In a guildhall, two strangers sat at a table and lamented their terrible situation. They needed a job for money, but their ranks were too low for any of the good-paying ones. And seeing as though they couldn't do a bunch of little jobs either because they were on a time crunch, they were truly fucked. Ryuji held his head in his hands. Queen meanwhile tapped her foot with her go-to blank look.

“Don’t… say… anything. Okay?”

“Alright. I won’t say anything about this terrible situation we’re in because of your bad spending habits.”

“Ah! The truth! It hurts! Why doesn't money just grow on trees, dammit!”

“Hey, are you okay there, partner? You’ve had your head in your hands for the past fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, I’m fine short cowboy lady! Huh? Short cowboy lady?”

Before Ryuji stood a girl about 155cm tall with aqua blue hair that went down to her stomach. The strangest part of her appearance, however, was that outfit gave off a very wild-wild west vibe. Strapped to her hips were holsters for a variety of guns. A few held revolvers and some automatic pistols. There was even one that sheltered a short shotgun. Her last weapon was a sniper rifle slung around her left shoulder. And to top it all off was the black cowboy hat adorned upon her head.

“I ain't no cowgirl! I’m a certified gunslinger.”

Her blue eyes shined with adventure and excitement. Ryuji found that trait pretty awesome since many adventurers just look like they want to die inside himself included. He couldn't help but notice that his teammate probably found that trait cringey, considering how she was making the same face one would looking at a pile of shit.

Ryuji looked at the dressed-up weirdo one more time to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. The girl also seemed to have trouble standing still and couldn't stop herself from rocking back and forth while Ryuji thought of what to say. “Gunslinger… riiiight. So, what did you want, Ms. Slinger?”

“I heard ya yelling about needing a job, and it just so happens I need pardners!”

'Her voice sounds like she just got done filming a Clint Eastwood movie.' He had to give it to her; she had dedication. “Well, that’s cool and all, but we’re both rank D.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine. I’m rank A! I can cover for you.”

She seemed to act smug as if she had solved all their problems. Ryuji remained unconvinced. “Rank A? What’s this quest about, and more importantly, what’s the payout?”

“There’s a sealed library nearby, and they want someone to break in and wrangle up some good books. As for the payout. 1 million ISH”

Ryuji was so happy he felt inclined to pick up his new favorite girl and spin her around. Not wanting to be branded a sociopath, instead, he looked at Marie.

“Queen? Any thoughts or outstanding opinions on our new savior?”

“I see no harm in following the disillusioned young girl and reaping the benefits.”

“Then it is decided… what’s your name?”

“I’m Jessy. I don’t have no fancy last name.”

“Ah, is that so? Ryuji Koyanagi, at your service. We can fill you in on our skills and stuff as we head out.”

Ryuji stuck out his hand shyly, wondering if that's what you do in this situation. Either he was right, or Jessy just didn't care as she boldly grabbed and shook.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

They set out for the library, which was a day away. According to Jessy, the library was sealed by magic, and nobody talented enough to break it has bothered to do so yet.

“So, can I ask something?”

Jessy walked with her hands behind her head, casually looking at Ryuji. Her question broke the awkwardness in the air that had been there since they set out. Ryuji thanked any god that would listen for the chance to talk to a normal human being.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Why in the Sam hill is it so awkward walking with you guys?”

Then just like that, she brought it back to the forefront of the conversation. Ryuji felt like cursing himself.

“W-whatever do you mean?”

Ryuji decided that now would be a good time to start looking away from the inquisitor and stare at the trees they were passing by. He found a pretty one with blue leaves in the distance.

“Well, for starters, greeny over there hasn’t spoken since the guildhall, and every time you speak, it's only to me. Then there's the fact that you won't even look in the general direction of each other. Did something happen?”

“Well…”

Ryuji had zero ways of explaining the disagreement they had. And even if he had gotten over it by now, he highly doubted someone as spiteful as Marie would let it go. For Jessy, his silence spoke volumes.

A sly smile spread over her face as she watched Ryuji struggle to explain himself. “Oh, I get it. But let it be known to ya that I ain't that easy. Although now that I'm getting a good look at you-”

“That’s not the reason! Also, I would literally go to jail for doing something like that with a kid!”

The light inside Jessy's eyes died as Ryuji conveyed his reasoning. Queen, staying very true to herself, spoke up for the first time in hours and it was only to insult Ryuji.

“Ah, so if jail wasn’t in the cards, you would then? Disgusting pig Hero.”

“N-no! God! This is why I was avoiding conversation! Hey… Jessy? You good?”

