‘Huh? Is Jade not here?’
It was afternoon at the counter. The young man standing before Alina, having just finished filling out the quest form, looked around restlessly.
‘I went out of my way to come to this reception when I heard he was at Ifühl Counter…’
‘He was here just this morning. I haven’t seen him since afternoon.’
While checking the signed document, Alina gave a nonchalant reply. The young man buried his face in his hands in disappointment.
‘You’re kidding?! I wanted to ask Jade about all the ins and outs of being a tank.’
‘That is unfortunate. However, mister Jade is a busy man—’
Alina’s voice, feigning calm to keep her displeasure from becoming apparent, was drowned out by a sudden shout.
‘Just hand over the quest like I fucking told you!’
Bang! The sound of a fist pounding on a desk rang through the reception, and Ifühl Counter, which had been noisier than usual, quickly fell silent. Alina and the young man jumped in surprise and looked over to where the sound had come from: the counter next to hers. A tall man with a stern face was leaning over the desk, shouting abuse at the receptionist in charge.
‘I’m a first-class adventurer, god-dammit! When I tell you to hand it over, you hand it the fuck over!’
‘Ugh’
Grimacing, Alina unintentionally expressed her displeasure. The man with a tattoo on the side of his face was Slay Ghost, an adventurer she wanted nothing to do with if she could help it.
He may hold a valuable first-rank license, something fewer than one in ten adventurers do, but with his rude disposition and wild temper he is also a vicious faultfinder who is always stirring up trouble at the counters.
‘B—b—but…’
The target of Slay’s abuse had turned blue in the face and looked completely overwhelmed. To make matters worse, that person was Laila, the rookie receptionist who had just joined the team this spring. It was apparent she wasn’t able to handle the situation calmly.
Alina quickly scanned the surroundings. Not one of the adventurers around her, all of whom had remained absolutely silent, tried to help the girl. Slay may be a vindictive bitch, but the power with which he got his first-class license was the real deal, and they knew he wasn’t the kind of person they could bully into silence.
‘W—we’re not aware of such quests…’
‘Like hell you’re not! You’re just hiding them, aren’t you?! You stuck up bitch of a receptionist!’
‘Sir, even if you say that…’
Seeing Laila at her wit’s end, Alina sighed and walked over to her.
‘Is there a problem?’
When Alina raised her voice from behind, Laila turned towards her with a face on the verge of tears.
‘Alina…’
With a look, Alina urged her junior to stand down and faced Slay in her stead.
‘It’s just one dipshit after the other! Stop hiding it from me and hand over the hidden quest already!’
‘I see, a hidden quest.’
Alina was barely able to stop herself from letting a deep sigh pass her lips in front of a client. At the same time, she understood why Laila was at the end of her tether. At least once in their careers, receptionists will have to deal with complaints about hidden quests.
‘It is just like the receptionist from earlier said. We do not handle hidden quests.’
‘Don’t give me the fucking boilerplate. Shut your trap and hand it over!’
It seemed that this man would be unwilling to leave even if he couldn’t get what he was looking for. Alina quickly realised that she wasn’t going to convince him with words. Then again, none of the receptionist here could give him what he wanted.
That’s because there’s no such thing as hidden quests.
Their existence is a baseless legend whispered among adventurers since time immemorial. Rumours spread that there were hidden dungeons that no-one knows about, which eventually gave rise to the term “hidden quest”, which was then propagated in increasingly embellished form.
‘I fucking know, alright? The hidden dungeon that appears with a hidden quest contains a special relic! You guild villains just want to keep the thing for yourselves!’
‘All quests collected by the guild are displayed on the quest board. There are no exceptions to—’
‘Don’t talk back to me!’
Bam! Slay pounded the counter to intimidate Alina, then scowled at her.
‘We adventurers are your gods! Do as I tell you!’
Ahh, I should just sock this son of a bitch.
While Slay’s bluster went in one ear and out of the other, Alina tried to figure out what she should do next to resolve the situation. She could pass it off to her supervisor, but Slay wasn’t the kind of complainer who’d settle for a talk with the manager. What to do…
‘Oi, what’re you being silent for! Say something!’
