Chapter 25 : First Mission (1)

Yuri, who had just woken up from a deep sleep, looked at me and said,

“Water.”

“…What?”

“Give me water.”

The first thing she says when she wakes up is a demand for water. Are all noble ladies like this?

I picked up the water bottle nearby, poured water into a cup, and handed it to Yuri.

As soon as I gave her the cup, she gulped it down in one go.

“…Give me more.”

I was about to pour another glass, but she stopped me with her hand.

“No, just give me the bottle.”

Was she really that thirsty?

Yuri only looked satisfied after finishing the entire water bottle.

She caught her breath, which she had been holding while drinking urgently, and once she calmed down, she turned to me.

“I need to hear the explanation I didn’t get at the time. Now.”

“What explanation?”

“…When you provoked me while deploying intermediate magic, the power increased. What’s the principle?”

As expected, Yuri was curious.

“Emotion.”

“Emotion?”

“…The caster’s emotion determines the power of the magic.”

She looked utterly confused.

That’s right—the principle of magic, which people in this country had been trying to figure out for hundreds of years, was simply emotion.

“…How do you know something like that?”

Because I made it?

…I couldn’t say that, so I made up an excuse about experimenting directly.

“I have a lot of questions… but you won’t tell me the truth anyway, right?”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

Even though she was suspicious, she didn’t pry further.

Yuri got up from the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to experiment. Other magic too.”

“No, you’re a patient…!”

“So? While we’re wasting time, those monsters will only grow stronger.”

“…”

She opened the door and left.

But did Yuri know?

Our team was F-rank.

Thanks to consistent healing, my arm healed faster than expected.

After about a week, it was as good as new, as if nothing had happened.

It was finally the day to be assigned our first mission. Yuri, Luna, Carne, and I gathered together to check the F-rank mission board.

“…Helping with farm work, finding a lost puppy, guarding a food warehouse…”

Seeing the mission board, which was almost laughable, I shouted to Instructor Cled, who was yawning nearby.

“We came here to catch Sarkas, not to farm…!”

“Farming is also important to someone. Not everything is about catching monsters outside.”

Even for F-rank, the missions were so mundane that it felt excessive.

“Hehe… Hehe…”

Carne was muttering something quietly in the corner. Curious, I listened in.

“While farming… can I kill her…? By making her overwork…? No, I should’ve killed her at the last opportunity… at the last opportunity…”

…No matter how careless Yuri is, I don’t think she’ll die from farming.

“Saya, it looks like there’s another F-rank team besides us,” Luna said, looking around.

At that, I also glanced around.

It couldn’t be easy to get an F-rank. Who else was there?

A knight with a massive build was lying on the floor, pounding the ground.

“Ugh…! If it weren’t for those thieves…!”

Next to him, a man was comforting a crying girl with red pigtails.

“My panties were taken too… and the bloodstone bag… Sniff…”

“Angelica… It’s not your fault…”

I recognized them immediately.

It was the knight Cedric and the fire Spirit Master Angelica—the team Luna and I had robbed the other day.

It seemed they had become F-rank thanks to us taking their bag.

‘…But they didn’t see our faces, right…?’

I quietly slipped the panties I had planned to return to Angelica back into my pocket.

…I meant no harm, Angelica.

Returning the panties would be like confessing to the crime, so I decided to keep it a secret forever.

I’m sorry, my friends!

‘Anyway, all these missions are depressing.’

There was a reason I had to endure even these ridiculous tasks.

In the original story, Yuri’s team started with S-rank missions, so we needed to quickly complete missions and climb the ranks.

The longer we stayed in F-rank, the more the Chaos level would rise.

“Excuse me, there’s a mission update!”

While I was staring blankly at the mission board, staff members arrived with a stack of new missions.

They posted dozens of missions, but most were for higher ranks.

“Excuse me… are there any new F-rank missions?”

I grabbed one of the staff members and asked.

“F-rank? Just a moment…”

After rummaging through the pile of papers, the staff member pulled out a sheet with a different format.

“There’s one, but… this mission’s acceptance period is almost over. In this case, it’s usually discarded internally.”

“Until when is the deadline…!?”

“That’s… until this morning, so you’ll have to accept it and rush to the interview right away.”

The mission she showed me was a merchant escort mission.

It seemed there had been no applicants because it was riskier than other missions and there were few F-rank personnel.

“We’ll do it!”

Without hesitation, I immediately took it.

Taking on the most difficult missions was the best way to escape F-rank.

Since there wasn’t much time left for the interview, I hurried to depart.

“You guys. Wait a minute.”

Cled stopped us from leaving.

