‘Ahh, isn’t it wonderful to leave work on time!’ Alina’s cheerful voice echoed through the main street of Ifühl. Just as one says grace for their daily meal, so too does Alina reflect on her blessings every time she gets to go home on time—something that only those who have experienced the hell of overtime can understand.
Weaving her way through the crowd of people leaving work, Alina joined them on their homebound trip—no, first she decided to take a little detour.
Alina greeted the shopkeeper with a hearty ‘Hello!’ as she entered her favourite confectionery. The cosy, brickwork shop was lined with relic-powered refrigerated cases, displaying cakes of all varieties. ‘I’ll have this one, this one, this one and… that one too.’
Bulging bag of cakes in arms, Alina grinned broadly as she made her way home (for real this time), where she planned to enjoy them to her heart’s content. Truly, such a luxury is only allowed for the working (wo)man. What made it even better was that she managed to leave work while the shops were still open.
As Alina saw it, there was nothing delicious about the midnight meals she ate during her overtime shifts. But stuffing herself with sweet treats while relaxing in the comfort of her own home after a hard day’s work—now that’s something to live for.
‘Let’s go home and eat cake~!’ Alina couldn’t have been happier.
Suddenly, her gaze drifted to the centre of the main square she’d just passed. The square, placed in the heart of Ifühl, with its large gate made of blue crystal and stately fountain, was usually well-kept, but was currently in disarray due to the preparations for next month’s festival. Mounds of lumber dotted the pavement like wooden molehills, and the fountain, its water temporarily cut off, was hidden under a tarp. They were building the main stage, to be unveiled on the night of the last day of the festival, when the festive mood would reach its highest fever pitch. She wasn’t proud of it (she really wasn’t) but Alina had until now cleared many an overtime hell. Each time she did, she learned to do her work faster, to make fewer mistakes. Lately, she felt a certain sense of growth as a receptionist.
I will go! This year for sure!! I will go to the festival!
This year for sure she would make up for all the tears she had choked back so far. With renewed determination, Alina resumed her stride when suddenly:
‘Miss Alina!’ someone called to her in a lively voice. An adventurer with a big, bright smile on his face was approaching Alina in a gentle jog. He was a young man with a chiselled face who made anyone who passed him invariably do a double-take. His body, clad in light armour, was a head taller than the average and well-muscled, and though he carried an enormous relic shield on his back, his gait was light as a feather. The women he passed found their eyes glued to him, and those who recognised him uttered cries of joy. This walking Adonis ran towards Alina, sparing no look for his adoring fans, but her expression remained stiff—rather, she furrowed her brow in a stern frown.
‘What do you want?’ Alina asked, her voice unintentionally threatening. Jade paused and stared silently at Alina’s grimacing face for a moment before he let out a small sigh and said, his voice trembling with emotion, ‘Ahh… it’s been a month since I’ve had my Alinanium recharged.’
‘That’s the most repulsive thing I’ve ever heard you say.’
There can be none in Ifühl who don’t know his name: the strongest adventurer in the Guild, Jade Skleid. Silver hair gleaming in the setting sun, a face sculpted by God himself, a body hewn from the pillars of heaven. Oh, but that’s not all. He is the first man in the history of the Guild to have awakened three ascendant skills, the likes of which would make a common man blind with glee if they had even one, and is hailed as the strongest tank. The young adventurer prodigy who, at the tender age of nineteen, had managed to work his way up to become the leader of the Silver Blades, a party where only the finest picks gather.
But beware, for beneath his splendiferous exterior lies a stalker of a devious nature. Once this man has you in his sights he will pursue you, no matter how much you beat him up, no matter how much you insult him. Even on the brink of death will he display his cockroach-like vitality and crawl up from the depths of hell to resume his chase. He truly was like a zombie.
‘Coming home from work, miss Alina?’
‘You were spying on me anyway, so why even ask?’
‘That’s right! That’s why I came!’ Jade confirmed nonchalantly, showing no signs of remorse, instead puffing out his chest in unearned pride.
‘Did you now.’ Alina scowled.
‘That aside. I truly believed, you know?’ While Alina let out a stream of insults inside her head, Jade started to ramble on about something. ‘That you would come visit me on my sickbed.’ As if on purpose Jade emphasised the word “sickbed”, causing Alina to avert her eyes. Jade hunched his shoulders and said in a voice clearly filled with sadness: ‘You didn’t visit me even once.’
‘Why should I have to go visit you?’
‘You know, the whole time I was using my skill to look for your presence nearby.’
‘You should’ve just stayed in bed and slept.’
‘But not once did I sense you!’
‘Of course you didn’t. I was never anywhere near you.’
‘Why!? Didn’t we fight on the front lines together!?’
‘We just happened to to be fighting on the same side.’
‘You don’t mean that!’
