Heart (1)
A back alley slightly away from the center of Karpe.
In the sparsely populated alley, from the backyard of a particularly large house, the labored breathing of some people leaked out.
Wearing neck guards, wooden shields, and leather gauntlets.
Two women equipped with training restraints to prevent the opponent from getting hurt were grappling with each other.
The woman with her black hair tied into a single ponytail lowered her body and dove into the opponent’s arms.
She had slipped inside the opponent’s sword’s reach, creating a situation favorable to herself, and struck a strong punch, but the opponent wouldn’t just let it be.
The blonde woman who was aiming at her arm with the side of the shield, abandoning the attack, bounced the opponent’s shield back and said to the opponent.
“Jina, you’re being too ruthless, aren’t you?”
“What, complaining this much? Have you finally felt the wall? The enormously high wall between me and you?”
“Don’t be so pushy. I’m treating you as a patient.”
“What patient? I already told you it’s cured.”
“What if the wound is healed, what about the head…”
Of course, Jina had never injured her head. That meant,
“While getting treated, why not fix the head too?”
“Oh ho… So you want to fight properly this time?”
“Ehh, there’s no way. I’m not the cold person who makes patients feel the bitterness of defeat?”
“Good, come on. I’ll do it with all my heart!”
Unlike the raging Jina, Er, who had lowered her sword and shield as if she no longer wanted to fight, said.
“If it’s about that much, I’ve confirmed that your body condition has returned, so let’s stop here and go in.”
“Hey! I said to fight! I’ll bring the gauntlets, so bring your sword too!”
“There’s none.”
“…Thinking about it, mine got broken too.”
Jina recalled the weapons lost while defeating the mana-tainted bandit boss a while ago.
“Ah, it’s hard to find something that suits me. It takes time to get used to and tame…”
“Since all requests are on hold because of the bandit incident anyway, let’s slowly look for them during that time.”
As befits Karpe, where many adventurers live, there were many places to buy weapons. If you spend time looking, there should be one or two that fit.
Jina, who recalled that thought, took off her leather gauntlets and brushed them off.
“…Let’s equip Ain with armor this time. It seems better.”
“True, but… we have to see the face to buy the equipment or not.”
“…Did you go out again today?”
“Yes.”
The man they were both thinking about now.
After tasting a big bitter experience a while ago, the man with golden eyes who seemed to be avoiding the two of them a bit.
“What are you going to do about it? You said you’d talk about how to do it, but then you’re avoiding it.”
“Ain also has his own thoughts, right? So we…”
Er, who trailed off, showed a stiff expression for a moment, then said,
“Just wait for it not to take too long.”
●
Inside the Karpe Adventurer Guild building, where an unprecedented incident had occurred: former adventurers turned bandits attacked a caravan of a merchant group.
The interior, which had been full of knights and soldiers following the materials and interrogations until a while ago, now had an atmosphere of peace that was hard to tell how long it would last.
Office workers and staff organizing the messy guild interior.
However, unlike them, Lize, a woman in guild uniform sitting in the reception room with a stiff expression, cautiously opened her mouth.
“Ultimately, it seems the escaped deputy boss couldn’t be found. We confirmed the blood trail leading to the mountain, but only reports that it was completely cut off at some point have come in.”
The deputy boss of the bandit group handed over to Haru.
However, because they hadn’t properly searched the body, the guild staff who were transporting him with the hidden knife he was carrying ended up injured and lost him.
“The knights also seemed to have joined in, but there seems to be no progress. From now on, I heard from the knight unit that they plan to conclude the exploration after today.”
“…What about the injured staff and the hostages?”
The question was from Ain, the blonde-haired man sitting on the opposite side of Lize.
To Ain’s heavy question, where his mysterious and beautiful golden eyes were sinking, Lize said while organizing the documents she had spread out.
“They are being treated at the healing facility under the temple. I heard that the Kane Trade Group, who couldn’t fulfill their escort duties, is paying for the treatment… but the adventurer guild also seems to be willing to bear some of the burden.”
“The adventurer guild?”
“Yes, in situations like this, we have to be careful with our eyes.”
The fact that people got injured was the fault of the adventurers who were bandits.
To avoid the responsibility argument before it blew up as negligence, we needed to make public opinion favorable, so the adventurer guild seemed to have brought a considerable amount of gold to the healing facility.
“And, it’s said that traces of mana were found in the cave and on the body of the bandit boss. It seems Haru-nim’s opinion is correct. The royal family seems to be sending an investigation team… because a black magician is attacking civilians. Of course, the city will become noisy.”
As Lize said that, she said to Ain, who was silently lost in thought without saying anything.
“And I have one more thing to tell you, Ain-nim.”
“…To me? Are you going to say my master popped out saying it’s a bounty quest or something?”
“It’s nothing like that. It’s that you’ve been selected as a candidate for promotion review.”
“…Promotion? Me?”
Ain hadn’t been promoted to iron rank for long.
Jina, who didn’t differ much from him, was still at scrap iron rank, and herself, who hadn’t solved even one proper request since becoming iron rank, saying she’s getting promoted.
Ain, who didn’t think that such a fast promotion announcement would come out while most adventurers in the world say becoming bronze rank is their dream, furrowed his brows and said.
“Why? The guild isn’t doing charity business, right?”
