The Appraiser's Vision
Doubt. The past. There once was a man known as the Dragon Slayer. He had beheaded the false laborer who grew stronger each day by claiming the lives of countless adventurers within the dungeon, becoming the first to reach 9-Tier in Origin and a legend of Bastion. The great pioneer who expanded the White Zone—once only a single floor—into a full ten floors. Minuseus the Hero. His insane exploits of roaming the dungeon alone, without party or clan, lingered in writing, paintings, and stories, still echoing through every corner of Bastion even a hundred years later.
And here, in the present, walked a man who had followed in that legend's footsteps to become Bastion's new star: Wilhelm Arkanof. His alias, The Executioner, was given because he showed no hesitation in beheading not only monsters and the deranged, but humans as well.
—P-please, spare me! I'm innocent! I swear I'm innocent!
—Evidence? Do you have any proof I killed that idiot, you damned bastard?!
—Even in death, I'll curse you, Executioner. I'll watch from beside your bed to see how long those eyes of yours keep shining.
By now, the number of adventurers whose heads had rolled beneath his blade had long surpassed three digits. Yet no one ever questioned or doubted his executions. He was an administrator of the dungeon city Bastion, a lawful executioner granted the authority of summary judgment over evildoers by the Goddess's laborer.
People said there were two major reasons Wilhelm had obtained such an absurd power as summary judgment from the Goddess's laborer. One of those reasons remained unknown to the public. But the other reason alone was enough for adventurers to nod in understanding: Wilhelm was a 9-Tier appraiser.
Deception and lies held no power before his eyes. Dark secrets shed their disguises. Beyond merely reading a person, he could perceive their karma and true nature. And that ability did not change even when the target was a high-ranking demon shrouded in veils. Or rather, it should not have.
'...Is that the mad demon?'
The moment Wilhelm laid eyes on Raven, who had just opened the door to the appraisal office, only one emotion filled him: awe.
For the first time in his life, Wilhelm understood what it felt like to be overwhelmed. The instant the door opened, a black and crimson aura surged up to his waist. Those viscous things crawling up and down his body were no mere malice. They were conceptual origins formed from blood and death, sulfur and ash, everything that intelligent life feared. Terror itself.
'I'm afraid.'
He could neither raise his head to meet those eyes nor open his mouth to speak. A baseless certainty drilled into his mind that one wrong move might reduce not only himself but the entire city to ashes. That being could not be judged or divided by human notions of good and evil. It was—no, he was a living, thinking calamity that had descended upon the earth.
Therefore—
'...How curious.'
His desire to dig deeper only grew. Like any appraiser, Wilhelm was brimming with curiosity. He had even attempted appraisals on high-ranking demons after personally obtaining their permission. Once, he had sought the secrets of two such demons. The lofty rank of 9-Tier granted a mortal who had transcended the limits of their species the authority to glimpse information that should have remained forbidden. He had succeeded in extracting fragments of a demon's secrets where no one else had.
—Hm? You wish to probe Regina Gura's information? Very well! You may look to your heart's content! In exchange, buy me lots of delicious food later, is the case!
Gluttony had shown him an abyss that would devour the world.
—Haa? You dare peek at a lady's secrets, you perverted old man♡ Trash that can't even be used♡ Go die already♡
Wrath had shown him a wildfire that would burn the world.
Then what would the oldest of emotions—fear—reveal?
Unable to contain his curiosity, Wilhelm forced his head up against the current, like a salmon swimming upstream, and faced the terrifying, ominous demon. And then—
'Appraise.'
He peered into fear.
—Chijijik.
'Hah.'
Yet even a 9-Tier rank proved insufficient. The world refused to easily grant Raven's information to Wilhelm.
'I suspected as much. A demon of even higher rank than those two... This is truly extraordinary.'
Though he had failed to uncover the secrets, simply learning that Raven was a demon of the highest rank was already a significant achievement. Just as Wilhelm felt a twinge of disappointment yet remained reasonably satisfied with the modest result, his world suddenly collapsed, and a new one took its place.
'What is this?'
