(3rd POV)

「Have you heard about it? That the《Heavenly Eye》seems to have had an audience with the Emperor?」

The Adventurer guild in Fias. Rally, who had nothing to do after the busy time during the early morning had passed, brought up such a topic towards her senpai Tia, who also had nothing to do.

「I heard about it, it became quite the gossip in the streets, didn’t it?」

「Has it been seven years this time?」

「It’s been eight years. As of right now, it seems that there isn’t really anything she needs to appear for.」

As Rally said, for Melty the《Heavenly Eye》to come out, there was usually a calamity of a class such that it could be considered a crisis of the state. This fact was common knowledge.

When she appeared eight years ago, if Rally’s memory was correct, it should have been around the time of the fight with the Vassal of the Seven Heavenly Kings.

Having made a resolution with the Imperial Army and the Adventurer guild to fight the dragon to the death, the《Heavenly Eye》suddenly appeared and challenged the huge dragon. With just two spells, she erased the dragon. That was still fresh in Rally’s memory.

Though, there was a reason the 《Heavenly Eye》couldn’t really take action that easily. Her fights’ scales were way too large and caused too much destruction to the surroundings.

That fight had ended with the least casualties, but the battle developed enough to burn up an entire field.

Thinking about how it could have created a second perma-scorchlands, Rally, who was only a normal person, could only shiver at that thought that sprouted from an unreserved impression of Melty.

Though, to mankind, she was without a doubt a great hero. The name of the 《Heavenly Eye》was so great that there was even a religion worshipping her.

And then, she had seemingly gone to the capital after such a long time. Even that rumor alone made the people grow excited.

「Even though they say that she is a member of the guild, she is just basically letting us borrow her name for it. I’d like to see her with my own eyes someday.」

With a bit of a starstruck face, Tia sighed.

On the other hand, Rally recalled a memory that had nearly faded away.

「I…I have seen her once, actually.」

「No way! So envious…..Hey, hey, just what does she look like?」

「Her looks were like that of a normal vampire. Though, they were enough for a woman like me to be charmed, though.」

「I see. But still, with that strength of hers, I have no choice but to agree if you say that she is such a temptress of a woman that she can even charm women.」

Even Rally couldn’t vividly remember her memories from many years ago.

However, that beauty and strength, that impression had been seared into her memory.

And because Rally had seen that, she planned to become an adventurer, and being unable to give up despite having no talent for it, she ended up becoming a guild staff member.

「Hmmm, even so, I wonder why that person started taking action?」

「I think it’s because drifters had started appearing at the Town of Beginning, but….it seems that recently a number of Named monster have been subjugated.」

「Wasn’t that Red Wolf defeated? I heard that drifters were existences that had gone beyond death, but to think that a drifter at the Town of Beginning defeated it…」

If one became a staff member of the guild, regarding knowledge, they far exceeded the amount known by the commoners or the adventurers laying around.

The existence of the Seven Heavenly Kings and the Named monsters, the knowledge of them was common knowledge. That was why they knew what the existence of the Red Wolf meant.

Even so, having a monster that hadn’t been defeated get defeated, they couldn’t help but be surprised.

「According to the rumors, it seemed to be a kijin girl.」

「I see, so it was a kijin. I wonder if they have registered as an adventurer?」

「If there was something like that, there should have been a notice though….」

「You’re right. If you’re talking about kijin, could that be the reason why Kohaku-san crossed over the bridge?」

「There’s a mistake, I think.」

Unlike the existence of the legendary 《Heavenly Eye》, the《Castle Crusher》Kohaku was a hero you could easily get close to.

With a calm and unshakable mentality coexisting with the total power of destruction.

Her hidden raging emotions within her were also a charm of her being a kijin.

Tia and Rally had actually met Kohaku, who had travelled in many places, and had interacted with her as receptionists more than a few times.

Although still, Kohaku was someone who prefered adventuring alone. Her profile wasn’t detailed enough for them to determine why that was so.

And as for why Kohaku, who already had enough wealth to play around for the rest of her life, chose to continue being an adventurer, no one knew why.

「I have absolutely no idea what the God of Creation is thinking about.」

「You’re right. But still, they are that kind of god, after all.」

The god known as the God of Creation who reigned over that world sometimes gave trials to people and sometimes brought entertainment, inviting drifters and giving names to monsters.

With such seemingly illogical actions and such obscure motives, you totally couldn’t predict what the God would do next, but perhaps that one could be like that because they were the Highest God.

While Rally and Tia were sorting through the documents and chatting like that, suddenly, they felt the guild had gotten noisy.

During this time, the kinds of adventurers who were left in the guild were either those doing strategic meetings, those who had been dead drunk since morning, or just those who had nothing to do. Basically those three types.

Either way, it was normal for there to not be many people. However, the disturbance that had made its way to their ears had gotten the two curious, and they peeked over the receptionist desk.

