In the capital's Adventurers' guild, not too long after the morning bell…

Greaves and his party enter. They approach the task noticeboard, and a few men drinking and lounging at the tables turn their eyes to them.

「Hey! Aren't you Iron Will!?」

A man calls out, looking straight at Will from a nearby table.

「…Huh?」

Will utters out in confusion, adjusting his glasses. The whole party stops and turns to the man. He rises up, and approaches them.

「You look like it! Glasses, robes, sword… Really tall spearwoman with you, and there's this short kid too-」

Still holding onto his mug, the man approaches with a gleeful grin. He nods towards Lian, pointing her out with his head, then at Greaves.

「Hey! I'm not a kid!」

Greaves immediately protests, shaking his clenched fist at the adventurer.

「Alright, short guy, then-」

The man attempts to placate Greaves, holding his palm out towards him as he rewords his description.

「I'm not-! Krrrkh!…」

Greaves protests again, but stops and grinds his teeth in anger when he realizes he is objectively shorter than the man.

「What is this Iron Will nonsense? I am Will, but…」

Will asks, and adjusts his glasses again. The adventurer's grin grows wider.

「I knew it! You're Iron Will after all! You fought that vampire, right!?」

He exclaims, pointing at Will with a huge grin. Greaves looks at Will with an outraged expression.

「Wha-? Ah… Yes, some time ago. I barely made it out alive-」

「Hey, everyone! It's Iron Will!」

The man shouts over his shoulder towards the rest of the guild members.

「Wha-」「Hurk!」

Will narrows his eyes, looking with tired, slack-jawed disbelief at the man's grinning face when he turns back around. Greaves nearly chokes.

「What!? Seriously!?」「That's really him!?」「How did this kid fight one off?…」

A commotion starts across the whole guild. Some of the adventurers stand up and hastily approach closer

「Will! How dare you get a cool nickname before me!?」

Greaves shouts at Will, shaking his fists up and down, furiously flapping his arms.

「Huh? You call this cool? Are you actually a twelve-year-old, Greaves? I'm just Will-」

Will looks to Greaves, and adjusts his glasses with a tight-lipped grimace.

「Hey, Iron Will! How did you do it!? Aren't they crazy fast!?」

The man from the back of the freshly-formed crowd asks.

「Do what? I only fought him off, you must have heard some tall tale… They're so fast I couldn't see him move.」

Will explains, adjusting his glasses again with his mouth aslant. He takes a few steps towards the noticeboard full of papers.

「Hey! What do I do if I run into a blood-thirsty vampire!?」

Another man shouts a question towards Will's back as he's walking away. He sighs, and looks over his shoulder in the direction of the voice.

「You run. You can't fight it alone. I almost died, and I didn't even win. Just watch your back, and don't fight them alone.」

He answers, and adjusts his glasses with a frustrated expression on his face. He takes another step towards the noticeboard.

「Hey! Iron Will! I heard you set a building on fire!-」

「That was an accident! I was trying to set him on fire!」

Will frantically shouts over his shoulder in response to another man. He adjusts his glasses again, and angrily stomps over to the noticeboard.

「Hey! Let me buy you a drink!」「Iron Will! What kind of stuff you wish you knew before you fought him!?」「What's the best way to fight one!?」

The crowd continues shouting, while Will grits his teeth and looks through the noticeboard. The rest of the party joins him.

「Hey, Iron Will!-」

Another voice shouts out.

Slam!

Will slams his fist on the guild counter, and turns to face the crowd of adventurers.

「Stop calling me Iron Will! It's embarrassing! I'm just Will! And stop fantasizing about fighting a vampire! It's not fun!」

He shouts angrily, and throws his arm aside, adjusting his glasses with his other hand while his staff rests against his shoulder.

「Each second, I thought the next would be my last! Fighting a vampire was the worst experience I've had in my life!」「Hey! Watch it!」

He continues, erratically waving his arm about, almost hitting Greaves in the face with it.

「You have to be insane to be willing to fight monsters like that! Do you want to know, what I wish I knew!? That he's there!」

Will points in the center of the crowd, then to the random faces within it. They stare back at him in consternation, with their arms crossed.

「If I knew he was there, I'd just take this idiot here that started that mess, and leave!」「Hey!」

He shouts and shouts, grabbing onto Greaves's shoulder while feverishly giving his warning sermon.

「He came out of nowhere, almost killed Lian, almost killed me, I fought with all I had, and I didn't even manage to kill him! Stop calling me something embarrassing like Iron Will! I thought I was going to drop dead from fear, but I couldn't, because then Alicia would die too!」

Will continues while the once-rowdy crowd quietly listens. He points his finger at Lian, then at Alicia, still staring at the crowd.

