Volume 2 - CH 7

‘I—it’s rare to find you at the headquarters, miss Alina. What’s the matter? Does your stomach hurt?’ asked a nervous Jade.

After the Executioner’s—that is, Alina’s—sudden entry on the training grounds, Jade swiftly escorted her to the Guildmaster’s office.

Alina threw off her hood and looked at Jade, her eyes glowing with rage. Ah, she really is angry. She paused for a moment. ‘What’s wrong!?’ she shouted, ‘That’s what I came here to find out! I want an explanation, you piece-of-shit adventurer-in-chief!’

‘Piece-of-shit adventurer-in-chief!?’

‘Explain!’ Jade jumped, startled by her sharp words and threatening aura. ‘Why did all those adventurers suddenly appear!?’

‘Eh? Has it started already?’

‘Already? You know something, don’t you?’ Alina grabbed Jade by the collar and stared at him with bloodshot eyes. ‘Do you know the hell I went through when that reckless rabble stormed the reception this morning!?’

‘Calm down, missy. I’ll explain,’ came a calm voice from behind the robust desk that dominated the office. It was the Guildmaster, Glenn Gallia, a wry expression on his face. His sturdy physique, which remained unwithered from his time as the Silver Blades vanguard when he was still an active adventurer, spoke of his battle-tried past, but his sun-tanned face, scarred by the passage of time, betrayed his age. He heaved a sigh and began to speak. ‘The truth is…’

****

‘A rumour!?!?’ Alina’s pitiful voice echoed through the Guildmaster’s office.

‘“Whoever finds the relic lying in the hidden dungeon shall be granted a Dia skill.” Seemingly out of nowhere, such a rumour began to spread among the adventurers. I suspect that the sudden rush of commissions was driven by their desire to find a hidden quest and get their hands on a Dia skill.’

‘Why would anyone spread a rumour like that? Where did it come from?’

‘Talk of hidden dungeons and special relics have been doing the rounds ever since you discovered that hidden quest. Perhaps someone spread it for a lark, or for their own twisted pleasure, foreseeing the havoc it would cause,’ Glenn replied gravely. Jade added in a worried tone, ‘I only heard the rumour today. I didn’t expect it to spread so quickly.’

‘Still, it’s odd, right? No matter how you look at it, it’s so obviously a scam. Who in their right mind would fall for—’ as Alina spoke, her words trailed off. There was no point in asking. Indeed, the hordes of adventurers today proved that they fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

‘This may be hard for you to understand, but…’ Jade hesitated for a second before continuing, ‘If you can get your hands on a Dia skill, your success as an adventurer is guaranteed. It’s too tempting to ignore, even if it’s suspicious.’

‘But, but! Skills are innate, aren’t they!?’ Even with his explanation, Alina was reluctant to believe that she had gone through all that because of a mere rumour and refused to back down. She’d be more accepting if, say, ten new dungeons had been discovered at the same time, or if a city-scale dungeon was about to be captured after decades of fighting. But a rumour? To be thrown into overtime hell for what was clearly a deliberate plot was too much to swallow.

‘Right. There has never been a case of someone gaining a skill through external causes. It’s frankly unthinkable, but… even if you ignore that, Dia skills are simply that attractive. For people who are unhappy with their skill, or whose skill hasn’t awakened, it’s a golden opportunity. There are no worse people than those driven by avarice. You’d be surprised how many people would do anything to acquire a Dia skill,’ Jade explained. Alina finally understood what had caused the adventurers’ unusual zeal, what had caused their eyes to bulge out of their sockets, caused them to kick down their colleagues, caused them to scramble tooth and nail to get ahead. How they had seemingly abandoned any semblance of reason, to the point where they couldn’t even form an orderly queue.

Alina fell silent after that.

Skills, unlike magic, cannot be learned or trained. Only when a skill awakens can it be used, and which skill is awakened varies greatly from person to person. These are harsh requirements, but in return their combative power far outstrips that of magic. Which skill awakens can determine your success in life, and whether one awakens at all depends on luck alone. Even if one does, it may not be the one you had hoped for. For adventurers, they are unreliable in one way, but indispensable tools in another, and it is this incongruity that leads to pent-up frustration that continues to crush them in an environment of instability and unfairness. It was this frustration that was ignited by the sweet promise of a Dia skill.

‘Wait a minute. So how do we solve this situation?’ Alina’s eyes widened with the realisation of a terrible truth. ‘Normally, I can just kill the boss when it gets busy like this, but…’

‘We’ll just… ’Jade paused hesitantly and averted his eyes. Whispering, he continued, ‘We’ll just have to wait for the rumour to die down, I guess.’

A heavy silence settled over the room.

‘You… you’ve got to be kidding me,’ Alina whimpered, her voice sounding pathetic even to herself. Her legs gave and she collapsed onto the luxurious carpet. Her mind went blank. She felt like fine desert sand, about to be swept away by a puff of wind.

‘I mean… the Century Festival… it’s only a week away… if this goes on every day… and with the bonus period… I won’t be able to…’ she stammered, her voice trembling.

So far, whenever Alina was stuck in the merciless grind of overtime, it could always be solved by someone killing the boss. Even if that someone wasn’t an adventurer. Even if, for example, it was an overworked, frustrated receptionist. But not this time. There was no boss to be killed, no dungeon to be captured. She couldn’t use her usual strong-arm tactics to get out of this predicament. Thanks to the rumour, she was forced to be stuck in this overtime hell for as long as it lasted. This year’s Century Festival was almost guaranteed to be a write-off. As Alina reached this conclusion, tears filled her eyes.

‘I—it’s gonna be okay, miss Alina!’ Jade stammered when he saw Alina’s despondent mood. ‘It’s only a rumour. Tomorrow, the Guild will make a statement that all the talk about this Dia skill business is false, and if we catch the person who is spreading the rumour, it’ll at least stop the chaos from getting worse.’

‘Do you honestly think that they are rational enough to come to their senses just because the Guild told them to?’

‘Ah…’

‘They’re not, are they? That’s why, despite the Guild’s warnings, the number of people trying to discover a hidden quest has increased recently.’

‘Th—that’s…’

Even the Guild, despite its position of authority, has a hard time controlling the adventurers. They’re not employed like receptionists are. If they ignore the Guild’s warnings, they won’t suffer any direct consequences. Even if they are told that the rumours are false, how many of them will obediently believe it and take it easy on the quests?

‘Still, not every adventurer is like that. It’ll help calm things down, even if only by a little.’

‘Well, at least I know what’s going on,’ Alina muttered and stood up.

‘I have to go back and finish today’s work. Complaining here won’t reduce my overtime. The Century Festival isn’t going to wait,’ she muttered, heading for the doorway. ‘Just you wait… no matter how desperate things get… I’m not going to lose! I’m definitely, definitely, definitely going to the Century Festival!’