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[GENERATION FAILED - RAW TEXT]

Meanwhile, high up in the sky, a woman floated in midair looking down at Hero Gold-Hair’s party.

“Hm...” The woman nodded to herself, writing something down in the pocketbook she had on hand. “He deployed his party to their maximum effect with precise instructions, then finished the job himself to ensure every magic beast was properly captured. I see, I see... This one’s overall score is coming out to be quite impressive.”

This was none other than Mephilla, the same woman who had faced off against Hiya and Elinàsze in the skies above Flio’s house just the other day.

“When I examined that former Hero Candidate the other day, there was something wrong with the window that meant I couldn’t properly determine his abilities...” Mephilla mused. “Now, I wonder what sort of abilities the proper Hero of this world might have. If that human was as strong as he appeared to be, I’m expecting great things indeed from the man who beat him out for the position...” She called up another window in front of her field of view, looking it up and down with great excitement. As she read, however, she found herself blinking in confusion. “Huh?”

Level: 268

Strength: 999

Defense: 999

Speed: 999

Magic: 999

HP: 999

Skills: Dig

“W-Well, that’s strange...” Mephilla said, looking at the numbers in confusion. “These numbers would be outstanding for an ordinary human, but for a Hero they’re on the low end of average...or even the high end of flat-out bad! And his only skill is listed as Dig? You’d expect a Hero to have skills like Sword Saint, or Ultra Defense, or Hyper Magic...something that marks them out as obviously special...butDig?”

Confused, Mephilla began quickly clicking through the window, looking through the detailed information on Hero Gold-Hair’s abilities until her hand stopped on one screen in particular.

“Wh-What’s this?” she said. “‘Luck: ∞’... ‘Intuition: ∞’... It’s that strange ∞ symbol again—the same one that came up when I tried to examine that Flio human the other night...” Mephilla fell silent for a moment, puzzling over the strange mark. “I see!” she finally concluded, clapping a hand against her fist in understanding. “It must be some kind of display error. These windows must have poor compatibility with this world. Why else would I be seeing this strange symbol over and over again since coming here, and never before?”

Nodding in satisfaction at a mystery solved, Mephilla continued. “Hero Gold-Hair...” she read. “Original name, Elizabeth? Well, that’s quite a feminine name for a man, isn’t it? Or at least, he certainlylookslike a man...”

“Hey!”

“And let’s see...” Mephilla went on. “He certainly has a large number of social relations. I see he’s taken care to build friendly relations with tavern keepers all over the land, as well as other former Heroes...powerful demon nobility...and even the Dark Army’s Infernal Four and the current Dark One himself—the very person he would have been summoned to fight!”

“Hey!”

“Fascinating! His favored weapon is one of this world’s legendary items, the Drilldozer Shovel...and what’s this? A hidden skill that turns him into a giant golden shovel? And another hidden skill that lets him transform into a superpowered warrior of the Celestial Plane? R-Really?”

“Hey! You there! Woman!”

“Hmm...” Mephilla considered. “Although, since this window seems to be having difficulty displaying basic abilities, perhaps I should take all of this information with a grain of salt...”

“You there! Woman! Can you hear me?!”

Suddenly, Mephilla noticed that a man’s voice had been calling to her again and again the whole time she had been engrossed in reading through Hero Gold-Hair’s abilities. “Who is it this time?” she snapped. “Someone trying to get in the way of my work?” She looked up from the window, glancing all around, but given that her current location was the sky high above a forest, it stood to reason that there was no one else nearby.

“That’s strange...” Mephilla said, frowning as she looked out left and right. “I’m certain I heard a man’s voice just now...”

“Down here, you nincompoop!” the voice called once again.

“Down...?” Mephilla said, finally noticing that the voice seemed to be coming from beneath her. She turned her eyes to the ground below, to see Hero Gold-Hair down in the forest, thrusting the Drilldozer Shovel skyward. “N-No way!” Mephilla exclaimed, her eyes going wide in shock. “I’ve been using the spell Concealment to hide my presence this whole time, just in case! How did that man know I was here?!”

◇ ◇ ◇

“Get down here, you!” Hero Gold-Hair hollered, thrusting his Drilldozer Shovel up towards the sky. “You have some nerve!”

