Furious Tikona

The main hall of the Noah Royal Capital Adventurers’ Association reached its peak of clamor at dusk.

Xia Ya, Beilixiya, and Tikona squeezed through the crowded throng and arrived at the mission submission counter.

When Xia Ya slammed the massive Minotaur horn, caked with dirt and blood and bearing the brand of shame, onto the counter with a loud thud, the surrounding area fell silent for a few seconds, then erupted into even louder chatter.

“Hiss… is that the one from the Black Forest west of the city?!”

“Look at that brand, Grolm… that thing is no joke!”

“Three rookies? Took down Grolm?!”

“Tsk, tsk, look at the sword that little dragon-kin girl is carrying…”

The staff member behind the counter, a tall, thin young man wearing glasses, pushed them up his nose.

He carefully examined the brand and features on the horn, then cross-referenced it with the mission brief.

He looked up at the slightly disheveled but bright-eyed trio, especially at Beilixiya carrying her greatsword and Tikona next to her with a “give me my badge already” look on her face, and finally nodded.

“C-rank subjugation mission ‘Black Forest Minotaur west of the city,’ target Grolm Broken-Horn confirmed eliminated.”

He picked up a stamp and brought it down on the mission scroll with a thump.

Then he took out three brand-new bronze badges from under the counter, engraved with a crossed sword and staff and the insignia of the Adventurers’ Association.

“Congratulations to the three of you. From this moment on, you are official Bronze-rank adventurers!”

“Yeah!”

Tikona was the first to cheer, snatching her badge and turning it over and over in her hands.

“This lady is now a person of status!”

Xia Ya also took his badge and casually pocketed it.

Beilixiya, on the other hand, carefully put her badge away and gave a slight nod of thanks to the staff member.

However, Tikona’s excitement was clearly not limited to that.

She immediately turned to Beilixiya.

“Beilixiya! Beilixiya! Now! Quick, let me see your ‘Wrath of the Stars’! You promised! You said I could see it after the mission!”

Beilixiya looked at Tikona’s eager eyes and subconsciously glanced at Xia Ya.

“It’s too noisy here, and besides…”

Xia Ya was about to make an excuse.

“I don’t care! Right now! Just a glance! Just one!”

Tikona was relentless, reaching out to pull Beilixiya’s arm.

Just then, a drunk dwarven adventurer staggered over, bumping right between Tikona and Beilixiya.

‘An opportunity!’

Xia Ya’s eyes sharpened.

He grabbed Beilixiya’s wrist and hissed, “Hold on tight!”

Beilixiya understood instantly.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she gripped Xia Ya’s hand back.

With his free left hand, Xia Ya quickly traced several extremely complex, unstable silver spatial runes in the air in front of him.

This time, having learned his lesson from the training grounds, he didn’t aim for a complex effect but focused on the most basic and practical short-distance spatial displacement.

“Short-range Jaunt!”

Voom—

The space around the two of them violently twisted and collapsed.

Just as Tikona shoved the drunk dwarf aside and yelled in frustration, “Hey! Don’t you dare run away!”, the figures of Xia Ya and Beilixiya vanished from their spot as if erased by an eraser.

“What?!”

Tikona rushed to where they had been standing, only to grasp at empty air.

“S-Spatial magic?! That’s the little young master’s trick?! Dammit! Xia Ya von Wolfgang! You just wait! And Beilixiya! I’ll find you!”

Her furious outburst drew the stares of the surrounding adventurers.

In a remote back alley of the royal capital.

Space distorted, and the figures of Xia Ya and Beilixiya staggered into existence in a corner piled with discarded wooden crates.

“Cough, cough…”

Xia Ya leaned against the cold brick wall, his face a little pale, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

Forcibly using spatial magic, even the most basic short-range displacement, put a considerable strain on his current body.

His sternum and arms seemed to be aching again.

“Young Master!”

Beilixiya immediately supported him.

“Are you alright? Was it the magic just now…”

“I’m fine, it’s nothing.”

Xia Ya waved his hand, taking a few deep breaths of the foul-smelling air, trying to calm the churning qi, blood, and magic circuits in his body.

“Just a little… teleportation sickness. That girl is too clingy, we had to run.”

Beilixiya looked at her young master’s slightly pale profile and was silent for a moment.

The two of them walked side by side out of the dark alley and onto the relatively quiet street leading to the noble district.

The pedestrians on the street thinned out, leaving only the sound of wheels rolling over the stone pavement and the faint murmur of voices from a distance.

Beilixiya held her sword, her steps slow, as if she were mulling something over.

“Young Master…”

She finally spoke softly, her voice seeming exceptionally clear on the quiet street.

“Hm?” Xia Ya turned his head to look at her.

Beilixiya kept her head down, her gaze fixed on the tips of her boots, her fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of her greatsword’s cloth sheath.

“You… you don’t seem to like Miss Tikona very much?”

Xia Ya’s steps faltered for a moment, then he continued walking as if nothing had happened.

“It’s not a matter of liking or disliking. I just find her too loud, too troublesome, and… her origins are unknown.”

After all, his original character was a villain meant to oppose the protagonist’s party.

Just the thought of “hating Tikona” sent a chill down his spine.

“But…”

“Back at the lumberyard, you and she coordinated very well. That flash powder… was thrown at just the right time.”

Xia Ya’s lips twitched.

“That was an emergency, I had no choice. I couldn’t just watch you get skewered by those horns, could I? Besides, that girl may be reckless, but her reflexes and skills are decent enough. She could barely pass as a temporary… tool?”

“A tool?”

Beilixiya was confused by the unfamiliar term.

“Er… just someone who’s useful for a short time.”

Xia Ya explained vaguely, then quickly added emphasis.

“But that’s all there is to it. Remember, Beilixiya, stay away from her in the future. That girl is definitely a magnet for trouble.”

Beilixiya looked at the undisguised distance and wariness in Xia Ya’s voice when he spoke of Tikona.

The small confusion in her heart, far from being resolved, only deepened.

‘The Young Master’s aversion to Miss Tikona… it doesn’t seem to be just because she’s noisy and troublesome?’

She recalled the perilous scene at the lumberyard, the moment when the Young Master and Tikona had shouted “duck” in unison, that almost instinctual coordination… and just now in the Association hall, as the Young Master pulled her away in an instant, Tikona’s frustrated yet somehow determined (towards Beilixiya) gaze…

“Young Master… do you hate her?”

Beilixiya couldn’t help but ask more directly, her voice barely a whisper, laced with a tension she herself didn’t notice.

Xia Ya stopped, turned, and looked at Beilixiya seriously, a few beads of cold sweat on his forehead.

‘If I say I hate the protagonist outright, will I…’

He sighed and gently ruffled the top of Beilixiya’s head, avoiding her gaze and looking towards the distant, faintly visible silhouette of the Wolfgang estate.

“It’s not hate, Beilixiya.”

His voice carried an indescribable complexity.

“I just… don’t want to get into trouble. We have our own path to walk, and she… is destined to be at the center of a lot of trouble. Understand?”

Beilixiya felt the warmth of her young master’s hand on her head and listened to his ambiguous answer, which only left her more confused.

She nodded as if she understood, yet didn’t.

“Yes, Young Master. Beilixiya understands.”

She lowered her head and didn’t press the matter further.

However, Tikona’s brilliant golden hair, like a burning flame, and her straightforward smile, along with the complex, inscrutable look in Xia Ya’s eyes when he mentioned her, had quietly left a faint mark on her heart.