Gamble Scramble! Read online

  Copyright

  Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, Vol. 10

  NATSUME AKATSUKI

  Translation by Kevin Steinbach

  Cover art by Kurone Mishima

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  KONO SUBARASHII SEKAI NI SHUKUFUKU WO!, Volume 10: GYANBURU SUKURANBURU!

  Copyright © 2016 Natsume Akatsuki, Kurone Mishima

  First published in Japan in 2016 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First Yen On Edition: December 2019

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Akatsuki, Natsume, author. | Mishima, Kurone, 1991– illustrator. | Steinbach, Kevin, translator.

  Title: Konosuba, God’s blessing on this wonderful world! / Natsume Akatsuki ; illustration by Kurone Mishima ; translation by Kevin Steinbach.

  Other titles: Kono subarashi sekai ni shukufuku wo. English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2017–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016052009 | ISBN 9780316553377 (v. 1 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468701 (v. 2 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468732 (v. 3 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468763 (v. 4 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468787 (v. 5 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468800 (v. 6 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468824 (v. 7 : paperback) | ISBN 9780316468855 (v. 8 : paperback) | ISBN 9781975385033 (v. 9 : paperback) | ISBN 9781975332341 (v. 10 : paperback)

  Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | Future life—Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Fantasy / General.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.A38 Ko 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052009

  ISBNs: 978-1-9753-3234-1 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-3235-8 (ebook)

  E3-20191031-JV-NF-ORI

  Prologue

  I felt a gentle vibration against my back. Iris was still fawning over her ring.

  “Hey. I know I keep saying this, but that’s a cheap toy. It only cost four hundred eris. When we get back to the capital, I can get you a way better one.”

  “You don’t have to! I don’t need another ring. I like this one!”

  It was the umpteenth time she had told me that.

  “Yeesh, what’s gotten into you today? Are you showing that off to me? Are you that eager for it to be snatched away?”

  “Wh-what’s wrong with you?! Do you wish to throw down?!”

  It was also the umpteenth time Megumin had tried to steal Iris’s ring.

  We were in a cramped lizard carriage. As Megumin made a swipe for the ring, I said, “Keep your pants on. I bought you some Elroad rice crackers, didn’t I? Even they cost more than that ring.”

  “It isn’t a question of price! Yes, those rice crackers were delicious, yet somehow I feel like I received the short end of the stick here!”

  Iris slipped her ring onto her finger to keep it away from the surprisingly sore Megumin. “I’m Elder Brother’s little sister. And little sisters are special. Even more special than friends!”

  “Ooh, what’s that? Why have I been demoted to Kazuma’s friend?! I am his adventuring companion and housemate! That makes me more than friends and less than family!”

  I could hear someone napping peacefully in the carriage’s rear.

  “Well, I’m his little sister, so that makes me family. Which makes me above you, Miss Megumin!”

  “That does it! You’ve been spoiling for a fight with me all day, and now you’ve got one!”

  Yeah, the two of them were pretty loud.

  “The royal family is strong! I will not, absolutely will not lose!!”

  But I decided to take a nap myself.

  Chapter 1

  A Claim on This Abrupt Marriage Talk!

  1

  The Dark God Wolbach, general of the Demon King’s army. One of the kingdom’s most wanted, a villain who had harassed the capital’s elite troops with powerful explosion magic despite the fact that some of her power was still sealed away.

  The Demon King’s general and a possible goddess? Whatever. We took her out and proved that our party was the real deal and not just a bunch of lucky idiots.

  And now that we had led a group of top-tier adventurers to victory against the Demon King’s army and our fame had started to spread far and wide…

  “I think we should go capture a wild Dullahan.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  I was lounging on a sofa in the mansion while Megumin watched in concern.

  “What’s with you, Kazuma? Have you spontaneously come to believe in the Axis Church and developed a desire to exterminate the undead? Well, I think that’s wonderful, but you don’t see wild Dullahans every day. You’ll have to make do with skeletons and ghosts for a while.”

  I turned to the eternally out-of-it Aqua and launched into an explanation of why I wanted to capture a wild Dullahan. “I want to get my hands on one of those so I can learn the Herald Death skill. I really need it for a plan I’ve got in mind. Do you know if there’s, like, a Dullahan spawn point around here anywhere?”

  “Huh?! First it’s Drain Touch, a Lich ability, and now this! What is your obsession with disgusting, filthy skills? Hand over your Adventurer’s Card! I’m putting all your skill points into good, clean party-trick abilities like mine!”

  “Hey, knock it off, you idiot! You can’t do that! At least give me your healing magic or something!”

  I shoved Aqua away as she tried to grab my Adventurer’s Card. Darkness, sitting on the couch with Chomusuke on her knees, eyed me suspiciously. The little fur ball had gotten meaner and meaner toward Aqua ever since our last trip, looking for any opportunity to bite at her feather mantle. In other words, she was turning into a cat with attitude.

