Even when Wilfred returned to the slightly small bed on the second floor of the gear shop where he was lodging, he couldn’t sleep for two reasons.
Half the reason, of course, was that he had shared drinks one-on-one with his admired knight (unfortunately, it was juice and not alcohol) and listened to firsthand accounts of thrilling battles that surpassed any songs or plays.
The other reason was that Wilfred had a feeling like he had swallowed a cold stone. Catherine, who had come out after talking to the officials of the Khenis Empire, seemed absent-minded. Her eyes were straight and determined, like a samurai ready for harakiri…
Wilfred didn’t know what those officials intended to do or what Catherine sought. What he did realize, albeit too late, was that those officials had come to recruit Catherine. If she accepted their offer, she would leave Sanctum Brook and go far away to the Khenis Empire on the other side of the continent.
In a distant land, she would seclude herself deep in a palace like a giant’s garden, wearing the same official uniform as that official (he imagined this and found it somewhat appealing), and dedicate herself to research that Wilfred could not understand.
Bertil had said it was necessary.
And if Catherine decided, Wilfred had no right to stop her.
He understood this, but he couldn’t accept it.
Wilfred lay awake, glaring at the steam pipes running across the ceiling until the night began to break into dawn.
* * *
Although adventurers worked day and night, the guild was quiet with few staff and adventurers in the early morning.
Three receptionists were in the sunlit corridor. They confirmed that no one was around, then one of them unlocked the brass-colored post attached to the wall, meant for submitting various documents outside reception hours.
She quickly reviewed the documents she pulled out, took a few sheets according to some rule, crushed them as if enjoying the sensation, and stuffed them into her blazer uniform pocket.
“Ah!”
A characteristic click made the three of them turn sharply.
Wilfred, crouched behind a sofa in the hallway, held a brass-colored box that hissed steam.
Wilfred was a samurai but had also undergone some ninja training. Despite their vigilance, they were amateurs, non-combatants.
Wilfred’s ninja skills surpassed their senses.
“You know what this is, right? Damn expensive,” Wilfred said, holding the rectangular object.
The object was a “Chrome Shooter”, a device that captured images of the scene before it. It was a high-end model, portable and costly, but Wilfred justified the purchase as useful for adventurer investigation missions. In reality, he bought it to preserve evidence in situations like this.
He hadn’t expected it to come in handy so soon.
Feeling restless, he had wandered to the guild headquarters, thinking of looking for quest jobs and having breakfast in the cafeteria.
Then he noticed some suspicious movements from the same troublesome officials from before.
–I was wondering what was going on…come to think of it, I had been told that the report was supposed to have submitted had not been sent out. And only the ones that were due just before the deadline! This is what I’m talking about, damn raccoons!
The extracted documents were likely Catherine’s.
Like being cornered by a man-eating monster or a completely surrounded fugitive, the three women froze, retreating in fear.
“This… this is…”
“Enough of this. Were you planning to blame Catherine again? Why are you doing this?”
The three officials, feet glued to the floor, could only fidget nervously.
Eventually, one of them quietly chuckled.
“Heh… hehehe…”
The red-haired woman in her thirties, apparently the highest-ranking among them, raised her hands slightly in a gesture of surrender.
“Do you know an official named Forster?”
“No. What does that have to do with this?”
“Eva Forster. She was the tenth person to score a perfect score on the guild’s federal administrator exam. She was our colleague until last year. Though her perfect score is old news, she was an excellent administrator despite some personality issues.”
“She didn’t like Catherine, who greatly overshadowed her own record. So she was slandering her… Newcomer initiation rites are common, you know.”
“So, you got involved too?”
Whether in a merchant house or a dojo, newcomers often faced rough initiations from their seniors. Only those who overcame these trials were accepted as members…
that was the supposed reasoning, but it was just an excuse for bullying outsiders until they were no longer considered outsiders.
A queen bee in the office leading her followers to bully a newcomer with a cheeky title—disgusting but common.
“However, Arkwright remained calm and composed no matter what was done to her. In her frustration, Forster once withheld information about a dangerous named monster’s appearance from Arkwright alone. You can imagine what would happen to the administrator’s evaluation if an adventurer they managed died, right?”
The red-haired administrator gave a bitter smile, feeling slightly uncomfortable as she explained.
Wilfred couldn’t help but scowl at the sheer inappropriateness of the situation.
“Arkwright noticed the situation surprisingly quickly. With her brother and his friends as escorts, she personally ventured into the danger zone, rescued the adventurers, and then…”
The administrator gave a wry smile, a desperate, resigned smile.
“We never saw Eva Forster again.”
“Huh?”
“The Grandmaster himself moved to have her dismissed. She was expelled without even a disciplinary hearing.”