“U-Um... Hero Gooold-Hair?” Tsuya asked, tilting her head in confusion as she looked blankly between Hero Gold-Hair and the direction his shovel was pointing. “Is there something in the skyyy? I can’t see aaanything...”

“There is!” Hero Gold-Hair declared, his face red with ranger. “There’s a very rude woman floating up above our heads!”

“A-A very rude womaaan?” Tsuya asked.

“That’s right!” said Hero Gold-Hair, before turning his attention back towards the sky. “You get down here at once!”How dare she mention my old name?!he thought.Unforgivable!

Elizabeth was the name Hero Gold-Hair had been given at birth. In the world he came from, he had faced an unending string of ridicule for his distinctly unmasculine name, which is why, since being summoned to the world of Klyrode, he had never mentioned his original name to anyone, including Tsuya and his other followers.

After some time, Mephilla appeared in front of Hero Gold-Hair and his party. There was no denying that Hero Gold-Hair had noticed her all the way from the ground below, after all, so she finally chose to respond to his increasingly incensed tirade and come down to earth.

“Who would this woman be, Hero Gold-Hair?” Valentine asked, folding her arms behind him. Her earlier bout of threads had drained her dry, leaving her in the body of a child as she looked suspiciously up at Mephilla. “And how did she just appear like that?”

Mephilla gave the tiny-sized Valentine a friendly smile before turning towards Hero Gold-Hair, whose own expression was nothing short of enraged. “Well, well...” she said, adding another note to her pocketbook. “I’m surprised you were able to notice me all the way up in the air, even with my presence concealed by magic! That’s going to increase your score a great deal...”

“Forget that nonsense!” Hero Gold-Hair snapped, bringing his face up close to Mephilla’s. “You called me bythatname, didn’t you?!”

“Huh?” Mephilla asked.

“You know,thatname!” Hero Gold-Hair repeated. “And how did you know about that name, anyway?!”

“U-Um...thatname?” Mephilla said, folding her arms in thought until suddenly it hit her. “Oh!” she said, clapping her hand to her fist. “You mean your original name, Elizabhffffff...”

Hero Gold-Hair leaped through the air, frantically clapping a hand over Mephilla’s mouth before she could finish. “Say that nameone more timeand see what happens!” the ever more irate Hero Gold-Hair hissed in her ear as she squirmed to escape his grasp.

Struggling to breathe with her mouth obstructed, Mephilla hastily snapped her fingers. When she did, her body vanished, reappearing nearby. “Cough...hack...Ordinarily, I would deduct points for an act of barbarism like that...” she said in an even voice, the smile returning to her face as she recovered from her coughing fit. “But given that in this case you were responding to my own lack of propriety, I believe we can offset that.”

“Deduct points? Offset?” Hero Gold-Hair asked, crossing his arms and cocking his head. “What in the blazes are you talking about?”

“Eli— No, forgive me. I will address you by the name you have taken in this world. Hero Gold-Hair, I have come from another world to scout potential candidates for my group. Consider today to be a simple greeting, if you will. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” Without missing a beat, Mephilla snapped her fingers again, this time disappearing entirely.

“That woman must be quite skilled at magic...” Valentine said, frowning as she stared at the spot Mephilla had just been. “She didn’t leave any traces at all from her Teleportation spell...”

“What’s going ooon, Hero Gooold-Hair?” Tsuya asked, running up beside him.

“You certainly gave us a shock when you suddenly started shouting at someone in the sky!” said Aryun Keats, joining them as well. She had changed out of the carriage form she had been in moments ago, now appearing as a human.

“But what was that about your naaame, Hero Gold-Haaair?” Tsuya asked.

“N-Nothing!” Hero Gold-Hair blurted out a little too quickly. “Nothing at all!”

At this point, Wuha Gappoli and Riliangiu had finished their job making sure the magic beasts were ready to turn in and came over to join the rest of the party as well. “It sounded like that woman called you Eli-something, didn’t she?” said Wuha.

“Yes, that’s right, I heard that too,” agreed Riliangiu.

“Eli-something, is it?” asked Aryun Keats. “Why would she call Hero Gold-Hair that?”

