Chapter 6: Standing before the Marble Counter

Standing before the marble counter that still had all the cracks running through it, Angeline scowled.

“No requests?” she asked slowly.

The receptionist smiled a vague, troubled smile. “Yes. At the moment, there are no jobs that would require an S-Rank party... They’re all jobs the AA-Rank and lower adventurers can handle.”

Of course, there was no rule saying S-Ranks could not take those requests, but it was the guild’s job to make sure that work was distributed equally to as many adventurers as possible. Considering Angeline’s workload, there had been little need for her to go out of her way to challenge a lower-level request. She wasn’t troubled for money either—in fact, she had more than she knew what to do with.

“Any guard requests in the general direction of Turnera?”

“That’s not a job for an S-Rank...”

“Can I take a month off, then?” she asked after a beat.

“Th-That’s a bit... There’s no telling what will happen...”

“Tsk...”

The receptionist winced, knowing Angeline wanted to go home no matter what.

In any case, Angeline had some free time, but not enough for an extended leave of absence. Given that, she was better off hanging out with Anessa and Miriam. As she turned to leave, Angeline noted the cracked counter and narrowed her eyes.

“Isn’t it high time you got this thing fixed? I’ll foot the bill...”

“Heh heh.” The receptionist cracked a mischievous smile. “The guild master decided to leave it as one of the legendary exploits of the Black-Haired Valkyrie. A sort of memento.”

“I see.”

So you’re just harassing me, she thought, but decided not to let it get to her. Angeline returned to her friends who were waiting in the lobby.

“Oh, how was it?” Anessa asked.

“Any good requests?” chimed Miriam.

“No, they said there were no jobs for S-Ranks. So we have the day off.”

The two of them seemed pleasantly surprised.

“Well, that was sudden...”

“Yeah... What do we do now?”

“First, let’s get home and change...”

They thought they would be out on another request, and came dressed as adventurers. However, they were not fond of walking around town in armor.

Anessa nodded. “Right. Then we’ll meet up at the usual tavern.”

“Yeah... Later.”

Angeline separated from the two of them and returned to her room. She was renting a single room in a small boarding house in the corner of downtown. Considering her revenue, she could more than afford to live in a fine house, but Angeline simply didn’t see the benefit. She felt far more settled in a room where everything was within arm’s reach.

She changed out of her adventurer gear and sat on the bed. The world outside her window was unmistakably autumnal; the trees lining the road had turned red, while the light shining through them was soft and calm. She rolled around, rereading the long letter she had received from Belgrieve. It never failed to bring a smile to her face.

After carefully folding it and tucking it away into a drawer, she lay faceup staring at the ceiling and thought to herself, I could really go for some cowberries. She was always looking forward to them whenever fall came in Turnera. After Belgrieve started taking her out into the mountains, the first thing she would always do would be to search for cowberries. Even now, she could remember the abundance of nature that surrounded her there.

She’d eaten cowberry jam and dried cowberries since coming to the capital, but they lacked the striking sour-sweetness of the freshly picked ones. The taste of a fresh one would make her squeeze her cheeks, but they had the sort of allure that made her reach for one after another.

When I begged him, dad would give a troubled smile and feed them to me personally... She grew lost in her memories.

“I want to go home...”

Her homesickness grew stronger when there was nothing to do. The early-fall scenery of Turnera would color her mind when she closed her eyes. She reminisced about the changing shades of the wheat fields planted back in the spring, the flocks of sheep with slightly shaggy coats, and the young herdboys and their dogs chasing after them. Under the high blue sky and tattered clouds, the forest gradually took on shades of red and yellow, and at night, the glowgrass would give off a faint light. She remembered all the hills, big and small, that she would see when she climbed the trees to pick grapes.

She stayed there, lying on the bed for a while, but got up when she remembered her friends were waiting for her.

“When will I ever get to see dad...” She sighed and left the room.

There were many people on the streets, going every which way. Orphen was a trade center; it was so vast, it had multiple guild branches to cover it all, and enough adventurers to support all of them. The number of people she walked past could not even be compared to any other town in these parts. Angeline had been quite overwhelmed the first time she came to the capital.

It was a hassle to walk through the crowds, but the tavern wasn’t far. She reached it in just under an hour. While it wasn’t yet noon, the tavern was crowded and full of lively chatter. Anessa and Miriam had already saved her a seat.

“Ange, you look super ticked off.” Miriam chuckled.

Angeline sullenly sipped her water. “I don’t need these insignificant days off. It’s like they’re mocking me...”

“Oh, don’t be like that... It’s not every day you get a vacation.” Anessa awkwardly scratched her cheek.

