Your Name—

“All right, then we’re going in, Lazaar.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll be beside you.”

Tooyama looked up at the circular building.

It was wooden, maybe what they called a longhouse? It was a large building constructed like an upside-down ship.

On the walls and roof of the building, shields, swords, and the bones of creatures he had never seen before were clearly displayed as ornaments.

“Excuse us.”

He opened the door to the Adventurers’ Guild, carrying a subtle nervous excitement similar to when opening the door of a restaurant he was entering for the first time.

There, just as expected, the scene Tooyama had imagined spread out before him.

“Order! Please line up in order!”

“I got a request! Collecting giant boar tusks! This one’s mine!”

Energy.

Though it was morning, the strong smell of beer filled the air, along with the crackling sound of meat fat bursting over a fire.

“That new shop in the pleasure district I went to the other day was great. Hehehe, there were tons of cute beastfolk girls.”

“Nah, more importantly, there’s a place called Rain Inn that’s good. The women are first-rate, and the system’s fresh too. They’ve got this reverse-request system.”

If he listened closely, he could hear vulgar talk. Hot-blooded types had deep ties to the pleasure district.

“We depart as soon as the equipment check is complete. We’ll use the adventurer slaves waiting outside as bait to lure out the Velour Force in the forest region.”

“Got it. Wonder how many’ll survive.”

A wide variety. Babel Island had also been a melting pot where all sorts of races gathered, but this place was on another level.

Because—

“Mrr, it suddenly got kinda humid… My fur’s getting sticky.”

“Hohoho, my beard feels damp too. I wonder if rain is coming.”

“That oil released the other day was good. Made my tail shine differently.”

There were many people who, though Tooyama did not know whether he could call them demihumans, were clearly far removed from the Homo sapiens he knew.

Beastfolk with animal ears and tails.

Short, muscular old men with rich beards, probably dwarves.

Plainly short people whose faces looked like adult hobbits.

Tooyama’s eyes shone at the sight of pure fantasy.

For a man who had immersed himself in everything from classic fantasy like The Lord of the Rings and the like to the light novel and web novel fantasy that became popular from the 2010s through the 2020s, it was basically an amusement park.

They were drinking liquor from cups like horns. He wanted one.

He could not help being excited.

“Damn. Dwarves, hobbits, and beastfolk. If there are elves too, that’ll complete the set.”

“Haha, there probably aren’t any pure elves, but there should be plenty of half-elves. Naruhito, is this your first time at a Guild?”

Lazaar spoke to Tooyama, whose eyes were sparkling.

“I went to similar places often. But still, I didn’t expect it to be this noisy from morning.”

“Yeah, because diligent adventurers and newcomers gather in large numbers at this hour. Everyone is desperate to get even slightly better-paying requests.”

They proceeded from the entrance and stepped inside the building.

There were lit chandeliers, a dining space lined with tables and chairs, a large board with request forms posted on it, and a reception area divided by glass like a bank.

The Adventurers’ Guild. When he had visited yesterday, he had not had the time to observe it.

The more he looked around, the more excited he became.

“Amazing. It feels like I came to a theme park… But I have no intention of charging into that scuffle.”

Tooyama looked over the extremely crowded reception area. It was like a hugely popular attraction being mobbed by people with terrible manners.

They were fighting over papers that looked like request forms, stealing each other’s turns, and anything else went in the great melee.

Tooyama disliked many things. Crowds were one of them.

“Yeah, registration will probably take time too. Hmm, but as expected of Agatra’s Adventurers’ Guild. The energy here is different.”

Lazaar placed a hand on his long chin and hummed thoughtfully.

Thud. Lazaar’s body staggered.

“Hey, what’re you bastards standing around for? You’re in the way! Move.”

It was probably on purpose. A large man who had bumped into him from behind began shouting, spitting as he did.

“Oh, sorry about that.”

“Ugh, a Lizardonian? Hmph, there’s nothing here for you to steal, you know. Ptooey.”

Lazaar calmly apologized, but the large man looked down at him as though looking at something filthy and spat at Lazaar’s feet.

