Starting My Runaway Life as an Adventurer

Deep inside a cave in the southern reaches of the Levaitein Empire.

A man and a woman knelt on one knee before a stone altar, their heads bowed low.

—!!!

Something howled from within the orb resting atop the altar.

"No, my lord. Please, calm your wrath."

The man spoke toward the altar as though he understood the sound perfectly.

—!!

"Yes. We will find her, no matter what. Even if it costs us our lives."

Crack—

Shatter—!!

The instant the man's words left his mouth, a fracture spiderwebbed across the orb — and in the next breath it exploded into a thousand glittering shards.

The moment the orb broke, the man's solemn expression melted away.

"…Bel. You can get up now."

His voice had gone lazy, nothing like the reverent tone from a moment before.

"Then… shall we start searching this territory first?"

"Why bother? We'll run into her eventually. Let's just take a look around. I hear the apple wine they make in this village is supposed to be outstanding."

The woman's face twisted strangely at that.

"…But a god gave us a direct order. Is it really all right to just… ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠goof off like this?"

"Come on. Gods aren't all-powerful. Half-assing it is fine."

She still looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"…He even granted us this much power. Shouldn't we at least show him we're putting in some effort?"

The man paid her no mind whatsoever. He pulled a dried tobacco leaf from his pocket, rolled it, stuck it between his lips, and lit it with a flick of magic.

"Haaah……. That guy's just using us anyway. Why should we walk on eggshells?"

He exhaled a stream of smoke and stared at the ruined altar.

"But still… what if he suddenly takes the power back?"

She asked it with genuine unease. The man blew out another cloud of smoke before answering.

"If he could do that… he wouldn't have asked us to find that Violet woman in the first place. If he could just snatch the power back whenever he felt like it, he wouldn't need us at all, would he?"

A god who gets his power stolen by one woman and then sits around whining about it… Once the revenge is done, I'm cutting ties for good.

The man cast his mind back to the first time he had met the evil god Beliar.

Looking back on it now, he was pretty sure he had heard the sound of grinding teeth.

But hey. Even if I hadn't signed, it wouldn't have been my loss.

The man started walking toward the mouth of the cave.

"So. Today, we take it easy."

This was one day before Ren and Violet left the count's territory.

"So this is the Rigel Kingdom?"

Three days and nights of nonstop carriage travel, and at last the city walls rose into view beyond the window.

Compared to the other territories we had passed through, these walls were tall enough to actually deserve the title of capital.

Knock-knock—

"Hm?"

A rapping on the carriage door made me turn my head.

"Toll is one copper coin per person."

A man who looked like a gate guard held out his left hand.

I fished a couple of copper coins from my wallet and dropped them onto his palm.

The guard gave a nod.

"Let them through!"

He shouted to his partner at the gate.

"…Is gatekeeping always this half-assed? It was the same back in the Empire."

"Well, the war with the demonkin ended over a hundred years ago. Peace makes people soft."

Fair enough. With zero tension in the air, no wonder the original story had that terrorist attack go off so easily.

We climbed down from the carriage, and Viola and I wandered the streets together.

More precisely, we were looking for the Adventurer's Guild.

Right now, the freest way to hunt down the evil god's forces was to operate as an adventurer.

And while we were at it, I wanted to find the church where Violet had lived in the original story. A village that got hit by bandits shouldn't be too hard to track down, right?

Of course, meeting her now might get my head separated from my shoulders… but still.

"Oh? Isn't that the Adventurer's Guild?"

Viola pointed at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a building that stood a good two stories taller than everything around it.

"Looks right. Let's go in."

Viola and I stepped through the doors together.

Creeeak—

The door groaned open, and the entire room fell into dead silen— no, it absolutely did not.

"Damn it, Marcus! What the hell is this booze?! My whole body's burning up!"

"Hey. Hands up. You were messing with that deck, weren't you?"

