Ch 1-5

The moment I went downstairs; I was greeted with a lively atmosphere. Adventurers all sat together, their eyes glued to a certain corner. A widescreen akin enough for a small-scale theater stood by, projecting from a circular object running on glowing crystals.

Moving images with sounds came to display. It seems to be a news flash.

A handsome male knight with platinum armor came to view. He was tall and muscular, with a buzz cut blond hair; his face clean shaven and his blue eyes seem to reflect whoever stared at it. He looked to be around my age.

A text was shown below.

[Kevin Orleans, Knight-Captain of Beginners' City Holy Order. Thoughts about Joint Labyrinth Subjugation with the Adventurers' Guild. Commissioned by Sir Theodore Gustav.]

It was filmed in front of a spacious mansion. Verdant grasses and exotic fruit trees could be seen filling the horizon, in addition of few passersby who even stopped in just to get themselves appear on the recording. There weren't a lot of buildings nearby.

I wasn't sure where the shooting location was since I didn't manage to walk around much—it already tired myself out just by checking for items earlier.

Since there didn't seem to be any video-editing done, there was a bit of wait before the interview finally commence. It all began when a small staff was given to Kevin, in which his baritone voice resounded through the entire Inn.

"Test."

A white-robed girl with pink hair stepped in from the crowd and stood beside Kevin, which immediately drew scorn from female onlookers off-screen. The girl gave a really gentle smile before her lips muttered, in a cold-sounding voice.

"[Silence.]"

...and there were no more oppositions, only muffled screams which completely died down as the girl curved her lips. Even if I just saw it on screen, a tremendous chill ran down my spine.

She's indeed bad news.

"Who's the girl?" I asked the Innkeeper as I sat nearby him from the very beginning.

"The Vice Knight-Captain, Olivia Orleans. She was Lord Kevin's little sister; it's said they're not blood-related but I'm not sure about the details."

Eh...seriously? Just how cliched you want their setting to be, God? Or should I say...Administrator?

Well, let's just hope the details were interesting enough.

"So, Onii-ch...Knight-Captain, what do you think about this successful labyrinth subjugation?"

Ah, she almost blurted out 'Onii-chan'. It had quite a dreamy tone as if she was trying to seduce Kevin right in the open.

What the hell is this? The age of Or*imo and Onii-sama were already long due!

"I'm just doing my duty."

The chill reply without any emphasis or emotion; plain simple and short. Heh, I started to get a good impression of this guy. Meanwhile...

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

"So cool!"

"Lord Kevin! Lord Kevin!"

"His modesty is just so amazing!"

"I want to be ignored by Lord Kevin too!"

...hey, did I just hear one guy amongst the voice of hysteric fangirls? Thinking they broke the silence spell from intense enthusiasm; what a frightening crowd.

"...ahahaha...ehehehe...so...darl...um...ahem, Knight-Captain. Do you have anything else to add?"

"Can I go home now?"

Kevin said the short line to Olivia whilst keeping the same stoic expression. Amidst the intense screams and clamor around the perimeter, he was still able to keep his composure.

Meanwhile, that same guy who screamed amidst the crowd of fangirls started clapping his hands without any restraint, causing lots of sights to be drawn at a particular direction. A tall, muscular bald guy wearing a thick lipstick and a wrestling outfit.

The gallant knight himself maintained his stoicness even while the crowd of fangirls (and one dude) started scattering away and the authorities arrested him on the spot. That was quite the good work for the offender to only be given the briefest of moments. Good work for not letting such things distract you too much, Mr. Cameraman!

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Kevin..he was formidable. If it were me I'd be crumbling from a nervous breakdown--he had nerves of steel--wait, for a second there I noticed a certain tone from Kevin which I was familiar with. Whenever I conversed with my mother and she brought up marriage interview--

"Well then, the news flash is now over. Thank you for your attention, bye!"

That's it? Really? That's how news should be, unimportant and pointless so you didn't have to regret watching.

....yeah it seemed like Kevin was fed up with these things. Was being in the Holy Order that unpleasant? I saw it first thing when Fiona had a complete turn from her pious, unrelenting kindness to something pitiful, on a display of gold coins.

Oh well, seeing as I couldn't visit their headquarters soon, it meant there's something amiss. In a lot of Isekai novels, too, the religious orders were usually treated like villains. There's even a web novel where the main characters were fighting against the church themselves.

...

The screen flickered and the once silent Inn was now clamored with various talks.

"What does that Kevin guy think he is? Was this even acceptable? They didn't even disclose the details of the subjugation!"

A rowdy dwarf with thick long beard rang their complaint.

"Shut your mouth, Horace! You just didn't understand Lord Kevin's greatness. This is why rowdy, uncivilized males are..."

A girl wearing a priest clothing admonished him.

"I was just in for Olivia-tan's cuteness!"

The somewhat husky girlish voice belonged to a slender young beastkin man in rogue clothing, with human features plus cat ears and tail. Seemed to be a party of four, the last guy just stood silent—he was a masked guy with two katana in his back.

Come to think of it, I did saw quite a good number of beastkins out there and they were treated as well as the Humans. But since I already read a lot of Isekai novels and even wrote a few stories, they didn't seem that novel anymore. Beside from the ears and tail, they're pretty much human anyway.

Might not be bad to take a hint of their appearance since I had a feeling I might come across these folks. The dwarf name's Horace, right? He seems to be the leader of the group. Their composition was, how did I put it.

The dwarf wielded something akin to a firearm in gunpowder ages, no, its style was reminiscent to the ones used by pirates and swashbucklers. The priest girl would be their healer and buffer, I think—she held a long metal rod instead of the usual priestly staff though. Even though the girl looked kind of frail and brittle, she gave the imagery of Sun W*kong for a brief moment there.

The rogue was self-explanatory—dunno 'bout the katana guy, might be a magic swordsman—but where's the tank? In every party, there's gotta at least be someone to take all the blows and draw aggro from enemies? Well, they might just be away, hopefully. Or if that's not the case, I would forget about ever partying with them as Support.

...not like I was fully confident they'd accept me anyway. In any case, my background itself was shady enough.

Meanwhile, I asked the Innkeeper again.

I nearly forgot to do something important.

"Is the Adventurer Guild still open during this hour?"

The subjugation had nothing to do with me. I don't want to risk triggering a Quest just because I asked unnecessary things.

"Yep, it's open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There's a lot of employees with rotating shifts so...hey, where are you going young lad?"

"I had some urgent appointment, old man. See ya."

"Don't you need a guide--"

Of course, I didn't need them, all I had to do was using [Go to].

...and thus I arrived at the Adventurer's Guild. Time to get my first class.

Although I was half discouraged since the current me was so weak.

Oh well, at least I gotta keep my hopes up.