*THUD!!*
With the sound of a heavy stack of papers being slammed on the table, Leone stared at everyone in the room before she said " I finally found something while all of you are being lazy!"
In Kazuma's mansion, everyone gathered here while staring at Leone and her heavy stack of papers.
Kaguya was calmly sipping some tea, Kazuma was yawning, Whitebeard was cleaning his naginata, Misaka was staring at the Thunderstone intensely, Megumin was laying her head on the table after she used all her mana, and Aqua was drinking in the morning, but Kazuma was too lazy to care about her.
After joining Chris yesterday, Leone entered the noble office in a 'friendly' manner and borrowed some papers. Actually, she just saw the word 'report from the capital' and took all the papers away.
So, she took them out before continuing her adventure in the night, until she came back and found everyone here.
"Nah, c'mon, where do you see me lazy?" Kaguya calmly slipped some tea without opening her eyes. She was almost melting on the chair with a blissful expression on her face.
She has to admit that having a special chef for herself is one of the best things that happened to her, which says a lot for someone who lived a long life.
"Hm, hm, we're very productive people, always on the move. Calling us lazy is like saying that the sky isn't blue" Kazuma nodded seriously while grabbing a piece of cake from the table.
"Actually, the sky is purple. It's blue Just because our eyes are more s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e to the blue color of scattered sunlight. Also, the sun emits a higher concentration of blue lig-" Misaka add from the side with a reflex, but Kazuma cut her off "Let's keep it civil and don't jump into science, thank you"
"...." Misaka glanced at Kazuma before noticing that everyone else in the room was confused by her words, so she puffed her cheeks before staring at the Thunder Stone.
"But we're really not lazy. Look, even Kazuma volunteered to become a bait if things didn't work out" Kaguya said calmly while looking at the heavy stack of papers.
"Yes, yes…" Kazuma subconsciously nodded his head before he snapped and said " Oi! I never said such a thing! No, wait… You're the reason for my bad feelings these days!!"
"I can't possibly understand what you are saying" Kaguya just looked to the side completely denying Kazuma while taking a note of his sharp feelings for trouble.
"Enough with your nonsense. Can your information locate the problem here?" Whitebeard said while looking at the papers, but actually, there's no way he'll read them.
Just their numbers are enough to give him a headache, so he just wants to know where to go and punch.
"Does this have a relation with the enemies, who are worse than the Demon King's army?" Megumin raised her head before falling down again.
"Yeah, they're pretty much hidden very well" Kazuma rubbed his head like he's having a headache. He never saw a day of peace from the day he arrived in this world and especially after this mission started.
"Can I ask why you know about them while the kingdom is completely ignorant?" Megumin looked at Kazuma, who just sighed, and said " Do you want to keep using Explosion magic every day?"
"...." Megumin lowered her head again, like she was chanting a curse under her hat.
"*Sip* Anyway, the clues are leading to the capital, right?" Kaguya took another sip before asking Leone, who almost had enough and was just about to explode from anger.
"It's the largest forest in the capital's south. Some adventurer's groups got attacked by the so-called monster that used arrows. The shape or type of monster is completely unclear because the victims didn't see it, yet, they only called it a monster because of these people's habits" Leone's words were clear.
People in this world won't assume the killer is a human because humanity is really united here. Although there's selfishness and fight for benefits, but how could Leone put it nicely, they are too dumb for deep schemes. So, their thinking will always go for monsters and especially the Demon King's army.
"Although we can't deny the fact that it might be a new monster, we can't ignore the possibility" Leone finished what she had to say before she sat down and took a piece of cake for herself.
Kaguya frowned because of Leone's words. Looking at the papers, the murder actually killed some adventurer' parties, which means, she can rule out the cheat holders, after all, they are too happy go lucky and dumb for this. Next is the Demon King's Army, which is more likely the source, but Kaguya didn't remember any plot in Konosuba for this event, maybe it just didn't appear in the original, but it also raises the doubt.
"*Sigh* There's no helping it" Stopping her train of thoughts, Kaguya sighed helplessly before making up her mind.
"Hm? Did you figure it out?" Kazuma asked, but Kaguya just shook her head and said " No, but I'll"
"What do you mean" Kazuma had a bad feeling about this.
"I didn't want to use this, but it's the time to affect the world" Kaguya smiled mysteriously, but Kazuma widened his eyes at the key words he just heard.
"B-bakana(Impossible)!!" Kazuma stood up in a hurry, but Kaguya calmly lowered her cup and said " Now, witness the power that'll change all what you know about the world"
"THE WORLD" When the cup of tea touched the table, a wave appeared from Kaguya as a center.
The wave made a weird noise while changing the colors of the surrounding, then… Everything stopped. People, animals, the wind, everyone in the room, and everything else was paused in its place, leaving the world in complete silence.
"Time has stopped moving..." Kaguya stood up slowly before her seat before grabbing a paper from the stack. This paper had the story and names of the party that survived and reported the murderer.
Walking away from the table, Kaguya suddenly stopped and stared at Kazuma. Thinking for a moment, she walked towards him and took the sword at his waist. Kaguya can easily choose if a target is affected by her ability as she releases the sword.
"It's time to do god's work" She raised the sword as it reflected the light before a faint whisper was heard "Wwrrryyy…"
Without stopping, Kaguya flew out from the window at a very fast speed. Her spirit power made her like a meteor in the sky before she landed near a particular store.
Entering it quickly, Kaguya spotted a beautiful woman with brown eyes and long brown hair. She wore a long purple dress while standing behind the desk.
Kaguya walked quickly and removed the time stop from the woman and said " Wiz, wake up, I need your help and fast!"
"Eh? Kaguya-san? How did you come here and wh-eh, eh, ehhhh??!! What is happening?!" Wiz was surprised because Kaguya suddenly appeared, but then, she noticed the frozen world.
