No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

As soon as I finished the report, the receptionist girl pressed her temple with her left hand and quickly scribbled the result report.

Duh duh duh~

“A vengeful spirit spider? That’s not a monster that would normally appear in such a place… What on earth…?”

“I wouldn’t know. Maybe there’s a dungeon underneath the mine?”

I shook my head and replied.

Maybe the dungeon’s energy turned the soul of an old man who died with a grudge into a vengeful spirit and fused it onto a giant spider’s body.

Personally, that seemed like a possibility.

“Last time with the Abyss Priest, it seems like trouble just keeps finding you, Hilde…”

The receptionist girl let out a faint sigh. I had similar thoughts, so there wasn’t much I could argue.

“Oh, by the way, what happened with the Abyss Priest? Was he defeated?”

Wasn’t he called the ‘Low-Class Massacre’? A brutal serial killer who massacred civilians just to create undead.

I had reported such traces from the dungeon I visited due to Amy’s request, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the hunting was coming to an end now.

“Ah, well….”

However, the receptionist girl clicked her tongue and said that astonishingly, their hunt had ended in failure.

They sent paladins and priests to attack the dungeon ‘Crude Catacombs’ where he was hiding….

“The number of undead was beyond expectations. There were even many undead that surpassed wights.”

Could it be that he truly is an Abyss Priest? It was said he had created a whole army of undead in that dungeon.

It seems like it was an endless fight.

“So, they retreated for now and have blocked off the entrance of the dungeon, while requesting our Guild for a large-scale manpower reinforcement.”

Ah, so that’s why the Guild has been unusually chaotic. If it’s a request from the church, the reward must be substantial.

A large-scale manpower reinforcement means they would deploy at least dozens of people, so the risk wouldn’t be that high.

“When does that request start? What are the participation conditions?”

“In three days. At least three adventurers of bronze rank. You wouldn’t have a problem, but Kikel would be difficult to participate.”

So they don’t accept those who are just silver or wood ranks. That’s a bit disappointing.

“Guess I’ll have to find two bronze rank adventurers…”

“Hilde! Is that you, Hilde?”

As I was looking around the request office while wondering if there were any suitable candidates, I heard a familiar voice and turned my head that way.

“Yup, it’s definitely Hilde!”

A magician girl with striking red short hair and faint freckles was waving at me. Amy, wearing the bronze rank badge around her neck.

…Awesome, looks like I found one besides me.

“It’s been a while, Amy.”

I smiled and nodded in greeting. Amy giggled and quickly came over to sit on the chair next to mine.

“How have you been? From the looks of that bronze badge, it seems you have been recognized as an official wizard now.”

“That’s right. I registered as an adventurer right after I got rid of the apprentice badge. Now I’m a proper wizard and a bronze rank adventurer!”

After asking the receptionist for permission, I chatted briefly with Amy.

Did you hear about the Abyss Priest?

Are you interested in joining the church’s request?

How on earth did your armor get like that?

You know, stuff like that.

“A vengeful spirit spider…? That’s impressive. It’s not a monster one can defeat alone.”

As expected, Amy couldn’t hide her surprise, covering her mouth with her left hand and expressing admiration.

But where was her admiration leading?

When I explained that I was thinking of selling the vengeful spirit spider’s byproducts to change armor, she generously offered to sell them at the magic tower for me.

She said adventurers not affiliated with the magic tower get 30% lower prices.

She proposed to take only 10% for herself, and since it still sounded like a huge profit, I agreed without hesitation.

Cha-ching!

◆◆

After registering as a party with Amy, we posted a notice to recruit one more bronze rank adventurer and left the request office to head into the city.

Hand over the head of the vengeful spirit spider and the report to the church while accusing the village chief of murder, then use the rewards to gear up.

Of course, Wolfgang had no share of the vengeful spirit spider’s loot, and as soon as we left the request office, he just handed over the reward and disappeared.

“Hmmm. I’m so glad to have found such good companions. I hope we can meet again.”

Meeting again? That was quite an ominous curse.

After that, we went to the magic tower to sell all the byproducts of the vengeful spirit spider, except for the head intended for evidence.

“The exoskeleton and fangs of the vengeful spirit spider, plus the poison sac… Hmmm, you’ve brought some really rare items.”

Thanks to Amy, we could make a significant amount of profit.

After selling everything belonging to the giant spider and the vengeful spirit spider, we received almost 50 silver coins, and even after distributing some to Amy and Laute, I still had 25 silver coins left.

Laute said she would take care of reporting to the church and took the vengeful spirit spider’s head and notes with her, while Kikel also returned to his lodging citing the cold weather.

Thus, only Amy remained by my side.

After selling the byproducts of the vengeful spirit spider, she suggested we grab a drink together since we hadn’t seen each other for a long time….

“Sorry, not today.”

I declined saying I was too tired for drinking and that I should probably change my armor first.