  “Why do you want to learn a nasty skill like that? You know Dullahans rank right below vampires and Liches when it comes to undead, don’t you? They don’t show up out of the blue.”

  I was disappointed to hear that. In a world where Liches ran small-town shops with demons for assistants, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a Dullahan working in a haunted house somewhere.

  Megumin, picking up on my reaction, asked nervously, “What do you have in mind? If you want a skill that powerful, Kazuma, you must be thinking of fighting an awfully serious enemy. Can I help you somehow? Can my Explosion, which has buried so many generals of the Demon King, not be of use?”
<
br />   I tried to smile, not wanting to worry my companions, who were so eager to help. “No, that’s not it. Thanks, Megumin. I’m sure your Explosion will help. You’re right—no use pining after something I can’t have… All right, Megumin, you and I are going to the next country over! We’ll drop an explosion on the neighboring capital, then send ’em a letter: If you don’t want to suffer from any more explosions, break off the engagement with Princess Iris. We, the Demon King’s army, will never recognize the marriage—”

  “Have you lost your mind?! I thought you’d been acting strange ever since you got that letter from Lady Iris… Is this what you’ve been plotting?! You wanted Herald Death so you could curse Lady Iris’s betrothed, didn’t you?! Why would the Demon King’s army even care about that?!”

  Darkness was not happy with my perfect plan.

  “How dare you insult me like that! Yes, I was hoping to put a curse on Iris’s future husband or whatever. ‘Huh?!’ they would say. ‘This is definitely the work of the Demon King. Capturing princesses is his job, after all. He didn’t want anyone horning in on his racket. We have highly skilled Arch-priests here, so we can remove the curse, but he might simply get cursed again. Until the Demon King is defeated, the only thing to do is to break off the engag—’”

  “Despicable! This man is the worst! You want to use precious skill points for a low-down dirty thing like that? You should be ashamed!”

  Now Megumin was piling on, too.

  “I know Cooking, I know Flee, and now you complain about the kinds of skills I’m learning? I even learned the Read Lips skill recently so I could find out if adventurers at the Guild were talking about me behind my back.”

  “Y-you really have given up all pretense of adventuring. At least don’t drag Megumin into your ridiculous plans.”

  I was being lectured by one person who knew only Explosion and another who had put all her skill points into defense. They didn’t have any right to talk. I wanted to tell them to learn a few useful skills themselves before offering criticism.

  …Weirdly enough, the only one who didn’t seem to get drawn into this discussion was Aqua. “I’d be happy to be a part of that plan,” she said finally. “I like the part where we blame the Demon King for everything. Smearing the Demon King’s name is considered to be one of the obligations of members of the Axis Church, after all.”

  “Don’t tell me you Axis people are the reason the Demon King has it out for humanity.”

  I really did have a reason for bringing this up all of a sudden.

  I had gotten a letter from Iris just the other day. In it, she had asked me to be her bodyguard on a trip to a neighboring country to meet her future husband for the first time. Seeing as I’m basically her adoptive brother, I couldn’t say no to anything my little sister wanted. I had recently been making preparations for the trip, like sharpening my sword (which I hadn’t been caring for at all) so I could take on any good-for-nothing who thought he was going to get his hands on my adorable little sister.

  “Okay, fine, we’ll take the legal route. We agree to be her bodyguards, then interfere every chance we get. This could be a great opportunity to use up some of the skill points I’ve got lying around—if I can get someone to teach me a useful skill…”

  At that point, I was busy muttering to myself and hadn’t noticed.

  Darkness was looking at me, deeply disturbed.

  2

  The day after all this happened.

  “Hey. Mind telling me just what the hell’s going on?”

  When I woke up a bit past noon, I found myself tied up helplessly on my bed for some reason.

  “Ah, Kazuma, you’re awake. Sorry, but for the next few days, I’m going to have to keep you tied up. Don’t worry—I’ll bring you the richest food I can find, and I’ll help tend to all your needs. If there’s anything you want, I’ll send a servant to get it posthaste.”

  I didn’t know when Darkness had gotten into my room, but she was looking at me triumphantly and firing up the crazy train first thing in the morning.

  I didn’t think she could have gone crazy from the heat. Summer was almost over.

  “Did that screw in your head finally come loose? What’s the big idea tying me up? You’re the one who’s into that, not me. Are you so madly in love with me that you couldn’t hold yourself back anymore?”

  “I am so not in love with an arrogant loudmouth like you! And don’t talk about who likes what. This has nothing to do with my preferences.” She glared down at me where I lay on the bed.

  “You’re such a pain. You kissed me and stuff—even if it was on the cheek—and now you’re not into me all of a sudden? The tsundere act is really getting old, y’know.”

