Praise Makes Yona Dance
Alec had turned down several party offers, but even as he did, his gaze kept drifting back to the guild office door.
She should have shown up by now. Today, of all days, she seemed unusually late.
"Mary."
Catching the receptionist during a rare lull, Alec walked over with a cup of water in hand. He'd been waiting a while now—Mary had been swamped, and only just managed to catch her breath.
"Busy?"
When Alec held out the wooden cup of cool water he'd fetched from the sink, Mary took it with a smiling crescent of her eyes. Honestly? Yeah. A guy like Alec really is a decent catch. Except for the bald head.
"It's finally slowing down. Ever since the Catacombs got cleared, the crowds flocking here have been unbelievable. But why didn't you join a party, Alec?"
It made sense why she'd ask. Healers were so scarce that it was easy to forget, but skilled Guards for the front line were just as hard to come by. Vanguards who shielded the attackers so they could strike without worry—fall even a little short, and everyone notices. They took the most blame, and their death rate was nothing to sneeze at either. And with Alec's track record for reliability, any guild with a freshly opened dungeon would be tripping over themselves to recruit him first.
"Ah, well, Yona..."
That was as far as he got. One look at Alec's sheepish grin, and Mary understood exactly why he hadn't joined anything.
He turned down every party because Yona unnie wasn't here. What a hopeless romantic. Except for the bald head.
"Yona unnie still hasn't come to the office. At this rate, she's going to miss all the good spots."
Mary was quite fond of Yona herself. Then again, she'd be hard-pressed to find a single person in this city of Evian who wasn't.
"Why don't you go fetch her, Alec? Bet you anything she's sprawled out asleep somewhere."
"Sh-should I? That wouldn't be rude, would it?"
"Of course not. Go on."
Mary shot him a sly little smile. I hope it works out for them. Alec and Yona—they made a surprisingly good pair. She was genuinely rooting for the two of them.
"O-okay then, I'll be back."
"Good luck, Alec."
With an awkward wave back at Mary's waving hand, Alec stepped out of the guild office.
"...Why on earth me?"
Yona's face was pure incredulity. It was abrupt, it was absurd—take your pick.
A party was supposed to be formed by mutual consent. Lud the Hero was an adventurer himself; there was no way he didn't know that. And yet here he was, talking as if she were already part of his party without having asked for so much as a syllable of agreement. Yona found the whole thing ridiculous.
"Well, this is the Hero's party, you see. It's hardly an ordinary adventurer's group. Assembling the best possible roster is simply essential."
He certainly had a plausible-sounding spiel ready, but none of it resonated with Yona in the slightest.
"Then take Sister Aize. Wouldn't that be the best possible lineup?"
Standing felt awkward, so Yona settled into a chair as she spoke. If they truly wanted the optimal party composition, the ones who belonged in it were Vigrind the Saint and Sister Aize—not Yona.
Priests, as a rule, had zero combat experience. The moment they were ordained, they vanished into cathedrals, and while a rare few became personal chaplains to noble houses, priests almost never set foot on a battlefield. Even here in Evian, Sister Aize was the only clergy member comfortable in a fight.
Yona shot Vigrind a look that plainly demanded agreement. Am I wrong?
But the moment their eyes met, Vigrind twisted her face into a scowl and whipped her head away.
That little... That was as good as agreeing, wasn't it?
"Anyway, no. I don't even understand why I'd need to join the Hero's party in the first place, and I don't want to. I'm not going. I have plans of my own, you see."
She had an important appointment—getting to the Wizard Community. For Yona, there were things hundreds of times more important than the Hero's party or whatever else.
"Plans? Well, whatever they are, I can simply resolve them for you. Yona, your exceptional healing talent and your improvisation on the battlefield are exactly what we need. Frankly, is there a single healer in all of Evian with skill to rival yours?"
"Huh? Uh... yeah. Well, I-I mean, that's... true."
Yona felt her shoulders straighten all on their own. No, wait—am I wrong? Here in Evian, the word healer meant Yona. It wasn't as if healers better than her grew on trees, either.
The best healer. The finest healer. Among healers working the field right now, there is no one more skilled than me!
"That's why we've come to invite you like this. Isn't that right? I, Lud the Hero, have come in person. Surely you'll agree we've shown more than enough courtesy?"
"...W-well, that is technically true."
"It's all because we hold you in such high regard, Yona. The best recognizes the best, after all. Just as I recognized you, I trust you'll recognize me as well. Wouldn't you say?"
"Ahem. Khehm."
Yona struggled to keep her face composed, hiding the corners of her mouth as they tried to curl upward. Nobody hates a compliment, and Yona was no exception. Weak to flattery, weak to praise—weak to being held up on a pedestal.
"So you see, the best recognizes the best. Not some feeble excuse for a Guard, but me—"
And in that instant, the whole pleasant mood shattered.
"What did you just say?"
