Chapter 50: The First Re-evaluation, Preparation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 50: The First Re-evaluation, Preparation
It was a beautiful day.
The sun wasn’t too harsh, the sky was a cloudless blue, and a cool breeze drifted through the air.
On a day with weather this perfect, I should be on a date with Claude.
Mirei was lost in these idle, stray thoughts.
Nothing had been going her way lately.
Alto, the party’s primary source of income, had deserted them. Because of that, the Adventurer Guild and the bank were putting pressure on them from all sides, demanding they take responsibility.
They were the ones who had treated Alto like a pushover right alongside the party, yet now they were turning around and demanding accountability.
It felt unfair, but there was nothing she could do.
In the midst of all that, they had finally managed to secure a dungeon quest and set out with high spirits, only to be defeated by a mere four ogres.
Ambushing and killing one had been a good start, but then Mirei had charged forward to attack, and Resin had followed to close the distance for her spells. This left their priest, Krima, exposed, and she was the first to be taken down.
Starting with Krima, the rest of the party fell apart. Mirei struggled against the ogres’ pincer attack before taking a blow to the head and blacking out.
She later heard that Resin, who had been firing off spells in a fit of rage, had also collapsed from extreme exhaustion.
In the end, Diane had used every ounce of her strength to draw the monsters’ aggro, allowing her to quickly toss her incapacitated comrades out of the dungeon one by one so they could escape.
It was a stroke of luck that the battle had occurred near the entrance; had they ventured deeper, a total party wipe would have been inevitable.
Later, they managed to subjugate the ogres through a joint quest with other parties, but the reward Mirei’s party received was a measly 2 million Dalk.
It was barely enough to cover the party’s operating expenses, but more damaging than the small reward was the humiliating failure of a Hero-rank party on a solo quest.
The way people looked at them—not just in the Adventurer Guild, but throughout Lukart—had changed.
Insults reached their ears behind their backs, ranging from calling them “all style and no substance” to claiming that Alto had been the actual backbone and core of the party all along, which was why the guild had made such a fuss when he left.
Because of this, Claude wouldn’t even meet her eyes when they crossed paths on the street.
Grit.
He was all over her when he was trying to woo her, and now he was acting like this?
She had showered him with money and catered to his every whim, even acting unlike herself just to please him. To be treated like this despite being a Hero-rank adventurer filled her with a deep, searing resentment—yet she couldn’t bring herself to throw away her affection for him.
She felt a surge of sorrow, wondering if love was always supposed to be this painful.
“Mirei, the Branch Manager is out. Stand up straight.”
“Dammit.”
Mirei’s party had been waiting in the training grounds behind the Adventurer Guild building since early morning.
At dawn, a guild receptionist—whose face had turned even paler than usual—had come to deliver the Branch Manager’s summons. The entire party had arrived at the guild in a state of high tension.
“The Branch Manager is arriving.”
However, the Branch Manager who entered the training grounds was in a pitiful state.
She wore a neck brace and was limping on one foot as she made her entrance.
Following leisurely behind her was the tall Yarismal, dressed in strange clerical robes.
“Is everyone here?”
“Yes, Branch Manager.”
Desperate to stay on the guild’s good side, Mirei used uncharacteristically polite language.
Seeing Mirei’s humbled state, the Branch Manager glanced at Yarismal with a sliver of hope, but she trembled in fear when she saw the Inspector’s distorted expression.
“Branch Manager.”
“Yes, Inspector!”
“Why are these incompetent bitches still standing up straight? You can barely even walk, yet they look perfectly fine.”
That’s because you’re the one who low-kicked me!
The Branch Manager swallowed the words that almost reflexively burst out.
Meanwhile, Mirei’s party was startled to hear the word “Inspector.” They swallowed hard, tensing up as she began to pick a fight with them.
“You there. Recite the recent quest performance of Mirei’s party.”
“Yes, understood.”
At Yarismal’s gesture, the receptionist immediately began reading from the documents she had prepared.
“Here is the quest history for Mirei’s party over the last four weeks. Recipient: Diane. Cleaning horse manure at the carriage station, 20 times total. Recipient: Diane. Environmental cleanup at the carriage station, 23 times total. Recipient: Diane, at the carriage station…”
“She did those alone! I’m talking about the party as a whole!”
“…Recipient: Mirei’s Party. Subjugation of four ogres suspected of Dungeon Backflow. Retreated after killing one. Subsequently participated in and cleared a joint quest involving five parties.”
“What a pathetic sight.”
Yarismal’s eyes swept over Mirei’s party with utter disbelief.
Everyone lowered their heads, except for Diane, whose eyes remained unfocused.
