Disturbance
The receptionists' pens never stopped moving as they handled one inquiry after another, while the metallic clinks of adventurers brushing past each other filled the hall. Long lines stretched in front of every counter, and the heavy thuds of pouches stuffed with maseok and monster byproducts landing on the desks came one after another. Freshly returned adventurers stormed in wearing dust-caked armor, letting out ear-splitting cheers, while others staggered inside and quietly wept against the tables. Success and failure, survival and death—all mixed together in this lively chaos. This was the Adventurer's Guild. And for the two-hundred-year veteran receptionist, the demon Regina Gura, it was her workplace.
“Hello there! What brings you to the Adventurer's Guild today?” Standing atop the three-step stool Lily had casually tossed her way, Regina Gura wore her usual forced smile. Her neatly tied black ponytail framed an orange-bright grin, dimples sitting perfectly in the center of each cheek. The crisp white shirt she wore to maintain a demon's dignity was a size too large, its sleeves covering her palms, giving her the look of a little sister who had stolen her brother's clothes. Far from seeming strictly professional, the sight oddly stirred a protective instinct in others.
“W-well… ugh! Suddenly, the restroom!”
“Eh? Ah! The restroom is all the way down the right side of the first floor!”
“Thank youuu!”
A whole cartload of male adventurers had their minds wiped blank by her destructive beauty, unable to focus on their business and quietly shuffling toward another counter. Watching colleagues murmured in quiet awe.
“She's incredible. Seriously.”
“Is this the charisma of a two-hundred-year receptionist?”
“Charisma, my foot. It's just that young men these days are hopeless romantics.”
“Then why do they all act normal in front of the other seniors?”
“You. Follow me to the break room.”
“Eek.”
Time drifted by amid the usual small incidents: a receptionist swinging a broom at a junior only to be subdued by a coworker stopping by for water, cat beastmen beating up wolf beastmen who suddenly started howling, an elf receptionist drop-kicking a persistent adventurer until a healer had to be called. Before long, an orange twilight settled over the Adventurer's Guild.
“Thank you for your kind service again today, Aegis. I'll be heading out now! If you have time, maybe we could grab an ale at the Rainbow Cup…”
“Get lost… please?”
“Yes, ma'am!”
The once-crowded guild hall now held only scattered footprints, the long shadows of evening light stretching across the floor from the great windows.
“Gah! Ow, ow, ow…”
“I told you not to just shove the mop across the floor. Serves you right.”
“Ugh, that's too much, Senior. Would it kill you to ask if I'm okay? You've gotten so cranky lately. Must be your age.”
“…I swear, this time—”
“What, are you going to hit me with the mop this time?”
“Hey, hey. How old are you two? Stop fighting already.”
“Regina, Senior! Those two are at it again!”
“Eeh? Fighting is bad! Everyone, have some snacks and make up!”
The receptionists grumbled as they mopped, their weary steps leaving faint trails of dust and glistening water behind. In the quiet that marked the end of the day, a muffled voice—like someone speaking through a mouthful of flour—echoed through the hall.
“Aww oww aww eerr aaah eeyaah!”
Translation: Everyone worked hard today!
“Yeeeah…”
“Uwee…”
“Nweeeeng.”
“Haa, you worked hard too, Gura.”
The receptionists answered their two-hundred-year senior's slurred praise with weak murmurs, slumped over their desks like melting slimes and emitting the kind of eerie groans one might hear in the Black Zone. Startled adventurers turned back mid-step.
Then—
Tap.
—Clang!
With the sound of heavy footsteps, the guild's front door—usually kept shut to keep out insects drawn to the mana lamps—slowly opened. The receptionists, who had been pretending to shuffle papers or twirl pens to kill time, flinched.
'A-ah.'
'No way?'
'An adventurer!'
'We're dead.'
'Ugh, we're almost off the clock!'