“From what you’ve said, she got what she deserved, didn’t she? Bullying in the workplace is disgusting, and endangering adventurers for it is even worse.”
In short, a fool driven by jealousy had betrayed her duties as an administrator and was rightfully dealt with by the organization.
…Wilfred thought it was as simple as that, but the red-haired administrator shook her head.
“The usual procedures were skipped, and it was settled in two days. There was no inquiry, and Eva Forster wasn’t given a chance to defend herself. Meanwhile, Catherine Arkwright faced no repercussions at all. Despite the serious communication failure, she should have been formally questioned as the responsible party.”
“The guild higher-ups are all friends with that girl.”
“She even has connections with members of the aristocracy.”
“Our only ally was a muscle-brained supervisor who knew nothing but brute force…”
Wilfred was taken aback by this unexpected turn of events.
‘That’s awful. Isn’t there something that can be done?’
‘There are ways. But it’s cheaper to just quietly clean up the mess. If it escalates, we’ll take appropriate measures.’
Catherine’s words back then weren’t just bravado—they were simple statements of fact.
Bertil Lagerbeck had high expectations for her and even suggested that sending her to the Khenis Empire would strengthen ties between Khenis and Gireshtal.
Someone like Catherine… even if she had lost her status as a count’s daughter… was no ordinary person.
Wilfred thought he had to protect her.
But was Catherine really that vulnerable?
Did she even need someone like him?
Thinking from Catherine’s perspective… working with a dangerous person like Eva Forster was unacceptable.
For her own sake and for the adventurers she was responsible for. So, she eliminated her. As quickly as possible, even if it meant using underhanded methods.
It was a very simple and rational thought process.
And Wilfred realized that, the moment Catherine finished the elimination, she was probably already thinking about the materials she would read at the library after work tonight.
“She’s talented, has connections, is a workaholic, and is capable. I’ve never seen her take a break. She’s like a golem, a large golem in a golem army. I feel so insignificant and helpless that if she were to really get serious… or even without trying, if I stood in her path, I’d just get crushed.”
“Catherine still greets us cheerfully every morning. She must know everything.”
“We don’t hate her… we’re just scared. What else can we do but fear, being around someone like her all the time?”
The women confessed heavily, as if they were victims themselves.
From their perspective, they might deserve a grain of sympathy for being coerced into bullying by Forster and then being unable to retreat even after the ringleader was taken down.
Wilfred also had moments when he found Catherine terrifying.
He understood.
But he denied that feeling.
“That doesn’t justify your petty bullying. If you’re really scared, then leave her alone.”
“If you don’t want to be crushed, then make sure it doesn’t happen. Do you know about the tactic of digging trenches to block a golem’s advance?”
Even if Catherine used her connections to defeat them, what awaited her would be a thorny path. If the result was that she got rid of those she didn’t like, it would validate the baseless rumors that followed her. Even if she had a mountain of allies in high places, being labeled a villain in her everyday life would be painful and would affect her work.
So they consistently tried to ruin Catherine’s reputation. In case there was intervention from above, they wanted Catherine to be seen as the villain. The bullying continued on this delicate balance of wanting to eliminate her but not wanting to.
Now that the ringleader was gone, the bullying would eventually fade out. As long as they tarnished Catherine’s reputation, the colleagues would move on, and the balance would become even colder and more static.
“I don’t care. Catherine is a person, not a cold brass doll. Even if she appears unbothered, being treated like that must hurt her.”
It felt like pushing against a hanging curtain, a frustrating feeling of incomplete resolution.
Cowardly, petty, and underhanded malice.
The bullies were at fault. But Wilfred didn’t know how to make them realize their guilt.
Wilfred, feeling a sense of frustration, decided to deliver an unexpected ultimatum.
“Your plan has a flaw. If Catherine decides to quit as an administrator, she won’t have to hold back anymore.”
“Quit? As an administrator? That’s impossible.”
“She’s received an offer from another country. They want her to become a royal consultant.”
The administrators’ faces turned pale in an instant.
While adventurers often have a reputation as a band of unruly ruffians (not entirely untrue), being an administrator in the headquarters of the superpower Gireshtal meant high status and salary.
They never imagined Catherine would consider abandoning such a position to go elsewhere.
Wilfred didn’t feel any innocent satisfaction from outsmarting them.
This conclusion felt like a punishment for malice, but it didn’t bring real resolution.
He couldn’t help but wonder if this outcome was truly what Catherine needed.
“I’ll let you off this time. Remember this, you scheming villains. Apologize to Catherine properly and get her forgiveness. It’s simple, isn’t it?”
He tossed the Chrome Shooter into his pouch and clenched his teeth as he walked away.
