Volume 1 - CH 5

It had been a month since the capture of the Belfla underground ruins. In an arena in the Ifühl metropolis, a fighting tournament organized by adventurers was taking place. In the front row of the bleachers, Jade observed the match before him intently as cheers arose from all around. Before his eyes, in the centre of attention, a dauntless swordswoman swung her sword on the stage. Facing her was a giant of a man twice her size, and yet it was she who held the upper hand.

‘Activate skill: “heroic roar”!’

The swordswoman shouted, and the red light that enveloped her body shone brighter. Their swords crossed, and the giant’s body was blown back effortlessly by her blade. Such a feat of superhuman strength that was unlikely to come from a woman.

‘Damn it! Activate skill: “muscle up”!’

Sensing his disadvantage, the giant went all out. Storing his strength, he unleashed the full force of his skill. While blue light emitted from his body, he slashed at the swordswoman.

Both warriors collided in a violent shower of sparks and skill-light. Blue and red intertwined, and a shuddering impact ran through the arena.

‘Gah!’

It was the giant who was knocked off his feet.

But that was to be expected. The blue light coming from the giant is characteristic of the so-called common skill, which cannot exceed the limits of human ability. What could exceed it, however, is the kind of skill the swordswoman had demonstrated, a so-called transcendent skill. No matter how hard he’d try, the giant could never win against a transcendent skill in a head-to-head test of strength.

‘Hmmm, it’s not her.’

While the crowd erupted in a roar of excitement, Jade’s expression, however, was serious.

‘Sure, she has a might-type skill, but that adventurer’s strength was something else entirely.’

‘Bollocks. ‘Part from her, there’s no female adventurer out there with such a famed might-type skill.’

Lest he be drowned out by the noise of the crowd, the organizer of the fighting tournament standing next to Jade raised his voice.

‘Be that as it may, it’s not her. Neither the colour of their hair nor their faces match.’

‘Now don’t take offense, governor, but are you sure what you saw wasn’t a dream? Even if she used such a powerful skill, you just can’t beat a floor boss who’d swallowed a relic to a pulp with a transcendent skill. We’re talking about that hellflame dragon who’d been giving us bloody hell for so long, right?’

‘He’s right, Jade.’

A voice came from the side. It belonged to a girl with bobbed hair wearing the snow-white robes of a white mage.

‘In the first place, I’ve never heard of a girl who uses a warhammer as a weapon. Even men have trouble handling those. Anyway, Jade, this isn’t the time to be fooling around!’

The girl who firmly scolded Jade, Rururi Ashford, was a remarkably adorable girl, contrary to her level-headed words. Her voice sounded immature and she was so small that the magic rod she carried was bigger than her. Add to that her lovely round eyes and evenly-cropped fringes, and her appearance was completely that of a little girl. But despite her looks, Rururi was a first-class adventurer who served the guild’s elite party, the Silver Blades.

With her overwhelming amount of mana and a transcendent skill one wouldn’t expect from her childlike appearance, she has become an indispensable person when it comes to capturing diffucult dungeons.

‘But Rururi, you saw that power too, right? It wasn’t a dream.’

‘I did, but there are far too few leads to find her. That adventurer was certainly small, but we can’t say for sure she was a girl. Besides, the name written in the commission logs was a that of a man.’

One month after the underground dungeon was captured, at the same time the guild was looking for The Executioner, Jade too was on the hunt for her on a personal basis. Rururi was only tagging along out of obligation.

‘No, she’s a girl. The person I saw was a young woman with black hair and jade-green eyes.’

Jade resolutely declared. He hadn’t shared this information with the guild. There was the fact that the information was unreliable, but the feeling of wanting to find her before the guild could was stronger.

‘Jade. We’ve got a new quest from the guild and we really need to look for a new vanguard already, rather than waste our time out here. You’re the leader of the Blades. Pull it together!’

‘Well, I suppose you’re right, but still…’

Jade scratched his head. Rururi’s admonition had left him no room for objection.

He understood that the search for a new vanguard was their top priority now that Ganz had left the Silver Blades. There was no time to waste on trying to find an adventurer for whom they had no leads.

But from the moment he caught a glimpse of her deep within the dungeon, Jade felt a strong attraction to the mysterious warhammer user.

