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–––Camille’s viewpoint.

My name is Camille. I used to be an adventurer, but now I’m a receptionist for the guild. The word ‘receptionist’ might carry the connotation of a young girl, but the guild is so short-handed with staff that they hired an old lady like myself. I felt really depressed at first when I quit being an adventurer, but now, I feel like my life is fulfilled being able to work for my beloved husband and children.

The guild has another receptionist. Her name is Miranda, though she was staying home today resting. As I was busy handling all the work by myself, a beautiful girl like none I had seen until then entered the guild.

She had shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes like gems. Her well-defined features were more perfect than those of the noble families, and even though she still looked fairly young, her manners carried a certain solemnity to them. Facing a girl loved by the gods in such a way shocked everyone in the guild, including me, for a few seconds.

Her name was Lapis, and according to two adventurers I was familiar with, Ciel and Karin, she had relied on them to bring her to the city. Apparently she was looking for work at the guild. Hearing that, I felt like the gods themselves had granted me this gift. That was the only way I could think about it. After all, my workload remained the same no matter how hard I worked for the guild, and now she wished to work at the guild, not as an adventurer but a receptionist. On top of that, she was really cute. By that point, without thinking, I raised a prayer of thanks to the God of Commerce Trod.

However, whether or not she would get hired was still hard to say. After all, the guild only employed people who had already built a good reputation as adventurers. If a regular person without any record of themselves applied, they would face a harsh test, and would only be accepted if they passed it. There was a written exam which consisted of absurdly obscure history and overly complicated math problems, which would be largely unsolvable without any serious preparation.

On the other side, there was also a practical test which was basically a match against the guild master, and one only passed if he was satisfied with their strength. Our current guild master, Krieck, built his reputation working as an adventurer since he was very young, and there was one time he was even recommended to the royal knights. Though he refused saying he had no interest in other things apart from adventuring… But either way, Krieck was at least strong enough for that. Lapis did not look like she would be able to put up a fight against Krieck, so I assumed she would have no choice but to do her best in the written test.

I had already halfway given up on my hopes for her when I saw Krieck and Lapis return from the guild’s training grounds. I really felt like the situation had taken the worst course when I saw Krieck’s exhausted face but…Lapis had surprisingly passed. And through the practical test no less. I figured she was a magic user since Ciel had brought her, but now the evidence suggested that assumption was wrong. Though, later on I would learn from Krieck that she was able to use magic as well. In the test, she had only used one sword though. He also said that he felt like there was nothing he could do against her, so if I was pitted against her, it would be impossible for me to win. In the end, it was best to never judge a book by its cover.

In any case, the guild was able to enroll a capable and cute receptionist, so it was the result I had been cheering for the most.

When I arrived at the guild the next day, Lapis was already there. I was told she had arrived at around the same time Krieck normally did, and had been cleaning the place. She really was a good girl. There was also a boy named Abel who had been a practice dummy for her, so now she knew how to register new adventurers without me having to teach her. I had absolutely no complaints about her.

“Now everyone, let’s start another day at work.”

As Krieck opened the doors, the line of adventurers that had been waiting outside rushed inside. I was already used to seeing that scene play out every day, but it was Lapis’ first time here, so she looked taken aback.

“Lapiz~ We normally don’t get all that many new registrations, so can you take care of those for me?”
“Yes!”
“Nice, I’ll be counting on you then. Just try to stay calm and don’t rush. Tell me if you need help with something you don’t understand yet.”

We quickly divided the workload between us. She politely greeted every person she attended. Most of the people who came to register were young boys who came from the countryside, so there were many times when their nervousness derailed their conversation with Lapis, but she followed along with a patient smile. Seeing that, I thought she would be able to take care of registrations completely on her own. After a while working like that, she called me. At first, I thought she had run into some sort of trouble, but I was quickly proven wrong.

“Camille, there are no more people who want to register so let me help here. If I understood correctly, when someone comes with a request, we write it down in these papers and check their plates just in case, right?”
“Ah, yeah…that’s correct.”

That surprised me. She had already grasped how to work just from watching me. She was really good at learning new things.

“Hey you missy! The payment is incomplete! I was promised 2000 silver coins but I only got 1800!”

An adventurer I had just paid and had left the guild, stormed back inside and immediately began screaming at Lapis. There were people like him every now and then. They would get paid the correct amount they were owed, then they would leave before returning shortly after making claims of incomplete payments and demand more money from the guild.

And not only would they keep with their unreasonable demands, but if a regular girl doing paperwork had to confront a forceful adventurer, sometimes they would be forced to give in to their demands even if they hated it. I wanted to run over and help her out, but I already had my hands full with other adventurers. Since she just barely started working here, dealing with him might prove to be difficult–––but once again my guesses were proven completely wrong.

“I see. Can I take a look at your plate then? As well as the money you received earlier. I’ll cross reference them with the records of the quest you took.”
“I just got it from that woman over there! You can easily check with her!”
“Please show me your plate and the money. I can’t issue any payment without checking everything first.”
“What are you trying to say?! Are you insinuating I’m a liar?!”

Lapis looked completely calm, even though the adventurer was yelling, sending spit flying through the air. I was really amazed, she did not look fazed at all. Her appearance did not seem that way, but she really had steel nerves.

“I don’t know if you’re a liar or not, but even that can easily be proven if you just show me what I requested.”
“I don’t care, just pay me what you owe me! This is all the guild’s mistake after all!”

It was useless. He refused to listen. Or rather, he was pretending to not understand, trying to force his way to the money. If she could hold on for just a little longer, I would go help her out and free her from that rude adventurer…

By the time I was free and rolling up my sleeves to confront him myself, a sudden feeling of oppression hit my body. It was…a feeling anyone who had been an adventurer was familiar with, bloodthirst. An aura so intense I stood still as if a spear of ice had been stabbed through my spine. Even when I went with multiple adventurer parties to slay strong monsters, I had never felt anything close to this.

Cold sweat began sprouting from all over my body. My limbs felt like they were tied with strong shackles, unable to move, so only my eyes followed my commands. Looking around, I saw that all the other adventurers in the guild were in a similar situation as mine. They all trembled in fear, their eyes focused on a single spot. And that spot was obviously, as I had expected, Lapis.