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“……”

“…To think I’d lose my nerve, now of all times.”

I’ve never seen her like this. It looks like she’s got a lot of weight on her shoulders as she whispers those words under her breath.

Did she hear my conversation with Lyu?

She’s just a civilian, so some things in that conversation might have been a little shocking.

“Sorry, that must have sounded weird.”

“No, no…”

“I’ll always have a lunch prepared for you. Please keep coming from now on.”

A nervous smile comes to my lips as I suddenly understand the true meaning of her words.

To make sure that the day when I don’t come will never arrive, it’s her way of warning me.

She gives me one last beautiful smile, still in her waitress uniform, before turning around and getting back to work.

“……”

With warm, orange light coming out of the windows and the happy voices of customers spilling out the front door, I look up at the night sky.

It feels like I’ve hit a fork in the road.

On one side is the path the Lyu has set before me. The other one has been suggested by Syr—and also Eina, now that I think about it.

—You are an adventurer.

—Adventurers must not go on adventures.

They are maybe, probably, complete opposites, for sure.

I do my best to clear my mind and let their words stew for a moment.

Unable to choose a path at this fork in the road, I keep staring at the stars in the black sky.

The first sunbeams of the morning burst over the horizon, lighting up the top of Orario’s city wall.

The mountain range in the distances lights up in a flash as I feel the sun’s warmth on the side of my face.

It’s almost over.

I’m still in the middle of a fierce training session, but I know.

The girl with the blond hair launches an endless barrage of merciless attacks.

This is the task she has given me: while being peppered by blow after blow of her sheath, to move my body to protect the targeted area.

That, and block the sheath.

My eyes catch glimpses of her attacks as I have steadily increased the number of blocked attacks since early this morning.

There’s a technique I’ve seen her do hundreds of times, her defensive trump card.

Rather than block an enemy attack head-on, redirect the weapon’s path by hitting it from the side and let the blade travel harmlessly away from your body.

After everything that’s happened, how hard I’ve tried up until first sun on the last day, it’s time for me to use it against her.

“—!!”

I move my feet into a safe position, take a deep breath, and face her attack head-on.

Shifting my weight, weaving through the onslaught, I dodge some blows and redirect others before seeing an opening to slash with the dagger in my right hand.

Then.

I drop my guard and go on the offensive for the first time.

“……!”

The sound of metal on metal.

Her armor easily deflected my attack. But it hit.

I let my arm fall, breathing heavily as the girl, Aiz, looked at me in silence.

The sun clears the mountains, bathing our stage in soft morning light. I squint as my eyes adjust.

But in that moment, she smiles. It’s not that I can see it at the other end of the light, but I can feel it.

“This is the end…” Aiz quietly says as she looks at me.

Part of the sun is visible in the eastern sky from where we’re standing on the top of the city wall. It’s the sign that this week and our training sessions are over.

I watched the city light up below me for a moment. Once I realize Aiz is watching the same thing, our eyes meet. I lower my head.

“Thank you, for everything.”

I bend my waist into a deep bow and look at the stone path once again.

Thinking back on this week, it may have been short, but every moment felt like a dream come true.

I straighten my back and make eye contact once again with Aiz. She’s wearing her usual aloof expression, but her eyes seem soft as she replies in a warm voice:

“Thanks, from me too. This was…fun.”

The golden sunlight shines on her face, brightening her golden eyes as her lips form the first true smile I’ve ever seen her make.

Even now, on the last moment of the last day, I blush in front of her. I try to respond, opening and closing my mouth a few times before giving up and nodding a few times.

“…Well then, do your best.”

“…I will.”

Leaving those words, she slowly turns and walks away.

As I watch her disappear in the light, the only thought in my mind is: Will I ever be able to reach her?

Will there ever be another moment like the one before, where I get close enough to reach out and touch her?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s that my path to her is an extremely long one.

Long enough to make me stop in awe and even fall into despair.

Is it really possible for someone like me to catch up to that girl walking away?

“……”

But I have to try.

If I don’t try, I’ve already failed. Failed before I even start.

The possibility of standing next to her, of catching her is gone if I don’t try.

Getting to her level, that incredible height…touching that shoulder. I have to reach out once again.

I may be a weakling right now, but I swear to the rising sun I will reach her one day.

