Volume 1 - CH 8

‘I’ll get straight to the point.’

After leaving the busy main street, the two made their way into the interior of a back alley, where, as soon as he confirmed there was no-one around, Jade broke their silence.

‘I want you to join the Silver Blades, no matter whaaAAAAH!’

Without waiting for Jade to finish stating his business, Alina wordlessly activated her skill and, clutching the huge hammer that appeared, swung mercilessly at the utterly unguarded Jade. A loud crack echoed through the twilight alley as the pavement caved in. A thick cloud of dust rose up, but Alina’s hammer had merely shattered the cobbles—her target was no longer there.

‘Looks like I missed.’

As expected from the Silver Blades’ chosen. Alina grimaced and clucked her tongue while preparing to strike again. She glared at Jade, who had retreated to the wall. As for Jade, he lost his ability to speak and stared at the warhammer, a stiff expression on his face.

‘Wh—wh—what are you doing!’

‘I’m silencing you.’

Jade’s face went pale when he couldn’t hear the faintest hint of a joke in her straightforward reply

‘Receptionists aren’t allowed to work on the side. If this gets out, I’m getting the sack. I can’t let my receptionist’s life end over something like this.’

‘Wa—wa—wait! Let’s not do anything rash!’

‘You made the first move, you know?’

Jade’s desperate pleas fell on deaf ears. In the darkness of the alley, only Alina’s eyes shone with a dangerous gleam.

‘Of course you’re prepared, right? Now, for the sake of my peace, die.’

‘Wait! Wait! Wait!’

Driven back against the wall, Jade’s expression turned to panic as he held out his hands.

‘In the first place, where did that hammer come from?!’

‘No idea. It comes out on its own whenever I activate my skill.’

‘I knew it, that skill…’

Jade seemed to notice something in Alina’s words and paused.

‘A Dia skill?!’

‘What’s that?’

‘You use it without knowing what it is?!’

‘Shut up. That’s none of your business.’

‘They are the skills the Ancestors of old are said to have used. Nowadays, transcendent skills are considered the most powerful, but Dia skills supposedly surpass them in strength. Until now, we’ve only known of their existence through written records.’

‘If that’s the case, how can you be sure this is really a Dia skill?’

‘A weapon that manifests when you activate a skill? That’s something even transcendent skills can’t do. At the very least, it’s something completely different, something even stronger—’

‘Hmm, I see. Well, I couldn’t care less.’

Alina stared straight at her target. The air whistled as she swung her hammer.

‘Shall we continue?’

‘Wait, wait, wait!’

‘If you don’t want to die, how about you ready that splendid shield on your back.’

‘I didn’t come here to fight you. I will not raise my shield!’

‘Got it!’

‘I——I can’t just die here!’

‘You don’t say.’

‘Right now, The Silver Blades is in hot water!’

‘Is it now.’

‘Don’t approach me with that expressionless face!’

‘Didn’t I tell you never to appear before me again?’

‘I’m sorry! I was wrong to intrude on your workplace out of the blue. But Ganz, after seeing your attack, retired out of shock, and now the Silver Blades is without a vanguard!’

‘Eh?’

Alina furrowed her brow at Jade’s rapid-fire words.

‘I heard he retired due to untreatable injuries.’

‘Ganz is a man of pride. If word gets out out that the vanguard of the Silver Blades couldn’t recover because a mysterious warhammer user demonstrated their overwhelming difference in power, it’ll be the end of him.’

‘Hmmm.’

That she could be the reason for Ganz’s resignation was something Alina never imagined. Feeling a little awkward, she lowered her hammer.

‘So what? Are you saying it’s my fault and that I should do something about it?’

‘That’s not it…’

Jade clenched his fist tightly and said determinedly:

‘What I want is you, miss Alina!!’

‘Right, I’m reporting you for sexual harassment and abuse of authority.’

‘Wait, wait.’

‘You can get plenty of women without having to go after some tired receptionist, right?’

‘This has nothing to do with other women. The moment I saw you, I couldn’t get that power, or your face, out of my mind. I’ve thought about you every day.’

‘That’s seriously gross.’

‘I am serious! I want you to join the Blades.’

‘Now listen up,’

Alina sighed and slowly warned Jade once more.

‘I just want to live peacefully as a receptionist. There’s no room for you to intrude on my peace. So leave me alone, will you?’

‘Then why did you defeat the hellflame dragon?’

Alina’s eyebrows twitched.

‘If you want to live as a receptionist, you shouldn’t have to go out of your way to capture dungeons. That way, I wouldn’t have found you, you wouldn’t need to be so desperate—’

‘It’s because I hate overtime.’

‘The guild wouldn’t be in such an uproar trying to—eh?’

‘If I defeated it my overtime would end. So I did.’

‘Huh? No, I mean…Overtime?’

Jade blinked his eyes, puzzled by her unexpected response.

‘You defeated the hellflame dragon because you hate overtime?’

‘What’s with that face? Do I need another reason?’

As Alina drew closer to Jade, she opened her eyes wide and grabbed his collar with a look that could stop a baby crying.

‘Do you have any idea? The despair of seeing a never-ending mountain of paperwork! The brutality of having work forced on you when it’s obvious you can’t keep up with your current task! The anger of not being able to go home when you want to!’

‘N—no, I… I don’t, sorry.’

‘Because you lot were taking your damn time capturing the dungeon my overtime wouldn’t end! That’s why! I! Made it! End! I took it upon myself to bring back the peace and quiet of my regular workday! What’s so wrong with that?! And here you are, trying to snoop out my identity!’

‘I—I—I’m sorry!’

Jade made a reflexive apology, but suddenly, as if something just occurred to him, he raised his forefinger.

‘Ah, you wouldn’t have to worry about working overtime if you joined the Blades.’

‘Only because the concept of overtime doesn’t apply to adventurers, does it!’

‘Ugh…’

‘I want a job that is safe and stable. I don’t want the kind of insecure job where if you lost your leg you’d be out of work.’

‘Well, as far as I can see, I don’t think there’s anyone who could make you lose a leg…’

‘What was that?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Anyway, I have absolutely no intention of joining your Silver Blades.’

Alina said as if she wasn’t going to stand another objection and turned her back on Jade, this time for sure.

‘If you’re looking for a vanguard, look somewhere else. Oh, and by the way,’

As she broke off her sentence, Alina suddenly stopped, glared at Jade over her shoulder and said in a low tone:

‘If any of this gets out, I won’t forgive you.’

Jade swallowed hard. He remained silent in the face of Alina’s intense threat. Thanks to that, he finally seemed to have given up, just staring at Alina’s retreating back as she left the alley, no longer trying to stop her.