“Hey, you. Don’t ignore me!”
Kousuke, while letting the voice wash over him, mused, “Oh. A trope,” thinking something slightly off-topic.
Of course, the man was talking to Kousuke, but he wasn’t worth the effort to acknowledge.
“Hey! …!?”
A metallic clang echoed in the room where the Crown’s Adventurer Division’s counter was located.
As the man, impatient with Kousuke’s continued silence, reached out to forcibly turn him around by the shoulder, he attempted to deflect a dagger that had been lunged at him.
The deflected dagger flew towards the adventurers watching the scene, but no one here was fazed by such a minor event.
Without panic or commotion, they dealt with the dagger and focused on the unfolding disturbance.
“What? What do you mean by this, hey?!”
“There’s no ‘what.’ If you intend to harm Lord Kou any further, we won’t stand idly by.”
It was Arisa who spoke, the one who had sent the dagger flying towards the man.
Beside her, Cecil nodded in agreement.
“Whoa, whoa. Aren’t you misunderstanding something? I’m trying to help you guys who are being deceived…”
“Deceived? With what mouth do you say that! It’s you who’s trying to deceive us, isn’t it?”
Arisa’s retort elicited a snicker from the adventurers witnessing the commotion.
“Hey! Who laughed just now!”
Naturally, the man tried to pick a fight, but the adventurers averted their gazes, feigning ignorance.
Essentially, this whole situation had begun when a man, having noticed Cecil and Arisa, had decided to pick a fight with Kousuke.
Cecil and Arisa’s demeanor, which seemed to show even a hint of reverence towards Kousuke, had apparently fueled this.
The adventurers observing this seemed to have their own thoughts on the matter, and no one made an effort to stop it.
Normally, such behavior within the Crown’s Adventurer Division headquarters would lead to a ban from the premises. However, this man had only recently arrived and hadn’t gathered such information from others.
Despite their decreasing numbers, such individuals still appeared occasionally.
Kousuke was contemplating whether to put an end to this when someone intervened.
“Well, well. What’s all this commotion? Trouble between adventurers is forbidden here, isn’t it?”
All eyes turned to the source of the voice, followed by a slight murmur.
The speaker was Gazeran, the Division Head of the Crown’s Adventurer Division.
“Who the hell are you? Someone uninvolved, get lost!”
The man, foolishly confronting Kousuke, began to pick a fight with Gazeran as well.
He likely didn’t know Gazeran’s position.
If he did, he wouldn’t have done something so absurd.
In fact, this man had only recently arrived at the tower and had only recently officially registered with the Crown.
Gazeran, instead of getting angry, developed an amused expression.
Since taking on the role of Division Head, such incidents had become far less frequent.
“Ho there. Quite spirited, aren’t we? Why not take that spirit to battle?”
“…What do you mean?”
The man’s expression turned suspicious at Gazeran’s sudden proposal.
“What, I’m just saying, if we’re going to settle this, why not do it like true adventurers, in battle? Or was all that just empty boasting?”
At Gazeran’s words, the man grinned.
“Fine. I’m in. Not sure if that cowardly guy over there will join, though.”
“Wai-…! Gazeran?”
Kousuke protested with annoyance at the sudden proposal.
Gazeran already knew that Kousuke was active as an adventurer under the name “Kou.”
After all, it wasn’t possible for him to act as an adventurer without informing Gazeran of something.
“Now, now. This won’t be resolved with a slap on the wrist anyway. Besides, it’ll also reduce the workload for the others.”
Gazeran sidled up to Kousuke and whispered this to him.
“If we’re going to do it, it’s better to deal with troublesome matters all at once.”
Kousuke frowned at Gazeran’s seemingly reasonable words.
“And is that really so? Or do you actually want to see fairies?”
“Oh? You’ll show me?”
To Kousuke’s joke, Gazeran surprisingly became enthusiastic.
Thinking that showing fairies here would only cause more trouble, Kousuke blurted out,
“May I show them!?”
“Actually, I think that would be less troublesome in the long run.”
Gazeran answered Kousuke’s question with surprising ease.
“If that’s the case, then it’s simple, which is good… are you really okay with it?”
“Yeah. Show them all you want. It’ll be stimulating for everyone, won’t it?”
It seemed Gazeran’s true objective was this.
He apparently aimed to improve the adventurers’ motivation by having Kousuke demonstrate his ability to command fairies.
If that was the case, Kousuke finally began to get serious.
“What is it? Has the discussion concluded? Or are you coming up with excuses because you can’t win?”
The man taunted with a smirk.
“Ah, no, no. He was being hesitant, so I just persuaded him a bit. Don’t worry, I’ll prepare a place for you immediately, so head there.”
Gazeran said this and gave a slight instruction to the reception.
The instruction was merely to prepare an available training ground.
The man eagerly headed towards the prepared training ground.
He was confident of his victory.
“Alright. Those of you here with free time, you should watch as much as possible. You’ll get to see something quite interesting.”
Gazeran said this to the adventurers who had been observing the commotion until then.
Naturally, most of them knew Gazeran.
Given that Gazeran himself suggested it, even the higher-ranked adventurers, who had been hesitant to move, began to head towards the training ground.
“…I really didn’t want to stand out.”
“What are you saying? The moment you started acting with these two, that became an impossible request.”
At Gazeran’s words, the receptionist, who had been silently observing, nodded.
“That’s true, though.”
“I am truly sorry.”
Cecil bowed her head to Kousuke, who drooped his shoulders.
“Ah, no. It’s not to the extent that you need to apologize.”
Kousuke said this and headed towards the training ground, seemingly resigned.
♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦
As the man swung his sword towards him, Kousuke uttered a single word and deflected it.
Killing was supposed to be prohibited, but the man was clearly aiming to kill.
“Noel, please.”
As Kousuke said this, a light briefly flashed around them.
The man’s downward sword strike was deflected with a loud clang.
“W-What is that? Are you kidding me!?”
Kousuke wondered who was being foolish, but seeing no point in provoking him further, he said something else.
“Is that all? If you can’t break through this light, it’s hard to even wound me. Oh, and killing was supposed to be prohibited, right?”
“Sh-Shut up!!”
Though he intended to speak calmly, it ended up provoking him.
The enraged man, oblivious to his surroundings, charged forward in the same manner.
The man didn’t notice, but among those watching, the ones making noise were those skilled in spirits.
They must have vaguely sensed something about whoever Kousuke had summoned.
Gazeran, standing beside Cecil and Arisa, asked,
“Is that… the fairy?”
Gazeran’s gaze was fixed on the clusters of light floating around Kousuke.
To those skilled in spirits, it must have appeared as tiny figures.
“Yes. It is.”
To Gazeran’s question, Cecil looked at the fairy with tears in her eyes.
It was understandable.
After all, fairies were almost legendary beings.
Even Colette couldn’t summon them casually.
Kousuke, who summoned them simply by calling their name, was thus an extraordinary existence.
Naturally, those present who were skilled in spirits understood this.
Even if they hadn’t seen them before, those who handled spirits could discern the power held by the small figures before them.
From their estimation, they could deduce that they were fairies.
This information then spread to the rest of the onlookers.
Except, of course, for the man at the center of it all.
Ultimately, the man remained oblivious to the situation until the very end.
The man’s name is not mentioned. He’s just a mob character lol.
When the staff were about to step in, Gazeran appeared, so things didn’t stop there.
Incidentally, due to Gazeran’s scheme, the banishment talk was put on hold.
He served as a good stepping stone, lol.
However, the man, upon realizing what had happened, voluntarily left the tower of his own accord.
