The Promotion Request
A new morning dawned over Daina Village.
The monster attack at the cemetery the night before had become, without question, the talk of the town.
"Did you hear? That adventurer from the subjugation unit who stayed behind wiped out every last monster that came pouring out of the cemetery. All by himself."
"Aigoo... I was asleep, so I missed the whole thing."
"I heard every time he swung his sword, blue flames just came bursting out."
"He flew through the air and brought his sword down, and it punched a huge hole in the ground."
No — who on earth are they even talking about?
The rumors of last night's incident spread from mouth to mouth among the villagers, picking up extra details as they went, growing stranger by the hour.
Well, it didn't feel bad, so I figured I might as well let it be for now.
At any rate, I had succeeded in putting down every last undead that had appeared at the cemetery that night. The path from the village to the graveyard where the fighting had taken place was an absolute wreck. The cemetery had been torn completely apart; logs and boulders lay scattered in every direction, and patches of ground were still blackened and smoking well into the morning. Charred bone fragments sat at the bottom of the pit traps, and the remains of the skeletons I had smashed were strewn messily across the village entrance.
"Oh! If it isn't the hero of the village!"
"Ahaha......"
I was walking through the village, turning over the events of the previous night, when one of the villagers approached me with a cheerful greeting. Maybe it was those strangely inflated rumors, but everyone who laid eyes on me started heaping praise on me as some kind of hero, and it was getting uncomfortable. I had saved the village — that much was true — but having every person I met treat me like this left me feeling proud and burdened in equal measure.
"As expected of the subjugation unit the Guild sent! Leaving an adventurer this strong in the village in case of an attack — that's how we survived! Might I ask your name?"
"Yunoa...... that's me. Haha...... ahaha......"
"I heard you took out half the undead horde with a single swing of your Flame Sword! Man! I wish I'd seen it myself!"
The truth is, I haven't even received an official adventurer rank yet. I'm still a Novice.
Why on earth had the rumors gotten this ridiculous? Was it really all right to just let this keep going......?
But there was no way to correct it at this point. Dozens of people had watched my fight last night with their own two eyes. What they had actually seen was a burning pit trap and me methodically smashing skeletons with a mana-infused sword. That was all.
Word of mouth was a terrifying thing.
The undead were on fire! passed through a few people and became Fire came out of his sword!
There were holes in the ground! passed through a few people and became He brought his sword down and it split the earth!
It wasn't a snowball — it just kept picking up more and more, until it had ballooned into something so embarrassing I could barely stand to hear it, and completely beyond my control.
What would happen when the subjugation unit came back and found out about this? They'd probably still say I'd done well, since I had protected the village. But if the villagers thanked the unit and started telling this inflated hero story......
Three syllables flashed through my mind.
Dark history.
I didn't mind the villagers treating me like a hero and expressing their gratitude. But to the subjugation unit, who all knew I was a Novice adventurer — "Flame Sword," "he split the earth from the sky"...... How would the other adventurers in the unit react? They wouldn't keep teasing me about it forever... right?
Just then, people began gathering at the northern village entrance, and a commotion broke out. Looking over, I saw the twelve-member subjugation unit that had left to clear the monster den returning.
They'd already finished the job and come back? I'd thought it would take at least two days.
I slipped in among the villagers and watched the unit's return. The fighting must have been fairly intense — several adventurers were visibly injured. Some had an arm wrapped tight in bandages; others were limping. But Mireia, who had served as commander, looked exactly as she had when they'd departed — not a hair out of place, not a speck of dirt on her.
As the subjugation unit entered the village to the villagers' warm welcome, I searched for Oren. Oren, the Bronze-rank adventurer — the only person in this unit I could call an acquaintance. I wanted to tell him he'd done well. I'd received all kinds of help from him up to this point, after all.
But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find him.
One, two, three...... I counted the returning members again.
......Eleven.
One was missing.
Oren had not come back.
The subjugation unit had returned to Daina Village.
The subjugation had been a success, they said.
But Oren had not come back.