After taking one last look at her flowing blond hair, I turn my back and sprint in the opposite direction.

Eina organized all the paperwork strewn out on her desk and sighed.

Many of her coworkers had finished their work for the day and were getting ready to leave.

The clock close to the ceiling on the wall facing her read eight o’clock in the evening. They were in the office section in the corner of the Guild lobby. Since only people working overtime were still there, the Guild itself felt very empty.

Just as Eina thought about going and getting a cup of coffee, she heard the pouting voice of her friend and coworker in the same department.

“Heeh, Eina, a little help—! I can’t finish this all alone by morning?!”

“…You reap what you sow. You’ve done nothing about those documents until this afternoon, Misha. It’s your fault.”

Misha’s whine did nothing to convince Eina to reconsider her refusal.

The human Guild employee named Misha returned to her desk, which was lined with enough paperwork to rival Orario’s city wall.

They have piled up this much because her continued neglect of requests to post information from the gods and goddesses of variousFamiliasaround Orario.

“Just why the heck are so many adventurers leveling up at once?!A last-minute level-up rush?! This is insane! Someone’s got it in for me…!”

“Hey, none of that! That’s the result of many adventurers’ sweat and blood on your desk, and all you do is complain. If you’d taken care of a little bit each day, this wouldn’t have happened, yes?”

“Yes, I’m repenting, Eina, repenting…! So please help me, Eina?!”

“N-O.”

Eina turned her back to make her point final. She sighed after Misha’s final appeal: “Why are you so heartless?!” Eina thought it might be a good idea to bring her coworker some coffee as well.

“……”

Feeling the effects of a long day’s work, Eina moved her right hand from her elbow to her chin as she looked down at the document she had just finished writing.

It was an application for approval to formally investigate the internal affairs ofSoma Familia.

It contained information that she had gathered personally from both Bell and the Goddess Loki herself.

However, Eina was not trying to disbandSoma Familia. Of course she had her own thoughts about how thatFamiliawas operating—plenty of them.

If talk of disbanding theFamiliacame up, the supporter whom Bell had mentioned, Lilly, would have to be punished, from a strictly just standpoint. No matter the extenuating circumstances, there would be some kind of punishment.

Eina was not some kind of goddess of justice; she had no sword or scales to wield.

She had half a mind not to get involved; this wasn’t her fight.

But this was something more than that for her.

If she could make something better for adventurers—anything at all—by bringing circumstances to light, then she had no problem overstepping her bounds to do so.

Eina wished for nothing more than the safe return of all adventurers, and she was willing to get burned in the process, to make sure that came to pass.

There was no turning back after I got involved with thatFamilia…

Eina knew just how much personal information was in this document, and that she was incriminating herself by writing it.

ThatFamilia…Bell’sFamilia.

In the end, her desire to help Bell was what convinced her to go toLoki Familia, and ultimately get involved with the problems inSoma Familia.

This was something that a Guild employee—someone who was supposed to be neutral and in the background at all times—should never have done. Her actions were completely different from simply giving Bell advice and leaving it at that.

It was an abuse of power, as well as cause for her removal from the Guild.

However.

…Ignoring this situation is much worse.

Even if it meant failing in her duties as a Guild employee, it was much better to follow through with this than fail as the person, Eina Tulle. It might have been flawed logic, but her mind was already made up.

The same noble blood that flowed within Riveria also flowed within her. She might be only half-elf, but she didn’t want to do anything to disgrace her name or kin.

If I do get dismissed…Perhaps I should try to joinHestia Familia.

Telling herself a joke to keep her spirits up, Eina thought about her options for a new place of employment.

As she chuckled to herself, Eina’s shoulder-length brown hair lightly swished around her neck.

“What is it, Eina? You sure are grinning all of a sudden.”

“I’m notgrinning. Don’t exaggerate.”

“Yeah, yeah, but really. Did something happen? Tell me, tell me!”

“Nothing major…I was just thinking about my next job…”

“Next job…No way! You’re quitting the Guild?!”

Slide, scrape, slide.The moment Misha raised her voice in surprise, half of their coworkers jumped out of their seats—the male half.

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Feeling the sudden pressure of many sets of eyes trained on her, Eina quickly corrected her friend’s misunderstanding.