A dejected Jessy looked at the ground and moped. It felt weird for the giddy girl to not be wearing a grin. Ryuji held onto the sinking feeling in his chest.

‘Can’t be the trope, right?’ Ryuji gulped, preparing himself for the worst. “Don’t tell me… you’re actually an adult, aren’t you?”

“I’m… 20.”

“Sorry.”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

As night began to set, they found a spot high up on a hill and set up their camp.

“The library is just over yonder big hill in front of us!”

“I don’t think that’s how you use yonder.”

“Shhh, Hero! Let the disillusioned girl roleplay in peace.”

“I am not roleplaying, greeny!”

“More importantly, you said the library was sealed, so how are we getting in?”

Jessy struck a confident pose. “Hufufu, I am the archmage, Gunslinger Jessy! My level is 67! If anyone can get you in there, it's me.”

“67? What kind of magic can you do?”

“Isn't it painfully obvious! I do gun magic!”

Ryuji was less than impressed. “Uh… huh. What else?”

Jessy's pride shined through as she gave her answer. “Nothing else.”

“Nothing… else.”

“Nothing else.”

“Stop acting so smug about it!”

“Someone’s mad because they use a sword and not a superior weapon like a gun! What are you going to do when someone's suuuper far away? Chop at em?”

“What are we, children!? I’m mad at you for wasting all your potential!”

“Waste-Ah, whatever! Hmph.”

Jessy sat down on the opposite side of camp and started ignoring Ryuji while pouting. Queen slid up to the rude man to speak candidly.

“If you hurt her feelings, we may not get this job done.”

“I don’t want to hear any kind of lectures about hurting feelings from you!”

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Early in the morning, Ryuji opened his eyes to the great light in the sky and let out a deep sigh. Jessy already had her gunslinger outfit on and was raring to go. She looked rather excited, much like a kid about to go out on a trip. Queen, on the other hand, looked more like an emotionally distant teen who didn’t want to go on a family vacation.

Ryuji stretched before walking towards the ruin. “Well, let’s get to it then.”

“Yes! Let's go right now!”

Stolen story; please report.

“Yaaaaay.”

Jessy seemed a lot more enthusiastic than he could ever be. He was pretty sure he could always beat Queen in a contest of enthusiasm at least.

They arrived at the library, but instead of some grand cathedral or enormous building, it looked more like a war bunker. A single metal door with runes carved on it jutted out of the earth.

“That’s our library?”

“Sure is! Now stand back and let the professional do her job.”

Jessy took the rifle from her back and set it down on the ground. She opened the chamber to put a single bullet in and loaded. Ryuji and Queen felt the pull of mana being sucked into the barrel of that gun. He had been near casters before but never had he felt the very mana in the air condensed into one spot like this. But instead of being excited by this, he was more concerned about why it felt like she was about to attack the door. The next moment his fears were realized as she pulled the trigger and the doors were blown off by what he would describe as a low-quality cannon.

“Professional, my ass! You just shot through the door!”

“We have entry, now don’t we? Shut yer trap and look on the bright side.”

Ryuji looked at the mess she just made in the scenery. “Is the bright side somewhere in the hole you put in the hill?! I can literally see through it!”

Queen pushed him forward. “Stop being a baby and go into the library. Or is the great Hero scared?”

"I'm more scared of the half-pint lunatic in front of me than whatever might be in that library."

The corners of Queen's mouth tilted upward for the length of a second before disappearing. Ryuji could only stare in awe at the auspicious occasion, but the legendary moment was soon cut off by a fairly angry look from a short gunman.

After some grumbling and a few attempted beatings, the party descended the stairs into the conspicuous bunker of knowledge. They walked down a series of steps for what seemed like forever until they made it to a set of metal doors. As they opened it, a musty smell met them.

Sprawled in front of them were rows upon rows of books laid out in sections based on content. In the center of these rows were what looked like metal tables set up to be some kind of reading room.

Ryuji couldn't help but feel something terrible was about to happen and that the tranquility held in this library would soon shatter. “This is impressive and all, but I’m starting to wonder why you needed us here in the first place.”

“That’s a simple one! I can’t shoot down here cause I might make the entire library collapse, so I hired you would be bodyguards to take down those pesky guardians!”

“Guardians?”

“I think she means those golems coming for us.”

Sure as day, four seven-foot-tall metal soldiers were rushing them down with a clear intent to kill. Ryuji readied his blade and took a defensive stance. Jessy hid behind him and cowered. He was having a hard time believing that the rough and tough girl could have such an openly helpless side to her. The golem still rushing him down did not stop to consider these things. With a single Iai draw, the golem fell into pieces and stopped working.