He tossed a small glass tube filled with liquid toward me.

“What is this?”

“Intermediate magic catalyst. Even if it’s an F-rank mission, carry at least one. Well, you probably won’t have a chance to use it.”

“There are four of us, but you’re only giving us one…?”

“If you don’t want it, give it back.”

That wasn’t going to happen.

I tucked the catalyst into my inner pocket and ran to the interview location.

“…What? We’re just pretending to escort?”

The answer from the man who had posted the mission was unexpected.

I thought the pay was low because it was an F-rank request, but it turned out we were just supposed to follow them to the neighboring village while the real escorts handled the work.

“It’s fine. We already have the best escorts on our side. You just need to stay in the back compartment.”

“No, no matter what…”

“Then, have a pleasant trip.”

The man ignored our protests and immediately boarded the carriage.

What kind of merchant was this?

Looking closely, there were no goods that could be considered trade items.

Could we be getting involved in human trafficking again?

“This carriage is a little suspicious,” I whispered quietly to the others.

“Maybe they’re s*ave traders or something…”

“No, that’s too inefficient for their intentions,” Carne interjected.

“If the purpose is a crime, there’s no need to involve Spirit Masters, who are national assets, to deceive them. It’s like openly advertising to get caught.”

“…That’s true.”

“Anyway, it’s not a shady business.”

As expected, the criminal’s psychology is best understood by a criminal.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…Just, you seem smart.”

I was staring at Carne, impressed, when she called me out.

Clunk.

The carriage rattled loudly.

When I looked outside, we had passed the smooth dirt roads of Semal and entered a rough, uneven slope.

The coachman turned to me as I stuck my head out.

“It’ll take half a day from here. Take a nap with your companions.”

“…Yes.”

I agreed, but this was Armonia.

A world where even siblings could stab each other in the back at any moment.

I vowed to stay awake, even if everyone else fell asleep.

…

I was going crazy from sleepiness.

It had been seven hours since I resolved to stay awake.

The others had fallen asleep long ago, and I was the only one left, pinching my thighs to stay alert.

I thought about giving in and sleeping, but I held on, remembering the bad memories of the carriage.

I had expected bandits or hungry monsters to attack during an escort mission, but it was beyond peaceful—it was downright boring.

“Let’s take a short break here. The horses seem tired,” the coachman said.

Soon, a man in armor stepped out of the covered carriage.

He had long hair and wore luxurious silver shoulder pads, clearly not of ordinary status.

“Thank you for your hard work. Thanks to you, it was a comfortable trip.”

The man handed money to the coachman.

“I’m more grateful, receiving this kind of money as a mere coachman…”

‘Is it a tip?’

I was about to dismiss it as a customary gesture when the man added,

“I added 30 gold as a thank-you to the promised 500 gold.”

“Oh… Thank you very much…”

‘500 gold…?’

500 gold was equivalent to the entrance fee for the Armonia Spirit Academy.

No carriage in this world charged 500 gold just to transport people.

I tensed up and listened carefully to the conversation.

“Alphonso, check if the Spirit Masters are asleep.”

“Yes, Julius-nim.”

‘He’s coming this way…!’

The man ordered someone to inspect our compartment. The person lifted the tent flap and checked our condition.

“…”

After confirming that everyone was asleep, he returned to the man named Julius.

“Everyone is sleeping. It seems the plan can proceed as scheduled.”

“Good. Leave the rest to me.”

I watched his actions while holding my breath.

He opened the carriage and spoke to someone inside.

“Isabel-nim. You can get off now.”

At that, a figure in a long hood stepped out of the carriage.

“Hmm… Julius. Have we arrived already?”

She yawned and looked around.

“Um…? This doesn’t seem to be Hafel…”

“…Yes. It’s not Hafel.”

Swish.

When Julius gestured, two men who were supposedly escorts covered the woman’s mouth and bound her.

“Ugh… Mmph…!”

“Move quickly. Don’t hurt the sacrifice.”

She was taken into the forest by the men, and Julius followed slowly, saying to the coachman,

“You can leave now. Please keep what you saw today a secret.”

“Of, of course.”

It was all so confusing. What was going on?

It seemed the man had no intention of harming us, but it didn’t look like the woman had consented to being taken away.

My conscience wouldn’t allow me to ignore it.

‘…I’m going crazy with this nosy habit of mine.’

In the end, I jumped off the carriage before it could get farther away.

The carriage carrying my teammates gradually shrank in the distance and disappeared from sight.

‘…Let’s go.’

Using my experience as a thief, I began to follow them, silencing my footsteps as I moved.