Having lost what was left of his cool, Slay’s arm reached out for the silent Alina and grabbed her roughly by the collar.
‘How dare you, a lowly receptionist, look at an adventurer like that! Your face makes me sick!’
Even against a defenceless receptionist, Slay didn’t hesitate to raise his fist. Laila, who had been watching from the sidelines, let out a shriek. But true to her character, Alina, as the surrounding panicked, remained calm to the end, declaring:
‘All acts of violence against a receptionist will result in your being stripped of your adventurer’s licence.’
‘Like I give a fuck! I’m not gonna let you get away without at least a slap, you dumb bit—’
‘Oi.’
A low voice interrupted Slay as someone grabbed his fist from behind. Displeased, he turned back to look at the face of the man who appeared and opened his eyes in shock.
‘J—Jade Skleid?!’
Even Slay became panicked when he saw the guild’s strongest tank, who, like him, also held a first-rank license.
‘Why is the Silver Blades here?!’
‘Slay. Let go of her hand.’
A sharp look from Jade stunned Slay for a moment.
‘Hah, what if you’re an elite? In the end, tanks are piss weak compared to vanguards!’
Slay let go of Alina’s collar and swung his fist at Jade instead. But before his fist could touch Jade’s face, Jade caught the blow in his left hand.
‘Ugh!’
Slay could neither withdraw his fist or break Jade’s grip, and gradually his furious expression stiffened.
‘Tanks are weak compared to vanguards, huh?’
When Jade tightened his grip, Slay’s fist made a sound of bones creaking. In an instant, his face contorted in pain and he screamed:
‘That hurts! Let go of me, you piece-of-shit tank!’
When he had enough of hurting Slay’s fist, Jade let go, and immediately Slay leapt back, rubbing his right fist in pain.
‘If you raise your hand to Alina—to this receptionist—one more time, I won’t let you go this easily.’
As Jade glared at Slay, Slay shrank back, awed by Jade’s oppressive aura. His face turned sour as he became acutely aware of the difference in power between himself and the elite before him.
‘P—piece of shit! I’ll remember this!’
He spat out a parting threat and left the reception in a huff.
‘As expected of mister Jade!’
As soon as Slay had left, Ifühl Counter erupted in cheers as the adventurers praised Jade with every word, and the eyes of the receptionists on Jade grew even more ardent. Jade hurried to check on Alina.
‘Are you all right, miss Alina?!’
Alina remained silent for a few seconds, averting her gaze from the worried Jade.
The white magic circle at her feet that, about to be activated, disappeared unnoticed. She was on the verge of triggering her skill in the midst of all this attention.
‘Yes. Thank you for saving me.’
Alina mumbled her gratitude. Jade, apparently reassured by her answer, breathed a sigh of relief and arched his eyebrows as if to scold her.
‘Look, there are some dangerous guys out here, so try not to rile them up too much’
Jade admonished Alina, but his eyes seemed to say: “It’s dangerous for you to use your skill in public.” Sensing this, Alina assumed a posture of remorse while her lips curled up in hidden contempt.
‘You are absolutely right. I will try to be more careful from now on. By the way, mister Jade, will you continue to be here in the afternoon too?’
With her next words, Jade’s shoulders involuntarily twitched.
‘It is a great blessing to have a reliable gentleman like mister Jade lazing arou—being with us all day long.’
She said, the corners of her mouth raising in what seemed like a bright, business-like smile—yet her eyes were so piercingly cold they could make hell freeze over. Sensing something behind that smile, Jade began to panic.
‘N—no, I was just about to go home,’
Sweating like a pig, Jade, who seemed to have a guilty conscience, stammered on: ‘but then I thought it wouldn’t be so bad if I stayed for a while longer, and when I came back you were being pestered by that guy…’
‘Yes, of course, we are happy for you to stay for as long as you like.’
‘N—no, I’ll just be in the way if I stay any longer, so I’d better be leaving about now…’
‘That is unfortunate. Please come back to Ifühl Counter.’
Defeated by Alina’s customer-service smile, Jade swiftly left Ifühl Counter, to the regret of many adventurers and receptionists.