“Woohoo, one down! Go get 'em, mean-spirited lady!”

Queen's eyes twitched at the peanut gallery's comment, but she still stood ready to bust the enemy down. Three golems rushed her down.

“Impact.”

A Mana-coated fist pierced through the front golem. Its inner contents, blown away by her fist's force, burst through the library, destroying books and shelves. Queen didn't seem to notice the unwanted destruction of the things they came to find and instead kicked out the leg of another golem. A sharp elbow smashed in the side of its head, and it ceased to function. And with a crisp turn-around kick, she caved in the last one's torso.

"Impact!"

It might've just been Ryuji misunderstanding, but to him, it looked like this wasn't a fight for survival but more like someone blowing off steam. He truly felt the rage pouring out of her as she repeatedly bashed in the already destroyed golem. After she realized other people were watching, she got up, brushed herself off, and acted no different from usual. Jessy didn't notice or simply didn't care enough to comment on it as she rushed forward.

“Yay! Go, my heroes!” Jessy jumped for joy at their victory with a big grin on her face.

“What now?”

Ryuji didn't think that was particularly hard, but he had a bad feeling that more bullshit was coming his way. Now that he got a better look, this underground shelter was vast. How long would it take to find the books they were looking for, and were four guards really all that was placed down here after going through so much trouble locking that door?

“Now, you protect me while I check around for cool books!”

“Huh?”

Ryuji couldn't help but raise his brows at the gunslingers’ request. This was mostly because she didn’t seem like the type interested in reading anything, much less a musty old tome. He could much better see her using these books as target practice more than anything.

“What do you mean, huh? The whole reason I took this job was so that I could look around and see if there were any worthwhile books about gun magic in this decrepit place. Oh, and I need to pick up a few expensive-looking ones to complete the job, but those are really secondary. Man, I hope your friend there didn't destroy what I was looking for with that explosion of anger earlier.”

Ryuji slapped himself in the face for not realizing something as obvious as the gun nut wanting to find more gun stuff. Looking around, he felt like this was hardly the place for such a thing but agreed to it anyway if it would make the job go faster. It's not like he could complete the quest without her there anyway.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Hours were spent walking around the oversized library. Occasionally a golem would activate, and Ryuji would cut it down before it became a problem. It’s not that Ryuji was particularly strong it's more that these golems were super weak. Ryuji assumed that they probably were just used to get books off top shelves, and they had gone haywire or something.

Queen meanwhile 'stood watch' or, as some would call it, wait at the entrance doing nothing except staring at the books wishing she was somewhere else.

Jessy had filled a bag to the brim with tomes and wore quite a grin on her face.

Ryuji attempted to polish up on his horrible conversation-starting skills. “Are all those gun tomes?”

“What?" Jessy looked down at the bag before looking back up. "No. None of these are actually.”

Ryuji palmed his face and regretted ever opening his mouth. “Then what have we been walking around for exactly?”

“The request was to scrounge up expensive-looking books. I’m just completing the quest. I gave up on looking for gun tomes in here a few hours ago.”

She spoke as if it was painfully obvious and that Ryuji was an idiot for not noticing. It took a few deep breaths from Ryuji to calm him down enough to not get into a fistfight with the mini-Eastwood.

“So why do you want gun tomes anyway? You a collector?”

“Nope. I’m on a journey to completely master gun magic! The problem is I’ve already mastered all the known spells, so now I’m trying to find spells that people have forgotten about.”

Something about that statement made Ryuji realize that the act of searching a century-old library for stuff about a newly created invention was pretty dumb.

“Aren’t guns new, though? I doubt you’re gonna find anything like that.”

“The art of gun magic has been around for 500 years! There’s gotta be old musty tomes about it, and I’m going to find them!”

Ryuji felt like that was sort of a stupid goal, but he liked the enthusiasm she had for it. Passion, even if slightly off hinged, was better in his mind than living your life only for survival. He had lived that way once, and the finish line he found himself at wasn't the place anyone would wish for.

“Well, everyone needs a goal, I guess.”

“Yep! What’s yours?”

“Me? I’m gonna take ice-cold over there and go to the adventurer academy in the capital. Then after we’re done there, we’ll meet up with the Sword Saint and travel together!”

Ryuji half expected her to call him out like Marie did when he first told her but to his surprise, she seemed to believe him. Her face scanning the bookshelves hadn't changed. Her tone matched what your mother might sound like after telling her about your day.

“Really? Where are you gonna travel?”

