No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

“Request? I’m all for it!”

I nodded and plopped onto the chair opposite the receptionist.

Honestly, getting a request aimed at a rusty adventurer like me was more bizarre than rare.

Why, you ask?

Because when someone specifically picks someone for a job, they usually choose a well-known, high-ranking adventurer. Not a nobody like me!

“So, what’s the job?”

But such doubts could wait until after I heard the details. First things first!

◆◆

According to the receptionist lady, there are two kinds of directed requests.

The first is when a famous adventurer is named to take on a job (the official definition), and the second is when the guild selects and recommends suitable adventurers based on the client’s requirements.

In my case, it was the latter.

They didn’t specifically choose me, Hilde; it was just that I happened to fit the client’s demands the best!

All thanks to the new mid-tier dungeons, most adventurers above my rank had run off to that direction, leaving me as the only qualified person available.

Of course, there were other adventurers who weren’t in the silver or gold ranks—but they were considered too valuable to be dispatched for such a mundane request.

“It’s a directive from the lord. ‘To be prepared for emergencies, keep a certain number of adventurers on standby.’ That’s the principle, so the ones left can’t be dispatched. They shouldn’t, either.”

…I had no idea such principles existed.

The internal affairs of the Adventurers Guild were nothing more than a trivial setting not even mentioned in the original story.

Anyway, since they couldn’t mobilize any silver adventurers, I had to form a party with only bronze adventurers…

“Still, isn’t that just our situation? The client wouldn’t understand, right?”

Naturally, the client protested strongly.

No matter how few people there were, sending just three bronze adventurers was ludicrous.

“It was a tough situation. If it was a small village chief or an ordinary city dweller, we could have soothed them, but the client this time was an apprentice wizard from the mage tower.”

It was a troublesome situation for the guild as well.

If it were a wandering mage without an affiliation, it wouldn’t be a problem, but crossing paths with a mage from the tower could turn the aftermath into a big headache.

Those mage tower folks, they might call themselves a “tower,” but in reality, they were just a cartel.

They monopolized the production and distribution of magical items like potions and scrolls.

They held the sales rights of essential items for adventurers, and the moment you crossed them, they’d bomb you with price hikes—a truly nefarious bunch!

So when an apprentice mage from the tower made a fuss, could they really respond with principles and tell them to quit if they didn’t like it?

– Did you just disrespect our apprentice? You disrespected the tower? Wanna taste doubled potion prices?

It was obvious they’d react that way.

…But they couldn’t just disregard the lord’s directive, so the receptionist staff had no choice but to sweat it out.

At that moment, our receptionist lady stepped forward and skillfully persuaded the apprentice mage client.

She passionately recommended the greatest stronghold among the bronze adventurers, me, Hilde!

While the pay was for a bronze-level adventurer, my skills were at least as good as a silver-grade and my success rate for requests was a whopping 90%!

Not that I mentioned the 40% party death rate…

“Um… is that really okay?”

It felt like I was selling a faulty product, hiding the negatives and only highlighting the positives, but hey, that was just me!

“As long as Hilde doesn’t cause any trouble.”

Well, I didn’t worry about that.

A mage belonging to the tower wouldn’t suddenly turn on us like some bandit.

I’m not some bloodthirsty killer, and I wouldn’t just throw decent party members to their doom for no reason.

I’d only defend myself against those who attacked me!

…Sometimes my self-defense might have been a bit excessive, but that’s a different story.

◆◆

After explaining the situation, the receptionist continued with the details of the request.

“The client is an apprentice mage named Amy. She needs adventurers to protect her while she explores a lower-tier dungeon.”

Exploring a lower-tier dungeon—a surprisingly mundane request.

“That’s all? For such a task, I doubt she’d even need silver adventurers…”

Honestly, with just three bronze adventurers, we’d be more than fine.

“Ah, well, there’s a high chance that a magical tome is kept in the lower tier. If that’s the case, the monsters in the dungeon would be influenced by the tome’s magic and be a tad stronger than usual.”

So, a dungeon containing a magical tome.

That made sense. In the original work, dungeons where tomes dropped were indeed a bit tougher than others.

“The request seems alright, but how’s the party composition? It’s not just me and the client, right?”

If that were the case, I’d have to decline outright.

If it were just a wild monster hunt, I could manage, but exploring a dungeon requires at least a four-person party.

“Of course! I wouldn’t do that. I’ve already recruited a priest and a warrior. They’ve been carefully selected based on their experience, so you can rest assured.”

One priest and one warrior—not a bad setup.

While lacking a ranger made it a bit vulnerable to ambushes, on the flip side, we could heal right away if anyone got hurt.

“What are their names?”

“The priest is named Bolton. The warrior is… hmm, Kikel Greg? Yes, Kikel Greg indeed.”

“K-whatever?”

