"Understood, Kami-sama."
"Please, go right ahead."
The Holy Emperor lifted the forms with both hands, turned to face the counter, and neatly stacked them atop the other papers already there before sliding the whole pile gently across to Eina.
Eina reached out and accepted the stack.
And so the Guild's standard registration review began.
"Alright, let me verify the basic information," Eina said, picking up the first form. "Aihara En— race: …age: …"
She glanced up at the twin-tailed, red-eyed girl who had draped herself over the edge of the counter, rising onto her tiptoes to peer curiously at everything on the other side.
Aihara Enju caught the look and immediately broke into a grin, flashing one small fang as she threw up an enthusiastic double-V with both hands.
Eina smiled and pressed a red stamp onto the lower right corner of the form.
"All good."
On to the second form.
The handwriting was a crooked, unsteady scrawl, with several spots where words had been crossed out and rewritten, and a smudge of black fingerprint ink decorating the corner of the page.
"Hiruko Ko— … age: …"
Hiruko Kohina stood there gripping the hilts of her two short blades, grinding her teeth with barely concealed restlessness.
Eina's eye twitched.
Thunk.
The stamp came down.
"All good."
Third form.
The handwriting here was sharp and precise, every brushstroke carrying a crisp, angular edge.
"Tendou Ki— race: … age: fifteen."
Eina glanced up at the black-haired, black-eyed girl standing quietly with one hand resting near her blade.
Thunk.
The stamp fell again.
"All good."
Then.
Eina reached for the last form.
It was, without question, the cleanest of the four — the paper pristine, the handwriting exquisite.
Her gaze settled on the name field.
The right hand that had been moving toward the inkpad stopped.
It hovered there, suspended in mid-air.
Eina blinked.
She thought perhaps she'd misread it — the result of too many back-to-back late shifts blurring her vision.
She leaned in closer.
No. There was no mistaking it.
Those three characters, clear as day.
——[Holy Emperor].
"This…"
Eina instinctively raised her head.
Her gaze crossed the counter and landed on the silver-haired young woman standing half a step behind Haimer.
The girl wore a white formal gown of unmistakably fine craftsmanship.
The hem had picked up a faint dusting of grime from the Dungeon or the long road here, and the cuffs bore a few tiny signs of wear. But none of that diminished the garment's quality in the slightest.
The intricate lacework, the way the fabric caught the light of the Magic Stone lamps and returned it as a soft, luminous gleam — all of it spoke wordlessly of extraordinary value.
This was no ordinary piece of clothing. The craftsmanship was, if anything, at the level of a treasure.
Eina had worked at the Guild long enough to have seen her share of nouveaux riches who wore their entire fortune on their backs, and high-ranking adventurers obsessed with the flashiest of equipment.
But she had never once seen it — a single garment that simply breathed aristocracy.
And then, paired with that name.
Eina lowered her eyes again and read it once more.
Holy Emperor.
For any other adventurer, Eina would have uncapped her red pen without a second thought and circled it, then demanded they write their real name instead. Just a few days ago, she had done exactly that to a new registrant who had tried to put down "Black Flame of Darkness."
But.
Looking at this young woman now.
Eina found, to her own bewilderment, that she could not bring herself to voice a single word of doubt.
Because on this person, that name fit.
Absolutely, completely, without a single note of wrongness.
A princess who fled a fallen kingdom?
The professional instincts of a Guild advisor told her there was definitely a major story buried behind all of this.
She very much wanted to ask: "Is this your real name?" Or perhaps: "Are you a member of some royal family?"
After all, that sort of thing was hardly unheard of in Orario.
The captain of the Hermes Familia — Asfi Al Andromeda — had originally been a princess of a seafaring kingdom before Hermes whisked her away into his Familia.
With that thought surfacing in her mind, Eina firmly pushed back the urge.
As a professional Guild advisor, she knew precisely where the boundaries of her role lay.
In a city this full of secrets, curiosity had a way of killing the cat.
Everyone had a past they didn't want brought up.
And besides.
Regardless of who this person had been before, or what position she had once held — she had come to the Guild, and she had submitted this form.
From this moment forward.
She had exactly one identity.
——A new adventurer of the [Haimer Familia].
Eina's fingers closed steadily around the stamp that bore the Guild's seal.
She pressed it firmly into the bright red inkpad.
And then.
Thunk!
A single, decisive sound.
The red stamp came down hard, squarely over the name "Holy Emperor."
The matter was settled.
"Alright."
"Information verified and confirmed."
Eina gathered all four forms, filed them away in the cabinet beneath the counter, and looked up with a smile.
