Chapter 1: An Order from My Master

Chapter 1:
An Order from My Master

 

IT HAD BEEN A FEW DAYS since I’d freed my master from her chains and brought her home. Olivia had fortified her body with skills, but she hadn’t moved for two hundred years, and the Death Chains had been draining her energy the whole time. I was a little worried about her. It didn’t seem like she’d fully regained her strength, and sometimes moving seemed to cause her pain. That said, she was in excellent spirits and fit right in with the Stardias. She’d become another member of the family, just like Tigerson.

“Open up, future husband,” she said, feeding me a slice of apple.

Our family store, Stardian Rarities, was doing so well that our meals were becoming more lavish.

“You’re embarrassing me,” I said. “We’re not getting married. I mean…there’s a bit of an age difference.”

“Age is just a number. And five hundred years is nothing, as far as I’m concerned.”

I was pretty sure she was the only one who felt that way. Olivia pouted, stuffing her face with apples. She’d gorged herself on meat and vegetables first thing in the morning too. She had a skill that allowed her to live without eating, but she still seemed to derive great pleasure from it.

“Come on, Tigerbun,” she said. “Back me up!”

<Son, not bun! Tigerson! Are you even trying?!>

Olivia wasn’t listening. My father was sitting across from her, and his face was something else. His gaze kept flitting about, like a teenage boy stealing glances at his crush—only he kept looking at her chest. His behavior didn’t go unnoticed. My mother and Alice knew him too well. They both glared icy daggers at him.

“Honey, could you buy some rope and bring it to me later?” my mother asked. “Meet me in front of a big tree in an empty park.”

“Huh? That sounds vaguely terrifying…”

She smiled calmly as she spoke, but then, my mother’s smile never faltered—not even when she was enraged. That’s what made her so scary. My father cowered like a mouse, and Alice smiled.

“No need to worry, Father, you can leave the store in our capable hands. And Brother dearest can serve as head of the household in your stead.”

“Can you stop talking like I’m about to die? You know I’d never consider killing myself.”

“Kill yourself? Oh, darling, I’m the one who’ll be killing you.”

He shuddered and gave me a pleading look.

I’m sorry, Father, I can’t help you, I’m distracted by how hot my soup is! I could have sworn I heard someone mutter the words “you cold-blooded traitor,” but maybe it was just the wind.

When I was ready to leave, my master followed me to the front door.

“Come home soon, okay? I just don’t know what I’ll do with myself…” she teased, pushing her breasts together.

Honestly, now that she was free from those chains, I didn’t think I could stop her from doing whatever she wanted.

“Just don’t dig around my room, please.”

“I would never! Cross my heart and hope to die!”

The look on her face made me sure she was crossing her fingers behind her back. I’d had a feeling that might happen, so I’d already hidden some of my more private possessions.

“Also,” I said, “please let me know if you need anything.”

“A house, then.”

“Maybe ‘anything’ was the wrong word.”

“I’m serious! I can’t stay here forever. I mean, your house is nice and all, but it’s tiny.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

Olivia was sleeping in the living room with Tigerson, and there wasn’t really much space to breathe anymore. I had offered her my room, but she had refused unless I agreed to sleep with her. And that seemed like a slightly…no, a very dangerous proposition. I was confident that the moment I fell asleep, she’d start “investigating” my body or something.

And besides, I had money to spare, so I promised I’d look for somewhere else for her to stay. I stepped out into the street at the perfect time to catch a certain girl running by. I wasn’t sure what drew my attention more: her bouncing breasts or her cheery smile. Either way, Emma was as cute as ever.

“How’s the view?” she asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You haven’t heard it before?! It’s like super popular with the girls lately.”

We set off together, and I asked her why. Emma snorted. “I know you’re looking at my boobs, dummy.”

Sorry, I’m so sorry!

“Hey, Noir, let’s give it our all this semester.”

“We better. I hear it’s a lot harder than the first.”

Vocational schools typically had a lot of events during the second semester, and the Hero Academy was no exception. Things were going to get busy. After all, the whole point was to train us to become heroes, so it couldn’t be all fun and games. I’d heard we also had a long history of competition with other schools. Whenever an event rolled around, each school sent their best students to represent them, although that was all I knew.

I wanted to get better at adventuring too. I was currently B-Rank, but I wanted to make it to S-Rank and become completely indispensable to the guild, just like my master Olivia.

