Chapter 33
#33화 Rookie Adventurer Bern (33) - Blanca's Resolve
News of the lich extermination campaign spread far and wide, sending shockwaves everywhere.
The evil lich's plot to gain power through countless living sacrifices, and the Guild's full-scale counteroffensive against it.
Even though only the elite of the elite were selected, there were still many casualties, and among them was even the Guild Master, the guild's old stalwart and longtime symbol.
Still, it was fortunate they succeeded in taking down the lich; if they had failed, the adventurers who joined the operation might have been wiped out.
And the testimonies of the surviving adventurers and the rescued victims shocked people even more.
“The red-haired one—Bern. If that guy hadn't volunteered to be the bait, and if he hadn't exposed the traitors ahead of time, we would've definitely suffered fatal damage. Just thinking about those bastards who sold their souls to the lich stabbing us in the back still gives me chills.”
“The adventurer with the striking red hair broke the chains that bound us and got us out of the cage. If not for him, we would've all become sacrifices too.”
“I couldn't see clearly because of that damned fog, but just from the traces of battle I can tell he fought a bloody battle against a bunch of death knights. Even the Guild Master was among them. My vocabulary's too limited, so all I can say is that it was incredible.”
Rookie Adventurer Bern.
A young man who, in less than half a year—hardly even a year after becoming an adventurer—achieved tremendous feats, only to lose his life just as quickly.
Those who heard the news couldn't help but admire his accomplishments, even as they mourned his loss.
They said that if Bern had survived, he might have filled the vacant Guild Master seat—or even become a legend surpassing the Guild Master himself.
“Ha! That's all bullshit!”
…Of course, as is often the case in this world, there were also those who voiced dissatisfaction with that sentiment.
Adventurer Guild Headquarters. A certain tavern nearby.
With a face flushed from drink, an adventurer slammed his cup onto the table and raised his voice.
“He went straight into the enemy's trap alone and crushed them from the inside? He overpowered several death knights by himself? Bullshit. Why not just say he cut down a dragon too?”
At the adventurer's words, a few people in the tavern turned to look at him.
A comrade at the same table stopped him with a sour expression.
“Hey, lower your voice a bit. People can hear you.”
“Damn it, what, did I say something I shouldn't? It doesn't make sense by common sense.”
“Aren't there witnesses?”
“You can just make witnesses if you want. If I say I saw flying spaghetti, does that make it real? It doesn't, right?”
“Hah.”
The comrade shook his head back and forth. He had instinctively realized that no amount of explanation would get through to him.
A few adventurers at another table glanced over, but the man only raised his voice further, as if daring them to listen.
“The Guild must've spread the rumor. They must be trying to create a tragic hero and bury the inconvenient stories about themselves!”
There were many holes in the man's words.
If the Guild had wanted to make a tragic hero, they would have used the dead Guild Master's name instead—why would they bother bringing up Bern's name?
But hatred was never guided by logic.
The man simply needed a reason to justify his jealousy and envy toward the 'young hero' praised by others, and that reason only had to 'sound plausible.' Who cared about the truth?
Ding!
At that moment, the tavern's front door opened and new customers came in.
But the man, already intoxicated by the truth he'd invented for himself, paid them no mind and kept spinning his conspiracy theory.
“If that's not it, then maybe that Bern guy was a lackey of the lich from the start. Wouldn't it make more sense that a rookie somehow saw through the lich's scheme and handled it perfectly only because he was already in league with the lich, and then something went wrong and they both died?”
“Oh? That does sound plausible.”
“Come to think of it, there may not be many skilled rookies, but the rumors do seem a little exaggerated.”
A few of the adventurers at another table nodded as if in agreement.
Among them were people who, like the man who first brought it up, didn't like Bern's fame, and others who were simply going along because they needed something to pick apart.
The identity of a rising hero secretly being a minion of the lich—wasn't that the perfect material for insults and condemnation?
In fact, fewer than one in ten of the adventurers in the tavern were agreeing with the man's claim, but the man puffed up his chest as if everyone in the tavern had agreed with him.
Just as he was about to open his mouth again.
One of the two newcomers who had just entered the tavern walked over to him and asked.