“N-no, no. Just thinking about ‘if I were to be fired,’ that’s all. I have no intention of quitting the Guild.”

“Don’t scare me like that…And there’s no way you’ll be canned, Eina.”

That’s not entirely true…Eina thought, and forced a smile.

Meanwhile, the men who stood up let out a small “Oh” in unison and sat back down.

In any case…

Once she turned in this document, an investigation into Soma’s managing policies would be under way.

Even though there was no problem with the group itself, many of its members had been flirting with the darkest side of the gray zone. Considering the information in Bell’s testimony, it was almost guaranteed that some of them would be punished for crimes against civilians.

There were cases in which entireFamiliashad been banished from Orario for ignoring the Guild’s warnings.

For a god who was only interested in his hobby, like Soma, a warning like this ought to be enough for him to reconsider some of his policies.

And it turns out the supporter named Erde wasn’t a bad prum, after all…

Eina had tracked down and visited the elderly couple who’d gotten caught up in Lilly’s issue withSoma Familia. They told her what happened after that horrible day, with a tinge of guilt in their voices.

Ever since they kicked her out, money started appearing in front of their store. Since it came on a consistent basis, they never filed a damage report to the Guild.

They asked Eina to apologize to Lilly in their place, but Eina refused. It was the elderly couple’s duty to tell Lilly directly, no one else’s.

…The sweat and blood of adventurers, eh.

Eina remembered the words she had spoken only minutes ago.

She looked up, as if looking far off into the distance.

If adventurers trample others under their feet…then some of that sweat and blood doesn’t belong to the adventurers, does it?

Not all of it, anyway, Eina thought.

Eina earnestly hoped that all adventurers would make it home every day, and wanted to support them. But there was one thing that made her question herself: the adventurers who were able to commit such atrocities without so much as batting an eye.

Her own emotions contradicted each other; a very strange feeling. This wasn’t the first time that Eina had questioned whether or not she was doing the right thing by supporting adventurers. Eina’s body shuddered where she stood.

She knew that she was overthinking it, but that didn’t stop a twinge of uneasiness from flowing through her.

“…Tulle.”

“Ah, yes?”

The call of one of her coworkers brought her out of her reverie before she could find an answer.

A man whose desk was close to the reception counter waved his hand and pointed toward the lobby.

Eina looked in that direction in time to see Bell walking toward the counter.

“…Thank you.”

She did a quick bow and left her desk.

Her face had been rather dark, but now a small ray of light had broken through.

Eina quickened her pace and met Bell out in the lobby.

…But there are also adventurers out there giving it everything they’ve got.

Bell smiled when he saw Eina emerge from behind the counter.

Eina smiled back at him.

Of course there were many kinds of adventurer, but seeing theirpassion and ability to ignore inconsequential things made Eina happy.

While there might have been adventurers willing to abandon a supporter, there were also adventurers willing to save a supporter.

If it was to help them, Eina felt like getting fired or depressed was worth it. Her wish for adventurers to stay alive was pure.

Eina realized it as she looked at the rather diminutive adventurer standing before her.

It’s been said that the good ones die young, while the bad live on…

Eina didn’t believe this, however; she didn’t want to. But she could do her best to keep the good ones alive.

It was time for that “superstition” to come to an end.

This was the Labyrinth City, Orario.

A city with a will of its own where even the gods didn’t know what would happen next.

Kanu froze on the spot.

“K-KANU?! HELP ME—GYA!!”

He could only stand and watch blood burst out of the other adventurer’s body.

“GYUAAAAHH…!”

Bloodred, mad bull.

A fresh wave of the red liquid ran down its toned, two-meder-tall body as it looked up to the high ceiling, before unleashing an explosion from its vocal cords.

“UWOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!”

A monstrous howl.

Kanu’s ears bled, his body still frozen with fear as he came crashing down on his rear end.

With muscles like boulders, the beast’s entire body looked like a weapon. Far less could strike real fear into the hearts of many adventurers.

A Minotaur.

It was a name given to this type of monster, but this particular example wielded a large cleaver as it hacked and slashed its way through adventurers one by one.

This all started when Kanu happened across a group of Amazons fighting against a giant of a man.

