Chapter 3: Guild Leader

After a quick shower in the guild’s facility, I headed straight for the Guild Master’s office. The spicy scent of cigarette smoke hit me from the hallway.

I glanced at the staff member guiding me, who seemed unfazed, as if this smell was all too familiar. I figured the Guild Master must be quite the heavy smoker and tried to ignore it.

“Guild Master? It’s Rebecca,” I called.

“Come in.”

“Go ahead,” she gestured as I was led inside. The spicy smoke that had lingered in the hallway now completely engulfed me. The room was filled with a thick, unknown haze.

As I pushed through the smoke, the silhouette of the Guild Master sitting on the sofa, smoking, came into view. With a cigarette between her lips, she gave me a casual nod when she saw my face.

“Is it you? The rookie who caused all that trouble?”

The Guild Master was a strikingly beautiful woman with a large chest. Though her face was lined with fatigue and bore a few scars, her beauty and impressive figure were undeniable.

I naturally sat down on the sofa opposite her, and she exhaled another puff of smoke. The spicy smoke seemed to creep into my body, not harsh but definitely strong.

It was an unfamiliar smell to me. The light-headedness made me wince, and the Guild Master chuckled as if she found it amusing.

“Never smoked before? You’re a complete kid.”

“Does it matter? And really, is that what you say when you invite someone in?”

“Invite someone? Who did I invite? All I see in front of me is a troublemaker who just walked in here after causing chaos.”

She blew out another cloud of smoke, making my frown deepen. Instinctively, I reached toward my waist.

But my sword wasn’t there—just my empty, bare pocket.

‘Ah… I left it, didn’t I?’

I’d handed over my bloodstained clothes and dulled sword to a guild employee after I’d washed off the grime. I had come straight to the Guild Master’s office after changing into the provided clothes.

It was only then that I realized how vulnerable I was in this situation. Sure, I could fight with my bare hands, but having a sword made all the difference.

“Don’t be scared, rookie.”

“I’m not scared.”

“If you say so. Anyway, let me ask you one thing. Why did you do it?”

The Guild Master asked me why I had done such a reckless thing, taking on a high-difficulty mission when I wasn’t even qualified, and somehow managing to pull it off.

I remained silent, almost defiantly, but as my head grew dizzier, I slowly began to speak.

“I just wanted to get noticed quickly.”

“Get noticed? Why?”

“Well, just…”

“Just? There’s no such thing as ‘just.’ Everything has a reason. So, why did you think that way?”

“I don’t really feel like saying.”

“Then there’s no choice. We’ll have to arrest you.”

I frowned slightly at the mention of being arrested, but the Guild Master just shrugged as if to say, “You didn’t think of that?”

“You could be a spy from a foreign country hiding in our nation. It’s only natural for us to investigate.”

“No, you don’t have to go as far as arresting me…”

“I have nothing more to say to a brat who can’t even explain themselves.”

Saying that, the Guild Master reached for the bell on the table. If she rang it, the staff outside would bring in the guards.

Realizing what was about to happen, I quickly grabbed her wrist. Startled, the Guild Master’s chest heaved, and I found myself watching closely, biting my lip slightly.

“…Because I want to date someone.”

“What?”

“I… I want a girlfriend. And to do that, I need to be popular… I thought if I completed missions quickly and became a top-ranked adventurer, I’d become popular…”

“Is that really why?”

As I nodded, the Guild Master stubbed out her cigarette and fell into silence. I felt embarrassed. Revealing the desires hidden deep inside me was utterly humiliating.

The silence didn’t last long. Suddenly, the Guild Master burst into rough laughter.

“Ha! So, you did all that because you wanted to be popular? You’re out of your mind. Absolutely out of it.”

“What? What’s wrong with that?”

After vomiting up everything, even the food she ate that morning, she felt slightly better and immediately gulped down a potion. The potion, a mixture of an antidote and fatigue recovery, began to cleanse the drugs and exhaustion from her body.

“Phew, that damn kid… His mental strength is insane.”

The cigarette she had been smoking was a type of drug, similar to a truth serum. It allowed her to influence the mind of anyone who inhaled the smoke.

Since she herself was smoking it, she had taken precautions and prepared countermeasures, so the drug didn’t affect her. But that kid, Evan, didn’t seem to have done anything like that.

He didn’t appear to have taken any precautions, yet he showed an unusually strong resistance to the drug. Normally, as soon as someone entered the room, they would confess everything on their mind.

There was a reason she had been blowing the smoke directly into his face from the moment they first met.

“How on earth did he endure it?”

Francesca, now remembering how peculiar Evan was, began to review the report written by the guild’s receptionists. It contained a list of the missions Evan had completed that very day.

Wyvern subjugation, Earth Dragon hunting beneath the ground, and the defeat of a Chimera guarding a dungeon created by an ancient wizard—these were high-difficulty missions that would normally take even upper-tier or top-tier adventurers several days to complete.

If anyone in the industry heard that a rookie—someone they had never even heard of—had completed such missions, they would have laughed it off. Francesca would have done the same if Evan hadn’t brought back the materials as proof. Without them, she would’ve thought it was just a joke.

“How is this even possible…?”

At the same time, images of a few superhumans capable of such feats flashed through her mind. The thirteen castle lords who had built their own fortresses, the heads of the eight great houses who inherited extraordinary bloodlines, and many other renowned superhumans.

They were all far too significant to be tied to something like the Adventurer’s Guild. If Evan was one of these superhumans, it would make sense that he could accomplish such extraordinary tasks.

However…

“At that age?”

From her perspective, Evan looked no older than fifteen or sixteen—a very young age. It was hard to believe that someone so young could possess such superhuman strength.

But if Evan truly had such incredible talent, if he possessed superhuman abilities at such an unbelievably young age…

If that were the case…

“I need to keep him here, no matter what.”

There were limits to what the Adventurer’s Guild could offer. Whether it was money or fame, it was impossible for the guild to meet the expectations of a superhuman.

However, Francesca knew very well that what Evan wanted wasn’t something material. Hadn’t she just heard from his own lips why he had caused such a commotion?

“A woman.”

If all he wanted was to be with a woman, he would have gone to a brothel. Francesca recalled Evan’s flushed cheeks when he looked at her chest, and the impulsive, thoughtless actions that followed. She then thought about what a boy his age typically desires.

It was love. Not the kind of relationships adults have, but the sweet and innocent feelings that only a teenager could experience.

That’s what he was after.

“Well, that’s easy.”

Fortunately, the Adventurer’s Guild had plenty of women like that. Beautiful women who, thanks to their natural talent, didn’t understand danger or the ways of the world.

As she thought of a few names, she considered who would be the best fit to pair with Evan, scribbling notes on a piece of paper.

Moonlight began to fill the room, casting a glow everywhere. Another night where she’d likely miss the chance to go home.

The next day.

I waited patiently in the guild lobby for someone.

The guild master had promised to assign me a senior adventurer who would teach me the ropes.

‘Who could it be?’

The guild master had mentioned she’d introduce me to a beautiful female adventurer. I didn’t need a senior to mentor me, but if that senior happened to be a beauty, that changed things.

I hoped, ideally, that it would be a well-endowed woman… With my heart set on meeting a beautiful senior, whose face and name I didn’t yet know, I waited.

“Are you Evan?”

Not long after, I heard a voice calling out to me. It was slightly rough for a woman. I turned my head and made eye contact with a silver-haired beauty approaching me.

She scratched the back of her head, looking like she didn’t want to be there. When I saw her, I mentally thanked the guild master.

‘Thank you…!?’

She had a large chest.

Even larger than the guild master’s.