Chapter 19: Starry Sky 1

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“An organized attack by monsters that had devised countermeasures against Dawn… Is that really true?”

“Are you doubting Gold-rank adventurers?”

“I’m not doubting. I just don’t want to believe it.”

“Then please believe it. This is your job, after all.”

“What a merciless Saint-sama you are…”

Guild Headquarters Chief Marcus let out a sigh and roughly raked his fingers through his bangs.

“An attack on a party belonging to the princess… Something only a few at guild headquarters even knew about and then a fully prepared assault against a Gold-rank adventurer party… And you’re telling me they’re casually Demon Lord Army executive level? Haaah… Why do problems always pile up like this?”

Despair seeped from his heavily dark-circled eyes. He was probably buried in work so intense he couldn’t even go home. I felt sorry for him, but unfortunately, I couldn’t take his place. If I had the education needed to handle paperwork, aiming for Guild Headquarters Chief wouldn’t have been a bad path but sadly, I was basically an amateur.

Haha, it’s not like I run the party anyway!

Fortunately, Marianne, who studied at a monastery, and Carla, who came from a warrior family, handled party management, so I never had to expose my incompetence but the number of times I was sent on errands, bought something completely wrong, and was met with a troubled smile was beyond counting.

『You can’t even run an errand… You’re truly useless, aren’t you.』

Sorry! Sorry, Dark Marianne! Please don’t abandon me! I’ll reflect on my actions! I won’t buy yogurt instead of milk ever again!

But it looked so good, that yogurt! It felt like a stylish breakfast, and I wanted to try it!!

By the way, that yogurt seemed to have gone bad, and after eating it, I got a stomachache.

It was sour, but I thought that was just how it was and ate all of it. A country bumpkin who’d never seen yogurt couldn’t tell good from bad. After that, Marianne never once asked me to run errands again.

…Wait. Was I actually abandoned?

“We already know who was behind the attack on Her Highness. We’ll handle that ourselves.”

“It was nobles, right? I don’t want to get deeply involved. More importantl…—”

“…The monsters, yes…”

According to Her Highness, this incident was going to get quite troublesome.

It was already an incident when the Second Princess, Her Highness Charlotte, was targeted, but what was abnormal was that even after Gold-rank adventurers stepped in, the attackers still tried to crush them head-on. Normally, when Gold-rank adventurers got involved, nobles would pull back.

So up until the attempt on Her Highness Charlotte, nobles were almost certainly responsible for it. However, the powerful monsters and the planned assault that followed were suspected to be the work of monsters rather than nobles.

“Many people connected to the noble houses involved in the attempted assassination have gone missing. When the cardinal confirmed things with the Crown Prince, it was confirmed that the Crown Prince was unrelated to this incident…. So perhaps everything had been planned from the start…”

“Monsters interfering with the nation… That’s a nightmare.”

Currently, the war against the monsters calling themselves the Demon Lord Army had dragged on. They rose up from the western edge of the continent, swallowed surrounding nations in an instant, formed a sphere of influence, and with a force so vast it blanketed the land—led by a ringleader calling himself the Demon Lord and hundreds of powerful monsters supporting them—they began their invasion of humanity.

At first, humanity didn’t stand a chance at all, but once ten nations were consumed, the great powers joined hands and formed a massive alliance. The Adventurers’ Guild and the Esperanza Church cooperated as well, gathering forces from all over the world, and the current battle lines were maintained by splitting the continent roughly in half.

Overall, the Demon Lord Army held the advantage. Unlike humans, each individual monster was absurdly strong. They commanded an endless supply of monsters that ordinary soldiers had to hunt in groups of three. Of course they were strong. The only reason the front was holding was because humanity’s outliers were fighting.

But what if they began collapsing things from inside human nations? If cooperation broke down and countries fought separately… Then it would only be a matter of time before the continent was swallowed.

“…We need to wash this away. Saint of Holy Smite, can you get an appointment with the cardinal and the Crown Prince?”

“When would you like it?”

“As soon as possible. Tomorrow or the day after.”

“Understood. I’ll convey that.”

It seemed the discussion was finished. I came along as Marianne’s escort, but I didn’t feel like I’d been much help. Still, leaving everything to one person just didn’t feel right, you know? Carla trained. Astrea took forest baths. Only Marianne and I didn’t have fixed routines. She visited the orphanage at least once a week, and I made sure to take training and rest in small, frequent intervals. So even if schedules shifted, our performance didn’t fluctuate. That habit had been beaten into me by my mentor, and it was incredibly useful.

Master… Thanks to you, I can survive…

“We’ll notify each country through the Adventurers’ Guild about the escaped individual as well. We’ll do it in a way that doesn’t damage your reputation, so rest easy.”

“It’s a fact that we let one escape, so I don’t mind.”

“If anyone looks down on a party that buried three out of four Demon Lord Army executive-class monsters despite thorough countermeasures, they’re a complete idiot.”

Marcus neatly tapped the documents together on his desk, placed them into a drawer, cleared his throat once, and spoke.

“More importantly, Saint of Holy Smite. A named request has come in for the Gold-rank adventurer party Dawn— …No. To be precise, it’s for the shield role there.”

“For me?”

That was rare. You could say that named requests for me basically never happened. The reason was simple: compared to other Gold-rank adventurers, I had no standout strengths. Despite being fully specialized in close combat, I lacked destructive and annihilative power. I had no problem-level combat ability for a Gold-rank adventurer, but not enough to make someone want to secure me via special request.

Carla had the name value of the Sword Saint, backed by strength worthy of it. Sending flying slashes felt like magic territory to me, but she said it was just one form of swordsmanship. The world’s unfairness was born from geniuses, apparently. Naturally, she was constantly pulled into extermination quests and often went as training.