“…I have no intention of causing trouble. I’m sorry. Naruhito, let’s go.”

Even against the insult, Lazaar’s expression did not change. He had come to the Adventurers’ Guild to earn money. Not to cause trouble.

The Lizardonian, who had learned how to suppress his emotions, lowered his head to escape from the large man’s sight.

Unfortunately, however, this wise Lizardonian’s friend did not do that sort of thing. He was not wise. His head was a Happy Meal.

“You okay with that, Lazaar? He’s the dullard who bumped into you in the first place. Looks like he’s also an idiot who can’t even see in front of him.”

Tooyama was the type who preferred killing things that annoyed him over killing his emotions.

He insulted the large man loudly enough to be clearly heard.

“Huh? What’d you say?”

The long-haired large man’s eyes twitched, veins rising in them.

An iron breastplate, fur trousers, and a sword at his waist. He was unmistakably a rough adventurer.

Tooyama looked up at the man, who was about two heads taller than him, and appraised him.

“…Naruhito, you’re doing that again… I apologize for my companion. He only just came to the city and is unfamiliar with it. Please forgive his rude— Ugh.”

Thump.

The large man’s fist struck Lazaar in the pit of the stomach. Unable to endure it, Lazaar bent over in pain and dropped to one knee.

All right, let’s kill him. Tooyama’s switch flipped abnormally easily.

“You’re babbling too damn much! Lizard! Hey, you in the robe! What did you call me?! A dullard?”

“…You okay, Lazaar?”

Ignoring the spitting man, Tooyama lent Lazaar a hand.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. It would be bad to cause trouble now. For the moment, we should…”

Even as Tooyama helped him up, Lazaar still tried to settle the situation.

“Hey, look, Gald’s picking on someone.”

“Isn’t that a Lizardonian? That’s rare. Hehe, should we make him an adventurer slave? They’re pretty good as scouts.”

“Hey, Gald, don’t get carried away and kill him like last time. That kid was pitiful. He came from the countryside and immediately got tangled up with Gald, had the girl with him taken too, and she got used as Gald’s toy before being thrown away.”

“Well, can’t be helped. Self-responsibility is the rule for us adventurers.”

The dirty laughter grated on his ears.

Several adventurers noticed them and began jeering with smirks, as though watching a show.

“This is bad. We’re drawing attention… Naruhito, let’s come back another time. If we cause too much commotion, it’ll become troublesome.”

It was an entirely reasonable opinion. Lazaar, his face twisted in pain, urged Tooyama toward the exit.

“Sorry, impossible.”

With a short reply, Tooyama ignored him.

“H-hey, Naruhito.”

Tooyama faced the large man as if shielding Lazaar, staring fixedly as he observed the man’s body.

“What? Those eyes. You got a problem with me?”

A vulgar grin rose on the large man’s lips.

He was the type of person Tooyama hated: fairly skilled, good at violence, shallow-minded, filthy, and brutal.

This was a person who did not need to exist. The same smell as those who had taken away his furry friend during childhood drifted from the large man.

“…Third-rate. You stink of alcohol. Proof you were drinking until morning. With that, monsters will easily know where you are from your body odor.”

The appraisal was over.

He could kill him, Tooyama judged.

“Huh?”

“Your stomach sticks out for your height. Compared to your upper body, your lower body is weak. You don’t run properly, and you haven’t trained properly either. You’re just a lump of meat relying on your huge frame.”

Tooyama pointed as he evaluated the man’s build. As expected, the people of this world had extreme differences. There was a vast gap between small fry and dangerous ones.

“What the hell are you saying? Huh? You wanna die?”

The large man’s intimidation was the kind that would make ordinary people shrink back just from seeing his build.

However, Tooyama’s smirk did not fade.

“Couldn’t hear me? So your ears are bad too, not just your eyes. No, your face and head too, huh? Hehehe, you’ve got nothing going for you. Is there any value in you being alive?”

He was weak. Just that alone removed any reason for Tooyama to hold back against him.