Resin, her pride wounded by the fact that she was bowing her head, tried to explain herself to Yarismal.
“It had been so long since our last dungeon quest, and things happened before we could get back into the swing of things. Besides, the Adventurer Guild wouldn’t give us any dungeon quests no matter how much we asked—”
“The swing of things? You need time to get back into the swing of things? Aren’t you a Hero-rank adventurer party? Are you saying a Hero-rank party needs a warm-up?”
A Hero-rank adventurer party.
The weight of that title, which they had always carried with pride, crushed down on their shoulders for the first time.
“If you needed a warm-up, shouldn’t you have been prepared every single day, assuming you could receive a quest at any moment?”
“B-but, since the guild wasn’t giving us any dungeon quests…”
“Didn’t you say you were requesting them fervently? Does that mean you were making requests without being prepared?”
“That’s… that’s because the Branch Manager told us to find Alto first, so we were focusing on that…!”
“Right. Finding Lord Alto and doing quests. A Hero-rank party should be able to do both, shouldn’t they?”
They were speechless.
No matter what they said, she countered with the logic that they should have succeeded because they were Hero-rank.
The very achievements they had built were now being used to strangle them.
Resin gave up on explaining and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Why did you call us to the training grounds?”
“Oh, so you’re finally ready to listen?”
Yarismal clapped her hands and gestured with her chin. The receptionist handed the documents she was holding to the Branch Manager.
Because of her neck brace, the documents had to be held right in front of her face. The Branch Manager cleared her throat and began to read aloud.
“The current Hero-rank Mirei’s party has shown no performance befitting their rank recently, and they even failed the single dungeon quest they managed to secure. Since their attitude, zeal, and capabilities are all in question regarding their suitability for the Hero rank, the Adventurer Guild headquarters has dispatched an Inspector to conduct a re-evaluation of Mirei’s party’s adventurer rank.”
“What?!”
Mirei flared up at the word “re-evaluation.”
“We are the one and only Hero-rank party! Our past achievements prove that!”
“Those were the achievements needed to reach the Hero rank, weren’t they? Your performance to maintain that rank is practically at rock bottom. It’s essentially zero.”
“That’s because that bastard Alto deserted us on a whim…!”
“That would be Lord Alto.”
Yarismal corrected her kindly. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not.
“To think you’d dare refer to a man in such a way… I think I’m starting to understand why Lord Alto left the party. Mirei, don’t misunderstand. I am the Inspector sent to verify you. If you dislike the re-evaluation, you are free to refuse. However, please note that refusing the exam will result in the immediate stripping of your Hero rank.”
“Urgh…!”
“Mirei, I’ll take over the conversation from here.”
“Resin… fine.”
Even Mirei realized that opening her mouth further would only make things worse.
As Mirei stepped back, Resin peppered Yarismal with questions.
“What is the method of the re-evaluation?”
“Starting today, we will have a total of three battles, once per day. You just have to subdue me once. However, the first battle starts right here, right now.”
“Fine. We accept.”
“Resin!”
“Mirei, wait. In exchange, if we pass this evaluation, allow us to take dungeon quests like before. We can’t build up performance befitting our rank with just odd jobs.”
“I’ll consider it if you pass.”
As expected, she won’t just give in.
The other side held all the cards.
“That’s enough talk. Get ready. We’re starting now.”
The moment she finished speaking, Yarismal’s aura shifted.
She leisurely pulled knuckles out of her pocket and slipped them onto both fists.
The left knuckle was engraved with the word Love, and the right with Peace.
“Everyone, get into formation! Get behind me!”
Sensing the ominous energy, Mirei shouted in tension. Krima and Diane, who had been dazed, moved according to their training.
Mirei at the front, Resin and Krima in the middle, and Diane starting at the very back to watch all directions.
Yes, it was exactly as they had been trained.
But that training had, of course, included Alto.
Consequently, a void naturally remained in the formation where he should have been.
A small gap between Mirei and Resin.
By the time Resin blinked, Yarismal was already right in front of her.
“Gah! Harden!”
Fortunately, she managed a short incantation to turn her skin to stone.
However, Resin didn’t realize that Yarismal had intentionally waited for her.
Love slammed into Resin’s side.
“Guh-ack!”
A scream tore from her throat, rasping against her vocal cords.
Her ribs were shattered.
By the time Mirei and Diane tried to attack, Yarismal had already put distance between them.
They hadn’t seen her at all. Neither her advance nor her retreat.
“What are you doing, Priest? You should be healing her.”
“Krima! Hurry, heal Resin!”
“Y-yes!”