"Welcome to Orario, everyone."
"From this moment on, you are all officially registered adventurers of Lord Haimer's Familia."
Eina retrieved four name tags from the drawer and held them out.
Haimer accepted them and casually passed them out to the four behind him.
He gave Eina a smiling nod.
"Thanks, Miss Eina. I'll treat you to dinner sometime."
"Don't even think about saying no~."
Haimer leaned slightly forward, propping his elbow on the counter, and gave her a playful wink — completely at ease, without a trace of the lofty aloofness one might expect from a deity.
Combined with Haimer's face and that effortlessly perfect divine aura of his...
The effect on women was, frankly, devastating.
Even Eina, who had long grown accustomed to the company of handsome Elf men, found it nearly impossible to stay composed.
"Ah… s-sure, of course…"
With those eyes fixed on her, Eina felt her cheeks flush red with startling speed, and she nodded in a flustered sort of way.
Noticing Eina's reaction.
"Alright then."
"Business concluded."
Haimer decided not to tease the easily flustered half-Elf any further. Knowing when to quit, he turned around and swept his hand forward.
"Now then…"
"Destination — [The Benevolent Mistress]!"
"Move out!"
"Yeah! Food! Food!" Aihara Enju was the first to respond, cheering as she bolted ahead.
Everyone else followed after.
Watching the whole group make their boisterous exit — and in particular, the silver-haired young woman walking at the rear, whose graceful departure was punctuated by a gentle, courteous nod back toward Eina before she stepped through the door —
Eina went completely limp in her chair, pushed her glasses up, and let out a long, long breath.
Then.
She looked at the mountain of documents still piled on her desk, and the dense crowd still filling the hall, and let out a helpless sigh.
"Looks like…"
"It's going to be another late night."
Orario's nights were loud and alive with light.
The group made their way through several bustling blocks, talking as they walked.
"Um…"
After a while, the Holy Emperor seemed to have been wrestling with something for some time. She finally gave in, quickening her pace slightly to draw level with Kikakujou Mary.
"That Miss Eina from earlier…"
"Is she an Elf?"
The Holy Emperor turned the scene at the counter over in her mind.
That woman with the pointed ears — sharp-eyed and composed, clearly run off her feet, and yet unfailingly polite throughout.
Back in the world she had come from, pointed ears existed only in works of fantasy — those creatures that were sacred, sinister, or purely the stuff of fairy tales.
And yet here was one, right in front of her in the flesh, someone who had actually spoken to her and stamped her paperwork.
The unreality of it still had the Holy Emperor feeling slightly dazed.
"More or less — I'm pretty sure Miss Eina is a half-Elf," Kikakujou Mary said, stepping into her impromptu role as tour guide.
"That means she's the child of a human and an Elf, so her ears are pointed, just not quite as long."
"A full-blooded Elf's ears are sharper and longer."
"And usually… hmm, they tend to come across as a bit more haughty. Nose-in-the-air types, you know."
To illustrate, Kikakujou Mary actually tilted her chin up and gave her nose a pointed little scrunch, doing her best impression of the high-and-mighty Elves she'd encountered.
It was enough to coax a quiet, lips-pressed smile out of the Holy Emperor.
"I see." The Holy Emperor nodded, filing the information away carefully.
"That said, just like people, not every Elf is like that."
Seeing that the Holy Emperor seemed a little concerned, Kikakujou Mary was quick to add the caveat — and then a sly, secretive smile spread across her face.
"You'll probably get to see for yourselves pretty soon."
"Pretty soon?"
The Holy Emperor blinked, puzzled.
"That's right~."
Kikakujou Mary kept her cards close to her chest and didn't answer directly.
"Wait, does that mean there's an Elf in our Familia?"
Tendou Kisara, who had been listening quietly nearby, couldn't hold back any longer and jumped in.
She'd been listening the whole time, and now curiosity had gotten the better of her.
"No, nothing like that." Kikakujou Mary shook her head and raised one finger to wag it.
"Everyone in our Familia is right here."
"As for exactly what I mean — you'll find out soon enough."
Kikakujou Mary wore the expression of someone sitting on a delicious secret, and she successfully had both the Holy Emperor and Tendou Kisara dangling on her line.
Meanwhile, on the other side of things.
Aihara Enju, through a sustained campaign of shameless pestering and relentless cuteness, had successfully won over Kyoubou entirely.
At the moment, she was perched triumphantly on Kyoubou's broad, solid shoulders, claiming the best vantage point in the whole group.
She swung her little legs against his shoulders and pointed excitedly at the colorful stalls lining the street, hollering with delight.
