“Well then, see you again!”
Wearing a business smile, Alina watched the adventurer who’d just gone up to her reception desk leave. Behind him as he lumbered off slowly, huffing like he was getting himself pumped up, was not the entrance of Iffole Counter but the exit to the massive, roofed lane of an arcade.
This was the venue of the fighting tournament. Yes—the day of the tournament had finally arrived.
The counters were located at the side of the arcade, beneath an arched ceiling high enough to make you look up. The receptionists on tournament duty from each office in Iffole were receiving the participants. On top of that, weapon and armor shops, as well as repair shops, had also taken the opportunity to set up rows of stalls, with even souvenir shops selling to the audience members.
“…It’s time.”
Having finished checking her list, Alina briskly closed her counter and went inside.
The receptionists on tournament duty also had work on the day of the event. They were required to take the attendance of the participants whose applications they had received. Though this was really just the simple yet brutal task of marking everyone who didn’t make it to the reception desk on time as “disqualified by default.”
Since potential victory in the competition was hanging on this, the receptionists weren’t going to be nice like they were usually and accept an adventurer out of the kindness of their hearts past business hours. Any careless saps who didn’t go through reception the day of could bring their complaints straight to office headquarters, where the results of the match were managed.
In other words, now that reception was closed for the day, Alina’s work on tournament duty was over.
“…All right…!”
But there was still something she had left to do.
It was a far more important job than her stupid tournament duty.
I’m gonna get that victory prize, no matter what…!
As Alina steeled herself, her gaze fell on the center of the circular lobby.
There sat a pedestal that held the victory prize, which was sealed off by Sigurth skill barriers. The large, completely unaltered pure relic, sale value notwithstanding, was filled with a quiet majesty, and the magic lights above it gave it even more of a sacred air.
Yes, that was the statuette whose head Alina had flicked off.
She had to get her hands on it somehow and destroy the evidence. After psyching herself up once more, Alina headed to headquarters to report the attendance results, her eyes blazing.
“Oh, there you are, Alina—!”
Just then, a familiar voice called to her from behind, and Alina jerked to a stop. When she turned around trepidatiously, she saw Laila, running up to her while waving.
“Geh, Laila…!”
“Why the geh? Come on!”
“O-oh, no reason!”
“You’re finally done with tournament duty, Alina! I got a seat for you!”
“I’m going home to sleep.”
“…”
When Laila looked at her like she wanted to say something, Alina sighed. “And actually, Laila… Listen, um… What’s with your outfit…?”
“Huh?”
Laila blinked her wide eyes, as if it were surprising that Alina should question it.
First, she had a bizarre headband around her forehead with the words EXECUTIONER LIFE written on it. On her back was a cape with a giant heart mark on it, along with an illustration of the Executioner, and the bag hanging from her shoulder was packed to bursting with other visually noisy fan goods.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What’s with my outfit…? Isn’t it obvious?!” Laila’s eyes sparkled as she clenched her fists. “I came out here today to cheer on my fave with all my heart!”
“…”
Well, Alina had anticipated this. But still, Laila’s getup was so overenthusiastic that people were quickening their pace around her to avoid making eye contact with her as much as they could.
Totally ignorant of this, Laila clasped her hands in front of her chest and squirmed around happily. “Did you know that I stopped breathing when they announced the competitors yesterday…?! I automatically took half the day off to make some emergency cheering merch!”
Every year, the matchups for the tournament were announced all at once, during the pre-event festival. Laila must have noticed that the Executioner’s registered adventurer name—Levolc Anila—was in Silver Sword’s party. Obviously, that was a fake name Alina had made in order to get an adventurer’s license, but the world already knew it as the Executioner’s name.
Naturally, the fact the Executioner was participating had instantly become the talk of the town. In fact, it was anticipated that this year’s fighting tournament would have nearly double the audience numbers and that participants would be withdrawing, and even though it was still early, the arcade was overflowing with people.
“W-well then, I still have to report to headquarters, so…have fun cheering,” Alina said insincerely as she quickly parted ways with Laila to head for headquarters.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Go home and sleep…huh.”
Watching her senior receptionist depart as she briskly left, Laila giggled. Her eyes left Alina, going to the victory prize figure that was on display in the center of the lobby.
“You should have just said nothing and pretended you didn’t know about that weird figure being broken. You take things so seriously, Alina.”
Even if Laila had tampered with the figure in order to lure Alina out to the fighting tournament…she still found it almost unbelievable that Alina had shown up in an attempt to hide the evidence, exactly according to plan. Though she expected this behavior of the bungling receptionist, Laila did feel a little bad about having done that to her. Still.
“…” Laila squeezed her right arm. The god core lurked beneath her clothes—sensing its presence, Laila bit her lip.
“I’ll be cheering you on with all my heart this time, too, Alina. So—”
I already made up my mind that I’d do anything to fulfill my goal. I’m not like how I was before, after all.
“—Please kill the dark gods, okay?”