Their heated battle covered well over half of a wide room. It was a battle between masters, adventurers who were far too powerful to waste time in the upper floors of the Dungeon. The battle that unfolded in front of Kanu’s eyes was beyond epic.

At first, Kanu and his battle party couldn’t believe their eyes as they watched the attackers gang up on the solo adventurer, but after noticing the emblem on the beast person’s armor—the profile of a goddess surrounded by a golden necklace—they realized this was a battle between members of the sameFamilia.

The mountain of a man belonged toFreya Familia. As the goddess of love and beauty, Freya had many enemies based on that alone. The power of jealousy knows no bounds.

So it was only natural that her enemies would try to get back at her in any way possible. Freya herself didn’t seem worried by the fact that her adventurers were often targeted when they traveled alone in the Dungeon.

While it was still unknown to Kanu and his group, rumors that this man, Ottar, was prowling around the seventeenth level for the past week had been circulating for some time now. This attack on Ottar was all part of a goddess’s plan to keep things interesting.

These combatants were far out of their league. Kanu and his compatriots could only gawk at them from a safe distance. That is, until someone noticed something peculiar.

The beast person was completely ignoring the difference in numbers, instead choosing to protect a large cargo box behind him.

That was the moment of truth.

Kanu and his battle party circled around behind the battle and waited for an opportunity to steal it. Once they made their move,all they heard behind them were the sounds of combat. Kanu was confident that Ottar had to fend off too many attackers to pursue them immediately.

They raced through the Dungeon with the cargo box in tow. That being said, it was slow going due to the size and weight of the box, but they needed to get as far away from Ottar as they could, as quickly as possible.

Kanu was convinced that this cargo box was full of loot from the lower Dungeon—the hard-fought gains of a top-class adventurer. The magic sword that he’d recentlyacquiredfrom a…former associate of his was fresh in his mind, and Kanu had no doubt that his good luck would continue.

Then.

Once they had put enough distance between themselves and the beast man, Kanu and his party lost their patience and decided to divvy up the loot right then and there.

That’s when they saw exactly what was inside.

A bound and extremely angry Minotaur.

Without exception, every member of that battle party’s minds went blank.

It wasn’t long until red filled their eyes.

The Minotaur ripped the chains that restricted its hands clean off in a rage, crushing one of Kanu’s allies into a pulp in the process.

Letting out a howl that signaled the end of the world, the enraged Minotaur emerged from the cargo box with fresh blood on its hands.

“Hyeeaah…yaaaaahh?!”

A man—one of the last survivors of his battle party—let out a scream that sounded no better than a broken flute as he ran in circles.

The normally grassy floor had become a bloody marsh. His battle party was nothing more than fertilizer now, part of the gruesome field of death. The room had become an abattoir.

However, the man had lost the ability to think rationally and ran himself into a corner trying to escape.

The Minotaur advanced on the human at a leisurely pace, its eyes locked onto the back of the adventurer’s exposed neck.

Kanu looked over his shoulder to see an extremely unnatural sight: the Minotaur carrying a massive cleaver that happened to be in the cargo box, as if the monster were an adventurer.

“I-It’s a dead end…?!”

“Mroooooooo…!”

“Yaaaagh?!”

Understanding the part his ally had to play in this episode, Kanu could only smile.

Neither his body posture nor his expression changed, only the color of his face as he watched the beast approach the man.

“Hrrrrnnn…!”

“Why, damn it all! Why are you here?!” The human screamed with his back to the wall. The Minotaur looked down on him, its shoulders heaving with each breath.

This Minotaur listened to its instincts and raised the cleaver as the whimpering human shrank to the floor.

All of the beast’s muscles tightened in rhythm, raising the blade high like a guillotine.

A dark shadow fell over the human adventurer, pure despair filling his mind.

The man’s wordless screams of panic and fear filled the room until—

“Mooooooooh!!!”

Thok.The sound of a slicing impact shot through the room, accompanied by the beast’s ferocious howl.

SPLASH.Yet another wave of fresh blood ran down the monster’s body.

“…Huh?”

Only able to see the beast’s shoulders from his vantage point, Kanu couldn’t see exactly what had become of his former party member.

But he only needed to look at the red splatter of blood and guts on the wall to know all that he needed to.

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