An aura of oppression hung over the carriage.
‘They found out. They found out. They found out.’
Alina sat on the edge of her seat, her legs clutched, her face buried in her knees. She had been muttering the same phrase over and over for some time now, as if casting a curse, while a maelstrom of aura darker than black swirled around her.
A carriage had kindly been prepared in a secluded alleyway a short distance from Ifühl Counter. She didn’t want to board for love nor money, but now that her identity had been revealed she was left with no other choice.
After a pale-faced Alina had begged for the afternoon off—and got it—she boarded the carriage, after which they left Ifühl and headed for the adventurer guild’s headquarters, not far from the city limits.
To be provided with a carriage was the kind of warm reception typically reserved for the rich, but Alina rather felt like a convict headed for the chopping block, or a head of cattle shipped out to the slaughterhouse.
They found out they found out they found out I knew they’d find out someday but still they found ooooout!!!
Fired. That word kept running through her head.
Alina wanted to laugh at her own stupidity, but the circumstance she found herself in was anything but funny.
This time things were seriously bad. The guild master wasn’t the kind of person she could handle with the threat of violence; if she did, she’d not only be sacked, she’d be kissing her social life goodbye.
‘Don’t be so down, miss Alina.’
Words of little comfort came from the man sitting next to her. Alina glared at Jade Skleid and slapped down his outstretched hand as he tried to take advantage of the situation and stroke her back.
By the time she reached the carriage Jade was already boarded. Across from her were two other adventurers.
A girl with bobbed hair holding a long rod and a tall, slender magician in black robes. Alina recognised them. Rururi Ashford and Loewe Rozbrenda, both famous first-class adventurers, members of the Silver Blades each possessing a powerful transcendent skill.
A formation as if to warn her to not try anything funny until they reached the headquarters.
‘Lighten up, miss Alina. The guild master’s not going to eat you.’
‘Don’t talk to me, you rat,’
‘I—I didn’t rat you out! Please, you can trust me on that one.’
‘Shut up. I don’t care either way. I hate you. I hope you stub your big toe on a chest of drawers and die.’
‘Eeh?!’
Alina was just venting her anger at him, but Jade’s expression froze as if he’d been struck by lightning, his lips quivering.
‘H—hate… she said hate…’
Jade’s face turned pure white as if all life had been sucked out of him and, like Alina, started hugging his knees.
‘She’s told me that I’m a piece of shit, that I should die, that I should get lost, but my only salvation was that she never told me “I hate you”…’
‘Jade, that probably means she disliked you quite a bit from the start.’
‘Never kick a man with a broken heart while he’s down, Ruru.’
‘I was just telling the truth.’
‘A man in love is a delicate thing.’
‘Jade’s in love? Are you talking about that Jade, the Jade who won’t spare a second look to any beauty who tries to woo him? Well, I’d like to support him, but from what I can see it’s a hopeless—’
‘Ruru!’
‘One must accept reality’
‘Still, to think there’s a girl out there who’s not interested in Jade. That’s the bit that surprises me.’
The bob-cut girl and the red-haired wizard quietly quarrelling, and Jade, pale as a sheet, moping in the corner. Alina glanced at the happy-go-lucky Blades, wondering if they were aware of the fact that they were about to end her life as a receptionist, before she shifted her gaze to the window and let out a heavy sigh.
‘Still. Could such a charming girl really be the Executioner?’
Loewe, unable to hold back any longer, leaned in and asked.
‘Slaying the Hellflame Dragon and massacring the Clay Golem in one fell swoop? This girl? To me she just looks like… well, an ordinary receptionist.’
‘You’ll see.’
Jade mumbled. Loewe cocked his head, still not convinced.
‘But let’s say Alina is the Executioner, she really just wants to be a receptionist, right?’
Rururi interjected disapprovingly from the side.
‘It’s a bit cruel to force her to become an adventurer just because she’s strong.’
‘I agree,’ Loewe nodded deeply at Rururi’s words.
‘It’s no way for a man to force a girl to do something against her will. Besides, a party that’s formed unwillingly is bound to fall apart quickly. It’d be awkward for us, too.’
‘Hey, Jade. She helped us that time with the Hellflame Dragon, and she was the one who saved Ifühl from danger. Returning favour with malice is something the guildmaster hates more than anything else. You know something, don’t you? Spit it out!’
‘That’s confidential.’
With that, Jade fell silent.