We arrived at school and entered the S-Class classroom. Lelia waved at us as we came in. She’d moved up from A-Class over the summer.

“How’s the view, Noir?”

“Huh?! I-I swear I’m looking at your eyes.” I swear!

Leila gave me a quizzical look. “Maybe it isn’t the best greeting after all. The other girls encouraged me to say it.”

She was such a trusting person. She’d probably just taken them at their word without realizing. Emma leaned over to whisper in Leila’s ear, and her face went bright red.

“I-I-I didn’t mean it like that! I don’t think you would be leering at girls first thing in the morning, Noir.”

I smiled awkwardly and bobbed my head in a vague not-quite-nod, not-quite-sulk. I hoped that someday, I’d become the kind of man who didn’t leer at girls…but then again, I was my father’s son. That day might well never come.

At that moment, the door flew open, and an exhausted-looking Ms. Elena strode in, carrying a wooden sword on her shoulder. Everyone took their seats like well-trained dogs. Including me, of course. If anything, I was probably the fastest.

“So anyway, boys…how’s the view?”

I guess even the teachers had heard about it. Several of the boys stared nervously straight down at their desks.

“I hope you’re all ready to work after your break. We’ve got a bunch of annoying events coming up. Personally, I’m not very excited, but I am your teacher. Back when I was a merc, I could just force my way through pointless tasks, but not anymore. I’m gettin’ paid too much for that here, and the only thing you can really trust is money.”

Was she, uh, doing okay?

The class listened to her intently, anxious to know what the future held.

 

***

 

“So the first event is a yearly competition called the King of the School Year Competition. The winner receives a special item from the school. It’s impressive, I guess.”

It had to be a valuable magical item or something. But that wasn’t the only prize.

“And the winner gets one more thing: the Right of the King. Yeah, yeah, don’t gimme that look. I think it’s stupid too.”

Ms. Elena looked annoyed as she explained what the “Right of the King” entailed: it gave the winner total control over the school for a day. It meant you could order the other students around and stuff—within reason, of course. Honestly, I was more interested in the item. But the boys had lust on their minds.

“Ms. Elena, d-d-does that mean I could make the girls wear sexy outfits and give me a m-m-massage?”

“Yeah, I think that would be possible.”

“Are you serious?!”

The earth-shattering cry boomed through the classroom. I managed not to add to it…barely.

But then it hit me. Could I use the Right of the King to earn a ton of LP? My struggle with the Death Chains had made me realize just how weak I was. I needed to stop fooling around and get stronger. I would probably have to tap into my inner well of desire to do it.

“You’ve still got time, so you best get training,” said Ms. Elena. “A little after the King Competition, we have an inter-school competition.”

Other kingdoms had hero academies too, and we had an agreement with our sister school. We weren’t going to pull our punches, even though it was just a school tournament. Three representatives of each school were selected to compete to determine the ultimate winner.

“Our representatives will be the three kings of the school. That’s it.”

One from the first, second, and third year, I guess? Maybe, if I worked hard, I could count myself among them.

After that, class went on as usual. We spent the whole morning listening to Ms. Elena lecture, and at lunch, Emma and Leila came over to talk to me.

“Heya, wanna eat together?” I asked.

“Sounds good,” said Leila. “Where should we sit?”

“I brought a lunch for you too, Noir!” said Emma.

“You’re a lifesaver. Olivia ate everything, even my leftovers.”

I was touched by her thoughtfulness, but Leila looked a little uncertain. She was hiding something behind her back, but it was too big to fully conceal it. I had a feeling I knew what it was.

“Oh, I, um, uh,” she stammered. “I kinda made lunch for all three of us.”

It was a huge basket.

“I probably shouldn’t have presumed.”

“Oh, not at all,” Emma said with genuine cheer. “Thank you so much!”

She stepped in and gave Leila a hug, and the act of intimacy soon drew attention. Our classmates all looked at them and smiled.

Leila had only just joined S-Class, and she wasn’t a member of the nobility, but she’d already amassed an impressive number of fans. I could hear the boys whispering to each other.

“Man…I love Leila.”

“Me too. She’s a little tough. I like that.”

You’re not gonna like it when you’re on the receiving end of her Demon Fist.

The three of us went up to the roof. There were always a lot of other students up there, so we found an empty corner to sit in and laid out our lunches.

