The next day, Alina headed to guild headquarters with a large volume of forms to submit.
As soon as she arrived with her box full of documents in tow, the staff leaped up from their seats.
“Hey! The stack from Iffole Counter is here!”
Instantly, shriek-like cries flew back and forth in the room.
“Iffole Counter?!”
“It’s too early! The stacks from the other counter offices haven’t been put together yet…!”
“Please tell me it’s a lie!”
Some of them were even holding their heads in their hands and collapsing while screaming and crying. Their frightened eyes were on Alina—no, on the mountain of wooden boxes waiting behind her.
Yes, working at counter windows during the fighting tournament was exhausting work, but the offices at the guild headquarters, which ran the tournament, had an even more tiring workload. Their tasks in preparation for the tournament were wide-ranging: going back and forth between related parties, sending notifications to all counter offices, putting together the schedule for the day of the tournament, securing management staff, and everything from a strict check of participants’ qualifications to producing the contest table.
So it wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen when a large volume of application forms came in from Iffole Counter, the biggest reception counter in the city, right when the workers at guild headquarters were buried under tons of work. It was just what they were most afraid of.
“Here are the applications we’ve received at Iffole Counter. Please take care of them.” Ignoring everyone else’s agitation, Alina gave a bright and sunny smile. Perhaps this was the dawn of a new hell for them, but she had already escaped hers. She was done. She didn’t care about how the people at guild headquarters would suffer.
“Ahhh…an unmanageable amount, as usual…!”
The staff, with deep circles under their eyes, looked at the pile of wooden boxes, and their pallid faces got even paler.
“But Iffole Counter is amazing, too, for handling this much so well every time. Nice work. Wanna go get some drinks?”
“No, but I appreciate the offer. I’ll be going, then—” Alina pleasantly refused with a business smile. Just as she was about to turn around, some adventurers passed right in front of her nose. She heard their frantic voices, along with the pattering of their feet.
“Hey! They’re saying Jade Scrade is at the training grounds right now!”
“Let’s go. We’re gonna miss it!”
She just about bumped into them. As she watched the adventurers in exasperation, the men at the office chuckled with embarrassment.
“Master Jade has been practicing in the training grounds every day lately. Since he’s one of the candidates to win, the adventurers joining the fighting tournament come by to study him.”
“Ah…is that what that was about?”
“And they’re kicking up even more of a fuss this year, too. Apparently, Master Jade has devised some incredible technique called…what was it again…a composite skill? I don’t really know much about that combat stuff, but from how panicked the adventurers are, it must be a pretty big deal.”
Saying farewell to the shrugging employee, Alina left the office. As she headed for where the carriage was parked, she found herself getting worried about something else.
That takes care of my office work. Now I just need to do something about the tournament prize…!
Frankly speaking, this part was more important.
The worst possible outcome kept playing out in her mind: someone aside from her winning and taking the prize. She pictured them gazing emotively at the prize, only to notice the crack at the neck… Growing suspicious, they would give it a poke, and the head would roll right off—
Alina shivered violently, going completely pale. The search for the culprit would start immediately. If it got out that Alina was responsible, the fact she’d been strong enough to destroy a pure relic would also get exposed…!
“My…my peaceful liiiiiiiiife—!!!”
She had intended this scream to be internal, but before she knew it, the words were flying right out of her mouth.
The next thing she knew, the people around her were looking at her in surprise, and as soon as their eyes met hers, they hastily looked away and strode off, as if they’d seen something awkward. She could hear whispers from those watching at a distance.
“There’s a weird receptionist over there…”
“Aw nooo, she’s still so young… I wonder if she’s struggling with work…”
“…………!!”
The looks of curiosity and pity assailed her one after the other, and she instantly went red to her ears.
“Ah…! Today’s just another uneventful day in my life! Ah-ha-ha…!” she quickly yelled out to cover for herself, making things even worse. Then she fled the scene like she’d lost a battle.
A-anyway! I have to win, no matter what—no matter what…!
Alina clenched her hands into fists, steeling her resolve once again.
On the day of the fighting tournament, she would be handling reception work at the venue, but if things worked out according to what she’d been told, then her duties would end before the match itself, and she would be free. If that was the case, then she just had to show up for the match with Silver Sword disguised as the Executioner and snatch the prize.
Whatever it takes…!
Eyes blazing bright, Alina headed for where the carriage was parked. On the way there, she happened to stop by the training grounds.
There, just as the male employee had said, was a crowd of adventurers. They had come to observe their opponent and see what his composite skill was all about.
But as she observed the rough adventurers from behind, Alina noticed they were not railing on about how they would expose their rival’s weaknesses—they weren’t so much as twitching. Instead, they were completely quiet.
“…?”
Even Alina stopped in her tracks at the abnormal silence. Then she cut through the wall of people, meaning to look just for a moment. And when the training grounds finally came into view—
“!”
Alina widened her eyes at what she saw.
Jade was standing alone in the huge training grounds. Red lights flickered around him, and similar red lights studded the ground in several places.
Standing surrounded by the light, Jade was so focused that he didn’t even see the audience that had gathered.
The adventurers—no, even Alina—all stopped breathing when they saw Jade.
His whole body was covered in so many wounds that “skill training” was an inadequate description of what he was going through. He must have wound up on the ground at many points, as his armor was dirty, and signs of bleeding from severe skill exhaustion could be seen here and there. He also looked anemic, his face pallid, and it was all he could do to just stay on his feet. But his dark gray eyes were blazing with indomitable flames.
This didn’t look anything like practice. Jade was pushing himself so severely that it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he claimed to have been fighting a boss.
“—Converge… Deploy…!” Blood flowed from his lips as they moved, but even then, Jade did not rest.
“Composite Skill Activate: Millia!”
The red points around Jade converged into a red glow on his red shield.
When he caught those dazzling lights, he rocked back slightly. But he did not fall to his knees, his feet never leaving the ground.
Jade’s composite skill, Millia, used Sigurth Blood to force Sigurth Wall to reduplicate many times over. When he’d used Millia during his fight with the twin dark gods, she could have sworn that he had said that four or five reduplications was his limit.
Those red lights… How many are there…?
Alina widened her eyes at the number of lights she saw. There were easily more than four or five, and each had to be sustaining the effects of Sigurth Wall.
“Ngh…!”
She heard a sickening spraying sound.
Blood spurted out from Jade’s braced legs and his shield arm. Alina had seen this before—it was the consequence of extreme skill exhaustion. But even as he bled from almost his entire body, Jade continued to endure.
Alina was not the only one left speechless at the sight. Jade’s hellish “practice” had also struck the crowd of adventurers speechless.
“Koff…!” Finally, Jade released the skill and fell to his knees. By that time, a pool of blood had formed around him.
“…Maybe I’ll back out of the tournament,” someone muttered amid the silence—it was an adventurer standing beside her.
“Huh? Weren’t you happy that we could finally get class four and were able to qualify to compete?”
“I was just going to enter for the experience. I applied without much thought, thinking that it would be good training if I could fight some strong adventurers and that maybe I would win by some fluke… How embarrassing. I was treating it like a game. I’m not qualified to stand up on the same stage as a guy who practices like this every day,” the adventurer said and left.
“…”
After glancing at the adventurer as he walked off, Alina lowered her eyes.
Was Jade practicing like this every day? And then coming in like nothing had happened, to help her with overtime?
…What an idiot…
Her heart palpitated painfully.