“What did you say?”
“So you're saying that bastard Bern is actually the lich's lackey, huh?”
The man answered reflexively, but then realized that the voice asking the question was not his comrade's, but an unfamiliar woman's, and stopped speaking.
“And who the hell are you?”
She was a woman with light-blue hair and eyes.
She was of average height, and the build visible beneath her beige cloak was slender.
A sword hung from the belt at her waist, but overall she didn't look especially threatening, perhaps because of her delicate appearance.
“Take back what you just said.”
A short, simple demand.
If her acquaintances had heard her, they'd have realized she was barely holding her boiling rage in check through reason, but the drunken man had no such insight.
All he felt was annoyance that a woman who, at a glance, looked far weaker than him and seemed at best like someone merely pretending to be an adventurer was ordering him around.
“Damn you, who the hell do you think you are? Why are you ordering me around?”
“Bern did his best in the fight against the lich, and as a result many people were saved. Stop making wild guesses when you don't even know the circumstances.”
“Ha! His best? That bastard just overreached and got himself killed—”
That was as far as the man got.
Because the woman grabbed the back of his head and drove it down into the table.
Thud!
With a dull impact that rang throughout the entire tavern, the food on the table floated into the air before settling back down.
The man's body spasmed once, then went limp as all its strength drained away.
“W-What!?”
The comrade at the same table as the man reflexively drew his weapon in alarm, but he couldn't bring himself to swing it.
The woman's eyes.
Usually, light-blue eyes carry a cool, clear impression, but the woman's eyes were nothing like that.
Seeing the woman's eyes blazing like roaring flames, he froze like prey before a beast.
The other adventurers in the tavern were just as overwhelmed by the ominous atmosphere, and they held their breath while watching only the woman.
Toward those adventurers, she.
Blanca declared.
“If there are people who doubt Bern's accomplishments, his skill... come find me. I'll show you right now whether the rumor is true or exaggerated.”
At her words, spoken as if she were biting off and spitting out each syllable, the adventurers swallowed hard.
The adventurers who had earlier agreed with the man's words and badmouthed Bern even flinched and looked away.
Even the rough adventurers couldn't help watching their step; the aura Blanca was giving off was downright vicious.
“Ahem, big sis. That's enough. I think everyone here has understood by now.”
As if to break the frozen atmosphere, Renya, who had entered the tavern with Blanca, spoke to her.
Blanca glanced at Renya and removed her hand from the back of the man's head.
Renya handed the tavern owner a little tip and asked him to clean up, and the owner, who had been nervously watching the mood, hurriedly nodded.
The group then moved to the tavern's third floor, the area reserved for booked guests, where the Eastern Branch manager greeted them with a look of utter disbelief.
“Hey, you brats? Didn't I clearly tell you not to cause trouble? The guild atmosphere is already rough these days, and if Headquarters and the Eastern Branch end up in some kind of conflict, I really won't be able to handle it.”
At the manager's words, Blanca answered indifferently.
“Then you shouldn't have called us here in the first place under the pretext of testimony or whatever. Or you could've made sure that kind of bullshit didn't come out.”
“Hey, I was picked as the guide for the eastern adventurers because of you in the first place, so you're really going to do this!?”
“Yes. I am.”
“You know full well what the average adventurer's character is like, so why are you suddenly being so sensitive? Or what, am I supposed to punch anyone who badmouths Bern every time I hear it?”
“If necessary, yes.”
At that utterly unwavering answer, the manager let out a deep sigh.
The manager's head throbbed as if it were about to split, but in truth, Blanca's attitude was understandable.
The person who had extended a hand when she was in trouble.
The person who had made it possible for her to fulfill her lifelong goal of revenge.
The person who had even given his life to save her.
Any one of those alone would've been more than enough to inspire gratitude, or even love—but Bern had managed a clean sweep of all three.
The manager remembered how Blanca had once done nothing but cry until she collapsed from exhaustion over and over, and he forced himself to think that this was better than that.
“So, what's the situation at Headquarters?”
“A mess.”
At Blanca's question, the manager answered briefly.
“We did save a lot of people, and the Guild's standing did rise after taking down the lich... but we lost just as much.”