The color drained from Yona's face as she growled, low and dangerous.
Who was Alec, exactly? Bald, yes—but he was the finest Guard Yona had ever built with her own two hands, the two of them forged from the very bottom of the adventurer's food heap together. And this guy called him feeble?
That wasn't praise. That was an insult.
"Do you have any idea how solid Alec is? I'm the one who trained that guy, so what the hell are you—"
At that very moment, someone delivered a stinging smack to the back of Yona's head. She nearly face-planted into the table.
When she wrenched her eyes open against the searing pain and whirled around, Alec was looming over her with an expression of pure disbelief.
"Who raised who, exactly?"
"Are you out of your damn mind? Hey, I dragged you around and trained you—that's just a fact!"
"That's rich. I dragged you around and kept you alive while you grew up, and this is the thanks I get."
Lud and Vigrind were now completely forgotten background noise. Yona had no particular need to spare the Hero a thought anyway, so it suited her fine.
"Yona, remember your first goblin hunt, when you were so scared you wet your—"
"F-FINISH THAT SENTENCE AND DIE!"
"...Ahem."
Clapping a hand over Alec's mouth, her face twisted into a scowl that promised violence, Yona turned around again at the sound of an awkward throat-clearing. Lud was staring at her, coughing uncomfortably, one cough after another.
"...So. What will you do? Will you join us?"
"Nope. Still no."
Yona's flat refusal was a considerable surprise. The Hero's party promised low odds of success, true—but succeed, and glory came bundled in. The idea that she would refuse an invitation to join from the very start, as a founding member no less, had simply never crossed Lud's mind.
"May I ask why?"
"Turns out I've got business of my own. That's why I'm taking this one with me."
With that, Yona slung an arm around Alec's shoulders. Startled by the sudden weight and warmth against his shoulder, Alec flinched and edged away slightly, but Yona noticed nothing at all.
Lud frowned, sinking into thought. Honestly, this was unexpected. From the way Yona talked, he'd assumed Alec would come along if she joined—but was there even any point in that?
Alec's attack power was low. His defense was low too. The balance of offense and defense was, in the smoothest possible way, uniformly terrible. What would a Guard like that add to a party? Nothing. However badly he wanted to reel Yona in, he couldn't afford to bring Alec along too.
"I see. Well... very well then. Do as you like. If you refuse, what can anyone do about it?"
"Right, good thinking."
"Understood. Then we shall meet again."
Lud rose from his seat. Vigrind, who had been sitting silently beside him, stood and followed, turning away with nothing but a look of vague misgiving left behind for Yona.
"So you actually turned them down?"
"Yep."
Yona gathered her things and headed for the Adventurer's Guild. Alec had been packing up his rented inn room and loading his backpack as well, though neither of them carried all that much.
"Are you an idiot?"
"I refused because I'm not an idiot. That Hero guy—something about his eyes rubs me the wrong way."
"What about his eyes?"
"The way he looks at me like I'm a woman."
Alec's throat seized. He couldn't manage a single word in reply. The answer was so far beyond anything he'd expected—so utterly preposterous—that he simply had nothing to say.
"Besides, Vigrind was there too. That ginger. You think I'm going to follow her around and play lady-in-waiting? Not a chance. Ugh."
"...Huh. Well, if that's the reason, I can sort of understand."
It really was true. He did understand.
"Still, I figure we'd be better off picking up an attacker before we go."
"Like anyone's heading to the Wizard Community. Better we just go the two of us. We'll wail on things hard enough between the two of us, won't we?"
Watching Yona grin around the jerky she was gnawing on, Alec honestly couldn't tell whether this was a good situation or a bad one. It was hardly cause for unbridled optimism, but... it wasn't bad. Yona's smile really was lovely, after all.
"I'll come with you."
"...Kayak?"
Yona had said she'd be fine, but Alec hadn't believed it. The distance from Evian to Lake Cantasia, where the Wizard Community stood, was considerable. Who knew what might happen along the way—and hadn't the Heavenly God herself descended to warn them that a calamity was drawing near?
Alec, as a Guard, had low attack power, and Yona couldn't grip a weapon with her Holy Shroud–wrapped hands—her survival odds boosted only a little by the shield strapped to her left arm. The two of them crossing that distance alone left him uneasy, which was why he'd asked Mary, without any real expectation, whether any attackers happened to be headed that way.
And then, out of nowhere, Kayak had stepped forward and said he had business in that direction. It was a shock to Alec—and to Yona too.
"Why so startled, hatchlings?"
"Y-you've got some nerve, lizard."
Provoked by the word hatchlings, Yona bristled, and Kayak grinned as he ruffled her hair roughly. The lizardman's wide lips parted, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
"The Wizard Community sits at Lake Cantasia, no? The upper reaches of the North Cantasia River above it—that's my homeland."
Ah.
She understood now. Kayak wanted to go home too.
That was a good thing. Yona broke into a wide, bright smile.