Chapter 16 – The Stagnant Water Was Starving.

It had already been a week since Tiaran and the party returned from conquering the dungeon.

“What on earth is he doing? That person!”

Lucia slammed the desk with both hands! As he struck down and glared at the opponent in front of him, the man, neatly dressed in a suit, raised his hands as if to calm down.

“Calm down, Lucia. What happened? Was he rude in some way?”

As the branch leader of the adventurer’s guild in this territory, he was also the man who recommended Tiaran to Lucia and Asta. Therefore, his mistake immediately becomes the responsibility of the branch leader.

Therefore, seeing Tiaran worried that he had done something wrong, Lucia soon realized that she had spoken too harshly and sighed to calm herself down.

“Whew, it’s not really like that.”

“Hmm? That’s a good thing.”

The branch manager’s eyes seemed to ask her, “Why then?” And she almost burst into tears and anger, but she held back because she thought it was wrong to take it out on others.

“What on earth are you doing? Why are you calling us newbies and giving us strange training?!”

To be honest, I didn’t think teaching itself had anything to do with them. They were focused on developing their strength under their respective teachers, and as a result, it was inevitable that they would have relatively less practical experience.

“You’re swinging your totem out of nowhere while using a marker!”

But the problem was his training method.

“[Laudo…] Kyaaa?!”

When Lucia tried to use Maka according to Tiaran’s instructions, he swung the totem and hit her on the head! I hit him lightly.

“What are you doing?!”

“Stand up straight, rookie! Why didn’t you dodge?”

Lucia, of course, protested against Macia’s outspoken interference in using her spell, but Tiaran’s scolding came back.

“Well, if you want to use the marker, you have to concentrate…!”

Naturally, if Macia wants to attack with a spell, she will inevitably have time and gaps in her calculations. Wasn’t that why there was a vanguard protecting Makashia?

“Concentration is a mess! Your future is not high-ranking Makashia, but a target!”

“Kyaaa?! Did you hit me again?”

In reality, he criticizes her as a target and wields her totem again.

“You will be attacked by a monster or hit by an arrow before you can use the Maka!”

“So! Usually there is a vanguard to prevent that!”

“It’s noisy!”

“Kyaaaaat?!”

Even though she said something that was completely obvious based on common sense, for some reason it ended up being her fault. Lucia had no choice but to avoid the totem he wielded for nearly a week.

“When I try to eat, they run away with the food!”

Even when eating, I couldn’t eat comfortably.

“… Weren’t we having a meal?”

“Of course, I should.”

When Asta asked in vain, Tiaran answered in the affirmative.

“But why can’t I see the food?”

Because there was no food on the table in front of them.

“I prepared a special meal today!”

Tiaran held up a wooden stick with a long rope tied to both his hands, as if he had been waiting for Lucia’s question.

“Why is the food hanging there?!”

The problem is that meat that appears to be their meal is tied to the end of the line.

“If you catch up with me, I’ll let you eat!”

“… Hot?!”

“… Stand there!!”

I never imagined that I would run away with the food. Therefore, they were able to see how touching the food they tasted just before collapsing from desperation was.

“Are all gold-level adventurers like that?!”

As Lucia spoke as if struck by her evil, her branch leader broke into a cold sweat and shook his head.

“Oh, no. That guy is a little unusual.”

“Ha, that’s a good thing. I was really worried that maybe my common sense was wrong.”

When she finally shook off her old feelings and seemed to be sincere, the branch leader spoke intently.

“If you don’t really like that guy, can I introduce you to another adventurer?”

“Another adventurer…”

Lucia closed her eyes for a moment and thought. Although it is true that this life is difficult for her.

“Okay, that’s it.”

Although it is true that he was a bit unusual, I felt that he cared about them by calling them newbies or rookies, and he wasn’t teaching them anything that was completely absurd.

‘I didn’t know Asta would like it so much.’

A few days after returning to the territory, she shared her opinion about Asta and Tiaran, just in case.

“Asta. That adventurer named Tiaran. Are you planning on making him your companion?”

She wasn’t dissatisfied with her fast-paced life from day to day, so she thought she might have to think twice about hiring him full-time.

“You don’t like Lucia?”

“It’s not that I don’t like her, but isn’t it too hard?”

If she hadn’t given him a free day off without any involvement at least once every three days, she might have really persuaded Asta to fire him.

“But other than that, there’s no problem.”

“Yeah, that’s right, right?”

However, as she said, he didn’t have many problems other than training. On days off, the person who was carrying out such a murderous plan was even worse than them and didn’t want to move.

“Asta seems to like that person.”

“I like it.”

Lucia was speechless at the answer that came back without hesitation.

“Well, so! You even killed the Incubus, right? It will definitely help us with our work.”

As she stared blankly, Asta seemed to realize that she had spoken too firmly, and his face turned red and continued her gibberish.

“I thought it would be better to train like this considering what happens in the future…”

“That might be true.”

If you think about it, the mission entrusted to them was not something that could be accomplished with ordinary training or experience, so it made sense. There was also the fact that the adventurer named Tiaran was stronger than expected.

‘Well, I even did something like that. Does she not like it anymore?

Lucia’s face grew hot as she suddenly remembered the scene she had glimpsed a week ago. She was worried that something like that might happen again that day.

‘I didn’t have time for that.’

Because of the exhaustion of the body from the overwork of Lucina, Astana, and Tiaran’s training, it has become a daily routine to fall asleep or do nothing as soon as there is time to rest.

“It’s okay to be another adventurer. That’s how you know.”

“Oh, yeah…”

The branch manager looked blankly at Lucia as she left her office. She suddenly came to me and started showing off her frustration, so I thought she was asking for another adventurer, but she wasn’t.

She then tilted her head to see what she was thinking, blushed, nodded her head in understanding, and then walked away.

‘So what was the matter?’

The moment I swallowed my doubts. She blinked at the sight of Lucia, who had left the closed door of her office, showing her face with a sullen expression.

“Rather than that, are you sure that he is human?”

“Yes? Yes, right?”

“Hmph, that’s enough.”

As the branch manager watched the door close again, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out why she was doing that.

‘Ugh, ugh! I was originally going to ask about that person’s identity, but I forgot!!’

Is it because she has been focusing on Tiaran’s training with Asta? I forgot to ask the branch leader about his detailed personal information because I was busy complaining about Tiaran.

“Ha, I can’t help it. I guess it would be quicker to ask directly.”

Yes, Lucia was able to acknowledge that Tiaran’s skills were excellent, that he was not a person likely to commit bad acts, and that he was someone Asta could like.

‘Why on earth are humans using the names of the fairies?’

However, the unanswered question was the fact that he was using the name of a fairy. Unless it’s a harp, there’s no way the fairies would give it a name like that.

Lucia was convinced that his name was not real, as she had already seen him take off his helmet and see that his exposed ears did not have the slightest pointy feel that could identify a harp.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t plan on trusting you unless you tell me your real name.’

Asta was an ordinary virgin until she was given her mission, so she may have been fooled by her naivety, but Lucia was determined to keep her guard up until the end.

With such determination, I went down from the branch manager’s office to the first floor of the guild.

“Oh, there he comes. Newbie! Here!”

“Eh?”

Just as she was waiting for her, she turned her head to hear Tiaran’s voice calling out to her. She meets brown eyes looking this way.

“Oh my, Lucia.”

“Receptionist?”

Lucia approached, feeling an inexplicable discomfort at the fact that the receptionist, known for her beauty, was sitting at the same table as her party members.