Discernment (1)

“…Are you alright?”

“Oh, Sister Lily!”

As soon as I entered the bedroom after hearing from the church priest that Mirif had recovered, my eyes met Mirif’s, who was lying on the bed.

Seeing me enter, she slowly raised her upper body to sit up, so I, needlessly worried, gently took Mirif’s shoulder and laid her back down on the bed.

“Stay lying down. You’re still recovering, aren’t you?”

“My recovery is almost complete, so I’m fine. It’s all thanks to Sister Lily bringing me to the church without delay.”

“…Right, that’s a relief.”

Just knowing that Mirif was safe was enough to feel the suffocating knot in my heart unravel.

In truth, I knew it. Facing the Goblin King in that narrow cave, and with our numbers reduced from three to two, the possibility of both her and I surviving was practically zero.

That’s why no one could have blamed Mirif even if she had sacrificed me and returned alone… but still, she came back.

And it was also true that thanks to the momentary opening Mirif created, both she and I were able to survive.

It couldn’t have been her intention for me to use Mana Blast, so even though it was a situation where both of us could have been in danger if things went wrong, Mirif made that choice. I felt no small amount of gratitude for her foolish yet somewhat responsible action.

“Thank you for saving me from the Goblin Cave, Sister Lily.”

“…Saving you? You got so hurt because of me.”

“Before that. Sister Lily, you were going to sacrifice yourself for me. I saw it, so I know you wouldn’t have been able to hold out until I returned to the Guild.”

“…If the situation were reversed, I would have fled without hesitation.”

“Yes. That wouldn’t have been bad either. After all, if it hadn’t been for Sister Lily, I would have been in danger from the very entrance of the Goblin Cave anyway.”

“…….”

“And I wasn’t hurt because of Sister Lily either. Right after I was hit by the Goblin King and sent flying, your magic manifested, so I wasn’t really caught in that massive magical storm.”

It stung.

Every word we exchanged felt like a poke at the wound in my conscience.

Perhaps because I’d lived selfishly for survival for too long, I had absolutely no resistance to someone who spread such kindness without expecting anything in return.

“I haven’t told anyone else that Sister Lily can use magic. I thought there must be a reason why you’ve kept it hidden until now….”

“…Thank you.”

“It was surprising, but it was fortunate that you could use magic, Sister Lily. If it hadn’t been for Sister Lily there, then I and my brother… no, that person, would probably never have made it out of that cave.”

…Right, that’s true.

From the start, this event was one that ‘I’ absolutely couldn’t clear if I wasn’t here.

If you consider the original work as a game, it would merely be an event involving the futile deaths of NPCs unrelated to me.

‘If I hadn’t come to Ironhod at this time, would Mirif have simply died to the Goblin King?’

Or perhaps she would have been captured by the goblins before that and become their next broodmother. Either way, it was an utterly unpleasant development.

Even if another promotion candidate, not me, had been stuck between that idiot and Mirif, it didn’t seem like they could have done anything against the Goblin King.

And since the Adventurer’s Guild doesn’t care much about the deaths of low-ranking adventurers, they would have hushed up and buried the Goblin King’s existence. They’d probably send a sufficiently strong C-rank or higher adventurer party to deal with it later.

-Grind.

…This really pisses me off.

Ultimately, the fact that the Adventurer’s Guild dispatched Mirif and me to an area whose danger hadn’t been properly verified, all under the guise of a promotion test, doesn’t change.

Lily, the Silent Assassin of Ironhod, is out of service, you motherfuckers.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

-CRASH!

“Guild Master, get out here, you motherfucker!!!”

After confirming Mirif’s recovery at the church and exchanging a few more words.

Enraged at the Adventurer’s Guild for sending Mirif and me into a death trap, I visited the Goblin Cave one more time, and only then, late in the evening, did I kick open the Adventurer’s Guild doors and storm in.

“Huh?”

“What, isn’t that Lily?”

“…Could she even make a face like that?”

As soon as I entered the Guild with a furious expression, most of the people there focused their gaze on me.

Normally, I didn’t like drawing attention, so I wouldn’t have thought of causing such a commotion, but at least for now, I had to assert myself clearly.

…Anyway, any thought of continuing my adventurer life here had already completely vanished.

“Li-Lily-ssi? Could you please tell us what’s going on…?”