I remembered him reaching out a hand from the wagon to make it easier for me to climb on. He had taught me Mana Conversion, the fundamental skill of an adventurer, and we'd talked about this and that. I'd thought we'd grown a little closer. I'd been planning to tell him about fighting the cemetery monsters alone when he got back. And once we returned to Kubel, I wanted to grab a meal together as fellow Bronze-rank adventurers.
It might have been a one-sided thought on my part, but I'd believed we might become friends.
But he had not come back.
Oren, a Bronze-rank adventurer, had been assigned to the relatively safe rear guard. But apparently, among the monsters the vanguard hadn't managed to finish off, there had been one that was unusually strong. The rear guard, composed mostly of Bronze-rank adventurers, had fought that monster fiercely. Several had been injured, and though they killed the creature, Oren had fallen.
I couldn't understand it.
This wasn't even a Silver-rank unit. It was a subjugation force led by a Gold Rank adventurer. If they'd just distributed the fighting strength a little more evenly to the rear guard, couldn't this tragedy have been prevented?
You could tell just by looking at the unit that had returned to the village. The adventurers in the rear guard were covered in wounds. But those in the vanguard — especially Mireia, the commander — looked so pristine you had to wonder if they'd even fought at all.
The subjugation strategy itself had been painfully simple from the start. Split the unit into a strong group and a weak group, then charge in from the front. That was the entire plan. Even if the intent was to finish the job quickly with overwhelming force, what was the point if people died?
Were Bronze-rank adventurers treated as expendable? Or was this just how that so-called "Gold" adventurer Mireia handled things?
"Hey, you! You're Yunoa, right?"
Just then, a man walked up and asked me without any preamble. He was one of the Silver-rank adventurers from the vanguard. I narrowed my eyes at him and nodded.
"The commander wants to see you. Head over toward the cemetery."
So she had questions about last night's monster attack, I supposed. The story of how I'd protected the village against the undead had already reached the subjugation unit through the villagers. Whether it had been passed along with all the exaggerations intact, I had no idea.
"Tsk. A Novice already running around causing trouble."
I had just turned toward the cemetery to meet Mireia when the man who'd called me muttered it, just loud enough to hear.
Causing trouble?
I had protected the village. That was all I had done.
The atmosphere was off. Somehow, I had a feeling this wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation.
Mireia was waiting for me on a hill overlooking the cemetery. Her long black hair swayed gently in the breeze. The skirted light armor she wore was as pristine as a museum piece, without a single scratch.
"......Yunoa."
A calm voice spilled from her lips, calling my name. There was no emotion whatsoever in the eyes that looked at me.
"Yes. I was told you wanted to see me."
"Did you really do all of this? This entire mess?"
Mireia turned her head toward the cemetery as she asked. I hadn't done anything wrong, but I felt like I was being interrogated. Maybe it was because of Oren, but I wasn't in a particularly good mood.
"That's right."
"I heard you're Novice rank. That you only registered with the Guild recently."
"And?"
"And yet you decided to protect this village alone, fighting this many monsters?"
"That's correct."
"They said you wrapped your sword in flame and could split the earth."
So she had heard the rumors the villagers inflated, after all. Better to be honest here.
"That's......"
"Of course that couldn't be true."
She cut me off before I could even answer.
"......"
"The traces tell the story."
Mireia looked at me and continued in that same calm voice.
"You set traps along the path from the cemetery to the village to reduce the number of monsters. And at the end, you finished them off with your own strength."
I guessed you couldn't fool an adventurer's eye. I hadn't planned to lie anyway, so I was glad I didn't have to bother explaining. But I felt puzzled. Had she called me all the way out here just to say this? It definitely didn't feel like she was about to praise me for a job well done. On top of that, no emotion showed in her voice or on her face, so I had no idea what she was thinking.
"......Yeah, well."
"Then I have a question."
In that instant, a chill settled into Mireia's voice.
Shing—
By the time I registered it, a sharp blade was already leveled at the tip of my nose.