Named Request (1)
This chapter contains somewhat graphic and cruel scenes.
Please read with a little care.
“Priestess Rubia, time is almost up.”
“Haa… I’ll be out soon. Just wait for me in the banquet hall.”
“No, I’ll wait right he—”
“Seli. What did I just say?”
“…Understood.”
The shadow lingering at the door finally withdrew.
“Anyone watching would think I’m the bitch here. Fucking bastards.”
I shoved my things roughly into the bag and glared at the mirror.
Still unfamiliar—dazzling white hair and blue eyes stared back.
The brilliant golden hair and eyes I’d inherited from my late mother were nowhere to be found.
To a complete stranger, nine out of ten—no, every last one of them—would call this color beautiful.
It was a special hue only those chosen as priestesses could possess.
But every single strand of this hair, both of these eyeballs—I hated them so much I thought I’d go insane.
I wanted to tear them all out by the roots.
I’d tried to pull them out countless times.
I’d tried to die countless times.
Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times. Countless times.
But this world wouldn’t let me die.
Wouldn’t let me kill myself.
A priestess’s life couldn’t be snuffed out in a place like this, they said.
There was a place it absolutely had to be used, they said—and they never left me alone.
Barely five years ago I’d been an ordinary girl.
Just a slightly troublemaking ordinary girl.
A small house in a small village.
I’d never once thought of myself as unhappy.
The academy everyone else attended?
I didn’t need to go.
The meat everyone else ate?
I was happy just chewing on greens.
As long as I still had my one remaining family—
as long as my little sister was with me—nothing else mattered.
Then disaster came to the village.
Barely a dozen magic beasts.
A single renowned knight could have stopped them easily.
But our little village didn’t even have a knight—not even an apprentice.
No magic-beast threat here, they said.
Not enough pay for a proper knight, they said—so they never stationed even one ordinary knight.
The bakery lady was torn in half.
The blacksmith big brother burst open and died.
The guard uncle’s head rolled across the ground.
The clothing-shop sister was raped after she was already dead.
The little kid who teased me every day.
That kid’s older sister.
The man next door.
The grandfather who tended the flowerbeds.
The grandmother who always scolded me.
People I knew.
People I didn’t.
A newborn baby.
The mother who’d just given birth.
My mother’s grave.
My little sister.
Dead.
Torn to pieces.
My sister’s blood splattered across my face.
Her teeth were ripped out.
Her arms and legs rolled across the floor.
Her guts soaked my clothes.
She protected me even while that was happening to her.
A fifteen-year-old little sister.
That slender girl.
Who’d never once said a single harsh word.
Who’d grown up far too early.
She was shredded right in front of my eyes.
And still I survived like this.
Right before the magic beasts could kill me, the knights arrived.
A small village, they’d said.
No magic-beast threat, they’d said.
Why. Why the hell.
What the fuck were these people?
Why did everyone die—
why did even my little sister die—
and only now did they come to save me?
Because I’d been chosen as a priestess, they said.
That’s why they’d come to rescue me.
The priestess who would save the world. Me.
“Bullshit…”
I howled.
I drank pesticide.
I hung myself.
I slit my wrists with a knife.
They forced my mouth open.
Made me vomit everything up.
Cut the rope around my neck.
Healed even the shredded blood vessels.
A priestess couldn’t die like this, they said.
Please, save us—save the world—they kept bringing me back.
If I’d been chosen as a priestess earlier.
If you’d arrived even five minutes sooner.
My little sister would still be alive.
I wouldn’t have been broken this badly.
My will to save the world wouldn’t have gone out.
No.
If I just hadn’t been chosen as a priestess at all, I could have died together with my sister.
I hate you.
The people who look at me and call me beautiful make me sick.
Magic beasts, humans—I wish every last one of them would just die.
This world, everything my eyes can see—I hate it all.
I’m not going to save the world.
I’m not going to save anyone.
You people should lose something precious too.
I finished packing and secured a rope firmly to the window.
I looked down.
From the sixth floor the ground looked impossibly far away.
So what.
I wouldn’t die anyway.
This damned life that couldn’t end until I’d saved this fucking world.
No way I’d die so meaninglessly here.
I’d already found an adventurer to escort me.
I’d put out a named request, and luckily someone accepted.
A girl who’d been stirring up enormous rumors lately.
A blind girl who couldn’t see my face, my hair, or my eyes.
And yet she’d climbed all the way to Silver rank.
The perfect conditions for an escort.
Before I jumped, I looked up at the sky—at the existence that must be watching me from above.
You watching, Goddess bitch?
Today—right now—I’m running.
If you’ve got a problem, come catch me yourself.
I grabbed the rope and leapt.
Hoping, just maybe, that this time I might actually die.
I looked up at the sky.
I could… feel the guild’s ceiling.
Just with the mind’s eye.
Today, too, I prayed to the gods.
Please, just make me 1 cm taller.
And let the client be a normal person…
Prayer finished, I approached the client sitting ahead and offered a greeting.
“Um… h-hellooo…”
Thankfully the client was a woman.