“I’ll kill you!”

The large man stretched his thick arm toward Tooyama’s neck. Far faster than that, Tooyama’s front kick buried itself in the large man’s groin.

Pop. There was a disgusting sensation of kicking something upward, but it was a clean hit.

“Oba?!”

The large man convulsed, clutched his crotch, and collapsed on the spot.

“Slow after all.”

Tooyama looked down at him.

Tooyama fixed his aim, staring at the lowered neck of the large man writhing in pain.

“H-hey, Gald, isn’t that guy bad news?”

“No way. What just happened? Gald’s on his knees.”

The onlookers also seemed to realize something was strange and began murmuring.

But Tooyama, an explorer thinking about how to finish off his prey, heard nothing.

“Y-you, hitting, hitting, there…”

Drooling, his eyes bloodshot, the large man complained about Tooyama’s dirty play. However, he was mistaken.

What he needed to do right now was not complain about the way Tooyama fought, but ignore the pain and crawl away, even on his hands and knees.

The large man had chosen wrong.

To the large man, it had been nothing more than a bit of fun. He had only intended to tease the unfamiliar faces who had appeared at the Guild, poke at them, and toy with them.

But that was not someone a mere large man like him should have poked. It was already too late, though.

“If you say you’ll kill me, you’re prepared to be killed too, right?”

If someone poked him, he killed them.

Even if someone mocked him, he killed them.

Following his desires, deciding what lived and what died. That was up to him.

Tooyama looked down at the thing he needed to kill.

“—Huh?”

It had been transmitted. Tooyama’s abnormal atmosphere. The large man’s face instantly turned pale.

Tooyama aimed at the neck of the man crawling on the floor while clutching his groin. He intended to break it with one stomp.

“Stop, Naruhito!! Don’t kill him!”

Lazaar’s attempt to stop him was in vain.

Tooyama felt slightly puzzled. Hm, strange. Had he always been this hot-blooded?

The doubt that welled up for an instant vanished as though covered by mist. Well, whatever.

“Hehe.”

With a short laugh, he moved to stomp and break the large man’s neck—

“All right, that’s enough. It’s over. Don’t move, black-haired boy.”

He swung his foot down with force, but it stopped dead. He had been forced to stop because he felt a killing intent far sharper and denser than his own on his back.

“…Who are you?”

Enduring a sensation like ice water being poured over his head, Tooyama asked briefly.

“Today’s underground monitor. I keep watch over hot-blooded idiots like you. It would help if you didn’t increase my workload too much.”

The taut sound was probably that of a bow being drawn.

He was being aimed at, from behind. He could tell without looking from the overwhelming killing intent. It was the same presence as Alice, Bernal, and that saint.

“Y-you are… Naruhito, please. Do as she says.”

Lazaar’s voice grew even stiffer. This time, Tooyama properly nodded.

He slowly raised both hands to show he had no hostility.

“…You got lucky, dullard. Next time, choose who you pick a fight with.”

He slowly withdrew the foot he had truly intended to use to break the man’s neck. He had realized that if he did even the slightest strange thing, he would be shot through.

“H-h-hii.”

Leaking various things, the large man crawled away. It was a pathetic sight. He would dispose of him another time. Tooyama remembered his face.

“Oh my, so you really did intend to kill him. …You carry an unpleasant wind. Thick, bloody… but very warm. A strange and peculiar wind… A wind where evil and goodness are all mixed together.”

“If you’re going to call me bloody, aren’t you the same for pointing an arrowhead at someone without question?”

He had heard that voice somewhere before. Tooyama realized he remembered the woman’s voice coming from behind him.

“Hmm, so you have courage too. Could you turn around slowly?”

Tooyama nodded at the woman’s voice.

“Y-you, don’t tell me, that silver hair, those silver eyes, and that feather bow…”

Lazaar’s shaken voice. This guy really knows a lot about things, Tooyama thought somewhat casually.

“Lizard, you don’t move either. Child of evil wrapped in Floria’s wind. Sorry, but I find you plenty frightening too.”