Tracing the gazes of the adventurers, it seemed their stares were faced toward something that had just come in.

Wearing a rust-colored kimono they hadn’t seen before and wearing a scarlet metal-made accessory, it was a kijin girl.

Carrying a metal club on her back as her weapon, it seemed she didn’t have any baggage, but that was natural if she had a menu card.

Rally, who had just taken a glance at the girl, couldn’t tell what was so special about her, and then the girl came toward the area they were in charge of.

「Excuse me, can I have a bit of your time?」

Towards that girl with such a floaty atmosphere around her, Rally thought something rather rude.

Something kind of along the lines of, ‘there was no “presence of the strong” about her.’ People who came to the guild in Fias to register were mostly those kinds of people who wanted to become famous and earn money. Even though the majority had foolish goals like that, this girl was so relaxed, as if thinking「I was a bit curious, so I came.」

However, being energetic was their motto as receptionists. For Rally, who dealt with rough-looking men every day, just the fact that she would be dealing with a cute girl was enough to make her spirited.

「Welcome to the adventurer guild! What might be you-…..that proof is!?」

Unintentionally, her smile broke, replaced by a look of shock.

The metal plate hanging on the girl’s neck was made of one of the greatest metals, 《Godsteel》, which was made with Orichalcum.

That was a Proof that showed the gods had recognized you. The Proof of Trial given to one who had vanquished a Named monster alone.

For Rally, and even for her senpai Tia as well, it was their first time seeing the real thing.

It was because they were talking about it just earlier that they knew.

That she, the kijin girl, had subjugated the Red Wolf just the other day near the Town of Beginnings.

「Ahaha….」

It seemed she had already received this kind of reaction, the girl could only react with a bitter smile.

Even though she knew she had to do it calmly, because a bomb had dropped on her when she wasn’t focusing, Rally’s mental state was quite agitated.

The reason the adventurers of the guild had gotten noisy was most likely because they had noticed that immediately.

Once an adventurer had reached a certain ranking, they probably knew the threat a Named carried and about the existence of that Proof.

Although this girl could easily be seen as not strong, with just this one accessory, her strength had been proven.

Moreover, right now she also had that hair ornament on. That was also made of 《Godsteel》, and its shine was terribly similar to that of hihiirokane……

Rally, making her head work even as it was about to explode, resolved herself to the core to do her work as a receptionist.

She was exerting herself to be calm. Be calm…While Rally was doing the explanation of the guild to the girl―― Sukuna―― Tia continuously and absentmindedly kept stealing glances and secretly was glad that it wasn’t her.

Fortunately, from how Sukuna looked during the conversation, she had a kind character. She didn’t say anything about Rally’s inattentive interactions and she happily went to choose a quest.

These strong adventurers sometimes had large quirks as a set part of their personality, but then again, she might also be someone with a refreshing personality like Kohaku.

Looking at her as she was moving around cutely, changing her expression as she was glaring at the quests, she was a really cute figure. Although, kijin’s appearances did not always match with their age, so despite how young she looked, she might actually be significantly older.

For that reason, kijin hated being treated like children, so Rally would never say that out loud.

「Oh, this one looks nice.」

The one Sukuna had chose after flicking through the pages on the quest list was the Mysteria Rabi one, which was a quest concerning a rather troublesome to hunt monster.

From a certain source, it was set as a constant quest that must always be out. Although it was this particular subjugation, in reality, it would be a good thing if even one was subjugated per month.

Certainly, if one just looked at the quest description, then just defeating one monster and bringing a single piece of its materials was enough, and you would receive a large reward for doing so. It was a rather extraordinary quest just looking at it, but that was the troubling part about it.

There was no reason to doubt her strength, and Mysteria Rabi themselves were quite weak monsters, so there was no need to be worried for her safety.

It was just that, this monster was on a totally different path than strength, they were rather special. And so, after various considerations, Rally tried to stop her from accepting the quest, but Sukuna had a care-free face, saying things like, 「I have hunted them.」

While thinking ‘whatever,’ she recommended an additional quest that should be achievable at least, but that was all Rally could do.

☆

And then, after just around two hours. It was lunch time when adventurers came to eat, making the guild quite lively, it was once again wrapped in noise. While Rally thought 「Aah, as I thought, it was no good,」she knew that Sukuna had come.

「Excuse me~」

「Thank you for waiting. Is it a quest clear report? Or is it a withdrawal of a quest?」

「Ummm, the clear report one.」

Fumu, it seemed that she was able to clear at least one of the quests.

Well, you could get rabbit meat from whatever rabbit you defeated, and regarding Kirabbits, if she was lucky enough to find one, that time frame was sufficient that she could have found them all.

「If so, then please transfer the delivered goods over to this.」

「Hou~….that’s high tech.」

In the Adventurer guild, there was a special storage that could directly connect to the Menu Card.

It seemed to be something like the Menu Card that the God of Creation had bestowed, but Rally didn’t really know the history of that.

