I Received a Receptionist as a Reward
Why was I sitting alone across from Director Elena in the director’s office of the Hero Management Bureau?
The Elena before me was as flawless as ever. Her calm crimson eyes gleamed behind silver-rimmed glasses as they sharply scanned the documents in her hands. Every time that cool, mysterious gaze lifted from the papers and fixed straight on me, a strange pressure filled the room.
Her attire was the usual—an immaculate black uniform buttoned all the way to the collar, not a single gap to be found. Yet beneath that stiff, tailored fit, the silhouette of a body honed by years of field work was utterly unmatched: firm, flexible, and impossible to ignore. It immediately brought to mind a certain female fighter from a fighting game in my past life who had been famous for one particular pair of thighs.
Even the dull uniform trousers were stretched taut by those overwhelming, springy thigh lines and the healthy curves of her lower body—the absolute peak of a physical beauty. Because she was wrapped up so tightly, the destructive volume only stood out more, a paradoxical visual that somehow made everything worse.
Honestly, my eyes were having a great time. I could admit that much. Strangely, though, my heart was getting no such luxury. It felt exactly like a student who had caused trouble and been dragged into the teachers’ office to sit in front of the homeroom teacher.
This is so unfair. I really didn’t mess anything up this time.
“Hero Zick.”
“Yes, Director.”
At Elena’s call, my voice stiffened on its own. She pushed her glasses up slightly, regarded me for a moment with those distinctive red eyes, then slowly bowed her head.
“First, allow me to apologize on behalf of the Hero Management Bureau.”
“Excuse me?”
I blinked blankly. An apology? From Director Elena? To me?
In that instant the previous incident flashed through my mind—the greatest catastrophe of my life, when I had accidentally revealed the director’s underwear to the entire world. But I had already apologized for that, and she had accepted it coolly. There was no reason for me to be dragged in again now.
Don’t tell me they’re holding a belated trial? Charge: unauthorized viewing of the director’s underwear information. Sentence… surely it won’t be the death penalty?
While I spun wild fantasies and broke into a cold sweat, Elena continued in her calm tone.
“This concerns an incident that occurred several days ago at a branch office in a city along the Empire’s border.”
Only then did the memory return. The aftermath of taking down the Arachne Queen. More precisely, the memory of dragging my half-dead body out of the forest and arriving at the nearest Hero Management Bureau branch.
After driving a full-power thrust into the queen’s massive heart and escaping the forest while dodging the Arachne swarm whose neural network had gone numb, I had been a complete wreck. My entire body was caked in spider fluid and dirt, and my legs trembled without mercy.
That was when I opened the door to the branch in the nearest city—Orten—to make my report.
Manning the counter was a young receptionist with orange hair. Her bright orange bob, cut like a sunflower and made fluffy by thick waves, gave her a rather cute impression. The light freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose beneath her round eyes added a youthful, commoner-born simplicity.
The look in her eyes as she stared at me, however—name tag reading “Mariel” pinned to her chest—was not cute in the slightest.
Mariel glanced back and forth between my filthy appearance and my hero registration card, then narrowed her eyes slightly and wore a thoroughly irritating smile.
“Ahh, so you’re Master Zick? Oh my? Your party members didn’t come with you this time? Don’t tell me you went out alone?”
A blatantly annoying nuance that saw straight through me. Without a single swear word she had a real talent for scraping at a person’s nerves. Looking at a guy whose party record was rock-bottom, who had shown up alone covered in mud, she had decided on her own that I was a “scrub hero” and was pecking at me for it.
Exhaustion had hit its peak, so I lacked the energy to respond to every little provocation from this wet-behind-the-ears receptionist and simply threw out the main point in a deadpan voice.
“During reconnaissance I confirmed the presence of a queen specimen inside the nest.”
“What? A queen?”
Mariel’s hand, which had been half-heartedly scribbling on paperwork, froze. The appearance of a queen specimen was a catastrophe of an entirely different order. The mere existence of a queen caused the nest’s breeding rate to explode exponentially, leading to indiscriminate attacks on nearby villages.
Mariel raised her voice, clearly flustered.
“I-Is that true?! Where did you see the queen specimen? What’s the current situation? We need to form a subjugation force right away…!”
“Ah, no need for that. I just finished dealing with the queen myself on the way here. With the neural network to the queen severed, the lower-ranked specimens should be immobilized for a while. So why don’t you have the Bureau issue a cleanup mission for the remaining Arachne and leave it to someone else?”
Mariel stared at me with a vacant face before snorting as if she couldn’t believe it.
“Ha! Master Zick, are you joking right now? You’re saying a bottom-ranked hero took down an advanced-class magic beast—an Arachne Queen—all by himself? There are heroes who occasionally try to pad their records with false reports, but I guess you don’t know that getting caught means sanctions severe enough to suspend your hero qualifications?”
She narrowed her eyes and openly doubted me. I considered how to crush this annoying receptionist’s pride, then rummaged through my leather pouch.
At the time my mind had been a mess—worried about the lower Arachne that might start moving again any moment now that the network was free, and about whether the hostages locked in the food storehouse had made it out of the forest safely. I hadn’t had the leisure to leisurely harvest other byproducts from the queen’s massive corpse.
Still, as a kind of “souvenir” for my first successful solo mission and for taking down an advanced-class magic beast, I had somehow managed to tear off the most compact core byproduct.
Thud.
I pulled a fist-sized crystal from the leather pouch and casually set it on the counter. It was the magic stone of the Arachne Queen, radiating an eerie purple mana.
“Hey.”