After all, I was leaving the city in three days to fight against the swarm of undead.

“Oh…? Guess I can’t help it then. There will be other days.”

Amy nodded, albeit a bit disappointed, and turned to leave.

After sending Amy off, I headed to the armor shop to ask for repairs and reinforcement of my quilted armor.

On top of that, I bought a new pair of leather pants, then right after, I went to the blacksmith to replace my broken armor and sword with new ones.

“What happened to your sword…?”

The blacksmith sighed in disbelief at the sight of what was left of my sword, nearly broken.

It was only natural for him to be astonished. I had turned a sword I bought not long ago into scrap metal after just one request.

“Did you smash a wall or something?”

“Pretty much.”

“Hmm… I’ll melt it again, mix it with black iron, and reforge it. That’s way cheaper than getting a new one.”

Maybe it was thanks to the hefty amount spent to get new armor. Or maybe it was due to me gabbing about just ranking up to bronze rank.

That was an unexpectedly generous offer coming from a merchant in this city.

“Okay. Please do that.”

I handed over the scrap sword and armor to him and put on the new armor he handed me.

I heard it would take about a day for the sword to be finished. Luckily, I wouldn’t be late for the request.

◆◆

And then, the next day.

“Ah, Hilde! There’s someone who wants to join your party.”

After I lounged around all morning and visited the request office around lunchtime, the receptionist girl seemed to have been waiting and handed me the bronze badge while saying that.

“It’s not a martial artist, right?”

I asked just to confirm.

Fufufu! “Nope! It’s a swordsman who uses a great sword!”

A great sword user, huh? That’s a decent strength. Anything is fine compared to a martial artist.

“So….”

The receptionist girl continued with a detailed explanation.

This bronze rank adventurer came from a neighboring city, Levant, which takes about five days by carriage from here, apparently.

If it were a wood or iron rank, they would have to start from the wooden badge, but since this one is bronze rank, they were recognized as such as soon as they registered in the Vespians Guild.

“They were rather highly regarded back at the Levant Guild. They surpassed you in promotion speed, and they even have a nickname.”

So their skill must be assured. Apparently, they had no personal disqualifications given their rapid advancement.

It was quite a promising introduction, and it seemed I’d get a decent ally sooner than I thought.

“What’s the nickname?”

Given how positively she described this person, it couldn’t possibly be something like ‘Steel-faced’ Hilde. If they had a nickname, it had to be something commendable.

That means they had something special going for them.

“Umm, just a moment….”

The receptionist girl flipped through the pages of the documents on the desk, and after finding something, she nodded slightly and replied.

“Ah, here it is! It’s… um…‘Crow’…?”

Crow, what?

“Huh? Crow?”

That sounded like quite a strange nickname. It didn’t seem like a compliment in any way.

“Yes. It’s Crow. Crow Siegfriede. They say it’s due to their rarity as a person with black hair.”

Black hair.

It was indeed an extremely rare hair color in this place, Helvor.

While black hair could be seen everywhere in the Far East, the local inhabitants there are completely different races, which explains the contrast in appearances.

Excluding the Eastern part of the continent, it’s quite hard to come across a person with black hair anywhere else.

In the original story, there were around eight characters, including the protagonist Kim Seung-woo, with black hair, right?

It only made sense to expect that a rare hair color would get a nickname like Crow.

“So, you said it was Siegfriede, right? From the name, it sounds like a woman. Where is she right now? I’d like to meet her.”

“Oh, just a moment! Siegfriede!”

As the receptionist girl looked around and pointed to a table in the corner, she shouted.

Naturally, my gaze followed that way.

“…….”

In a shadowy corner with no sunlight, a girl quietly sat there, wearing a worn-out cloak that concealed her face.

Her armor had leather pants with metal plating on top, and a large sword’s hilt was protruding from behind her back.

Her long, messy black hair peeked out from under the hood, and her briefly seen eyes glimmered a deep golden color.

“A child…?”

For a moment, I found myself thinking that way due to her youthful appearance.

“Um, I’m twenty, you know….”

Siegfriede raised her head sharply as if she just came to her senses and stood up, walking quickly toward us.

As she took off her hood to reveal her face.

Shwip!

“Wow…?”

For a moment, I couldn’t help but think she looked quite young, almost like a pre-teen.

“Sorry! I’m… I’m sorry.”

Siegfriede, her cheeks slightly flushed, mumbled an apology, trying to hide her rosy cheeks.

“Ah, my bad. You just look really young, that’s all.”

I quickly apologized, glancing at her up and down.

She was a rather petite structure, looking at least 10cm shorter than me. Her sharp but large eyes shined brightly, while her hair remained unkempt, giving her an air of an adorable yet shabby girl.

…Is she really twenty? For real?

This transcendent youthfulness; at the age of twenty, she looked five years younger than Brunhilde.

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