And so things happened, and they worked late into the night doing overtime.
From beside her, Jade suddenly murmured, “…Alina.”
“…What…?” She lifted her head, and her eyes met with Jade’s; he looked concerned, for some reason.
“Why don’t we take a break?”
“A break…?” Alina repeated vaguely, looking up at the wall clock. It was already past midnight, and it was true that Alina’s concentration was close to its limits. But if they wasted time on a break, they would never be able to go home.
“…If we take a break now, we’ll never finish…and I’m still fine.”
“Uh, but right here,” Jade said, holding out a form like he wanted to say something. It was one of the documents Alina had processed. Jade was checking her work to make sure there weren’t any errors.
“What…? Did I make a mistake?”
“You wrote ‘I’m tired, everyone die’ on it.”
“…”
“…”
Taking it from him to check, she found that she had indeed written what was on her mind, in handwriting like a wiggling earthworm that was just barely identifiable as letters.
“Let’s take a break, Alina.”
“Phew…I can’t believe I did that… Guess I have to, then…,” she muttered as she stood up, her eyes empty of light and energy. Then she tottered off to the changing room, saying, “I’m going to get some air.”
It had been getting chilly at night lately, so Alina figured she would put on a coat before going out. She opened the door of her locker with a clack, and with her brain still on pause, she put on her coat, changed her shoes, and put on her mask.
Oh? Alina’s hands stopped. The friend to overtimers—potions that she kept in her locker—was already running low.
“Jade…I’m going to buy some potions while I’m at it…” She called out to Jade, then left Iffole Counter, heading to the general store where she bought her usual potions. The place stayed open surprisingly late.
This general store, which mainly sold consumable items for adventurers, was a standard shop for adventurers to stop by before they went to dungeons. They would replenish everything they needed, like potions and rations, then head off to their destination.
As usual, light was seeping from the general store’s windows. Wallet in one hand, Alina stepped in to the general store as though she were sucked into it…
…without realizing the grave mistake she’d just made.
Since her brain had stopped functioning from exhaustion, the outfit she had changed into…was, in fact, her full Executioner’s costume.