CH 1

Chapter 1 – Sudden Notice of Dismissal

“Noelle Springfield. You are useless,

and are not wanted in my workshop. You are fired.”

I was at a loss for words when the guild chief said this to me.

They were clearly lacking in personnel now, and I had been working myself to death.

How many days have I worked without rest now? I stopped counting after it passed a hundred.

There was so much extra work that I grew faint, and I was not even compensated for it.

The pay was the bare minimum.

I could see my co-workers quitting one after another, their bodies broken and their eyes vacant.

It was a severe environment, that was all the negative stereotypes of the countryside squeezed into one.

And yet I had borne all of it. Because there were hardly any jobs in the area where I could use magic.

I had always loved magic ever since I was young, and it was my dream to find employment that would allow me to use it.

And so for me, this job at the Magic Artificer Guild was something important that I did not want to lose.

And so, I worked twice, no, three times as hard in order to be accepted…

“Really. You have been working here for three years, and the only thing you can craft is a crystal ball, which anyone can do. You should consider our position, and how it would feel to hire someone as worthless as yourself.”

Spat the guild chief.

In the royal capital, it was now quite ordinary for a woman to use and work with magic, but the reality was that things were quite different in the countryside.

This was especially true in the western region where I lived. It was a place where such old ways of thinking had its roots buried deep.

“You even lied to us about graduating from a famous magic academy at the royal capital. How embarrassing for you.”

“But it’s not a lie. Honestly…”

“So you’re still going to say that. You sure talk a lot for someone with no talent.”

Said the guild chief with a sadistic grin.

“You. You have no gift for it. Give up on magic and find some other work.”

“Living is so hard…”

A few days after being thrown out of the workshop, I let out a sigh while staring at job advertisements at the occupation agency.

I didn’t care how bad the conditions were. I just wanted a job where I could use magic.

Such were my thoughts, but what I was immediately faced with when I started searching, was the severe reality.

There were very few jobs related to magic in this small country town on the frontier.

But desperate and with a little hope, I had gone to the Magic Medicine guild, but the old man looked at me with an apologetic expression and said,

“I’m sorry. The mayor’s son said that he would drive us out of this town if we hired you.”

The mayor’s son was the guild chief of the Magic Artificer Guild, who had fired me.

I suppose I had been too dull to notice it before. But the guild chief had failed his entrance exam at a countryside magic academy in the past, and so he held a grudge against me from the beginning, as soon as he saw that I was a woman who had graduated from a renowned magic academy.

It was no wonder he only ever let me do simple chores and jobs. I understood now.

And he was currently using his position to apply pressure to others so that I would not be able to find employment that was related to magic.

Why did he have to go to such lengths…

This world was cruel…so very cruel…!

I had nowhere to direct my grief, and so I decided to distract myself with food.

The town’s Adventurers Guild had a place called the ‘Full-belly Dining Hall.’

And so I passed under the shop curtain and entered the battlefield where the big eaters gathered.

“Welcome, young lady. What will you have?”

The owner cooked it up skillfully.

Some of the customers at the other tables looked at me and said,

“Hey, hey. I don’t think she’s going to survive that.”

“She looks like a child, but asked for the full-belly meal…”

Who are you calling a child!

I graduated at the magic academy and have been a working adult for three years now.

Yes, it was true that I was on the shorter side.

And it was also true that I stuffed my chest with four layers of pads so that I would not look like a child.

Damn it. They really say whatever they want.

I will give them something to see…!

Twenty minutes later, I had finished my meal without leaving a crumb. And the other customers were staring at me with shock.

“It’s impossible…”

“What kind of stomach does that lady have…”

Hehe. How about that!

Back during my student days, I had defeated a man who was the head of the athletics club, and had won the battle of the strongest school eaters.

When it came to my ability to eat, I was confident that I was undefeatable.

It was just as I was starting to feel a little better due to the reactions of those around me.

I heard someone chuckling from behind.

That soft voice was familiar to me.

“You haven’t changed at all.”

It was a nostalgic voice.

I turned around.

And I could not keep myself from smiling.

“Luke…!”

“It’s been awhile, Noelle.”

Luke Waldstein.

The friend that I was always with during my student days was right in front of me.