, replaced by complete seriousness.

Weapons and equipment were snatched up from beside tables as everyone hurried toward the exit.

Understanding immediately flashed through Haruto’s eyes.

The annual cabbage harvest season had arrived.

“No need to pick another quest. Let’s go too.”

Haruto smiled at Kagura and Kanna, anticipation clearly visible in his expression.

He turned and followed the crowd of adventurers toward the gate, with the sisters beside him.

Axel’s streets had already changed completely.

The marketplaces that had been bustling only moments earlier were now in chaos.

Merchants frantically packed up their stalls and hurried their merchandise inside.

Pedestrians carried children or shopping baskets as they rushed back toward their homes.

Doors and windows slammed shut one after another.

Within only a few minutes, the streets that had once been packed with people became strangely deserted.

Kazuma followed the other adventurers to Axel’s main gate with a completely confused expression.

“What? What the hell is happening?”

He kept looking around, utterly unable to understand the situation.

Then, along the distant horizon, countless green shapes appeared.

They were moving incredibly quickly, surging toward Axel like an enormous green tide.

“I’ll protect everyone! Kazuma, make sure you stay close to me!”

Darkness gripped her greatsword with both hands, her expression completely serious.

Every muscle in her body tensed as she prepared herself for battle.

Unfortunately, her words only made Kazuma even more nervous.

“What exactly is this emergency quest?! Are monsters attacking the town or something?”

Everything about the situation looked ominous to him.

Darkness turned toward him in confusion.

How could Kazuma possibly have forgotten something as important as Axel’s annual cabbage harvest?

“Did nobody tell you? It’s cabbages. The cabbages are coming.”

Aqua explained casually.

“Huh?”

Kazuma stared at her blankly.

Cabbages?

The emergency quest was about cabbages?

What the hell did that even mean?

He couldn’t make any sense of Aqua’s explanation.

But as the approaching green mass came closer, Kazuma finally saw what it actually was.

His eyes widened in disbelief.

A vast swarm of round, bright-green cabbages was flying through the sky, flapping the two outermost leaves on either side of their bodies like birds.

They were racing toward Axel at astonishing speed.

There were so many of them that they nearly blotted out the sky. From a distance, the swarm resembled an enormous green cloud rolling toward the town.

“W-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”

Kazuma pointed toward the airborne cabbages, his voice rising several octaves.

Flying cabbages?

That was completely absurd!

His understanding of common sense was collapsing all over again.

While Kazuma was still struggling to accept what he was seeing, the adventurers around him had already become unable to contain their excitement.

“IT’S HARVEST TIME!”

Someone shouted with overwhelming enthusiasm.

At once, the adventurers charged wildly toward the approaching cabbage swarm.

Dust flew everywhere as the entire area transformed into a chaotic festival.

Some adventurers swung large nets through the air, others wielded long poles in an attempt to knock cabbages down, while mages began casting restraining spells.

Of course, more than a few unlucky adventurers were struck directly by the high-speed cabbages and sent tumbling across the ground, clutching their stomachs and groaning in pain.

Haruto looked up at the flying cabbages, and a brilliant smile spread across his face.

He had been looking forward to encountering the cabbages of the KonoSuba world for quite some time.

According to what he knew, whenever cabbages approached harvesting season, their unwillingness to be eaten by humans caused them to gather together and form enormous migratory flocks.

They would race across grasslands and towns, cross vast mountain ranges, and even fly over entire oceans.

Eventually, they would supposedly reach some hidden, uninhabited sanctuary where no one could disturb them, living out the remainder of their lives in peace.

Whether such a secret sanctuary actually existed, Haruto had no idea.

But one thing was certain.

These exceptionally high-quality cabbages in front of him were not getting away.

Cabbage was an excellent ingredient.

It could be stir-fried, made into cabbage salad, wrapped into stuffed cabbage rolls, simmered in borscht…

As one delicious cabbage dish after another passed through his mind, Haruto’s gaze grew increasingly eager.