They were seated across each other in a busy eatery, and Kalender was still depressed—his forehead on the table, and his grumbling, pained and getting kinda annoying.

“What can I get ya?” a passing waitress asked.

“Two of—whatever has a lot of meat and fits within 20 Notes,” Jyn replied, “and water.”

Towns all had their own cuisines and Jyn wouldn’t be assed to remember what they were all called. Rather, she just preferred to remember the town, the place she ate at, and whatever she said to the waitress or owner to refer to the dish.

The one that has a lot of meat, Boar & Bed, Clarinets. It was like some sort of postal address but for food.

Just then, Kalender perked up, meeting gazes with Jyn. She noted the simultaneous clarity and confusion shining through his eyes.

“What … happened to me?” he asked.

“You got depressed,” Jyn answered with the straightest face she could manage. Kalender was sort of like a child looking for his mother just a while ago—and it was somehow adorable, but she couldn’t mention that.

“Huh? But I—we were just … okay, no, that explains a lot.”

Depression messed with a person’s memories in ways that seemed magical compared even to alcohol.

“T-thanks for putting up with me.” Kalender scratched his chin. He did remember some things.

“It’s not a problem.”

The waitress came around again and dropped two heaping piles of meat that happened to have bowls underneath them. “I’ll be back with your water!” she said before spinning away.

“Huh. She’s lively,” Kalender remarked.

“This whole place is,” Jyn added.

In the whole floor, they were the only customers who came as a pair. Everyone else came in groups of four or more—adventurers with weapons so openly displayed. There were swords lying around on tables and polearms leaning against walls—all sheathed and wrapped, of course. There was a distinct lack of archers, or even crossbowmen.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single archer,” Kalender said. “Ah, there was that guard with the crossbow on the wall when we got here, though. Still, no archers. What’s up with that?”

Jyn’s explanation was obvious in hindsight. “Bows are hard to use. Magic is much easier.”

Most people had MP, even if just a tiny amount of it. Once people discovered how to use magic circles and scribe them onto things to make magic tools, magic weapons easily displaced bows.

Sure, most people just had 1 MP. Sure, a magic weapon ate up more MP for a spell compared to just chanting it yourself. These still meant that, at the normal MP regeneration of 1 MP/min, an ordinary person could get off 2 or 3 shots per minute, which was comparable to the rate of fire of a musket.

All you needed was a bunch of dudes shooting in the general direction of the target to make up for the bad MP performance. Between learning how to pronounce the chant for a few weeks or learning how to shoot a bow for several months, or even years, the earlier was preferable for both armies and adventurers alike.

“Wait, you make it sound like they’re really common.” Kalender has never actually seen a magic weapon at any point.

“Because they are?” Jyn replied.

“… But where?”

Jyn lifted up her sword, still in its scabbard, and she showed him the crossguard. There was a tiny magic circle there, about the size of a thumbprint.

“Just point this circle towards the foe in question and put MP into it.”

She talked about how knights were trained to dive for cover the moment the enemy “showed the flats of their blades.” There were also a bunch of different configurations for the circles, as well, like one that shot the bullet from the tip of the blade, but those were more popular for staff weapons. There were also swords with hollow handles where one could load clay bullets, and the bullets would be fired from the bottom of the handle.

Kalender reevaluated his view of technology in this world. Every melee weapon could also be a ranged weapon. Magic is nuts.

“Huh. What about the crossbow we saw the other day?”

“That guard must either not have any MP at all, or has an archery skill. Either or both.”

“Archery skill?”

“It is a group of rare skills. Generally, they become very powerful in later levels, so anyone who gets them tends to specialize. The most powerful marksman I have heard about can hit any target within 500 meters, in or out of her sight, as long as her arrow can maneuver to reach it.”

“W-wow.”

Leaving that conversation behind, they dug into their respective heaping piles of meat. It was all rather oily, but they were hungry, so it was fine—at least, until Jyn bit into something metallic.

“Did someone leave their hunting tip in the meat?” She pulled out the—evidently cylindrical object. It was small, like a vial.