As the three of them folded their arms in thought, Hero Gold-Hair’s panic began to build.N-No!He thought.I-If I don’t do something soon, they’ll find out about my old name!“W-Well!” he said, barging in to break up the group. “She’s gone now, isn’t she? S-So let’s hurry up and take these magic beasts we’ve captured back to the Adventurers’ Association! A-And then, maybe we can all get some delicious food to eat!” Affecting an air of calm the best he could, Hero Gold-Hair desperately tried to change the subject.

His companions, however, all together fixed him with identical piercing stares. Alas, his suspicious behavior seemed to not have gone unnoticed.

[GENERATION FAILED - RAW TEXT]

Somewhere far away, Mephilla watched Hero Gold-Hair and his companions through one of her windows. After Hero Gold-Hair had discovered her in spite of her powerful Concealment spell, it seemed prudent to put as much distance as she could between him and her.

“The incident with his name aside, he seems to have earned the loyalty of one of the Twelve Evil Generals, her subordinate, and two members of a rare species of djinn. That gives him a high point total indeed...” she said, nodding her head as she watched. “Yes—this man is clearly a prime candidate for the Hero Employment Agency!”

◇That Night◇

A ways outside of the nearby town, mixed in among the trees that grew bountifully by the side of the road, was one tree in particular whose trunk seemed unnaturally large.

“Huh?” muttered a man, cocking his head as he passed by on his horse-drawn carriage. “Was that tree there before...?” In spite of his curiosity, though, this man had places to be, so he cracked his whip, urging the horses to speed up. “Probably just my imagination...” he told himself as he continued out of sight down the road.

Inside the tree, however, was a spacious room with a table set in the middle where Hero Gold-Hair and his party were busy celebrating their latest victory.

“I tell you, Wuha,” Hero Gold-Hair said as he took a good swig from the wooden beer stein in his left hand. “Those transformative abilities of yours leave me speechless every time!”

“Heh...”came the sound of Wuha Gappoli’s voice chuckling from the ceiling of the room.“This is just what we manor djinn do!”

A manor djinn, like Wuha Gappoli herself, was a rare djinn species possessing the ability to transform into any building with which they had come into contact.

“Stiiill...” Tsuya said, frowning in discontent as she took a long swig of her own stein. “I’m glad Miss Teeelma paid so much money for those magic beeeasts we captured, but I can’t belieeeve all of the taverns in town were full uuup...”

“It’s a shame,” Valentine agreed. “But thanks to Aryun, we can enjoy all of this delicious food and drink even outside of town! All’s well that ends well, I say!” Valentine was sitting with her legs folded atop a large sofa, her body still in its child form in order to preserve her magic power as she greedily devoured an enormous hunk of meat nearly twice her current size. She finished it off in a heartbeat and grabbed hold of a nearby barrel, lifting the whole enormous thing with both arms and bringing it directly to her mouth, noisily washing down the meat. “Pwahhh!!!” she cried, grinning as she tossed the now empty barrel to the side. “Nowthathits the spot!”

If anyone who wasn’t already familiar with Valentine’s true form had been present to witness the feat, no doubt they would have found the sight of a young girl draining a huge barrel many times the size of her own body to be more than a little surreal.

“Well, I’m just glad Telma’s happy,” Hero Gold-Hair declared, grinning himself. “And since we got more money than we expected for the job, we were able to afford this fantastic banquet!”

“With aaall the new magic beast raaacing halls that have been opening everywhere, I gueeess she’s gonna be moving from town to town for a whiiile, huh!”

“Indeed,” Riliangiu confirmed, enjoying her own drink as coolly as ever. “The increased demand for magic beasts must mean ever more business opportunities for tamers such as her.”

Next to the two women, Aryun Keats slumped backwards in her seat, staring vacantly up at the ceiling with three bottles sticking out of her mouth. She seemed to be completely unconscious.

“There goes Aryun again!”Wuha’s laugh echoed from the ceiling.“She sure hits the liquor hard for a total lightweight, doesn’t she?”The rest of the party, however, paid the djinn no mind. They went on merrily drinking and eating as if they hadn’t heard her at all.

In the sky above, someone was watching as Hero Gold-Hair and company feasted away—Mephilla, the same woman who had visited them earlier that very day.