Astrea was simply strong. No explanation needed. Honestly, I thought she could easily be Platinum-rank. You couldn’t reach Platinum without that level of absurdity. With overwhelming firepower and search capability that worked for any quest, she was extremely popular. She just didn’t accept them. Probably why her promotion was being stalled…

And then there was Marianne, specializing in anti-demon. This time, it just happened that the enemy was a bad match, but even if Holy Smite was countered, she could fight through other means. She was the strongest in prolonged battles. Being able to heal was unfair. Being able to enhance her body was unfair. And she was a Saint, so she was busy with church matters.

Compared to that, no named requests came to me. There were plenty of Silver-rank adventurers with more firepower than me, so there was no reason to hire an unnecessarily expensive Gold-rank adventurer.

The quests I usually got? Ones the guild couldn’t ignore, but that weren’t easy. Ones where sending Silver-rank adventurers risked casualties, yet the rewards were low. Basically garbage quests. Still, someone had to do them. Even someone uneducated and unlearned like me would gladly take them if it meant being useful to the world. To avoid being mistreated by the guild, I had to show I had at least some use.

That was why I normally just thought, “Well, what an odd client,”—but Marianne seemed to sense something off and wore a dubious expression.

“If it’s a named request for Finn-san… Is it escort duty? Then wouldn’t it be better to take it as Dawn?”

“That’s what I suggested. But they insisted it had to be him alone.”

“…The area I can protect alone is limited. Who’s the client?”

This was starting to feel like a trap aimed at me. Big merchants would spare no expense on escorts. Same with nobles and if it were a truly foolish request, the guild would reject it. Someone who could bypass the guild chief’s proposal after a direct notice from the guild chief…

“I can’t say who the client is. It’s classified.”

“Then there’s no need for us to accept it either. That request doesn’t smell very good…”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought too.”

When I asked “Then why even bring it up in the first place?” with my eyes, I felt the sorrow of adulthood in his look that said “I had no choice.”

“But unfortunately, this is a mandatory quest. The Guild Leader, the Guild Headquarters Chief, and all domestic branch heads have approved it.”

“Ah… So that’s how it is…”

The moment Marcus said that, Marianne let out a resigned sigh.

Damn it! If only Marcus were a busty, domineering beauty! Then even the mandatory part of a mandatory quest would be exciting!

『A Gold-rank adventurer like you, born a commoner with no backing, deserves to be treated roughly.』

She said that while slapping my cheek with a bundle of banknotes. A corrupt guild chief who exploited someone low-ranking like me to line her pockets, but she had charisma, a blessed face, and a beautifully trained body. She mocked my defiant gaze, and taking advantage of my inability to resist, dragged me night after night to the torture rack in the guild headquarters basement to break my spirit…

『How pathetic for a Gold-rank adventurer! Go on, disgrace yourself under my hand!』

No matter how I begged her to stop, the torment never ceased, until I lost consciousness and when I awoke, my spirit broken, I declared total submission to the queen…

…Hmm. Kind of weak.

Also, I was friends with the real princess. If Her Highness did the queen play with me, I’d gladly become her slave but she was a sensible person after all, so she probably wouldn’t ever do it.

Place your bet on the scales! Lose your dignity, or uphold your justice! G… grrr…!! No, I can’t do it!! Because being a hardcore masochist is just a fetish!! I can’t throw my life away for a fetish!!

I wanted to do normal things too, not just suffering—so scrap that. The real Marcus laughed loudly and spoke.

“So yeah, it’s not a trap. You can rest easy there.”

“As long as you’ve confirmed it on your end… So? What exactly do I need to do?”

“─A simple escort mission, Finn.”

At the familiar voice, I turned around instinctively. Bursting in through the office door behind me was a beautiful girl I recognized. Golden, shimmering hair. Wide, confident eyes and a face brimming with self-assurance. Her lips and cheeks were relaxed, joy clearly spilling out.

“The quest is for you to escort us during our stay in the royal capital.”

“The duration’s undecided. It could be short or long. We’ve prepared compensation worthy of it, so please take care of us, okay?”

“…The Hero, Arianrod…”

Marianne’s stunned whisper echoed. Arianrod Mona. A Platinum-rank adventurer bearing the title Hero, one of humanity’s strongest. A member of the Platinum-rank party Starry Sky, a chosen one with the Heavenly Saint as her master.

In short, a hero worthy of legend. And… My precious childhood friend who awakened my hardcore masochist tendencies. She strode into the room, ignored the stunned Marianne, and grabbed my hand.

Ah! Her hand was soft and smelled nice! Too much stimulation for a virgin!!

“Aria… You remembered me?”

“How could I forget? I love you, Finn.”

“W—WHAT?!?!?!”

Whoa, that startled me!! Marianne suddenly shouted, making me flinch, and Aria laughed cheerfully.

“Come on, let’s go! Show me all the good places to eat in the capital!”

“H-hey! Sorry, Marianne! I’ll explain everything later!”

Aria pulled me out of the office. In the hallway stood a familiar—actually, completely unchanged—dark elf, exactly as I remembered her.

“Master! Please explain things to the Saint-chan!”

“Haa… Alright. Go have fun.”

“Yeah!!”

Wait! I want to greet Master too!

When our eyes met for a moment, she softened the corners of her eyes with genuine happiness.

Well, considering the situation, I suppose I can see her anytime.

Why Aria  nominated me was a mystery, but something I’d eventually understand. For now… I’d enjoy the scent and feel of my childhood friend’s hand, now transformed into a wildly popular, busty beauty known as the Hero…!!

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