And yet, he couldn’t find a single clue about her identity, despite combing through the registration records of every female adventurer from A to Z, and spending a fortune on a talented information broker. Jade was starting to feel that he was wrong about the girl he’d seen, and that there was no such thing as a female warhammer user.

‘No, you’re right. Starting tomorrow, we’ll properly look for candidates for the new vanguard.’

Jade left the arena with only that half-hearted reply.

Away from the raucous arena, the main avenue of Ifühl was a peaceful hustle and bustle. As he walked down the lively street, Jade retraced his memories from a month ago. In contrast to her tremendous offensive power, she was a girl with a cute face. He didn’t think it suited her to be called The Executioner.

And what about that white light that was neither that of transcendent or common skills, or her skill’s ability to produce a weapon? There is no doubt that that girl possesses an unknown power.

‘A Dia skill? No, there’s no way.’

For a moment, the fabled skill, whose existence had only been confirmed in ancient documents, crossed his mind.

Dia skill, a power wielded by the Ancestors of old, which they named “God’s blessing”.

It is said that this power exceeds even transcendent skills, and that it allowed the continent of Helcassia to flourish. Nonetheless, the Ancestors perished along with their skills, and now the transcendent skills, which don’t hold a light to Dia skills, are the most powerful.

Supposing she could use a Dia skill, that superhuman strength, the like of which he had never seen before, made sense.

‘But even if there were an adventurer with a skill like that, you’d expect to hear more rumours about them…’

As Jade muttered to himself, he took out the red orb from the pouch at his waist. It glittered beautifully in the light of the afternoon sun. By some unknown technology, a magic circle modelled after the sun was locked up in the centre. It was the relic the hellflame dragon had accidentally eaten.

That warhammer user didn’t look like she had any interest in it.

These was a magic circle in the shape of the sun in everything the Ancestors made and left behind. The image of the sun, radiating in all eight directions as if to pierce everything, was supposedly the symbol of their God, and so the magic circle seen on relics and relic arms is commonly called “The mark of Dia”. As the name suggests, all relics containing their technology have performance that cannot be achieved by current technology, and each will sell for a high price. It was an item that, if you were an adventurer, you’d jump at in a heartbeat, but it seemed like The Executioner’s goal was only to defeat the boss. Jade didn’t know why, but she seemed pretty angry at the hellfire dragon. In any case, relics fetch a good price. This treasure should belong to the Executioner.

Jade’s gaze remained fixed on the shining red orb. The face of the girl he saw under her hood was etched in his memory and wouldn’t go away. Sure, he was interested in her as a warhammer user who uses an unknown power, but he wanted to meet her again for a different reason. Somehow, he was strongly attracted to her.

I’m going to find you no matter what. No matter what.

He made up his resolve and stored the red orb in his pouch—when suddenly a girl crossed in front of Jade, her long, lustrous black hair swaying gently.

“Hah”, Jade gasped. He reflexively stopped dead in his tracks and was struck by the feeling as if the whole world had lost its sound. When they passed each other, he could see the black-haired girl’s jade-green pupils. Jade was struck dumb. His gaze was fixed on the girl’s pupils, all the thoughts that had filled his mind until that moment gone.

There’s no doubt about it. The girl’s profile matched with that of the warhammer wielder in his memory. The moment he realised, Jade ran like a madman and pushed his way through the crowd in pursuit the girl. Through the throng of people, he could see her slender back, and the long black hair swaying down it. She was the warhammer user he’d been looking for.

‘Wait!!’

Chasing after her like a man possessed, he finally cleared the high street and, when he was just about to catch up to her:

‘Huh?’

The sight of her from behind brought Jade to a halt. Tock, tock, the sound of short boots on cobblestone. A knee-length black skirt billowing softly, a white blouse, the crest of the adventurer’s guild embroidered on the chest, and a thin ribbon tied around the base of her neck. There was no hint of a giant hammer on her lovely appearance.

‘What the…’

Jade froze, mouth agape, dumbfounded, and looked up at at the building the slender girl entered. The largest reception in Ifühl, Ifühl Counter.

‘A—A receptionist?!’

Yes, she was wearing the guild-issued receptionist’s uniform.

Rejoice, a new chapter has come! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Chapter six will be out on friday. In the whilst, why not leave a comment? How do you like the story so far? What’ll happen when Jade meets Alina? Who is cuter, Alina, Rururi, Jade? Things of that nature.
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