Emma had brought bread stuffed with a mix of roasted pork, beef, and chicken. It was both bold and creative.

“Is this a new invention of yours?” I asked.

“Not mine! I promise it’s tasty, though. Go on, have the first bite.”

“I see, you want me to be the taste tester. Very well.”

It was quite a challenge to bite into, but it was way tastier than I’d expected!

“Uh, um, would you two like to try mine?” Leila asked. “O-only if you feel like it.”

She had some egg salad sandwiches and a fruit platter in her basket.

“Ooh, how luxurious.”

Emma seemed happy to have expensive-looking fruit for dessert. I crammed the meat-filled bread into my mouth. It was as delicious as you’d expect. It was so kind of Leila to think of us too.

“How have things been going with Lahmu lately?” I asked her.

“Well…there’s been a bit of an issue, but I think it’ll work itself out.”

She seemed a little uncomfortable. Emma and I belonged to Odin, while Leila was in our rival guild, Lahmu. I supposed it was a little unnatural for us to be fraternizing.

“You know, if you ever need help, you can come to us,” I said. “If there’s anything I can do, I would be more than happy to.”

Emma pouted. “Ugh, why are you being such a white knight, Noir?”

“Wh-white knight?”

“You know, a guy who always says nice things to any girl he meets, you big dummy.”

“I dunno how big I am, but you’re probably right about the dummy part.”

“Th-that’s not what I meant.”

“Really?”

Emma looked like she wanted to explain, but she was a little embarrassed. Her cheeks turned red. “Y-you may be a dummy, but you’re big…in my heart.”

“In your heart?!”

“It’s embarrassing! So I had to find a weird way to say it. You’re such a big dummy, Noir!”

Emma seemed a little agitated. She stood up and ran off, although she made sure to secure an egg salad sandwich and some of the fruit first. I mean, they were extremely delicious.

“Was she trying to prove something?” Leila mumbled gloomily.

 

***

 

After school, I went looking for a house for my master. Emma knew a good real estate agent, so she introduced us. He was a friendly man in his forties, but he was extra friendly with Emma. From what I understood, he mostly worked with the nobility—helping them find mansions and the like.

“My name is Domado. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Noir. I mean no offense, but you are a member of the nobility, are you not?”

“Yes, I’m the son of a baronet.”

His smile vanished, and he made no attempt to hide his disappointment. Honestly, I was fairly used to this kind of treatment. There were plenty of people who didn’t even consider me a noble. But this guy was different. This was his business after all, and he quickly put his best smile back on.

“What are you looking for exactly?”

“I’m hoping for a comfortable estate with a big yard where I can relax. My budget’s around…let’s say two hundred million, tops.”

Domado’s eyes glimmered, intrigued. He knew a good property and took me there right away. It was a little outside town, but it was a chic two-story house. The imposing black iron fence contrasted with the gleaming white walls. It really was a sight to behold. It wasn’t currently inhabited, but it seemed to have been regularly maintained.

He told me about the property as he let me in. It seemed like it’d be a nice place to live.

“How much?”

“Two hundred and fifty million rel, but I could do it for two hundred, since you’re an acquaintance of Lady Emma’s.”

“If my master approves, then I’ll take it.”

“Well, then, I hope she does.”

I felt like I could trust him.

Once I’d finished with the tour, Emma and I went shopping. We looked around some weapons shops, but nothing caught our eye. As we said our goodbyes, Emma turned to face me.

“Could you ask Ms. Olivia if she’d consider training me?”

“Sure thing. She usually listens to me.”

“Thank you, Noir!”

Emma waved goodbye, and in that instant…a rush of wind flipped up her skirt.

“Eek!”

Hm, aqua blue, a bold choice. I earned a little LP from that. My guess was that my Lucky Lecher skill had gone off.

“Y-you looked, didn’t you?”

“I have a skill that lets me adjust my visual acuity, and I turned it down really low.”

“Yeah, right,” Emma said. “You’re such a perv.”

She ran off into the sunset.

Well, sorry for being a pervert, but surely it’s only natural for a boy in the throes of puberty, right? Mind you, my father was still a pervert, and puberty was a distant memory for him. With my mind full of such enlightened thoughts, I made my way home.

<Grrr…uugh, Noir, save me, please.>

I found Olivia in the living room with Tigerson. She was playing aggressively with the tulip growing on his head.

