The Prophecy That Wasn't
By the time Ruko feel calm by singing and playing a guitar for the first time. Kazuma returned to the mansion looking like a man who had lost a war, a lawsuit, and his will to live all at the same time. His shoulders were slumped, his eyes hollow, and there was a faint smell of hot springs and poor decisions clinging to him. Ruko watched from the couch, phone-cyclopedia in hand, noting the posture first, the emotional state second. Aqua and Megumin were already crowding him, demanding explanations, while Darkness observed with suspicious interest. "You look like you died," Aqua said. "I wish i was," Kazuma replied. Ruko didn't ask questions. He already knew Arcanretia had gone badly. Kazuma's luck only protected him from death, not from humiliation. The mansion, which had been tense days ago, now felt oddly calm after the rooftop night. The girls were speaking to Ruko again, not warmly, but without the cold distance. It was progress. That calm lasted exactly three days.
Yunyun arrived like a walking emergency. She burst through the door without knocking, face red, eyes wide, clutching a letter like it was a cursed relic. "Kazuma! We need to talk! Alone! Urgently! Possibly about the future of the Crimson Demon Clan!" Kazuma immediately tried to hide behind Ruko.
Ruko stepped aside. "I miss the part were that's not my problem," he said. Yunyun dragged Kazuma into the center of the room, trembling. "There is a prophecy! A terrible prophecy! It says the Crimson Demon Village will fall unless a hero is born! A child of great destiny!" Megumin blinked. "That sounds fake." Aqua gasped dramatically. "A chosen baby?!" Darkness turned slightly red. "A child… conceived for the sake of the village…" Kazuma looked confused. "Okay… so what does that have to do with me?" Yunyun looked down, then up, then down again, her entire body shaking with embarrassment and determination. While Ruko which he knew what. "Ohh god I don't wanna hear this." "You… must… have a child with me." The room froze.
Aqua choked on air. Megumin's staff slipped from her hand. Darkness made a noise that should not have been physically possible. Kazuma processed the sentence, failed to process it, then processed it again with increasing speed. Ruko didn't react. He had already predicted this scenario the moment he saw the letter format or when he watch Konosuba. The writing style, the exaggerated phrasing, the dramatic stakes—it matched Arue's creative patterns almost perfectly. Probability of misunderstanding: ninety-eight percent. Kazuma, however, was not operating on probability. "You're serious?" he asked. "Yes!" Yunyun said, eyes closed, face burning. "For the sake of the village!" Kazuma stood up and immediately started taking off his clothes. Ruko looked up from his phone. "…That was fast i say."
Kazuma pointed dramatically. "If it's to save a village, I will sacrifice myself to have a child soth you!" Megumin tackled him before he got past his underwear. "YOU ARE NOT SAVING ANYONE!" Yunyun panicked. "W-Wait! We should at least discuss whether it would be a boy or a girl first!" Darkness fainted. Aqua began giving completely unhelpful advice about divine fertility blessings. Ruko leaned back on the couch, watching the chaos unfold like a documentary. The emotional intensity, the misunderstanding, the speed at which Kazuma accepted—it all aligned perfectly with his expression on party behavior. Megumin grabbed the letter from Yunyun and started reading it aloud, her expression shifting from horror to annoyance to full realization. "This isn't a prophecy. This is just a story draft. And it must be Arue wrote this." Silence dropped like a hammer.
Yunyun turned pale. "A… story?" Kazuma slowly pulled his clothes back on, dignity leaving his body in visible increments. "So I just almost—" "Yes," Megumin said flatly. Yunyun covered her face and screamed into her hands. Kazuma lay face-down on the floor. Aqua laughed so hard she cried. Darkness recovered just enough to look deeply disappointed that the scenario had been canceled. Ruko finally spoke. "Misinterpretation confirmed. But!" He started laughing at Kazuma which make him fall of the couch. No one had the energy to respond to him. The embarrassment lingered in the room like smoke after an explosion. Yunyun kept apologizing, Kazuma kept muttering about emotional damage, and Megumin kept threatening Arue from a distance. Ruko observed quietly, noting how quickly a perceived existential threat had altered everyone's behavior. It was a useful point for future psychological predictions. But beneath the comedy, something else was present. Yunyun's desperation hadn't been entirely fake. She had believed the village was in danger. She had been willing to sacrifice her pride to protect it. Ruko recognized the pattern—someone acting irrationally because they cared about something more than their own comfort. He didn't comment on it. He just lock on.
Eventually the chaos settled. Yunyun sat at the table, still red-faced, Kazuma avoided eye contact with everyone, and Aqua continued giggling randomly. Megumin crossed her arms and declared, "I'm going back to the village." Kazuma looked up. "Why?" "Because even if the prophecy was fake," Megumin said, "there are reports of Demon King activity near the village." Ruko's eyes flickered slightly. That part was real. His system had already detected increased demonic movement in that region days ago. He had simply not prioritized it yet. Kazuma groaned. "Ok we're traveling with you…" Aqua cheered. Darkness nodded with enthusiasm. Yunyun looked relieved. Ruko stood up and stretched. "Travel equals acquisition," he said. "hmhm... it's quite acceptable to see some demons. Have been longing for a fight. And maybe not since i want to sleep and relax for eternity. " Megumin glanced at him. "You're coming too this time?" "Yes." Kazuma squinted. "Why?" Ruko's gaze shifted briefly toward the window, toward the distant direction of the Crimson Demon Village, where his system had flagged something else—faint, buried, and old. "I'm on a field hunt," he answered. No one questioned it.
As the group began preparing for the journey, the earlier embarrassment slowly transformed into something lighter. Yunyun stayed, helping Megumin pack. Kazuma recovered enough to complain about travel expenses. Aqua started planning what snacks to bring. Darkness polished her armor with unnecessary intensity. Ruko moved through the room quietly, gathering what he needed with efficient precision. But his attention kept returning to the letter on the table. A false prophecy had triggered real emotion, real fear, real willingness to act. Dignity, logic and feeling—Vanir's words echoed faintly in his memory. He picked up the letter, folded it once, and set it aside. "Next time," he said calmly, "Verify the source before initiating reproduction protocols. If not I'll hunt you down." Kazuma threw a pillow at him. Ruko didn't dodge. He simply let it hit his face and fall, completely expressionless. The mansion filled with noise again—complaints, laughter, arguments, plans. The tension from earlier chapters had dissolved into something closer to normal party chaos. For the first time since Kazuma's trip, everyone was moving in the same direction again. "Alright everyone! Outside, the road toward the Crimson Demon Village waited." And Ruko's system, quietly in the background, marked the next phase.