The question stumped Ryuji. He had it in his mind that he and Rhea would go all over the world taking in sights and banishing evil, but when it came to the particulars, he hadn't given it any real thought. So instead of thinking about it, he just blurted the first thing off his mind.

“I don’t really care where we go as long as we have fun.”

Jessy, who he thought would understand, just looked at him like he might be missing a few brain cells. “An adventurer for fun? Now that’s something you don’t hear every day.”

“What are you gonna make fun of me now?”

Ryuji looked at Jessy, and her smile encapsulated him. Ryuji felt a gentle kindness wash over him which was immediately taken away as she slapped his back.

“I think that’s a great thing, Ryuji! People who don’t dream are losers, and I say to hell with 'em!”

Ryuji felt an odd sort of comfort with her, and for a moment, he had a thought, what if she came with us? He wasn't exactly the kind to ask that sort of thing up front, so instead of actually asking, he just floundered.

“Hey, do you… want to- “

“Well, that’s enough books! Let’s hoof it back and get you on the road again! Your dream can't wait, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

Jessy turned around on a dime and headed for the exit where Queen had been waiting for hours.

////////////////////////////

As they made their way outside the bunker with precious cargo, a great wind struck them.

“Grrrgh, what the hell is this freak storm!?”

“It’s no storm pardner! Look above!”

A red-scaled monstrosity hovered above the hill in which the library rested. It was the same kind that assaulted him and Rhea at the caravan. The only difference being that this time it wasn't hundreds of feet away. The drake was directly overhead, and it did not look pleased.

Queen felt fear in the pit of her stomach and couldn’t move. Ryuji wasn’t much different. One could argue that an incubus and a drake are pretty equal in terms of killing power and that since Ryuji slaughtered an incubus, he could do the same to the drake. The discrepancy between those two is that Ryuji had lost a few marbles during that fight. Right now, however, he was of sound mind, and that mind said run.

Jessy, on the other hand, had the same smirk as always. She took out the rifle slung across her back and loaded a single hollow shell.

“Why are you so damn calm!? You were losing your shit against those piss golems!”

Ryuji didn't get this weird girl next to him one bit.

“That was then, and this is now." She aimed her rifle directly at the drake. "Now I don’t have to worry about property damages.”

“That’s all well and good, but it’s coming down now!”

“Boom!”

A light erupted, and a force so strong it knocked both the spectators down a few steps came rushing out in all directions. The drake attempted a maneuver, but the light was too encompassing. The beast's body had turned into red confetti and dust. Ryuji also couldn't help but notice that the clouds directly overhead had parted the tiniest bit.

A massive show of force you would expect from a deadly warrior. Jessy continued showing off her shit-eating grin, but now Ryuji felt it was a little more sinister somehow.

“You’re seriously scary." He turned to his side to look at Marie, who, like him, was in disbelief. "Hey, you gonna keep calling her a role player?”

“I think it’s pretty clear that that is not the case, unlike you, Hero.”

“OOOOO! The ice queen graces me with a compliment. Why thank ye, ma’am.” Jessy curtseyed a nonexistent dress.

Queen couldn't have rolled her eyes harder if she tried. “Let's just go back before something worse gets here.”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

One day later, they arrived back at the guildhall, books in tow. After cashing them in, they split the money in half and said their goodbyes on the split road outside the town. Jessy was going right, and Ryuji eventually was going left. He figured it was now or never.

“Do you want to come with us? We'd love to have you.”

He tried his best not to sound desperate, but from the sad smile Jessy had, he was pretty sure he failed miserably.

“Look, Ryuji, you're a pretty cool guy, but you're going in a completely different direction than me. I don’t want to be tied down in one place for a whole year at some university where I won't learn a damn thing. I will admit it's a mighty tempting offer; it just ain't my style.”

"Why does it feel like I just got dumped?"

"You'd have to actually get into a relationship first to be dumped."

Jessy laughed at Queen's comment before waving goodbye.

“Okay. Promise we’ll meet again?”

“Ha! Is this a romance novel or something?”

“Fine then! I hope we never meet again.”

“Ah, don’t be so upset. Here, I was just teasing.”

She walked back and outstretched her hand. Ryuji acted like he wouldn't before shaking it, determined that they would find one another again.

After watching until they couldn’t see her back on the horizon anymore, they went to the local inn to rest before setting out.

"Are you two adventurers!? Please, they need all the help they can get! It's... it's my daughter, please!"

"Can we please ditch the screaming man?"

"Ignore her, now calm down and tell me what's going on. What happened to your daughter?"

"She was taken... by a dark god."