I propped my chin on my hand and fixed Mariel with a cold stare.
“Is it official Bureau receptionist training to treat people like scrubs and doubt them until the evidence is right in front of your eyes?”
“Ah—”
The moment she saw the magic stone on the counter, the color drained from Mariel’s face in an instant. The unique, overwhelming mana density and distinctive properties of an advanced-class magic beast’s stone were proof of authenticity that could never be forged. She had just realized that the person she had mocked as a “scrub” was in fact a genuine monster who had single-handedly slaughtered an advanced-class magic beast.
Having properly met her match and learned that life was the real deal, Mariel began trembling like an aspen leaf, cold sweat pouring down.
“H-Hero Zick! I’m truly sorry!”
At that moment a senior receptionist who had been watching from the next counter rushed out, her face white as a sheet. She forcibly pushed Mariel’s head down while bowing deeply herself and offering a formal apology.
“Hero Zick, we are truly sorry. Our junior staff member is still inexperienced and committed a grave discourtesy. We never intended to cast doubt on the efforts of a hero who has devoted himself to humanity. I will bring the branch director here at once so we can process the mission immediately. Please wait just a moment.”
The senior receptionist moved with lightning efficiency, repeatedly apologizing as she cleaned up Mariel’s mess. The branch director himself came running down, finished the mission processing, and this unprecedented incident reached the ears of Elena, director-general of the Empire’s capital headquarters, in no time at all.
“We have already issued a severe disciplinary action against the receptionist in question under headquarters’ direct authority.”
Elena calmly organized the documents and looked at me. Seriousness settled in the red eyes behind her glasses.
“To cast such suspicion and discourtesy upon a hero who protects humanity is a disgrace to the Bureau. If, beyond appropriate monetary compensation, you desire any additional measures, Hero Zick, we are prepared to grant whatever you wish.”
I was currently in the perfect position of power. I pondered what to demand, then seized the inspiration that flashed through my mind. Calculating that solving the headache currently plaguing me would be far more profitable than pocketing a few coins, I spoke.
“Director. Would forms of compensation other than money also be possible?”
“What sort of request did you have in mind?”
I offered a faint smile and laid out the specific conditions of the reward I wanted. Elena, who had been listening quietly, stiffened her eyes slightly at the unexpected and ingenious approach, then couldn’t hold back a soft smile.
“Heh. Hero Zick. Certainly, a request like that would serve as a true example for that employee, beyond mere discipline. Very well—we shall proceed according to your wishes.”
Watching Elena nod in satisfaction, I cheered inwardly.
In a corner of the first-floor dining hall of the old inn that served as our party’s temporary hideout, every party member was gathered around the familiar table. And standing beside me in an extremely awkward posture was Mariel, her orange hair bowed low.
“So if I understand you correctly,” Gerard said, pressing his fingers hard against his brow, “this is the Bureau’s idea of compensation?”
“Yep! This is the reward I requested from the Bureau, and starting today she’ll be working as our party’s dedicated supporter—Mariel! Everyone, applause!”
With my bold declaration I was the first to start clapping energetically.
Clap clap clap!
Swept along by my pace, the party members moved their hands half-dazed. Drake clapped with pure excitement, Noah added a few claps while looking bewildered, and Gerard merely brought his palms together reluctantly.
At the sudden welcoming round of applause, Mariel’s shoulders—still bowed under her orange hair—jerked upward. She was terrified of the entire situation. After receiving disciplinary action for her mistake and being under house arrest as a form of self-reflection, the branch director had suddenly burst in and ordered her to pack her bags and head to the capital immediately. The moment she arrived at headquarters in a daze, she had been assigned the duty of “indefinite forced dispatch as dedicated supporter to Zick’s party.” From her perspective it felt exactly like walking into a tiger’s den of her own free will.
“I… I’m sorry…”
At her mumbled words the party members began tossing out comments one after another.
Drake was first, slapping the table and roaring with laughter that shook the hideout.
“Pwahahahaha! That’s our hero for you! Always blowing right past my common sense. This is thrilling!”
Ainz also chuckled, resting his weight on his staff.
“Hoho, indeed. Handling one’s own mistakes directly is a young person’s privilege. Congratulations, Miss Mariel.”
On the other hand, Reno—who knew the suffering of ledgers and paperwork better than anyone—sparkled as he firmly grasped Mariel’s hands.
“You’re truly welcome, Miss Mariel! I was on the verge of collapsing under Hero Zick’s chaotic receipts and document piles. If you can take charge of major administrative work like mission brokerage and Bureau official correspondence, it would be an enormous help. Let’s work hard together!”
Reno’s heartfelt welcome at gaining a solid ally for paperwork made Mariel’s eyes well up, yet she still broke into a cold sweat under the overwhelming presence of the terrifying party members.
Only Gerard let out a long sigh with an expression that said, You really are something else.
Under the suffocating tension Mariel hunched her shoulders tightly, tears gathering in her eyes. I clapped her on the shoulder and beamed.
“Why are you apologizing? You’re one of us starting today. We’re going to be working together for a long, long time. Smile.”
I spoke with a gentle grin. But my kind welcoming words twisted into an entirely different meaning inside Mariel’s head.
Does that mean he’s going to chain me to his side and slowly suck the life out of me forever?!
It was the survival instinct of a bratty girl who had learned, deep in her bones, that life was the real deal. Mariel’s face went deathly pale as she bent her waist so sharply it looked ready to snap.
“Th-Thank you! I’ll work so hard my bones break!”
With that tearful vow, the curtain fell on the strange day that saw a new administrative supporter join Zick’s party.