「You think I'd fight him again!? I'd pay not to! What is wrong with you all!? I thought it was just Greaves that is stupid, but it's like every single adventurer is an idiot! What kind of an idiot wants to go and risk his life fighting monsters!? Do you want to die in your 20s that badly!?」

He adjusts his glasses angrily, and once again starts swinging his arm around.

Slam!

He slams his hand on the guild counter, glaring at the crowd from above his glasses' frame.

「You could be a farmer, a woodcutter, anything! Why do you flock to being an adventurer, like a moth to a flame!? It doesn't even pay that well! A tree could kill you, but you don't have to fight for your life with a tree! What kind of an idiot sees giant teeth and massive claws, and then thinks,「Great, I can't wait to fight this! I'll earn some food and an inn room for the night!」without being stupid!?」

Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam!

With his frustration flowing directly from his heart, Will shouts and slams his hand on the counter over and over.

「Three silver coins for risking my life every day!? Is this a joke!? Alicia here could make a steady living healing idiots like you! Why does she have to do this!? Healers are always in high demand, so why does she risk her life with us for less than a silver coin if we split it evenly!? She could just leave! This whole society abuses idiots with golden hearts, who don't know what's good for them!」

Slam!

He angrily slams his hand on the counter again.

「I wouldn't do that, Will, you know that…」

While he's gasping for air, Alicia quietly chimes in, clutching onto her silver wand. Will adjusts his glasses, and turns his eyes away from her back to the crowd.

「I'm a mage, I could make money easily! Lian isn't even registered! Only Greaves insists on being a slave! What's wrong with you all!? How to fight a vampire!? How about you tell me how I avoid one!?」

Will exclaims, expectantly spreading his arms towards the crowd, waiting for an answer that they do not have, breathing heavily. He swallows his dry throat, adjusts his glasses, and turns back to the noticeboard while the stunned crowd quietly murmurs.

「…Big talk for someone who said,「We're not afraid of the night anymore!」Will.」

「Tsk. Shut up, Greaves! I don't even remember saying that!」

Will clicks his tongue and shouts at Greaves while he approaches his side by the noticeboard, looking at the available tasks with his arms crossed.

「So you're saying Alicia is lying?」

He asks, grinning smugly at Will.

「I'm saying Alicia might have misheard me! She must have been afraid, too!」

Will replies with his voice raised, and his mouth angrily aslant.

「There's no way I would have misheard you shouting loud and clear like that, Will! It was really cool!」

Will cringes as Alicia chimes in from behind them with a large smile. Greaves scoffs in Will's face, grinning.

「…It's like you were a completely different person!」

She excitedly adds, hugging her wand.

《It was really cool!…》

Alicia's words echo in Will's mind, and he cringes when an Alicia-shaped dagger painfully plunges into his heart.

《…Like you were completely a different person!… It was really cool! A different person! Really cool!》

Another smiling childhood-friend-shaped dagger painfully stabs his heart.

「…Thanks, Alicia…」

Slumping onto his staff, he sighs his spirit out, wincing from the painfully cheerful comment. She nods her head with a smile.

「…Just pick an easy one, Greaves, I don't care…」

Will says, looking aside with a crestfallen expression on his face, completely disinterested in the noticeboard.

「…Regular ol' Will is lame, huh?…」

He sighs, slouched and clinging onto his staff like a shriveled up old man.

「Hey! Uh… Will! I've heard the vampires put a bounty on your head for that!」

A man calls out from the mostly-dispersed crowd.

「W-? W-? Wh-? Wh-?」

Will slowly forces his head to turn to the man, jittering, stuttering, shaking as it turns. He stammers, unable to get the word out.

「Wh-? What?」

He finally manages to ask, grinning nervously with his eyes wide open staring at the adventurer.

「Yeah. I mean, it's just a rumor, but…」

The adventurer admits, shrugging his hands, before placing them back on his hips.

「S- So in other words, you have no proof… Right?」

Will adjusts his glasses with a trembling hand, almost fingering his lens.

「Nope. But it would make sense, right? Kinda… Adventurers' guild, for vampires… Anyway, take care, and watch your back.」

The man shrugs, and returns to the table with his fellow adventurers, nonchalantly resuming his drinking.

Will turns his stuttering head back to the notice board, staring at a point picked at random…

…

In the meantime, outside the capital's gate, out on an empty plain.

With his hands in his pockets, Straf approaches the gathered military men nearby the cages laid out on the grass.

「Nice. I see the adventurers everywhere had their hands full.」

He remarks, grinning at the rats in the cages. Their long incisors gnaw away at the bars, but they have been plated with a thin layer of copper, which they only manage to noisily dent.