We lost a considerable number of elite adventurers.
We lost the Guild Master, the Adventurer Guild's symbol and its only Grade 5 adventurer.
We also had to spend a considerable amount on request fees and all the follow-up work.
“There are voices saying the Guild Master was too hasty. They say we should've at least negotiated with the royal family or other nobles and gotten their cooperation or support.”
Blanca narrowed her eyes.
“The lich extermination had to be carried out quickly. That lich had already turned several Grade 4 adventurers into his subordinates and scattered them throughout human society, and he'd also stocked the dungeon with all sorts of monsters. If the ritual had succeeded as well, who knows what kind of catastrophe would've happened?”
“I know, I know. Because the Guild Master made the decision quickly, we were at least able to move fast. If we'd been arguing with those damn royals, we might've spent ages trying to shove the burden onto each other, and the negotiations could've dragged on for years—I know that much.”
The manager lit his pipe with an irritated expression.
“The Guild Master was a man from the era when the Guild still had a strong vigilante identity. So he made the decision to save people first. In fact, many lives were saved through this operation. But it's also true that the Guild suffered losses because of it.”
Hoo. Cigarette smoke wove through the air.
“Since the Guild Master's seat is now vacant, political infighting within the Adventurer Guild will probably get worse for a while. And judging by the way things are going now, the Adventurer Guild is going to become more... 'rational.'”
Rational.
Blanca wasn't unaware of the meaning hidden in that word.
They wouldn't do anything that put them at a loss. They would act by weighing gains and losses.
They would put the organization's interests ahead of complete strangers' lives or happiness.
A guild that changed in that way would probably grow stronger.
But at the same time, it would become colder.
Blanca suddenly thought to herself.
How would Bern accept such a guild, such adventurers?
The kind of person who would take a flower a little girl handed him with dirt on her hands as payment for a request and then go fight a powerful monster, calling that irrational, loss-making act the 'romance of adventurers.'
The kind of person who proudly said that becoming an adventurer was one of his dreams.
Could he still like adventurers who had changed like that?
Blanca thought not.
So she opened her mouth.
“Does a Guild Master have to be strong in combat?”
“Huh? Well, not really, I guess? In the case of the previous Guild Master, it was because his experience, achievements, and so on all came together. But why?”
“I think you should become the Guild Master, Manager.”
“……. ……? ……??”
To the manager, who was blankly thinking, 'What did I just hear?', Blanca calmly continued.
“In any case, the Guild will need a new symbol. Even if there are several Grade 4s and whatnot, whether there's a Grade 5-level powerhouse or not is a matter of the organization's standing. I'll take that role. So please, Manager, aim for the top on the administrative side.”
“O-oh, big sis! You've got a grand ambition! I, Renya, will support you with all my strength and loyalty!!”
“Renya, you need to keep improving your skills too. And you'll probably need to expand the party as well. Hmm, asking Karina to merge the parties wouldn't be a bad idea.”
“Then we'd have a warrior, a scout, a healing mage, a battle mage, and an all-rounder—five people. That sounds like a good balance!”
The manager blinked.
The manager, frozen stiff as the story started running ahead on its own, soon let out a dazed little remark.
“...Why?”
“So that what Bern did won't end up being called a 'foolish act.'”
If everyone lived selfishly and rationally, then anyone who showed kindness or goodwill would end up as a fool.
Blanca didn't want Bern to become that.
She wanted to make real the romance of adventurers he had spoken of, the dream he had longed for.
That was the tribute Blanca offered to the adventurer named Bern, and her own resolve.
‘…Goodbye, Bern. Please, keep watching over me from there, even if only a little.’
***
“Achoo! Geez... I've never had a nasty feverish cold like this in my life......”
[Rather, why would it end with just a fever? Unless you're something like a demon, skilled at soul manipulation and multitasking, if a clone is destroyed the wrong way, the worst case is you could end up a total wreck.]
“Falling off a horse is dangerous. If you're unlucky, a person can die in a flash. But if you land well, it can end with just a bruise. That's how it is.”
The crown prince had no idea, not even in his dreams, what misunderstanding and resolve a girl in a faraway kingdom was harboring.