Shoulders trembled silently behind the counters. 'Visiting the guild at this hour! The thirty minutes before closing are a legally protected break! This is a crime!' The righteous demon Regina Gura fumed at the unknown adventurer who had wandered in thirty minutes before closing. Yet she was a receptionist. No matter how angry she was, she had to serve until the end of her shift. That was the contract.
'Haa… I'll just deal with them quickly and send them off.' Regina Gura sighed deeply, gestured for her panicking juniors to stand down, and dragged herself up onto the three-step stool to deliver her mechanical greeting.
“Hello there! What brings you to the Adventurer's Guild… to…?”
Her words suddenly froze.
“Senior?”
“What's wrong? Why'd she stop like that?”
Feeling something was off, the other receptionists cautiously peeked over the counters one by one—then immediately ducked back down, screaming silently.
'A crow's head!'
'It's that crazy demon from yesterday!'
The deranged demon who had strolled in reeking of corpses the day before, tormenting every elf and beastman with a keen sense of smell, had returned. Though no stench clung to him now and no suffocating killing intent radiated from his form, the alien crow mask and the charred-black outfit were threatening enough on their own.
“Looks like you're not closed yet.”
“The Adventurer's Guild operates until 6 PM nyang! There's still thirty minutes left nyang!”
“By the way, how does a rogue even tell time?”
“The Goddess's blessing shows the time nyang!”
“…That blessing has all sorts of features.”
“Huff… huff… Everyone… let's go together… ughhh.”
“Kyuu!”
Following behind him were the guild-certified sherpa Sion, a new adventurer with an androgynous appearance, and an unidentifiable black bird.
'W-why is Sion with that guy?' Regina Gura felt both relief and betrayal as she watched Sion chatting casually with Raven. Then a question struck her. 'How is Sion, who fears monsters, standing so calmly beside him?' In Regina Gura's mind, the self-proclaimed demon with the crow head was clearly a new type of entity born in the dungeon—one that had crawled outside and was shamelessly pretending to be a demon in front of naive adventurers. But if that were true, Sion wouldn't be so composed. She possessed a skill that could detect entities and their presence.
'Don't tell me… she was hypnotized!?' It seemed entirely plausible. After all, some entities possessed hypnotic abilities. 'I need to check!' Regina Gura hurriedly activated her authority to examine Sion's condition. Mana gathered in her black pupils as she began probing the target's information.
Analyzing entity: 'Sion'…
'It worked!' Regina Gura smiled quietly at the system message that appeared in the corner of her vision. Her self-esteem, which had taken a hit because of Raven, began to recover. Soon the message vanished, replaced by a wall of text.
'Nothing?' The section where status abnormalities should have been listed was blank. 'So he's really a demon, not an entity?' No entity could deceive the system. That meant the grotesque creature that had crawled out of the abyss was truly a demon. 'I can't believe it! How can something that looks like that be a demon!?' Regina Gura stared at Raven, who was still chatting with Sion, her eyes full of disbelief. She clenched her fists and made a decision. 'I'll check his information again!' Yesterday's failure must have been due to poor condition. Drawing strength from today's success, she activated her authority on Raven. 'Come on, show me the information!'
Analyzing entity: 'Raven'…
“Eh?” A sound that could only lower one's intelligence slipped from Regina Gura's lips. The strength drained from her clenched molars, which she had been grinding to endure the pain in her eyes. 'It worked?' Why was it suddenly working now? 'So yesterday really was just bad condition?' Confusion and doubt filled her gaze as another wall of text dropped before her eyes.
'Authorities! He really is a demon!' Unlike humans who awakened skills by blooming their talents, demons drew power from the concepts that formed their very essence and wielded authorities. 'There are many unreadable parts.' That meant he was a demon of equal or higher rank than Regina Gura herself. 'What… has Regina Gura been… mistaken all this time?' Doubt and fear faded from her eyes, replaced by guilt. Then—
“How on earth does that look female?”
“What?”
“Excuse me?”
“F-female?”
“That can't be…”
Regina Gura's bombshell sent the receptionists into chaos.
Disturbance successful.
“Huh?”