The Menu Card was normal for Rally and had been ever since she was born, but in the past, it seemed that there wasn’t anything like it.

The elderly of the long-lived races sometimes didn’t have menu cards. Rally had even heard that Melty, the 《Heavenly Eye》who lived for an eternity, didn’t have a Menu Card either.

If you had one of these, the concept of carrying baggage would be overturned. It was a rather convenient tool, but because of that, they needed to be treated carefully.

She didn’t understand the meaning of Sukuna’s words, 「high tech,」but it seemed that she had certainly been impressed.

Operating the card to receive the goods from Sukuna’s Menu Card, Rally immediately checked through the battle records.

On the Menu Card’s battle record, it would record the number of lives she had stolen from her opponents.

Since it differentiated monsters killed since the last confirmation, it helped defend from scamming, but when checking it for registration, it only checked the number of 「people」killed, so she hadn’t seen the detailed battle records yet.

If she had been able to confirm that earlier, then she could’ve confirmed the number of Mysteria Rabi Sukuna had subjugated earlier. However, Rally had been so tense that she had forgotten to do so.

「10 Dekarabbit, 11 Kirabbit, 7 Carorabbit…..5 Mysteria Rabi…..5 !?」

Looking at the displayed battle records, Rally unintentionally let out a loud voice.

Since the record from the previous confirmation was preserved up until this point, it had truly been that she had hunted these ones in two hours.

Even though high-ranking adventurers would chase Mysteria Rabi around for several days to defeat them, a mere level 40 adventurer had defeated five of them in just a couple hours.

It was abnormal. It was obviously abnormal.

The girl standing in front of her had the same floaty atmosphere as usual, which you couldn’t really glean anything from. You really couldn’t see her as someone who had enough ability to defeat such numbers of Mysteria Rabi.

Somehow calming down her surprise, since she still needed to calculate the reward, Rally started the calculation.

「Thank you for waiting. This is the 500k Iris reward.」

A huge sound was produced as a bag full of coins was placed on the counter of the receptionist desk.

If you used the Menu Card, it could be immediately stored, but a display like that was important.

Rather than a tasteless transfer, adventurers preferred this kind of showy way of passing it on.

「Oooh~….awesome.」

Actually seeing Sukuna’s eyes become round in reaction to it, Rally felt a small sense of achievement.

To be clear about it, Mysteria Rabi materials were mostly sought after by nobles.

Even though there were comparatively a lot living in the area around the capital, the circulation of their materials were just too few.

And naturally, since the supply and demand couldn’t synchronize, their value only skyrocketed. It was not unusual for someone to defeat a Mysteria Rabi and be able to get hundreds of thousands of Iris from it, that was how valuable Mysteria Rabi were.

And so, among the constant quests, its reward was incomparably high compared to the others, and successful completion would greatly increase the evaluation of one’s ranks. Moreover, your name could be brought to the attention of a noble.

On the other hand, to not meet the requirements would lead to a hopeless disappointment. If an adventurer accepted it by chance and failed, their careers would take huge damage.

And so, as it was a quest from the nobles, adventurers who put even a little thought into it would refuse to take it. Since the general understanding was that in the end, it was better to just pile up the simpler things.

By the way, just by looking at the selling price for Mysteria Rabi, it was not really a wise choice to deliver the goods to the guild.

Delivering to the guild had other merits, which were mentioned before, and with the processing fee already included, doing so had gotten a bit cheaper.

「Then, I will come again.」

「Yes, please be careful.」

Rally, who saw Sukuna’s big smile as she left, collapsed onto her chair with a big sigh.

「Good work. She was just like a storm that came and went, wasn’t she?」

「She really was…..but still, she is the kijin girl that defeated the red wolf right? But even so-….」

「She has no aura, is it?」

The one who continued the sentence that Rally had let vaguely trail off had cut in with a deep voice.

Behind Tia and Rally, before they noticed it, a man in his prime had appeared. The two of them, who had slackened their postures a bit, straightened up right away.

「Master! I’m sorry, we have slacked for a bit.」

「No, I don’t mind. Since it will become busy soon after this, after all. But still, an interesting one sure visited us.」

The man in his prime, called as ‘Master,’ looked at the direction Sukuna had left as he said so.

(Fumu, so that was the oni girl that 《Heavenly Eye》mentioned, huh? It seems to be true that Named are being defeated in many places. So that means that, after having been hundreds of years, there is a possibility for the stars to fall, is it?….Fufu, the drifters sure are as prophesied, I wonder if they can turn over this world?)

Remembering the words of the Hero of the vampires who had suddenly visited several days before regarding the incoming future, the man had a smile within.

The drifters who suddenly appeared. The actions of the 《Heavenly Eye》who had broken her eight years of silence. The kijin who had defeated an aspect of the Seven Heavenly Kings. The Named monsters who kept getting defeated one after another.

The acceleration of the world, it was still just starting to begin.