“I see...” she mused, jotting down a note in her pocketbook. “The manor djinn’s basic abilities are all quite low, but she has some interesting powers after all. This should reflect favorably in their overall score as well...”

Mephilla extended her arm in front of her face, calling up a window. She held the pocketbook she’d been writing in all day, transferring its contents from the page to the window in front of her.

“Hm, hm...” she mumbled as she scrolled through the window, looking through the data she had collected on Hero Gold-Hair and his followers. “Looking at it in total, this party seems to have a good overall balance. There’s the former Evil General with her immense magic power; the Realm of Evil disciple specializing in reconnaissance; the carriage djinn, whose powers let her employ a wide variety of methods of transportation; and the manor djinn, who can provide them with safe lodgings wherever they go...” A moment later, however, her hand stopped on an image of Tsuya. “Hm? But then...what do they havethiswoman for? She isn’t any kind of demihuman or demon—just a run-of-the-mill human. In fact, her physical strength is below average for a typical woman of this world. She doesn’t have any stamina or running ability...she doesn’t even have enough magic power to cast basic spells...and even her luck is below average! She doesn’t seem to be notable in any way. Her only strength is...her ability to manage the Hero’s party finances? What?”

Mephilla cocked her head to the side, confusion written on her face as she double checked the data again and again. Despite her thorough checking, however, she found nothing to challenge her understanding. “No matter how I look at it, this woman seems completely and utterly ordinary. No—she’s actuallyweakerthan an ordinary human woman. What in the world is someone like that doing as a member in a Hero’s party?”

She stared at the window for a while longer, unwilling to accept her conclusion, before finally moving. “Well,” she said, nodding to herself as she closed the window, “I believe I understand the gist of this Hero’s achievements in this world.” She turned to look at the spot where Wuha Gappoli stood transformed into an enormous tree. “And now that that’s finally finished...I suppose it’s time to begin the practical examination.”

Mephilla extended her arms, muttering a short incantation. A magic circle appeared in front of her, growing larger and larger by stages, rising into the air until it loomed ominously over the ground below. An enormous magic beast appeared from within, materializing out of thin air. “Let’s see how this Hero responds when a Beast of Disaster—the Chucapabra of Carnage—suddenly appears. And, of course, I will be watching closely in order to appropriately score his performance.” Smiling cheerfully, she pointed towards the tree, ordering the Chucapabra of Carnage to charge.

The beast took one step, then another...but before it could take a third, the ground suddenly fell away from under its girth. “Guwaaah!” it cried in confusion as it vanished into the depths of the earth.

“U-Um?” For a while, Mephilla just floated up in the sky, staring wide-eyed as she struggled to understand what had just taken place. “Wait... Huh?” she said. “That’s...strange. The Chucapabra of Carnage had just begun charging towards the tree, hadn’t it? Th-Then...where could it have gone?”

Utterly confused, Mephilla floated down to the forest floor, following the path the Beast of Disaster had taken. After a few steps, however, she too found herself suddenly in free fall. “Fwaaah?!” she shrieked.

And once again, the forest was silent.

◇ ◇ ◇

Meanwhile, inside Wuha Gappoli’s gigantic tree house form, Hero Gold-Hair took another drink.

“Hey, Hero Gold-Hair?” came Wuha Gappoli’s voice.

“Hm?” Hero Gold-Hair replied. “What is it, Wuha?”

“Did you set up more of your usual around me again today?”

“My usual? You mean pitfall traps for keeping away magic beasts? Of course I did!” Hero Gold-Hair said, turning his head up towards the ceiling with a boisterous laugh.

“Well,” said Wuha, “I think one of them might have just caught something.”

“Oh, did it now? Well, I suppose we’ll go fish it out once we wake up. If it’s a big one, we can take it to town to sell, and if it’s a small fry we can have it for tomorrow’s supper!”

“Hya ha ha!” Wuha cackled. “More meat for us!”

“Well said!” Hero Gold-Hair cheered. “And now that that’s settled, Wuha, you have a drink too!”