“You bastards!! Where the hell are the motherfuckers who tell you to hunt a Goblin King for an E-rank Promotion Test?! We almost fucking died, goddammit!!”

“What? G-Goblin King…? That can’t be….”

Were they truly flustered? Or were they just pretending to be, seeing how genuinely angry I was?

Apart from the Guild receptionist fidgeting in front of me, other adventurers caught my eye, looking at me with disbelief.

“Goblin King?”

“It’s just bluffing, isn’t it? Why would a Goblin King be here?”

“Heh heh. Didn’t she just mistake it for a Goblin Lord?”

Right. That would probably be the normal reaction.

It’s fine. I expected such comments, so I had my own preparations.

-THUD!

“……Uh.”

“W-What is that…?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’? It’s the Goblin King’s ‘one ear’, you bastards.”

“…….”

Its upper body was mostly blown apart, but thankfully, when I returned to the scene, there was one part left that was easiest to prove the subjugation.

During the process of its head exploding, I confirmed that relatively light flesh remained among the debris and brought it. If not for this, I would’ve had to cut off and bring something like a big toe.

Just seeing that one ear, an appendage nearly 30 centimeters long, quickly shut the mouths of the other adventurers.

“What? Goblin Lord? Which motherfucker was spouting that bullshit?”

“…….”

“I said, which motherfucker was spouting that bullshit? Want to bet your head on whether it’s a bluff or not and fight me?”

Perhaps they were capable of some discernment, as the adventurers carefully avoided my gaze the moment I spoke irritably.

From the moment I killed a Goblin King, it was clear I wasn’t an ordinary F-rank Adventurer, so their reaction was natural. Besides, my current class is Assassin.

“D-Did you really subjugate the Goblin King…? H-How…?”

“How I did it isn’t the fucking point!! Guild Master, get out here!! The bastard who ordered us to hunt a Goblin King for an E-rank Promotion Test, come out, you motherfucker!!!”

“H-Heeek, y-yes, understood!”

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“…We apologize, Adventurer-nim. We have confirmed that we failed to properly assess the difficulty of this promotion test during our verification process, and we extend our sincerest apologies along with offering sufficient subjugation rewards….”

“You’re supposed to give that, obviously. Is that all?”

“…Of course, we will also fully compensate you for our failure to thoroughly verify the difficulty of the promotion test.”

“…Specifically, how?”

“W-Well, first, since we’ve confirmed your skill level is sufficient to subjugate a Goblin King, regardless of the casualty in your party, we will proceed with the E-rank Promotion for Lily-yang and Mirif-yang….”

“What the fuck are you talking about, you motherfucker!!”

What? E-rank? They must really think I’m a fucking idiot.

It’s absurd to only get an E-rank Promotion when I practically soloed a Goblin King, and more than that, I didn’t like how they were trying to pass off a mere promotion as a reward without proper monetary compensation.

That idiot deserved to die, but as for the compensation for Mirif and me almost dying, I definitely need to get it.

“Have you ever seen two E-rank Adventurers take down a Goblin King, you motherfucker?! If you have, bring them here, you bastard!!”

“P-Please calm down, Adventurer-nim. Th-That was merely one of the proposed compensation options….”

“Fuck, it’s not E-rank, you bastard! Subjugating a Goblin King is practically a C-rank Promotion Test, I’d believe that, but what? E-rank? You’re really fucking with me…!!”

“Ah, understood! W-Well then, including your merit for subjugating the Goblin King, we will proceed with the D-rank Promotion for Lily-yang.”

“No, fuck. A Goblin King, and only a D-rank Promotion….”

“W-We apologize, but we cannot help it. In the Adventurer’s Guild, promotion to the next rank is only possible after sufficient achievements have accumulated, so even if we fully reflect your merit for subjugating the Goblin King, D-rank is the limit….”

“…….”

Right, D-rank is still something. It’s a two-rank promotion at once, anyway.

Once I get my D-rank Adventurer’s Badge, I’ll be heading to another town anyway, so this much was enough. No matter how pissed off I was, I couldn’t force them to do something impossible.

From the start, monetary compensation was more important to me than a rank increase, so it wouldn’t be too late to raise hell after hearing the rest of their offer.

…But it really pisses me off that they could have promoted me to D-rank from the beginning but were playing games. Someone almost died because of these bastards and barely made it back alive.