"No, so what I did was…"

Our clothes were ordinary enough that a few people glanced our way and then lost interest. No dramatic stares.

"Whoa…. That girl's pretty cute."

A handful of men did take an interest in Viola, but none of them actually walked over or tried to talk to her.

I had fully expected some swaggering thug to pop out of the woodwork the way they always do in anime and novels. I had even been loosening up my hands in anticipation. Kind of a letdown, honestly.

I set the disappointment aside and approached the receptionist.

"I'd like to register as an adventurer."

"Of course. Do you have a knight's badge or a Magic Tower identification that can verify your rank?"

What? Weren't adventurers supposed to start at Iron rank no matter what?

As if she had overheard my thoughts, Viola leaned in and whispered softly against my ear.

'In most other kingdoms, a lot of knights and mages try their hand at adventuring, so if you can prove your rank they issue the matching rank badge on the spot. The Empire's Adventurer's Guild never really took off, so everyone there starts at Iron.'

Right. Knights and mages already had more work than they could handle in the Empire. No reason to take up an unstable gig like adventuring.

"Well…. If you don't have anything like that, I'll issue you Iron-rank badges."

Seeing that neither of us made any move to produce credentials, the receptionist opened a desk drawer, pulled out two metal badges, and held them out.

…Did Viola need one too?

While I was still debating it—

Snatch—

"Thank you. Shall we go look at the quests now, Mr. Rain?"

Viola scooped up both badges, addressing me by my alias.

Yeah. We were free-range adventurers now. Whatever.

I took the badge she offered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and slipped it into my pocket.

The quest board was packed with all kinds of jobs.

Goblin nest extermination… merchant caravan escort… find a missing pet Cerberus… okay, what?

I started hunting for quests that looked too hard for an Iron rank.

If you wanted to rank up fast, taking a quest one tier above your own was the gold standard. For the record, anything two tiers up got an automatic rejection in the game.

"Hmm…. How about this one?"

I peeled a request labeled Village Purification off the wall.

The job was to burn the corpses and buildings in a ruined village where people had died, so undead wouldn't start spawning.

It also lined up perfectly with my real goal — finding the village Violet had lived in.

Someone might ask what a swordsman was doing taking a job as an arsonist.

But for me, Ren Aither, fire magic was nothing more than a basic implant.

…I really did only learn the absolute fundamentals as a cultural enrichment thing. Still, if I can light a fire, that's all that matters, right?

Thud—

I set the request form on the desk.

"I'd like to take this quest."

The receptionist glanced over the details, gave Viola and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me a quick once-over, then smiled and nodded.

"All right. You're registered."

Was this actually an Iron-rank-appropriate quest?

I had been hoping for something like 'Are you sure you want to take this one?' Maybe I should have grabbed something that looked more dangerous.

I swallowed a mild sense of disappointment, collected the request form, and started for the exit.

"Excuse me — wait a moment!"

A young, childish voice called out. I turned, and a girl who looked even younger than she sounded was staring up at me.

Her outfit was… a nun's habit?

A girl who looked younger than Isabelle, drowning in a habit several sizes too big, standing in an Adventurer's Guild.

What is this, a mascot?

"Um…. Would you maybe form a party with me?"

Ah. Never mind. Just a cleric who couldn't find a party.

"Hey! Kiara! Give it up already, will you? A kid like you is still too young to be hanging around here!"

A man drinking at a nearby table shouted over at the girl.

Hmm…. Classic thug picking on the weak?

"If you keep coming here, Sister's going to worry herself sick! Why do you keep trying to be an adventurer when it's so dangerous?!"

Ah. Just a decent young guy genuinely fretting over a child. I thought this was a party-recruitment event.

I pretended not to see Kiara and kept walking toward the guild entrance.

"Wait! Please just wait a second!"

Her voice trailed after me. I ignored it.

There was no way I was becoming the kind of scumbag who recruited an underage girl into a party without her guardian's consent.