“H-hey, isn’t that silver hair, that person…”

“No way, it really is her. The real thing. …It’s my first time seeing her… She never comes out when she’s usually underground.”

“She’s so beautiful it’s hard to think she’s the same species…”

“Who are those guys who got into trouble with Gald? Have you seen them before?”

“H-hey, that black-haired man, yesterday’s…”

“Ah, the Hoarding Dragon’s…”

The surroundings clearly began to stir.

Apparently, there were people who recognized Tooyama as well. Well, it had only been yesterday, so that made sense.

“It’s getting noisy around us. Could you turn around?”

“Yeah, yeah… Ah—?”

He turned around and was surprised.

He had seen her before.

“What’s wrong? You look surprised. You must have noticed I was aiming an arrowhead at you. You know who I am too, don’t you?”

Long silver hair, with a single braided lock among it, swayed in a wind that blew from somewhere.

Skin like porcelain, cherry-colored lips, and a small nose like a work of art.

Her clothing was different from the fluffy ethnic outfit she had worn then. She had a small shoulder cape, an elegant leather jacket, short pants, and white tights that looked easy to move in.

“You… Wenfilbarna, huh…?”

Her eyes were silver for some reason, not rainbow-colored.

In the Tower. That damn elf he had met.

She held a feather-decorated bow and arrow pointed at Tooyama.

“Indeed. I am the former Hero Party Archer—”

“Wenfilbarna Gilbasol Tusk! What the hell, you were here too? Things were rough after tha— Huh?”

Tooyama spoke that name. The instant he did, every emotion vanished from the woman’s comparatively friendly expression. As though that had been her true face all along.

Ping.

At a time like this—

“—Who told you that name?”

The instant he was distracted by the message, a cold voice poured over his entire body.

Before he knew it, his vision rolled, and the air was knocked from his lungs.

He had been slammed down and pinned to the floor. He could not move, sense her, or even react.

“Gah…”

“Naruhito!! Guh?!”

“Don’t move, Lizardonian. Next time, I’ll kill you. Answer me, human. Who told you that name?”

Wenfilbarna. The silver-haired woman, who seemed somewhat different from before, had pushed Tooyama to the ground and restrained him.

Lazaar, who tried to rush over, was also blown away and slammed into the wall with only a finger pointed by Wenfilbarna.

The atmosphere of the Adventurers’ Guild changed completely.

The rubberneckers began gathering, wondering what was happening.

“—Do not approach, rabble.”

Thud. Thud, thud. The instant Wenfilbarna turned her silver eyes on them, more than half the adventurers, mainly those of low training at third rank or below, collapsed.

“Cough?! You, what the hell, do you have amnesia? You introduced yourself, didn’t you?! Something about Sierra Special or whatever!”

Tooyama shouted at the sudden violence from a woman who should have been an acquaintance. He tried to struggle, but he could not move. He could not move at all. Where in that slender body did such tremendous strength come from?

“Sierra… Special? I don’t understand what that means. Answer me. Otherwise, I’ll kill you together with the lizard.”

The woman muttered as though hearing the words for the first time, even though she had introduced herself that way. Her cold voice and killing intent were also directed at Lazaar.

“…What is going on? Who are you? Aren’t you that damn elf?”

Tooyama used the words they had exchanged when parting.

“—I am not an elf.”

Quietly, yet ah, like a scream, like a sob, came the woman’s voice.

“Abu.”

“Ah.”

“Weh.”

More people collapsed. Even though those words had not been directed at them.

However, the words filled with curse-like power reaped the consciousness of every half-trained person. The tongue of an ancient hero possessed that power.

The heroes who had destroyed the great Demon King. The reward granted to them—

“H-hey, hey, hey, what, did I press some kind of switch? Come on, could you stop directing so much boiling killing intent at me?”

“…So you won’t answer. Fine. I’ll kill you and ask the wind.”

“What’s with that line that sounds like a pop song?”

“Naruhito!! Don’t! Stop!”

“Die.”

There was clear death there.