“Why do you have a flower growing out of your head? Sure beats me!” She giggled.

Oh, no, you really need to be gentle with that! I recalled Tigerson saying his flower was as sensitive as a human’s genitals.

<Hnn! I told you, that’s sensitive!> Tigerson flopped over, breathing heavily and at his wit’s end.

I’m sorry, Tigerson, but as her lowly disciple, I’m in no position to stop her.

“If I may interrupt, master,” I said. “I found a house I think you’ll like.”

“Oh my god, I love you, Noir!”

Olivia threw her arms around me and stroked my hair.

“Get any LP?”

“Yeah…”

“You better save it up, okay? How else are you gonna surpass the great Olivia?”

Was that even possible? Sure, she had lost her three big skills when she gave them to me, but she’d learned an incredible amount from them before she did.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “That reminds me. Emma asked if you’d be willing to train her.”

“Ugh… teaching girls is no fun.”

“Don’t be like that. I’d like you to train me too, while you’re at it. I want to get stronger.”

I looked right at her, brimming with sincerity, but saw nothing except impish glee in her eyes. She was treating my request like a joke.

“I’m serious!” I pleaded, lowering my head. “I want to clear the last level of the dungeon and become the greatest adventurer in the world. I want to completely transcend social status!”

“The great Olivia’s training won’t be a cakewalk, you know.”

I knew that. If I wanted the guidance of the legendary adventurer herself, then I needed to prepare for the worst.

Olivia tickled Tigerson’s flower as she gave it some serious thought. Tigerson’s awkward moans filled the room. Good luck, Tigerson…

“All right, I have two conditions. First, I want you to earn a hundred thousand LP.”

“A-a hundred thousand?” That was a lot. I wasn’t sure whether I’d even earned that much LP in total since I first acquired her skills.

“Based on what you’ve told me, you still haven’t quite gotten the hang of Editor and Bestow,” she explained. “And I think that’s a waste.”

Using those skills effectively in combat required a lot of LP. I’d run into plenty of situations where the cost of disabling a powerful enemy skill got straight up ludicrous.

“Okay, I’ll do it. What’s the second condition?”

“I want you to break Sacrifice.”

“Huh?! But why?”

Sacrifice allowed me to destroy skills to earn a temporary buff. It had been seriously handy when I fought the Death Chains. Without it, I might not have been able to save my master. But it also caused excessive strain on the body and using it over an extended period would physically weaken the user—making it easier for them to get sick, and ultimately shortening their lifespan.

“I’m sure you could make up for the lost skills with Get Creative, but the weaker you become, the more LP you’ll need just to sustain yourself.”

That made sense. I wasn’t super interested in harming my body, but Olivia seemed to have another problem with the skill as well.

“Relying on that technique makes you mentally weak too. You know that Litorean chick I beat up? Once she couldn’t use her precious Sacrifice skill, she was utter trash! Ah ha ha ha!”

Litorean was a cleric whom Olivia had fought in the past. As famous as she had been, she must’ve been really weak at the end for my master to laugh at her like that. I guessed Olivia was right; it was risky to rely too much on one technique. So I did as I was told, and I Edited Sacrifice’s description to nullify the skill. It didn’t cost very much at all.

“I did it.”

“Good boy. Now work on earning that LP!”

“Yes ma’am!”

I got right to work, hoping to earn what I’d promised to as soon as possible.

 

***

 

The next day, I made sure to hug everyone in the house and earn some LP before school. Admittedly, hugging my family didn’t earn me much LP, but that made sense. I didn’t exactly find them attractive. Although…why had I earned a ton from Alice stepping on me that one time? It remained a mystery.

Over breakfast, I struggled to come up with ideas for how to earn more. Olivia seemed to intuit as much and offered me some advice.

“You can earn LP by satisfying hunger, lust, or greed. But in the great Olivia’s case, the order was something like lust, then hunger, then greed. And since you inherited Olivia’s powers, it’s probably the same for you.”

“Sounds about right. I have noticed a bit of a bias.”

I could earn decent LP from food, but it dropped significantly the second time I ate something.

“Now, my mom?” Oliva said. “She was all food, all the time.”

“Your mom? Now that’s hard to imagine. Wait, does that mean she had the skill too?”

“She sure did. And she was as dangerous as me too.”