Wis is a Lich and the owner of the magic items shop in Axel. She's one of the Demon King's generals and a very strong Archmage. In Kaguya's opinion, she's actually a very good person in the middle of this retarded world.
In this period, Kaguya visited almost all the important places in Axel and one of them was Wiz's shop, so she knew her very well.
"No time to talk or explain, I need you to teleport me into the capital! Here, take this" Kaguya waved her sleeve as a bar of gold flew out and stopped in mid-air.
"W-w-what?" Wiz didn't understand anything, but Kaguya wasn't going to stop " There's no time! The whole world is in danger, Wiz! Look… Even a goddess was dispatched because of the situation!"
Kaguya stopped the time on Wiz before she went back and dragged the drunk Aqua here, which was all done instantly in Wiz's eyes.
She doesn't want to do this, but she didn't have a choice. Although she has her own teleportation magic, Kaguya doesn't have a mark on the capital.
Wiz started to feel dizzy. She clearly saw that Aqua is a goddess, but what is happening now?! The world has stopped, Kaguya is telling her that something big happens. She doesn't know what is going on!!
"Eh, eh, eh" Wiz didn't understand anything as Kaguya kept pressuring her again and again before she just gave up and said " TELEPORTATION!!!"
Kaguya made sure her ability doesn't affect the teleportation before a colorful magic circle appeared under her feet. The light gathered around it before it flashed and Kaguya disappeared from her place.
"Just… what is going on?" Wiz was still able to move in the stopped time as she looked at Aqua, smiling weirdly while floating in the air.
Kaguya opened her eyes to see herself arriving at the capital, this was a hidden place where Wiz has a mark for her Teleportation magic.
She quickly flew away and scanned the capital from above. Spotted the guild building, she just landed down before storming inside.
Her eyes looked at everyone, who were frozen, before locking a guild's receptionist and walked toward him.
Removing the time effect on the man, Kaguya looked at his shocked expression before she said in a heavy voice " Where is she, he, or maybe it?!"
"WRRYYYYY!!!" Dio's sword added a more threatening aura as the man was panicking.
"W-w-what is happeni-" The man was shocked by everything and everyone froze around him before Kaguya waved her sleeve and smacked him on the forehead.
*Slap!*
Her sleeve did the same effect of a slap, which made the man retreat a little, but there was a weird talisman on his forehead. His eyes lost focus before Kaguya said " Tell me what do you know"
The man started telling Kaguya everything about the murder case because of her hypnotizing talisman. Using his talisman, the weak target will tell Kaguya all that she wants while deleting the memories of their meeting.
When Kaguya got what she wanted, she just took the talisman back before applying the time effect again.
"As I expect, the 'where is she' interrogation method is only effective for the OG edgelord batman" Kaguya shook her head before checking her gains from this raid.
"I have a location and some information, but just to make sure…" Kaguya whispered before entering deep into the guild.
After a while, Kaguya came out with a frown. She just 'asked' all the big figures in the guild, but she didn't get anything useful, so she left and flew to the sky towards the market.
A team of adventurers were frozen when they were chatting before Kaguya landed from the sky and raised her sleeve. The team leader, who survived Susan's arrows, got the same treatment as the guild's receptionist before revealing more information.
"Out the capital, in the south forest. Near the griffon's hunting ground" Kaguya got a more precise location before she flew in the sky.
Her speed was like a missile in the sky, breaking the sound barrier before reaching the location. It was a burned ground filled with ash and dust, like a large fire ignited here.
"Tsk, there's nothing at all" Kaguya covered her mouth with a sleeve before flying away. She took this place as a center and started checking for any clue.
After almost an hour of flying around, Kaguya only found a broken arrow, which didn't have anything on it, even a string of energy or aura wasn't present in the arrow.
"Hmph! We really lack some proper investigation methods. No, we need some mystical ways to find something from this *sigh*" Trying to find a very small number of people in a large world is very hard, especially if you didn't have any good clues as Kaguya felt helpless.
Grabbing another talisman, Kaguya put it on the broken arrow before hiding it inside of her sleeve. Maybe it could provide a good clue and assistant in the future.
"But at least, I know there's a high possibility for it to be the target" From all the different sides of the story and clues that Kaguya heard in the capital, the attacker should not be from the Demon King's army because the strongest generals are all known for Kaguya and only them can do something like this.
{It's very unlikely for the humans to target each other, not to mention killing, so this had to be our target, but… they have completely vanished during these days} Kaguya floated before looking around one last time.
"Teleportation!" Finishing her business, Kaguya used the teleportation magic as a colorful magic circle appeared under her.
However, if their goal is to kill adventurers, they can't hide for long. As long as the slightest message arrives about a murderous archer, Kaguya will stop the time immediately and check.
With a flash, Kaguya disappeared from her place and appeared inside Kazuma's mansion.
"*Sigh* This was tiring" Complaining, Kaguya walked slowly and returned the sword to Kazuma.
Sitting down on her seat, Kaguya raised the cup of tea before saying " The time resumes"
"What happened to you?" Leone asked Kazuma, who stood up with a panicked expression.
Kazuma checked his surrounding and belonging before he patted his c.h.e.s.t and said " I'm safe"
"Everyone, I just checked and we finally know one of our targets. But… They are nowhere to be found, yet, we didn't come out empty-handed" Kaguya sipped some tea, which was still hot as everyone was staring at her.
{What just happened?} Everyone had the same question inside of their heads, but only Kazuma said " Damn time manipulators"
With that, Kaguya just shrugged her shoulders before starting a long conversation about the capital and the murderous archer. However, they all forgot about Aqua, who was lying down inside the shop while Wiz didn't know what to do.