Alina continued battling adventurers like so, and the next thing she knew, a week had passed since the beginning of the fighting tournament application period.
Today as usual, Alina was silently and diligently working overtime at the offices of Iffole Counter at night.
“…So…tired…,” she muttered in the empty office, practically emaciated as she ran out of steam and collapsed face-first on her desk. It had been a week of dealing with the adventurers who came surging in with the force of crashing waves during the day, plus reception work she was unused to, and tackling overtime hell during the night. Though things at the reception window were now functioning fairly smoothly, an absolutely demonic amount of office processing was looming next.
“…”
She glanced at her desk to see a mountain of unprocessed documents. And this was just the amount she’d wound up with after Jade had helped her—if he hadn’t been there, then she may have died, in many senses of the word.
So this is the “window of death”… Fearsome, indeed.
Alina mustered her energy and got up from the desk, leaving the office room. She was headed to the counter. She had left some documents to process on the floor by her counter, which she’d tossed quickly on the floor during business hours.
“So much…”
Just looking at the amount of forms exhausted her. Just as she was about to carry them to the office room, her eyes suddenly landed on the prize on the counter.
The vaguely person-shaped pure relic.
Though the valuable object appeared to have been left there defenselessly, it was in fact protected by many layers of trap-type Sigurth skills, which would prevent anyone from touching it.
“Agh… I can’t believe they’re all going nuts over this incomprehensible thing…”
The adventurers participating in the fighting tournament had different reasons for participating, like the glory of victory, or doing it for the memories, but the most common was the chance to win this expensive prize. If you sold it, an expensive relic arma would be within reach, and you could order a new set of stronger armor, too. Since adventurers couldn’t get loans, getting a lump sum of cash meant an increase to their fighting abilities. Of course, those who were capable of winning already had relic arma, but still, adventurers were all about dreaming about getting rich quick.
“It’s really starting to bug me… What’s with this thing’s shape anyway? It looks like it’s mocking you…”
While grumbling to herself, Alina poked the head of the statue with her finger. The protections from Sigurth skills were all ineffective on Alina, who had a Dia skill.
The strange patterns drawn on the surface of the figure and the mark of Dia dimly blinking inside its body were indeed mysterious. But the slightly twisted pose it was in made it seem as though it was making fun of you.
“Hya!”
On a sudden impulse, Alina gave the forehead of the pure relic a light flick. A pleasant konk sound rang out softly in the quiet Iffole Counter.
“Hmph. I’ll let you get off with just that this time.”
Pointing a finger at the pure relic, Alina once again scooped up the heavy stack of papers.
“Aghh, I wish this fighting tournament would end right away… And that I’ll never be put on tournament duty again.”
Creak.
Alina’s complaining was cut off by a strange sound.
“?”
She was about to head into the office room but stopped. Turning around, she searched for the source of the sound.
Crack, crack…
She could hear a strange noise—it was coming from the pure relic.
“Huh…?”
Alina had a bad feeling about this. The next moment—
With an empty snapping sound, the neck of the statue cracked, and the head flew off. Tunk, roll. The thumbnail-sized head fell and rolled up to her feet.
“Huh?”
For an instant, she went totally quiet.
Alina gazed at the head lying there, as if it somehow had nothing to do with her. Next, she directed her gaze to the statue on the counter. The vaguely silhouetted relic, which appeared to have been made without any concern for detail, stood there in its twisted, mocking pose.
But it had no head. Its neck had been cleanly and entirely broken off, and perhaps because of the substance of the pure relic, its neck was flat across, as if it had been sliced off with a blade.
She looked to the floor one more time. The head was there.
She looked at the counter again. It had no head—
“Pyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!!!!”
Alina screamed, tossing away the documents in her arms all at once.
She hastily scooped up the head rolling on the ground and stuck it on to the neck of the pure relic statue.
“Huh? So fragile! Huh? Huh?!”
She was so rattled that she tried to reattach the head over and over, as if fitting puzzle pieces together. She twisted it, pushed it, and put it upside down. But of course, it did not stick on with a clicking sound, and Alina grew paler and paler.
It was not just a figure that was in poor taste. It was a super-valuable pure relic that had been left by the ancients, and more importantly, it was the prize for winning the fighting tournament.
“I-I’ve got to stick it on!”
Alina panicked and retreated to the office room, coming back with a box of tools. They were supplies for some light repairs, including some old-fashioned adhesive made using the bodily fluids of a monster. Alina put some on the broken neck and somehow stuck the head back on.
“I-it seems…okay…but maybe not.”
Fortunately, the crack on the neck wasn’t very apparent, thanks to the fact that the break on the neck was fine enough to have been made by a master swordsman, plus the fact the statue was covered in unfathomable patterns.
“…”
While listening to her heart continue to thud, Alina gently returned the figure to its original position. She circled from behind the counter to the customer side, looking at it from a distance and at different angles, checking to see if there was anything strange.
“Yeah, okay. It actually seems fine.”
She gave herself a thumbs-up and then breathed a sigh of relief. Picking up the scattered papers, she was about to return to the office room as if nothing had happened, when—
“Wait, there’s no way that’s okaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!”
Coming back to her senses, Alina immediately held her head in her hands.
Oh no, oh no…! I’ve done it now, haven’t I?!
Dripping cold sweat, Alina wrapped her head around the situation.