Angeline shook her head. This girl just didn’t get it. “This is not a vacation. A vacation would be when I’m back in Turnera, being doted on by my father...”

“What’s up with that...”

“You want to be doted on? Then should I dote on you? All right, I’ll hold you. Come on, upsy-daisy.” Miriam grinned, reaching her hands out.

Angeline pursed her lips. “As if you could replace dad... If you think those huge tits give you some sort of maternal instinct, you’re way off.”

“Aww, harsh,” Miriam grumbled as she leaned back in her chair. She usually wore a loose robe so that they wouldn’t stand out, but it did seem she concealed splendid mounds underneath.

The three each ordered their favorites from the menu, killing time with rambling banter. However, they were adventurers through and through, and the topic naturally shifted towards fiends.

“I get the feeling the fiends are acting up as of late.”

“Right, right. They didn’t attack towns so often before.”

Lately, a majority of the quests brought to their attention involved hunting down a fiend that appeared near some town or another. A good number of them were SOS requests after the attack had already begun.

These hadn’t been very common not so long ago. The high-ranking fiends generally lived away from human habitation and kept to themselves. Any requests involving them would be from people who wanted raw materials from those fiends or wanted to develop the remote land they resided in. There were also times where certain fiends would have bounties placed on them, and higher-ranked adventurers would make a living hunting them down. Taking out a single Calamity-Class fiend would award enough money to live comfortably for half a year.

Now, however, these fiends were appearing frequently around humans. This led to an increase in work for people like Angeline. If those powerful fiends kept to the outskirts or the depths of the dungeons, the guild would have no reason to tie down an S-Rank adventurer—they could hunt them down at their own pace.

As per usual, Angeline stuffed her cheeks with her favorite sautéed duck in ill humor. “Thyey zyood jhwust thtay whoa mm therr hmm, nom nom.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”

“Nom nom... gulp. They should just stay low in their homes far away... Why must they be so irritating, showing up around humans?!”

“Well... You could say that’s why we have a job.”

“But there should be a limit to that!”

“You think it’s true that a demon revived?” Miriam asked, licking yogurt sauce off her lips.

“A demon...” Anessa propped her head up. “Sounds like cock-and-bull, but the fiends are acting up. Can’t deny that...”

“Demons... Weren’t there loads of them?”

“Yeah, there were seventy-two of Solomon’s demons—if the rumors are to be believed.”

According to legend, there was once a great sorcerer named Solomon. He was versed in all forms of magic and alchemy, giving birth to many techniques and magical devices. However, with all his power, Solomon gradually began to thirst for authority as well. To this end, he produced undying artificial lifeforms known as homunculi. With them under his control, he soon stood at the summit of the continent—that is, until his madness caught up to him in his later years, and he disappeared to the furthest reaches of time and space. The homunculi ran amok once they lost their master and came to be known as demons. These demons worked their destruction wherever they could—they killed humans like livestock, burned towns, and crushed villages underfoot. There were even countries that fell to them.

As a result, most of the valuable data on Solomon’s techniques and the great things he made were lost. Ultimately, Solomon’s legacy was destroyed by his own hand. The demons were sealed by a hero with the grace of the Goddess Vienna, and now they slept all over the continent. The mana these demons exuded would give rise to fiends; at least, so tradition held.

“Well, it’s a legend after all. You can’t know how much of it is to be believed.”

“But there are places where the mana is stronger...”

“Right. And there are shrines here and there to appease demon souls.”

There were said to be seventy-two demons in total. The land was dotted with shrines to them, but this was only to offer them repose; they were not supposed to be seen as objects of worship. However, their conversation soon turned to the heretical cult that revered the demons and Solomon; lately, the cult had grown more active as well.

“When it rains, it pours...”

“Those people are out to revive the demons, right?”

“So I’ve heard. Troublingly enough,” Anessa grumbled.

To this, Angeline readily nodded. “If a demon revives, we’ll have more work...and I won’t be able to take a vacation...”

“I don’t think that’s the issue here...”

“Heh heh, I’m sure Ange could take out a demon or two.”

“There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to win. I am the daughter of the Red Ogre, after all.”

Angeline and Miriam began to grow heated on the matter. To her surprise, Anessa could easily picture exactly that scenario playing out if a demon did revive, and she felt a chill run down her spine.

Then, a winded guild employee burst into the tavern.

“Ah, thank Vienna I found you here!”

Angeline furrowed her brow. “What?” she asked.

“Yes, well, a land dragon appeared around the plains of Orcus... I apologize for bothering you on your time off, but could you go take care of it?”

The three girls exchanged glances and wry smiles. They hadn’t the time to chat about nonsensical demons.