Krima’s divine power enveloped Resin.
As the healed Resin tried to push herself up, she was punched in the face and slammed back onto the ground.
“What are you doing? Do you think this is some kind of turn-based board game? Take this seriously!!”
“Damn you! Everyone, give it your all!”
Mirei gnashed her teeth and twisted her body to strike, but she took a clean uppercut from Yarismal, who had dropped her stance low.
“Gah…!”
In the blink of an eye, Yarismal changed direction again and appeared in front of Krima.
However, the Peace aimed at the priest was intercepted by a dagger swung by Diane.
Clang!
“Oh? You’ve got some backbone, don’t you? I’ll go a little easier on you today.”
Catching up to the Ranger’s movements, Yarismal used her height to grab Diane by the waist, hoisted her up, and slammed her into the ground.
“Cough… ack…!”
Thwack!
Following up with a blow to the side of the face with the Peace knuckle, Diane’s limbs splayed out. She twitched like a frog for a moment before going limp.
Finally standing one-on-one with Krima, Yarismal adjusted her knuckles and smirked.
“Is your divine power lacking? To be Hero-rank, shouldn’t you be able to heal instantly?”
“Y-you monster!”
At Krima’s terrified scream at the ghastly figure before her, Yarismal’s smile froze in place.
“You’re the same, aren’t you?”
Crack!
“Men and women alike, everyone calls me a monster just because I’m tall and can fight a bit.”
Crack!
“As I thought… the only man who smiles when he looks at me is him.”
Crack!
Each blow was delivered with murderous intent, pummeling Krima’s body and face.
Having uttered Yarismal’s forbidden word, Krima vomited blood but couldn’t even fall; she had to endure every attack while forced to remain standing.
“The Lord’s Love~, the Lord’s Peace~.”
While the knuckles carrying the prayers for love and peace were alternately injecting “divine grace,” Mirei tried to approach several times, but she couldn’t find a single opening.
Eventually, Mirei let her guard down for a split second and was struck with enough force to dent her armor, sending her crashing to the ground.
“Whew…! Mm! That was good exercise!”
The Branch Manager and the receptionist trembled at the display of overwhelming combat power.
Yarismal stuffed Love and Peace back into her pockets and barked at Mirei.
“The first evaluation is a failure. I’ll let you decide the date for the next one. However…”
What was even more terrifying was that not a single drop of blood had stained her strange clerical robes.
“From now on, do not reject any quests given by the Adventurer Guild. You need to build up your performance, right? Oh! And at the same time, continue the search for Lord Alto. By any means necessary, through any method possible, bring Lord Alto back to Lukart. If you don’t, consider today’s beating the standard for your disciplinary measures.”
“I-Inspector. No matter if you are the Inspector, such an arbitrary punishment is administratively improper—”
“Oh, Branch Manager. If it’s me, it’s possible.”
“Pardon?”
As the Branch Manager asked blankly, Yarismal gave a thin smile.
“As the daughter of Mirachi Bichante, a founding member of the Adventurer Guild… I, Yarismal Bichante, can make it possible.”
Bichante.
One of the Four Heroes who had defeated the Demon King.
And the tall woman standing before them was the daughter of that hero.
“Do you understand now? Why I was the one dispatched as the Inspector.”
“Hieee! Eek! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“Would you please shut up?”
Yarismal’s smile grew even deeper.
“I’m already extremely irritated because my trip to Hus was delayed because of you.”
I’m pissed off. Should I give her one more punch?
Just as the contemplating Yarismal was slowly curling her fist,
“Urgent news! Urgent news!”
A group of Lukart guards burst into the Adventurer Guild training grounds.
Yarismal quickly hid her fist and asked, “What is it?”
“A request for cooperation and a quest commission! The rank is Hero-rank or higher!!”
“It seems urgent. Here, I’ll recover you, so speak quickly.”
As Yarismal waved her hand, divine power enveloped the guards.
Gulping, a guard shouted to the Branch Manager and Yarismal.
“In the northern border region of Lukart, a man has been killed by a man! He was a man of the Duchy! The Kingdom and the Duchy are commissioning a joint quest to the Adventurer Guild!”
“A man killed a man?!”
The Branch Manager was horrified, but Yarismal calmly asked once more.
“Do you know the identity of the killer?”
“T-that is…”
The guard’s eyes were filled with terror.
“It is the war veteran Yobeste. Yobeste of the Bierma tribe!”
Even Yarismal was shocked by the guard’s report.
“An official document will be issued. All war veterans are ordered to stop Yobeste!”
This incident occurred exactly one week after Alto and Airune had their encounter at the salon.