Tooyama had fastened one tiny button wrong. Just like the large man earlier, he had made a mistake and failed to realize it. He had failed to realize who the woman before him was.

It was like a traffic accident. Death always descended irrationally like this.

—However, Tooyama was also not the kind of person who would obediently fall to irrationality.

“You die.”

His head was a Happy Meal. His humanity, which returned “you die” to someone telling him to die, had already resolved itself.

Relic Blade, maximum output. Mist range, minimum.

He narrowed the mist as much as possible to a range that would affect only him and this woman, without dragging Lazaar in.

‘Like hell I’ll die alone. If you’re going to kill me, then you die too.’

Relic Blade was already—

“Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my. Well, well. You are unexpectedly ill-disciplined, Archer.”

The cold killing intent grew humid and turned to water. That was the sensation.

Heat. A new killing intent, clearly carrying heat, filled the Guild tavern.

“If you cannot even tell what you should and should not do without the Hero around, kaka, then you are no different from a beast. Truly amusing.”

Cold, hot, and dizzying. Tooyama clenched his teeth so the dense pressure would not take his consciousness away.

When he looked, half the people in the tavern were foaming at the mouth and collapsed.

But at the same time, that heat now felt reassuring.

“Tch…”

The silver-haired woman must have felt that dense presence, something clearly possessed by a being that was not human. Tooyama could feel her agitation through the arm pinning him down.

“Y-you are…”

Lazaar, who seemed to have barely kept consciousness, choked on his words.

A presence that made even breathing feel troublesome. An overwhelming superior presence that naturally made one want to bow one’s head.

Tooyama knew it.

“…Haha, nice timing. For better or worse, you really have good timing.”

Tooyama called out to her.

Her long golden hair shone on its own, and her face was beautiful as though favored by God.

The woman possessed one eye that surely connected to the darkest, deepest blue region of the sky.

“Drako.”

Alice Dral Flaretail, the Empire’s guardian dragon.

A gorgeous golden-haired, one-eyed beauty.

A top resembling a white dress shirt. Leather pants that suited her long legs absurdly well. Though her outfit was simple, her presence stood out.

A short while ago, she had been his mortal enemy. Now she was his friend, probably, maybe.

His golden-haired dragon friend placed a hand on her slender waist and snorted toward Tooyama.

“Hmph. I know nothing of someone like you, who did not even send me a letter. …Are you hurt, Naruhito?”

Her words sounded somewhat sulky, yet her tone was gentle.

“Being sturdy is my strong point. Also, don’t ask the impossible. I don’t even have an address yet.”

“…Hoarding Dragon, why are you here?”

The silver-haired woman, Wenfilbarna, asked Alice.

“Silence, Archer. Do not question me. That man there, whom you are trying to lay hands on, is the man of this me, the Hoarding Dragon’s…”

She brushed aside the question. The sharp pressure directed at Wenfilbarna, however, faded away as she looked at Tooyama and began mumbling.

“…That is unclear, Hoarding Dragon. What are you trying to say?”

Wenfilbarna frowned at that un-dragonlike behavior.

“Take your hands off that man. In fact, whose permission did you obtain before touching him? He is not a man whom a mere Hero’s extra such as you may lay hands on.”

However, the air changed again. The instant Wenfilbarna spoke to her, the dragon’s voice became painted with anger.

“…And if I say I refuse?”

If one compared her to something, she was the moon. That keen silver-white brilliance could harvest life in an instant while it was mesmerized by her radiance.

“One Tower-Class Adventurer will disappear from the Empire. Nothing more than that.”

If one compared her to something, she was the sun. Before that radiance and heat, life could only prostrate itself and wait to be burned away.

“Does that mean you will disappear, Hoarding Dragon?”

“Kaka, good. You can chirp, can’t you, poor servant who lost her master.”

The moon and the sun faced each other. Beings beyond reason. They wore thick anger and killing intent that made one hesitate to move even a fingertip, so dense it almost seemed to have a smell.

Yet both of their expressions were cheerful.

“…Scary.”

That was the only impression Tooyama had.