A small round hole opened up in the wall next to the sofa. Hero Gold-Hair grabbed a bottle from the table and stuck it into the opening. A second later, the contents of the bottle were drained away with incredible force, vanishing into the wall as Wuha Gappoli’s voice echoed cheerfully throughout the room. “Glug glug glug... Mphah! Mmm... I love a good drink!”

The rest of the party around Hero Gold-Hair was sprawled out in varying degrees of drunken stupor. Valentine was busy stuffing her cheeks with a hunk of roast meat nearly as large as her body, her eyes hazy from the alcohol. Riliangiu was sound asleep on the floor, her arms wrapped tight around an empty bottle. Aryun Keats, for her part, was still lying where she had passed out in her chair. As for Tsuya, she was sitting next to Hero Gold-Hair, leaning up close against him as she looked through the contents of the party’s coinpurse.

“Hee hee!” Tsuya giggled, smiling to herself as she took another drink of liquor. “We made sooo much today, we shouldn’t have to worry about money for a looong while!”

All in all, everyone seemed to be having a good time at the banquet inside Wuha Gappoli.

◇ ◇ ◇

The next morning, Hero Gold-Hair stepped outside Wuha Gappoli, folding his arms as he peered into the pitfall trap he had dug the night before. It was open—a telltale sign that something had fallen the night before. “Well, well...” he mused.

[GENERATION FAILED - RAW TEXT]

At the very bottom of the pit was a magic beast of immense size, lying unconscious on its back. Strangely enough, there was a woman lying on top of the magic beast as well, her head wedged uncomfortably in the magic beast’s armpit.

“Is something wrooong, Hero Gooold-Hair?” Tsuya asked as she stepped out of the tree behind him, stretching her arms and yawning.

“Here, Tsuya...” Hero Gold-Hair said, pointing down into the hole. “Take a look down there.”

“Down theeere?” Tsuya echoed, looking down where Hero Gold-Hair’s finger was pointing. “Wooow!” she said, her eyes opening wide at the sight. “We caught a pretty biiig one, huuuh? A magic beast thaaat size will sell for a looot!”

“N-No, not that!” Hero Gold-Hair said. “I mean...you’re right, of course. But look at what’s wedged in the magic beast’s armpit!”

“There’s something wedged in its aaarmpit?” Tsuya leaned in towards the hole to get a better look. “Huuuh?” she said, utterly confused as she stared into the depths.

“Look! Right there!” Hero Gold-Hair snapped in irritation. “There’s a woman down there, stuck in the most ridiculous pose you’ve ever seen!” He pointed down into the hole once again, then blinked in confusion. “Wait...what?” At the bottom, the magic beast was still lying immobile, but now there was nothing at all wedged up in its armpit.

“There’s nothing theeere...” said Tsuya, utterly perplexed.

“There isn’t...” Hero Gold-Hair agreed, frowning as he looked up at Tsuya.

The two stood at the lip of the hole, sharing a look of confusion when suddenly they were interrupted by the sound of someone behind them clearing her throat. “Ahem!”

“Hwaaah?!” exclaimed Tsuya.

“Who’s there?!” said Hero Gold-Hair.

The two turned to see Mephilla, a cheerful smile on her face. “Good morning, both of you!” she said. “Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it!”Th-That was close!she thought to herself, taking slow, deliberate breaths to try and calm her racing heart.I’m supposed to be a board member of the Hero Employment Agency—how could I have fallen for a primitive trap like a pitfall?! And, to think, I was unconscious until just moments earlier! Fortunately I was able to Teleport out before these two residents of the local world noticed me...

“You...” Hero Gold-Hair said, thrusting his finger towards Mephilla’s grinning face. “Mephilla, was it? Weren’t you down in that hole just now, stuck in that magic beast’s armpit with your underwear on full display?”

“I was not,” Mephilla replied flatly, maintaining her smile in the face of Hero Gold-Hair’s question.

“No, I’m certain!” Hero Gold-Hair insisted. “See? You’re wearing the exact same outfit as the woman I saw!”

“I am not,” Mephilla said.

“And look!” Hero Gold-Hair said. “You have a scale from that magic beast stuck in your hair!”

“I do not,” said Mephilla, peeking behind her shoulder and waving her hand to cast a cleaning spell to rid her hair of the offending scale. A second before she could finish casting, however, Tsuya snatched it up from right under her nose.