“A message capsule?” Kalender remarked. It looked like something that would go on a bird’s leg.

Jyn wiped her hands and unscrewed the cap, unfurling the tiny roll of paper.

—The Librarian, Page Turner, will be removed from her post in two days. You are expected to acquire her agreement to be inducted into your party before then.

Jyn passed the message to Kalender. After he nodded to it, Jyn took it back. “{Turn this to dust}.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

With the way the paper turned to dust that floated down to the floor, it didn’t look like something a knight would be taught at all. It was just way too shady. This got Kalender looking at Jyn with expectant and excited eyes.

“I-I have been sent on errands before,” she explained.

Sure. “Errands.”

***

They finished eating lunch and made for the Knight HQ. The receptionist was eating lunch behind the counter when they got there. Maybe it wasn’t a good time.

“No, don’t worry. Librarian Turner finishes eating well before anyone else. I’m sure she can meet you.”

Page came downstairs not soon after the receptionist called her through the voice pipes.

“Is there anything I’m needed for?” she asked.

“Uhh, actually, yeah. We’ve been asked to—” Kalender wondered if this wording would work. “—interview you.”

“Oh? From the—Association?” Page replied. The Librarians Association was a real entity, but she shared a look with Kalender that implied she knew it was the Inquisition doing the asking. “When will it be, if I may ask?”

“Y-yeah. The Association. We actually went here to ask you when you would be free.”

“Oh, I can do it now.”

“Oh, wow—anyway, hopefully it can be a private interview? Bunch of details flying around and all.”

“O-of course.” She was excited. “My office is private enough, but please let me stow away the sensitive documents first.”

***

Page couldn’t contain her excitement.

A—secret life! A—double identity! Here. I. Come!

She hummed merrily along as she locked the last batch of documents into the fax cabinet. About 10 MP and one Transmission skill later, and HQ should be finally happy!

She left her office and entered a hallway. There were just two rooms here—her office and a storage room. The hallway was cramped as it was, with the end of it stacked with even more boxes that the storage room couldn’t handle.

Oh how she wanted to get away from the stuffy air here—a wish to be finally granted!

She tattled down the stairs, almost skipping on the steps—wait, what if the interview’s already started, and I’m being evaluated right now! She adjusted her grace to something more professional. Nobody saw how she was just now.

“Please. Follow me.”

Kalender and Jyn followed her back to her office. Page took her place behind her desk and offered them—the only other chair.

“I thought it would stop with the beds…” Kalender muttered.

Jyn insisted on standing. Kalender felt kinda awkward about it, though, so he insisted back.

Well—they both ended up standing.

Page felt awkward about it as well. Everyone was standing.

“There is a privacy ward set in this office. Please, speak freely,” Page said.

Jyn and Kalender eyed each other. Before Kalender could say a word, however, Jyn fished out the Inquisition’s endorsement plate from Kalender’s satchel and set it on the table.

“Why—” “For anything this man says, please always consider it in the context of this endorsement.” Jyn interrupted Kalender.

He scratched his cheek. Shrug.

“Right,” he continued. “Long story short, you’re not going to be a Librarian in two days.”

As expected, Page thought. She nodded in apparent understanding, to Kalender’s amazement.

“… You’re not mad?” Kalender asked.

Page tilted her head and poked her cheek. “Why would I be?”

Maybe she’ll be mad when I mention why, though. There was no way to stall on this. She needed to know.

He took a deep breath, an action that, for the first time, made Page feel nervous. “You see, I’m—what do you guys call it… a ‘Cursed One.’”

Hm? Once the words registered in her mind, Page shook a little bit.

Kalender revealed his anti-charm cuffs. “Normally these things work wonders at suppressing the passive charm magic thing going on with me.”

Charm magic?

“But, yesterday, you touched me.”

I-is this that development? Page, as well as every other woman in Lyrica, knew what was coming for them when charmed by a Cursed One.

“I didn’t know at the time, but apparently that can ignore the cuffs.”

I-I’m gonna be a Companion, a-and he’s gonna d-do things to me. Ah, well, I guess he looks cute—n-no, it’s already starting!