Apparently, when Olivia was a child, Meluna Servant had scolded her daughter all the time and made her cry. I couldn’t even imagine it.

“As far as greed goes,” she said, “especially the immaterial kind, your best bet is to set yourself a big goal and achieve it. You can earn LP that way too.”

I had earned a lot of LP when I earned admission into the Hero Academy. Well, the obvious choice was right under my nose: I decided to win the King of the School Year Competition.

“Why don’t you convert some enchanted items while you’re at it?” Olivia asked. “You haven’t used that skill much.”

“Good thinking. You have the best ideas.”

“I know one way you can thank me!”

Olivia closed her eyes and pursed her lips. I chuckled and stuffed my face with breakfast, which only made her whine and call me stingy. After that, I said my goodbyes and headed off.

Converting money and items was another way to earn LP. I didn’t get much of a return from money, and besides, I needed the cash to buy Olivia that house, so items were the way to go. I could search for good ones in the hidden dungeon or while taking on adventuring requests.

At school, my classmates were getting excited about the upcoming tournament, so I listened in to gather some intel.

It was a short day, and class ended at noon. When we were done, Emma and I headed to the guild.

“Are you giving the King Competition a serious shot, Emma?”

“Heck yeah, I am!” She almost seemed too enthusiastic. Emma pointed at me. “Even if I have to go up against you, I’m not pulling any punches. So, uh, good luck, I guess?”

“I’m angling to win myself, so I won’t hold back either.”

“Let’s both give it our all!” Emma said happily, locking arms with me.

It wasn’t really the kind of atmosphere you’d expect between two people destined to do battle.

When we arrived at the guild hall, Lola was talking to a group of four adventurers. When she noticed us, she waved and ran over.

“Mr. Noir! I’ve been waiting for you!”

Lola giggled and tried to hug me, but Emma slid in between us with her arms stretched out. “Perv thief block!”

“Who are you calling a pervert?!” Lola shot back, incensed. “I’ll have you know, I’m extremely vanilla!”

“All right, then, vanilla pervert block.”

“That’s an oxymoron!”

As they bickered, the party that Lola had been talking to approached timidly.

“Um, excuse me, Lola…but about that request?”

“Oh, right. Listen, I have something more important to tell everyone first. This is Noir, and he’s going to be our next ace. Well, honestly speaking, he already is our next ace.”

Lola winked at me. She was exaggerating, so I denied her claims as I introduced myself.

“Noir, what’s your adventurer rank?” a man asked.

He looked like their leader. When I told him I was B-Rank, they all looked shocked.

“Wh-whoa! You’re so young! If you have a moment, would you mind giving us some advice?”

“Please!”

They looked at me with gleaming eyes, but I was a little stumped. Honestly, I was still more likely to be on the receiving end of advice, but I supposed I did have more experience than them.

“When the going gets tough, you should get out of there,” I said. “Don’t push yourselves beyond your limits.”

“Thank you so much!”

My cowardly heart had kept me alive thus far, so that advice wouldn’t fail them. Once we were done, I asked Lola for an item-related request.

“I’ll gather some information just for you, Mr. Noir. But…do you think you could check in on Luna today?”

It seemed Luna had taken a request by herself, it being her day off from her cleric work. She’d set out early to exterminate monsters, and Lola was getting a little anxious.

“The request was to take care of some goblins in a little farming village, but it’s strange that she hasn’t come back yet…”

Most farming communities were about an hour’s walk away from town, and it was almost two in the afternoon. If Luna had left that morning, then she should have already come back.

“Are you asking us for a favor?” Emma asked.

I suspected the same thing as Emma did; it really seemed like Lola was just worried about her friend. I was a bit concerned myself. Even if it turned out to be nothing, it was worth checking out. And Emma was familiar with the area.

As we left town, Emma started looking proud.

“Noir, watch this.” She fired a powerful blast of wind at the ground, lifting herself up into the air. She went so high that I had to look straight up to keep track of her.

“Hiyaaaah!”

She swung her daggers as she dropped. It was a truly impressive move. Emma giggled as her skirt fluttered in the wind.

“Did you look?”

They were white! No, wait. Why had my eyes immediately been drawn there?

“That was really cool,” I said. “Is that a new technique?”

“Hee hee hee. Why don’t you take a peek?”