"Whoa! What's that over there?! It smells amazing!"
"That's a fried potato ball roll — an Orario specialty!" Hanasaka Warabi announced from beside her, sounding rather pleased with herself.
Kyoubou, for his part, seemed to have either very good nature or simply had all his resistance worn down by this fearless little human's bravado — either way, he could only rumble and grumble and go along with it.
Haimer walked at the front of the group.
Hestia, as ever, was firmly latched onto his arm, clearly wishing she could drape her entire body over him.
That pair of assets — practically defying the laws of physics in their generosity — swayed gently with each step, brushing against Haimer's arm every so often with a soft, yielding sensation.
She seemed to be using this method to loudly announce her claim of ownership to everyone around them.
Particularly whenever a female adventurer passing by, or some bold Amazon, attempted to let her gaze linger on Haimer — Hestia would glare back without a shred of restraint, her eyes fierce as a little tiger guarding her meal.
"What are you looking at?! He's mine!"
The jealousy practically had a physical presence. Haimer didn't know whether to laugh or sigh.
All he could do was give an awkward wave to the various familiar faces he'd gotten to know over this past month in the Lower World —
The charming tavern madams, the cheerful shop girls at the weapons stores who always liked to joke around with him, the flower-seller on the corner who never failed to blush when he walked by.
He waved at them all in turn, a slightly sheepish greeting, then pressed on under Hestia's vinegary glare.
Finally.
After winding through a few more lively streets and alleyways.
They arrived on a bustling avenue in the western quarter.
A two-story stone building came into view.
Compared to the shops around it, this one had a markedly grander, more storied presence.
The stone bricks of the walls had been worn smooth by years of weathering, giving the whole structure a calm, settled weight.
The heavy double doors stood wide open.
From inside spilled warm, bright yellow light — and with it, the boisterous sound of voices, the bright clink of cups, and the enticing aroma of food mingling with the rich, malty fragrance of ale, all pouring out in one heady wave.
Just standing at the entrance, you could already feel the vivid, full-blooded energy hitting you in the face.
The sign above the door bore several large characters, gleaming under the Magic Stone lamps:
[The Benevolent Mistress].
"Here we are." Haimer stopped and pointed up at the sign.
"This is one of the most famous taverns in all of Orario."
"And…"
Haimer turned back to look at the Familia members trailing behind him — a little winded from the walk, all of them peering curiously at the tavern — and his gaze swept across each face before settling on the newcomers: the Holy Emperor, Tendou Kisara, and the others.
The corner of his mouth curved into a meaningful smile.
"The staff here are anything but ordinary."
"Try not to be too surprised when you see them."
With that, Haimer stepped inside first.
Ding-a-ling —
The wind chime hanging above the entrance sang out its bright, cheerful welcome.
Inside the tavern.
The noise hadn't diminished in the slightest just because a few more people had walked in.
If anything, the dinner rush had made things even louder.
The spacious hall was filled with heavy wooden long tables and round stools, every seat occupied by adventurers of every variety.
Humans, Dwarves, beast-folk...
All of them jumbled together, drinking hard and eating harder.
One man brandished an enormous bone-in chunk of meat as he boasted loudly about how he'd put down that blasted Almiraj with one swing today in the Dungeon.
Another had drunk himself red-faced and was arguing heatedly with his companion over the weak points of some Dungeon monster.
And others sat quietly in the corners, simply enjoying a gentle, peaceful haze of mild intoxication.
The whole place was absolutely alive.
Behind the bar.
A massive figure was hard at work.
——A female Dwarf standing nearly two meters tall.
A striking contradiction in every sense of the word.
She had a head of long brown hair, wore a custom-fitted uniform, and was in the process of polishing an enormous wooden tankard with a cloth, scrubbing with considerable vigor.
The muscular definition in those thick, powerful arms was unmistakable — every movement carrying a rhythm that radiated sheer strength.
——Proprietor of [The Benevolent Mistress].
——"Little Giant," Mama Mia Grande.
At that very moment.
Some adventurer who'd had a few too many was causing a scene at the bar, apparently worked up over his bill, and had gone so far as to reach out and try to grab the tail of a passing Cat People waitress.
"BANG!"
A thunderous crash.
Mama Mia slammed the cloth in her hand down onto the bar counter with all her might. The solid hardwood counter let out a boom, and every bottle on top of it jumped an inch into the air.
"Where do you think you are, you lousy drunk?! Acting up in MY establishment!"
"Either you pay up and get out, or I break both your arms and stuff you in a barrel and KICK you out!!!"
____
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