He had clearly been sitting in the appraisal office, yet now found himself in an unknown location. The stench of burning and blood assaulted his nose. Wilhelm unconsciously looked up at the suddenly darkened scenery.
'Good heavens...'
A cluster of skyscrapers, packed tightly together as if piercing the sky, cast shadows beneath a sun that left only orange remnants among the gray clouds. Following the crackling sound of flames, he slowly lowered his head.
'How horrific.'
The streets, where iron birds and carriages with black wheels lay toppled and stained with blood, were filled with countless corpses burned, torn apart, and covered in ash. The grotesque beings staggering between them were indistinguishable as living or dead.
While frantically looking around in confusion at the sudden situation, something all too familiar caught Wilhelm's eye.
'...Could that be...'
No. It couldn't be...
Even among the endlessly rising skyscrapers, the cylindrical structure boasting unparalleled size and height was far too familiar to Wilhelm.
'...The Divine Spear?'
The Goddess's blessing, rooted to prevent the overflow of evil. The Divine Spear. Dungeon Road. But what Wilhelm now saw before him was no longer the sacred spear imbued with the Goddess's authority. It was merely a broken relic of past glory, its master long lost.
'Ah, Goddess...'
The symbol of the benevolent Goddess who had granted him light to see the world again now lay pitifully snapped. Wilhelm's sense of loss and despair was beyond words. His breath caught; his vision flickered. A ringing filled his ears—
—Beeeeeeeeep─────────
—growing louder, like footsteps approaching his heartbeat. Heat drained from his fingertips along with a dull pain at the back of his neck. It felt as though his very soul was being drained away.
Then, at that moment—
"Excuse me... Are you all right?"
—Click.
At the low yet resonant neutral voice that came from somewhere, Wilhelm opened his eyes without realizing he had closed them. All the sounds and smells that had been tormenting his mind vanished. His body, which had been breaking down in real time, regained its original health. He saw a child wearing a loose robe standing at the entrance of his long-time workplace, filled with the scent of paper and books, tilting their head in confusion.
"I'm back...?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah. No, I was simply lost in thought for a moment. Haha..."
After somehow finishing the initial appraisal of the young adventurer named Yuri and confirming that the demon's presence had disappeared, Wilhelm asked his kind junior colleague, who was offering him a handkerchief as he broke into a cold sweat.
"Inette, what did you see?"
"...I saw nothing."
'Saw nothing... is the case. Was there a separate reason it showed that horrific world only to me?' Or perhaps it had only been visible to someone of his high rank. The secret the demon had kept hidden. A fragment of that terrifying truth.
With a single sentence, Wilhelm corrected Inette's error of assuming the Fear Demon's rank was merely above 9-Tier. Leaning against his desk, he fell into thought while replaying the scenery he had witnessed.
'The fact that the Divine Spear stood there...'
Though he didn't want to believe it, that place filled with blood and death was undoubtedly Bastion—Bastion of a considerably distant future. However—
'No matter how high-ranking a demon, they cannot know the future.'
Unless it was a god.
'That can't be.'
Shaking his head to dispel the impure thought, Wilhelm clutched his throbbing head and stared blankly at the documents.
[Job]: Contractor (Unregistered Job)
Repeating the ambiguously written job name without any clear modifier—
'That can't be...'
[The target's rank is high.]
[Increasing the intensity of disturbance.]
[Information Disturbance → Mental Disturbance]
[Disturbance... Successful.]
Meanwhile, Raven's group was currently—
"Kkyu! Kkyu! Kkyu!"
"Ugh, heh, ugh, ugh! Aaaaaagh!"
"Contractor! You must give it your all! Match your breathing to Kkachi's encouragement! Just a little more! Let us complete one more lap at this pace together, is the case!"
"Crow! Stop tormenting the adventurer already, meow! The adventurer has reached their limit, meow!"
"Ugh, heeeeegh!!!"
Before the rank-up exam's skill confirmation, they were verifying Contractor Yuri's stamina at Raven's request.
'...Raven, I will remember this incident. Definitely.'
For the first time, Yuri found herself truly disliking Raven.