“So uh… Because of that, you’re losing your job.”

“A-and that’s the important detail here?!” Page’s voice quavered. She only realized she’d backed up to the window when her back went flat against it.

Jyn tapped the Inquisition’s endorsement with a loud tink, making sure that Page met eyes with her, and that Page looked down to the endorsement, and back up again.

“W-wait, how’d you get that!” Page pointed at the endorsement with one hand, and at Kalender with the other.

“Page Turner,” Jyn began, her eyes blazing. For a moment, Page saw a banner fluttering behind the Knight. It made her stand straighter than most grunts that Jyn’s had to break in during basic training—the Knight chuckled at that.

“Standing before you is the first man who has broken the Companion System,” she continued, “and the first woman to be freed from the worst effects of its curse.”

She tapped the endorsement again. Page felt like she was beginning to understand, but it was all still so sudden for her.

Jyn looked to Kalender, but all he could think was, Wait, are you expecting me to top your aura or something! He shook his head.

“Look, long story shorter, we’re sort of on a mission to make the curse thingy not be so cursed, and now mom says you have to come with us.”

Jyn squinted at him. “Is this ‘mother’ actually referring to the Inquisition?” She shook her head. There wasn’t any reason to use roundabout wording in a soundproofed room.

Page was still blanked out—stuck somewhere in the middle of scared and curious.

“Kalender is a good man,” Jyn added, making the best out of their impression here while Page was still shocked. “No, he’s actually the best man, probably in the whole of Gaia.”

“Are men so sad around here…” Kalender muttered. “I’m just me.”

“Exactly my point.” She turned to Page. “And thanks to that, the curse of the Companion System will be a non-issue. In fact, it is such a non-issue that your forced resignation is the worst thing to befall you today—and a fate of facing off against mana beasts and bandits.”

“M-mana beasts and bandits…” Even though Page was still sort of out of it, she still parsed the exciting keywords.

“I see you’re still Level 6…” Jyn’s Appraise was good enough to at least see someone’s level. She sighed. “And you are a Librarian, not a fighter. I will have to add you to the training roster, as well.”

“T-training…” Page’s mutterings were audible. Jyn thought that the girl was hesitant about it. Nope.

I can get a training arc?!

“If it isn’t clear yet, the Inquisition also told us to get you to agree to join us. They weren’t clear on the consequences if you were to decline.”

“O-of course I’ll join!” Page had pumped her fist in the air. She quickly pulled them back. “I-I don’t want to find out what mom will do i-if I decline, besides.”

Kalender and Jyn were dubious about the last statement. Her excitement had already blasted out into space. At the least, they were happy enough to know that Page would be joining them.

Still, Jyn was worried about the fact that she was tugging around two noncombatants—Kalender’s Occupation besides, she was sure that he had never killed a person before. She needed to prepare both of them for that moment, and she needed them to show no hesitation about it.

Also, Page was a Librarian. At least Kalender had a skill that made him a cheat at chanting anything he damn well liked. What could Page do? Some basic self-defense could be drilled in, but even then, Page was going to be an overall liability during a fight.

Meanwhile, Kalender was worried about whether Page would feel comfortable around him. He was sure that they’d get along eventually, but how would they get there? Page had leaked out her excitable nature just a while ago, but memories of Jyn’s initial reactions were still fresh in his mind. He didn’t want Page to go through that kind of thing, and he was sure Jyn was of the same mind.

Maybe he could ask Jyn to mediate. Better yet, maybe Jyn and Page could spend a few outings together without him being there. It should make Page far more comfortable asking Jyn about him.

Of course, it’d be more direct for Page to ask him about himself, instead, but it looked like she’d gained more trust in Jyn than himself in just these few short minutes. Gotta work with what you’ve got.

Page herself—decided to postpone processing these events for later tonight.

“I-I will see you both out,” she said, squeezing herself around the side to get to the door.

When they returned downstairs, there was a messenger, drenched in sweat, saying something. The receptionist was repeating it word-for-word into the voice pipe.

“An Unalive has been captured—the purification is scheduled for tomorrow at noon!”