“If it’s a reason, there are several. The biggest reason is… that Ain-nim is Veronica-nim’s disciple, right.”
Lize, who speaks the truth without hiding.
She told Ain, who twitched his eyebrows at the mention of Veronica’s name.
“As I said before, the adventurer guild is trying to maintain good relations with you, Ain-nim. Jina-nim is the same, and Jina-nim is also scheduled to be promoted to bronze rank right after iron rank after a certain period.”
“…Even here, my master’s name comes out.”
“You know well. How famous Veronica-nim is.”
The undefeated holy knight who defeated the white demon.
Her master, who is a skilled person with all sorts of titles, was someone who would go to great lengths to build connections.
If there are disciples in their organization, especially ones who are so affectionate that they personally come to check the status, they would want to leave a good impression no matter what.
“…It’ll cause a lot of backlash.”
“It’s okay. Because I have results.”
Lize, who said that, found Ain’s request performance history from the stacked documents and said.
“Performing many guild-direct requests has been helpful. And… it was also a large case related to black magicians.”
“…Yeah.”
“In the guild, there’s talk that Er’s Party is connected to black magicians somehow… but Ain-nim and Jina-nim’s name seems to have silenced it.”
“What do our names have to do with it?”
“Because the names you two are carrying on your backs are huge.”
“…It’s convenient, our master.”
Isn’t it that just being Veronica’s disciple can quell all complaints?
Eventually, around the time I was thinking that I hadn’t evaluated myself at all, I let out a small laugh involuntarily,
“But before the promotion, there’s something I need to confirm.”
“…Confirm?”
“Yes, about Ain-nim’s special abilities.”
“…What are you talking about.”
The special ability Ain has.
The only thing that could be said was his divine power.
Unlike Ain, who showed a wary gaze to Lize who brought up the topic, Lize shook both hands and said.
“From bronze rank, basic profiles need to include content. For example, Er-nim uses close combat with sword and shield, Jina-nim uses close combat with grappling, Haru-nim uses magic…”
“Was that it…?”
At the moment Ain’s expression softened when he heard Lize’s words.
“Ain-nim has the ability to strengthen ally capabilities and instant healing. That’s how I know.”
“…”
Since Lize’s words were not wrong, Ain’s expression hardened.
“You have a look like you want to know how I knew.”
“…No, there are many clues.”
Despite the words to hide abilities being meaningless, there were too many times he had shown off those abilities.
Lize, who nodded in agreement to Ain’s words, cautiously added.
“There is someone who wants to give you a gift. They said they’re a hunter from an outer mountain village, do you know them?”
“… ”
Of course, he knew.
He had fixed the hunter’s lost foot who was acting as a guide to find Haru and Er buried in the cave.
“…The promise not to tell, it was meaningless after all.”
“He didn’t want to say anything till the end. In fact, he didn’t say much.”
“…Then how did you know?”
“It was in the realm of the family. The members of Ain-nim’s party, they defeat higher level monsters or demons that don’t match their rank, return without a single small wound even after the request, but there are traces of being hit on the armor or weapons…”
Wounds can be treated, but not the equipment.
Unlike Ain and his party’s clean appearance, their weapons had engraved the traces of fierce battles on their bodies.
“On top of that, there was also the opinion of the village chief of the pioneering village, Rojo. He said he’s a magic user who can strengthen allies…”
“…”
It seemed like a smokescreen to hide Ain’s abilities, but the office worker sitting in front of him now had eyes that could see through it.
If he had been evasive from the beginning, it might not have been, but because he overreacted, he ended up revealing his abilities himself. Ain sighed deeply and said.
“I’m screwed, rumors will spread everywhere.”
“It won’t happen. The only person in the guild who knows about Ain-nim’s abilities is me.”
“…Why? You didn’t report it?”
“It won’t help build a positive relationship between you and me.”
As he said that, Lize showed a very faint business-like smile.
“I brought it up because I wanted to confirm with you. To know the truth, so I can write it differently in the profile.”
“…You’re going to manipulate the profile?”
“Don’t say such ominous things. I’m just writing it in summary. For example… as rear support.”
As he said that, Lize filled in the empty Ain’s profile slot.
“This is fine. I won’t disclose the previous conversation to anyone, so you can rest assured.”
“…Scary. You might come out as someone like you.”
“I’m observing you, Ain-nim, as a guild staff. If it’s not a position equal to that, unless it’s a stalker level, it won’t be easy.”
With a calm voice, Lize said, and Ain, whose tension eased and let out a dry laugh, said.
“Why do people keep raising me up like I’m that valuable…”
“…There’s no way. Ain-nim is a human who is doing his part well enough.”
“You don’t know because you don’t know. How lacking I am…”
Ain couldn’t continue and closed his mouth.
Lize, who noticed the deep guilt seeping out along with self-loathing on Ain’s face, was silent for a moment thinking about something, then—
“…The work discussion ends here. My role was to report the progress report and the promotion review for you and Jina-nim.”
“…Yeah, thanks.”
“Then from now on, it’s personal talk.”
“…Huh?”
With an unchanged stiff expression,
“Ain-nim’s parents said.”
“…What?”
“Ain-nim, they want you to eat a meal.”
“Me, me?”
“Yes, you, Ain-nim.”
Lize, who showed a very faint but natural smile, said.
“Will you treat me to a meal?”