How could someone have a name like Kikel Greg?

It was genuinely a bizarre name.

Whoever that person was, their parent must have been suffering from a brutal flu when they named him!

There’s no way a name like that could come from normal circumstances.

“Kikel Greg. It’s a unique name! But he has solid experience.”

The receptionist chuckled lightly and shrugged.

Well, whatever; what mattered was skill and character.

As someone who constantly ran into bandits, I’d be more than content as long as my teammates were human enough!

◆◆

…There was a time I thought that way, too.

The following morning, I geared up for dungeon exploration and headed to the request office, where I met the priest and warrior waiting for me.

“Ah, are you Hilde? Nice to meet you. I’m Bolton.”

The priest of the goddess’s church, Bolton, was a man with brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard.

He looked to be in his early twenties. On his unadorned black priest robe, the adventurer badge made of steel and a holy rosary dangled.

I couldn’t judge his skills or personality just yet; however, at least he seemed decent at first glance.

On the other hand, the warrior was…

“Kakak!”

This one had a rather unsettling laugh.

His appearance was even more shocking.

“Hello, human woman! I am Kikel Greg! Warrior of the Aden Swamp!”

“…Uh…”

Before the bewildered introduction of Kikel Greg, I could only nod dumbly, unable to articulate any words.

He looked to be at least 180 cm tall.

His legs bent at odd angles.

His arms were scaled, equipped with sharp claws.

And to top it off, he had a reptilian head adorned with horns.

A lizardman—I never expected to encounter a non-human being up North.

Oh my.

I should have guessed from the name; it wasn’t human at all—it was beyond my imagination!

“Hey, human! Aren’t you going to greet me? Greeting is important. People often kill people. So you must maintain etiquette!”

As I was dumbfounded, staring at his lizard face, he started lecturing me on manners while sticking out his tongue and hissing.

It was incredibly difficult to understand him due to the bizarre metallic sounds mixed in with his speech.

“Oh, right. My apologies. It’s just that you’re my first lizardman encounter.”

People must keep manners with each other. No arguing that this was an undeniable truth, so I simply apologized, nodding my head lightly.

“I’m a bronze-level warrior, Hilde. Nice to meet you, Bolton, Kikel Greg.”

“Likewise! It’s a pleasure!”

“I’m Kikel Greg!”
The lizardman corrected me, insisting his name was Kikel, not Kikel Greg.

Was that really worth correcting?

With a lizard face making expressions hard to read and such a bizarre way of speaking, it became tough for me to grasp his intentions.

“Oh, right. Ki-Kikel Greg.”

“Kakak! Is human pronunciation hard? I understand! I’m the same; human language is hard!”

But at least it was clear that his “kakak” was a laughing sound.

“Kakak! Kakak!”

…Probably.

◆◆

Since the apprentice mage who made the request hadn’t arrived at the office yet, the three of us sat around the table, chatting casually while we waited for her.

Though it was casual talk, instead of delving into personal lives, most questions were regarding each other’s gear and combat styles.

For instance—

“Bolton, are you aiming to be a Paladin?”

I pointed at the long spear Bolton held like a staff and asked.

A priest with a spear? That was not just a rare combination—it was honestly the first time I’d come across such a fundamental mismatch!

However, a Paladin wielding a spear was a different story. That was a classic combo overflowing with fundamental strengths!

“Haha, not at all. This is just for self-defense.”

Naturally, Bolton wasn’t aspiring to be a Paladin.

It was pretty obvious. If he were aiming for that, he’d have been wearing armor instead of just a priest robe.

His spear was merely for defense in case he ran out of divine miracles or if an enemy ambushed us unexpectedly.

“Don’t priests usually wield maces or something?”

I asked him back.
A mace is the standard side weapon for priests. It just made sense!

“Haha. Maces are too brutal, don’t you think?”

Bolton chuckled awkwardly as he replied.

“When I tried to ‘rehabilitate’ a pickpocket with one, both his eyeballs popped out, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. So I switched to a spear instead.”

“Excuse me?”

What the freak was that?

I stared at him in disbelief.

You don’t say such things casually, especially not while laughing!

Did he just smash a kid’s head with a mace? Just for stealing, no less?

This guy was crazy.
If one were to punish a thief, wouldn’t cutting off their hands suffice? How could one just smash their head without a second thought?

“Uh… wasn’t that a bit excessive?”

I know I tend to go overboard, but even I found that hard to digest.

“That might be how you see it, Hilde. However, what supersedes worldly laws is upholding the doctrine of our order. The principle is that anyone who covets a priest’s possessions deserves to have their head smashed.”

Bolton said this with a smile that overflowed with kindness.

Well, that doctrine sure sounded savage!

I’d heard tales of the fanatics from the goddess’s church being a hundred times scarier than the mage tower cartel—and it seemed those tales had merit.

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