At her invitation, I used my Discerning Eye. The new skill was called Shockwave. Also, her level was higher than it had been the last time I checked. She really was training in secret.

“You’ve been working hard lately, huh?”

“Maybe one day I’ll be the one protecting you.”

She had a spring in her step as she walked. Emma had an affinity for wind magic, so it was easy to Bestow those kinds of skills on her. And she’d been providing me with a steady source of LP, so I figured I owed her something in return. I’d have to think on it.

We arrived in the farming village about an hour later and took a moment to survey the area from a distance. After all, there could have been monsters or bandits around. I didn’t see anyone in the general vicinity, so we approached the village.

A large crowd was gathered in the town square, so something had to be going on, although I couldn’t tell what it was through all the people. We entered cautiously and found someone at the back of the crowd.

“A friend of mine came here on an adventuring request earlier,” I said. “Did something happen?”

“Who’s this friend of yours?”

“A woman named Luna.”

“Something definitely happened. She started taking out goblins for us, but…”

Apparently, some other adventurers had arrived and insisted that the goblin extermination job was theirs. When some more goblins arrived, they defeated them. Unsurprisingly, Luna wasn’t having any of it. She got into it with the other adventurers, and it snowballed from there.

Had these other adventurers tried to snipe her job? I didn’t know enough yet to make the call. It was a tricky situation. I headed toward the fight at the center of the crowd.

Luna was standing in the middle of the town square with her firearm drawn. Opposite her was an adventurer with a gnarly-looking morningstar. There were two other people in his party, but he seemed to be taking Luna on alone. Maybe they had agreed to go one-on-one.

“Luna, what’s going on?” I called out.

“Sir Noir, Lady Emma…what are you doing here?”

“Lola asked us to check on you.”

“Whoa, now,” the other adventurer cut in. “You called in reinforcements? You’re not backing down, are you?”

His tone was harsh, but Luna just shook her head. They were ready to tear into each other, and this guy looked plenty strong.

 

Name: Moisi Sousterre

Age: 28

Species: Human

Level: 104

Occupation: Adventurer; Mercenary

Skills: Superhuman Strength; Physical Defense (Grade A); Flail Bomb

 

His level was high, and he had some scary skills to boot. That Flail Bomb skill meant that, if he hit something hard enough with his weapon, he could cause an explosion.

Morningstars came in a few varieties, and his had several spikes sticking out from the ball. The handle was basically a stick, but the head was attached to a long chain—giving it quite the reach. If he nailed you with that using his Superhuman Strength, it’d smash your bones to bits.

I checked his companions while I was at it, and they were all strong too. Mind you, Luna was pretty strong herself. Still, I wasn’t confident that she’d come through this fight without a scratch.

“Hey, what guild are you guys with?” Emma asked.

“Efreet,” Moisi replied immediately.

Efreet was another major guild, like Odin and Lahmu. They were known for picking up adventurers from other guilds. Either way, I wondered how we’d ended up in this situation to begin with.

“The goblin extermination job came from Odin. Are you guys here to snipe it?”

“Snipe it? We got the request from Efreet. If anyone’s snipin’, it’s you guys.”

He didn’t sound like he was lying, which meant that the request had been posted to their guild too. Duplicate requests weren’t a common problem, but they did happen.

I asked the head of the village about it, and he looked uncomfortable. It seemed to me that a duplicate request had almost definitely been made. Before I could interrogate the chief, he confessed.

“We put in requests with multiple guilds. We were planning to withdraw the others once one was accepted, but we were too late…”

That explained it. There was no way to know if or when a request would get picked up, so sometimes, they were submitted to multiple guilds. Normally, the client would withdraw the other requests once one was accepted, but it seemed they hadn’t made it in time…

“In that case, why don’t you guys just split the reward?” I suggested.

Moisi seemed troublingly dangerous, and I really didn’t want Luna to fight him.

“No can do,” he said. “You can either back off or settle this fair and square. Those are the only options.”

“Sorry,” said Luna. “But I’m ready to fight too. They were extremely rude to me, and I’m not about to take that lying down.”

Luna was normally so level-headed, but she seemed quite upset. They must have insulted her.

The head of the village was too terrified to do anything either, so there really was nothing we could do but watch the fight unfold.

“Everyone, I must ask you all to kindly step back,” Luna said.