“You’re riiight!” Tsuya said, bobbing her head in understanding as she compared the scale in her hands to the ones on the magic beast down in the hole. “This must have come from that magic beeeast down there!”

“It did not,” Mephilla insisted. “It’s...a hair ornament.”

“A haaair ornament?” Tsuya repeated, squinting dubiously in Mephilla’s direction.

“Yes, a hair ornament,” Mephilla said, forcing herself to keep the smile on her face even as her lies became more and more strained.

“That’s straaange...” Tsuya said, as Mephilla began to sweat noticeably in the face of her persistent questioning. “It doesn’tlooookmuch like a hair ornament...”

And there’s Tsuya’s unshakable cross-examination...Hero Gold-Hair thought.It reminds me of the time she got wind that I was planning on visiting an adult club and forced me to confess...Remembering that bitter experience, he couldn’t help himself from sympathizing somewhat with Mephilla’s predicament.

The exchange continued on for some time, until Mephilla finally succumbed to Tsuya’s interrogation and tearfully confessed.

“W-Well, leaving that whole business aside...” Mephilla said, forcing herself to turn her attention away from Tsuya towards Hero Gold-Hair. “Hero Gold-Hair! I would like to make a proposition.”

“Me?” Hero Gold-Hair said, startled to hear his own name come up after so much time watching her exchange with Tsuya from the sidelines. “A proposition?”

Mephilla nodded her head. “Y-Yes, that’s right! I have been observing you since yesterday in your capacity as Hero of this world...” She extended her right arm, calling up a window in the space between herself and Hero Gold-Hair. Inside, Hero Gold-Hair could see an image of himself and his companions. “When it comes to your qualifications, your basic abilities are fairly impressive for a human, but speaking frankly it’s hard to imagine they would be enough to subjugate a Dark One...”

“W-Well, excuse me for that!” Hero Gold-Hair snapped, scowling in open irritation.I-I swear...he thought.I trained as hard as I could, doing my level best to become a proper Hero—I really did! But for some reason, no matter how much I raised my level, my abilities wouldn’t increase by even a single point...

Images of those old days training and training to no avail flashed through Hero Gold-Hair’s mind. Sparring with a former Hero at Klyrode Castle and finding himself utterly outclassed... Fleeing before a horde of psychobears without any hope of victory... Giving up on life altogether and secluding himself in a fortress to drink his days away... All of his bad memories came flooding back at once as he struggled valiantly against the crushing waves of despair.

“And yet...” Mephilla continued. “By using a legendary item and your own incredible luck, you and the party of powerful companions you assembled have stood up to one perilous threat after another even after the Dark Army of this world made peace with humanity.” She looked up at Hero Gold-Hair, giving him another of her cheerful smiles. “You pass with flying colors. I would very much like to recruit you for my organization: the Hero Employment Agency.”

“The...Hero Employment Agency?” Hero Gold-Hair repeated, raising his eyebrows.

Next to him, Tsuya blinked in confusion. “What’s thaaat?” she asked.

“Allow me to explain,” Mephilla said, looking between the two. “This world—Klyrode—is one of many planetoid worlds that exist around the root of the Celestial Plane. It goes without saying that not all of those worlds are currently at peace. There are many great evils in the cosmos, including other Dark Ones in other worlds. In many of those worlds, the people will call upon the power of a Hero to stand against that evil. However...” Here, Mephilla held up her index finger in a knowing gesture as she launched into the main point of her lecture. “Let’s say that one of those Heroes succeeds in their quest and vanquishes the evil they were summoned to fight. They would soon find themselves without a purpose, would they not? And if another great evil fails to appear in that world, all of that power of theirs will simply go to waste!”

Hero Gold-Hair and Tsuya nodded along in understanding.

“And so!” Mephilla concluded proudly, straightening her back. “That is where we—the Hero Employment Agency—come into the picture. You see? We scout Heroes from worlds at peace, where their purpose has already been fulfilled, and dispatch them to other worlds that might be in need of a Hero!”

“U-Uuummm...” Tsuya said, timidly raising her hand. “I have a queeestion...”

“Of course!” said Mephilla. “What is it?”