  “I beg your pardon?! Look, that has nothing to do with this. And to think, after we had such a nice moment, I saw you chatting with one person and flirting with… Never mind—now isn’t the time. We need to talk about Lady Iris.” Apparently ready to move past her tongue-lashing, Darkness cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Kazuma. Regarding the bodyguard request Lady Iris sent us, I’ve taken the liberty of writing a letter of refusal. She’ll be leaving in three days, so until I’m sure she’s safely on her way, it’s the ropes for you. Just take it easy until then.”

  She truly did look a little apologetic…

  “Oh, you gotta be— Is that what this is about?! If we don’t do something, my little sister is gonna be married off to some rando!”

  “Says a commoner from gods-know-where! If you’re any better than any other wanderer, then tell me about your background already! …You know, I’ve always wanted to ask you. What country do you come from? Why do you sometimes display such unusual knowledge? And why do you so frequently lack the basic manners and common sense of an ordinary human be—?!”

  “Megumiiin! Aquaaaa! Save me—our perv-sader can’t even wait till after lunch to tie me up!”

  “H-hey, you, don’t make it sound so weird! And I’m sorry to tell you this, but Aqua and Megumin happen to be out of the house right now. All that’s left is to summon a servant from my own home and have you transported, bed and all, to my mansion. If we let you guard Lady Iris, I can only imagine the diplomatic problems you’d cause. This is in the best interest of our country, so just bear with it.”

  “I wouldn’t cause ‘diplomatic problems’! I learned how to act like a noble back when I was living in the castle, and I wouldn’t be rude, so let me go!”

  “Rudeness is like second nature to you!” Darkness crouched down to look me in the eye, like she was talking to a child throwing a tantrum. “If you sit quietly, I’ll feed you some delicious delicacies. You’re a simple layabout NEET anyway, aren’t you? What could be better than having an excuse to sleep all day and have someone else take care of you?”

  I suddenly realized this wasn’t the time. “…Yeah, you’re right about that. Okay, I understand.”

  “Y-you do…?! There’s been so much working and fighting recently, a few quiet days with you would be really—”

  —nice, I think she was about to say, shy smile on her face and everything, but I immediately broke in:

  “Right, then, I’ve been desperate to go to the bathroom ever since I woke up. Hurry up and do something about it.”

  Blunt and to the point.

  “…Huh?”

  “Don’t ‘huh’ me. Didn’t you say you’d take care of all my needs? I assume you meant all my needs.”

  “………Huh?”

  Darkness merely stood there, frozen.

  “So consider this my first order. Darkness, help me pee.”

  “Whaaaaaa—?!”

  “Don’t ‘whaaaaaa’ me—just do it. Talk about your worthless noblewomen. I’m just asking you to keep your word. Hop to it already.”

  This was not sexual harassment. I could hardly move a muscle, so what else was I supposed to do?

  Yep. I was totally in the right.

  “Wh-wh-whoa! That’s not what I meant! That is, Kazuma, I did s
ay I would see to your needs, but not like tha— Wait a moment!”

  “How am I supposed to wait? I woke up, and now I need to pee. It’s practically a law of nature. And just so you know, this is how it’s going to be every day from now on, got it? I don’t want some weirdo servant from your house who I’ve never met manhandling me. So hurry up.”

  “Urrrgh… B-but…” Darkness was reduced to a gibbering wreck.

  “C’mon—this isn’t funny anymore. How much time are you gonna waste being embarrassed? I helped you go to the bathroom, remember? I helped you pull down your pants, and I even helped you reach the toilet paper. We’ve known each other too long to get all flustered over something like this. Hurry up and untie me. Just the bottom is fine.”

  I could feel the pee coming, and I was getting desperate.

  Darkness, though, said in a small voice, “…I can’t.”

  “…Wh-what?” I sputtered.

  Darkness looked down apologetically. “I wasn’t thinking about having to help with…that stuff. Wh-what am I gonna do? I used a really powerful magical item to bind you, and the binding can’t be undone until it wears off. You’re stuck for the next three days…”

  “You moron! What am I supposed to do, lie here for three days?! You gotta be kidding me! I swear I’ll make you suffer the same fate!”

  Darkness turned red and fidgety under my verbal assault. “The s-same fate…?”

  “Don’t get all excited; this is an emergency! Gah, dammit!”

  I raised my head—the only thing I could move—and took stock of my situation. It looked like I had been subjected to some form of Bind; ropes made of an almost rubbery material ran from my shoulders to my knees. They didn’t look very strong, but if the item really was that powerful, then it was probably no use trying to break free of my bonds.

  I might be able to barely slip out, though.

  “Hey, Darkness, with your strength, you should be able to loosen a rope a tiny bit. Slide one of the ropes on my lower body aside just a little. Then you can pop me out and I can take it from there.”