The Hero and the Saintess
Cain was born in the slums, and he had been good at fighting for as long as anyone could remember.
At seven years old, he taught himself Mana Conversion and fortified his body. By the time he turned thirteen, he could use magic.
He had a prodigy's talent for the adventurer's path — but he chose to put that gift to a very different use.
"Hand over the vault key while I'm still asking nicely."
Cain grinned as he lifted a nobleman off the ground by the collar with one hand. Behind him lay the corpses of the guards who had been protecting the mansion. The nobleman's face had gone bloodless as he surrendered the key.
In the back alleys of Pipnel, the royal capital, there wasn't a soul who didn't know Cain's name — and not a soul who was glad of it.
He had spent his entire life in the slums, and rather than claw his way into the light as an adventurer, he chose to become king of the dark. Meet his gaze, and he'd take your money. Catch his fancy as a woman, and he'd take you. Put him in a bad mood, and he'd beat you. Run short on drinking money, and he'd rob a noble blind.
The royal guard tried time and again to arrest him, and time and again he killed the soldiers and slipped away. Eventually a hefty bounty was posted, and the Adventurers Guild itself managed to take him in — only for him to break out of prison as if it were nothing.
And so he lived as a criminal who appeared and vanished like smoke, until one day the Royal Knight Commander came looking for him, leading five carefully chosen Gold Rank adventurers.
No matter how well Cain could fight, he stood no chance against a force of that caliber. So this was it, then — the end of his reign as king of the back alleys. Cain knew full well that he had done things for which even a summary execution would leave him with nothing to say in his defense. If he was going to die anyway, he figured he might as well take the Knight Commander's head with him — or at least one or two of the Gold adventurers.
But then, from between the Knight Commander and the adventurers, a man in clerical robes stepped into view.
The Hero? So they hadn't come to kill him?
The Knight Commander standing right beside him was glaring at Cain with naked, murderous hatred. That much was certain. And yet the clergyman in front of him was saying that Cain had been named the Hero. Faced with that contradiction, Cain hesitated, his hand pausing as he reached for his sword.
"Your Excellency, are you truly saying this piece of trash is the Hero? This man is a wanted criminal."
The Knight Commander put the question to the bishop. It was less a question than a desperate wish — that this scum of a man could not possibly, must not possibly, be the Hero.
"The revelation is absolute. This man is unquestionably the Hero. The one and only being who will save this world from the Demon King's grasp. Regardless of the life he currently leads, he is a man who carries the Hero's destiny."
At the bishop's answer, the Knight Commander's face went white.
And Cain, who had been watching the entire exchange, smiled so wide it nearly split his face in two.
"Heh~ Is that right? I'm the Hero?"
"You will now put your dark life behind you and accept the Hero's destiny, as the revelation commands."
The bishop spoke with solemn gravity. Cain couldn't have cared less about the Hero's destiny, or the goddess's revelation, or any of that. But becoming the Hero meant something entirely different to him.
A free pass. An indulgence.
Cain intended to use the Hero's fate that had been handed to him as a pardon for every crime he had already committed — and every crime he would commit from this day forward.
"Well, well. Who'd have thought I was the Hero. Never even dreamed of it. Right, Knight Commander?"
Cain walked up to the Knight Commander, whose face was twisted with so much rage the blood vessels in his eyes had burst, and patted him on the cheek with his palm. The Knight Commander wanted nothing more than to draw his sword and take this piece of garbage's head, but he had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure it.
It was the moment the worst Hero in history was born — a Hero the likes of which the world had never seen.
"Excuse me."
"Yes."
"So… I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything."
"Go ahead."
"Uh… why are you here?"
Koubel Adventurers Guild. I had come in early, as I always did, to check the day's commissions — and I froze. Standing behind the counter, wearing a receptionist's uniform, was Mireia.
"It is a one-day receptionist experience. I thought something like this might be nice, now and then."
"No, I mean — why, exactly…"
"A prescription. To broaden my narrowed field of vision."
Mireia said it without the faintest change in expression. She was wearing a receptionist's uniform, but the longsword at her hip had not left her side. And Meruru and Tina, who should have been at the other windows, were nowhere to be seen. Right now, the guild's only receptionist was Mireia.
"Where did all the other receptionists go?"
"Vacation."
"…"
Mireia had watched Yunoa chatting familiarly with the guild receptionists on more than one occasion.
If she wanted to keep him by her side, she reasoned, she would first have to capture his attention.
And so she had negotiated with the Guild Master to serve as a receptionist for a single day.
Even so, what's a Gold Rank adventurer doing working the front desk?Besides, I'm close with Tina and Meruru — it's not like I have a thing for receptionists.I'd really like to see the face of whatever Guild Master signed off on this.
Thanks to her, guild business had ground to a near halt. The other adventurers couldn't bring themselves to approach the counter she was standing at. They just hovered, watching, trying not to be noticed.
"O-oh… maybe I'll skip commissions today… haha… hahaha."
"Y'know, I'm just not in the mood to work today…"
"The commission report is due today, but now that I think about it, it wasn't really that urgent…"
No — if the report is due today, it IS urgent.
The overwhelming presence of Mireia at the counter had shrunk every adventurer in the guild. A receptionist's uniform did not change the fact that Mireia was Mireia. The counter had become a tribunal where adventurers felt they were laying their own necks on the chopping block just to conduct business — a hardcore reception desk where filing even the slightest complaint felt like it would end your adventuring career.