But… something about her felt off.
She’d been glancing around sharply this whole time.
She’s not a criminal, right?
“Ahem. Hello. Are you Miss Shin Noah?”
The client’s soft, gentle voice reached me.
Something sultry about it… her voice is crazy pretty.
And.
And…!
Her boobs were insanely huge.
Viciously huge.
Evil and downright cruelly huge.
No way.
Was that size even realistic…?
My head’s hanging on both sides of her. Whoa…
“Yes…”
“Nice to meet you. How about we move somewhere quieter to talk? It’s… a bit too noisy here.”
The client scowled hard and looked around.
She’d scrunched her face so tightly the surrounding muscles were all bunched up.
I couldn’t see anyway, and after two months of coming and going I’d gotten used to it, but this wasn’t an atmosphere a normal girl could adapt to easily.
Plus the client’s outrageously extreme figure couldn’t even be hidden by her robe, so she was drawing eyes.
I nodded readily.
“Where should we go…?”
“Hmm, good question. I’m not familiar with what’s around here. Would it be all right if I asked you to guide me?”
Uh-oh.
I’d been given a way-too-hard mission.
I don’t wander around either, so I don’t know…?
“Uh, uhh…”
What do I do.
Should I take her to my room.
That’s a problem though…
Even if this client has money… what if she steals my stuff and runs!
And materials I pulled out of magic beasts are just lying around, so she probably wouldn’t even want to come in…?
They don’t smell, but visually it’s a bit much, right?
“Is there… nowhere?”
The client’s frustrated voice reached me.
Already feeling like the request’s about to get canceled…?
No.
No, my 30 gold!
Cold sweat pouring, I racked my brain.
Then—exactly one place.
The spot where this zero-social-stats body of mine could rest most comfortably came to mind.
“Ah…! I-I thought of one. This way, please…!”
The client nodded and hurriedly stood, trailing after me.
Even walking with her head high she was trembling, so the adventurers must have scared her a lot.
Just listening to those rough voices would feel brutal, yeah.
But that place is definitely quiet, so she’ll like it, right?
How did I even think of that place in this situation.
I only put the minimum into Intelligence, so maybe Intelligence is still my original Intelligence.
Hehe, lucky.
I smiled proudly and left the guild.
“Um, Miss Noah.”
The client’s voice, sunk ice-cold, pressed down on my body.
“Y-yeshet…?”
Ah, I bit my tongue.
“Is this the place you meant?”
“Y-yes… do you not like it…?”
“Haa…”
The muscles in the client’s jaw worked slowly.
So… she’s clenching her teeth hard, huh.
Why, why! What’s the problem!
It’s quiet! No one watching! No people… well, there’s one person, but he doesn’t care about us!
“Right. Quiet, no eyes on us—everything’s fine, but…”
“…Right? Hehe…”
“Hehe…? That laugh… no, ha…”
The client pressed her forehead and whispered quietly right by my ear.
“This… is a blacksmith’s forge.”
“Thaaat’s right…?”
Yes.
A blacksmith’s forge.
The only space where I could rest quietly!
Most adventurers handled their own gear maintenance because they hated spending the money.
So almost no one came to the forge.
But I had zero hand skills, so I’d become a regular!
Even better—the blacksmith boss here was extremely curt.
Everything he’d ever said to me was:
‘Thirty silver.’
‘Tomorrow morning, ten o’clock.’
‘Closing up.’
‘In a hurry?’
‘Got it.’
That was it.
A boss perfectly suited to this loser body of mine!
And! Even if I just sat there without leaving, he never looked this way and quietly did his work!
You could say this forge existed truly for me, only for me.
“Th-that person doesn’t care about us, so… it’s fine.”
“Wow! No, wow… waha…!”
The client smacked her own forehead and shuddered all over.
Is the tension from earlier still not fully gone?
Hmm… in times like this you definitely need something warm to loosen up!
“Client… is that okay to call you…?”
“Rubi—no. Call me Aileen.”
“Then, Miss Aileen… would you like some coffee…?”
“What? Coffee in a blacksmith’s forge?”
“Sweet, or bitter… which do you prefer?”
“Shin Noah, what the hell are you—”
Ah, she doesn’t like coffee, huh.
“I-I have milk too!”
I bought this to drink myself, but I’ll specially share!
“I’m getting an escort from someone like this…”
Aileen buried her face in the table and lamented.
No juice though…
“Sh-should I go buy juice…?”
“…Coffee. Give me coffee. Bitter. Really fucking bitter. Make it so bitter I could die from drinking it.”
“If it’s too bitter it’s bad for your body…”
Bang—
Aileen slammed the table like she meant to smash it and stood up.
“H-hic—!”
Holy crap!
Even worrying about her gets me yelled at!
“Just… please… bring me anything… Got it?”
Aileen’s facial muscles contracted hard.
She looked like she was staring at a goblin.
“Yeees… coffee, super bitter… I’ll bring it right awayyy…”
Normally two spoons already made it insanely bitter… I put in four.
But she drank it just fine.