As the villagers complied, I took the opportunity to whisper some advice to Luna. “That flail can explode. Stay on your toes.”

“Got it. Thank you, Sir Noir.”

I stepped away, and the fight began. Luna readied her magical firearm.

“Energy Shot!”

Pew! Pew! She fired off two shots, but Moisi twisted deftly to dodge them. He clearly had a lot of experience if he could predict their paths so precisely.

Moisi swung his flail above his head and flung it forward. The spiked ball flew at Luna, picking up speed as it went. Since I’d warned her about its hidden effects, she made the right call and dodged a fair way back.

A thunderous boom shook the village and sent dirt flying into the air. It wasn’t that big of an explosion, but it would have been enough to kill.

“Heh, not half bad! But I’m not backing down!” Luna fired her weapon again. Each shot consumed her magic, so she couldn’t fire indefinitely, but she had learned to manage it well.

At first, Moisi dodged her shots and swung his flail, setting off explosions here and there. But the longer the fight went on, the thinner his stamina wore, and soon Luna’s shots began to graze him. They shredded his clothes, tore at his flesh, and made him bleed. What’s more, she focused her fire on his legs, hindering his movement. It wasn’t long before he couldn’t stand and he fell to his knees.

Luna approached him and held her gun to his head. “Ready to admit defeat?”

“Tsk, like hell I am…”

“I demand an apology for the awful things you said about Odin.”

So that’s what she was so mad about. Luna was a devout and selfless person, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she couldn’t stand to hear her guild being disparaged.

“If you wanna kill me, go ahead,” said Moisi. “It’s not murder in a duel.”

He was telling the truth, but in reality, something like this could well start a war between our guilds. All the same, Luna’s glare hadn’t softened one bit.

“L-Luna, I think you should—”

“Y-yeah, I think we can take that as an admission of defeat, can’t we?”

Despite our pleas for mercy, Luna showed no intention of lowering her gun. “So you won’t take back what you said. Is that your final answer?”

“What’s it matter? If I bow my head to you Odin scum, I’ll be exiled.”

“Understood. You’ve made your decision.”

Sh-she isn’t…

Pew!

But she did. Luna fired at him at point-blank range. Moisi’s head snapped back and then hung limp, his face stiff. Everyone gulped.

Emma frantically grabbed my arm. “N-Noir, what do we do? Sh-she really did it…”

“Wait, he’s blinking.”

Moisi was alive. He checked his arms and legs, confused.

“What did you do? My scrapes and scratches are all gone. And I don’t feel tired anymore.”

“My gun isn’t just for shooting enemies,” said Luna. “Anyway, that settles it. The fee is ours.”

She flashed him a smile, then came over to join us.

“It was a Healing Shot, huh? That’s our Luna.” I should have known better. There was no way she’d commit a senseless murder. I felt embarrassed for even thinking she might.

“I can thank your advice for my victory, Sir Noir. I would have struggled without it.” She turned to the village chief. “Sir, please make the payment out to Odin.”

“V-very well,” the village chief replied meekly.

They had probably put down a deposit already, so everything would be settled once they paid the rest. As far as the members of Efreet went, they seemed to have accepted the outcome. Another fight seemed unlikely.

The three of us headed back to the guild hall and told Lola what had happened.

“That village chief lied to me. I told him to give us three days to take care of things on our own, if it wasn’t an emergency!”

Some adventurers violated request terms, so it made sense that the people who paid them sometimes did the same. The really awful people refused to pay up at all. Of course, the guild wouldn’t accept requests from such folks again, but they could always go to another guild and pull the same trick. There were several adventurers’ guilds in town, and most of them didn’t communicate with each other, so there was nothing to stop someone doing the rounds.

“I hate the way things are these days,” said Lola. “Why are the slimeballs always the ones who get ahead?”

She seemed more than a little upset, but soon enough her expression did a one-eighty, and she clasped my hands to give me some coins.

“Mr. Noir, please make a better world for us! I’ll help you earn all the LP you need. Here’s the down payment from the job. Hee hee.”

“I believe this belongs to Luna. I didn’t do anything.”

“Oh, is that so?! Well, good work, Luna.”

“Urgh, I hate feeling like a third wheel,” Luna complained, sounding genuinely troubled. “Maybe I should stop being friends with you.”

While changing society would no doubt be tricky, I could at least try to make Odin the top guild in town.