“Weeell...” Tsuya ventured. “I was wooondering, what kind of worlds exaaactly are the ones that would need a Hero?”

“Good question,” Mephilla said. “One example would be a world where the great evil appears without any warning, before a Hero has a chance to appear. Or there are cases where the evil is too powerful, and the Hero thatissummoned can’t stand up to it on their own.”

“Ohhh!” Tsuya nodded. “I thiiink I get the idea!”

“Yes, I think we understand this Hero Employment Agency of yours,” Hero Gold-Hair said. “So...you want to recruit me, then?”

“That’s right!” Mephilla confirmed with a smile and a nod. “Or to be precise, I would like to recruit your party.” She snapped her fingers and the image on the window changed, now displaying Valentine, Riliangiu, Aryun Keats, and Wuha Gappoli alongside Hero Gold-Hair himself. “In this world, Klyrode, the Dark Army has laid down their arms and established friendly relations with humanity. Given the circumstances, I think it’s safe to say that your role as Hero is already concluded. With the Hero Employment Agency, we can utilize your power to its fullest extent. You would have to move your residence to a different planetary world, where the Agency has its home base—rent-free, of course. You’ll be compensated on a per-job basis, but I assure you that the pay you will receive will be more than generous.”

Mephilla touched the window with her right hand and a line of text appeared, reading, “Average compensation per successful mission...”

“A-Average compensaaation...” Tsuya read. Then, when she saw the number at the end, her eyes went wide. “H-Hwuuuh?! You pay hooow much for one job?!”

“Not bad, huh?” Mephilla said, smiling brightly as Tsuya’s face positively lit up. “Makes the reward you got for all those magic beasts you captured yesterday look like chump change!”

Hero Gold-Hair, however, stood there with his arms folded, frowning in thought.

“H-Hm?” Mephilla said, feeling a sudden sense of unease at Hero Gold-Hair’s behavior. Her eyes began to twitch. “I-Is something the matter, Sir Hero?”

“Just one thing...” Hero Gold-Hair said, gesturing towards the window. “When you say you want to recruit my party, I assume you mean the members you had displayed in that window of yours. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” said Mephilla.

Hmm. Anlıyorum... Kahraman Altın Saç, kollarını sertçe göğsünde kavuşturup gözlerini sıkıca yumdu. Bu durumda yapabileceğim tek bir seçim var...

Kesinlikle! Mephilla, kendisine ait dipsiz çantadan bir parşömen rulosu çıkardı. Şimdi, eğer şu sözleşmeyi imzalarsanız, hemen...

Anlaşmanızı kabul etmiyorum! Kahraman Altın Saç, elini kaldırıp sözleşmeyi geri itti.

Sadece şurayı imzalayın, Mephilla parşömenin alt kısmını işaret ederek devam etti, ve biz de... Bir dakika, ne? Kahraman Altın Saç’ın ne dediğini idrak ettiği an olduğu yerde donakaldı, yüzüne alık bir ifade yerleşti. Ü-üzgünüm... Sanırım yanlış duydum? Tekrar gülümsemeye çalışsa da bu seferki ifadesi hayli zoraki görünüyordu. Teklifi kabul etmeyeceğinizi söylediniz sandım... Ama bu imkansız, değil mi?

Hayır, gayet doğru duydun, Kahraman Altın Saç sözleşmeyi bir kez daha geri itti. Aynen öyle dedim. O sözleşmeyi imzalamayacağım.

Ş-şey... Mephilla tereddütle sordu. Tam olarak bu anlaşmanın neresini uygunsuz bulduğunuzu sorabilir miyim? En azından sunduğumuz ödülün fazlasıyla yeterli olduğuna inanıyorum. Görevinizde başarısız olup kendinizi o kaleye kapattığınızda, krallığın hazinesinden çarçur ettiğiniz miktarla kıyaslandığında...

O-o günleri karıştırma şimdi! Kahraman Altın Saç’ın kaşları çatıldı. Aslına bakılırsa, hayatının o dönemini bir daha asla hatırlamamaktan büyük mutluluk duyardı. Her neyse, konu para değil!

Eğer mesele para değilse, teklifimizi neden reddettiğinizi sorabilir miyim? Mephilla’nın kafası iyice karışmıştı.