「Minister, the cages have been placed as you ordered, and the men are waiting for your orders.」

A mustached officer approaches, and salutes Straf.

「Right. Let me take a look at them-」

Straf nods his head while his eyes jump from cage to cage, trying to count them.

「Hello again!」「Idiot! Get back here!」

A young man runs up, greeting Straf with a smile and a wave of his armored hand. An older man runs right behind him, shouting at him.

「You're not going to scam me by pretending to know me, chump. Get lost.」

Straf disdainfully sneers at the young man.

「What is the meaning of this!? Get back in formation!」

The officer furiously shouts, shaking his mustache at them with a commanding stomp of his boot.

「Uh, but we do know each other, the battle at-」

Clunk.

「I am very sorry for this idiot, sir! He doesn't know his place, and I will teach him for you!」

The young man attempts to explain himself, but the older man's gauntlet reaches for the back of his helmet, and shoves the young man's head down, forcing him to bow as low as his armor will permit him to.

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「…Julius you fuckin' idiot, why do you keep bringing attention to yourselfff?…」

The older man whispers to the young man through his clenched teeth, bowing down as well.

「Huh? I just wanted to greet and thank him! That battle could have went worse!」

Confused and still bowing, the young man exclaims, turning his head to his older friend.

「I said get back in formation! Now!」

The officer shouts, somehow managing to sound even more angered than moments before.

「Right away sir! Sorry sir!-」

The older man nods, bowing repeatedly, forcing the same upon his younger friend.

「Hold up. Which battle, again?」

Straf halts the officer with his open palm directed at his mustache, then points his finger at the bright-eyed young man.

「Uh. The battle with all the mercenaries. I don't remember where it was exactly, but it was a long march from here, and we retreated into the nearby city after something in the enemy camp was set on fire. We briefly talked before the battle.」

The young man explains with his brows raised, with his head still forcibly held low in a bow.

「Oh. That.」

Straf slowly nods his head, looking into the distance as he grimaces a little with his mouth.

「I didn't expect you to survive. Good job. What's your name, again?」

Straf asks as he snaps his fingers and points at the young man's face.

「I'm Julius. Julius Ratar. This is my friend William. We fought together in that battle.」

Julius points his armored hand to William, and William takes his off of his head. They both straighten out, and William glances nervously at the silently fuming officer.

「Let's see…」

Straf intently focuses his eyes on the young man's face. A screen appears above him.

Julius Ratar

[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] Lv. 6

Strength: 9 Perception: 10

Agility: 12 Endurance: 14

Dexterity: 12 Willpower: 13

Luck: 17 Intelligence: 9

Charisma: 12 Wisdom: 9

「Nice, not bad. What do you do all day, gamble?」

Straf scoffs with an amused grin, looking away from the young man's stats screen back to his face.

「No sir, I'm a farmer.」

Julius shakes his head, looking into Straf's eyes.

「Yeah, I know. If you were a gambler, you wouldn't be farming turnips all day.」

Straf's shoulders rise a little as he scoffs again in the young man's face.

「My family grows tomatoes and cucumbers, sir. But, uh…」

Julius says, wincing as he awkwardly looks aside.

「…I unwittingly signed a military contract, and now I'm stuck in the army.」

He adds with a sighful voice. With a tight-lipped grimace on his face, his eyes return to Straf.

「Hook 'em with the benefits, huh?… What's your story? I know a Will, and he's a twerp. You don't look like a twerp to me.」

Straf focuses his eyes on the young man's older friend as he asks, and another stats screen appears.

「I'm just here because of the levy cycle, sir.」

William shrugs his armored shoulders, calmly replying.

William Steiner

[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] Lv. 14

Strength: 13 Perception: 9

Agility: 10 Endurance: 14

Dexterity: 10 Willpower: 15

Luck: 11 Intelligence: 10

Charisma: 10 Wisdom: 14

「…The what?」

Straf asks with furrowed brows, taking his eyes off William's stats. The screen disappears.

All three of them snap their gazes to Straf. The officer furrows his brows and looks at him with his eyes gently narrowed, Julius and William glance at each other, and look at him with similarly consternated expressions.

「…The levy cycle? Sir?」

William replies, almost asking what Straf is confused about.

「That doesn't tell me shit. What is it?」

Straf asks, spreading his hands before returning them back to his pockets.

「…Do you not know, sir? Year by year, the citizens are selected for training and 4 months of military service for the kingdom. Each 4 months, a new batch of recruits is trained, with the previous ones being exempt from the next one. It helps us maintain a militarily-trained population, without forcing laborers into the military.」

The officer explains, looking greatly disconcerted.