‘Rather, why the hell’re you out here? It’s only been a month,’ Alina pointed out. Yes, for him to be so spry at this point in time was highly peculiar. Alina clearly remembered being told that his injuries were so serious that it would take him three months to fully heal, and that in the meantime he should take a break from adventuring and recuperate at home. Thanks to this, Alina spent the last month in blissful peace. She wasn’t stalked, she wasn’t ambushed on her way home, and she was able to enjoy her time alone. And yet, why was this ‘pervert piece-of-shit stalker cockroach Silver Bastard let out on the streets?’
‘Miss Alina, you said that last part out loud.’
‘It’s the truth.’
‘Ha-ha-ha. With my vitality, I can recover from most wounds within a month.’
‘Can you now.’
There was no way that could be true. But Alina didn’t care to point this out and cut the conversation short. Instead, she left the main street and ducked into a side alley, away from prying eyes. Jade might be a complete stalker on the inside, but he was still the elite leader of the Blades, whose position in the Guild rivalled that of the top brass. He attracted too much attention. Besides, it would not look good for her, a mere receptionist, to get into in a heated row with him in the middle of the street—although recently Jade’s affection for Alina had become so obvious that the surrounding townsfolk pretended not to notice them out of consideration.
‘By the by, did you give my proposal any thought?’ Jade asked abruptly as he followed Alina into the back alley.
‘What proposal?’
‘To join the Silver Blades, of course!’ Jade said as he raised his forefinger, his eyes blazing. ‘A month ago, you joined our party and fought with us to the death against an unknown enemy, the Demon God! I thought that might have prompted you to understand the way of the adventurer and become interested in joining the Blades.’
‘Not in the slightest,’ she told him flatly and continued on her indifferent way.
‘With your power, miss Alina, becoming an adventurer could easily make you a millionaire.’
‘I don’t care about being a millionaire. I just want to live in peace and quiet as a receptionist! I only helped you last month because the Guildmaster promised to increase the reception staff and get rid of my overtime! So leave me alone and never speak to me again!’
‘Ugh… well, I thought you’d say that,’ Jade said, not knowing when to give up, as he produced a piece of paper from his pocket. ‘So I thought of a compromise.’
‘A compromise?’
‘I had a whole month to waste, so I thought of a way for you to join the Blades and still work as a receptionist. Everything will be solved with this. Behold!’ With an air of pride, Jade held out a single sheet of paper.
‘Wha—’ Alina froze on the spot, lost for words. In majestic letters it read: “Alina Clover is hereby ordered to serve as personal receptionist to Jade Skleid, representative of the Silver Blades.”
As Alina read the document—which Jade had even gone so far as to have stamped with the Guild’s official seal—in stunned silence, jade’s smile of satisfaction grew. ‘As the leader of the Silver Blades, I have the authority to appoint a personal receptionist. I negotiated directly with the Guildmaster to get this—hey, what are you doing!?’
Alina snatched the letter of appointment from Jade’s outstretched hand and, without hesitation, tore it into four pieces before crumpling it into a ball and throwing it in Jade’s flustered face. ‘Don’t fuck with me, you cockroach stalker bastard!’
‘Cockroach!?’
‘Become your personal receptionist? You’re asking me to work in an exploitative environment where I could be called upon at any moment of the day whenever you arbitrarily decide to go on a quest, where I have to give up my holidays and my private life!!!!’ Alina shouted. Jade’s face went rigid with shock. ‘N—no, it’s not like that at all,’ he said, panicking.
‘You fucking try to use your authority to make me your personal receptionist. I’ll smash you to minced meat, make you regret the day you were born.’ Alina muttered darkly as a huge silver hammer appeared from thin air.
Alina’s Dia skill, “Dia’s Ruin”. The most powerful class of skill that currently only Alina possesses, its strength is equal to that of the Ancestors who once used it to build their grand nation, Diania. However, if you were to ask Alina, she’d tell you it’s nothing that grandiose. It is said that the Ancestors received their powers from their god, but Alina awakened her skill after she was exhausted from working overtime. Either way, it is unquestionably an amazing skill in many ways, but currently Alina was using it in order to beat the stalker in front of her black and blue. As Jade looked back and forth between Alina, her voice trembling with rage, and the hammer, he hurriedly backed away, but still, undeterred, he raised his voice: ‘I—i—if I use my authority I can make it work!’
Hearing Jade’s words, Alina’s brows twitched up. ‘Ahh, I see. So that’s all you have to say. I see, I understood veeeeery well how serious you are about this.’
‘Really!? So you’re going to join the—blegh!’
Jade’s face lit up with joy, but the next moment it was crushed under the weight of Alina’s warhammer. His hefty body sailed through the air like a leaf caught in a storm and bounced across the pavement like a skipping stone, only coming to a stop when he crashed into the wall. ‘Authority my ass! You know, my life as a receptionist is at stake here!’
‘No… wait… my wounds are opening up aga—’
‘Stubborn, are we? You piece-of-shit Silver Bastard!!!!’
‘Kyaaaaaa!’
When Alina spun her warhammer, Jade raised a shrill shriek and ran off. And so, the peaceful evening streets of Ifühl were resound with the sound of hammer blows and a young man’s bloodcurdling screams.
