The iron spike had barely left the board when the receptionist let out a sound that was half-gasp, half-cheer. She scrambled around the counter, her spectacles nearly falling off her face.
"Oh, thank the Stars!" she cried, her previous "programmed" daze replaced by a genuine, infectious relief. "I’m Mina, by the way! Head Assistant of the Oakhaven Branch. Do you have any idea how long that red parchment has been an eyesore on my board? Twenty-seven years! My father was the one who pinned it there!"
She grabbed Kaito’s hand, shaking it with surprising strength for someone so small. "Most people just look at the 'Sulfur Peaks' and walk the other way. Even the B-Rank parties won't go near it. To have SSS-Ranks—even 'private' ones—take it off my hands... it’s a miracle! I’ll finally be able to clear the 'Calamity' backlog for the quarterly audit!"
"It’s just a matter of logistics, Mina," Kaito said, gently retrieving his hand. "The dragon is a localized inefficiency. We’re simply going to... re-evaluate its position in the valley."
"Yes! Re-evaluate it! Strangle it! Whatever you call it in the Capital!" Mina chirped, scurrying back to her desk to finalize the paperwork. "Good luck! Please come back alive so I don't have to fill out the 'Triple-S Death' forms! I hear they're three hundred pages long!"
The Gauntlet of Scorn
As the trio turned to head toward the heavy oak exit doors, the relative silence of the hall broke into a roar of derisive laughter.
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The main tavern area was packed with adventurers—the "real" ones, or so they thought. Men in scarred leather, women with chipped claymores, and a few drunken mages who had seen one too many goblin dens.
"Did I hear that right?" a massive, bearded man in iron-plated armour barked, slamming his tankard down. "The 'Archmage' and his little girls are headed for the Sulfur Peaks?"
"Hey, Pops!" another adventurer jeered, pointing at Kaito’s pristine blue robes. "Make sure you don't trip on those skirts! The Tyrant doesn't like visitors, especially ones that look like they've never seen a day of dirt in their lives!"
"Look at the 'Rogue'!" a woman laughed, gesturing to Silvane. "She’s wearing boots so heavy she’ll sink into the first lava vent she finds! And the Priestess? She looks like she’s headed for a wedding, not a volcano!"
Silvane stopped in her tracks. Her face turned a shade of red that matched the quest parchment. A low, dangerous hiss escaped her teeth, and a tiny, high-pitched whistle of steam started to puff from her left ear.
"Kaito," she growled, her hand twitching toward her sword. "Can I 're-evaluate' their dental work? Just a quick audit?"
"Ignore them, Silvane," Kaito said, his voice as cool as a mountain spring. He didn't even look at the crowd. "Their opinions are based on a limited data set. They see 'clean' and assume 'weak.' It’s a common cognitive bias."
"They think we're going to die!" Lyra whispered, clutching her staff as they pushed through the doors.
The laughter followed them out into the street. "Bring us back a dragon tooth if you find one! It’ll save us the trip to collect your remains!"
As the heavy guild doors swung shut, cutting off the noise, Kaito stopped in the middle of the street. He looked up at the distant, smoking peaks on the horizon.
"Lyra, Silvane," he said, his eyes narrowing slightly. "I wasn't going to hurry, but that 'Death Form' Mina mentioned sounds like a terrible waste of paper. Let’s finish this quickly. I want to be back in time to show these 'professionals' what a properly managed quest looks like."
"And can I headbutt the loud one when we get back?" Silvane asked hopefully.
"We'll see," Kaito replied. "If he’s still in the way of the door, it would technically count as 'clearing an obstruction.'"