《So it's a draft, and they're conscripts, but it's more like a permanent reservist force. That's actually pretty clever, all things considered…》

Straf humms quietly. His mouth jumps left and right as he grimaces while thinking.

「…Are you not the Minister of War, sir? How is it that you do not know this?-」

「Huuuuuh? How about you do it then, if you're so smart? Why don't you take the position of Minister of Finances and Minister of Security off of me, and we'll see how well you do that? Huh? Huh!?」

Straf angrily barks back at the officer's comment, shoving his face into the mustached man's, forcing him to lean back to avoid it while being berated.

「Forgive my rudeness, sir. I was just under the impression, that it's common knowledge…」

The officer apologizes with a bow, when Straf retracts his scowling face.

「Well common sense ain't that common, is it? Doesn't this levy cycle cause a shitton of banditry? I mean, everyone gets military training after all, right?」

Straf asks, spreading his hands once more.

「…That is one of the downsides, sir. You are correct. Most bandits have usually seen a levy cycle, or two.」

The officer nods his head, confirming Straf's guess.

「Figures… Alright, come with me, buddy.」

Thunk.

Straf says, and wraps his arm around the young soldier's neck, pulling him along towards one of the many cages.

「Uh… Yes sir…」

Julius obliges, and sheepishly comes along with Straf. William and the officer look at each other, and the mustached man shrugs. He returns to the line of armored men, and William follows behind Straf and Julius.

「Alright, Julius. Now you're going to show me if I can make a man out of you…」

Straf declares, standing in front of a caged rat with his arm on Julius's shoulder, wrapped around his neck.

「…Kill that rat.」

Straf nonchalantly commands, pointing at the rat in the cage, smiling a little at Julius.

「Wh- What? But I don't want to kill anything! Or anyone! I think I killed some people in that battle, and it still wakes me up at night!」

Clutching onto his spear for comfort, Julius protests with a frightened, cracking and raised voice. Straf loudly clicks his tongue, and looks the other way with an annoyed, tight-lipped grimace.

「Julius… Buddy…」

Straf sighs out, almost growling, as his bored eyes return to Julius.

「…Have you ever wanted to protect something, or someone, Julius?」

Straf casually asks, looking into the young soldier's eyes with a bored grimace on his face.

「Huh?…」

Julius shakes his helmeted head lightly, furrowing his brows.

「Come the fuck on. You're a man. You don't want to protect your family? Or your homeland? Or someone else?」

Straf spreads his arms as he asks, releasing his grasp on the young man.

「Uh… Ah. There's this girl I like from my village, I'd protect her with my life-」

「Great! Now imagine this rat is coming for her! What are you gonna do, Julius? Let your future wife die to a level one rat!?」

Straf immediately cuts the young man off, pointing at the rat in the cage. It tries to bite his finger, but can't quite squeeze its face through the bars. Not for the lack of trying, however.

「W- Wife!? B- B- But this is different! It's trapped! It can't hurt anyone!-」

Julius objects again, pointing his gauntlet at the cage itself.

「Hooooooh? So if I release it right now, you're going to fight it!? Is that all it takes, Julius!? Your own ass being in danger!?」

Straf asks with a loud voice, spreading his arms with a little shake of his head, grinning at him.

「Please don't…」

Julius meekly pleads with puppy eyes, gripping onto his spear.

「Then kill it! Imagine it coming right for your girl, and you're in the way! Do it! It's coming for her arteries, Julius! Your girl will die in seconds!」

Straf shouts a command at the impressionable young man, and he hesitantly points his spearhead at the caged rat, but can't find the courage to thrust.

「Do it, Julius! Fight for your girlfriend's life! Your slow life is in peril!」

「I can't! I can't! This is ridiculous! A rat wouldn't try to kill-」

「She's going to die, Julius! And it's going to be your fault! Defend her! Kill the rat!」

Straf screams over the young man's protests, frantically shaking his pointed finger at the cage. Julius turns his head away, and lightly thrusts at the cage.

Sllish.

The tip of the spear bites into the rat's side, and it begins violently rattling the cage, jumping in the little space it has, gnawing at the bars in panic and making a lot of noise.

「Ah- Ah! It's- It's in pain!」

Julius says with wide-open, frightened eyes.

「It is! You caused it unnecessary suffering! Kill it! Don't let it suffer, Julius! End its suffering!」

Straf screams in the young man's face, pointing at the profusely bleeding rat.

「B- But-」

「It'll die, Julius! But does it have to suffer!?」

Straf screams, Julius screams, and thrusts at the cage multiple times with his eyes forced shut.

「I'm sorry! Die! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!」

He shouts, apologizing, stabbing, and pleading the rat for its quick demise at the same time while William and their officer look on in confusion, shock and horror…