Bunu sormak zorunda kalman bile, sandığımdan çok daha büyük bir aptal olduğunu gösterir, diye alay etti Kahraman Altın Saç. Neyse, hayır dedim. Burada işimiz bitti. Arkasını dönüp Mephilla’yı orada bıraktı ve Wuha Gappoli’ye doğru yürümeye başladı. Omzunun üzerinden geriye bakarken içinden geçirdi: Bir de partimi kendi safına çekmek istediğini söylüyor... Bu kadındaki cürete bak!

K-kahraman Altın Saaay? Tsuya kafasını yana eğip merakla onun peşinden gitti. Onu gerçekten reddetmeli miydiiik?

Eğer partimi toplamak istiyorsa, Kahraman Altın Saç hala aynı şeyi düşünüyordu, neden onu dışarıda bırakıyor ki?! Hıh... dedi. Tsuya, sanırım orada çok önemli bir şeyi gözden kaçırdın.

Haaa?! dedi Tsuya. O da neymiiiş?

Bilmiyorsan boş ver, dedi Kahraman Altın Saç, adımlarını hızlandırarak. Hadi gidelim, Valentine ve diğerlerini uyandıralım da şu büyü canavarını o çukurdan çıkaralım!

T-tamam!!! Tsuya ona yetişmek için peşinden koştu. K-kahraman Altın Saay, beni bekleee!

Mephilla, ikisi ağacın içinde gözden kaybolurken şaşkınlık içinde bakakalmıştı. Ne-neyi yanlış yaptım ben?

Bir süre sonra Mephilla, gökyüzünde tek başına süzülüyordu.

O kahraman beni neden reddetti acaba? Hiç mantıklı değil... Gözlerini yumdu, derin düşüncelere dalarak kollarını kavuşturdu. Acaba o işe yaramaz kadını parti dışında bıraktığım için miydi...? diye mırıldandı. Hayır, bu olamaz. Sonuçta o kadının grubun mali işlerini idare etmek dışında hiçbir vasfı yoktu...

Bir süre sonra Mephilla nihayet gözlerini açtı. Hah... Bunu düşünmek bir işe yaramıyor. Bir türlü işin içinden çıkamıyorum.

Derin bir iç çekerek elini uzattı ve Kahraman Altın Saç’ı gösteren pencereyi tekrar çağırdı. Metin kutusunu açtı ve Hepsini Sil komutunu girdi. Görüntüyle birlikte tüm yazılar anında silinip gitti.

Gidenin arkasından ağlamanın alemi yok, dedi. Sanırım onun yerine kadromuza katabileceğim başka bir kahraman adayı bakmalıyım...

Mephilla iki kolunu birden ileri uzattı; bu hareketiyle birlikte karşısında bir dizi yeni pencere belirdi. Her birinde farklı bir dünyadaki bir başka kahramanın görüntüsü vardı. Mephilla, bulutların üzerine doğru yükselip iyice yukarı tırmanırken ekranları inceledi. Çok geçmeden Klyrode dünyasını tamamen geride bırakmıştı.

İri yarı bir adam ormanda yürürken aniden durup gökyüzüne baktı. Ha? dedi çenesini sıvazlayıp başını yana eğerek. Az önce gökyüzünün ta tepesinde birinin Işınlanma Portalı açtığını hisseder gibi oldum... Hayal mi görüyorum acaba?

Adam bir süre bulutlara dikti gözlerini, sağa sola bakındı. Hımmm... Yine hayal gücümün oyunu herhalde. Bu kadar barış huzur kafamı bozdu herhalde! Önündeki yola bakarken çarpıkça gülümsedi. Neyse, boş ver. Her şeyden önce gidip kardeşimle buluşmam lazım! Bu tür konuları konuşabileceğim ondan daha iyi biri gelmiyor aklıma...

Omzunda taşıdığı devasa fıçıyı düzelten adam, orman yolunda ilerlemeye devam etti. Ağaç dallarının arasından süzülen güneş ışığı, arkasında insani boyutlarından çok daha büyük bir gölge bırakıyordu; bu, adamın aslında bir iblis olduğunun apaçık kanıtıydı.