Chapter 17 : Request P2

"Purifying Flames"

Fire attribute advanced magic Purifying Flames

This was magic used for cremating the dead, but Sakika used it on monsters too.

Whoosh...

Pale red-purple flames gradually consumed the Sparn Dragons until nothing remained.

Swish...

He swung his sword lightly to flick off the blood, drew its sheath, and put the sword away. Then he returned it to where it belonged.

Looking at his left hand, his face twisted slightly. Blood that had splattered and he couldn't completely avoid was on that hand.

For a moment, he clenched that hand tight and squeezed his eyes shut, but quickly opened them and teleported.

His vision changed completely, and in front of him was the well-made door of the village chief's house.

When he knocked with the knocker, Aria appeared again, eyes wide.

"Extermination complete."

"S-so fast... Thank you very much."

"Not at all. Please request our services again if anything comes up."

Sakika bowed, then teleported and vanished.

××××××××××

Sakika's next destination was the Silent Forest.

The Silent Forest was located in the southern part of the Central Nation and, as its name suggested, was wrapped in silence.

However, upper-class monsters lived in the forest's depths, and sometimes even supreme-class monsters were spotted—making it a dangerous forest that didn't match its appearance.

The request here was EX rank: eliminate thirty Diamond Dragons, supreme-class monsters.

Diamond Dragons, as their name suggested, had scales as hard as diamonds. Their attributes were water and light, according to Sakika's memory.

But—

Diamond Dragons weren't supposed to have flocking behavior either...

Something was definitely wrong with these dragons' behavior.

Still puzzled, Sakika closed his eyes at the forest entrance and searched for Diamond Dragon presence and magical power.

Normally he'd use magic power detection spells, but he was extraordinarily sensitive to presence and magical power. No matter how well someone hid their presence or magic, he easily noticed them.

"North-northeast direction, 5.2458 kilometers ahead."

He muttered in a voice so quiet that even if someone were nearby, they wouldn't notice.

"Ice Wings"

Sakika used the same magic he'd used for flying earlier, this time with chantless casting. He flew toward the dragons on ice wings.

After flying for a while, he spotted a pack of dragons with metallic, lustrous scales—Diamond Dragons.

Maybe I'll use magic to defeat them for once.

The thought struck him, and he used chantless casting.

"Binding Vines"

Plant attribute advanced magic Binding Vines

Rustle rustle...

Vines from surrounding trees stretched out and wrapped around the dragons.

Plant attribute was also called forest attribute—one of the special attributes. And this was one of the attributes Sakika used frequently.

Though he didn't use much magic in general.

The Diamond Dragons were caught by the vines and squeezed.

GYAOOOOOO!

The dragon pack cried out and struggled in pain.

"Ice Thorn"

Water attribute sub-attribute, ice attribute supreme magic Ice Thorn.

ZSHAAAAAA!

Massive ice spikes erupted from the ground, surrounding and piercing each dragon individually. The dragons were frozen solid. Ice attribute was one Sakika used as frequently as plant attribute.

Snap

When he snapped his fingers, the ice and frozen dragons sparkled in the evening sun as they vanished without a trace.

××××××××××

After that, he steadily worked through the remaining requests, and about an hour after leaving the guild, Sakika returned.

Since he'd been hiding his presence from the moment he arrived at the guild today, he reached the reception desk again without anyone noticing.

"Silver Blade. I've completed the requests."

"Th-thank you for your hard work!"

The receptionist was the same woman who'd helped him when he was looking for requests.

"P-please submit your request forms."

The request forms Sakika pulled from his Box now had writing on them that hadn't been there before taking the jobs.

{Silver Blade Wielder, - Request Complete}

The request forms had magic cast on them that made the name or title of whoever completed the job appear once it was finished.

As a side note, since Sakika had taken these requests as the Silver Blade Wielder, that's what appeared on the forms. But if student Sakika had taken them, just {Sakika} would have appeared instead.

The woman was shocked seeing the completion notice on the request forms.

She probably thought that finishing five high-rank requests this quickly would be impossible even for the Grand Emperor, the world's strongest EX-rank.

"I-I've confirmed the requests are complete! Um, the reward is..."

"Please put it on this."

Sakika handed over his guild card from his Box.

"Y-yes, understood."

The woman ran it through the machine and deposited the reward.

"...There, it's in."

He put the returned guild card back in his Box.

"Well then. Keep up the good work."

Sakika gave the receptionist some encouraging words and smiled.

"Y-yes!"

With the woman's happy smile behind him, Sakika headed upstairs using the staircase next to reception.

He had about an hour and a half until the Eight Emperors meeting. So he planned to greet Stella, then return to the dorm for dinner before heading to the World Government headquarters where the meeting would be held.

He could have teleported, but taking the stairs leisurely wasn't bad once in a while.

---

Seventh floor— he reached the guild master's office on the top floor of Moonlight guild headquarters.

Knock knock knock

"Silver Blade here."

"Come in."

After knocking and hearing Stella's response, Sakika opened the door and stepped inside.

There was a large desk directly across from the door in the bluish-toned room, but it was currently buried under a mountain of paperwork.

Stella was probably sitting in the chair in front of that desk. She was hidden behind the piled-up documents.

"That's an incredible amount of paperwork..."

He muttered to himself while closing the door.

Normally Stella would tackle-hug him the moment he closed the door, but she didn't have that kind of energy right now.

When he moved to where he could see Stella, she was face-down on the desk, burying her face in her beautiful golden hair.

"Master, are you okay?"

"...Yeah."

She didn't even give him her usual lecture: It's Mom, not Master! And drop the formal speech!

"You seem extremely tired."

"..."

Stella was so worn out she couldn't even respond.

"I just stopped by while I was here taking requests... but you seem busy, so I'll come back later."

Sakika started to turn around.

But—

"Saki!"

Stella tackle-hugged him.

"Sigh..."

Sakika sighed and looked at Stella.

"Help me pleasssse!"

Stella begged with teary, upturned eyes.

Any normal guy would be completely charmed, but this was Sakika. That attack didn't work on him.

So while he wasn't charmed, this was routine for Sakika, and he nodded easily.

"Understood."

"Thank you~~!"

While the paperwork should probably be handled by the master herself, Sakika held an even higher position and was also the Zero Squad captain, so no one would complain if he helped with the documents.

He pulled a fountain pen from his Box and went to battle against the paperwork.

Thirty minutes later—

Since Sakika could speed-read, most of the paperwork was finished.

"I haven't had dinner yet... so I'll excuse myself."

"Thank you!"

"Not at all."

He let a smile peek out from under his hood toward the happily laughing Stella.

"Well then, see you later."

"Yeah."

"Teleport"

Whoosh...

Sakika teleported to his dorm room. Remembering the mountain of paperwork on Stella's desk, he smiled wryly.

He changed into casual clothes and started preparing dinner.