Seeing the atmosphere in here, I was starting to understand why she wanted someone who could actually talk back to her…
"Haah… Could you register these commissions for me?"
I set two of today's Bronze-rank request forms, pulled from the board, down on the counter. I could feel the other adventurers staring in shock from behind me. Ugh. This is so uncomfortable.
The next day.
"Hah!"
A sword swing packed with mana sent the Ratman — a massive bipedal rat, its whole body a mass of puckered wrinkles — crashing down in a spray of blood, with a wet, ugly squeal.
Bronze-rank commissions were mostly about culling the lesser monsters that made people's lives miserable. For someone who never skipped a day of Mana Conversion and physical training, jobs like this had become a walk in the park.
"Two left, then…"
The commission was to hunt ten Ratmen breeding in Kubel's sewers. As proof of the kill, I had to cut off and collect ten of their disgusting tails. No matter how many you wiped out, Ratmen spawned again from somewhere on a regular cycle, which made them — along with slimes — one of the staple paychecks for Bronze adventurers. I was already in a good mood, thinking about hunting the last two and collecting my reward at the guild.
Then, from the far end of the sewer, a familiar silhouette rounded the corner.
"Ah…"
The moment I saw her, my body locked up like ice. It was Mireia — the same Mireia who had paralyzed guild operations the day before under the pretext of a one-day receptionist experience.
"Mireia?"
Her stint as a guest receptionist over, she was back in her usual clothes. She walked straight toward me, expressionless, and quietly held something out.
Ratman tails. One, two, three… more than I could count, a tangled, writhing mass of them, bunched in her hand.
"It's a gift."
The most hideous gift in the world.
"What are you doing right now?"
"This finishes the Ratman extermination commission. It will save you time."
The commission only required ten. Looking at the number of tails, it was enough to wipe every last Ratman from this sewer and then some. I was so dumbfounded I could barely form words.
"Don't you have your own work? You must have jobs of your own."
"It is rare that a job requires me specifically."
Fair enough — the guild didn't have many Gold Rank commissions to begin with. But that was no reason to follow a Bronze adventurer like me around on a petty little job and do this.
"Look. This is obstruction of business."
"…"
"How long are you planning to keep doing this around me? It's uncomfortable."
I made my displeasure as firm and clear as I could.
"Until you find it in yourself to come with me, Yunoa."
"And if that never happens?"
At my question, Mireia closed her eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them again and held my gaze. What is that look supposed to mean. That's terrifying.
Narration had given me a hint about her condition, but I had never expected her to be this persistent. And considering the cold, frightening first impression she gave, the way she was acting now was scary in an entirely different sense. If this was going to keep happening, I was in trouble. I wanted to live a normal adventurer's life and grow at my own pace, step by step.
But simply refusing her didn't seem like it would end this strange situation. After some thought, I decided to try negotiating.
I did not want to travel with Mireia the way she wanted. But serving as a simple advisor — that, I could do without tagging along at her side, couldn't I?
I thought back to what Narration had said. Mireia needed an advisor who could clear her clouded vision. What she wanted was advice, not a companion. Which meant she didn't actually need to keep me glued to her hip.
"Mireia."
"Yes."
"What you need isn't me — it's my advice, isn't it? So…"
"No. Now I need you."
"Wha—"
I was so startled a strange sound escaped me before I could stop it. Had I misread Narration? Had I missed something? Or had her feelings shifted in the meantime…
"A-anyway, that's not the point. Just as you need an advisor, I have things I want to do and a life of my own. What you're doing right now is asking me to make a sacrifice."
"…"
"I'm a novice who only recently made Bronze. You and I live in different worlds. If I started traveling with you now, people wouldn't look at us kindly. And I would lose my chances to grow."
I wrung every argument I could out of my head and laid them in front of her.
"If it is other people's gazes, I will see to it that they do not bother you."
No — I'm the one they're bothering. And knowing her, I had a sinking feeling she would "block" those stares by physical means. Terrifying. If I didn't find some kind of middle ground, this was going to get dangerous. I needed a solution that could leave both of us at least somewhat satisfied.
"Mireia. You said you wanted to keep me by your side as an advisor, didn't you?"
"That's right."
"But it would be a real problem if I actually started hating you, wouldn't it?"
"…"
Did it just get colder in here?
"I mean… I can't endure this kind of one-sided approach. We each need to take a step back and find a compromise."
Mireia nodded, still expressionless.
"Here's what we'll do. I will gladly serve as your advisor. But I will not travel with you. I have my life as an adventurer, and you have yours."
"…"
"We each work hard on our own paths, and when you need advice, you come find me. When that happens, I promise to advise you honestly, and to the best of my ability."
"But…"
"Please don't make me hate you."
"…"
An uncomfortable silence stretched between us for a long time.
"…Understood."
At last, breaking the long silence, Mireia managed to concede.
"Ah. And one more thing."
"Yes. I'm listening."
"In exchange for advising you whenever you need it…"
Since things had already come this far, there was something I wanted to ask of her as well. It was a request I could only make because I knew she had this strange fondness for me. I looked at Mireia and said it.
"Please teach me swordsmanship."